A/N: Thank you so much to Kermit 304, Life-is-rolling-keep-on-going and cruisechick for their reviews on Chapter 10! :) And Kermit 304, the story still has a good seven or eight chapters left so we're not finished quite yet. ;) Thank you also to Bernie for their review on Chapter 4, and I agree, Ron couldn't really be anything else but angry which I think anyone in his situation would have been. I believe that this is also the longest chapter that I have ever written to date so I hope that it's enjoyable.
RxExR!
Pictures on a Wall
Chapter 11 - Life Resumes
"It's for you." The mumbled groan of her husband had Hermione blinking owlishly as she yawned and got up. When they had moved back to France a good two months ago, they had told everyone that they were free to pop over anytime should they have any problems. Which wasn't actually a problem within itself.
What they hadn't taken into account though, was that apparently people had a lot more problems than they anticipated and that they wanted to solve these problems at any time in the day.
Or night, as was now once again the case. Draco had already resolved to block their floo between nine in the evening and five in the morning so that they would be able to get at least some sleep, but then Narcissa had been in an accident and due to their floo being blocked Lucius had been unable to reach them so now it was open all hours of the day once again.
And turning out to be quite a pain.
"Whoever's there better be bleeding out all over my carpet because I swear if you've woken me up at two in the morning for something trivial like clothes then my carpet will still get to see a lot of blood." Hermione announced as she finally made it to their reception room in the small manor that they inhabited in France.
She sighed when she saw Harry.
"Harry, are you bleeding and or dying right now?" She asked tiredly as she fell onto the sofa, not caring that she was nothing even close to graceful at the moment.
"It's Ginny." He replied, looking completely and utterly frazzled as he paced up and down their beautiful carpet.
It really was a rather gorgeous carpet.
"What happened this time?" Hermione cursed the heavens above as she prepared to listen to another round of complaints, worries and the like from Harry. Hadn't he just been here a week ago with the same problem?
"Nothing and I don't know what to do about it." Was Harry's reply and Hermione's brows shot upwards.
"Nothing?" She asked, knowing that the incredulity in her own voice was obvious. Because really, if there wasn't a problem then why had he woken her up at this ungodly hour?
"I've tried everything 'Mione, from giving flowers to chocolates to going out to dinner with her and still, nothing! I've tried everything I know!" Harry was looking like he was about to have a literal breakdown and Hermione sighed.
"Let me get some tea. And sit down while you wait for me." She told him, commanded him rather, as she walked from the room and got herself some tea. While waiting for the water to boil, she thought about Harry's and Ginny's relationship ever since they had returned from the 'bubble'.
It was frustrating to say the least. She knew, as both of them confided in her, that they still cared immensely about the other person and would be willing to enter a relationship again. But what Ginny wanted from Harry was something that he currently wasn't giving. She wanted to hear, from his mouth, that he still cared for her and that he wanted to give a relationship with her another try. She didn't want the flowers or the dinners right now, she wanted an apology for all that he had put her through.
And for god's sake, she'd tried to hint at it to Harry that this was what Ginny wanted but she wasn't sure whether Harry was being purposefully obtuse or whether he just wasn't getting it, but he really needed to be blatantly obvious when talking to Ginny, and stop trying to covertly woo her.
The sad thing was that it wasn't even so covert. Even Draco was two steps away from shoving them together in a room until they had sorted out their problems. And this was her husband they were talking about, the one that normally absolutely refused to even consider helping in her matchmaking schemes.
It was that bad.
She took the steaming cup of tea and took it back to the room that Harry was waiting in. No, wait, pacing in.
"I thought I told you to sit down." Hermione commented drily as she herself sat down on the big plushy armchair that she absolutely adored.
"What should I do, Hermione?" He asked again and Hermione was pretty sure that it wouldn't matter if she did actually fall asleep because apparently none of her words were reaching Harry.
"Apologise to her." Okay, so maybe she wanted to sleep more than be careful with Harry's feelings.
"Apologise?" Harry's brow furrowed and Hermione groaned and sank lower in her chair. He wasn't being purposefully obtuse but he genuinely didn't know what she was talking about.
"Yes, apologise. You know, that thing where one says 'sorry'?" She couldn't help but be slightly sarcastic right now. Ella had woken her and Draco up only an hour before Harry had arrived so she was literally running on practically no sleep right now.
"But why? What did I do?" Harry began pacing again.
"You broke up with her and told her that it was because of the war. Then, when the war was over, you didn't get back together with her. That normally tends to make a girl think that you've split up with her for another reason." Hermione looked at her best friend and marvelled at his cluelessness. "You really don't know this?"
"No! I mean- why would I? I thought that she knew-" Harry began.
"Knew what?" Hermione took a sip from her tea.
"That I love her!" Harry exclaimed.
"Three points to Potter for stating the obvious." Her husband's tired voice came from the doorway and both of them turned to look at him.
"What do you mean?" Harry looked at Draco with a mix of annoyance and confusion.
"Potter, even I knew, long before you and the Weaslette got together, that you two were in love with each other." Draco yawned and blinked a couple of times. "Still are, in fact, if the complaining that you two do is any indication of it. Just do us all a favour and tell her that you love her and that you're sorry about dumping her because of your own insecurities. If not for your own sake, then do it for ours. You're keeping us awake more than our own infant daughter is with this issue. Get over it already."
Hermione was pretty happy to say that after that, Harry remained gobsmacked for a couple of minutes, doing a most marvellous goldfish impression. A wonderfully silent goldfish impression. And then he went back home, hopefully to think about what she and Draco had said and then to finally talk to Ginny properly.
But that was secondary. For now, she was heading back to her husband in bed.
~.~.~.~.~
"Draco?" The call came through the house and Draco looked up from the carrot that he had been slicing.
"In the kitchen!" He called back, knowing that Blaise would find him in the kitchen.
"I still can't get over the fact that you do most of the cooking in this household." Blaise's amused voice drifted into the room from the doorway and Draco looked up briefly to see his friend standing there with a smug look on his face. "I always knew that if you got married, then you would be completely whipped."
"Hermione practically does all of the baking." He responded, not even addressing the second statement. He knew that it was true anyway. "What brings you here?"
"I miss Luna." Blaise shrugged.
"So you decided to come and bug me?" Draco pushed the carrots into the pot where the stew was cooking and moved onto the celery.
"Yeah. Why do you do the cooking without magic anyway?" Blaise asked as he sat down at the table, watching his best friend begin chopping the celery into very thin, precise stripes.
"It's therapeutic. Allows me to think while my hands work. And I enjoy it." Draco shrugged slightly, not bothering to look up this time.
"Therapeutic?" Blaise's brow furrowed.
"Yeah. After the war, and after graduating from Beauxbatons, I spent a whole year in Muggle Paris without a wand. It was part of my parole. During that time, I worked first as a waiter, and then as a cook in a small restaurant. That's where I learned to cook. I haven't stopped since."
"Never imagined you to be one to find solace in cooking of all things." Blaise commented, playing with a spoon that had been lying on the table.
"Neither did I." Draco smiled slightly. "That's the strange thing though, I genuinely enjoy it. In the beginning it reminded me of our potions classes and therefore of Severus," He paused slightly and Blaise didn't comment, knowing that the loss of his godfather still stung, "But slowly, over time it became something that signified a new life to me. The food was something that I was making with my own hands and strangely enough, it gave me a sense of accomplishment."
Blaise hummed slightly to acknowledge the answer and they fell silent again, the only sounds coming from a small Muggle radio standing in the corner of the kitchen.
Ten minutes later, Blaise spoke again.
"I wanted to ask Luna to move in with me when she returns in November." Blaise said quietly and Draco continued chopping the onion into squares.
"And?" There was going to be more to this than Blaise was letting on.
"I want it to be a surprise." Blaise stated next.
Draco looked up and raised an eyebrow at him.
"But I don't know if she wants to move in." Blaise practically whispered and Draco sighed. Yes, in the past, everyone had thought that he was the one with commitment issues because he rarely stayed together with someone for more than two weeks. But actually, Blaise was the one with those issues and now, seperated from Luna because of their jobs, they were coming to light.
Growing up with a mother that divorced her husband's as quickly as the weather was bound to change in the tropics tended to do that to someone.
"Why wouldn't she?" Draco asked calmly, considering the best approach to the subject. Blaise feared rejection on a personal level even more than he had because his mother had never been around and accepted him for who he was. She rarely even acknowledged him after the death of his father.
"Why would she?" Blaise countered and Draco sent his friend a look at the rather obvious avoidance of the question asked.
"For one, because you love her." Blaise's spluttering, as commented on by the inner voice of his wife, was almost adorable. "Secondly, because you've been in an exclusive relationship for nearly nine months and have even agreed on staying together and trying it long distance. Thirdly, because it's the next logical step in the relationship. And then of course there's this thing with you probably already having thought about asking her to marry you but you're currently too chicken to do so, so you're settling on asking her to move in with you." Draco explained rather calmly and turned up the flames on the oven, keeping a careful eye out for any bubbling. He didn't want the stew to overcook after all.
"When did you become a psychic?" Blaise finally managed to choke out.
"When I got married to one of the most insightful women out there. It probably doesn't help that my kids are too intelligent for their own good so I have to be extra observant to make sure that they don't accidentally stumble upon any information that they're too young to receive." Draco tasted the stew and decided that it still needed quite a bit of salt. Maybe some pepper too.
"But..." Blaise trailed off and Draco stirred the stew some more, looking up at his friend this time.
"Blaise, this is Luna Lovegood we're talking about here. She's not going to run off screaming for the hills just because you genuinely care for her and decide to express that by asking her to move in as opposed to actually telling her. Which I do advise you to do at some point by the way. And she's also not going to run off just because you have quite a few insecurities that you still have to work through. She's not your mother, she's not going to run away like she did every time someone tried to get close to her."
He was confident in saying this because he had come to know Luna quite well over the summer. While Blaise and Luna may have visited them quite a few times together in France over the summer vacation, she had also popped by unexpectedly a couple of times herself. Draco had the sneaking suspicion that it had something to do with the empty house that she had inherited from her father that no longer housed any life but her own.
During the times that she'd been there alone, Hermione had been working for most of them so the two of them had begun talking, often while he cooked and she played with one of the children. Over the course of those conversations, they had become friends of sorts and he had warned her that she should be careful with Blaise as he was quite a bit more fragile than his bravado let on. To his reassurance and immense relief, she had smiled at him dreamily and told him that she knew that and that she was merely waiting for Blaise to come to her with those problems in his own time.
Really, there was no one better for Blaise than Luna and although he'd never said it to his friend, Blaise would receive hell from him if he hurt Luna in some form or manner. He had become rather fond of the young woman ever since their friendship had started.
"Thanks mate." Blaise nodded and got up, walking to the door.
"Don't forget to ask her!" Draco called in farewell.
Blaise smiled and waved and Draco knew that they would be moving in together once Luna returned. Once Blaise had made up his mind, he pulled through whatever the cost. It really was one of his more admirable qualities.
~.~.~.~.~
"How's Japan treating you?" Hermione asked as Ron pushed his and Pansy's luggage in front of them as they walked out of the Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris. Pansy and Draco were walking in front of them, with Pansy happily chatting to Draco as he maneuvered them through the busy crowd.
"Quite good." Ron grinned as he briefly stopped to let a small kid pass before resuming his trek through the masses of people. "Brilliant actually. I didn't think that giving up magic for a year would actually help."
Hermione chuckled softly and Ron turned to grin at her. She marvelled at how much better off he was already looking. Two months in Japan and he was already looking more healthy than before.
"So you're actually doing this?" Hermione asked, sidestepping another running child.
"Yeah. I mean, it's hard sometimes, to not just whip out your wand and do something but the strict rules in Japan are actually helping. We can't use any magic in public at all and at work and doing that makes it easier to avoid it at home too." Ron shrugged. "And I never thought I'd say this but your husband was right. Being forced to do a lot of things manually is actually quite therapeutic."
Hermione laughed outright at that. "Don't tell him that though," She said with a conspiratorial wink, "It'll only cause his ego to swell up even more." Ron looked faintly amused at that and Hermione felt glad to see that his former spark was finally returning. While he had been slowly recovering after being released from the 'bubble', and Pansy had definitely helped, it had been frighteningly slow. Now, however, it seemed as if he was recovering properly, even laughing again.
It was good to see.
"What'll cause my ego to swell even more?" Draco asked, looking most definitely amused as he glanced between his wife and Ron.
"Nothing, darling." She replied and kissed him on the cheek before getting into the car.
"And how're you finding Japan?" She asked once Draco had started the car and reversed out of the parking lot.
"It's great." Pansy beamed, looking a lot more relaxed than she had two months ago. "I have to say that I now see why some people prefer to live like Muggles, it certainly has its charms and perks." She smiled at that in amusement and Hermione could really see the growth that the young woman had undergone. A year ago, she was pretty certain that Pansy Parkinson wouldn't have been caught dead saying that.
"I do miss using magic sometimes but we've decided that we're going to try it. Doctor Reed said that it might be a bit extreme when we told him of our decision but when he flooed over to see us last month he was astonished at how well it was working for us. Considering that it was a spontaneous decision to completely give up magic for a year, I'd say we're doing pretty well." Pansy continued.
"Although I have to say that flying by plane is horrible." Ron looked slightly green just at the thought. "I don't like flooing anywhere, especially long distances, but it's much better than flying by plane." He shook his head vigorously. "One thing that I will not miss should we start using magic again next year."
Pansy chuckled, as did Draco and Hermione. Ron obviously hated flying and Draco had to say that he agreed. The mere thought of sitting in a metal contraption, several hundred kilometres above the earth's surface made even him queasy.
"Other than that, we're loving Japan. Ron's eating his way through the food-" Pansy began.
"And it's bloody brilliant." Ron interrupted, causing his girlfriend to roll her eyes at him. "I never thought that I'd like fish and prawns and seafood so much but the way they prepare it..." He trailed off, getting that slightly dreamy look in his eyes whenever he thought of good food.
"We basically lived off of ramen for the first month as neither of us knew how to cook." Pansy stated, seeing as Ron was currently lost in his own little world of food. "But Keiko-chan, the daughter of our landlady, has been teaching us over the past month and I have to say that it's really quite fascinating how different their cuisine and cooking methods are to our own."
"You didn't use any magic at all?" Hermione queried, glancing back at Pansy and Ron.
"No, although we were sorely tempted to. I mean, just setting up the telephone took us a whole week. Thankfully Keiko-chan and Yuki-san, her mother, helped us with the television. We'd probably still be fighting with it otherwise." Ron added. "Actually, where did you learn to drive Malfoy? I never pegged you as someone who could drive." His mind flashed back to that horrible incident with the flying car in their second year. He'd been unable to look at cars the same ever since.
"Cecilia and Laurent made me learn how to drive. They were two of my colleagues in the restaurant here in Paris during my parole and they found it to be a 'damn shame' to not be able to drive. Hence they took it upon themselves to teach me and to get me to driving lessons." Draco replied, keeping a careful eye on the road in order to not miss his exit from the A1.
"They're actually the godparents of Ella. They're completely Muggle though, so they don't know anything about magic but they're good friends and we talk to them over the phone once a fortnight. They got married three years ago, didn't they?" Hermione turned to her husband and he nodded, blinking right and then switched lanes as their exit was coming up.
"Ah okay. Thank you for allowing us to stay with you by the way." Pansy said, watching the fields streak past them.
"No problem at all. The manor's more than large enough." Hermione smiled.
"Yeah, still, thanks." Ron nodded at Draco through the mirror and he nodded back, acknowledging the other man's gratitude. They were still not close enough to see eye-to-eye but Draco had been quite helpful in getting them settled in, flooing over a couple of times within the first week. And for that Ron was grateful even if both men knew that they were getting along more for the sake of Hermione and Pansy than for the sake of actually getting along.
Nevertheless, a truce had been made and an agreement between them reached.
"Your Mum's still not speaking with you?" Hermione asked and Pansy looked at Ron sympathetically as he grimaced.
"Yeah. She's still mad that I moved to Japan. She got even more mad when she heard that the only way to reach us would be over a phone as we were 'going Muggle'. Then, on top of that, she's annoyed that I've not been here for the past two months of Lavender's pregnancy although she knows that she and I aren't together anymore." Ron sighed. Hermione sent him a sympathetic look as well.
"You're flooing over from our place for the birth though, right?" Hermione asked, noticing that Draco was looking slightly annoyed by the driver next to them who was obviously trying to race with someone behind them.
"Yeah. She's due in two weeks but I've asked dad to send me a patronus should she go into labour earlier. I talked to him last month and he caught me up on everything back at the Burrow. Have you heard from Gin yet?"
"I talked to her six weeks ago, before she went on her first training camp with the Holyhead Harpies. Since then she's been too busy training but I think that she gets the weekend off this week." Hermione replied.
"I haven't heard from her at all. I think she's as mad as Mum. Harry called us two weeks ago though, I think we're meeting for some drinks next week." Ron said, looking slightly more happy at the fact that he and Harry had managed to get over their argument of Ron leaving the country. "We talked to George last week though, he said that Fred's started dating someone?" He looked at Hermione and Draco for confirmation.
"Yeah, a girl he met at the shop four weeks ago called Isabella. She's Italian I think. Or maybe half-Italian." Hermione mused.
"Yeah, George mentioned that Mum's not too happy about us all going off and getting together with foreigners. According to her, 'what's wrong with a normal English girl?' It probably doesn't help that Audrey's American." Ron snickered slightly as he thought of Percy's girlfriend, who was so different to his brother that it was amazing that they had been together for nearly half a year.
"Your Mum certainly doesn't have it easy with all of you flying the nest at the same time." Hermione agreed.
"I think that's her main problem. That everything's changing so fast. At least, that's what Dad thinks." Ron said as Draco finally managed to leave the A1 via their exit.
"Yeah, with Charlie off in Romania, you in Japan and Bill and George married, it really only leaves Percy, Fred and Ginny to constantly pop by. But Percy's busy with his job and Fred's busy inventing again and Ginny's now off on her training camp so that she can become a starter for the season, so she really has to come to terms that her babies have flown the nest." Hermione stated, feeling melancholy as she thought that one day all of her children would be doing the same. Draco sent her a knowing look.
"So, what's for dinner today?" Ron's question a couple of minutes later sent Pansy and Hermione into fits of laughter and Draco smiling in amusement.
Some things never changed.
~.~.~.~.~
As the floo roared to life, Hermione looked up in confusion. Ron had been coerced by Pansy to join her as Draco showed her around their company headquarters here in France, so it couldn't be any of them as they had only left twenty minutes ago. And she wasn't actually expecting anyone else. She wiped her hands on the rag that she had been using to clean the stove and sighed as she saw that they were still greasy. Oh well, it would have to do.
"Hermione?" The voice that greeted her was one that she had, admittedly, not expected at all.
"Lavender?" Seriously, what was it with their house and people coming here. Just yesterday Adriana had popped by, with a screaming Sean and Connal in tow, completely at her wit's end because she hadn't known how to calm them down. Seamus had asked her whether she would mind looking after them and she had said that she wouldn't mind at all, she had only forgotten that three year old twins were prone to crying.
An hour and a lot of advice later, she had left, more reassured and calmed down than when she had arrived. The twins loved her, but that didn't change the fact that when one bumped their head, the other began crying too in an attempt to pull the attention to the fact that their twin was hurt.
That plan normally only resulted in the person watching them becoming even more confused as to which twin actually required their attention.
In that moment however, her attention was completely concentrated on Lavender who looked like she was about to suffer a breakdown.
She stuffed the greasy rag between her belt and her trousers and walked forward, carefully guiding the other woman to the couch and sitting her down.
"What happened?" She asked, seeing that she was still very much pregnant so therefore it was probably not something to do with the child directly in that moment.
At those words, Lavender broke down completely however and Hermione had to admit that she was a bit at a loss as to what to actually do with the crying woman. She eventually settled for rubbing soothing circles on her back, remembering how much she had appreciated Draco doing it during her pregnancy.
"I'm sorry." Lavender finally managed to choke out. "I don't know what came over me." She sniffled a bit and Hermione passed her some tissues.
"It's fine." She said softly, not ceasing with rubbing Lavender's back. "What happened?" She repeated her question from before.
"I don't know what to do." Lavender whispered as she looked down at her lap, looking miserable. "I mean, the baby's coming in two weeks but I don't actually know what to do." She looked ashamed at admitting it to her and Hermione felt her sympathy for the other woman grow.
"You're scared?" She asked softly, knowing that what Lavender needed in that moment wasn't pity.
Lavender's head shot up, an angry glare already in her eyes as they met Hermione's. Seeing nothing but understanding though, she deflated and sank further down into the couch.
"Yeah. I mean, the little one's the only one I have left and while Mrs. Weasley has been nothing but kind to me..." She trailed off, at a loss for words.
"You think you're going to insult her by admitting that you're scared and unsure what to do." Hermione finished and Lavender nodded, defeated.
"She's been so nice about everything and even took me in when my parents disinherited me." Lavender stated after a couple of seconds, seeing nothing as she stared at the table. "But I really don't want to stay and take advantage of her kindness any longer. I made my bed and now I have to lie in it." She was pale and Hermione got her to stand up, leading her into the kitchen and sitting her down at the table there. She magically began to heat the water in the kettle, seeing as she still had to finish cleaning the stove.
"Where would you go?" She asked, when it became clear that Lavender wasn't going to continue.
"I don't know." Lavender said, her gaze still slightly unfocused before she blew her nose again.
"Why are you here?" She asked next.
"I had nowhere else to go. Parvati's in India, my family won't even talk to me and my other 'friends' are ignoring me." She whispered and Hermione couldn't stop herself from feeling pity this time around. It was always hard, getting pregnant at such a young age, but having nobody to support you and everyone who you thought would support you turn away from you was just plain horrible.
The wizarding community could be really old-fashioned and too conservative at times.
"What do I do, Hermione?" She asked and the desperation was clear in her eyes. Hermione felt at a loss for words.
"I don't know, Lavender, I honestly don't. What do you want to do?" She had never felt particularly amicable towards Lavender but right now, she felt that she understood Lavender quite well. During her first pregnancy with Scorpius, she had had so many doubts but Draco had always been there for her to allay them. Lavender didn't have that though. The father of her child, Ron, was together with someone else and lived in another country and while he desired to play an active role in their child's life, he didn't want to be together with her. And while Hermione knew that Lavender didn't love Ron, she still wanted someone to be there for her in that way.
"I don't know. I think, after the pregnancy, that I want to leave, find my own place. But I don't want to insult Mrs. Weasley by leaving after the birth." Lavender whispered, her voice vulnerable.
Hermione set down a cup of tea in front of her and in that moment Ella decided to cry for her mother's attention.
"Excuse me for a minute." She said to Lavender and then left the kitchen, going upstairs to see what her daughter wanted. Her cries sounded like she needed to get her diapers changed.
Fifteen minutes later, she came back downstairs, carrying a gurgling Ella. The small girl glanced at Lavender as Hermione set her daughter down onto the ground, watching her with a hawk's eye as her youngest crawled up to the table and began knocking her hand against it's leg.
"How old is she?" Lavender asked, her eyes bright as she watched the small girl laugh at the sounds that she was producing by hitting her hand against the table's leg.
"She's a year old next month." Hermione replied, looking at her daughter fondly.
"How do you do it?" Lavender asked a couple of minutes later, Ella's laughter breaking the silence every so often.
"Hmm?" Hermione looked up, Ella remaining in the corner of her eyes.
"Four children. How do you manage?" Lavender asked, her eyes softer as she watched Ella.
"I don't know." Hermione smiled slightly at the shocked expression on Lavender's face. "I'm kind of just stumbling through it to be honest. When Scorpius arrived I was at a complete loss most of the time. He was always crying and I didn't know what to do. There were a couple of times when all I wanted to do was run away and just give up." She admitted, knowing that lying to Lavender about her true feelings wouldn't help the situation at all right now.
"What stopped you?" She asked, her eyes wide as she listened.
"Draco and Scorpius. Even when I wanted to give up, he encouraged me. He got up more often at night than I did." Hermione chuckled softly. "He was even more out of his depth than I was but he loved Scorpius unconditionally and I could really see that in all that he did. One moment really decided it for me though. It was after Scorpius had just recovered from a cold and I was completely exhausted and three months pregnant again at the time. It was in the early morning, just after the sun had risen and I was watching Scorpius in his cradle. He woke up and I thought that he was going to start crying again. Instead, when he looked up at me he blinked and then smiled." Hermione's smile was blissful, she was completely lost in the moment. "He looked up at me, gurgled a bit and then smiled. He reached up with his tiny hands for me and gurgled some more." Hermione coughed and ignored the way her eyes were tearing up. "In that moment I realised that he loved me as unconditionally as I loved him and I knew that no matter what happened I would be able to pull through. It's horrible at times, and more often than not, one really just wants to give up. But don't. It's always worth it in the end." She smiled at Lavender and for the first time since Lavender had arrived, she managed to crack a small smile too.
"Thank you, Hermione. I'll talk to Mrs. Weasley. I still have some of my inheritance, I'll manage to get a small place in London and I'll start looking for a job. Like I said, I made my bed and now I need to lie in it properly." Lavender got up, looking better than she had half an hour earlier. "I'll see you around."
"See you Lavender." Hermione accompanied her to the fireplace and watched her floo away.
She was sure that Lavender would be able to figure it out somehow.
~.~.~.~.~
"Hermione!" Hermione's head shot up at the sudden sound, her head banging against the inside of the oven, causing her to curse silently as she pulled her head out of it.
"In the kitchen!" She called back, muttering darkly under her breath as she held her head. Seriously, what was it with today? First Lavender, then Seamus half an hour after Lavender had left and now Ginny. It wasn't that she didn't love and care for her friends, but this was going past the limit. Only because it was Sunday didn't mean that everyone had to come and visit them!
"Hello little one." Ginny cooed as she walked past Ella in her fenced off play area and Hermione got up, still rubbing her head.
"Hey Gin, how are you?" She asked, going over to the sink and washing her hands.
"Good." Ginny grinned as she sat down at the kitchen table. "The training camp's going great, the Holyhead Harpies are absolutely brilliant!" She was beaming as she said this and Hermione couldn't help but smile at Ginny's obvious enthusiasm.
"That's great to hear Gin." She sat down herself, rubbing her head, realising that a bump was forming.
Drat. She hoped that she hadn't given herself a concussion.
Ginny continued to talk in great detail about what she'd done at the training camp and what they were still planning to do. She also talked about her team mates and about strategies that they were forming. A lot of the actual Quidditch stuff flew over Hermione's head though, she still didn't understand the game any better after nearly eleven years, eight of which included being married to a man who adored the game.
"But what I really wanted to know was whether you'd heard anything from Harry." That snapped Hermione out of her musings whether she should finally tell Ginny that maybe she shouldn't tell her all of this Quidditch stuff because she quite frankly couldn't keep track of it.
"I last heard from him nine or ten days ago." Hermione replied, watching Ginny, a pointed look on her face. "You know, it would make everyone's life easier if you told him that you want him to apologise and get back together." Being blunt was the only way to go now.
"I know." Ginny sighed. "And all of his flowers and dinners are great and all."
Complete avoidance of what Hermione had said.
"You." She pointed at Ginny. "Need to talk to him. Promptly." She couldn't get anymore blunt than this.
"Hermione..." Ginny whined.
"No, Gin. It is seriously driving me insane that the two people who really deserve to find happiness with each other are doing everything to avoid it. Give him an ultimatum if you have to. But seriously, be honest with him and just tell him because it isn't going to get any better with the whole 'avoiding the massive elephant in the room' thing you are doing right now." Hermione raised her eyebrow for good measure.
Ginny sighed. "Okay, I will. But first you have to show me some pictures of your kids, you promised me you would the next time I was able to come visit." Ginny said and Hermione actually let her head fall down onto the table with a 'plonk'.
Really, people these days could be so wonderfully purposefully ignorant.
It was really rather annoying.