Chapter 3
The dress she’s wearing is almost too beat up and messy for this excursion, but it’ll have to do. Hermione is running late as is. She clutches her bag tighter as she weaves through the slimy alleys of one of the sketchier parts of the city, away from leering men and moving creatures that might be small cats or large rats. Finally, she sees the peeling paint and tilting steeple of the St. Ignotius Church for the Deaf, and makes her way inside. The priest at the altar does not look up, lost in his sermon half delivered by hand signs, half with words enunciated clearly, for the hearing part of his audience.
Down the stairs and down the hallway to an old cellar where the priests keep communion wine, she sees a beam of light streaming softly from a crack in a door. She makes her way inside, the soft light harsh after the pitch black of the hallway. Lupin smiles at her from the front of the room, gesturing towards an empty seat.
“It’s unusual to see you late to a class, Ms. Granger.”
Hermione huffs and takes her seat next to a black haired boy that is giggling slightly at her. “My apologies, Professor Lupin. Our shop received some… interesting mail right as I was about to depart.”
“Ah! Excuses, excuses. You nearly had me worried. Now let’s see…” He said, trailing off as he turned back towards a stretch of wall covered in astronomical maps. “If the sun is in this location, perhaps we can assume other bodies are over here…”
Hermione removed a small piece of charcoal and a notebook from her pocket, beginning to scribble out notes as Lupin spoke them aloud. She was getting into the rhythm of his class, estimating the possible distances of planets, when she felt a tap on her arm.
“Hermione,” poked the boy next to her, “What made you late?”
“You know exactly what made me late, you sneak,” she replied, swatting his hand away and resuming her notetaking. “You could have at least given me warning we were to be invited to a ball.”
Harry definitely looked sheepish at that, “I didn’t know Mum, uh, or, Lady Potter, would have actually taken my suggestion at inviting you! It’s a masquerade, and even the gardener will be there. Part of me thinks she just wants more invitees, since divisions between nobility seem dumber and more common. Not like I even have my own say in the matter.”
Hermione flushed at that, “What, so we’re not even there for a real purpose? Just as decoration? A gold star for having the lower class present at some gaudy consortium?”
“No!” Harry responded, a little too loudly to the point where Lupin whirled around and pointed an accusatory finger at the both of them.
“Am I interrupting something? You both do pay to attend this class, after all, a class where you’re learning things the church might have me strung up for.”
Both Hermione and Harry muttered their apologies and went back to taking notes and staring dumbly at the wall, respectively. The rest of the class passed without incident, all regarding space and the positions of planets that hypothetically were out there. Hermione’s notes had begun to swim in her brain when Lupin finally ended class.
“Thank you, Professor,” Hermione began, getting ready to leave. “It was a wonderful class tonight, I’ll look at the stars even closer!”
Lupin smiled. “Have a nice night, Hermione. Thank you for coming, and for your questions.” A troubled look flashed across his features. “Oh, uhm. Hermione?”
“Yes?” She replied, filling her pockets with notes.
“Do you think dear Harry could escort you part of the way back? Another… another violent incident occurred, closer than the one previous. It unfortunately seems like there is a commonality to the victims.” His smile became pained, but filled with worry. Hermione felt a pang of appreciation for her teacher.
Harry, standing beside her, nodded. “I’d be happy to walk Hermione part of the way! I’ve got time to kill anyways, I’m supposed to be 50 miles away at a hunting club right now.”
Lupin smiled again, the warmth returning to his eyes. “Thank you. I’ll see you next time, give your dues for the class at the usual time, you know the rest. Have a good night, the both of you.”
After saying their goodbyes, Harry and Hermione made their way out of the silent church, slipping past the preacher still delivering his bilingual sermon. The night was cool, the sky was clear, and there were only a few people out and about. It was just a tad too early for drunks to be roaming, so those out had a purpose, or were making up one.
They were quiet for only a few paces, when Harry began his tirade that he started part way through class. “I’m sorry if you were offended by the invitation. It’ll be fun regardless, and who cares if the gardener is attending? It’s a masquerade! I’m just saying, I’m pretty sure part of it was Mum’s idea of generosity and part of it was opulence. She goes over the top in everything she does, and she’s generally the best at it. I think the only person to ever tell her “no” to anything was Dad, and he learned his lesson. I unlearned the word “no” almost as soon as I learned it.”
Hermione thought she detected some sort of resentment in his tone, but she couldn’t be sure if it was about his mother’s overbearing attitude or how she excelled at everything. She shook it off. “Well, Malkin was over the moon about the invitation. You can bet that we’ll be there, but the only problem is that I’ve got nothing to wear. All my shop dresses are several degrees too shabby, and I have no idea where to start!”
Harry stopped, letting Hermione walk a few paces in her own worry before she noticed. He let out a laugh after a moment, shaking his head. “Are you, or are you not, one of the greatest apprentice seamstresses around? Your work has turned heads regardless of class, and you’re worried about what to wear? Half the ladies in that room will be wearing Granger’s best, so you need to be in Granger’s finest.”
Hermione laughed at his impromptu speech, glad for the company after all. Harry was one of her best friends, despite them seeing each other once a fortnight for brief glimpses of time after Professor Lupin’s classes. She looks up, considering the stars in the wake of the class they had just taken, and the things they had just learned.
“Okay, this is me,” Harry said after a few more steps, pointing down one of the main roads out of the city, “I bribed the driver to wait at the train station, but Mum doesn’t have to know that the trains haven’t run for hours now. He’s probably tired, I’m sorry I can’t walk you the rest of the way.”
He gave her a friendly peck on the cheek and clapped her shoulder, an odd combination that was endearing on him. “Be safe, now. You’re not far from home. Be careful.”
She smiled and bid him goodbye, turning towards the direction of the shop. The night was still cool, but felt more unfamiliar without friendly company. With every step she took, she felt her pace quicken, regardless of her self-assurances that nothing was wrong.
There was a scuffle behind her, and Hermione whipped around, wishing she had brought a knife or some other way of defending herself. “Hello?” She called out, to no answer.
Turning back, she set off at the briskest pace possible without seeming like she was running from something. Part of her swore she heard footsteps behind her, getting closer and heavier with each step. It felt like it continued for moment after agonizing moment before she finally threw herself into the doorway of the dress shop, its familiar warm light like a shield against danger. Glancing quickly behind her, she saw nothing. Maybe the slightest bit of a black cloak disappearing behind a corner, but maybe also a trick of the light. Same with the footsteps, just a trick of the streets with high buildings on either side, a perfect breeding ground for scary echoes.
She let out a deep sigh, feeling her heart rate return to normal. She let herself in, moving silently through the quiet shop. When she went up the stairs to the small apartment she kept, all she could do was take her shoes off before she fell face first into bed, and immediately fell asleep.