Living up to Family

Ch 7 – Of Traumas and Ice Cream

A/N – Be warned, some darker elements are coming into play in this chapter, specifically related to Ron's section. I am going to apologize ahead of time if it triggers anyone.

Ron

Years down the road, Ron would recall Harry's manor in Seattle as one of the best places to live. Having grown up with 6 siblings and as the youngest boy in the family, his parents had to scrounge money together to be able to afford the simplest of things. However, what they lacked in wealth, they made up for in love. He didn't always see that growing up, but now after working an Auror and now an MBI Special Agent, Ron knew that what he had was precious. One case will always be in the back of his mind. It happened near the end of his rookie year as a special agent. Him and his team were assigned a case about the mysterious disappearance of 4 siblings. At the time of the initial interview of the parents, they had stated that they had no idea where the children had disappeared to. The agency had done a full search of the parent's home and found no evidence of foul play by the parents. For a few months after few leads came in, until one day, the neighbors of the family called in the local authorities about a rancid smell emanating from the parent's home. However, the local authorities were stumped at where the smell was coming from, and the agency was called in once more. After a review of the home on an even deeper dive, the Ron and his team called in for the best curse and ward breakers the agency had to offer. The wardbreakers discovered a section of the home that had been warded and walled off. After breaking down the wards they discovered a scene truly grotesque. The parents had recently come into massive financial struggles and had turned to harvesting of organs of their children to support their lifestyle. Ron remembered every single detail of the scene and in his mind, he saw the faces of his own siblings on the mangled corpses. It took every ounce of restraint in him to stop himself from being the judge, jury and executioner of the parents of these children.

It wasn't until a few weeks later did he fully digest what he had just saw. He woke up one night sweating profusely and had a sickly green color on his skin. For a while now, he kept seeing the faces of those kids in his sleep. While he had mostly recovered from the trauma of the war, it felt like wounds had been peeled back and been hit with multiple blasting charms. The next morning he had talked Hermione into taking a week long vacation and to head back to England. His folks were surprised to see him back home. When Hermione and his mum went on a trip to get some groceries, he had confided in his dad about what he had witnessed. His dad was certainly understanding of his youngest's newest trauma and resolved to spend as much time as possible with Ron while he was home for the week. He had also discretely messaged the rest of his brood to spend time with Ron while he was in town. To his disappointment, his daughter was the only person who was "busy" at the time. Even Percy was able to pick up his father's hints at Ron's experience and made time one afternoon to help Ron process his feelings.

Near the end of the trip, Ron had finally told Hermione about his experience, saying that he couldn't tell her about it just yet as he was still processing everything that had happened. But he had resolved to her that when do have children, that no matter how rich or poor they were, no matter how busy their careers would take them, that he will always be there her and their future kids. He also jokingly said that his emotion range was no longer a teaspoon and should be about a cup now. When they had returned to DC near the end of that week, Ron's new found determination was felt by all, having now decided to take special interest in cases where children were involved.

Occasionally, they would pick up a case or two that required the best healer/physician that they could find and Ron would vouch for Harry as probably one of the best magical doctors in the United States for trauma in children. This influx of victims from Ron had eventually lit the spark that helped Harry win the Harper Avery Award in the muggle medical world.

Fast forward to the now, Ron had just been called before his 1st official day at the Seattle MBI field office. Upon arrival he was quickly thrust into the chaos that was the office. A criminal informant that had leaked to the office about an illegal black market that had recently sprung up. For the past few months, the agency had been collecting data regarding the black market but what they just heard today sent them into a tizzy. Ron's immediate supervisor, Special Agent in Charge Jonathan Moorehead, was the first to greet Ron. "Agent Weasley, sorry to say that your arrival had to be like this, but the Director has called Protocol 31-B," he said.

In Ron's head, he began to process what that meant. Protocol 31-B was a designation that the MBI used to signal that a witch or wizard had been selling dangerous and or dark magical goods to muggles. Whether the muggles knew about magic was a different case all together. With a nod to Agent Moorhead Ron spoke up "Just point me to my desk and I'll make calls to my CI's and see if we can't get more out of them."

It was going to be a long day for Ron.

Hermione

The start of this weekend had proven to be less than ideal. Both her best friend and boyfriend had to be called into their respective jobs. But at this point, this was something that she had gotten quite used to. But she knew her role in their relationship dynamic. Harry and Ron were the typical heroes, and especially after the war they all had found ways to grow out of their past experiences and looked for ways they could positively changed the world. Harry found his calling as a surgeon and she couldn't blame him. His childhood can literally be documented in hospital visits in and outside of the hospital wing at Hogwarts. While Ron on the other hand, had truly found his place as a law enforcement agent. She had worried for Ron in the beginning, she didn't want to lose another person she loved in another battle, but Ron had been adamant to his cause and she eventually came to terms that no matter what she did the dangers in their lives would not simply go away if she ignored them. She was still a bit lost in her role as a researcher and aimlessly drifted about from study to study. Harry's role was the treat trauma and Ron's role was to ensure that justice after the trauma was served. While she had taken up the study of biology of the human mind, this weekend had made her think that she could also spend time learning about the psychology of the human mind. While her job as a researcher was a top priority as it would help to explain why certain memory charms could not be erased by current methods, she also hypothesized that maybe deep down in a person's psyche that they just didn't want to remember. It's something she would have to consult with her supervisor. Normally she would be hitting the library and archives of the hospital, but she had recently broken free of that habit. Harry and Ron had convinced her that life was simply too short and unknown to always be buried in a book. So she decided that she was going to do some grocery shopping today and maybe treat herself to a nice tub of low fat strawberry ice cream and cheesy romance movies.

Hermione went on to the store, looking for her favorite brand of ice cream and found that they were low, so she quickly made a move to swipe the last tub. "Darn it, I was hoping to swipe that last tub," she heard a voice behind her say. Hermione quickly turned around and was met face to face with Harry's mystery girl.

"Sorry about that," was all Hermione could say.

"Hey, I recognize you. Didn't I see you eat lunch with Dr. Potter-Black a few days ago?" said the mystery woman.

"Oh yes, Harry and I go way back. We went to school together from 11 years to Harvard! I'm Hermione Granger by the way" as Hermione stuck out her hand.

"Oh, I'm Meredith!" Meredith replied.

"Ohhhh you're that Meredith! Harry hasn't been this flustered in a long time. Nice to put a face to the source of his fluster!"

Hermione could tell that Meredith was slightly embarrassed by her comments. "My boyfriend and I just moved in with Harry and they have been on duty all weekend. You're not on call, are you? I don't want to keep you here if you're busy?"

"Nope, today is my day off and I just really wanted to get some low-fat strawberry ice cream and watch cheesy romance movies."

"NO WAY!" Squealed Hermione. "I was literally planning the same thing. The house is empty, and I need something to do!"

"That's such a coincidence! What movie did you plan on watching?"

"Well, I think I want to catch Rent, it just came out on DVD, and I've been dying to watch it! I've also heard good things about the new Owen Wilson movie Wedding Crashers? It looks to be quite a laugh!"

Meredith squealed when she heard about Rent. "I love Rent! The music in it is so good!"

At his point, Hermione got an idea in her mind. "Hey, since we both know Harry…would you like to come over and have some girl time? I've got plenty of Harry stories that you might want to hear."

Meredith looked a bit unsure, but she kept eyeing the last tub of ice cream. "Oh, why not?"

Hermione squealed and the two of them quickly started talking about their favorite romance films. She quickly found out that Meredith was a sweet woman, unlike a certain ex-girlfriend of Harrys and that her favorite movie of all time was the Titanic. Something about unrequited love across social and financial castes made Meredith all wistful and a romance fiend.

The two eventually agreed to meet up at Harry's place but Meredith quickly said she had to leave before 7pm tonight as she and Harry will be having their first date. Harry had been coy about the location of their first date, and it was driving Meredith insane. They parted ways but not before Hermione had provided the address.

As Hermione went back to Harry's manor house, she quickly enacted the series of runes on the fireplace mantle that turned house from magical to muggle. It was an ingenious rune sequence to be honest as it set up wards to prevent direct apparition into the house and its surrounding lands. It actually directed any magical forms of travers to secluded cabin in the very far back of Harry's property with warning signs written to visitors that they would be in the presence of muggles once they arrived onto the main property and to act accordingly.

About 20 minutes later Meredith showed up with a large bag of popcorns and a large package of Oreo Cookies. They started off with watching Wedding Crashers and during the movie. Hermione recounted to Meredith, her experiences with Harry and Ron. To Meredith, Hermione's recounting of their school days was like how an older sister would behave to both Harry and Ron's antics. Now obviously Hermione had toned the stories down regarding anything magical but it didn't stop her from recounting the times Harry had gotten into trouble. Or his freak accident with their "gardening class". And more times than not, how Harry had gotten himself sent to the hospital wing. At some point, Meredith did bring up a good question for Hermione regarding Harry. "I've noticed that Harry lives in quite an expansive house. The cost of this piece of land must have cost him more than an attending could possibly afford this early into his career? Not that I care about his wealth or any," she quickly added.

Hermione knew that this would have to be a question that Harry had to answer. "I don't think its my place to answer that. Harry comes from Old Money, that's all I can really say. You best talk to him about it early onto your relationship if you want to find out," she paused briefly. "Though I can tell you this, what Harry has now, is new even for him. He's still that loveable child with a heart of courage that I grew up with. He just a few new toys now, that's all".

Meredith pondered that response for a moment. "Yea, he's loveable, isn't he?" But as soon as she said that, she thoroughly embarrassed. "Don't tell him I said that. It's too soon to be thinking like that!" she exclaimed.

Hermione giggled. Oh man, this woman was already in it deep with Harry. It must be that Potter Charm his father was well known for. "No, I won't say anything to him about it."

They quickly settled back into the movie and their tub of strawberry ice cream.

Harry

Harry was tired. It was another grueling day of surgeries. He had to deal with the interns behaving like children. Thankfully Cristina and Izzy didn't cause him grief today, but he had to give a verbal tongue lashing to Dr. Karev regarding the fact that he had posted pictures of Izzy's former profession as a model. Why couldn't he just work with adults?

Eventually he pulled up to his driveway and he could hear his audio system straining through his front door. Eventually he heard 2 people singing as loudly as possible:

Five hundred twenty five thousand six hundred minutes
Five hundred twenty five thousand moments so dear
Five hundred twenty five thousand six hundred minutes
How do you measure, measure a year?In daylights, in sunsets,
In midnights, in cups of coffee?
In inches, in miles,
In laughter, in strife?

Oh, he had to remember this! Hermione loved watching Rent, and this was her go to movie when she needed a break. He waited for a while outside, not wanting to disturb whatever was going on outside. He could have sworn that the 2nd voice inside was familiar, but he couldn't just figure it out. After the song was over, he unlocked his door and stumbled upon his worst nightmare. "Meredith?"

His best friend and his love interest had just finished singing the main song from the movie and here they were bonding over an empty bag of popcorn and an empty sleeve of Oreo Cookies.

Meredith whipped around and saw him. She looked terribly embarrassed but she had a smile that was lighting up the room. "Hi Harry, I thought you were going to be taken longer today at the hospital?"

Hermione had an evil grin on her face as she watched the two interact. "Ummm yea, well I am an attending and I had finished all my post-op rounds so I thought I come home before our date tonight and freshen up," he said.

"Right, okay well I should probably go do the same," at this point Meredith decide to pry a little into what the evening would hold for them. "So should I wear something comfortable or a nice dress?"

Harry was flustered a bit "Maybe a little nice? The place we are going to has a "nice" atmosphere to it I suppose?" As radiant as she was, Harry liked to play the mysterious guy once in a while and refused to play into her little game.

Meredith looked satisfied with that answer. "Okay then! Ill be heading out! Thanks for the movie day Hermione, it was nice to meet one of Harry's best friends. I especially loved all those embarrassing stories you told me of him," as she poked fun at Harry's expense.

Harry rolled his eyes. Hermione was going to get a good talking to after this. But judging that mischievous glint in her eyes, it was not going to faze her one bit. "Any time Meredith! I have plenty more stories about Harry! We need to do this again!" Hermione exclaimed.

"Bye Harry! I'll see you at tonight. I already have a wonderful dress in mind!" as she teased Harry on her way out.

Harry let out an internal groan. This girl had a chokehold on him already. As soon as the door was shut and her car had left the drive way, Hermione broke down into laughter. Her cackling served to mildly irritate Harry.

"How did you run into Meredith?!" he said.

"Oh I was out looking to buy some ice cream so I can watch some dopey romance movies today since you and Ron had gotten called into work and I ran into Meredith looking to buy the last tub of the ice cream I wanted. We just talked and I decided I wanted to talk to the girl that has Harry's mind racing everyday since we moved here to Seattle."

"You know I hate your right now, right?" lamented Harry in a mildly irritated tone.

"That's a lie, you could never hate me. I'm your best friend," replied Hermione. "Shouldn't you be getting ready for that date any ways? You have maybe 2 hours at most to get ready. If she's got a "wonderful" dress in mind, you should put on that nice navy blazer that just bought. Perfectly suitable for a semi-formal date night."

"Aaaaaghhhhh!"

Harry fumed as he trudged up to his bedroom but smiled ever so slightly at tonight's plans. Though that smile was quickly wiped away as he heard Hermione cackling in the living room. But tonight, was something special and he wasn't going to let the Witch of West End get on his nerves.

A/N – Another chapter down. Thankfully I can pound out these chapters quickly. Originally I had wanted Harry/Meredith to be more of a slow burn but I personally get irritated when I read slow burn fanfics, so hopefully this pace is reasonable.

A/N Part 2 – If you haven't noticed, I am slowly divulging from the canon events in Greys Anatomy and/or mixing it up with magical events that could possibly intertwine with the fine doctors of Seattle grace. The main events of the earlier Grey's Anatomy seasons will still be written in, but will be of course changed when Harry and co are involved. I am thinking about trying to write a Lexie/Draco pairing down the road, once Harry/Meredith are a more solid couple. Thoughts and constructive reviews are always appreciated!