Hidden Identities
It had been a particularly hardcore training, that their coach decided needed to run over by three hours, hence why Elle was still in bed at 11am on a Friday. Harpies never trained on a Friday as Saturday's were match days, so at best they'd meet for a team talk. Elle hated team talks. It meant she had to get out of bed before 9am on a Friday, and she liked her lazy days. Her flat mates were both muggle born and had a love of the gym, and even though they'd dragged Elle along three or four times she couldn't confess to loving it as much as they did. Meg even loved it so much that she was a personal trainer there, to cover her ridiculous lifestyle.
It was a hard tapping at the window that woke Elle up from her hazy slumber, she quickly shot up in bed and looked at both of the rake windows that were situated on the wall opposite her bed. A brightly coloured owl, bright at least for an owl, was tapping his beak against the window, clearly this was a tenacious animal. By the time she had gotten out from her double quilt and pulled open the dodgy Victorian windows the bird had tired itself out, hopping onto the radiator by the window and then down onto the floor where he sat for several minutes.
The note wrapped around his leg was short but sweet, and written by Fred.
Where have you gone?
Is it too soon to say I miss you?
F
On their date they had decided that any communication between the two of them would conceal their identities, especially considering how the press were following Elle like a seeker on a snitch. This note however, made Elle's heart swell a little, so she quickly grabbed a biro, the closest thing she could find to a quill and scribbled on the back of it in her lazy handwriting.
I've been training! Let me off if you want us to win ;)
I miss you too. I have a free Friday if you can get Ge- (the other one) to cover?
I'm not good at this identity concealing.
E
She took a quick look to his owl, deciding that it needed a break, before tying the message to her owl and giving her the address. In a matter of minutes another note had come back,
Can we still get married even though I don't support Harpies?
The other one can definitely cover. I'll be there asap.
F
P.s I totally do support the Harpies...
now.
"You know how you quite like me and I've had a bad week?" Hermione smiled shyly over at Oliver from his bathroom, she was washing her face, well, more like scrubbing her face to try and clear her stressed out skin.
"Depends on if you tell me about why your week was bad," Oliver was propped up in bed, the covers over his legs, his chest bare from when he'd been sleeping with a warm Hermione wrapped around him. He had to admit he'd missed it, when he'd been away on international.
"I can't." She gripped onto the counter top of the bathroom so hard that her knuckles went white, which Oliver immediately picked up on, for an extremely intelligent girl she was forgetting the large mirror in front of her that gave her away. Once out of bed he slipped his muscular arms around her waist and kissed the nape of her neck.
"Aye, you can Mione, you just don't want to." He whispered gently.
"I had a panic attack, a really bad one. I didn't get out of bed on Thursday.. which is why I was so late coming over here last night. I had .. I had to take a potion to get myself to leave the house."
Oliver sighed, not in an exasperated way, in a concerned way. "You should've said. I would've come to you."
"You'd just come back from international, I know you wanted your own bed Ollie."
She washed the scrub off her face and turned to face him, "I wanted to be wherever you were, and that's not me being cheesy, it's just true. These potions.. especially the ones you're brewing yourself, they've got to stop babe."
"It hasn't even been a year. Don't ask things of me that I won't be able to do, I'll only disappoint you." Hermione let herself out of his hold, walking into the bedroom and grabbing a navy turtle neck and quickly changing into it, careful for Oliver to not see her scars. He'd seen them before. Of course he had, but she was emotionally charged and one little thing could tip her right now.
"You. Hermione Granger, could never," he followed her into the bedroom, "Aye, listen! You could never disappoint me."
Sitting on the edge of the bed she slid one leg into her opaque tights, and then the second leg, something that no one could ever do in a graceful way, yet Oliver would say that Hermione always managed it.
"Where are you going?"
"To the ministry, Kingsley has requested a meeting." She slipped her skirt on over her legs and pulled it to her waist, zipping it at the edge and smoothing down the laser cut detailing along the trim.
"Why don't I come with you and we can do a bit of shopping on the way back?"
"I hate shopping." She bit back, and then suddenly realised how nouty she was being with him, for no reason, he was looking after her and she bit his head off. "I'm sorry. I was going to ask you if you'd come with me, to meet Kingsley as well, I already owled ahead and he said it's okay if you come if I say so, and of course it's okay that you come."
"Are you done with your attitude?"
"Yes. I have an idea of a shop we should go to, it's definitely your sort of thing. You know, old cameras and new muggle cameras.. I'd like to treat you."
"Aye come on you don't have to do that." Oliver pulled a jumper over his shirt and jeans, checking himself in the mirror to see if the scar below his eye that he'd gained at training had healed at all.
"Key phrase there babe, I'd like to." Hermione kissed his cheek gently, grabbed her wand off of the side and slid it into her jacket. "It won't heal if you pull it about like that."
"Aye Mam okay." Oliver laughed, "Are we walking to the Ministry?"
"Please. I need some fresh air. Get my head sorted."
Oliver kissed her soft mountain of curls, a small grin on his face as he whispered, "I think we're past that baby."
The bright yellow front door of Elle's flat shook as Fred banged his fist against it, and in less than a minute Elle had appeared at the two panes of glass, sticking her tongue out cheekily. Her long tanned legs stretched out of her tiny blue shorts, with a thick Harpies hoody over the top: it was at least two sizes too big and was definitely from the 80s by the looks of the design. Fred was freezing. Elle was still laughing.
"Let me in you troll!" He mouthed at her, holding up the two sticks of chocolate coated marshmallows he'd picked up from a store very similar to Honeydukes, she grinned as soon as she saw them, opening up the front door.
"Bribery, I like it." She took a bite from the top marshmallow as soon as Fred handed hers to her, "Hey Fred."
"Hey Elle." Fred smiled shyly, kicking off his black hi top converse and following Elle into the hallway, it was long and brightly coloured with big prints of quotes like 'Bad ass babes club' and 'The world is filled with nice people, if you can't find one, be one' along with a selection of photos of Elle, her flat mates, her team mates and so forth, stuck to the wall.
"Would you like the tour? The rest of it is just as bonkers." Elle licked her lips and finished off the last marshmallow on the stick, much to Fred's surprise.
"Hungry?"
"Ravenous. I've only just got out of bed."
"Aren't you meant to be an athlete?" Fred joked.
"My flat mates go to the gym enough to cover everyone, I do all the sleeping and eating." She winked, grabbing his spare hand and pulling him into the first room on the left hand side. The living room? Fred thought.
Aside from the large bay window on the front of the house, with the dark blue curtains covered in stars, there was nothing traditional about this flat. There were three softly textured grey bean bags on the floor, she must be sharing with muggle borns, and two large roll top couches, one in bright purple and one in bright orange, they were both pushed against the two walls that lay perpendicular to the door. The dark wooden flooring that had been in the hallway continued into the lounge, with a thick rug covering the majority of the floor, all of the furniture seemed to point towards the corner which housed a large flat screen television, she definitely lives with a muggle born.
But it was the walls and the mirror that made Fred smile the most, the walls were covered in even more pictures than the hallway, ones with Elle laughing, ones with her pouting in serious black and white, whole team pictures, magazine shoots where they'd graffitied the pictures with moustaches and devil horns. Big maps in differing colours were pinned to the plaster, with pins sticking out of them to show where they'd travelled, he vaguely remembered Elle saying that her flat mates were a bit older than her and were both on the GB squad, which meant that they went away for international quite a bit. Then there was the mirror. As soon as they stood in front of it, they morphed into different people, have I got her face?!
"Where did you get this? It's bloody brilliant!"
"Some old junk shop in a wizarding colony in Wales, Meg found it. The whole flat is covered in stuff like that, she's a bit of a collector.." Elle laughed, poking the mirror so that it warped again, stretching their faces high above the mirrors edge.
"How long have you lived with them?"
"Eh.. about two years?" Elle looked up at Fred, when she responded to his question, "Do you mind if I eat?"
"Can I join you?" Fred chanced his arm, hoping that Elle wouldn't be funny with him. He was in luck, she started to skip off to the kitchen so he followed, amazed at the red and white tiling around the room, in fact, from what he'd seen so far this was one of the calmest parts of the place.
By the time that Elle had cooked up a veggie fry up and they were both sat at the table with it, Fred had managed to make her laugh with some crappy knock knock jokes, found out that she was ticklish beyond anyone he'd ever met before, and fallen a little bit head over heels for her.
"I know we just met but can I get something off my chest?" Elle shook her mane of hair out from the scrunchie it had been looped up in, Fred nodded back at her, a mouth full of food prohibiting him from speaking, "My Mum died when I was 11, and I tend to talk about my parents like they're both still here."
Fred swallowed the lump in his throat before he opened his mouth in shock, he didn't know what to say. Here he was with this great big family, that, oh merlin, he'd talked about for hours the other day, and there she was, on the other end of the spectrum. "Shit, Elle. I'm, I'm so sorry." He reached across the table and squeezed her hand, she smiled gratefully back at him and that's when they both felt the pull of their tattoos, like some unexplainable force holding them together.
"It's alright. She just.. she would've loved you." Elle shrugged, half happy at the thought of her beautiful Mum meeting Fred and wrapping her arms around her in one of her famous bear hugs, and half sad, because that was never ever going to happen.
"Have you got any pictures?"
"Yeah." She bit her lip gently, "Do you actually want to see them?"
"I'd love to get to know her, if she made half of you then she must've been technicolour."
"She was. She was the brightest sunrise and the happiest rainy day, and she just. She would have loved you." Elle smiled, "And I promised her I wouldn't remember her and be sad, because she was never sad, not even on her last day. She was Rosie." Elle giggled to herself at the memory, from the first moment she remembers her Mum had always been Mama Rosie, and she had always been sick. It was a long battle, but not a hard one, not that she saw anyway. Every time she saw her Mama Rosie, the sun seemed to shine out of her, and she would have glitter or stars on her face and a blue scarf with sunflowers embroidered on it around her head.
"Do you need a hug?" Fred asked, and if it was if at had all fallen into place for Elle. Fred hugged like her Mama Rosie hugged, two arms tightly wrapped around you and just enough space for you to lay your head.
"So.. unfortunately, that is the case as it stands. Teddy is in the hands of the state, but he is being well cared for I assure you, and Mrs. Tonks has visited daily since he was put into care." Kingsley sighed, he had just finished telling Hermione and Oliver of the situation regarding Teddy and Andromeda - she had slowly deteriorated into a state of not being able to look after Teddy any more and had been forced to put him into care. A part of Hermione was angry that she'd reached out to the Ministry before she had reached out to Harry, but in all respect, Harry was not an easy person to get hold of.
"What I want to know, Minister, is why Harry has not been informed via some sort of communication, and why it is me sat in the office receiving this news on his behalf." Hermione knew how to fight her battles when she had them, Oliver took mental notes as he watched the conversation unfold to never get on the wrong side of her.
"As you are aware, Harry is in Greenland, he is out of communication range at this present time, Hermione." Kingsley understood the position that Hermione was in, of course he did, but there was nothing he could do about the situation, this is how it was. Until Harry could return from Greenland, Teddy would be in care.
Hermione had the same thought. "Can Harry not be brought off mission?"
"That is out of the question. He is vital to the proceedings."
"With all due respect Minister, they're probably watching polar bears."
Kingsley laughed, a great booming laugh that filled the room, it wasn't intended to be patronising, even though Hermione took it that way. "I can assure you, Hermione, that they are not watching polar bears."
"When will Harry be informed?"
"As soon as, I promise you. Once they are in range again, I will personally make sure that Harry knows." Kingsley stood from his desk to signal that they should be leaving as well, "I trust your match is working well?"
Hermione took a quick look up at Oliver, and smiled briefly, "Great change of subject, Kingsley. Let me know when you've informed Harry." And with that they both left his office, as soon as they were out of ear shot, Hermione turned to Oliver. "That is ridiculous, right? A. Why couldn't I have taken Teddy home with me until Harry returns and B. Why can't Harry come home?"
"Aye, I don't think it's as easy as that." Oliver slipped his hand into Hermione's, squeezing it once to let her know that he cared.
"Are you always this diplomatic?"
Oliver shrugged and pressed his lips to her temple, he knew that either answer would get him in trouble, so he chose to keep himself out of it. It was easier.
