The Confectionary Chronicles || HP/SPN

Lollies and Loki- CH36

A/N: Happy Birthday Brillian <3

CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX:

For once neither tragedy or catastrophe followed in the wake of Hermione's return to London. Vashti's presence certainly helped, as did all the exercise she was getting, both physical and mental, the frequency of visits from Loki, Hati, and Váli– and even Eris on one occasion– and her commitment to keeping in weekly contact with Dr. Mia for her therapy sessions.

Dr. Mia had offered to move back with Hermione to London, but Sköll had nagged Loki into offering himself up as a teleporting taxi service so she could stay. Hermione knew that her therapist was relieved– Dr. Mia felt like she owed Loki, but she'd also opened a new practice on Austvågøya, one of the main islands of the Lofoten archipelago and connected by bridge to Henningsvær, and had befriended Sköll and Astrid, particularly Astrid, both women having grown close– hence the nagging from Sköll, who loved his wife and wanted her to be happy. Hermione knew Loki felt he owed Sköll and Astrid for their generosity in opening their home to her, so he had given in to Sköll's nagging pretty quickly.

Dr. Mia had been hesitant about Hermione's decision to skip more years of school considering she was already in year nine and amongst children three to four years her senior. The therapist was concerned for her social health, but she was still supportive of her choice– they both knew that Hermione wasn't about to trust her peers again in a hurry, and she was bored in her classes. At least an accelerated learning would be more interesting to her, a challenge to keep her mind occupied and far less likely to turn against her. 

Unlike Dr. Mia, the school guidance counsellor she managed to get into contact with had been much less supportive. He was reluctant to schedule the testing involved to allow her to skip levels of schooling, including her GCSE examinations, even when she clearly demonstrated her capability, and Hermione ended up going over his head, petitioning directly to the Headmaster of Red Roofs and playing on his desire for good publicity for Red Roofs as the new school year was about to begin. It worked too, and the man bulldozed over the counsellor's protests, scheduling the necessary tests which Hermione buckled down to study for and passed in flying colours, of course. The GCSE examiners were particularly impressed by her linguistic skills, as coming across a ten, nearly eleven, year old polyglot was quite unusual. That wasn't to say she wasn't up to scratch in the various other subjects required– Mathematics, English, English Literature, the sciences, History, etc.; she sat and aced them all.

Once all the placement testing and GCSE examinations were complete, Hermione wasn't at all surprised to find she'd passed, and with excellent scores at that, and despite the fact the new school year was just mere weeks from starting several different prestigious schools offered her academic scholarships for her final two years of high school to complete her A-Levels. Her parents were delighted, of course, and all too pleased to have her photograph published in the local paper. Hermione was less pleased, but as an early birthday present that was also a congratulatory present for passing her GCSE's, they had bought tickets for the family to visit France, where her father had cousins and second cousins that Hermione hadn't met before.

The idea of a family holiday was a surprisingly nice one. Hermione didn't think they'd gone on a family holiday since before Ness had... since before Ness. Maybe it would bring them closer together, or at least offer her a form of closure if they rejected her after the Hogwarts letter, like she suspected (and quietly dreaded) they would. Either way, it was something to look forward to for the first week of September.

More exciting than the upcoming trip to France, however, was Loki keeping his word about the three Not-Hunts he now owed her, and a week before the planned trip to France he whisked her off to Brighton, a coastal town in Australia where five people had been found dead after coming in contact with a corrosive, highly toxic and currently unidentified poison, and the authorities suspected foul play was involved. One of the five was just a child, not even six years old– it was why Loki had even heard of it, her god didn't look kindly on humans who murdered children. He'd brought her into it to fulfill his promise after realising it wasn't a human murderer after all.