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Author: angelmorph Story: A Different Boy Who Lived Rating: Everyone Setting: AU Status: WIP Reviews: 4 Words: 62,801
I'd like to dedicate this chapter to LegalAlien1 at FF.net who's review to Chapter 23 inspired one of the scenes. Warning: This chapter contains mentions to corporal punishment which may be offensive to some individuals.
The boys went home that afternoon and pleaded with Lily. She responded by saying that she was happy they had made such a good friend; however, she wasn't the one who needed convincing they be allowed to spend time with her after school. The discussion ended with her promising to bring the subject up with Augusta. And she did. She fire-called Neville's grandmother after dinner and invited her over to discuss the matter. Although Lily had wanted to spare them hearing her refusal first-hand, the boys insisted on remaining to hear the response. Unfortunately, Augusta didn't even wait to hear the entirety of the proposal before putting forward her refusal, "I thought I had made my position on the matter unmistakably clear. The boys are not to…" Surprisingly, it was Neville that interrupted, "Shut up! Shut up! You ruin everything! Why won't you just let me be happy?" Augusta was shocked into silence by his outburst, but outrage quickly became the dominant expression on her face. She did not yell, but her tone when she addressed him made her anger perfectly clear. "Neville Argus Longbottom! You will not speak to me that way. I will not tolerate such disrespect. You are not too old for me to take you over my knee. Come here." When he failed to approach she repeated herself, "Come here, now. If I have to come get you…" This time he shuffled towards her. He said nothing more as each of ten blows fell squarely on his rear but the look on his tear-streaked face said it all. As soon as she released her hold on him he jumped hurriedly away. Glaring at her a final time, he yelled, "I HATE YOU!!" then turned and stomped his way up to his room. Harry followed close behind, though less noisily. After they had left, an awkward silence remained. Lily, wisely, let the subject drop for the moment – now was not the time to rehash her opinion of Augusta's methods of disciplining her grandson – and they discussed other things. However, just as the older witch was leaving she added, "Why don't you surprise the boys tomorrow, pick them up from school. You haven't spent any quality time together in ages. Neville might even forgive you for tonight…" The next day found the boys struggling to explain to their friend that they'd been unable to convince Neville's Gran to let her visit. To their surprise, she did not look as disappointed as they expected she'd be. "You're not upset?" asked Neville. "Yes, of course I am. But there's no use crying over spilt milk. I've decided that if I can't come over to your house to ask your mum my questions, the next best option is to ambush her when she comes to pick up you up today. Which reminds me, I've been wondering…" Harry and Neville exchanged a look of dread; those three words were never a good start to a sentence. "Why does your mum come pick you up every day? Couldn't you take the bus with everyone else?" The boys exchanged a look, trying to decide how best to answer that question. Finally Neville answered, "Because Gran is panoid." A look of puzzlement crossed the young witch's face, "Panoid?" It wasn't often she came across a word she didn't know. "Yeah, she's afraid we're going to be kidnapped," elaborated Harry. "Oh, you mean paranoid?" "Something like that... That's what James said when Gran bought Lily the car…" ~*~ "Lily, dear, why is there a car in the drive?" "Augusta bought it for us." James snorted. "Augusta bought a car? At a Muggle dealership?" "Actually, she just paid for it. I chose it. Do you like it?" Ignoring the question, James latched on to the first part of her response. "You went with her?" At her cautious nod, his expression darkened. "And you didn't feel inclined to discuss it with me first, because...?" "I didn't know myself till this morning. It all happened rather suddenly." Noting that he'd calmed down enough to listen to her explanation, she continued, "Augusta came over this morning to discuss the logistics of the boys' enrollment at school. There were still a few wrinkles to iron out of the cover story. The subject of transportation came up. I mentioned that the school bus seemed the logical choice since it's too far to walk. She didn't like the idea and wanted me to drop them off and pick them up in person every day… That's when she decided we needed a car. Practically dragged me out of the house to go buy one – the boys were still in their pajamas! It was all I could do to insist they be given time to dress, there was certainly no time to call you…" By the time she finished her story, James' anger had completely faded. Now he was just annoyed – at Augusta, not his wife. "And did she happen to mention why they couldn't take the school bus?" Lily smiled. "Apparently, they're 'liable to be kidnapped' and she doesn't want to take any chances." "Let me get this straight. Augusta thinks that Death Eaters – who incidentally know next to nothing about Muggles, aside from how best to torture and kill them – are going to kidnap the boys from a Muggle bus on their way to a Muggle school in an almost entirely Muggle village? So, she spent over a thousand Galleons on a brand new Muggle car so that you can drive them to school?" "That sums it up nicely, yes." "Then, it's official, that woman is paranoid." ~*~ Surprisingly, Augusta actually did show up to pick up Harry and Neville in Lily's stead. Perhaps she honestly didn't catch on that Lily was scheming. It seems more likely though that she was genuinely afraid she wouldn't be forgiven and sensed the challenge in Lily's words. Or perhaps she just wanted to prove she'd been sorted into Gryffindor for a reason. Regardless of her reasons, the fact remained that she went. What she encountered when she got there was not what she'd expected… Hermione, who'd been waiting with them to meet Lily, excitedly introduced herself by saying, "Are you really Neville's Gran? He talks about you all the time… Can I ask you a question? I was going to ask Harry's mum but Harry says he's not allowed to invite me over because you don't want anyone to know where Neville lives – even though I'm Muggleborn and I don't know any other wizards and I wouldn't tell anyone – because of someone named You-Know-Who…Was his name really You-Know-Who, because that must have been really confusing growing up…? So can I ask you instead because it's a really important question…almost as important as where babies come from and I really want…" Now, Augusta was unaccustomed to inquisitive children asking her questions, especially one Hermione Granger. She blanched at hearing the question compared to the dreaded "Where do babies come from?" and reacted by shutting her up in the only way she knew would work. What did she do? She bent down at whispered in her ear, "Neville lives at number 5 Cherry Road with the Potters. Why don't you ask Lily like you planned?" And so Hermione Granger became Neville's second friend to know where he lived… She actually squealed at this revelation and was so excited that she almost asked if she could come over right away, forgetting for a moment that she really should ask her parents first and that if she didn't hurry she'd miss her bus home. Unfortunately, Hermione didn't get to meet the Potters till the next day. She met Lily first. The first thing she did, after introducing herself, was ask the oh-so-important question that she'd already asked the boys eleven times. But, Lily didn't know either and ended up giving her a non-committal response, "Magic works in mysterious ways, dear. My own sister hasn't an ounce of magic in her. In fact she hates magic so much that we haven't spoken to each other in years. The only reason I know she's still alive is that she still sends back every Christmas and birthday card I send her." So Hermione drew her own conclusions that deep down inside, all Muggles didn't like magic or wouldn't want to be magic and that's why they weren't witches or wizards. Then she let the matter drop, and instead asked the other question that had been nagging her since she'd first laid eyes on Lily, "Mrs. Potter, are you having a baby? Your belly's very big, even bigger than Mother's was before she got sick and my baby sister died." Lily, just smiled, and replied, "Yes, dear, any day now," before ushering her off to play with the boys. Hermione met James when he came home from work that evening, and he walked her home before dinner. But as her visits became more frequent – as in daily – and the Potter household became more chaotic with the birth of Heather Lily Potter a week later, on September 24th, her parents insisted on coming to pick her up themselves. Before they arrived, Lily pulled her aside and reminded her of the Charms protecting the house. "I'm sure the boys told you about the Secret before you came here… Remember, if your parents ask, this is Harry's house. Neville visited too but he's already left. He's not here. Understand?" At the young girl's solemn nod she continued, "There are also spells on the house to prevent Muggles, like your parents, from noticing the magical objects lying about. Don't try to correct them, okay?" Another nod. "Good, now run along and play with the boys till your parents get here." By the time Hermione began staying over for dinner some nights, her parents insisted on reciprocating. It took surprisingly little pleading, on the part of the boys, to get Augusta to allow the boys to spend some afternoons with the Grangers. The friendship grew. The three still let Colin join in on their games, and sometimes they even let two-year-old Dennis tag-along. But, it wasn't quite the same. He couldn't join them at school or at Hermione's house. The three came to be such good friends that Hermione often turned down offers to skip rope with her female classmates in favour of playing with the duo. That's not to say she didn't play with the girls sometimes, that wouldn't have been very nice…
A.N. Well there you have it. For those of you that didn't pick up the very few and very vague and scattered clues I dropped in the last few chapters, Heather was conceived in chapter 21. Let me know what you thought of this chapter. Many thanks to my pre-beta Mistri Tonks' Admirer, and my beta Arnel.
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