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Chapter 23: A Long Night
After the discussion in the staff room Hermione wheeled herself back into her room and she settled down for the night in her new large double bed. She was not feeling that great. So she got her tens machine out and applied it so it ran a program for her. It was a wonderful gadget for breaking the pain signal but it did not always stop the pain but rather brought it down a notch or two so life was more bearable. She had been wired so often that she wanted to invest in another machine soon so she had a back up on hand. As she could not sleep, Hermione got her laptop out and sitting in bed with all the pillows packed around her she decided to write up the plan of what Professor Thompson talked about in the staff room. The intelligent witch also looked at making some basic notes about the additional resource sharing ideas that had been generated in the room.
Hermione had been up for hours. Using her wireless access to the Internet she decided to get online and to check her email. After sifting through the spam mail she finally got down to business and it appeared that her investment portfolio was going well. Her parents' practice had been sold when they left for Australia and she still had the house so she had a fair bit of capital but she needed to be careful with its management as it would be needed to help her get established such as funding any University program or additional adaptation requirements like a new wheelchair. The intelligent witch did the calculations for the galleon to pound rate so she had an idea of what her Order of Merlin award was worth. Phewwwwwweee!
Sitting there in her bed Hermione thought about what she would need for the rest of her life. She needed to organise a Gringotts' bank account so that the school could pay her. Additionally she thought she really needed to talk to Harry or the Twins about some magical investment banking along with how to deal with Gringotts as an organization as she was a little unsure about how they would treat her after the dragon episode. The reality was she concluded is what she needed was to have a private banker who was interested in making her account more healthy but would she have enough gold to attract that kind of attention.
Hermione would also have to do something about her parents' house. Her current circumstances meant that it was no longer suitable for her and leaving it empty would be not the sensible option. Logically she would have to have the house cleared and then prepared for sale. Hermione was incredibly sad that she was going to have to put her childhood home on the market. The value of the place would then need to be invested, as it would help in her long term security.
Hermione would have to arrange for some sort of storage unit for all the furniture as well as organise the shipping of her parents' effects from Australia once the probate was finished. There must be a magical way to make this easier but she was too tired to think straight and her brain was having a bout of what she called the Fibro Fog. She would know something that she wanted to say or do but it just could not wade through the jelly that was her brain to enable her to express herself. Sometimes she felt this aspect returned her down to the same level as the gormless idiot better known as Ron Weasley.
Yes she was peeved and hurt by his failure to even visit her once during the Summer and during her many long nights she had lots of time to review the last 7 years of interaction with him. This latest betrayal confirmed to her that she had never really ever been his friend but rather a tool that he utilized when he needed it and then threw away when she was no longer useful to him. She had been used and it hurt. Both the thought that she had been taken in by him and that she had been discarded.
Ronald Bilius Weasley would not have made it through their OWLs without her tutoring and she was pretty damn sure that he would have crashed and burned in the NEWTs without her support if he had come back to get them. No the lazy walking garbage disposal unit had taken the free ride yet again and accepted the honorary scholastic award. Ron had taken the free pass and was now apparently thinking of a professional quidditch career according to the latest salacious gossip of the Daily Prophet.
Yet Harry and the Twins were under the impression that Ron was scheduled to start Auror training with Harry next week but Hermione could not really see him sticking at it. Her father used to have an expression for individuals like Ron describing them as all piss and wind.
Putting her laptop on the bedside table she thought she would try and will herself to sleep. After an hour there was no such luck and she was even more wide awake even though Hermione was yawning with tiredness. Argh the joys of a disturbed sleep pattern. As it was now closer to 5 am than 4 am Hermione decided that it was way to late to be taking a sleeping potion as she needed to be up in a couple of hours for the Sunday program of Inductions.
Thinking about the Ginny problem the Gryffindor witch really was not looking forward to having to deal with her but she had to face the redhead sometime. She might as well get it over and done with as soon as possible.
Hermione decided to have a shower and get dressed for the day, she might as well do some productive work and she had some further research to do to improve her understanding of SpLDs so she could be a better tutor. Wheeling herself out of the apartment and into the staff lounge Hermione made her self some strong coffee. The muggle born witch transfigured one of the regular mugs into a travelling Sippy mug that the long haul drivers have and taking the lid off she filled it with strong black coffee.
With the lid on her coffee she tucked the mug into the side of her body where it held it steady against the wheelchair side. Another thing for her to do list was to increase the number of adaption aids she could get her hands on. Hermione then wheeled herself out of the public entrance of the staff room and into the teaching staff office corridor. After rapidly making her way down this corridor she did a turn stop in her chair and bounced to hit the lift button with some force. Taking the lift down she exited on the ground floor and made her way into the Library where her designated office was located.
Hermione was looking round the office and decided that she needed to do some modification to the area. The thoughtful witch realized that she needed an area that was her private study and a public tutorial area. It was inevitable that she was going to have to keep student files and they would need to have security to maintain the privacy and confidentiality of the individual.
Looking over the list of students identified by Professor Snape there were a number of Slytherins who needed remedial attention. Hermione wrote notes to each student and asked if they could catch up with her as soon as possible so that she could discuss with them about their tutoring sessions timetable.
She also wrote a note to Luna asking her to come for afternoon tea that afternoon. Hermione would have to talk to Tinky about putting together a little high tea for them in her apartment. Harry was going to be dropping in this afternoon so she would get to speak to him about investment banking issues.
Settling down to read the second book she had on SpLDs the Gryffindor princess was disturbed by the elf cleaning crew when they came through at about 6 am. The elf crew seemed to be surprised to see her, as it was not normal for humans to be in the library when they worked. The boss of the crew said good morning before disappearing and reappearing with Tinky who proceeded to berate her for getting up so early and not leaving a note on her white board.
After calming down the elfess Hermione decided to get her assistance with the preparation of her workspace and the moving of her texts into the office area. She explained to Tinky how she wanted the space divided up she wheeled out of the office space to enable the elf to install the glass wall and lockable door breaking up the tutorial office by a third. Inside this new space Hermione asked for bookshelves from desktop height to ceiling against the central building wall and below them to have pull out lockable filing draws.
Hermione asked for frosting on the glass wall from the desktop height down to the floor. She then asked for a chaise lounge, 2 wingback chairs and a coffee table for her office furniture. She also asked Tinky to source her movable hospital bedside desk and a book chair that could be adapted for the lounge height.
Then moving out to the main part of the office she had a discussion with Tinky about storage options for the space and they decided for now she should have a round table that had five chairs round it. Tinky recommended that they wait and see what type of things she would need to store so they did not put any storage in the outer office. Hermione asked Tinky to send her notes out using the school owls so that students received them in the routine mail at breakfast.
She returned into her new office area and transferred across to the chaise lounge to settle down to finish this book before breakfast. Well that was the plan. The next thing she knew she had drooled on the pillow and she had a throw over her body. Looking up she discovered that Tinky had filled her shelves with her school texts for this year.
Checking her watch it was time to go to breakfast. Tinky had come into the office to wake her. On finding Hermione awake she applied some elf magic to straighten her up. Hermione made her way into the Great Hall and found that Tonks was already there with Teddy. Sitting next to the woman she took the baby off her so she could eat her own breakfast not that she was eating much. If Tonks wasn't pregnant there was something seriously wrong.
"Tonks dear you are not looking too great don't you think you should go and see Poppy and get a check up," asked Hermione.
"Mia it is just a flu. I just need to let it run its course" said the miserable mother of a toddler. It is horrible when they are as bright as a button and you their mother are not.
"Look family tells family the truth. You look like shit and I am worried about you. Both Teddy and I need you to be hail and hearty so after breakfast you are going to take your arse up to the infirmary and see our much loved quack," advised the Gryffindor Lioness in an authoritarian tone to her sister witch.
"Shooting straight from the hip you don't wrap it in sugar do you," replied the slightly washed out blue haired witch. The metamorphic own hair was indicating her status as death warmed over.
"Sugar was not popular in our house my parents were dentists remember," was tartly lobbed back to the Auror who was known for her cheeky bon mots.
Tonks cut some crusts off her toast and tempted her young child with them. He was enjoying the texture of them against his gums. It would not be long before Teddy would be a fang merchant as he looked like he had little white chinks sitting below is bottom gum just waiting to give his parents a bad night when they came through.
The staff table started to fill and Hermione Granger found that she had Marcus Turner sitting on her other side. She said good morning and he did not deem to answer her. It could have been that he was just not a morning person but it could be something else she would just have to wait and see. Minerva stopped by and asked if she could see her when Harry came up to the castle to discuss the education programs.
oOoOo
Hermione had survived the 5th years in their library resource centre induction. There was a little bit of trouble with the 6th years not taking her seriously until she started docking house points left, right and centre.
She took a deep breath when the combined 7th years started to arrive. Luna came up and accepted her invitation for High Tea. She had noted the red head in the back of the group. Hermione had completed most of the tour ignoring the mutterings from the back of the group and she was glad there were a couple of other professors in amongst the tour group helping to keep some of the students in line.
Suddenly as she took the group into the social zone a hex out of nowhere came at her. Tinky appeared and shielded her. Filius went on alert and proceeded to start checking student's wands, as he wanted to find the culprit. When he got to his prime suspect there appeared to be no sign of the hex. After going through the group there was no hex present from any of the wands.
Talk about a drama fest. After her wand was checked Ginny was quite vocal about her thoughts on the situation and Filius dock points from her for her inappropriate language about a member of staff.
Hermione thanked Tinky for her shield and mentioned that she had some guests coming for afternoon tea and if she could help her organise a High Tea for them.
When the tour had been finished Greg Goyle asked if he could have a quick chat. He was one of the students she had written to as Headmaster Snape had him on his needs help now list. She asked him to meet her after dinner at 8pm here in the library for a coffee and a chat about his support. Pansy caught up with Hermione and advised that Greg had to have some help reading his note from her at the breakfast table.
Hermione asked Pansy to step into her office and proceeded to ask some very pointed questions to the witch about him. It seemed that he had good and bad days. He would complain of headaches and yet Madam Pomfrey could not find the cause. His handwriting was atrocious and he really did struggle with his basic literacy yet he was well able to hold a discussion on most topics and could build just about anything with his hands he had just always struggled in class.
Hermione thanked Pansy for this information and internally she had started to ring alarm bells for the Greg as a student with an SpLD. He could be dyslexic and have Meares Irlen Syndrome according to her reading but she needed to talk to him and some of other professions in the school before she put forward this idea to the Headmaster and source the appropriate support needed if that was the case.
Coming into lunch Hermione found that she was seated next to the Headmaster. Professor Snape discussed the attack on her person and Hermione explained that she was grateful for the house elf shield, as the last thing she wanted was another night in the Infirmary. He laughed "I am with you on that I swear she has one bed with my name on it. I have been her patient that many times. Now that the war is over I hope not be repeat customer of hers.
Hermione advised him that she had already started to contact his list of students asking them to make appointments with her. Additionally she would like to have a meeting with him sometime during the week to review his perspectives of the issues that these students had with their course work.
After lunch she made her way up to her room and changed into her off duty uniform of a polo shirt, hoody and yoga pants. She was making sure everything was tidy in her sitting area when Tinky popped into say that Harry was in the building and making his way up the stairs to the teacher's accommodation area.
With one last look round she decided that everything was fine when the buzzer in her room rang. Going over to the wall mounted device Hermione asked who was calling and it turned out to be Harry. Hermione let him know she would be a minute or so when coming to collect him from the accommodation area entrance.
She wheeled out her door and opened the corridor door poking her head out. There was Harry he was a little surprised at how fast she had been. "A minute or so. I just did the so part of that statement. Come through and you will understand when you see where my apartment is.
As he stepped through to the accommodation corridor there was Tinky standing in a near by open door way. Hermione rolled over to the room and she invited him into her "Hogwarts Humble Abode."
"Jeeze you have got everything nice and handy. This place looks like your apartment at Grimmauld Place," he said after looking round the sitting room layout.
"Well you can thank Tinky for that as she based the decor and layout on what you, Kreacher and Winky had done at Grimmauld Place." She showed him round the apartment and he provided the appropriate oohs and arhhs during her tour. Opening the second bedroom she advised him that he always had a bed here if he needed it.
"How are you coping in the House by yourself and everyone else up here?" she asked looking concerned at her best friend.
"It has been really quiet but I am hoping when I get start on the Auror training I wont have time to be lonely. But it is early days so we will see how I am in couple of weeks' time.
Don't forget Harry we have email and mobile phones and drop me a line on Facebook I might be up you never know. I only seem to be getting 4 hours a night now since the wall and if it is four hours together in one block it is a miracle. Most of the time it is an hour here and an hour there.
Why don't we go and see Professor McGonagall so we get that business out the way and then I need your advice on some matters before a Tinky organized High Afternoon Tea later on. I have invited Luna to join us so we can catch up." With that she herded him out her door and back into the Professors' Offices corridor. With a last glance at him she knocked on the door.
"Come In" was the instruction from Minerva and she was rewarded at seeing her two lion cubs. Minerva was highly appreciative of her new office den and it had been tastefully decorated like a highland hunting lodge. Her room was located near one of the new lifts at the front of the corridor so that students had to run the gauntlet past her office to see the other professors. It was really about the dynamics of her readjusted workload in the school as the Deputy Headmistress.
The two 8th year students discussed their subject selections for their NEWTs and the options they had as night school or external distance students. Minerva was surprised when Harry asked if he could also sit some OWL subjects. Apparently when they had been on the run last year Hermione had tutored him in Ancient Runes and Arithmancy, and now Harry wanted to get the OWLs for the subject and then progress onto the NEWT levels.
Minerva explained as a night school or external distance student they could take the exams when every they wanted to at the Ministry in one of the monthly scheduled slots or wait to the official exam session at Hogwarts. Hermione seemed to be happy with the monthly option as she could see the benefit in only studying one subject at a time in her revision and being able to intently focus on one area.
Professor McGonagall duplicated a copy of the official schedule of the Ministry examination times for each of the teens. Hermione raised the point that if Harry was going to be here four nights a week with classes would is it appropriate for him to stay with her in her guest bedroom. Hermione provided the logic that he would be on his own in Grimmauld place and the studying on top of the Auror training would be exhausting this way they could keep an eye on him so to speak and he could keep an eye on her making sure she did not burn the midnight oil too much. Minerva thought it was a lovely idea but advised she would have to check with the Headmaster to confirm if he would be happy about it.
Minerva gave them both the study review booklets for all the subjects and suggested that they take their time and review their options. She also asked them about their future career directions to find out if there were any subjects that she could guide them towards to support their career goals. They thanked her for her time and returned back to Hermione's apartment.