Chapter Text
Jan 2nd 1999: From the Diary of Hermione Granger
The new year looks bright. The repairs on Hogwarts all being “over by christmas” seemed too good to be true at first. I still double check all the wards every day, and scour the Prophet, the Quibbler and Witch Weekly for any hints of trouble on the horizon. I know a lot of Voldemort's followers are fleeing to the USA and towns surrounding Durmstrang. This concerns me. I’m not sure if it’s because I need to be worried or if I just don’t know what will happen next.
That said, Christmas relaxing at the Burrow with all of my closest friends has been supremely rejuvenating. Ron looks adorable sleeping next to me. All seems stable with Kingsly as Transitional Minister of Magic. Things are good. I will lift the memory charm on my parents at the start of next year if things continue as they are now. It is agony not to do so right away but I want to make sure things really are safe, I don’t want to lead them into danger, or end up doing permanent damage by applying and lifting memory spells over and over and over again.
I have also heard from Professor McGonagle that she plans to open Hogwarts this year, not only as a high school, but as the larger centre for magical academia that it was before Voldemort came to power. The announcement in the papers should come in a week or two. The chance to study for my BaTs at Hogwarts would be an incredible opportunity to be a part of the history of Hogwarts itself. Until it is certain I won’t count on it though. Beauxbatons will be incredibly competitive and I still need to find a productive way to spend the intervening months before the start of term.
To do tomorrow
- Write owls to Kingsly, Professor McGonagle, Professor Slughorn, and Professor Flitwick, Professor Vector and Professor Lupin enquiring about internships before the start of term (also ask McGonagle if I can use hogwarts library before start of term)
- Enquire on Beauxbatons undergrad application deadlines for this year
- Write to Annie about former death eaters showing up at Ilvermorny either to warn her or to get more information
- Start brushing up on my French
- Make plans to visit Luna, Alice, Hannah, and Germaine in London
Jan 18 1999: At the Burrow
Ron lay on his bed and stared at the ceiling. Hermione cracked the door open and put her head around.
“hey can I come in? If I upset you, I want to talk about it” She asked
Ron sat up and nodded. Hermione walked in and quickly cast a spell to keep the conversation private as she shut the door behind her. She tilted her head and opened her mouth to ask what was wrong, but Ron responded before she could start.
“Is it really a surprise that makes me feel weird to find out, in front of a bunch of other people, that you learned a whole fucking language and made a whole plan to move to france and stuff without having told me or Harry!” He raised his voice a little, but didn’t yell.
“I know I know,” Hermione said. “I’m…” she sat down on the bed next to him and put her hand on his arm “It’s just…” she looked up looking for the right words then landed on “I'm really sorry.”
“Why didn’t you tell us?” Ron asked. Hermione paused for a long time.
“I liked having something to do with Ginny and Luna and a few of the other girls. There were guys in french club of course but we would all practise together, or go into hogsmeade after the sunday morning class without any of them. I was kind of afraid you and Harry would join and I liked having female friends and something I did only with them” She told him.
“I guess I can understand that…'' Ron smirked and added “but you really thought I'd give up my weekend lie-in to learn french? Me? Me in third year?”
“I know it’s not your kind of thing,” Hermione laughed “ but it was so much fun, especially when I first started going back in third year. It was the first time I started making friends outside of our little group. I was even friends with a few of the slytherin girls, that was another thing I worried about. You and Ron would have disapproved of that for sure.” She smiled at the memory, and at the relief that the tension was beginning to lift between her and her boyfriend.
“yeah we were pretty intense about the whole house thing, especially when it got near the quidditch cup” He admitted
“well I was too, more about the blood politics of it than the quidditch cup” Hermione said as she put her arm around him and rested her head on his shoulder.
“I’ll admit your reason was better” Ron said putting his arm around her and pulling her closer
“It was” Hermione said “But the girls we met there weren't pureblood supremacists. In fact one of them was a muggleborn herself, other than her I did get pretty annoyed at them sometimes for never really challenging Draco…but we managed to get along well enough to hang out occasionally. figured you and harry might be weird about it though”
“Yeah…yeah we would have been,” Ron said. Hermione laughed
“Plus…you and Harry would always talk about us all being aurors one day,” She added. Ron nodded.
“Yeah you always went quiet when I said that, figured you weren’t as into it as we were, didn’t realise you had a whole other plan on the go” Ron stroked her arm. He knew there had been moments when he and Harry hadn’t exactly been as aware of Hermione's life as their own. They’d both been into quidditch, and wanted to be aurors, and they shared a dorm. It made sense she had something of a second life that went on outside their field of vision
“Yeah I was worried you’d get mad about it at least at first…and if I’m honest I knew you were more grown up by like…6th year.”
“Debatable,” Ron scoffed. Much to his girlfriend's amusement.
“Well you had grown just a little” Hermione said. “At least in some areas. But by then, it was just nice to have something one thing that wasn’t about Voldemort, or the Order, or Dumbledore's Army … although it actually got banned before dumbledore's army”
“Wait what” Ron pulled away and turned to look at her incredulously
“Yeah, well we had no idea it would be a problem, so the slytherin girls applied to make it an officially approved society. And it got rejected I think either because I happened to be in it and I was friends with Harry, or because we read some muggle books in french” Hermione explained. As she scooted over on the bed to be in his arms again.
“Umbridge really was mental, wasn’t she…” Ron said as he reclined on the bed and put his arms around her
“ She was…” Hermione agreed and rested her head on his chest. Ron started to stroke her frizzy hair very softly “ Anyway what I meant was” she continued “ it was nice to have something to look forward to, all of us would talk about how we were going to go to Beauxbatons or the L'Institut De Flamel and study once we got our Newts. It meant eventually one day, I would get to do something for myself. It wouldn’t always be about defeating Voldemort and the death eaters. I’d do my own research, my own projects”
“You deserve it ‘Mione we all do…I still wish you’d told me, like especially now that we’re y’know ” Ron said
“I wish I had too” Hermione moved so that she was looking Ron in the eye, and placed her hand on his cheek “I’m sorry Ron I really am, I should have told you, at least before I brought it up in front of everyone, I was kinda nervous since it had been so long, but that isn’t an excuse”.
“I get it, I’m not happy about it still, but I get it.” Ron said, taking her hand from his cheek and kissing it. “And I’m really glad Hogwarts is doing this thing, I’d hate to have you off in another country ‘Mione.” Suddenly Hermione's expression was serious again.
“Ron…There’s something you need to know,” She said.
“What is it? Do you speak Japanese too?” Ron quipped. Hermione laughed awkwardly.
“No it’s…look if we’re together I need to include you in my plans and I’m going to do that from now on I promise” She told him and gripped his hand tight.
Ron smiled and said “I’d like that”
“so…I am so happy that Hogwarts is going back to having research and higher education and bigger departments. I really am, and I would love to be a part of making that happen but…” Hermione stumbled on her words. She thought how odd it was that after all she had been through, it was telling Ron this of all things that made her nervous. Ron looked confused. Finally she said “If it seems like it’s not going well, which, is so unlikely with Mcgonagle in charge and your parents taking jobs there and with all the others, they’ve got Percy as head of student administration what could go wrong but…If it gets overrun with pureblood supremacists, or if the undergraduate teaching is shit, or if the reopening gets delayed past September” Hermionie drew a deep breath “If anything like that happens I am going to transfer to Beauxbatons.”
“Wait what the fuck” Ron said, as his expression morphed in an instant to incrdulity and he pulled away from her.
Hermionie stood up visibly angry. “What the fuck do you mean ‘what the fuck’, I have given up my entire adolecence to keeping that place safe when it should have been keeping me safe. do you know what’s happened at Beauxbatons the last ten years?” She asked Ron expectantly.
“I’m sure you’re going to tell me,” Ron said with an eye roll.
“Absolutely nothing!” Hermione yelled “Nothing except that last year a bunch of British and Irish muggleborns started showing up! You were right, when you said it was ridiculous to use lingua franka to read a book. Because it is expensive and it only gives you native understanding for an hour at the most. But the point is using it occasionally helps you learn for real. That’s why it’s better than other babel potions, you can remember most of what you said or read or heard after it wears off. The potions department over there invented it last year to help those kids, which they had time to do because no one was attacking them. Did you know every one of their charms and defence against the dark arts postgraduates can do at least a little wandless magic? most of the undergrads too! A few of them can do a hell of a lot. We think only the likes of Dumbledore can do it because that was the case way back before the first wizarding war, we’ve been over here barely holding ourselves together, not even having any magical academia past NEWT level for decades while they’ve been moving forwards creating and discovering new things!” She stopped for a second, and exhaled. Her voice became suddenly calm “I need that kind of education” she told him
“Right Mione, that’s why they need you, and I need you. You can help build everything back to how it should be!” He almost begged
“That’s what I’m doing, I could have gone right to beauxbatons instead of spending a year waiting for Hogwarts to open again but I didn’t, I stayed because I really really want to be a part of this. but I have to put myself first” Hermione said
Suddenly they heard a knock at the “Dinners gonna be ready in ten” George called “so get your clothes back on we can all tell there’s a one way silencing spell on this door”
“Can we talk about this later when we’ve both had some time to think about it” Hermione pleaded
“Sure thing” Ron said, then he kissed Hermione and they walked downstairs together.