Please go show some love to my beta, RESimon. She's an incredible beta, but is an even more brilliant author. Her first fic, a Nevmione titled Not But For You, is in my favorites. Please do drop some love on her tumblr, too - resimonfics.
CHAPTER FIFTY
"'Rina, no!" Emma snatched her sister by the back of her miniature robes and hauled her to the ground.
"Emma Rose Sna—" Hermione cut off as she felt her mother's hand close over her arm.
"Look." Her mother nodded toward where Padfoot and Crookshanks had separated the children. Carina chewed happily on Emma's mitten while Padfoot licked Emma until she giggled. "They're in good hands. Sit."
Hermione sank back onto the stone bench beside her mother, still itching to go to her children.
"Look," her mother said again.
This time, Hermione saw her mother nodding at where Scorpius was cradled in Hermione's arms. He was staring up at her with his wide silver-grey eyes, and his tiny lips were curved into a small smile.
"Hi baby," Hermione said, leaning down to give him a gentle kiss on his forehead. When she pulled back, his smile had widened.
"It's your voice," her mother said. James slept peacefully in his grandmother's arms, his face barely visible over the bundle of blankets Hermione's mother had insisted on wrapping him in.
"Oh," Hermione said, and just the sound made Scorpius' smile widen even further. Her mouth dropped open slightly at the sight of reverence in her son's eyes. "I love you," Hermione said, smoothing a finger through his downy blond hair.
"It's the little moments like these that make motherhood so incredible, aren't they?" her mother said.
"Yes," Hermione agreed, smiling as she watched Scorpius' reaction to her voice.
"You're smiling," her mother said, "but it's not meeting your eyes."
Hermione closed her eyes for a moment as her smile faltered. "I…" Hermione trailed off, at a loss for words.
"Tell me how you're feeling," her mother asked.
It took a beat for Hermione to be able to speak over the lump in her throat. "Scared."
"I love you so much Hermione," her mother said. "And it breaks my heart to see yours broken."
"Mum," her lip trembled, "Mum, I… I don't know where I went so wrong. He touched Carina— he touched her, and from that moment I lost all my sense, and I—" She cut off as she felt her mother lift Scorpius from her arms. She hadn't even noticed when her mother had placed James into one side of the bassinet that hovered beside them.
Once Scorpius was settled beside James, her mother turned and enveloped Hermione in her arms. Hermione allowed herself to soak in the warmth and comfort of her mother's familiar touch as she tried to keep her tears at bay.
"You've placed an impossible burden upon yourself," her mother said. "Not in trying to resolve this threat on your own, but in trying to carry the burden of the guilt you feel for taking a course of action any mother might have."
Hermione said nothing and only held her mother tighter.
"You have eight husbands, four children, and have been pregnant through at least part of this ordeal. Aside from your hormones having not had the opportunity to right themselves for a year, how differently do you think any other mother — any other wife, even — would have reacted?"
"I don't...I don't know. I don't any anything anymore." Hermione's every action felt tinged with defeat.
Her mother caught her by the chin. "I would have done everything in my power to find him. I would have done anything I could to do so while ensuring that every member of my family was safe."
Hermione looked away. "I still failed."
Her mother ran a hand through Hermione's wild curls. "Your resilience and determination to find your way out of situations on your own speak to your strength and independence, not to your weaknesses. How many times have you gone off without a word to the adults around you but managed to save yourself, Harry, Ron, and sometimes others in the process?"
Hermione paused. "How did you know—?"
"Your husbands restored a few gifts along with the rest of our memories. It appears that your former headmaster had a fondness for skirting the law by telling us how many times you almost got yourself killed in school before immediately obliviating us."
Hermione grimaced at the shudder in her mother's voice. "Mum, I..."
Hermione trailed off as caught Padfoot bound over to the doors that lead back into the Manor, where Neville stood. Hermione straightened. The look on Neville's face was grim.
Something had happened.
She barely mumbled an excuse to her mother before she was stumbling, then running to the gleaming glass doors. She tore through them to find Sirius and Neville watching Arthur intently as he spoke to them in a low, hushed tone. Before she could call out to them, Arthur turned on his heel and disapparated.
She must have made a sound because Neville and Sirius turned their grim stares on her.
"What's going on?" Her throat felt so tight that she'd had to force the words out. "I can't— I can't— just tell me, are they— Harry and Kingsley—"
Sirius was upon her in a moment. "Love," he said, catching her as she stumbled toward him. "They're fine. I swear it."
His words soothed like a calming draught over the calamity in her mind. Still, the grim look on his face did not soften.
She clutched his sleeve. "You're certain?"
"We're certain," Neville said, leading her into the nearest sitting room.
"Then why do you look like this?" Hermione reached up to smooth out the line of tension that had settled between his brows.
"Sit, please." Sirius' hand was soft but firm as he guided her to the nearest sofa.
Hermione watched as her husbands exchanged a long look.
"Just tell me," she said. "Don't talk around it, just tell me. I can't bear any more of" — she waved an anxious hand — "this. It's been too long." she bit her lip as she felt it begin to tremble. One of her hands had drifted to the nearly imperceptible bump at the base of her abdomen as she's been speaking. She pressed her hand harder against it now, reminding herself of why she needed to be calm. Who she needed to be strong for, in addition to the men in front of her.
"Calm down love," Sirius said. "They're fine. This is...something else." He looked up at Neville again, communicating silently with the other man.
Neville stepped forward and then back again before running a hand through his hair. "Rabastan Lestrange is dead."
Neville's words passed through her like a knife, swiftly and smoothly, and it was a moment before the shock of them followed.
"Dead?" Hermione had to concentrate on moving her lips to form the word as her actions tried to keep up with the pace of her thoughts. "Dead."
Her next blink was long and slow. "How?"
Neville and Sirius exchanged another look. "Love—"
"How?" She stood then, looking between them.
"He…" Neville paused. "He bled out."
"Bled...out."
Sirius reached out toward her. "Hermione—"
She shrugged him off. "How?"
"What aren't you telling me?" She looked between them again, seeing the same guarded look reflected in both of her husbands' eyes.
"He was wounded...on his…" Neville swallowed and met her eyes.
"Thigh," Hermione breathed. The implication of the word slammed through her so suddenly that she found herself falling back to the sofa.
Her husbands caught her and held her on each side. She sagged into Neville as they settled her onto the sofa.
She'd killed him. She'd wounded him, he'd died from it. She'd taken his wand, and—
"Talk to us," Neville said, curling an arm around her shoulders.
"I'm supposed to be sad, aren't I?" She stretched out a hand before her, turning it this way and that as she slowly flexed her fingers. Her body felt foreign, detached from her conscious. "But I just...I feel nothing."
She felt Neville's thumb brushing gentle strokes across the nape of her neck. "Hermione…"
"I suppose there's something wrong with me," she mused, still watching the way her hand movements followed her thoughts on a distinct delay, as if she was underwater.
Sirius sank to his knees before her and seized her gently by the shoulders. "There is nothing wrong it you, love. I swear it."
She caught Neville's sharp nod out of the corner of her eye. "Hermione…"
"I'm supposed to feel—" she looked down at her hands, wondering at how they seemed more foreign with each second that passed, " —something. Something else. Something other than…" she let her lips fall shut, forcing herself not to say the word.
"Relief?" Neville said, his own voice echoing with the hollowness she heard in her own. She looked at him to see him looking out the window with a faraway look in his eye.
"Neville…?"
"Rookwood. During the Battle of Hogwarts. A diffindo— right here." He ran a finger across his lower abdomen. "I want to say I missed, but I didn't. I want to say I regret it— but I don't. He almost had Luna, and I didn't hesitate. Even now…even now all I feel is relief. Relief that he isn't out there, and can't escape again. Relief that he couldn't have been one of the ones that had hidden away one of the portkeys. Relieved that he couldn't have gotten to you, either."
He turned to her then and took her hand. "Hermione, you…" He looked down at where his thumb caressed her hand. "You are… incredible. The bravest witch I know. You're my wife, but above that, you are a mother. Your instinct to protect your children— I know it goes beyond what I felt that day on the battlefield."
"I don't regret it," she said. "He— I wanted him dead. I wanted to cut him down myself. For touching my child… for threatening my husbands, my family— I wanted to do it, and I didn't, and I— I— I'm so glad that he's gone."
"And no one will ever fault you for that, love." Sirius pulled her into his side and gave her a soft kiss on the forehead. "Ever."
There was a knock at the doorway then, and when Hermione saw Harry and Kingsley standing there, she didn't hesitate to run into their arms.
"You're here," she mumbled into Kingsley's robe, inhaling his scent. "You're alright."
"We're fine, 'Mione," Harry said. "We're perfectly fine."
"I apologize that we were away for so long," Kinglsey said. "He proved somewhat elusive, despite your giving us a valuable asset to track him with."
Hermione pulled back, furrowing her brow. "Elusive…? Isn't he..."
Harry's eyes flicked behind her before landing back on her own. "They've told you, then?"
Hermione nodded.
Kingsley cupped her cheek in his large palm. "It's not your fault," he said. "What he did to you was much, much worse."
Hermione nodded again, taking comfort in the feeling of his warm skin on hers before his lips met hers for a moment.
When Kingsley pulled back, Hermione saw Harry looking away, a conflicted look on his face.
She caught his chin and turned him to her. "What aren't you telling me?" she asked.
"'Mione…" Harry said, worrying a hand through his messy black hair. "He...he wasn't alone."
Hermione froze.
"He was with his brother, Rodolphus," Kingsley said.
"Rodolphus?" Hermione's hand ghosted over her arm as she thought of the man's wife perched over her, carving that word into her arm…
"We have him. We were thorough. It was only them," Harry said.
"I believe they've been in hiding for most of this time," Kingsley said. "It's likely that they snuck in when we re-opened the borders to encourage tourism. Where they were living...it was...less than ideal."
Harry nodded. "We think that the money may have been for that. As well as...well…" he hesitated. "Rodolphus...he was injured. Badly. We think it happened in the fire at Lestrange Manor. We can't be certain, but…"
"We think some of the money was used for the healing supplies we found with him. He… he wouldn't have been able to hurt you, even if he had gotten to you. We have him in custody now, and that is what matters," Kingsley said. "We will interrogate him, and then he will go to Azkaban."
Hermione opened her mouth to speak but found that she had nothing to say. Harry watched the way her mouth opened and closed several times before he gathered her into his arms.
"You're safe," he whispered into her ear. "You're safe and that's all that matters."
X
Elizabeth Alice Longbottom was born on a Saturday.
Bright rays of sunlight streamed into Hermione's birthing suite, warming her skin and illuminating the cooing newborn in her arms. Her husbands were all gathered around her in a loose circle, watching mother and daughter as they bonded.
"I feel like I should be feeding her," Hermione said, frowning. "Or something? But she's been so calm for hours now."
"She's enjoying life, as she should be," Neville smiled down at his daughter.
"She's beautiful," Harry said. He was still in his Auror robes, and Hermione didn't miss the way his smile hadn't quite reached his eyes.
Kingsley and Arthur were also in their Ministry-issued robes, their tired looks barely masked by the smiles they put on. The look hadn't left any of their eyes for two and a half months.
"How are things?" she asked them, looking knowingly between her three husbands.
"The interrogation is ongoing," Kingsley said. "But you needn't worry about that. Right now is about her."
Arthur nodded. "He's been difficult, but nothing we can't manage. Things are going well, Hermione. We wouldn't be here if they weren't."
Hermione smiled and nodded at them, relief warming her heart.
Elizabeth squirmed then, and Hermione leaned down to kiss her tiny forehead. "I love you," she whispered into her baby's ear, smiling as the infant turned toward the sound of her mother's voice.
"We'll give you three some time," Sirius said. Her husbands filed out, and she heard the sounds of her parents playing with their grandchildren drift in from the suite's sitting room for a moment before they were sealed in silence.
"Lestrange…" Neville's voice was brimming with emotion, he cleared his throat before he began again, "Lestrange almost took two people I love dearly from me again. You...you and our baby."
Hermione felt a tear leak down her cheek. "We're here though. We're here, and we're alright."
Neville wrapped his arms around her, maneuvering gently around their daughter. "I won't let anything happen to you. I'll protect you both with my life— for the rest of my life."
Hermione kissed him, pouring everything she felt for him into the action.
"I love you," he said when she pulled back.
Hermione smiled. "I love you, too."
He stroked her cheek. "What are you thinking about?"
"I feel… peaceful. It's been so long since I've felt like this, but I truly do."
Neville kissed her temple, then reached for his daughter. She handed off the baby carefully and then just watched her husband and their daughter stare at one another, in awe of their bond, until she fell asleep.
Wow. I've hit 1k reviews on here, and 3k kudos on ao3. I have no words. We're 2 days out from the one year anniversary of this fic, and when I posted it I had no idea how much it would grow. I am eternally grateful and in awe of the outpouring of love and support I've received from you all. I write for myself, but it's an immeasurable honor to put my stuff out there and know that this many people are enjoying it. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. I love you all.
Thank you all for following - I can't tell you enough how much every review means to me. And for those who have been asking about the drop in smut during this bit of the story - not to worry. 51 will make up for it.
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