Day Eight

A good morning kiss Hermione could feel down to her toes accompanied her breakfast on Friday. But before Rabastan pulled her in his arms to fulfill the daily bargain they discussed days earlier, she was surprised to enter the kitchen to find a bouquet of fresh flowers in the middle of the table. How had Rabastan been able to get fresh flowers without her even knowing he left the flat? The man had his mystery.

"Where did these come from?"

"Do you like them?"

Hermione looked up from the coral peonies to see how nervous her husband was.

"They're beautiful."

"I know you prefer pink peonies, but these looked much better at the shop than the pink."

She smiled even wider. Evidently, Rabastan paid attention when she told him about her favorite flowers in one of her letters. It meant a great deal to her that he would be thoughtful enough to buy her some. Sadly, she couldn't remember the last time a man bought her a bouquet of any kind, let alone her favorite.

"Thank you. This was very kind. Did you go out and get them this morning?"

"I did. I saw a flower shop the other evening when we went out for dinner near the Alley. I couldn't let our one week anniversary pass without some sort of present."

It was hard to believe that only a week had passed since she climbed into the small boat to cross the North Sea to the formidable Azkaban Fortress. She had been so excited, yet so frightened at the same time. What if she was making the worst mistake of her entire life? Most people would think it sheer madness to agree to marry a prisoner with a life sentence she hadn't met yet in person. Still, she couldn't help but think that she had made the right decision even after just a few short days.

"Good morning, wife."

Rabastan's kiss was a little more intense, a little more fervent than all of the others that had come before it. Wrapping his arms around her back, he held her tightly in place as his lips pressed hard against hers, his tongue exploring every part of her mouth. She was glad for the embrace. Without the support of his arms, she feared she would melt into a puddle right there on the kitchen floor. When the kiss grew to the point that he would either have to pull back or toss her over his shoulder to carry her to the bedroom, reluctantly, he stopped. Hermione could hardly breathe. All she wanted in that moment was to pull on his collar and bring his mouth back to hers. But she didn't.

"Last Friday was busy in the shop. I remember hearing the shop bell almost constantly."

"Yes, well, we had a new book released that lots of my regular customers were looking forward to."

She tried not to sigh, but it was hard to hide her frustration. Never, not until the first article came out that she married Rabastan had she ever had to worry about a lack of customers. Usually, it was the exact opposite problem. There were days she had more people inside her shop than she knew what to do with, especially in the summer when parents were getting ready to send their children back to Hogwarts.

"This is all just temporary. It will take people some time getting used to knowing that there are some former Death Eaters who are now free. When they see that I have no intention of causing any trouble, they'll come back."

"I wish I could be as optimistic as you are."

Determined that she wouldn't ruin the morning with her sour mood, Hermione forced a bright smile on her face as she sat down to enjoy yet another delicious breakfast prepared by Rabastan. He might have tried to prepare her that first night for not remembering how to cook, but clearly he had been wrong. She found it interesting that a proper Pureblood prince who grew up in a large fancy manor would know how to be so domestic. There was still a great deal about him she was sure she would enjoy finding out.

By the time the meal was over and she could no longer delay the need to go downstairs, she felt somewhat better. Rabastan had an encouraging way about him that helped her feel a little less reluctance. After promising her that he would join her later in the shop after he finished cleaning up, she opened the door to the stairs to make her way down.

Nicholas wasn't there. That was strange. Usually, he was very punctual and even early for his shifts at the shop. Deciding that she didn't really care one way or the other if he showed up, Hermione went about completing the daily tasks that needed to be done before the door was unlocked and they would hopefully have some customers. Only a few minutes after the shop opened, an owl flew through the open window with a note from her manager claiming he was sick. She didn't believe him, but didn't much care either. It was easier when he wasn't there.

She was glad when Rabastan came downstairs as he promised. It was lonely in the empty shop. All of the required tasks that she could think of to do for the day were already completed. With no customers to distract her, she could get a lot done.

Rabastan made himself useful by reorganizing the Potions section. No matter how much they stayed on top of it, customers were forever putting books in the wrong place. It was a tedious task to go through each section pulling out the books that didn't belong and alphabetizing the ones that did. He didn't have any complaints, at least not out loud. If he truly wanted to know how the bookshop was run, she was glad to show him it wasn't all very interesting or exciting.

"Do you mind if I ask you a question that you might not like?"

It was mid-afternoon and he had moved from Potions on to the Charms books. Closer to the counter where she was working on some of the endless paperwork, it was easier for them to talk without shouting across the shop. No one would've minded if they had, however. Curious to know what he might ask, Hermione put her quill down and nodded her head.

"You said yesterday that Minister Shacklebolt is a protective of you because he feels a responsibility for what happened to your parents. What did happen to them?"

Hermione sighed a quiet, sad sigh. It was always going to be a topic that they would have to discuss eventually. She didn't like talking about what she did to her parents or what she wasn't able to do with for them after the war ended. Every time she remembered her parents, she fought against a rising wave of anger and bitterness. It was easier to just not think about them. Maybe it would get easier as time went on, but seeing as how they were coming up on the eleventh anniversary of the final battle at Hogwarts in less than a month, she wasn't entirely convinced it would.

"Because I was friends with Harry and I had every intention of helping him do whatever was necessary to defeat Voldemort…" She ignored the way her husband flinched when she said his former master's name. Never again would she allow herself to be afraid of speaking a name, especially not that one. "I knew my parents would be in danger. They are Muggles and I'm afraid I did a very good job keeping the truth of what was happening from them. They didn't have any clue they would be in danger or that I was nearly killed in the Department of Mysteries."

Rabastan lowered his head and cleared his throat. That was the first time they were in the same room together even if neither of them understood the future significance. He was one of the baddies intent on capturing the prophecy and maybe Harry in the process. She and her other friends were just in the way. If Rabastan hadn't gotten his head caught in the Bell Jar of Time after she used a stunning spell on him, there was every possibility he might have killed her or one of the others.

"I didn't know how to keep my parents safe. I knew they wouldn't run if I told them to, so I had to make them. I found a book about memory charms and figured out how to clear their memories and replace them with new. I made them forget that they ever had a daughter and convinced them that they always dreamed of moving to Australia. The hope was that after the war was over, I could find them again and restore their memories, but…"

She appreciated how he walked around the counter to put his arm around her shoulder. The physical touch helped make it a little bit easier to tell him about her worst failure and biggest regret.

"I didn't know what I was doing when I cast the spells. Everyone wants to claim that I'm some sort of clever witch who can do anything, but I'm not. I made a mistake. There was no way to reverse the spell. They are stuck the way that they are and they'll never remember me again."

"Oh, darling, I'm so sorry."

"Yes, well, perhaps the most painful part is thinking that they're probably happier that way. I was a complication in their lives that they didn't always appreciate. Sure, they may have acted like they were overjoyed to finally have a daughter after so many years of trying and failing, but I don't know. Even after spending months away from them at Hogwarts, they never minded when I spent the few holidays I had with my friends instead of them."

It was a sore subject, one she couldn't believe she actually brought up with him. She'd never shared her true feelings about her parents with anyone before. Even when she was younger and Ginny asked her one night at the Burrow why her parents let her come over so much, she just made up some lie. It hurt to admit that she didn't think she was wanted. When she was in her parents' home for any length of time, she always felt like she was intruding on their lives. They almost seemed relieved when she would ask if she could go to stay with the Weasleys.

"Kingsley feels guilty that he didn't know the extremes I went to to keep them safe. He was assigned to protect the Muggle Prime Minister at the time and wasn't around much. He feels like if he had known, he could've done something else that would've kept me from doing that. He also feels guilty because after the war, he and I went to Australia to find my parents with some of the best Healers from St. Mungo's and we were unable to restore their memories. It's permanent, I'm afraid."

Rabastan turned his body just enough that he could pull her in his arms. She appreciated being able to rest her cheek against his chest while he wrapped his arms around her back. Glad for the present that there weren't any customers, it felt nice to be comforted by him. Usually when she told the story of her parents to someone, they were sympathetic but uncomfortable enough to not know how to respond. She was used to most people just quickly changing the conversation.

"I'm very sorry that you had to do that. You should've never been placed in that impossible position."

His heavy sigh was laced with his own regrets. She wished she could crawl inside his brain to find out more about what he did and what he felt. The gradual uncovering of it all wasn't as satisfying as knowing it all immediately. No one who ever accused her of being impatient was wrong.

Crash. Thud. Thud. Crash.

The moment was ruined by the collapsing of another stack of books somewhere in the alchemy section, she believed. It was depressing that she was usually able to tell the area of the shop just by the exact sound the falling books made. Despite not wanting to leave the comfort and safety of Rabastan's arms, she headed for the corner of the shop in question to right the fallen merchandise. She could feel her husband just steps behind, curious himself what happened.

"I don't know why the books keep falling. The previous owners always had the most precarious of stacks and they never fell. I've tried every single sticking and stacking charm I can think of, but nothing works. It might keep them upright for a few days, but eventually they fall."

"Do you mind if I try something?"

Hermione stepped back to allow him. What was the harm? Maybe he knew something she didn't. Concentrating, Rabastan removed his monitored wand from the pocket of his robes to point at the fallen books. A non-verbal charm righted the heavy volumes into a neat stack again and a second charm kept them stable. To test out his theory that he'd fixed it, he jumped on the floor right in front of the stack. They stayed perfectly still. Several other stacks around him, however, went crashing to the floor in a loud cacophony that only made his wife laugh. Looking a little sheepish at the mess he accidentally made, he smiled too.

"Well, at least we know that this stack will stay upright."

"What did you do? This is amazing. Is it a sticking charm I don't know?"

"A little bit more complicated than that, but not hard to cast. I just altered the gravitational pull of the immediate area the books are located in. It's a spell my head house-elf taught me. She used it to keep my mother's china from falling when they stacked it in the cupboard. What is magic if not the manipulation of physics?"

Thoroughly surprised and impressed, Hermione didn't even think twice about throwing her arms around his neck and kissing him in a show of gratitude. Startled by the gesture at first, it only took Rabastan a second or two to enthusiastically give in to the kiss she offered. For at least a minute or two, they snogged like a couple of teenagers hiding in a dark corner of the Hogwarts library. It was the first kiss they shared that had been completely spontaneous. All of the others had been agreed upon before they happened. Both of them were clearly pleased by the step forward in their relationship. Hermione knew that she would love to get to where they could be as affectionate as often as they wanted.

Thud. Thud. Thud.

More casualties of Rabastan's jump on the old wooden floor interrupted their kiss before it could turn any more heated than it already was. Breaking apart with a laugh, he offered to show her the spell. Gladly she followed him around the shop casting the spell to hopefully keep falling books down to a minimum.

At the end of the day, Rabastan tried to be encouraging when she closed the front door and locked it. There had been no customers all day long. She appreciated his kind words even as she struggled to believe him.

"Would you like to go back to the cinema? I enjoyed myself immensely when you took me."

Taking him into Muggle London for another fun night was exactly what she needed to keep her mind off of the potential failure of her business. Their date was wonderful and easy. All throughout the movie, he never let go of her hand. When they walked through the streets of London to get dinner and then to return to the flat in Diagon Alley, he held on. It was sweet, something she could gladly get used to.