Ch 88: New Friends
The cold rain tapping on the kitchen window pane somehow made the warm kitchen feel even cozier to Hermione as she worked on the preparations for that night's dinner. Looking around the familiar room she smiled as she could look at the kitchen table and remember times with Dennis and the two babies as well as with Ron and the older kids today. Looking at the table reminded her she needed to change the water in the vase of amazing flowers Ron had given her for Valentines. With the preservation charm they'd managed to last quite a while, but she wasn't ready for them to fade quite yet. Just thinking about Valentine's brought a blush to her cheeks. Ron really was too good to be true sometimes. She had been so annoyed he had been late to meet her for dinner that night, and with some lipstick on his collar no less! But after a moment of ridiculous fury, she had quickly discovered it was because he had taken flowers to Mrs. Carrington and Mrs. Eldwin at the care home and been trapped once again by the forward advances of their elderly muggle friends. She was mortified when she realized how she had reacted, but making up later had been totally worth it.
The quiet moments of remembering were cut short when she heard the boys come through the floo, the tornado of noise quickly following as Hugo galloped up the stairs still laughing and yelling back at Ron.
"Hi," Ron said as he came into the kitchen, leaning to give Hermione a peck on the cheek. "Why are you blushing?"
The observation made her flush further as she admitted, "Just freshened up the flowers and was thinking of Valentines."
His lopsided grin, both smug and mischievous, broke out across his face as a similar flush started up his neck. "Oh yes. You should absolutely falsely accuse me of adultery more often so we can have more of those kind of nights," he said as he snaked his arm around her waist pulling her closer.
She playfully smacked his chest, saying, "I still feel awful about that. But maybe we could leave that part out and just have a repeat of the rest of it."
"Brilliant," he said as he captured her lips in his, kissing her deeply as his other hand grabbed her arse.
Before she could react, Hugo burst into the kitchen. "Really!? You two are ridiculous! We have guests coming for dinner in like ten minutes!"
They both blushed and pulled apart.
"Sorry, little man. Just hadn't seen your mum all day. But, you're right they'll be here soon so will you go make sure the hall loo is freshened up – you know, wipe down the sink, make sure we have toilet paper and all that?"
"Yeah, yeah. Just don't get all kissy faced again and forget we're having company any minute."
Hermione giggled and threw a dishtowel at him as he ran out of the room. She shook her head and slowly turned back to her kitchen, blushing again when Ron bent down and whispered "raincheck" into her ear as he kissed her neck before letting her go.
"Actually," he said as he went to get the plates from the cabinet to set the table, "I am really looking forward to this dinner."
"Me too," said Hermione. "I've never gotten to meet the mysterious Matthew Coppedge, and I am really looking forward to meeting his girlfriend as well. Do you know much about her?"
"No, not really. All I know is that she knows about magic, and she is allergic to peanuts."
"Allergic to peanuts?! Ron! Don't you think that would have been a helpful bit of information to pass along to the person in charge of cooking!?"
"I hadn't mentioned that?" he asked meekly.
"RONALD BILIUS WEASLEY!"
"I take that as a no. But we never eat peanuts – are we actually having peanuts tonight?"
"Well, no. We're not having pad thai or anything. But I do have nuts in the salad. Go through the rubbish bin, find the can of nuts and see if they were processed in a peanut free place."
"What? Dig through the trash?"
The look she shot him clarified that yes, yes he was to dig through the trash. He went to flick his wand and she caught his wrist. "No, sir. If you have to dig through the trash the muggle way, then maybe you will learn to pass along important details like LIFE THREATENING ALLERGIES!"
"Right," he swallowed guiltily, recognizing the fury in his wife's eyes that, once again, reminded him eerily of his mum and sister's looks of fury. Soon he was digging through the nasty package the raw chicken came in, old tea bags and the scraped off oatmeal and eggs from the morning. She was right. He wouldn't make that mistake again. But, soon he found the package in question and pulled in out of the trash. He scraped the egg shell and bacon scrap off the tin to read what it said, and sighed in a defeated way. "Says it may contain peanuts," he said guiltily.
Hermione looked at him with some pity. "Alright. Thank you for digging it up. I shouldn't have told you do it the muggle way. Sorry."
"No, you were right. I am glad we checked. Now what?"
"Well," Hermione sighed. "Wash up first, I guess, as you are definitely a mess. The chicken is fine. The rice is fine. I just have to trash the salad. Um – are there any veggies in the crisper drawer?"
"Just that zucchini, I think."
"OK, zucchini it is. Do we have more onions?"
"Yeah."
"OK – can you magically cut up a couple real fast and we can sauté them and add the zucchini and call it a day."
"You're brilliant, you know?" he smiled as he had the onions chopping.
"Yeah, yeah. Save it for later, Weasley."
"Oh I will," he grinned.
Before long, Hugo yelled from the living room, "Their car just pulled up to the driveway!"
"Thanks, Hugo," Ron said and then headed to the front door to greet them and escort them towards the kitchen where Hermione was working on dinner.
"Hermione, this is Matthew Coppedge," Ron said.
"Such an honor to meet you, ma'am. I've been a fan of yours for years," the young man said as he reached out his hand to greet her.
"Matthew, I am so very happy to finally meet you in person," Hermione said as she ignored his offered hand and embraced him warmly. "You have no idea what a blessing you have been to our family in helping us track down Mrs. Eldwin! And, please, call me Hermione."
He blushed and nodded. "Let me introduce Fatima, my fiancé."
"Fiancé? Congratulations! When did this happen?" grinned Ron.
"Valentines," the young woman said with a grin. "And it is a pleasure to meet you both. As Matthew mentioned," she said as she faced Hermione, "we have both been admiring your work in the muggle world for years."
Hermione blushed, but smiled. "Well, thank you. I appreciate that. What do you do that you would have crossed paths with the muggle legal world? Are you in law enforcement as well?"
"Not exactly. I am a social worker and worked with the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, and, your work and advocacy and ability to build crucial legal precedents for important interventions, well, let's just say there are many of us who have been grateful for your years of tireless efforts. And your work has helped many children, and inspired many professionals."
Ron was beaming with pride as Fatima spoke, and he moved his right arm around her waist and pulled her closer, leaning down to kiss her head. "Sounds like my Hermione," he said proudly.
"Thank you, that is more than kind. But I assure you, all of that work was done by a whole team, certainly not by only one person. But, enough about me, how did you two meet?"
Matthew grinned. "Well, Fatima is a squib as well. And, we were both in the same muggle primary school. Once we discovered each other, we became fast friends."
"Since primary school?" Hermione guffawed.
"Well, we've been friends since then," Fatima said. "But we started dating when we were teenagers. He proposed on our tenth anniversary of being a couple."
Ron gave the young man an impressed expression. "Were your parents pestering you to get married? That's rather late in the magical world. Well, I know I started getting pestered when I was still a teenager. And I wasn't even dating someone."
Matthew looked at his shoes awkwardly, and there was an uncomfortable silence suddenly settling in the room.
"Sorry," Hermione apologized before Ron could say anything. "We didn't mean to say the wrong thing. And who are we to criticize? We didn't get married until our late thirties!"
"No, no. That's not it," Fatima said. "My parents have been, uh, rather slow to be supportive about our relationship. In their minds I would marry a nice Indian wizard, and therefore have lovely Indian witches and wizards for their grandchildren and they could just sweep all of this embarrassing squib nonsense under the rug."
"Oh no, that's awful! I am so sorry you've had to endure all of that. I hope they have come around now."
"Well, they aren't what I would call enthusiastic, but they haven't stopped speaking to me or anything." She sighed. "But, Matthew's family has always been amazing. They took me in as practically an adopted daughter years before we ever started dating. They have never looked down on us or considered us to be any less valuable members of the family than Matthew's siblings. They have been such a blessing for me."
Matthew simply smiled and kissed her hand that he held clasped in his.
"It's so ridiculous you know," Hermione sighed. "I thought I had heard it all when I was in the muggle world – this skin color is better than that one. This religion is better than the other. This branch of this religion is better than another. This country over that. I had thought when I discovered the magical world it would be different. But it's still the same. Pure blood, muggle born, half born, squib, muggle. What is it about humans that makes us divide everyone up into some made up pecking order?"
She leaned into Ron's side and took a deep breath. Ron squeezed her to him tightly and said, "Looks like Matthew and I are part of the small number of blokes out there lucky enough to fall in love with amazingly passionate birds who will change the world. Right, Matthew?"
"Couldn't have said it better myself," he grinned.
They had all settled into relaxing conversation over dinner. Once they'd finished and Hugo had taken the dishes to the counter, he was bored of adult conversation and soon retired to sketch up in his room. Ron and Matthew were soon caught up in conversation about investigative approaches and trading stories of outrageous cases they'd been involved in. Hermione and Fatima were lingering over their wine in the kitchen bouncing from stories about children's legal issues to wedding planning. They eventually cleaned up the dishes and brought a plate of biscuits and a pot of tea out to the living room where Ron and Matthew were visiting. The two couples continued to chat, Ron sneaking off at one point to put Hugo to bed, and before they knew it, it was almost eleven. Hermione tried to stifle a yawn, but laughed when she saw Fatima doing the same.
"Come, Matthew, it is far past my bed time. You need to take me home," said Fatima through a yawn.
"As much as I am not ready for you to head out, I am quite tired myself. But, I hope we can do this again soon. I have had such a lovely evening," pronounced Hermione.
"Brilliant," said Ron as Matthew and Fatima nodded assuringly. Hermione and Ron walked the couple to the door, and waved as they pulled out of the driveway. Shutting the door against the cold February night, Hermione made her way into Ron's warm embrace. She nuzzled against his chest sleepily and let her eyes close briefly as she savored the sound of his heartbeat against her ear. He quietly rubbed his hands across her back softly.
She hummed her appreciation and then said, "That was so fun tonight. I had no idea I would enjoy them so much. I really do hope we stay friends with them. I know they're a lot younger than we are,"
"Hey now, we aren't that old!"
"Aren't they the same age as your niece?"
"Well, close. Though Bill was at Hogwarts before I was even born. But think of it this way – we are still basically newlyweds and they are about to be, so more or less we are at the same stage of our lives, right?"
"OK," she grinned. "I like that."
