From Wiltshire, With Love

Chapter 14

New money meant new starts. Newly trained Order members. New safe houses. A new infirmary. New Portkeys. And soon, new training in explosives. The Order was truly building itself from the ground up and Hermione was thrilled to be at the center of it all. The responsibility which often bogged her down was buoying her instead. She loved working to make her ideas come to fruition. She was nervous and excited with all the ways the Order was developing.

Despite the setback with Dolohov, things didn't feel so hopeless. Malfoy was bringing her estate plans to capture Bellatrix and Rodolphus. That would be a tough operation. But with enough planning, the Order was sure to have another two Inner Circle members at Pinner.

She grinned and gripped the steering wheel, eyeing the traffic in her rear view mirror.

Hermione was worried about Apparating her first attempt at a Portkey potion. Renting a car seemed the best way to transport it from her bedroom at Paddington safe house to the newly acquired infirmary in Dorchester. Stasis and heating charms were cast on the cauldron and Harry held it steady in the back seat. Despite the stasis charm, she was driving extremely slow to prevent the contents from spilling. It didn't hurt to be extra cautious.

Ron would periodically duck when a lorry passed them on the highway.

"Honestly, this is scarier than driving my dad's car in the air above the Hogwarts Express," he commented, apprehensively watching the road behind them.

She smiled, noticing his white knuckles gripping the door and arm rest for dear life. His legs were tense, braced against the car floor.

"You have no idea how glad I am to have avoided that little adventure," Hermione replied. "From now on, no more aerial adventures for me. No hippogriffs, no thestrals, no brooms. I'll fight the rest of the war with my feet planted firmly on the ground."

Another lorry driver passed, honking, yelling angrily and giving them the two fingered salute.

Ron ducked again, warily. "What's his problem?"

"We're driving far below the speed limit," Harry answered. "They're naffed off."

"It's like they want to kill us," Ron replied. "I think we're going too fast."

Hermione smirked, and pressed on the accelerator. They were all pushed backwards slightly from the sudden forward momentum.

"Aaaaaaah! Hermione, what the hell!"

Harry laughed at Ron's terror.

"Harry," Ron turned around to face him and pointed at his chest. "You're driving on the way back."

He snorted in reply. "Trust me, you do not want me to drive."

"But you ride a broom so well!" Ron protested.

"Not the same thing, Ronald," Hermione said rolling her eyes. "At all. Obviously."

"Next time I'll Apparate and meet you two. I'm never riding in a car again. Unless it's magically suspended in the air and away from all these homicidal lorries."

"You could always travel by TARDIS*," Hermione suggested.

"What?" Ron yelled, eyeing the closely approaching lorries with trepidation.

Harry laughed at the Doctor Who reference and she pressed on the accelerator again.

"HERMIONEEEEEEEEEEE!"

~

Harry and Ron helped Hermione set up her cauldron with the heater and unpack all her potions ingredients, knives, vials, cutting boards, weights and scales, distillation glassware, mortar and pestles, and other items for potion brewing. She was still missing Wild Hornflower seeds, but the Portkey potion required simmering for at least a month and time to coalesce before their addition anyway, so she had started the potion without them.