Chapter 26

~~Somewhere in Scotland Saturday Night~~

Ginny and Harry sat on a blanket under the Whomping Willow, warm under their cloaks. They were concealed from the prying eyes of Hogwarts by the gnarled roots and gently waiving vines. It was a quiet moment that they had stolen. Both knew that once they returned to Gryffindor Tower that they would be expected to perform to the crowd and partake of the celebration. Harry's phenomenal dive, combined with Ginny's strong leadership on the pitch had resulted in a resounding victory over Slytherin. That, combined with it being the weekend before Halloween, and something that both had noticed but been unable to name since the final battle last year, of people diving into moments of joy with a manic passion, would ensure that the party would be loud and unlikely to end any time before dawn. Harry and Ginny didn't specifically mind the exuberance, but they both preferred just what they were doing, sitting quietly, their arms wrapped around each other, and jointly experiencing the quiet evening, that can lead to moments of tender contemplation.

After several minutes of listening to the wind song play across the willow, Ginny started, "Did you see Hermione before she left?" She could feel Harry's answering nod from his position behind her, acting as her pillow to the rough bark of the tree. Ginny restrained the urge to tell him to use his words, that she couldn't see him. It wasn't, however, the sort of night for light teasing that she would normally employ on his dark moods. The twilight allowed for more serious things. "Do you think she looked pale?"

Harry roused enough to talk, "Maybe a bit, she seemed distracted." He paused and considered his next words, reassured by the warmth of the woman in his arms, and a smell, like a mountain wind, and spicy cookies, that somehow, he knew was her. "She looked upset when I mentioned Ron not coming to watch the match, but managed to do that Hermione thing where she changed the topic to something that seemed quite important at the moment, but in retrospect, you are pretty sure was just meant to distract you. She is really good at that."

He felt, as well as heard, the soft sigh escape Ginny. "I was worried about that," she said quietly. She too paused before speaking again, watching the lights start to twinkle to life in the castle. "Do you know in muggle world the divorce rate is up to 42%? They say that it has actually been declining as people wait longer to marry, more people shack up, etc. But still, that is a large number of people that promise forever, to only find an expiration date far sooner than they expected."

She felt Harry's arms tense around her. Ginny leaned further into him and twisted her head to press a soft kiss to his cheek. "Don't read into this Harry. I am as constant and secure in us as I am in the knowledge that one day the sun will freeze, but I will never see either end." She felt him take a deep breath and exhale slowly willing himself to relax. "What I am not so secure in, is whether I will ever get to properly call Hermione my sister." She sighed again. "I love Ron, and there are many things about him, that make him an exceptional brother, and a good man. However, of all my brothers, with the exception of Percy, I can't think of one that would be least suited to our friend. Even the twins," she broke off, unexpectedly sad, as she had allowed herself a moment to forget the still raw pain, "Even George, yes, George, would be a better match for her. My other brothers they are intelligent, not that I am saying Ronald isn't, but they are, hmmm, independent. Ron really needs someone like Lavender, someone who would be as equally wrapped up in him as he was her, someone who would not be distracted by the world."

Harry nodded again, in sad understanding, he had never wanted to put it in words, but he understood what Ginny was getting at. While Ron and Hermione had danced around a flirtation for years, he had often suspected it was born of proximity and their early friendship. He had considered that if, without the heightened emotions and tensions of their annual confrontation with Lord Voldemort, if they would have briefly dated and then faded back to friendship. Despite being integral to Harry's life, and the downfall of that Dark Lord, Harry knew his friend still suffered from feelings of inferiority, feelings that unchecked would explode into an awkward scene, only for the old friends to laugh off and forgive later. When Ron and Hermione had announced their intention to move in together earlier in the year, when he had decided to go work for George and she to take an internship with the Wizengmot, people had been surprised, but accepting of the young lovers' choice. Now, Harry knew that both he and Ginny had the same fear, that their friends' relationship was built on the shared horror they had survived and not a sustainable bedrock.

Ginny wiggled in Harry's arms, twisting and turning until she was seated facing him. Her warm brown eyes transfixed him. "You know we are different, right? Yes, we finally declared our intentions to each other at the worst possible time, but I have loved you since I was 11 years old. I have also, tried out one or two other boys, so I am not completely uncertain about what makes me happy." Harry felt the lion inside him roar in protest at the reminder of Ginny's earlier suitors, only to quiet at the realization that he made her happy. "We are alike in temperament, and drive, we are confident apart as well as together, and we are taking this year, and maybe a few more," she smiled tenderly at him, "before we move to a different level. But that brings me back to my brother. I have trouble foreseeing an ending that results in undying true love, and us sending our children together to school. In fact, I prognosticate, without even the assistance Trelawney and her crystal balls, a very bad end indeed."

"I fear you are right," Harry conceded, "but, there is nothing that either of us can do. No matter my fame, nor your great skill, we cannot force the ending that we would like upon those two. We will just have to try to walk to line of not picking sides when Ron throws down a ridiculous ultimatum. You know he will thank us for it later."

It was Ginny's turn to nod. "You are right, on both counts. But this feeling of unease for them still hurts my heart."

Harry leaned forward and kissed her softly, and then stood, extending a hand down to her. "And that my love, is why you are one of the better of us. But come on, we have a party to get to, and there will be such frivolity and copious amounts of pumpkin fizz, cauldron cakes, and treacle tart, that even you will forget about the troubles of the world, at least for a few hours."

She laughed, and allowed herself to be helped up before returning to the castle.

~~Sunday in the Park with Draco~~

Bubba, not surprisingly, didn't come back to the dorm room following the AO party. He had supplied, the first time he was away overnight, that Anne lived just off campus in an apartment with one other girl. The important fact of which, was that she had her own room. Draco had walked Jane back to the dorms and deposited her on her floor before heading back to his room. He was feeling restless, a combination of disquiet and odd relief, at Anne's recognition of him as a dark wizard.

After cleaning up and changing to sleep shorts and a t-shirt, Draco thought he would calm himself by playing some videogames. He was disappointed that despite finding a decent challenge in a teenager from Taipei that his thoughts were still unsettled. Tossing the controller down, he resolved there was nothing to it but to go to sleep. Before he turned off the lights, Draco sent a group text message to Books, Gingersnap, and Seeker, having considered that Hermione was unlikely to keep the secret of her early call from her best friends, but that he could not tolerate any reply her dolt of a boyfriend might have to make. He briefly considered adding Capi to the list, but despite her full knowledge of, and inclusion in the magical world, she, as an American, simply did not have the shared history to truly understand. Draco also pondered the other former dark wizards that he knew, and realized that there were none he could confide in. First, there were few that he was aware of that were truly contrite or remorseful about their past actions, and those that were, like him, had cut all ties to their former associates. The one exception would be Crabbe, but Draco would never demean himself as to speak about his emotions with the man. In the end, he stuck to the original three:

Books, thank you for calling off your cousin. It seems my status is now in question here, don't be alarmed, I have no intention of doing anything rash.

In the morning, Draco didn't feel better, but he did feel less disquieted. With Bubba still gone, and no pressing plans with Jane or Cyn, Draco decided it was high time he visited some important people in his life. He strolled casually to the garage where the inscribed runes let him access the garage in New York. Draco realized he had become lax in using his magic in the muggle world, and that perhaps if he were to be apperating to and fro, that it would be a best practice to do so from a secure environment.

Argentina, or at least the part Draco materialized into, is two hours ahead of the time in Austin. Therefore, he congratulated himself for thinking to bring both the chilaquiles and the brisket, as he could justify in calling the meal he planned to share with Hilde brunch, as it he was arriving too late for breakfast, and too early for a fashionable lunch. The old women's face lit with delight as he sauntered into the solarium. She had been arranging some of the late spring flowers, the delicate blooms scenting the air pleasantly.

Draco dismissed the other servants, and part of him felt a hypocrite for doing so, not because their waiting on him wasn't necessary, but because he didn't want them to see him so familiar with one of their own. As he served his old nurse the Tex-Mex delicacies, and told small stories about his life at school, he comforted himself with the idea that life was a series of small steps, and that he was taking them. Maybe in another visit he would scandalize the staff, but he knew it wouldn't be this one. The visit didn't last much longer than the time it took to eat. The old women looked tired, though too proud to say so. Draco mused that it was possible for her to be somewhere in her eighties, though he didn't know he specific age. He leaned over and kissed her check, promising to come down over the holidays for a longer visit.

When he appeared back in the private garage in New York, instead of opening the door to return to Austin, Draco got in his car and directed the garage door to open on the road toward the Black's estate. Gemini was not surprised to see him, and that, in turn, was not a large surprise to Draco. He suspected that she employed a stable of prognosticators to give her insight into both the large things and small.

Upon arrival to the grand estate, the butler led him to the Black's solarium, a grander room than the one he just left in Argentina, for all that it served the same purpose. The room warm with refracted and amplified fall sunlight through its great panes of glass, the plants still sweetly flowering despite the chill outside. Draco sat at a brightly painted wrought iron table where Gemini was pouring two cups of tea. He did not present Gemini a gift of food like he had with Hilde. Instead with a small smirk, he handed her a term paper, an "A+ very insightful" written in red across the top. "I thought your refrigerator might be a bit bare these days."

She accepted the paper graciously, and replied, "you would be surprised at the quality of my art gallery. It seems I have several great greats of some form or another whose parents are determined to use their cherubic faces and finger paints to endear themselves to my memory and more importantly my money." Gemini glanced at the paper, flipping its pages and reading it with alarming, albeit, magical speed. "The inability to root out hate, the recurrence of fundamentalist fear," she read the title aloud. "A prescient topic in both muggle and wizarding society. Of course, it is one that you also have experience with." She looked at him shrewdly. "So, school and distance is agreeing with you?"

Draco nodded humbly. "I think so. Though, I have recently come to discover that I am not the only wizard in the neighborhood so to speak, and therefore my time of blissful anonymity may be at an end." He paused, "but, I think it is okay. Really, it is the next step, if I am unable to self-define my position when on my own, I will have no hope of being my own man when returning to my station."

Gemini smiled softly, there was definite potential in her latest favorite. "You know why so many of my off-spring disappoint me Draco?" She asked rhetorically, "it is because they are only concerned with station, but not with what to do with it when they have it. Station is certainly something that is comforting to have for its own sake, but it is a cancer upon any society when people covet it for its own sake, and bring others down so that they might stay above, with no consideration of just what they are above. Station is a responsibility, it is a reward for the unflinching determination to achieve greatness. We may not all have the same ability, or the same means, but all wizards have the same inherent ability to strive and reach for greatness. When that strive is forsaken for mere survival and perpetuation of station, it turns men mean, into base creatures fearful that greatness in others will shed light on their own shortcomings." The old lady sipped her tea and continued to stare at the young man, who was truly no relation to her at all, but that she decided to keep as a grandson. "Have you considered what you are going to do over your summer break yet?"

He was a bit taken aback by the sudden shift in conversation. "To be fair, I haven't even considered what I am doing for winter break."

"Don't be ridiculous," she retorted, "you will come back here. If your father continues to be the wastrel that I believe him to be, then you will stay here, or with your cousin Altair. Otherwise, you will stay at the penthouse, your presence will be a great comfort to your mother." Gemini delivered the proclamation in such a matter of fact way, that Draco had no inkling of her dissembling. For, of course, Gemini knew that Narcissa had abandoned Lucius a month prior, and was living in Gemini's private suite at the Plaza. Much like Draco, his mother was in voluntary seclusion from the wizarding world, and living completely among the muggles, where Lucius would never deign to look, even though she was in relative plain view. In a moment of cheek, she rebranded herself Eloise for the duration of her stay. The younger members of the family had some suspicion of the drama, but had all been put to task by Gemini to allow Narcissa the freedom to determine and announce her decision to Draco in her own time.

The grand dame continued, "the muggle government recently cut funding for their group Life After Hate. They deal with, primarily, troubled young men, who are seeking to give up their Nazi or otherwise racist and fascist pasts and move forward in a productive manner. I believe that one or two of my foundations has some monies to spare this season that would be profitably put in your education, should you wish to pursue an internship in such an organization. Think on it Draco, but do let me know before the end of the year, tax considerations and such."

Draco nodded mutely, once again stuck by Gemini's understanding of the muggle world, a world he knew she had deep seated reasons to distrust and dislike, her generosity towards him, and what he suspected might be her pragmatic self-interest. As he ate his biscuits and drank his tea, he considered Gemini's machinations. Capi being allowed to explore muggle technology and science, and the careful guidance of the understanding and use of both into the American wizarding world. Altair's profound ability to understand entertainment and media, and developing skill in crafting the same. Now him, and what was his niche, a possible bridge between fear and hate, to what end? That was the real question that he would spend the rest of the school year and more pondering...to what end was Gemini pushing him?

He didn't spend much longer at Gemini's estate, their conversation had dissolved into polite pleasantries. Gemini understood that she had given the young man things to consider and didn't mind allowing him the time to do so. In fact, she rather liked, that unlike the other young popinjays of his generation, Draco would take the time to ponder not only her words, but the true meaning behind them.

~~Sunday Tea in London~~

Ron was angry. At first, he had thought himself merely put out. That of course was when he thought that Hermione's extra day of delay in returning to London was the result of Wizengmot business. When he was being exceptionally truthful with himself, he didn't like her internship with the wizarding court at all. Not only did he feel that he had little to contribute to their nightly conversations, he had a suspicion that she was also aware of the differences in their breadth of understanding and discourse now in ways that had been cleverly hidden from her for the last seven years. He had been particularly irritated with this past week's round of travel. Hermione had been at Durmstrang, their team interviewing the faculty and staff. He knew that she had lunch with Viktor Krum at least once. She had sent him the picture on the cell phone. Krum had politely inquired after his health.

Thinking of the cell phone, Ron picked it up and angrily swiped the screen to life. Nothing new, not since Harry's email this morning. He threw it down on the davenport in frustration. "Bloody cell phones!" He muttered under his breath, and considered that how his mood was all the cell phone's fault, and how under the transitive property of blame, that this must all be Malfoy's fault. Yesterday, the damnable thing had delivered him a short text message from Hermione, trip extended, home Sunday, I will take you to tea. Not even a call! He wondered that the convenience of instant communication, and that it tended to render that communication, less communicative. Then last night, Harry had sent him a picture of packed Gryffindor stands looking to be in riotous applause, with a note, can't believe you missed the best match of the year, drinks are on you next week. It wasn't the comment about drinks being on him when they planned to go out in Edinburgh next week, he accepted that as a due punishment for missing the match. Nor was it the irritation at him missing his friend's quidditch match because he had to work. Because despite what others might chose to believe about him, he was not complaining about growing up and shouldering his responsibilities. No, he was angry about who was in the picture. There in the stands, next to Hagrid, was Hermione. His Hermione!

The benighted piece of technology chirped again, a little blue light blinking on its edge. Ron stared at it balefully, refusing to reach over and pick it up. Instead he sat sulking in the chair across from it. It was probably just Ginny telling him how awesome yesterday was, and what a loser he was for missing out on things. Or that American bird Capi group texting something terribly interesting, that he always had to look up to understand. The cell phone chirped again, a small vibration trembling the plastic case. Ron glowered. After a few minutes, the phone started to play music, Stevie Wonder's I Just Called to Say I Love You. It was a ringtone that he ascribed to Hermione. Ron didn't answer.

When the music stopped the phone chirped again, a sign of a voice mail message this time. Finally, Ron relented. Looking at the screen, the first two messages were both from Hermione. First, Are you awake? Fancy a nosh? Of course, he had made no reply, thus, a second message. Tea? India Indigo's Emporium? Soon? I'm hungry. Ron harrumphed at this, she knew he loved Indigo's, their tea cakes and sandwiches could rival his mothers, and he was always delighted by the interesting combination of spices and foreign mysteries that seemed to linger in the air and fill the shelves. He pressed a button and listened the message. "Ron? I hope everything is ok. I am headed to Indigo's now, and will be there in about 10 minutes. Call me before then if you want to come join, otherwise I will just bring carry-out home. Either way, see you soon."

Ron's stomach grumbled. He relented. Going back to the text message, he sent a reply See you at Indigo's in 10. He considered his Sunday rags, it was his one day off from work this week and he was in a pair of comfy sweat pants and a t-shirt with a mysterious stain on it. He supposed that it wouldn't do, and relented by changing into jeans and pulling on a hoodie to cover the offending spot. By the time he had arrived at Indigo's, Hermione was already seated. Ron saw her before she knew he was there. The table had a proper tower of little biscuits, scones, and sandwiches upon it, with small pots of jam and cream at the bottom. A steaming pot of tea was also in front of her, and he could see Hermione's hands were wrapped around a cup as if to warm them. She looked so proper, and posh. Her beautiful hair pulled back tastefully in a twist, her pale neck just visible under a fluffy green scarf, a tweed jacket hugging her figure snuggly. For a moment, he forgot his anger, and just marveled at his life, and that Hermione would condescend to be a part of it.

However, by the time he joined her at the table and she smiled up at him, his passions were again inflamed. She looked pale, as if she was upset, just who did she think she was being upset? She was the one who lied to him, by omission if nothing else, spending yesterday in Scotland instead of at work. She should be apologizing to him, not making him feel concerned for her. He scowled as he sat. "Care to tell me something?" He asked a but nastily.

"Pardon me?" Hermione looked confused by both his sudden appearance and emotion.

"Like why I found out from my best friend," here Ron deliberately allowed the wrong idea to form about Harry's involvement, in truth irritated that his friend had gone back to school and was playing quidditch instead of joining Ron in London, "that my girlfriend was in Scotland yesterday, instead of at work?"

Hermione waived her hand in a slightly distracted manner. "Last minute change at work, and the idea just struck me to go watch. It was the match with Slytherin after all."

Ron stared across the table at her, not willing to allow for sudden changes in plans, and that if he had been in her situation that he would have probably done the exact same thing. He chewed a scone as angrily as he could, with its sweet buttery deliciousness trying to melt in his mouth. "You know since we have these phones, it does seem to me that you could have given me the courtesy of letting me know that your plans changed. It's not like you had to find a parchment and an owl or something."

Hermione dropped her gaze. "You are right, of course you are right, I apologize."

Ron nodded his head in agreement, but wondered why her agreement didn't make him feel particularly better. He grabbed a roll and slathered it generously with butter and marmalade. "Of course I am, look Hermione, I know this living with someone thing takes some getting used to. I am really not trying to control you, I am so very impressed with everything you are doing. But what if one of the dark wizards that your prosecuting has friends, puts some curse on you, or something even more mundane, what if you are in a car accident? Shouldn't someone know where you are in the world? Shouldn't I know?"

He stared across the table at her soulfully, trying to communicate how much of his irritation was just fear for her well-being, and hoping she didn't see it as his fear of losing her. Ron placed one hand on top of Hermione's and squeezed it gently. Her liquid brown eyes looked up and trapped his.

"Ron, I think I am pregnant."

a/n – I LOVE that I got to 13 followers on Friday the 13th y'all! Also, "Guest" thank you for joining the ever-faithful Irma (who if you haven't read her stuff, you should because she is amazing) in commenting last week!