* ~ The Eighth Year Universe ~ *
Love Wins
Can I Sail Through the Changing Ocean Tides?
The chapter title is from the song:
Landslide by Fleetwood Mac.
When Harry met Rob in his local, the other man was already two beers deep.
"Hey, old man," Rob joked, "How's retirement going?"
Harry snorted, "Funny."
"What you drinking? Sparkling water, or you gonna throw the boat out tonight and have a can of coke?" Rob joked.
Harry shot him a long-suffering look, "Sparkling water."
Rob chuckled and ordered the drink, then he shuffled in his barstool and said, "Seriously, kid, how are you doing? Do you regret it?"
"No," Harry answered honestly, "Not resigning anyway. But I do wish I'd shoved it in Hermione's face a little more."
Rob snorted, "Vindictive ain't a good look on you, kid."
Harry sighed and sipped his sparkling water.
"You didn't resign because this ain't your fight," Rob said perceptively, "You resigned cause you had a falling out with someone up on high. Was it because Draco used a decoy?"
"No," Harry answered honestly, "Because Draco didn't use a decoy. Hermione did, then she pinned it on him."
Rob scoffed, "She brought down his career for her own? Gee, hope the pretty boy is giving her hell for it."
"No, he's not very happy about it," Harry said with a sigh, "You saw what happened at the Ministry, right?"
Rob nodded, "I gotta be honest with you, I was relieved when she made the statement about it being a decoy. It's never okay seeing one of the kids I trained up getting in trouble like that after everything that happened with Theo, you know."
Harry nodded too, "I can't tell you the ins and outs of it, but the reason I quit, it's all related to that."
Rob shrugged, "Well, if you don't regret it, then you did the right thing. Every time I threw the badge in, I regretted it five minutes later."
"Yeah, about that, are you in double figures yet?" Harry asked, grinning at the older man.
Rob rolled his eyes, "Ha, very funny."
"I really don't regret quitting," Harry continued, "But I am in therapy because I think I'm addicted to the adrenaline rush of a fight."
Rob nodded, "I think we're all a bit like that. Jack used to say you had to be a bit mad to be a brilliant Auror because no sane man wanted to run into the places that everyone else was running out of."
"He wasn't wrong," Harry said, running his thumb down the glass in front of him.
"You know, you could beg for the badge back and go into the training centre?" Rob suggested.
Harry shook his head, "No, I'm done with that world, Rob. I can't straddle the line, you know, have one foot in the door and the other out. I'm either all in as an Auror, or I'm not one at all."
"I get that," Rob admitted, "It's why I haven't retired yet."
Harry sighed and said, "I fully intend to fight the Statute Saboteurs, but I couldn't do it the way I wanted to from within the ministry."
"Ah," Rob realised, "Now it's all starting to make sense. Are you gonna resurrect the Order of the Phoenix and do it your own way? Just like Dumbledore did?"
Harry shook his head, "I don't want to be compared to Dumbledore. He kept his cards close to his chest, he had so many secrets, and he lied to everyone, even the people he claimed to care about. All we were to him were chess pieces, and he moved us around, so we were all perfectly positioned to help him when he needed it."
With a sigh, Harry looked up at Rob, "I try and make sure I do the opposite. I don't keep secrets, and I don't play my cards close to my chest. Every big decision I make goes to a family meeting because everyone in my family has a valued opinion. I'm not a Chessmaster, I'm the head of the Potter family, and we're a dynasty."
Rob smiled fondly at him, "You've come a long way, you know? From the scrawny little boy who I thought was gonna vomit on his first day in the Closes."
Harry smiled slightly, "Well, I had a good mentor, which helped."
Rob grinned, "I've never thought you were like Dumbledore, just for the record. He was all about the greater good, and that's not you. All you care about is doing the right thing."
"That's all I ever want to do," Harry admitted quietly, "The right thing."
"I know, kid," Rob said, reaching over and gripping his shoulder, "And I'm really proud of you for being able to see that you weren't in the right place to do that anymore."
Harry looked down and asked, "Speaking of that… what's going on in the department right now?"
Rob raised an eyebrow, "Your own kid ain't telling you?"
"He's not telling me the truth, or the whole truth anyway," Harry said. He looked over at Rob, "Which means something is happening, and it involves him."
Rob nodded thoughtfully, "Ben's doing alright as Head Auror, just like you knew he would. But he's gotta toe the line. He wants to send a full task force and call up the reserve Aurors, but no way is that getting through the red tape."
Harry scoffed, "This is why I left."
Rob hummed, "So he's got permission to send a reconnaissance team to Hungary. They're gonna assess the damage, gather intel, see what exactly we're dealing with."
"How many people?" Harry asked, looking over at Rob.
"It's a team of six," Rob replied, "Four Aurors and two Trauma Healers who have passed their Auror training module."
Harry frowned, "Who is he taking?"
"He hasn't decided yet," Rob answered honestly, "But he asked for volunteers."
"And Teddy put himself forward," Harry realised.
Rob nodded, "Yeah, he said he was the best person for the job because he could go in undercover and nobody would suspect. These folk, Ben reckons they are gonna be big on security so they will be able to see through polyjuice, glamours, you name it."
"But Teddy's a Metamorphmagus, so it wouldn't show up," Harry said with a nod, "He's not under any enchantment, he was just born that way."
"His words exactly," Rob said. He drained his beer and sighed.
"Then Nick stood up and said, 'well, if he's volunteering, then I guess I am too'. Afterwards, he told me there was no way in hell he would let Teddy go off without him there to have his back. So, Ben said they were both under consideration for the team."
Harry frowned down at the bar again, "Those two ever remind you of Draco and Theo?"
"All the damn time," Rob replied.
Harry glanced along the bar at him, "You don't think they're really like Draco and Theo, do you?"
"Who knows," Rob shrugged, "That's their life. They can live it however they want."
"That's pretty open for you, Rob," Harry mused.
Rob shrugged, "I promised myself I wouldn't raise my kids the way I got raised."
"Yeah, well, having a traumatic childhood does make you think about the way you want your own kids to grow up," Harry mused.
Rob held up his bottle, "Bloody satanic nuns."
Harry laughed and held up his glass of water.
"Bloody Dursley's."
Harry had to employ new methods to corner Teddy. Before, he would have just done it at work by calling him in for an unnecessary meeting or by catching him at a quiet hour in CPS.
But now that Harry didn't have the department to fall back on, he had to do it at home, which was no easy feat, especially when he didn't want Daphne to be privy to the conversation.
As such, Harry decided that the best option was to lure Teddy out of the house with Quidditch. They had been playing for about half an hour, just racing to see who could catch the most enchanted apples.
Then Harry's leg started to hurt like it always did when he had been airborne for a little while. Teddy noticed the tell-tale signs – his dad slowing down and the grimace on his face.
"Break time, Dad?"
"Yeah," Harry said, sighing and accepting defeat.
It wasn't even like he just wasn't as young or fit as he used to be. It was the cursed wound he had taken for Draco in a duel a few years back. Frankly, he had been lucky that he didn't need a cane; there had been a lot of muscle damage there, and the older he got, the worse his leg seized. He supposed none of them had really come out of that job unscathed, and they would have been naïve to think they would have done.
Rather than flying down to the ground, they landed on the roof terrace, and Teddy handed Harry a bottle of water. It was a hot day, which was both a good thing and a bad thing. It was more fun when the sun was shining, but they also tended to tire more quickly.
"So," Harry said, once he had taken a swig of water, "When were you planning on telling me that you and Nick are up for the mission to Hungary?"
Teddy snorted, "Wolfie told you then?"
"I needled it out of him," Harry confessed.
"How'd you do that? With whiskey?" Teddy joked.
"Beer, actually," Harry said. He had another swig of water, "And he's just as worried as I am, so I think he needed to talk about it."
"Because Nick volunteered too," Teddy said with a nod.
Harry nodded. He sat down on a bench and looked at his son more seriously than he had done in a while, "Because Nick said he'd have your back, wherever you were. Nick, who's had your back for years, Ted."
Teddy could hear the shift in his dad's tone, so he looked over at him, "Yeah. Where are you going with this, Dad?"
"If I'm wrong, curse me," Harry said lightly, "But if I'm right, nobody in this family gets away with saying I'm oblivious anymore."
Teddy chuckled and waited for Harry to continue.
"What's going on with you and Nick?"
Teddy hesitated before answering that question, "That's complicated."
Harry nodded thoughtfully, "Yeah, I thought it was. So, who came first, Nick or Almina?"
"Nick," Teddy admitted, "We wrote, that year he travelled the world and waited for me to finish school so we could go through Auror training together."
Harry cocked his head at Teddy, "He travelled with Nina that year, right?"
"Yeah," Teddy said, "A couple of months in, they got together. Nick swears they were in Rome, but Nina says it was France."
Harry chuckled, "I'd be inclined to trust Nina."
"Me too," Teddy said with a fond smile, "Anyway, then Nick and I got partnered up when we started training and about six months in, we had our first mission in a live simulation room. There was this duel, and I saw a curse heading for Nick, and I didn't think, I just jumped in front of it."
Harry watched his son carefully and nodded.
"That sounds familiar," Harry admitted, thinking back to the simulation room mission where he had jumped in front of a killing curse for Lilly.
"And it turned out that it was a test, and the room wasn't live yet, but I'd just been willing to take a killing curse for Nick," Teddy said. He shrugged and looked down, "Things changed after that."
"And what was Nina's opinion on that?"
Teddy chuckled, "I think she said 'finally', or something like that. She wasn't annoyed, she said she expected us to be a package deal."
Harry smiled slightly, "So, it was the three of you, to begin with?"
"Yeah," Teddy said, his eyes far away as he got lost in thought, "Then I got dared to kiss Almina at that stupid Black-Nott Halloween party, and I couldn't stop thinking about her. Nick said it was pathetic, how in love with her I was after one bloody evening. We wrote to each other, and she snuck out of school a couple times to meet me."
"When did she find out about Nick and Nina?" Harry asked curiously.
"Pretty early on," Teddy admitted, "Like the first time she snuck out of school. I thought she'd freak out, but she didn't."
He smiled over at his dad, "I think I fell in love with her that night, actually."
Harry chuckled, "The night you told her?"
Teddy nodded, a fond smile playing on his lips, "I just kinda spouted it all out, really quickly. Then I looked at her, and I was expecting all sorts of reactions. She just raised an eyebrow at me and said, "You do realise the reason I have four parents, right?" and we both just burst out laughing."
Harry laughed and nodded, "Well, it's a fair point."
Teddy shook his head in amusement, "Pretty sure I decided she was the one there and then, to be honest with you, Dad."
Harry smiled, "She's a lovely girl, Teddy. Regardless of how I feel towards her mothers right now, I could never deny that. Almina is and always has been the best of all four of them. Is there a reason why you kept quiet about all of this, though?"
"Wolfie, mostly," Teddy confessed, "We didn't think he'd be able to handle it without, you know, spontaneously combusting."
Harry snorted, "That's fair, yeah. I am familiar with Rob's temper."
"And telling you would have inevitably meant that it got to Wolfie somehow," Teddy said with a shrug, "It's not like it's a huge secret. Mina's parents know about it, and they're cool with it, obviously."
"They'd be hypocrites if they weren't," Harry said with a chuckle, "And you know your mum and I are pretty accepting people. She will be furious when she finds out you didn't tell her though."
"I know," Teddy said with a grimace, "You reckon we can keep it between us for a little bit longer?"
"Yeah, I reckon we can," Harry said with a smile, "So long as you tell your mum about this mission to Hungary."
Teddy groaned and rolled his eyes, "I think I'd rather tell her that I shag Nick Wolfe."
Harry grinned at his son, "Your choice, kid."
"I hate you right now," Teddy deadpanned, but Harry just chuckled in response.
When Harry walked into Draco's office, the blonde man barely lifted his head to acknowledge his presence, but that didn't phase Harry in the slightest.
"Have you spoken to your wife yet?"
"No," Draco drawled.
Harry raised an eyebrow, "So I've patched things up with her, but you haven't?"
"You haven't patched anything up," Draco said dryly, "What you have done is the equivalent of what I did to my dark mark during the war."
Harry looked at him in alarm, "Well, that's dark."
Draco gave him a long-suffering look, "I tried to cut it off, then realised I had to find a new way to learn to live with it."
Harry leant against the door, "So you covered it with a tattoo of narcissus flowers. This is a nice metaphor and all, but it doesn't change the fact that I've made more of an effort than you have."
"You only did it so that she would let you help in the fight against the Statute Saboteurs," Draco pointed out.
Harry shrugged, "So it's a classic case of doing the wrong thing for the right reasons. I'm not going to try and deny that. I'm not a Slytherin, Draco, I don't sneak and scheme. I needed Hermione and me to be on talking terms for us to have a fighting chance against the Statute Saboteurs, so I swallowed my pride."
Draco looked up at Harry, "It makes a change from you choking on your pride, I suppose."
Harry gave him a long-suffering look, "You really can't talk, you know that, don't you?"
With a sigh, Draco looked down and signed a piece of paperwork.
"Almina will be happy that you are speaking again," He mused, "She's worried about the fissures that are appearing in the family dynamic. Having her future husband's father not talk to her mother doesn't help the situation."
"Of course she's worried," Harry remarked, "She's old enough to remember how bad things were after Theo came home."
Draco abandoned his paperwork and looked up at Harry, "This is different though, Harry. That was a case of Theo needing reassurance, he needed to know we all loved him and we wouldn't abandon him, regardless of how hard things got. He hadn't done anything wrong. He'd just been conditioned to think that we were the enemy."
With a sigh, Draco continued, "This time, Hermione and Sadie are at fault. I can't just forget about that. Not when it has made me question…everything."
Harry frowned and stepped fully into the office, "Draco, you're not talking about what I think you are…."
Draco rubbed his eyes, "The papers are written up. I've locked them in the desk in my study."
Harry couldn't quite believe his ears.
"They just need to be signed," Draco finished.
"I knew you weren't wearing your wedding ring, but I thought that was more of a statement than anything else," Harry said quietly, "But divorce? You and Hermione have been together for over 20 years. Are you really going to give up on your relationship now?"
"I just don't know if I can forgive her for what she's done. And….even if I could, I don't know if I should. Theo pointed out that I have trust issues, and he's right, but she's my wife; she knows that. She knows that I can't just forget that this ever happened," Draco said, and from the resigned way in which he had said it, Harry knew that arguing with him would be fruitless.
Instead, he sighed and said, "I'm on my way to her office."
"I know, I have access to her calendar," Draco said evenly. His tone was difficult to read.
Harry bit back an irritated remark and said, "I'm going to work with her to defeat the Statute Saboteurs because a good friend made me realise that Dumbledore and Grindelwald could have been one hell of a team if they had just put their differences aside and worked together."
Draco looked up at Harry upon hearing those words.
"But do you know something else?" Harry said, looking Draco directly in the eye, "Hermione and I, we're not the only ones with a story paralleling Dumbledore and Grindelwald's right now. And if they had just been less stubborn, had just relented and apologised, then their love story could have been epic."
Draco sighed and looked away from Harry, "Don't try and use my own argument against me. You had better get going, you don't want to be late for your meeting."
However, Harry didn't budge, "I've got ten minutes, which brings me around to the other thing I needed to discuss with you."
"There's more?" Draco asked dryly.
"Yes, my son and your daughter are involved in a very Black-Nott reminiscent four-way."
Draco raised his head again, "Teddy told you?"
"No, I worked it out," Harry said with a smirk, "As unbelievable as that may be. I know you guys know, Teddy told me that."
"Hm, I suppose you are more observant than we thought, then," Draco said with the slightest hint of a smirk.
Harry chuckled, "Teddy volunteered to go on the mission to Hungary, and Nick said he would go too. Something about that made me think of you and Theo. Then I started to think about all the little glances I see between Ted and Nick, it's like they're communicating without words, and that reminded me of you and Theo too."
"From that description, you could have been talking about yourself and Neville," Draco remarked.
"No, because Neville and I don't do the whole 'eyesex' thing," Harry said, making quotation marks with his fingers.
"Eyesex?" Draco echoed.
"Yes, the thing you do with Theo across crowded rooms to communicate wordlessly. See, I do it too, but with my wife, not my best friend," Harry said sassily.
Draco rolled his eyes, "Going back to the point - Almina talked to me about it when Teddy first told her."
"She talked to you, not Theo?" Harry asked in surprise.
"Yeah, I don't know why but all the girls in the family seem to gravitate towards me for relationship advice," Draco said with a shrug.
"Charlie and Cas are more likely to ask Theo, but if it's a boy problem, apparently it's my problem too."
"Maybe you're not as masculine as Theo," Harry said, grinning at his former Auror partner, "Prettyboy."
Draco rolled his eyes, "Shut up. Do you know how long it took me to get Rob to stop calling me that?"
"About a decade," Harry said with a grin, "And he still calls you it, by the way, just behind your back."
"That bastard," Draco muttered.
"What did you tell her?" Harry asked curiously, "Mina, I mean."
"That she was free to form her own opinion," Draco answered, "But that in my experience, someone who has enough room in their heart to love two people equally is usually exactly the kind of person you want in your life."
"Teddy has more than enough love to go around," Harry said with a smile, "His heart has always been too big for his chest, even when he was a kid."
"I don't think that was Almina's problem," Draco admitted, "She knew Teddy loved her. But she wasn't so sure that somebody could love two people equally. She spoke to Addison Weasley about it, and Addison said that it was a warning sign."
Harry frowned and cocked his head at Draco.
"She told Mina that when someone loves two people at the same time, they almost always choose the second person. Because if they had really loved the first person, they wouldn't have fallen in love with the second. Almina loved Teddy, but she didn't want to be the person who broke up what he had going on with Nick."
Harry thought about that for a moment, "It's an interesting perspective, but it's different when four people are involved, isn't it? There's no cheating, there's no love triangle."
"That's what I told her," Draco admitted with a slight smile, "I told her you can love two people equally because I do. I love Hermione, Theo and Sadie, but I don't love any of them the same way. There's no denying that the love I feel for Theo is romantic, but it's also different from how I love Hermione. He's my partner in crime, he's the person I drink with after a long day. He's the one who anchors me when I'm spiralling."
"Your best friend and more," Harry mused.
Draco nodded, "And I love Sadie like the sister I never had. It's never been romantic between us, but that doesn't make me love her any less. I could just as happily spend an evening with her as I could with the other two."
Harry cocked his head at Draco, "And Hermione?"
Draco sighed, "I've always loved Hermione the way that a husband is supposed to love his wife. She's my partner through life. She's the person I raised my children with. I always thought it was that unbreakable bond, the one that you forge when you spend your life by someone's side."
He glanced down, "I told Almina all of that, and I think it helped her understand that loving more than one person at the same time is possible."
Harry smiled slightly, "I know things are hard right now, and you don't know exactly how you feel. But whether you realise it or not, during that whole speech of yours, you were talking in the present tense."
Draco sighed and looked up, "I do love Hermione, I'm not disputing that. Sometimes love just isn't enough anymore."
"And sometimes love is all you need. The rest follows," Harry said sagely.
"That's what I told Teddy when he asked me if he thought he and Almina were ready for him to propose," Harry continued.
"Because maybe I can't understand complex relationships the way you can, but I do understand love. Nobody is ready for marriage, for kids. Nobody is ready to forgive someone, but they always work it out if they love the other person. Just…don't take too long to do that."
Draco nodded and looked back down at his paperwork.
"Out of interest," Harry said, "When Mina and Teddy do get married. Who's giving her away?"
"Theo, I presume," Draco said with a frown, "He is her biological father. Even if everyone refers to her as my daughter, and she's called me Dad since she was about 6 years old."
"Well, it makes sense how that came about," Harry shrugged, "It was when you had the Wonder Twins, right?"
Draco nodded and signed a file, "When the twins started to talk, they didn't know who to call Mummy and who to call Daddy. Ella was just blossoming into her own person at that time too, and it was confusing."
"So when the little kids started calling you Dad and Pops, Almina and Charlus just fell into it too," Harry said with a nod, "It makes sense."
Draco flipped his file shut and looked up, "Even before Theo and I…connected like that-"
Harry snorted, and Draco shot him a long-suffering look.
"What? I didn't say anything!" Harry objected.
"You didn't need to," Draco remarked dryly, "I've never needed legilimency to tell what you're thinking."
Harry smiled sheepishly, "Sorry."
"The point I was going to make was that we always called the kids our kids or the kids. They were never my kids and Theo's kids, so I suppose what happened just became an extension of that."
With a nod, Harry said, "Well, I guess it's a good thing Hermione and I did patch things up. Our families are going to be more interconnected than ever, it seems."
Draco looked at Harry sceptically, "You've started the process, but you and I both know that things are far from okay between you and Hermione. You're acquaintances at best right now, but you're not friends, and you are most certainly not best friends."
Harry shrugged and grabbed the door handle, "Trust takes a long time to build."
Draco met his eye, curious about where Harry was going with this.
His green eyes darkened as he pulled the door open, "But it takes even longer to win back."
On that ominous note, he strode out of the office, letting the door swing softly shut in his wake.
The chill in the air when Harry stepped into Hermione's office was apparent. She was sitting behind a large desk, paperwork strewn everywhere. Her hair was bushier than usual, and her cheeks were red. It was evident to Harry, who knew her well, that she was stressed.
"Harry," She said, sighing in relief when she saw him, "You came."
Harry stepped into the room and shut the door behind him.
"We had an appointment."
Her face fell, but she nodded and motioned to the seat opposite her desk. Harry sat down and looked over at the Minister expectantly.
"You want to know how I plan to deal with the problem," Hermione said.
Harry bowed his head, "What measures are you going to put in place?"
"I have asked the Head of the DMLE to increase our presence in public areas," Hermione began, "The reserve Magical Law Enforcement squad have been called up. Patrols in Diagon and Knockturn Alley are going to be doubled. We are also tightening security measures here at the ministry."
"How?" Harry asked, "Because the last time I checked, there isn't much we can do when the opposition uses the imperius curse to turn our own people against us."
Hermione shook her head, "On the contrary, there is something we can do. When she was 17 years old, Sadie invented a spell that detects if anyone passing through a doorway is under the influence of mind-altering spells. It sets off an alarm if they are, so I have had her install it on the main entranceway into the ministry. We are also in the process of building an enclosure around the fireplaces so that those who enter via floo have to go through the same verification process."
"Smart," Harry said with a nod, "It's ironic that Sadie is the one to install that given her history with mind-altering spells, but still, it's smart."
Hermione sighed, "We can do without the bitchy comments, Harry. I know your feelings on the matter, but that is not the point right now."
"I know. What are you doing about the schools?" Harry asked.
Hermione replied, "I've spoken to Neville, and he assures me that security is tight enough at Hogwarts that he feels no concerns for the coming term. Theo and I are still in discussions about what will happen when the junior school re-opens after the holidays."
Harry leant back in his chair, "You need to cancel all Quidditch games too."
Hermione looked up in surprise, "Why?"
"Because these people? They always attack the same sorts of places," Harry explained, "If they're going for the shock factor, they attack a school. If they want to make a bang, they attack a busy, public place like Diagon Alley or-"
"- a packed Quidditch stadium," Hermione finished.
"Exactly," Harry returned, "You need to think about the potential consequences of anything happening at a large scale event. They want to 'out' our world, and they have already managed to do unknown magic with the remote imperius curse. Can you imagine if they managed to get a camera working at a packed Quidditch stadium? There's no explaining that away, Hermione, not with the world wide web these days. Once something is online, it's there forever; no amount of obliviating is going to help us."
"You're right," Hermione agreed.
"If I were you, I would meet with the Head of the Department of Magical Games and Sports and sort that out as soon as possible," Harry said with a nod.
He hesitated and then continued, "And, this comes as a friend, but also because of the current political situation…."
Hermione eyed him cautiously, and Harry sighed.
"You need to come up with some way of redacting what you said about the decoy being Draco's idea. Partly because it might save your marriage, but also because right now, the ministry as a whole does not have faith in the head of the DMLE. And with that being the department charged with dealing with this, it's not inspiring confidence."
"And how exactly do I do that, Harry?" Hermione asked in disbelief, "How do I go back on something that I said publically?"
"I think you have two options, Hermione," Harry replied honestly, "You either take the Cornelius Fudge route and find a suitable scapegoat. Or your only other option, which is admitting that it was your mistake – publically."
"And have the Wizengamot oust me on a vote of no confidence?" Hermione asked, looking at Harry like he was mad.
Harry shrugged, "The point we're at right now…it might well be your job or your marriage, and only you know which one is more important to you. At the end of the day, Hermione, it comes down to the choice of doing what's right, or what's easy, and only you can make that choice."
Hermione looked down at the desk, and they both fell silent.
"We can't have people gathering in large groups," Harry added.
"I would put out a public notice advising people not to gather en-masse for their own safety. But…these things you're doing? They're quiet; they aren't going to make people feel safer. Even having more of a DMLE presence in public areas….it's not enough."
"I can't put a blanket ban on concerts or anything out with the ministry's control. But I can warn people of the danger," Hermione said slowly, "But what else do you suggest I do?"
"Well, there are two magical centres in Britain - Hogsmeade and Diagon Alley," Harry explained.
"Those are the only places where magical people should be meeting right now. That's for their own safety, to keep them safe from the eyes of Muggles. I'm not telling you to put everyone on house arrest – people can go to work, and they can meet friends in their own homes. But beyond that, people need to understand the danger."
"You're talking about putting out public notices telling people they shouldn't visit their muggle family at the moment," Hermione said quietly.
"You're talking about inciting fear, Harry, and potentially furthering the rift between the Muggles and us. How is that different to what Fudge and Umbridge did when they ran this ministry?"
"Because we're being transparent and honest, Hermione," Harry urged her.
"The problem is when you've been a politician for too long, you start to worry more about how things look from the outside than how effective an action is. The best Minister's usually aren't the most well-liked because sometimes to protect people, you need to put their noses out of joint."
Hermione nodded and let her head rest upon her index fingers.
Harry had to admit, he felt sorry for her. Hermione looked positively exhausted.
"Have you called in the reserve Aurors?" Harry asked curiously.
"Not yet," Hermione replied. She looked up at Harry, "It feels a little too much like conscription if I'm honest."
Harry shook his head, "Conscription would be forcing every witch or wizard of fighting age to go to Europe and sacrifice themselves for the cause. Every person on the reserved Auror list chose to put themselves there, Hermione. They are all former Aurors, and they all ticked that box when they handed their badge in. This is why they exist; it's why Kingsley created them – to prevent us being short-staffed like we were during the wars with Voldemort."
"I'll discuss it with the Head of the DMLE," Hermione said stiffly.
"You can call him Draco, you know," Harry said with a raised eyebrow, "He is your husband, after all."
"He isn't wearing a wedding ring," Hermione said coolly, "So right now, he is the Head of the DMLE and…while we're on the subject of badges, I think you need this back."
Harry looked at the badge she was holding out to him – it was faded because he always forgot to polish it. There was a dent in the top right corner from a curse that had nearly killed him 3 years ago.
"No," Harry said quietly, "I'm not an Auror anymore."
"But you are a reserve Auror," Hermione said softly.
"And regardless of the situation between us, there is no way you should have left this building when you resigned without this badge and the right to wear your Auror robes, Harry. You put two decades into that department, and you should have been sent off like the hero that you are."
Harry swallowed, his eyes still on the badge.
"Thank you, Hermione," Harry said as he took the badge from her.
"Although, it does bring us onto another issue," Harry said with a frown. "Publically, what is my role in all of this? I'm not an Auror, and I don't want it to look like you're parachuting me in because Draco's not up to the task."
Hermione shook her head.
"And I definitely don't want to be the Lucius Malfoy to your Cornelius Fudge," Hary added, "Because people hear 'special advisor' and they'll think I'm bribing you or sleeping with you. Only one of which I've done."
Hermione glared at him.
"I'd say too soon? But it was over 20 years ago," Harry said, shooting her an amused look.
She smiled slightly and shook her head, "Shut up, Harry."
Hermione bit her lip, "How do you feel about being a temporary Assistant Head of the DMLE? Until this situation is dealt with, then you can disappear to your retirement home."
"My retirement home?" Harry asked with a raised eyebrow.
"Hogwarts, Harry," Hermione said knowingly, "It's where you've always belonged. You were just too damn good here to let go. We had to let you come to the realisation by yourself."
"I don't know about that, Hermione," Harry said, glancing down.
"There have been a lot of comparisons between myself and Dumbledore, and a part of me doesn't want to go near that school in case they get worse. I don't want to be like him. Draco is one of my closest friends, and he compared this entire situation to the Dumbledore-Grindelwald divide."
Hermione looked at him in horror, "He compared me to Grindelwald?"
Harry surveyed her with interest, "Yes, and he did make a good point. Grindelwald was a dark wizard, but he wasn't a traditionalist or a puritan. He valued wizardkind above Muggles, but within that, he included half-bloods and muggle-borns."
Hermione frowned as she tried to follow Harry's point.
"By wanting to rid us of the Muggle problem, he put wizardkind above Muggles," Harry said calmly, "And whether you realise it or not, you are doing the same. By telling us that we are safer if the Muggles don't know about us, by warning us of the danger of warfare with Muggles, you are putting wizardkind above them."
"But…I'm a liberal Minister, Harry."
"And you are responsible for the wizarding world, Hermione. You are not the Muggle Minister; you are the Minister for Magic. You are putting us first, but you need to. By doing so, you're doing your job."
Hermione's frown deepened, "Are you trying to tell me that it was a compliment when my husband compared me to Grindelwald?"
Harry shrugged, "I could have taken it as a compliment when Ollivander compared me to Voldemort. He was a terrible wizard, but he was great. In the same vein, Grindelwald was intelligent, he was passionate, he was innovative. He just thought it was okay to commit genocide to achieve his goals. That's where you differ, by the way, on that last part."
"Yes, Harry, I got that," Hermione said, fighting back a smile.
Harry smiled too, "I know it's not up to me, but I would advise that you and the Head of the DMLE discuss calling up the reserve Aurors sooner rather than later. Very soon, you are going to have to start sending people abroad, which leaves the Auror department short-staffed and the homefront vulnerable."
Hermione jotted this down and nodded, "We will discuss that," she assured him.
Harry nodded and looked at her a little more closely. Her eyes were bloodshot, and she had obviously used a glamour charm to cover up the bags beneath them.
"I already have the wheels in motion to get Aurors shipped out to help," Hermione continued, "I have authorised a task force of six. The intention is for them to go to Hungary and try to find the Statute Saboteurs base so that we know exactly what we are dealing with in terms of the opposition's numbers."
Harry nodded.
"I also have several Aurors shipping out for the European countries that have been hit the worst by the Statute Saboteurs and who, therefore, need back-up."
"Good," Harry said, "I did know about the task force to Hungary. Rob told me, and Teddy and Nick have volunteered for it."
Hermione's eyes widened, "Have they? I didn't know that. I just gave the authorisation to Head Auror Smith, who he picks and how he picks his team is up to him."
Harry knew she wasn't lying about that, so he nodded.
Hermione looked him in the eye and asked, "Do you think it's enough?"
Harry sighed and leaned back in his chair, "We do need to know the lay of the land before we wage war on them. You wouldn't send a missile into a building unless you knew there were no innocents inside, after all."
"Is that what you think I want to do?" Hermione asked quietly, "Wipe out the Statute Saboteurs in one fell swoop?"
"I don't know," Harry said with a tired sigh, "The way you spoke about Muggle warfare and how terrified we should all be of Muggles…it almost sounded like you were taking ideas from them."
Hermione looked horrified. She swallowed and looked down at her desk, "Harry…if you think that lowly of me," she looked up, her eyes full of tears, "I know I screwed up, but I didn't think I did it that badly."
And Harry caved. He sighed and leaned forward, "I'm just not sure that I know who you are anymore. You've changed so much over the years, Hermione. I mean, imagine your reaction if someone had told 15-year-old you that you would reform Draco Malfoy into Draco Black, then marry him. That alone would blow your mind, but then if they said you'd have six kids between you in this four-way partnership with Theodore Nott and Sadie Cauldwell, god, your brain would have exploded."
"Or I'd have cursed someone," Hermione added.
"Or punched them," Harry said with a grin, "Or was that just a phase 13-year-old you was going through?"
Hermione gave him an exasperated look, and Harry cocked his head at her, "I suppose what I'm saying is that I'm not sure where you stand right now or where I stand with you."
Hermione nodded and pulled herself together, "Then I will tell you, in no uncertain terms. I won't stand for terrorism, and I will not let these people tear down everything we have worked for. Wizarding Britain is the most united it has ever been. We have done so much for equality. If the Statute of Secrecy is ripped down and Muggles find out about us, all of that will be at risk."
Harry frowned, "I'm surprised, you know, at your outlook. I thought you would have been optimistic."
"Maybe I would have been, once upon a time," Hermione said. Her sigh was half-hearted, "When I was younger… I was naïve. I'm not trying to instil fear in the hearts of the nation, Harry. My parents are Muggles, and they are good people. Linda Corner is a good person. But unfortunately, the bad people are often the ones who end up running governments and leading armies."
Harry nodded, "I get it, but I am worried about recruitment. The first thing the Statute Saboteurs did after their warning shot was try to assassinate you. That's a bold move for a European rebellion with no support in Britain."
Hermione frowned, "You think they've already canvassed?"
Harry nodded, "I do, and that begs the question, what sort of people would support this cause?"
Hermione frowned, "Extreme liberals, or Muggle lovers, to use the derogative term."
"But can you see even the Weasley's supporting this?" Harry asked calmly.
Hermione looked affronted, "Of course not."
"And Lupin Housers are going to be the first to come under target," Harry said with a dark look in his eyes.
"People will draw on their tragic backstories and their…unsavoury parentage. They will say dark witches and wizards' children tend to go the same way, but that's not true, Hermione. The kids we saved are good people despite who their parents were, and I can't see them committing treason against the country and the ministry that gave them that freedom."
Hermione looked up at Harry, "Are you saying purebloods are behind this?"
"Think about it," Harry said quietly, "Who would want to rip down everything we've built by letting the Muggles know about our presence?"
"Traditionalists, people who don't like what we've built," Hermione realised.
"They are also the sort of people who would want to show that Muggles are dangerous people who can't be trusted. These are the kind of people who want things to go back to how they were before," Harry finished, "Those are the people to watch out for. Now, you might not have listened to Draco the first time, but please listen to me this time. Increase your personal guard, and be very wary of the people you allow access to your home or this office. They don't necessarily have to be under the imperius curse to be working with the Statute Saboteurs."
Hermione nodded. She raised a hand to rub her eyes, "Is he talking to you?"
"Who?" Harry asked cluelessly.
"Draco," Hermione replied quietly.
Harry looked at her for a moment, then nodded, "Yeah, he is."
"Is he…does he seem okay to you?" Hermione asked, her eyes scanning Harry's.
Harry sighed and shook his head, "Honestly, no. He's a human car crash, and everybody's looking at the wreckage. He's doing the best he can to work with what's left, but he's worried about the prophecy, about the consequences of what you did….and I know he's not the only one."
"Do you know what it said?" Hermione asked, biting her lip, "The prophecy?"
Harry nodded, took a breath and then recited it from memory.
"With the last embers of summer, when darkness falls,
The consequences of meddling shall be revealed
Through the spirits door, where the breeze breaks
There fire shall fly from the raven girl,
Silver eyes will cry through the wind,
And the light shall fade from the golden one.
All that was un-done shall be remade,
And the sun will set to the harvest moon."
"The last embers of summer," Hermione mused, "I suppose that refers to the astronomical end of summer."
"Yeah, I worked out as much," Harry agreed, "The Autumnal Equinox, it's the 22nd of September, and it's July now, so there's time to work out what it means, but…."
"We can't stop it," Hermione finished.
Harry shook his head, "If this is time's way of fixing what you did, of putting the universe right, then if we meddle and try to stop it, we'll only make things worse."
"What do you think it means?" Hermione asked, looking up at Harry anxiously.
Harry's eyes were just as full of concern. He shook his head.
"I wish I knew."
"I just don't know what it could mean!"
"Yep, I've been trying all week," Harry admitted. He was sitting at the head of the kitchen table in Potter Manor with Daphne, Neville and Lilly.
It was no easy feat, engaging all of their children in other activities so they could have this conversation in private, but they had managed. Teddy was out with Almina, Andrea was reading in her room, and Alastor was hanging out with Harry and James in the greenhouse. The most difficult two to convince to scarper were Thea and Laurel, so naturally, Daphne had farmed them both out to Black-Nott Castle for the night. Laurel had been happy to see Ada, and Thea had been thrilled because she 'needed a night to bitch with her best friend'.
With a click of his fingers, Harry conjured a blackboard and some chalk.
"Then let's deal with this like it's a piece of evidence in a case," Harry said, "By which I mean we analyse it, Neville. Not that we lose it or accidentally burn it."
"Two pieces of evidence in a five-year career, Harry," Neville said, giving his best friend an exasperated look, "And you still won't let me live it down."
"Damn right," Harry said with a grin.
"Someone be my caller," He added as he turned to the board.
Neville pulled the piece of parchment that Harry had scrawled the prophecy on towards him and called out the first line.
"With the last embers of summer, when darkness falls."
"We're pretty unanimous that's the autumnal equinox, right?" Harry asked as he wrote the line on the board.
Lilly nodded, "It has to be. Especially when you combine it with the last line of the prophecy about the Harvest Moon."
"That's always the moon that follows Mabon," Daphne agreed, "And I think that might be a hint in itself, you know?"
Neville looked over at her, "They won't get it, Harry and Lilly, I mean. They didn't grow up like we did."
Harry snorted and leant back, "Wow, look at the purebloods bonding over their magical superiority, Lilly."
"I know, look at them, with their noses so high in the air," Lilly said in a teasing tone of voice.
"Not all of us are uneducated heathens, sweetie," Daphne said, her eyes flashing playfully in Lilly's direction.
Lilly shook her head in amusement, "What's Mabon? Apart from a national holiday, that means I get paid double every year I work through it?"
"That's because it's a wizarding holiday, even if it isn't really celebrated anymore," Neville replied with an amused smile.
"Back in the olden days, it was celebrated along with every other event in the wheel of the year. After Voldemort was defeated for the first time, it became a sign of dark magic to celebrate such things. Hence, a lot of the lighter families, in particular, stopped doing so."
"But the dark or neutral families carried on with the traditions," Daphne said calmly, "Between my Crouch family and the Greengrass family, we celebrated every event in the wheel of the year."
"Right…" Harry said slowly, "So keep pretending that we're uneducated heathens and tell us what the wheel of the year is."
Neville chuckled and leant forward, "It's also referred to as the magical year. As you'll know from studying Astronomy, Lilly, magic is at its peak during astronomical events."
Lilly nodded, but Harry remarked, "I didn't know that."
"That would be because you studied Sinistra, not the stars, Harry," Daphne deadpanned.
"I would like to defend myself, but I really can't," Harry admitted with an amused smile.
Neville laughed and continued, "The magical year revolves around astronomical events because they boost magical power. As you know from working in the DMLE, during certain full moons, when the moon is aligned with other planets, weird things can happen. People can anger quicker; magic becomes unstable or volatile."
Harry nodded slowly.
"The key holidays revolve around equinoxes and solstices," Neville finished, "And Mabon is the holiday celebrating the end of summer."
"That was an excellent lesson, Neville," Daphne said with a smirk, "Is there going to be homework or do we need to put these two heathens in detention?"
Lilly grinned, "Now you're just tapping into our roleplay scenarios."
Harry choked on his coffee, "You've done a professor roleplay?"
Neville's cheeks coloured, and Lilly's grin widened, "Oh yeah, in the greenhouse."
"In the greenhouse?" Harry echoed.
"And we're the ones with the exciting sex life?" Daphne asked, raising an eyebrow at Harry.
Harry snorted.
"Professor Longbottom," Daphne said. She tutted and shook her head, "I never knew you had it in you."
Neville cleared his throat; his cheeks were bright red.
"Can we…uh…go back to the prophecy now, please?"
"Neville, are you ever going to stop getting embarrassed?" Daphne asked with an amused smile, "I mean, really, after what we did for your 40th birthday last year?"
"It's different in the heat of the moment," Neville muttered as he stared down, "I'm not like you lot, though. I'm much less comfortable talking about it at the kitchen table."
"Ironic, considering some of the things this kitchen table has seen," Lilly mused.
"Lilly!" Neville exclaimed.
Lilly grinned, and Harry chuckled, "Back to the prophecy before Neville spontaneously combusts, alright? Neville, drink your coffee and stop thinking about what happened on your 40th birthday."
"How did you-" Neville began to ask in alarm.
Harry tapped his head, "You're projecting, and it's distracting me. So, come on – the prophecy?"
Daphne nodded, "Mabon is a point of perfect balance. Night and day are of equal length and in perfect equilibrium. Dark and light are in balance, but it is the cusp of a transition because, from that point, the year begins to wane, darkness begins to defeat the light."
"Why did you say that in such an evil pureblood way?" Lilly frowned.
"Because that's the way I was taught about it as a child," Daphne replied, "It's not evil; it's just the way we were raised. What we celebrated may have been different from what you celebrated, but that doesn't make us bad and you good."
"The world is much more complicated than that," Harry agreed, "And you're right about the timing being important. The night when dark and light are in balance…it's the perfect time for the powers that be to reset what Hermione and Sadie did."
Neville nodded, "Still, knowing when it's going to happen doesn't help us if we can't make sense of the rest of the prophecy, does it?"
Harry shook his head and wrote the following line on the blackboard,
"The consequences of meddling shall be revealed."
"Well, that's rather self-explanatory," Daphne remarked, "Whatever happens, we will find out what the consequences of what Hermione and Sadie did are."
Harry nodded and jotted down the following line.
"Through the spirits door, where the breeze breaks."
"Could it refer to Azkaban?" Daphne asked curiously, "The spirits door…are Dementors spirits?"
"I don't know," Harry replied with a frown, "But I don't think it's referring to Azkaban. There aren't that many Death Eaters who escaped death, to be honest, so I can't think of anyone who could escape and do serious damage."
"Maybe it refers to a graveyard?" Lilly suggested, "A point where there is a doorway into the spiritual world, you know?"
"Woah…" Harry said, holding up a hand and looking directly at Neville, "You don't think that could be the veil, do you?"
"What veil?" Daphne and Lilly echoed.
Neville stared right back at Harry, "How could it be…nobody should be able to get in there."
"Yet we managed it when we were 15," Harry said, without breaking eye contact, "And it's a doorway to the spiritual world, isn't it? Stepping through it killed Sirius."
"Boys, a little more information, please," Daphne said, clicking her fingers.
"For the non-ex-Auror partners who can't understand each other with a glance," Lilly added, raising an eyebrow at the two men.
Harry broke eye contact with Neville to look at Lilly, "There's this doorway in the Department of Mysteries. It's called the veil, and it's just this ancient crumbling doorway with a black curtain in front of it. The curtain is ripped and tattered, and it's always blowing slightly even though there is no wind."
"Where the breeze breaks," Neville said, looking at the prophecy, "The curtain blows in an invisible wind."
Harry nodded and continued, "When you're near it, you can hear whispering. It's supposedly the dead whispering to you, trying to entice you to join them. When Sirius fell through it, he died."
"Okay," Lilly said slowly, "So, whatever happens, is going to happen in the Department of Mysteries?"
Harry nodded, "Which makes me re-think my theory about the 'golden one'. I thought it might refer to Hermione or me….but why would either of us be down there?"
Daphne looked up at him, "Could you have predicted that you would end up in a battle there at the end of your fifth year?"
"No," Harry admitted.
"Exactly, so don't discount yourself just yet," Daphne said, pushing herself to her feet. She grabbed the chalk from Harry and wrote out the next line.
"There fire shall fly from the raven girl."
"That has to refer to a Ravenclaw, right?" Harry asked.
"Not necessarily," Lilly frowned, "Someone with dark hair, maybe?"
"Or someone called Raven?" Neville suggested.
Daphne frowned across the table at her best friend, "It could mean you, Lilly."
"Me?" Lilly echoed, "Why would I hurt one of our friends?"
"Because these people seem very adept with the imperius curse," Harry replied, glancing warily at Lilly, "You might do it without meaning to."
Lilly's frown deepened, "I've been trained up the same way you have, Harry. I can resist the imperius curse."
Neville shuffled, clearly uncomfortable with the topic of conversation, "It doesn't mean Lilly," he said as if to convince himself.
"It could refer to any number of things and therefore mean anything," Daphne agreed, giving Harry a pointed look that meant 'don't worry Neville unnecessarily'. She turned to write the next line on the board.
"Silver eyes will cry through the wind."
"That has to refer to Draco," Daphne said, turning to look at them, "Who else do we know with silver eyes?"
"Technically they're grey, but yes," Harry agreed with a nod, "It has to refer to Draco."
"Cry through the wind," Neville mused, "Do you think he's going to lose control of his magic?"
"It's entirely possible," Daphne replied, glancing at the next line of the prophecy.
"And the light shall fade from the golden one."
"Especially if that relates to Hermione."
"It could be Harry or Ron," Neville pointed out, "They were equal parts of the golden trio, after all."
"It's not going to be Ron," Daphne said with a roll of her eyes, "He's a shopkeeper, he's going to be miles away from all of this. It could be Hermione because the press occasional refers to her as the golden girl. Still, Harry gets called the golden boy, or the golden wonder all of the time."
"You're thinking about nicknames," Lilly pointed out, "It could refer to appearance – someone blonde, with golden hair?"
"Like Sadie," Daphne mused.
"It would make more sense than Hermione if we're right about the veil," Neville admitted.
"Like every other line, we can't be certain," Daphne said, sighing and writing out the following line.
"All that was undone shall be remade."
"That's the line I'm worried about," Harry admitted, "What was un-done was Draco's death. What if the silver eyes crying through the wind line is about Draco's death, and the light fading from the golden one is Hermione after that happens?"
"We could flip that just as easily, though," Lilly pointed out, "What if silver eyes crying through the wind is Draco? And the light fading from the golden one does refer to Hermione's death?"
"A life for a life," Neville said quietly.
"It's like something out of a Beedle the Bard story," Daphne said, throwing down the piece of chalk in her hand.
"Only we're living it," Harry said, rubbing his eyes and wincing as his hand brushed his scar.
"Does your scar hurt?" Neville asked, that alone setting off alarm bells in his head.
"A little bit, yeah," Harry said. He looked up at Neville with dread in his eyes, "I just have a bad feeling in my gut, Nev. Something bad is coming, and it's coming straight for all of us."
"Then I suppose we better make sure that we're ready," Neville said, reaching out and grabbing Harry's shoulder.
Harry could only nod, the ever-present feeling that as Hagrid once said – a storm was coming, and they needed to be ready when it did.
- TBC -
