Treacherous | Hermione Granger Book II

|04| Chapter Four

F O U R

▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬

As much as Saffron loved the twins, it was a relief to see them walk off shyer than she had ever seen them do so before, with Mrs. Weasley and Ron's sister Ginny, giving Saffron time to finally breath. Having time with Hermione, Harry and Ron again was a need and was highly therapeutic for the girl. The environment in Squires was always tense and it was important to relief herself from that tension. She hoped Rachel and Rowan would do the same while simultaneously not embarrassing themselves, on Saffron's behalf, in front of Ron's mother.

Saffron didn't feel the need to ask Harry to explain the whole predicament with the Ministry and some house elf called Dobby. She had received several letters in the past few weeks detailing a house elf doing magic in Harry's house and getting him in trouble but didn't have the heart to enquire any further. The boy was in his element walking down the streets of Diagon Alley. He needed a break from his family so much more than Saffron did because he legitimately despised his family. At this point, his friends were his family.

The gold he had taken out of Gringotts, it seemed to Saffron, was going to be spent. He never spent money elsewhere so this was his opportunity and he evidently wasn't going to waste it. He bought them all four large strawberry-and-peanut-butter ice creams. They ate them as they walked down the street, listening to Hermione describe her Summer in France and Ron go into detail on the Quidditch season as of late. Although Saffron wasn't really listening to Ron was saying, it reminded her of walking through Hogwarts with them, bringing her back to the normal she had grown into, last year.

After an hour of catching up, Hermione insisted they hurry off to Flourish and Blotts in order to make it to the Gilderoy Lockhart book signing on time. Saffron was surprised that Hermione took such an interest. By the looks of who were queuing up for the signing, it seemed that the main demographic was middle to old aged women, not twelve-year-old girls.

"I still can't believe we can actually meet him," Hermione voiced her thoughts aloud excitedly. "I mean, he's written almost the whole booklist!"

Saffron watched the picture of the handsome man with a wavy blonde hair and sparkling blue eyes, flashing his straight and shiny white teeth at them, contrasting his flashy, silky extravagant lilac robes, like a cape.

Booklist aside, Saffron was mostly interested in seeing if he was as good looking as he was in that picture.

"Calmly, please, ladies .... Don't push, there ... mind the books, now . . . . " said a short man who was trying to calm the crowd which seemed incapable of calming, down.

Saffron, alongside Hermione, Harry and Ron barely managed to get inside. Saffron spotted her siblings standing awkwardly beside the Weasley family and she hurried over to them to check up on them.

"Are you okay?"

Rachel and Rowan both nodded with smiles.

"Mrs Weasley is so sweet,"

"Yeah, we're fine,"

"Good," Saffron beamed down at them. It was overwhelming to see her siblings in a different scenery and thus a different light. She couldn't wait for that enhancement to continue in September. "Just remember, we're not getting anything here. You two save the money Maya gave you for the train to school,"

Saffron was silenced by the sheer noise of the screeches when Gilderoy Lockhart walked across the sort of stage that had been set up for him. He took a seat at a table surrounded by pictures of himself, in forget-me-not blue robes that matched his eyes perfectly. Saffron couldn't help but smile but that smile soon wiped off of her face when she spotted the witch first in line, standing directly in front of him.