Neville, exhausted from the flight, slept late the next day and woke suddenly to the sound of giggling. He rolled over expecting to be in his bed then suddenly found himself on the floor. The cot he had been sleeping in tipped over onto him, which caused even more giggling. Opening his eyes, he pushed himself upright to confront the person mocking him on the other side of the mosquito netting.
Who was about five years old. She was dressed in a smock and sandals, with a large floppy hat tied under her chin. The little girl waved at him then still giggling ran off. Neville stared after her as wakefulness gave him answers to the philosophical questions plaguing anyone woken suddenly.
He was in a tent on an island in the Pacific on a mission to warn a friend about her husband. And to find an extinct orchid. The wizard retrieved his wand, washed and changed then went to find Hermione. Neville was not surprised at all to locate her easily by the sound of lecturing.
She was in the study tent, provided for the school age children who had accompanied their parents. Only Hermione would bring a whiteboard to a tropical resort. The witch was explaining the eldritch intricacies of the internet to a group of pure-bloods, who looked half convinced she was playing an elaborate prank.
Neville slipped into the tent, taking a place at random beside a middle-aged witch in a floral robe. She had a quill in hand and was making notes in rapid runes. The symbols looked like little men dancing to Neville, who had thankfully not been expected by his grandmother to take Ancient Runes.
"Internet service is available on Koror and at several of the posher resorts. Connection speed is frankly woeful so I think it probably best if everyone writes down their family trees and we do the research in the UK." Hermione concluded, getting back on topic. "Please include all those relatives you do not speak about. We may be able to find Muggle-borns with descent conforming to vacant entailments."
No one looked pleased with her request but no one objected either. Neville realised how seriously everyone was taking the nuptial clause. It had been a tiny addendum tacked on to workaday Ministry stuff to him. But it had Sacred Twenty-Eight willing to admit to having Squibs in their families. Perhaps the Wizengamot was playing some sort of cunning double bluff.
Neville managed to snag Hermione when the seminar dispersed for lunch. His friend looked very Muggle in shorts and t-shirt, with her wand tucked out of sight at her waist. He hesitated before broaching the subject but he had come halfway around the world on the strength of his concern for her.
"Hermione, I'd like to talk privately." Neville waved absently at the Portia trees beyond the camp. They headed there, stopping when they were out of sight near a lush growth of Scaevola. He was not sure of the exact species and picked a few of the fan-shaped white flowers to study later.
"I don't normally make you this nervous." Hermione noticed his fidgeting. She hoped the Weasleys hadn't strong-armed him into being their messenger.
"I tried to run through this conversation in my head on the plane but everything I thought of saying sounded snobbish or rude." He put a stasis charm on the flowers then tucked them in his pocket. "The best I came up with was a general warning against Flint, which I expect you've heard already."
"Ron and Harry have expressed their concerns, yes." Her voice was studiedly bland. Neville chuckled a little at her restraint.
"I'd love for you to marry into my family. I should say that first, I suppose. You're my friend, but you're worth ten of Flint and his attitude worries me." Neville recalled his cousin's confidence. "He really wants you to be his wife. I don't know what he's said or what he's done but with this thing with the Weasleys, I don't want you thinking that you're isolated."
"I know I'm not." Hermione reassured, extending a hand to him. He took it and straightened, more confident once he had confirmed he had not offended her.
"The Weasleys are very fragile right now. It's hit them that they have to move on without Fred. Ginny's wedding was going to be the first big family thing without him." Neville paused, seeing her mouth tighten into a taut line. "I won't excuse Ginny, but I think you understand why she's gone off the deep end."
"She was happy enough for me to organise it." She could not help but sound aggrieved. Dodging paparazzi, Apparating across England to get just the right flowers, and the endless fittings. Hermione had expected to get tetanus from all the pinpricks from the dressmaker.
"Because she trusted you to make it perfect. She needed it to be perfect, so she could forgive herself for being happy without Fred and everyone else we lost." He had been thinking a lot on the plane to distract himself from the fear whatever magic was keeping the huge device in the air would suddenly stop.
"And now it isn't perfect, she's taking it out on me."
"She's mostly taking it out on Harry and herself." Neville had dragged Ginny to the Leaky Cauldron under the pretence of needing her advice on courting Hannah. "They're at loggerheads."
"I'd like to help, but I've been told very firmly this is a family matter and I am not." Hermione tried to hide her resentment. This was the second time she had been pushed out into the cold. She didn't want to keep a grudge but the rejection stung enough that it was difficult not to want to disengage entirely. "I'd write to Harry but the last time I sent a private letter to him and left out Ron, it caused Ron to hit the roof."
"Ron's in a right state over his sister and Harry. They need someone to give." the wizard sighed, recollecting how futile his own efforts had been to get either of the couple to see reason.
"Do you think if I told Harry I choose not to go to his wedding, he would marry Ginny?" She asked meticulously, contemplating doing so as she spoke. Would it help? "Their argument was about a lot of little things. I don't think they've properly sat down and talked."
"If they had to do their own organising, make their own decisions together then I think they'd get to a good place." Neville shrugged. "I'm no Seer. But having someone else as an excuse does let them do a lot of shouting without a lot of listening."
"I guess I can see this as the price I must pay." Hermione did feel a debt to Ron over her cheating. Missing out on seeing Harry get married would certainly be punishment enough. "Damn it." The witch blinked away tears. "Right, yes. I'll talk to Harry as soon as it's a decent hour GMT. If I call Hannah, she can relay a message to Harry. Do you think if I asked nicely she'd mind him using her phone?"
"I think I could persuade her." A shy smile curled his mouth. He was thankful he'd outgrown any tendency to blush.
"Well done, Neville!" Impulsively, she hugged her friend. "How long?"
"Not very. We haven't even gone out. Well, we went to the Prism but that was with Ron." That caused a wince of discomfort. Neville didn't want the other wizard to think he'd been elbowed out of the way during his distraction over his sister. "What a mess that was. We were sure it'd cost Ron his trainee place."
"Marcus was quite reasonable about it. I expected far more bargaining." Ruminating on what Neville had said, Hermione considered something implausible. "You don't think he's in love with me, do you? He came over as soon as he got the Ministry owl." It was flattering to think Marcus might be but so awkward as well.
"That's not how it works with pure-bloods." Neville tried to explain. "We're used to arranged marriages. We know what to expect, how to behave. Love, if there is any, comes later." He did contemplate it, though. His cousin had been quite intense. Maybe? "No, I don't think so. I mean, I don't know Flint well. Gran never let me visit my Aunt Alexandra. After I spoke with him, I was more worried he's trying to ingratiate himself."
"Seems rather unnecessary. After the clause is rescinded, Marcus will be able to have any witch he wants. I doubt he's so hard up for company he'd need to settle for an unemployed aimless Muggle-born." Hermione smirked, being honest with her current life situation. "He did say he wanted kids, but if I'm not ready for that with Ron, I'm definitely not ready for it with anyone else."
"He said you'd be the salvation of his House." The wizard still did not like the sound of that. The phrase stuck in his ears, a worrisome echo.
"You've mentioned that." She cocked her head, unconsciously mimicking Crookshanks. "Why does that bother you so much?"
"I don't know what he wants. Why does the House of Flint needs saving? They did alright. His dad went to Azkaban but he's been out for years and we didn't hear a squeak from him during the war."
"Marcus feels overwhelmed by the responsibilities. He hasn't said so, but I can see the little things getting on top of him. That's probably why he wants to play Quidditch so much. I know Harry used the game as an escape." Hermione gave Neville's hand a squeeze then released it. "I'll go to Koror and call Hannah. If that doesn't work, I'll brief Justin on the Palauan bureaucracy then head back to England to talk to Harry personally. With sackcloth and ashes if I have to."