When Hermione is asked to update the National Dictionary of Wizarding Biography, she sets out to discover the mystery of what happened to Minerva McGonagall after the war. Along the way, she discovers some surprising things about herself and about h...
Hermione looks around the table and wonders when she became the Weasley matriarch. She would have thought it would be Angelina, since she and George moved into the Burrow with Arthur after Molly's death, or Ginny, as the only Weasley daughter, but it didn't work out that way.
Everyone seems to gather at Hermione and Ron's in St Albans for family occasions.
Earlier this afternoon, as he did the spellwork to temporarily enlarge the dining room, Ron said, "The house won't weather too many more Expansion Charms. We might have to think about buying something bigger."
She threw her washrag at him and he grinned at her.
They've been talking about trading down into a flat ever since Hugo moved out fifteen years ago, but somehow, it has never happened.
"How are things at the W4C, Hugo?" Harry asks as they eat Ron's special "Blood-Traitor Chicken," so named because of the red wine sauce it swims in, and served because Arthur has requested it for his birthday dinner.
"Good, Uncle Harry. Keeping me busy."
"What I want to know is, when is Wamazon going to let us get one-minute delivery from America?" says James. "I had to wait a week for my new Harley."
Hugo shrugs. "Ask the guys in the Unspeakables when Telefiguration will work over really long distances."
James turns to his brother, who is, in fact, an Unspeakable. "It can't be that big a deal."
"It is if you want your fancy new American broom to arrive in one piece," says Albus. "It's a hugely complicated Transfiguration problem, getting all those particles to reconfigure themselves the right way. The longer the distance, the greater the acceleration problems. See, the tachyons—"
"Whoa, whoa, whoa, Professor. I don't need a lecture on Transfiguration. I just asked a simple question."
"Speaking of Transfiguration and Unspeakables," Ginny says over her elder son's words, "how's the McGonagall bio going, Hermione? Figured out where she disappeared to?"
"Not yet." She doesn't tell them she hasn't even got into Minerva's thirties yet. They already think she's a bit barmy, working so hard on a single biographical entry in a book only old codgers buy.
She says, "As a matter of fact, Al, I was going to ask for your help."
"Sure, Aunt Hermione. What can I do for you?"
"I wondered if you could see if there's anything about Minerva in the Department of Mysteries files."
"Which files are we talking about? I don't have access to everything."
"I wouldn't ask you to look for anything classified, but maybe just do a search for her name. See what comes up."
"I can do that. What years was she with the DOM?"
"Nineteen fifty-two to nineteen fifty-six."
"I'll look."
"Wow, you're really dedicated to getting the full story, aren't you, Aunt Hermione?" Lily says.
Hugo coughs loudly, saying under it, "Obsessive. Obsessive."
Hermione feels the heat rise to her cheeks.
"Tenacious. Curious," says Ron, looking at her with a gentle smile. "Thank Merlin, or we wouldn't have got out of half the trouble we got into at school, right Harry?"
"Too right, mate."
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