28 Chapter 7: Healing, Wands, and an Elemental. Part 2

It was a wonderful day in southern France. The Granger family rented a lovely cabin by the ocean that was close to several tourist destinations. Hermione preferred it over a hotel, she did not like being stuck in a stuffy city. Her parents loved the quaint atmosphere of their current lodging, and she loved to spend her evening reading on top of the hill that overlooked the vast, blue ocean.

Hermione enjoyed the last couple of days that she was in France, but she could not help but worry about Harry. The little glimpse she saw into her family was not good, and her parents confirmed that he might be in an abusive household. Unfortunately, they did not have the time to raise a complaint before they left England.

It was then when she noticed a familiar snow-white owl, who was perched on her open window still. She barked at her imperiously when she noticed her recipient finally noticed her.

Hermione ran up to the window and Hedwig elegantly held out a leg. It was a letter from Harry. She did not wait a second longer to tear into the letter.

Dear Hermione,

I hope this letter finds you in France (Hedwig will not take it kindly if you mention that around her, so please do not read the letter out loud next to her). How is France? Are you enjoying your time with your parents? I hope you do and let me know of all the amazing things you experienced there.

On another more slightly serious note, I have taken care of my relatives with the help of our mutual friend. They are no longer going to be a problem to me, and I hope you mention this to your parents. I have been placed here by some powerful people clearly and I do not want your parents to get caught up in all of this. I have my suspicions that there are some magical people who have interfered with my life before Hogwarts, and not in a good way. So please, let your parents know that the best thing they could do is not report any of this to the authorities. Too many things will be out of control and right now, I do not want anyone's attention towards the Dursleys. Trust me when I say this, there is a squib in our neighborhood who reports to Dumbledore who has not done a thing to help me once.

Despite all the doom and gloom in my life, things have been going well. I finally visited a healer a day before I pen this letter. She gave me several prescriptions for nutrients and gave me my magical inoculations. You should get yours too, she will probably help you get yours, if you have not already. I bought a lot of books on magic and I have started to study for the next year. Runes and arithmancy really are interesting subjects with important applications and I am glad I switched.

When you return, we can continue our 'lessons' from earlier. Apparently, our mentor can freely leave the castle without anyone none the wiser. Something about magical people sometimes forgoing the obvious in favor of the mystical due to their magical abilities. I don't think I ever seen him laugh hysterically after he said that.

Finally, I hope you are enjoying your time with your parents. They do not get to see you for nine months out of the year and I would guess that they miss their daughter terribly. Let go of all your worries for now and spend some quality time with your parents.

Yours truly,

Harry.

Hermione re-read the letter and she dashed downstairs. Her parents were snuggled together and whispered sweet nothing to each other, while they enjoyed their morning coffee. She could not help but roll her eyes. 'Sometimes they are too lovey-dovey.'

Her mum looked at her and said, "Good morning Hermione. I see you got a letter there."

John threw a mischievous smirk at his daughter. He grinned, "Ah is my daughter at an age where she gets letters from her beau? My dear wife, what must I do? I fear my daughter is leaving me all too soon."

Hermione stammered out a whole bunch of incomprehensible nonsense and her mother just swatted her husband on the shoulder. She reprimanded, "Behave John Granger! I am pretty sure it is just a letter from Harry?"

His grin did not disappear. "Well Harry seems like a lad with a good head on his shoulders, also famous and rich yes? I quite do not mind my daughter being wed to a well-off young man."

A pillow struck John Granger dead in the face; his cries of mock outrage were met with the giggles of the Granger women. Once they settled, her father turned serious. "Is he in any trouble?"

Hermione shook her head, and she handed her parents the letter she just received. "It does not seem like it. Take a read."

The elder Grangers read the letter in relative silence. Her mother looked slightly worried and her father wore an impassive expression. He closed his eyes to ruminate on the contents of the letter.

"Do you believe that he is alright?"

Hermione reluctantly nodded, "He has a friend that can help him, and Harry told us that he has figured out a way to get around the underage magic rule. But no matter how much it makes logical sense to trust him, I can't help but worry."

Claire worried her bottom lip. "Still there must be something we can do about this situation. I don't like how that relative of his treated the poor boy."

John crossed his arms in front of his chest and said, "I don't like it, but he could be correct. Hermione, you mentioned that Harry is a really famous figure and a powerful symbol in the Wizarding world and that he was directly involved in ending a war, right?"

Hermione nodded. Claire's eyes widened. "You think someone wants him to be there. Someone who clearly has enough power to keep every wizard and witch away from him. But who could have such power?"

Her father nodded as Hermione looked slightly sick as she answered softly, "Professor Dumbledore."

Her mother looked at her quizzically and questioned, "Isn't he just your headmaster?"

Hermione replied, "He is not just the headmaster, he leads the magical version of the parliament and the magical version of the United Nations. He is also considered the most magically powerful wizard currently. Harry told us he had doubts about Professor Dumbledore, and I thought that he could be exaggerating. Now though…"

Her father finished, "Now you think it is highly possible that your headmaster is controlling your friend like a chess piece in some grand chess game?"

Hermione bobbed her head in affirmation and she limply sat down in a couch nearby. Her mother joined her and pulled her into her embrace. Hermione weakly asked, "You are not going to ask me not be friends with him, are you?

John took a deep breath and released it. While he wanted his daughter to be absolutely safe from all dangers in her foreign new world, he knew it was highly unlikely. He also knew that they did not have the proper tools to even handle some of the bigger problems her daughter would face. He understood that if they press her to leave her friend, she would either become distant from them or be left friendless, alone, and nearly helpless in the magical world. He saw that his wife was working through similar thoughts.

Clair shook her head and held her daughter closer. "No sweetheart, we are not going to do that to you. Though, we can help the lad in whatever way we can. We can have him over whenever we can and try make his life a little better."

Hermione nodded into her mother's shoulder. Claire patted her daughter's back twice and let go of her daughter. Just then, an irate Hedwig flew downstairs and barked furiously. John and Claire looked quizzically at their daughter.

Hermione laughed, "Hedwig gets irritated when she does not get her bacon for delivering mail, we better get some before she pelts poor Harry for our mistake."

The whole family laughed as Hedwig got more annoyed.

It was one week since the final day of Hogwarts. It was a lovely Saturday afternoon and Harry was enjoying a delicious lunch Dobby prepared for him. Suddenly, Dobby popped away and returned with a note a few seconds later.

Harry,

Gran will be gone for the rest of the evening; we should go now.

Best,

Neville

Harry quickly pocketed seven galleons and had Dobby pop him in an empty alley near the Leaky Cauldron. A few seconds later, a slightly dazzled Neville was popped over by Dobby. With a snap, Dobby encased the two friends in a notice-me-not charm.

As soon as they left the alley and entered the busy streets, Neville was stunned, he looked around the overall surroundings with a sense of wonder and an excited glint in his eyes. He exclaimed, "Merlin's saggy ball sack! This is huge! And muggles do all this stuff without magic?"

Harry chuckled, "Yes they do. There are tons of amazing things they do without the use of magic, and some of it seems magical itself. Let's get going now, we got places to be and wands to buy."

Neville nodded shakily and tried to keep up with Harry the best he could. Several times, Harry had to stop and backtrack to go find Neville, despite the many times he told him to not wander off or slow down. They finally reached the Leaky Cauldron and Harry rolled his eyes at the still amazed Neville. 'A walk that would take me 10 minutes took 40 minutes. Well done Neville, you bloody near got lost five times.'

Harry huffed and pushed his still dazed friend inside, and Neville stumbled and fell past the doorway. Neville huffed, "What did you do that for?"

Harry rolled his eyes and smirked, "That's what you get for blocking the doorway."

Neville scrunched his eyebrows together and retorted, "And break one of my pristine bones? What would my poor Gran think of you?"

Harry deadpanned, "You are sneaking out remember? You are the one who is going to be locked up until you grow hair from your ears."

"That is a weird way to insult someone."

"No, I just craft much more nuanced barbs."

"What's a nuance?"

"My point exactly."

Neville muttered a slew of choice words his Gran would definitely not approve off as he got up. The dingy pub seemed relatively empty today and seemingly no one paid any attention to them. They entered the Diagon Alley and swiftly entered the old wandmaker's store.

The store remained almost the same as the last time he visited it. Rows and rows of wand boxes were stacked in various shelves of differing sizes. The dimly lit space was a stark contrast to the bright sunny day outside. To a give a finishing touch to the mysterious ambience, Garrick Ollivander was standing right before them, his pale eyes contrasting against the gloomy atmosphere.

Ollivander spoke in ever mysterious tone, "Ah Mr. Longbottom, I expected to see you two years ago."

The old wandmaker directed his attention to Harry, before Neville could even respond. He smiled with a hint of joy in his eyes, "Mr. Potter, 11 inches, holly and phoenix feather, nice and supple. I can sense your wand sing high praises of you. Might I examine your wand?"

Harry nodded and stiffly handed his wand to Ollivander. The wandmaker closed his eyes as he carefully moved his fingers across the wand, feeling every inch of the wand. He gave the wand back with a hint of reverence in his eyes.

"A perfectly matched holly and phoenix feather wand! I would have never thought that I would see such a thing, a most phenomenal turn of events indeed. A perfectly matched wand of this composition gives birth to an unstoppable wizard, one of that belongs in the history books with the greats of the magical world."