Chapter Text
Hermione had always been jealous of her American cousins. Abigail and Mark lived in New York with their mother, Rebecca, and their father, Hermione's uncle, Robert. While they both had brown hair and brown eyes, similar to her own, they wore them with confidence. Not the confidence that Hermione exhumed as she answered every question correctly, or lead a group in a project, or entered the library. Not the kind of confidence that depended on who Hermione was with or what place she was in.
No. Abigail's gait said that she didn't care if others didn't like her because she knew her worth. Her posture said that no matter how tired she was, no matter how long that flight and drive had been, she wouldn't dare slouch. Her warm and welcoming hugs, the little touches to Hermione's shoulder and face, her loving smiles and friendly girl advice didn't take away from her intimidating aura. Her brother, on the other hand, was the complete opposite. Rather than well mannered and perfectly poised, Mark liked to let people know when he was tired and to add his own funny remarks to any story that his sister was telling. He oozed confidence, his strut always relaxed and his manner always carefree. But his confidence didn't come from the knowledge that he was better. Rather, he let everyone at the dinner table know it came from the knowledge that his sister would "whoop anyone's ass for me, and I don't think anybody wants to see Abby's mean side. Trust me, I know." At that, Abby had ruffled his curly hair, the same as Hermione's, and Mark tried to attack her short waves without much luck. A memory of the siblings bickering when she was thirteen popped into her mind. Abby's years over her and Mark had always been the reason Hermione sought her guidance and Mark considered her his personal bodyguard, despite the amount of teasing he had to deal with.
Hermione had been glad that her cousins, uncle and aunt had come to visit soon after she finished school. What she needed was a distraction from Hogwarts, Voldemort, and especially Cedric's death. She knew it was all traumatizing for Harry, but thinking about all of it made Hermione's head spin and her heart ache. She hoped he could get in touch with the Weasleys, although the knew his uncle and aunt were not very happy with his ties to the magic world. A feeling of loneliness came over Hermione as she realized she couldn't share much of her life with her parents, especially if she didn't want them to know about the danger she was potentially in. The laughs around her brought her out of her thoughts and she tuned into the story Abby was telling.
"So I told Mark to hold eleven fingers up, and he starts panicking. He's looking at his hands, my hands, the book, and back at his hands. I swear, he was about to cry. Then, he starts yelling "Mom?! Mom, I only have ten fingers!" So, being still angry about having to help him and worried that Mom would come in and yell at me again, instead of apologizing, I snap at him and say: " Shut up and use your toes!"" Hermione joins in on the laughter, and slowly but surely, the pang of loneliness eased off her shoulders. She had faith in her cousins' abilities to keep her happy.
"Hermione, I heard you're going to a boarding school? How is that?" Aunt Rebecca turned to her. Thankfully, her mom answered for her.
"It's a school for gifted children, up in Scotland. They take children from all over the UK. We didn't really want to let her go so far away but she promised us that she would work hard to get the best grades. We made a deal that anything below "Exceeds Expectations" would get her a ticket straight back home." With that, Jean Granger began explaining the grading system to her sister in law. Abby and Mark turned to Hermione then.
"So how does our little genius like her school far away from nagging mothers?" Mark asked with a grin.
"It's not like that! I actually really miss my parents during the school term," she replied with a defensive smile.
"I can relate, cuz. When I left for that semester in Hong Kong, I was homesick all year. It didn't help that I had a bad case of culture shock in the beginning. Thankfully, my teachers were understanding and helped me adjust. Still, those FaceTime calls were never enough." With that, Abby reached for her phone to find picture of her year in China. With a face splitting grin, Mark said:
"Awwww, you missed me, sis!" To which Abby rolled her eyes and handed her phone to Hermione. A few moments later, she asked:
"How are your teachers at school, Hermione? You don't talk much about school. Do you have any guidance counselors that can help you adjust?"
'Umm, I do. The school is split into four groups. The head of my group, Professor McGonagall, acts sort of as my counselor. Also, the Headmaster is very kind. I don't have much contact with him, but he is this mad genius and any time I bring up any crazy project he is always on board." She supposed it was true in a way. The Headmaster had never punished her or her friends for any of their adventures.
"And what's the name of this Headmaster?" She supposed one or two names wouldn't matter much since her family was muggle and would only get them off her case quicker.
"Dumbledore." At that, Abby have Mark a look which he returned, and Aunt Rebecca stuttered as she talked to Jean.
"Is by any chance his first name Albus?" Abby said. She and Mark were looking at her intensely, and Hermione didn't trust her voice. Instead, she looked back down at the phone in her hands and nodded. In front of her was a picture of Abby and a blonde girl on the Wall of China, both obviously tired but happy from their hike in the heat. She heard Abby inhale.
"And, is the name of the school, by any chance, Hogwarts?" Hermione's head snapped up to see a small smirk on Abby's face. The adults around her had stopped their conversations, too and it was suddenly very quiet at the dinner table.
"HOGWASH!? My little cousin goes to Hogwash?!" Mark was the first to break his silence with his yells. "Mom, do something!"
"Now Mark, calm down." Aunt Rebecca gave her son a harsh look.
"But mom! Our family's been going to Ilvermorny since we came off the ship! How can you let your baby niece go to Hogwash?" Abby must have seen the shocked look on Hermione's face because she slapped Mark upside the head and growled "Hogwarts, dumbass. And sit down, you’re scaring her." Mark donned a sheepish look and slowly lowered himself back into his chair.
"What exactly just happened, John?" Uncle Rob asked his brother.
"I think your kids figured out something about my daughter, Rob." Hermione looked around the table, still unable to comprehend what it all meant. All she could mutter was a weak "How?"
Thankfully, Aunt Rebecca came to the rescue. "Well, sweetheart, I think that, being bound by the Oath of Secrecy, we have all been hiding something about ourselves. Perhaps, something about magic?" Hermione nodded, and a sense of relief washed over her when she and her family spent the next few hours telling their stories.
As it turns out, Hermione's uncle had married an American witch. Rebecca came from a forgotten wizarding family, the Williams. Her family had immigrated to the colonies with the Puritans, hoping to escape the politics of Magical England and to avoid a Muggle witch hunt. Unfortunately, they had been discovered once they settled. Despite some of the family managing to escape before the mass hysteria got to them, a young Abigail, the namesake of the girl sitting across from Hermione, had remained behind with her lover.
"They accused her of worshiping the devil and of enchanting the young man to love her. If only they knew how difficult love magic was, they would have never accused a young girl of it, sexist as they were. And I know there all these stories of witches who ask the devil for more powers but it's all an old wives tale. And highly illegal, both here and back home." Rebecca gave the three cousins a pointed glare. The family that had escaped Salem had sought refuge at Ilvermorny. Feeling indebted to the school, the adults had taken up teaching positions and sent their children to the school. Ilvermony became a family tradition then. Rebecca herself had gone to Ilvermorny, and so had Abby and Mark.
"And I went to the perfectly muggle University of Boston," Uncle Rob piped in.
Hearing the story, Hermione understood that Mark's reaction had been, to some extent, caused by his family's loyalty to the school, as well as his fondness of dramatics.
With the help of magic, cleaning up after dinner was much faster than usual and Hermione didn't have to keep Abby waiting for her to get to bed. Her uncle and aunt slept in the guest bedroom, Mark took the couch downstairs, and Abby, as she had done countless timed before, slept with Hermione.
"You know," Hermione said, "you can always transfigure something into a bed instead of being stuck in here with me." Abby held her hand to her chest and gasped loudly. It seemed that a fondness of dramatics was in the family.
"Are you saying you don't want to sleep with me? Or implying that I don't want to sleep with you? You know, I'm gonna sleep here just to spite you now. Move over." Giggles filled the room as Abby made a show of getting into the bed and spread her limbs over Hermione.
"You have no idea how happy I am that I'm not the only witch in this family," Hermione said. Abby shifted to lay on her side and look at her. "It's been difficult, Abby."
"I know. It must be lonely. I also heard about all that happened at Hogwarts last year." Hermione sighed and looked away at that. "Just know that if you need me to take you away from all of it, I will. I know that you think you're grown up, hell, I used to feel the same at your age. But now that I'm older, I'm realizing how wrong I was and how young I still am. Just let me know if you need to get away from it, because I know it can't be easy to be around. From what I understand, Ilvermorny has considerably less drama." Hermione just nodded, not looking at Abby. She couldn't know how scared she was. She felt a warm body against her back and arms hugging her. She returned the affection with a pat to Abby's hand. Funnily enough, Abby didn't let go an Hermione spent the night cuddling with her favorite cousin.