A Walk in the Forest
Ron couldn’t stop shaking his head.
Hermione in Slytherin apprentice-robes. Hermione mirroring Snape’s gesture of rubbing the bridge of her nose. As if Ron was trying her temper beyond reason, merely by breathing in and out.
‘It’s not a good time now, huh?’
She forced a smile. ‘I love having you here,’ she said. ‘But…’
Ron pouted. ‘You actually prefer hanging out with the gr–’
He wanted to sulk until she made up with him, until she gave him a really sweet kiss and accompanied him to Honeydukes.
‘Don’t,’ she snapped. ‘Just don’t.’
‘Sorry,’ he mumbled.
He looked at her again, the way she adjusted a phial here, added a cautious stir there…
She had changed so much. He couldn’t precisely say when she’d begun to change, as he hadn’t noticed then. He recalled the last time they’d talked, when she’d gone on and on about how exciting everything was, Muggle ho– homo– homeopathy, magical and mundane properties of ingredients, their side effects…She’d only stopped when his eyes were crossing. And all he’d been able to think of was that she actually enjoyed being Snape’s apprentice. She wasn’t just Doing The Thing Martyrs Must Do. She really liked being with Snape.
Ron suppressed a sigh. No more Honeydukes for the two of them. She was slipping away from him. Just as Harry was, what with his auror training and his growing involvement in politics and law, of all the dastardly things.
‘Look, I understand that you don’t want to…’ Ron started.
‘Oh, Merlin! No! Ron, look, I’m sorry, but I’m really busy this afternoon,’ she explained hastily. ‘This project is such a mess. I started out all wrong. I’m not sure I’ll ever get it right. And I’m so horribly scared that I—that I’m just not good enough. That, when all is said and done, I’m nothing but a copycat and a textbook-parrot. That I’ll never succeed at being his apprentice.’
She hesitated, then met his gaze without flinching. ‘Or at anything else, for that matter.’
He knew exactly what she was talking about. What he didn’t know was how he ought to respond.
‘I’m sure it will work out,’ he said lamely. ‘But I guess I’d better get going. We can meet some other time.’
But Hermione shook her head. ‘No, don’t, please! It’s just really bad timing this afternoon. Are you free tonight? Look, why don’t you go for a walk with Lois until dinner? She’ll be done with Professor Snape’s therapy session in a few minutes. And Headmistress McGonagall has allowed her to stay for dinner, so she can see her daughter.’
‘A Muggle?’ Ron asked, and instantly regretted his question.
‘Yes, Ronald,’ Hermione ground out. ‘A Muggle. An extremely competent speech therapist who can help where magical remedies have failed.’
‘I—uhh—’mione, I didn’t mean it that way, and you know that!’
‘Very well. Prove it. Take her for a walk. Stay for dinner. Be around when I’m free to spend some time with you. Which isn’t now.’
oooOooo
The first thing Ron thought was, ‘But she’s real pretty!’
The second was: ‘But she’s older than me. Her daughter just started at Hogwarts.’
The third was: ‘So what?’
The fourth was: ‘But Alina’s in Slytherin.’
Then he smiled at the woman. ‘Hello! I’m Ronald Weasley. An old friend of Hermione’s. She’s asked me to keep you company until it’s time for dinner. I hope you don’t mind too much.’
oooOooo
‘A walk would be great,’ Lois admitted. The sessions with Professor Snape left her quite drained. He was certainly one of the most intense men she’d ever met, and in dire need of some therapy. And not speech therapy, either.
She smiled at the red-haired young man at her side. ‘I’m not allowed to go anywhere on my own while I’m in your world. Everyone’s worried something bad might happen to me, stupid Muggle that I am.’
He laughed. ‘You don’t have to be a Muggle for that. Stupid is quite sufficient to get you into trouble at Hogwarts. And look at Hermione—being smart isn’t exactly safe either.’
‘Yes,’ Lois agreed. ‘But I’m still sad that I missed the incident with those bath-bubbles. So where are we going?’
‘How about a walk along the edge of the Forbidden Forest? That should be safe enough and maybe I can show you some magical critters.’
‘Forbidden Forest?’
‘Yes, for the students.—Magic is not a game, you know.’ He sounded very serious now. ‘There are dangerous creatures in those woods.’
‘Oh.’ Lois couldn’t help casting an anxious look at the castle.
Ron grinned, suddenly looking like a boy again. ‘Don’t worry. Alina is quite safe. Snape keeps his Slytherins in line. It’s the Gryffindors that always get into trouble.’
‘And you were a Gryffindor?’
‘Yes, indeed, just like Hermione.’
‘Tell me about that. What was it like to go to school here?’
oooOooo
‘Oh, look! How cute! They are playing football with that stone! And the others are cheering! They can talk!’
Nine small, ferret-like creatures were tumbling around a tree. Four or five appeared to be throwing a small, black rock back and forth between them, while the others applauded or booed, in a constant stream of garbled shouts and high-pitched jeers.
‘They are just jarveys,’ Ron said, frowning. ‘Well, I suppose they are cute enough,’ he admitted. And it was definitely a lot of fun to watch the Muggle woman’s delight at those silly forest-creatures. ‘And they can’t really talk, they are more like uh… Muggle parrots, I guess. They do insults really well. One of my cousins kept one as a pet a while ago, much to the dismay of his parents. Oh, and the critters are pretty valuable—their musk is one of the main ingredients in magical perfumes.’
Lois beamed at him. ‘I like them.’
‘And I like you.’ Ron blushed. ‘Uh… I guess we’d better return to the castle now. It’s nearly time for dinner.’
“Carefully he laid their wands on the table and reached for her. Clasping her gently around the wrists, he pulled her hands towards him.” awww, bow-chicka-bow-bow
I hope that means you liked this part of the series! 😀
indeed!
Prue Halleywell!! Will Phoebe, Paige and Piper turn up?
*grins* No…I just thought it was more fun to use interesting names for the original minor characters… 😀
Hello! Wonderful story – I first started reading it when you were in the process of writing; however, I never finished so I hope to do so now. Unfortunately the link to chapters 41-50 doesn’t work…I also cannot find a different path/link to those chapters (any kind of overview) so it would be great if you could take a look whenever you have time. Thank you 🙂
The link should work now. There was a character missing in the url of the next chapter.
Unfortunately the chapter overview in the sidebar is broken, and I’ve been trying in vain to get the plugin creator to take a look at what’s wrong. *sigh*
Just a heads-up: the Magicarena link is no longer valid. Other than that, good story.
lanie
Thanks for letting me know. I’m happy you enjoy the story so far!
First off, I love this story. The pacing is wonderful and your grasp of the characters is awesome, they are all recognizable from their canon but still have an original voice.
I was just curious though, you haven’t had anyone remark on there being a Muggleborn in Slytherin; something that I had figured would be noteworthy. So, I was wondering if this had happened before or if her father was actually a wizard or perhaps there was a squib somewhere back in her family tree?
I just had to tell you that you having the Slytherins play Settlers of Cataan was truly inspired…if ever there was a game that was made for them, that is the one! I swear I’ve played it with a few of them, promising one thing in trade and actually handing over something else (buggers).
Thank you for reading and for your kind comment! I’m glad you like the story so far. I remember well how much fun I had introducing the kids to Settlers in my story. 🙂
I love how Hermione messes with Snape’s running of the Slytherin house. On top of having a muggle born not only as apprentice, but also as a student in his house, it must be trying for him. Hermione does not follow the time-treasured Slytherin rules. For the Slytherins that so far prided themselves mostly for purebloodedness (at least as far as the viewpoint in the books allowed), that must be something. I like it that the Slytherin’s show some redeeming qualities in this story.
I really like how you bring the worlds closer together in proving that not all muggles are stupid even if they don’t have magical abilities.
So, the cruciatus curse has some long term side-effects. Very realistic. No Reset button for the war-veterans and some interesting possibilities for h/c scenes 🙂 .
Slytherin: I think Slytherin must have some very nasty dark secrets (which will surface unexpectedly later on 😉 ), but they are not automatically Evil (or misunderstood saints, as some fans would have it …).
Muggle vs. magic world: “Apprentice” was in every way an experiment, and I simply explored all facets of the story that seemed interesting to me at the time. I just let my imagination run wild. And the Muggle/wizard dynamics were just waaay too tempting. 🙂
h/c: Guilty as charged. *grins* I like me some nice h/c, what can I say …