Hermione had successfully avoiding seeing Harry at the Ministry for an entire week. When she'd seen him at the coffee shop on the main floor, she'd ducked into the women's loo, when she'd seen him waiting by the lift, she headed to the stairs, and after he'd given his weekly update at the department briefing, she'd swiftly returned to the secure four walls of her office.

Hermione felt terrible avoiding him, and she didn't know why, but the thought of seeing him made her flush with embarrassment and guilt. It were as though she believe if she didn't see him, she wouldn't be reminded of what she now knew they'd done.

Except she was reminded. Every night that week, dreams plagued her mind of every possible scenario. In one particularly horrible and crazy dream, after Ron and Ginny found out about the tryst in the Forrest of Dean, the two of them took the kids and ran away to Bulgaria. Ron remarried to Lavender Brown, who had somehow come back from the dead, and Ginny remarried to Hermione's first kiss, Victor Krum. Hermione hadn't been able to fall asleep after that particular night, but those types of dreams weren't even the worst.

The worst dreams were the ones where Harry was kissing her, pushing her roughly onto a bed, before stripping down in front of her and doing things to her that a brother-in-law should never do to his sister-in-law. Those dreams had woken Hermione twice, covered in sweat, a stickiness between her legs. Ron had been so worried about her, thinking that her nightmares from her trauma at Malfoy Manor had returned. Hermione cringed imagining what he'd do if he knew the real reason she was groaning into her pillow.

The entire week had been exhausting between restless nights and the paralyzing fear of running into Harry at work. It was childish to avoid him, that she knew, and of course it had only been a matter of time before she had to face him.

A few days ago, Molly had requested the entire family get together for dinner. It had been too long since all her children and grand babies had been in one room she'd argued when Hermione mentioned in passing that she might not make it. Hermione stopped herself from pointing out that she, Harry, Ginny, and Ron, the usually crew that came to these dinners, didn't even make up half of her children. She knew it wasn't any use arguing. Molly would win.

Hermione stood in front of the Burrow front door, bracing herself before entering the room of full Weasleys where should would undoubtedly see Harry. She exhaled deeply before pushing the door open and stepping inside. As she did, she heard the sound of loud chatter and music coming from the living room.

"Hermione!" Molly cried merrily, pulling her daughter-in-law into a tight hug. She pulled away and gave her a once look over. "You've lost more weight since I've seen you last. Ron, I told you to make sure she eats!"

"She's a grown woman!" Ron called from a chair near the fire place where he was playing chess against Harry. He shook his head before muttering, "Honestly..."

"Molly, I'm fine." Hermione protested.

"Nonsense," Molly said waving her hand dismissively before adding, "We'll make sure you get a proper meal tonight."

Ginny suddenly appeared at Hermione's side, handing her a glass of wine. "You're going to need this," she said with a wink before sitting down on sofa next to her father. Arthur was holding an iPad, looking at it with fascination, entranced as he pressed the screen.

"Where are the kids?" Hermione asked, doing her best to discretely abandon the wine Ginny had given her on the nearest end table.

"Up to no good," Molly teased.

"James, Rose, Lily and Hugo are outside flying," Ginny said, making room on the sofa for Hermione. "Al and Scorpius are still at Diagon Alley with George. I think they are out shopping for a birthday gift for Rosie. I recon they'll be back any minute."

"Scorpius is joining us?" She asked.

"Yes, he's staying the week at our house while Malfoy vacations in Vermont, likely with his bimbo of the week. I'd feel bad for Scorpius if I didn't know how much he hates being home since Astoria passed. I mean, can you imagine? Your only son just gets home for the holidays and you plan a trip across the world without him?" Ginny huffed angrily. "Oh well. Malfoy's loss is our gain. Anyway, enough about that ferret. I feel like it's been ages since I've seen you. What's new?"

Hermione felt her stomach sink at the question. There was a lot that was new since she last had spoken to Ginny that she wished she could share. Not having her best friend to talk to had made the week even more unbearable. What could she say, though? That she'd been dodging her husband during the day and been having incredibly vivid sex dreams about him at night? That would surely go over well.

"Just boring administrative things," she answered, silently hoping her sister-in-law wouldn't continue to press. Thankfully, she didn't.

...

After eating another delicious meal prepared by her Grandma Molly, Rose found herself craving something sweet. She rummaged through the kitchen cupboard, searching for something with sugar. As she reached for a few chocolates on the top shelf, she sensed someone come up behind her.

"Fancy seeing you here," she heard a husky whisper, feeling hot breath on her right ear.

She turned around slowly to see a smirking Scorpius, standing dangerously close to her. His hands gripping the kitchen countertop on each side of her, boxing her in.

"You're quite daring," Rose said as casually as she could, doing her best to keep her voice from shaking. Her sapphire blue eyes met his grey. "My extremely protective family, including the three individuals who brought down Tom Riddle, are in the next room, and probably wouldn't take kindly to whatever it is your thinking."

"How do you know what I'm thinking?" He asked with a raised eyebrow, inching closer to Rose so that his body was flush with hers.

"Me and you? My Room? Last Saturday?" She teased with a voice she hoped came across confident. Feeling braver, she ran her hand slowly down his chest, stopping at his belt. "Am I close?"

Scorpius gulped, and Rose felt his body momentarily tense before regaining his composure. Wanting to one up her, his lips grazed her ear and he whispered, "Trust me, I'm thinking of something much more sinister than that."

Rose almost buckled when his mouth found hers, but before they had a chance to get carried away, the sounds of her aunt's voice interrupted the teens.

"Rose?" Ginny called from the other room, followed by the sound of her nearing footsteps.

Rose and Scorpius sprang apart, both furiously blushing as Ginny swiftly entered the kitchen.

"Sweets, I wanted to ask you a favor," she said, paying no attention to the teens and grabbing a bottle of Elves' Wine from the cupboard. "Can you go with Lily to muggle London sometime next week? She keeps going on and on about going to something called a mall."

"Of course," Rose said quickly, desperate for her Aunt to leave before she noticed anything suspicious.

"That's why you're my favorite niece," Ginny winked, exiting back into the living room as quickly as she'd came.

Scorpius, who had been frozen in place, let out a deep exhale and relaxed his rigid body. "That was way too close."

Rose nodded in agreement before saying, "We have to be more careful."

"I know, but I feel strangely out of control around you. When can we be alone?" Scorpius asked sincerely.

"I'll come by Al's tomorrow afternoon," she said. "We should be able to sneak off for a bit."

"Are you going to come upstairs to play cards with us tonight?"

"In a minute," Rose said, looking at the leftovers from the roast they'd had at supper that were set aside in a brown sack. "I should take these scraps out to the yard for when the owls get back."

As Rose stepped outside, she stopped in her tracks, seeing her Mum walking outside near the garden. She'd been rather strange at supper. Oddly quiet, and very jumpy. For someone that was usually so confident, it was unnerving seeing her mum act so fluster. At one point she'd knocked over a jug of water when Uncle Harry had asked her to pass the salt. Speaking of which, Uncle Harry had been a bit off too. Rose wondered if something big at the Ministry was going on. Something dangerous. That would explain both her mum's and uncle's unusual behavior. She hoped whatever it was, it went away quickly before her mum complete lost it.

Feeling a cold, chilly wind, Rose quickly discarded the sack of scraps into the owl food dish. Before going inside she glance out towards her mother once more, curious as to what could possibly have her mother so shaken.

...

"Hey you," Harry said lamely, both hands tucked away in his pocket awkwardly.

He'd found her half a mile from the Burrow, sitting under a large birch tree near a pond they used to swim in as kids. As always, she had a book in hand, but she wasn't reading.

"Hey," Hermione said quietly, keeping her eyes fixated ahead on the water.

She knew he'd find a way to get her alone to check on her. It was classic Harry. He couldn't help himself.

He kicked some dirt with his shoe, chewing on the bottom of his lip nervously. After a few moments, he spoke.

"I just wanted to let you know, I haven't heard anything recently from our new friend," he said. "I hope that means he or she was bluffing about having something on us."

"That's good."

"I thought you'd be more relieved," he admitted, scratching the back of his head.

"I am," she sighed, casting her eyes away from the pond and down to her hands neatly folded in her lap. "Thank you, Harry."

Silence over took the two once again, and Harry found himself uncharacteristically speaking more than Hermione for a second time.

"I knew it would be hard for you," he said finally, sitting down next to her, careful to keep some distance between them. "And I knew it would be upsetting. I guess I didn't know how much. It just seems so long ago in my mind, and I forgot that it's brand new to you."

He patiently waited several moments before she spoke.

"I'm going crazy, Harry," Hermione said barely above a whisper. He waited for her to continue. "You having this memory, this... " she struggled for the words. "Significant moment. You had it with me, and I... well, I know nothing about it. It's making me spin a bit. That's all."

Harry considered what she said.

"Well," he cleared his throat. "What do you want to know?"

Hermione felt heat rise to her cheeks. What did she want to know? Did she even want to know anything? Would knowing more make it worse, or would it make it better? She'd been wrestling with that question all week.

"Did we use a charm?" She blurted out without thinking. She realized how ridiculous the question was when Harry laughed.

"I'm sorry, but of all things, you want to know if we used a contraceptive charm?" He said disbelievingly.

"I don't know what to ask!" She said exasperatedly, too embarrassed to meet his eyes. "Its not like I can ask you for a play by play!"

"Is that what you want?" Harry asked, his voice suddenly very serious.

She paused to consider. "I don't know." She shrugged and looked at her hands again. "Maybe."

"I'm sure I don't have to remind you that the Obliviate I performed can be reversed," he said. "The memories are yours. You can have them back anytime."

"I'm aware."

Well... you'll let me know?" Harry asked.

"Yeah, I'll let you know," Hermione confirmed, her eyes lifting to meet Harry's for the first time since he found her.

"There's another option," he said quietly. "I could perform another Obliviate and have you forget our conversation last week at Grimmauld Place."

No," she said firmly. "That first spell has already caused enough trouble."

They sat in silence for a few more beats.

"Come inside," Harry suggested. "Please, and while I'm asking for things, would you stop dodging me? It's driving me crazy not being able to talk to you with everything going on at work."

The last week at the Ministry had been quite action packed. Three Death Eater sympathizers had been caught torturing a muggle woman outside of Bristol. The Aurors that had been tracking them for months finally got a lucky break.

"Sorry," she said meekly, embarrassed by her juvenile behavior. "Give me a few more minutes and I promise I'll come inside and be more like myself."

"Okay," Harry said, rising to his feet. "But if you're not back in five I'm sending out Molly. I don't know if you picked up on this, but she's extremely concerned about you. By the way, have I said thank you yet? With Molly so busy fussing over you, she'll finally let up on me."

Hermione laughed, giving her friend a genuine smile for the first time in what felt like a long time.

Harry began to walk towards the crooked house, but before he got more than a few steps away, Hermione called his name. He looked back at her with a questioning expression.

"Did we?"

Harry furrowed his brow in confusion. "Did we what?" He called back.

"...use a charm?"

Harry paused for a moment, and gave a small, uncomfortable smile. He ever so slightly shook his head before turning around.