August | Hermione Granger x OFC

Chapter Two

CW: child abuse, kind of violence

♡━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━♡

19th August 1992

Today was the day Robyn would finally visit Diagon Alley to get her school equipment for the year. She was buzzing with excitement as she stood by the door to the floo room but was not outwardly showing it, as she had been raised. Rather, she thought she had been hiding it well, but suddenly she felt a hand on her shoulder.

"Blimey, you little chit. Control yourself. You must have been to Diagon Alley a hundred times by now!" it was Dylan, her fourteen-year-old sister, who was going into her fourth year at Hogwarts.

"Yes, and?" Robyn replied with sass, flipping her brown hair. "It's my turn now. We're going for me."

"Oh, are we? Lloyd and I don't need books this year then?"

Robyn did not entertain her with a response.

"Are you girls coming or not?" Lloyd suddenly appeared and barged past to open the door. "Let's go already!"

"Why do you say, 'girls' like it's an insult, Lolo?" Dylan sneered at her brother as she followed him to the fireplace.

"Don't call me that!" he snapped.

She went on without flinching, "Besides, we were waiting for you, and—"

Just as Lloyd had, their father seemed to suddenly materialise out of thin air. "And who, Dylan?" he frowned at his oldest as though he were confused.

Dylan jumped and subtly grabbed Robyn's hand before stuttering out a reply, "S-Sorry, Father."

"Hmm," he replied. "Now, Children, we will be heading to Knockturn Alley first," he gestured to the floo powder. "Go on, Dylan. I hope I don't need to remind you to speak clearly."

"Yes, Father," she hesitated. "Erm, will Mother be joining us?"

He stared at her, then simply said, "No."

Dylan gave a quick nod in response before moving into the fireplace.

Robyn watched restlessly as Dylan and then Lloyd disappeared into the flame. She was about to reach for the powder when a hand grabbed her wrist and turned her around. She was used to this gesture from her father, but it still made her flinch.

"You will be on your best behaviour. We are meeting the Malfoys, after all. Are you listening to me?" he tightened his grip. 'Hope it doesn't bruise,' she thought to herself, as he forced her to look into his eyes.

"Y-Yes, Father," she mumbled.

"Speak properly."

"Yes, Father," she corrected.

"You have been warned." He let go of her wrist and gave her a charming smile. "Well, off you pop."

♡━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━♡

Robyn breathed out heavily as she appeared in the fireplace at Borgin and Burkes. The shop was dim as usual and had a stale smell to it. Dylan immediately pulled Robyn towards her and began dusting her off before combing a hand through her sister's hair. Lloyd had wandered off to examine a strange-looking hand on display, though he knew better than to touch it.

"There," Dylan said with a smile, "good as new."

Robyn smiled up at her sister before they were interrupted by the arrival of their father, who then shooed them towards the counter. As Robyn was walking past a cabinet, she thought she saw light glinting off of something inside it, glass perhaps. She moved to open it but was distracted by Lloyd, who put his hand on her back to push her towards their impatient father.