Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter

Attempted Poisonings

Potter Hall
Wales

A week later Hermione was sitting at the kitchen table eating breakfast while discussing with Harry plans for attending the Brown/Finnegan wedding when James and Lily walked in. James eyed what was in front of them and asked curiously, "What is it that you are eating?"

Hermione looked up at him and grinned, "Muggle food." She shrugged. "Um this is a bagel and the white stuff smeared over the top is cream cheese, then we have a parfait. It's plain yogurt, berries, and granola, and in the glass is orange juice. The smell of eggs has made me nauseous since I was pregnant with Lily," she stated. With that, Hermione handed little Lily, who was sitting at the table in her high chair, a quarter of a bagel and some berries.

"It's good really," added Harry in between bites as he read The Prophet. "High in protein, fiber, and calcium. Better for you than traditional English breakfast anyway. I started eating it when I stayed with Hermione after fifth year and this is what we have two or three times a week."

"Not that I'm really all that concerned about my dietary health, but I'm all for trying anything once, how do I make it?" stated James.

Harry set down his paper and said, "I'll get it, it's no big deal. Just watch." They both sat down and watched as he sliced a bagel and put them in a toaster, used two bowls to spoon in stuff to make the parfait and two glasses of orange juice."

"I've never liked pumpkin juice," stated Lily, "it's too sweet. I'd forgotten how much I missed orange and blackcurrant when I stopped being a Muggle."

"I've never been particularly fond of the menu at Hogwarts," stated Hermione. "People haven't eaten like that since the 1950's. I had Mum sending fruit and other things to me."

Harry started to chuckle. "I remember the first time you tried to get Ron to eat a banana. He was convinced that you were trying to poison him and then he bit into it without peeling it first."

"They aren't very good that way. My grandmother was Muggle-born," said James, "so I wasn't as isolated from the society as most, but they didn't have my father until they were in their late seventies so by the time Lily and I were together, things had changed quite a bit."

"I can imagine," nodded Harry.

Jane and Richard walked in looking a bit pensive and immediately slid into seats. "Do you want something to eat?" called Harry as put cream cheese on the bagel halves in front of him.

"Oh, no thank you, Harry," said Jane. "We ate before walking over. We do have something that we wish to talk to you about."

"James, why don't we take our breakfast into the dining room?" said Lily.

"Oh, no, it isn't like that. We've just come to a final decision about something and we wanted to inform the kids," stated Richard.

"Okay, we're waiting," said Hermione.

"Do you remember a bit back when we were talking about where to live and Harry was concerned about the two of us returning to dentistry?" Richard said.

"I thought we discussed this," began Hermione. "We want you with us. Not just for Emma, but she is part of it."

"No, poppet, that is not what I mean," said Richard shaking his head.

Hermione nodded, but it was Harry who said, "Right, you said that another offer had presented itself, but you hadn't decided one way or another. Does this mean you have?"

"Yes, we've taken the position. Back in June, Minerva asked us if we would consider coming to work for her as the Muggle Studies teachers. We've accepted her offer," said Richard.

Hermione blinked then looked at Harry before saying, "Muggle Studies? At Hogwarts? But you're Muggles."

"Must be why she thought we understood Muggle culture," said Jane wryly. "I will be teaching along with your father until the baby is born then he will be in the classroom and I will help him with the down items, grading and such. Since we can't Apparate and using the Floo right now is not the best idea, we will take staff quarters until the baby is born, then will come back here. Richard can Floo in everyday. Most teachers who don't live on premises Floo into the staff lounge or their personal offices."

"You are further isolating yourselves from Muggle society," stated Hermione. "I just don't want you unhappy and living in a world that you aren't fully part of."

"How long until it's safe, Hermione?" asked Jane. "How long until whomever it is that would like to punish you stops using us? What about your sister? You said that she can't live in a Muggle neighborhood, that it would draw attention to her. We don't know about the new baby, but we were told that Lily's sister was an unusual situation. That it does happen, but if one of the children in a Muggle family is magical, usually all are. We are going to plan on the baby being a witch or a wizard and then adjust if it's a Muggle baby."

"I know and it will be a long time before all of them are gone. Kingsley isn't making the headway we'd like to see. The Aurors that are left just don't have the inherent understanding of the Death Eaters that Harry has, or even Ron and I." Hermione looked away and sighed. "I just don't want you to regret giving it all up for me."

Both Jane and Lily started to laugh. It was Jane who spoke first. "Give it all up? Hermione, we moved to Australia to keep Emma and little Lily safe. I allowed you to take away all the memories I had of you and everything familiar to me, just because you asked. You put your three week old baby on a plane and didn't know if you would ever see her again, just to keep her safe. Lily stood before her son and certain death and died on the chance that he would live. All of them easy choices. None of them are regretted, this, this is nothing, Hermione, nothing."

"Besides poppet," interjected Richard, "We have phone service, a telly, and most other standard Muggle household items. They just come with an elf. It's far better for us here than in London. Our friends think it odd that we've moved to Wales, but we just said that we've taken a cottage on a larger estate. We can Floo into London and from there take the tube. Besides, it isn't like we don't have a car if we want to drive in. Lily was kind enough to bring your mother into London yesterday, she picked me up from the joke shop, and we went out to dinner with some old friends and then I Flooed back home while Ron took your mother. We hate imposing on people for her transportation, but until she is able to toss herself through a fireplace, we appreciate it. Also, that barman friend of yours, the one who looks like Dumbledore, he said I was welcome to use his Floo whenever I wanted, if I needed to come into Hogsmeade. That's how I got that chocolate your mum was craving and those tooth flossing mints. Ron said it was the best place to get that sort of thing, that the candy store in Diagon Alley was far inferior. George went with me. He did something and Angelina put him on the couch for the past two nights, figured he'd butter her up with a bit of chocolate. Anyway, he felt that my first time in the shop, he wanted to make sure I understood what exactly each thing was. And to never, ever, buy a cockroach cluster."

"Best not and anything with the word blood in it, it actually means blood. It's for the vampires, hags, and I don't even want to think about it what else," Harry shuddered a bit. "And Aberforth and Dumbledore were brothers," he added. "Well congratulations then. Hermione and I are exempt from your class as we both have an N.E.W.T. in the subject, and we would have been anyway. You will have Ron, Neville, and Luna though."

"Pipe train indeed," Hermione muttered.

"Well, we've come to ask you a couple favors. First, we'd like to buy an owl. We've been using Copernicus, but he's Emma's. George said that Fred chose most of their joke shop owls and he thinks that you would be a better choice than he in finding one for us. That the two he chose were, um, I think he said barmy. There was something about inheriting the gene from whomever it was that chose Errol." Richard shook his head for a moment, and then continued, "I've known that thing Ron has for years and I know we don't want anything like that. Second, Minerva has asked us to come in today, she has a few-"

Emma cut him off with a high pitched, "Mione!" The little girl ran into the room looking muddy and upset.

"What's wrong? Did the imps get you again?" Two days prior as she had been investigating the sound of laughter from the stream bed on the property, Emma learned just what imps find funny. She had been tripped.

"I'm sorry Mione. I didn't know. I didn't know he'd do that. I thought it was... I just wanted to give him a spot of cream and then he..." she didn't finish but threw herself into her sister's arms and cried.

Richard and Jane were very confused as to why their daughter was so upset but the four magical people in the room nodded sagely. Lily said, "Did you think he was a hedgehog?"

She nodded and sniffed. "I knew a girl in primary school who had one in her garden and she always boasted about how sweet he was and how she would give him cream and I... I just wanted to pet him. I didn't mean for him to do that. He ruined it."

Harry knelt in front of her and said, "You did nothing wrong. In fact this is my fault and Hermione's. We should have taken you around the property and identified all of the magical creatures that are here to you. What you found was not a hedgehog. He was a Knarl and they are highly suspicious of being poisoned. It's best not to feed them."

"I'm sorry."

Hermione looked at her and said, "Did you try to catch him after he began to destroy the garden?"

"I couldn't. Then I fell in the mud where the bird bath turned over and... I just wanted to pet him. I wasn't going to poison him."

"How about this, next time you see a creature and you want a closer look, you come get Harry or me and we will tell you what you need to know first? There are loads of neat things in the woods."

"I'm sorry about the garden," she said looking still upset.

"I know you are, but you didn't do anything wrong and it can be repaired. Go on and get cleaned up, I think we are going into Hogwarts."

Richard nodded and after Emma left he asked, "What happened?"

"There is a magical creature called a Knarl that looks just like a hedgehog, except they are a bit paranoid. If offered food they turn away, she probably offered several times, and because of that he savaged the garden," explained Hermione. "I didn't realize that there were any here and she didn't know."

"There are quite a few," stated Richard. "Right outside our cottage. I was thinking of offering them a bit of cream myself." With a smile, he looked at his daughter and added, "I guess I will hold off on that."

"We don't really have any good magical creatures books, Harry," said Hermione with a frown. "Hagrid always chose weird ones. I left the biting books in London. I didn't want any of the children to grab them."

"Not to mention the damage they do to the other books. I went through two Transfiguration texts that year and Neville had to have every one of his replaced, twice," replied Harry shaking his head at the memory. "Why don't we talk to Charlie today, if he has a minute, and see if he can suggest something, also not that I want to panic you, but I want to talk to him about Welsh Green range."

"I think this is part of it. They'd use the sea," Hermione said thoughtfully. "Mostly nest up in the mountains though, closer to Holyhead."

"What is a Welsh Green?" asked Jane as she was making herself a cup of tea.

"Dragon," said Richard. "Don't you remember from Hermione's letters fourth year and that blasted tournament that Fleur had the Welsh Green?"

"No," said Jane is an almost dangerous tone. "I was more concerned that Harry had the Horntail and that he was in the thing at all." Harry distinctly heard her mumble something that sounded like, "Should have come to us after second year."

Figuring that it would be best to change the subject Hermione said, "Lily and I have an appointment to see Paulina Granger about the Wolfsbane Potion study tomorrow, but today is fine. Do you need a lift to Hogwarts?"

"Minerva has some simple administrative duties to go over with us and she isn't convinced about the things in the Muggle Studies wing. She's had several previous students tell her that items are labeled incorrectly and such."

"Yes, I told her that it was called a Rubber Ducky not a Quacky Duck," said Hermione thinking about her third year when she enrolled in Muggle Studies. "Most of it is old too. You'll need several days to inventory it and then replace a bit. I can help you with labeling."

"How do you want to do this?" Harry asked his wife.

"Oh, um, well Dad and Emma will Floo and do you want Mum or the children?"

"We gave McGonagall the bracelets back so we are going to have to Apparate into Hogsmeade. I don't know if we will be able to bring them past the Muggle Repelling Charms like we can at Grimmauld Place or if I'll need to run up to the castle," pointed out Harry.

Hermione frowned in thought then said, "It's something we need to know anyway."

"Lils and I will go with you," said James. "We haven't been in a while and I can help with the sorting in the Muggle Studies wing. I might not be able to identify what it is, but I can... hmmm can't do that. I don't have a wand. Well there is no point in getting one for just a couple more weeks. I suppose that means I need to catch a ride or take the Floo with Richard and Emma." He looked at his son and asked as offhanded as possible, "So, um, is Rosemerta still around?"

Not seeing his mother's eyes narrow, Harry nodded, "She is."

"Maybe I should bring Richard by and introduce him, you know, just in case he needs to use her Floo.

With a thump on the back of her husband's head, Lily stated, "There is nothing wrong with the Floo at the Hogs Head."

Trying not to laugh, Hermione said, "Sirius will be up from his morning nap in about an hour. Why don't we plan on leaving after that?"