Chapter 62
"He, um," Mrs. Granger said nervously, and Hermione could tell that her mom was wondering what was going on. "He's not home right now. He had to work today, but if its that important, I can call and have him come home."
"That would be the best course of action, I'm afraid," Mr. Weasley said. "It is rather important, and I do not wish to repeat the information more than necessary."
Mrs. Granger nodded and headed off to use the phone. "Might I have use of your fireplace?" Mr. Weasley asked, giving the woman pause, and she looked at him strangely before realization hit and she nodded.
"What's going on?" Hermione asked Mr. Weasley quietly once her mother had gone to the phone.
"I'm going to see if Professor Dumbledore is available to come," Mr. Weasley said. "I have a feeling that your parents won't like letting you return to school if they hear what I have to tell them - if I tell themallI have to tell them. I think having Professor Dumbledore available would be helpful."
"Whatareyou going to tell them?" Hermione asked.
"Don't you worry about that now," Mr. Weasley said with a smile. "Why don't you go get changed or whatever you need to do before we go?"
Hermione didn't like being left in the dark, but she supposed she'd hear about it when her parents did, so she nodded and headed to her room, hearing the flames ignite and Mr. Weasley call out 'Hogwarts, Headmaster's office' as she headed down the hall.
In her room, Hermione looked around at the light lilac colored walls with pink accents from her bed to her desk and dresser with mirror. She knew even if her dad hurried, he wouldn't be there for a while yet, so she had some time to get ready - unless of course, she was needed out in the front room to help ease any tension. Still though, she thought she'd have time for aquickshower. With that thought in mind, she raided her closet and quickly found a change of clothes, then went down the hall to her bathroom.
She made it a quick shower, furiously scrubbing her hair with the shampoo, knowing that it would make her hair harder to work with when brushing it out, but she didn't care right then, she knew she needed to be quick to save her mom, or Professor Dumbledore, if Mr. Weasley got him to come, and Mr. Weasley any undue embarrassing moments. Once she's rinsed the shampoo out and any residual soap off, she stepped out and dried and dressed quickly, grimacing at the tangles in her hair as she combed it wet, ignoring the water that ran from it down her back. Once it was fairly tangle free, she headed back to her room.
She paused a moment, wondering if she should chance the packing spell, but decided against it, and threw some clothes in her trunk along with her books and supplies, as well as stuffing some in a back pack, she could always send an owl with a request for more later, she thought, maybe. It all really depended on how much danger contact with her parents could put them in she supposed. Once her trunk was packed, she opened her door as wide as she could and put her pack on her back, then grunting and groaning, she pushed her trunk down the hallway to the front room where she she heard Mr. Weasley having a strained conversation with her mother.
"I'll be right there!" she called out, and pushed her trunk a little harder. She made it to the opening of the corner where the hallway opened out into the living room before giving up and leaving her trunk where it was, and removing the pack from her back and tossing it on top before going to find out what was going on. "Is dad here yet?" she asked, plopping down on the couch near her mother, noticing Mr. Weasley sat in one of the chairs, but didn't see Professor Dumbledore anywhere. "Didn't you get a hold of Professor Dumbledore?" she asked him.
"Oh, I did," Mr. Weasley answered. "But he wasn't able to come. He has assured me that I can tell them what needs to be told, and he will take care of any fall out from the Ministry. He agrees that we need to be transparent."
"Oh, okay," Hermione said.
"Your father should be here in a few minutes," her mom told her. "He left the office right away. He told his assistant to refer his other patients to Dr. Smith for today, or have them reschedule, that he was heading home for a family emergency."
Hermione didn't know how much of an emergency it was, she supposed itcouldbe an emergency in the sense of the attacks last night, but really, she didn't feel harried anymore, so didn't really think it was, she was just making plans to go and stay with the Weasleys' or Oliver's family. She swallowed, wondering how they were doing, and shook her head to clear it. No, she told herself. I willnotthink that way.
"What is it dear?" her mother asked, noticing her countenance.
"Oh, it's - it's nothing," Hermione answered, not wanting to voice her thoughts. Besides, that would lead to more question than she was prepared to answer at the moment, and probably Mr. Weasley either, they just needed to wait for her father to arrive. "Would you like some tea or something to drink, Mr. Weasley?" she asked, looking for something to do while she waited.
"Oh!" Hermione's mother said. "I'm terribly, sorry, where are my manners?"
"It's okay, mum," Hermione said getting up. "I don't mind."
"Oh, I don't suppose you have any butter beer or pumpkin juice, do you?" Mr. Weasley asked.
"No, I'm sorry," Hermione said with a grin and slight shake of her head. "We don't."
"Oh, well," Mr. Weasley lamented. "Tea would be lovely. Thank you."
Hermione nodded and went to the kitchen, filling the kettle and putting it on the stove to heat while she prepared the cups, getting out four in all, figuring they'd need it. She paused, biting her lip. "Should I?" she murmured to herself as her mind went back to the contents of her trunk. With a nod of her head, she left the kitchen and went around through the dinning room to the hallway that led back toward her bedroom and crept up the hallway, keeping quiet as she moved the pack off her trunk and opened it. Moving her clothes aside, she pulled out the box of her potions supplies and closed the trunk once more, heading back to the kitchen the way she'd come.
"Are you okay, dear?" her mother called from the living room as Hermione entered the kitchen again.
"Yes, I'm fine," Hermione called back, hoping her mother wouldn't come in as she was finishing the tea. Setting her potions supply box down, she opened the wooden top an pulled out the small pouch in the lid, thinking back.
'Hey, there's our girl,' Fred had said when she'd seen them in the halls during her first year.
'Hi, Fred, Hi, George,' Hermione said as she walked to class. 'What do you want?'
'We know how good you are at research, and we were wondering if you could help us,' George said.
'Maybe,' Hermione said. 'I've really got a lot of other stuff I'm looking into right now, so I might not be able to help you for a while.'
'Oh, that's okay,' Fred said. 'We're not in a hurry.'
'Okay,' Hermione replied. 'As long as it can wait, I don't mind helping you. What do you need?'
Fred dug a pouch out of his pocket and handed it to her.
'We need to know what this is,' he said.
'What is it?' Hermione asked, shifting her books in her arms and beginning to open the pouch.
'Don't open it here!' George said urgently, causing Hermione to snap it closed and then look at them in alarm.
'Its just,' Fred said. 'We don't know what it is, and we want to keep it a secret.'
'Its some kind of plant we're thinking about using in our products, but we want more information on it first,' George added.
'This might be a job for Professor Sprout, don't you think?' Hermione asked.
'Yeah, well, we don't want anyone to know about our products just yet, we're still developing them,' George said.
'And you don't haveany ideawhat this is?' Hermione asked.
'Not really, no,' George said.
'The neighbor whose yard we pilfered it from happened to be a Muggle, so maybe you know what it is," Fred added.
'Youstoleit?' Hermione asked.
'Well," George said. 'Technically, but only a little.'
'He only ever told us two things about it,' Fred said.
'What was that?' Hermione asked.
'Only that it could get us into," Fred said.
'Or out of trouble,' George added.
'Depending on how we used it,' Fred finished.
Hermione still hadn't had a chance to even look at it since then. She'd just tucked it into the top of her potion supply box. She weighed it in her hand for a moment before putting it back. She didn't want to mess with it until she'd found out what it was. Instead, she pulled out a vial of Calming Draught that the twins had given her last year as a bribe to speed up the research on the mysterious plant.
Swirling the vial, she uncorked it and added a bit to two of the cups, recapped it and stuck it in her pocket before turning and adding the tea bags to the cups. The water was just boiling when she took it off the stove, and she was filling the cups when her father came in.