Catching Her Heart Pt. 2

Chapter 68

"Yes, mother," Oliver said as the woman came up and took Hermione's hands.

"But what about you?" Hermione asked, looking to Oliver.

"Oh, I'll be around," Oliver said.

"Down at the pitch, no doubt," Hickory said coming in from a door she recognized from the tent, closing the door behind him.

"Well, now that I made the reserves with Puddlemere United, I need to keep up the practice," Oliver said.

"But you play Keeper," Juniper acknowledged. "How can you practice when Hermione is the only friend you've ever had here? Not to mention the only girl."

Oliver shifted uncomfortably. "That's not entirely true," he admitted.

"What do you mean?" Juniper asked, looking at him with a narrowed, studying gaze.

"Well," Oliver said sheepishly and rubbed the back of his neck. "Over Christmas holidays, in 1990, while you were on vacation with Dad, Lee Jordan came over; I had invited the Weasley twins since they had just made the team as Beaters, but they said that they'd be busy with their parents over the holidays, but Lee said he was available, so he spent a few days here."

"Oliver!" Juniper exclaimed in shock. "I didn't even know you were planning on coming home! Why didn't you say something?"

Hermione guessed that she was more upset about missing her son than him having someone home when they weren't here because it had happened so long ago.

"Well, I knew that you'd be celebrating your silver anniversary, and thought that it was rude to intrude," Oliver explained. "I knew Dad got time off special to take you to Kyoto. Even then, we weren't prepared for the blizzard that hit, so we were house bound, so he never got to see anything. In a way, we're lucky we've never been able to get the house-elves to stay in the house, otherwise I don't want to think what would have happened to the horses."

"What do you mean the house-elves don't live in the house?" Hermione asked in alarm. "Where do they live?"

"Please don't think we don't treat the elves well," Oliver said, recalling his talks with her about the treatment of house-elves.

"They live in the barn," Juniper added.

"The barn?!" Hermione asked, looking between them, and Oliver cringed.

"The truth is," Hickory said. "I've been trying for years to get them to come in the house, but they just won't do it. Too ingrained in the old ways from my family. It does give Juni a break from them when they aren't working on chores around the house. They actually protested time off to look after Ash when he was injured but we all insisted."

"What happened to Ash?" Hermione asked, remembering Oliver's story that Ash had protected Hickory while Cherry and Willow helped Oliver and Juniper escape the attack at the Finals.

"Oh, he was hurt pretty bad," Hickory said. "Could have lost him due to blood loss if I hadn't raised a ruckus at St. Mungo's to treat him, too. They didn't do much of course, even with threatening to withhold funding donations. They did enough to clear their conscience though... they stopped the bleeding and got him bandaged."

"That's awful!" Hermione said.

"We know it is," Oliver said. "That's why Dad threatened to take him to a Muggle hospital."

"It was only then that they agreed to treat him as much as they did," Juniper said.

"Oh, um," Oliver said noticing his parents' bewildered expressions. "Hermione here wants to change how most people treat house elves."