Title: 500 Hours
Author: pantheradraconis
Rating: T
Pairing: Hermione/Narcissa
Summary: Hermione, unexpectedly crashing and burning after the war, finds herself in community service with nonother than Narcissa Black. Through the course of their mandatory 500 hours, the two slowly find a mutual understanding which eventually blossoms into a relationship.
Harry ignored Ginny's comments and explained, "Susan Bones just recently broke up with Orla Quirke."
"So, you want them to rebound off each other?"
Ginny laughed as Harry began tickling her, she squirmed and tried to get away, but he pulled her close and kissed her neck. The younger witch sighed and pulled him in closer. The two sufficiently forgot what they were talking about.
"It is quite interesting."
"What's that?"
Narcissa watched Hermione closely as she balanced her way along the street curb. Hermione's hair was well maintained, her outfit was matching and looked comfortable, and she was being surprisingly successful in her balancing act.
"It's interesting how quickly things can change," Narcissa stated.
The two were delivering baskets in Highgate, near Southwood Park. The weather was beautiful, making the two women move slowly along the quiet road. Hermione twisted around on her feet, keeping herself balanced on the curb, and smiled at Narcissa.
"I guess that's true, for some things. Or maybe it just feels quick once you realize it's changed. Waiting for something to change takes forever."
Narcissa smiled quaintly. "On that note, we can both agree." Hermione smiled and waited for Narcissa to explain. "I most certainly felt the beginnings of our adventures to last several years while I waited for you."
Hermione blushed and tapped one foot on top of the other. She finally lost her balance but was able to bounce back up from the pavement.
"I can imagine I was quite the struggle."
"To put it lightly."
"I am sorry about that."
The blonde lifted her free hand and waved the apology away. "Never you mind that, it's all in the past." They moved a few more paces down the street before Narcissa added, "I must say I was ruminating on how many days it's been since you last arrived hungover. I'm sure you don't remember, as you were drinking quite heavily, but it's been…"
"32 days," Hermione said with a broad grin. "Not that anyone is counting."
"I was going to say it's been an eon, but I suppose you can be more specific."
"I think it's important to keep track, to know. This way, if I do mess up and have to start over, I'll know that I've done it before so I can do it again."
Narcissa stopped at the corner of Southwood Ave and Southwood Lawn Rd and turned back toward Hermione.
"What a strange way to look at things. Whatever gave you an idea like that?"
Hermione smiled more to herself than to Narcissa and spoke to her feet. "It's something I learned from Harry when we were in our third year. He, well, he conjured a full-bodied Patronus enabling him to fight off a hoard of over 100 dementors. He explained that he was able to do it because he'd already done it. Which is weird, I know, but it does make sense."
When Hermione looked up and saw the look of shock on Narcissa's face, she felt urged to search their surroundings for danger. However, she quickly realized Narcissa was merely reacting to what Hermione had just said. Sometimes she forgot people didn't honestly know how powerful Harry has always been.
"That can't be right," Narcissa began to say, but Hermione quickly explained what happened in as much detail as she could recall. Hermione knew the truth barely mattered now, after everything that had happened, so she felt no reason to lie about the events.
"That is honestly astonishing," The older witch felt like she needed to sit down, but there were no benches in sight.
"We certainly were given more leeway than we probably should have," Hermione started to explain, but Narcissa stopped her.
"I can perfectly believe Dumbledore allowed all of that to occur; that's not what I find unbelievable. No, with the way the world was, we all allowed our children to experience far more than they ever should have." She stood a little taller and held her hand over the bridge of her nose. "I am astonished Harry was able to perform such a complicated spell at such a young age."
Hermione smiled and nodded.
Narcissa continued her thoughts mostly to herself, but Hermione listened along. "Honestly, I always felt Harry was lifted up on some pedestal for unfair reasons, both unfair to him and to those who followed the Dark Lord. He was made out to be some unknown, some radical, someone capable of actually standing against the pureblood agenda. To know he was able to perform such magic, well, maybe he was a little more like the rumors led him to be."
"Harry was capable of great magic," Hermione agreed but added, "but that was because of his connection with Voldemort. He is still a great and powerful wizard but his strength as a child was heightened by Voldemort's own strength." She went back to walking along the curb of the road before adding, "You actually helped him regain his strength when he was weakest; you allowed him to find the time to heal after he lost that connection."
Hermione handed over the basket to Mrs. Plumbrook quickly but was still pulled into her home to meet her niffler. The small duck billed animal was rolling around on a pile of jewelry that seemed to shine as if it was polished regularly. As Mrs. Plumbrook, her hair a bright purple and her clothes a dark green causing her overall look to appear as a giant flower, was giving great detail about the proper way to care for a niffler, Hermione backed herself against the front door.
Being in a stranger's house wasn't all that new for Hermione. Still, the young witch did find herself incredibly uncomfortable as she noted the vast amount of doxies seeming to inch their way into the room, almost appearing through the walls.
The door swung open and Narcissa's hand reached in, pulled Hermione back out, and slammed the door shut. The door opened again as Mrs. Plumbrook checked to see if everything was alright, but Narcissa quickly waved over her shoulder, making excuses for how many baskets they still had to deliver.
They turned the corner of Eversley and Harold Rd before Hermione burst out laughing. Narcissa shook her head and wondered aloud how Hermione kept getting herself into these situations. For her part, the younger brunette kept laughing in reply.
"Well, the afternoon will be over in no time, and all the deliveries are complete," Narcissa commented as Hermione's laughter finally lifted.
The younger witch looked down at her watch with surprise. "Is that really the time?"
"Do you have somewhere you need to be?" There was a strange lilt in Narcissa's voice that Hermione couldn't quite pin.
"Oh, why, yes, actually."
"Yes?"
Hermione looked down at her feet, shyly. The action caused Narcissa's cheeks to flare up slightly, which surprised the younger witch. She wondered what must be going through Narcissa's head at that moment. Does she think Hermione has another date?
"I have a meeting to attend." The brunette clarified.
"A meeting for what?" The blonde was looking off in the distance now as if she was attempting to look uninterested in their conversation. The action reminded Hermione of the faces Draco would make while eavesdropping.
"Do you remember three days ago when we had that conversation about me staying sober?" Hermione asked, attempting to clear up the air. When Narcissa nodded and turned back to her, the younger witch admitted, "I've been attending a muggle AA group. It's a meeting where you go and talk about your problems with drinking and basically support one another in your struggles."
Narcissa laughed derisively, "I know what an AA meeting is, but why attend a muggle one?"
"No one knows who I am there."
The older witch started to say something but then held her tongue. In another instant, she asked, "May I attend a meeting with you?"
"You, what? Why?"
"I don't mean to intrude; I am merely curious. I'm sorry, I overstepped. Go to your meeting. I'll just…"
"You can come."
Narcissa looked around the small, wooden-decorated room with a circle of assorted color chair-cushions. She found the small room to be quite congested by the Thursday afternoon crowd of muggles. Honestly, muggles had no understanding of personal space. She was jostled twice before Hermione pulled her over to a seat in the back row.
"Relax," The younger witch cooed.
"I am perfectly relaxed; thank you very much."
"Oh? Tell that to your hands."
Narcissa looked down to see she had been running her fingernails over her thumb so fiercely there was a visible red line in her skin. She placed her hands, palms flat, against her dress, and looked about the room.
"Why don't they make the room bigger?" Narcissa asked under her breath.
Hermione laughed loudly, causing a few heads to swerve their way. The young witch waved at them and shook her head.
Narcissa pouted but the meeting started before any more could be said. The meeting opened with a strange invocation, Hermione explained to be their prayer, before a host clarified how the rules worked. Fifteen minutes later, people began sharing stories, one after another.
Each story was filled with remorse and guilt, a few people made jokes, one or two people cried. Narcissa felt herself grow more and more uncomfortable as she listened to these people's secrets. A part of her wanted to simply walk out, afraid she'll hear something she honestly didn't want to know. Then, almost suddenly, but probably more closely planned, Hermione stood up and shared her story.
"I went to a private school where I was top of my class. I was on track to graduate with honors and eventually get a government job. I had a great group of friends, a real support chain, and we shared a lot of laughs. During my last year of school, there was a sweep of deaths. Several of my friends, some I'd even call family, were killed. There was an explosion and the school was destroyed.
"The events that lead up to that destruction, and a few of the events afterward changed me, changed my friends. There came a day when I was face to face with my parents and they had no idea who I was. The look in their eyes was utterly blank; they could no longer recognize me. That was the day I stopped caring.
"Before that happened, I believed that with enough education, you could solve any problem, get through any issue. If you had a problem, the solution could be found in a book. After that, I couldn't sleep. I started to drink to forget, then I drank to avoid, and finally, I drank because I didn't know any other way to face my day or my night.
"I still struggle, my relationship with my parents is gone, but my friends are there for me. I've even met a few others." Hermione looked over at Narcissa and gave a soft smile. "I honestly believe being sober is making me a better person; someone who, maybe one day, will be alright. Thank you."
Narcissa stared at Hermione, ignoring all the other stories of the night. She watched the young witch unabashed, seeing her almost for the first time. She was bursting with questions. She knew a lot of the answers because they were the same answers she would give but the one thing that stood out was Hermione's parents. It was the first time Narcissa had even contemplated Hermione having parents, a ridiculous fault in her thoughts, but she couldn't change her past presumptions. Muggles were rarely worth a thought in Narcissa's mind, at least not as individuals. They existed and they were fine at a distance or in short interactions, but they were from a different world than she was. Hermione was not a muggle and yet she still had relationships with those that were. Muggles were still very much a part of her world. But was that even true? This was the first Hermione had mentioned her parents, and it was a description of their lack of relationship.
The meeting ended, the group dispersed, and Narcissa found herself following Hermione out of the strange Friends Meeting House and onto Martin's Ln.
"What happened with your parents?" Narcissa asked bluntly.
Hermione sighed but answered all the same. "I cast a complex Obliviatecharm on them before the war. Changed their identities, erased all memory of me, and sent them to Australia. That's why they don't remember who I am."
Narcissa began to ask more questions, but Hermione turned and looked at her. "I am a bit exhausted, would you mind if we don't do this tonight?"
She didn't want to agree, but Narcissa found herself nodding. "I understand and will let it go tonight. If you, well, if you have any problems, you will reach out to one of your friends, yes?"
"Of course, good evening, Narcissa." And Hermione disapparated.
A/N: A nice long chapter for you guys to read over. The next few chapters will all be direct interactions between Hermione and Narcissa, showing how much their friendship has grown. It's good to have the two back together and to write up their dialogue. I do believe it will even become a bit more flirtatious over the next few chapters. Still a lot more to come!
[Yanana] The girls are back together!
[nanonano] Hermione is still a bit innocent but the two will be realizing their interactions are more than just friends. It will happen, almost soon, lol.
[LuisaHoffman] I do love having readers hooked!
[Guest] Haha! Sometimes cliches work out!
[Shadow994] I write this with pleasure!