Between Fine Lines

Five

In the third month of Regulus staying with the Grangers, on a particularly hot day, Hermione and her mother came home to the most ridiculous sight in their living room.

The telly was blasting the most recent football game (or as the Americans called it, soccer,) but Regulus and Richard were more transfixed on the miniature Quidditch arena and set-up the two of them had built with boxes and paper on the coffee table, Regulus animatedly explaining all of the positions and plays, giving Richard a full rundown of how the whole wizarding game worked.

Hermione and Helen stood dumbfounded at the scene before them and could not decide which man on the couch amused them more. Helen politely cleared her throat and both Richard and Regulus stopped what they were doing to look at Hermione and her mother. Just as Helen opened her mouth to speak, her eyes flitted back to the origami pieces at the table. "They're floating," she noted, her eyes widening a bit.

Hermione, Richard and Regulus all simultaneously looked back at the coffee table, and as quick as the pieces had started to float a few inches off the wood, they were scattering back across the table in mere moments. "Hermione, was that you?" Richard questioned, looking at his daughter.

Hermione shook her head and the three Grangers looked to Regulus. "You still have magic," Hermione noted, trying to contain the excitement in her tone.

—-

Afternoon's excitement passed by quickly and Hermione had spent the rest of the day curled up in her reading chair in her room, finishing one of the book's she had acquired from the library the week before. While her and Regulus had been back to the library a few times over the last three weeks, they had not visited the same location for lunch they had gone to on their original trip to the library.

Hermione yawned, placing her bookmark into her book and setting it down on the small table, stretching her legs out from the position she had squished herself into while being enthralled in her story. Curiosity began to peak when she stood up and looked through the bathroom door that led toward Regulus' room, noticing the light in his bedroom was off.

Hermione clicked the light off in her own room, heading downstairs to the sound of muffled voices in the kitchen. She stopped at the entryway, watching as her mother was teaching Regulus to cook the muggle way.

Each day, Hermione found herself more surprised at the things Regulus was willing to learn how to do without magic, but she knew they equally shared a thirst for knowledge and a heavy amount of sheer curiosity, so it would make sense that he was eager to try new things. Today was the first time in almost three months he had also displayed any signs that he might still have magic in him.

Hermione leaned against the wall, crossing her arms over her chest as she stood there silently, neither her mother nor Regulus having noticed another person had joined them in the kitchen. Her brain began to wander for a moment, having to hold back a scoff at the thought of how she had once pictured Ron standing in the place Regulus was, laughing and spending quality time with her parents. The two of them as boyfriend and girlfriend, enjoying the summertime and the muggle world, away from the chaos of The Burrow for a few days.

Those thoughts were long gone from Hermione's mind and she shook her head slightly, mostly at herself, at the fact that she had ever once even had feelings for Ron like she had for Regulus....wait-she did not have feelings for Regulus.

This scene in front of her was simply a comfort, a calm before the storm, an illusion of peace amongst the impending war she knew was soon to come. There were many things that Hermione had been researching over the last few months, even before she had come home from Hogwarts. Aside from Harry constantly trying to surmise if Draco Malfoy was a death eater (and she couldn't believe he had been correct,) she had been consistently reading up on anything and everything she could get her hands on for three important topics: hexing spells, horcruxes and memory altering charms.