Many conversations were held, Arthur was even able to contribute to the non-magical talk thanks to his TV and movies. The kids mostly talked about the games they played that day and Ginny tried to talk to Hermione, but the age and intelligence difference made it difficult. When the time came for the cake, all the kids sang Happy Birthday with loud voices and smiles. Presents were tricky; Hydrus discretely cast a small spell to make none of them move. Like the poster the twins got Harry on Quidditch, now it looked like a normal poster for a fantasy game.
Hermione gave Harry a nice book on fairytales; her parents talked her into keeping it age appropriate. She had been going to give him the Tales of Narnia.
The uncles had decided to give Harry their gifts at home, since they were things that weren't on the market yet in the non-magical world, so they had no way to explain them.
Cake and presents done the children once again ran to the playground to play the game of Princess in the Tower, with Ginny as the princess since she was the youngest. Sirius was her guard, to make sure she didn't get hurt or run off. The younger boys fought the older boys valiantly with their pretend swords, and they almost got to the tower, with Hermione as their general. As she was dictating who went where, one of the older boys pushed her for being bossy. When she fell the boy who pushed her was knocked back by an invisible force.
Harry, enraged, yelled at the fallen boy and caused his face to break out in boils. The child screamed and Sirius, who was there just for that reason, quickly cast a counter spell, wiped the memory and grabbed Harry.
It wasn't soon enough for the parents watching. Yelling started and the non-magical parents of the child started screaming at Harry. The uncles, the Longbottoms and the Weasleys moved as one and soon enough peace was had at the park again, with all but the Grangers' memories modified. They all went back to the picnic area and sat the children down so their parents could calm them.
"What the hell was that?" Dan said in a frantic whisper to Hydrus, not wanting to believe what he saw with his own eyes. "Are you going to do hocus pocus on us too?" he asked worried for his family.
"No," Hydrus said firmly, cutting a glare to all the magical adults present. "We don't have to modify your memories, because," he took a deep breath and softened his face, "Hermione is a witch. It was her magic that knocked the boy down."
Denial came swiftly from all the non-magical adults, while the magicals looked relieved at the fact. Frank and Alice were especially thankful that they didn't have to fine their friend, however they were still a bit concerned about the nanny. The older kids talked rapidly to their newfound witch friend. Chaos was had for a few minutes, until Hydrus sent a piercing whistle over the group.
When he got the quiet he sought, he said, "This is not the place to discuss this. I'm going to take the Grangers, Grace and Harry to their house. I'm sorry the party ended on a bad note, however, we now have a new family to welcome in our midst." He smiled reassuringly at the confused and fearful parents and the contemplative Grace and Hermione. "Sirius, if you could see everyone home," he waited for the nod. "We'll catch up later. Frank, Alice, I assure you, I won't be breaking any laws." They gave him a trusting look and nodded.
The party mess was cleared and everyone said good-byes, leaving Hydrus, Harry and the Granger household to make their way to the house. Dan invited them in with a grim, yet determined, look in his eyes. They made their way to a modern and spacey living room.
There were two leather couches and three armchairs, scattered around a nice, large coffee table. The Grangers took one of the sofas, while Hydrus sat in the armchair facing them, with Harry on his lap. Grace took the chair next to Hydrus.
"I'm not sure I believe you, what happened in the park was… unbelievable. I doubt my own mind," Dan said breaking the silence. He was after all a professional and had a scientific mindset. Seeing magic was startling to say the least. His wife nodded in agreement. "How do you know Hermione is a… witch… magical… whatever?"
"I understand. I truly do. I didn't believe it when they told me I was a wizard," Hydrus said sympathetically. "I can prove it," he added pulling an older version of the color ball from his pocketspace, causing an intake of breath from all but Harry. "If any of you adults touch this, nothing will happen," he explained, handing the ball to Grace.
She took the ball and it remained white. She shook it, examined it and then shook her head and handed it to Emma. The toy was passed to Dan and they all looked at Hydrus in confusion. The immortal waved to Hermione and when she touched the ball it glowed green and said 'green', making the little girl squeal and drop the toy. Hydrus summoned the ball to him, making everyone jerk.
"This is a simple toy we use to prove who has magic and who doesn't. That's a story for another time though," he said with a sad smile. Though the ones in the toy store ran on squib level magic, Barkley's still used this one for the kids in St. Mungo's. They had rescued five children with it. He put it back in his pocketspace, once again making everyone gasp. The immortal sent a shy look to his girlfriend to see how she was taking the news. She appeared to be more thoughtful than upset.
"Are there books?" both Hermione and Emma asked, making everyone breakout with a small smile.
"Yes, but I have something better," Hydrus said and pulled out four book-readers and handed three of them to the adults. He gave the child's version to Harry to give to Hermione and said, "Take Hermione to her room and show her how to use this, okay?" The little green-eyed boy nodded enthusiastically, climbed off the lap, grabbed his protesting friend's hand and led her from the room. "Sorry, there are just things you should know that she really doesn't need to yet," he said sheepishly.
The three adults looked up from the book-readers and Emma asked, "What things?"
"There are laws that I must tell you about, and things you need to know before Hermione goes to school." He settled in his chair and started to explain about the wizarding world and all the rules thereof. How Hermione would be prone to accidental magic when emotional. He explained the readers and the books they needed to read. The Granger parents took it well, but not without many questions. They talked for an hour, Grace was quiet the whole time; she simply sat and took in all the new information. It made Hydrus nervous.
"Why aren't these… book-readers on the market?" Emma wanted to know.
"They will be, in the future, I'm sure, however, right now these run off magic, I don't have a prototype for non-magical ones. Besides they're not my invention," he stammered trying to come up with a reason. He couldn't tell them he was from the future. That was something they could never hide in their minds.
"If they run off magic, why can we use them and not the ball?" Dan asked, tilting his head in confusion.
"These run off ambient magic, which is in the air of any household that has a magical person in it," the time traveler stated with a shrug. "If you take them to your dental practice they won't work." It had taken a while to get them like that, but he had made a dozen that did, just for occasions like this.
A few more questions were asked and answered, and Hydrus expressed the need to maintain secrecy. They were going to have to sit Hermione down and explain it all to her. She was a very smart girl and would hopefully understand, given her need to get approval of authority figures it should be simple—he hoped.
When all the answers were given, for now, Hydrus looked at his still silent girlfriend and said, "Can we talk?"
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