Chapter 27
Harry took her hand. "Are you ready?"
"As I'll ever be." She gripped the carrier bags full of presents in her free hand more tightly and allowed him to apparate them to the outer wards of the Burrow.
He stopped there and pulled her into a deep kiss. "I love you. You and me, no matter what, okay?"
"Right, of course." She tugged his hand but he just remained in place. She glanced at him to see that he was looking at her expectantly. "Oh, I love you too." He smiled and squeezed her hand before leading her onward. She took some deep breaths as they approached the still-familiar dwelling.
Married for less than a month, Hermione could admit that this was not her first choice for spending their first holiday season as a couple. But she would never even hint at those feelings. She knew that owed it to Harry, and to his surrogate family to make amends with them. And she owed it to Ron and Lavender to be there for the days leading up to their wedding.
They'd taken almost a full day to settle into Potter House and had arrived at the Burrow for Mrs. Weasley's weekly Sunday Brunch. At least they'd been assured that Ginny wouldn't be present for this first meeting. Though Hermione hoped she had properly relayed that they would never want the younger witch to feel unwelcome in her own home, her decision to stay away was a relief nonetheless.
They were still at least twenty meters from the front door when it flew open and Lavender ran outside.
"Hiiiiiiiii!"
She practically tackled Hermione which, given that she was several inches taller than Hermione nearly toppled them both. Then she literally lept into Harry's arms, it was a maneuver which, at one time, would have annoyed the hell out of Hermione. Now she just laughed at the discomfort on her husband's face.
"Hi Lavender, it's good to see you too," he said, patting her back awkwardly.
"Oh you both look so great," she gushed, taking one of each of their arms and basically dragging them towards the house.
Ron was standing in the doorway with a gentle smile on his face but he looked absolutely exhausted. He turned to Harry first and they embraced briefly in that way that men do, clapping each others shoulders. Then he wrapped his arms around Hermione and pulled her close.
"You have to help me," he whispered roughly into her ear, "she's gone crazy! At this rate I won't live through the wedding! And the rest of the family is ready to murder her!"
"Okay, I'll do what I can," she murmured as she stepped into the front room of the Burrow, setting the carrier bags aside to retrieve later. "Lavender, how are things with the wedding?" She asked, which was apparently exactly the wrong thing to say. Lavender burst into tears.
"Oh it's a disaster! Wait until you see what's happened!"
She took their arms again and began dragging them towards the kitchen, Hermione could sense Ron following them closely. When they entered the room, despite the fact that it was full, it was mostly silent except for the sounds of Lavender's voice and Mrs. Weasley cooking, which was a bad sign; this house was never quiet.
Hermione wondered if she should say something in greeting, but Lavender was chattering on incessantly and nobody seemed keen to interrupt.
"They lost a crate of plates which means that I have to pick an entirely new place setting and they're all horrible!"
Hermione could feel all the eyes in the room on her, but she kept her attention on Lavender. She'd assumed Ron had been exaggerating, but the other witch really did look to be on the verge of completely unraveling.
Strewn across the kitchen table was a variety of wedding planning paraphernalia. Lavender led them to a spot about halfway down the table and gestured to the three photographs laid out in front of them. "This is just, this is not what I had in mind at all!"
Hermione looked at the three pictured place settings and took a deep breath. All three of them looked remarkably similar, but more than that, they looked very similar to the pictures Lavender had shown her of the one she'd originally chosen.
"Okay," she said, gathering her thoughts. "I know you're disappointed, but keep in mind that nobody will know that whatever you do end up choosing wasn't your first choice. And these are all lovely. If you want my opinion, I like this one," she gestured to the center picture. "The border on the China reminds me of the lace on your dress, in a subtle way. And you were the one who told me that a bride's gown should be the centerpiece of a wedding."
Lavender stopped sniffling and bent over to take a closer look at the photograph. "Oh, you're right, I didn't even think of that. What do you think, Harry? I need a man's opinion and Ron just said he doesn't care."
"That's not what I said!" Ron objected. "I told you pick whatever you liked!"
"Because you don't care! It doesn't matter to you, this wedding doesn't even matter to you!"
Hermione suppressed a sigh. "Lavender," she said gently, "look at them." She waited until the other witch glanced up to look at first Harry then Ron. "They're completely terrified right now." She sent them a subtle wink, hoping they wouldn't let their pride get in the way of what she was trying to do. "They have no idea how to respond to this, they don't know the right thing to say to keep from upsetting you. It's not because they don't care. Men just don't see these details the way we do, we're probably lucky they even realize they're looking at place settings," she looked up at them. "You did realize that didn't you boys?" She teased.
They nodded their heads in tandem, eyes wide.
"I'm sure that Ron only meant that he wanted you to choose what you liked best because he wanted you to be happy, this specific thing is irrelevant to him, but that doesn't mean he doesn't care about the wedding. I'm guessing he had a lot of opinions on the food?"
"Yeah," she admitted. "Roast beef, and those rolls that he likes so much," she smiled at Ron fondly. "And we tried so many different kinds of cakes. We're going to have three different flavors!"
And just like that, her excitement was back. Hermione was just breathing a sigh of relief when her face fell again.
"Oh but Hermione, you haven't even heard about the flowers!"
"Okay, well then tell me what's happened with the flowers?"
"The florist says they can't fulfill my order of roses, they say they can't get them in time! I can't have a wedding without roses! What kind of florist doesn't have roses!"
"They do have roses," Mrs. Weasley suddenly interrupted with a heavy sigh, not even turning from her cooking. "They just don't have the ten dozen extra you decided to order two days ago."
Hermione cut her eyes in Ron's direction, hoping for some guidance. She didn't want it to seem like she was swooping and and taking over from Molly Weasley, but she'd promised him she'd help. Also, he was the one footing the bill.
"If you really think you need the extra roses," she began and Ron started nodding frantically, "then I think we can make that happen. I would start by owling Astoria, the woman has contacts everywhere, also you might think about reaching out to Neville, he or one of his Herbology colleagues might have a suggestion. And if worse comes to worst Harry and I can hire a car and go into the London flower markets and get them ourselves."
Lavender's eyes welled with tears. "You would do that for me?"
"Of course, this is your time, I'm here for you, whatever you need. You were a tremendous help planning my wedding and very gracious in sacrificing part of your vacation to do it."
"Oh Hermione, that was fun," she sighed. "And your wedding was perfect, I just want mine to be too!"
Hermione sighed internally. Given the quick and simple nature of her wedding it had never occurred to her that the other woman would compare the two.
"It will be, Lav. And you're right, my wedding was perfect. But the reason for that is standing next to me," she reached up and brushed Harry's cheek with her fingertips. "I promise you it didn't have anything to do with the plates."
Harry, who was still staring at them with wide eyes suddenly blurted: "We had plates at our wedding?"
Hermione turned back to Lavender with an "I told you so" look on her face and she giggled. Lavender patted Harry's arm. "He really is very sweet."
"What!" Ron objected. "How is it that he doesn't know anything about plates and it's sweet but I don't and it means I don't care?"
Hermione had to resist the urge to shake her head.
"Oh Ron," Lavender sighed. "I'm going to go owl Astoria and Neville before lunch." And with that she marched out of the kitchen.
Hermione glared at Ron when he just continued to stand there. "Go after her, you idiot," she hissed.
"Do I have to?"
"Yes! And stop saying things like that! Lavender's not marrying Harry, he's allowed to be clueless, you're not!"
He took a deep breath and went after his fiancee and Hermione looked at Harry. "Really?" She asked with the arch of one brow. "We had plates at our wedding?" She mimicked him.
Somehow his eyes managed to grow even wider. "Well, I course we had plates, I mean we must have because we ate. But there definitely weren't that many forks," he stammered and pointed to the picture of the place settings. "Am I in trouble? Because that was really scary," he gestured to where Lavender had been standing. "And now you're kind of looking at me like I'm in trouble, so, I'm sorry that I don't remember the plates? But, it's just because I couldn't take my eyes off of you." He smiled at her hopefully.
She just stared at him and his face began to fall, she burst out laughing. His jaw dropped.
"Mean, Hermione! That was mean!"
"I'm sorry! It was just too easy, I couldn't resist! You should have seen your face!"
He crossed his arms over his chest.
"And Lavender's right, you're very sweet."
"You're going to pay for that."
"Yes," she rolled her eyes, "I'm terrified."
He winked at her and looked around the room. "Hello everybody, it's good to see you all."
Hermione wiped her eyes and took her own first good look around the room, the occupants were all looking at her with some combination of discomfort and amusement, except for Mrs. Weasley who wasn't looking at her at all. "Yes, hello everyone. I've missed you."
"Well, Granger" George quipped, "I'd kiss you for getting us a little peace from the she-beast. But I think there's been enough of that kind of controversy going on around here lately."
Harry bristled at her side and Hermione felt her cheeks heat.
"George," Mr. Weasley chided.
"What? I thought we should address the pink hippogriff in the room straight away."
Hermione felt Harry's hand at the small of her back. "If you want to be mad at somebody, be mad at me. Hermione's done nothing wrong."
"You mean other than bugger off to America for a few years like none of us even mattered?"
"I'm sorry," she sighed and wrung her hands. "I'm just sorry."
"While the apology is appreciated, that doesn't really explain anything. You made it seem like we weren't worthy of your time."
Hermione blinked back tears; her guilt was not their burden to bear. "It was never my intention to make you feel like that and I don't have an excuse. I certainly meant to keep in touch. I was grieving- as we all were, of course. I was trying to find my place in the world. And I could try to explain that the longer I was gone, the more time seemed to speed up and before I knew it years had gone by. But that doesn't make it better. I was wrong and I hope that you can find it in yourselves to forgive me eventually, as Harry has."
"I'd say Harry's done a lot more than that. My question is, how long has Harry been doing a lot more than that?"
Hermione's breath caught. She hadn't actually expected such a blunt accusation, but especially from George, It also didn't escape her notice that nobody had attempted to interrupt this confrontation.
"Watch it," Harry snapped, "I don't like what you're implying about my wife."
George shrugged. "The two of you have always been awfully close. And you were alone together for a long time during the war."
Harry stepped closer to Hermione. "You know, I'm really getting tired of people acting like we were on some lovers get away instead of in a daily struggle to survive. Starvation doesn't really lend itself to sexy times. Moreover, even if we had spent all day, everyday, in that tent shagging, not only would it be none of your business, but we wouldn't have been doing anything wrong. We were both of age and single. However, I've never lied to Ron, or Ginny, or any of you when I said that until a few months ago we were just friends and I can't think of anything I've done to make you question my integrity on that. Or how you could possibly think that Hermione was that type of woman."
"You did get married awfully quickly," Bill interjected. "And you hurt our sister, you can't blame us for wondering."
"I'm sorry that I hurt Ginny, and I don't blame you for being angry about that. Yell at me all you want. But I won't just stand here and let you disrespect Hermione, we'll leave if we have to."
"Harry," she said in a low voice, "it's-"
"Don't say it's fine, because it's not," he practically barked.
"Okay," Mr. Weasley stood up and clapped his hands once. "Nobody's leaving, we invited you here to have lunch and to catch up and that's what we're going to do." He rounded the table and held his arms out towards Hermione. "You look lovely dear, how are you?"
She embraced him, tears stinging her eyes, for a different reason this time. It had been a long time since she'd felt the embrace of a father. "I'm well Mr. Weasley, how are you?"
He chuckled. "I think it's long past time you started calling me 'Arthur' and I've gotten old is how I am."
She took a half step back and smiled up at him. "Thank you, Arthur. And you don't look old to me."
"You're too kind."
Arthur held his hand out for Harry to shake and Angelina practically ran over to hug Hermione. "I'm sorry about George, she whispered into her ear. We all know how close you and Harry were at Hogwarts but they don't really believe it was tawdry. They're just feeling protective."
"It's okay, I understand."
"By the way, marriage looks amazing on you and you two are adorable."
"Thanks. You're looking great too, it's really good to see you."
Angelina just shot her a beaming smile.
She was passed around after that. Everybody embraced her, and even though she could tell that Ginny's brothers weren't thrilled by the situation, there was still real warmth in their embraces. Except for Percy, who just offered her his hand, but that was simply Percy.
Much too soon the only person left to greet was Mrs. Weasley, the older witch still hadn't even turned around to look at them.
"Hello, Mrs. Weasley, thank you for having us," Hermione said quietly, clasping her hands in front of her. "Is there anything I can do to help with lunch?"
The older witch took her time, waving her wand to stir the two pots on the stove and send a couple of dishes from the worktop to the table, but she finally turned to face Hermione. "Hello Hermione. And I appreciate the thought, but no thank you, you were never much of a cook." She glanced at Harry. "Which I suppose is why you're too skinny."
"Molly," Hermione heard Arthur gasp.
Hermione forced herself not to flinch at the not so subtle insult. The irony was, Hermione knew that Ginny was no better in the kitchen than she was. According to Harry it was a source of constant conflict between mother and daughter.
Mrs. Weasley held her arms out for Harry. He hesitated. Luckily, Hermione was standing close enough to him to nudge him towards the older witch, but Hermione noticed he stepped away from her much sooner than he would have in the past.
"I assure you Molly," he said after moving back to Hermione's side and placing an arm around her waist, "I'm perfectly healthy. You know I get regular, on the job health checks."
"I wasn't sure they did that in America," she huffed.
Harry nodded easily but Hermione saw the tightness around his eyes; he was bracing himself. "Anyway, I do most of the cooking in our household. It's relaxing for me and Hermione's job is more demanding than mine at the moment. Also, there's always take-away."
"Well," Mrs. Weasley huffed again, "now that you're home for good we'll fix that. And I still think you could stand to put on a few pounds."
Harry glanced at Hermione out of the corner of his eyes. Ron and Lavender were the only Weasleys who knew that they intended to stay in New York permanently. She and Harry both knew that the subject would have to be addressed, but they also both knew that the upcoming conversation was not going to be pleasant.
