Not Our World (Harry Potter Fanfic)

Little Things

"You're in a good mood."

Hermione smiled at her mother's laughter. "Why wouldn't I be?"

And then there was that look in her mother's eyes, and she knew—she knew because it was the topic which accidentally came up ever so often, how the conversation at first turned to worries from her mother about not facing the reality of her father not being there, to awkward avoidance.

Hermione turned her head as she sat in the car's back seat to look out the window. "Is it alright if I imagine what it might have been like?"

"You mean if your mom wasn't a single parent and married to your dad kind of thing?"

Hermione frowned. "Yeah. That."

"And what do you imagine that to be like, what it would be like to have your dad in your life?"

"Well, for starters, his birthday would have been the day I went to get my school supplies."

"Really?" Her mother frowned. "You did ask me about forgetting your father's birthday."

"The last day of July," Hermione said. "And he would have liked Crookshanks."

"Who's Crookshanks."

"That half-Kneezle—it's a cat that professor got because he ended up in the store before me. Orange and fluffy, with a beautiful flat face. Oh! And he is as intelligent as he looks, if not more!"

"I see."

"And black hair and gray eyes. Dad would have liked Crookshanks to pieces, but dad would have had black hair and gray eyes."

"I—wait." Her mother paused. "How did you..."

Hermione turned to look at her mom, who was frowning. "What?"

"I never told you that about your dad. Like, ever."

"Maybe you let it slip?"

"I—maybe. I've been cautious about talking about him, though. This last month or so has been the most I've talked about him in a long time."

"Because it hurts."

"Yes. It hurts not knowing."

"You know, you could look him up on the internet," Hermione said.

"Perhaps I'm afraid of what I'll find?"

Hermione frowned. "I hadn't thought of that."

"It—I'll think about it."

"Yeah, but..." Hermione frowned. "I really hadn't thought about looking him up and finding something out, like maybe how he died."

"Or he ended up in prison."

"Why would dad be in prison?" Hermione shook her head, knowing she might have found details she didn't want to know, such as her father dying and how she had known what name to look under.

"That's an extreme," her mother said.

"Well, alright. That's about it. Oh, and dad's smart."

"Because you're smart?"

"Am I like him?"

"Very curious, very kind, and much into books," her mother said.

A thought crossed Hermione's mind. "Hey. You wouldn't happen to have met at great-grandpa's bookstore?"

"That's a correct guess, but you won't find anything else from that. He wasn't an employee."

"Customer then. A customer your age."