New Romantics | Hermione Granger Book IV

|23| Chapter Twenty-Three

T W E N T Y  T H R E E 

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Sage and Sirius allowed the children to sleep in the next morning in order to let them have a proper nights sleep after the ordeal they had gone through the night before. They knew that the Mitchell children, in particular, were still functioning off of very little sleep that they had gotten whilst at Squires, before leaving for Sage's family home in the Lake District. The only issue was that Saffron was so used to waking up early anyway that she had gotten up earlier than Rachel, Noah or Harry had. Upon waking up, she saw that Maya and Rowan were both up, sitting outside next to what remained of the fire. Sage too was awake, sitting in the living department of the tent, saying that she was going to wake the others up in a few hours. When Saffron asked where Sirius was, Sage responded that the man needed his beauty sleep and she was in no mood for any diva-like behaviour should he not get it.

"How are you holding up?" Maya asked Saffron when she came outside and pulled her jumper up around her hands. Rowan offered her a bowl of cheeri-owls which Saffron readily accepted, feeling a gaping hole in her stomach seeing as she never ate the night before. 

She checked in with Maya and Rachel the night previous but only for a few minutes. Their experience was far more muted than that of Saffron and Rowans. Once they realised they had lost them, Maya circled back, leaving Rachel and Noah with the Weasley twins. But she didn't see them anywhere so their group just went to a secluded area to hide, hoping that they would show up eventually or would stay safe. She also got a look from Rachel that told her that something immense had happened when it came to the Grey, which was precisely what Saffron was going to ask about once she answered Maya's question.

"Okay," she nodded with a small reassuring grin, as she started to pour some milk over the pre-poured bowl of Cheeri-owls that Rowan had given her. "I actually got a pretty good sleep which was surprising, I thought I wouldn't be able to get any but I slept like a baby. What about you two?"

"I couldn't stop thinking about it all," admitted Maya, biting her lip. "I managed to shake the feeling eventually, but I felt convinced that something else was going to happen and that I had to be ready for it,"

"I was sort of the same but thinking about different things," Rowan raised an eyebrow at Saffron who sat up straighter as she started to chew on her cereal. 

"So what happened?" Saffron enquired longingly. "Who spoke to you?"

"Dilip," Rowan told her, Saffron looked to Maya and understood that Rowan had already filled her in on the details earlier that morning. "And Rachel was there too, he told us that it what we felt wasn't the end but just the beginning. That we have it now, already which was a big thing. I don't think we were supposed to get it until we were much older,"

"Well, obviously not," Saffron nodded. "I only got mine because I really needed it and Maya, well, you haven't go it yet,"

Maya shrugged her shoulders trying to look like she wasn't bothered by it but Saffron could tell that she was at least a little glum that not just one, but all of her younger siblings had passed the milestone in the Grey before she did. Now, they would have more agency within the Grey and would be able to not blackout within any pressurised situations anymore. That strength was undoubtedly going to be vital for them as they got older in the wizarding world, which only became more advanced and complicated as they aged. That always brought about more pressure and danger in the wizarding world.

"It'll come when it's meant to come," Maya responded simply. 

"Yeah, I'm sure it will," said Saffron honestly. She turned to Rowan. "So, are the two of you able to speak to each other properly now? In your heads?"

"I think so," nodded Rowan bracingly. "It's scary because the way I heard her last night was really sore. Hopefully, it'll just work like a muggle telephone thing because I don't want to have to hear her all the time,"

"I mean, you didn't hear her after you went to the Grey," said Saffron hopefully.

"Yeah, but she heard him," replied Maya knowingly taking Saffron by surprise.

"Did she go to the Grey again?"

Maya shook her head. "No, but she did feel him. Her head felt like it was on fire, it's probably why she's still asleep now, it took its toll on her,"

"Poor her," pouted Saffron sadly. She knew as well as any of them how hard the Grey could be to deal with at times. But the fact that the twins were so aligned in essentially every way made it that much more difficult for them to cope. She certainly didn't envy their position. All she could do was hope that they would get out the other end in one piece. Now that they had spoken to each other clear than any time previous telepathically, things were looking more positive but they weren't willing to bank on it just yet. "Do you think that you two will be able to talk easier now? Like does it feel like you can do it freely?"

"I--I don't know," Rowan hesitated with his answer trying his best to accurate express his true feelings towards the matter. "I think there's a better chance, but I don't know if it'll only happen when one of our emotions are very high. It could be either-or, or maybe it'll be all the time, but I hope not because I don't want to have to listen to her all day,"

Saffron chuckled. "That's understandable. Though, based on the end of last year it seemed like youse were spending every second together anyway."

"That's true," nodded Rowan fairly. "But maybe we won't anymore since we figured a lot more of this out, or the Grey figured it out for us. I don't know what the best way to say it is... but I'm just glad it's over. We had telepathic things happen by us, Saffron had a telekinetic power to stop Peter, I wonder what that'll leave for you, Maya?"

Maya shook her head and held her hands up to allude to her not knowing. Saffron grinned, knowing Maya she probably would get something that trumped everything else if that was even possible. Actually, when she thought about it, knowing Maya, she probably had it already and just wasn't telling them about it for some ridiculous reason as so frequently happened with her. 

Saffron then crinkled her nose and rid herself of that thought. There was no point in ending the Summer in paranoia and yet another feeling of betrayal when it wasn't clear that Maya had done something. As by the time they got back to Hogwarts, Saffron had no doubt that something else would happen with her complicated older sister. It was just a given at this point and she might as well enjoy the time that all four of them were getting along smoothly while she still could.