August | Hermione Granger x OFC

Chapter Forty-Nine

CW: I don't want to spoil but...read at ur own discretion (violence, abuse, um...not nice stuff in general. yuh)

♡━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━♡

Robyn landed with a pop in the middle of woods by her house, as usual. And, as usual, she made her way inside while Winnie Apparated herself into the...wherever the house-elves went. Somewhere else.

And everything was fine, as usual. Well, until Lloyd appeared at the top of the staircase she was about to ascend.

"There you are!"

She continued up the stairs to meet him, assuming he wanted to play Quidditch.

(He didn't.)

"Here I am."

"Father sent me to look for you, he said — wait, what are you wearing?"

What was she wearing?

She was wearing a light-blue skirt. And white shoes. And a stripy shirt. And...Hermione's hoodie. Okay, it didn't really match, but, what was he, the fashion-police?

Then again, a pure-blood like her didn't tend to wear such an item of clothing.

"A hoodie." She tried to push past him but he moved blocked her path.

"What does it say? 'Woodstock 1969'? What is that? Who's Jimi Hendrix?"

Oh, it had Muggle stuff on the front.

She slapped his hand away as he straightened out the hoodie to get a better look. "Get off me, Freak. Why so many questions? What do you care?"

"Whatever," he rolled his eyes with a huff. "Father's waiting for you. You had better take it off."

"What does he want?" she hissed quietly as she made her way to her room, Lloyd following. This was different. And different could be good, sure, when she was with her friends or Hermione. But not at home. No, at home, she was fine with the status quo – either being alone, or with her siblings. Their father didn't usually bother them.

An unpleasant feeling settled in her stomach. And it wasn't the kind of feeling Hermione gave her.

"I don't know. He said you have something to learn, whatever that means."

Robyn threw the hoodie off and hid it under her bed where her teddy bear (courtesy of Hermione) and Yoshi toy (courtesy of Lana) lived during the day, as well as the other various Muggle items she owned, such as her copy of 'The Merchant of Venice' which she had yet to lend to Hermione.

She followed Lloyd out the room and towards the library, trying to stay calm.

As she entered the spacious library behind her brother, she noticed Dylan sitting stiffly on one of the lounge sofas. In contrast, their father sat comfortably across from her. Dylan caught her eye but it didn't help – there was only so much that could be expressed without words.

"Father," greeted Lloyd. Their father turned his head and gestured for them to approach. They did so promptly.

"Robyn. Good, we can begin."

Begin?

"You two can leave."

Lloyd left without much fuss, making a face at her on the way out. Dylan took longer, patting her briefly on the hand before she, too, made her way out, albeit reluctantly.

And then there were two.

She couldn't help but ask carefully, "Father, forgive me, what exactly are we doing?"