Chapter 181

Chapter 181

“Wait, Hermione.” Suer followed closely as she returned to Lily Street through the fireplace.

Hermione stopped in confusion. Suer suddenly leaned close, his face approaching hers with complete concentration, his breath brushing her cheek.

Hermione felt as though her heart might leap from her chest. Her small hands gripped the hem of her clothes.

“N-no. You haven’t…”

“What did you say?” Suer brushed a layer of black soot from Hermione’s hair. It had clung to her inside the fireplace.

“Your hair is covered in soot. I’m cleaning it for you.”

Hermione instantly realised that she had misunderstood. Her face flushed, and she glared at Suer before giving a delicate little snort.

“Nothing. I’m going home!” She gathered her hair awkwardly and hurried towards her house.

“Hey, it isn’t clean yet.” Suer followed, but Hermione refused to let him draw near and made her short legs move even faster.

In the end, Suer could only watch helplessly as Hermione entered her own garden. The soot had dyed part of her brown hair black.

He dusted his hands and watched the black powder fall. Then he suddenly froze and remembered the yellow dog in the passage at Diagon Alley.

Harry’s godfather, Sirius Black, was a black dog–but that did not mean he could not dye his fur. Yes, that had to be it.

Then the glance it had cast while passing them had not been Suer’s imagination.

The dog really had looked at them–or rather, at Harry, who had been hiding behind them.

“Tch…” Suer shook his head. There was a particular pain in seeing someone directly before you and being unable to acknowledge them. It applied not only to romance, but to family as well.

By the time they returned from Diagon Alley, the sky had already deepened towards blue and the moon seemed to be driving the sun from the heavens.

Still flushed, Hermione hurried through her front door.

Mr Granger was already home, sitting on the sofa in his spectacles and reading the evening paper. The sight of his precious daughter made him think at once of the troublesome boy next door.

He had barely returned from work before his wife delivered momentous news: the daughter they had cherished all these years might already have had her heart stolen.

Her father had expected this day eventually, but that did not mean he was pleased.

“Ahem.” When Hermione ignored him and made straight for the stairs, he could not resist clearing his throat.

“Oh, Dad, you’re home?” Hermione finally emerged from her embarrassment.

“Mm-hmm.” Mr Granger gave a small snort. “I thought perhaps you weren’t planning to come home tonight.”

Mrs Granger leaned out of the kitchen. “Well, who do we have here? Could it be the young lady returning from a date with her sweetheart?”

“What are you talking about, Mum?” Hermione stamped her foot in embarrassment. “And Dad, why are you joining in?”

“The boys’ and girls’ dormitories are separate at Hogwarts! I’ve already explained! Suer is in another house! How could he possibly… possibly sleep…”

Hermione could not force the humiliating word from her mouth. She chose to flee instead and rushed upstairs without looking back.

Dinner? Who cared about dinner? She was not coming down.

Mr and Mrs Granger watched their mortified daughter disappear upstairs, then exchanged smiles. Her reaction reminded them of their own courtship, already more than a decade in the past.
“A daughter grows beyond her father’s keeping,” Mr Granger sighed as he lowered the newspaper.

While Hermione was too embarrassed to eat next door, the Ellison household was filled with laughter. Mr Ellison had already opened the wizard chess set Suer brought home and was eagerly playing his first game against him.

Angel might have been young, but she had already understood the rules and stood beside her father offering advice. Mr Ellison happily followed it, provoking the white pieces on his side into furious abuse.

“Idiot! Fool! Do you even know how to play? If you aren’t using that brain, donate it to someone who will!”

Angel refused to concede and replied, “You’re the fool!” But she was no match for the pieces. Soon her eyes were red with frustration.

Instead of comforting his daughter, Mr Ellison laughed delightedly.

“Wonderful! Simply wonderful! I’ve never seen living chess pieces before. Magic truly is astonishing.”

Suer covered his face with one hand. He was beginning to wonder whether bringing this foul-mouthed set home had been wise. What if Angel learned all their insults before he returned for the next holiday?

The thought of his sweet little angel quarrelling like a fishwife was too dreadful to imagine.

“Dinner is ready.” Mrs Ellison placed the final dish on the table and urged the three people already captivated by wizard chess to sit down.

“Coming, Mum,” Suer replied.

In the blink of an eye, the twenty-ninth arrived. Suer and Hermione planned to go to the Leaky Cauldron that day, spend one night there and travel to King’s Cross with Harry the following morning.

Ever since Hagrid gave Suer a bag enchanted with an Undetectable Extension Charm, luggage trunks had ceased to be a burden.

“We’re leaving, Mum.”

“Are you certain you don’t want to wait for your father to come home and drive you? Is travelling through this fireplace safe?”

Mrs Ellison already knew that Suer intended to use the fireplace to enter the magical world, but she remained doubtful.

She could not imagine how a soot-filled fireplace could carry a living person to another place.

“It’s fine, Mum. I’ve used it many times. It’s completely safe,” Suer explained.

To ease Mrs Ellison’s concerns, Hermione suggested that she accompany them. The fireplace was in the house opposite, after all, so it was hardly far.

Mrs Granger was also curious about the magical world’s common form of transport. She joined Suer and Hermione as they entered the house Amelia had bought across the street.

“Are you sure this is safe?” Mrs Granger watched anxiously as Hermione threw a handful of Floo powder into the fireplace. “That fire…”

“It’s all right, Mrs Granger.” Suer smiled. “You can try touching it. It won’t hurt anyone.”

Green flames roared fiercely inside the grate. Mrs Granger cautiously moved her hand towards them, but the fire refused to let her approach, retreating as though it were alive.

Suer considered the sight. That settled it: a Muggle could not possibly use this form of transport. It was probably a restriction imposed by the inventor of Floo powder.

“Shall I go first?” Suer asked Hermione.

Hermione nodded, holding Crookshanks in her arms.

Under the gaze of both mothers, Suer stepped into the flames. They swiftly coiled around him, spun and vanished in an instant.

“Extraordinary,” the two mothers breathed.