Disclaimers: Dark themes, police state ideas, mention of spousal abuse (including rape) on and off-screen, death of minor characters, graphic imagery and violence, frank sex discussion and scenes of a sexual nature, copious bad language, bashing the fucking Weasleys, liberties taken with mythical history and the HP real-life timeline.
Harry poured out two steaming mugs of tea, handed one to his guest and sat opposite her, crossing one knee over the other and squinting at her critically. Narcissa stirred one sugar lump three times around her cup, as was her habit, and met Harry's quizzical gaze as it focused with the force of two eyes, even though he only had one.
"So … what do you think of her?"
Narcissa curled her lips into a wry smile. "I like her. She's plucky, got lots of spirit. I can see why you are so taken with her."
"So, I have your blessing?"
"Do you need my blessing?"
"Of course not," Harry grinned. "But I should like to know I have it all the same."
"Then go to it," Narcissa smiled. "She will do very nicely, make you a proper Queen. I think you will be very happy together."
"Thank you, I completely agree," Harry nodded, tilting his mug in a gesture of salute. "But why did you give her such a hard time when you arrived?"
Narcissa chuckled lowly. "I had to give her some sort of test, didn't I? Marrying Harry Potter has to come with some challenges."
"I think we've been through enough challenges to get together to justify thirty marriages!" Harry tittered. "From the Weasleys, to my little sabbatical, to being just that dense towards our own feelings … our road has been anything but straightforward."
"Which romance worthy of the name isn't?" Narcissa quipped. "So, you'll present her to the Princes?"
Harry nodded. "I've sent messages for them to be available tomorrow. I'll take Hermione down to Cardiff and have the Princes rubber-stamp our betrothal. Then you can do your little Acolyte ritual and we'll see about snapping her Marriage Bond."
"How long have you known?" Narcissa chanced, cautiously. "About her role, I mean?"
"I know what you mean," Harry replied, evasively. "I've suspected it long enough, but Mum and Dad never said a thing … and they must have known. The row I'm going to give my father about this … but I'll say no more. I want it to be a surprise when he gets it, and you know Merlin is probably listening and will tell him in advance. He's such a stirrer."
"Indeed he is!" Narcissa chortled. Then she fixed Harry with a shrewd stare. "I could hardly believe who Hermione was, myself, at first. I mean, she doesn't have the hair for a start. I expected her to be blonde."
"My White Queen will be marked however Queen Luna chooses to do it," Harry reminded his alchemical mentor. "The obvious ones are sometimes just that … too obvious. That's how I knew my Queen wasn't the other Luna … bit too vain to give your incumbent on Earth the same name as you, I thought!"
"But Miss Lovegood does tick many of the boxes, even you have to admit that."
"True, but she lacks one key thing," Harry replied. "I had to be in love with her … and I'm not. All the other markers just mean she's a White Queen to someone else, though after all she's been through it wouldn't surprise me if she chooses a partnerless life … I certainly wouldn't blame her for that."
"You know her better than I do, Harry … do you think she will let me see my granddaughter?" Narcissa asked, slowly.
Harry sighed deeply. "Yes, I think she will. But be mindful of your boundaries, for the moment you overstep them Luna will snap Celesca back from you … and I'll do nothing to intervene. Remember what has happened to her, what she's been through … and, most of all, remember the man responsible for it. She has every right to hate the Malfoy name, and everyone who bears it. You have to allow her that."
Narcissa nodded sadly. "You know that I think of Draco as dead already. The moment he let that bastard Riddle rip his soul apart … the boy who was my son ceased to be. I will be as respectful as I am able, just for the chance to know my little grandchild."
"You should be aware, I think my Hermione intends to kill Draco … properly, I mean," Harry told her, lowly.
"I am aware of it, and I actually place some hope for my son in that outcome," Narcissa replied. "For if my son is killed by an alchemical White Queen, there may be hope for his immortal soul in the afterlife. It's functionally equivalent to being cut down by an angelic goddess, you do know that?"
Harry grinned widely. "Of course I do. Why do you think I'm so excited to marry her? But you assessed her … are you sure she's ready?"
"Utterly and completely," Narcissa confirmed. "She has conquered her own demons by deciding that the love you share will be her weapon against them. She doesn't fear your love anymore, 's where she needed to get to, the rest you will face together."
"Then I suppose the only thing left to do is to get the formalities out of the way," Harry sighed, happily. "I'll head to Cardiff in the morning, you set up the ritual here. You can use the standing stone circle in the West of the grounds, that will do. Unless you're planning to play your little initiation joke on my future wife?"
"Of course I am, it's tradition!" Narcissa laughed. "I am sure Hermione will see the funny side."
"You tell yourself that, if it gives you comfort," Harry smirked.
"And what about the wedding?" Narcissa asked. "For a full alchemical ceremony we will need use of your Cell."
"I know," Harry grinned. "Hermione is going to try and find it with the help of little Cesc Lovegood, and I'm going to let her. I have a little surprise waiting for her in my bedroom … just a little, er, teaser of what's to come on our wedding night. I think she'll approve … so long as she can handle the heat!"
Luna rocked baby Alison in her arms and cooed gently to her. Neville and Enola's daughter gurgled and burped happily in response. Luna's own daughter giggled and smiled at the baby, smoothing her downy-haired head with a delicate hand. She looked up at Hermione, watching the scene nearby. It was stirring all kinds of intense broodiness in the older witch. Hermione hoped very much that Harry would end the war pretty soon.
Because, after that, he was so going to put a baby in her.
He didn't know it yet, and Hermione idly wondered what he would think about it when she told him. She fancied that he'd like the idea. He'd always wanted a family, she knew this intimately well. The first time he'd gone from being cute to attractive in Hermione's eyes was that night he told her about Sirius' plans to essentially adopt him. His face had glowed with such fierce joy and emotion … Hermione had wanted to kiss him right there, to bask in that wondrous happiness he was experiencing. She felt sure he would have shared it with her.
After all, she was the only one Harry had ever told of his most fundamental desire in life.
Then it was all snatched away from him so cruelly. Hermione couldn't stand to think about that. She was still deeply affected by the horrors she'd seen in Harry's mind. She realised, with a jolt of shock, that his memory of that night with Sirius must have been hidden in there somewhere, too. She hated to think what else she might have found if she'd stayed longer. She didn't like to consider the implications, but she had to think that she'd only scratched the surface of the darkness Harry boxed away inside
The little Hermione had seen was disturbing enough. She was having such terrible dreams, revisiting some of the worst visions she'd witnessed. She tended to snap awake in a fitful, sweaty state and had to summon Harry to her beside in the middle of the night, to hug his sleep-mussed form tight to her shivering body and pepper his head with little kisses, as though hoping to somehow soothe her own anxiety through physical contact.
It was only through her own respect for Harry's boundaries that she didn't force him to slip right into bed alongside her, where she could spend the rest of the night holding on to him tenderly close, as he cooed softly to calm her while trying to restrain his own carnal desires at the same time.
It felt odd, to think that she had been carrying Harry around inside her. She supposed this was why she was feeling so broody. The idea of carrying another life in her body wasn't a notion she'd ever positively considered during the horror years of her marriage to Ron. And before that she had been reasonably convinced that she might never get married or have children. In her own mind, she was no-one's idea of attractive. And she had always been a fairly solitary creature. The fact that she'd let even Harry and Ron so close had been something of a wonder in the Granger family.
A family that Hermione was now the sole surviving member of. This only added to her burgeoning desire to get on with the process of producing an heir for the family line.
But there would be no family without her claiming her patriarch, so here she was, delivering Narcissa Malfoy's petition to Luna and Celesca.
"I don't know, Hermione," said Luna. "I'm not sure I like the idea."
"I've told Narcissa that I'll respect whatever decision you make, Lu," said Hermione. "So there's no pressure. If you don't want Cesc to meet her grandmother, then that's just tough luck on Lady Malfoy. She can take up her complaints with literally anyone else who'll listen, for all I care … such as the nearest brick wall."
Luna smirked. "Thank you. I appreciate that."
"That said, I can't imagine she'll give up easily," Hermione sighed, grumpily. "I have the feeling that she will be quite persistent. She seems the formidable sort."
"I know she isn't Draco," said Luna. "And that she's trying to help Harry and everything. But she was there, Hermione … right there on the night when Celesca was conceived. She was in the room. She might be on our side now … but she let that happen to me then. That's all I can think about."
Hermione's anger flared. Her skin prickled with it. "Luna … I'm so sorry. I don't know what to say. I didn't know."
"Of course you didn't," said Luna brightly. "You weren't there, how could you know?"
"That's decided then, she isn't seeing Celesca," said Hermione firmly. "Not if I have any say in it. She doesn't deserve to be in the same house as her. As soon as I have what I want from Narcissa, I'll banish her."
"Harry won't let you do that," said Luna. "She's too important."
"My future husband will do as he's told," Hermione grinned.
"It's not just that," Luna went on. She blushed with humiliation. "She makes a good point about Celesca's heritage. I … well, I don't have much. There's not a lot I can give to her besides my love and care. She'll need somewhere to live, something to live off. I have to think of my daughter's future."
Hermione's heart ached and throbbed with such pity that she hurried to Luna and placed a gentle hand on her shoulder.
"You will always have a home with us, both of you, I hope you know that," said Hermione firmly. "Don't ever think you'll have nowhere to go. Your place is with us now."
Luna looked back up with humble hope. "Really? Do you truly mean that?"
"Of course I do!" Hermione cried vehemently.
Luna handed baby Alison to Celesca, who began to sing to the sleeping infant. Then Luna turned and enveloped Hermione in such a hug … Hermione gasped in surprise at it. She'd never felt such wholesome affection directed at her before. She felt bashful about accepting it.
"Thank you, Hermione, thank you," said Luna softly. "That's the nicest thing anyone's ever done for me."
"You're more than welcome," Hermione replied, smiling into Luna's hair. She felt silly for not noticing how short Luna was before. She had a full head of height on her.
"Do you think Harry will mind that?" asked Luna, breaking away slowly.
Hermione grinned, playfully. "Like I said, I'm pretty confident I can coax Harry to a point where he'll do whatever I tell him to."
"Hermione, you're terrible," Luna giggled.
"Maybe, but it's fine," said Hermione, off-handedly. "Because I'll already do whatever he tells me, so we'll be even."
"So, do you think this ritual will work, to allow you to marry him?"
"Narcissa seemed pretty confident," said Hermione. "We just need to find Harry's Alchemist's Cell. There will be sort of formal betrothal when I am inducted as an Acolyte, and the power from that should be enough to allow me to break my Marriage Bond to Ron. Then we can have this alchemical wedding thing … and I should be able to finally call Harry my husband."
"So it really is going to be like an actual wedding?" asked Luna. "Are you going to change your name and things?"
Hermione hadn't thought of that. So she did now. And she grinned wildly to herself.
"Yes, I'm going to do that," said Hermione. "Narcissa says it's a deeper bonded wedding than a standard Marriage Bond so, as Harry has taken the Weasley link from me, I'm going to consider my marriage to Ron over, hopefully break the magical Bond he forced on me, and officially become Harry's wife. Wow. I'm suddenly ridiculously excited! Thank you, Lu! You're a genius."
And she kissed the top of Luna's head. She wasn't kidding about her excitement. She was so overcome with all sorts of flutterings that she became comically restless, and had to pace the room three times to calm herself. A bit. Then it just started up again she felt like jumping off the roof with the euphoria.
She was fairly certain her elation would cushion the fall.
"I'm so happy for you," Luna beamed. "You just have to find this Cell, then. Any ideas where it might be?"
"Well, I was sort of hoping Celesca might have a look for me," said Hermione, carefully. "Harry's hidden it, you see."
"It's in his bedroom, behind the big bookcase," said Celesca simply, without looking up from baby Alison.
Hermione's mouth dropped open in surprise. She exchanged startled looks with Luna.
"How do you know that, sweetheart?" asked Luna.
"I've been there," said Celesca dreamily, flicking her eyes to her mother. "I've been all over the house in my mind. There's a funny ghost in the cellar. He was a pirate when he was alive. I like his hat. Do you think I can get one?"
"If you can show me how to get into Harry's Alchemy Cell I'll buy you a whole costume and a lifetime's supply of rum!" Hermione laughed.
"I like that deal," Celesca grinned. Then she frowned. "What's rum?"
"Something only big girls can have," said Luna, exchanging a knowing smile with Hermione. They had previous with this one.
"Oh. Well, as long as I can get the hat," Celesca chirruped happily. "Shall I show you now?"
"Lead on," said Hermione excitedly.
"I have to put the baby down first," Celesca pointed out reasonably. "She wants to come, but she needs to learn to walk before she explores the house. I told her that."
And Hermione was back to being stunned again.
"You … you can talk to the baby?" she breathed.
"Oh yes, " said Celesca breezily, like it was the most obvious thing in the world. "It's not like you and me talk though. She just makes funny noises. But I know what she means, and she understands words. So I sort of put my meaning in her mind, and she knows, and talks back like that. She likes Mister Harry a lot. He's her favourite. He's my favourite, too."
"He's a lot of people's favourite," said Luna, grinning madly at Hermione, who blushed all over.
"But I like you a lot too, Miss Hermione," Celesca babbled on. "Baby Ally doesn't know you too well. She thinks you're frightened of her. Are you, Miss Hermione? You shouldn't be, you know. She's only a baby."
"I haven't been around babies much," Hermione replied. "I … I suppose I'm afraid I'll do something wrong and break her."
Hermione shied away, embarrassed at voicing this niggling concern she was fighting with from the back of her mind.
Celesca giggled crazily. "You wont break her! And she wont hurt you. I can show you if you like. How to hold her and feed her and things. I'm sure she wont mind. I'll ask her next time."
"Okay." Hermione shook her head in disbelief at the conversation.
By this time they were mounting the main staircase of the house, questing for the seventh and uppermost floor. Hermione had never been up here, as the entire floor was Harry's personal suite and chambers. It seemed a bit delinquent to be coming up here without his permission. But Celesca, who was leading the way, seemed to have no mind for such propriety as she bounced along ahead of them.
Hermione swooned at the rooms up here. They were, in a word, beautiful. And elegant. There were reception rooms, and a study, and a cute little breakfast room that was bathed in gorgeous sunlight. There was a large bathroom and entire rooms just for Harry's clothes. Hermione noted, with a pang of heartache, that he had a vast set of shelves just for his different scarves and shawls. They were divided between those that had been spelled with antiseptic and pain-relief enchantments and those still awaiting the treatment. Hermione looked sadly at them and resolved to redouble her efforts to find a way to heal his ruined face.
She simply would not stand for him to be in any sort of pain any longer.
"Come along, Miss," Celesca called, stirring Hermione from her impending bout of misery. "Mister Harry's secret room is just in here."
Hermione took a breath and moved through to Harry's bedroom. Her heart skipped as she considered that, very soon, it would be her bedroom, too. Or, to give it its proper name, their bedroom. She halted on the threshold and took a first look around the place where, hopefully in a few short days, she and Harry were going to create a very different kind of magic to anything they'd approached so far. She took a step inside.
And promptly collapsed. For the potency of the sex magic Harry had already imbued within the place for her was simply devastating.
"Miss Hermione!" Celesca yelped, hurrying over to her. "Are you okay? Did you trip over your own feet or something?"
"Hermione?" asked Luna, looking at her swarthily with twinkling eyes. "Are you alright?"
Hermione literally rolled out of the room ... it was all she could do, as she was pretty sure her knees didn't know how to work anymore. She was breathing heavily and clenching her thighs tight together, fitfully embarrassed as Celesca looked over her in concern. What the complete fuck was that!? Hermione thought breathlessly. Blood throbbed violently below her waist, and she had to bite hard on her lip to stop herself panting lustily. Surges of unbridled pleasure were still washing through her, flooding her even. Flood was quite an apt word, she thought naughtily, as she realised that she would have to change her knickers before facing the world again today.
Merlin, Harry! What exactly have you been planning for me!
One thing was for certain, she couldn't wait to find out. But, for now, she had to compose herself. Poor Celesca … she looked frightfully concerned, not to mention confused. She was crouching over her, trying to help.
"Are you okay, Miss Hermione? Can I do anything?"
"No, no, I'm fine," Hermione struggled out. "I just lost my balance, that's all. I'm okay."
"It must be that strong magic in there," Celesca suggested, sagely. "It's so weird, isn't it? I don't know what sort of magic that is, do you? But it's very tickly, whatever it is."
Hermione and Luna locked eyes and fought back insane giggles of their own.
Luna came over and helped Hermione back to her feet. "Neville's wife told me you were the luckiest witch on the planet," she whispered into her ear. "I have to say I think I agree with her now!"
"Lu … I don't think I can go back through there," Hermione laughed, clutching onto Luna as she fell about giggling. Her knees were still shaking. "I'm serious … can you find a way to open the door to Harry's Cell and I'll just Apparate in?"
Luna fought back a laugh. "I'll try. But it's not easy for me, either. The magic in there is clearly designed for you, but its effects … phew! It's just so dense. Harry has got to build a room like this for the rest of us girls, somewhere else in the palace. Do you think you can persuade him?"
"It'll be my wedding gift to all of you," Hermione promised with a wide grin. "Just as long as you can get the alchemy room open."
Luna turned and re-entered the room. Hermione bit back another giggle as Luna's footsteps faltered and she swayed abruptly as she crossed the floor. But she was a trooper and ploughed on through the magical caresses. She made it to the bookcase, which was just as well as it provided something sturdy for her to hold onto. She was all sorts of flustered.
"Are you okay, Mummy?" asked Celesca, curiously. "You've gone very red and sweaty."
"I ... I'm fine, sweetie," Luna gasped throatily, her voice at least an octave higher than usual. "Now, how do we get in?"
Celesca eyed her mother with a slight frown. "On the second shelf down, pull out the third book from the right. Then the door opens."
Luna followed the instruction and, sure enough, the bookcase swung back to reveal the hidden chamber. Luna bundled Celesca inside and hurried in after her. Hermione wasted no time in joining them. She Apparated right to Luna, who was leant over a wash basin splashing cold water on her face. Celesca was still frowning at her.
"What's wrong with you two?" she asked, crossly. "You're being very weird."
"It's nothing, honey, honest," said Hermione, evasively. "Now, let's have a look around in here, shall we?"
It was an odd sensation, to be standing in the place where she was going to get married, and Hermione simply basked in it for a moment. The silly grin she wore made her the most girlish she'd probably ever looked in her whole life. She stepped around the room to have a look at the place ... there was a large fire pit, a couple of golden perches, that Hermione guessed were for Harry's phoenix, and a huge copper bathtub, which was so deep it looked better suited for ceremonial purposes than standard hygiene. She gasped as she realised it probably was … and the next ceremony it would be used for would be …
"Hermione," Luna breathed quietly. "Look at this!"
Hermione stilled her whirring mind and crossed back to Luna. The basin she'd been washing in was part of a beautifully ornate dresser, oak and glass and trimmed with gold. It had clearly been magically modified; the central compartment held a workshop's worth of spindly equipment, and the top drawer was teeming with potion vials. But this wasn't what had caught Luna's eye. She directed Hermione's attention to a spot just to the right of the enamel basin.
And Hermione's breath caught in her lungs.
For there, sat in a pretty, purple velvet box, was the most beautiful gold and diamond ring she'd ever seen. And when Luna offered it to her, she noticed a tiny little detail that brought joyous tears to her eyes. For either side of the stunning stone, set into the band in delicate silver, were two letters.
"H … and P …" said Luna, her voice awestruck and quiet. "Your initials … your new initials! The same as Harry's now. Hermione … Harry's made you your wedding ring!"
Hermione clasped one hand to her mouth, holding the ring in trembling fingers with the other. She turned the brilliant band slowly, watching the way the light caught it at different angles. It was the single most beautiful piece of jewellery Hermione had ever seen. She looked down at her hand, and the finger it would soon be on.
And she scowled angrily. That piece of cheap, ugly ... probably fake ... gold that Ron had forced on her was sitting in its place. Bland and dirty, biting into her skin just below the knuckle, Hermione hated it with every nuance of her being. She glared at it, cursed and railed at it. She turned her hand and thought all things negative at once ... about the ring, about the one who had jammed it on her finger so hard it had torn her flesh, and about all the abuses it had allowed him to visit upon her under the guise of warped law. Hermione felt her fury building and building, it was like a gathering storm inside. She didn't want to let it out, in case it scared little Celesca, but she could feel the potency of it in the way the air around her was rapidly heating up. She wasn't sure she could rein it in much longer. And then …
... the hated ring simply cracked in half on her finger.
Hermione watched the two pieces fall from her hand like it was an out-of-body experience. They hit the floor with a light tinkle ... and she felt something lifting from the rest of her, too. It was like casting off a heavy load that she'd become so used to carrying she didn't realise it was still there, until she'd been relieved of it. And the joy of release from the burden was almost too much to absorb. It moved swiftly into new parts of Hermione's heart and mind, filling her up as though she'd just cut a new channel right into her very soul. She had to sit down before she fell down.
"Miss Hermione! You did it! You did it!" Celesca was singing happily. She started doing a crazed sort of jig, then snatched her arms around Hermione's waist.
"What did I do?" asked Hermione. She knew she'd done something, but she needed this young Seer to define it for her.
"You broke the barrier! You opened up!" Celesca chimed. "I can see right into you now. All the way in! And it's so pretty in there, Miss! Oh … and … and oh …"
"What is it?" Hermione asked quickly. Celesca seemed fit to burst.
"Your cord ... the one to the gingerbread man ... it's gone!" Celesca whispered in her disbelief. "You broke it and it's going away from you now."
Hermione sucked in a startled breath. "My Marriage Bond ... I ... I've broken it? But how? I thought I had to do all these other things first?"
"They were just the words, my love, the formalities. The power was always in you ... it just needed to become intense enough. And now it has."
"Harry! How long have you been standing there!?" Hermione cried, turning as Harry's voice sounded from the doorway.
"I knew the moment the Cell opened," Harry grinned. "I wanted you to find it ... and to find the present I left for you."
"Which one?" Hermione smirked, her eyes glinting vividly. "That bedroom seems like a wish come true, if you ask me."
Harry chuckled at that. "Such a dirty girl. But you wait till it's finished."
"You mean .. it isn't?" Hermione swooned dreamily.
"Not quite, but it soon will be," Harry promised.
"You still have to draw your Figure of Eight, don't you, Mister Harry?" Celesca asked.
"Figure of Eight?" Hermione queried.
"That's how little Cesc sees the image of our wedding in my mind," Harry explained, smiling fondly at the little Seer, embarrassing her again. "Our two interlocking rings, the shape our Marriage Bond will form when we set it. My heart to your heart, your thoughts to my thoughts. Then we will be utterly complete."
"Then let us do it now, right now," Hermione urged.
"No, Miss, it doesn't work like that," said Celesca. "No, for that you need Nanny Cissa. She'll know what to do."
Hermione shot her eyes up in startled shock. Luna wrung her hands anxiously and knelt down next to her daughter.
"Cesc, sweetie, how do you know about her?" asked Luna.
Celesca looked innocently at her mother. "Don't be cross, Mummy, but I've always known."
"How?"
"You'll tell me off."
"I really wont, sweetie," said Luna, smoothing Celesca's tiny hand. She was quivering in nervous fright. "Just tell me how you know about Narcissa."
Celesca wrung her hands. Hermione swooned at the habit clearly copied from Luna.
"I knew from when I knew about my special magic," Celesca began fretfully. "When I knew I was different, even from others with magic, I wanted to know what it was. I was only two when I found out that I could follow the energy lines around me. So I followed the strongest ones I could. I went to my 'Mummy' line first … that's how I knew it was you and not Auntie Venusia. It was the strongest and nicest line.
"But there was another one. Just as strong, but really horrible. I didn't want to go down it, but I had to. I knew it was from my Daddy, but it was dark and slimy and nasty. I didn't like it one bit. I never went down it again."
"But Narcissa?"
"I could feel her nearby, the day I went down my Daddy's line," Celesca explained. "And her line was quite nice, too. So I went along it and found her. She was waiting for me. She knew I was there and told me everything. She said I could come back whenever I wanted and she'd show me how to use my special magic properly."
Hermione gasped. "Narcissa is a Seer? I never knew."
"No, no, Miss Hermione," said Celesca, quickly. "She isn't like me. But she is good with mind magic, a bit like Miss Enola. Nanny Ciss teaches her all about it, too. I think it's because of the job she does for Mister Harry."
"Enola Apprentices with Narcissa Malfoy!" Hermione exclaimed. "Well, that explains why she's so afraid of her. She is a bit like a fierce old school ma'am."
"So, you've met her lots of times?" asked Luna.
Celesca nodded. "Only in my head though. I know you don't want me to meet her for real. I'm sorry, Mummy. Please don't be angry with me."
Luna drew Celesca into a tight hug. "I'm not angry with you, petal. I'm just surprised, that's all. Your grandmother didn't tell us any of this."
"She's good at keeping secrets," said Celesca. "She showed me how to be good at it, too ... when we were pretending that you weren't my Mummy."
"We won't ever pretend that again," said Luna, holding her daughter tight and close. "She wants to meet you properly … would you like to?"
Celesca drew back. "You don't want me to, though."
"No, it's more that I don't want to," Luna sighed. "But she is your grandmother ... and if you want to meet her, I wont mind."
"I have to help her with Mister Harry and Miss Hermione's wedding," said Celesca, somewhat shyly.
Hermione looked over in surprise. "You do?"
"Yes, Miss Hermione," said Celesca, chirpily. "I can help join the pretty energy cords you both have, when you do your calciumial wedding, or however you say it. Can I? I'd really like to see what happens when they meet. They so want to."
"Do they?" asked Hermione, somewhat giddily.
"Oh yes," said Celesca happily. "It's like two parts of one thing that have been lost from each other. Now they get to join up as they are meant to be. They can't wait for it ... and neither can I. You will let me do it, won't you, Miss Hermione?"
Celesca was looking so earnestly at Hermione that she couldn't have refused her even if she did have any objections. Which she didn't. She rubbed longingly at her chest. She could almost feel this energy herself now, reaching out like a coil from her own heart, questing for its complimentary half, beating away in Harry's chest next to her.
"Of course I will, honey," Hermione smiled.
"Oh good," Celesca beamed. "Nanny Ciss will be ever so pleased. We should go and tell her now. Then you and Mister Harry can get married whenever you want."
Hermione was sure her heart was going to burst out of her body at that declaration. It was lucky Harry's hand was already clasping tight to hers, as it gave her something to keep her upright.
"Well … okay then," Hermione said after a minute, holding her breathing as steady as possible. "I'll go to Narcissa, tell her everything. Luna, could you please find Enola for me? I need her for something important."
"What is it?" asked Luna.
"Well," Hermione grinned wildly. "I have a serious request to make of her ... and also to borrow one of her dresses ... because I don't think any of mine are suitable to get married in."
