3. Peace and quiet are dear to her heart (SNIPPET)
From The Curio Shop
On the way to the Granger home, they stopped by Privet Drive. Only Mrs Granger got out. She and her husband had threatened all they were going to for the time being.
As she'd guessed, when Mr Dursley saw who it was, he let Petunia deal with her. His desire to protect his family lost out to his reflexive response of letting his wife deal with freakish society. She guessed Petunia had made it clear to him that the Grangers were loyal to the freaks, not to normal folk like the Dursleys. Still, for both Petunia and Vernon it was much better dealing with a fellow non-freak.
Mrs Granger explained quietly that her family and some allies were trying to prevent other magical people associated with either the wizard that killed Petunia's sister or the old man who'd left Harry Potter on their doorstep from bothering them. She gently suggested that not abusing Petunia's nephew was a small price to pay for that. She then told them she was merely there to collect a box of magical things Harry needed. With that, she marched up to the room on the second floor and brought the box with the dolls back with her.
When they got back to the Granger home, the Lovegood family met them there. They set off for "The Ancient Priors" nearby. "I believe that's where Solomon's is," Mr Granger said. He told Hermione it was almost certainly the most famous structure in Crawley, if not West Sussex. The "West Sussex" part made Mrs Granger roll her eyes.
When they arrived at their destination, there was a sign saying Solomon's had closed. One part of the building was seemingly being prepped for office space. Another part had an article on the door saying the estate agent who owned the building was trying to sell space to the ASK chain.
The Grangers were, however, veterans of this sort of thing after all they'd seen in recent months. They all looked at their magical companions for instructions. And they were not let down.
Mr Lovegood gave a curious series of knocks on the office door, and when the door swung open by itself, they all filed in. Another set of knocks got them into a quite old-fashioned tea room. As they entered, Hermione heard a voice say, « Ç'est un conseil magique de guerre! ».
Already sitting at the table they approached were Ms Malabul and Ms DuCharme.
Also present was a man she didn't recognize. He looked like he'd been through hell. With a sudden jolt, she realised who this might be. At long last, she was going to meet Sirius Black.
They had never been shooed out of the Ancient Priors. Apparently, the magical tea shop ran as late as it was required to. Hermione was not just tired from the late hour, she was emotionally exhausted. And when they got to the Grangers' home, things got interesting again. In the end, her teachers got one guest room, The Lovegoods got another, Harry, Hermione and Luna were on sleeping bags on her floor, and Aberforth and their surprise guest got the last room. Two had been converted to offices for each of the Grangers, and Mr Granger also had a den. Hermione's estimate of the house sizes was a bit off, though it was true the Grangers' home was half again as large as Number Four Privet Drive, and far more "detached." And even though the cupboard Harry lived in was indeed as tiny as she'd pictured it being.
Hermione really would have preferred to have Harry to herself. She pondered over whether her parents weren't secretly angling that she not achieve that. I'm eleven! she thought, outraged at the notion, and Harry's still ten! Then again, she was speculating. It was unfair to get mad at her parents for what she imagined they thought. She tried to look on the bright side:
This is a bona fide sleepover, she thought.
