Ron and Harry had tried for days to get into contact with Hermione. They had used the Floo, owls and even the fellytone. Harry had insisted he be the one to phone the Grangers' house on the off chance Hermione was there. No one had answered. As a last resort, they had sent an owl to Flint Manor. The letter had been received but no response had come.
In the end it was luck that brought them their friend. Late on Friday after a frustrating week of paperwork, old cases and theory lessons, Ron had caught sight of a knot of snakes. They had been slithering around Level Two near the Wizengamot Administration Services office. He had rushed to drag Harry out of their cubicle.
Ron's instincts had been rewarded when Hermione had exited the office twenty minutes later flanked by Nott, a short man in French robes, and a raw-boned blonde. They looked pleased.
"Hermione." Harry hailed her with a discreet wave. They needed to talk and he didn't want to make a scene. There were too many Slytherins loitering for him to feel at ease but if she left before they had a chance to speak, who knew when they would find her again?
"I'm rather busy, Harry." Hermione said, conflicted. The appeal had just been lodged. There was so much to do. And one of those things was reconciling with her boys. Making a decision, the witch handed her dossier to Theo. "I'll be at the briefing tomorrow."
The rest of the Strategy Committee left without comment. The official policy was to keep public discord to a minimum. They needed to present an united front to coax social opinion onside. Getting into a slanging match with two-thirds of the Golden Trio would not do that.
By mutual agreement, the three Gryffindors went to the trainees' cubicle in the Auror Department. It was on the same floor and private enough they could speak privately. Once there, no one seemed keen to break the silence. No apologies were forthcoming.
"Do you love him?" Ron asked in a rush, tormented by the quiet. Hermione shook her head. "Then why?"
"He had to comply with the nuptial clause. He stayed with me. His own mother had died like mine. He took my word for it. I wanted to help." She listed her reasons. She had thought about it a lot since the New Year. "I wanted to stop feeling dead. That's the 'why' you want most, I expect. I wasn't thinking about anything except how much pain I was in. Marcus took some of that away."
"It hurts that you didn't include us. That you deliberately excluded us." Harry took his cue from her coolness and kept his own voice level, trying to be matter-of-fact.
"My parents lost me when I turned eleven. I went to another world, where they could not follow and would never ever belong. Then I sent them away to the other side of their world." The stabbing pain of grief had ebbed enough that she could talk about her parents without feeling like she was going to have a heart attack. "Then I lost them."
"We would've been there." Ron and Harry spoke so close together their words were almost simultaneous. Hermione shook her head.
"It would've been about us, that way. About our war. Like all the other funerals." There had been so many funerals. "I didn't want to be a hero standing at a place of sacrifice. I wanted to be an ordinary woman saying good-bye to her parents without having to explain anything."
"I can follow your reasoning." Carefully, Harry fitted words together that meant what he was thinking without any of the bitterness he still felt. Hermione was as close to a sister as he had ever had. Even if he had not known her parents well, he still felt like family. Being reminded that he was not would sting for a long, long time.
"Are you telling us that Flint didn't need anything explained?" Like how to use a door knob or dress himself in the morning? Ron tried to keep the sneer out of his voice. They were doing well. They were having an adult conversation without anyone shouting or hitting each other. It was rather novel.
"His mother died when he was at Hogwarts. He was there alone with her. He knew the drill." That sounded far more callous than she meant but Hermione could not think of another way of phrasing it. "Marcus got me coffee and sat with me. I was on auto-pilot. It was all I could do to keep my story straight for the hospital. Monica and Wendell didn't have any next of kin listed."
"And after?" Ron asked, unflinching at Harry's discomfort and Hermione's tight-lipped frown. "It matters. It really matters to me. I thought we were going to get married."
"We're twenty! All we've done is go to school and fight a madman. I don't even have a job. I am not ready, Ron." Hermione shook her head so hard her hair bounced. "I love you but I can't snap my fingers and be what you want."
"I'll wait." He said, a stomach twisting mix of stubborn and uncertain.
"Please don't." The witch took his hand then reached for Harry's too. They stood together, as they had so often. "Please give yourself a chance at a normal life. Find some peace. Do something constructive. We've spent so long destroying things I've almost forgotten how to build something."
"'Mione." Ron did not know whether to be angry or sad. He got that feeling a lot. Being with her had helped him focus and push away all the echoes from the war. Harry clasped his hand to close their little circle.
"So what's the plan then? Getting this law repealed?" The Chosen One asked to keep Hermione talking, wanting to re-establish their camaraderie. Harry thought the idea behind the marriage legislation was good. Forcing people into it was not.
"We can't repeal it outright. It's tied to reparations and restructuring measures. We can amend the clause." Hermione had listened to Leota explain to everyone using small words the minutiae of the legal niceties. She had made notes. She had also made a quiet resolution never to become a solicitor. "We are petitioning for another reading, an appeal against the wording of the law rather than its substance."
"What'll that do?" The frustration in Ron's voice was patent. He did not want to talk about this right now but Harry seemed determined, leaving the ginger wizard no option but to hang about.
"The Wizengamot will have to sit again to review the clause, which will pause the issuing of match notices." She did not add it would buy many people time to spontaneously decide to go to Palau on a whim. "Once the legislation is 'open' again we can jump through antiquated hoops to have it changed. Leota knows the procedure."
"Doesn't Leota want a Muggle husband?" Ron inquired snidely. Hermione was wasting her talents saving Death Eaters from their own desserts.
"She's a lesbian, Ron." Her hand twitched in his but she did not let go. She did not want another fight. "This is about more than inbred racists whinging, you know. Justin's not a Swiss citizen. He faces deportation back to England if he doesn't marry. This is serious."
"You told us to find peace. Won't you do the same?" Harry exercised his tact again and left out any suggestion of a speedy divorce. He'd pay the fees himself if it got Flint out of Hermione's life.
"I will. This appeal will take months. I'm going to give myself time to figure out what I want to do. Maybe sit on a beach somewhere." Someone would have to act as liaison with the island refuge. Maybe she could learn to scuba dive. "But we didn't get rid of a tyrant to set up an oligarchy. I want a damn Golden Age for the Golden Trio. We've earned it."