Chapter Text
Wednesday, 19 September 1979.
A baby cry could be heard in the hospital room, followed quickly by a mother’s plea “my baby girl, let me hold my baby girl”.
Amelia Parker, the nurse who auxiliated in the delivery smiled at the young couple, the father seemed frozen in shock, looking at the bundle in her arms like it held the answer to all the question in the world, meanwhile the mother, who could barely keep her eyes open after the effort it took to give birth to someone, was mumbling, asking for her baby, anxiously waiting for the chance to hold her for the first time.
“Would you like to do the honors?” Nurse Parker asked Robert Granger, the father of the crying baby in her arms, wanting him to be the one to hand the little girl over to the mother. For a few seconds Robert stood there, unmoving and she briefly considered asking for a doctor in case he passed out, after all it wouldn’t be the first time a father passed out after watching the birth of his first born, but, before she got a chance call for help, his face was consumed by the biggest smile she have ever seen, showing his slightly too big front teeth.
“Yes, yes! I would love to!” Exclaimed Mr. Granger taking his daughter into his arms, excitedly. “Hello, Princess, I’m your daddy” was whispered into his baby’s hair followed by a soft kiss to her forehead, before he was handing her to her mother, with a loving smile.
The moment Jean Granger took her daughter into her arms, the little girl stopped crying. The sort of all consuming love she felt at the moment, looking at her baby took her breath away. She didn’t know it was possible to love someone quite so much, but here she was, looking into her baby’s big, brown eyes and thinking about how she was the luckiest person in the world to be holding something so special in her arms.
Following her husband example she decided to introduce herself “Hi, Hermione, I’m mommy, I’m really excited to finally meet you”.
“Hermione, huh? I guess we finally have a name” said Robert, still smiling at his girls. To which his wife just nodded and smiled back.
“I like it, it suits her. A strong name, for a strong girl!” Said Nurse Parker. The couple looked at her startled, between the excitement of holding their daughter for the first time and having finally picked a name for her they had completely forgotten about the nurse’s presence, she seemed to realise this and chuckled at the happy new parents. “Well, I’ll be at the front desk in case you need anything”. The last thing the nurse thought before leaving the room was ‘That is one lucky girl with such loving parents’.
As soon as she left, the couple went back to looking at each other and their daughter with nothing but love in their eyes.
That same day, when cleared from the hospital Hermione Jean Granger went home with two loving parents, who couldn’t be prouder of the little girl they now could call their own.
Thursday, 23 october 1980.
A toddler with brown eyes could be seen playing with her toys in her playpen in a living room, her parents were just in the next room getting dinner ready together, a tradition they didn’t let up after the birth of their only child. Every now and then the child would hear her mummy and daddy giggle and a content smile was constantly plastered on her little face, but after over 30 minutes of playing with her firetruck and her dolls she grew tired of her toys. Throwing everything to the side Hermione pouted, she wanted her parents, she was tired of playing!
Just before she started screaming for her mommy and daddy, something caught her eye: it was the colourful book her mommy was reading her just the night before. She looked longingly at it, she really wanted it right now, it didn’t even occur to the child that she couldn’t read and thereafter the book would be useless to her, she just needed it!
The child was so lost in thought, she didn’t see the book flying straight into her hand from the bookshelf, but as soon as she felt the pressure in her hand and took in the book she giggled happily and started flipping through the colorful pages without a care in the world.
That’s how Robert found her a few minutes later when he came to collect her for dinner, laughing at the pictures in the book with a happy look on her adorable face. He smiled, shook his head and picked her up in his arms. “Hey, Princess, did Mommy let you keep your book?” he asked, knowing his daughter wouldn’t answer, but trying to be the one who got her to say her first word anyway.
Hermione just shook her head from side to side, smiling and pointing to the book her father left behind in the playpen she said “Book, book!”
Her daddy just froze then, looking at his daughter with wide eyes he exclaimed “you… You just said your first word! JEAN! JEAN! Come here!”
Hermione just looked at her daddy frustrated, she wanted her book but he wouldn’t get it for her! “book!” she repeated.
That was the moment her mummy bursted into the room, looking flushed and worried, until she heard the word coming out of her daughters mouth. “Mon Dieu! She is, she is talking! Oh, darling…” said her mum rushing to their side with tears in her eyes.
She took her daughter from her husband's arms and started pampering her with kisses, “Can you say Mummy? huh, can you say mummy to me love?”.
Hermione just looked unimpressed, or as unimpressed as a 1-year-old could possibly look, and repeated “book!”.
Robert concealed a laugh at that, Mione was totally a daddy’s girl, he thought proudly and even if her first word was not daddy, it was still directed at him.With that thought in mind and wanting braggin rights with his wife (who said you have to be mature in order to raise a child?) he asked his daughter “what about daddy, Mione? Can you say daddy?”.
For her part Hermione just kept pouting and repeated “Book! Book! Book!”.
Jean didn’t even try to conceal her laughter at that, she knew what her husband was trying to do, they were together since college after all. She looked at him smugly ready to start needling him, for her husband needed to be taken down a few pegs since he was always bragging about how much of a daddy’s girl their daughter was, but before she had a chance she saw something flying from the playpen and straight into her daughter’s hand. Both mother and father looked frightened at the object in their baby’s hand before sharing a glance of absolute horror between them, but for two different reasons.
While Mr. Granger’s thoughts were along the lines of “Bloody Hell! How did that happened? Is the house possessed?”, Mrs. Grangers thoughts were more along the lines of “no, no, no, you’re not supposed to go through that!”.
Oblivious to her parents panicked state Hermione just shoved the book in their directions and said “Book!” happily, expecting her parents to be proud of her for her newfound ability