InsaneJournal

After Hermione stopped by on Saturday morning to have brunch with her parents and spend part of the day with them, she took a shower and changed her clothes, then helped her mother in the kitchen before Ernie arrived. She still wasn't sure what she thought about meeting his sister, but given that he was meeting her parents, she supposed it was something she should expect sooner or later. To be honest she wasn't that nervous about it, but maybe that was because of what else was on her mind, namely staying the night with Ernie and the two of them being alone later and what it meant. It was strange to be home with her parents, where things were still quiet and awkward, even if they were a little better than they'd been at Christmas, and she was glad to have Ernie arrive and have him provide a distraction of sorts. Her parents had met Harry and Ron, but this was the first time they were meeting a boy she was dating, and so it was strange, but nice too, because of course he was Ernie. His vegetarianism had been a topic of conversation, and luckily brunch had consisted of foods that still gave him an option about what to eat as other than a spinach quiche with eggs, everything else was relatively meatless. When they were done they sat around the table and ate the rhubarb tart her mother had prepared, Hermione's father looked over at Ernie across the table, his brown eyes curious over his glasses. "So you're taking Hermione to meet some of your family," he inquired politely. He'd been worried most about meeting Hermione's father, particularly because he had had such a brittle relationship with his own. However, shortly after arriving it became quite apparent that like his own mother, Hermione's mother found him severely lacking. He'd answered questions as politely as he could, but the tension was evident in his shoulders. "Oh yes. My eldest sister and my niece... I think. I'm not sure if she'll be there by the time we get there - she was supposed to see her father's family at some point but. Constance. Yes." His eyes flickered over to Hermione. Hermione smiled, her hand automatically finding his under the table. She knew Ernie and he did nervous so well, she supposed considering things this was going better than it could have. "I hope so," she said. "You met my family so it's only fair." She reached for another croissant and squeezed his hand reassuringly. "It's nice of Hermione to bring you home," Helen Granger said, considering him from behind the orange juice pitcher. "We get to know so little about her life and friends for the most part, everything is always such a secret. So the two of you have just started dating? But Hermione said you'd known each other for some time." Ernie looked a little startled - he hadn't realised that Hermione was secretive about her life at Hogwarts. He'd rather taken for granted that it was a topic of some conversation at least during the summers, or that she wrote them regularly - it seemed something responsible that she'd engage in. Apparently, however, it wasn't the case. "Oh, yes. The school is small enough to where everyone knows everyone practically," he replied, a faint nervous chuckle in his tone as he looked over at Hermione. "But we were fairly friendly I suppose, yeah?" Ernie looked back over at Helen. "We're in different houses and while he have... literally the same schedule now, we only had one or two a year together growing up. And Well." Ernie ended with half a shrug. "Just the last few months. We've been dating, that is." Hermione's cheeks turned red, and she looked down at the table, not really knowing what to say. He looked over at Hermione, who was beet red and looked embarrassed as all get out. He set a hand on the back of her shoulder. "I realise, em. At least from what you just said, that you don't really know a lot about Hermione at school but she's fairly. Well. Popular. So. It's kind of amazing that she's with me at all since I am very not," he added, trying to boost up her confidence. She really didn't know how to explain that to Ernie why her mother would say something like that. "No I'm not," she said. "Just... Ernie and I have been seeing each other a few months," she said. "Like I told you in the owl. And I've told you before there's some things I can't tell you. But I tell you everything I can." Helen looked back over at Ernie. "She keeps things from us," she said. "For our own good, I suppose. From what she's said it's better we don't know some of it, but there are things I'd like to know. About someone such as yourself, for example. You're... you're not like Hermione then, born ... not magical. Your family is magical?" Oh god. "Yes. Historically, yes," he said cautiously as he picked up his water glass and took a sip for his poor, dry mouth. Instead of his eyes going to Hermione, they went to her father. A little worried, they were. Worried and sympathetic. "Eight generations... technically more, but that's more a matter of. Well. History," Ernie added, setting his glass down and exhaling surprisingly steady. "But that's all really. Em. Not important. Really. 3 sisters, two parents. All older than I. All magic." Ernie thought for a moment about grasping Hermione's hand under the table, but ended up settling for his own thigh, trying to keep himself from indulging his neurosis. They don't get the Prophet, he reminded himself. Helen nodded at that, eyes keen on him before she looked back over at her daughter. "And I assume none of them were involved in this business that nearly had our daughter killed?" "Mother," Hermione said, giving her mother a look. "Of course not. Ernie is... he's not like that at all. Really." She gave him a quiet smile before looking back at her parents. "We met through Harry, really, I mean sort of, wouldn't you say? I mean you were friendly with him first." Somehow that made it easier maybe to say that, as if knowing Harry, whom her mother liked, approved of Ernie might help. He made a gravelly, nervous sound. "Oh yes. Yes, well. Harry is a very likable sort of bloke," he began, completely glossing over the former question and relieved at Hermione's save. "I mean... we've had our bumps. Second year," he said, giving Hermione a look, unsure if they knew what happened that year, "was a bit rocky. But he's such a good bloke. Really, really just corking." Ernie's eyes stayed on Hermione. "But I'd say... I'd say we occupied separate orbits really, even with Harry. I mean. Honestly, we did. Do you know who it really was that sort of... well, got us together?" Hermione looked at him, a little puzzled and tried to think. "Nott? With his idea to petition?" For a moment it was a bit like her parents weren't there, and this wasn't something she had to explain too much because she had told her parents what she'd been doing over the Christmas hols. "Exactly. Theodore Nott - imagine!" he said with a faint chuckle. "But really that was it. Theodore Nott and Civics." Ernie smiled warmly at Hermione. "A strange situation to owe happiness too." Hermione thought about the DA. "I've known stranger." Brunch passed a bit more pleasantly after that, and by the end, Hermione's father was discussing football with Ernie almost as if he expected to be understood. Finally they left and stood outside in the garden, Hermione looking over at Ernie expectantly. "Well you survived. Are we prepared for what lies ahead?" She leaned in to kiss him gently, not having had a chance to really earlier. "I think I know what being caught in a tornado feels like," Ernie replied weakly, glad he'd not completely perspired through his clothes in nervousness or fallen over his chair from the windstorm. He kissed her again. "I see where you get your forward, direct nature from." Hermione's hands slid around his waist familiarly, and she smiled up at him. "You did fine. Really. And my mother always believes that straightforwardness is best." She leaned into him a little. "Plus they know you're my first boyfriend and I'm about to go away with you for a night, I think they are a little suspicious of that. They knew Harry and Ron were always just friends." Ernie's jaw slipped open. "They knew?" He looked over to the right, bright red in embarrassment. "Well. I'm surprised your father didn't... reach across the table and break my jaw." Hermione looked at him and laughed. "I didn't tell them that. Just that we'd be out and I was staying the night with you. They're used to me staying with friends from school, I don't know that anything else crossed their minds. Or if it did they didn't say." "You never proclaimed either Harry or Ron to be your boyfriend," he said under his breath, still a little shaken by the prospect. It was bad enough that they probably though him a nervous, idiotic, frivolous young boy who's parents wanted his grilfriend dead. Now they knew he was taking their daughter's virginity too. Great. He took a folded piece of paper from his pocket and handed it to her - there were coordinates listed on it. "I'd side-along, but I'm pretty sure one of us would end up splinched," he said, partly apologetic, partly acknowledging the sensibility of it. "Don't worry about it," she said. "Really. I'm sure it's fine. And they didn't kill you, did they?" Hermione took the paper and read it carefully before nodding. "This will work," she said. "I'm used to Apparating just based on this sort of thing." She held her bag more tightly over her shoulder, the small carry all magically enlarged to hold everything she needed. "You want to go first? I'll follow." Ernie nodded and apparated away. He arrived in the dense thicket of mountain forest and looked around to get his bearing. The house - moderate and well-kept - was behind him and surrounded by a carefully directed wild garden before it. When Hermione arrived, he gestured with his head and slid his hands into his pockets. This was possibly even more nerve-wracking that meeting Hermione's parents. He just hoped Connie didn't say anything to utterly embarrass him. Hermione waited a moment or two for him to get settled, then focused on the coordinates, feeling the sudden pull of Apparation and just as suddenly she was there. She looked around as he gestured and slipped hear arm around him to give him an affectionate squeeze. "The grounds are lovely," she said, letting him lead her inside. "Connie's big passion in life is plants," he said, unsure if he'd ever said it before. Ernie started to walk in the direction of the house, figuring that Hermione would follow along. "She works very hard to keep things natural, but somewhat orderly in her garden. I spent a lot of last summer pulling up non-native pests out of it," he added, the tone indicating that wasn't what he'd have ideally done with his summer. But then, he'd pretty much do anything Connie said without much question. He rang the bell at the door, but wasn't rewarded with a sound. The door was pulled open a few seconds after by a lean, blonde pixie of a woman who looked faintly annoyed. "Ernie - good. Can you please get Hope out of bed - she's been asleep two hours, so she should be fairly less monstrous," she directed, her voice a little awkward in the way that most deaf people were. The woman pulled Ernie down by his shoulder to peck him on the cheek then pull him inside and past her. "You must be Ernie's rebel girlfriend. Constance Macmillan - absolutely delighted. Come on inside," she said briskly and backed away from the door so she could come in. Ernie was looking at Connie with annoyed eyes as she gestured him up stairs. Ernie made a gesture right back and, giving her a rather helpless grimace, took the stairs two at a time. "Tea? Or are you one of those gastly coffee drinkers - I have no idea where Ernie picked that habit up but I could just smack him for it. It makes the whole kitchen smell like something burnt and I don't like that it's become such a bloody necessity. No better than being addicted to potions in my mind," she continued as she closed the door behind her and started walking through the foyer. The foyer became a corridor that had room jettisoned to either side of it - a family room, a proper sitting room, a half bath, a closed door that Connie said was her office, a stairwell to the second floor and, at the end, a kitchen. It was a large, country-style kitchen. From the looks of it, it had got a lot of use and attention over the years: it was obviously the work of a very particular mind and the old pots and pans hanging over the island indicated very frequent use. Hermione was taken aback, her eyes following Ernie's retreating back and then going back to the blonde woman who was shorter than she was, even, and who had her eyes on her lips. "Tea," she managed after a moment. Why had Ernie never told her? She followed her in the direction of the kitchen, waiting until Connie ws facing her again. "And yes. I'm Hermione. And I can't stand coffee so you're in good luck." She felt oddly bemused, having been called many things before, but never a rebel. "I know you're Hermione. I'm sorry - I was just on a firecall with Persy," she said as an explanation, but didn't go further with it as she pulled down tea boxes. "I figured he'd end up with a Gryffindor eventually - I was one, you know. Not to indicate that this is some weird Oedipal thing between the two of you," she added with a laugh. "Don't tell him I said that, he'll get all neurotic and I'm not aiming to put him off you." She held up a box of green and a box of black tea for Hermione to pick. "It's just a good fit for him, I think. He needs that kind of vitality and boldness and conviction in his life and Ernie certainly seems to have found it in you." Hermione's cheeks flushed a little, part in embarrassment but part in pleasure that his sister didn't seem to dislike her at least. "Black please," she said, before leaning back against the counter. "And we seem to get along fairly well. There's bumps but I think that's normal." "Better out than in and festering and--" she made a creepy-crawly gesture with her fingertips and turned to fill up the tea pot with a couple of spoonfuls of tea. "At any rate, tell me about yourself," she said, filling the pot with water and setting it on the tray with tea cups. Once she got it to the table, she charmed it hot. "I agree," she said. It was a girl thing, wanting to talk about feelings maybe, but having spent most of her growing up with two boys for best friends, she'd gotten used to not doing it until things exploded all around them. She watched as Connie prepared the tea and then thought of what to say, what Connie might know or not. "Well... I like to read," she said. "That's sort of an understatement, actually. I love to read. And like Ernie I have fondness for multi-coloured inks." That made her smile. "I've been thinking of going into law, when I leave school. Not enforcement, but the judicial branch, perhaps. There's so much that needs to be changed." She stopped herself before she went off on a tangent. "You want to be a politician?" Connie inquired, obvious surprise in both tone of voice and her eyes. She poured tea out to the both of them and looked to mull that choice over without giving away whether she approved of it or not. The surprise was interrupted by the sound of heavy footsteps coming down the staircase and suddenly Ernie was down in the kitchen, cradling a very unhappy but dressed 3 year old. Ernie walked straight over to Connie and the look shared between the two caused her to rise and accept the passing of the small girl. "She feels hot," he said and slumped into the seat next to Hermione. Before Hermione could answer her question and explain what she wanted to do, Ernie came down with a little girl. Her eyes went to the girl and then to Ernie. It was odd to see him like that, so familiar and comfortable. But then again she wasn't surprised, given how he worried about his friends. "Is she all right?" she asked, looking at the little girl with a bit of concern. She didn't know much about these sorts of things at all, and for that matter was not very comfortable with children, being unfamiliar with them. Connie felt her head with the back of her hand, the pursed her lips. "She's just overheated from wearing that ridiculous jumper to bed and cranky because she was woken up," the woman proclaimed as she kissed the small girl's head and jiggled her to a mewling state of awakeness. "Let's get you some juice." Ernie looked over at Hermione a little worriedly and tipped his head towards her. "Alright there?" he asked, voice dropped to a whisper. She smiled and nodded. "Fine," she said softly. She watched as juice was procured and felt.. oddly at home and yet out of place all at once. Her hand found Ernie's and gave it a reassuring squeeze. "What has she said?" he asked breathlessly, her reassuring squeeze not working to allay his worry. This was Constance, who while not nearly as problematic as Persy would be if she were here in her place, was certainly missing a certain filter between her brain and her mouth. She'd have no problem embarrassing for his own sake. Ernie was interrupted by Connie patting a happily juiced three year old towards the corridor and retaking her seat. "You'll have some tea?" Connie asked him and Ernie shook his head as he righted himself to sit up at the table. "He's worried, you can see it all in his shoulders," Connie pointed out to Hermione. "Come along," she added as she poured Ernie a cup, "it's my job to embarrass you a little. I have to keep you in line somehow." "Nothing," she said softly back, before looking back up as his sister poured for Ernie. "It's fine," she said. "Besides, I don't think you could really scare me off. I don't scare easily." "You're a Gryffindor: of course you don't," Connie replied airily, but there was a look she shared with Ernie that indicated Hermione wasn't the one she thought was frightened. "But I'm a Hufflepuff, so of course I do," Ernie replied and looked unamused as he picked up his tea cup. "Is that was this is? You're coaxing me into an argument?" he asked her, a little disbelief in his gruff, gravelly voice. Connie sat back and smiled. "Not an argument. Into... passionate rebuttal," she replied with a winning smile. "You so rarely compliment yourself the only way anyone can get it out of you is if it's in defense." At this, Ernie sipped his tea embarrassedly. "That's not true," he said through the blush of his cheeks. "He has his moments," Hermione supplied, taking a sip of her own tea and leaning into him just a little, mostly because of the blush, but also because she wanted to. On impulse she leaned in and kissed his cheek and then let her head rest on his shoulder, feeling comfortable for the first time today here in this little kitchen. "I'm rather fond of him," she added. "In case he hasn't said." "Yes, but he can't figure out why and that is because he's an idiot," Connie admonished as she rose up and planted a kiss to Ernie's temple. "But I'm glad someone else is trying their hand at convincing him." Connie righted herself. "Did you bring your letter, Ernie?" she asked and Ernie shook his head as he wrapped an arm around Hermione. Connie took in a breath then grabbed her tea to take a standing drink. "I'd better go get Hope ready then." Ernie watched as she went into the other room, then looked down at Hermione and sighed. "If I wanted to move to another country, would you come along?" he asked, slightly dejected at his sister's behaviour. She was making a fool out of him and, worse, she was convinced it was for his own good. "Depends on if they have any good museums," she said with a half smile. She leaned in closer and kissed him. "Don't mind it. I don't. And we've already discussed all of this and reached a happy conclusion, have we not?" "What conclusion was that?" he asked. "That I love you. And I always have very sound reasons for everything I do." She pulled back enough to smile up at him. "Oh, that," he said, and realised he'd just passively disregarded her stating she loved her. "I mean," he corrected hurriedly, "I didn't mean to be dismissive. I'm just..." Ernie exhaled heavily and gestured. "What do you think about Vancouver? Everyone is nice in Canada, I've heard," he continued. It was futile - for all his dismay, he couldn't really be without his family. Not again. Hermione had to hide a smile, making a noncommittal noise. "And I've heard Canada is nice but I'd rather stay here."