"What did you do Hermione?" Luna's question stopped Pansy and Ginny from continuing their ongoing argument. It changed topics but they fell into it whenever they had time.
"A solstice fertility ritual." She said quietly and enjoyed the moment of silence that created before they all looked at her with their version of demanding glances. Ginny had fallen in with this group better than the tea one and seen a lot of Luna alone too. She was nearly glowing with health and happiness. The last of the pinched look was vanishing and the newspapers enjoyed the variation in their hair colours when the four of them walked in a row.
"Is that why you bailed yesterday?" Pansy asked her and she nodded guiltily. Then huffed and leaned against Pansy's side and answered freely.
"It wasn't good for anyone to have been here yesterday unless they had a partner. Leaving didn't make it stop for me but Blaise only barged in for a moment when I didn't owl him back fast enough and he made a gurgling noise before he apparated out." She admitted and all of them looked riveted. None were virgins and so she was going this alone.
"What did you do for a day of unfulfilled hornyness?" Ginny asked directly and Luna nodded.
"I read mostly. Patter got me a journal from the Tower. His several times great grandmother left a journal of her four years of betrothal Magics. I have to translate it from her family dialect of Norse but that was all to the good." Her tone made it clear what she meant and she ignored her blushes. Pansy had decided that the best she could do was manage it in public and be glad she turned the same colour when she was angry.
"There are so many things I want to ask you." Luna commented and Ginny snorted.
"If I asked Hermione everything I wanted then she would avoid me so I try and space it out." The redhead said conversationally and Hermione took off her bracelet and threw it at her. The witch caught it and gloated triumphantly.
"Did it work?" Pansy asked quietly and Hermione shrugged. Then after a second of silence she knew Pansy would ask her later.
"Did the fertility ritual negate the rights?" Luna asked her and Hemrione looked at the blonde who was laying on her back with her head on Ginny's crossed legs.
She didn't know exactly what the blonde meant and she raised a brow. Luna's small smile told her that it worked.
"I assume the ritual didn't make completion more attainable, from your demeanour." Luna said evenly and Hermione flushed again. Hotter this time and Pans chuckled.
"No. In fact it was far worse." She said as calmly as she could. They were looking into the old magics and what might work. Christmas was almost here and she wanted to find something this year. In addition to the benefit to the fields and the elves clear approval it had been somewhat of an experiment.
Would the rights allow it at her home? Would they help the magics or hinder them. Either could affect the options they had for banishing the magic. Luna had come to her last healer appointment and then stayed for a conversation after she and Blaise left. Salter had owled, requested to see her, then sat down and talked about Luna's ideas and if she would be open to using further magics or bindings to deal with her problem.
"So it is using it then, as a prod." Pansy said and Hermione could hear the thoughtfulness in her voice. Magic using orgasms as a prod felt unfair in this moment.
"So will you go then? Finally." Ginny added on the last word and Hemrione didn't like that they were all looking at her expectantly. Even Pans was, though she couldn't see her.
"Blaise gave me a look and Draco mentioned how much he wished the manor had been redone before he got out." She admitted and then wanted to cross her arms defensively when the looks didn't shift away from her.
"Blaise is right and I will go. I've done everything else, even when I was scared or uncertain so I'll do this too. January I think and then do the awakening ritual in February. There is a grove, Celeste, that's the writer's name, mentioned and that will be better than the blasted raised hill in the centre of the fields here. Like I was on display even if it was only every elf with any connection to this place or me watching." She finished and hoped this was enough. Her feelings about the whole thing were complicated and embarrassing.
The journal was fascinating and she was both excited and uncertain about tying herself to land that she didn't feel was hers.
"Is it like stealing?" She asked quietly and Pansy shifted but Luna and Ginny didn't seem to understand.
"No it isn't. You can't see what you've given or what you've done. Don't see yourself as a prize. Not to be won, but a powerful and dedicated witch is a treasure to any House and you are more than the average witch My." She was trying to think about Pansy's words more seriously when Luna caught her eye and held her gaze.
"Certainly. If you mean his family home then Pansy is correct and very good at pushing you without oversetting you." Luna complimented the witch, who Hermione knew was smirking her best version of that expression. Gently she elbowed her in the hip and Ginny's giggle told her she was right.
"I get it a bit more Hermione. That is less important to you than the woman you are. What he thinks of you and your emotions. The feelings and that some of it isn't yours but the magics doing." Ginny was smiling softly at her but serious and those were true words. While she appreciated how well her friend understood her she wondered at the life she lived where this was talked about like this. So openly.
"Give him a chance though. None of you seem to see this from his perspective either. How it is to have your witch bound to you and be unable to claim her. To know that she is basically facing life alone when it's your duty, and more so privilege, to stand beside her. Some of these are the things that have faded here in the last eighty or so years but they are the spine of our traditions. Ask Blaise and Draco. If you are genuine, which you are with both of them, then they will tell you." Pansy commanded and Hemrione looked over her shoulder and could see the witch meant it. Conceding she dropped her shoulders and decided to change the topic.
"Have you decided on any of your issues yet Gin?" Hermione asked and the witch's face fell comically.
"Yes but not verbally." Luna answered for her and Ginny nodded her agreement. Hermione waited a moment and then accepted Ginny wasn't going to do it now.
"Was one of them what you want to do now?" She asked and Pansy shifted her leg slightly. Her indication to do it. A head shake from both witches across from her.
"Jones has decided not to scout abroad if she doesn't have to. The leagues are holding exhibition games until fourteen stadiums have been refurbished, there is opportunity in the department. The Prophet has two sports writer positions opening up soon and one internship under the editor. There is also a charms apprenticeship that should be applied to in the next two weeks." She said evenly and slowly. Casually though, not emphasizing anything or adding the ten other opportunities she thought Ginny might like. These were all things she had actually mentioned before.
Luna had a grim expression on her face when she looked at Hermione and she understood. Molly wouldn't like most of it. Wanted Ginny to be a mediwitch or healer. She would be a good one and she wouldn't be surprised if she did do it one day but Ginny has dreams and ambitions. Hermione thought, and Pansy agreed, that the young witch should get to make her own choices and take whatever time she needed to do so. Everyone seemed to have either known right away what they wanted or be taking their time and trying to figure out what that might be.
"Mention the Ministry to Ron for me alright. I owled but but he told me that he wasn't sure his NEWTs were good enough and diverted into talking about the Cannons so I don't know if he took me seriously or what." She added and Ginny laughed at that and then they were all laughing and the bigger things were gone for now.
Hours later she was lying in her bed with Pansy and they were just talking after having drinks with the girls. The last few topics had been rather personal and so she wasn't totally surprised by Pansy grabbing her hand and looking intently at her.
"Do you still want to know?" She asked, Hermione could only try and make herself breathe normally. Not tense too much or indicate she didn't want to know.
"If you want to tell me Pans. Then I want to know. Unless I need to know and then you know I will support you one hundred percent." She said solemnly and knew this was a moment that her friend wouldn't mind her lack of guile or pretense.
"It's both. I don't know what to think or anything. How to feel." Pansy babbled and then stopped. She took a breath and squeezed her hand before continuing.
"Father called me home for Easter seventh year, you know that. It was as bad as I thought and not the worst it could have been. You remember Warrington?" Pamsy asked and Hermione nodded. She did remember his face and the amount of time he spent in the library. He had played quidditch too, or she thought he had. This flitted through her mind as she held the dark eyes in front of her.
"He was waiting there. With my father and he requested to speak privately with me and my father refused. Then slapped a contract onto the desk and told me that Rabastan Lestrange had been asking questions and his lawyer had contacted ours. I signed the one Cassius had submitted after Daphne signed your brothers and then we knowingly drank potions, locked in my fathers study and had sex. Then he, Cassius, told me that he would come back when he could. That he couldn't stay here and get marked but that my father wouldn't let him take me. The Dark Lord wouldn't like it. Anyways, that's what happened and he owled me last week. Asked if I was ready for him to come back." Pansy stopped then and Hermione could only squeeze her friends hand and meet her eyes.
It explained some of Pansy's comments about accepting what she had and waiting. Last week. The war had been over for ages and what the hell was wrong with these people. She didn't know if this was the only way to save Pansy from Lestrange but potions and in his study. Warrington leaving her here.
"Is this the first time he has owled?" She asked and tried not to let her incomprehension or anger show.
"No. He has owled every month. The last one asked if I was punishing him for leaving me here." Pansy admitted this. The rest had been what happened but this she felt was her doing or causing her discomfort now.
"Oh. I'm sorry that's how that happened Pans. A few people have mentioned how it usually is done and while awkward it's better than the way either of us did this. Makes Josh look better too." She added the last in a teasing voice and knew Pansy would smile at the irony. The witch loved Hermione's morbid twists and ability to be a bit dark in her humour. See humour or not take things too seriously. Pansy was Slytherin surely but she wasn't underneath. She was soft, smart and loyal too. Like a prickly fruit or something.
"Did you write back?" Hermione asked after a minute of them just staring at each other.
"No. Maybe next summer?" She asserted and Hermione looked her disbelief.
"Does He want to be wherever he is? Will his coming back mean you have to get married right away? Merlin Pans. No one knows then?" She asked the last seriously.
"No. Just you and my father. Curse him and not his descendants." Pansy said wrathfully and then giggled. Hermione was concerned at the uncharacteristic display and as she had feared they stopped abruptly.
"He is in Portugal I think. Been travelling around. His family is huge and he has tons of cousins he never sees so that's basically what he has been doing." Pansy looked down then and Hermione could only wait and hope her friend would speak more. Share more of her feelings. A minute passed and she gently squeezed the hand still in hers.
"There is so much I want and so many things I don't. I am only starting to feel normal. Here with you or out with the girls. Even tea feels better and I don't know if that will all go away. I'm not ready to be a Mrs or anything more than just me." Waiting for the eyes to open she tried not to cry. For all they had lost and how hard it was to look forward. To trust people. Especially these men who were supposed to be partners.
"Of all the things I could say, all I really want to say is this. How about Christmas and we can sit down and talk about it. Or write out a new agreement for the time between now and when you are ready. Do you know him well?" She asked and got a head shake.
"Alright then. That's the first thing. Marrying a stranger is terrifying but marrying someone you know is less so. Are you frightened of him? As a person." The silent answer was no and her smile was more genuine.
"Alright. So we don't need to eliminate him or anything. You will always have me Pans. The Escape too. You know you can always go there and we can do anything we need to. Have the resources to accomplish nearly anything. If you never want to marry him then we will figure it out." She was firm and watched Pansy's face firm too and then got a single nod. The two stayed in that position until both fell asleep and the last thing she remembered was elves covering them and dousing the lights.