"Wow! Thank you, Hermione!" Emily jumped up and hugged Hermione, then began rummaging through the snacks on the long table. A moment later, her mood sank a little again. "Pepper Imps, Toothflossing Stringmints, and some Ice Mice..."
Emily felt gloomy. She lowered her head and stopped rummaging. She was not very interested in snacks that were not sweet enough, so she casually picked up a purple-red round box of Pepper Imps, tossed a few into her mouth, and amused herself by breathing fire at the window.
Although Hermione knew these would not quite suit Emily's tastes, she was still very satisfied with the compromise she had chosen. Only then did she notice that Penelope was not in the compartment.
Allen noticed Hermione's gaze and explained before she could ask, "Penelope used Apparition to go home and get the car. Staying at school for so long got a bit stifling, so we'll drive around outside for a while before going back."
"I can't leave with you." Hermione sounded a little dejected and said gloomily, "My parents will drive over to pick me up. They always get there very early and wait, afraid they'll miss me or get held up waiting in traffic. I can't let all their trouble go to waste."
"Your parents have always loved you very much..." Allen nodded. "By the way, have you persuaded them to move into the wizarding world? Have you told them?"
"I think they may have guessed something from the fact that you had me arrange for a Death Knight to be placed at my house. At first, though, they thought it was because our wizarding world had become unsafe, so afterward I also let slip to them that those fires in the Muggle world were actually attacks caused by bad people among wizards.