Come Together
KeeperPawsoffMe
Chapter 4
Emma Granger knew that her daughter would not sleep a wink that up coming night. She would be going to her friends' house for the next two weeks. Hermione had never become so attached to someone so quickly before. Let alone a child. Poor Neville had no idea what was about to come barreling into his life. Almost all Hermione could talk about was Neville between his appointments. Emma smiled to herself as she heard what sounded like her daughter repacking her travel bag again.
For some reason Emma suddenly remembered speaking with her Great Grandmother when she was a very small child, Great Grandmother use to tell her stories from when she had been a small girl. Great Grandmother's mother, Great Great Grandmother Hermione, used to make elixirs to help the children sleep and other elixirs if they were feeling rather peakid. Emma couldn't remember what the sleeping elixir was called but she remembered giggling uncontrollably when Great Granmother said the other was called a pepper up. Tonight Emma wished she had some of Great Great Grandmother Hermione's elixirs, her Hermione could really use some help calming down tonight and if Hermione didn't sleep then Emma wouldn't sleep well so she knew that a pepper up would work so much better then coffee or tea in the morning.
Dan Granger was up at 3AM… an ungodly hour in his book but needed today. He wanted to take a shower and have a light breakfast ready for his girls. Today would be a very long day. It would take almost an hour to get to the Longbottom's house and that would add an additional 45 minutes of travel for Emma and him to get to Surry to help those poor people from the train accident. No one was sure exactly why the train had slipped its tracks. The tracks were fine but the train looked like a giant had actually pushed it off the track; such an odd observation he thought to himself. the train actually was thrown almost 500 feet from the tracks. And it was all of the train just lying in a straight line on its side this really had the authorities baffled. And to top it off over half the dead seemed to be fine, not a mark on them like they all died of terror at the same moment. Dan shook his head as if to remove the thought as he stepped into the shower.
Ten minutes later Dr Dan Granger DDS slightly more awake then he had been a few minutes ago came down the stairs to see his daughter sitting on the livingroom couch her luggage next to her as a book floated to sit on the coffee table. Dan stopped dead in his tracks, rubbed his eyes and looked again. It must be because it was so early he did not just see a book float of its own accord from his daughter to the coffee table. Hermione bounced up "Oh Hi Daddy! I put the coffee on for you and Mummy when are we leaving for Neville's?"
For Hermione it was a very long hour later when the family piled into the car. She was very excited she was going to Neville's house, oh yeah Harry lived there too,
Emma Granger smiled, car rides always seemed to put Hermione to sleep. She had finally given in for some rest just a few moments out of the driveway. A whistle from her husband brought her back to the front of the car; they had stopped in front of a grand fence with the monogram of LM on the front. Mr Lupin had said for them to call before they left and someone would meet them to direct them to their house. Suddenly the young lady Ms Tonks with the funny colored hair was at the door,
"Mornin' everyone. I need you to read the note I'm about to hand you and then look out the front window OK?"
Tonks handed all three of the car's occupants.
Alice, Frank and Neville Longbottom
Harry Potter, Remus Lupin, Dora Tonks and Sirius Black
all live at Longbottom Manor
All three looked up and suddenly saw a beautiful carriage house and a large manor farther up the road.
Suddenly Dan and Emma looked a little confused.
"Oh Hi Ms Tonks" said Dan as he leaned out the window of the car. "Care to hop in and give us directions on where to go?"
Tonks climbed into the backseat with Hermione and explained where to park and where the door was,
Hermione was disappointed to find out that Neville wasn't there to greet her but then she remembered that Ms Tonks and Mr Lupin didn't live with Neville but worked for Neville's parents. Once Neville woke up she was sure she would come visit her.
Thundering footsteps were heard as the family entered the house. A gentleman they had not seen yet came charging into the room. He had an odd flowing over jacket on with dark hair and intense eyes. "Oh, HI!" He said stopping short "I'm Sirius Black, Dora's cousin, I'm sorry but I must rush off. Dora I'm off to Surry to deal with that innocent there. I probably won't be home for a couple days."
Tonks glared at her cousin and then nodded. "Be careful Siri! Are Frank and Alice going too?"
Sirius nodded "So I guess you all will be moving to the main house for a couple days."
Hermione grinned as her father stepped up "I'm Dan Granger and my wife Emma we are also going to Surry. We're dental surgeons and going to go help with the accident victims can we give you a lift?"
Sirius paused and smiled at Dr Granger "Thank you for the offer sir but I'm meeting others up at the main house. Maybe we will see each other while we are all there. It was very nice meeting you all. Bye Dora I'll contact the main house later to let you all know what's what." With that Sirius Black rushed out of the house and in a blink he seemed to disappear.
Remus came downstairs just moments after Sirius left. The Grangers said goodbye to their daughter and after hugs and promises of being good and being careful the Grangers climbed back into their car and headed out.
The second Hermione could no longer see the tail lights of her parent's car she started to bounce. Could they go up to Neville's house now she wanted to know.
Remus explained that the house wasn't really all that far away and when Neville's parents were almost ready to head out they would ring a bell here in the carriage house and then they would head up. After all they wanted to give Mr and Mrs Longbottom some privacy while they are getting ready to head out.
Hermione blushed at her thoughtlessness and sat in one of the kitchen chairs. Very embarrassed at herself.
"Oh then can I ask you another question then?" asked Hermione looking from Tonks to Remus and back again, Tonks nodded. "Why did you give us that odd note and why did Mummy and Daddy seem to not remember and act like they hadn't just spoken to you after they read the note?" Tonks looked at Remus who looked back at Tonks.
Suddenly a doorbell rang and Hermione looked toward the backdoor expecting to see someone standing there,
"That's our cue," Said Remus "you ready to go to the main house Hermione?"
She nodded and hopped up from her chair her question forgotten.
Tonks grabbed Hermione's hand and the three walked up the drive. Coming around a bend Hermione stopped dead in her tracks. That's where Neville lives? Hermione started to hyperventilate if Neville lived there she didn't believe that there was any way he would want to be her friend.
"Are you OK, Mione?" asked Remus getting down level with her. He had never seen anyone's eyes so big or scared looking before.
"His house is bigger then the Queen's." was all she could whisper.
Remus laughed and scooped her up "Yeah it sure looks like that the first time you see it doesn't it."
Remus' long legs had them up at the main house in just moments. As soon as Hermione saw Neville her fears disappeared. She wiggled down from Remus and ran to meet Neville at the door. They both just stood and stared at each other for a moment before Neville gave a shy "Hi Mione."
"Oh for goodness sakes Nev just hug her." Said Harry giving his "brother" a shove toward their new friend. Neville stumbled and gave Hermione an unexpected hug. They both blushed and glared at Harry.
"I'm sorry Nev if I didn't do that you two would have stood there and looked at each other all day." Said Harry walking over and hugging Hermione too. "Welcome Hermione to Longbottom Manor" Looking up at the couple walking into the kitchen Harry added "this is Mummy Alice and Daddy Frank Neville's parents. Mummy Alice, Daddy Frank this is Hermione Granger the girl that…"
Harry was cut off by his father, "that's enough Harry James. Stop teasing Neville, now."
Harry looked down at his feet and very humbly answered "Yes Daddy Frank." He then turned to Neville and Hermione and said "I'm sorry for teasing you guys. I was rude. Can we still be friends?"
Neville looked at Harry he was very angry, "Harry we cant be friends," Hermione gasped and his parents and Tonks and Remus all just looked at Neville very flabbergasted, "I can't be your friend Harry," continued Neville "Because I am your brother instead. No matter what boneheaded thing you do I will always forgive you you're my brother."
All the adults looked at each other while Harry hugged Nev.
"Neville, Harry we have to go," said Neville's Mom. "You two be good for Remus and Tonks and be nice to Hermione. We will see you soon"
Neville's parent's stepped out of the house and were gone quickly Hermione never even heard thier car.
Remus quickly distracted the children with a tour of Longbottom Manor while Tonks with the help of the kitchen elves, once Hermione had left the room, made breakfast for the two boys and a snack for Hermione since she had to get up so early that morning.
The house elves were not happy that they would have to stay unseen while Hermione was there but Remus told them they would have to deal since she was a muggle.
Neville Hermione and Harry played hard all day and were very tired by the time bedtime had come none of the children even fussed much when Tonks said it was time for bed. Hermione was a little confused on where she was to sleep until Remus explained that they had gone down to the carriage house, they had actually sent one of the house elves, and brought her bag up here and she was to have the room across from Neville.
Later that night Tonks peaked into the children's room to make sure all was well. When she opened Hermione's door she just stared quickly shut the door and went to get Remus.
Remus was downstairs reading a book he glanced up as Tonks came back into the room and was about to ask her how the children were when he saw her face.
"What's wrong?" he demanded
Tonks just shook her head and said "You have to see it to believe it. Go look in on Hermione; Remi."
Remus took off like a shot and ripped open the door expecting to see a terrible sight. What he saw was amazing. Items were floating around in the room as Hermione slept.
Her stuffed tiger she had brought was dancing with a teddy bear and a stag that Harry and Neville had given her earlier in the day. A story book was bouncing at the end of her bed and a t-shirt jeans and a pair of tennis shoes were floating by the closet. Remus walked in and sat on the edge of Hermione's bed. "Hermione, sweetie, you need to wake up. Come on sweetie open your eyes," Hermione's eyes began to flutter open and Tonks who was in the doorway discreetly floated all the items back to where they belonged instead of having them fall where they were. Hermione looked at Remus a little confused then said sheepishly "Was I making things dance again? Mummy says I do that in my sleep when I'm over tired. She said not to worry about it Great Great Grandmother Hermione could do that too. I'm sorry if I scared you Mr Remus."
"No sweetie you didn't scare me I was surprised though. You go back to sleep now and we'll talk in the morning. I think you are going to be pleasantly surprised." Remus kissed Hermione on the forehead and had her snuggle back into the bed, she was asleep before Remus and Tonks left the room.
Hermione was the first up the next morning and was sitting at the kitchen table when Remus and Tonks entered the room. "You wanted to talk to me Mr Remus. Ms Tonks? She said shyly.
Remus sat across from her while Tonks sat next to her "It can wait til after you eat if you'd like Hermione."
"No let's get this done. I have startled people with my dancing even my cousins don't want anything to do with me anymore they say I'm odd."
"Oh no honey you aren't odd," said Tonks putting her arm around Hermione's shoulder.
Have you always made stuff dance? Tea Remus?" Both nodded. With a flick of her wrist Tonks had a cup and the tea pot floating towards Remus as she continued to talk to Hermione. "You know most of the people I know can make things dance, would you like some milk or tea?" Hermione was watching the cup and pot float across the room as she automatically said "milk please." A glass floated out of the cupboard and the milk came from the refrigerator. "WOW!" said the wide eyed little girl "You make things dance good. When I'm awake I can only make things move just a little bit and then only if I really want it."
Hermione, Tonks and Remus talked for the next hour about what Hermione could and couldn't do and what that meant for her. Hermione was learning how to light the tip of Tonk's wand as the boys came in the room.
"Wicked" said Neville looking at the wand "You're a witch? Cool! That means we can go fly our brooms with you and go to Diagon Alley and all kinds of cool stuff!"
Neville was right the next two weeks were filled with all kinds of cool stuff, especially for Hermione. Remus had gotten very good at adding the boys lessons into everyday activities, the muggles called it unschooling, so he did that with his educating of Hermione with her magic and the magical world. He knew that he would have to talk to Hermione's parents about all this when they came home. Suddenly having a bright idea Remus wrote notes to Frank, Alice and Sirius about Hermione and asked them if they had time to feel out Hermione's parents about their feelings about magic. A couple days later Remus received a letter from Alice. Emma was much more accepting about it then Dan, but he was not completely close minded about it. It seems that Emma's Great Grandmother use to say that she was a witch but the family thought she was just covering for her knowledge of herbs and brewing home made remedies for people. It made sense to Emma that this might be how Hermione could make things dance when she was over tired. It made both Emma and Dan feel much better about the situation since they now had people that they could trust to help them help Hermione with her new abilities.
Hermione's visit went so well that her parents agreed to have their floo attached to Longbottom Carriage House so that Hermione could continue her education there as apposed to the public school system where she was basically miserable all day. Remus and Tonks contacted Molly Weasley to see if the triplets and Ron would like to join them for lessons. All four thought that would be a great idea.
Four years have passed since the first time Hermione had spent time at Longbottom Manor. It was not unusual for her or one or two of the other children to be sleeping over for a day or two. Hermione, Fred and Neville were all carefully working over cauldrons brewing something that smelled like a cross between licorice and lemon drops while Harry, Ron and George all had rather thick books spread around them as they all quietly conversed and George jotted down the notes on what they had discussed. Ginny was standing in front of Tonks and Remus arguing her point.
"But Remus if we are all on at least fifth year level, thanks to you and Tonks, why do we have to enter Hogwarts as First years? Shouldn't we be sorted by ability as apposed to age? We are going to be SO bored. Mum used Ron's weird birthday as an excuse to not send him to Hogwarts this past year, she said actually she just wanted him to continue his schooling with you two since you have real muggle classes, like math and grammar and english and muggle history as well as magical studies, maybe we should all just stay home and you guys can teach us here until we can take our OWLS and NEWTS you know we'll be ready early." Remus just shook his head and before he could get a word out Ginny turned to Tonks, "Please Tonks, you've just gotta talk him into it."
"Ginny we have been over this and over this, Hogwarts is the best place for you to attend regular magical education. Your parents and Uncle Frank and Aunt Alice are going to talk to Dumbledore about testing you all into other classes or giving you different lessons. It will work out. Now go back with those three at the cauldrons. I think yours is the one that is starting to smell like lemon drops and you know that's not right." Tonks gave Ginny the best teacherly stare she could make and the young girl turned and went back to her seat. Making herself sit down hard and making a hurumph sound.
"Ginny," came the stern sounding voice of Remus, "You know that Grans Longbottom has been teaching you all decorum so come back here and go back and sit down with out the temper tantrum and do it 6 times just like Grans Longbottom requires."
"Yes Remus." She said tossing her head and almost swinging her long red ponytail into Hermione's cauldron.