1 - the beginning
William and Elizabeth Granger lived a quiet life in the south of England and were expecting a little baby girl any day now. Elizabeth had taken the last month off work, as she was feeling incredibly tired and had such swollen ankles that she couldn't work her job in the Dentistry she owned with her husband. Today would change their lives forever, but it started off like any other.
William made breakfast for both him and his wife then headed into the office for his first patient at 8am. Leaving his wife with her mother, who had come over to help out with the cleaning and looking after her daughter.
Mid morning.
"And get ready to spit into the sink?" William said as he removed the plague drill and poker from a patient's mouth. The patient sat up and as they spat into the sink. It had been a relevently busy morning in the Dentistry, since his wife had gone on leave. William had to take on an extra dentist to help him get through all his patients. He, himself also had to take on extra work to cover the backlog. But he did not mind. He turned away from the patient as they spat and rinsed their mouth out, under the watchful glance of his assistant and updated their chart.
"Well, Mrs Brown. I have good and bad news for you."
Mrs Brown turned to face him, "Oh dear" she said.
William started again, "As i said the bad news is we will have to do another deep clean for you as the plague is back between your gums and your teeth, have you been flossing every night?"
Now he knew the answer to that question, and he knew that every patient reacted the same way. There's the shift in the chair, the deep swallow of saliva and blissful silence before answering. However before Mrs Brown could answer, the receptionist came bursting into the room.
"Your wife's on the phone, she says her waters just broke and you need to get home immediately."
"Oh shit! Sarah. I must go." He turned to his assistant. "Can you please finish this patient for me, it's just the fluoride to do. Mrs Brown, pleasure to see you again, see you in six months. I have to hurry because my daughter is coming."
His assistant said "Of course I can finish up here. You go be a father."
William grabbed his backpack and ran out of the room. He failed to hear the responses of his assistant, Sarah and Mrs Brown as he ran out the door. He smiled.
"Congratulations"
"You go Sir, become a father."
"You will be great."
William and Elizabeth lived in a small town, south of London and the Dental clinic was about a half an hour walk from his house. But today, he took it on a run, to get home in time. The Hospital was then
His house was about a half an hour walk from the dental surgery, but William decided he wanted to run home, as he wanted to be with his wife as quickly as possible, so they could drive to the hospital.
He approached his house on a run and found his wife on the couch counting the minutes between her contractions.
"Sweetheart, let's get you to the hospital."
…
It was not a long wait in the maternity ward for both Elizabeth and William. But 6 hours later they had a beautiful baby girl.
"Hermione Jean Granger, welcome to the family" William said "I am so proud of my two girls."
-o0o-
5 years later…
Hermione had just turned five years old and was playing in her family's front yard with her father, while her mother watched from the balcony over the covers of the latest thriller.
"Hermione, you ready?" William yelled, just before a small baseball left his right hand. The ball flew through the air, but as it reached the halfway point between father and daughter, it stopped mid-flight. ALl three family members looked up and saw this phenomenon. Momentarily stunned, William ran over to the ball, snatching it out of the air. But in his joyous effort to snatch it, he forgot this left hand was in a glove and it harmlessly fell to the ground coming to a halt just in front of Hermione.
Elizabeth, in this moment, had taken a minute to look over her book at her husband and daughter and at the exact time the ball remained stationary stood up, dropping the book to fall to the floor upside down. Both ran over to Hermione, who was smiling and staring at her father.
"Hermione, did you make the ball freeze in mid-air?" the father stated bewilderedly.
Hermione smiled again and replied "The ball just stopped. All I did was look at it, getting ready to catch it." William contemplated what he had just said for a moment then realised she is only 5 years old. It was one of the neighbours playing a trick, it had to be.
Little did they know their little girl was a descendant from an ancient wizarding family that had all been obliviated by the then Minister for Magic for improper use of magic. She was the first succeeding generation to show any magical talents at all.
A cat stood up from behind the hedge, in the front yard opposite the Granger house. Its sharp eyes watched as the ball was frozen in mid-air and the girl's eyes.
And with a loud bang the cat disappeared from the street.
-o0o-
Three years after that...
Hermione, aged 8, was walking through the bushland and creek at the end of her street, trying to identify different flowers and leaves from the plant guide book that her parents had given her for her birthday. Hermione loved books, she would read two a fortnight. Her parents had a vast library in their house that she loved to spend her weekends in. She didn't have very many friends at school, because she was seen as the smart-ass, or too studious to be any fun. Kids can be cruel. This did not bother her at all, as she had the characters in her books to keep her company. Little did she know that this might be an issue later in life.
"Red blossoms… green straight long leaves… hmm… this is an interesting plant" Hermione said as she consulted her guide. "What could this plant be?"
As she poured over the guide-book, she was oblivious to her father coming to find her to tell her lunch was ready. So, he came up behind her and moved his hand to tap his shoulder…
When a bright light shone in their proximity, William flew backwards 2 metres and landed on his back. Hermione turned around just in time to see her father land hard on the ground.
"Dad, daddy, Are you ok? I didn't realise it was you. Did I do that to you? How?"
William got to his knees and said "it's okay sweetie. But I would like to know how you did that too?"
Both father and daughter looked curiously at each other. Before walking home for lunch.
Again, there was a cat staring at the little girl from behind the dense bushland, watching as the bright light flew the father 2 metres in the air and backwards.
There was a loud bang and again the cat disappeared.
