Lord Marcus Greengrass, the father of Daphne and Astoria Greengrass, was the head of one of the truly neutral families in Wizarding Britain. His import company specialized in potions ingredients, and was often able to obtain superior ingredients from all over the planet at better prices than their competitors. They also had the benefit of being trusted by both sides of the war - which meant that they supplied both the dark families (who then gave or sold the ingredients to the death eaters) and the light (Saint Mungo's and Hogwarts both relied on Verdant Imports, who gave generous discounts in the name of charity).
Before his death, Professor Dumbledore had complained to Harry about families like the Greengrasses, who could be powerful forces for good but chose to hedge their bets. Harry had argued that the Greengrasses had no other real options. The Dark would never trust them if they joined Voldemort, for they had worked too closely with witches and wizards who now opposed him. And the families of the Light would never trust a family who had done so much business with the Malfoys, Parkinsons, Notts, and other now openly death eater families.
Neutrality was the only safe option, even though that safety was dubious at best. But it had worked so far.
Astoria's involvement with Harry Potter did little to change her father's position, to everyone's surprise. To placate the dark, Lord Greengrass offered a substantial reward for the return of his daughter (unharmed, he had emphasized), no questions asked. For his daughter (and the light), he offered hints about death eater movements and safe houses. Never anything that could be tied to him, of course, but enough that his daughter (and her companions) had leads to work from.
In the years following the war, Lord Greengrass would lament his Order of Merlin, Third Class, for it meant a true end of his family's neutrality. Minister Shacklebolt would hear none of it. He had put the pieces together, and determined that Verdant Imports had been directly responsible for saving the lives of over one hundred witches and wizards, all of whom would have died but for intelligence provided by the Greengrasses.
The night of Daphne's wedding, long after the guests had gone home, Lord Greengrass had ended up drinking muggle scotch in his study with Kingsley Shacklebolt and Harry Potter, of all people. He wore his Order of Merlin that day, just as Kingsley and Harry had, despite his promise never to be seen wearing the damned thing. As with many of his choices, Marcus had relented only at Astoria's urging.
"It was Astoria who convinced me to do something," Marcus said, when the war had come up. "She asked me what we were doing, and I said that I wanted to make sure she and her sister lived through this madness. That girl looked me in the eye and said that it wasn't enough to live, that we had to have something to live for." He sipped his drink. "And you know what? She was right."
Harry chuckled at that, sipping his own scotch. "She usually is," was his only reply.
Kingsley nodded in agreement, before raising his own glass. "My Lords," he began. Marcus and Harry raised their glasses in turn. "To absent friends."
The three took a drink together. Normally, they would drain their glasses at a toast like that, but this was very good scotch, and such a thing simply would not do.
The fourth glass remained on the table, untouched, as tradition demanded, its amber liquid catching the light of the fireplace.
oOoOoOoOo
Two weeks before the wedding of Bill Weasley and Fleur Delacour, Hermione Granger had visited Luna Lovegood at her home. As it was only a mile or so from the Burrow, she would make her own way to the wedding.
Originally, she had been asked to help rescue Harry Potter from his relatives' home in Surrey, but the plan turned out to be unnecessary - he had escaped within days of Dumbledore's funeral. A ward scheme added onto the existing wards mimicked his magical signature, allowing the blood wards to take their power from the second ward scheme, rather than from him. And since his magical signature was there, everyone from the Order to the death eaters assumed that he was as well.
When the Order planned for his escape, they received a letter politely informing them of his departure - and warning them to keep the secret, as he had a surprise planned for the death eaters. When his birthday came, and the blood wards fell, the death eaters attacked in force - and found only an empty house.
After thirty death eaters crossed the ward line, the remaining scheme was triggered - and every marked death eater within the wards fell to the ground, screaming. It seemed that this particular ward transmuted the dark mark itself into superheated stone, which tends to have a deleterious effect on flesh, and moreso when it fractured and entered the bloodstream. The blood boiling curse was never this effective.
The results gave the survivors nightmare for years. Harry later called it some of the group's finest work.
With Harry in the wind, it fell to Hermione and Luna to continue working on their projects for the team. The girls knew that they would be departing with Harry shortly after the wedding, and each had prepared accordingly. They had assembled a trunk with all of their books and notes, as well as months worth of preserved supplies and potions ingredients (courtesy Verdant Imports). An old Lovegood family tent was repaired and refurbished, with four bedrooms as Harry had requested - along with two couches comfortable enough for sleeping, just in case.
The Rookery, Luna Lovegood's family home, had been particularly quiet these last few weeks, as Luna's father had been travelling. It seemed that he met with Lord Greengrass somewhere in Scandinavia, and the two bonded over their daughters' friendship. Xeno Lovegood had ended up travelling with Lord Greengrass for a time as the older man purchased rare ingredients. When they returned to Wizarding Britain, Astoria accepted an invitation to accompany Mister Lovegood to his home, so that she could spend some time with Luna and Hermione.
oOoOoOoOo
The evening of Astoria's arrival with Mister Lovegood, Hermione and Luna had been working on a quick and easy method to put up wards around the tent. They could not build ward stones into the tent itself, because the process of shrinking and expanding it would limit their function. At best, the stones would need to be charged after expanding them - which would defeat the purpose.
Hermione began looking at spells and charms they could use that would not rely on ward stones. These would, of course, be temporary, but they didn't need to last longer than a few hours - plenty of time for the permanent wards built into the tent to charge and set themselves properly.
Astoria looked over their work as Luna and her father prepared dinner. "Disillusionment, Notice-me-nots, Muggle Repelling, and Anti Portkey and Apparition." She whistled. "If you could put all of that into one spell, they'd give you your mastery on the spot."
Hermione chuckled, but said nothing. She was proud of the charms she had come up with. It did not escape Astoria's notice that Hermione had found the most efficient way to cast the charms as well, with a minimum of time, magic, and wand movement necessary to obtain the desired effects.
Astoria continued to flip through Hermione's notes. "If only we could cast anti apparition wards like a hex," she said.
That got her a look. "What do you mean?" asked Hermione.
"Well, what if we're being chased by a death eater, and we apparate away. They can follow our jump, right? That's part of why you apparate repeatedly, so that it throws off your trail." Astoria sat down across from her friend. "So, what if we could land at our destination, cast a spell that would prevent the death eater from apparating away, but not us, and then leave him behind. Is that possible?
Hermione looked at her notes, considering the question. "To cover any area large enough, we'd almost need runes and wardstones. And that wouldn't be quick enough to set up before your pursuer arrived."
"Right," said Astoria, sadly. "It would have been brilliant, though."
oOoOoOoOo
Xenophilius Lovegood gave them the answer, without realizing it.
The man told stories of his travels that summer, including some of the rare creatures he had seen in Norway. Luna pouted a bit, as she had not been allowed to go along this year due to security concerns - as one of the 'Ministry Seven', she had been a target ever since her fourth year. Xeno worried that someone might hijack the international portkey they would use to get to Norway, a worry that Luna shared, given Harry's own experience with hijacked portkeys.
As the desserts were cleared away, Xeno Lovegood sat back in his chair, and told a story he had heard in a magical tavern. The girls were delighted, as Luna's father had always been a gifted storyteller. This tale, however, seemed familiar to Hermione, and her frown deepened as the tale wound its way to the inevitable conclusion.
"A spider encountered a centipede, one fine day, as the creature walked down the street." Xeno began. "The spider, elegant and graceful with her eight long legs, was fascinated by the centipede and his dozens upon dozens of much shorter feet. She greeted the centipede, and they spoke for a while about their lives and business, as one might. After a pleasant few minutes, the two said their goodbyes. Before parting ways, however, the spider asked the centipede how he managed to walk with all of those feet."
"The Centipede grinned at the spider, and said that sometimes he can't figure it out himself. Whenever he tries to think about how he walks, he realizes that he cannot. The solution, he said, was to simply keep walking and let the feet sort themselves out."
Luna laughed at the story, and Astoria chuckled along. Hermione, though, was frozen in shock.
"The Centipede's Dilemma," she whispered. "Mister Lovegood, you're a genius!" She bolted from the table, stopping only to give Xeno a kiss on the cheek. "Thanks for dinner!" she called as she rushed up the stairs.
oOoOoOoOo
When Luna and Astoria found Hermione, she was frantically sifting through a book of memory charms. The two shared a look, mindful of the charms she had placed on her parents just before moving them to Australia. Would this be something similar?
"We were looking at wards to stop a pursuer, right?" asked Hermione, not looking up.
"Right," agreed Luna. "But they take too long to set up. It wasn't doable."
Hermione looked up. "What if we used a hex?"
"What," said Astoria. "Hex an area?"
"Nope," said Hermione, triumph in her voice, as she turned the book so that Luna and Astoria could read it. "Hex the pursuer."
Astoria and Luna shared another look. "Hermione, this is the Obliviate charm."
Hermione grinned. "Right! Exactly. So how do you stop someone from apparating after you?" She tapped her finger on her temple. "Make them forget how to apparate."
Luna was putting it together, now. "A targeted memory charm that renders the target incapable of apparating… Merlin."
"Doesn't matter what wards you're under, doesn't matter where you are or where you go. They simply lose the ability to apparate at all." Hermione sat back, looking smug. "All we'd have to do is land one spell."
Astoria was looking the Obliviate charm over. "And if someone uses it on us?"
A chuckle. "Solvitur Ambulando," said Hermione. "You solve it by walking. That's how the centipede's dilemma is solved - you just do it." She got a parchment out and began writing. "We use Solvitur for the curse, and Ambulando for the counter."
The three looked over Hermione's frantic notes, each coming to the conclusion that this might be workable. Astoria had one final concern, however.
"If we hit someone and escape, will they ever be able to learn how to apparate again?" she asked. "I mean, the normal way, with classes or whatever?"
Luna and Hermione looked at each other, considering that. After a moment, it was Luna who spoke. "Tori, are we firing this curse at anyone other than death eaters?"
Astoria shook her head. "No, and I know Harry wouldn't either."
Luna nodded, and then shrugged. "Then we're good." With that, the girls began crafting the spell. None of them knew how useful it would become just two weeks later, at the end of a wedding reception and the start of a battle.
A/N: It's harder than expected to place these three into situations where they craft or need specific spells, and not add in a bit of worldbuilding. It's a bit of fun for me, not having to worry about linear continuity here - a welcome change of pace from a high-pressure twin fic (Who Dares Wins) and a sprawling multiverse-spanning adventure with five leads (Keystone Council). Both are a delight to write, but stuff like this is good to cleanse the palate, so to speak. I hope you enjoy.
Verdant Imports is a reference to the excellent Novocaine, by StardustWarrior2991, here on FFN. If you're in the mood for a Harry/Daphne focused post-war story dealing with healing and rebuilding, then you need to be reading this one. Highly recommended.
Feedback, as always, is welcome.