"Can we go in today?" Sinclair asked when they appeared on the stone terrace behind the Tower. Brooms appeared beside them, courtesy of the elves and she smiled down at him. Not so far down now. He was finally shooting up faster and he was starting to put on muscle too. It was surreal and so she pretended it didn't make her a bit sad.
"Sabrina will be upset with us." She answered easily and he grinned.
"You know she has come alone." Sin said and she grinned back.
"She hasn't told me she has." Was Hermione's response and he turned toward the door.
"Let's fly before it warms up to much." She liked the crisp feeling here. Charms made it comfortable when it was cooler but it was exercise and Sinclair liked to always make flying count, and liked to encourage her too. His discrete version of lessons.
"This place is great. I need to come back with someone who will race me up a peak or something." His excited voice made her smile even as she cringed over the idea.
"Merlin Sin. Don't tell me." She pleaded and she smiled smugly.
"You will want to watch. Wand in hand." He argued and she grinned at that, it was true.
"Let's go." She said and they headed out of the August morning sun and toward the back doors. It was lighter and cleaner, the doors were wide enough that several rooms could be used as one and it could all open onto the wide terrace. The ballroom had been moved to the side and took advantage of the left set of doors and a curved wall instead of trying to make squares in this round place.
The two of them explored and she mostly listened to his comments and questions. They reached the family floor and he got quieter. There was a smaller library and several sitting rooms and offices. They weren't allocated but they allowed some change in set up if people wanted it one day.
Then the hallway split behind the stairs leading firther up. Sin looked to her and she gestured toward the hallway leading right.
"So are we on the same floor?" He asked her as they entered a hallway with doors leading off both sides and a huge window at the end of it. Plants for sure, it was on her list.
"Yes. I hated how the wing was shut and those sconces dark when you two weren't home. None of that here. I will miss you but your door and the whole house won't advertise it to me." Sin didn't smile at her somewhat whiny tone but met her eyes.
"You won't be alone though." He said and she just accepted his assertion. He didn't speak or move forward though so she spoke.
"I'm not alone now. I've got people and I'm plenty busy. You two are always worrying about me. Nothing wrong with missing you Sinclair." She chided him and he did smile at that. Not a smirk or anything but a soft smile.
"So this one is Sabrina's." She told him and they walked into the front room of the suite. It was surprising after the unfinished feeling of the rooms and halls, to enter a space totally finished.
"This is great. Look at this office." Sin stood in front of the long low table and around at the space she and Blaise had created for the witch. To use her skills and practice. To research and be herself. The wards were excellent and everything was the best they could find, make or have made.
"You didn't do this." He said when they walked into the closet. This was a dressing room and she laughed at his certainty.
"You are right. Narcissa wanted to do it and it is lovely." Hermione answered softly. It was. All soft blush pinks and tans. Comfortable chairs and a chaise. Then racks and drawers that looked like the most gorgeous boutique.
"No wonder she comes here." Sin said a few minutes later. They were in the bedroom and looking out the windows along the curved wall. The view was amazing and this room was sort of like Sabrina's one at the escape but bigger and more grown up. Less bright colours and more jewel tones. It suited her though and Hermione smiled as she surveyed the book cases and writing desk.
"I hope so Sin. This wasn't a happy place for her before." Sabrina and Sinclair understood each other well and she wasn't surprised when he met her eyes and looked around.
"It's nothing like she told me about when I first came." He responded and she smiled at that. It felt different to her too. Sabrina hadn't said anything but she seemed to be of the mind that they would all go to the Tower when Thorfinn was released. So Hermione assumed that was what they would do, or was planning for it just in case.
"Your room next." She said and listened to his quiet appreciation as they walked through the suite. The office was as if he was grown. She watched his face as he sat in the chair and looked across the desk at her.
"I thought we could really begin your scion lessons. A lot of it you know but the financials and the businesses are being released this winter. So the work begins. We will manage the day to day but you will be expected to help when you are home. Maybe some via letters too." She met his eyes and waited. Sin froze and then listened as she spoke and he relaxed somewhat before she had finished.
"It's more work for you." He said quietly and she nodded easily, then smiled a somewhat wry one.
"Yes and no. We've been fighting to get it back from the Ministry and that will end. It was kept quiet thankfully and the damage isn't total. It will be a project and I've got some help. Lots of it actually. We will go in and meet the goblins at Christmas break. Or meet your account manager, I know you've met Tolkturn before." He nodded and she could see him thinking about it as she spoke and then when she was finsihed.
"I don't know anything about businesses. Or managing an estate. I assume there is a home of some kind." Sometimes talking to him was startling. His word choices and bearing were so much older than his age. What he was saying wasn't though and she smiled her reassurance.
"I didn't either and I do a lot of it now. I want you to know and understand, be able to do things and make decisions. That said, we have been saving some of all we do for the anticipated monetary depletion. They did a number but it didn't cut your holdings down much. Some of the details and management will be taken on by those we already have doing similar things. Until you come of age, then you can decide if you want to continue some of it as we were doing or change all of it." The estate wasn't hers. She was the trustee and Rowle would be too. The responsibility of it was what she wanted him to understand. She didn't deal with everything but she understood it and that had taken nearly all of this time. Study and lessons from Mack and Stolford. Other things too and she knew it would be better if he slowly acquired it instead of had to take it on separately like she did.
"Thank you." Sin said quietly after and minute and she stood.
"It's interesting and both of us like having a goal and meeting it." He nodded in reply to her truthful and also dismissive comment and then asked where he could build and she indicated the floor two above them. The one above was guest suites and rooms but the fourth was work rooms. Bigger ones and smaller ones. A potions lab and warded spell rooms. He enjoyed this and they talked about some things she wanted to do.
When they walked back outside to apparate away he was quiet but his stride was easy and he looked around then met her eyes.
"I like it here." He said honestly and she smiled. Feeling hopeful and validated. If Sabrina and him liked it and so did she then maybe it could be home. Feel like home.
"I do too." He extended his hand to her and she moved closer to him and grabbed the bag with their brooms and gear in it. Then they disappeared with a crack and the Tower was empty again.
As usual, the day Sinclair went back to school Sabrina was home with her. Pansy was there too and the three of them were on the floor with wine glasses and freshly painted toes. The face masks had forty five minutes left and the ritual was calming. Ginny had a family dinner and Luna was on a creature hunt so it was the three of them.
"I can't believe the two of you sitting so calmly. Sipping this admittedly excellent white wine and talking about the coffee shop drama." Pans commented in her direct yet sideways way. Hermione looked up from the last swirl she was painting on her left big toe and shot the dark haired vixen a glare.
"I was enjoying the absolute normalcy of the moment Pans." She said and the smirk the witch shot her was both vexing and reassuring.
"Sinclair sidled up to me and told me his room was amazing." Pans said with a grin and Hermione scowled at the glare Sabrina shot her.
"You have already seen it." She protested and then Sabrina grinned smugly. It fell quickly though.
"It's so nice. So comfortable now. I can feel it, when I go there. The door opens and the silence doesn't ring like it did. There is no oppressive feeling. It's just open, like here." Sabrina gestured around the escape and Hermione smiled a small one into her wine glass.
Then she looked her question at the younger witch who smiled reassuringly and leaned back into the pillows stacked behind her. They all had hoodies and pajama shorts on. Sabrina looked as relaxed as she had ever been.
"What do you think Pans?" The younger witch asked and Hermione looked to her friend, who looked serious but calm. She wiggled her toes and smiled a bit at the black and silver stripes, then Pans looked up at Sabrina.
"I think that if he's anything like you think he is Rina, then he will be stunned for a while. Maybe it will be like My and take a while to start thinking instead of reacting. After that though, it will be good I think. I fell into your life and it took a while to stop being amazed by how easy and soft it was. To be among people and trust them. Expect sincerity and to return it. To know that there isn't something lurking underneath. Even my relationships with others are different because of how it felt to be included." Pansy's words were said in a normal tone of voice but her eyes were intent on the younger witch who listened with rapt attention.
"That's what I think too. I mean that's how I feel. How I felt when I came here. I remember asking you if you would be like this with them, open and trusting. Not really believing you wouldn't change or something wouldn't happen. Then we got Sin though and you said we had to be sure. That I had to be sure because we couldn't change our minds. If we took him then he would be part of our family, like I was. Like we were. It was so relieving. I really felt that every letter I got that first year was proof. Proof you were real. This life was real. I don't think about it much that way anymore. Now it's more like I rest on it. Can do anything, but don't have to do it if I don't actually want to. I can hardly believe this is my life that it will be Thor's life too." Hermione listened to Sabrina speak so thoughtfully and was surprised but not at the same time. That was the nicest thing she had ever heard and her cheeks were pink, she could feel the flush on her neck.
"It makes you uncomfortable. To you we are all family. Yours." Pansy said and Hermione nodded. That was it exactly.
"You love us for who we each are. Draco revels in it. Narcissa and I often share a smile about it. How you bait him when he wants you too and then capitulate gracefully. Outright ask his for help. I need your help Draco, as if you couldn't do it alone. Just an example but it is a telling one." Pansy spoke and Sabrina nodded. Hermione grinned at the example of Draco. He was hilarious and so enjoyed the push and pull. Arguing and winning, losing too but that made him more focused the next time.
"No one thinks you will be happy." Sabrina added after a minute. Hermione looked to Pansy who nodded.
"Not those around you. The masses." Pans clarified and Sabrina looked mutinous.
"I'm sorry. That this is so public." Hermione told the younger witch, not for the first time.
"They don't know anything. I worried more about the papers before too. Now I know that you aren't that concerned with what they say about you, won't let it change your mind or behaviour." It was endlessly fascinating to see the witch Sabrina had grown into. The woman too. See the pride and certainty. Both of which had grown from the flickers of years ago to what they were now.
"That's the Gryffindor in her." Pansy said and Sabrina nodded. It was strange to sit here and have them talk about her like this.
"Twenty six days." Sabrina said into the quiet and Hermione felt her whole body react to the thought. It wasn't wise to think about it. Plan for it and abstractly consider it but not think about actually seeing him. The dampeners off and the magic free.
"You look determined My." Pansy said and it broke her train of thought. She laughed lowly and sipped.
"If that's what shows them I'm golden. This whole thing is crazy. It would be bad enough without the magics but they know, or seem to know that I expect it to end finally. The dreams are enough to make me get up and I've been walking and walking. At night even. I made Zavi promise he wouldn't mention it. He comes along and isn't happy about his Miss traipsing around in the dark. I use a Lumos spell." Sabrina looked interested but Pansy looked grim.
"You don't usually say anything to me about that." Sabrina nearly blurted it out and Hermione looked at her.
"I know. I don't know what will happen though. I mean I really don't. Celeste only wrote about them finally being together. Not helpful. I just want you to know that it might not be either of us making decisions. I'll try and I know he will but I just don't know. I don't like not knowing." Her grudging admittance was petulant and Sabrina laughed and then sobered at the words that had prefaced her childishness.
"I mentioned it to him, at the visit. About the guys not leaving you to be touched. He wasn't surprised and seemed to take it seriously. He knows then?" Sabrina wasn't blushing and Hermione felt fierce pride in the relationship she had built with the witch.
"He knows. Doesn't know what will happen either though. I think at first he suggested the Rites without thinking. Kind of like I did. The goal was getting you and the Rites were the means to doing it. After though, he maybe understood before I did. That it would be bad, be bad for me. I told him I didn't want apologies or whatever, that this was what we had and that's the only way to deal. Or it works for me. Did work, now not so much and I'm just trying to keep it together." Her honest tiredness got a response from Pans, who moved closer and rested her head against Hermione's thigh.
"We will get there. Draco said he would be here at noon. Wear robes but be ready to change." Pansy had been saving this and she couldn't help her increased pulse and the spike of anticipation.