A Sponsor & A Gentleman

Part IX

Part IX

The dreaded day of return to Hogwarts. It took every ounce of strength to bundle up Caprica's belongings into a trunk to know that they'd be outgrown by the time they returned home.

Hermione sniffled as she folded the clothing in precise piles. They were clothes she already outgrew. Never to be worn again.

An infant laid on the bedspread. Their little scrawny legs kicked high in the air, moving and dancing through the air in the little exercise time they got before they were expected to depart for King's Cross station. Hermione was given a memo written from the desk of McGonagall that she was expected to ride the train with her peers, with her child. No special circumstances would be extended.

The last of their drawers were cleared out. The final sliding of the drawer back in its sheath like the final nail in a coffin.

Hermione sighed. The emptiness of her childhood room weighed heavy against her heart. It hurt to know that it would be so long without their comfort. Sleeping in because her parents snuck in and cared for Caprica without a sound, the gentle laughs of Draco in the other room as he played with their daughter, the rising smell of food from her mother's kitchen.

She approached the bed. Caprica grew excited the moment her face came into view. Her arms shot out upward, as if reaching for her.

The infant was collected in her arms. "Sorry, baby. I know you're going to hate this, but we have to say goodbye to grandma and grandpa."

A pair of bright eyes stared up at her. Their lovely sheen of joy sank deeper into her body as she stepped lower in the house. The little baby did not understand why their favorite people had to leave. Why they had to return back to a cold, stormy place far away from all who loved them.

William and Stacey Granger were at the base of the stairs. Their eyes were rounded. A red line was below Stacey's eyes as she rubbed them, yet again, to prevent tears from spilling.

Hermione handed her mother the baby. "I'll grab our trunks while you say your goodbyes."

"Don't you do that," Stacey retorted. Her arms rocked the baby side to side. "Your father can bring your things down."

"They aren't that heavy."

"I'll carry yours, dove, and you bring down Caprica's. How's that?" William countered.

It was an easy alternative that made them all happy. Hermione's trunk was always loaded with books that was too heavy for one person to carry, let alone someone who gave birth a few months ago.

They carried the trunks out to the car.

"What time is Draco getting in?" Her dad asked.

"He was delayed," Hermione answered. "He'll have to meet us at King's Cross."

Stacey leaned through to the back seat and buckled the infant in the carrier. Hermione slid alongside the seat and dangled her fingers over the edge to distract her daughter. There was one thing that Caprica disliked: the restraints of the car carrier. She fought and fussed the entire time she was forced inside one.

It made any car trip too long with a crying infant as they struggled against the buckles of their seat.

William learned, in that too, to drive with a bit of a heavy foot. It thrust them forward through traffic with a pep in their pace toward the city center where an oversized train station rested, where just below a secret entrance laid the magical train that delivered the students to the school.

The journey was one they all knew well. It was their seventh year of traveling. Their last.

"I can't believe this is your last year," William marveled. "Seems like just yesterday you were the size of this little one."