Hero of the Story || James Potter x Hermione Granger Fanfiction

6 | life is not meant to be wasted

vi.

life is not meant to be wasted

(Chasing the Sun by Sara Bareilles)

__________

July 20, 1974

"Hermione!"

The brunette looked up from the Transfiguration textbook she was reading and searched for Peter's voice.

"Over here!"

She blinked and glanced at their bathroom. Her brother's head was peeking out from the door, his eyes intently trained on their mother's back. He gestured for her to come towards him and confused, she mouthed 'Why?'

Instead of answering, he beckoned her more incessantly and Hermione had no choice but to jump down from her chair. She shot another look at her mother, who was busy fixing up their supper for tonight, before striding towards her brother.

He quickly yanked her inside and slammed the door behind her. Hermione frowned at his sudden pacing as she walked towards their toilet and closed the lid. She daintily sat down on top of it and expectantly looked at him. "Well?" she urged.

Peter stopped his pacing and frowned at Hermione. "Something's wrong with Mum," he whispered, loud enough for her to hear.

Hermione knitted her eyebrows. "What do you mean?" she asked.

He sighed and rolled his eyes. "I knew you wouldn't notice because you're too busy burying your nose behind your precious books," he pointed out, ignoring her glare. "But lately she's been... fidgety. I dunno, I think she's keeping something from us."

"Maybe she's just trying to search for the right time to tell us," Hermione said with a half-shrug. "If Mum doesn't want to tell us something, then it's not really our business, Petey."

"I know that," he grumbled. "It's just... I think she'd been really lonely ever since we both started going to Hogwarts. I just worry about her sometimes."

Hermione smiled and stood up from the toilet. She wound her arms around his torso and squeezed him tight. "That's really sweet, Peter," she said. "I'm sure Mum doesn't want us to worry." She paused, then tilted her head in surprise. "You've grown taller!"

"Yeah?" he asked, a proud grin on his face. When she nodded her head, his grin grew. "I thought so too, but I wasn't really sure."

Their Mum then called for both of them and the Pettigrew siblings strode out of the bathroom and quickly went to the kitchen. While Peter helped their mother prepare the plates, Hermione opted to observe instead. Admittedly, she'd been swamped with summer homework and hadn't really gone out of her room much to do other things.

Now that Peter had pointed out about their mother's strange behaviour, Hermione noticed how Anya's shoulders were tensed with worry. She had been incessantly chewing her bottom lip – one of their mother's strange quirks when she was bothered by something – and this made Hermione concerned. Maybe whatever their mother was apprehensive about might be a big deal after all.

When they had all settled down and started piling heaps of food onto their plates, Anya cleared her throat to catch both of their attention. Hermione stilled and Peter paled, anticipating whatever their mother was going to tell them.

"Children," she started, "I have something to tell you."

She looked grim and it didn't help Hermione's worry at all.

"Did somebody die?" Peter suddenly blurted out.

Anya's blue eyes widened and she looked at him incredulously. "What?"