Chapter Sixteen
It was just before eight o'clock when Harry and Hermione got back to the corner shop, and Hermione stopped and stared. "How had I never noticed that before?" she asked, amazed, turning her head right to left, no doubt realising that the shop was sort of sliding in and out of her vision, like all magical buildings.
"Muggles can't see it at all," Harry explained. "But you weren't looking for it before, so now you know it's there you can."
"Wow," said Hermione.
"That's just the start of it," said Harry eagerly, and pushed the door for them to head inside.
"Hello again," cried the shop assistant, folding up his newspaper. "Oh, and you have a friend!" Harry wasn't sure the man would be able to cope with two people in his tiny shop, and he looked fit to burst with pride as Hermione looked around, open-mouthed in awe.
"Could we use your fireplace?" Harry asked, relieved to be back in the warm.
"Course, course," said the man, beckoning for them to follow him as he made his way around the counter and past his gleaming satellite dish. "You need some powder?"
Harry paused. "Oh, yeah," he said, but he was pretty sure he didn't have any more money, and wondered if maybe Hermione did.
But the man reached up to an old tobacco tin and opened it for them to see it had been scrubbed clean and filled with sparkling Floo powder. "On the house," he said with a flourish."
"Oh, thank you," said Harry genuinely. "You've been really kind." He realised Hermione was just staring at the powder being offered to her, and the man raised his eyebrows. "Sorry," said Harry, realising she had no clue what was going on. "You need a pinch of this to throw in the fire. It'll joined the mantle to the Floo network, so we can travel back to my parents' house."
Hermione, if possible, looked even more horrified. "The fire is going to...transport us somewhere?"
The shop assistant looked at them uncomfortably, and placed the tin carefully back on the mantelpiece. "I'll just leave this here with you," he said, and backed away.
"It's okay," Harry assured Hermione. "You just copy me exactly. I'll throw the powder on the flames and they'll turn green, then step onto the coals. The fire will just tickle, and I'll say 'Godric's Hollow, Potter Residence', as clear as I can. Then it'll spin me around really fast, and be spat out in my living room."
Hermione swallowed. "Alright," she said, unsure.
"I'll go first, okay?" he assured her. "Just do exactly what I do." Watching her watching him, he cast the powder into the fire. She jumped a little as the flames flared and changed from a normal shade of reddish orange to jade green. He made sure she was still looking, then stepped up and into the mantle. "Godric's Hollow, Potter Residence," he said, careful not to cough, and the last thing he saw was Hermione's anxious face as he spun into the network.
Before he knew it, he was stumbling out into the living room where he'd sat with Dr Jaisun the Healer. He managed to right himself quick enough with some grace, but then he froze. He had it in his head that the room would be empty, that the Potters would be busy off doing their own thing on this Saturday night. And perhaps they were, because it wasn't them who was sat there waiting for him.
Parvati Patil and Seamus Finnigan were perched on the couch, and at his arrival Parvati had jumped to her feet. "Mrs P!" she screeched, wringing her hands anxiously. "He's back!"
Harry glanced back at the fire, aware Hermione was hopefully right behind him, then back at Seamus and Parvati. Why were they there?
"Where have you been?" scolded Parvati, like she had some right to know, and Harry began to get an inkling he wasn't fully up to speed on something.
He'd had never spent much time with Parvati Patil, other than that disastrous time they had gone to the Yule Ball together. She was always glued to Lavender Brown's side, gossiping about something or other. She looked pretty much the same as she always did; her long hair was platted down her side and secured with a large glittery butterfly fluttering its wings on the end. She wore pink make up, pink jumper, ever her trainers had a bit of pink on. She was slim, maybe a bit too slim, and she rested her right hand on her chest, the same way she always did when she was looking for a fight.
Seamus was still sat on the couch, watching them both. Unlike Parvati, there were several things that struck Harry as being different about him right away. His sandy blonde hair was much longer than the crop he usually had, falling behind his ears and over his eyebrows. His hands were shoved into the pouch of the black hoodie he wore, his jeans were ripped at the knees, and his trainers were huge chunky things, scuffed on every surface. But it was his eyes, the shadows beneath them. This was not the same Seamus Finnigan.
It had taken Harry only a second or to make these observations, and he glanced again at the fireplace.
"Harry," growled the dangerously low voice of the woman he now believed to actually be his mother. "James. Potter." She came storming into the living room from the hallway, and Harry guessed she had been upstairs. He turned to see her thunderous face, and couldn't help but hear the steady plunking of piano keys coming from the closed room opposite. "Where on Earth have you been?"
His conversation with Hermione was swimming around in his head. This was not a trick, or some imposter. This was Lily Potter, from some life that had never been, a life he could have had. He wasn't sure what to say to her, so he looked at the fireplace again, real fear curling in his stomach. Hermione was taking too long. "Er, Terry's," he said absently.
"But we were just at Terry's," said Parvati dramatically. "And he said he'd not heard from you all day!"
"He's grounded," added Seamus in his Irish lilt, inclining his head towards the couch, as if explaining why he wasn't there with them.
Everyone was staring at Harry, waiting for an explanation, but at that moment the fire swirled up, and he spun in anticipation, not caring that his lie had fallen apart, only that Hermione was okay.
She came flying out of the mantelpiece and straight into his arms, sending them both stumbling into the centre of the room. "Urgh!" she cried, gripping onto Harry for dear life. "That was...interesting." She pried her eyes open, and Harry smiled at her.
"Well done," he whispered.
"Harry?" He sighed, and let Hermione go, but still stood protectively by her side. Parvati looked like she had been slapped, Seamus curious, and Lily simply stunned. "Who is this?" she asked.
Harry hadn't had the chance to come up with an effective cover story like he had hoped, so after a moment's hesitation, he decided to just tell the truth. A version of it at least.
"This is Hermione Granger," he said, taking her hand. She had clammed up under the collective glare of the room, and she nervously pulled at her hair that had become even more fly-away after her journey through the Floo network. "Hermione, this is Lily Potter, my mum."
"Ooh," she said, her eyes wide with understanding.
Lily seemed to have forgotten her anger. "And who is Hermione Granger?" she asked, bewildered.
"She's, um," said Harry uncomfortably. "Well she's a witch."
Lily found her anger again pretty quickly. "What?" she cried horrified, whilst Parvati's mouth dropped open and Seamus sat up straight on the sofa.
"No she's not," Parvati argued. "She was never at school."
Harry shook his head quickly. "No, no you're right, she's Muggle-born."
Lily stepped forward, her eyes raking over Hermione who looked terrified. "Harry are you serious?" she asked.
But surprisingly, it was Hermione who answered, clearing her throat and finding her voice. "Yes," she said timidly. "Harry explained everything to me."
Seamus finally got to his feet. "How," he said. "How have you found a Muggle-born, they're protected?"
"And for a good reason," added Lily. "Harry you have put this girl in great danger!"
"No, it's okay," said Hermione hurriedly. "I wanted to know."
"But how, Harry?" demanded Parvati. "And why have you been lying to us?"
He swallowed. "I'm sorry," he said, just as an automatic reaction. He was sorry for a lot of things. "I, um, well..."
"He read it in the news," said Hermione suddenly. Harry slowly turned to her and held her gaze, trying to guess where she was going with this and not show his alarm. "I, um," she continued. "I accidently exploded all the windows in my school's science lab, and lit all the Bunsen burners, like something out of a horror movie. The local newspaper came and did a story on it. Harry realised it was uneducated magic, didn't you?"
She nodded eagerly at him. "Oh, yeah," said Harry, wondering if that was really true about the paper. "I wanted to see if I could find whoever it was, maybe help."
"But the Ministry would have had it under control," said Lily, looking back and forth between them both. "Harry what were you thinking?"
"That she must have been so scared," cried Harry honestly. "That she was all alone and it's awful that Muggle-borns aren't told what they really are. So I managed to track her down and I don't care if the Ministry Obliterate us both, at least I tried to do the right thing!" He knew it was sort of a lie, but he found he really was quite indignant that the Muggle-borns were being left in the dark. What about Dean Thomas, Lavender Brown? They had no idea what they really were, and probably felt as isolated as Hermione had.
He took a deep breath then let it back out again. Lily's eyebrows were raised, Parvati looked dubious, but Seamus was smiling, like he was impressed. The piano music in the other room had faltered, but after a small pause the hesitant notes came once again.
"Please don't be angry at Harry, Mrs Potter," said Hermione, squeezing his hand. "I can't tell you what this means to me, to know that I'm not insane, that there's a reason for all the terrible things that have happened to me."
Lily's face finally lost its worried, hostile look. "Oh sweetheart," she said, and wrapped her arms around her own body. "I was Muggle-born too," she told her, and Hermione blinked in surprise. "I understand, I do, it's just...we live in dangerous times. And with everything that happened with Harry this morning-"
"Yeah," jumped in Seamus, getting to his feet. "Terry said your dad was talking with his dad, that you collapsed or something?"
"And you were talking crazy!" chipped in Parvati.
Lily was shaking her head. "First that and now this?" she asked, her eyes flicking towards Hermione.
Harry held up his hand, trying to deflect them. "I was just hungover," he lied. "This has nothing to do with that, I just happened to finally get Hermione's address today and I couldn't wait."
Parvati made a little "hm!" noise at the back of her throat that Harry decided to ignore.
"I'm so sorry I lied to you," said Harry. "I just didn't want you to stop me."
Lily sighed. "Well, it's done now," she said. "I'm not sure what the Ministry will do about it, but that's their business." She smiled. "So Harry brought you here to show you a real, dysfunctional magical family?" she joked.
Hermione gave a nervous laugh and Harry managed to relax into a bit of a smile. "Oh, he just wanted to show me some books, he didn't say anyone would be in," she added, shooting Harry a look which made Lily smirk.
"Alright," she said with a sigh. "You can stay for an hour or so, then we'll get you home. Would you like a cup of tea?"
Hermione was taken aback by the question. "Um, yes please, thank you," she said.
"Me too," said Seamus with a grin, and Parvati elbowed him in the ribs. "What?" he said defensively, rubbing his side.
But Lily didn't seem to mind. "I'll make a round," she said, heading for the kitchen.
That left Harry and Hermione on one side of the table, and Seamus and Parvati on the other. There was an awkward silence for a moment, and Harry decided he should probably let go of Hermione's hand. She gave him a little smile, then folded her arms and looked uncomfortably at her shoes.
Parvati tutted, and Seamus just seemed to be analysing Hermione. "Well?" said Parvati impatiently. "Aren't you going to introduce us?"
Harry realised she was talking to him. "Oh, right," he said as the kettle began to whistle and Lily hummed as she rattled the tea cups onto a tray. "Hermione Granger, I'd like you to meet Parvati Patil and Seamus Finnigan."
Seamus offered his hand out for Hermione to shake. "We're his housemates, at school," he said as she took it tentatively.
"Oh!" said Harry before he realised he'd spoken out loud. The other three looked at him strangely, but he waved them off. "Sorry, nothing," he said. Except it wasn't nothing, he had worked out why Parvati and Seamus were here, why they were friends. If Ron and Neville were really dead like Sarah had said, and the school wasn't accepting Muggle-borns, then he, Seamus and Parvati would be the only ones left in their year of Gryffindor. They were probably friends by default. The rest of their year would have been much smaller too, so no wonder they were also friends with a Ravenclaw like Terry Boot. The four houses probably took all their lessons together.
Whilst Harry had been processing all this, Parvati had dashed around the low coffee table and thrown her arms around an unsuspecting Hermione. "Nice to meet you," she said cheerily. "It'll be so nice to have a girl to hang out with for a change!"
She beamed at Hermione, who managed a shaky smile back. "Sure," she said hesitantly.
At the same moment, the door bell rang, and the kettle clicked to show it was boiled. "Oh Harry get that," called Lily from out of sight. "Your dad probably forgot his keys." She poked her head back round, and glanced from Harry to the door. "You got back before I had a chance to message him," she said wearily. "Perhaps...let me do the talking?"
Harry nodded, glad she wasn't angry at him anymore. He was still uneasy about lying to her, but he reasoned the situation was too complicated for anything else as he crossed the living room and into the hall.
Lily's voice rang out again. "Tell him I've popped out for milk," she said. "I'll just apparate in the garden, won't be long!"
"Okay," Harry called back, then addressed the door. "Coming," he told them as they knocked again and he took the chance to shrug his coat off and hang it on the rack. Now he knew this actually was James Potter, his father from another reality, he was excited to see his again, to get the chance to get to know him.
But as he opened the front door, he guessed the universe had decided things weren't quite complicated enough after all.
Because Draco Malfoy was standing on the other side.