New Romantics | Hermione Granger Book IV

|01| Chapter One

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The morning was breaking in a mile away from Agnes Squire's Care Home, as Saffron Mitchell wiped her eyes, her hand full of water from the nearby sea. She was lying just off the shore, far enough to ensure the incoming tide wouldn't touch them, with the sand and her siblings to keep her comfortable. 

It had been a long Summer. For six weeks, Saffron, Maya, Rachel and Rowan spent their days as they always did in Squires. It started with their long list of chores and moved onto moping around the Welsh countryside for the remainder of the day. The only contact they had with the outside world was via owls thus far. But, just when they thought that nobody was going to visit them, the Hogwarts assistant matron and old friend of their family Amanda Endacott sent a letter stating that she was going to take one of them out of Holyhead that morning. However, she wanted to take precautions and that meant that the Mitchells were to meet her on the beach, away from Squire's eyes and ears.

The fact that only one of them was going to get to leave usually would have been a divisive issue between the Mitchell siblings. Traditionally, the battle lines had been drawn as Saffron and Rowan against Maya and Rachel. On this occasion though, the three other teenagers had mutually agreed that it should be Saffron that would get to go. They, just like the rest of the public, knew about Sirius Black being innocent. What they knew that the public only had a skewed view of, was the circumstances in which this information had been found out, and that Saffron alongside her friends Hermione, Harry and Ron had indirectly caused this information to come out into the open. If anyone was going to get something nice, they were going to make sure it was Saffron first and foremost.

Not to mention that the Mitchell siblings had an idea as to what Amanda was taking one out of Squires for. They hadn't been living in a vacuum the past six weeks, in spite of Holyhead feeling like one. They had been sending letters back and forth with Sirius Black and Remus Lupin ever since the end of the school year. Since they left Hogwarts, so much had happened, all of which was positive for the Mitchells.

 Sirius Black was cleared of all charges and was free. Peter Pettigrew was found guilty of all charges and was never going to be free again.

This had been anticipated ever since Peter was caught by Saffron, or her Clairvoyant abilities, rather, in the Forbidden Forest when she went back in time to free Sirius. What they hadn't exactly anticipated was Saffron's Godmother Sage Gill making the decision to re-join the magical society. According to Remus, she had been shocked to hear that Sirius was free at first but knew deep down that he hadn't been the one to sell his friends out all those years ago. She and her son had been living in Ireland, as Saffron and her siblings knew. But they found out that his name was Noah, and was a little younger than Rachel and Rowan. He and his mother would be splitting their time between Ireland and England for the time being, as they worked out what they were going to do now that they suddenly had a father and sort of ex sort of not an ex, in their lives.

Hence, the Mitchells had speculated that maybe Amanda was taking them to meet Sage. Seeing as Saffron was her Godchild, it only made sense that she would be the one to go.

"She's never late," Rowan had his watch, and the only watch between the four Mitchells, given to him by Miss Squire who favoured him above the three girls, propped up on a heap of sand that he had put together so that all the siblings could watch the clock tick by. It was one minute to six o'clock in the morning and Amanda was due to be there at once the clock struck six. "It should only be a few more seconds..."

"Remember to let them know how terrible it is here, Saff," Rachel reminded Saffron for what must have been the tenth time that morning. Out of all of the Mitchells, Squire had a particular distaste for Rachel. She didn't like Saffron either but she knew that Saffron wasn't quite as sensitive as Rachel. She didn't fall for her traps, whereas Rachel did each and every time. "Describe it as much as you can, make them feel bad for us,"