Scabior meets the parents.
Short chapter but this is possibly the start of wrapping up this story. Scabior meets the parents, we have a belated celebration and two mothers start planning!
Scabior woke up first the next morning, Hermione held tightly against him. He had his face buried in her hair and some of the longest strands were actually wrapped around his neck. He lay there, tracing her profile with his eyes. He still hadn't gotten past the fright of knowing he'd almost lost her the previous day, permanently. After carefully untangling himself, he got up, dressed, used the loo and headed downstairs. He was going to convince Potter to help him fix a breakfast tray for her. He'd take it up and she could eat while she got ready for work. If it wasn't an exam week, he'd have tried to get her to stay home a couple of days. When all this bullshit was done with his dad, he was going to talk her into going away with him for a couple of days.
He came into the kitchen and froze in the doorway. Harry, Ginny and Hermione's parents were quietly talking. They looked up at him. After a moment of indecision, he moved on into the room and pulled down a breakfast tray. "Morning, everyone." He came to the table and faced the Grangers. "I didn't have a chance to introduce myself last night. I'm Michael Scabior, Hermione's boyfriend?" he looked at Harry. Harry laughed and agreed. He smiled charmingly at them. "I just want you to know I love her and intend to be around for as long as she wants me. I know I look pretty rough but I assure you, as long as she's with me, I'll treat her like a queen."
The Grangers were taken aback by the boy's honesty. Harry had warned them the boy said what he thought. He was right. They had been worried that he was just playing with their daughter's emotions for his own amusement. "Thank you for your honesty. I'm James, this is my wife Janet. I truly believe you mean that. It's not many men who would put their life in danger like that, unless they are really in love with a girl. If Hermione is happy with you, that's all that matters. Just don't ever hurt my little girl and we'll be fine and dandy."
"Harry, you think it would be possible for us to go to the Riot next weekend? My boys have never been to a nightclub before. Fen and I want to show them what one looks like." He glanced at Harry as he plucked some fruit out of the bowl on the table. Harry and Ginny glanced at each other. She nodded at him.
"There are seven of them, right? I think, with me, Ron, Marcus and Aidan, that should be more than enough protection for the two of you." Harry agreed. He was definitely not taking any more chances with Hermione's safety. Hopefully, she would also let their security measures stay in place until they knew, for sure, there would be no more trouble with Scabior, Sr. He didn't know how many more times he could stroke out and live, knowing she was in danger!
"There will be more than seven, some of my mated brothers are coming in as well." Scabior mentioned.
"All right, exactly how many pups does Fenrir have and are they his by blood or bite?" Harry wondered.
Scabior laughed. "Seven are his sisters' boys, five belong to his brother. He and Mary had seven that he bit but they're all dead. I was the youngest of his wizard born, the only one not bitten by him. He named me future Alpha of the pack because none of the others had the leadership skills that I, apparently, displayed during the war." He shrugged his shoulders nonchalantly. It was that ability to state purely facts and his quick thinking that had brought forward the skills that Fenrir valued.
"So, I'm heading to the Ministry to discuss your dad with Shacklebolt and see if, this time, we can get his trial fast-tracked. Is there anything you'd like to ask of the Minister?"
"Yeah. If it's not the Kiss, then lock him up and throw away the key. Forget he's even in there. I never want to see him again. I know mum doesn't either." Scabior frowned at the thought of his dad. 'The damn fucker had almost cost him his little beauty!'
Harry nodded. After everything the elder Scabior had done, he was all in favor of the Kiss himself! "You better get that food upstairs. It's almost time for Hermione to wake up." He grinned slyly at him, having known why he was slipping food onto a breakfast tray. Scabior grinned broadly and left with the tray.
As he pushed open the door, Hermione's alarm was just going off. She groaned and stuffed her head under her pillow. He sat the tray on the bedside table and laughed. He worked the cover off of her and pulled the pillow away. She flopped over and pouted at him. He leaned over and kissed her. "Good morning, beautiful." He pulled her up and into his arms. "Don't ever scare me like that again, beautiful. I don't know what I'd do if I lost you. All I could think about was, he was there, trying to kill you! I was afraid we were going to be too late."
Hermione hugged him reassuringly. "It's all right now. I'm right here. I was so scared yesterday, until I knew you were there. Then I knew everything would be ok. I don't want to lose you, either." They embraced until her alarm went off again. Then they broke apart, he sat the tray on the bed between them and they ate while she got ready for work.
They came downstairs hand in hand and separated at the Floo. Scarier went through to the Cauldron. Hermione and Parvati went to St Mungo's and Harry and Ron went to the Ministry. This gave Ginny, Andromeda and Annemarie the day to have the Grangers all to themselves. Andy introduced them to Teddy and they spent a most pleasant day discussing Hermione and Scabior. They filled them in on the recent experiment and had them howling with laughter over the escapades of their possibly future son in law.
"He won't be here anymore until the weekend. He lives with his adopted father at the Leaky Cauldron. However, if you want to get to know him better, we can go and join the crowd for lunch. Harry, Ron, Hermione and Parvati eat there quite often on their lunch break." Ginny told them. They all agreed they'd like to have lunch at the Cauldron. Ginny grinned broadly. 'Scabior was going to have quite a huge surprise when they all showed up!'
At lunch time, Scabior was changing out kegs again when he heard Tom start to chuckle loudly. He lugged the empty kegs to the storeroom before he thought to wonder why his dad was chuckling like that! He turned in time to catch Hermione in his arms. He immediately turned her back to the wall and pressed against her. They made out for a few minutes, even ignoring Tom checking on them. Finally, when they couldn't breathe, they broke apart and pressed their foreheads together.
"I didn't introduce you to my parents!" Hermione gasped.
"No problem, beautiful, I introduced myself to them." He answered breathlessly.
"When? What did they say?" Hermione wondered.
"This morning, after your hair tried to kill me! I went down and got us the food. They seem really nice." He told her. "I, uh, kind of let them know I would be around until you got rid of me."
"Damn right, you will be! And I'm not letting you go anytime soon, so put that thought right out of your head!" she pulled him back for another long kiss before the rest of his statement registered.
"My hair tried to kill you?" she giggled. She pulled a long strand forward, looking at it.
"Yep, it was wrapped right around my neck. Took everything I had to keep from waking you up for me to untangle myself." He laughed. He took the strand from her, tickling her nose with it.
"It misses your long hair. They would get all tangled up, remember?" she reminded him. He ran his fingers through his short hair. It would grow back soon enough. His hair always tended to grow fast. He set her gently on the floor as they went out front.
'Now he knew why Tom had been laughing!' Potter, the Weasleys, ALL of them, his mum, Hermione's parents, Fenrir, Mary and all his brothers were in the same room! Talk about a family reunion! Mrs. Weasley was bustling from one wolf to the next, taking their measurements. Hermione whispered that no doubt the wolves would be receiving a Weasley jumper, either for their birthday or Christmas, depending on how soon the matriarch decided to start knitting them.
Ron and Parvati were there as well as Neville and Hannah. To Scabior's surprise, it turned out to be a surprise victory party, planned by Ginny and Janet Granger. Hermione smiled and hugged her mother. James threw a heavy arm around Scabior as Harry, Arthur, the Weasley boys, Neville, Tom and Fen surrounded them. Harry, Ron,Tom and Fenrir all regaled them with the story of Scabior's fight with his dad. The women all surrounded Hermione.
"So, will we be hearing wedding bells anytime soon?" Ginny teased. They laughed at Hermione's red face.
"We haven't really talked about it yet. We both know we want to be together, though. Right now, until this whole dad thing is cleared up, we're just taking it day by day." Hermione told them shyly.
"Well, I think you two are a wonderful couple. It's as if you were made for each other." Said Parvati.
"Thank you, Parvati. And, just for the record, I'm not angry about you and Ron. That wasn't the cause of our break up. We were just not compatible and it took a while for it to sink in. You're one of my dearest friends and I'm glad the two of you are happy." Hermione told her sincerely.
Mrs. Weasley and Mrs. Granger were already planning the first stages of a wedding. "I've always wanted Hermione to wear my wedding gown. Of course, I'm taller and more willowy than her so it might need some adjustments. He'll be such a handsome groom. I can't wait until they have babies, they'll be so adorable!" Mrs. Granger gushed.
"I saw him as a child, when they were running that experiment last week? Oh, he was so adorable and very good at getting into trouble!" Mrs. Weasley laughed, remembering the adorable little three year old ball of energy that had them laughing so much.
After a while, the crowd began thinning out as family members left. Just before she left with Harry and the others, Scabior took her upstairs. Knowing if he took her to his room, he wouldn't want to let her go, they only went as far as the top of the stairway, out of sight front the ground floor. He pulled her close. "Hey, beautiful. Seven o'clock, Friday night, we meet at the bar, go to the Riot. Sound good?"
"It's a date, handsome. I'm going to miss you all week! Friday night!" she kissed him. Then they headed back down so he could hand her off to Potter.