Harry Potter and the Mortal Enemy

He didn’t have to wait long. Harry had been outside for only a couple of minutes when a blue car pulled up outside the house. Hermione jumped out from it, and ran over to him.

“Harry! How are you? We came as soon as we could, were you waiting long?”

He grinned. “It depends if you call waiting a full two minutes a long time. No, after you hung up I had a lovely chat with my favourite uncle. He seemed disappointed when I told him that you were coming so soon, I think that he wanted to yell at me for not organising to be picked up either tonight or tomorrow.”

Hermione laughed. “Guess you’re lucky that we live near you then. I can imagine how annoyed he would get. Oh! How rude of me! You haven’t met my mother yet, have you? I’ll just go and get her.”

As she ran off to get her mother, it occurred to Harry that in all of the time that he had known Hermione, he had only once met her parents, in Diagon Alley one year, but he had rarely heard her talking about them. In fact, one of the only times he could remember her talking about them was in their first year, when Ron had asked her to ask her parents about Nicolas Flamel, and she had told them that they were both dentists.

As he was thinking about that, Hermione had gone over to the car and was talking to her mum. After a couple of moments, they both came over to talk to him, and Mr. Granger took Harry’s things and began loading them into the car.

Mrs. Granger swooped down to greet him, and kissed him on both cheeks. “Hello, Harry, how are you? It is good to see you again. Hermione has told us so much about you! Now, I think that we should be leaving now, before your relatives get nervous about a witch and a wizard on their property. Unless you want to stay?” she added, with a twinkle in her eye.

In some ways, she reminded him of Molly Weasley, acting as if he was one of her own children. He supposed Hermione had told her all about the Dursleys, and could understand why he wanted to leave.

“No, I would rather leave here as quickly as we can, Mrs. Granger, if it’s not too much trouble.”

“Oh, please, call me Pam! Of course not, it’s no trouble at all. Well, John has almost finished loading up the car, so let’s go. I take it that you don’t need to say goodbye to anybody?”

He thought of the Dursleys, and said, “Nobody at all. Basically the only people I know here are the Dursleys, and I’m not exactly dying of excitement to go and talk to them.”

She laughed, then said, “Well, we’d best be off then. Where would you like Hedwig? In the car with you?”

He thought of the hairpin that he had in his belt, and said, “Yes, please. I can undo her cage with a trick the Weasleys taught me then” They all climbed into the car.

He grinned, and as the car started, he got out the hairpin and began to pick the lock on Hedwig’s cage. Fred and George Weasley, Ron’s twin brothers, had taught him this trick at the Burrow after they had rescued him from being locked in his room at the beginning of his second year. They had taught it to him in case the Dursleys locked him into his room again, but it was also useful for Hedwig’s cage, especially when he couldn’t use ‘Alohomora’ without getting caught breaking the Decree for the Restriction of Underage Wizardry.

Even though he hadn’t got using magic in front of Muggles at the start of his third year, he had gotten a letter from the Improper Use of Magic office in his second year, even though it wasn’t his fault. It was hard to tell if they would be angry, especially when half of the officials didn’t believe that Voldemort was indeed back, the Minister of Magic being one of them. Because of this, he didn’t really want to risk getting caught.

Since he wasn’t as used to picking locks as Fred and George were, it was a good five minutes before he had opened the cage. Hermione rolled down the window, and Hedwig gave him a grateful nip on his ear before flying outside through it. Hermione’s parents looked like this happened everyday, which was surprising for a Muggle family, but he had to remind himself that they were probably used to it after knowing for four years that their daughter was a witch and having regular owls fly through the window.

Hermione stretched out next to him, and said, “So, where the Dursleys their usual, friendly selves?”

He groaned. “You have no idea. They’ve upgraded from just yelling at me and giving em the occasional job to giving me a job almost every day.” He smirked. “They’ll be so disappointed. Since they went away on holidays and got rid of me as soon as they could, I never got a chance to finish painting the shed.”

She looked confused. “Painting the shed? Why on earth would you need to paint the shed? I thought that you said that they got a new shed put in a couple of months ago, didn’t you?”

“Yeah, but it still didn’t stop them from making me repaint it after Dudley accidentally rode his bicycle into it the day I got back from school on the Hogwarts Express. You know, sometimes I think that my aunt and uncle tell him to deliberately do things like that just so that they have an excuse to make me do work. It’ll be such a pity – they’ll have to actually hire somebody to finish it. I know that Aunt Petunia won’t want anybody to see a tiny hole in her shed – it might ruin her whole reputation.” He sighed. “Either that or they’ll just leave it for me until the next summer holidays for me to complete.”

Hermione was about to say something in reply, but Mrs. Granger broke in. “I’m dreadfully sorry to cut in on your conversation, but I just wanted to let you know that we are almost there. We’re just turning into our street; it will be about a minute until we get there.”

Harry blinked, and looked out the car window. They were turning into a street that was a couple of blocks down from the school he would have gone to, before he found out that he was a wizard. It was a quick drive to the school, and to the Grangers’ house, but the Dursleys would have made him walk there, knowing them, even though it was a good hours walk with all of the hills included. He supposed that that would be the reason why Hermione had never come to visit him over the holidays. Either that or she was afraid that it would get Harry in trouble – like the time in his third year when Ron had rung his house. “I didn’t know you lived near me. I thought that you lived ages away from me, not ten minutes!”

She grinned. “We did. I came back from Hogwarts and found that Mum and Dad had moved without telling me. But it doesn’t matter. I prefer this house – for one thing, I have my own separate room to study in. And, it’s closer to at least one of my best friends from school.”

Harry smirked. “Don’t you mean a separate room to memorise every single textbook that’s on our list? Speaking of which, have you got your list this year yet? It seems to be later than normal.”

She sighed. “No, I suppose that it’s because they have to work out all the prefects for our year level. It’s such a nuisance though. I’m not able to read all of the set texts, so I’m rereadingHogwarts: A History. Harry, you really should read it. It’s quite interesting!”

As the car pulled into the driveway, Harry said, “No thanks, if I ever need to know something, I just need to ask you. So, is this the twenty-second time you’re reading it? Or are you onto the twenty-third?”

They both climbed out, and Mr. Granger, who had heard what Harry had said, laughed and answered, “That’s our Hermione for you. Can never be satisfied by reading a book only once – she has to read it as many as times possible. But anyway, here we are. Hermione will give you a tour of the place, and then you two can do whatever you want.”

Harry nodded, and stared up at the creamy-coloured house. It was huge. Hermione was about to walk inside after her parents, but she sensed that he was not behind her, and turned around and saw him staring. She went back over to him and pulled his arm. “Come on! It’s not really that big. Mum said that the bottom floor is going to be rented out to boarders or something like that. Well, let’s go inside and I’ll show you around the pace.”

They walked inside, and up to the second level. Mr. Granger poked his head out of one of the rooms. “Oh, there you two are. Harry, I’ve put your trunk in the room that you’ll be staying in. Hermione, can you please show Harry where to go? It’s the guest room next to your room – is that okay?”

She nodded as they walked down the hall, calling over her shoulder, “Yes. Come on Harry, I’ll show you where to go.” She grinned. “You’re lucky that Dad didn’t put you in the other guest room – it’s packed with all of my books.”

“And I suspect that they’re all ones that you’ve memorised?” he said, as they arrived at the other end of the house.

She smiled. “Guilty as charged. Well, here’s your room,” she said, pointing through a door. “Just make yourself at home, and give us a yell if you need anything. My room is just next-door, and mum and dads one is at the other end of the house. ‘Night, Harry.”

He walked into his room, suddenly too tired to do anything. “Goodnight, Hermione.”

Harry crawled into the bed, only stopping to take off his glasses, and fell asleep.