DISCLAIMER: J.K. Rowling owns most of the characters and settings here—I own the rest.

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NOTHING ELSE MATTERS

Chapter 7 - An Unkindness

"What did ye do ta make her leave, son?" Gavin blurted, before Walden had even gotten a chance to sit down.

"Why do ye think I did anythin', Da?" Walden muttered, as he pulled out his chair and sat down heavily. "Oh, good evening, Mum," he added, with a nod in his mother's direction. Elspeth smiled back at him.

"She'd listened to yer testimony of that brainless shite ye pulled with that feckless Riddle for all those years, and she was sitting there with ye this mornin', so ye had to have done somethin'," Gavin mused, as he shook out his napkin and placed it on his lap.

"She got a owl from one of her friends and then Disapparated before I got the chance to say or do anythin'!" Walden picked up the wine glass next to his place setting, and Binkus immediately appeared and filled it.

"Owl was probably tellin' her to stay away from ye," Gavin needled.

"That's exactly what it was, Da, I saw it." He drained the glass and sat it back down, after which Binkus immediately filled it. "Could ye bring me some single-malt, then," he asked the elf.

"Nay, Binkus," Gavin said. "Doona bring any until after supper!"

"Och...fine, then, I'll take some mead," Walden said. "Is that all right wi' ye, Da? Should I have 'im bring it in a baby bottle?"

Before Gavin could snap out a reply, Elspeth intervened. "Who was the letter from, son?"

"It was from Hagrid. Canna say I wasna expecting somethin' like that. Er, may I be excused for a moment?"

Hermione and Ginny sat quietly for a long while after she'd blurted out the news about Hagrid, and eventually, Hermione turned up the sound on the telly, and they watched a science-fiction movie, had some popcorn, and leafed through the latest Gladrags catalog.

Eventually, as Hermione started flipping through the channels once the movie was over, Ginny spoke. "When was the last time you even heard from Hagrid? I know that you and my brother and Harry were very close with him while you were in school, and we all know he had a personal grudge against Macnair...but...well, I think he's being a little rude! He knows you were working on the trials-I mean-well, everyone knows who you were assigned to, from the Prophet...and since when does anyone really pay attention to that cow's stupid column, anyway?" and she stood up from the couch. "Do you have anything to drink?"

"I have some stuff in the fridge, get whatever you want," Hermione responded. "And I haven't seen or heard from Hagrid since his part in the trials, actually. And apparently both Ronald and Hagrid pay attention to that stupid column..."

"Much as I love my brother, no matter what, I've had a difficult time respecting any of his judgment calls for the last few years!" A short while after Ginny walked into the small kitchen area, the sound of bottles clinking echoed through the silent apartment. "Is it OK if I have butterbeer? Do you want one?"

"No, just bring me a bottle of gillywater," Hermione replied, as she continued flipping through the channels.

"Er...Hermione? There are an awful lot of birds on your window ledge, just staring in. It's kind of odd."

"What do you mean, birds? Owls, you mean? Let them in, I guess..." She didn't relish receiving any more mail that day, but there was no rule stating she needed to open every letter.

"No, they look like ravens, and there's about 15 of them, all crowded up. None of them have letters in their beaks."

Hermione waved her wand and lifted up the curtains in the living-room window. "They're in here, too, Ginny...hang on, I'm going to check my bedroom." They were in there, as well, not quite as many. The birds weren't doing anything particularly significant, other than staring at her, but it was unsettling.

"Do any of them have letters?" Hermione asked. "Doesn't look like it," Ginny answered. "I know there are other birds that deliver mail, but I'm not sure I've ever heard of ravens being used for that."

"Nor have I. I'm not that far from the Tower-which has lots of ravens, but I'm not sure why they'd be..." and she paused. "It almost reminds me of something, hang on...something having to do with Hagrid, in fact..." A gloomy afternoon during the most stressful of her teen years, the year where she'd used a Time-Turner, which stretched out the days at a punishing rate, and that had also been the year she'd started her period, it was miserable, really...and that early summer afternoon there'd been an encounter with a shape-shifting wolf, dog and rat in the Shrieking Shack...then a horrible, horrible ride with Harry on the back of a hippogriff. Hadn't there been ravens at Hagrid's hut that day, too, sitting all over the pumpkin patch? There was supposed to have been an execution, but Hagrid had seen it as a murder-she'd helped him work on his case-but that was what a group of crows was called, wasn't it, a murder? What was the name for a group of ravens, anyway? She, Harry and Ron had observed their arrival in swarms while they were huddled under the Invisibility Cloak and hiding behind the garden...

"I think they're from Walden," Hermione said. "Come to think of it, he never did tell me that story about Buckbeak..."

"Well, when did he have the time to tell...er...shaggy hippogriff stories? You were either shagging him or Disapparating during your very brief time together," Ginny said.

"I mean before that, in the trials, you think he would have brought it up...I suppose it wasn't relevant..."

"Hermione! You have shite-loads of birds outside your apartment! Shouldn't you do something about them?"

"As long as they're not attacking me, which I'm pretty sure he can't do, anyway, I doubt they can get through the window...and they're not doing odd things that the Muggles might notice...Accio Restricted Wand booklet!" she said, and after the pamphlet flew into her hand she started paging through it. "Looks like Avifors isn't on the list of proscribed spells...there are such a lot of birds, though, seems as if there should only be one or two, no more than four, I'd think..."

"HERMIONE! Possibly instead of searching through your library, you could go and talk to him and find out why he's sending them."

She was still leafing through the pamphlet. "Nothing in here that says he's been blocked from doing non-combative accidental magic, though; I suppose he's not practising his anger management."

"What on earth is that?"

"It's a Muggle thing, I suggested it as a strategy to several of the Death Eaters, the ones who weren't quite as loquacious as Lucius, so they'd be able to act reasonably during their trials. Walden was the only one who actually tried it, though. Draco Malfoy laughed in my face, and Mulciber straightaway called me a Mudblood-he got sent back to Azkaban after that, which is how I ended up getting stuck with Avery on my docket, horrible man..."

"I always wondered why he was out of alphabetical order," Ginny interjected.

"Anyhow, it worked for Walden, he thanked me for it, although it apparently wasn't working during the time I was out sick." She waved her wand and sent the pamphlet flying back to her desk.

"I would imagine it's not working now!" Ginny said. "I mean, you ran out on him and didn't even say anything. Anyone would be frustrated at that, even a Death Eater...well, he's paroled, right?"

"And reformed," said Hermione. "And I did tell him I was sorry."

"Plus, his parents invited you to supper...you think Hagrid's being rude, and I say, since when do two wrongs make a right?

"Do you really think I should go back there? What if I am actually making a mistake?"

When Walden didn't come back to his place at the table after supper had been served for 10 minutes, his mum excused herself and found him, sitting on the front steps.

"Food's on the table, Walden," she quietly said.

"Nae hungry," he replied. "Sorry, mum." A soft rain began to fall. Elspeth cast a Bubble Charm around them.

"How long have ye loved her, then, son?" she asked.

"For ages now. She was...well...she was pleasant to me from the very beginnin', even though she had a right not to be, but she was always helpful, taught me this, well, this Muggle thing, to step awa' from situations so I wouldna get in a rage during the trials or say somethin' foolish like Mulciber did..." He paused. "That's why I came out here, so I wouldna get in another fight with Da. But I know I canna expect her to stay with me, we're just too different, I'm nae sure why she even, well..."

"Slept with ye in the first place?" Elspeth preferred a quiet life, but she had been a Slytherin for a very good reason.

"Aye, although I know she's lonely."

"That Weasley wasnae treating her right, everyone knows that," Elspeth said. "I wondered why me copies of Witch Weekly were always goin' missin' from the loo..."

"They're under me bed upstairs," Walden mumbled. "Sorry, mum...but she also told me, at the pub, that she had nothin' to go home to. And I know what that's like."

Elspeth took her son in her arms and didn't say anything for a while. "If she doesna go with ye to get Evan back, I'll come with ye. Now come back in and have supper, son, ye know yer Da gets impatient and we're all tired of listenin' to his blethering..."

"Look, Hermione," Ginny said, as she pulled the Gryffindor blanket off her friend. "It's time to get up and face this all head-on. I don't like what the Death Eaters did. But we all did things during the war to save the world, or for the greater good, or whatever that was Dumbledore was quoted as saying, that...well...weren't always exactly above-board. Mum still has nightmares about that Lestrange witch-she won't admit it, but she does."

"Walden didn't care for her, I know that," Hermione began, as she slowly stood up, accepted the blanket from Ginny, folded it, and sent it flying back to the shelf where it usually lived.

"Of course he didn't! Hang on, you didn't actually hear that part, is that what you said?" Ginny perched on the sofa arm as she asked her question.

"I came in the day after Walden testified that the Dark Lord killed his wife, but I didn't hear why...the testimony picked up at the part when Voldemort cast Imperius on Walden straightaway after his wife was killed. He didn't even let him pick up her body and take it home like he wanted. I believe Lucius actually took care of that...I suppose I should ask him..." Hermione Summoned her beaded bag from the closet and slipped on her shoes...but then switched them to Wellies after a bit of consideration. "Anyway, he sent Walden upstairs with Lestrange and ordered him to...oh, it was horrid, 'get her ready,' but not to, er, finish things. He wouldn't even look me in the eye during that testimony; he said it went on for hours, and You-Know-Who eventually showed up and, er...well, joined in with the festivities."

"Yes, I remember all that. I think I'd probably have hoped to just hear him whisper Avada in my ear at that point," Ginny said. "Although to be fair, when he was younger, Tom Riddle was, well, he could be, I should say...rather charming." She blushed.

"Ginny!"

"Well, he was! He was very patient and understanding at first...until I didn't go along with what he wanted, and that's when it all went horribly wrong..." Ginny summoned her coat and purse from the coat rack next to the door.

"Yes, well, that was the, er, thrust of the testimony of most of the ones who got parole, or service work. Then there were the ones who were forced into it, and so on..." Hermione summoned her cloak, and started to slip it over her shoulders.

"Such as our dear ferret friend, I saw him in Diagon Alley last week, and he was almost polite!"

Hermione laughed. "Even though he didn't appreciate my advice, he was slightly gracious at the end of his part of the trials, shook my hand and everything, although I doubt he'd want to know what his father's up to now..."

"What exactly happened there, or would you rather not say?"

"Well, apparently I've been judged and found worthy of attending a Malfoy sex party," Hermione said, chuckling. "But it's witch's choice, and I haven't decided whether I want to follow through."

"I can't exactly give you advice on that...but you should follow through on, at the very least, going back up there and having a chat with Macnair," Ginny said. "Because it looks as if you're halfway to the Highlands right now-if you're waiting for my blessing, I say, do it. And I won't say a thing to my husband OR my brother, but if I don't get out of here now, my Mum is going to spoil James even more rotten than he already is..." and with those last words, she hugged her friend, kissed her lightly on the cheek, and then took two steps backward and Disapparated.