AN: My bad, my bad. But unavoidable. My internet was down for five days and then I travelled up to Scotland. So so sorry for the delay and the cliffhangerness... And so you get this chapter on time, I'm not going to do responses.. sorry... again... ugh... just enjoy folks!
AN2: Answer a few questions: 'She would be just like him' meant that she would be physically without imperfections. Not that she would be unnaturally powerful. Mercury would eat Persephone alive should they ever meet. Ron's death will not be the only one in this fic. Character death is a heavy feature. Mercury's mum is... ? A muggle who was raped by Draco Malfoy and gave the child up for adoption without naming her. Did Hermione love Ron? She doesn't know. When do we ever know what we feel?Did Draco leave the doctors house without incident::shrug: I am a sadistic author. I like to make my readers do a little of the work.
Chapter Twelve
Mrs Weasley's face was grief. Every inch read of a sorrow that would last a thousand lifetimes. She was in an indescribable state of misery, surrounded by the entire Weasley clan, minus Percy, sat in the small kitchen of the Burrow. Hermione felt like an outsider, sitting there clutching her daughter to her. Mercury was sat on her lap playing solitaire on the sidetable. None of the Weasleys had asked about this girl who looked exactly like a dead wizard. And Hermione would not have answered if they had.
Fleur however had amusingly tried to strike up a conversation with her. Mercury's sharp slicing comments had stopped that interaction quickly, and Fleur had retreated to her husband's side. Brothers they truly were. Pain shown in face mirroring that they were looking into. Such a community in this time of loss.
But Hermione felt nothing. Not the loss, the sorrow and grief. She just felt empty, nothingness. She had been here for three hours now, having relocated after Ron's death. She and Harry had sat numb for half an hour, until the Doctor came back in and noticed the dead. He had called Mr Weasley, who had contacted everyone. Harry had pulled himself out of their stupor and soon raised Hermione. They talked.
"Hermione... I know you are fighting in your own way. And it's about time we... I stopped interfering with that. You'll be safer on your own, you're the best witch there has even been. Rowena Ravenclaw turns in her grave because of you." Hermione smiled dimly. "And I know, Bill told me, you're doing us a tremendous amount of good." She went to speak but he held up his hand. It was only then Hermione noticed he had gained the same way of speaking as Dumbledore; demanding instant respect with a mere syllable. Hermione smiled... Harry may want to be an Auror, but she felt sure down to her toes, that he would end up, Headmaster of Hogwarts.
He continued in that same tone, her arms in his hands, adoration for her in his eyes. "I'll go to a safe house and put the same charms as I did around the old one. Will you be my Secret Keeper? I know us Potters have terrible taste in them, but this time I think I may have chosen the right one." He smiled and Hermione could not help leaning up to kiss his cheek. She felt tears touch her eyes as the realisation dawned that this was the ending of the Dream Team. She felt Harry kiss her back on the cheek and the hugged, clinging on to each other for their lives.
"I'll be back." He assured her, talking through her mangy hair. "Before the end. You and me will face it together." He had tears in his eyes too, as he pulled away from her. Oh Harry, what have we done?
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"I want to speak to Miss Granger." Hermione awoke from her dumb silence to hear those words. She sat up, wandering whether it was not her imagination. The doorbell in the Weasley house, if it could really be called a 'bell', had been ringing non-stop to show the wizarding community's sorrow at the passing of Ron Weasley. Or, Hermione thought bitterly, one less person to save their own sorry arses.
She stood up, moving past Mercury who was already walking towards the door in some state of excitement. Theodore Nott stood at the doorway bored. This lasted a mere second as a blonde bombshell shot past Hermione into Theodore's legs. Hermione could not bring herself to smile at the sight. Bill who had answered the door, glared at her before leaving the hallway. "There's a wood up past that knoll. We could take a walk there." Nott glanced then nodded.
"I should have brought my dog." He noted calmly. Hermione made no reply as they left the grounds of the burrow. A small muddy track marked their way into the green forest which bordered the Weasley's land. "I would say I am distressed to hear about Weasley, but-"
"But it would be untrue." Hermione told him watching as Mercury ran into the woods after something dangerous looking.
"Actually I was going to say you probably wouldn't like to hear it, but they both boil down to the same thing." He admonished quietly staring after Mercury. A soft squelch issued up from the ground as he trod in a large mud puddle. Mercury, who had just lost the dangerous looking creature, burst into hysterical laughter, and Hermione attempted a smile.
"I wanted to see whether Mercury was okay. But she seems fine." He commented. "You look worse." He added looking far into the distance as possible, probably, Hermione thought, wishing he were there after that comment. Mercury fell into the ditch at the side of the road as both foster parents walked past.
"You don't look any better." Hermione replied. A silence past whilst she wandered whether to talk to him. She wouldn't normally but this... after today... she needed to talk with someone who didn't know Ron. Who wouldn't be shocked by the fact she felt nothing. "I... just feel. Ron was the glue, and it seems now he's gone we're all going to fall apart. And its not even like we were close before he died. I.. Uh." She gave up and trudged along looking at the puddles in the ground from the recent rain.
Her jeans were soaking up all the water, and she felt disgusting, having not been able to change her clothes since... "You don't feel anything about his death yet do you?" Nott said staring into the sky. Mercury was scrapping mud out of her hair a hundred metres behind shouting at them both. Both were to absorbed in each other to hear.
"You're astute."
"I know death." Nott countered. His face was pale, and his eyes drawn into a hungry look. She wandered if he was a Vampire lacking in blood for a moment before reality smacked back down. He looked at her then grinned somewhat sheepishly. "I've been having nightmares, so I haven't slept in a while." She let a half smile out.
They walked on in a more peaceful amicable silence than the one that had descended only minutes before. Except this one was broken by a very irritated four-year-old demanding attention. She jumped into a puddle in front of Hermione, soaking Hermione's long sleeved t-shirt and putting mud on her face. "Mercury!" Hermione yelled almost forgetting she was talking to a child. "Don't... ever... do... that..." The pauses were filled, in Hermione's mind, with many various an illustrative phrases containing words and images unfit for a child.
"Come here." Theodore said calmly taking her face and wiping the mud from it lightly. His hand remained there after he had finished. Hermione made no move to remove it. His hands were warm in the cold breeze that whipped them.
"Thank you." She said quietly, those eyes, a deep dark brown absorbing her. She had fallen into a vat of chocolate and was now quietly drowning in ecstasy. He smiled at her, and she back at him. Then broke apart in a mutual agreement and Hermione bent down to pick up the now muddy Mercury who grinned at the attention. Hermione felt the reassurance of hope. And chocolate. She could taste the milk sweetness in her mouth.
"Are you going to be here at the Burrow? Or are you going off to another..." Nott asked, suddenly wondering if she would the think the question too prying. Would she doubt his intentions? Actually he doubted his intentions. Was he really coming to see Mercury any more?
Hermione bit her lip. She did not know, she hadn't thought about... She felt a sudden welling of sadness in her. Ron was dead and here she was walking out in the forest. She stopped walking and turned round to head back to the Burrow. But then she didn't recognise the way. They had wandered into a split path in the forest and all the trees looked surprisingly similar. She let out a short yelp of temper and spent red sparks into the deep underbelly of the forest. "Hermione?" She heard him asking quietly.
"Sorry. Sorry." She apologised quickly, but the tears were coming and her legs weakening. Ron was dead, Ron was dead.
"Mercury go and find us some... a fox. If you can't find one come back in ten minutes." Theodore told the girl, taking Hermione under the arms and supporting her as she ever turned to not let him see her cry. She would not cry. Mercury glared at the adults with complete and utter disdain. She sneered before walking further down the path sulking. Nott, unable to find anywhere to sit her settled on the grassy banks before the ditch. Long grass stretched up to her shoulders and although they were sat next to each other, green tips kept their faces behind a thin veil.
Hermione did nothing but wail. She cried and sobbed. Her heart bled out into the forest as her throat broke the quiet air in pain. Nott unable to watch the girl who had been such a hero throughout his youth, the undefiable, the unshamable, the beautiful girl now broken so badly. It brought out all the Gryffindor in him; noble intentions, bravery and stupidity. He cradled her now in his arms looking into the blackened forest, darkening with the blackening sky.
"Would.. Would you consider living with me?" He asked, in a moment of such nobility that it seemed to overwhelm him. Is this what Potter felt all the time?
"Living with you?" Hermione asked between hiccups uneasily.
"I thought that if you were... unhappy living with the Weasleys and Potter's not about, or at least I didn't see him." Hermione let out a little gasp of pain and Theodore hurriedly went on, "And I could help look after Mercury. So you could... do whatever it is you do..." Goodness... if this is what it was like to be Gryffindor he would redouble his bullying efforts.
"I'd like that." Hermione said honestly. She was exhausted and very cold, but for the warmth radiating from Theodore's body. "But is it well enough protected?" She asked pulling back looking at him deeply.
"As an Auror I can promise only the highest protection." He said on more stable ground. "I'm not enemy number one and only worth killing when I am in the way. So my house is as safe as you'll get." He said proudly. Hermione pulled back from as the Slytherin came through in his voice.
"That would be wonderful. Thank you. When can we?"
"Straight away. I'll go and adjust the wards to you and you tell the Weasleys." He ordered standing. "Where's Mercury got to?" He looked about but there was no blonde head in sight. "Mercury?"
They both called for two minutes before the girl, still glaring, idled her way out of the forest. Nott explained their plans to her before apparating off. In a more joyful mood they made their way back to the Weasleys, though the joy soon evaporated with the heavier, darker air which congregated around the home. "Hermione." Bill said as she came in. He looked like he had been crying; his eyes and even his scars looked red and inflamed. Hermione looked at the floor, aware she must look far worse. She was surprised then when she felt arms around her, and Bill swept her into a bear hug. She embraced back and they stood together.
"I'm going. I'll be seeing you regularly. There won't be a funeral, will there?" She asked controlling herself and forcing the now subservient logical part of her brain to take control of her raging heart. Bill shook his head.
"Not until all this is done with." He looked back into the room where his family was sat, drinking tea and coffee, grim as any winter's day. "It's probably best you staying away. Mum's a little mad. Not with you, but with all of us. She blames herself and therefore all of us." He blinked and looked away. "Hermione." He gripped her shoulder before turning away from her. "Oh." He turned back gesturing to something over his shoulder. "This came for you."The majestic bird of Draco Malfoy's returned self swept into the Weasley's small hallway. Hermione felt her face burn when she remembered all of Malfoy's words to the Weasleys. And even after death Malfoy seemed to mock Ron. The bird landed on the banister and stuck out its leg to Hermione. Only then did she see Mercury's gaze on the creature. As if she recognised it. Hermione let out a little hiccup, before clapping her hand to her mouth.
She took the letter. The bird stretched out the entire wingspan of it's fine body before lazily drifting into an effortless fast flight out of the window.
The Abbey, Oxford, Now. DM--