Meet The Godparents
A/N – That went well, I think. But while we're waiting to see if the other shoe is going to drop, let's review the basics. JK Rowling and her various corporate partners own the Harry Potter universe. I'm not JKR. Ergo, I don't own the Harry Potter universe.
Chapter 21 – Reworking the Flawed Plan
"His mother is so going to kill me."
Looking at Sirius as if he had taken leave of his senses, Maeve arched an eyebrow and stared at him.
"What? I thought you said Lily wanted these two to get together? She should be happy that they're bound to each other like this."
"Oh, Lily and James both will be over the moon about this. Everyone will be, except Albus. And he'll be worrying about what will happen once it comes out what he did, so he's going to be busy trying to play damage control." Shaking his head at the probable reaction of his oldest female friend, Sirius sighed.
"Lily's going to want to kill me because her baby boy got married with no notice in the one spot she couldn't see it happen if she knew." Waving his arm around him, Sirius smiled wryly at the look on Maeve's face.
"This private little world of yours is totally separated from the normal afterlife. While she could watch what he's been up to growing up, not perfectly mind you but she could keep up on what he was doing. Once we took the two of them 'through the looking glass', however, she's not been able to see anything that's happened. None of them can."
Shaking her head, and looking around, Maeve shrugged. "There are Powers there who can take notice of what happens here, but I find it unlikely any of them would be involved in this affair." Looking down at Sirius and smiling, she shrugged.
"Well I suppose the new order of the day is to go and congratulate the happy couple and figure out how we're going to salvage something out of this. They'll both be devastated if their doing this releases a greater evil on the world than the one they just vanquished."
Gracefully standing, Maeve reached down and took his hand and helped to draw him out of the water up onto the bank.
Shaking himself like a wet dog, Sirius then wrapped his arms around her and kissed her soundly. "You're taking this rather well. Those two just scuppered our plans quite thoroughly." Smiling and ruffling his hair, Maeve laughed at him.
"Hermione is correct; you are hopeless when it comes to some things. The People see things very differently than humanity does. I'm more concerned with obligations and responsibilities than abstracts like your Albus' 'greater good'. The game has changed; they're married to each other and no power here or in your world can put that asunder. Now that this is settled, we can think about coming up with a proper plan that doesn't involve heartache for these two and potential loss later on." Shaking her head in exasperation, she grimaced.
"If we'd done it according to Albus' plan, time could have passed and these two would never have discovered that they loved each other. They would have married their redheads, had a handful of children. Twenty years from now they'd be dutifully seeing their children off to school, not knowing they were within arm's reach of their true heart's desire."
"That, I can't imagine. Any ideas about a new plan?" Laughing, Sirius eyed her naked form appreciatively. Smiling mischievously, Maeve looked at him appraisingly as she made a subtle gesture with her hand and suddenly they were both fully clothed.
"Sheer simplicity. We're going to help the smartest witch of her age and 'the boy that lived' find Slytherin's tomb and make certain there's nothing left that anyone can awaken. No thwarted awakening, no chance for anyone to take revenge. If Slytherin's followers ever do find the tomb, all they'll find is nothingness with no clue who to blame. Everyone we care about gets their happily ever after." Shaking his head, Sirius took her hand and looked at her.
"Why do I have the feeling that this isn't quite as simple as you're making it out to be?"
Laughing, she smirked at him as they started wandering through the trees. "Oh, that's the simple part. The difficult thing is going to be sorting out Ginny and Ron so they're not going to want to kill the newlyweds when they find out what happened while everyone was sleeping."
By the time they had reached the cottage, both Maeve and Sirius were laughing at the thoughts of how the upcoming conversation was going to go. Usually people were aware that they had decided to alter their destinies for all eternity, but in this case, they were both convinced that Harry and Hermione were truly unaware of all of the implications of what they had done, just as they had not realized that they'd become soul mates all of those years ago. Stepping into the entranceway of the cottage, Maeve smiled and Sirius blushed as impassioned voices came down the stairs from above.
Looking at the stairwell heading up, Sirius smirked.
"I'm so not going up there," he whispered.
Taking his hand, Maeve put a finger to her lips and shook her head as she led him off towards the kitchen. Closing the door to the kitchen behind them, the voices were muted, but still barely audible. Shaking her head at the look on Sirius' face, Maeve smiled.
"They'll be down eventually." Looking over at the table, she noticed the kettle sitting in the warming niche.
"Tea?"
Shrugging his shoulders, Sirius looked around and picked up a couple of mugs from the counter.
"Might as well, they'll probably be 'occupied' for a while." Sitting down across from her, he smiled and filled the two mugs with tea. Handing her a mug, Sirius waited until she took a sip before nodding to her and taking a taste himself.
"I still think our best chance is bringing the Weasleys here and letting them see for themselves how much in love Harry and Hermione are. It'll be a bit of a shock, but eventually they'll have to accept it. You can literally see how much in love those two are."
"With Ron, perhaps. He does love her, but from what you've told me he realizes that there are issues with their feelings for each other. He doesn't seem to be able to go a fortnight without setting her off or making her weep and it troubles him. He won't be happy right away, but he'll come around before long, hopefully. Ginny, on the other hand..." Breaking off and giving Sirius a knowing look, she shrugged.
"Ginny has had a crush on Harry since she was six, full blown hero worship since she was ten, and fully fledged physical attraction for the last few years." Shaking his head, Sirius closed his eyes.
"This past week, she's been slipping in and out of total jealousy for Hermione because she could sense something was changing between Harry and Hermione. I don't see this part ending well." Tilting his head, he listened for a couple of seconds. "Sounds like the newlyweds are quiet for a moment. How do you propose getting their attention while preserving everyone's dignity?"
Smiling broadly, Maeve's eyes twinkled. "Like this."
Turning her head slightly, she nodded and the front door to the cottage slammed with a sound that reverberated through the air. A couple of sharp exclamations from upstairs and the sound of feet hitting the floor above them brought a smile to Sirius' face.
Shaking his head, he chuckled as he heard whispering and cautious footsteps on the stairs. "Oy, you're a wicked woman." Smiling at the sly grin on her face, he shrugged, and called out. "I'm in the kitchen being a 'git'. Better get yourselves decent before you come in. You have company."
A snort of laughter and a muttered "he's so dead" followed by outright laughter and the sound of footsteps heading back upstairs greeted them. Looking blandly over at Sirius, Maeve shrugged.
"How do you think they'll take the news?" Sipping his tea and looking thoughtful, Sirius sighed.
"He'll be shocked and overjoyed and then he'll blame himself when he realizes what this does to the plan. She'll work it around in her head, the only thing that will bring her out of it is either having all the answers or when she sees him starting to beat himself up about it."
"You love both of them, don't you?" Putting her hand on his, Maeve squeezed it gently.
"Those two are easy to love. I always thought Hermione was special, and I was grateful she was always by Harry's side when they were going through everything in school. Harry had so few people who actually cared about him, I was glad she could be there for him when I couldn't." Smiling ruefully, chuckled as he thought about the pair and their interactions as Grimmauld Place.
"I was just as taken in by their act as everyone else was. I knew they were close, closer than almost everyone else I had known, but I saw what they wanted everyone to see. Even the fact that she's so much like Lily, its scary…"
The rest of his comment was cut off abruptly as he was engulfed in a ferocious hug by a crying Hermione. Putting his arms around her, he patted her back and looked up to see Harry standing in the doorway, smiling. Smiling at his godson, he hugged his crying daughter-in-law and whispered "Everything's fine" in her ear.
Raising her head from where she had buried it in Sirius' shoulder, Hermione smiled at him. "When this is all resolved, and we can know what's happening, I want you to feel free to come to Grimmauld Place anytime." Still crying, she stood up and looked expectantly at the woman sitting across from Sirius at the small table.
Laughing, Sirius looked over at Maeve and shrugged. Turning back to Hermione, he smiled.
"Hermione, this is Maeve, your godmother. And I think Tuesday next would be a good night for me to drop by and see more of what you've done to the place."
Smiling impishly at the older woman, Hermione said, "Hello Grandmother," before she snapped her attention back to Sirius. "What? Tuesday, next?" Which overlapped with Sirius' strangled "Grandmother?" as he stared at Maeve.
Looking warily between the three of them, Harry sighed. "Will someone please tell us what's going on? I don't think 'Tuesday next' was in the original plans, unless Slytherin is coming back much sooner than anticipated."
Leaning back in her chair, with a smile akin to the proverbial cat after the budgie has gone missing, Maeve shook her head slowly.
"Harry, remember when Sirius mentioned that you two were one line away from being married the day you two formalized your soul bond?" Watching Harry slowly nod, Maeve smiled at the light of comprehension that was dawning in Hermione's eyes.
"Actually it was two lines, and the two of you corrected that oversight earlier today."
Fear, panic, comprehension, and joy flashed through Harry's emerald eyes in rapid succession. Looking at Hermione, he relaxed as he saw the ecstatic grin on her face as her eyes shown with unshed tears.
"Hermione, I don't know what to say. Did I trick you into marrying me?"
Shaking her head emphatically no, Hermione crossed the distance between them and threw her arms around him, kissing him hard. As his arms wrapped around her, she lifted both her feet from the floor so that Harry was holding her weight in his arms. Their kiss went on as Sirius kept looking at Maeve with a strange look in his eyes. Finally they broke for air, looking deep into each other's eyes.
"You asked, and I accepted. And we both meant it or our magic wouldn't have acknowledged it. Apparently, 'when we're free to live our lives' means right now." Hermione whispered in a husky voice. "You're stuck with me for all eternity, so you might as well get used to it because I'm not going anywhere. Ever."
With Hermione's arms around his neck, Harry put one arm under her legs and walked over to the large trestle table with her in his arms. Sitting on the edge of the table, he lowered her legs until she was sitting on his lap as he scooted back from the edge.
"Can we salvage the plan now that we're married?"
Maeve smiled, Sirius started to open his mouth, but Hermione was the one who answered Harry.
"Bugger the plan, Harry." Smiling grimly at the shocked look on her husband's face and Sirius', she shook her head.
"No offence to anyone here, but Albus' original plan was shite. Plan B's stated goal was to give us a choice." Looking around the room, she wrapped her hand around Harry's and squeezed.
"We chose. For the first time in our lives, we both chose not to do what was expected, or what was required, but what we needed." Trying to stand, Harry wrapped his arms tighter around her and held her on his lap. Sighing, she relented and kissed him on the cheek.
Reaching over and putting his hand on Maeve's, Sirius looked from her to the two across the room.
"Well, we had a plan. As soon you two go back, the jig will be up, so we need to figure out what to do next."
Looking thoughtful, Harry gazed at Hermione a second until she nodded before he turned back to Sirius.
"Why would the story be out as soon as we go back? I don't plan on lying to anyone or denying that I'm married to the most wonderful witch in the world, but why is the plan immediately invalid?"
"Other than the obvious fact that anyone who's not totally blind couldn't miss the fact you two are together now, Harry is the heir to the fortunes of two of the oldest and most prestigious wizarding families known, the Potters and the Blacks. As soon as the two of you set foot back in your bodies, the magic on those two sets of vaults in Gringotts will acknowledge Hermione as co-heir of everything in them and the associated estates. The goblins will know and they will notify the proper persons in the Ministry, as soon as they figure out who that would be."
Looking stunned, Harry looked over at Hermione and saw that she was wide-eyed. In an uncertain voice, Harry asked, "Sets of vaults?"
"Both families are very old and very wealthy. Even Gringotts vaults are only so big, though the larger ones are very big, there's still a limit on how much you can put in one vault."
"And why would my name be on both those estates?" Hermione asked. "Shouldn't Harry have a say in that?"
"Hermione, you two are soul bound as well as married by oath. In the eyes of the wizarding world, in the eyes of magic herself for that matter, the concept of the two of you as separate entities is very limited.
"For all legal intents and purposes, you are Harry. The basic concept of a soul bond is that you both can be trusted implicitly to act in the other's best interest. There can be very arcane and complex restrictions upon partners in a normal wizarding marriage. But in those rare occasions when the participants are soulmates, the trick is to keep them from sacrificing themselves for the other, not in safeguarding the interests of the other." Looking at Maeve, he smiled. "Any ideas on how we get out of this mess?"
Leaning forward and caressing Sirius' arm with her hand, she watched Hermione carefully.
"I think the blushing bride over there has an idea to throw out."
Shaking her head at the feeling that Maeve knew exactly what was coming, Hermione's eyes flashed.
"I'm tired of allowing these self-styled conquerors of the wizarding world to dictate the rules of engagement. Salazar Slytherin has tucked himself away somewhere and is waiting for some idiotic follower to perform some incredibly evil ceremony to bring his moldy worm-eaten self back to life. This 'prophecy' said that Lucius Malfoy is going to be involved with bringing him back and we just have to blindly sit around and wait so we can blindly thwart this plan."
Looking around the room, she saw Sirius nod in agreement, Maeve smile warmly at her and she could feel the agreement of Harry's thoughts.
Gathering a head of steam, Hermione rolled on. "What we need to do is simple, we find Slytherin's resting place and we stake his moldy arse to a bonfire and set it on fire. Nothing left to bring back, crisis averted." Looking at Sirius, Hermione was trying to figure out why he kept looking at Maeve and then her and shaking his head in disbelief.
With a strange gleam in her eye, and a distinct look of pride, Maeve smiled at Hermione and asked in an innocent voice, "And your plan for that?"
Smiling, Hermione nodded at Maeve while she ruffled Harry's hair. "It's simple. We have a Marauder, the Queen of the Sidhe, the 'Boy Who Lived', and the alleged 'smartest witch of her age'. We do the only thing we can; we do what we do best. We wing it."
Ignoring the protests of Sirius, Hermione turned her head and stared at Harry. Seeing the trust in his eyes filled her heart with love. He nodded and smiled at her, and she knew everything she needed to know. Harry would back her play and would be a total partner in making it work, not just a begrudging participant.
Seeing that his godfather was working himself up over nothing, Harry caught Sirius' attention.
"You know she's right, Padfoot. Right now, all we know is that old Salazar is tucked away somewhere waiting to return. We need to find him before the remnants of the Death Eaters do.
"If there's anyone better than winging it than a Marauder and the Boy Who Lived, I wouldn't know who they'd be. And this time we have two of the brightest and bravest women ever backing our play. Hermione can plan on the fly and never misses a trick and the only things she doesn't know, she knows where to find. And Maeve can teach Hermione a few things, I'm certain."
Shaking his head, Harry felt Hermione relax against him. "The big problem isn't Slytherin and his cultists, the big problem is how we can explain this to two of our oldest friends without devastating them and having them hate us forever." Looking pointedly at Maeve, Harry asked, "Any thoughts?"
Nodding thoughtfully, Maeve looked at Hermione for a second and then simply said, "Dreams."
Hermione shook her head. "Didn't we agree that tampering with people's dreams was a bad thing when it was Harry's and mine? Wouldn't it be a tad hypocritical to influence theirs?"
"I agree, but we can look at their dreams to see what they really feel, and then we can bring them here to discuss things in a bit of a controlled environment. I know you wouldn't agree to coercion, but once we see what their dreams tell us, we might be able to persuade."
Hopping off Harry's lap, Hermione gave Harry a quick peck on his cheek and took his hand.
"Harry would you and Sirius go upstairs and see if you can find my journals in the bag? I remember I did some research on dream theory when you started having your nightmares, hopefully it might give us some hints about how to approach Gin and Ronald." Seeing the smirk on his face and the quick wink she smiled and nodded.
"Not a problem, Mi." Kissing her on the cheek, Harry walked over and pulled Sirius out of his chair. "You heard the brains, let's go see if we can find those notes for her." As they walked towards the door, Harry asked a question about a prank the Marauders had pulled during a Leaving Feast on the entire Slytherin table. Laughing, Sirius was outlining the basics of the prank as they door closed behind them.
Walking over, Hermione smiled and cocked her head to one side watching Maeve. Smiling blandly, Maeve arched an eyebrow and took a sip of her tea. Shaking her head, Hermione put her hand on Maeve's.
"Thank you, from both of us."
"For?" Smiling coyly, Maeve graciously nodded.
"Your plan. The only purpose your plan had was giving Harry and me enough time to realize that we couldn't blindly do what we'd done before. You had no intention of sending us back there to blindly go through our lives not being really happy."
Shaking her head, Maeve looked deep into Hermione's eyes.
"I was prepared to give you every opportunity to choose for yourselves, but the choice was always yours. If you willingly and knowingly chose to sacrifice your happiness, then I would have honored that choice and worked behind the scenes to ensure you had a chance to reclaim it. However, I did have faith in you two and your need to be together."
Smiling warmly at Hermione she chuckled. "What I didn't expect, and what you two delighted me with, was you going all the way and marrying each other. The two of you are together in this, but you need to maintain your individuality because you have different strengths.
"You've become freer, and he's become more thoughtful, but you both have different strengths that you bring to the problem. Listen to him, let him lead, but keep the bedrock of your intellect under him so you both know what's going to happen." Becoming serious for a second, Maeve stood and placed her hand along Hermione's cheek.
"Your grandfather is very proud of you. When he didn't come back from the war, I lost my direct contact with your family, your grandmother didn't understand. But I have kept my eye on you and your family. I couldn't intervene too directly, but I've watched you and I'm very proud of you also."
"Sometime, when we have the time and I don't have to worry about the boys crashing in on us, would you tell me the story?" Smiling, Hermione blushed.
"Of how a nice girl like you ended up with a slightly scandalous elf for a fairy-godmother?" Smiling, Maeve chuckled at the look on Hermione's face.
"I was thinking more along the lines of how I ended up standing here looking at my reflection and then find out she's my great-great-great-great grandmother, but either story will suffice." Smiling in return, Hermione shook her head ruefully.
Linking her arm in Hermione's, Maeve headed for the door. "I believe that we have a deal. Now let's go find our young men and see if we can suss out a plan to keep you on speaking terms with the Weasley family. You have a cousin that, I think, will be a great help to us."
Looking perplexed, Hermione frowned. "Cousin? I don't recall any cousins. Both my parents were only children."
"Cousin might be a bit of a simplification. Let's just say I have another 'granddaughter' who has an interest in this and, unless I'm mistaken, she's fancied your Mr. Weasley for quite some time."