A/N: IMPORTANT!!!
I'm so sorry, everyone. I was going back over my older chapters and I realized that during the upload process, half of Chapter 22, "The Past Behind You" was cut off. And I know that I checked the preview before I submitted it, so that means it got lost after it had been uploaded into when I was actually adding it into my story. I'm so sorry I didn't go back and check. Now it's chapters later and I've been writing under the misconception that you already had certain information that you didn't have. :(
So I've re-uploading Chapter 22. It's all there now. The plot elements you've missed have been or will be explained as everything comes together, so if you really don't want to go back, I guess you can still keep reading and it'll be fine. But… especially if you're a reader who wants to figure it all out, I really want to encourage you to go back and read the second half of that chapter. It's got major clues in it.
I'm so sorry for this inconvenience. I'll be sure to check and recheck such things in the future.
Peace,
tangledhair
X
XIX
XIXIX "Graduation" XIXIX
The months passed and Auror training was coming to a close. Ginny and Draco were partnered together almost exclusively during their training exercises. They were at the top of their class, but in a lot of ways, still the outcast renegades. For the most part, their classmates distanced themselves from the duo. They were good, true. But given their pasts, given their power, and given their status within the Ministry, they were dangerous.
It therefore was not a complete surprise when, with two days left to commencement, they were the only two who had not been offered positions with any of the Auror teams.
"Even those creeps Bryde and Smarte have been placed," grumbled Ginny. "And they're both idiots."
"Yeah," said Draco, glancing around the mess hall. "I can't believe any Auror team would want them more than us. They're going to kill someone someday. Mark my words."
"Consider them marked."
"Well, Grungle says everyone who passes gets placed somewhere. But I really don't fancy scrubbing bird droppings off the floor of the Auror Owlery."
Ginny shook her head. "We're not graduating top of our class so we can be put in some menial job. I intend to do something with my life."
Draco smirked. "We could go be 'Heroes for Hire' with Harry."
Ginny grinned. "If we don't get placed somewhere good, I might just take you up on that." She kept eating, but noticed Draco's body position change. It was kind of endearing, the way he tried to be so nonchalant about it. But she could easily tell what was coming.
"So…" he began with poorly feigned casualness. "How is he anyway?"
"He's okay. I think he's lonely, but," her eyes darkened slightly, "He's not coming home. He's determined to stay away. He just won't tell me why."
Draco put his hand on Ginny's shoulder and squeezed it tightly. His blue eyes pierced her brown ones and he told her, "He loves you, Ginny."
She nodded, held his eye. 'He loves you, too,' she thought. But it seemed kinder not to say it out loud.
There was a commotion outside the main door. People were starting to look over. Sergeant Grungle was standing there, his huge frame hulking in the doorway. He was clearly arguing with someone just out of sight, and was raising his voice.
"You want her? You'll take him too."
"Grungle," came a deep voice, clearly exasperated, "I thought we made this perfectly clear. It's Potter that we worked with during the war, and it's only his twin that we're willing to hire."
Ginny frowned and looked over to Draco. She knew that voice, but the sentiment didn't match it.
Grungle shifted his stance. "They've been partnered since they've been here. They work well together and they're both at the top of the class. I'm telling you, you'd have to be a fool to split them up. And I am no fool."
"But he's the son of Death Eaters," argued the male voice.
Draco glowered. "That is Kingsley, right?" he hissed. "Why the fuck is he acting like…" Ginny nudged him sharply so she could hear.
It was a female voice this time. "He was fighting with Potter in the end," she conceded.
"He was also…" Kingsley began, but Tonks cut him off.
"Look, we owe it to Potter to take his twin. If she's a package deal with the Malfoy, then… we'll just have to take him too."
This proclamation was met with silence. People were looking over to where Ginny and Draco sat stone-faced. Bryde and Smarte were laughing openly. Finally, Kingsley assented. Grungle turned and stuck his head into the mess hall.
"Red! Malfoy!"
Ginny and Draco followed Grungle, Kingsley, and Tonks to the Sergeant's office. Once inside he closed the door, drew the shades, and cast a silencing charm on the room. Ginny and Draco stood at attention just inside the door. Tonks looked over apologetically.
"Sorry about the show," she said quickly.
"The only way we could hire you is to act like we were doing so only grudgingly," added Kingsley.
"We've been arranging it with Grungle since your first week. If anyone else offered you a place, he'd just make sure that ours got to your first. Otherwise, we'd wait until the end and act like it was only out of a sense of obligation that we stepped forward."
"So we really are blacklisted, then," said Ginny.
"You are," agreed Kingsley. "The Minister doesn't want you," he nodded to Ginny, "To have any position of power, given the strength of your popularity and influence when you were still in Hogwarts. And the way the Ministry is over-exaggerating the remaining Death Eater threat… Draco, I'm afraid you're simply a victim to the fear mongering."
Tonks nodded. "People are easier to control when they're afraid. Fudge learned that during the war. So he keeps coming up with new and ever-scarier threats to keep his power firmly in place."
"It is unfortunate," said Grungle, moving to sit behind his desk, "But true. I've taken a lot of slack over the past few months for recognizing your talents and skills. But, we've been able to use that to our advantage here. I think the right people overheard our exchange just now. So now we have made it appear that Tonks and Shacklebot are hiring Red out of duty to Potter, and Malfoy because I forced them into it. No one will blame the team for that, and you shouldn't be met with any more suspicion because of it."
"And once you're in, you're in," said Tonks. "You won't rise through the ranks quickly, but you'll be in the field, and… off the field, too," she added conspiratorially.
"We've got a few investigations on the side," explained Kingsley. "Certain members of the Order are still at work."
"And Grungle's with us, if you hadn't already gathered that," added Tonks.
"Too many questionable events have happened with no official investigation," said Kingsley. "So we're investigating unofficially."
"Will you join us? Do you accept the position?"
Ginny and Draco looked at each other, but they already knew what the other's answer would be.
"Yeah," said Ginny. "Yeah we do."
Sergeant Grungle cleared his throat. "Weasley. Malfoy." They turned to him. "Commencement is in two days. It is customary for me to give a short speech praising the qualities of those who are best in class and congratulating the Auror team who gets them. But I'll not be doing that this term. So let me say now:
"Weasley, the sheer amount of power at your disposal is impressive, but all the more so because of the skill with which you wield it. You've got courage and charisma the likes of which one doesn't often see. When the time comes for you to lead, you will do it well, and you will do it for the betterment of wizardkind. Furthermore, let me just say that you handled your brother's death with great character. You never faltered in your training, and you never let your grief turn to anger against those who deserved it. The world would be a better place if there were more witches and wizards as good as you."
Ginny nodded her acknowledgement and thanks, her lips pressed tightly together in a flat line. She didn't trust herself to speak.
"And Malfoy. I remember a time when the name of Malfoy was synonymous with power, intelligence, and class. You embody all of these things. You are devilishly clever with your spellwork and deadly accurate with your wandwork. If you hadn't come over to our side in the war I would consider you one of our greatest threats. As it is, you conduct yourself with real class—and in the greatest sense of the word. You are dignified and respectful, regardless of the circumstances. Furthermore, you take it upon yourself to decide what is right and good, which shows a real strength of character on your part. I am honored to have been a part of your instruction. That goes for both of you. I look forward to working with you in the future."
Grungle stepped forward to shake their hands, as did Kingsley. But Tonks threw her arms around their shoulders, her hair turning a sunny yellow as she welcomed them into the team.
XIXIX
The next day was one of the most tiring days in the Auror training camp—not because it was the most difficult, but because the activity was constant and lasted many long hours. Their morning training regimen began even earlier than normal and lasted twice as long as usual. The rest of the daylight hours were filled with tests during which they could prove their strength, training, and skill to the teams that would take them upon their graduation. These tests continued on past supper, and were then followed by a tediously boring Commencement rehearsal in which they went through the motions over and over and over until every movement of the ceremony was precisely choreographed.
Late in the evening, they stumbled back to the barracks. The day before, several members of their class had talked about sneaking out for a wild celebration. But no one seemed up for it now. Draco suspected their trainers had planned it that way. Certainly they weren't the first class that had thought about sneaking off to get pissed the night before graduation.
When they reached their bunk, Draco noticed that he and Ginny had matching bright orange envelopes waiting for them on their pillows. Ginny climbed onto her mattress and picked hers up. Draco fell onto the other side of her mattress and accioed his.
"Hey, shove over," said Ginny irritably, nudging him with her shoulder.
"You," he said, shoving back.
Ginny ripped her envelope open and pulled out a parchment. "Oh, gods," she laughed. "Took them long enough."
Draco opened his and read,
"You are cordially invited to the most hallowed nuptial ceremonies of Luna Xenophilia Lovegood and Vincent Bartemeo Francis Crabbe underneath the November New Moon… They don't even give the date. Do you have a lunar calendar?"
"At least it's based on the lunar calendar, and not the migrating patterns of the Crumple-Horned Snorkack or something."
Draco chuckled. "You know what's really funny is that I've become utterly convinced that Loony Lovegood brought a measure of sanity into Crabbe's life."
"Yeah," Ginny sighed. "Luna has an odd way of doing that. She was good for Hermione the summer after the war."
Draco turned to his partner, nonplussed. "You knew about that?"
"Well, not at the time." And he noted she didn't seem particularly upset that the woman who would be her sister-in-law had cheated on her brother.
"Grungle was right about you," he said.
Ginny started to smile at the compliment, but then pulled her face straight. It occurred to Draco he had embarrassed her by agreeing with their sergeant. As incredibly powerful and charismatic as she was, she still got flustered when someone pointed it out to her. She would never be one to develop a cult of personality. She would not grow big-headed and feel like she deserved the respect she garnered. And she would certainly never be the hero that ran away from her followers.
Like Harry.
Lying there, exhausted, and realizing the truth of his partner, Draco decided he had done well aligning himself with her. And furthermore, he trusted her the way he had only ever trusted Harry. He had followed his family out of duty, out of fear, out of love, out of obligation, but never out of a sense of what was right. Ultimately, he could not trust them to the end, to the outcome of their decisions. And ultimately with Harry, well, Harry had run out on him. Again and again. Draco sensed Ginny would never do this. He would follow her with his life. And she would stay with him through it, would never let him down.
Draco thought of his recent trip to Azkaban, and the responsibility that rested on his shoulders to regain his fortune and revive the Malfoy name. 'And what the hell,' he thought, 'We do make a great team.'
"Ginny, I think we should get married," he said.
Ginny shifted on the bunk so she could look at him properly. "Draco, I think you have time still to find a proper wife. Just because I'm the only pureblood at the camp who'll talk to you…"
He could feel her teasing tone. It didn't deter him. "You heard Grungle," he said. "We're a formidable partnership. Why not in marriage as well as in the Aurors?"
Her eyes narrowed suddenly. "Wait, you're serious," she stated, as though informing him of the truth behind his words.
"We can trust each other, " he explained, "So we won't have to worry about the more dangerous pitfalls of family politics."
"Oh Draco," she sighed, laying her head back on her pillow, "I think you and I have a very different idea of what it means to be married."
"But it could work for both of our ideas of marriage," he said. "Good partnership for me, and what? Love for you? We love each other, more or less. There's kind of a romantic tension between us, don't you think?"
And now Ginny laughed. "Yeah, it's called Harry Potter."
Draco scowled. Ginny looked at him kindly.
"You know we use each other to feel close to him," she said. "It's folly to think that any romantic tension between us is anything more than that."
The blonde sighed, scrubbed his hands over his face. Fuck Harry Potter. Why did it always come back to him?
"And you know I'm with Lokstavian again," Ginny continued.
Draco scoffed, but didn't yet open his eyes. "Don't give me that. You can't tell me he'd be better for you than me."
Ginny huffed. "And I'd be so good for you? Draco, I wouldn't be a wife that would turn my back on your infidelities. And I certainly wouldn't let you run around cheating with my twin."
Draco thought of his parents, thought of his mom. She set the entire background scene for every public move his father made. They were a perfect team in that way. Ginny would never set the background scene for Draco, and nor would he want her to. But he wouldn't set the background for her either. She was right. Theirs was a different sort of partnership.
"And it would be weird," Ginny continued after a short silence. "And how would I ever explain to Harry anyway? And…"
"Never mind," he said. "It was a stupid thought."
He pulled himself off of the mattress to climb into the top bunk, but Ginny grabbed his arm. Draco turned back to her. He didn't know what he was expecting, but it wasn't the sincerity he saw in her eyes.
She told him, "It's not a stupid thought. You just proposed the wrong thing."
He raised an eyebrow in question. She let go his arm; held out her hand to him.
"I'll be your partner," she said. "We do make a good team."
Draco sat back down on the edge of the mattress and took the proffered hand. They clutched each other's hand tightly, and Draco could feel some sort of pact forming… some sort of bond. They were in this together, wherever this life might take them. Now it was official.
Ginny grinned, then punched him in the shoulder.
"Go to bed. I want my partner to look pretty at our graduation."
Draco feigned offense. "Like I could ever not look pretty."
XIXIX
Harry lay in bed staring at the ceiling. It was a boring day and Harry took the time to enjoy that fact. He was not off somewhere playing gallivanting hero. He was not off somewhere, living the unconscious life in-between life—those long gaps he didn't remember and couldn't control. He was here, in his home. There were people in the next room, and though he would not go out and sit with them, speak with them, befriend them, their very presence made him feel less alone.
There was nervousness in the pit of his stomach. Ginny's graduation from Auror training was tomorrow, and she expected him to be there. She had specifically asked him to come, which showed how important it was to her. She had long since stopped asking him to come home for anything. He had told her he would try, had sensed her hurt that he would not give a definite answer, and he had been praying for weeks that he would wake up on the morning of her graduation with control over his own free will.
He gave his ceiling a wry grin. He had gotten so good at tricking his thoughts away from the forbidden ones, the ones that brought headaches (and even here, he thought of a different sort of headache than the ones he really meant, since the pain that came was a forbidden thought as well). It was something to be proud of. It was… sick, that he had to go through this all the time.
"This is no way to live," he said to the ceiling.
"But it's what I have," he answered to the ceiling.
Harry really wanted to go the graduation. He wanted to pretend for a day that he was a normal twin who could just do that sort of thing. But he feared going back. He feared seeing Ginny, getting her hopes up he would be back to normal, would come home. And worse, he feared the anger and hurt he knew would come when he dashed those hopes. Again.
'Draco will be there,' he thought, and his stomach flip-flopped.
"I don't love Draco anymore," he told the ceiling, and for a moment, he thought the ceiling might even believe him. But it didn't really.
Harry shook his head. If Severus knew he had personified his ceiling just so he could talk to someone, he would tell Harry he'd had a psychotic break. This made Harry laugh. Then he clutched at his chest, trying to soothe the ache in his heart. He missed Severus so much. And Ginny. The absence of his bondmates in his life pained him greatly, even after all this time. Even though he knew it was for the best. Even though he did it on purpose.
He heard a giggling from the other room and smiled. Mala was happy. She'd been very happy these past months, since Harry had moved in and erased her financial woes. She'd been even happier when Ryan the bartender had finally gotten around to asking her out. He was at the house a lot nowadays. And Mala must have explained pretty well the impersonal relationship she had with Harry, because while Ryan was always very cordial when he saw Harry, he was also very careful not to direct the conversation into more personal realms.
All told, Harry enjoyed the presence of love in his house. He could pretend sometimes like he was a part of it, without the disastrous consequences that came whenever he was actually near to his loved ones. And it was nice to hear Mala and Ryan laughing, to know that life was still good for others, if not for him. It helped keep Harry grounded, helped him remember that there was something good in this world, that happy lives existed outside his own personal exile, that there was a reason that he had bothered to kill Voldemort, and then continue to live.
And it would be good to see Ginny tomorrow, no matter how terrified he was by the prospect of it. He only hoped he would make it there.
In the other room he heard the rushing sound of a firecall. Mala let out a soft squeal of surprise, but then laughed. Harry imagined the firecaller had poked their head into an intimate scene. He could hear Mala and Ryan talking to the firecaller, and a jostling as they got up off the couch. Presently, there was a soft knock at the door.
"Harry?" Mala's gentle voice called to him. "Are you in there?"
"Yeah, come in," he said, pulling himself up to a sitting position.
Mala opened the door and looked in. "There's a woman on firecall for you." She gave Harry a weird smile before continuing, "It kind of seems like she has the wrong fireplace, except she asked for you by name."
"I'll check it out," he said. He walked into the living room, where Ryan was sitting on the couch, talking to the firecaller.
"I don't understand," he was saying, "You mean they nest in the cushions?"
"No, no," said a dreamy voice, "The cushions sprout them if you don't sit on them often enough. I think the couches get lonely if you don't use them, so they make the plush bunnies."
"But how can life spring from nothing?" asked Ryan, perplexed. Harry came around the couch in time to see Luna rolling her eyes.
"Not from nothing," she said. "From the cushions. Oh, hullo Harry. What are you doing here?"
Harry smiled as he sat down on the couch next to Ryan. "You called me, Luna. Did you think I'd be somewhere else?"
"Sometimes you're somewhere else," she said. "But I'm not really sure why. It seems like you'd want to keep all your pieces in one place."
Ryan looked over to Harry, obviously perplexed and clearly expecting to find that Harry wasn't following the conversation either. But Harry was stung by her words. Of course he'd want to keep all his pieces – himself and his bondmates – in one place. She just didn't understand. Harry looked down darkly.
"Are you okay?" Ryan asked him. But Mala Suerte jumped in to the rescue, quickly latching onto Ryan's arm and pulling him into the kitchen.
"I was just being nice," he hissed as they left the room.
"I know," she whispered back, "But he's Harry Potter. He needs us to be nice in a different way."
Luna cocked her head in the fire, looking after them. "There are many ways of being nice," she agreed. "I have good news."
Harry met her eye and Luna smiled brilliantly up at him.
"I'm getting married in two weeks," she said. "To Vince," she clarified then, as though that had been in question. "I want you to come."
"I… I'll try, Luna. But it's complicated. Things come up sometimes and it hard to get away."
She nodded, suddenly solemn. "That's why I'm not asking you to be my maid of honor," she informed him, but gently. "I wanted to make sure it was someone I knew would be at the wedding. But I still want you to be there if you can make it."
Harry flushed. "Oh, well, er…"
"Are you going to be at Ginny's graduation tomorrow? It's should be such fun!"
"I'll… erm… maybe. Nothing's come up yet," he offered hopefully.
"Then we'll see you tomorrow. I'll send an owl, too, with a proper invitation to the wedding. I wanted to make sure you'd be here to get it."
She looked around the room as though realizing suddenly she was in the wrong place, and then she was gone. Harry looked up with a sudden suspicion. He crossed to the kitchen and as he went through, he noticed that Mala and Ryan were both taking up hurriedly casual positions at the far end of the room. He narrowed his eyes at Mala, but not unkindly.
She laughed. "I'm sorry," she said. "We were curious. She just seemed almost… unreal."
Ryan laughed too. "Yeah, sorry mate," he said. "But that girl is loony. I just wanted to see what else she might say."
Ryan and Mala cut looks at each other, and then exploded with laughter. Harry felt suddenly that he was entirely out of the loop. He spoke to these two often enough, but he didn't really know them. He had no idea what was going on in this exchange—a fact that made Harry feel all the lonelier.
Mala gasped to compose herself. "We were…" she blushed, "We were kind of making out when she firecalled, and she…" Mala laughed again.
"Her first words to us were, 'oh, you two are being very thorough.'" And Ryan did a passable impression of Luna Lovegood. Harry brought his hands to his face as he imagined the situation. It was pretty funny.
"She thought we were trying to squash plush bunnies…?" continued Mala, like she was asking Harry if that really could have happened.
Harry nodded. "Yeah, Luna… Luna's like that."
"Her name's Luna?" gasped Ryan. "That's too perfect… Loony Luna."
Harry cut him a look, but before he could defend his friend, they heard the floo rush in the next room. In the next moment, a voice was calling out, "Harry? Is Harry here?"
Mala moved immediately to run interference, and in the moment Harry was struck again by how lucky he was to have run into Mala Suerte that day at the pub. They hardly knew each other, but she had taken her duty to care for him very much to heart. She hadn't even looked to Harry for instruction on this intruder. She simply ran into the living room.
"Yes, can I help you?" she asked loudly. Her voice was forceful, and Harry realized it was meant to keep the unknown person from feeling welcome to look around the house for its other inhabitant.
But Harry knew who it was. He'd already come through behind Mala.
"It's okay," he told her. "Hi, Hermione. How… are you okay?"
Hermione looked up at him, blinking owlishly. She seemed to have lost a good deal of weight, so that her robes hung on her and her eyes looked bigger in her face than they ever had before. Her hair was bigger and bushier than ever. She looked rather frazzled and kind of reminded Harry of… Trelawney.
She held up a bright orange parchment. "Luna's getting married," she yelped.
"Yeah, she was just…"
Hermione navigated the furniture of the room, moving toward Harry. She walked with a strange gait, her robes flowing about her. She seemed to be carrying the entire past and future of the world with her as she moved. Something had changed in her since Ron had died, and Harry's heart ached for her, ached for them both. He wished again he could overcome all of this and go to her, go back home. But as much as he wanted to, he found he simply could not.
Hermione didn't have the same problem. She flung herself at him, snaking her arms around his waist so that his arms naturally fell around her shoulders. He held her tight.
"You're going to be there," she said. "Please come with me. Stay with me. I don't know how I'm… Harry, I'm scared."
He petted at her mass of hair. "It's okay," he said. He noticed that Mala grabbed Ryan's arm tightly and pulled him out of the room, and this time he was positive they would not be listening in.
"I'm so afraid I'm going to have a fit or something. And I love Luna; I have to be there. I don't want to ruin everything. Please come with me."
God, if only he could make such promises.
"Hermione, I'm not sure…"
"The last wedding I went to was mine." She shuddered in his arms; Harry held her tighter. He squeezed his eyes shut, guilt flooding through him that he had missed their wedding. And now Ron was gone.
"You'll be there," she told him again. "Come with me."
Harry looked down into her eyes and saw there was truth there. She knew. She must have Seen something about the wedding. An instinct hit him and he wondered why exactly she was so afraid. He couldn't say why exactly, but her certainty that he would be there was suddenly matched by his certainty that something very bad was going to happen on Luna's wedding day.
"I'll come with you," he said protectively.
She nodded at him, her large eyes filled with something, Seeing something other than Harry.
"Can I stay here tonight?" she asked.
"I…"
"I'm going to sleep in your bed with you," she said, her eyes still faraway. "And you'll still be here in the morning. Then we'll go to the graduation together. Ginny will be pleased you made it."
Her eyes refocused on him. Harry wondered how much she knew. He was suddenly reminded of the Valentine's Day he'd spent in Severus' quarters, keeping contact at all times so he wouldn't disappear. Did Hermione know he'd disappear tonight if she left him alone? Was this an assurance that he wouldn't miss his twin's graduation?
Again.
Harry was almost overcome with an emotion like gratitude, except this one pained him as well.
"Okay."
XIXIX
He took Hermione out to dinner, rather than having dinner with Mala and Ryan. Mala had offered to cook, but Harry didn't want to bring his personal life into his home. Mala seemed to understand. Hermione seemed not to.
She hardly left his side that evening, and after preparing for dinner she simply crawled into bed with him and curled around him. Harry had looked at her, somewhat shocked by the behavior, but Hermione shrugged it off.
"So I'm touching you while we sleep," she explained. Again, Harry was reminded of that night with Severus. What did Hermione know? Did she think that if they weren't touching she would wind up alone in bed the next morning? And was that truth? Would he be gone if she didn't keep track of him?
Her eyes looked slightly unfocused and Harry could smell something on her breath… something earthy. Like she'd been eating tree bark while she had been in the bathroom. Her pupils were so huge the color of her eyes seemed to disappear. She stared into his eyes with a disconcerting intentness. Harry was compelled to ask her if she was high.
Instead, he said, "Nox."
XIXIX
The next morning, Hermione was much back to her usual self. She no longer moved as though carrying her visions as tangible items. And her eyes were no longer far away. She looked at Harry with her normal quick intelligence. He wasn't quite sure what to make of it.
"How are you doing?" he asked. She looked at him and understood the extent of the question. Ron's loss hovered in the room.
"Okay," she said, but then admitted, "Some days are better than others."
He nodded, prodded, "Yesterday you seemed…"
But he cut off. Her eyes flashed anger and Hermione snapped, "I'm perfectly all right, thank you!"
With her body language she closed herself off to him, turning away. A moment later, she stalked out of the room. Harry again wondered if she had been high last night. He thought her defensive behavior now might confirm it. And Harry had absolutely no idea what to do. They weren't close like they used to be. He didn't know her anymore. They were not the same people they had once been.
He opted to say nothing more about it. They kept to neutral topics until it was time to go to the graduation. Mala stayed out of their way.
They apparated to the site of the graduation at the edge of the training grounds. From the outside, it appeared to be a small tent boasting a rip-off roadside attraction. "Seven-Legged Lamb!" proclaimed a poorly hand-painted sign above the entrance. But inside was a moderately sized stadium. It seemed all of the Aurors from the Ministry were in attendance, taking up one large section across from the entrance. Guests were filling in the rows on all other sides. Hermione looked around as they entered, and immediately caught sight of a group of people who were saving them seats.
The Commencement ceremonies were set to begin at 10:00. Harry was immediately grateful they had not come any sooner than the 9:55 they arrived. He had been so focused on the idea of seeing Ginny and Draco again that it hadn't occurred to him to think about all the people the two graduates had invited to celebrate with them. Harry thought his heart might explode when he saw the crowd that Hermione was leading him toward.
The entire Weasley clan was there—a much smaller group, Harry noted with a terrible pang. Ginny must have invited Remus, for he was there too. Neville had come, and as Harry looked around he saw about half of the remaining members of the D.A., and all of the previous members of SWAN. Luna and Crabbe were both there, most likely guests of both graduates. And of course, Draco's godfather was there.
Severus greeted Harry with guarded eyes, but Harry could feel the compulsion that radiated from him to pull Harry close to him. Indeed, with Ginny and Severus both so near, Harry almost lost control of his commitment to stay away. He wanted so desperately to fall in with them again.
Luckily for the overwhelmed Harry, the greetings were kept short. Music swelled from nowhere and the ceremonies began. As they shuffled to their seats, Harry noticed an unspoken play by his loved ones to gain the seats beside him. His heart thudded in his chest with love and regret. He still meant something to them, even after all of this. In the end, Severus wound up on one side of him, with Remus on the other. Hermione, he noticed, was on Remus' other side. He seemed to loom protectively over both of his young friends. Harry was caught by an image of a wolf protecting its pack. Hermione pretended to ignore him, but Harry saw that her cheeks were slightly flushed.
As the new Auror graduates processed in, Harry strained in his seat to see Ginny and Draco. His heart was still hammering wildly. It was too much—too many people still so willing to care for him after so much isolation. He'd been so far from Ginny. He hadn't seen her since Ron's funeral. And there she was, she and Draco. They were the last to file in. Their robes were a brilliant magenta where the others had been blue. They'd finished top of their class. Ginny hadn't mentioned that. Harry's chest swelled with happiness.
He turned to Severus with a proud grin. "They did it," he whispered.
Severus nodded but said nothing. As close as they sat to each other, they seemed an ocean away. Harry wanted to bridge the gap between them; he could tell Severus did too. But even if Harry could go back, he realized he wouldn't even know where to begin. Too much time had passed. Too much had changed between them. Disconcerted, he looked back to the proceedings.
When Ginny and Draco were announced to be the heads of their class, Harry noticed the only real applause in the room came from their section. And the Sergeant who announced it—a big bear of a man—simply said, "Yeah. Good job."
Down the row, Harry could see Molly and Arthur bristling. "Good job? Good job? Where's their speech? It's tradition!"
But the ceremony moved on without the tradition. The graduates were called by name to be awarded their certificates. As they crossed the staging area, their new team assignment was read and then met by thunderous applause. The Auror team they would be joining sent up sparks from their wands, calling out their welcomes enthusiastically.
But twice, when Draco and Ginny were called, they were met with only a smattering of applause except for the group that surrounded Harry. No sparks were sent up to welcome them to their new team. Harry didn't understand what was going on, but he was prickled with indignation. He wanted to be happy to hear that they'd be working with Tonks and Kingsley, but the reception they got… Something wasn't right.
He turned to Severus for answers, but Severus was too busy glaring at the section of Aurors to pay him any mind. Instead he turned to Remus.
"What's going on?" he hissed.
Remus shook his head. "It's complicated, Harry. Haven't you talked to Ginny about her training?"
And of course he had, just after Ron's funeral. She had said she and Draco were blacklisted. She had told him it seemed half the Ministry was under the Imperius Curse, that the Ministry had turned fascist. She said people who tried to stand up against them were silenced or disappeared.
But now that he thought about it, he couldn't remember exactly how that conversation had ended, or when exactly he had left the Burrow. It seemed Ginny had said something… something else… something about Ron?
Fire sliced through Harry's head and he let the thought go before it had even properly formed. Next thing he knew he was holding his head and Severus had his hand on his shoulder.
"Harry, are you alright?"
The question called to mind what was wrong and the pain flashed again. And while he was lost in it, he was unaware of snapping, "Leave me alone," at his bondmate.
Severus stiffened, pulled his hand back. This was, of course, how it had been for years now. He didn't know why he kept hoping for something different. For Harry's part, once he'd regained control of himself, he saw how Severus and Remus had both pulled away from him in their seats, and he knew it had happened again—whatever it was that happened. And this was exactly why he could never go back.
The reminder did not ease his heartache.
Applause erupted throughout the auditorium. The graduation had ended. The audience stood and began a mad press to get down to the floor where the new graduates waited for them. In the pandemonium that ensued, Harry thought it might be better if he simply snuck away. But as soon as he took a step in the opposite direction than the rest of the crowd, Severus grabbed his arm.
"You are going to congratulate your twin," he informed Harry, using a tone Harry didn't think he'd heard directed at him since his fifth year at Hogwarts. He nodded dumbly and followed. Severus did not let go of his arm. Harry remembered Hermione's words from the night before and hoped wildly that she had figured something out, that she had told everyone. Maybe they would ban together to keep him there. Maybe…
The fire sliced through his head and he let the thoughts go.
Severus let go of his arm only when they'd reached the crowd on the main floor that gathered around Ginny and Draco. Ginny flung her arms around Harry happily, and Harry noticed Draco eyeing him from a distance. He didn't approach.
"Are you coming to the Burrow?" Ginny asked hopefully.
"Er… I don't…"
"Of course he's coming!" said Molly, clapping him on the shoulder. "Everyone's coming. My girl graduated top of her class! Again!"
Harry turned to Ginny in surprise.
"I was salutatorian at Hogwarts," she explained briefly.
Before Harry could even begin to apologize for not knowing something so obvious and important about his twin, Ginny looked around and called out to no one in particular, "Hey, where's Lokstavian?"
Neville, who was standing very nearby, turned red. "He's not here," he said. "I'm sorry, Ginny. I looked all over for him."
Her face fell at the announcement, but she forced a smile back up. "Luna! Crabbe! Congratulations to you too!"
Luna had wandered over, cutting through the crowd in an almost accidental way. Crabbe lumbered along behind her, talking with Draco who only now came closer to Harry. He nodded, but still they did not speak to each other. Hermione appeared again at Harry's elbow. Remus stood directly behind her. He seemed to be buffering the crowd away from the Seer.
Luna smiled up at Ginny and stated, "A quiet celebration is sometimes the most sincerely meant. They applauded in their hearts."
Ginny grinned and hugged the girl.
When she let go, Luna turned directly to Hermione and then to Draco. "We wanted to ask you something."
Hermione pressed up against Harry. Her body shuddered. It seemed she wanted to hide behind him but couldn't bring herself to do it outright. Remus watched the proceedings over her shoulder.
"Hermione, will you be my maid of honor at our wedding?" The smile on Luna's face was absolutely brilliant. It was simply glowing with her happiness.
The Seer was drawn back out. She pulled back away from Harry and smiled. "Of course I will," she said.
"And Draco?" said Crabbe thickly. "Will you be my best man?"
Draco smiled broadly and bowed. "Absolutely, my friend."
They shook hands then, clapping each other on the back in a half-hug. Hermione and Luna embraced tightly. And Harry was struck by a thought. He turned to Remus.
"Remus, you were at Ron and Hermione's wedding, weren't you?"
Harry thought he saw the man's eyes darken briefly, but Remus nodded mildly.
"Who were the best man and the maid of honor?"
Remus blinked at him, startled by the question. "Oh," he said. "Luna was the maid of honor. But Ron didn't have a best man. His father stood up with him, but only for the formalities… holding the ring and what not."
Harry's heart sank into his stomach. He thought he knew the answer, but he asked the question anyway. "Why didn't Ron have a best man?"
Remus gave him a sympathetic look. He could tell Harry already knew why.
"He was keeping the place open for you."
Just then, there was a huge explosion overhead. Harry had his wand drawn before he realized it was the Weasley Wizard Wheezes dragon fireworks. They filled up the stadium with a brightly colored gaiety. People began cheering all over again. Before he knew what was happening, Fred and George had seized him by either arm and were dancing around happily, shouting cheers for their sister and Draco. The party moved to the Burrow and lasted long into the night. And Harry lost himself into it, pressing all other thoughts from his mind. He shoved away his grief, his regrets, forced himself into cheerful abandon.
For tonight, at least, he could come home. For tonight, at least, he could.
XIXIX
XIX
X
A/N: Hello all. Sorry 'bout that short absence. Been moving and setting up and, well, been off in that fantasy wonderland we like to call Real Life. But here's a little update for you.
Upcoming we'll have… well… the belly of this beast. We're drawing to a close, but I thought I might offer an extra bit of warning. I know this is an angsty story. It will become more so. Bad things are going to happen. But we got some fun teasers too. Harry and Draco meet again at Luna's wedding and this time they'll actually interact. And we'll be getting the answers as to just what exactly has been going on with our Harry in… oh, three-ish more chapters. And in the meantime, let's see if we can't get just a whole lot of hell to break loose, eh? Exciting times to come.
Thanks to my readers, and thanks slightly more to my reviewers! (hint, hint) By the way, I do respond to all signed reviews, so if you want an answer, just make sure you're logged in.
Peace,
tangledhair