Chapter 4
Harry and his father found themselves standing outside Hermione's school, Harry had purposely not replied to Hermione because if they knew what they were going to do then she would have objected to no end.
"Everything ready Dad?" Harry asked eagerly, his Dad looked down at him and nodded his head, time to begin.
Walking into the reception James put on his best actors face, he walked up to the receptionist.
"Hello there, my name is James Potter I'm interested about potentially enrolling my son here at this school, would it be possible to speak to the headmaster?" He asked politely.
"I shall check to see if he is free now" The woman replied taken back by the politeness of the plan, James smiled and faced his son.
"Ok let him know now" James said quickly, Harry took out a coin from his pocket and pressed it, he placed the coin back in his pocket, a well dressed man came out in a sharp suit and held out his hand for James
"Hello there Mr. Potter, my name is Adrian Stinson, headmaster of the school, I hear that you are interested in enrolling your son?" James smiled and shook his hand.
"Yes, my son has been taught the last few years by his mother who is a well distinguished tutor so Harry's intelligence is greater than his biological age." James replied with a slight hint of pride in his voice.
"Oh we are very used to that here, we have one student here in particular who shows intelligence beyond her years" Mr. Stinson replied quickly, Harry couldn't help but smile at the obvious reference to Hermione.
"Would it be possible to get a tour of the facility?" James asked, Mr Stinson was only too happy to oblige.
"Of course I will escort you personally, the children are due to have their break in ten minutes so I hope you do not mind being amongst a rush of school children" James smirked
"Oh no that won't be any trouble at all" was the reply
The school itself was actually quite nice, the buildings all look relatively new and the facilities were state of the art Harry found the science block particularly impressive. Sure enough ten minutes later and the bell rang throughout the school and a herd of hyper active school children came running out of all directions.
Mr. Stinson led the two of them out onto the playground and that's where Harry saw her, Hermione was sat on a bench staying well out of the way reading what looked like a book that Hermione had brought from her home, Harry got his dad's attention.
"There she is over on the bench" Harry muttered, James nodded and the two of them were able to discreetly break away from Mr. Stinson and made their way over to Hermione, who was of course completely oblivious to all those around her 'defence mechanism' Harry thought to himself, he noticed that Hermione was reading Hamlet again, Harry took a deep breath before quoting a line from his famous soliloquy
"The oppressor's wrong, the proud man's contumely, the pangs of despised love, the laws delay"
Hermione's head shot up to see who was quoting Shakespeare the last person she had expected to see was standing in front of her dramatic pose and all, she jumped up and hugged him
"Harry! What are you doing here?" She asked excited by her new friends surprise appearance.
"I got your last letter and I was disgusted by the treatment you receive here, so I asked my Mum and Dad to help me, and now here I am with my Dad" He replied as if it was the most obvious thing in the world, Hermione blushed;
"You...You didn't have to come" She said refusing to show how vulnerable she felt, Harry chuckled
"Hermione you couldn't stop me coming even if you tried" He said placing an arm on her shoulder, it was then that James made his introduction.
"You must be the famous Hermione Granger, obviously I'm Harry's Dad, James Potter at your service" He said shaking the little girls hand.
"Nice to meet you Mr. Potter" Hermione said as politely as she could, James smiled
"Oh that's rare, manners in a school child, thank you my dear but please call me James, makes me feel young" He said grinning, Hermione nodded
"Now Hermione, we are going to be on a tour of the school for the rest of the day, as you only have a few more hours left, and don't worry were going to be here so that Dudley won't come near you, after school has finished were going to help you" James explained, Hermione was confused.
"Forgive me for being rude but how are you going to help me exactly?" She asked, James smiled.
"It's difficult to explain at the moment and I think we are going to need your parents as well, so actually change of plans, were going to call your parents and were going to ask them to pull you out of school a little early today and then we can sort this out" James replied, Hermione looked shocked leave school early? How preposterous! Harry knew this look and quickly stepped in before Hermione put her foot in her mouth
"Don't worry Hermione I'm sure your teachers will be able to catch you up on whatever you miss" Hermione still pouted but nodded her head in agreement.
Forty five minutes later saw Hermione leaving school with Dan and Emma Granger, clearly confused as to why they agreed to take Hermione out of school early. James led them all to a small house half a mile away, to Harry and James this was Uncle Moony's house.
"Harry!" Remus said opening the door, Harry threw his arms around his uncle in all but blood, Remus returned the hug with as much vigour a quick shake of James hand and a few introductions later and everyone was drinking tea around a table.
"Ok can someone explain what's going on please?" Dan asked, trying his best to keep calm. James nodded and put his tea down.
"Now as you know my Harry here and your Hermione have been writing to each other for a few weeks now and the other day Hermione told Harry some news that has greatly disturbed us and we want to be able to help try and fix the situation as best as possible, as you know our Harry is here being homeschooled by my wife who is a fully qualified professor. After finding out about Hermione's situation my wife suggested that Hermione be allowed to take the same educational path as Harry here, now before you dismiss the idea completely, please allow me to explain, my wife is considered one of the most revered teachers in Europe, she has devoted her life to her studies and then when Harry was born passing those studies onto Harry. Hermione would be gaining an education that would be of a level considered higher than most private schools. We do not want to charge Hermione for this and we wish only for her to be able to receive the education that Harry tells me she enjoys so much" James said stopping to take some tea. Emma had some questions.
"Forgive me for asking but why are you offering Hermione this opportunity, I mean we know Hermione has been having some trouble at school but I fail to see how that would relate to you offering her this opportunity?" James sighed;
"As much as it repels me to admit this, Dudley Dursley is my nephew, my wife's sister's boy"
With that Hermione ran out of the room with tears in her eyes, Harry ran after her and Remus and James stayed with Dan and Emma who looked ready to explode but James was able to speak first.
"Please rest assured that we do not speak to them at all, we know them only by name only, my wife has not spoken to her sister in nearly 16 years, we are disgusted by what we have found out and we are not in the slightest any way similar to them what so ever"
Harry found Hermione crying on a small armchair, he tried to go near but she held her hand up to stop him
"Why didn't you tell me you were related to him?" She yelled tears streaming down her face
"Because to me he isn't family, I mean sure I have a blood connection to him but other than that he means nothing to me, my mum hasn't spoken to her sister in nearly 16 years, when I found out it was him who was causing you pain I wanted to help you, trust me I am nothing like them what so ever, you can trust me Hermione" Harry said edging closer to her, Hermione wiped her eyes.
"I don't want this to be another trick just to cause me more pain I may only be eight years old but I feel like I'm nineteen sometimes" She said 'did she just say that?' Harry thought to himself, shaking the thought he kneeled in front of Hermione.
"I promise you Hermione I don't want to ever cause you pain, do you remember when you said that I was the first person to ever write back to you? Well your more than that to me, Hermione you're the first friend that I've ever had, well the first proper friend that I have" Harry admitted, Hermione smiled.
"Thank you" She said wiping her eyes Harry smiled and led her back to the room where their parents were sat.
"Everything ok?" Dan asked, both nodded and sat back down again.
"We've been talking and were willing for you to be taught by Harry's mother sweetheart but it's your decision" Emma said taking her daughter's hand
"I want to do it" Hermione said adamantly James smiled.
"Wait, how would she get there? I've seen your postal address you don't live anywhere near us" Dan asked, Hermione's smiled faded, Harry, Remus and James looked at each other before Harry spoke
"Mr. Granger, has Hermione ever done anything strange that you couldn't explain?" He asked
"What's that relevant to?" Dan asked confused, James replied.
"I promise it is all relevant, but it is important, has anything ever happened that you couldn't explain?" Dan and Emma looked at each other as if in debate as to whether tell them or not.
"When Hermione was little she would always like to play with her books, it happened once or twice, we would put Hermione to sleep and the next morning we would find all her books in her cot with her, we couldn't explain it. Then last year Hermione hurt herself when she tripped over, she cut her knee open, we rushed her home to clean the cut but by the time we got her home the cut had healed itself" Emma said after thirty seconds of silence.
"Tell me do you both believe in magic?" James asked, Dan laughed
"What magic are we talking about here, pulling rabbits from hats or card tricks on the street?" Dan joked, Remus smiled.
"No, were talking real life magic, flying brooms, casting spells the whole package" Remus replied
"What we are about to tell you is going to change your entire belief system and I'm sorry I'm really very sorry but you can't tell anyone about it" James said solemnly. Dan, Emma and Hermione were all listening intently.
"The truth is, myself, Harry and Remus are wizards, my wife is a witch and if I'm right then your daughter is also a witch" James said, Dan and Emma had no idea how to respond to that.
"I realise that this is a lot to take in but I promise you that we are telling the truth, if you'll allow me to prove myself?" all three never moved, James pulled out his wand and pointed at the fruit bowl in the middle of the table
"Wingardium Leviosa" the three Grangers watched as the bowl floated up and moved around in whatever direction James pointed the weird stick he was holding, he set the bowl back down again.
"Of course that is merely a basic charm, magic can truly be a wonderful thing and we can achieve come truly magnificent things with it, I will be able to collect your daughter everyday and take her to our house within a few seconds with a process known as apparition" James explained, Remus whistled and a large black dog came in from another room, Harry and James smirked knowing full well who the dog was.
"I can see that you are still apprehensive so I'm going to prove our claims with my dog" Remus explained, the dog barked
"Ok sorry not my dog just the dog!" He said laughing
"What are you on abo-" Emma was cut off mid sentence as the dog transformed into a fully grown man
"Padfoot!" Harry yelled hugging his godfather who hugged him back
"Hey there pup" He said turning to the Grangers he cleared his throat and introduced himself.
"I'm Sirius Black, Harry's god father and one of James' best friends, sorry for the shock of everything but my god son tells me that it was important we prove a point to you" he said as he shook each hand, when he reached Hermione he knelt before her.
"If it is any conciliation my dear I was also bullied not by school mates but by my own family so I know how it feels to be judged based on your personality alone" He said as he shook her hand, Hermione could only smile.
"So I imagine that there are quite a few questions that need asking, who would like to start?"
Hermione was first to ask the question that would define the next 3 years of her life.
"Can I learn to do all that?"
Harry laughed inwardly
'oh you will Hermione, that and so much more'
AN: Reviews!
I wasn't too comfortable writing this chapter, but anyways... next chapter see's another time jump plus Harry gets a visit from a certain scary lady! And a secret is revealed!