Number 12, Grimmauld Place, full of life. It was a sight to see. Far from the dour atmosphere of the Order squatting inside it, the ongoing party was filled with laughter and good cheer. There was a cypher, a puzzle to make out if anyone cared to, which no one did of course. Him and her, never too far apart. The radiation of something under the waves, always between them.
Someone might notice, but that was a known risk by now. When to make their relationship public? Even with the divorce on the horizon, doing so right away would be ill advised. Torture, sweet and nauseating. But at least it was her birthday. A good number of old members of Dumbledore's Army were here.
And better yet, Ginny was starting to fall into place. Hermione had to give it to her, she was good at it. A heart-throbbing laugh, a hand on his shoulder and a look to tell him he was just that special. Alfred Baxter would remember the gentle flirting when Ginny was single again, and Ginny's teeth would already be biting down on her prey. Hermione still had a staggering amount of scorn for her, but as long as she kept her distance, there was no reason to complain.
She seemed to be enjoying herself too. Alfred was handsome, almost a brighter still unblemished copy of Harry. Black hair, wavy and well-behaved. Curious blue eyes. Less lean and stringy, but well-built. It had been Harry's suggestion, and Ginny's eye had twitched when he told her to seduce him. But she had agreed.
Another ring at the door. She glanced at Harry and promptly went to answer.
"Dennis. Thanks for coming," she said, hugging him.
"It has been a while," he answered, leaving his umbrella in the bin. "You look good. Am I the last to arrive?"
He handed her a present. A box of Godiva chocolates.
"Thank you, and I'm not sure. Professor McGonagall said maybe. Come in."
Dennis was far from the young Creevey from school. Losing his brother Colin had tempered him. He was more subdued, but also bolder in a way. Looking up to Harry must have had an influence. When they got to the parlour, Harry did come over. He was dressed in a loose eggshell white shirt, just loose enough to nearly drive her mad, his scar peeking out from behind a button.
"Dennis," he said, "I haven't seen you since… Hogsmeade during the holidays last year?"
"Yeah," Dennis answered enthusiastically. "Yeah it was. It's good to see you again. Sorry I haven't been –"
"You've been busy, right?" Harry interrupted. "Interning at St. Mungo's at the spell damage ward?"
"Right," Dennis laughed.
"How is it?" Hermione asked.
"Great. It's very rewarding, getting to help people. Although I'm not ready to graduate to curse damage yet – ah, sorry!"
"It's okay, Dennis," Hermione said running a finger over her collar. "Nine months was a good trade, and we're here now."
Dennis smiled brightly. Neville had come forward and shook Dennis' hand. "Guys, want to join in on a game of five card hex? We're getting a game going."
"Sure, Nev," Harry said, and followed behind with a grin.
Dennis laughed awkwardly, looking at her intently. "Uh." He patted her shoulder. "You really do look good, healthy. I – I'll talk some more to you later, right?"
"Of course, go ahead."
Hermione started to suspect – more than suspect actually – that Dennis had a thing for her. And it was now out (thank you, Daily Prophet) that she was divorced. Still, a little early to be hitting on a divorced woman. She smirked at the irony, seeing as her tryst with Harry had gotten them in such hot waters.
She went over to the table filled with drinks and took another cup of Champagne.
"Having fun?"
Ginny smiled at her, a little coldly, but she hid it well behind a practised smile. She too, took a cup and drank from it. "Hmm," she moaned. "Nothing but the best at the Potter household, am I right?"
Hermione smiled back. It was still unclear what her goal was, but she didn't pass up an opportunity to rub in that she had something on them. It was infuriating. Hourly daydreaming of horribly maiming the redhead had been the norm ever since her blackmail. It would be wonderful just to drive a knife into her soft squishy parts and see the life drain from her.
"It is a nice party," she answered. "Lucky that we woke up from our perilous coma in time to celebrate birthdays. Good things do happen in life." She smirked. "And I see you've been enjoying yourself as well. Alfred is such a reliable bloke isn't he? And easy to get along with."
Her lip twitched. "Yes, he's charming. Handsome too, maybe you should have a chat with him."
"Oh I don't know Ginny," she laughed. "He's nice, but he's not Harry."
There was a flash of murder in Ginny's hazel eyes. Fortunately, Fleur came to butt in, throwing both arms around the women.
"Eh? Having fun? Zis is a great birsday party, isn't eet?" She grumbled. "Beel playing cards with ze men is he? Ah – I know." She smiled mischievously and looked over. "Anna, Mathilde, Loona, girlz come wiz, yes? We find a place to deesh."
Hermione wasn't sure if she liked what was happening. But the girls did follow (was that her Veela powers at work or just charisma?), and she pushed two bottles of Champagne into their hands, taking two more and a bunch of glasses deeper into the house.
She stopped briefly before the library, which only Hermione could see for what it was. Then she shook her head and moved forward. A rather large guest bedroom with a window overlooking the rainy street side. They all made themselves comfortable. She sat next to Fleur and Luna, with Ginny at Fleur's side. Hannah, Katie, Lavender, Parvati, Angelina and Mathilda were there too.
The blonde Auror looked somewhat out of place, being the eldest of them all. But she had an easy smile and youthful look. It was more her demeanour, the way she carried herself that made her stand out. That catlike agility and grace that somehow experienced Aurors carried with them. A quirk of the job.
Hermione was glad she was there, as an insider, to keep an eye on things. She had been warned of what happened, and Ginny was none the wiser. It was good to have a trump card like that. But eventually the connection, how much she knew, would come to light. It was to be a certainty if Ginny wormed her way into things.
Fleur had taken something out of her purse. It looked like a toy, a little man sitting on top of a spring with a tube in his hands, and on the bottom a pedestal.
"Ah zis," she said, bumping the little man, "something from ze Weezes, George said it was going to be selling soon. Do you know ze game? I sink it is called 'I have never'."
The girls looked at each other in confusion, but Lavender spoke up. "Never have I ever, I think it's called. You have to say something you've never done, and everyone who has, drinks."
"Yes," Fleur called out, "zats it! It could be fun no? You have played."
"Me and Lav with some friends," Parvati said.
"Hold on," Hermione said, "and the toy?"
"It sprays you wiz water when you lie," Fleur laughed. "George said zey just made ze spray singy, but it sells better az a game."
"It can tell the truth, like Veritaserum?" Hermione asked incredulously. There was no way she was going to play this game and risk everything being exposed, the lies, the affair… the murder.
"Hm. Non," Fleur answered. "Zey tested it for ze ministry, it was not accurate enough. So zis is just for fun ey?"
Okay. It wasn't as bad as she thought. Inaccurate, but still. She glanced at Ginny, who was smiling at her. Dangerous. Sod it. If this was going to be the time for the curtain to fall, so be it. Harry would back her up, even if she ended up killing a young Veela mother.
"Well, we know each other fairly well already, right?" Hannah said.
"Except for Mathilda," Luna said with an excited smile. "It will be good for her to learn about us."
"You don't know everything about me," Angelina said.
"I do," Katie said.
"Pff," Angelina spat, "there are some things I don't tell you."
"Well?" Fleur said with a toothy smile. "Everyone wants to play? We all have drinks."
Some shrugged, some giggled.
"Birthday gurl first," she said, nudging Hermione.
Never have I ever… all the thoughts that came to mind had something to do with Harry. All the things they never did – hadn't done yet. She couldn't come up with anything but something extremely lame. "Never ever have I cheated on an exam," she said.
There were laughs, and she felt some distance with the girls assembled. A familiar distance that was always there. The laughs weren't malicious, more complicit, but it didn't fail to remind her of why loneliness was a constant in her life. If not for Harry. Now, it didn't bother her as much.
"I guess that's a good one," Angelina said, and drank. So did Ginny, Katie and Hannah. Surprisingly neither Lavender or Parvati did. Neither did Mathilda.
"Oh, it's my turn then?" Luna said. "Hmmm. Never have I ever seen a crumple-horned snorkack."
The room was silent for a moment, then laughs. Everyone drank.
"Good to start these out with obvious ones," Lavender laughed. "Never have I ever… been outside Britain."
"Oh Lav," Parvati said, "we have to fix that soon."
There was a surge of affection for the blonde, the scar on her neck not going unnoticed. That scar Greyback had left at the Battle of Hogwarts. Again, the others drank, except for Mathilda. Hermione could feel the buzz of the champagne hitting as their glasses were refilled. It wasn't so bad, but still she wished Harry were with her.
-M-
"You're slipping, Ernie," Harry laughed.
He was winning, pretty substantially too. Hell, they played for knuts, but he'd amassed almost two galleons of gains in just half an hour. Usually Ron would win. However, he felt the weakness that made him lose previously glaringly missing. He could read Ernie, Neville and Dennis with more ease. And the almost unfair advantage of being aware of their heart rate and sweating was something that of was much help.
Ron hadn't been able to keep his cool away from the game, and their encounter with Ginny had reminded him they too could be prone to mistakes. Cheap mistakes if Ginny's current attitude was anything to go by. She was playing the game, getting cosy with Alfred – a good trainee if there ever was one. And such a vital piece of the puzzle.
"You're getting lucky, Harry," Ernie answered with a smile. "Have you seen my uncle again?"
"Only once since the interview," Harry said, raking in the knuts and sickles. "I hope you don't hate me for being so hard on him."
Ernie laughed from the bottom of his chest, a noble kind of chuckle that was his hallmark. "No, of course not. He's always the one who has to talk politics at family gatherings. You know the type."
Up until recently that had been Hermione. But now he was in the middle of it, and rolling his eyes or admonishing her for her fervour seemed… just so wrong. Which is why there was a ball in the pit of his stomach at Ernie's unknowing accusation. But he was winning.
"You need to come over to Hogwarts some time," Neville said, a smirk on his face. "McGonagall has been assigning all her detentions to Sprout so the poor students could help me with my projects."
"Sounds fun," Harry said with a smile. "It's so strange to know Trelawney's gone though."
"Who's teaching now?" Dennis asked.
"Firenze," Neville said with a groan. "It's just not the same without her. I think we underestimated her just to get by with an easy grade."
"Yeah, there are some fond memories of Trelawney's classroom, like getting my death predicted every time," Harry grinned.
Neville smiled back and dealt the cards. "So what do you have in mind, once you get to be our representatives?"
"Feels like Britain's choking, doesn't it? There's a lot to fix, not that I think they'll let us right away."
Harry had a pair of witches and put down two knuts.
"My cousin," Ernie said, having apparently a monster hand, "he has been trying to get powdered unicorn horn – it's really popular nowadays for beauty balms. But there's limits on imports from Germany."
"Being more open would help," Harry said. "A lot of laws preventing investments, it's not just your cousin."
"You've done your homework," Neville noted.
"With Hermione's help," Harry said, fondly smiling. "Some things just stay the same no matter what."
-M-
It was Ginny's turn. She was getting to be quite drunk, much like many others. So far no big questions, or at least no dangerous questions. Mathilda had revealed she had never been married, driving the married; married-but-soon-divorced and now-divorced women to drink further. There were awkward looks from the others, but Mathilda knew more than they did, and it was more of a jab at Ginny than it was one at Hermione.
"Never have I ever," she said with a glint in her eye, "faked an orgasm."
"Really, Gin!" Angelina said and downed the rest of her drink. So did everyone except Luna, including Hermione. It wasn't a proud moment, and she didn't like to be reminded of Ron.
In the aftermath of the raunchy question's laughter, she noticed Katie was the only one who wasn't participating. She looked silent and down, not unusual for the quiet now professional chaser. Maybe with Harry's eyes, she could make out what was going on.
It was Fleur's turn. The part-Veela was red in the face and giggly-drunk. She couldn't be more girlish if she tried. "Bon!" she said between chortles. "Never have I evuuuur… had a crush on a gurl."
Katie downed her drink and there were laughs as Hannah reluctantly drank too.
It was suddenly silent.
"Kates?" Angelina said in a worried voice.
She was crying, usually so calm, cool and collected. If you expected one girl not to lose it over a game of 'never have I ever', it was Katie. She buried her face in her hands and faced away, not noticing Angelina's hand on her shoulder.
"What's wrong?" said Lavender, who also had moved closer.
She sighed, and without taking her hands away, spoke in a broken voice. "Dem got engaged."
There was a look of recognition and sadness in Angelina's eyes. "You never told her… how you felt?"
She sniffed and shook her head. "I knew she didn't feel like that. Sometimes, you just know – you know?"
Ginny had gone over to kneel in front of her and hug Katie. But clearly this was a surprise. Stay quiet, don't say anything, and regret everything. Ginny made a joke about setting her up with a Harpy, making her laugh. Everyone being so supportive and emotional, Fleur apologizing and encouraging her. It all felt so foreign to Hermione. She knew she should feel some empathy, but it didn't come. Katie even apologized for making a scene.
There was no better way to put an end to a cheery game than a crying girl. So they talked for a while, and eventually rejoined the men in the parlour. Harry was talking to Dennis and Neville.
"– was always tellin' me to study harder, she's less pushy about it now I work at Hogwarts. Hey!" Neville smiled when she joined them. "We were just talking about how you might be talking more with my grandmother when you get elected. She sent me a letter saying how – well, she was more ranting about women doing what they did in Barnton, but she was happy about what you did."
"I've kept up with her voting," Hermione nodded. "We will definitely be talking in the future."
"Any plans you have?" Neville asked.
"Nothing definitive," Harry answered. "We learned making plans too far in advance is only going to end in frustration."
"Where's George?" Hermione asked.
"He left early," said Harry, "said to apologize to you but he didn't want to interrupt."
And he left Angelina. He must have been worse off than they thought.
Mathilda bumped in between Neville and Harry. "There's still cake, isn't there? Reason I came by?"
"There is," Hermione answered. "Chocolate and strawberry."
"How are you holding up, Nev? Happy with the teaching lifestyle?" Mathilda asked.
"Good," he smiled. "Teaching suits me more than chasing dark wizards, unlike you lot."
Harry laughed. "You're sure you don't want to come back? I bet Robards would give you a raise."
"No, thank you very much," Neville sighed. "Besides, I'm sure Hannah would kill me."
"There are worse ways to die," Harry said with a grin.
They ate cake. Harry later spoke to Mathilda alone, probably catching him up on what happened earlier. Things were much too casual and bubbly and carefree to Hermione's liking. Nothing like the conflagration that happened whenever she and Harry would do things together. It was a bit of a depressing birthday, even if they were going to have time to themselves later. She needed a change of pace, a change of scenery, something else she wasn't sure how to put into words.
She said goodbye to everyone afterwards. There was some talk of having a drink out, but her unfeigned exhaustion of the party made it easy to refuse. When lastly Ginny had left, they stood in the messy remains of empty plates, scattered Champagne glasses and cards. Harry held out an arm to let her wrap herself around him and finally, let out that tired breath of relief.
"Busy day," he said.
"Too busy, too tiring," she said, eyes closed. "First there was Ginny – she's always trying to make me gut her – then Katie's breakdown… I don't think I like birthday parties. And the cake was too sweet."
"Katie..." Harry repeated. "It never really stood out, maybe. She did like to spend more time with Demelza and Ginny, but I never noticed. Well, I do wish her the best. She and the other team members took good care of me, even if it was because I was such an amazing seeker."
He pivoted to fully embrace her. "Are you really that tired? I – er… I kind of had another gift for you."
She smiled into his chest, taking comfort in his words and the tautness of his adonic features.
"You already got me all those pretty colours of lip stick. You pick what you want, apple, strawberry, passion fruit – you can have any taste you want tonight."
"I mean a real present," he whispered darkly.
His voice felt like a cool cadaveric breeze waking up her dulled senses. She looked up at him and smiled, the anticipation that bled through from him, infectious.
"You… got me another present? Really? You really did?"
"Well… maybe, I – let me show you."
He took her by the hand, leading her to the stairs, and to the space behind the stairs leading to the basement. He looked a tad nervous, very unlike his grown up, imposing self. It sent her heart into a gallop.
They went down, past the candelabra illuminating the winding steps, past the charmed passageway protecting their underground playroom and through the archway leading into the dark, echoey chamber they had set up their potions lab in. It was different. Tables had been moved aside, beakers and distillation pumps relocated to shelves. Harry lit the two red candles near it, illuminating the burgundy tome that sat on top of the chest-high reading table.
Next to it were pieces of parchment, becoming legible as he brought her closer. Crude diagrams, by his hand artistically ungifted, but careful. And writings, thoughtful and extensive, filling her awareness like the corners of a very elusive puzzle. Harry opened it to a page with purpose, flattening the silky parchment and bringing her in front of it.
"I realize this might not be ideal, with you probably wanting to check everything, but – well, I thought… maybe you would like it."
Her hand feathered over the book, and back to the notes. The more she read, the harder her blood pumped. The more she understood, the more she was awed by her luck at finding someone willing to put in that amount of time to make her birthday special. It took her a few minutes. And it was special, intimate, practically hand-picked to lift her spirits to euphoric revelation.
She turned to Harry with tears in her eyes, and bumped hard into him, holding onto him tightly.
"Oh, Harry," she said with a trembling voice. "A suicide pact? You shouldn't have! It's – it's..."
A sigh of relief shook his body. "You like it?"
"Like it?" she bumbled, tears streaming down her face marking her cheeks pink. "I love it! It's the most romantic thing anyone has ever done for me."
Their emotional embrace was stopped by a rustling from the back of the room. She looked up, sniffing tears away in confusion.
"What was that?" she asked, turning to Harry, who was beaming proudly.
"It's a two part gift."
Intrigued, but excited, she followed to the back of the room, candles being lit as they went, where a sheet was draped over something near to the ground. Harry cleared his throat, before bending down and dramatically pulling away the satin cloth. "Tadaaa!" he said with a dashing smile.
Her eyes landed on pale skin, dotted with freckles, travelling up to perky breasts and higher, bloodshot, brown, terrified eyes and fiery red hair. A young girl, not quite Weasley-looking, but close enough to understand what Harry's meaning was. She turned to him with a cheeky smile.
"I know you don't like the way things are with Ginny. So I went and found us a blood sacrifice –" The girl started trashing and whining loudly through her gag. "– that looks a bit like her. You know, it was kind of my fault that she caught us. I wanted to make it up to you."
He held his hands up, waiting for her judgement. She couldn't stop the happy squeal from escaping her lips and stepped up to the crying redhead and slapped her in the face. "Harry, this is the best birthday present ever," she said with a giggle. "Where did you find her?"
"Right here in London, in a muggle bar. Made sure she was indeed a virgin with some legilimency and confunded her home under my invisibility cloak. Took polyjuice and everything – oh, Mathilda doesn't know, I mean she probably suspects I did Selander, but he had it coming. So let's keep this our little secret?"
She gave him an almost chaste kiss on the lips and nodded. "Our secret. Can we call her Ginny? Just for fun?" A sly smile was her answer. "So how do we proceed? I confess, I was too excited to fully grasp the different steps."
He took out a scroll from a shelf and draped it over the edge of the cushioned table the sacrifice was lying on. It was an anatomical drawing, with various runes on two silhouettes. "We'll need to get starkers for the spell. See the runes and symbols? We'll have to paint those after the sacrifice. Then we take our wands and recite the spell."
"Oh, yes, Mr. Potter, I am sure you didn't just make that up to get me naked!" she crooned with a voice straight out of a drama. "I should keep my wand, should I? But – Oh! – where do I put it?"
"Come on then, Countess," he said, laughing, and motioned over to where they should put their clothes.
They folded their clothes and Harry took a long shining dagger before they went back up to the cushioned table. Her fingers brushed against his hand, loosely holding his wand.
"This feels so… significant. Just like – at my marriage I was a bit nervous, but never like this. We're going to make a commitment and a pretty big one. And I'm happy – so happy, and scared too, which is good. It' so much better than cake and Champagne and… immaculate white dresses."
"The white dress was nice, really nice," he said, looking at the scroll. "But I think your birthday suit tops it, by quite a large margin, in fact."
She playfully nudged him, smiling like a girl on her first day of school.
"Do you know what to do?" he asked.
"Yes! And… Let's do it, Harry! Let's bleed Ginny dry, together."
"I thought you'd never ask."
The girl was thrashing now, but tightly bound by ropes at her wrists and around her legs, all attached below the table. Having someone so helpless before her made Hermione's heart swell. Harry gripped the dagger and held it out for her to grasp. Their hands met on the leather of the hilt and like the planchette of an ouija board, it found its way naturally to the girl's chest, right above her healthy virgin heart.
It would be her first time, snuffing the life out of someone, and she was doing it with Harry. Her whole body was thrumming with excitement, down to her very core. She lowered the blade, Harry guiding it to the precious organ Hermione couldn't see. The blade broke skin and it stuck half an inch inside, spilling ruby red liquid over the girl's pale skin. The sight of it was mesmerizing, empowering. Hermione gasped.
The heat built up inside her and a blissful red haze sharpened her senses, drawing attention to the seductive trickle dripping down the porcelain flesh. She pushed down, and felt Harry's strength added to her own, burying the blade deep within. Mad wails and gurgles filled the underground chamber and a spurt of blood shot out along the hilt, coating their hands in the precious life-giving liquid.
The blood pooled quickly, like a spring, overflowing, dripping down on the stone floor. The crying weakened, then stopped, and Hermione shuddered as she broke out of her orgasmic stupor.
"Amazing," she said, feeling how dry her mouth was. "W – Was it this good for you the first time?"
"I don't think so," he answered in a deep voice. "Look at you, shaking, so pretty. You're glowing, Hermione."
Their hands left the dagger, slick, wet and sensual. The runes, they had to mark each other with runes. She turned to face him, eyeing the deep red scar. "Let me..." she said, lifting her finger to his chest. She traced a triangle below his neck, ending in a cross, finishing the first symbol.
He did the same, the touch of his wet finger tracing the half-moon, circle and cross. They dipped their hands into the blood pooled onto the girl and continued, carefully tracing the symbols in red.
With a dark gaze and a light hand, they took their wands and pointed them at each other. She licked her lips, and together they spoke the incantation. "Amor Nihilo."
The symbols glowed red and magical flame burst forth from Harry's chest, and from hers magical fluid, dancing around each other, mixing, changing, binding and dissolving. A cold heat filled her lungs, burning her insides and making the outline of her scar tingle. The thread between them tightened taut, as if a chain was bound around her very heart. For seconds, her heart stopped beating, and the magic before them evaporated into white smoke. It seemed to have worked, the symbols on Harry's chest being changed into shadows of dust.
"Do you feel it?" he asked.
"Yes. I feel it. I feel… you." She took his hand, only wishing to deepen the feeling, to chase that yearning to its conclusion. Taking his hand, she backed up against the table and laid back against the slick remains of their ritual. She bent her arm backwards and pulled out the dagger, tossing it aside. Her hand went up to the carved aperture and slid two fingers inside the lethal wound.
"Take me," she said, her dripping hand going to his groin. "Desecrate Ginny with me, Harry."
Harry moved forward and let his hands spread red all over her. He hungrily kissed her, and her legs lifted up to take him.
Katie was unlucky, and at some point Hermione had thought the same of herself. But with their new bond being consummated, those memories seemed like distant dreams. She held his life within her bloodied hands, as he held hers within his. What a thrill it was to have such power over him, and how small Ginny's leverage seemed in comparison.
AN: This chapter ends a part of the story. A small part, but still. This is probably the most fucked up thing I've written yet. Many will probably wonder why Ginny is alive, and the answer is pretty obvious if you know anything about psychopathy, even if this is a special case. Yes. Dark!Harmony. Not Harmony gets revenge by killing all their (former) friends and family. But things will get complicated.
Thanks for reading. There might be a small hiatus as I need to flesh out the story more.
There might be a small hiatus as I need to flesh out the story more.
