Close Quarters

Disclaimerstyle=\'font-family:Arial\'>: I own
nothing you read here, it all belongs to J. K. Rowling.

Hermione Granger sat on her
bed at her parent’s place reading. She
had arrived home just two days ago from her magical school for witches and
wizards, Hogwarts. It had been a sad
end of year with the death of the headmaster Albus Dumbledore, and now Hermione
faced some decisions about her future.
For the next couple of days though, these decisions would be put on
hold, as she was determined to spend some time with her parents.style=\"mso-spacerun: yes\"> In fact the only decision she had made was
to sit her apparition license, which she had passed only yesterday.

Suddenly there was an
insistent tapping on her window.
Hermione looked up to see a barn owl tapping furiously on her window
sill. She jumped up and opened her
window for the bird, and it offered her it’s leg.yes\"> Hermione untied her letter, and found some owl treats and offered
it some of her glass of water. The owl
ate and drank, and with a grateful click of it’s beak, was off.

Hermione opened the envelope
and took out two pieces of parchment and a pendant necklace.style=\"mso-spacerun: yes\"> The pendant was a silver snake, and the
snake was wrapped around a glass vial that held a silvery substance.style=\"mso-spacerun: yes\"> Hermione unfolded the parchment and quickly
read and re-read each piece. She then
put the pendant around her neck and tucked it under her clothes so no one would
know it was there. She then made her
way down to the kitchen to prepare dinner and wait for her parents to come
home.

Almost exactly at the same
time that Hermione received her letter two others were receiving a letter –
Ronald Weasley and Harry Potter. Though
neither had a vial with theirs, they had identical letters to Hermione save the
names at the top of the parchment.
Harry Potter quickly packed his trunk, put Hedwig into her cage, and
took his belongings downstairs. After a
quick and unpleasant exchange with the Dursley’s, Harry left 9 Privet Drive
with his belongings, found a secluded area next to the road, held out his wand,
and in a matter of minutes was on the Knight Bus to London, where he then made
his way to 12 Grimmald Place to await his friends.yes\">

Ronald Weasley showed his
letter to his parents, and they had a quick discussion.style=\"mso-spacerun: yes\"> Ron then went and packed his belongings,
took them into the fireplace, farewelled his parents and flooed directly to 12
Grimmald place where he met Harry. They
settled down to wait for Hermione, as they knew she would have to wait for her
parents to arrive home before arriving.

Back at Hermione’s house,
her parents had arrived and they were having a discussion over dinner.style=\"mso-spacerun: yes\"> Hermione had showed her letter to her
parents, and after dinner she went up to her room and packed her
belongings. Back downstairs she bid a
teary goodbye to her parents, grabbed her belongings and apparated directly
into the entrance hall of 12 Grimmald place.
Immeadiately she heard a knocking on the door, which she opened to find
Professor McGonagall and Molly Weasley.
They all made their way into the kitchen, where Molly set about fixing
dinner for the boys and the professor. Of course, Hermione had already eaten.style=\"mso-spacerun: yes\"> Professor McGonagall opened the discussion
with the three friends, “Good you are all here, then you all know what you must
do, we will start directly after dinner.
Enjoy this meal as one of you will not be around the other two for some
time to come.”