Bonding with the Grangers
Thorfinn bonds with William. Jean questions Hermione. A past is revealed and shared. More kissing. Reina finally has both parents.
Hermione and Thorfinn walked into the Granger's apartment, hand in hand. William and Jean exchanged glances and smiled at them. They knew how long it took to get to the primary school, how long show and tell usually lasted and how long it took to get back to Summer Bay. They'd suspected that she'd want to haul the young man off somewhere to talk. Evidently Hermione and Thorfinn had taken a while to get familiar with each other again. Judging by the flushed look on their faces, they had done slightly more than talk.
"Well, how did show and tell go?" asked her mother. Hermione clapped her hand over her eyes. William and Jean braced themselves. There was no telling what Reina had said in class.
"Well, every one of her classmates and their parents now know that her daddy has been in prison, but he's free now, has come home to settle down with her and mommy and she has a dolly named Reina." Her parents were laughing by the time she stopped speaking.
"And was it ok for her to share all that about daddy?" her father asked, gazing at Thorfinn. The young man seemed relaxed at the moment but William wasn't going to forget that Hermione had said he was on the losing side of the Wizarding war. Not yet anyway. He was reserving judgment for now because he seemed sincere in his desire to be with Hermione and Reina.
"I have nothing to hide. I was a criminal, I was caught and I served my time. As long as you three and Reina accept me, I could care less what anyone else thinks of me." Thorfinn told him honestly. William could see he was well on the way to having a son in law, if only Hermione wasn't so insecure about the man's feelings for her. He and Jean might have to give Thorfinn a helping hand with her.
"Should we be expecting our next grandchild soon?" William teased them. Hermione went bright red as she jerked her hand away from Thorfinn. He simply laughed as he moved forward.
"Nothing would give me more pleasure than another child, sir. I don't think Hermione is quite as ready for that step yet." He answered, coming to a stop in front of the man. William was sorting out some fishing gear. "May I speak to you, sir, privately?"
"Help me untangle these lines, would you? We're having a few guests over later, think you might know them. Robbie, Tasha and Kim? They help us take care of Reina. She likes watching Kim surf. She tries to get him to let her ride the board with him. So far, though, she's got nowhere. Robbie gets her over in the Ocean Pool to distract her. He and Tasha are teaching her how to swim. I'm about to go fishing. You can go with me." William could see Thorfinn was looking serious about something. Considering the fact that the young man had a child with his daughter and had declared his intentions of settling down with them, William could almost guarantee he wanted to speak to him about Hermione.
They got the fishing gear untangled and carried outside. William yelled to let Jean and Hermione know they were going fishing. Hermione walked to the door to wave them off. Jean joined her, watching the two walk down to the pier. After they were out of sight, she pulled her to the kitchen. "Now, tell me more about this young man. He was at Hogwarts with you? That means he's magical, too. Reina is already showing signs of magic, you know? It scares her when she does it because she doesn't understand how she's doing it."
"I know. I need to explain to her about accidental magic. Has she done anything in front of anyone, that you know of?" Hermione asked, remembering several instances of displaying her own accidental magic in school.
"Not yet. So far, all her bursts have been here with us. She's gotten quite good at picking out her own bedtime stories. I've cautioned her that it's ok to do it in front of us, you, myself and William. But Robbie, Tasha and Kim wouldn't understand it. She knows to be careful in front of them." Jean told Hermione who let out a sigh of relief. She didn't want Reina to go through the same taunting and ridicule she herself had endured as a child.
"So about this Thorfinn?" Jean waited for her daughter to answer. She knew about quite a few of Hermione's school friends and enemies but she didn't think she'd ever heard her talk about this one. Of course, he was older than Hermione by three years. That might explain why Hermione had never mentioned him.
"Thorfinn. How to explain about Thorfinn. He was in Slytherin so I don't really know that much about him. I know he's a pureblood. But he never joined in on taunting the half-bloods and Muggleborns at school. He was always more interested in Quidditch. He's an insanely talented Quidditch player. Or he was before he went to prison. He was, for want of a better word, a firebug, an arsonist. He liked setting fires. I'm pretty sure that I heard some of the other students talk about how talented he was at wielding Fiendfyre. I've seen fires he set during the war. He burned down the Burrow and quite a few shops. He said that was HIS main reason for being on the wrong side. Their leader let him set as many fires as he wanted, as long as he did it in such a way to terrorize people. He said he got it all out of his system during the war." Hermione closed her eyes. Then she looked at her mother. "I asked him what happens if the urge comes back. Am I expected to wait for him another six years? That's when he told me he'd got it out of his system. Now apparently he just wants to settle down with me and Reina, marry me and possibly have more children."
Jean considered her daughter. "And what about you? Do you want to marry him, have more children? It would be nice to have more grandchildren. Reina's growing up so quickly. Do you think she'll go to Hogwarts?"
"I don't know. I hadn't thought about that. I don't even know if Australia has a school of magic. If they do, she'll stay here, close to us. If they don't, I suppose I'll be taking her to King's Cross every year." Hermione looked down. "I don't know what to think about him. I suppose, at some point, I'd like to have at least one more child but the whole him fighting on the wrong side of the war thing keeps looming between us. I can't seem to forget about that."
"Talk to him. Just keep talking about it until the two of you can discuss it without arguing. Then you'll be ready to move on. Unless he wants to marry right away?" Jean picked up a pan off the stove.
"I think he would, in a heartbeat, if he thought I'd agree but he did say there's a matter of courtship. So I think he's willing to let me set the pace, right now, for how fast our relationship moves." Hermione was actually relieved that Thorfinn wasn't going to rush her into marriage. He seemed to have a hard time keeping his hands off her but that was to be expected. Even in Hogwarts, he'd been very much hands on with every girl she'd seen him with.
"You said a matter of courtship? That means he came from an old fashioned family. You realize that he's probably out there on the water, asking your father's permission to court you, right?" Jean gently teased her. Hermione smiled and giggled.
"Yeah, I'm pretty sure he is. Either that or he wants to let him know again that he's not going anywhere. He's really insistent on us being a family." Hermione pulled her hair back into a bun. Sometime during their little make out session, Thorfinn had managed to loosen up her hair, causing it to fall down. Her mother began to talk about what they were having for supper. Hermione joined in making preparations.
Out on the water, William and Thorfinn were getting their lines ready. He could see Thorfinn struggling to find the right words. He decided to help him out a bit. 'So when did you first start noticing Hermione?"
"I noticed her that first year she was in school. It was kind of hard not to notice her. She was always with Potter and Weasley. They were continually having run-ins with Malfoy, the little prat! I was already a third year so it was more of a passing interest at that time, like 'oh, look, the trio is into it with Malfoy again', you know?" William nodded, having heard Hermione rant many times about the little blonde prat!
"So we basically went our own ways the first couple of years we were in school. I did notice that she came in pretty and kept getting prettier. But then came my last year. That was the year of the Triwizard Tournament. It seemed like every year something was always going on around Potter and that year was no exception. His name came out of the Goblet of Fire. Of course, I knew that she would be right there beside him. We had a Yule Ball that year. Viktor Krum, from Durmstrang, was one of the champions that year. She caught his eye and he asked her to the Ball. Of course, nobody knew that until the night of the ball." Thorfinn got a faraway look in his eye. William smiled to himself. 'Oh, yes, this youngster had it bad for his daughter!'
"The night of the Ball, he came in with this breathtakingly lovely young girl on his arm. She had on the most beautiful blue dress. Gods, she was so beautiful! She was enjoying herself so much, until that little Weasley started arguing with her. I wanted to hang him up by the thumbs for making her cry." Thorfinn was frowning, just remembering back then. "Then I was out of school, getting my Quidditch career going. I was wild, reckless, loved setting fires and," he sighed. "Extremely stupid! Some of my older classmates had already joined the Death Eaters and they talked me into going to a meeting with them. Their leader, Lord Voldemort, talked to me, asking if I was interested in joining his followers. I refused his offer for a while. Then he told me if I would join him, I could set as many fires as I wanted to, as long as I hit the ones he'd targeted. So I did. Like I said, I was stupid and reckless."
William could understand being stupid and reckless. He'd done some pretty dumb things before he'd met Jean and few dumb things after he'd met her. What mattered was whether Thorfinn had learned his lesson and from the sound of it, he had definitely had some hard learning experiences. "So that is what led to that little broomstick closest at Hogwarts?"
"Ah, the broomstick closet!" Thorfinn smiled. "Yeah, we were told that something big was going on at the school. I knew she was still at school and I was hoping she wouldn't get caught in the crossfire. We were just waiting on a signal and it came. The Malfoy kid let us in and there was a fight, a big dustup that ended with Dumbledore being killed. We were escaping the school and I was trying to keep an eye out for her. I didn't want to hit her by accident. Thankfully, she stayed out of sight and we got away. Everything went tits up that summer. That fall she never came back to school. I, uh, I was watching for her. I was going to grab her and hide her away. But she had disappeared off the map, her, Potter and Weasley. Then we found them very briefly. Your daughter is very quick with a curse. She managed to hit me with a Stunner, knocked me right out. I didn't see her again until Hogwarts. I knew, by then, our side was more than likely going to lose and I was sick of war, gods, so sick of war by that time. I wanted nothing more than to grab her and go, get out of there, find somewhere away from everything. Someplace just for me and her. I knew I was looking at jail time, I also knew if I didn't have someone to look forward to after getting out, I'd never survive in there. I decided that, if I found her, your daughter was going to be my saving grace. I already knew I wanted her. I grabbed her, laid claim to her and told her I'd be back. And here I am." Thorfinn held up his hand and shrugged. He'd explained his shared past and his criminal past to the man. Now to see if he was still worthy of marrying the man's daughter.
William was silent for a while. Then he spoke. "You know, of course, the final agreement has to come from Hermione. I can see that you truly care for her but she is the one who has to believe it. For what it's worth though, I'm glad you are being so honest about your past. The good and not so good parts of it. Even though you put the cart ahead of the horse, I can see that you really do want to marry Hermione. You have my blessing. But be warned, it's not going to be easy getting her to agree. She's probably going to fight you every step of the way, all the way to the altar."
Thorfinn smiled. "I don't mind fighting with her. It's so much fun, making up with her afterwards. I don't intend to rush her, either. I'm going to let her decide when it's going happen. She waited six years for me. It's not going to hurt me to wait six years for her."
The men sat there for the next few hours, content to lazily rock with the waves while they fished. It was a new experience for Thorfinn. His father had never once bothered, during summer or holidays, to even try and take him fishing. He thought he could very easily get used to this. He couldn't wait, now that he'd gained her father's approval, to get back and begin courting his fiancé. By the time they went back, they had a full row of fish to show for the endeavors.
Hermione had begun walking between the kitchen and the door, watching the clock. It was almost time to go pick up Reina and she'd promised Thorfinn he could go back with her. Finally, her father's fishing boat puttered into view. Thorfinn jumped off, tied it off to the pier and grabbed his line and the fish. He and her father came back up the path and came straight into the kitchen.
"Finally, you two are back. Hermione was afraid she was going to have to go get Reina by herself. Thorfinn, go wash up and join her." Jean ordered. Thorfinn obediently went to wash up. He came back in time for Hermione to grab his arm and haul him out the door. He barely had time to wave bye to her mother before the door shut. Jean shook her head and laughed. For someone who was reluctant to accept his intent to marry her, Hermione was certainly anxious to get him alone.
Hermione pulled him out to her car and climbed in. As he settled in the passenger seat and fastened his belt, she cranked up and pulled away from the curb. She was concentrating on her driving and jumped slightly as he draped his arm across the back of her seat. They rode in silence for most of the way until she pulled up outside the school. As they sat there, she sighed. "Why me, Rowle? Seriously? Of all the girls in Hogwarts, why me?"
"Why you? Huh, why Hermione Granger? I'll tell you why." He unfastened his seatbelt, leaned over and kissed her until they had to come up for air. "You, Hermione Granger, were the most beautiful girl at the Yule Ball. You have NO idea how much I wanted to punch Krum out every time he put a hand on you! How badly I wanted to hang Weasley up by his thumbs for making you cry! That necklace you have on, that's the same necklace my grandfather gave to my grandmother. My father gave it to my mother. I gave it to you. It's an engagement heirloom, Granger. When we have a son and he's old enough someday, he'll gave it to his future bride. I carried that necklace around THREE YEARS, Granger, just waiting for my chance to slip it on you!"
Hermione stared at him, in a daze. Gradually, other cars began lining up behind them. It was the other kindergarten parents. Knowing Reina would have both of their full attention soon, she leaned towards him inviting. He quickly took her up on the offer and kissed her again. Just then, they heard the bell. They broke apart and exited the car. They walked toward the kindergarten classroom and were the first parents at the door.
"Mommy, daddy!" Reina exclaimed excitedly. "See, I told you he was my daddy!" to the little girls standing behind her. They giggled and waved shyly. He smiled at them as Reina came running at him. He easily caught her and swung her up into his arms. He hugged her tightly but gently. He'd known her less than a day but already loved her.