A Sirius Matter [Harmione]

5. Discoveries

When the Grangers arrived home from work, they found Harry and Hermione sitting on couch in the living room playing a Super Mario Brothers Nintendo game together. "Hello Hermione, Harry," said Marissa. "How was your day?"

"No," said Harry, as his character missed a jump and fell into a pit. "Er, it was fine, Mrs. Granger."

"Harry, I already said to call me Marissa."

"Er, yeah. Hi Marissa, Adam."

"Hello Harry. Hermione, you've been awfully quiet," Adam said, smiling.

"Er, Hi Mum, Dad."

"I noticed a new bike in the garage," said Adam. "Is it Harry's?"

"Yes," said Harry, "We enrolled in a karate class here in town, and Hermione suggested we ride bicycles there."

"Good idea," said Marissa. "It'll give you even more exercise than the video you used this morning."

Both teenagers looked at Marissa. They hadn't told her about the video. "How did you..." asked Hermione.

Marissa said, "I noticed it had been moved, that's all. It's fine. I certainly don't mind. I must admit I'm curious why all of the sudden physical fitness is so important to you."

"Well," said Hermione nervously, "Hogwarts doesn't have any physical education, and we wanted to form our own exercise club next year. We figured that it would be a good idea if we knew what we were doing."

Harry stopped himself from glancing at Hermione, who'd just lied to her parents.

"That sounds like a good idea," said Adam, "It wouldn't be good for all those witches and wizards to have heart attacks during duels, would it?" No one could tell if he was joking or not. "So, did you find Sirius Black's house alright?"

"Yes," said Hermione. "It was a bit dirty, but it was easy to clean using magic."

"So you're going to be taking this Knight Bus there every day?" asked Marissa.

"Actually," said Hermione, "after we got there I made a portkey so we could travel back and forth magically."

"Portkey?" asked Adam.

"I charmed a necklace so that if you're touching it and say the right words, it'll take you to either that house or this one. The charmed object is called a portkey."

"Wow," said Adam. "I can't wait to use it to visit Sirius' house in a few days." Harry took a moment to realize the reason Hermione claimed she'd only made one. It went to her bedroom. Harry would be safer if Hermione's parents didn't know he had a portkey to her bedroom. He had to make sure that he never let them know about his portkey.

"So," said Marissa, "Did you see Ron today? Is he going to practice magic with you?"

"Er," said Harry, "We did see him, but, er, he won't be studying with us."

"Oh. Why is that?" asked Adam.

Both parents noticed the exchanged glances between the teenagers, and were pretty sure what it met. "Er, we had a disagreement," said Harry, his ears turning pink. "He's mad at us."

"Oh," said Marissa, a smile starting to form on her lips, "what about?"

"Er," said Hermione, her cheeks turning pink, "He's mad that Harry's staying here."

"Why?" asked Adam, joining in on the fun.

"He, er, he's jealous, I think," supplied Harry.

"Why?" asked Marissa, smiling.