Visitations and Mediations on Gratitude
Disclaimer: I have not claim to characters or scenes from the Harry Potter series, which belongs to JK Rowling and associates. I get nothing from this except the enjoyment of imagining and writing the story. If I did own any of the Potterverse, I could stop having to work for a living.
Time frame – Post–DH except for the epilogue which I am ignoring, for reasons that should become obvious.
Near the end of April, Hermione had finished her second year exams, and took a couple weeks off before starting her summer semester at St Mungo's. She and Harry had arranged to visit her parents in Australia, where they were continuing their work with the Flying Doctor service. Gil and Elly had decided to move there permanently, but would return to England for Christmas every year to visit friends and family. They had found in their first two years there that the Australian summer was just too hot for people accustomed to snow at Christmas.
From some of the funds that came as a stipend with her Order of Merlin, Hermione had arranged for life-time first-class air passes on Qantas and BA, so that her parents would not be out the money, even though their pay with the Flying Doctor assured them a comfortable lifestyle. Annual (or more frequent, should they choose) first-class flights to and from Australia were not exactly cheap, and on a long haul flight, the difference in comfort level between first class and coach was significant.
The younger and older couples decided to meet in Darwin, where "The Wet" season was ending, so that the humidity should be dropping and the flowers should be at their best. With the lower humidity, the tropical temperatures would not be as oppressive to the younger couple still adapted to English weather.
Harry and Hermione had travelled via the international floo network, pausing to change lines at the junction points, which for convenience and duty-free shopping tended to be located in less-obvious corners of international air terminals. As they changed from the Eurasian line to the Asian-Oceanic line in Dubai, they stopped so that Hermione could pick up some gold jewellery for her mother and cufflinks for her father (and Harry, to be given to him in private). Before they left the floo terminus, Hermione was advised that her brief sun-dress was not culturally appropriate for the local 'environment', so she charmed her outfit into a floor-length skirt and floral blouse with long sleeves.
As they stopped for lunch in the large shopping mall, Hermione was eager to follow up on Luna's conversation, but Harry kept changing the topic to other issues. Mostly, he seemed to want to talk about anything except their relationship (such as it was). Hermione assumed that the main thing on his mind was the situation at home, and the fact that they were going to have to get nasty again. That was obviously something which could not be discussed in an open restaurant.
As Harry obviously didn't want to talk about them, Hermione told him of a rather strange thing that she had observed when working at the muggle hospital, and a subsequent conversation she had had at St Mungo's. When she started working part-time at the hospital, she had received her identification card to wear while on shift; on the card was a prominent red 'W'. She also noticed that one of the head nurses in the emergency admitting ward also had a card with this mark, and that this nurse (Sister Abbott) was always present when new emergency patients arrived – if the new arrival was conscious, she would whisper to them, and if not, she would wave her right arm over top of the stretcher. Hermione noticed that the material on the nurse's right sleeve was a bit tighter that on the left. Sometimes the nurse would frown, and stamp the 'W' on the admissions chart. When Hermione had asked about this procedure, the nurse smiled and told her that some patients and staff were to be treated by certain physicians only, and that certain tests were not allowed for these patients. When Hermione showed the nurse her own 'W' card, the nurse smiled brightly and said, "Granger, eh? An unusual name. Do you happen to know my cousin Hannah? She's marrying that Longbottom fellow." The nurse was a medi-witch.
Hermione asked what the forbidden procedures were. The nurse (Jocelyn) said that, by Ministry orders, wizarding patients (hence the 'W') were not to be subjected to any radioactive diagnostic tests or treatments, and that only low-energy X-rays were to be used, and 'W' staff were not to work in the radio-diagnostics or oncology wards for any reason. Any 'W' patients who had severe trauma or broken bones, or needed radiation (or other treatments) for cancer were to be transferred immediately to another facility (which Jocelyn whispered to Hermione was actually St Mungo's). Non-magical staff were told that this was for religious reasons, but Jocelyn didn't know the real reason for this restriction.
When Hermione had gone over to St Mungo's for her weekend shift, she asked her supervisor about this system. He looked around suspiciously, as if to see if anyone was around who could possibly be listening. He said "Miss Granger, I know of your history, and what you have been through, so I know I can trust you with this information. The Ministry order has declared this a Ministry secret, on pain of death. When you attain your Mastery as a Healer, you will be sworn to secrecy about this, but you and your friends fought and bled for us, so I know I can trust you with it. We witches and wizards don't react too well to ionizing radiation; it can decrease our magic badly. Fortunately, we have other methods to accomplish the same things."
"There is a rumour that the decrease in the birthrate and vigour of pure-blood children is because of the increased background radiation from the nuclear testing that the various muggle governments have done over the last half century. The problem with that hypothesis is that mixed bloods and muggle borns are doing just fine. Actually, there was a report done a couple of decades back that indicated that the decrease in pure-bloods was due to inbreeding. The author of that report disappeared, and absolutely no investigation was held – it is rumoured that some powerful families had her murdered, and bribed the ministry not to look into it."
"There is something about radiation that affects us very badly, so the Ministry ordered that no magical should ever be given radioactive isotope diagnostic tracers, or radiation treatments. That's why any patients coming into a muggle hospital are checked for magical nature, and any that have it are sent to us."
Harry agreed that this sounded strange, and also very interesting. Hermione could see the wheels turning in his head as he considered some implications. Maybe there was something he could use in the future, either as a threat, or a weapon, without having to kill people.
Harry had read somewhere that the hardest thing was not when you had to do something nasty, but when you had to be something nasty. Neither he nor Hermione wanted all their fighting and watching friends die would be in vain, if they went down the dark path in an attempt to save their world. There might be alternatives. There had to be! Hermione would definitely prefer that Harry not have to start killing again. She wanted her friend to finally have some joy in his life.
On that point, Hermione was very uncertain as to Harry's presence on this trip, considering his reluctance to talk about their personal situation. If he was going to move on without her, why was he coming along to visit her parents? Was he coming just to get away from England, so he could think away from the immediate concerns? And why wasn't he confiding in her, as he always had before? She had broken up with Ron, who had very obviously moved on – would Harry be moving on too? Did 'moving on' mean leaving her as well as Ginny?
After what, for the young witch, was a very frustrating lunch and stop-over, in spite of her having access to some of the world's most extravagant shopping, the two returned to the floo terminal and proceeded to Australia.
The two had chosen the Sydney terminal so they could visit the picturesque city and its region for a day or two. They took a day trip to the Hunter Valley wine country, and into the Blue Mountains, as well as the harbour cruise and climbing the bridge, before continuing to Darwin on the Australia floo system.
Gil and Elly were waiting for them at the sidewalk cafe outside the Darwin public floo station when they arrived. A chilled bottle of Australia chardonnay was on the table so the young couple could have a cool drink as the tropical heat hit them full blast.
After thanking Harry for the case of wine he had brought for them from their daytrip, Elly announced that their boss was in town visiting relatives, and they had arranged to meet him, his wife, his sister and brother-in-law for dinner that evening. Gil smiled and said, "I think you'll have a bit of a surprise." Harry grimaced – in his experience, surprises were seldom good news.
The four couples met at the restaurant in the hotel where Harry, Hermione and her parents were staying. Elly introduced their boss, Dr Mark Wells (who shook Harry's hand and said "Dr. Marcus Wallaby, at your service", to Harry's puzzled reaction) and his wife Janine. Mark introduced his sister Chrissie and her husband John Black.
The older couples smiled as John turned to Harry, shook his hand, said "Call me Jack", and then hissed "Greetings cousin, welcome to my lair." Harry's eyes opened wide, as Hermione's jaw dropped.
Harry responded politely in Parseltongue "I thank you. May your hunting be successful and your next shedding give you comfort." John laughed, as Elly stared at him and Harry and asked, "Why are you two hissing at each other?"
Hermione started to lecture, while Harry and Jack smiled at each other. "Harry, and apparently Jack, can both speak Parseltongue, which is the language of snakes!" Gil, Elly and the Wells's were stunned by this comment. Jack's wife Chrissie added "That's why Jack is so successful working with the big salt-water crocs. It seems they speak a dialect of the language."
Harry looked at Jack and said "I thought it was a bit of an odd pronunciation I hadn't heard before." Jack responded "Yeah, the big crocs have a bit of a different dialect than the local snakes, which I gather is a bit different from your European snakes I've chatted with in the animal parks, what you would call zoos. The crocs tell me I have a really thick King Brown accent." He and Harry both laughed.
Hermione looked at her parents in amazement. "You mean your boss and his family are wizards?"
Mark shook his head. "Sorry to disappoint you, young lady, but I'm a nonmaj, as is Chrissie. Janine and Jack are majjies though. I gather you're surprised that what you would call muggles know about the magical world. When you practice medicine with the aboriginal tribes for thirty years, you have to deal with their medicine men, and you run into a fair bit of the native magic. So when I met JJ ( her full name is Janine Jacquelina, hence JJ), her being a witch didn't shock me too much."
"When JJ and I first got together, and she saw I was fairly comfortable with some of the things she could do, she asked me to come to a family reunion down at Alice; Alice Springs, you know. I brought Chrissie along, and she met Jack, and the rest, well, as you say..."
Chrissie laughed and said, "When Jack and I got married, the family kept commenting that I was going to 'take a wiz' for the rest of my life."
Gil laughed. "When we came back to work after last Christmas in England, we brought our credentials in to Mark's office. He looked at us, smiled and said 'So your daughter's a witch!' You could have knocked us over with a feather! I said, 'She may be quite headstrong, but that's not a nice thing to say about her.' Mark just laughed and said, 'Sorry, I just meant that your daughter is 'magical'." Gil grinned at Hermione's discomfort.
Janine smiled and said "Mark came home when Monic...sorry, Elly and Gil, said that they were going back north, and told us that two of his dentists had some visitors from the Old Country, and after a bit of time, they had told him that the young lady was actually their daughter Hermione, and that their real name was Granger. He said there was a young man with her named Harry Potter. Jack follows the foreign news more than the rest of us and was startled, and asked Mark 'Green eyes and wild hair?' Mark was surprised, and asked 'How did you know?', so Jack filled him in on what Harry and Hermione had done."
Mark said, "When Gil and Elly said they had been in a protection program and that the gangsters had been stopped, I had no idea that they were talking about this Voldemort bloke, and that Harry and Hermione were instrumental in wiping out him and his Death Eaters. Good on ya, Harry and Hermione!"
Gil continued "When Mark filled us in on what the wizarding news was saying Voldemort's gang did, and what you had to do to stop him, we were shocked. We knew you two had been in danger, which was why you sent us away with our memories blocked. You sort of filled us in last fall, but not with the horrendous details – Jack did! We had no idea how much danger you had been in. Harry, we are eternally grateful that you protected Hermione as much as you did, and grateful to both of you for what you did. However, HJ, we are also angry that you put yourself into so much danger. You are a very brave young woman and we love you, but don't do it again, please!"
Harry said sadly "We only did what we had to do." Looking at Jack and Chrissie, he said "I assume the news told you about how Voldemort had been trying to kill me my whole life. There was a prophecy linking us, and he kept coming after me." He chuckled, and asked "The reporter who was presenting the news... was she youngish with glasses and curly blonde hair?" The older couple nodded, and Harry and Hermione laughed. The three older couples obviously thought this reaction strange, so Hermione said "Rita Skeeter's devotion to the truth is truly legendary. By this, I mean she has absolutely no contact with reality - she usually makes up her delusional stories out of whole cloth. We'll have to tell you what happened from our point of view. There may be some points where we agree with what you heard, but I suspect they will be few and far between."
Jack said with a sly smile, "I thought she was a little full of herself, so I checked other sources as well. That bit of crumpet lies like a sidewalk, doesn't she?"
Harry laughed at this description. "Before going into that, however, and giving you a more thorough description of her, I have to ask. You seem to be very free in acknowledging the magical world here. Doesn't Australia follow the Statute of Secrecy?"
Jack shook his head. "We don't make a big deal of it, one way or another. As Mark said, the aborigines have their own magic, and make no secret that they use magic, although they keep the actual practice of what they do a tribal secret. You have to remember, most of us ended up in Oz because we got kicked out of the UK. There's sort of an institutional, you might even say pathological, dislike of rules here, particularly ones made up by stuffy supposedly high-born twits intent on keeping all the power in their own hands."
Harry furrowed his brow in thought, looked at Jack and asked, "When you spoke to me in Parseltongue, why did you address me as 'cousin'?"
Jack said, "Well, according to the news, you are now the head of the Black family, so I suppose I am supposed to be subservient to you. Just don't push it, mate."
They all laughed at the likelihood of that ever happening.
Harry then said, "But I'm only an adopted Black. My godfather made me his sole heir, so I'm not really from the family."
Jack shook his head, "Doesn't matter. Two reasons. One, all the old families are interrelated to some degree. For the really high-born ones, they are so interrelated that they are pretty much inbred. Have you noticed how many of the English pure-bloods are single children, and usually dumber than a pile of kangaroo poop?"
"Second, my great-several-times-over grandmother was a witch named Lady Abigail Potter, who 'emigrated' in the early 1800's. She was a lady-in-waiting to Princess Caroline, who was married to the Prince Regent, who later became King George the Fourth. When he tried to throw over his legal wife for his mistress, a lot of the people and the nobility took Caroline's side of the matter. Great-granny Abby was clearly informed that, if she emigrated (that is, got the hell out of the way of what the prince wanted to do), there was a big land grant waiting for her outside Adelaide. Otherwise, things would not go well for her. When she got to her land, she took on a young man who had been 'sentenced to transportation', as they called it, for pulling pranks on the local squire. He had this strange gift, in that any land he worked on had very little problems with the poisonous snakes which are so common in Oz. He became my great-however-many times grandfather."
Harry laughed, which puzzled Jack a bit. He asked "Did all your family pull pranks?" Jack nodded, and asked why he had asked such an odd question.
Harry responded that his father and godfather had been in a group of inveterate pranksters, known at school as 'The Marauders'. He commented that pranking seemed to be a family trait with the Black's. Chrissie nodded, and, holding her husband's hand lovingly, announced that the apple hadn't fallen far from the tree in this or the next generations either. She said that they had some rather mischievous children, and expected the worst from the grandchildren, who were still too young to cause too much damage.
The conversation went on into the night over dinner and drinks. The young people, Hermione's parent, and their new friends arranged to get together the next evening as well to visit some more. Hermione was very interested in hearing more of how the magical world operated in Australia.
One aspect of the Australian wizarding society that Harry discovered in conversations with the Australians, was how many Aussie wizards and witches were from the lower classes for British society, where in England, it seemed that the high-borns were in proportions well above the muggle average. Jack and Janine speculated that this was due to so many of the lower class magicals being 'exiled in transportation' (or EIT, as the Aussies termed it), as very few high-borns, muggle or magical, were sent away for crimes such as vagrancy or stealing food in order to survive.
Harry and Jack agreed to meet at Jack's work with the National Parks department the next afternoon (before their dinner meeting), where Harry could see (and chat with) some of the big salt-water crocodiles Jack worked with.
As they sat in a pub near Jack's office after his work was done, chatting over some local beer, Jack asked "So, what have the stuck-up pure-bloods done for you lately?" Harry thought, and said, "I don't know that they have done anything much for me, but then again, they haven't done anything to me either, so I suppose, given my life up until a couple years ago, I should be grateful."
Jack choked on his Foster's. "Grateful! Why the hell should you be grateful to them? You're the one who killed the evil bastard for them (and I gather that term is true both literally and figuratively). All they seemed to have done is sit on their fat asses and let you and your friends do all the bleeding and dying! They should be falling all over themselves doing things for you. And what do they do – they give you a medal you don't want and some money you don't need and gave away anyway!"
"Whenever I hear of someone getting a medal, I remember there was a rather uncouth nonmaj movie some years back that says 'Medals are like haemorrhoids – sooner or later every asshole gets one'. I can't say you didn't bloody well deserve it! But you have done more with the money they tried to buy you off with, than they have done for the whole country that you gave them back their control of."
"I gather that now, under their law, as head of two houses, you are required to have two wives, and also allowed to have as many concubines as you want. You know, in the Bible, it says that no man shall serve two masters. I suppose the same goes for two mistresses!"
"Harry, as I see it, they want to keep you distracted while they play their games and keep their strangle-hold on power. You and Hermione and your friends are a threat to them and their cushy deal. A real viable and serious threat, and they want to keep you from seeing that."
Harry smiled "I have a schoolmate who told me the same things. She is now working for me as the head of my spy agency. I am planning to make a few changes when I get home. Actually, I would be eternally happy if they would just leave me alone, but they don't seem capable of understanding that, so I am going to do something about it. Probably some things that they won't appreciate."
Jack smiled and said "Good on ya, lad! Be sure to stick it to them right and proper. If there's any way a well-practiced prankster distant cousin can help, just let me know. But remember, you don't have to do it all yourself. I hear that there are some in the government who are not happy with the way the old order is trying to reassert itself. Instead of them using you, turn it around and you use them!"
"One question, Harry. Why don't you just walk away from it all?"
Harry sighed. "Jack, you can't imagine I haven't thought about it. I thought really hard about that. I grew up poor, or so I thought or rather, so my relatives made me believe! I would be happy to walk away from the money and the properties in the UK. Some smart person told me not to let the possessions own me. The problem is that, if I just do a runner, the government seizes the property and the money, and after keeping their totally undeserved cut, pass it on to the next in line. For the Potter inheritances, there is no one within three generations, and the government would just keep it all. For the Black fortune, the next in line is a pure-bred bully and son of a Death Eater who was the bane of my existence all through school. He is a convicted criminal for his part in the war, and in an absolute opposite direction from who I would want to inherit."
"My Godfather, Sirius Black, said in his will that I should use the money for good, and I don't think restoring the fortunes of a family of murderers is the way to go."
"At the end of the day, I feel that I would be dishonouring my parents and my godfather if I just walked away from what they left me when they were murdered. I don't see how I can do that to their memories."
Jack shook his head. "Rock and a hard place, lad. Have you thought of moving your holdings outside the country, where they can't get their hands on it? Or endow a hospital with some of the property? "
Harry smiled "I have thought of that. Unfortunately, some of the laws limit the amount that you can take out of the country at one time."
Jack smiled "Remember who you are talking to, cousin. Some of my ancestors were kicked out of the old country for being pranksters, and some for being good people who stood up for what they believed in. You don't have to tell them you are doing it. If you, very publically, donate land and buildings to some very prominent charitable causes, and sneak the portable money out while they are distracted trying to figure out what you're up to (or at least trying to figure out how you snuck the properties out from under what they can get their hands on), you can get the rest of it out of their reach permanently."
Harry sipped his beer, and nodded, smiling a nasty grin. "Maybe, after a while, they will come to be grateful if I leave them alone."
Jack sighed as he sipped his drink. "Harry, watch out for trying to take on too much. You're not responsible for curing all the ills of the world." You can't do it all, regardless of what others will want you to do. You're not responsible for rescuing the old lady's cat from a tree."
"Something working with the crocs and the snakes has taught me – just because they are predators doesn't make them evil. Be careful not to confuse the two."
"There is evil out there, s'truth. There always has been evil, and there probably always will be, regardless of what the religious types want us to believe. The Irish have a term 'ordinary decent criminals', to distinguish between those who are just robbing banks for the money themselves as opposed to those doing it to fund terrorism. You're going to have to take a look at the problems they throw in your face, and decide if these are ordinary decent villains, or are they a real threat to your society, and more importantly, to you and your loved ones personally. If the former, let the police, you call them Aurors, look after them. That's their job, damn it, not yours!"
"However, if they are a threat to you, have at them. And if I can help, just let me know."
While Harry was visiting the crocodiles that Jack worked with (and learning the term 'Pommie Bastard', which to many Australians is one single word), Hermione and her mother were having a heart-to-heart talk.
The two women sat on the patio of Hermione's hotel rooms, sipping iced tea. Hermione looked at her mother, and with what seemed to Elly like misty eyes, said "Mum, I'm confused and a bit worried. And a bit scared. Can I ask you for some advice?"
Elly looked at the strange young woman who was sitting beside her. Since she sent Hermione to that strange school in the Scottish Highlands, she had spent less than a year altogether with her daughter, between school and the time she spent with the Weasley's, and she felt that she barely knew her daughter any more. It still puzzled Elly why Molly Weasley had just assumed that Hermione would spend several weeks each summer with the Weasley family who had lots of other children, rather than with her own parents who had only Hermione. Elly looked at her daughter with a critical eye, and saw both the battle-hardened veteran who had seen death and dealt it out herself, a woman who had loved and lost, but at the moment looked a little like the lonely frightened-yet-eager eleven-year-old girl she had sent off to boarding school.
Elly quietly asked "Of course you can, Hermijean." Using her pet name for her daughter from when she was three, she assured Hermione that this was her loving mother speaking. "Is it about Harry, or about Ron? Or both? Or the thing with the elves?"
Hermione hung her head down, and nodded. "Yes, Mum, yes. All three"
Elly sighed. This sounded like it was serious, and that Hermione's whole life in the wizarding world was falling apart. Most of the time, her talks with her daughter were pretty intellectual, but this time it sounded like Hermione's heart was in danger of breaking. Elly took Hermione's hands in hers and said, "Okay, tell me what happened. All of it."
Hermione spoke of the suicide of the elf. She talked of how she and Ron finally realized that they were really not right for each other, and how Harry and Ginny's relationship had come badly undone over the two wanting different things in their lives. She spoke of how she thought Ginny was being selfish and attention-hungry, which Harry hated, and that, Hermione agreed, was not good for Ginny – the two girls had fallen out over this. She talked about the gathering at Harry's home, and Luna's assumption that she and Harry would be together and that Luna wanted a part of what she had assumed that they had. She spoke of the visit of Ron and Viktor and their news. She spoke of her own heart-break when Ron and Magda revealed their engagement. She spoke of the visit by Shacklebolt and the Weasleys, and the bad news that had been revealed at that time. She then spoke of telling Harry about Luna's comments, in an attempt to amuse him, at which point he completely clammed up. She talked about trying to get Harry to talk about their relationship, and the fact he kept changing the subject.
As she sat there in tears, Hermione hung her head and said, "I worry that I am driving him away. He hates it when anyone gets bossy, and I think he feels that I am trying to push him around. I think he hates the fact that the wizarding world is forcing him to have two wives, among other things – even if the idea of two wives (and possibly concubines) may sounds intriguing to him, he hates that he is being forced into it. He hates that they always want him to clean their messes. Why should he be the one who has to do that? I worry that Harry feels that he is going to have to go into battle and kill more people, or at least the Ministry will want him to do so. I would hate him to have to do that. I would hate to be part of that, but I can see that someone has to do something. Why is it always Harry?"
"I am so grateful for everything he has done for me, ever since we met on the Express. When Ron was making nasty remarks in first year, Harry didn't. He was the one who insisted on coming to rescue me from the troll. And everything since. He has done so much for me that I can never thank him enough."
"Last fall, when we came to 'remind' you of who you are, I was terrified how you would react. Harry came with me and gave me the support I needed to contact you and release your memories. He has always been there for me!
"I think that he is wanting to just escape from the magical world and disappear, and that could mean cutting me out of his life, too! I don't know if I want to marry him, like everybody now assumes, but I lost my one best friend in Ron, I lost another best friend in Ginny, and I really worry that I am about to lose my last and only other best friend!"
"But if he doesn't want to be around me, what is he doing coming on this trip to visit you? I'm very grateful that he did, but I am confused by it, too."
"Do I push him into marrying me, and find that neither of us wants that? He hates being pushed, but how do I get him to meet me halfway on this, or at least talk about it? How do I tell him what I want when I don't know what that is, myself? How do I tell him what I feel and how I feel, when he won't talk to me? Do I tell him I am there for him, and then sit waiting for him to come to me, if that is what he wants?"
"How long do I sit mooning for him? That's not the kind of girl I am and he knows it, so that would be so wrong for both of us."
"Mum, what do I do?"
Elly looked at her daughter. Half of what Hermione had said sounded like the little girl on the playground worried that her so-called friends wouldn't play with her, and half sounded like a weary warrior looking at yet another battle where she might lose her only friend and comrade.
She took a sip of her tea, and said, "Hermione, dear heart, what do you want to do with your life? Your Dad and I expected you would go to university and become a renowned professor, or a doctor, or something. This is one reason why you and Ron weren't good together – you wanted to learn and learn and learn, and he didn't. He did not respect this in you. Does Harry respect your love of learning?"
Hermione nodded.
Elly said, "How do you feel about Harry fighting and killing again?"
Hermione shook her head, "I hate it. I hate that he would feel compelled to do it, and I would hate what doing it would do to him! They called him 'the boy who lived' – now he is finally 'living' and they want him to go back to being 'the man who killed Voldemort'."
Elly asked, "How do you feel about being married to Harry, and having to share him with another woman? Or several other women, for that matter?"
Hermione looked at her mother and said, "I honestly don't know. I always looked to you and Dad as my role models, and assumed that one loving woman and one loving man was the natural state of affairs.
Elly smiled at her description of her and her husband (and thought, the girl really doesn't know half of what goes on in a marriage; comes from being away during the critical teenage years) and snickered, "Well, perhaps the state of most marriages, but hardly of affairs. Your father and I have discussed you and Harry, and the possibility of you two getting married. I don't think either one of us would be happy about you being part of a plural marriage. We don't think it would be fair to you! Our concern is for you. Yourself. And not for any of these hypothetical others. We don't want to see you hurt, but we worry that you would be hurt more by being left out of Harry's life."
"Could you just be Harry's best friend without being his wife? I don't know. Would his wife, or wives, let you be his best friend, or would this cause unbearable friction? I don't know. I do know that I would not want my husband's best friend being an attractive and brilliant 'other woman'." Hermione smiled at her mother's assessment of her attractive-ness, even if she did not share the idea that she was pretty (mothers are biased, after all).
"Hermione, your Dad and I became friends first, and then fell in love. I know you love Harry, but I don't know if you are 'in love' with Harry, or whether you ever will be. There may be worse things than being married to your best friend; lord knows there are a lot of arranged marriages that work out well. In the old days among the upper classes, arranged marriages were the norm, and there was usually no real love between the couple, who then looked for love elsewhere – some were so-called successful marriages and some weren't. You will have to consider what you want, what you can put up with, and the critical part, what you cannot put up with, and what you cannot do without."
"I do know that neither Gil or myself would be happy if Harry went back into battle. Some people, men and women, come to crave the excitement of battle. Some, I am told, become addicted to killing. In the book 'Moby Dick', a character talks about the excitement of killing (he was talking about whales, but the principle is the same, and the danger is even greater). I certainly hope this is not the case with Harry. He seemed to be finding his way, but I worry about him.
Elly bit her lip, and then said, "Hermione, you have to take a hard look at what you want, what you can tolerate, and what you can't. With Ron, you found that he could not tolerate your love of learning, and you couldn't respect his obsession with sports."
"Once you have thought about what you want and what you need in life, talk to Harry. Sit him down and talk to him about what you need from him. Be precise. Don't ask him to 'discuss your relationship' – men don't do that! Harry is a good young man, but he is a man, and therefore, rather clueless. Comes with the territory. Men don't want to talk about 'relationships', they are willing to talk about what you want and what you need. Harry needs to know what you want from him."
"If he finds that intolerably pushy, too bad. You are a pushy, bossy person (Hermijean, you know you are, and you know you got it from me), and if Harry can't live with that, it's better to know now. If he can't put up with you telling him what you need, then walk away. It will break your heart to do it, but better now than him breaking your heart later by continually disappointing you when you find he cannot give you want you need in life.
Hermione gasped, "But what if he is just still hurting from the break-up with Ginny? I don't want to leave him like that, if it's just that he's not ready yet. I know that I am still hurting from Ron."
Elly nodded at her intelligent and obviously caring girl. "Hermione, you are my daughter. If Harry is the one for you, then I will love him with all my heart as your 'chosen'. If he is not, then good riddance, because he is not good enough for you! And you deserve only the best! However, if you think he needs a bit more time, then give him some time. Just don't give him too much – you have to look after yourself and your own heart too."
By this point, both women were in tears, but confidences had been shared, and advice had been given, as hard as it was to give and to hear. Hermione had a lot to think about.
When the four couples got together for dinner that evening, Hermione asked Janine and Jack about the magical world in Australia, and how it worked with non-magical people fully aware of their presence.
Janine shook her head. "I wouldn't say that the non-magicals are completely aware of all that goes on. Most have some awareness of our part in the world, but most have a live-and-let-live attitude, and as long as we don't bother them, they don't care much, and don't seem to want to know more. Everyone just gets busy with their own lives, and if someone says they will pop over for a visit, no one really cares whether you come through the front door or through the fireplace. Actually, not a lot of fireplaces up here in the north, but down in Tasmania where they do get cold weather, there are some. Usually, we set up an exterior doorway as the floo connection, so it looks pretty much the same whether a maj or non-maj is arriving."
Hermione looked at Janine, and said cautiously, "I notice you don't use the term 'muggle', as much as we hear it at home."
Jack nodded, and said "We only use that term for a non-maj that is particularly bigoted, to the point that they are a danger to us and everyone else. Like calling someone a bitch or a jerk (or worse). We notice that in British stuff we see, they seem to use the term just like they would describe poorer people as the great unwashed or the riff-raff. It's like if we refer to the natives here as 'Abos'. We see it as a not particularly subtle form of racism. I know some don't think of it that way, but you both well know that in magic, words have power, so we try to be careful not to give ourselves airs of superiority like that. Besides, it's almost un-Australian to pretend that you're better than the next bloke."
As they laughed, Harry brought up a question which had been on his mind since Hermione brought it to his attention. He said, "Mark, you're the only non-magical medical doctor I know who is fully aware of the magical world, not to belittle the rest of you who may also have some insight into something Hermione mentioned to me. What can you tell me about the sensitivity of magical people to radioactivity?"
Mark looked stunned, and Jack and Janine gasped. Both men looked around to see if anyone was listening.
Elly frowned and said, "I know we were advised not to use high-powered X-rays when doing dental exams with the aboriginals, but I didn't know there was any particular reason. I thought it just had to do with local customs, or their spiritual beliefs. I gather, Harry, that there is something rather more serious going on. Yes?"
Mark looked at Harry and Hermione and asked, in a conspiratorial way, "What do you know about it?"
Hermione mentioned what she had learned at the hospital (both magical and non), that by Ministry decree, wizards and witches were never to be subjected to radiation therapies or diagnostics. She mentioned that she had been told, in a very hush-hush way, that this was considered a state secret, but that was about all she knew specifically.
Harry said that he had never heard of this situation until Hermione had mentioned it – as he had never had non-magical medical treatment before he went to Hogwarts (his uncle was not keen on doctors discovering residual injuries which might have legal ramifications), and Madame Pomfrey using magical diagnostics only, the topic had never come up. He had no idea how muggle (he reminded himself that he had to stop using that word) medicine worked.
Mark nodded. "Okay, that sounds reasonable. I was rather afraid (from your asking the question) that one of your friends had gotten a bad dose and reacted to it. I'm very glad that hasn't happened."
"Harry. Hermione. The basic reason for the prohibition is that ionizing radiation, beyond a certain threshold level, destroys a person's magic."
The two young people gasped. Hermione asked "What do you mean, 'destroys their magic'?"
Mark nodded sadly. "You may know that Britain used to test its nuclear bombs in the Australian desert, what we call the outback. Everyone was kept away from the actual test sites for quite some time to let the radioactivity decrease, but then the local tribes were allowed back in. However, once they got within a certain distance of the blast site, some of the members of the tribes would fall over screaming in pain. Invariably, it included the tribe's witch doctor and his family. Many died, some horribly. This all happened at distances that the non-magical medical officers said were completely safe from dangerous radiation exposure."
"Those who had been magical, who survived, had no magic any more. Their magical essence was gone. Totally! Some thought that this was due to a particular sensitivity to radiation among the aborigines only, but then other bomb tests with non-native populations found that about 2 to 3 percent of the soldiers taking part, within a certain distance when the bomb went off, or checking the site afterwards, would fall over screaming too. It was found that the ones who fell had all been magical, and now had no magic. Some magicals can live without their magical core, and some couldn't. Those who can, often feel they are living only half a life."
"Most of the ex-magical aborigines, and some of the 'imports' (those like us and your parents), found they couldn't tolerate living as non-magicals and committed suicide. For the soldiers, this seemed more common with the Brits who were taking part in the tests. The Australia War Department concluded that this was because in Australia, there was much less separation between the magical and non-maj worlds, so the adaption was easier. However, for the British soldiers who lost their magic, there was such a separation (as you well know), such a stigma and such contempt for the non-magical by the high-born magicals, that they felt they were as good as dead anyway. So they took their own lives.
"In the UK, this knowledge was very rapidly suppressed by the powerful people in the Wizengamot, and made a wizarding state secret."
"Here, we get taught about it in medical college as we have to deal with the natives, and so have to make sure we don't do them no harm. Not only would we hurt them, but it destroys any trust between our peoples, which has been very hard to achieve given the history of white settlement here."
"From the distribution of the effects around the bomb test locations, they found that the devastating effects occurred at levels above what low-powered dental X-rays would give, but below what you would get from radioactive diagnostic drugs, higher powered X-rays for orthopaedics, or from cancer therapies. It was also found that there was a higher sensitivity in foetuses, which accounts for some of the non-magical children of magical, what you in Britain would call 'squibs'. Studies showed that if a pregnant witch was near a source of natural radiation, such as spending much time in the basements of houses built over granite rock, or flying on the Concord airplane because it flies higher than other aircraft, there was a much higher chance the child would be non-magical."
"Kids, you can see why the upper crust types want to suppress this, can't you?"
Harry asked, "Does this apply to magical 'things' as well? For example, if my wand got exposed to a high dose of radiation, say going through the X-ray machine at some airports, would it be destroyed too?"
Mark shook his head. "No idea. Everything I have seen just talks about the effects on people."
Harry and Hermione sat there nodding their heads, with the horror evident on their faces. However, as the party broke up, only Hermione noticed the slight smile on Harry's face. This worried her greatly.
That night, Harry heard his hotel room door being opened, briefly. Instantly, his wand was in his right hand as he called "Accio glasses! Lumos!", and looked at who had entered. Elly Granger stood there in his room in a shear blue nightgown.
Harry gasped. He looked at Elly and said "What are you doing here in your nightie?"
Elly smiled and asked, rhetorically "You don't like my nightie? Okay." With her thumbs, she slipped the straps off of her shoulders, and her gown drifted to the floor, leaving her quite naked.
Again, Harry gasped. "Elly, what do you think you are doing?"
Again Elly smiled, and said "You know Harry, I hadn't thought you were that dumb. It should be fairly obvious what I am doing. I am here to express my gratitude, actually our gratitude, for all that you have done for our daughter."
"I understand that you and Ginny are over, and that you are not committed to any other woman at this time. This is good, because I would not do this if you were. I also understand that this may be the last time we see you, so this is perhaps my only opportunity to thank you in the most profound way a woman can thank a man."
Harry said, "Elly, you don't have to do this. I can accept your thanks in words."
Elly smsiled. "Harry, I have seen you and talked with you. You seem incapable of accepting thanks in any way. You almost seem unable to accept that people want to thank you for things you have done."
"And yes, I realize that I do not have to do this. If I had to, it would be an obligation. It is not. This is a gift from me, from us, to you. Freely given.
Harry's eyes widened as it became clear what was about to happen. He asked, "I don't suppose I can talk you out of this?"
Elly smiled and giggled slightly. "You've already talked me out of my nightie. It took Gil a good six months to do that!" She laughed and added, "Besides, where do you think Hermione learned to be so stubborn?"
"Harry, move over in the bed. I'm getting chilly standing here like this and I need your warmth." She walked over to Harry's bed and slid under the covers. "Put your arm around me, please. Thank you." She turned towards Harry and kissed him.
Harry's body reacted to Elly's presence, as she reached up and removed his glasses, then turned to put them on the night-table.
Harry said "You said 'your gratitude'. Gil knows about this?" He was starting to think of the repercussions (possibly painful) of what now seemed to be inevitable.
Elly smiled, and in a soft sultry voice said "Of course. We discussed it and figured that this was the only way to indicate how much we appreciate what you have done for us, and for our Hermione. Now, Harry, if you don't want me, Gil says he is quite willing to take my place in your bed."
As Harry sputtered, Elly laughed quietly. She giggled, "Hermione is right, you are very easy to tease!"
She laughed gently. "Harry, you have to realize that Gil and I are from a different time and background than you. When we were growing up, the songs were saying 'All you need is love', and people were talking about free love, and sharing all you are. I gather from Hermione that you were raised in a desperately puritanical house by people who hated you. She has told us that you have a lot of trouble accepting that people love you, even that people can love you, and want to do things for you, and be with you. Harry, we love you. Please let me show you that."
Some time later, Elly was cuddled up against Harry's chest. She said softly, "That was nice. Thank you for letting me express how much we appreciate what you have done, and the part you have played in our Hermione's life."
She said, "You know, when we found out that Hermione was a witch, it was quite a shock, and at the same time, not. Both Gil and I had been raised on stories of wizards and elves and dragons – my Dad and his were at Oxford at the time when Tolkien and the other 'Inklings' were telling their stories to each other at the pub where some of the graduate students congregated. Gil's dad and mine overheard some of the stories, and fell in love with them. My proper name is Elbereth Galadriel, and I was named for the angel who lit the stars and a queen of the elves. Gil was named for Gil-galad, a powerful king of the elves whose name means 'Starlight'. Our dads were reading astrophysics, and were rather obsessed by the references to stars. Hermione was almost named 'Celebrian', after the daughter of Galadriel who married a powerful leader of the elves and the forces fighting an evil sorcerer – that might not have been a bad name for her."
"When Hermione told us that there were elves at the school, and your friend Hagrid had a dragon, we were over the moon with excitement. When I met Hermione's elves, I have to say I was a bit disappointed, because I had this image of these tall majestic creatures that my dad had read to me about." She giggled. "Finding that elves were actually short beings, with big floppy ears, was almost too much to take. Then Hermijean told us some of the things your friend Dobby had done, and I realized that these were very powerful magical people. I look forward to meeting more of them. If we stay part of your life, I gather you have quite a few for us to meet."
Harry thought for a moment and then frowned. He looked down at the naked woman in his arms, and asked, "What did you mean that this may be the last time we see each other? I have to admit that I liked the view you just gave me, even if I was quite surprised at the opportunity. But I don't understand why you feel this is the end for us."
Elly sighed, "Hermione told us about the situation back home. Well, your home, now, not ours. She is very worried that you are going to disappear from her life, rather than fight the bigots and idiots. She has lost so many friends. She lost Ron and with you breaking up with Ginny, she is sort of on-the-outs with her too. She told us about Luna's ideas about the two of you, and says that you seemed really reluctant to talk about it, to the point that she is worried that you would rather not see her in that light. If you and she part ways, I would doubt we would see each other again, so I took this opportunity, perhaps my last chance, to say what I had to say."
"She was also confused as to why you came to visit us. Were you checking out places to escape to? To run away to? But if so, was she part of your plan or not? You wouldn't talk about it."
"Harry, you are one of the only good friends Hermione has ever had. My little girl was very lonely growing up, and she is terrified that she is about to lose her last friend. If you run away, she would lose you. If you fight, she may lose you, because you may lose yourself. She's scared."
"Harry, please talk to Hermione. She needs you to do so, and I think you need it too."
She rolled towards him, and kissed his chest. As Harry started to react to the feel of her bare breasts moving against his chest, she said, "Now, Harry. I am going to say thank you again. Do you think you can cope with that?"