August 20th 1994
Hermione hovered nervously next to her parents as they dusted off their clothing in the Black reception room. The entire immediate House of Black was in attendance because of the arrival of Simeon Black and his family – his wife, Anna, and his baby son, Jason. The Regent Apparent for the House of Black had arrived earlier that day from Australia and everyone was gathered to meet and get to know him.
Penelope smiled at Hermione and ushered them out and down the corridor to the large Summer room. The furniture had been mostly cleared out although there were a few seating areas discreetly laid out. A table with drinks and nibbles took up the back wall but the French doors had been opened up, leaving the garden accessible as it was a lovely sunny day.
Hermione could see Andromeda and Narcissa on the lawn talking with a woman with blonde hair and cooing over the baby she held. Further into the garden she spotted Lucius talking with Professor McGonagall; Remus stood under a tree chatting to Ted. She grimaced as she scanned the room quickly and found Draco tucked into a corner, sitting on a sofa and glowering as Tonks chattered on about something to him.
Poor Tonks, thought Hermione. It looked like the young Auror had drawn the short straw and been told to look after Draco. She was vaguely aware that Andromeda and her family had been meeting with Narcissa and Draco since the last family meeting in July as a way to get him acclimated with interacting politely with people he would normally simply sneer at as he adjusted to the new world order.
In some ways she felt sorry for Draco; he'd essentially gone from believing he and his father were at the top of the food chain only to realise someone else occupied the position and would be quite happy to eliminate him if he so much as looked at someone the wrong way. But she couldn't deny that a large part of her was gleefully smug at him getting his karmic comeuppance for being such a bigoted prat. Unfortunately, she also knew that Narcissa had spent the Summer teaching him to hide his prejudice better not that he shouldn't be prejudiced.
She straightened as she realised that she had missed her parents greeting Sirius and Harry who stood by the door in a somewhat informal receiving line along with another man who looked very much like Sirius; black hair, blue eyes instead of grey, but the same haughty classical handsome looks that defined the Blacks.
"…and this is Hermione." Sirius declared, nudging her forward towards the stranger. "Hermione, Simeon Black."
Hermione curtseyed as Andy had instructed her, letting her head bow forward just a touch but not fully. "Senior Auror Black."
"Simeon, please." Simeon said with an easy grin, the faint hint of France in his Australian accent. "It is a delight to meet you and your parents, Hermione. I believe my Uncle Alphard would have given his wand arm to have met you; the first muggleborn daughter of the House of Black."
Sirius snorted. "We're lucky to have her and we have two now since your wife was inducted earlier." He winked at Hermione and nodded at Harry. "Why don't you kids catch-up now all the introductions are done?"
Harry grinned at him, shot Simeon a shy smile, and Hermione marvelled at the changes that had been wrought in her friend over the course of the Summer.
Harry looked better, for one thing; healthier – his skin glowed, his dark hair shone, his green eyes were bright and he looked a healthy weight. But he also looked cared for with his clothes good quality, clean and well-fitted; his glasses new and fashionable. He no longer looked unkempt. More importantly, he also looked happy; brilliantly happy and content in a way that Hermione had never seen in the three years of their friendship.
She'd had her doubts about Sirius's ability to take care of Harry despite the fact that she'd gently hinted to Amelia Bones in her interview at the start of the Summer that Harry would be better away from the Dursleys. After all Sirius was a stranger and what did they know about him beyond his innocence and that he was Harry's godfather? But Sirius had risen to the occasion. It was clear to everyone he loved Harry and would do anything to protect him.
Perhaps though, Hermione considered, as Harry walked her over to the refreshments as she began outwardly quizzing him on their Transfiguration homework, it was the other change in Harry that had Hermione flustered; his sudden appreciation for studying.
It wasn't as though she didn't know Harry was intelligent – he was very bright – but in their previous three years at Hogwarts, he had only displayed that when he had absolutely needed to and the rest of the time seemed content to fade into the background. As someone who loved studying and who couldn't resist showing how much knowledge she had, (a bad habit of her own, she knew – her own parents had remonstrated with her about showing off and intellectual arrogance), she couldn't understand it.
Well, she could when she thought about the additional attention Harry would garner from being smart and intelligent and top of the class.
She sighed inwardly. If she had learned one thing as the friend of Harry Potter it was that the wizarding world felt it had every right to know everything about him and had no compunction about highlighting the least little thing – not always in a positive way. At least Sirius was now controlling the press to some extent and tackling the awful fictional books that had been written about Harry's young life. And it seemed with that security and Sirius's encouragement for Harry to make the most of his studies, Harry had let go of whatever it was that was holding him back intellectually.
She felt a flutter of nervousness.
Hermione couldn't deny that she was maybe a little worried. Harry's knowledge of Runes was as good as her own and when he'd demonstrated the boost to his magic to her one day showing her some of the non-verbal transfiguration he'd done, she'd known he'd surpassed her in her favourite subject. She wanted to dismiss it as simply being down to his powerful magic but she'd known he couldn't do such a transfiguration if he hadn't understood the wand movements and theory behind it either.
He was good at debating too. He preferred to sit back and let her, Ron and Neville have their say first but when he entered the debate, they all listened; he just had a way about him. She was beginning to wonder whether he would need her help studying anymore; whether he would need her friendship anymore.
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