In Perpetuum

Chapter 46

Chapter 46: Maecenas motum

“Who would’ve thought that moving would be so hard! I don’t know how muggles do it without magic,” grumbled Sirius as he levitated several particularly hefty boxes across the room.

Lily snorted at this.

“I’ve moved several times, without magic, and I survived just fine.”

With the gold that Sirius’ Uncle Alphard had given him, he had been able to purchase a flat in a quiet corner of Diagon Alley. Every manner of protective spells and enchantments had gone around and through it before Sirius even let Hermione see it. He wanted to be a hundred and ten percent sure that they would not be attacked whilst living there. Fortunately, Sirius had picked up a thing or two from living at Grimmauld Place with his parents. Their new flat was virtually un-plottable.

Even though Sirius owned the flat, it was only a matter of moments before he asked Hermione and then James to move in with him. James had said that he was not going anywhere without Lily or Moony. Moony said that he was not going anywhere without Estrella. James said that if Moony could have Estrella, he could have Lily. So it came to be that all six of them were sharing a well-protected flat in a corner of Diagon Alley.

With a menagerie of pets and Quidditch equipment, it was a very full flat. There was James’ Quidditch equipment; and everyone (except Hermione) had their own brooms; Estrella’s owl, Helga; Sirius’ owl, Tully; Lily’s cat Archimedes’s was constantly seen to be running around with Boo. Then there was one very hidden corner with the necessary equipment to produce a Wolfsbane potion. One of the criteria for moving in was that everyone was going to be alright with Moony’s lycanthropy and that they would take turns brewing the potion. Needless to say, everyone moved in.

The flat was rather large on its own; however, Sirius magically expanded the whole thing, giving each couple a bedroom and en-suite bathroom. There was another bathroom for guests, and an open plan kitchen/lounge/dining room area.

Each couple could decorate their bedroom as they wished (so naturally the girls did all the work), but the shared living area had to be agreed upon by all. Eventually consensus was reached and the area was transformed into a miniature version of the Gryffindor common room.

“We just need to prioritise what needs to be dealt with first,” said Hermione in a business-like manner.

“I agree,” said James pulling a bottle of Ogden’s finest from one of the boxes he had been carrying.

“That’s not quite what I meant, James,” said Hermione with a frown, “we should at the very least get the beds sorted out so that we have somewhere to crash if we get a little too ‘merry’.”

The group continued to manoeuvre boxes and bags and trunks. Finally James had the sense to use a summoning charm to retrieve some glasses. Giving up any pretence that they were working hard, each of them pulled up a box or a trunk and sat down. They celebrated the fact that they were free, that they were safe and, for the moment, alive.

HPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHP

To put it simply, Hermione felt frustrated.

She needed to have a place for herself, and she needed some peace and quiet. She was sharing a flat with five other people. These were five people that she loved very dearly, and she had no regrets about the present living arrangements, but she needed somewhere that she could escape to for a little while.

Admittedly at Hogwarts they had all been living together, but at Hogwarts she had never had to contend with the need for silencing charms in the evenings. At Hogwarts the house-elves cleaned the bathroom after the guys had used it. Most importantly, there was always a quiet corner that nobody else knew about, to retreat into if she needed it. The four walls of the flat were looking mighty small at the present, and Hermione was going insane because of it.

There was one particularly nasty explosion where Hermione had yelled at Estrella for washing the dishes a certain way. For her own safety and for the safety of those around her, Hermione had decided that she needed a little time away from those with whom she lived.

She tossed some Floo powder into the fireplace before shouting for the residence of Heloise and Alice. They had recently decided to move into a small house in the village of Godric’s Hollow.

After Hermione had made sure that she was welcome there, she Flooed her whole being over to their house.

Heloise and Alice had decided to live together with a girl that was in their year at Hogwarts. She was a blonde-haired, blue-eyed Hufflepuff by the name of Mharielle Winterbourne. Both Heloise and Alice spoke only the best of her, but Hermione supposed that this was because she let Xenophilius and Frank stay over whenever they wanted. This was in return for her own boyfriend being able to stay over whenever he see fit.

As it turned out, Heloise and Mharielle were both out, but Hermione was very happy to sit and chat with Alice.

“So, Hermione, what’s it like living with everyone?” questioned Alice, wiggling her eyebrows. “By the way, by ‘everyone’, I mean Sirius, because I know the others aren’t going to be a problem.”

“To be honest,” replied Hermione, “It doesn’t feel all that different to being home for the summer. Obviously now we have to be self-sufficient, but being able to use magic, makes that a non-issue. Actually, it doesn’t feel like we’ve finished. I keep expecting to get a booklist in the mail telling us that we have to go back to Hogwarts.”

“I know exactly what you mean,” replied Alice, nodding. “Last week I asked Mharielle if she wanted to come with me to Diagon Alley to buy ‘Standard Book of Spells’. I stopped talking when I realised what I was saying.”

Hermione laughed at the fact that Alice had stopped herself talking, before leaning in slightly towards her, clearly not wanting anyone else to hear what she was about to say despite the fact that there was nobody else about.

“Please don’t say anything, especially the fact that I’ve said this, but I think that Remus is going to propose to Estrella.”

Alice clapped a hand over her mouth as she stopped drawing n breaths for a second.

“When?” She finally breathed out through the gaps in-between her fingers.

“I don’t know if he is definitely going to do it. They have been going out for a long time, and the other day, he made a comment about ‘making an honest woman’ out of her.”

“No way!?!”

“Shhh!” said Hermione hurriedly, “you can’t say a thing!”

“It’s okay,” said Alice still gushing, “I won’t, but it is just so damn exciting! They are so perfect for one another. She had better make me a bridesmaid!”

Hermione started to laugh, but stopped abruptly when she saw Heloise and Mharielle enter the house through the Floo, arms laden with bags of shopping.