"You suck," Theo said factually, setting his tea back on the table between them.
"Hey!" Hermione protested, giving him a pointed look. "I didn't tell you about Charlotte to garner verbal abuse, thank you very much."
"You talked to Drake about this weeks ago and you couldn't have mentioned it to me? You see me every day! I'm your best friend, center of your universe, the light in your very bleak little life. How could you not tell me?!"
"If you keep it up, all you're going to be is my ex-coworker."
She stirred her tea and set the spoon on the saucer beside her cup. It was Saturday afternoon and they were waiting for Luna to show up so they could head to London for some holiday shopping. The three of them, and occasionally Ginny, had become something of a clique since Theo started working at the academy and Luna began dating Draco, both of which happened about a year and a half ago.
Hermione and Luna were having lunch at The Leaky Cauldron summer before last when the head of the Malfoy family wandered in with Theo. Having buried the hatchet long ago, Hermione invited them to join and introduced Luna, unsure if they had met before.
That was when, all in one breath, Luna said they hadn't met, but they were supposed to, began chattering about blibbering humdingers for a moment, and then invited Draco to dinner with her that night. Positively befuddled, he accepted, and, whatever happened on that date, they had been together ever since.
Hermione didn't think he understood what Luna was saying half the time, but he was clearly besotted, and Luna always referred to their relationship as if it were preordained and she had simply been biding her time and waiting for him to morph into a decent human being.
He still ran the orphanage with his mother, and she edited The Quibbler from Ottery Saint Catchpole, but Luna spent more time at Malfoy House than not, doing art projects with the kids and organizing creature-hunting excursions on the grounds.
Putting aside that their pairing made absolutely zero sense on the surface, they were bizarrely well-suited for one another. He was still cynical and quick to judge, and she was… well, Luna.
"Sorry I'm late!" the blonde witch said, hurrying into Hermione's kitchen and brushing soot off her aggressively patterned poinsettia skirt. "One of the children had a wrackspurt infestation that we had to get taken care of right away. Very serious."
"That's okay Luna," Hermione assured her, pouring another cup of tea, "we aren't in any rush. Theo and I were just talking about –"
"About her betrayal," Theo interjected, still pouting.
"Oh! You've told him then."
"Luna knew?!"
"She was at the orphanage when I talked to Draco!" Hermione defended.
"That's it. I'm done. Have fun with your obese cat and your new kid and all your friends that know you soooo much better than I do."
He got up to leave in a dramatic showing before Luna shot a light stinging hex at his leg, making him fall back into the chair and thoroughly shocking all present. Even Felix, who was sitting on the armchair in the other room, stopped licking himself for a moment.
"Theodore Nott, you stop that right now," she demanded, usually airy voice taking on a sharp edge. "Hermione is making a gigantic, life altering decision and she isn't under any obligation to discuss it with you, or anyone else, until she feels prepared to do so."
Theo simply blinked at her for a moment, gobsmacked, before turning to Hermione and muttering an apology.
"Anyway," Luna said when he quieted again, dropping a sugar cube into her cup and turning to Hermione, "how did Fred take it?"
"He was great," she replied with a bit of a sigh, "really supportive."
"Just supportive?" Theo asked, forgetting his annoyance in the wake of juicer gossip.
"Well, yeah… it's not like I expected him to make some sweeping declaration about how he'll co-parent with me. In truth, he seemed a little disappointed."
"I'm sure he was just surprised," Luna reasoned.
"I don't know… it felt like he closed up. I don't blame him, truly. He wants his own family, not the patchwork quilt that I'm offering."
"It's not too late to change your mind," Theo chimed in. "You said that Drake hasn't even spoken to Charlotte about it yet."
"I won't," Hermione said resolutely. "I can't explain it. She's like a mix of the socially awkward child that I used to be, the bookish witch that I was at Hogwarts, and the parentless adult I am now. I just feel like I can give her the support that I needed, that my own parents didn't know how to offer. Does that make sense?"
"Of course," Luna said, reaching over to squeeze Hermione's hand. "You never know, Fred could surprise you."
They sat in silence for a moment, finishing their respective drinks before Theo smacked his hand on the table and stood up, rubbing his leg where Luna hexed him and shooting her a look.
"Well, you two have successfully bummed me out and destroyed my excitement about holiday shopping. Let's go see how many galleons it takes to fill the void, shall we?"
Luna giggled and Hermione rolled her eyes, levitating the tea set onto the kitchen counter and summoning her cloak.
oOoOoOo
"I still think you should go back and buy them," Theo said, popping a piece of caramel corn in his mouth as the three of them trekked down Diagon Alley, sidestepping droves of people.
"They were expensive," Hermione sighed. "I'm good for it, but I don't want to make him feel bad if he got me something simpler."
"I thought they were charming," Luna chimed in, grabbing a handful of caramel corn and rolling her eyes when Theo whined. "And you could engrave them yourself."
They had just left a booth set up outside of Magical Menagerie that was selling all manner of animal-themed, handmade jewelry, including a pair of magpie cufflinks; Fred's Patronus. They were beautifully crafted and made of a mix of metals to indicate the blue and white patterns on the bird.
They'd just rounded the corner when they ran into Pansy Flint née Parkinson, dragging a little boy by the wrist away from Sugar Plum's Sweets Shop. Hermione seriously debated turning around and taking another route, but Pansy caught sight of them before she had the chance.
"Oh look, if it isn't the Gryffindor Princess here to walk among us mortals," she sneered, shushing her now-crying child. Pansy hadn't changed much since school in either appearance or demeanor, her nose as squashed and hair as severely cut as it ever was.
"Hello Pansy," Luna said with a smile, completely disregarding the tone of the conversation.
"Still running that abomination of a school, I hear," she spat at Hermione, ignoring Luna's greeting completely.
Pansy had been, and still was, one of the most outspoken members of pureblood society against the opening of The Marauder's Academy. At this point, that meant one or two editorials in The Prophet each year, droning on about the dangers of introducing muggle-born children to magic early (read 'at all').
"Yes, it's doing quite well," Hermione said in a conversational tone, electing to take the high road. "As I've told you many times before, you are welcome to enroll Courtland any time you'd like."
She shot a sympathetic look at the poor kid, hat askew and pudgy face streaked with tears.
"Why don't you just do us all a favor and snap your wand, you stupid –"
"And that's enough of that," Theo said, sending a silencing charm at Pansy, whose mouth continued to move without any words coming out. Courtland looked up at Theo with wide-eyed wonder, as if he'd just watched him hang the moon. "Be gone tiresome shrew, go spew your bile elsewhere."
He flicked his wrist, as if he could physically will her from their presence, and looped arms with Hermione and Luna, pulling them forward and leaving Pansy red-faced and soundlessly shrieking behind them.
"You know she'll have something in tomorrow's paper about how you assaulted her, don't you?" Hermione asked in a tired voice.
"I'm still feeling a little down… maybe I'll see how many galleons it takes to make that problem go away as well," he replied, offering her the bag of caramel corn, which she accepted.
"Can we stop at WWW?" Hermione asked. "I haven't seen Angie since the baby shower and she's due in just a few weeks."
They took another turn and headed toward the brightly colored shop at the end of the alley that Hermione had grown so familiar with over the years.
Hogwarts was still in session, so the store wasn't quite packed yet, but there was a decent crowd milling about when they entered and rang the bell over the door.
"Hermione!" Angelina called in greeting from behind the counter, having just handed a bag of goods to a middle-aged witch. Theo and Luna waved and then peeled off toward a selection of new products. "What are you doing here?"
"Came to see you, of course! My gosh, you look fit to burst," Hermione joked, awkwardly hugging around her enormous baby-bump.
"Yeah, well, wouldn't you believe they told me at the last appointment that I am carrying not one, but two Weasley babies?"
"You mean –"
"Twins," she confirmed, "and already just as much trouble as the current set."
"I do believe my ears are burning," George said, appearing from behind the storeroom door and levitating several crates.
"Hi George," Hermione managed to choke out around her laughter. His hair was currently electric blue and standing on end. "Product testing?"
"Still sharp as a tack, you are," he joked, setting down the boxes and coming around the counter to hug her tightly. Like his brother he smelled faintly of gunpowder, but rather than the earthy spices she associated with Fred, George's scent was more citrusy.
"How have you been?" Angie asked as George excused himself to help a customer that was trying to flag him down. At that moment Verity walked in, presumably from her lunch, and insisted on taking over the till, shooing the pair of witches toward two chairs against the wall.
"I've been great," Hermione said once they'd settled, "Fred actually came by the academy yesterday to help me with the student's holiday crafts."
"So I heard; he dropped in this morning to pick up some inventory and he mentioned it."
"Did he say anything else?" Hermione asked innocently, unable to contain her curiosity. She hadn't explicitly requested that Fred not tell anyone about Charlotte, but he probably hadn't anyway.
"No, should he have?"
"Can you keep a secret?" Hermione asked after a pause. "You can tell George, but I would prefer not to let the whole Weasley clan in just yet."
"Oh my gosh, he finally did it!"
"I'm going to – wait, who did what?"
Angie's eyes went wide for a moment.
"Nothing. Pregnancy brain. What were you saying?"
"Angelina, what were you talking about?" Hermione pressed.
"Erm… I'm not supposed to say anything."
"Did you take an unbreakable vow?"
"Goodness no, nothing like that."
"Magnificent, then tell me."
The witch played her hands nervously over her stomach and shot a longing look at George's back, as if he might come save her. When no rescue attempt was made, she sighed and turned back to Hermione.
"Well, I had it on good authority that Fred was finally going to ask you out," Angelina admitted.
Hermione sighed and wiped her hands over her face, groaning and wanting nothing more than to sink into the earth and disappear forever.
"Yeah, I was afraid you were going to say that."
"Oh no, why? Do you not… you two have always seemed so right for each other. We'd all sort of concluded it was inevitable after he ended things with Katie and the two of you started spending more time together."
"No, I do," Hermione said quickly, "I definitely do, but it's much more complicated than that."
"It almost always is. What's going on? Is there someone else?"
"Yeah. An eight-year-old girl that is going to be moving in with me come the new year."
"Oh." Angelina's lips made a little circle as she plopped back against the chair. "One of the Malfoy orphans?"
"Yes," Hermione said, expression softening as she lifted her head. "She's a very sweet kid named Charlotte. No parents to speak of, and not a great background. But she's smart and she loves books and I adore her."
"And you don't think Fred is interested in two for the price of one? It's sort of a recurring theme in his family, you know. And they take in strays, just look at Harry."
"I don't know… I just don't think I can ask that of him."
Angelina gave her a sympathetic look, but before she could say anything else Theo and Luna appeared behind Hermione.
"I'm so sorry to interrupt," Luna said with an apologetic expression. "I have to be getting back, the holiday issue of The Quibbler is going to print tomorrow and I have to look over the final layout."
"And I have a newspaper editor to bribe," Theo added with an evil little smirk.
"I should get going too," Hermione sighed, helping to pull Angie to her feet, whose off-kilter center of gravity was working hard against her.
"Give him a chance, yeah?" Angelina said in a hushed tone, placing a hand on Hermione's arm. "If there's one thing I've learned about the Weasley twins, it's not to underestimate them. Also, not to accept any sort of food or drink from them."
"Do you ever say anything nice about me when I'm not around?" George complained, coming up behind her and looping his arms around her belly.
"Nope," she replied with a cheeky smirk, turning her head to kiss him on the cheek.
"Did you invite them to the party next weekend?"
"Oh, no, I completely forgot! Okay, this one actually was pregnancy brain."
"Party?" Theo asked, ears perking up.
"We're having a holiday party next Saturday," George explained, "you should all come by. Starts at seven and hideous jumpers are compulsory."
"Can I bring Draco?" Luna asked, head tilted to the side a bit in thought.
"Sure! The more the merrier. Just make sure you each bring something for the gift exchange if you want to play, five galleons or less."
"Sounds like fun," Hermione said with a smile. Perhaps she could take this Christmas to start new traditions, ones that didn't make her quite so melancholy.
With a few more parting words, the trio found themselves on the sidewalk in front of the shop.
"I'll see you next weekend," Luna said, leaning in to give Hermione a quick hug before taking a few steps away and apparating.
"I'm not hugging you, I'll see you Monday for Circe's sake," Theo said, rolling his eyes and turning on his heel, striding toward the office building that contained The Daily Prophet.
Hermione rocked in place for a moment before making up her mind and heading off to buy a pair of aviary themed cufflinks.
oOoOoOo
It was later that night and Hermione had been pacing back and forth across the floor of her small home library for the better part of an hour, slowly chewing her thumb nail to a bloody stump. She could hear Luna and Angelina chirping in her head, 'maybe he'll surprise you' and 'give him a chance.'
It wasn't that she didn't want to 'give him a chance,' she just didn't want him to feel like he was obligated to do anything; that is, if he was even still interested. Which he very likely wasn't.
She stopped and looked at Felix on the chair, as if he might impart some wisdom, but he just rolled over and shut his eyes. Typical.
"Fuck it all," she huffed, grabbing a scrap of parchment and a quill from her desk and jotting down a quick note.
Dinner and holiday baking at mine tomorrow?
- H
Before she could second guess herself, she strode over to Artemis' open cage on the windowsill and gently prodded her tawny owl awake.
"Can you take this to Fred?"
Artemis perked up immediately, knowing full well that Fred had a tendency to let her over-indulge in treats. She quickly clipped the folded note in her beak and took off through the open, albeit warded, window.
Not twenty minutes had passed before the owl swooped back in and deposited a different folded piece of parchment in her lap. The owl looked inordinately pleased with herself as she resumed the spot on her perch and began preening.
I'll be there by seven.
- F