AND THE FINALE! I hope you enjoyed reading Maerna's adventure as much as I enjoyed writing it. Please leave a review even if it's just a line or two telling me what you thought.
Spring, 2012
It was Hermione's first time in New York and she loved the city, the lights and the atmosphere. Hermione glanced across the wizarding hotel lobby. A welcome sign for the International Confederation of Wizards Scientific and Economics Advancements Conference hung across the front. Finally the wizarding community realized that muggles had made some amazing inventions. With the proliferation of the Internet, and major advances in realms like nuclear medicine and cybernetics, the muggle world was starting to bypass the wizarding. This conference looked at different ways to blend muggle and wizarding ideas together and Hermione loved being a part of it.
She waved at the redhead that emerged from the lifts. Both having jobs with the Ministry of Magic, she and Harry were officially here for work but their spouses decided to tag along. The conference had finished up that morning and Ginny had plans for them. "When can we go shopping?" She bounded up to Hermione full of energy.
Harry followed behind running his hand through his messy hair. "Just stay off 5th Avenue," he said in a semi-joking manner.
Hermione laughed at her two friends. "Soon. We just need to wait for. . ." she paused mid-sentence. The crowds seem to part almost magically. Standing there was a woman, probably about ten years older than herself, surrounded by her suitcases. Dressed in a light blue business robe, she had obviously been there for the conference. She chatted rapidly in Spanish to someone and waved goodbye to him as Hermione approached her. Her blonde hair was swept up in a classic chignon making it appear shorter than it was. When the woman put on a pair of thin glasses to see her time table. Hermione was almost positive it was her.
"Meg? Meg Darcy?" Hermione asked as she approached the woman.
The blonde frowned at her, "I'm sorry, you must have mistaken me for someone else," the woman replied, but a glint in her eye and the sound of her voice made Hermione the question the woman's words.
"No, I don't think so," Hermione challenged her.
The woman finally relaxed into a smile. "I knew this day would come at some point. Yes, Hermione. I'm Meg Darcy. It's good to see you again."
Ginny and Harry had followed Hermione over and heard the woman's last statement. Ginny gasped and Harry blurted out, "But the ministry has been looking all over for you. They thought you were dead. Because of your foresight and preparedness, over 90 muggleborns were able to flee the country. From what I understand, you paid for all of it. You never took a sickle for any of it. They wanted to give you the Order of Merlin, 1st class, but you never came forward."
Maerna gave Harry a droll look. "Yes, Harry. I'm sure that's why you did everything you did-for the Order of Merlin, 1st class." Harry's face turned bright red as he realized the ridiculousness of his statement.
"Thank you so much for everything you did," Harry said. "For the muggleborns, for taking care of me when I was sick," Maerna nodded her head in acknowledgement of his words but said nothing.
Ginny jumped in. "Bill and George looked for you after the war, but you were so secretive. Even though you were all part of the Conductors, they never knew where you lived, your real name and weren't even sure of your real face. The only person who seemed to know the real you was. . ."
"Remus," Maerna interjected quietly. "How is Teddy? Remus told me that he asked you to be Godfather, Harry."
"He's doing great. He's a metamorph, like Tonks. Here I have a picture." Harry pulled out his wand and conjured up a photo of a 14 year old boy with blue hair, dressed in Hufflepuff robes.
Tears pooled in Maerna's eyes as she took the picture from Harry. She studied the boy. His warm eyes and easy smile reminded her so much of her favorite werewolf. "May I have a copy of this?" she asked Harry.
"Absolutely," Harry said quickly muttering "Gemino" and handed her the original.
"There were so many rumors about you. Some said that you were a special part of the Order of the Phoenix. Others thought that you were connected to the Muggleborn Registration Committee, spying deep from within the mInistry. Still others thought you were a Death Eater that defected like Severus Snape," Ginny said. The reporter in her was trying to sniff out information but the woman wasn't going to give her too much.
"Some of those were true. Well, at least more true than others," Maerna smiled at her. Then for some reason, even Maerna wasn't sure why, she gave them a tidbit of insight. "When I came up with the idea of the Conductors, I originally went to Albus Dumbledore. He connected me with Remus Lupin as my point person."
"So, those were the only two who could connect the real you to Meg Darcy and they both died during the war," Hermione said.
"Actually, there were three that knew the truth," Maerna admitted.
The three English stared at Maerna, hoping but not believing she would give them a name.
Maerna gave them a big smile, "I married the last one," she said to the general astonishment of her audience. "Now, Hermione, I know what's going on in your head. You are thinking about getting a list of the conference attendees and cross referencing them with all the pictures and background information you can find. Am I correct?" she asked a slightly ashamed looking Undersecretary of the Ministry of Magic. "Of course, I can't tell you what to do, but I request that you don't. We're happy where we are and have no desire to go back. Consider your silence my pay for all those muggleborns who made it out during the that horrendous time and for taking care of Harry when he was ill. It was lovely to see you all again, but I have a portkey to catch. Would you do one favor for me, however?"
The three nodded to her, still trying to absorb what she had said.
"Tell Neville I said hello." She shrunk down her luggage, waved goodbye and disappeared into the crowd.
It was late by the time Maerma returned to "la hacienda," The warm breeze of spring was going to give away to a hot, sultry summer soon. Of course when you lived this far south, it was usually warm. She tapped her wand to open the door and slipped in.
He was still awake, down in the basement, bending over a cauldron, muttering to himself. She paused on the steps and watched him for a moment. She still loved to run her fingers through that black hair although it was turning into a more distinguished grey. "How's the research going?" she asked as she slipped her arms around his waist. He immediately turned off the flame and faced her. "It's going. I had a new idea I wanted to share with you."
"Now?" she asked.
"It can wait until tomorrow," he replied. "Have you said hello to the boys?"
She nodded. "I tried, Albus was already asleep. Remus was dozing off when I came in."
Her husband rolled his eyes. "Remus dragged me to the library while you were gone. He wanted to know everything about werewolf rights."
Maerna laughed a throaty laugh. "The boy has passion for the topic doesn't he? Let's just hope that Albus doesn't become passionate about lemon drop candies."
"How was the conference?" he asked pulling her over the couch in the corner of their lab.
"Very interesting," Maerna said as she took off her shoes. "I ran into a few of your former students while there."
"Oh really," he said as he began to massage her shoulders. As the public figure of their potion research, she had, on occasion, run into some of them but none had ever connected her to the Second Wizarding War.
"Yes. They actually recognized me as Meg Darcy." His hands froze on her shoulders "It was Potter and Granger," Maerna said.
Severus sat down next to her on the sofa. "Do you think it will be a problem?" he asked.
"I don't believe so," Maerna said. "I asked Hermione not to look for me."
"Well, let's hope that insufferable know-it-all listens to you better than she ever did to me," he grunted.
Maerna smiled, "Let's not worry about it." She snuggled up against him and began to play with the buttons on his shirt. "I have other things I'd rather focus on," She stood up, pulled him to his feet slowly and led him to their bedroom. "After all, even the best laid plans can go awry."
"Like you, you mean. You, the muggle chemist, were my best laid plan during the war." Severus said as he shut the door.
"I think that plan worked out better than you thought," Maerna replied coyly.
"I agree," Severus said and bent down to kiss her, whisking her away to his world.
