Author: Lash_Larue
Title: "Plans"
Pairing: Ginny/Hermione
Rating: Adult
Summary: The plans unfold
Warnings: None for this chapter
Word Count: 2600
Disclaimer: These characters belong to JK Rowling
The Hunters Part 19
"Plans"
Pansy's owl arrived Saturday morning. He seemed quite proud of having delivered such a large parcel, and Hermione made much of him and gave him an extra treat and some orange juice. (Owls are actually quite fond of orange juice, when they can get it.) The parcel was addressed to Fleur, and so Hermione put it by her place at the table and resumed preparing breakfast while Fleur dealt with Victoire's morning routine.
The sight of Pansy's owl brought the memory of her last visit to Pansy's club to the front of her mind, and Hermione smiled as she recalled the very flattering attention that she had received, and the amusement she had felt when her dance partners had tried to avoid the appearance of staring at her breasts, which were obviously displayed to be admired. Except for Leslie, a rather awkward young girl who nonetheless possessed a refreshing directness about her, Leslie had not only stared openly, but had seized the chance to place a tender kiss on the slope of one opulent mammary. Much to her own surprise, Hermione had been more amused than outraged, and she found herself hoping that Leslie would be there next time, which Fleur had indicated should be fairly soon. Perhaps Ginny would be able to go with them.
"Hermonkey!" shouted Victoire joyfully, and she hurried across the kitchen and seized a leg fiercely.
"Good morning, poppet, are you hungry?"
"Yes!"
Victoire was a fountain of enthusiasm in the morning, as a rule, and served to blunt the sharp edge of the oncoming trials of the adult day.
"Maybe one…" Hermione thought.
Victoire was wrapped tightly around Hermione's leg, clinging like a monkey with all four limbs. Hermione felt a growing warmth, that flowed down her leg like-
"Perhaps a cat," Hermione decided. "Fleur, would you take over breakfast while I go and clean up myself and the Princess, and the pee?"
"Oui. Victoire, what do you say to Hermione now?"
"I love you, Mama Hermonkey!"
"Close enough, let's go kid," Hermione acceded as her smile returned. "Oh, Fleur, there's a parcel for you on the table, Pansy's owl brought it."
Fleur checked the progress of the oatmeal, gave the sausages a roll around the pan, and then took up the parcel and opened it. She gasped aloud when she saw the book.
"The Magic and Science of Veela Reproduction – Regina Text"
There were very few copies of this work in existence, each flock had only one, and they were closely guarded and seldom if ever shown to anyone outside of the flock. How on earth had Pansy Parkinson gotten one?
"I suppose she does know a lot of people," mused Fleur, and then she noticed the folded parchment.
Fleur, this is the book I mentioned to you. It was of course, stolen, and I know that I can trust you to see that it is returned to its rightful owners. They may rest assured that no such similar outrage shall be perpetrated upon them in the future. At least not by the same person, and it may be of some consolation to them to know that it was never read by anyone other than the thief until it came into my possession, and that she has since then conveniently forgotten that such a text ever existed.
I do not apologize for my own use of it, however, and I believe that Hermione and Ginny should read at least the chapter on the Other before it is returned. It will explain to them what will no doubt seem like uncharacteristic behaviour from both of us, as things progress.
I can still feel the sting of your hand, and the heel of your shoe.
Yours,
Pansy
The sausages were smoking heavily when Hermione returned.
"Fleur! Breakfast is burning!" Hermione deposited Victoire in the despised playpen and hurried to take the smoking pan from the heat. Fleur tucked Pansy's letter inside her shirt.
"Oh, I must have been daydreaming, I'm sorry," Fleur apologized as she rose to help try and salvage breakfast.
"What did Pansy send you?"
"Her soul," thought Fleur, reverently. Aloud she said, "A book."
xxxx
"Arthur, we simply can't make Ginny and Hermione get married right away. They may not even be ready to," Molly tried to explain.
"Well I know that, but can't we sort of encourage them to?"
"Arthur, are you feeling worse, is there something you've not been telling me?"
"What? Oh! No dear, of course not, I'm sorry to have given that impression. No, it's just that I find myself really looking forward to seeing the two of them together in their gowns, embarking on their life together like we did all those years ago. I suppose I've gotten sentimental in my dotage," Arthur explained.
"Well, I suppose a little hint wouldn't be out of place," Molly agreed, her own excitement at the prospect no less than her husband's. "Do you suppose they'll want to have the wedding here, like Fleur and Bill did?" she asked hopefully.
"My money is on the beach by Shell Cottage," he told her, "that's where they fled together when I – well… any road, I expect that place is nearly sacred to them now. And it's fitting somehow, that something so womanly and so new should take place beside the oldest mother of them all. Sunrise, I think, would be the time, so that the whole world can share in the beginning…"
"Arthur, you sentimental old poet," Molly said, and she kissed him and pulled his head to her chest.
"Such a good man…" Molly said to herself.
xxxx
"You want me to officiate?" Percy asked in wonder. "Whatever for?"
"There are a number of reasons," Minerva McGonagall answered.
"One, you're a ministry official and not any sort of priest," Hooch began, "we've nothing in particular against priests as a rule, but we don't want our wedding cluttered up by a lot of antique verbiage modified to make it sound less misogynistic. We simply want legal status for our relationship; each of us has rapacious relations waiting for us to shuffle off. We have wills, but it will be much harder for the pickers of bones to contest them if we are married. The sacredness of our union is between us."
"Two," Minerva continued, "do not imagine that we do not know how very hard that you worked to secure the passage of this resolution. And it seems fitting to us that you carry through on it."
"Three," enumerated Hooch, "the way that you chaired that meeting was a thing of rare beauty. You kept the strident fools on both sides of the question from reducing the matter to a street fight."
"And four, we do require a Ministry official to make it legal, and, Percy," McGonagall confided, "of all the many thousands of students that have been my concern throughout the years, you are undoubtedly the most officious of them all." The very warm smile on her face took away whatever sting might have attached to her words, and Percy was literate enough to know all uses of the term.
"I would be most honored," Percy said with Percy-like solemnity. "When would you like the ceremony?"
"In a fortnight," Hooch answered, "in the Head's office at Hogwarts."
"Albus wants to be there, and Severus as well," Minnie explained, "both of them were very supportive of our relationship over the years."
"It's rather small," Percy pointed out.
"This is just for us," Minerva told him, "we'll have Filius and Poppy as our witnesses, along with the portraits, and you, Percy. That will suit, the simpler the better, we pledged our love long ago. We'll just put an announcement in the Prophet, after."
"And what time of day?" Percy asked them.
"Sunset," answered Hooch.
xxxx
"Pansy is going to do this?" Hermione asked in wonder as she looked up from the book, her breakfast long since gone cold.
"Yes," Fleur answered.
"You can do this to her, treat her this way?"
"I can, and I have, at the club. Hermione, this is a very powerful thing, and Pansy was correct, the baby requires the Other. And I am not so cruel as to deny Pansy something that she wants so very badly."
"So my love, and Ginny's, is not enough?"
"To make her pure Veela, certainly. To make her a Queen, with all that that requires, no. To be a Queen among the Veela is to embrace the predator, to be able to dominate at need, to protect. It is not a ceremonial position, it is vital to the survival of the flock." Hermione swallowed.
"I could-"
"No, you could not, and neither could Ginny. Your hearts belong to each other, you can love me together, and love Victoire, and the baby, but you cannot submit utterly, body and soul. And I love you both too much to treat you so, no matter the need. Pansy has saved me from my own weakness, she has reminded me what is at risk, and shown me what I must do," Fleur explained.
Hermione recoiled a bit from the look that came to Fleur's face then.
"And she has made me want to do it," Fleur admitted.
"Then do you still need us?" Hermione asked reluctantly.
"More than ever, I must have you to remind me of love, to help me rein in the hunter, lest I be lost to her. I only hope that you can still love me when this is done, for you may see a side of me that none of us knew existed."
"What happens to Pansy after the baby is born?"
"I do not know. This is the first Queen birth of its kind, always before, the Other has been an enemy, a prisoner. Sometimes they were released; sometimes they stayed as servants, and often, they died."
"Pansy loves you so much?"
"No, what is between us is not love, it is something else, and what is between us will remain between us, Hermione my love. I ask that you and Ginny give Pansy your help and support; I would like her to emerge from this whole. Not your pity, she would reject that, for she does this of her own will, for her own reasons. Just treat her as you would if this were not happening."
"We'll try," Hermione promised.
xxxx
"I'm home!" Ginny announced as she stepped from the fire. Hermione raced down the stairs, flung her arms around Ginny, and then kissed her thoroughly. "Wow, I need to come home more often…"
"Yes you do, Fleur and Victoire are walking on the beach, and I've just had a bath. Now take me to bed and do things to me so that I can forgive you for leaving to start with."
"Work, work, work," Ginny sighed. Hermione pressed a hand firmly to Ginny's crotch.
"I don't care what you call it, lover, just get to it, would you…"
"Hermonkey okay?" Victoire asked in concern as a cry drifted down the stairs.
"Yes darling, she is very much okay," Fleur assured her.
"I help her," Victoire said decisively.
"Mama Ginny is helping her, she'll be all better soon."
"Oh. Okay. I help Mama Ginny?"
"Not just now," Fleur said, trying desperately not to laugh, "let's go and pick some flowers for our company tonight, alright?" Victoire nodded and headed for the door.
"Hi Fleur, those are pretty," Ginny complimented on entering the kitchen.
"Mama Ginny!" exclaimed Victoire, and she rushed into Ginny's arms. "Hermonkey better now?"
"What's that about?" Ginny asked. Fleur grinned at her.
"Something about a rather poorly done silencing charm," Fleur answered, "now come and give me a proper kiss hello." Ginny made a good job of it, and Fleur's eyes sparkled. "Delicious," she whispered. Ginny didn't blush.
"What can I do to help with dinner?" Ginny asked.
"You can read this," Hermione answered, and she put the book on the table, opened to the proper page. Something in her tone convinced Ginny to do it straight away, and she handed Victoire over.
"You okay, Hermonkey?" Victoire asked seriously.
"Just say yes," Ginny advised, "and I told you we should have used 'Muffliato'." Hermione did blush.
"Sorry," she said to Fleur.
"That's quite alright, just so long as you are better now. And from the kiss Ginny gave me, I'm perfectly sure that you feel wonderful." Hermione wasn't going to blush from that one.
"Oh, I do. Feel free to check on that anytime."
"Child in the room, ladies," Ginny advised them. Fleur and Hermione, with Victoire's help, got things set for dinner while Ginny read.
"Okay, that was interesting. And it looks like we're going to need help," Ginny announced, closing the book, "I love you Fleur, but there's no way that –"
"She knows that," Hermione stepped in, "she couldn't treat either one of us like that anyway, it's too late, she loves us. But it has been taken care of."
"Who?"
"Pansy, she went to see my Grandmother, and was appointed surrogate Other," Fleur told her. Ginny assumed a calculating look.
"I'm a little surprised," Ginny admitted, "I know she's attracted to you, but this is different. But I have to say that you couldn't do better than Pansy for the job. She's strong enough to make you earn it, and she can damn sure take a beating if she has to."
"Ginny?" Hermione questioned.
"She and I tangled once back in school," Ginny explained, "there's no quit in her, I'll give her that. And if she does this, 'Mione, you and I may need to give her something else, too."
"Really? Us, with Pansy?"
"Separately or together, yes, I think that perhaps she's going to need someone to remind her that she's worth something from time to time. I'm not worried about her taking you from me. Oh, I suppose there might be a little twinge of jealousy here and there, but we can handle it. It's just not fair for us not to help her if she needs it. We're all flying towards the same goal. And heck, she might just need to be held or something."
"I am not sure this is wise," Fleur spoke up.
"This is between Hermione and me. And Pansy, if she's interested."
"Oh, she is," Fleur assured her, "she told me as much, 'if they asked me to I would be on them in an instant', is how she put it. I begin to think this is all too complex, too sordid-seeming, too, too – "
"Unconventional?" Hermione suggested. "I think I can handle it, and Ginny is right, she might well need help to maintain her identity. The thrall is much stronger now, and you are only a little over halfway there. It will get stronger."
"I'll talk to Pansy, then, when the time comes," Ginny suggested, "I think she's a little hotter for me.
"In your dreams, broom-jockey," Hermione retorted.
"Someone needs to start the vegetables," Fleur pointed out.
"Love, sex, and food," Ginny said as she stood, "life is hard."
Working together, it was not long before they had things ready, and Fleur, Ginny, and Hermione were all in the sitting room with Victoire when Fleur felt the tingle from the wards.
"The wards are announcing a visitor. Pansy will have to be met at the boundary, she has never been here before," Fleur told them.
"I'll go and get her," Ginny volunteered, "Bill keyed the wards to me enough that I could admit people, just in case. I'll be right back." Ginny left the kitchen and headed for the entry point.
"Go potty!" cried Victoire urgently.
"Definitely a cat," Hermione thought.