New Romantics | Hermione Granger Book IV

|02| Chapter Two

T W O 

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Saffron coughed loudly and blinked profusely as everything around her went dark. Unlike going to the Grey, apparating was something that she didn't pass out during. Instead, she found herself feeling as though she was being punched and pushed from every direction possible. Her whole body was compressing into something smaller than it was, trying to fit into the blur that was apparating. 

It was with a loud exhalation that Saffron realised that she and Amanda were no longer in Holyhead, but standing in the middle of a deserted alleyway in Diagon Alley. The healer was crouched down in front of her to ensure that she was okay.

"It's always difficult the first time," Amanda said to her softly. She held out what looked to be some sort of pill for Saffron to take. "I took this with me to give to you after we finished, it'll stop any throbbing or pains,"

"Thank you," muttered Saffron breathlessly. She swallowed the pill hole as she felt immense throbbing and pain. She had gone to the Grey on many an occasion and used a Time-Turner once before, yet it was apparating that hurt her the most. She figured that must have been because she was knocked out during the times she went to the Grey and was way too high on adrenaline when travelling back in time to focus on anything but their objectives at the time.

Saffron followed Amanda down the paths and noticed that it was a very different Diagon Alley to the one she had been in twice before. The atmosphere wasn't the usually bright and excitable place, she figured that would start in a couple of hours, or possibly solely on the weekend. But she wasn't sure she would enjoy even the bubbliest of atmospheres, for her mood was the strangest sort of fright masked as nervous excitement. She took deep breaths in order to keep herself calm. The last thing she needed was an untimely visit to the Grey.

"Amanda?" Saffron said to the woman, as they walked down a cobbled road that Saffron knew would lead them to the ice cream parlour. 

"Um-hum," Amanda replied absently. Her mind was elsewhere, Saffron just didn't know where that was.

"Why is it that you and Sage didn't end on good terms?" Saffron asked her curiously. She wanted to be cautious or to ask her in a round-about way. However, that had never worked out well for her in the past so she got straight to the point. 

It took a moment for Amanda to answer and that suggested to Saffron that Amanda was predictably trying to come up with some excuse that she wouldn't believe.

"Sage and I weren't always friends, Saffron," Amanda stopped walking and glanced down at her watch. She saw that it was too earlier to call in, so she took Saffron by the hand and led her over to a nearby bench. Once there she continued. "What I tell you will probably be very similar to what I've told you before because there truly isn't much more to it than what I've told you about already. But like I said, we weren't always friends. It took Sage a long time to warm up to me and vice versa. Your mother was the glue that held us together. Once we left school, Prina was far too busy raising you and Maya, she couldn't keep the peace between us, not that it's her fault at all. It was between myself and Sage,"

"Hopefully, you'll never know what war feels like. But to give you some inkling, think about all the people closest to you standing in a circle around you, and you know for sure that at least one of them is holding a knife and is just waiting to stab you in the back," Amanda explained. 

Saffron grimaced at that analogy. Picturing her siblings or any of her Gryffindor friends betraying her was something she couldn't envision happening. That said, evidently, they had expected any fractures that big to form whilst in school, it was only after school that the true mistrust emerged. Once they were certain there was a mole amongst them. Sadly, they didn't realise it was a rat the whole time. 

"You'd be paranoid, wouldn't you?" Amanda asked rhetorically. "You'd lookout for anything that could get you closer to finding out who the person was that turned their back on you. Myself and Sage, having the rocky relationship that we had, we looked at each other. Remus and Sirius did the same. We wasted time worrying about each other when we had the culprits stirring the pots between us the whole time,"

"Culprits?" Saffron furrowed her brow confusedly. She had thought Peter was the only traitor.

"Culprit," amended Amanda with a nod at Saffron. Saffron didn't think that she misspoke but she didn't press her on it. "But, I suppose in a sense many of us were culprits. We all did things we would later regret. Had we of just been open with one another about it all, perhaps things could have turned out differently,"

"Have you two made up now, then?"

Amanda gulped which was her answer to the question. However, her verbal response differed.

"We're getting there. You have to understand, neither myself or Remus of us have seen Sage or Sirius for a decade, it's always difficult trying to pick up the pieces of broken relationships a decade on. It's tricky enough doing it without such a gap. I have no doubt that we'll get there, it's a matter of when not if. Hopefully, we're all going to go to the World Cup together,"

Standing up off the bench, Amanda evidently felt that it was time to enter the ice cream parlour. Saffron followed her with haste, eagerly anticipating the reunion, for better or for worse. Amanda offered her some last-minute thoughts before she opened the door.

"Look, Saffron, I know you have faced undoubtable disappointment when it comes to your mother and fathers lives, and I know your siblings have too. None of us has been there like we should have been. So, no matter how Sage might seem towards you, whether it be cold, indifferent, over-enthusiastic, just remember that she loved your parents and she loves all of you. It might just take her a minute to work that out,

Saffron remained silent. She couldn't think of any response to that. Amanda recognised this and opened the door to the parlour, the bells ringing as she did so. Saffron clutched the edges of her trousers, letting out deep erratic breaths, as she listened intently to the voices that were making their ways towards herself and Amanda.

Upon seeing who was there, Saffron's eyes widened and so did the woman who was walking into the room in front of her.

Even though Saffron knew she was coming, she couldn't truly believe she was here.

Sage Gill.