╔═══════════════╗
CHAPTER TWO
that unknown thing
╚═══════════════╝

IT HAD BEEN TWENTY MINUTES SINCE THE CARMICHAELS ARRIVED IN DIAGON ALLY, AND SINCE THEN, EDMUND HAS CAREFULLY AND SUCCESSFULLY AVOIDED HIS FAMILY WITH THE HELP OF HIS THREE NEPHEWS. The triplets have been creating chaos since they were brought into the world, marking their starting line to their competitive streak across their mother's lower abdomen when they couldn't decide who would be born first. So, when prompted with opportunity to cause some mischief, they could never say no. And their plans always seemed to be flawless.

The fireplace that the Carmichaels traveled through was located in a high class antique store filled to the brim with countless of priceless artifacts and rare decor. They were allowed to travel through the shop because Edmund's parents would always buy something expensive before leaving -- something they would set on the dining room table for a limited period of time before bringing it to its place on a self in their storage closet. And almost everything in the store was made of glass. The triplets couldn't wait.

"I don't understand. What do you mean I can't pay with cash?"

Benjamin Granger stared down at his hands, eyebrows furrowed and a confused frown on his lips, trying to figure out why the cashier at the candy store wouldn't take his five dollar bill to pay for his small bag of candy.

"I'm sorry, sir," the young man behind the cash register explained, "but we don't take that type of money here."

"It's not fake," his wife, Jean Granger, explained with a concerned expression, "It's real money, we are not trying to cheat you out of three dollars."

The cashier looked confused, "Ma'am, I'm not sure what a muggle dollar is in comparison to wizarding currency."

Hermione was scanning the small colorful booklets lining Sugarplum's Sweet Shop's shelves when she heard her father calling her over to help explain the situation. She saw looks of concern cover her parents' faces as they tried to figure out what they did wrong. As she walked, Hermione simply pulled out her clutch, fished out some loose coins, counted them up, and slid them across the counter towards the flustered cashier.

"Come on, dad, I told you I'd take care of it," Hermione commented as she almost dragged her parents out of the store. "Your money is different than wizard money."

"Why?" He asked, completely confused, "Thats confusing. Do they have an ATM machine here?"

Hermione shook her head and shared a giggle with her mother. The family continued to walk down the street, peeking in shop windows every so often to see if they wanted to enter. The crashing of glass caught her attention.

Her parents were distracted by a vender selling some kind of enchanted dancing pencils, so she wondered off by herself, following the sounds of glass breaking and shouts. She found herself looking into an antique shops windows. And inside, she saw three children, all identical looking, smashing anything and everything in reach. The shopkeeper was shouting in horror at all the irreplaceable items being destroyed as a young woman tried to get her kids from grabbing anything else.

Hermione's eyes drifted over to where she heard more shouting and she saw two adults yelling at a boy a little older than her. She instantly recognized him as Edmund Carmichael, a known pure-blooded Slytherin — they had a few classes together since she was advanced beyond her year and she had seen him around the school. And besides, everyone knows who he was now because of his brother, Tomen's, condition. But she frowned at, who she assumed as his parents, yelling at him, she didn't like seeing it. However, once she saw his unbothered face, she scrunched her eyebrows. He didn't look like he cared too much, his eyebrows slightly raised and his hands lazily in his pockets. Eventually, his parents got distracted by the triplets causing such a ruckus, and they didn't notice Edmund grabbed Tomen's wheelchair and snuck out the side entrance. Hermione watched the two boys laugh as they snuck away from their parents, running into the streets in the opposite direction of where she was.

She convinced herself that it was curiosity that made her followed the two. Telling her parents she was going to go meet a school friend while keeping her eyes on the mop of dark brown curls that bounced with every step. But she was troubled about the situation with their parents, and wondered what it was about as she walked. The two went into the candy store, the one her and her parents were just in. Hermione felt a bit creepy following the boys, but she shook off the feeling as she went into the store once more, trying to look as inconspicuous as possible.

Edmund let Tomen roam as he pleased, picking his own sweet treats while he picked a bag for himself. The variety of colors was always pleasant and exciting, also, it wasn't everyday he would get to see this many different types of people and creatures in one place. Even though the spirit was dampened by the dispute at his house and the incident at the World Cup, he still found the place comforting. It was on everyone's minds, though, the incident. He could tell. Even though no one in sight would let it show on their faces, especially in front of the children scattered throughout every single store, everyone was thinking about it.

Edmund didn't think he would be that worried about an event like that being attacked, since not one of his friends goes to those types of events, but the thought of it weighed him down even more than he already was. The controversy of the entire situation hung over every citizens' head like a low fog, even though the Minister desperately tried to blame someone else for the attack besides Him. But the open minded knew who it truly was. But Tomen was a good distraction from it all, his comments and insults were a constant in his life, and for that, he was thankful - knowing he didn't really mean all the things he was saying. But it didn't help the frown that pulled at his cheeks whenever they stopped chatting.

Edmund continued to look for some candied-treats to satisfy his increasingly persistent sweet tooth that he had since childhood. Leisurely he walked the isles, admiring the kaleidoscope of colors and shapes all the different candies possessed. Some snapped at his finger when he reached for them, weighed five times the weight they should've been, and some remained dormant, unmoving. The little moments brought a small smile to the corner of his lips as they came and went, slowly brightening his day bit by bit.

After a few minutes, he had accumulated a few chocolate truffles inside a clear baggie - he always knew what kind of chocolate he liked and what he didn't like. Tomen popped into his mind as he scanned the store, his eyes landed on his brother, who tried to discreetly make Edmund look to his right. When he followed his gaze, he saw a girl he always became flustered around. A girl he could never find the right words so he never said anything to. Hermione Granger stood a few isles down, looking awkward and fidgety as she glanced around herself — like she was looking for someone, or avoiding someone. Edmund looked over at his brother, who mouthed a single word:

"Pact."

Edmund had always been a smooth and easy talker, but when it came to her, he would always back out, fearing her looking at him like an idiot. And as for the pact, Edmund and Tomen both promised each other that they wouldn't let anything hold them back from trying to get what they wanted this year due to humiliation or hate from others since this could be Tomen's last year at Hogwarts before he gets hospitalized. A part of this pact was that Edmund would talk to his crush of two years.

The only problem is that he made this pact late one night when he was drunk off his parent's old fashion alcohol they stole out of the wine cellar while they were out of town — which resulted in an hour long lecture and multiple rights at home taken away from them — but he pushed it off, thinking that he would build up confidence to talk to her later.

He didn't.

When Edmund's gaze swept back over to the girl, he was met with two brown eyes looking back at him. He did everything he could to prevent his cheeks from going red, a skill he had perfected, while his heart started to beat faster. He sent a small smile at Hermione, holding up his hand lowly as a wave. Her cheeks flushed pink as she flickered her eyes from Edmund's face to the floor, giving a small wave back as her lip turned up at one side.

Before he could say anything else, he heard his father's voice, speaking loudly as he searched for his two sons. Tomen was already hiding behind a barrel, so, Edmund did the only reasonable thing he thought he could do. Hide.

Hermione saw Edmund duck behind the isle he was standing by, crouched down low with his back pressed against it. Her eyebrows furrowed as she glanced around, not quite understanding what he was doing. Quizzically, she took a few uneasy steps towards him, "What are yo—"

"Get down!" Edmund cut her off as he grabbed her wrist and pulled her down to his level, his other hand pressed a finger towards his lips to tell her to be quiet. Hermione froze as she looked at his face, noticing they had never been this close to one another before. They had never even talked before then.

Edmund peaked over the isle, not yet realizing the closeness of the two, to see how close his father was. When he saw him look his way, he yanked his head back down, quickly seeing how close the two hand become. Her mouth was slightly open in surprise as they scanned each other's face. Edmund felt his heart race, his chest rising and falling unevenly as he stared at her. He never noticed that freckles light swept across her nose.

Edmund broke the silence and eye contact by chuckling, snapping them both of them out of their trance. Hermione blinked a few times, a flustered and embarrassed grin pulling at her features. Shaking herself out of the moment, she got back into her usual character with a whisper, "What are you doing?"

"We," he corrected with a smirk, "...are hiding from my parents. I pissed them off for fun and now I have to wait till they cool off. And since you were going to give away my fantastic hiding spot, you are now stuck with me."

"Fantastic spot?" Hermione questioned in disbelief, "This is the most horrible hiding place I've ever seen. You might as well have just stood behind your wand, it might provide more cover than this."

Edmund turned his head away from peaking over the isle's top with his mouth hung open in fake shock, "Oh, really? I don't see him finding us, so I think we are pretty well hidden."

Hermione rolled her eyes.

"Well, since my hiding spot was so great, he didn't see us. The coast is clear," Edmund wiggled his eyebrow smugly at the girl as he stood, she quickly followed.

"Like I had a choice to be your 'hiding partner'," she commented as she crossed her arms. Edmund smiled as he stuck his hands in his pockets, becoming less confident now that they were out in the open. Hermione's faux annoyed expression slightly dropped as the two of them looked at each other, one of arms falling down to her side as a smile of her own appeared.

A sharp cough pulled their attention away from each other.

Hermione felt the need to compose herself by squaring her shoulders and straightening her brows — Edmund stayed relaxed as the both of their heads snapped towards the direction of the cough. Her two best friends, Harry and Ron, stood a couple feet away. Ron was looking between the two suspiciously, his eyes narrowed, while Harry looked awkward and oblivious. Edmund couldn't help but notice how much he stood out from the three of them. With his dark, very covering, fancy attire and clean, neat appearance was starkly different from the cozy looking clothes the trio wore. He couldn't help but notice how comfortable they looked, and how stiff his own limbs were in his suit.

Edmund could tell Ron didn't like him, and he was fine with that. He had a weird relationship with the Weasleys that could be described very simply: he didn't like most of them. Being in the same year as Ron's twin brothers, Fred and George, was agitating. They always made life more difficult for Slytherin students, himself included, but it wasn't that big of a deal to himself at first. That was until he started to notice how the Weasley twins acted towards other Slytherins. It infuriated Edmund about how they wouldn't show the same amount of aggression to older Slytherins, only the vulnerable ones.

"Your parents are looking for you, Hermione," Ron commented bluntly. His eyes flicked down to the gloves that are always covering Edmund's hands and then back up before anyone could notice.

Edmund looked over at her, amused, "Need a hiding partner?"

Hermione scoffed. She readjusted her purse on her shoulder before turning and walking away in the direction of her friends. Edmund stood, hands still in his pockets with that stupid smirk still on his face as Harry and Ron glanced at him over their shoulders while they tried to catch up to Hermione. Ron got close to her ear and asked, "Since when did you and Carmichael talk?"

"Oh, bugger off."