DISCLAIMER: J.K. Rowling owns most of the characters and settings here—I own the rest.
The title of this chapter is taken from "Scar Tissue" by the Red Hot Chili Peppers, for obvious reasons. The rest of the song doesn't quite match up, even though I had a chuckle about cat!Hermione in the bathroom stall after her failed Polyjuice experiment...anyway. Never mind!
I realized after I posted that I meant to give thanks to CeliaEquus for the idea of Hermione's parents living in a Queenslander house (seen in her story "Captive at Number 12" on ), although I did place them in a different city, I believe. Thanks! (and BTW, being a fan of rare pairings, obvs, I loved the Yaxley/Hermione pairing in that.)
And...an extra big Thank You to all reviewers-as always. Feel free to leave a further review in the box at the end of the chapter...on with the show!
NOTHING ELSE MATTERS
Chapter 21 - This Lonely View
After Walden returned with the food (2 magically-reduced trays worth, which Hermione obligingly restored to their original state), they spent a pleasant time tucking in and then capping off the meal with dessert and coffee.
"Do ye have that scar salve with ye, lass?" he abruptly asked, when he'd finally sat down his fork.
"Er...yes, I actually did bring it," Hermione responded. "Might have been nice if I'd remembered it before earlier today."
"Nothin' we can do about that now," he said. "Gonna go out with Heather and Melissa tomorrow after we get back-do ye mind watching Evan for a bit?"
"Not at all," she replied. Although she was slightly curious about his plans, she didn't ask, as she had already concluded that it was best to simply head back to Melbourne and not dwell on the day's failures...not to mention which she genuinely enjoyed Evan's company.
He stood up, used his wand to levitate the food trays toward the door, and then stripped off his shirt and tossed it on the floor. Although by this point, Hermione was used to the sight of a partially- (or less) clothed Walden, she nonetheless gave an appreciative gasp and gawked at him a bit. He chuckled. "Sorry, I really do, er, I mean I always have, er, liked kilts," she said, blushing a bit. It did not hurt that he was very muscular and fit. He'd explained that doing the hated chores every day for years while under house arrest had kept him in shape.
"Noticed that," he said, as he approached her. "So can ye get that salve now?" He held his left arm out to her. Since Voldemort's defeat, she had observed, in a rather clinical way, that the remains of the Dark Lord's Mark were different on each of his followers. Those who Walden had referred to as the "true believers" (and the only one she'd had on her docket was Mulciber), still sported very distinct Marks. The Carrows' Marks could hardly be distinguished from the way they'd always looked, and Mulciber's was rather similar to theirs. Draco Malfoy's Mark had almost completely disappeared the last time she'd seen it. Walden's was still outlined thinly in red. She'd applied the salve to it a couple of times at his request, but nothing seemed to have changed...and of course, her father, who had passed his detail-oriented nature down to his daughter, had seen it and known immediately what it was-or had been-thanks to his perusal of the Daily Prophet and that Ministry pamphlet.
"Out, damned spot, out, I say," she muttered, as she applied the salve yet again to Walden's arm. He flinched, as he had at each prior application.
"Och..." he grunted, and took a deep breath. "What did ye say?"
"Nothing," Hermione replied.
"Can I borrow this when I'm out tomorrow?" he asked.
"You can have it," she said, as she sat the glass jar on the bedside table. "I was rather hoping I'd never have the need for it again." As he was still holding his arm out, waiting for the excess salve to absorb, she examined his Mark critically. "Doesn't look any different."
"Aye," he said. "Come here," he said, as he swung his other arm around her rapidly.
"I'm already here," she said.
"I mean here," he said, as he grasped her shoulders and pushed her down to her knees. "Suck me prick, I canna wait any more."
"But...is the door locked? I haven't done a Silencing Spell-"
"I'm gonna do one on ye with this wand," he said, as he lifted up his kilt to reveal his extremely hard cock.
"But...I need..."
"I need ta fuck ye soon, and if ye're going to keep talkin', I'll do this instead," and he illustrated his last phrase by letting his kilt drop, lifting her up, laying her across the bed, reaching under her sundress to remove her underwear, and reaching down and burying his face between her legs in one very well-coordinated movement.
"Oh...oh yes..." Hermione gasped, as his tongue found its mark, and she shuddered into his grasp...and then writhed again and again, as he eagerly lapped at her.
After several minutes of his expert attentions, during which she was certain her head would explode from the pleasure, he grabbed her around the waist, turned her over, and took her roughly from behind, ecstatically growling as he slammed himself home.
When they lay together afterward, he confessed, "When ye touch me Mark, it's like I've drunk that potion, ye know, the one from the Revels."
"You didn't exactly hear me complaining; I just wanted to make sure, er, that the entire inn didn't hear us."
"The innkeep told me that the rooms already have charms in the walls," Walden said, with a wink. "Would ye like to test them out again?"
The next morning, they strolled to the Portkey Office in companionable, contented silence after a leisurely breakfast. The journey was uneventful, and before long, Hermione was seated on the garden bench in the Macnairs' backyard with Evan, sipping an IPA and reading out loud to him from Adventures of the Golden Trio. She annotated the text a bit with pithy comments for the boy's amusement.
"It says here that we were all very good students, and-well, all of us passed most of our OWLs...those are Ordinary Wizarding Level exams, you'll take them in your fifth year-anyway, Harry wasn't a bad student, but Ron didn't pay attention in class and constantly skived off..."
Evan laughed. "Was Ron your boyfriend?"
Apparently all Macnairs were direct. "Well, he was, for a while. Not until after we were out of school, though, really. And he's not anymore."
"I know that, my dad's your boyfriend now, isn't he?"
"Well...yes, we're dating," Hermione said. "Are you all right with that?" She wondered who she was really addressing with that question...Evan, her parents, or even herself, as she glanced around at the lush yard. The barbecue grill loomed on the porch; Heather had removed the cover before she, Melissa, and Walden had left on their mystery errand, and promised that they'd be enjoying prawns on the barbie, a classic Australian dinner, that evening.
"Yes, are you going to marry him?" Evan asked.
"Er, well, we have discussed that, but, well, there are some things to consider..." Hermione said.
"That he was a bad guy, I know. My sissy told me all about that, but she said he'd paid his debt to society, and my Grandpa made him work at his house and he couldn't leave for ten years. And my godfather, Uncle Lucius, wrote me and told me how my dad was very sad after Voldemort killed my mum." Evan looked at her and bit his lip in the same way that Walden did when he was deep in thought. "I can't remember anything about my mum, sissy told me that she was very nice and smart, and I'd really like to have a mum."
The use of the Dark Lord's assumed name in casual conversation was, incredibly, the least surprising thing about Evan's recitation.
"I know you would. I miss my mum, too," Hermione said.
"But Auntie Melissa said that you just went to see her!" Evan replied.
"We did go to see her and my dad, but they...well...they're not happy with me right now," she said, as she closed the book. Clearly, story time had ended.
"Why not?" Evan asked, as he stood up. "Do you want to go for a walk?"
"Sure," she said, checking her skirt pocket to make sure her wand was well hidden. After they'd walked down the block a bit, she said, "I sent my parents here to keep them safe from...well...from the Death Eaters."
"That was what my dad was," Evan said, looking very serious.
"Yes, he was," she said, glancing around at the passing houses. The Macnairs lived in an pleasant older suburb featuring renovated frame houses and lots of trees. "And my parents found out about that, and they're not happy that I'm dating him, and they also weren't happy that I did a charm on them to modify their memories. And the charm somehow wore off, I'm not exactly sure how that happened..." and with that, her voice drifted off, as she made a mental note to begin formulating her plan for research about that.
"Your parents don't like my dad?" Evan said.
"I think it's more accurate to say they were intimidated by him," she said. "He clearly frightened them. They'd met Ron, you see, and my mum actually asked what had happened to him, in front of your dad. And that was a colossally bad idea."
"My sissy says that Dad used to get mad pretty easily and he could be mean," Evan replied.
"Well, I taught him some ways to deal with that, and while he left the room to use the loo, my father actually told me that he wouldn't stand for me being involved with such a scoundrel."
"What does "scoundrel" mean?"
"A bad guy, basically, although whenever I hear that word used, I always somehow think of pirates," Hermione said, with a small smile.
"I like pirates," Evan supplied, with a very large smile.
"And honestly, Ron is the one who's been more of a scoundrel for the last few years. Which I tried to tell them, but they weren't listening to me at that point, and we just decided to leave. I suppose I'll clear it up eventually, but your dad and I needed to get back here and help you all get ready to move."
"I'm excited about moving and about going to Hogwarts!" Evan exclaimed, as he kicked a small pebble out of their path. "My sissy asked me what House I wanted to be in and so did my Dad, and I'm not sure. What House do you think I should be in?"
"Well, the Hat will help you decide," Hermione said. "When I got there, I thought I'd want Ravenclaw, but the Hat convinced me that I'd be better off in Gryffindor. And I'm glad I went there in the end."
"Have you seen the sword?!" Evan said. "If I'm a Gryffindor, will I get to use it?"
Hermione laughed. "Yes, I've seen the sword. It's very shiny and very beautiful. My friend Neville had hold of it last-"
"Yes, I know about that!" Evan said. "He cut off a snake's head with it! That's so cooooool!" My, you really are your father's son, Hermione thought, but she decided not to voice that.
"He did indeed," Hermione said. "And after that, the goblins of Gringotts came and took the sword back, to keep it safe, but they promised us that if a true Gryffindor really needed it, that they wouldn't stand in the way." And that had been an extremely uncomfortable conversation. The Trio may have been considered Golden by a majority of the wizarding world, but the goblins clearly remained annoyed about the dragon-assisted bank heist. She kept her wizarding Galleons with them, to keep the peace, but she also quietly maintained a mutual fund and a flexible cash ISA at Barclays.
Hermione kept Evan enthralled with the story of the dragon ride out of Gringotts on their walk back to the house, and then allowed him to beat her in two games of wizard's chess. She made grilled cheese sandwiches for them, and they ate outside on the patio as the summer haze surrounded them. They'd just gotten through another chapter of the book, back on the garden bench, when Walden appeared in the back door.
"Lass, we're back! Evan, come look!" Walden seemed rather uncharacteristically giddy about something; he was practically jumping up and down. Hermione glimpsed Melissa and Heather in the doorway behind him, wide smiles on their faces. "Melissa, would ye toss me one of those lagers? Come on, come up here," he said, as he plucked the Foster's oil can out of the air above his head. After everyone had collected drinks (Hermione opted for water) and noisily sat themselves around the patio table, Walden, Heather and Melissa all extended their left arms.
On each forearm, covered by what appeared to be clingfilm, was a large, elaborate shaded blackwork tattoo. Walden explained that it was the Macfarlane clan crest, a stylized belt surrounding a bearded, muscular warrior hefting a sword in one hand, and his other resting on a crown, with the words "THIS I'LL DEFEND" inscribed at the top.
"It hurt like the devil," Walden admitted. "The salve helped. Wish we'd gone to do this when we first got here."
"He looks a bit like you," Hermione said, as she examined the stylized swordsman.
"Can I get one?!" Evan asked.
"Not until ye're older, son, but the artist made a temporary one for ye," Walden said, and he reached in his sporran and brought out a somewhat smaller paper rendition of the design, which he then proceeded to apply to Evan's arm. Evan got up and ran around the backyard, yelling "ARRRRRR MATEY" at the top of his lungs, to general amusement.
After Melissa and Heather went back into the house to retrieve the barbecue fixings, Walden turned to Hermione. "I know ye feel like ye doona have a family right now, but ye'll always be welcome in mine, nae matter what happens," and he handed her another temporary tattoo.