Completed: 3/20/05 9:56 PM
Posted: 3/24/05 9:29 PM
A/N: THIS, good people, is without a doubt a HAPPY installment to GoL. Ha HA!
"How are Neville and the kids?"
Ginny Longbottom smiled at her long-time friend as she dragged another breadstick through her pasta. "Great. Trey has a new girlfriend now; Mindy –"
"He's only eight!"
"—and Quent just started peewee Quidditch last week."
Hermione smiled. "Any word on if the next one will be a girl?"
In the way all pregnant mothers had, Ginny's hand strayed down to her stomach at this comment. Though the life inside was only two months old, she rubbed her palm adoringly across the small bulge beneath her t-shirt. "Well, I do seem to be carrying on the Weasley tradition of all boys," she snorted, showing a bit of her old school fieriness. "But, you know Neville and I like to be surprised."
Sipping at her glass of wine, Hermione beamed uncontrollably at the redhead. She was so glad that Ginny had found happiness during the war that had now gone underground; even if it was in the clumsy, but sweet Neville Longbottom.
"And what about you?" Ginny asked, waiting for her to swallow her drink before expecting an answer.
Hermione chose to ignore the insinuation. "About me what?"
A huff of exasperation from Ginny, though she didn't stop eating long enough to give her a properly annoyed look. After all, she was feeding not only her own bottomless pit of a stomach, but apparently the five stomachs of her unborn child as well. "Look...I know you're still recovering from the accident at...well, you-know-what, but once you're alright again...why not start a family?"
It was the brunette's turn to heave an exasperated sigh. Pinching the bridge of her nose between her forefinger and thumb, she relented to having to explain the whole thing once again to Ginny. Sometimes she wondered if the pregnancies stunted her memory – or maybe just increased her stubbornness. "We've been through this, Ginny. I'm just not the..."family-making" type," Hermione said with air quotes.
"Balderdash, you'd be a wonderful mother – kind, passionate, level-headed, and you'd probably have read every book on the subject before doing anything rash."
"Ha. Ha." Hermione said dryly.
"Besides, it's like you're already married anyway. You know everyone automatically assumes that," she passed on in a conspiratorially hushed air.
"We're not married."
"I know that!" Ginny irritation was visible in the lines that were creasing across her forehead. Hermione noted that always seemed to happen when they got into a "discussion" like this. "I'm just saying – why not make it official?"
"You're not my mother, Gins," said Hermione. "And trust me, I get enough of this from her as it is; can't you just be on my side for this?"
She should have known how ineffectual her pleading was going to be. "You love each other, Hermione."
"Of course we do," she snapped, a bit irritably. "I wouldn't still be in this if we didn't. This just isn't the time for such things Ginny. Harry and I are in the forefront of the war—"
"But lately things have been so much safer with the appearance of that group – the Crusaders. They're like the heroes in the comic books you told me about," Ginny exclaimed.
Hermione conceded the rise in safety to her with a nod. "They certainly are mysterious."
"The point is – Neville and I managed; so could you!" Ginny said with warm belief.
Hermione's voice softened. "But your jobs in the Order are very different than ours," Hermione put as kindly as she could. "Harry and I do what we do, knowing that because of our efforts our friends are able to do the things they want...like start a family."
Her words had subdued the younger woman, to the point where she was no longer even eating. "And I am beyond grateful for everything that you've done, Hermione. I just wish you could experience what I have..." She said quietly. "It's a wonderful feeling."
Hermione's half-hearted smile twitched at the corners. She and Harry hadn't talked about starting a family – there just hadn't been the time. Truth be told, she was happy with where their relationship was as of now; it was all the talk of Ginny's desires for her that made her smile droop.
"How's Harry doing after the 'accident'?" She inquired. "George flooed me that his eyes were fully healed."
"Yes, Madame Pomfrey did a wonderful job," Hermione sipped at her wine again. "He's still a bit sensitive to light, but the bandages are off. He should be fully recovered in a few days."
"That's wonderful news; and your wrist? It's not still giving you pains is it?"
Hermione's fingers went reflexively to her forearm, tracing the raised line along it. The scar was pale now, not nearly the angry red it had been at the first, but it coiled neatly across her wrist and down the soft flesh of her forearm, nearly to her elbow. Some scars not even magic could heal. "A few ghost tremors now and then, but for the most part..." She shrugged.
BZZ! BZZ! BZZZZZ!
Hermione jumped, and her hand flew to her waist. Unclipping the pager from her waistband, she turned it over and read the familiar numbers. She blanched.
"What? Is it the hospital?" Ginny guessed, trying to peer curiously over the café table.
"Oh, uhm, yeah..." Hermione stammered. "One of my patients is asking for me, I really have to go."
"O-Of course!"
Hermione pushed back with a rattle of the table and was out the door. As she walked, she pulled out her cell phone and dialed the number stored in her mind, but not in her phone. She listened anxiously to the frazzling ring tone in her ear and with a shrug of her shoulder, dislodged her wand from its holster on her arm; it slid out from beneath the cuff of her blouse.
"Please state your name and identification code."
The connection was terrible, the animatronic voice crackling distortedly.
"Hermione Jane Granger. Circe-Tango-Nine."
"Stand by."
Hermione cursed as the sunglasses she was struggling to pull out of her blazer pocket fell from her fumbling fingers and she had to chase them across the cobblestones while trying to keep the cell phone cradled in her shoulder. She slipped on the dark inconspicuous shades and resumed her fast pace down the busy streets of downtown London in midday.
"Chronos?"
Hermione darted into the nearest alleyway, and gave the human voice on the other line a response other than her ragged breathing.
"You rang, Phantasm?" Hermione murmured low, not trusting that there weren't ears in the walls of the alley.
"HQ just called in an assault on the Ministry's bank branch outside of London. Aurors have already been dispatched."
"I'm already in the city. I was having lunch with Ginny."
"Oh really? How're the kids?"
"Tonks..." Hermione sighed.
"Right, sorry. Seer wants you over there right away; we've already called in Zeus."
"What exactly is our mission? Are we looking for prisoners or is this a simple protection operation?"
"Just get all our boys back to the Ministry safe."
"Give me half a second and I'm there," Hermione swore, already casting the enchantment that would create her disguise.
"Good luck, Chronos. Phantasm out."
Saying goodbye to her nice skirt-suit, Hermione achieved the same effect as stepping out of a phone booth with just a wave of her wand. Dark brown leather shorts were paired with a matching top that stopped just above her breasts. Black strings crisscrossed over her collar and shoulders and back behind her neck, sewing into the neckline of the brown leather. Unlike her clothes, the leather of her boots was the darkest black with a vinyl-like finish. They looked a killer to move in, but the heel was relatively low and they came up to her knees. The gloves that reached halfway up her biceps were a perfect match. A pendant hung from her neck, the worn stone depicting an etched hourglass.
As always, she felt ridiculous.
Pushing her sunglasses higher up the bridge of her nose she took a deep breath. In less a second she'd increased the speed of her moving cells to above human capacity and was shooting out of the alley like a rocket; running so fast she was nothing more than a blur. To Hermione the world seemed as if it'd had just slowed down and in the span of a breath she was on the outskirts of London and putting on the brakes.
She held the back of her wrist to her mouth as all the dust and stone she'd worn away came up around her in a billowing brown cloud. Eyes darting surreptitiously behind her shades, she slowly crept around the side walkway her adrenaline and anticipation making her body literally thrum!.
The next building was the Ministry's bank outlet and she pressed her body up against it at the sound of shouting, and then tested the direction of the wind. Methodically and confidently she slowed her cells this time; slower and slower until the chemical bonds that held them together dissolved and crumbled and her genetic make-up began to drift apart. Her arm disappeared. Proud that her practice had paid off, Hermione smiled and in the blink of an eye she'd completely disappeared.
Well, not "disappeared" in the conventional sense of the word. She'd all but stopped time within her body and regressed herself to nothing more than a cloud of floating particles; imperceptible to the naked eye, an almost invisible shimmer in the sky. The downside to this was that without a solid bodily organization she didn't control where she went.
The wind picked up, and so did Hermione. She was pushed upwards into the sky and blown straight over the Ministry building. Aurors and Death Eaters were dueling in the streets and on the roof top; everyone else had deserted – she could see their curiously frightened faces peering out of draperies from the apartment complex across the street.
Suddenly, contrary to the sunshiny June day, the skies opened up and a bolt of lightening shot down and struck a Death Eater on the street dead where he stood. Cheers erupted from the hiding observers and the Aurors showed immense relief. The Death Eaters, however, began to shout.
"Damnit! They've called in the Crusaders!"
Hermione drifted over the fire escape and took the chance to quickly pull her cells back into line and matched their original velocity. She reappeared just off to the side of the metal construction and grabbed a hold of the railing as she fell.
"There's one of 'em!"
With a grunt of exertion, Hermione swung herself off and flipped backwards just as a green burst of magic hit the fire escape, crackling where her body had just been. She landed in a crouch and put a hand to her back with an "ow!" as she straightened. She was not cracked out to be a superhero.
"Nice flip," Laughter roared above her as Harry came flying over her head.
"Don't even start," she shouted up, starting to run along beneath him, both dodging curses. "You get to fly!"
"Can we argue about this later?" He bit out as he called down another burst of lightening. It cracked the pavement along the middle of the street and a Death Eater tumbled in, dragging an Auror in with him.
"CHRONOS!" Harry shouted.
Hermione flung up her hands and caught the falling Auror in one of her time bubbles; his descent slowing to one hundredth of the velocity it had been before.
"Ten seconds! Zeus GO!"
Harry didn't need telling twice and was already rocketing towards the slowing falling Auror before she'd even gotten the second word out. As he performed his typical daring rescue, Hermione was on cover duty. She dodged the spells aimed at her with quick bursts of inhuman speed and caught the spells directed at Harry in bubbles of time; magic wouldn't stop until it came into contact with something, so while her powers didn't stop the spells, they gave her enough time to put something else in their path other than Harry.
A manhole cover went into one and the metal exploded in a shower of sparks and shrapnel that rained down over the street. She ducked to shield against it, but the shots never hit. The hair was standing up on the back of her neck. Hermione glanced up to see Harry standing on the other side of the ravine he'd created, directing the manhole shards towards a lamp post where they instantly stuck; he'd pumped enough electricity through the air to magnetize.
Then he turned invisible; reappearing again a second later only a few steps away. His invisibility only lasted as long as lightening could flash, but it made for a disorienting sight when he repeated the action, like a strobe light. He went to work on one of the Death Eaters by the bank's doors, and Hermione moved to follow when she was grabbed roughly from behind.
Her molecules whirled to a frenzied speed and her struggles were at an unfathomably high-pace, but the gutsy Death Eater maintained his iron grip. She tried to time-bubble her assailant, but her hands were clamped down at her sides, rendering her powerless.
"Say goodbye Crusader Kitten," sneered a woman's voice, and Hermione's head snapped up as the second Death Eater, standing less than a dozen paces in front of her, cast the Killing Curse.
Hermione screamed, as if it would help, and never before had she had this little time. Then her cells snapped apart and she was billowed in a shapeless cloud into the sky. The Death Eater behind her was not so lucky and he crumpled lifelessly to the cobblestones as the spell intended for her hit him squarely in the chest.
The woman shrieked in rage and began casting off spells randomly into the sky. Hermione, though, was already being blown to the other side of the parking lot. She reformed over Harry's duel and fell the ten feet straight onto the Death Eater. They landed in a tangled heap of limbs together, where a disoriented Hermione scraped her elbow on the pavement – which was better than the Death Eater faired, as she was fairly certain the loud crack! she'd heard had been his head hitting the ground.
"Graceful," she heard Harry pant. Slowing sitting up on top of the groaning baddie, she managed a glare just for him, though her head was pounding. He'd sustained a few scrapes and bruises of his own, but none of it was too terribly bad and Pomfrey would be able to take care of it.
"Shove it," growled Hermione, as she sent an elbow into the Death Eater's chest as he tried to get up. "Just for that you get to finish the rest of 'em. I'll go secure the bank."
"Ginny's been hassling you again." Harry laughed, brushing his bangs back from the headband that obscured his tell-tale scar. Even with his sunglasses on she could tell those green eyes of his were sparkling with as much amusement as his mouth was. He got up, dusting off his black leather coat, but didn't bother helping her up.
"Don't take too long," he said. "I think I might have left the oven going."
Hermione's jaw dropped. "You are so going to be paying if you blow up our house!"
She took a swing at him, but he just jumped into the air and flew off; laughing all the way. He truly was hopeless she thought to herself and shook her head. Climbing off the unconscious Death Eater in a far less graceful manner than she'd fell upon him, she gave Harry a little help by time-bubbling the Death Eater charging at his back before running into the bank to make sure none of the bad guys had gotten through.
Half an hour later, when the Ministry's clean up crew had come and gone, the press had taken enough photos to feed a third world country, and each Auror was safely back with their family, Hermione and Harry were sitting on the fire escape of the building, legs dangling.
"You know if it wasn't for that accident at Grimmauld, I'd still be eating lunch with Ginny and talking about...normal things," Hermione sighed.
Harry smiled at her poorly masked petulance and threw an arm over her shoulder. "You shouldn't be stuffing your face with all those breadsticks anyway," he teased. "Gotta keep fit for saving the world."
"I feel ridiculous doing this," she admitted. She folded her arms over the railing and rested her chin on them.
"But you look hot when you do."
She elbowed him, cutting an 'oof!' into his laughter. "The costume's the worst part," she groused. She gestured to his white tank top and black slacks. "At least you get normal clothes."
"Well...I don't usually wear a leather trenchcoat..." he said softly, picking at the ebony material of his jacket.
She elbowed him again, but this time she had a smile on her face trying to contain her own laughter. "Why do I put up with you?"
His fingers gently tilted her face to the sky and when he pressed his lips to hers a jolt of electricity that had nothing to do with any powers shot straight through her body and down to her toes curling in her vinyl boots. He kissed her as if he were drinking her in; a condemned man and his last supper. Their tongues met, dueling as familiar sparring partners and causing hearts to race. When Hermione finally pulled away she had the mint aroma of his mouthwash on her breath.
"Oh yeah..." she murmured, knowing there was a silly smile on her face. She'd given up on the inevitably of feeling lovesick where Harry was concerned.
He grinned – that adorable, kissable, lopsided grin – and lowered his head to kiss her again.
"Oh my god! Did you see that!" A little girl shrieked to another.
"Zeus and Chronos just totally made out!"
Harry gaped at the two girls, who'd apparently been taking their dollies out for a summer walk in their stroller, and for once couldn't think of anything to say. Hermione, chuckling behind her gloves at the hilarity of it, came to his rescue.
"That's right," she called down to the girls; who looked as though they'd faint having the Chronos talking to them. "But don't tell anyone alright? It'll be our little secret."
Hermione winked and put a gloved finger to her lips. "Okay?" The two girls mirrored her action, nodding emphatically, before squealing loudly and taking off running down the walkway, stroller bounding out of control behind them.
"You know they're going to tell everyone they've ever met, don't you?" Harry told her with a shake of his head.
But Hermione didn't care, running her fingers through his hair. "That's alright," she said with a ghost of a smile. "Maybe we'll finally beat out that 'Harry and Hermione' couple everyone keeps talking about..."
Harry laughed loudly at this, his unmanageable hair falling into his eyes, and Hermione couldn't resist the urge to kiss him again. And again. And again.