… and Love
A/N – Firstly, the general housekeeping issues. This is a Harry Potter fanfic. It's not the mythical Book Eight, nor is it the real epilogue that was stolen by nameless individuals while the galley proofs were on the way to the publisher. I'm not JK Rowling, and while I and everyone else is indebted to her for bringing us the world that is Harry Potter's, everything recognizable in this story belongs to her. Including the two brief quotes in the chapter from her published works. Both are cited at the end of the chapter.
Secondly, a specific housekeeping issue. This story is told in a series of chapters and interludes, which are told from two very distinct points of view. While I'm fairly certain people will be able to tell which POV belongs to whom, the chapters are Hermione's and the interludes are Harry's. The final chapter will see both of those points of view merged. The chapters and their corresponding interludes will be posted together
Hopefully this will be enjoyable and not confusing. This particular story has languished in one form or another on my computer for a couple of years now. Only when I actually decided when it was occurring did the ending come to mind.
Chapter One – After All These Years
29 August, 2003 – Room 611 – The Lily Potter Dark Arts Trauma Ward - St. Mungo's, London
"Books! And cleverness! There are more important things-friendship and bravery and-oh Harry-be careful!"(1)
For a dozen years, the cowardice of a moment when I was twelve has haunted me. The course of my life, the course of the life of the boy, no the man, who would become the central focus of my life, and maybe even the fate of wizarding Britain hinged upon a single sentence. In spite of my failure, the Light prevailed and we both survived to live our lives. To my eternal shame and discredit, my choice that day seemed to place an unseen but quite palpable barrier between Harry and myself.
My inability to utter two words, two very commonplace words, to my best mate brought us inexorably to the moment where I'm sitting in a darkened hospital ward, not certain whether Harry will live or die. Not certain if I'll ever be granted the grace to correct that failure, that betrayal of the love we've always had for each other.
Closing my journal, I silently sealed the leather-bound volume and slumped back into the chair I was occupying. The room was dimly lit since Harry didn't need illumination at the moment, and I was beyond caring. Watching the slow and steady rise and fall of his chest, I synchronized my breathing with his.
Whether from a vain hope that I could share the burden of maintaining life with him by doing so, or as an acknowledgement that he held both our lives in his hands, I was uncertain.
The number of hours the both of us have occupied hospital wards, waiting for the other to return to consciousness or health, would probably be staggering if either one of us would ever care to count them up. Summoning up what courage I still possessed, I began to speak.
"Harry, I'm here."
Pausing as if he was going to answer, I watched for any sign, any reaction from him to the sound of my voice.
"As soon as I get you back on your feet and healthy, I'm seriously considering hexing you to within an inch of your life." Feeling my voice about to crack, I paused and silently filled one of the earthenware tumblers sitting on his bedside table with water from the pitcher sitting there. Taking a sip, I sighed in resignation.
"I know that sounds a bit counter-productive, but it's the only thing I can think of to do, at the moment. I have to have some sort of hope that I'll have a chance to make things right between us."
At that moment, the door to the hallway creaked as it was being eased open. Since all the diagnostic spells were showing the same results they had for the past three hours, it was one hour, twelve minutes and seventeen seconds until the healer was scheduled to return, and forty-seven minutes and thirteen seconds until the mediwitch was scheduled to make her next appearance, I was reasonably certain who was standing in the doorway without needing to see the door.
"Go home, Ronald. I told you twice before that I'm going to be here until he wakes up." Trying to keep my voice even, I refrain from turning around and glaring at the door.
"We'll discuss everything else once Harry's awake."
"Herms, Mum says you should come home with me. The healers will floo the Burrow if anything changes. No sense…"
Ronald cut off and took an involuntary step backwards as I finally turned around in my chair and glared.
"What is without sense is Harry being in this position in the first place, which is totally our fault and responsibility. Are my parents out there?"
Trying to dial back my emotions, I closed my eyes and took a couple of deep breaths. In the back of my head, I could hear Harry chuckling. 'Don't kill him out of hand, Mi. You'll most likely regret it in the morning; especially after you see the mounds of parchmentwork they'll make us do to explain it.'
My whispered "Right again, Harry," coincided with Ron's "Alex and Helen are outside. They just brought up tea and biscuits from downstairs, thinking you might need something soon. I told them that we'd be heading back…"
"In twelve years, have you ever once thought about consulting me before making these idiotic, unilateral pronouncements?"
The rational, polite voice in the back of my head, which really sounds too much like the Harry who had consoled and comforted me when I needed it over the years for my peace of mind right now, was commenting upon the waspish tone of voice I was using.
The snarky, mischievous voice up there, which strangely enough sounds like Harry the Marauder, who was forever planning another prank, was pointing out that a quartet of Norwegian Blues could, most likely, catch him before he was past the mediwitch's station in the hallway.
"Herms, what's that supposed to mean?" Standing there, glaring back at me in his dress robes, Ron was shaking his head.
"None of this is our fault. We need to regroup and finish what we started, get things back on track. Harry would want…"
A sharp 'crack' cut Ron off, as the vase of flowers on the table beside him shattered.
"Don't you dare to presume to speak for Harry. You haven't had the decency or nerve to talk to him for months; it's laughable to think you'd try to speak for him now." Turning my back on him, I snarled, "Especially since it's your fault and my fault that he's here."
"No one told 'The Wizard Who Has to be in the Limelight' to go charging up there, if he would have stayed put…"
"If he would have 'stayed put', I'd be dead." Struggling to keep my voice from growing louder, I realized that everyone in the adjoining rooms could hear me now. The fact that I no longer cared wasn't really a surprise to me, once I thought about it.
"What part of seven Death Eaters crashing the party can't you comprehend? You apparated out and left me standing there with three people to try to protect. If Harry hadn't put himself in the line of fire, I'd be the one laying there, or dead."
"There were some on the other side, I needed to get to my family and help them." I stared at Ron as he turned a shade of red so deep that I was beginning to consider calling a Healer for him to prevent him from stroking out in front of me.
"Your brothers and Ginny had turned the two that apparated in on that side into paste by the time you got there. The five that were sniping at me weren't quite as obliging. If Harry hadn't shown up…"
"But he did. Running in to be the center of attention. Well, this time it backfired on him. Finally, his seeking the limelight…"
Whatever Ronald was going to opine was cut off when I wandlessly pushed him against the wall and pinned him there for several seconds as a warning.
"You egregiously jealous prat. If you would have stayed in place, the three of us could have taken them easily." Releasing my hold with a frisson of satisfaction as I saw the surprise and fear in his eyes, I stood and stepped between him and Harry's bed.
"I am sick to death of you blaming me for everything that happens to Harry. He's an auror, the bloody 'Wizard who Won' for Merlin's sake." Raising his voice, Ron took two steps forward from the door and put his hand on my shoulder. Shaking away from him, I turned around and tried to control my disbelief.
"You need to come home with me before you lose it and say something you'll regret."
"Ronald, I've already said the things I regret; it's the thing I didn't say I regret even more."
Staring at him, I felt the anger begin to drain away, replaced by that dull feeling of fear and loss that had been threatening to overwhelm me since I had cradled Harry's head into my lap as he whispered two words before losing consciousness earlier.
Looking at Ron, poised between fight and flight, I shook my head and closed my eyes.
"Just go home. But send my mum in on your way out. I'll make certain everyone knows his status." Reaching up, I clenched my fingers around the transfigured DA galleon that hung from around my neck.
"This isn't right. You need to leave. Kingsley is downstairs; we can get him to help. We don't have to leave tonight, if you don't want to. Tomorrow we can get a portkey just before noon."
"Ronald, that isn't going to happen now," Looking down, I waited to see if he was going to interrupt before continuing.
"At this point, I can't see anything happening in the foreseeable future. I'm staying here until Harry wakes up; regardless of how long that takes. Then, Harry and I need to talk."
Seeing the look in his eyes, knowing that he was about to lose his temper, I held up my hand.
"Just deal with it. This isn't the time to argue with me."
"It never is. I'm going to go speak to the Healer in charge of his case. If you're not going to come home, at least I can keep you from burying yourself alive in this room, waiting on the off-chance that Harry ever decides to grace us with his presence and wake up."
"He's going to wake up, he's coming back." Trying to keep the fears that were gibbering in the back of my mind at bay, I locked them behind my determination, no my need for Harry to return to us, to me.
"You might as well go home, there's not a healer on staff that would listen to you on this. Chastity, Healer Dursley, has already vetted me. There are a half dozen of us on the 'family' list besides Dudley and Petunia, and we all have access to the room, regardless of the hour.
"Since Dudley's at Gatwick, waiting to pick up Petunia and bring her here, I'm going to be here so that he has a friendly face when he wakes up." Pinching the bridge of my nose in a vain attempt to ward off the headache I could feel looming on the horizon, I wearily lowered myself back into the chair.
"Harry's family will be here for him when he's ready for us so you might as well run along home. Since I'm certain you won't bother to come back, I'll send you an update as soon as we know something."
"Bloody Hell, Hermione. You need to leave right now and come downstairs. We should have been finished with everything and on our way to Barbados if that bloody insane, delusional refugee from a quill factory hadn't appeared out of thin air."
As he was turning redder by the second, I momentarily entertained the notion that Ronald was going to spontaneously combust. While quite impossible for muggles, it does happen occasionally with wizards, not that I'd ever admit that to Luna. Just as I was about to remark upon his language, yet again, he managed to shock me. Something I had thought we'd gone beyond.
"I'm still not certain why Kingsley called a halt."
Staring at him in disbelief, I tried to find the words to express what I was feeling.
"Ronald, every member of the Order who was there, and it was the vast majority of them, distinctly heard Fawkes say 'No' and forbid Kingsley from going any further. Only twice before in recorded history has a phoenix used the Song of Negation before today.
"Considering what happened the last time someone disregarded that warning, I think you'll see Seamus rooting for England in the World Cup before Kingsley considers 'picking up where we left off'." Shaking my head at the look on his face, I tried to mask my shock and dismay.
"You can't be serious, you didn't hear him?"
"What the bloody hell are you going on about? All I know is that blasted menace of a jumped up peacock shows up, screeching its lungs out, and then everyone's looking at me as if I'd done something. Give me five minutes with Kingsley, and I can have him talked around. And if he won't, then it won't be too difficult to find someone who will."
Stunned, I turned my head and looked at Harry for a second. When I could see that our arguing hadn't impacted Harry's physical state, one way or the other, I sent the tiniest tendril of magic into the Phoenix Medallion I was wearing.
Feeling the magic awaken the slumbering functions of the symbol of the pledge that so many of our friends and colleagues had sworn, I willed the roster function of the medallion to show me the closest fifteen members of the Order. Ghostly images appeared across my sight, not solid enough to interfere with what I was doing, but enough to give me a glimpse of who was around and what they were involved in.
A glimpse of Harry was first, followed by Parvati, Padma, Hannah, Neville, George, Arthur, Molly, Lavender, and Cara. With the exception of Harry, all of them were clustered out in the hallway in the small waiting area.
Down one floor were Chastity, Minerva, Filius, and Horace sitting around a table, watching mugs of tea grow cold as they tried to find something, anything, to say. In the lift, coming towards me was Kingsley.
"Ronald, show me your Order medallion." My voice, sounding flat and mechanical to my ears, was barely above a whisper.
"Your medallion. Now."
Staring at me, Ron shook his head.
"It's at the Burrow; I left the worthless bauble in a junk drawer where it belongs. The Order's time has passed, Herms. There's no reason to allow our lives to be orchestrated by a jumped up bird."
Staring in disbelief, I began to tick off in my head the clues that I should have seen over the past nine months.
"You and Harry didn't row over his breaking up with Ginny for the final time, did you?"
"Of course we did. The callous prat led her on, and then shamelessly broke her heart. He just played with her for years, and walked away and left her a mess for someone else to pick up."
Closing my eyes, I took a deep breath and held it for ten seconds. Slowly releasing it, I went through the fourteen standard variations on the protego incantation from the Mastery exam as I tried to center my thoughts.
"Be serious, Ronald. In case you hadn't noticed your sister's engaged. I suspect that she's recovered from her last row with Harry very nicely, especially since she and Dennis made the cover of Witch Weekly four days later. You might as well tell the truth, it's going to come out as soon as Harry wakes up." Glaring at him, I watched his eyes begin to shift back and forth as he kept glancing at Harry's unconscious form.
"The meddling fool has finally run out of luck." Staring daggers at him, Ron flexed his fingers and then balled his hands into fists before continuing.
"The time has come for all of us to move past Harry. Gin's moved on, and it's time for you and everyone else we know to do the same. He's another bloody Mad-Eye, a relic from the past who can't grasp the notion that life passed him by."
Glaring at me, Ron drew himself up and took a step forward, holding his hand out to me.
"We've passed him by."
Staring at him in disbelief, I tried to come up with something, anything, which would explain Ronald's mindset. Choosing my words carefully, I ran through three or four responses before I found something that the non-snarky Harry in my head would agree with.
"Ronald, most of your family is here at St. Mungo's waiting on word of how Harry's doing. Everyone we know is either here or sitting at their respective homes waiting to hear about Harry." Watching his face turn red, I shook my head in disbelief.
"Even Draco was here, offering support and help in tracking down the ones behind this.
"For Merlin's sake, your own sister is almost in shock, the only reason she's not out there in the waiting area is because the healers gave her a potion to settle her down and assigned her a room so she could calm herself.
"The only person on the bloody planet who actually knows him, who's not currently housed in Azkaban, and who isn't concerned about him is you." Closing my eyes in resignation, I sigh.
"His onetime best mate doesn't give a tinker's damn about him, and you're all alone in that."
My eyes popped open as a brilliant flash of crimson light filled the room and a weight settled itself upon my left shoulder. The look of disdain on Ronald's face told the tale, as did the comforting trill that filled the room with peace and contentment.
"Hello Fawkes. Have you come to sit with me while I wait for Harry?" Trying to keep my tone light, I shook my head at the look of contempt upon Ronald's face. A brief flash of a vision of my hand being held out prompted me as to what the phoenix wanted next.
Reaching up, I held my right hand, palm up in front of Fawkes. Gently, the ageless avian placed a coin-shaped object in my hand, attached to a goblin silver chain. Wrapping my fingers around it, I identified it by touch as an Order medallion.
Not just any medallion, but the one Ronald had taken up upon his formal induction into the Order the night before we were awarded the Order of Merlin almost six years ago. Trying to hide my shock and dismay at what the medallion was telling me, I shook my head slightly to clear the thoughts running through it and stared at Ronald.
The look of horror on his face at the appearance of the phoenix that was at the heart of the Order and the look of loathing he directed towards the medallion in my hand answered all of the questions that I had about him, but brought forth many more.
Suddenly, as if a bolt of lightning had passed through me, Fawkes tightened the grip of his talons upon my shoulder, and a series of memories began playing through my head. Moments between myself and Ronald, myself and Harry, the three of us together.
The tent after Ronald left us that dreadful evening. But the point of view wasn't mine, it was from the outside. I watch as both Harry and I focused on our disappointment in Ronald and ignored the pain of the other. I saw as Ronald returned that fated night, and how I blindly accepted the horribly wrong status quo that Harry and Ronald had forged before entering the tent, Harry's vain attempt to salvage our friendships, my ignoring my own desires and feelings for the roles that the three of us had mindlessly trapped ourselves in.
I watched the dynamics between the three of us grew and changed as the months and years passed. Watched myself keep Harry at arm's length, except when I needed him to comfort me, because I was afraid to admit to myself what I really felt.
To my shame I watched myself use my feelings for Ronald and his feelings for me as a shield against my own emotions, my own fears and insecurities. I saw how Harry and I had crafted the events that led us to here and now through our fears. Our disbelief that the other would love us. I saw the love that filled him when he launched himself between me and the attack he saw as certain death.
Standing slowly so as to not disturb the phoenix perched on my shoulder; I got out of the chair and stood there for a few seconds to get my bearings after 'reliving' the past few years.
"Thank you Fawkes, you've answered all of my questions." Silencing Ronald with a regretful look, I reached down and slipped the medallion into the pocket I had concealed in the gown I was wearing. Without taking my eyes from Ronald, I quickly removed a ring from my left hand and held it out to him.
As I held the ring out, and took in the look of regret and pain in Ronald's eyes, Fawkes trilled a short sequence that spoke of regret and ending. Giving my shoulder one last careful squeeze of his talons, he rose up and extended his wings as he disappeared in a ball of flames that illuminated the room, but had no effect on me other than leaving me with a feeling of hope.
"Ronald, you deserve better than this, better than me. I never truly meant to hurt you or deceive you, but I've just been forced to be honest with myself and I need to start over. To begin again."
Seeing the shocked look on Ron's face as he took the ring from my grasp, I nodded sadly.
"I'm truly sorry that it's come to this. Regardless of what you've said or done, this is my fault because I was a coward and refused to face my own fears and feelings.
"I realize that I have no right to ask anything of you, but I beg you to reconsider your feelings regarding Harry. When he wakes, he'll need all of his family and friends around him, and you two go too far back to allow this to come between you, forever. He did nothing to cause this, other than just being Harry."
Watching the kaleidoscope of emotions playing across Ronald's face, I waited for some sort of response from him. He looked over at Harry, lying in the bed unaware of the drama that was unfolding, and I could see a range of emotions that, surprisingly, included regret play out across his face. Ronald stepped back and stared at me, his cool blue eyes seeming to peer into my soul for a moment. He closed his and turned away, walking slowly towards the door.
As he put his hand on the door, he paused. Without turning, he softly spoke.
"We never really had a chance, did we?"
"Honestly, I don't know." My voice quavered on the verge of breaking as I could see the tension in his form from where I was standing.
"We cared about each other, loved each other, once upon a time. I still care about you, and I don't want to see you hurt by this. But I can't ignore the reality of the situation. Please don't let my failings come between you and Harry. I'm really not worth the two of you losing a friendship that has endured what yours has."
Chuckling bitterly, Ronald looked over his shoulder at me. For a second, I could see the old Ron Weasley, the one who played to win on the giant chessboard, rescued Harry from the icy water on the hunt, and salvaged the basilisk fangs during the Battle of Hogwarts, standing before me.
"Right now, the only thing in the universe that Harry and I would agree on is that you're wrong. You're worth any sacrifice, any hardship, any cost." Taking a deep breath he nodded.
"Do what you must; I'll be at the Burrow waiting for news."
Opening the door, he stepped into the hallway. Turning once more, he smiled stiffly.
"I hope he makes it, if for no other reason than you can finally get a chance to work this out between the two of you." Taking a deep breath, he concluded, "So you can finally know."
Before I could speak, he closed the door and was gone. Standing there, dumbfounded, I stared at the door for almost a minute before it opened. Seeing my mother's face appear in the doorway, I blinked and shook myself.
"Mi?"
Looking tentative, my mother eased the door open and stepped into the room holding a tray with a couple of sandwiches and some biscuits on it.
"Ronald came out and said you were staying until Harry recovers." Watching my mother place the tray on the table beside the door, she looked at me curiously. "Do you want your father and me to bring you a change of clothes?"
Looking down, seeing the bloodstains on the gown I was wearing, I numbly picked at one of the stained areas of the white fabric, expecting it to come off and finding myself saddened when it didn't.
"Thanks, Mum, I think that might be wise. You could use the floo downstairs to go to my flat, or Cara has the activation codes for the wards, she could take you there directly, if she doesn't mind."
Nodding, my mother smiled at me and looked over at Harry. Quirking an eyebrow, she waited for me to speak.
"They don't know anything more than they did. The physical damage from the curse was repaired easily enough, once he survived the initial attack he should have recovered easily. But he's not waking up and we don't know why."
Looking over my shoulder, I blinked back a few tears before I turned around to face my mother again.
"Tell everyone that we don't know anything. I'm going to wait in here with him, but I'll come out if there's any change."
"I'll let them know. The healers and mediwitches have been very kind. As soon as Cara and I get back from your flat, you can change."
As she quietly exited, I watched until the door closed and then I slowly turned and returned to the chair beside Harry's bed. Gently lowering myself into the chair, I arranged the bloodstained dress I was wearing, the wedding dress that was stained with the blood of the only wizard I had ever truly loved, and sighed.
"Harry, I don't know how much of that you've heard, but things here are all pear-shaped. I'm a mess, Ron's a mess, and all of our friends are waiting for some sort of sign that you're going to be fine."
Watching the gentle rise and fall of his chest, I allowed the silence of the room to return for a bit before I reached over and picked up the smaller of the two books that I had placed on the table beside his bed.
"I'm going to be here until we can talk, because I can't imagine my life without you. I need to tell you something that I should have said years ago, but I was too much of a coward to tell you then. Chastity thinks that in spite of whatever is keeping you from waking up, you're still aware on some level of what's going on around you.
"Surprisingly enough, I'm going to read to you. I think this one might be apropos, certainly Albus thought so when he left it to me years ago. Hopefully, the conniving old bastard's right one more time."
Settling back in the chair, I opened the ancient volume and turned to the page I had marked. Taking a deep breath to compose myself, I allowed everything to fade, except for the words on the page before me and my awareness of Harry.
"This is from the 'Tales of Beadle the Bard'." Pausing for a moment, I looked up and watched his chest rise and fall once before I began.
"High on a hill, in an enchanted garden, surrounded by tall walls, and protected by strong magic, flowed the Fountain of Fair Fortune."(2)
A/N - (1) - Quote taken from "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's/Sorcerer's Stone"
(2) - Quote taken from "Tales of Beadle the Bard"
Interlude One – A Left turn at Albuquerque?
Time is irrelevant on the Ethereal Plane - or is it inside Harry's head?
Awareness returned with a jolt.
One second I was launching myself through the air while I vainly tried to get one more shield up just as some poxy scion of the Lestrange family was casting a disturbingly nasty curse at Hermione's back, and the next, I'm sitting all alone in a place that looks distressingly familiar.
Looking around, I didn't need to look down to know that I had appeared totally starkers in that place that Hermione had dubbed the Ethereal Plane when we had finally gotten around to discussing what had happened that night in the Forbidden Forest.
Holding my breath, I listened for a few seconds, but this time there wasn't the disgusting mewling in the background that had followed me the last time I was here.
Closing my eyes, I concentrated for a second. As I opened them, I turned my head to the right and noticed that a set of dress robes had appeared beside me. Shaking my head, since I'd been wearing a muggle tuxedo moments ago, I stood up and proceeded to get dressed.
Looking around, I really couldn't discern any difference through the swirling mists in any direction. Closing my eyes, I tried to clear my mind as we'd worked on so many times. As my jumbled thoughts began to fall into some sort of order, it seemed to me that walking forward would serve as well as any other direction.
That voice in the back of my head, which has sounded disturbingly like Hermione since I realized it while she was in the Hospital Wing during that Chamber of Secrets fiasco, snickered in a very uncharacteristic fashion for such a serious situation and murmured "Well, duh."
So much for my brilliant intuition.
Opening my eyes, I began to move forward through the mists. As I walked, I began to see shadowed shapes before me. Suddenly, between one step and the next, I found myself in a familiar setting.
For all intents and purposes I was standing in the seventh floor corridor of Hogwarts castle, near the tapestry of Barnabas the Barmy. Looking to my left, I could see a wooden door where the entrance to the Room of Requirement would be, slightly ajar.
Putting my hand on the handle to the oaken door, I took a deep breath as I eased the door open and stepped inside. Standing in the doorway, I looked around, noticing that the room was in the configuration that I had last seen the night the three of us had come stumbling out of the tunnel from the Hogsmeade with Neville, all those years ago.
"Wotcher Harry." Turning my head sharply to the left, I was fairly surprised to see Nymphadora Lupin sitting on one of the low cabinets, kicking her feet back and forth and looking surprisingly like the last time I remembered seeing her up and about. Except for the whole not being pregnant thing, of course.
"Hey Tonks. You draw the short straw for being the welcoming committee tonight?"
Crossing the room, I came to a halt beside her and wrapped my arms around her. Hugging her tightly, I smiled as I felt her return the hug.
"I'm so sorry. It looks as if I'm not going to be able to keep my promise to Remus and you about making certain Teddy grows up."
"Nonsense, Harry."
I stepped back from her and stared at her, waiting for an explanation. Smiling coyly, her hair shifted from bubblegum pink to a truly shocking azure and back again while I waited. Her eyes shifted from their usual dark brown, almost black, to a shade of brown that looked disturbingly familiar.
"Would you rather have had Albus here tonight?"
"Nothing personal, but I'd rather not have ended up here at all." Allowing a bit of bitterness to creep into my voice, I shook my head as I continued.
"Although I suppose this does beat staying and having to figure out what to do with the next eighty or ninety years of my life."
"Other than being a father to my son?"
Arching an eyebrow in a very reminiscent manner, my irritation must have shown through because she smirked and chuckled.
"Harry, your mum and I argued about who was going to talk to you tonight, she finally decided that I'd have a better chance of getting you to stay on point, since the two of you would have been too distracted by the reunion."
"What point," I snapped, shaking my head as I looking around for something to sit on. As soon as I began, a barstool appeared next to me and I sat, turning my attention back to Tonks.
"Teddy's fine. Or at least he was when things started to drop in the pot. He was sitting with your mum and Fleur's parents at the wedding when everything started to go south. Andi grabbed him and they were being shielded by some of the Order members when I saw that Hermione and her family were outnumbered."
"Harry, he's fine and she's fine." The look of understanding on her face was in response to my surprise as she sussed out the question I pointedly wasn't asking.
"Well, fine might be too strong a statement, but physically Hermione's in good shape."
"Thank Merlin." Releasing the breath I'd been holding, I closed my eyes for a few seconds. "I can't believe that there were still enough Death Eaters around to mount a public attack like this."
"What the bloody hell were you thinking?"
I opened my eyes in shock to stare at Tonks. I could see the anger in her eyes as her hair shifted to an electric blue and became spikier than normal.
"I can't believe you were just going to do sit there, do nothing…"
"Nothing?"
Remember those last frantic seconds as I tried to get between Hermione and that curse, I stared at Tonks in disbelief. "I'm here, aren't I? Does this look as if I was doing nothing?"
A/N2 - Edited for minor spelling and grammar errors on 11 September 2011. thanks to Dragon451, couragetcd, Euphemism, and Alix33 for their help. Greatly appreciated as always.