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Chapter 48 – The Long and Winding Road

The long and winding road,

That leads to your door,

Will never disappear,

I've seen that road before,

It'll always lead me here,

Lead me to your door.

The wild and windy night,

That the rain, washed away,

Has left a pool of tears,

Crying for the day,

Why leave me standing here,

Let me know the way.

Many times, I've been alone,

And many times, I've cried,

Anyway, you'll never know,

The many ways, I've tried.

But still they lead me back,

To the long, and wind road,

You left me standing here,

A long, long time ago,

Don't leave me waiting here,

Lead me to your door.

Lennon/McCartney


Part I – A Duo Sitting Around Talking –

Two friends, who used to be enemies, were sitting outside Hermione's flat on a lazy afternoon on the last day of August, waiting for two of her childhood friends to appear.

"Do you know what you're going to say to them when they come over?" the man asked.

Shaking her head no, she confirmed, "I have no clue. Ron may not know anything about this, although Harry probably told him. But if he's innocent, Potter will get the full force of my wrath alone."

"Wonderful, wonderful. I would love to be there and see that!" The man took her hand in his, squeezed it once, kept it captive, and added, "And I know that Theo was just as shocked as you were when I told him about it. I can only imagine that he's already confronted Blaise about it, although I asked him to wait and let me do it at the Vipers' meeting tonight."

She looked at their joined hands, smiled contritely and said, "Who would ever have imagined that you and I would have become such good friends?"

He brought their hands up to his mouth, kissed the top of hers, dropped them both to his lap, and said, "And they want to take all of that away from us. They want to take it all away, because they don't have faith in 'the list cure'."

Inwardly, she shuddered a moment, outwardly she exhaled a breath, and asked, "Do you believe it will work?"

He dropped her hand. "I do, Granger. I really do. I wouldn't go on with everything if I didn't. I wouldn't be helping Theo plan your wedding, or take you to your Healer appointments, if I didn't. Come the 19th of September, you're going to wake up that morning, and heave a big sigh of relief. You think it will work, I think it will work, my father thinks it will work and Pucey thinks it will work. Taken together, that's like gospel. We're four of the smartest people I know. It'll work."

She smiled.

He continued, "And then you'll probably want to write up some big paper on the whole incident, complete with references, interviews with participants, detailed drawings of sexual experiences – which I'll be happy to render for you – and no doubt a giant list for future, bushy-haired, bucked-tooth, chipmunk-loving, know-it-alls."

She glared at Draco Malfoy and said, "Are you quite finished?"

"Oh, I could go on for days, sweetheart," he gleamed. He handed her back her hand, stood, and continued, "But I must go prepare for my confrontation with my mates tonight. My look of righteous indignation must be perfected if it's to be believed."

She rolled her eyes. "You do that Malfoy, you do that." She stood. "Harry and Ron will be here soon, and I need time to change."

"Why? You have no reluctance about parading around in that horrid, brown eyesore you call a jumper, which oddly enough still fits you even though you're pregnant, in front of us. Why not wear it in front of them? Potter grew up under a set of stairs, so he probably would think this is a piece of haute couture. And Weasley only ever had hand-me-downs from a dozen, older brothers, so this would look like a brand new jumper to his poor rattled brain."

Hands on hips, she asked, "Do you ever get tired of making fun of people?"

He laughed. "Never, and I'll tell you something else, precious, if I do nothing else before your birthday, I plan on freeing the world of that brown jumper of yours."

"Buy me a new one for my birthday, and it's yours." She leaned forward, pressed a kiss to his cheek, and walked up the stairs and inside.

He called back, "Promises, promises," before he turned around and walked down the stairs.

Part II – Another Duo – Hardly Talking

Music played softly in the background while Blaise and Theo continued to transfigure Blaise's nightclub into an outdoor, autumn garden, beautiful enough for a wedding. Blaise didn't recognize the song playing, although he knew it was one of the Beatles songs, which they had all become so fond of lately.

"Do you think this tree would look better with yellow or orange trees?" Theo asked Blaise.

Blaise looked up, examined the other trees around the one in question, and answered, "I think it would look better red. See that one over there is orange, and you have too many yellow. For a rather artistic man, you have no sense of colour."

Theo laughed. "We needed Malfoy for this. He's the artist. Where is he this afternoon?"

Blaise shrugged, even as he used his wand to place a shrub in a different location. "He said something about having things to do before the Viper meeting this evening."

Theo looked over at Blaise. "Do you know why he called this emergency meeting tonight?"

Blaise sat down on a small bench they had placed at the base of one of the 'trees' and said, "No clue. Hard to tell with Malfoy. Maybe he bought a new broom and he wants to show it off or something."

Theo made a sort of humming noise, but said nothing. Instead, he joined Blaise on the bench. "Thanks for helping me with this. It's so much better than trying to transfigure my actual back garden into an autumn paradise since its summer, and after everything that really happened back there, I didn't really want to hold my wedding there."

"Right," Blaise said in clipped tones, rubbing the toe of his boot along the 'grass' on the floor.

"Are you alright with this?" Theo asked.

Blaise stood, turned away and sighed. "You mean am I alright being left out? Sure. Whatever. It's fine. I understand."

"You're not being left out. You know it's not like that," Theo said softly, though he looked down at the ground as he said it.

Blaise turned. "Not like what? Not like Hermione's having my baby, but I'm not going to be part of her life? Not like you and her getting married, even though I'm in love with you both. Not like that?"

"Her list …" Theo began, only to stop. "Nevermind. We've already discussed this, and I don't want to hurt you anymore."

"Right," Blaise said again. "Her second list said she wanted to find a good man to love her, only her, for the rest of her life. It said she wanted to get married, and have a fall-time wedding. It said she wanted to have a baby. It said she wanted to find a cure and live a long time. Nowhere did it say she wanted someone like me. Believe me, I understand it all perfectly."

Blaise looked betrayed, but Theo looked hurt, which was never Blaise's intent when he started his rant. Theo pulled a wrinkled piece of paper out of his trouser pocket and read:

"Number seventeen – Have a child someday. I would like to have more than one, but I won't be selfish, one will do." He looked up at Blaise and added, "You're right, she doesn't mention that she wants someone like you there. Whatever you meant by that statement: 'Someone like you'."

He looked back down at the paper and continued, "Number eighteen – Find a man who will love me for me, and whom I can love for him, and then be in love together, and then in quotations she wrote, 'how poetic'." Theo laughed, though he didn't find it funny. Gazing back into his friend's eyes, he said, "No mention of someone like you there either. Nope. None at all. Shall I continue?"

"Number nineteen is the one we're working on this afternoon. It says, and I'm reading it verbatim here, 'Even though I'm not the sort to dream of a dream wedding, I'd like to have the wedding of my dreams … autumn leaves, outside wedding, perfect weather.' Then her last item, number twenty, was that she wanted to live to be a very old woman, or in other words, find a cure for the curse, so she wouldn't die in six months."

Theo folded the piece of paper and placed it back in his trouser pocket. "No mention of someone like you."

"What?" Blaise whispered. "Why are you doing this to me?"

"What am I doing?" Theo asked back. "What are you doing? Why are you belittling what you are, and what you mean to me? To us?" he retorted, storming to his friend, pointing his finger toward his chest. "What the hell do you mean by a 'person like you'? Do you mean a person whom I love very much? A person who's brought me back from the brink of despair? A person who's helped me know how to love? A person who's helping me to save the life of the woman I love. The person who is giving that woman a child – our child – not just hers, but yours and mine, Blaise! Do you honestly think that she and I don't want you to be part of our lives?"

Now it was Blaise's turn to be angry, and he showed it. With one slash of his wand and a scream from his lips, half of their work came tumbling down around their heads. Theo held his arms up over his head to keep it from hitting him.

After the dust settled, Blaise grabbed Theo by the arms and asked, "You think I'm going to be a part of your lives?"

"Of course!" Theo replied, shocked and somewhat scared.

"What lives?" Blaise returned, shaking Theo. "You won't be here, will you! You're such a liar and a hypocrite, Theodore Nott! You don't love me! You don't care a shite about me! You don't even love her! You wouldn't know love if it came up to you and spit in your eye! You're planning on doing an anti-curse that could possibly take your life for hers!"

Theo froze in shock. If Blaise hadn't still had his hands on Theo's arms, Theo would have crumbled to the ground. He whispered, "How … how do you know?"

"Marcus told us," Blaise confirmed, "and we aren't going to let you do it. There's too much risk involved. It probably won't work, so we aren't even going to let you try it!"

Theo was shaking uncontrollably, but he managed to say, "Yes, it will, Slughorn said it will save her."

Blaise pushed him away. Theo stumbled and fell back on the bench. "That's not what I meant, Theo!" Blaise spat. "I meant that you would probably die in the process!"

Still shaking, shuddering wildly, Theo nodded his head. "Oh, that. Yes, well, that I know." He looked up and said, "But that's okay. She'll still have you, and you'll have her, so see, it'll be okay. You'll be needed. You'll be a part of each other's lives."

Blaise was angrier now than he was earlier. He rushed Theo again, grabbed his shoulders and forced him to stand. "BE OKAY!" he yelled. "WHY THE PRETENSE?" Blaise looked around the mostly ruined nightclub. "Why act as if we're trying to finish the second part of her list, if you're still going to go through with the other cure?"

"Because I love her and I'll die anyway if she dies," Theo mumble.

And just like that, with that one, stupid, little sentence, Blaise's anger ebbed away. He pulled Theo into his chest, placed his arms like tight bands around him. "I'm not letting you do it. You need another person, someone you trust, to help you, and none of the Vipers are going to help you. You have to believe me when I tell you that all will be right with Granger. I've taken care of everything. It will be okay. I promise."

"I want to believe you. Oh, Blaise, I'm just so tired of this long and winding road," Theo said with a small laugh.

"It has been a long journey," Blaise agreed. "But the journey will end soon."

"I don't know if I believe that right now," Theo said. Still enclosed in Blaise's embrace, Theo looked up at the other man. "How are you going to ensure everything will be alright? There are some things you can't fix, Blaise."

"And there are some things I can. Leave it all to Marcus and me. We have a plan, and it will work." He trailed his fingertips down the other man's cheeks in a gentle sweep, resting his hand on his neck. He could feel Theo trembling in his arms, his pulse beating a wild tempo under the tips of his fingers. "Since we can't end our journey tonight, Theo, what else would you want right now, if you could have it?"

"I don't want to forget how I feel when I'm with you like this," Theo said, "but that's what you have planned. You, Marcus, Harry Potter. Isn't that your plan? You're going to take all of this away with that time-turner spell of yours. You'll make Hermione forget about ever loving me. You'll make me forget about loving you. You'll make the baby go away. You'll take away everything."

Now Blaise was slightly aghast and taken by surprise. "How do you know about our plan?"

"Malfoy. He said his father found out somehow, and then Lucius told Pucey, who told Draco, who told me. He's telling Granger right now, she's going to confront Potter tonight, and he's confronting the Vipers at the meeting later. How could you? You peel into me, because you tell me I have no right to give my life for hers, but what are you doing?" Theo tried to get out of Blaise's embrace, but Blaise held on strong.

"It's not the same, Theo, and you know it," Blaise argued. "Anyway, with our plan, everyone will still be alive."

"But she won't love me anymore," Theo whispered.

"But you'll be alive," Blaise countered. "And let's be real, she loved you before she came to live here, and you loved her, and I've been in love with you forever. Nothing can erase that. It might alter it vaguely, but it will come around again."

Theo dropped his head on the other man's shoulder. "But I'll be broken again, too. I won't know how to love. I don't know if I can go through all of that again. And the baby … what about the baby?"

"I'll trade its life for yours any day," was Blaise's answer.

"That's not your call to make," Theo supplied.

"And it's not your call to make, to die in place of Hermione," Blaise leveled. "What if I tell her what you had planned?"

Theo lifted his head. "Please don't."

"Only if you promise me you won't do it," Blaise demanded.

"Will you make the same promise? Will you promise not to do the time-turner spell? Hermione won't let you go through with it once she find out, you know that."

Blaise sighed inwardly. His heart started beating hard inside his chest. He wasn't certain he could make that promise to Theo, but he put a familiar smile on his face and agreed. "I promise." He leaned down and placed his lips to Theo's. The other man's lips were warm and wet, but Blaise was only aware of his own heart drumming between his ears. After a few moments, he lifted his head with a pang of remorse and repeated, "I promise. Now let's get this place ready for your wedding tomorrow."


A/N - Chapter 49 is done, too and back from my beta! Perhaps I'll post it Monday! This will not end with one more chapter. It will definitely have at least 2, if not three more, ending with 52 chapters, I would think. I could have put chapters 48 & 49 together, as I had them at first, but I decided to separate them, because the tones were slightly different. But the end is still very, very soon! Probably next week or so. Thanks!