THIRTEEN: PURPLE

"Why you just can't curse him away, I just don't understand! He is so annoying, chattering on all the time about his travels, or about when you were young. Damnit Aileen, why do like Peeves anyway?" Andrew, Aileen's newest beau, shouted from the bathroom, the running water making him shout louder. At twenty-eight, Aileen still wasn't married like Aiden, who married Katilin, Uncle Harry and Aunt Luna's oldest, two years after graduating Hogwarts. They already had three children, the oldest being 8, and, having just received a raise at his job with the Daily Prophet, they were about to move into a bigger house in Hogsmeade.

Aileen, for all her fame as a Muggle and Wizarding author, still lived in the flat she shared with her twin brother before they were Hogwarts students; her parents still living a few rooms away. She chose to stay in her parent's suite for more than one reason. Mostly it was because she had an elective class she taught at the school now: Muggle Art and Literature. Harry and her mother, who were heads of the school, thought that Muggle Studies, Art and Literature were better off as two different classes, so that one focused on the Wizarding view of the Muggle life, while the other would focus on the Art and Literature of Muggle culture.

It worked out well for Aileen, since she had attended a London University after Hogwarts, allowing her the training for teaching such things. She received a Masters in Classical Literature and one in Modern Art. This way, she was able to teach about what she knew. During the first year she taught the students the way her father taught, but later on found it eased everyone when she acted more like her mother. That summer she went back to University to receive a Masters in Modern Literature and in Classical Art, so that her class would be more rounded. The older children would learn the Classical, and the younger children would learn the Modern, allowing for both to taste each at a time.

As for Peeves, since his return in her first year, she liked having him around, as did Aiden when he was still in school or came to visit, which happened almost once a week. Besides, as long as he followed Aileen around, he wasn't terrorizing the school, like he had done for centuries earlier. Both her mother and father remembered him being a real pain, especially to the first-years, but when the twins were both, they claim, he calmed right down and would actually start helping students who were late, lost, or in need of any other help. Putting all this aside, she had to admit that he really was a good friend. And she loved him like family.

"He's my family Andrew. If you can't deal with that, I won't force you, but please try to be nice. He is the most interesting person I know next to my parents, the other professors here, and Albus Dumbledore."

"He isn't even a person."

"He is to me. And my family. He is a part of my life I could never do without."

"Well then we have got some serious problems." His voice was tense. Aileen knew this was coming; almost all her beaus left her because of either Peeves or her father. The others were flakes that just plain annoyed her, in which time she told them so and left because of her boldness. Her mother told her that if her father hadn't come to her rescue, of which she would never explain any farther, that she would more than likely be a spinster and then the twins never would have been born. Aileen was starting to think that maybe she would end up the way her mother thought she would have.

"Leave then, I don't want to solve what you think is a problem with a solution that doesn't suit me. I'm not going to change my personality to suit you, and I don't expect you to change for me. We should be happy with who we are. If you aren't happy with me, then leave." And he did.

Since school was out for the summer, Severus decided he would take Hermione on a trip, but couldn't decide where. After asking everyone, he still wasn't any closer to a choice then before he asked. They all had different places in which they thought Hermione would enjoy going to, and he almost gave up. It wasn't until two weeks into the break that Hermione came up to him and asked if wanted to take a trip to China, she had always wanted to see the Great Wall.

Throughout their marriage, moreso when the twins entered Hogwarts, they had gone out to different place, sometimes in Great Britain, sometimes in the United States, but mostly they tried to go to other countries that had more appeal to them. So far they had gone to every country in North and South America as well as all of Africa, though those trips were taken with Albus and Minerva, who were newly retired at the time and wanted something exciting that was also healthy and new.

Although it wasn't for vacation purposes, Severus and Hermione had taken a trip once to both Japan and Australia, but they were in seminars most of the day, and when they did have free time, they didn't have enough to really see the country, both Wizarding and Muggle, which was what really made their trips last all summer vacation. Aiden and Katilin, before they had their first child, had gotten them a cruise as an anniversary gift, but the ship they had tickets for sunk the trip before theirs, so the opted to get a refund and spend that year in Ireland, which was where the cruise was to start, and then it would have ended in France.

Unfortunately, right before they were about to, Hermione got very sick. At first, Severus just thought that she was pregnant again; after the twins, Hermione had had a succession of three miscarriages, but she never wanted to lose her birthing ability. They later found out, through her Muggle doctor, that she had cancer of the uterus, and that it was the cause of her miscarriages. With their trip cancelled, Severus and Hermione made the hard trip to St. Mungo's for her surgery to remove the cancer and to save her life.

It seemed as if the Weasley birthing, with all the people there, but really everyone was there for Hermione, who just barely survived her surgery. During the procedure, she began bleeding excessively, and the Medi witches and wizards had trouble keeping her alive while stopping the bleeding. The cancer was completely removed from her body, which was a good thing, since the cancerous cells were completely contained in her uterus, but she would never be able to have children again. Thankfully with magic, the medics were able to tell whether or not she would develop cancer again or not.

Molly was the first person, after Severus, Aiden, and Aileen of course, to visit Hermione. She also stayed by the younger woman's side in the evenings as long as the Medi-witches allowed, and talked with her. Thankfully, the medi-wizard in charge of Hermione said that she would be able to return to Hogwarts, but that someone would be sent from St Mungo's to help her with the healing the children. Severus, with all his noble intentions, asked if perhaps someone could fill in for her in the upcoming year so that she may have time to fully recover. The medi-wizard assured him that she would be fine, she just had to go through the same as if she had had a hysterectomy, which was a three week recovery time. Severus didn't like the sound of it, but Hermione reassured him that she had asked, begged almost, for two people to come from St Mungo's to help her. She even offered to pay them, as well as the school would, for their services.

She got her request filled.

After that, Aiden started visiting his parents every week, and even took his children to see their grandparents. Aileen, who didn't really hang around the dungeons during the day, was surprised that he even started visiting her. Of course, never during class. Katilin, who had taken on being the perfect housewife like her Grandmum Weasley, wasn't there more than once a week, mostly on the weekend visit. The visits didn't exactly help Severus and Hermione, for they had been trying since their second marriage to have another child. With the cancer, their dreams were crushed, but that didn't stop them from dotting on their grandchildren.