Helen and Daniel treated Anne and Hermione to dinner the night before, after a quick walkthrough of the Natural History Museum. Anne and Hermione's interest was piqued only in the entry hall, to observe the cast skeletons of a triceratops that had just been added, and "Dippy" the Diplodocus Carnegii dinosaur which had survived WWII.
Dippy had been Anne and Hermione's favourite display for as long as either of them could remember. The rest of the museum was taken at a brisk pace, pausing only to choose which galleries to walk through.
At dinner, Anne talked at length about her year studying in Paris and the iconic Musee National D'Histoire Naturelle, the Natural History Museum in Paris, France. Helen and Daniel listened avidly, both already planning a trip.
If Anne and her unknown husband accepted the Granger's invitation to Paris, as Helen hoped, the Grangers would be able to appreciate the romantic aspects of the city while Hermione took in the historic sights under the academic guidance of a well-informed guide.
Helen Granger found Hermione's copy of Bucolic War Heliopaths by Isidorus, translated by Pandora Volant sitting on her daughter's chest early Saturday Morning. Helen read a different title on the cover, however, Egypt's Alexandria by Isidorus, translated by P. Volant.
Helen removed the heavy book from her daughter's chest and watched Hermione's chest rise with a much deeper breath, now unburdened by the heavy tome.
Helen watched her daughter sleep for another moment, before realizing pancakes were getting cold downstairs.
"Hermione? It's time to wake up, dearest. Your-", Helen used the back of her hand to stroke her daughter's forearm, in the same way, Helen had been taught to wake patients after anaesthesia.
"Ceasum-", Hermione muttered, causing her mother to freeze under the accidental power of the little witch.
Hermione rolled over to face her mother better and cracked a petulant and tired eye.
"Mum?" Hermione asked blearily, before sitting up immediately once she saw her mother's unnatural and frozen position.
"Mum?! Wake UP!", Hermione desperately begged.
At once, Helen un-froze and started where she had left off.
"Your pancakes are getting cold." Helen started as Hermione seemed to move faster than Helen's eyes could track.
"Brush your teeth and hurry downstairs, Hermione.'' Helen pulled back Hermione's blanket and sighed at the sight of four more books hidden in bed with Hermione. Too frightened of her accidental magic to be bashful, Hermione barely heard her mother's half-hearted lecture.
Anne stopped Hermione's reading at fourth-year material, as starting exam preparation for OWLs at the age of 10 was excessive.
Anne continued to review basic spell work and arithmancy from years 1-3 and began instruction in the application and practice of potions and runes, Hermione's previously private study topics.
"Today we're going to just work for an hour or two, and then take in some nature at the park nearby. Is that alright Dr Granger?" Anne asked as she pulled out the dishware for morning tea, eyeing both Helen and Daniel where they hovered over the unlit stove.
"Oh that's fine, Annie," Daniel answered easily, attempting to spark the stove by turning its handle until it clicked.
"Could you take Hermione for dinner too, Anne? We'll be home from the office late, around 9 pm tonight." Helen asked exasperated with the stove that refused to light.
"Of course dears, but make sure you stop to eat as well," Anne murmured as she sent a silent and wandless charm to light the stove for the young couple.
"Ah-Ha! Finally!" Daniel called, and Anne smiled to herself as she left to retrieve Hermione from her readings.
Anne and Hermione did go to the park but only used it as an apparition point to go to Anne's home.
Hermione drank in every inch of Anne's home and spotted the beige rotary phone Anne used to help Hermione just 5 months ago. The wallpaper was bright and floral, pink and purple flowers of pale green vine wove around the warm sitting room on a beige background. There were leaded windows stained in blues and yellows that cast brightly coloured rays into the room.
"Honey! I'm Home!" Anne called, chuckling to herself.
"Is Arnie home?" Hermione asked innocently.
"No, he's working today. It's just a small joke for an old witch." Anne remarked fondly.
"Hold my hand tight in the fireplace, and throughout our journey in the floo network. If you let go you might end up somewhere else entirely." Anne said firmly.
"Can I throw the floo powder?" Hermione asked eyeing the enamelled porcelain pot far out of reach atop the tall mantle. Anne pulled the basket of Italian biscuits higher onto her arm and reached for the floo pot.
"Yes but grab a big handful. Were travelling far and your hand are still small. Hmm. Grab two handfuls. Yes, that's just enough." Anne watched with great amusement as Hermione dug both hands into the small floo pot, and withdrew a small pile of floo powder.
"Incendio!" Anne raised her hand and wandlessly cast into the fireplace.
"Toss it into the flames dear." Anne directed as she readjusted her cloak. Hermione threw the green sand down into the fire and the flames roared to above their height and licked at their faces without sensation.
"Hold onto my hand very tightly, Hermione," Anne said once more and used her free hand to tightly grip her charge's small hand. Together they stepped into the lit fireplace and turned to face the empty sitting room.
"The Burrow!" Anne called loudly, and Hermione saw Anne's cosy sitting room swirl away and a million other rooms swirl into and out of existence after. Suddenly Hermione felt like she was falling, and she gripped Anne's hand tighter in fear. They landed in a slightly dirty fireplace in an even cosier sitting room.
"Too tightly, dear. My hand!" Anne grimaced and slipped her spotty hand out of Hermione's vice-like grip.
"Sorry!" Hermione was embarrassed at being so scared about something she had witnessed, researched thoroughly, and had prepared herself for.
"Mum! We have guests!" A tall red-headed boy called from the stairs, after spotting the witches step out of the fireplace.
"Guests?! I still have 5 hours I plan to utilize to their fullest, Xeno, you just have to wait at home-," Molly stopped short upon seeing Anne and Hermione.
"Oh! I thought you were Xeno, Anne. He's been by twice already trying to sneak food! Lovely to see you two dears!" Molly waved her hands and vanished the flour and kitchen mess from her clothing, and gave Anne a quick kiss on each cheek. Hermione got a very tight hug in greeting, which became a side hug. Molly kept her arm around Hermione's shoulders and led her guests into the kitchen.
Hermione had only ever seen so much magic in Diagon Alley. Pots, pans, platters, and bowls hung suspended in mid-air working independently without any outside influence except magic.
"We'll start with something simple, and it's the only thing left to do before the party. I'm going to teach you how to make a Weasley cake." Molly smirked Anne used as little magic as possible, and Molly's magic filled the kitchen in leftover spell energy that kept the brooms and rags cleaning and the dishes washing. Two witches accioing and banishing in the same small space was just asking for trouble. Instead, they mainly watched Molly in her element. Anne took notes of measurement and ingredients for reference, while Hermione stared awestruck. Clumps of ingredients floated without a container into the bowl Molly mixed and the batter become thick with lemon and coconut. A three-tiered cake meant that each witch poured a level and stacked it on their own for participation's sake.
A thunderous sound came from the timber stairwell in the centre of the first floor.
"I smell Lemon!" A girlish voice shouted excitedly from the living room.
"Come, Ginny! There's someone I want you to meet," Molly shouted back. A red-haired girl, now the same age as Luna, ran into the kitchen and skidded to a stop at first sight of the guests.
"Oh! Hello!" The girl said, spotting first Anne and then Hermione. Seeing the other young witch, Ginny grinned widely and stepped deeper into the kitchen.
"You must be Hermione Granger. Luna's told me all about you. Are your parents' muggles?" Ginny asked guilelessly.
"Ginevra!" Molly chided, red with embarrassment.
"It's fine. They are muggles. There's nothing wrong with that." Hermione said matter-of-factly.
"That's so cool! Do you have a telly-vision box?" Ginny asked hopefully.
"I do, but I hardly watch it. Going to the theatre for movies is much more fun than sitting at home." Hermione answered.
"Whats movies?" Ginny asked.
"Your father will be home soon, Ginny. You girls should take these into the garden and share your brothers." Molly handed Ginny the basket of biscuits Anne had brought and waved the two girls through the half-open back door.
"You said you would wait for me to play!" Ginny yelled as soon as they exited the Burrow's kitchen door and spotted older red-haired boys speeding overhead on flying broomsticks.
Ginny thrust the basket of biscuits into Hermione's chest, before sprinting to a small titling shed near a pigpen. Hermione watched gobsmacked as the boys sped overhead and Ginny disappeared into the shed. The boys above laughed and flew beyond Hermione's sight around the other side of the strange house.
"Come on and grab a broom, Hermione! We have to beat them!" Ginny called from the depths of the worn shed, and Hermione approached the shed warily.
Ginny reappeared clutching two dusty brooms and jogged back to Hermione's side in the middle of the cleared yard. Ginny stared straight up and whipped her head around in paranoia, wearing a fiercely focused expression as she scanned the skies for the flying wizards.
"They're hiding, preparing for a sneak attack. We have to get up in the air, Hermione." Ginny said urgently, thrusting a broom into Hermione's chest without taking her eyes off the horizon.
"I can't fly, Ginny!" Hemione whispered just as urgently. The new fear of this unknown magic and the familiar fear that ineptitude would exclude Hermione from playing seized Hermione's mind.
"You're a witch, Hermione. Witches ride broomsticks. It's what we've always done." Ginny nodded sternly to Hermione, taking the biscuit basket from her guest.
"It is much easier than you think," Ginny said, grabbing Hermione's broom back and pushing Hermione into a crouch.
"In fact, don't think at all. You only have to trust your magic, and maybe think about where you want to go." Ginny suggested.
"Once you've done it once, it'll always be easy." Ginny lectured, as she threaded the broom between Hermione's legs and placed Hermione's hands over a stained portion of the broom handle where many hands had obviously been before.
"Like riding a bicycle?" Hermione asked in a worried whisper.
"I don't know what that is, but riding a bye-sickle is probably much more difficult than flying. Flying is the simplest thing in the world. Just think 'up' and kick off the ground. Saying 'up' is like a spell- you command your magic to lift your broom. After that, you just hold on tight, stay close to the handle, and lean a bit to turn." Ginny pushed Hermione's shoulders closer to the broom, she readjusted the muggleborn's grip.
"Sounds an awful lot like riding a bike, Ginny." Hermione stared into the blue eyes of this strange girl she had just met and wondered if all witches were like Luna and Ginny. Unafraid of magic because they had always known it, and with outstandingly blue eyes.
"Like a motorbike? My dad's shown me pictures of those. He said they're much more challenging to fly than brooms." Ginny moved to stand astride her own broom, placing the biscuit basket on the broom handle. Ginny bracketed the basket handle between her double-handed grip on her broom, skillfully for an 8 year old.
"Now, just watch and follow my lead," Ginny said in a commanding tone, with a wicked glint in her eyes. Hermione saw Anne in Ginny's focused gaze, a familiar glint the witch wore when sharing some new bit of magical knowledge.
"Can anyone really learn to ride a broom?" Hermione asked before Ginny left her.
"At least half of my brothers have Troll brains, and they can fly well enough. It's not complicated, just magic." Ginny consoled, finally seeing Hermione's worry.
"Look, I'll start first and show you the basics and then you can give it a go." Ginny patted the other girl's hands where they gripped the borrowed broom.
"Up!" Ginny kicked off and commanded her broom like a lion tamer at a circus, her voice a command that demanded to be followed. Ginny's broom floated up to the level of Hermione's shoulders, just a few feet from the ground.
"To keep your balance, stay close to the broom handle." Ginny demonstrated this by crouching her shoulders down slightly.
"To go forward, you just lean forward. Turning is the same, just a small lean will do the trick." Ginny instructed as she demonstrated the techniques, by turning in a small slow circle around Hermione.
"These are children's brooms, so they have all sorts of safety charms. One of my brothers broke through the speed dampening charm, though, so we'll still be able to keep up." Ginny added with a sly grin.
"Okay. Okay. I'm willing to give it a try." Hermione said trying to convince herself. Ginny waited patiently, eyeing her new muggleborn friend and ready to catch her if she fell.
"Up!" Hermione commanded, shooting up to twice the height of Ginny's hovering broom.
"How do I go down?!" Hermione asked urgently as her broom bobbed suddenly towards the ground.
"You almost did!" Ginny laughed as she moved up toward the other witch.
"You can say down if it helps but youre mostly imagining touching the ground. Thinking about it makes it happen slowly because it involves more focus. Saying down is kind of a beginner habit and not a great one because you'll drop too quickly for you to control." Ginny said as she floated down slowly to the ground.
Hermione shut her eyes tightly and thought carefully about the soft damp grass beneath her shoes, and her desperate want to be back on the ground safely.
Hermione felt her feet touch the ground before she opened her eyes with relief.
"You're a natural at broom riding, Hermione! Give it another go, and then we can hunt some of my brothers." Ginny offered grinning. Hermione couldn't help but grin in reply, finding her footing and taking off higher, to roof height, instead.
Hermione and Ginny found a pair of red-headed twins named Fred and George and a slightly older brother named Charlie setting up fireworks behind the back garden, which they defended with a whined "But it's our birthday gift to you, Gin! We know how much you love when mum yells at us." and Ginny hugged her brothers tightly, and handing out biscuits as a reward.
Luna arrived with her father a few broom races later. Luna clutched a gift wrapped in newspaper clippings of a dark-haired and winking rockstar that left Ginny squealing with girlish glee.
When Arthur arrived home with his own gift, Hermione, Ginny, and several red-haired brothers congregated in the kitchen to help bring food to the back garden.
Luna and Hermione sat on either side of Ginny, and the youngest of the brothers beside them.
"Hi, I'm Hermione." Hermione offered the boy next to her, one of the three she had yet to meet.
"Ron. Nice to meet you. Are you Luna's friend?" The boy asked eyeing the new witch curiously.
"She's my friend now, Ron, so try to be nicer than usual." Ginny scolded from her centred seat of honour.
"That's not fair! I'm nicer to you than Fred and George!" Rony defended, rolling his eyes and pretending to not care about the party at all.
"Just wait until you see-", one twin began,
"Our gift to our favourite sister", the second twin finished.
"There will no longer be any doubt about it-", the first twin said
"Who Ginevra's favourite brother is" the second twin finished.
"You can't be her favourite if you still call her that. Gin prefers Gin." The obviously eldest brother Bill said with a wink to their youngest sibling. Bill wore his hair in a long ponytail and sported a fang earring, looking very much like the red-haired version of the rockstar that had excited Ginny earlier.
"Drinking already, Gin?" The first twin asked with a shocked expression.
"You have a few more birthdays before you can legally, but just out of curiosity are you in a sharing mood?", the second asked with feigned innocence.
"Enough! Enough!" Molly demanded of her children, as she cleared the table of their lunch.
"Anne, can you help me bring out the cake?" Molly asked she moved towards the kitchen door.
"Strange." Luna murmured.
"I know…" Ginny murmured back, reaching for her blonde friend's hand.
"What's strange?" Hermione asked in a whisper.
"My mum always used to help Molly with birthday cakes", Luna said easily, "For my cakes or any of the Weasleys' cakes."
"Oh." Hermione felt instantly guilty.
"I'm glad of you, Hermione. Glad for Anne, too. This would have been much more difficult for all of us." Luna smiled softly.
Ginny reached her empty hand towards Hermione, and the three of them held hands as Anne and Molly returned.
Anne and Molly stood side by side and levitated an enormous cake in Christmas colours of red, green, and gold to its place in front of Ginny.
"Happy Birthday, Ginevra!" Her mother kissed her daughter's head and Ginny grinned wide, sticking her finger into the "evra" portion of her name and eating the frosting quickly.
"Of course," Molly rolled her eyes as she shoved tall dinner table candles in shades of pink, and grey into the cake's top.
"Pink for joy, and grey for peace. Arthur, hurry up with that machine, will you?" Molly switched from a doting tone to describe the candle meanings to the young witches, to an impatient tone for her husband.
Arthur fumbled with a muggle polaroid camera and accidentally set off the flash, momentarily blinding himself.
"I've used them before, Arthur. Allow me." Anne offered, holding out her hand to the frazzled wizard.
"Of course, thank you, Annie." Arthur relinquished the camera with an embarrassed expression.
Anne levitated the camera opposite Ginny and addressed the entire family.
"Everyone behind Ginny. Family photo!" Anne called and watched with amusement as the sons tried to shoulder their way to the centre position behind their only sister, only to make way for Molly and Arthur to stand directly behind their daughter in the centre of their family.
Anne peered into the camera's viewfinder and moved the camera farther back to fit everyone into the frame.
"Make room for me!" Anne said before making her way to Hermione's side and wrapping around her in a hug.
"3. 2. 1. SMILE!" Anne yelled over the family's chatter that stopped instantly on her final command.
Fireworks exploded in the same instance, and the photo captured everyone's shocked and joyful expressions at the display. Molly was in such a happy mood, she forgot to scold her boys that night (but remembered the following day).
Anne and Hermione floo-d home, and hugged their new friends goodbye.
"Thank you so much, Anne. Arthur has had that camera for a decade. I know for a fact that was the first decent picture we've ever gotten from it." Molly said before tightly embracing the elder witch.
"I'll show him how to use it next time, so you can get nice pictures for everyone's birthdays." Anne chuckled.
"Oh, I would very much appreciate that, Annie." Arthur offered.