Nearly six months had gone by since the marriage law had been passed. As usual, Dumbledore's Army was getting together for their annual Halloween party. It had started the year Voldemort had been defeated. Hermione and Ron knew how difficult Halloween was for Harry, and they had figured one of the best ways to cheer him up would be to invite all of his friends over and get smashingly drunk. Amazingly, it had worked, and they'd done it the next year too.
As always, the party was at Grimmauld Place, and Hermione spent most of the day on Halloween rushing around, ensuring the house was in order. Kreacher followed her throughout the townhouse, trying to clean areas before she got to them, and by dinner time the whole house was shining from top to bottom. She ate with Harry in relative silence, and they toasted their wine to his parents and she kissed the top of his head when she left the table, reminding him quietly that she was his family now.
Ron and Hannah were the first to arrive. Ron added a bottle of gin to the table that they usually had out for partygoers to share their alcohol on, and nodded in appreciation at the much-improved state of the living room. Hannah gave both Harry and Hermione large hugs when they entered, carrying a tray of cookies that looked (and smelled) homemade. As they moved into the living room, Hannah took Ron's hand to pull him towards the table where the other snacks and punch had been set out, and Hermione spotted the telltale flush to Ron's ears from across the room.
Neville Longbottom arrived next, looking awkward as he stood by himself in the doorway, having apparated rather than floo'd to the party. Harry waved him in and Hermione moved over to speak to him.
"Where's -" she paused, realizing something. "Neville, who did you end marrying?"
Neville sighed, dropping his head, and mumbled something that Hermione didn't hear. When she said as much, he sighed again. "Lavender."
Hermione gaped at him, looking back at Harry to see if he heard, but he was too busy speaking to Ron and Hannah.
"Brown? Lavender Brown?"
"Yeah. It's a bit, um, weird, isn't it? We don't even… she doesn't think. Well, it's been awkward."
Hermione nodded again. "Yeah, I can imagine. I had to live with her for six years."
Neville managed a small laugh at this and Hermione was glad to see him smiling a bit. "Yeah. She said she'd be here." He added, looking around to see if his wife had turned up, and then awkwardly twisted the band around his finger as he spotted Hannah across the room.
They ended up in a discussion about Hogwarts, and it wasn't long before Lavender stepped through the fireplace and into the living room, brushing imaginary soot off of her shoulder. She was beautiful, almost more so with the thick scars that marred her face and neck. Lavender managed a smile at Ron, Hannah, and Harry, a nod at Neville and Hermione, and then headed straight for the alcohol.
Before Hermione or Neville had a chance to say anything to the woman, the fireplace roared to life again and George and Win tumbled out, laughing as they tripped over each other. "I told you we should have gone separately, you doofus!" Win was saying, shoving at George's arm.
"Yeah well, I was worried you'd fall over!" By now the two were sitting on the ground in a crumpled heap, and George's faux concern had Win laughing even more. Harry headed over to help them up, and Hermione went to the door, having heard the bell.
Dean Thomas and Seamus Finnigan were outside. They followed her in and promptly dumped an armful of alcohol-filled bottles onto the table. Hermione grinned at them both, getting caught up in a story about Dean's job with goblin relations, and then she noticed that they were wearing matching wedding bands and gasped.
"You're married?" She asked, grabbing one of Seamus' hands to examine the understated gold band with an engraving in a language she did not understand.
Seamus flushed and looked over at Dean. "Yeah. Sorry we didn't invite anyone, it all happened rather quick, see. Didn't want the Ministry to realize they'd paired up two blokes and revoke our partnership, so we got married 'bout an hour after we found out."
Hermione grinned at them both. "That's so wonderful. You must have slipped past their spell. But, what'll you do when they want to see children?"
It was Dean who grinned this time. "Oh. That's all taken care of. Actually, we'd already been looking into it, before all this legal nonsense. Thought it was just good fortune that the Ministry was developing all these new methods of," he paused and shook his head. "Anyways. They've created this spell, brilliant really, where you can basically fertilize an egg with DNA from two different people and more or less guarantee that the egg will only really feature their DNA, effectively having a child who's not actually much related to the surrogate."
Seamus nodded. "Bit confusing to explain to a load of wizards who never had to take a science class. Either way, someone somewhere was thinking of same sex couples when they came up with the spell, and we're not complaining."
Hermione was nodding along, fascinated. She had done quite a lot of reading over her summers, and while her biology knowledge was certainly not as high as some of her other areas of interest, it was still a fascinating subject.
"So you found a surrogate?" She clarified, and at this both Dean and Seamus grinned as they exchanged looks.
"Yup."
"She's brill, really."
"She'll be here any minute."
"Oh!" Hermione realized. She was one of Dumbledore's Army. Who could it be then?
It didn't take long for them to find out. Seamus had wandered off to make drinks for himself and Dean, topping up Hermione's as well, and they were back to the subject of wizard-goblin relations when someone else stepped out of the floo.
Luna Lovegood now stood in the room, her long blonde hair braided in various places with feathers and other strange items tucked into it. Hermione heard Hannah's gasp before she turned, and when she did so she reacted the same. Luna was standing with a hand resting protectively on her rather large belly, her eyes twinkling and her skin glowing as she scanned the room.
Before Luna could step forward, another person came through the fireplace and placed a hand with dark green fingernails and a glittering wedding band protectively on Luna's shoulder, though it looked like she was shielding herself just as much as she was supporting her wife. The newcomer looked around at the lot of them and drew her eyebrows tight together, flicking her short hair away from her face. "What are you all looking at?" She snapped, and Luna turned her head, smile soft and loving.
"Don't worry. They're just checking to make sure you're not about to kill them." And Hermione watched in relative shock as Luna Lovegood leaned forwards and pressed the sweetest kiss to Pansy Parkinson's cheek.
Eventually, everyone managed to turn away, and Luna floated over to Hermione, who was now standing with Dean, Seamus, Neville, and Lavender. The present Weasleys, Win, Hannah, and Harry had gotten onto the topic of the Quidditch World Cup and even the revelation of Luna's pregnancy wasn't enough to pull them away from it.
"Hello." Luna said, voice light as she smoothed her hand over her stomach and twined her fingers in with Pansy's. Pansy, who looked incredibly uncomfortable, glanced over to Harry more than once, as if waiting to be kicked out.
"Luna!" Dean and Seamus said together, each leaning forward to press a kiss to her cheeks, and then down to her belly as well. Dean also leaned over to give Pansy a quick hug and Hermione tried not to choke on her butterbeer.
Lavender was not doing as well and she shook her head, rubbing at her eyes as if it would all go away. "Wait, I'm sorry. I missed something major here. Luna, you're… you're pregnant!"
Luna nodded. "Yes, quite. Twenty one weeks and three days, to be precise."
"But," Lavender began, shaking her head again. "You're here with… her?"
"Hearts are wild," Luna began, and moved a hand over to brush at Pansy's ribs. "That's why ribs are cages." Grinning up at Pansy, who was a good few inches taller than Luna, more so with the heels she was wearing, Luna then looked back at her friends. "This is Pansy." She introduced, simply. "Pansy, this is Neville, Lavender, and Hermione."
"We know who she is Luna." Lavender hissed, looking at Dean and Seamus and then Hermione, seeing if anyone was on her side. "She's a Slytherin! She tried to hand over Harry to Voldemort! And, how did you even end up, I mean, this whole law is about - well, I guess you've got that part. But still. It doesn't make any sense!"
Pansy cleared her throat, letting go of Luna's hand to wrap a protective arm around her partner's shoulders, her gaze now steely. She suddenly looked more like the bitter girl Hermione remembered from school. "I'll remind you all that he handed himself over the very same night. One life for thousands of us, and besides, he didn't even die-" Luna lifted a hand to run over Pansy's face and the girl softened, slightly. "I'd appreciate it if you did not speak about me as though I was not standing right next to you."
Lavender had the grace to blush slightly, but she was shaking her head again and about to say something even more hurtful when Hermione cut in. "Dean, is Luna your surrogate, then? That's lovely." She looked over to Luna and smiled, but the blonde was still looking up at Pansy and didn't notice.
"It's wonderful, isn't it?" Luna spoke, her free hand smoothing circles over her stomach. "It just worked out perfectly. Dean and Seamus had already asked me to be involved, before the law. And then St. Mungo's was able to give me twins. One for Dean and Seamus, and one for Pansy and I. They'll be sisters." She sighed, blissful. "Isn't it lovely?"
Neville coughed now, on his own drink. "That's," he paused, seeing the look of utter disdain Pansy was shooting him, and rethought his sentence. "That's really great, Luna, Pansy." He paused, looking to his other friends. "Congrats to you two as well, then."
Luna nodded and Pansy shifted again, trying not to look as uncomfortable as she was surely feeling.
Once more, the fire roared to life and this time it was Ginny Weasley stepping out, tucking strands of red hair back behind her ears and moving directly to Harry to wrap her arms around him. Draco followed only a few seconds later, holding an expensive bottle of wine and looking very out of place in his nice suit. He noticed Pansy, and Hermione watched as his shoulders dropped slightly, tension releasing when he realized he wasn't the only Slytherin, and he moved in the direction of their group.
By the time Draco had reached them, Neville had moved away to talk to Ron and Win, and Seamus was in an animated conversation with Luna that sounded like it was about prenatal vitamins, Dean listening with amusement beside him. Harry and Ginny had slipped out of the room and either no one had noticed, or they all had the good sense not to comment on the fact. Draco went straight for Pansy and the Slytherins embraced, looking for a moment as if they might cling to each other like they were a lifeboat, but they broke away and Pansy passed Draco a glass, which he immediately filled with wine.
"Malfoy." Hermione greeted, cordially, and he finally seemed to notice that she was there.
"Granger. How are the trolls treating you this week?"
Hermione had decided she wasn't going to let him ruffle her feathers, and she finished off her glass, holding it out to him to refill with wine, which he did without much hesitation.
"I'm not sure, I haven't see you in over a month."
Pansy choked on her glass of water and reached a hand out to grab Draco's, to prevent him from hexing the girl, but instead Draco laughed, loud and boisterous, drawing strange looks from Neville and Ron.
"Very good, Granger." He said, in the deep drawl that she thought of now when she read.
"How about you, Malfoy? Win any Quidditch games lately?"
Once again he flashed a strange look at her. He wasn't smirking and she wasn't sure what to do with the expression on his face. In fact, it seemed rather like a smile, and that was throwing her off more than she figured it should be.
"Nope. Not a single one."
The party had gone quite well, and slowly the couples had drifted out. Luna and Pansy had been the first to leave, citing swollen feet (though Hermione suspected it was just as much to do with the fact that Ron kept glaring at Pansy and Harry was doing his best to pretend she just didn't exist at all. Very mature for the both of them).
As George and Win headed through the fireplace, waving goodbye through the smoke, Hermione looked around and realized that nearly everyone was gone.
Nearly everyone except for Draco and Ginny, of course. Ginny and Harry had come back down to the party and been mostly sociable for a good chunk in the middle there, but as the guests started to disappear, they too had slipped upstairs again and now Hermione was sitting in the living room with Draco Malfoy as company.
Luckily, they were both rather drunk. Hermione now lay slightly sprawled on the comfortable sofa with her head propped up on the armrest, and Draco sat across from her in the comfy armchair that she spent most of her time in. Draco had gone silent, swishing his firewhiskey around in his glass, and looking at Hermione as though she were an interesting specimen worth studying.
"Why d'you think they didn' end up paired together?" He asked, words slurring together, after a long period of silence. Hermione glanced up from her own wine and frowned, shifting in the seat to get more comfortable.
"'M'not sure." She admitted, glancing up to the ceiling and trying not to think too much about it. "Kingsley said somethin' 'bout," she paused, searching back through her foggy brain to try and remember what that conversation had been like. "S'not about who we are now, not really. The spell can't, doesn't know," she paused, taking a large gulp of wine. "Doesn't know all the stuff the world's taught us. Just who we are, when s'all gone."
Draco hummed in response, watching her speak and taking another sip of his own drink. "I s'pose… she's feisty, smart," he frowned, and then spoke quickly. "All the things I want. Not afraid to be herself, fight back. But, she's not," Draco shook his head. "Not right for me. An', her and Potter sure seem to be pretty, uh,"
"Enamored?" Hermione supplied.
"Horny." He said, and it was Hermione's turn to laugh, though she flushed a little too.
"Yeah. They… deserve to be happy though. Af'er everything."
"Mmm." Draco agreed, and they lapsed into silence, though it drew out comfortably between them.
"What about you?" It had been so long since their conversation ended that Hermione was caught off guard when Draco spoke again.
"Me?" She asked, shifting her body leaning towards him a little.
"Yeah. What d'you want? Obviously not Potter. To marry. If you could've chosen."
Hermione frowned, thinking it over. "Harry's great," she began. "But, he's not," she squirmed, trying to think about what she wanted, what would be her ideal. "We just don't… we're not really interested in the same things. But he's caring, and loyal, those are good things." Draco raised a brow at her, as if that wasn't enough. She knew it wasn't. "He's not very sure of himself. Always worried he's gonna do the wrong thing." She blurted it out all at once and felt her cheeks darken and burn, but she'd started now and couldn't seem to stop. "We don't argue, ever. But it's too… safe. He'd never… there's no…"
Draco cut in, before she could even mentally finish her sentence. "Fire."
Hermione sighed, tipping her head back and closing her eyes. "Yeah."
Once more, the silence stretched, and Hermione found herself starting to slip closer to sleep. Her breathing was evening out and she could only distantly hear the crackle of the fire that filled the room. She didn't move when fingertips brushed over her cheek, didn't force her eyes to open against the weight of the wine in her system and the heat of the room. But she heard, just barely, as a soft voice above her whispered, "Problem with fire is you always seem to get burned."
When she woke in the morning with a crick in her neck and a pounding headache, it took her a few moments to figure out why she wasn't in her bed. She glanced over across the room and there, in the armchair across from her, was a fast asleep Draco Malfoy, looking distinctly uncomfortable. His features were peaceful though, and with the way the early morning light hit his skin Hermione had the clear thought that he was stunning. Alarmingly beautiful, when he let the mask that he usually wore down.
Hermione hadn't meant to fall back asleep on the couch, body rolled to face him, so that he was the last thing she saw before sleep took her again. When she opened her eyes later that day he was gone, and she wondered if it had been a dream. But then, her mind had never painted him as beautiful, not like that. Sharp maybe, angular and strong and not unattractive. But beautiful was new, and not something she thought she would have been able to imagine in her hungover state. Now she wasn't sure she'd be able to stop.