Hi everyone!

No smut in this chapter - but a lot of fluff, and a very interesting proposal by Hermione's family... Aunty Penelope returns in this chapter! I loved writing her jokes and I hope you enjoy her presence as much as I do :) I wrote in Word for the first time, so the formatting is a bit different than what you're used to.

Thank you again for being so kind to me with your reviews, comments, messages, kudos, follows and so much more! You keep me on my toes and on top of writing as much as I can. I hope you are all doing well!

Love, Flora

Chapter 21: How Hermione was right to worry about her grandma.

It was half past seven when Harry finally reached Hermione's apartment – his back ached, his arms and legs felt sore, the stunning jinx that had hit him, was still lingering in his bones. He needed to work on his shield efficacy: it had given out after seventeen minutes, at a very unfortunate moment in the raid. Fighting off stunning jinxes was part of Auror-training: some recruits called it "torture", but Harry didn't mind learning to fight off spells. He loved the feeling that coursed through his veins as he overcame the effects on his body, the adrenaline rushing, blood pumping in his ears, but it had weakened him substantially and it had resulted in the disapparation of his target. Again. Eleonore wouldn't be please and at this point, he couldn't blame her. He wasn't on top of his game, he hadn't been since he discovered the memory charm that was placed on Lackey. It made him feel angry, anxious, rebellious and less professional. Eleonore Holywell, Head-Auror, knew this, but was wise enough to not confront Harry so directly about it. She didn't want to damage the feeble bond she had with her golden boy, The Chosen One.

It was bad enough Harry knew about this favouritism and used it to his advantage. It was very un-Harry-like, so he felt, but working in the Auror Department was one of the reasons he hadn't completely driven insane past the war. The constant danger fuelled Harry's live, drove him forward, and he needed it desperately. How he would resolve the corruptness and old, backwards habits the team had developed over the years would be something to tackle once he became Head of Department. Something that would hopefully happen soon. Harry was certain if he were to crack the case on Nott, Delilah Bagman (sister of Ludovic and head of the Justice Department) would give him the benefit of the doubt over Eleonore. He just needed to succeed. And he hadn't exactly been doing that the past couple of weeks.

Well, Harry had heard that once some parts in his life would start looking up, another part would fall to ruin. Harry wanted to be the youngest Head of the Auror Department in at least a century – it had a nice ring to it, after all – but he would gladly give it up if the other part of his live would keep on thriving like it was. Stepping out of the fireplace he smelt Hermione put on some nice scented candles and he realized that he had never felt better about coming home, even though officially he hadn't been "home" since Christmas Eve. He went to his apartment to pick up some clothes a week or so ago, but that was it. He didn't want to be alone again, in his cold apartment, chewing on some quickly assembled meal that usually consisted of instant mash potatoes, frozen meat or fish and canned veggies.

Hermione had brought in some take-out, he saw, and he smiled when he recognized the brand on the bags.

'Sushi?' he grinned.

'It's been nearly a month,' Hermione replied, nose stuck the book he had given her for Christmas. She looked up to smile at him and allowed his lips to meet hers in a loving, sweet embrace.

'Hmm,' Harry mumbled against her lips. 'I've missed you.'

'You saw me not twelve hours ago.'

'A criminally long time to be away from such a lovely witch,' Harry nodded. 'I agree.'

Hermione slapped his arm playfully and pulled Harry in for another kiss.

'I won't deny that I'm very happy to see you as well,' she said. 'How has your day been?'

Harry sat opposite of her as they opened the bags. Hermione gave Harry the bamboo-chopsticks from the bags and they sat down to eat there dinner. Harry made a point to block her chopstick a few times with his, which caused Hermione to become playfully irritated. He loved getting her on edge.

He told her vaguely what happened, not able to tell her the full details of the case this time as he had signed an Unspeakable Agreement on the specific subject. Unforgivable Vows were deemed ineffective by the Auror Department ages ago, because it caused valuable members of their Auror teams that succumbed under pressure of torture to confess, causing their own deaths. Instead, a very powerful enchantment was invented, which rendered it simply impossible for them to communicate about certain aspects of their work. If they tried to speak, for example, their jaws would lock themselves automatically, and their vocal chords would be blocked. The Unspeakable Agreement would have to be signed specifically for each case, and needed to be update a few times throughout the process. The contract also gave them specific time measurements for when solved cases would be discussable.

'I have read a lot about approving shield charms,' Hermione said pensively, as Harry had been able to tell her what went wrong that day. 'I might be able to help you…'

She immediately jumped up from the table, running to her bookcase, as Harry smiled. Merlin, he loved her. She was absolutely stunning – the way her eyes focussed on the titles on the case, the way her fingers drifted past the spines of the sometimes completely worn-out works, her lips pressed in a look of pure determination. She wore her past-work clothes: an oversized jumper (his), jogging pants, her hair in a messy ponytail. He wondered if she was wearing a bra. He would make sure to check on their way to the bedroom.

She came back with a book, where they discussed excerpts from. Harry practiced with the shield, succeeding in summoning it, and then projected a shield unto Hermione. She yelped as the charm prevented her from grabbing another sushi. Harry chuckled as she pouted and tried to vanish the shield – in vain. Only Harry would be able to remove it, and he teasingly put another part of sushi in his mouth, moaning obscenely.

'Oh Hermione, have you tasted this roll? It's so good…'

'You bastard,' she cursed, with a scowl. Harry laughed, vanished his charm, and held out a bit of the roll in front of her with his chopsticks.

'Here, for you.'

Hermione squinted her eyes playfully, but accepted his offer nonetheless.

'That's the last time I'm ever helping you again,' she huffed, mouth full of roll.

They bantered a bit, discussing work, discussing the disastrous hen and stag do, discussing Philip and Lydia's breakdown.

'I have something important to ask you,' Hermione said, a sullen look on her face.

'What?'

'I got a call at work today. It was grandma. She wants us to come over for dinner, tomorrow.'

'Oh? Another social event.'

'No, the holidays are over,' Hermione said, with a bit of a fearful voice. 'I'm afraid this is… Well, she said she just wants to "catch up", or whatever. But it's grandma, you know. She is obviously planning something.'

She sighed, rubbing her temples.

'We need to talk about this engagement-ploy, Harry. What are we going to do with it?'

'What do you mean?' Harry asked, sipping from his water. 'We're just going to say that we're not getting married right now, and not next year either.'

'They will want to hear a date from us, you know,' Hermione said, sceptically.

'I'll give them a date,' Harry said. 'Sometimes before 2010.'

Hermione snickered.

'Right. Like that's going to cut it. I'm just… I have this feeling that Philip and Lydia have permanently cancelled their wedding, Harry.'

'Well, good riddance,' he pointed out. 'He was a total idiot for diddling her skittle in the middle of the bar.'

'For-… What?'

Harry chuckled. 'Phrase Ron told me. Anyway – she would be right to call it off. Philip is a prick anyways. He doesn't deserve one shred of happiness.'

'First of all, I think that even the worst kinds of people deserve happiness,' Hermione said, good-heartedly as she was. 'Even if they are my obnoxious relatives. Secondly, I'm afraid… The fact that the cancellation of their wedding, is going to put more pressure on our fake one. Grandma probably wants to pay more attention to it, be more involved in it than she was before.'

'So…?' Harry asked. 'We'll tell her "no". We won't get married right now.'

'You say "we", but you know how bad I am at telling my family "no", Harry. Especially if grandma pulls the old "I am old and tired and alone and sad"-card. The one she's definitely going to pull.'

'Good, then I will tell her "no".'

'Hmmhmm,' Hermione said, with a look of pure sarcasm on her face. 'Like how you said "no" to not get affected at grandma's birthday, or how you said "no" to celebrating Christmas with Aunty Penelope, or how you said "no" to kissing me under the mistletoe-…'

'In fairness, I wanted all of those things,' Harry said light-heartedly, as he caressed her hand with his thumb.

'Oh. Yeah, I get that you don't want to marry,' Hermione said, quickly, looking at how their hands were touching. 'I don't imagine you would want to-… Marry-…'

'Yet,' Harry filled her in, as Hermione replied with a very quiet and sad "Me".

'You?' Harry said, dumbfounded. Oh God, how on earth he managed to turn a light and funny situation in something so drastically different in the matter of a few seconds, he had no idea. He needed to make it right.

'Hermione, if I'm going to marry anyone in this world, it's going to be you. How would you think it would be anyone else? I haven't spent one evening alone from you since we celebrated Christmas. I just told you that I missed you, after not seeing you for a day at work. I love you. Hell, I was just thinking how much I loved you when I saw you near that bookcase…'

Hermione looked a bit embarrassed and nodded.

'I know. I know you love me. It's just-… I need to remind myself, sometimes. I spent the largest part of my life believing that you never would, after all.'

'That was a grievous oversight on my part,' he admitted. 'But I always loved you, you know. Maybe not romantically, but I always cared more for you than for anyone else.'

'I know,' she replied. 'I know you do, it's just sometimes… I get insecure.'

'Completely unnecessary,' Harry said. And then, he continued with a mischievous grin on his face, feeling the tingles grow in his belly: "What if I show you how much I love you?"

Hermione's painful face turned a bit softer and she let out a sigh.

'Oh, is Mister Potter getting randy from all the sushi?'

'Mister Potter has checked the bag and found that "most likely to be future Mrs. Potter" failed to get a desert,' Harry said. 'So, I reckoned I'd claim it anyway.'

Her face turned into a smile as Harry stood up from the table, still clasping her hand tightly.

'Fine. So, before we head back there – dinner, tomorrow?'

'Sure.'

'Good. Last one to the bed is a crumple-horned snorcack!'

She shouted the last words, pointing her wand at Harry and casting the shielding charm.

'Unfair!' Harry whined, as Hermione ran to the bedroom, laughing hysterically.

Luckily, that Tuesday, Harry hadn't been forced to go on a raid. He'd filed some much-needed paperwork and attended a meeting, where the plans for the next planned raids were discussed. He noticed Eleonore tried to talk to him in private, but tried to avoid and ignore her as much as he could. At the end of the day, she managed to corner him, but he was very quick to tell her he had a dinner date.

'A date, Mister Potter?' Eleonore asked, interested.

'With an 86-year old,' Harry nodded. 'I'll see you tomorrow, Mrs. Holywell!'

He flooed to Hermione's apartment, where they both tried to match their outfits somewhat. Hermione had rented a car for the occasion, a quite expensive looking one, and as she was the only one with a driving's license (Harry hadn't bothered yet), she drove them to her grandma's premises. One of the many butlers let them inside the mansion, and they were directed to one of the smaller rooms Harry never had been in.

'Hermione! Harry! So wonderful to see you!' Eugenia wailed, and she tried to stand up. The room they had entered was still too luxurious for Harry's taste, but it was a least a bit more homely, as he actually saw the mantelpiece with their glass figurines, some family pictures, some knitting on the sofa that proved that grandma Eugenia actually lived in this giant building as well, not just rented it for obscenely expensive parties.

Also, to his surprise, he saw Aunty Penelope, who looked very happy to see both him and Hermione again. That feeling was mutual, as he hugged the women, until he realized that Grandma Eugenia probably realized that she might not be able to coax Harry into some insane wedding plans, but Aunty Penelope surely was. He groaned, reminding himself to be very, very careful.

'You both look dashing,' Eugenia commented. 'You've picked such a handsome groom, sweetheart.'

Hermione laughed uncomfortably as her grandmother stroked Harry's cheek.

'Yes, I know. He's a catch.'

'He must get a lot of female attention,' Eugenia went on. 'Be very popular with the ladies.'

Harry felt incredibly awkward. He was addressed in the third person while being stroked.

'He sure is,' Hermione said, hesitantly. 'But I've reeled him in, obviously. Why do you say that, grandma?'

'Oh, the talk about that horrible Stag Party, dear. You must have heard – or what am I saying, you were there! Don't you think it's absolutely awful?'

She clapped unto Harry's cheek and Harry couldn't help but grimace.

'That's quite enough, sister,' Aunty Penelope interjected. 'You're making the poor boy squirm!'

'Oh, of course. Please, dearies…'

Grandma Eugenia gestured so the both of them could sit down. Aunty Penelope looked at them with a bemused look in her eye, as a butler brought them tea.

'Well, anyway. It was horrible. Horrible!'

'It sure was,' Hermione said, her calmness a funny contrast to her grandmother. 'Do you know if they've broken the engagement off?'

'Lydia gave her ring back, yes,' her grandmother sighed. 'I mean, I can't blame the girl. He was acting rather scandalously…'

'Yes, he shouldn't have given a strange woman a slippery salute on a crowded dancefloor,' Aunty Penelope agreed. 'That's no way of showing manners.'

Harry spat his tea across his blouse, breaking out in a fit of laughter. Hermione looked mortified, which made him laugh even harder.

'Penelope!' her sister shrieked.

'Oh Genie, lighten up, will you? The end of their relationship is not the end of the world! I never liked that Lydia to begin with…'

'She was a very respectable girl,' Eugenia defended. 'Very well-off family…'

'Money can't buy everything, dear,' Aunty Penelope quipped.

'No, you should know, as you picked Geoffrey as your husband! Totally against the will of our father.'

'Geoffrey was a good man,' Aunty Penelope said coldly. 'And I didn't feel the need to change my last-name back after he passed away. You live in a large, empty mansion, with just a few dozen servants to keep you company. I live in a small house, but that house was filled with love that I truly and deeply felt, dear sister. I think that says a lot, don't you?'

That turned sour quickly. Harry looked at Hermione, who hadn't stopped looking any less fazed. She accepted his soothing hand on her knee. The sisters quarrelled some more, until Grandma Eugenia shook her head.

'Done, now. Done! We agreed we wouldn't fight anymore, Penelope. And if we are, please let's not do it in front of my lovely grandchild and her soon-to-be-husband.'

Aunty Penelope nodded and sipped her tea in disagreement.

'Anyway, Hermione, Harry. We didn't invite you over just for the sake of chatting. As Philip and Lydia have now cancelled their wedding, we have a little… Problem.'

'A problem?' Hermione asked, worriedly. Harry worried too – but not for Hermione's grandmother's sake.

'Yes. You see, I booked the venue they are getting married in. I arranged for the caterers, the decorations, everything. It regrets me to say that the venue is not refundable. Insurance doesn't cover-…'

'Tickling the bean of another woman at the groom's Stag Do,' Penelope finished.

'Dear sister,' Eugenia said warningly, but this time, Harry didn't smile, as an anxious feeling crept up on him.

'So, there's an open spot at the 3rd of August, ready to be filled in. You both have been such great guests for the last couple of months. I have really gotten attached to the both of you, especially since you did so much good for Nelly, and… Well, we both wanted to suggest…'

'You can take the spot, if you want to,' Aunty Penelope agreed, with a lovingly smile on her face. 'We will cover all the changes, all the alterations. You won't have to worry about anything in sense of paying. It would be the perfect gesture from our family to you, Hermione. We have wronged you and Isabelle in the past. Haven't we, Eugenia?'

'We have,' her grandmother said, with a tear in her eye. 'I missed my darling daughter so much, and I am so glad she found a way to reach out to me. Now you and your new flame are such loving additions to my family… The both of us just want to contribute to the happiness that you are both creating in our family. We want to… Make amends, so to speak.'

'And we know that money can't buy everything,' Penelope added, hastily. 'But… Well, we would be honoured to be able to fulfil this for you. And we'll both make sure that you will be able to make your own additions to it – no white peacocks, for example! It will be a Harry and Hermione wedding, through and through.'

'So…' Grandma Eugenia said, a hopeful glint in her eye so beaming, Harry felt blinded a bit. 'What do you say?'

Three hours later, Harry and Hermione emerged from the mansion. The looks on their faces changed from forced obligatory happiness to chagrin.

'What do we do now?' Harry spat, as he slammed the car-door shut with a loud *CLANG*. 'There is no way we can back out from this… We've totally cornered ourselves – I think we could ask for a mass Obliviation at the Ministry, maybe that would solve it, but… No, there's no way we can safely Obliviate that many muggles for a memory that has lasted longer than a month…'

'There is a way,' Hermione said, with laboured breath. 'But you're not going to like it.'

'What?'

'They are only giving us the spot because it's vacant now,' Hermione explained. 'We just have to make sure that… Well, that the spot is no longer free, if you get what I mean.'

'To have another couple come in to get married at that date?' Harry asked.

Hermione shook her head. 'No. The spot is reserved for our family, after all. We just have to make sure the wedding… Isn't cancelled.'

She bit her lip and looked at him.

'We have to get Lydia and Philip back together, Harry.'