Shipping B5 - Matched Set
Spring C3 - Bottle/Vial
Trope B5 - Four Loves
Stacked With: FPC; BAON; Star; Fence; T3; SN; Ship; SpB; TrB; IC&F
Challenges: Old Shoes (Y); Long Haul (Y); The Real MC (Y); Two Cakes (Y); Eating Cake (Y); Zed Era (Y); Hold the Mayo (Y); Do It For Howard (Y); Shifter MC; Small Fry (x2) (Yx2); Saucy Oven (Y); Disabled (Y); Ethnic & Present (Y); Rian-Russo Inversion (Y); Rowl in her Grave; Neurodivergent (Y); Gryffindor MC; Hufflepuff MC; Ravenclaw MC; Magical MC (Y); Red Lights; Red Wave (Y); Red Bull (x2); Missing Rainbow
Primary & Secondary: Found Family; Nontraditional; Sneeze Weasel; Fizzy Lemonade; Machismo; Peddling Pots; Second Verse (Ladylike; Not a Lamp; Persistence Still) Chorus (Odd Feathers; Wabi Sabi)
Tertiary & Generic: T3 (Thimble); SN (Ameliorate)
Scavenger Hunt: Writing Diversity (Native/Indigenous)
Warnings:
Word Count: 4081
~o0o~
The two weeks went by much too fast. Their last night was mostly spent packing. It was made easy by magic, but the act itself was exhausting and all it meant was that reality was fast approaching. Of course, a holiday couldn't last forever.
Hermione sighed heavily.
"What's wrong?" asked Cedric. "You've been sighing all night."
"I'm sorry, am I keeping you awake?" she asked. "I can go sigh in the living room."
"No, I can't sleep either," they said. "Do you want to talk about it?"
"Just… thinking about what you said," she said even though it wasn't really the reason she was sighing. "About being myself."
"Yeah?"
"I think I should try," she said. "And if they do reject me then… then…"
"You'll still have me," they said. "And you'll find a new family. It will take some time, but it's important to be yourself. If people only love the mask you give them, then they don't really love you."
"You're right."
"Well, you're the one who's always right," they said. "I'm just never wrong."
She chuckled softly. "I know we'll have to go back to a more professional relationship when we're home but… do you think you could just hold me?"
"My pleasure." They drew her close and wrapped her up in their arms.
Hermione felt calm and closed her eyes. She thought she heard them say something, but was already being carried off to dreamland.
The next day, they swapped out their tickets so they could sit next to each other on the trains back home. Hermione mostly slept, but Cedric woke her up in time for the transfers.
Before long, they were back in England, back in London, back at King's Cross.
"You know, this place has really become nice," said Hermione. "I remember when Mother tried to convince Professor McGonagall to let her and Dad drive me to Hogwarts because she thought this place was so dumpy."
"Really?"
"Yeah, but I think a train was better," she said. "Of course, I've been thinking of campaigning to change it from an Express to making a single stop in each country. You know, so kids in the North don't have to make arrangements to get to London, only to pass by their houses when they go back North. I would find that so annoying."
"I bet. It's a good idea, there are depots in Cardiff, Dublin, and Edinburgh, why shouldn't the school train be rerouted?"
"And really it all feels like it's related back to England being the center of the universe," she said. "And I mean that most sarcastically."
"Of course."
Hermione shouldered her purse. "Well, I should head to my new place."
"Wait." Cedric hesitated. "Er… why not stay at my place tonight? It's late and you haven't had a chance to clean your new place yet, so why not sleep in a real bed for tonight and then tomorrow we can go there together to clean it top to bottom?"
Normally she might have pitched a fit. Rolled her eyes. Scoffed incredulously.
"Alright," she said. "Good idea. Let's take the Tube, though, I'm too tired to apparate."
~o0o~
The house really wasn't in terrible shape. While she was gone the plumbing and the more interior things were taken care of. Since the house was so old, there was no asbestos. The plumbing had been entirely replaced with copper pipes and the boiler was updated, which meant she wouldn't freeze to death while she was cleaning.
"So, where should we start?" asked Cedric.
"How about we start at the top and work our way down?" she suggested. "That way all the dust from the top will just trickle down and be taken care of in one swoop."
"Excellent idea."
They went up to the top floor and got to cleaning. They swept the ceiling and made more notes of repairs or changes they wanted made. Hermione realized a lot of what kept it from falling too badly in disrepair were some of the wards. Buildings reinforced with magic typically were more difficult to bring down. She'd have to double-check the wards to make sure that if they got scratched or removed the place wouldn't eat itself like Poltergeist.
"I should add on a closet to my bedroom," she said as they cleaned the rooms on the first level. "A big walk-in. Then take out a wall to extend the bedroom and have a space for a sitting room or… a nursery."
"Nursery?"
"Well, I've been looking into adoption," she said. "Probably an older child, but if my application is rejected then I might want to look into more artificial means."
"So that wasn't drunken nonsense, you really do want a baby."
She nodded. "I always knew I wanted to be a mother. It wasn't something I openly discussed, but when I pictured my future, I saw a family. A partner, a couple children. The partner thing hasn't quite happened yet and I'll wait until my house is livable before adopting or having a child, it's just… I want to be prepared."
"Right. Yeah, I always felt the same. I always knew I wanted to be a dad. Er—or what Luna calls faerself. Noni."
"My nana told me the Hawaiian term for parent is… oh what was it?" She closed her eyes. "Makua. Father is Makua Kāne and mother is Makuahine."
"Makua," they repeated. "Yeah, that sounds easy for a baby to say. So, you're Hawaiian? Er, half?"
"Well, about as much as I can be from colonization," she said. "But Tūtū, er Nana, was really adamant in passing on tradition. She told me stories and stuff, even some of the vocabulary, though I can't really speak the language or even Pidgin. No one to practice with, see. And it's been a while since I've seen her. I just send her money and we talk on the phone and email."
"Yeah? That's cool."
"Yeah." Hermione continued sweeping.
Was she making the right choice? She loved this house, but she was just one person. Then again, this place was bigger thanks to magical architecture. Something Mr. Weatherby probably hadn't thought twice of. Yes, there was definitely magic in his family tree. And she wouldn't be alone forever. Perhaps she could even live here with Cedric. Even if things didn't develop romantically between them, they could still be the two goths on Poppy Hill.
"I appreciate you helping me out," she said.
"Of course," they replied. "And you know I have excellent taste so let me know if you need help making some design choices."
She smiled. "Sure thing."
She moved a broken bookcase out of the way and gasped.
"Cedric! A door!"
They hurried over to see the tiny door about knee high.
"Ooh! We should open it," they said.
Hermione nodded and knelt down. She tapped the keyhole with her wand and eagerly opened the door. She was greeted by a dark and dusty corridor.
"Wadiwasi!"
The spell cleared the spiderwebs out of the way, giving her a chance to poke her head in.
"I'm going to check it out," she said.
"You're tiny but I don't think you'll fit in there," said Cedric.
Hermione raised an eyebrow and shrank down to her animagus form. Of all things, she was a Red Fox with brown fur and a very bushy tail. When she had become one (mostly to prove she could), she was surprised she wasn't an otter like her patronus. Professor McGonagall explained that typically the animagus form was related to the patronus, but wasn't always the case, especially the later in life a person was when they perform the ritual.
"Foxy," said Cedric.
Hermione gave them a look and they winked at her.
"Wait before you go crawling in a dark hole," said Cedric. "I need to gush. You are just the cutest thing ever!"
She rolled her eyes and moved closer. Cedric smushed her cheeks and stroked her muzzle with their thumbs.
"Beautiful!" they said. "Your fur looks like chocolate! Er, wait, is that offensive?"
No, she often thought of her human hair as chocolate colored. She just didn't like her skin being compared to food as many flirtation attempts have ended within one line when she was referred to as many names that made her feel like she should be on display at a patisserie.
She shook her head.
"Okay. Your fur is so soft." They rubbed their cheek into her fur and she felt warm inside.
Focus. Pulling away, she stepped through the door and followed the passageway. Stairs? She tried to make quick of her exploration. The space opened out to a small area. A bedroom? It was very small, some moldy old blankets, a few trinkets.
She took the stairs that went down and found a door. Scratching at it, it gave away and she stepped out into the kitchen. Growing back to human form, she trotted out to the main area.
"Cedric? I figured it out!" she called.
"Where does it lead?"
"It's a house-elf space," she said. "It's a crawl space that goes through the entire house."
"Oh! I should have guessed," they said, testing the bannister for sturdiness before putting their weight on it. "We had something like it at Rosehill, my family's Manor. I used to use them to eavesdrop on my father's meetings or to 'scare' my mum. She always acted scared, but she somehow always knew I was in them. Any house-elf?"
"No, but I doubt this place would have been in such bad condition if there were," she said. "Honestly, the concentration of magic here is very low. No doxies or bundimuns. I think the most we might come across are some puffskeins in the furniture. If there was a house-elf here, it hasn't been in living memory."
"Good point."
Sure enough in one of the old couches were a family of puffskeins. The rest of the furniture seemed in decent shape. The wooden furniture just needed a little TLC but the fabric on the chairs and things would need some work. She wasn't overly fond of them, she would just see what Draco would take for the lot.
The last place to be cleaned was the solarium offset from the kitchen and leading out into the overgrown garden. Hermione thought it would be perfect for herbs and things. A place to have tea and enjoy rainy days.
"Now that I know what to do, I had better send out my repair requests," she said. "Write Neville about the garden, I want to do the home renovations before I focus on décor. No point in painting the walls if you have to tear them out anyway."
"Sure," said Cedric. "Where are you going to sleep?"
"Mm, this place is nice and clean now, I'll just set up in my bedroom. Oh, I forgot to go by my storage unit… I can do that tomorrow."
"Do you want to stay with me again?" they asked. "We'll get breakfast and I'll help you carry everything over."
"Twist my arm, why don't you?" she teased. "Okay. I'll stay. I want to take a good shower anyway, all that dust and grime."
"You can stay as long as you want," said Cedric. "Though if it bleeds into a month, I'll have to start charging you rent."
She smiled. "I can't stay too long. I still have to take the cats back at the end of the week and I'm not sure how well they'll handle the tortoise in a small space like that."
"Fair enough, but he's still in hibernation until March."
Honestly, she wanted any excuse to spend more time with them.
"When my house is ready we'll have a sleepover," she said as she sat down on the couch. "Not like a sex one, an actual sleepover where we stay up late, watch a bunch of scary movies, eat junk food, it'll be fun."
"I look forward to it," they said. "Er… about our holiday… do we want to tell people we spent it together?"
She hesitated. "I don't know… I think it better we get our story straight rather than let people draw their own conclusions. We… we were surprised we booked our holiday to the same place but… we had separate rooms, you still came over on the twenty-fifth for a meal, and our paths crossed enough that we decided to just split the costs on things."
They nodded. "That sounds reasonable. They'll still tease."
"Of course they will." She fiddled with a loose thread on her jumper.
"Mimi, what's wrong? Your anxiety just spiked."
"I just…" She pushed her hair back and curled in on herself. She was thirty-two years old and she still had trouble admitting her feelings. "Nothing. Just second-guessing all my life choices."
Cedric took her hand and squeezed it. "You're making the right choice. Things at work will balance out once Mr. Amorian retires, that house you have is going to look amazing when it's complete, and we are going to become the best of friends."
She smiled. "Promise?"
"Promise." Their gaze softened. "Why don't you get some rest? You look tired."
"I am tired," she said. "If you want to watch something, it won't bother me."
"I think I will," they said. "Unwind a bit."
~o0o~
Hermione (and Cedric, of course) spent the next three days picking out tile for the kitchen and bathrooms, plus wood for the floors that needed replacing. She decided on wood throughout the house except for carpet and tile in the basement and tile in the kitchen and bathrooms. All of her renovations would be handled by wixen.
On the day she was to see her friends and pick up her cats from Ron, the wixen renovating the place gave her the option to stay and monitor everything or leave. She had left detailed instructions on what she wanted, so she wasn't worried about leaving. They assured her they would be done by the end of the day.
Cedric wouldn't be joining her on her visit, but that was alright.
She stepped out of the fireplace and knocked on the mantle.
"Hello!" she called.
"Mrrp!"
Three cats ran into the room and clamored over her for attention.
"Hello! Hello, my lovelies!" she cooed, kissing them and scratching behind their ears.
"Auntie!"
Rory and Lily ran into the room, arms out-stretched for hugs. Harry, Ron, Luna, and Mandy weren't far behind to greet her.
A teenaged boy entered the room donning turquoise hair. "Hi, Aunt Mione!"
"Teddy Lupin! Look at how much you've grown," said Hermione, accepting a hug from him. "You're growing so much, you're taller than me! Hey! Stop that right now!"
Teddy grinned and shrank back down to his normal height, which was just an inch or two taller than herself rather than the three or four he was trying to stretch.
"How was Italia?" asked Harry in a bad accent.
"It was wonderful," said Hermione. "It's been a while since I've had so much fun. Thanks for watching my cats, Ron. I really appreciate it."
"Papa said he's going to buy me a kitten!" Rory announced.
"Oh, really?" said Hermione. "What made him change his mind?"
"I lost a battle of will," Ron grumbled.
Mandy grinned and kissed his cheek
"How's the house coming along?" asked Harry.
"Oh the main renovations are being done as we speak," she said. "When I return this evening I'll have a couple new windows, new floors, new tile, new counter tops. They're also gutting some of the kitchen and I have new appliances coming in over the next couple days."
"Why not knock it down and build a new one at that point?" Ron teased.
What? Has he been talking to Cedric?
"Oh, ha-ha," said Hermione. "It has great bones, really. When it's all complete I'm going to have a shindig. I'll be going out and picking paint colors and such."
"Are you going to paint the house all yourself?" asked Lily.
"Most likely," she said.
"I think you need a pink room," she said. "Daddy doesn't like all pink rooms."
Harry winced slightly.
"Well, I'll have some pink," said Hermione. "But I don't think all pink rooms are my style."
"Did you bring us presents?" Rory blurted.
"Rory," Mandy scolded gently. "It's not about the presents."
"As a matter of fact I did bring presents," said Hermione. She set her purse down on a table and summoned the gift bags. "Rory, Lily-Gin, and Teddy."
"Thanks, Auntie!" they all chorused and immediately got into their gifts.
Hermione handed out the bags for her friends.
"Thanks Mione, you didn't have to get us anything," said Harry, lifting out the bottle of limoncello. "Ah, the good stuff."
"Tell us all about it," said Mandy. "Have a seat."
"You know, I think Cedric went to Italy," said Luna.
"Oh yeah?" said Ron. "Did you run into him at all?"
"Yes," she said. "Imagine my shock when we saw each other on the train. But we agreed that it was a good idea to have someone who knew where we were in case of an emergency. We hung around a bit and we're friends now."
"How interesting," said Luna.
Well fae certainly weren't fooled for an instant, but that was typically the case with empaths. Which meant Cedric knew Hermione's true feelings and was pushing for friends despite it. Oh well, better than falling apart completely.
"Did you take any pictures?" asked Mandy.
"Nah, I like living the moment for what it is," she said.
"Something's different about you," said Ron.
"Yeah!" said Harry. "You're speaking way less formally than you usually do."
"Is… that bad?" she asked apprehensively.
"Not at all," said Luna. "It only took you twenty years to get comfortable with us."
"Well, I'm just tired of hiding," said Hermione. "There are some things about me you as my family oughta know."
Once she started telling them about herself, it was easy to keep going.
"Aw, Mione, have you been hiding this since we broke up?" Ron asked. "Okay, fine, I freaked out a bit about your style choice."
"A little bit?" Harry scoffed and Ron made a face.
"Okay, a lot," he said. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have made you feel like you had to hide yourself."
He really had grown up, hadn't he?
Hermione smiled.
"What can we do different, Mione?" asked Harry.
"Not a thing," she said. "It's mostly me, I have so much anxiety about being myself but someone mentioned that I should trust you as my family and they were right and I'm sorry I didn't trust you."
"Well, you trust us now," said Harry. "Anything else you want to tell us? Secret life partner or anything like that?"
"No, I haven't been in a steady relationship since Cho-Hee," she said. And she didn't want to talk about Cedric yet when things were so complicated. "Even so, there is someone I'm sort of into, but I don't want to focus on that until things settle down at work."
"Yeah? Who?" asked Harry.
"Not saying."
"Aw, come on, Mione!"
"No," she said. "Because you two are going to want to get involved and I love you to bits, but I don't need you playing matchmaker for me."
"Just a hint?" Harry begged.
Hermione mimed zipping her lips.
"How about twenty questions?" Ron pushed.
"How about I tell you who they are when we're actually in a relationship?" she said. "How about that?"
"When are you going furniture shopping?" asked Luna, changing the subject. Fae knew. That vaguely smug grin said it all.
"I'm going to take my time with that," she said. "Draco is taking some antiques that came with the house off my hands and I'm going to look around his shop for a dining room table and such. Really get something that has character."
"Can you afford all this?" Ron asked.
"Ronald!" Mandy scolded.
"Well, sure," said Hermione, not taking offense. "I've been meaning to do this for a while and I've been putting money into a house fund for twelve years now. What do you do with your Hero's Bonus?"
The Hero's Bonus was started after Voldemort's first reign. Many of the fighters like Alice and Frank Longbottom could no longer work, so were given a monthly pension. It affected all who were deemed war heroes so there was no red tape or hurdles to jump over. It was the only decent law that generation ever put into place in Hermione's opinion. It wasn't even a pittance, it was enough to live on and support a couple family members.
"Spend it on Mandy and Rory," said Ron.
"Donate it," said Harry.
"I've been putting mine away," she said. "Also, I really do think we oughta figure out why the Right to Conquest keeps compounding. There's gotta be some trickle-up economics at play here. It's not bad right now, we've done a lot of good with that money, but what about after us? Eventually someone without good intentions is going to come along."
"Good point," said Harry. "I'll speak to Griselda. She's the one who explained it all to us, remember?"
"Yes!" said Hermione. "I handle all my vault business with her. She's been great with the book conservation and restoration effort of the Hogwarts Library."
So many books had been damaged during the final battle. That was actually where a lot of the starter jobs came from the Society of the Advancement of Magical Beings. Mostly they had werewolves. Documenting what was destroyed, transcribing what was salvageable. Goblins had some of the best tools in the world for maintaining ancient objects, which was why she asked them to lead the project.
"We have done a lot of good, haven't we?" she asked.
"Sure," said Ron. "Why? What's wrong?"
"I just… always feel like I'm struggling," she said. "Things at work. I don't know what it is, but Mr. McLaggen and Mr. Amorian are treating me like an intern."
"I know what it is," said Mandy. "It's the same reason why Harry and Ron are the Department Heads. People talk and things have never been better for the working class. You defeated Voldemort, so people want you in charge. I hear that some people, not naming any names, have been asking Mr. McLaggen when he's going to start mentoring you to take over."
"Ah, so he's threatened by me," Hermione concluded.
"Well, we could have guessed that," said Luna. "The people against you are a loud minority, Hermione."
"Well, if things keep up as they are, I may have to start my own periodical," she said.
"Cedric and I will follow you wherever you go," fae said sincerely.
Hermione smiled. "That's comforting to know, I appreciate that. I'm not really that worried about it at the moment, I just want to get my house as I like it. I intend to do all the decorating myself. Once the renovators are done I'm going to give it another cleaning and then rip up that hideous wallpaper and paint the walls. I think wallpaper should be used in moderation, like for one wall or for a bathroom. Oh! Did I tell you it belonged to magic users?"
"No, you didn't," said Harry. "You said it was a murder house."
"It was. During the last war. We heard about it from a neighbor. Mysterious deaths, green glow over the house, only the wife and husband's causes of deaths were verified. I'm guessing either a Lestrange killing or they imperiused the husband to make him take the fall but didn't count on him joining his wife."
"That's so sad," said Mandy.
"Yeah," Hermione said. "Poor Mr. Weatherby. I wish I could tell him his brother had nothing to do with it, but how can I without breaking the Statute of Secrecy?"
"Magic family or Muggle?" asked Ron.
"Well, they must've had magic at one point," said Hermione. "There is a house-elf crawl space running through the house including a room. Cedric confirmed it."
"How would Cedric know that?" asked Ron.
"Er…" Hermione waffled and decided on the truth. "Th—He's helping me out. Clean the place and all. Like I said, we're friends now and you know we still have holiday time before going back to work on Monday."
"Really?" said Harry. "I thought you two hated each other."
"Got around it, I suppose," said Hermione. "We found out that we're both strange and unusual in the same manner."
"Are you dating?" asked Mandy.
"No?"
"That sounds like a question," said Luna.
"Oh, come off it!" Hermione huffed. "I know you lot have been hoping we'd get together, but I think all we can manage is friends."
"There is chemistry between you two," said Mandy. "Ron doesn't see it."
"Fighting all the time isn't a healthy start to a relationship," he said. "Mione and I know that from experience."
"Good point, Ron," said Hermione.
That was a good point. If she and Cedric only stopped fighting due to superficial reasons it wouldn't take much for them to pick it back up. She was being silly, wasn't she?
She just never learned.