CH18

"But, daddy!" she whined. "I have to!"

"Actually, Hermione; no, you don't," Sirius calmly corrected her. "As you have completed your OWLs... and I have no doubt you've significantly passed all of them... you can withdraw from Hogwarts without having your wand snapped and you and your families' memories wiped.

"However, though I've explained what won't happen won't, as a witch who's only managed to complete her OWLs you will be in a poor situation to successfully secure a career. And, there, I have an answer."

While Hermione was clearly reluctant, both Marc and Sandra clearly wanted to hear what he had to say.

"Because of your position in my godson's heart... together with how you stood by him this past five years through everything he went through... I'm very prepared to give your parents an offer for you to attend school in the magical United States - at Ilvermorny School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

"Further, I will both pay for it and ensure you are provided with a permanent International portkey from there to here and back, if needed.

"That is, of course, unless your parents choose to emigrate to the United States, just to get the Hell away from the risk that is the recommencement of the Voldemort War. If they do, then I will provide all the financial assistance needed for them to accomplish that."

"But, that would cost a fortune!" said Sandra.

Sirius smiled back and said, "Funnily enough, I happen to have one. Actually, I have four of them. As well as indisputable ownership of the Black fortune, I also have full control of the Potter and LeStrange fortunes. Those three, together, have made me, by far, the richest wizard in the country; if not the world. The fourth is a Potter family secret, so I cannot even allude to it.

"Believe me; moving you, your household and your business to the United States would not even cost me one month's interest payments and dividends on one of those fortunes.

"Riddle knows Hermione to be a close personal friend of Harry. That has automatically made her... and you... a prime target of his. Now that he's come out of hiding, it isn't a matter of if he comes after you, only when. I see it as my duty to ensure you're outside the country and away from his clutches."

Stunned, the three Grangers did not know what to say.

Eventually, Marc said, "Wee'llll... have to discuss it... as a family."

Sirius calmly nodded back and said, "Of course. It's a big decision. However, you've now heard from Hermione just how dangerous the man and his Death Eaters are. I wouldn't dreamof pushing you, but it would be a great relief to me and in Harry's memory if you accept.

"I do have one proviso, though. Hermione... and you... are to cut all communications with any of the Weasleys and Dumbledore; nor allow anyone to act as a go-between, including someone such as Minerva McGonagall."

"Oh, believe me," said Marc, quite emphatically. "That was going to happen, at any rate."

Hermione winced, but didn't retort or otherwise disagree.

The subject was dropped for the rest of the afternoon and evening through and beyond dinner.

Just before he left, though, Sirius told Marc that Dobby would be instructed to answer Hermione's call when they made their decision. They could pass a note to him via Dobby and Dobby would immediately deliver it.

Dobby turned up at Grimmauld Place with a note bearing their decision only two days later. Though Hermione was at first against it, she came around and her parents accepted. In the end, all it took was for them to remind her Harry would not be at Hogwarts, either.

They were gone within two weeks. Sirius had everything arranged through the goblins in Gringotts, MaCUSA; rather than Gringotts, London.

Dumbledore, fully expecting to be reinstated as Chief Warlock and Britain's wizard-Ambassador to the ICW soon after it became apparent 'Voldemort' was indeed back, found himself utterly shocked when he wasn't.

The arrest and subsequent imprisonment for 'Life' of Severus Snape played only one part in that. When it became public, partly as a result of Snape's Veritaserum-driven statement that Dumbledore had deliberately cut all communications between the 'Boy-Who-Lived' and almost everyone else - and that cut in communications went a great deal towards why Harry ended up that night at the Department of Mysteries - no one was that stupid they did not quickly realise that Dumbledore's deliberate actions played a significant role in Harry's, their boy hero's, 'death'.

The only position Dumbledore managed to retain out the other side of it was the position of Headmaster of Hogwarts. And that was only because it was successfully argued by his law-wizard that the old man's dismissal as Headmaster was unlawful. What also went a long way towards Dumbledore keeping the position of Headmaster was that, while everyone now knew he was partly responsible for Harry's death, he was still the 'only' wizard Voldemort feared. Therefore, him being at Hogwarts and protecting the Heirs, their children, was where he 'needed' to be. It wasn't justice that had him retaining the Headmastership, it was the self-serving interest of the Members of the Wizengamot.

When he verbally railed against his denied reinstatement as Chief Warlock and Britain's wizard Ambassador before the Wizengamot, it was Augusta Longbottom who logically put forth that the position of Headmaster was a full-time position and Dumbledore really couldn't have time to properly attend to other full-time positions, such as being Chief Warlock.

She then further dug the verbal knife in by stating that 'traditionally' the Chief Warlock's seat was always held by one of the Lords of the Noble Houses. And Dumbledore only had a seat on the 'Mot (the Wizengamot) due to his earning the Order of Merlin. The House of Dumbledore was only a minor House, certainly not a Noble one. Dumbledore was utterly stumped for a logical rebuttal; because she was right and he knew it.

If anyone else had said it, he would have immediately done his damnedest to seek political revenge against them and fight for the seat. However, with Harry now 'proven' not to have been the Chosen One of prophecy to defeat Riddle simply by 'dying' and not by Voldemort's hand, he needed the somewhat elderly witch on his side to now mould her grandson, Neville, to be the One.

So, though he absolutely hated to do so, he 'magnanimously' and verbally acceded to her logical observations and didn't push it.

He left it for almost a full month before he began to subtly work on her about his training her grandson. That started with telling her and proving by use of a borrowed pensieve – now that the goblins of Gringotts had 'stolen' his that there existed a prophecy it was Neville's 'duty to wizarding Britain' to complete. One of the last things the Grangers did as they were leaving the United Kingdom - their last British act, as it were - was to send Hermione's official notice of withdrawal from Hogwarts to Minerva McGonagall, together with her Prefect's badge.