After the War

Chapter 9

Today I would be revealing who I truly am to my first friend from my new life. And I still had no idea how to do it. We had been steady all day but managed to be able to get more work done than had to be. I was going to be cooking tea tonight, but I still had to get food from the supermarket... I may have fallen sleep in the bath last night and didn't make it to the shops. I was doing the last minute shelve stocking and cleaning before we closed for the day. I realised I had all the ingredients for Potachos at home, so I figured we would just have that. (A/N: nachos with oven baked potato chips instead of corn chips)

We closed and went back to mine. I kind of wished that I had to go to the shops, just to waste more time. I still didn't know what to say to Emma. I didn't know how to explain everything to her. Tell her that while she knew me, she didn't know the real me. Oh no. She was going to hate me. I had lied to her about who I was for nearly 3 years. I grabbed my water bottle and took a drink, trying to calm myself down. This was going to be okay, this was going to work. Right?

I grabbed two cans of Canadian Club out of the fridge and handed one to Emma, before cracking mine open and sculling half the can in one go.

"Whoa! Hold on there! What's going on? I don't think I have ever seen you scull a drink before. You barely like shots. You okay?"

"I love a shot of a good Firewhisky." I said. It kind of just slipped out. Maybe this wouldn't be so hard.

"What's Firewhisky?"

"It's a Wizard's drink."

"How is it a Wizard's drink? Isn't it just whiskey with a funny name?" asked Emma?

"No, it's made with Dragon's fire. Obtained from the people who work at the dragon reserves."

"Wait wait wait! Dragons? I thought Dean was joking when he said that they were real?!" Emma said.

"No, Dragons are real. As are Werewolves, Goblins, House elves, Hippogriffs and many many more that I'm sure you think are legends. There are also Centaurs."

"Well, at least there isn't ghosts" she said

"Well... actually... there is. Hogwarts is full of them. Didn't Dean tell you any of this?" I couldn't believe how easy this was to explain. Maybe it was because it had nothing to do with me and it was simply academic.

"He did. But we were always pulling pranks on each other, so I wasn't sure if this was all another prank or not. And because I wasn't part of his world, I couldn't confirm it." Emma said "I thought you didn't want to talk about any of this? What changed?"

"There is some stuff that you don't know. Some things about me that I want to tell you that have to do with that world. I have been struggling with it for years and I feel like I can finally open up to someone about it. And knowing you know of magic, helps."

"What's going on? What do you mean things about you?" she asked as we finished setting the table and got another drink each before sitting down.

"How much did Dean tell you about what happened just over 3 years ago?"

"He told me that your world was at war with others of your kind. People who wanted to take over and rule in a way that would be essentially hell for people like him. That before he came home, one of his class mates managed to get the last shot in at the leader of this group and that was what ended it all."

"No, while that is close. It's not all of it. It's not the full thing. My name isn't really Sarah. Its Hermione Granger. And I wasn't just a little bit in the war. I was in the thick of it. I came here to get away from it all. I came away to start fresh and try and put that life behind me. Dean was trying to protect you I believe. And while I understand that, I need you to understand that I have to tell you a fair bit of other people's stories for you to know mine. For you to understand why I hid who I really am."

"Okay..."

"It all started in 1981..."