When the door closed they remained as they were until Antonin shifted slightly and Rueban relaxed. The witch was out of range and then she left the wards a couple of minutes later. He knew his friend would start talking when she was actually gone and he wasn't disappointed.
"You are pleased with this?" Antonin questioned with a look he knew was incredulity.
"Of course. This is excellent. Between this and our plans she will be busy. Duelling though too. Other things will take longer." This last was said thoughtfully. It was true. The rune stone project was magically tasking and dealt duelling practice will be as well. It would take some managing.
"I know we enjoyed it but she is just a girl." Reuben let himself smile at the comment. He had no real qualms about her capabilities. It was his innate sense of chivalry. It wasn't normal and certainly wasn't commonly understood but he had never killed a witch. This one was a testament. She had silenced him and he had lashed out. Only his pull back had saved her. That's when she got her name. Little girl. Said so dismissively. Then she became a player in the big picture game and it was said with various tones and not often in front of others.
"I think she will like it. She was pretty good. There are the steps. How many currently?" Her duelling was technically very good but a bit straight forward. Watching her take down Jugson in the melee after Potter disappeared had surprised him. One chance to change his mind and then dead.
"Six for eight apprentices. Three senior." Hmm that made things a little different.
"So seven then if he is there for twelve hours." Referring to the man left insensate on the hill. "So one step will get two then. Probably not the seniors. It's their chance to show off too. Then the duels." He was thinking it out and mentally calculating time lines.
"So it would be May?" He thought it was a six month diversion but it had been many years. The duelling rounds at the end were quite something.
"They won't take her." Antonin stated the naked truth. Even if the witch won they wouldn't accept her. This would end in her being turned away regardless.
"You wouldn't have." Yaxley pointed out. Not willing to let his friend prevaricate. This was one of their first arguments, and had kept on being something the then young boys had disagreed about for many years. Until Hermione maybe. Today was the first time her gender had been an issue of any kind that he knew of.
"So it's some kind of trial by attempted kidnapping for six months and then duels? After which they won't accept her into their fancy Russian boys club." Rowle's voice was even but his recap startled them both a bit. He had remained silent as ordered and kept it after the witch left. Interested enough to remain, of course.
"That is the general idea." Yaxley admitted and then wondered if perhaps he had been wrong in his initial assessment of the situation. It did have its drawbacks.
"Harry!" Hermione stepped out of the floo and into her friend's home. Lev had wanted to come so this was his first visit to the family home of the Noble and Most Ancient House of Black. She let the kitten down and watched him dart into a dark corner towards the pantry door. The wards she had added would have told him she was there. Waiting a moment she listened and then heard her name faintly.
Walking down the hallway, she passed the stairs, it didn't sound as if he were up there. Two doors were quiet and then a thump behind one.
"If your busy just say go." Her name came instead so he wasn't occupied in some way he didn't want company.
"What are you doing?" Her question was in response to her friend surrounded by flowers and wrapping that they had come in. It looked as if he were trying to create a bouquet. That was so out of character than she asked the question anyway.
"I'm not succeeding. Why can't the witch want a bloody snitch." She didn't laugh but she wanted to. He looked frustrated and he had some sort of green plant based smear on his cheek.
"Why so many?" Hermione asked him. Wandlessly cleaning him and the table up a bit.
"I was reading a book and it said less than four flower types mean you don't know the person well enough so I searched for four that I wanted to use. Ended up with five. Couldn't leave out mischievous. I didn't know that about her but it's become clear." Harry was dead serious and so her nod was equally solemn.
Conjuring a vase she reorganized the five flowers into neat piles and then the greenery the florist had included. Adding some long branch like things she stepped to the side.
"It's easier to do it standing up like this. Just start adding them one by one until you feel like you have an opinion on the next one. In the end it will be beautiful." Her smile and words were sincere and he smiled at her. A relieved one. Perching on a stool, she watched him place flowers with such concentration.
"What brings you by? You said you were having a night with your latest novel." He wasn't looking at her but at the yellow spiky flower in his hand. After some deliberation it went to his left, beside a purple calla lily.
She went home and showered after leaving the cabin and then needed to talk about it, at least a little.
"I was in the Alley today and was being followed. Led him into the muggle park I used to use for apparition and disabled him. Portkeyed him to a field and ended up leaving him immobilised there. Before you freak out everything is fine. Dolohov met me there and it turns out to have something to do with him. A secret apprentice trial or something from the warding masters of Russia." Harry was looking at her with his mouth hanging open and the light purple tulip was just hanging limply in his hands.
"Please speak before I start asking questions." He bit out. Eyes steady on her and his mouth snapped closed after his request.
"At first I just thought it was my PTSD but then it became clear that somehow this person knew how far away from me to be. That freaked me out a bit and then I felt him cast at me. Missed but I decided enough was enough. Set my trap in the bathrooms at the Leaky and it went without a hitch. It was a new one, total physical input depreciation. Sight, sound, touch, all of it. Once I had him it occurred to me that everyone would be upset. Well him and you. So I used the coin and he met me there. Then it took an entire evening to get him to actually explain anything." Harry looked to be thinking many things at once.
"Someone tried to tail you? That was stupid." Harry seemed a bit incredulous that anyone would try such a thing. She chuckled.
"Whatever I may have done, they aren't impressed. I am female, common born, and foreign. Less than them in every way." Her tone said that this had actually been intimated in some way.
He just stared before putting down the clippers he had trimmed a branch with. Quicker this time, he added the last fiery red tea rose and stepped back.
Hermione stood and walked to stand behind him. Placing a hand on his shoulder she surveyed his creation. It wasn't a tall bouquet but it did have some shape. Smiling with all the affection she had for him, she gave her honest opinion.
"I think you make a better Auror than a florist but she will love it. The fact that you did this, took the time. Could have paid someone and chosen the flowers but didn't. Harry, I'm proud of you." As usual, when one of them was honestly affectionate, both smiled and it ended in a long hug.
"Put a stasis charm on it for me and let's go into the kitchen. You bring Lev? There was a second buzz from the wards that was shorter. Thought it must not be a person." She nodded her approval of his awareness and deductions.
The fluffy ball of golden fur was still in the pantry and when she called he trotted out tail high. Covered in cobwebs and with a sneezing issue. Wandless magic cleaned him up and after checking him she let him return to whatever his task was.
"Dolohov thinks you are less for your gender and birth? Hell he lives here." Harry looked a bit confused. She understood. Usually she would have been spitting mad about something like this.
"I don't know. Malyshka, it means little girl. That's what he calls me. I think he has for a long time. He did in that cafe. We don't talk about personal feelings or anything. He took me on though. Signed in his magic. Maybe here where that's not such an issue I'm less of an embarrassment. Truthfully I try not to think about the blood status thing. Lucius mentioned that I was an aberration. Better than the others and a rarity. Maybe that's true, but not just muggleborns, their kids too. Them even." She was thoughtful and enjoyed the warm teacup in her hand.
"This thing. Apparently it's the apprentices. I didn't even know there was a group of warding masters in Russia. None replied to my routed letters nor did anyone mention them in the hundreds of letters I've received about a warding apprenticeship. I looked. You know I did. Anyway, they will come for me. It's what he said. Seemed like some kind of trial or challenge. He apprenticed at home. That's how he refers to the motherland. If he decided that I can't take it, or win, or whatever then he has to kneel. That was his phrase. Capitulate is the one that sounds right to me. Publicly admit to the other masters that he has taken an apprentice not capable of the challenge." She was looking down but couldn't help the hardness that crept into her voice.
"You'll do it then. Whatever it is. Do you even know what coming for you means?" Harry's voice was equally serious and he touched her hand. Knowing he wanted her to face him, she looked up. As her best friend, with concern and some of the stubbornness he felt on her behalf, reflected on his face. This person knew better than most, her hatred of being dismissed for her birth. Gender or parentage.
"No I don't know what it would mean. I don't care though. It doesn't matter either, what I think. It's him who will decide. If he doesn't think I can do it or doesn't want me to for whatever reason then there is nothing I can do about it. That's basically what I said when I left." He nodded and they sat in silence trading glances occasionally until they heard a crash and went to investigate what feline trouble her familiar had managed to find.