CHAPTER 17: THE GRANGERS

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To Tell the Truth, Or To Lie

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July 30th, 1992, The Andrews and Ed are preparing for a picnic and barbeque with the Grangers, they will first go to their house for some preparations, then pick them up to the Andrews manor for the picnic. The Andrews and The Grangers have grown quite close, Anna and Mrs. Granger are often went to the mall for shopping, while Mr. Granger and Roger talked about sport all the time in a coffee shop and Roger sometimes even invited Mr. Granger to a football match, Ed and Hermione however, never met in the summer vacation until today.

Ed wore a simple blue navy T-Shirt, short jeans, and sandals. He was walking towards the living room where everyone had waited. He saw Roger and Anna already in the car, while Ashbey was still standing outside, holding the door. The weather was sunny, and quite a hot summer day, the worst kind of weather according to Ed.

"Sorry to make you wait Ashbey." Apologized Ed while entering the car.

"No Problem Master Ed." Ashbey said while closing the door,

Ashbey then entered the driver seat, the four then drove through the streets of London, Ed saw a couple of people dressed in peculiar clothing, 'Fashion these days.' He thought. Around thirty minutes later, the car arrived in a suburban place, and looked for the Grangers address, and after a couple of minutes of searching, they found it. The house was quite nice, the parents are dentists, so they will be quite comfortable in terms of economic situation.

All of them then got out of the car, Roger then went first and rang the doorbell. They waited for a couple of minutes before the door opened, Mr. Granger was the one who opened the door.

"Hello Roger! How are you?" said Mr. Granger while hugging Roger.

"I'm good Wendell, ready for the barbeque?" said Roger.

"Oh, sorry, we're still preparing, you can come in." said Mr. Granger and invited all of them.

All of them went in except Ashbey who waited in the car. The place looks comfortable, it feels like a good place to grow up, nicely decorated, probably warm in the winter, and quite spacy.

"Monica!" Anna said while rushing to hug Mrs. Granger. "Where's Hermione?"

"Well, she's the reason we're not ready yet, she's been in that room for a couple of hours now, when we called her she always says, 'Not ready yet mom!', I don't know what she's doing in there." Mrs. Granger said while shaking her head.

"Well, I'll help move your things to the car while we wait." Ed said, while picking up a trunk near the door. Then everyone looks at him intently, making Ed confused, "What?" Ed questioned.

"You can drop the trunk Ed, I'll bring it myself, go fetch Hermione." Said Mr. Granger while smiling.

Ed looked at the other three and they nodded, Ed sighed, "Okay, where's her room?"

Mrs. Granger smiled then points at the stairs, "Upstairs, first door on the right, should have a 'Hermione's room' sign on it."

Ed just nodded and climbed the stairs; he saw a room with a pink sign that reads 'Hermione's room' in front of it. He heard a ruffling sound inside and knocked on the room.

A girl then shouted, "Not yet Mom!" from the inside, the ruffling sound can still be heard.

"Hermione, it's me, are you okay in there?" Ed asked, the room instantly went silent for a minute and Hermione stuttered Ed's name.

"E-Ed? Y-You're here?"

"Yes I'm here, I swear I'm not a magic projection." Ed joked dryly.

"W-Wait! Don't come inside!" she shrieked, another batch of ruffling sounds can be heard again, now even more loud.

"You sure you're okay in there?" Ed asked again, but Hermione didn't answer, the ruffling noise can still be heard.

A couple minutes later, Hermione opened the door, her hair a bit messy than usual which she fixed right away, she's wearing a short pink one-piece dress. She blocked the view of her room and smiled at Ed.

"Hello Ed, you're ready?" she asked nervously.

"Yeah, what's going on in there, your mother said that you've been preparing for almost two hours."

"Nothing, let's just go." She said while locking her room and dragging Ed to the lower floor.

After that the two walked towards the parents and greeted them.

"Finally done Hermione?" Mrs. Granger asked with a smirk on her face.

Hermione just nodded weakly with a blush on her face. Then Roger and Anna led them to the car, the things the Grangers bought already in the trunk in the back of the car. All of them then entered the car and drove to the Andrews Manor.

"Brought your wand Hermione?" Ed asked Hermione who was seating beside him in the car.

Hermione nodded vigorously and said excitedly, "Yes, am I allowed to go to your training place?"

Ed just hummed, and continued to say, "But remember the rules." He said vaguely so their parents didn't know what it meant.

Hermione nodded, her face looking serious, then changed to an excited face again.

"I'm going to have to practice a lot of magic this summer then, I'll mostly practice some offensive and defensive spells." Then Hermione continued to talk about what she's going to learn non-stop to him, Ed just chuckled at her behaviour, which made Hermione looked at him confusedly, but before she could ask anything, Ed ask Mr. Granger.

"Mr. Granger, you brought a trunk, what for?" Ed asked, Hermione realized something and instantly blushed.

Mr. Granger didn't answer, he just smiled at Hermione, while Mrs. Granger is the one who answered while giggling.

"She was so excited to practice magic that she packed her spare clothes in case you agreed to take her to your place for training, so she can stay at your house and trained all day."

Ed then looked at Hermione strangely and said, "I thought you said you're going to visit me, not live with me."

"W-Well, I changed my mind, your house is quite far, so I just stayed with you for the rest of the summer instead, while visiting my parents now and then." She said while blushing.

Ed looked at Hermione strangely for a second before asking to her parents,

"Are you sure it's okay Mr. Granger? I mean, Ashbey can pick her up every day if you want."

"It's fine, besides, we know where she is, she could practice magic while being supervised too."

Ed sighed, "All right then."

After that, the rest of the drive home was quiet, just enjoying the scenery of London. A couple of minutes later they arrived at Andrews Manor, The Grangers were at awe of how big this place is.

"I know you're rich Roger, but I didn't know you're this rich." Said Mr. Granger.

Roger just chuckled at his comment but stayed silent. Then they arrived at the front door.

"I'll set up the barbeque place." Said Ed.

"No Ed, you should give Hermione a tour to this place, she'll live in this place for a month after all, let the rest of us set it up." Said Roger.

"Fine, come on Hermione." Relented Ed. He grabbed Hermione's arm and dragged her towards the front door.

"What do you want to see first?" Ed asked.

"Up to you really." Answered Hermione.

"Right, I'll just tour around the house then."

Ed then showed Hermione the living room, then to the dining room, he showed the garden to her, and the rest of the rooms in the manor. Then the two was in front of his own room.

"You want to come in or later?" Ed said, "It's already noon, and the place probably has been prepared. I'm quite hungry."

Hermione nodded, "Let's go to the barbeque place first, I'm quite hungry too."

The two walked outside, and on the middle of the journey, Ed walked slowly, his face showed a conflicted expression, then Ed asked Hermione, "Hermione, I think they deserve to know the truth."

"The truth about what?" said Hermione while looking at the decoration.

"The dangers of the wizarding world."

At that sentence, Hermione stopped, she looked a bit panicked and asked, "W-Why? I thought we agreed to tell them that it's safe."

"The situation has changed Hermione, if you want to lie, that's fine, but you're going to have to stay away from me and Harry from now on."

"B-But I thought I said it to you that I will fight if a war did come. And what do you mean the situation has changed?"

"It isn't just about your life Hermione, it's about your parents too, if the war did come, they have to move from UK for a while, so it's best to tell them now, it's better than erasing their memories."

"But if you tell them now, they will pull me away from Hogwarts!" Hermione exclaimed, her face looking desperate.

"They won't, they know how much magic means to you, hell they even let you stay in a boy's house and being away from you once again just for you to practice magic. If they said they will pull you out, I'll convince them, don't worry." Said Ed, comforting Hermione.

Hermione eyed Ed intently for a minute, then sighed heavily, "Fine then, just make sure of it, I don't want to drop out of Hogwarts."

Ed smiled weakly at Hermione and the two continued to walk to the barbeque place. Getting close, he can already smell grilled meat and veggies, the parents saw them and told them to sit in one of the chairs. They got their food, they chatted about things, Roger chatted with Mr. Granger mostly about Sport while Anna and Mrs. Granger talked about cooking and gossips. Hermione and Ed however were eating peacefully, Hermione worried about the question that her parents will asked.

"So, Ed," Mr. Granger suddenly said while eyeing Mrs. Granger. Hermione instantly got tensed, she grabbed Ed's shirt tightly, hoping that it will go well.

"What do you think about the wizarding world?" Mr. Granger continued. And the rest of the parents looked at Ed, anticipating his answer. "Your father said you discovered your heritage, and you learned a lot about the wizarding world, so I want to know your thoughts about it."

"Well," said Ed while putting his eating utensils down, "What do you want to know exactly?"

Mr. Granger pondered a while, then questioned, "Is it safe?"

Ed thought for a while for the right answer, then spoke,

"what 'safe' are we talking about here, Is it 'safe in general'? Or is it 'safe right now'?"

Mr. Granger frowned at the comment, then spoke again, "Is there a difference?"

"There is, in general it's quite safe as long as you can defend yourself and stay away from the usual criminal place."

Mr. Granger sighed in relief but tensed again when Ed spoke again,

"But," Ed continued, his face turned serious, "Right now, a war is brewing in the shadows."

"War?" Mrs. Granger asked worriedly. Hermione tightens her gripped to Ed's shirt.

"Yes, War, you see Mr. and Mrs. Granger, the wizarding world is almost the same as the muggle world in terms of politics and power system." Ed paused for a second to see the reaction.

"The same as muggles, we also have incompetent governments, we have promise-breaking leaders, we have power hungry men, we have people that have demented ideologies, we have supremacists, we have racists, you name it."

"And the situation right now is almost the same as World War II, where a group of people gathered to enforced a sick idea that one race should rule over the other races, or rather in this case, the pure-blood should be the only left standing, while half-bloods, muggleborns, and muggles can just die."

The table went silent after Ed finished explaining, Hermione noticing this gripped Ed's shirt even tighter, afraid of how her parents will react.

"Hermione is a muggle-born right?" Mr. Granger asked, his face looking grim.

Ed just nodded, wary at what Mr. Granger will do.

Mr. Granger looked at Roger and Anna who has a relatively calm face, signalling their absolute trust to Ed, then Mr. Granger asked Ed.

"Then what do you think we should do about Hermione?"

Hermione was surprised by this question, so does Ed, Ed clears his throat and said,

"Honestly, let her be."

"Why? You said there's a war coming, shouldn't we pull her out of the school and stay away from the wizarding world as far as possible?" Mr. Granger said to the point.

"That's a good solution Mr. Granger." Ed said, earning a pinch from Hermione, who looked like she's about to cry at any point because of her father's words. "But that's not a permanent solution."

Mr. Granger looked even more confused, then Ed explained, "If the dark lord succeeds at taking over England, what makes you think he won't go to other countries?"

Mr. Granger went silent for a second, but before he could say anything, Ed continued,

"You can't escape anywhere Mr. Granger if the Dark lord succeeds, in my honest opinion, just let her continue to study magic, therefore, when the war began, she can at least defend herself, and while she fights, you can go out of the country, so that Hermione won't worry about you, after that, either she lived and won the war, everything goes back to normal, or she died and lose, then the dark lord enforced his ideology to everyone, making everyone except purebloods slaves to be kept."

"Well, what if she died and the dark lord fails?" Mrs. Granger who has been relatively quiet suddenly spoke.

"Then she died a hero." Ed looked at Hermione intently. "Mr. and Mrs. Granger, this is not just about your daughter's safety anymore, for the first time Hermione felt like she belonged to a place, and she will fought for that place until her last breath, she might be just a 12 year old girl in your eyes, but in school, people already calling her the brightest witch of her age, which is not an exaggeration, do you want to take away your daughter's happiness just for a false sense of security?"

The Grangers just looked at Hermione intently, making her more tense. Then they sighed heavily, and Mr. Granger said, "You're right, it's better to make her to stay at Hogwarts, if what you said is true, we can't even protect her, we'll only be a burden to her."

After that, they finished the food, Ed left Hermione with her parents a bit to talk things out, and the Andrews went inside the manor to take care of somethings, that leaves Ed sitting by the window in his room, fidgeting his owl necklace, reading a book about Animagus.

On this summer vacation, he didn't have new things to learn, he was tasked to deepened his understanding towards the elements and practice, now he can teleport quite a long distance, albeit not inter-country. He also deepened his knowledge of his elements, making him quite formidable in terms of fighting normal wizards, his occlumency became quite strong as well, probably Voldemort himself won't be able to penetrate his mind, and he can do passive Legillimency, but Gilligan warned and ordered Ed to not use it to loved ones except for emergencies.

After an hour, a sudden knock sounded from Ed room's door. He stood up from where he sat, put his book down, and opened the door. There he saw Hermione, standing shyly in front of the door.

"Hermione, everything all right?" said Ed.

"Yeah, mum and dad already left, said that they had an appointment with a patient, so they had to rush, they told me to say goodbye to you." Said Hermione, looking at Ed straight in his silver eyes.

"Oh, okay, did Ashbey gave you a room already?" asked Ed, who Hermione just nodded.

"Brilliant! You want to go to the place now?"

"Sure, do I need to do anything?" questioned Hermione curiously.

"No, not really, just have to wait for a minute." Said Ed while signalling Hermione to come in. Hermione came in, she looked around curiously, probably the first time she ever enters a boy's room before.

Ed then hurriedly enters his study room to pick up his suitcase, he picked it up and brought it up to his bedroom, he saw Hermione looking at his book collection.

"Hermione, here." He called the bushy haired girl while putting the suitcase sideways, handle facing him.

Hermione seeing this, she realized, "Don't tell me…"

Ed just smirked and winked at Hermione, then he whispered to the suitcase.

"May the Guardian of Knowledge Guide us."

The suitcase clicked and sprung open, revealing a pitch-black hole. Seeing this Ed grinned at Hermione and signalling her to enter.

"Ladies first." Ed said while bowing and pointing his hand to the suitcase.

Hermione was dumbfounded at the scene; she can't believe that the suitcase Ed would always bring to school turns out to be the place that Ed talked about. She just walked slowly to the hole, she looked inside the hole, but nothing, just pitch black.

"A-Are you sure this is safe Ed? It looks endless." Questioned Hermione.

"It's fine, there's a ladder, you can't see it yet, but once you go inside the suitcase, you will feel it."

Hermione nodded weakly, then she put her left leg to the hole, she felt the ladder and continued to put the other leg to the suitcase and climbed down the hole. She climbed down slowly, one step at a time, scared that she would fall, a couple minutes later, she felt the ground, and step on it, the once dark place suddenly lit up, she was at awe at the sight, she can see the living room, the comfortable gothic style room that has a lot of musical instruments and armchairs. Besides the living room, she can see the bar that has different kinds of drinks in it, and she can see the kitchen.

"Welcome, to the ancestral home of the Aldrich family, or at least that's what I think this place is." Said a voice that is currently climbing down the ladder.

"This place… it's amazing." Hermione said in awe.

"Well, thank you for the compliment." Said Ed while dropping down the ladder. "But I mean, this is it, aside from the couple of bedrooms and bathrooms that I didn't really use beside the kitchen, the only interesting place is behind this." Said Ed while walking towards the door to the library.

"You want to go now? or do you want to rest here first?" offered Ed.

Hermione shook her head and said excitedly, "No, let's go now."

"All right, whatever you say." Said Ed while opening the door, inside the room was dark, and Hermione couldn't see anything, then Ed brought up his wand and waved it, instantly the room lit up, she could see countless bookshelves as far as her eyes can see in the room, it's almost endless.

"Now this, this is the Aldrich Library." Ed said, spreading his arms proudly, showing off the library.

Hermione's jaw dropped, she had to restrain herself to just ran off aimlessly to see those books, Ed could see her brown eyes lit up, she almost jumped when she saw the bookshelves, so before she could ran off, Ed said, "Don't get your hopes up, you can only see a small section of this library at this moment."

Hermione's face instantly fell and questioned, "What do you mean?"

Ed just shrugged and said, "We'll tell you later, I mean, I can only see that small section of the library too, so we're on the same page here."

Ed then led Hermione to some sort of a classroom, it looks quite empty.

"This is my classroom, not my training room, this is where I study theories." Ed said while tapping the wall with his wand, the wall then turned to a white board that has a bunch of strange symbols on it.

"Now, I'll call a family member of mine, but don't freak out and pull out your wand okay?"

Hermione just nodded confusedly, wondering who he will call.

"Gilligan!" he called, an owl then appeared behind Hermione, she doesn't notice it yet.

"I see you've brought company Little Edgart." The owl said in a deep and wise voice staring at the bushy haired girl.

Hermione jumped at the voice, she rushed to Ed's side and grabbed his hand, she looked at the 8 ft owl and asked Ed, "E-Ed, what is that?"

"Not 'what' Hermione, but 'who', his name is Gilligan, Guardian of the Library" Ed explained.

The owl eyed the girl for a second, then he looked at her hand grabbing Ed's hand, "I see you're quite close to Little Edgart."

Hermione hearing this notice the direction the owl looked and released Ed's hand immediately while blushing.

"Stop teasing her Gilligan." Ordered Ed jokingly, "Okay Hermione, can you calm down a bit?"

Hermione just nodded weakly, she took a deep breath and release it.

"Good, now, let's make the unbreakable vow first." Ed said while offering her his hand. She grabbed it and held his wrist.

"Gilligan, if you would." Ed nodded at the owl.

The owl nodded back, with his bare wing he weaved magic onto both of their hands, Hermione made a vow about not telling anyone else about this place unless they know it also, and she will keep all the knowledge she got here all to herself unless the owner of the place allows her to tell other people.

The two released the grip on each other's arms, Ed smiled at Hermione, and said, "Well Hermione, you need to do a history lesson first, then trained in Occlumency, after that you can enter and leave whenever you want, you need to find me first of course."

Hermione nodded, her face showing an excited expression, she can't wait to practice magic outside of school, that way, she will improve much faster, "Okay Gilligan, do you want to do it or me, I think it would be better if it's you, I'm dreadful at history." Said Ed while looking at the owl.

The owl nodded, he summoned a desk and a chair in front of Hermione.

"Sit." He said sternly. Because of the tone, Hermione instantly did his bidding, a bit afraid of the owl.

Ed sat down on the floor in the corner of the room, "Don't scare the girl Gilligan, especially before what she will hear in the next…" Ed looked at the clock and continued, "Hour or two…"

"Fine." Gilligan quickly answered, "What do you want to tell her first?"

Ed pondered a while, she looked at Hermione intensely, causing the latter two blushed weakly, "Just tell here everything, but I'm still thinking whether or not to tell her about the third rule…"

The owl frowned at the statement, and said, "You are sure about your choice? I told you hundreds of times Little Edgart, that-"

"Yes I know Gilligan, that's why I'm still thinking whether or not to tell her."

Hermione seeing the two debate, felt more nervous, "Um, what are you talking about?"

Ed looked at Hermione and smiled, "Nothing Hermione, nothing." Then Ed walked closer to Gilligan and whispered, "Just do it Gilligan, tell her everything, the third rule included, so she either gets scared of the curse/magic and gave up entirely, or she will try harder than ever before, either way, no harm done."

Gilligan glared intensely at Ed for a few seconds before he sighed heavily, "All right Little Edgart."

Ed then walked to his place in the corner of the room. And told Gilligan to start. Gilligan explained the history of the Aldrich family and what he is, Hermione asked questions but was told to wait a bit as it will be explained in a bit.

After that he explained the rules of the family and everyone who entered the library, when it came to the third rule, Hermione didn't show any reaction, much to Ed's surprise, he's tempted to see Hermione's mind using Legillimency, but quickly discarded the thought.

Then Gilligan explained the existence of the multiverse, how there are different kinds of incarnations of everyone except for a select few of people including the family, he also told her the limitations and rules of space and time. Hearing this Hermione was dumbfounded, she looked like she's flipping her brain to make it make sense.

"S-So there is an infinite amount of different 'me' in the multiverse?" she asked, still looking dumbfounded and shocked at the revelation.

Ed nodded weakly, "I know that's a lot to take in Hermione, if it brings you any comfort, you're already more special than the rest because you're in contact with my family."

"W-What do you mean?" she asked, her voice is a bit shaky.

"Because your 'infinite' amount of you in the multiverse mostly did the same thing, their paths might be different a bit, and their end also a bit different." Said Gilligan. "While being in contact with us already change a lot of your path and your ending."

"Yes, do you want me to tell the story of one of your different incarnation?" said Ed.

Gilligan instantly glared at Ed, but before he could say anything Ed said, "Don't worry Gilligan, only the not-really-important ones.", Ed then looked at Hermione and said, "What do you think?"

Hermione nodded weakly, and faced Ed.

"Okay, because I can't tell you the details, I'll tell you the unimportant ones but still essential in your life." Said Ed while counting his fingers, "Let's see, first, you never met me, that's obvious, you'd be all alone at the start of the first year, then October came and you became friends with Harry and Ron, you should be spending time with your family now instead of practicing magic in my home, hmm… I don't want to tell you about the rest of the year yet, maybe later, oh you want to know who you are married with?"

"Little Edgart…" warned Gilligan.

Hermione just nodded, she looked forward to knowing who she married in another universe.

Ed ignored Gilligan's warning and said the name while smirking, "Ron Weasley."

Instantly, Hermione's face fell and made a gloomy look.