Ch 101: Avoiding Their Empty Nest
Hermione woke to the sun on a different side of her face, causing her to be disoriented for a moment until she woke enough to remember she was on vacation in Saint Tropez. She, Ron, Harry and Ginny had arrived the previous evening. But, they'd only had time for dinner last night, so they hadn't had any chance to look around. While they were all staying at the Hotel La Ponche, each couple had their own suite with a gorgeous private roof deck that overlooked the Mediterranean.
She looked at Ron, still softly snoring in the bed next to her. Her heart had broken for him as they put Hugo on the train. She'd known he was going to be upset, but neither of them had anticipated Hugo's sendoff bringing up such raw grief for him. But he really had seemed better after getting the owl the next morning. Yesterday had been a blur of getting ready for their trip, and then the portkey to Cannes and then the rental car to the hotel. By the time they got to the hotel they only had time for a late dinner. They'd all been too tired to plan much beyond food and sleep. So, they'd agreed to each do their own things the following day and regroup for a nice dinner.
As Ron didn't look like he was going to get up any time soon, she got up, showered and headed out onto the terrace to have some tea and read while enjoying the glorious view. Around two hours later, she grinned as Ron opened the door and came out to the terrace. He had clearly just woken up as there was still an imprinted crease from the pillow on his cheek. His hair was tousled, and he unconsciously ran one hand across his copper stubble and the other behind his neck as he yawned.
"I thought you would have woken me up long before now."
"You were sleeping so peacefully, and it's not like we have anywhere we need to be. And I am hardly roughing it out here. I'd probably be perfectly happy reading on this terrace for most of the trip."
"I didn't realize how tired I was I guess," he admitted as he sat in one of the deck chairs.
"It's been an emotional roller coaster these past few – well - "
"Years?" he offered with a chuckle.
She laughed. "Ok, yeah – years. But now we have a blank slate, don't we?"
"You talkin' about the trip or our whole lives?" he laughed.
"Both, I suppose," she admitted with an eye roll.
"Can we make sure that blank slate starts with breakfast?"
Before long they had enjoyed breakfast and decided to set out to explore the town on foot to see what there was to do. They decided a brisk hike up the hill to explore the citadelle would be a good place to start. Hermione enjoyed the museum, Ron enjoyed the view, and they both decided they deserved a nice lunch somewhere when they were done. They strolled around the town and window shopped while getting some ideas of things to do while they were there.
Ron stood back watching his brilliant wife talking at lightning speed in French with an elderly gentleman from a local tourist office. Ron realized that between the language barrier and the fact they were vacationing in the muggle world, he was mostly out of his element. He could handle muggle England and magical France, but muggle France put him past his comfort level. All of that aside, as he watched Hermione passionately discussing something with the gentleman, he couldn't help but smile. She was all he had ever dreamed of and more.
"Ready?" Hermione asked, quickly switching back to English.
"Uh – maybe? I have no idea what you two were talking about, so I am pretty much following you anywhere you go," he laughed.
"Oh, right, sorry. The man at the tourist office was saying since we are here for a while we should really consider taking a day to go and explore wine country."
"Wow, we can see where they make it?"
"Yes, and we can visit the vineyards and try different wines at different places. Think Harry and Ginny would enjoy that too?"
"Yeah, sounds like a fun day."
"Good – I grabbed some maps and pamphlets, but he also gave me the name of his friend who has a vineyard and he said it was worth a visit."
"Sounds great. What else?"
"Apparently the sunflowers are amazing this time of year."
"Flowers?" he asked, unimpressed.
"Well, yes, but not just a few flowers. I'm talking field after field after field of tens of thousands of sunflowers. And you can drive through the area."
"You know what we should do?"
"What?"
"Find a broom rental place and fly over all those sunflower fields."
"Ok. I admit. That would be amazing. We could do a picnic."
"Like we did in Salem?" Ron asked with a lopsided grin and one raised eyebrow.
"Well," she blushed. "I do remember enjoying that – uh – fly – a lot. Didn't you?"
He grinned and kissed her sensually in response.
Several days later Hermione woke to the sun beaming in the windows. She rolled over and saw the massive bouquet of sunflowers on the table, causing a massive grin to cross her face. She recalled their trip out to the fields of sunflowers the day before, which was memorable in many ways.
"Good morning," Ron whispered into her ear as he kissed her neck.
"Good morning, yourself," she said as she turned to him, forcing his lips from her neck to her mouth.
His nose nuzzled hers, and his tongue dove into her mouth to explore and tempt her as she held her hand against his jaw, scratchy with morning stubble. His hand moved to her hip and then slowly kneaded her arse as they both began to grind against each other. She tugged his old quidditch jersey up over her head, allowing him to immediately move his attention to her breasts. His tongue tortured her right nipple as his thumb and forefinger flicked over the other, causing her to arch her back up involuntarily as she raked her fingernails over his bare back. Soon her foot snaked up the back of his calf and up his leg until she could catch the waist bands of his pajama bottoms and pants trying to push them down. He grinned against her chest and quickly tugged his bottoms off, and then slid her knickers down as well. Gently moving his fingers across her stomach and down to her folds, he groaned at how ready she was for him. After whispering her urgency, he quickly plunged into her, rocking as he gazed down at her deep brown eyes. They held each other's gaze until both were so overcome by pleasure that their bodies took over until they finally collapsed in each other's arms. While still catching their breath, Ron's phone buzzed on the nightstand.
"Are you going to get that?" Hermione asked.
"Surely whoever it is can wait 15 minutes," Ron mumbled into her hair spread across his chest.
She laughed, then sat up and reached over his chest to pick up the phone and to see who was calling. As she answered it, Ron caught her breast in his mouth to torture her for daring to answer the phone while they were otherwise engaged.
Playfully smacking at him and squirming under his ministrations, Hermione spoke into the phone, "Morning, Gin," which caused Ron to groan and increase his efforts to distract her. "Oh yeah, that sounds fun," she said trying not to squeal on the last syllable. "Oh – ooh – uh, yeah, ok. No, we need more time than that as we haven't yet – aahhh – showered yet. Oh shut up, Ginny, you're the one who called this early. We'll see you in an hour."
As she hung up the phone, Ron laughed and playfully pinned her arms above her head as he captured her mouth in his. "We're meeting them for breakfast in an hour," she tried to say, but his lips didn't let her get it all out. Finally, he grinned and said, "plenty of time to ravish my wife," before moving his mouth down her chest as she laughed.
A few hours later Hermione found herself trying to translate the safety instructions to her three friends as they were all being trained on how to ride a Segway for a tour about town. Harry was listening politely but clearly not understanding, Ron looked dumbfounded and Ginny couldn't stop giggling. Exasperated, she finally told the rental clerk that they wanted to practice in the parking lot a bit before heading out on the town. They shifted to the back parking lot on the four Segways, wearing helmets which Ron and Ginny complained about.
"It's not that different than balancing on a broom," Harry offered.
"This helmet is ridiculous. It's not like there are bludgers launching at us."
"It's just in case you fall so you don't get a head injury," Hermione protested.
"I'll take my chances," Ginny said as she took it off. "A cushioning charm works better anyway."
"OK, fine," Hermione relented as Ron smiled and took his off as well.
After a quarter of an hour going in circles around the small parking lot, the four of them headed out on the route the rental clerk recommended for having "Segway friendly" sidewalks or roads. Soon Ron and Ginny were racing each other leaving Hermione and Harry in the dust.
"I get that they're siblings, but you'd think they were ten years old," she laughed.
"Oh, they were much worse than this back then."
"Seriously?"
"Oh, yeah. Ginny was still in her 'I am going to prove to you I can do it better even if I'm the youngest and the only girl' mode."
"She isn't still in that mode?"
"Nah. She didn't have a wand then, so her threats of hexes fell on deaf ears back then. But then once she got a wand, those were the first ones she learned."
"I guess when you grow up an only child there are somethings you will simply never understand."
"Precisely," he laughed as he looked up and saw his wife's long red hair flowing behind her as she passed her older brother with glee.
Over the next few days, the couples enjoyed exploring the region. They'd go on some adventures together, and then split up to spend time with their spouses alone, or Hermione might stay back and read on the terrace while Harry and Ron tried some excursion or Ginny went shopping. The pace was a perfect way to begin to discover what life in an empty nest could be like.
One morning Ron woke up late, momentarily surprised to find Hermione sleeping later than him. But, then he remembered that she had consumed much more alcohol than she usually did when they had gone to a dance club the night before. Ginny had been adamant that she get to go to some exclusive night club in Monaco while they were on their trip. Ron had argued that if they were all old enough to be empty nesters then they were probably too old for the club. But, Ginny had "persuaded" Harry, and soon they found themselves in a car headed to Monaco. They had learned there was a magical pub there where they could have floo'd in and out, but they thought that was simply inviting a bad photo of them dancing and drinking too much to appear in the Prophet, so they elected to hire a muggle driver to take them to Monaco and back.
Ron heard Hermione groan slightly as she rolled over, causing her to make a noise part way between a snore and a snort, which made Ron chuckle. He couldn't believe he'd never seen her pissed before that night. Actually – he wondered if she had ever been truly pissed before. Despite being much smaller than Ron, she more than outpaced him with drinks that night. And, once she had a few, she was determined to be the best dancer on the floor. Merlin she was sexy, he thought. She and Gin had spent the day before shopping while he and Harry tried kayaking. Ginny, bless her, had convinced Hermione to buy a very out of character dress. Ron wasn't sure how to describe it, but it certainly sparkled and shimmied. And, depending on how the lights hit it, her dress could look silver and gold or blue and red. It was the shortest thing he'd ever seen her wear in public, it barely covered her arse and it was all held up by some tiny straps over her shoulders. She'd worn ridiculously high heeled shoes, which she had promptly lost after abandoning them on the dance floor at some point. Finally around 3 am, Ron had physically picked her up off the dance floor, carried her out to the waiting muggle car and headed home. For the first part of the ride she had tried to convince the driver that she was a witch with a wand hidden in her dress, and the driver kept laughing. The rest of them played it off, laughing at how pissed she was. Then she'd fallen asleep against Ron, snoring before they made it back to Saint Tropez. When they got back to the hotel, he'd carried her to the room and simply unzipped her dress and put her straight into bed.
It was almost noon now, so Ron got up, showered and called down for some room service. He was glad Harry had handed him the vials of hangover potion and pepper up potion last night. Downing his, he peeked back into the bedroom only to see Hermione hadn't moved at all. He chuckled and headed out onto their terrace to eat breakfast and look at some of the different flyers Hermione had picked up about activities in the area. But, he kept the door open so he could hear Hermione and so she wouldn't wonder where he was when she did finally emerge. Almost an hour later, he heard something between a mumble and a groan. He stood in the doorway and looked at her as she placed both hands on her head shielding her eyes.
"Why is it so bright already? Why is the room moving like that?" she moaned.
Chuckling at his hungover bride, he replied, "Well, it's that bright because it's almost tea time. And the room is moving because you drank more than an entire quidditch team last night. But, since you have a loving and adoring husband, and honestly, a smart brother in law, here are the two vials you need to fix you right up."
Downing the potions with a grimace, she rolled over and held a pillow over her head, moaning, "I think I'm really sick, Ron."
"Yeah, I think you're just hungover. Have you ever been hungover before? Scratch that – what I really want to know is if you've ever been pissed before last night?"
"No," came the quiet response. "And if this is what you feel like afterwards, then I can't imagine why anyone would ever do it twice."
Trying not to laugh out loud at her, he crawled into bed and spooned up behind her, pulling her tightly to his chest. "Well, you can count me among the idiots who didn't learn after just one time. But take heart, love, those potions will have you feeling ever so much better in about ten minutes. 'Til then I'll just hold you, alright?"
"Can you make it all stop moving?" she whimpered.
"Yup. It will take me ten minutes though," he chortled.
"You're mean."
"Nah, just amused is all. I had no idea I had married such a party animal."
"What else did I do?" she asked guiltily with the pillow still covering her face.
"Well, you danced like a maniac – not in an embarrassing way, though. It was more like I was the envy of all the other blokes in the club."
She moaned again, cringing at the thought.
"Then I had to actually carry you out of the club as you were not ready to call it a night at 3 am. And finally, you spent the first half of the drive trying to convince the muggle driver that you were a witch. He was laughing hysterically at you and said he pitied me for how hung over you would be the next day if you could believe such a crazy tale so vehemently. Then finally, you passed out cold and slept until – well – now."
"Oh. My. God. Were Harry or Ginny as pissed as me?"
"Love, I don't think anyone in Monaco was as pissed as you, and that is saying something."
"I cannot believe I did that."
"Well, if you were going to drink that hard only once in your life, I am very glad I was there to witness it."
"It's your fault anyway," she mumbled.
"And how do you figure that, my brilliant solicitor wife?"
"I've never gotten pissed like that before because I never trusted who I was with enough to lose control. If I didn't trust you so much, I wouldn't have drunk that much."
"Sooo, you want me to apologize for being trustworthy?"
"No, yeah, no, ugh! My head hurts. Stop making me think so much."
"Sorry then," he laughed.
"Don't laugh, it makes the bed move. And it's already moving enough in my head."
"Right. Sorry. You know what? You stay here for a few more minutes while that potion kicks in, and I am going to go start your shower so it's nice and hot when you get up. And then I'm going to make you some tea. I promise you will feel better soon."
"Good thing I trust you," she mumbled again.
Shaking his head and grinning, he got up and headed towards the loo. Looking back all he could see was a pillow with all of these crazy curls spraying out from under it. "I have a barmy wife," he laughed and started the shower.
By supper time, Hermione was back to herself again. They had eventually gone out for a short stroll up to an old chapel which had a gorgeous view, and then decided to find dinner at a small café on the way back to the hotel. As they ate outside on a terrace overlooking the sea, they started chatting about what they wanted to do with their last two days of the trip.
"I still want to see some vineyards, but I am happy to be the designated driver as I think I do not need any more alcohol on this trip."
"Well – maybe just a glass of wine would be ok – just not several bottles. But yes - maybe tomorrow would be good for that with Harry and Gin, and then the last day we can spend on our own just puttering around the town."
"Sounds good."
"You think we'll be bored when we get home?"
"Bored with each other? Or just bored without the kids?"
"Without the kids. I'm never bored with you, but you have to admit having school stuff and art stuff and whatever other stuff Hugo had going on kept us hopping. I just don't want us to come home each night, eat dinner and go to bed."
"We are too young to be that stodgy," assured Hermione. "But, we could try to get involved with something if you want. We could visit Mrs. Carrington more. Join a book club – or maybe a chess club?"
"As fun as any of that would be, not one part of it sounded not-stodgy."
"Ok. Fair point."
"Want to come with me on a business trip?"
"Isn't this our second vacation in a month?"
"Not vacation. I said a business trip."
"Sooo – I thought I knew what your job entailed, but maybe I don't. Is there a conference or something?"
"No. Actually I was thinking of doing a site visit, but I wasn't sure how you would feel about it."
"Not sure what you mean yet, so keep talking."
"Well, there are multiple places we could chose to get involved with. And, I was thinking we should pick one to start. You know – sort of test things out a bit. Establish procedures. Better understand how the funds flow and how to measure effectiveness – that sort of thing."
"So what would a site visit involve?"
"Well – I have three sites that I have been looking at, and all seem like good options on paper. But, I would really like to travel to the site personally, meet the people, see the operation, get a sense for how it really works."
"What places?"
"Well, they are all rather rough. But, that's sort of the point, right?"
"How rough?" Ron asked, with one eyebrow raised.
"Well, none are in active war zones, but they are places with a lot of people in desperate need, so there is always the possibility for violence or disease. But, you and I both know how to handle ourselves. I am confident in these places – have been for decades. But, I know you get nervous when you worry about me."
"Well, I guess if you are going to go to these places I want to go with you. But you seem to be avoiding the question. And as someone trained in interrogation techniques, my dear, I am going to keep coming back to it until I get it out of you. What places?"
"Well, ok. One is in Rwanda. There is a project there – actually one with the Malfoys' foundation. His folks have built a community health center and built the infrastructure to bring running water to the town. But, there is a partner group that is looking at how to leverage that center to build economic growth. They want to build a market, but attach it to a school and a bank. The school would teach the kids while the parents were in the market. The bank would be community run and it could stimulate economic development, hopefully keeping people at home instead of migrating to Kigali or even Europe."
"OK. Rwanda isn't first on my list of places to see. What else?"
"Well, there is a refugee camp in Turkey that houses a tremendous number of Syrian refugees. It is with the UNHCR – the group I used to work with. I am not as clear on the project there, but being familiar with the group and their policies and processes, I know I could trust them and work well with them."
"OK. And the last?"
"Well, the third option is actually on the other side of the world in Haiti. It is a terribly poor country, and the meager infrastructure they had was demolished in an earthquake about a decade ago. There are several outstanding organizations there. I was thinking not in Port Au Prince, but maybe again in the rural areas. I like the idea of bringing some economic infrastructure to a place. If there are jobs and opportunities near home, the odds of children staying nearby to raise their own families goes up, which is really what we had talked about as a foundation goal."
"With the first two you felt good about the contacts. How about in Haiti?"
"Actually, the answer is sort of. I haven't met them face to face yet, but we have skyped several times."
"Do I know what that means?"
"Oh, it's like video chatting where you can see each other's face in real time video. There is an organization there run by a couple – she is a physician and he is a nurse and they have built a tremendous healthcare program. But, the economic work in this one particular community was devastated in the earthquake. They have rebuilt the clinic and the school, but the lack of jobs is crippling the region. I'd like to go and explore ways to help."
"Well. I say Haiti."
"Really? That surprises me. I would have thought you would have said Turkey."
"Why?"
"Closer. Lest scary sounding."
"Huh. Um, no. I just – well – honestly I just don't need to go anywhere near a war zone. I worry it would start nightmares and such again."
"Oh, I hadn't even thought of that, Ron. So stupid of me. I'm so sorry."
"No - don't apologize. You couldn't have known that. And it might be fine, but if there are options then I am leaning towards the option away from war."
"And away from Malfoy?"
"Look," he sighed. "I think he and I have come a long way. And hopefully we will keep moving forward. But I don't need to work with him quite yet. It's fine if the foundations do, but I don't need to see it I suppose."
"OK. Haiti it is."
"Well, hold on, I know I've taken a lot of time off recently, but I do actually need to work some when we get back."
"When does the academy start up?"
"The week of the 19th, but I'll need to be there some the week before that as the instructors have meetings and such,"
"And your work at Hogwarts doesn't start until when?"
"First week of October."
"So, maybe we go just after we get home. I need to organize a few things, so I'll need a few days in the office, but we can go just after that. We can plan to stay 4-5 days to see the town, meet the people and get a sense of the organization to see if it's a good fit."
"So how would this work? I can't imagine there is a hotel where we are going."
"No, there isn't. But, I think there is a group of nuns that work in the community and they have something like a guest house where volunteers stay when they come to work on different projects."
"Would it be better to bring the tent?"
"Um, well, I suppose that you could shrink it down and bring it just in case. We just need to be sure no one realizes it is a magical tent."
"Alright. Well, why not? Could be good to see the places we want to help."
"Thanks for doing this," she said earnestly. "I've been wanting to do a site visit for a while. And, well, I know how you don't like me being somewhere that could be unsafe. While I feel confident about it, I wouldn't want to upset you, so this is the perfect solution."
"Of course, love," he said, taking her hand. "I mean, we talked about this – how you want to be overseas more now that we aren't tied to the primary school schedule. I am not saying I want to move to Haiti, but visiting is good. I've never been there at all. Have you?"
"Once a long time ago. Mum and Dad were going for work with the UN to look at some dental clinic place the World Health Organization was working with. Since we were there with the UN, we had to stay at this posh hotel in Port au Prince, which honestly made me a bit uncomfortable. When you are in a place with such brutal poverty, having a mint on your silk sheets at night just feels wrong. But somehow my parents were able to convince their boss to let them go for a weekend before we left to a little beach place in the south. Just the drive there was an education in itself. I mean – there were no trees and no birds."
"What do you mean?"
"Just what I said. The whole country has been deforested – anything that could be used for fuel or housing was cut down. Everything. So, then the soil has no roots to hold it up and there are massive mudslides down the mountains. And without the trees, there really aren't birds. I mean, we saw a few by the beach town, but absolutely none in most of the country we drove through. It was totally bizarre. You don't realize how much they are a part of the background until they aren't there – even in the city, you know – there are pigeons everywhere. But not there."
"I can't really picture it."
"Well, then you'll just have to see it for yourself."
"Ok. Next week I guess."
"Next week," she grinned.
