"Hey Hermione, please can you do me a favour? Would you go round to the dock for me please?" George requested quietly as he and Angelina waltzed over to where Hermione and Neville were sharing a dance.
Trusting the sincere tone in George's voice, and the concerned look in Angelina's eye, Hermione subtly excused herself and slipped around the house towards the pond. Out on the dock she found a forlorn looking Fred, they sat together for hours not really saying much but still comforted simply by each other's presence until 'Better when I'm dancing' began to play and Fred silently offered her his hand. Their salsa tonight was more subdued and intimate than the one they had shared in Paris with no one watching this time.
Well, they thought no one was watching but they had missed the beady eyes of a livid, blonde, unmarked death eater watching them from the shadows.
…
"Good morning Father" Mr Nott was greeted by his only daughter the morning after the Weasley boy's wedding "I have a request for help."
"What do you need my darling?" The senior death eater asked.
"Information on that mudblood Granger girl." There was no attempt to mask the disdain in her voice today.
"Tarky, fetch me Dolohov." The man instructed his elf who bowed low and vanished with a crack only to return moments later with the requested death eater by her side.
"Do you need something Nott?" Dolohov sneered, he had once been a high level member of the death eater circles but after being defeated by the tiny Professor Flitwick in the final battle his reputation, and therefore social standing, had plummeted.
"My daughter wishes for information on Potter's mudblood" Nott informed him with a tone if irrelevance "tell her everything you know and find answers to her questions."
With a glare at the man for ordering him around Dolohov took a deep breath and began.
"Her parents are muggles from Crawley, I know their old address as we ransacked the place but we have yet to find the actual people or where they are now living. The girl has a nasty habit of escaping our clutches, I once found her on Tottenham Court Road but she's good and managed to slip away - " his speech was interrupted by a snarky Nott.
"She's not good so much as you are useless." He said with a scoff that brought a cruel smile to his daughter's lips.
"She has scars on her neck and arm from dear Bella's poisoned knife and a scar across her chest from a spell of my own. She is in with the Weasley crowd and Potter but we can't reach her there thanks to their wards. As discussed that will of course all change when you have a child with that red head to gain permanent access to their wards so make sure you don't mess this up." Dolohov continued "The Weasleys' mother was a Prewett and her twin brothers were a delight to torture and kill, I expect Granger to be even more so of a joy."
"Where does she live?" Gloria demanded, not wanting to share the joy Dolohov mentioned with others too much.
"We have been searching for her home and many other addresses but it is better warded than even the Potter brat's. She does work at St Mungo's though in the research facility and often visits Weasleys Wizard Wheezes in Diagon Alley." Dolohov added in pride at knowing such useful information.
"I already knew that, you useless piece of crap," Gloria spat, rising from the breakfast table "but I've been banned from the hospital after the last time I visited her at work."
"You have, but we still have those who can make deliveries." Nott snr suggested with a twisted grin. "Tarky come here!"
…
Monday morning arrived and as Hermione reached her desk she spotted the howler perched there smoking and ready to explode, checking that no one else was in the lab yet and that there wasn't anything fragile left out she tore it open and braced herself for the screeching.
"YOU FILTHY MUDBLOOD SLUT. KEEP YOUR MUGGLE WHORE HANDS OFF MY MAN. I SAW YOU DANCING WITH HIM AND I WILL COME FOR YOU. I WILL HAVE MY REVENGE. YOU WILL SUFFER AND YOU WILL PAY. I WARNED YOU AND YOU DID NOT HEAD IT NOW YOU WILL FACE THE CONSEQUENCES. ENJOY YOUR NEW SCARS YOU DIRTY WHORE!"
As Gloria's voice faded Hermione noticed burns on her hands that were beginning to blister painfully where she had touched the howler envelope to open it. With a swish of her wand to fiendfyre the remains of the scarlet envelope she dashed across the hospital to her friends in the burns unit and, after having her hands slathered with a potion of her own recent creation, her dark magic cursed burns were not only healed but also indistinguishable from the rest of her skin. Having suffered lifelong scars from dark magic in the war, healing and preventing them had become one of her personal areas of research interest and she was now particularly glad it had been.
…
On Tuesday morning another letter was waiting on her desk for her, this time it appeared to be written in Fred's handwriting. However the final 'e' in her name was slightly off so she decided to open it with her wand just in case, save another experience like the day before. Without touching it she levitated the envelope, used a careful diffindo to slit open the envelope and drew out the letter.
The letter was written in what was clearly meant to be Fred's writing, but Hermione knew immediately that it was just a very good imitation.
Hermione,
Stay away from me and my beloved Gloria.
She is my fiancee and now I have her, your contaminated blood is no longer welcome in my life.
Regards,
Fred
Surely this must have been written by one of Gloria's cronies, the blonde had proven herself too well versed in manipulation to think Hermione would ever believe the note.
Well that's what Hermione began to think until far too late she noticed a fine white fog drifting out of the envelope and filling her lungs. She woke up an hour later in a hospital bed with a pounding headache and Maya by her side.
"It was a magical fog that works in a similar way to muggle anthrax when inhaled, but vastly more quickly. You're lucky your co-worker heard you collapse and so managed to bring you down here within two minutes, otherwise you would be far worse off." Maya explained seriously, worry for her friend clear in her eyes "You'll be fine now, it's gone from your system but you'll have a stonking headache for the rest of the day and you mustn't take any form of pain relief. If you collapse again, get feverish or chilled, start coughing or vomiting you are to get someone to bring you back here immediately okay?"
…
Wednesday morning there was nothing on her desk and Hermione couldn't work out if this was because Gloria had given up, because Hermione had missed something or because Gloria thought she would still be comatose or dead from the previous day's gift.
At lunchtime a receptionist popped down with an enormous bunch of white calla lilies 'From a secret admirer'.
Immediately Hermione and the other researchers were on full alert having witnessed or heard about her previous two mornings and were casting an array of advanced detection charms over the floral display to the shock of the receptionist who paled and ran back to the front desk when given their reasoning.
A cloud of green fog responded to one spell for poisons and a flash of purple light flared in response to a check for dark spell work. Working together the researchers levitated the bouquet into their most heavily warded fume cupboard they had, threw I a dash of fiendfyre in after it and slammed the doors closed as they watched the fiendfyre destroying not only the flowers but the poison and dark spells embedded within them.
…
Thursday evening as she finished work Hermione was on edge, nothing had arrived for her all day and she was getting ready to leave the hospital an hour later than usual thanks to an impromptu coffee and catch up with Maya when the security wizard at the front doors caught her arm.
"There is an elf hidden outside ma'am, she has been here since five minutes before your usual leaving time and is well hidden by her elf magic." The security wizard whispered in her ear while subtly tapping his glass eye.
Hermione knew he had been a muggle born caught in the crossfire of the war, as had so many others, and lost an eye in the process. Once he had taken up his role in security at St Mungo's after the final battle though, they had provided him with an eye just like that which the famed auror Mad Eye Moody used to wear and, while missing his biological eye, he was thrilled with all the extra and useful sights he could now see.
The phrase 'constant vigilance' echoed in Hermione's head as she looked into that oh so familiar swivelling eye and she used a skill she had been learning from Bill since her stay at Shell Cottage during what should have been her seventh year at Hogwarts.
Legilimency.
She was actually rather good at it now, almost as proficient as Bill himself in the basic skills of invading the mind, sorting through thoughts and leaving undetected. Usually she would have asked first before diving into the man's brain but if he was lying or trying to trap her then that would give him sufficient warning and time to react.
'But' she thought 'if I don't at least tell him first then that makes me just as bad as them and I'm sure I can find another safe way out if needed.'
So with a flick of her gaze to his head and a nod of understanding from the security wizard Hermione delved into the man's mind. It was immediately clear that he was telling the truth and she saw the frail looking house elf in a scraggy pillow case hovering under an elf powered disillusionment charm right outside the door. She also noticed that the man had heard through the hospital grape vine of the trouble she had been having over the past few days and therefore wanted to help his fellow muggle born and one of those responsible for the end of the war.
Running back to the research lab Hermione booked off the following day 'to get ready for Neville's birthday party that evening' and travelled home through her head of department's secure floo.
…
Thankfully Fred had not invited his fiancee to either of the birthday parties that weekend, Neville's on Friday night and Harry's on Saturday. Following her behaviour at his brother's wedding the weekend before he was keen to keep her as far away from his loved ones as possible. If the ministry insisted they would be married then that would cause him to suffer but he would not subject his family to her bigotted beliefs if he could help it. So when Hermione arrived at Neville's apartment that evening for the house party he didn't have to worry about stopping himself from gawking at the stunning woman.
Hermione had arrived with Ginny dressed in a turquoise play suit and with her hair tied up in a messy bun with a matching turquoise ribbon. Her smile was wide and infectious as she sang loudly to Neville and handed over a wrapped gift box which he tore open to reveal a miniature herb garden.
"It's a series of potted muggle plants the leaves of which are used to season food when cooking. My mum had one just like this one on our kitchen windowsill when I was growing up, fresh herbs always tasted better than dried ones out of a packet." She explained as a teary eyed Neville embraced her tightly in thanks for such a heartfelt and thoughtful present. Family, friends and love were the most important thing to the tight knit group of famous war heroes and gifts like this were of infinitely more value than a whole vault of gold in their eyes.
Fred spent most of the evening enjoying the food, drink, chatter and music of the party with one eye on Hermione until Ginny had had enough of his brooding distance and dragged him by the arm over to dance with their group. Flicking her wand to signal to Dean Thomas who was running the night's music, Ginny danced around the group maneuvering the others until Fred and Hermione were side by side at which point Dean, having been prepped by his ex girlfriend that morning, immediately switched the music to the only slow, romantic song he had by the Weird Sisters. With a bony elbow in his side Ginny nudged Fred towards Hermione causing him to stumble and her to steady him with her hands on his chest.
"May I have this dance fair lady?" He asked in over the top politeness as his hands instinctively found their way to her waist.
Once that song had ended neither party wanted to part, their hands feeling comfortable and hearts safe as they swayed and twirled around the open plan living area, and so they continued to dance together well into the early hours of Saturday morning until Hermione finally broke their comfortable silence.
"So it's nearly August." Hermione's voice sounded fragile as she tried to hide the fear behind her words "The deadline is on Tuesday right? After then there's no stopping you and Gloria getting married."
"Yeah" Fred's reply was more breath than word but Hermione could feel his sorrow and heartbreak wash over her anyway.
"Do you want to marry her?" Hermione heard herself ask and immediately feared the answer.
"No."