Chapter 12: Holding Someone Else's Wand

Harry steepled his fingers in front of his frown as he judiciously surveyed the state of play. George wasn't the level of player that Ron was, but he wasn't far off, either, as a worthy opponent. Of course, he should have anticipated that – Ron probably learned wizard's chess at the knees of all his brothers, at one point or another.

It was an evening in late July. Back in the sitting room of the Burrow, behind this tensest of matches, Audrey and Percy were on the couch, discussing wedding plans – centerpieces or some such. Occasionally, bits of the conversation between the newlyweds-to-be drifted back to Harry's ears; he tried not to let it ruin his concentration. Still – bollocks! George had him good and trapped, best he could figure it. He reached out a hand and plucked a berry from the small bowl he'd prepared, now perched midway between him and George.

"Knight to E…." Harry paused, mapping out the moves ahead in his mind, and they all lead to one road: defeat. "Oh, bugger it!" He held out a hand for George to shake.

"Concede?"

George smirked, but it didn't reach his eyes, and there wasn't any brightness to the expression. "Coward," he muttered, yet he reached across to clasp and shake. "You could have at least made it a duel to the death, Potter! Gone a couple more rounds!"

"Yeah, well, I've had enough of those for a lifetime, thanks very much. Duels to the death, I mean," Harry sighed, as he cast about to clear away the pieces into the special tin where Ron kept them.

"… and then, I thought: what if we made it a choice between roses and lilies…?"

"OI! Let my brother get a word in edgewise, eh, lassie?" George hollered over to the engaged couple in the sitting room.

"It's no use, Georgie. What my Audrey wants, she gets," Percy rumbled, though his smile was soft as he took in his bride.

"Yeah, and what do you get? A free square meal, a good public snog, guaranteed shags for the rest of your life – but what's the point of a party if the groom can't use any of his own ideas?"

Audrey sighed. "Percy does have a say in ideas, George – it's just that they're his, not yours. For the last time: I will be damned if you try and sneak Fragrant Farting Flowers or whatever you call your products into the bridesmaids' bouquets!"

"Right, all right, it's just a bit of fun – don't get your knickers in a twist, Sprayberry!"

Harry now bit into an actual berry, and nearly chomped down on the inside of his mouth besides. He swallowed hard and glanced back at Audrey over his shoulder.

"Sprayberry? That's your maiden name? Must be in a bit of a hurry to drop that for Weasley, are we, Audrey?"

Audrey folded her arms, trying and failing to glower. "What's it to ya, about my maiden name, Potter?"

"Nothing – just that it makes me imagine berry bushes getting nuked by artificial fertilizer, is all." Audrey gawked with offense at him. "Whereas, I think of Weasley, all I can see is…" A memory of Malfoy darting around as a ferret now danced through his brain, and he swore under his breath. "Oh, botheration!"

Behind him, Percy was in danger of breaking his ribs as he tried to hold in laughter, lest he never see a certain Ms. Sprayberry never make it up the aisle.

A sudden CRACK from outside made them all jump. George and Harry both went for their wands, as they gathered around the window, gazing out into the dusk that was rapidly turning to dark. "Halloo out there…." George muttered, the late-evening shadows dancing across the hole where his ear used to be. "PTSD stings like a bitch…."

Harry knew what he meant. The last time they had been caught on the Burrow property like this unawares, it had been Bellatrix and her gang and they'd nearly burnt the house down.

Then a crop of bushy brown hair caught the light from the house. At the men's backs, Audrey now hovered, Ginny appearing next to her. The latter let out a happy, excited shriek.

"It's THEM!"

There was a traffic jam as no less than nearly half a dozen people all spilled out onto the front lawn, pelting for Ron and Hermione, the couple looking tired but relieved.

Harry let out a roar of delight as he all but jumped his best mate. "There you are, you tosser! About time!"

"Right-o, Ronnie, boy!" Here came Percy, trying to nudge Harry aside none too gently. "And here's, Hermione! Hiya, old girl…" He buzzed her cheek.

Ginny was next to fling her arms around her brother's neck, then Hermione's. "Gits! You damn near drove this wanker up the wall, what with nary a word for close to a month!"

Harry flushed. "Did not!" He watched as Hermione dashed up to Audrey, who merely lifted her ring finger, and then Hermione was squealing and hugging both her and Percy, peppering them with questions about the wedding.

"Bollocks."

"So…." George ambled up. "Successful extraction of the missus' dear old mummy and pops, I wager?"

"Piss off, Georgie, it wasn't as though it was a psy-ops!" Ron grumbled, though he was grinning, albeit exhaustedly.

"Felt like it a tad, though. Wouldn't you say, Ronald?"

Ron and Hermione glanced back, the brunette witch biting her lip in what might have been nervousness as David and Jean Granger now came into the light.

Harry leaned slightly into Ron. "Thought you would have dropped them and the luggage off at their home back in Hampstead. It's getting on 9:00 at night, you know!"

"'Mione insisted on seeing you first. We've missed you, mate."

"Huh. Well, you lovelys evidently didn't miss me enough not to write me sooner than four weeks since…."

"Oh, shut it, you delicate little thing!"

Harry ignored Ron and squirted to the front, all welcoming smiles and eagerly shaking the Grangers' hands. "Welcome back to the land of fish and chips, mates! I trust those scurrilous Aussies didn't corrupt you too much?"

David Granger didn't answer, studying the ramshackle house that perpetually looked in danger of falling down any second. "No, not much…." he mumbled, almost to himself before casting his attention on Harry proper. "You're that Harry fellow I've heard so much about."

Harry grinned weakly. "Guilty."

Mr. Granger appraised him once, up and down, almost judgmentally. "Yeah, I'm sure you are…." Harry sent a bemused 'Huh?' expression back over his shoulder at Ron, but the ginger bloke just shook his head in something like exasperation.

Mrs. Granger was more polite, shaking Harry's hand and asking timidly if it was true that he, Hermione and 'that Ronald' had been keeping house in a tent?

"Erm…. Yes," Harry admitted. "Bit off the grid, perhaps for our taste, but we managed!"

Off a few paces, Hermione and Ron were hugging, Hermione standing on tiptoe to press a kiss to her boyfriend's lips.

"I'll just drop them at Hampstead, then pop back round, love…"

"All right there, Hermione. Say goodnight, poppet."

Hermione glanced back over her shoulder at her father, her arms still around Ron's neck. "Goodnight. Daddy…. I can't; I just told Ron I'd be stopping here tonight…"

"He can sleep in his own bed, can he? He's a big enough boy. I'm sure one night without you, he'll manage."

An awkward silence settled over the Burrow's front lawn. Percy and Audrey nervously glanced at each other. Harry looked down at his saddle shoes, finding them quite interesting.

Hermione let out an offended little laugh, dropping her arms from Ron's neck. "What are you insinuating, Daddy?"

"What I says. You and Carrot Top here weren't sharing a bed all those weeks in your little resort by the sea, or so you say. Yet you're all eager for a sleepover soon as you give your mother and me our Aspirins, and all in a house full of boys." He glared round at the Weasley men and Harry, leaving much of his ire particularly for Harry and Ron. "First it was a tent for months on end. What's next – a hostel with you pregnant out to your feet by one of these jackanapes?"

"Now, them's fighting words, mister….!" George started to lift a wagging finger in Mr. Granger's direction, but Audrey and Ginny waved him down.

Hermione smiled weakly, flustered and maybe a bit embarrassed. "It's not like that, Daddy. I'll be fine…."

"I want you at home, with me and your mother!" Mr. Granger's voice tightened. "Cause, frankly, my dear, this…. fine crew…." Sarcasm dripped from his voice. "Though foes they could thump any are scarcely fit company, my daughter, for you!"

"Now hark at that, do!" Ron grumbled bitterly under his breath to Harry, insulted.

Ginny stepped forward. "Mr. Granger… I understand that you might think them…. perfectly horrid, but disparage their character and they shall think themselves important. I can vouch for them – half the men in this house are my brothers, and they wouldn't dare do anything untoward to Hermione, would you, boys?"

George, Percy, Harry and Ron all vehemently shook their heads, the lattermost hardest of all, though he clearly felt awkward about. Noticing, Harry frowned: were his best mates really shagging in Australia right under Hermione's father's nose?

Hermione took a deep breath. "I need them with me. Dad…. It's important."

"What? To satiate your urges?"

Hermione gasped in dramatic horror. Ron stepped forward and laced his fingers through his.

"Sir, I know you might not understand, but Hermione's been through far more than any lass deserves. She has nightmares, see, and…."

"About wiping us into doddering old fools? She should," Mr. Granger grunted darkly.

Hermione was by now close to tears. "Daddy, please, it's just for one night; I'll be back in the morning…."

"And gone for how long?!" Mr. Granger's voice was starting to rise into a shout.

"Oh, so now you want me with you?" Hermione shot back. "Mere weeks ago, you didn't want to be in the same room with me, especially not if I so much as took out my wand!"

Harry and the Weasleys' heads were now on a swivel, watching the exploding argument as though it was a tennis match.

"I want you in the same room with me, if it keeps you away from these wankers!" Mr. Granger near bellowed. "If our relationship still means something to you, even after what you did, Hermione Jean, you will start sleeping nights over with your mum and me! We're your family!"

"They're my family too!" Hermione screeched, tears flowing now, as she gestured back to her friends.

Too late, the beautiful brunette witch drew both hands to her mouth. Mr. Granger looked as though he had been struck. Mrs. Granger was crying silently.

"Right…." Mr. Granger breathed out slowly. "That's the way you want it, little miss. Enjoy your new family!"

Watching his best mate carefully, Harry realized that where he had seen that crushed look on Hermione's face before: it was the exact same expression she had worn when Ron walked out on them on the Hunt. He darted up to her.

"Go with your parents."

She turned and gawped at him. "After what he just said about you and…?!"

"Go. You'll thank me later. Ron will be fine."

Studying him for a moment, Hermione nodded. Stomping over to Ron, she fisted his shirt in her hands and tugged him into a passionate goodnight snog, almost to prove a point if nothing else. They broke apart sensuously, Hermione holding her lover's eyes.

"I'll see you…. tomorrow." Then she stalked to where her father and mother were waiting by the gate.

"Hermione, dear? Is that you? Is that my Ronnie?..." Too late, Mrs. Weasley was dithering out onto the lawn in her nightgown, Arthur at her heels. They arrived only just in time to see Hermione grab both her mum and dad, turn on the spot and Disapparate.

"What the blooming hell's going on? We heard shouting!" Arthur cast his gaze round at his children. No one could look at each other. Face collapsing at last into a look of stone, Ginny prowled for the warm lights of the house, muttering darkly.

"Now there's a helicopter parent, I must say…." Harry shook his head. "My superiors would have slapped him with a charge of coercive control, if they'd heard any of that!"

"Nah," Ron drifted into him. "He's just… protective."

Harry snorted in shock. "I should think so!" He studied his best mate up and down. "You didn't give him any cause to get all papa bear, did you?" He wasn't certain that he wouldn't knock Ron out if the bloke alluded to anything of the sort. He mentally slapped his own dark thoughts, appalled with himself. Now who was being overprotective?

Tellingly, Ron blushed and turned his face away. Harry sighed. "Sounds like he knew about the tent."

"People misconstrue shite all the time, mate…." Ron mumbled.

"Yeah, and now it's got your best girl and her parents, who we know she loves more than anyone in the world, even us, this close to estrangement!" A pause, then:

"You have their address in Hampstead?"

"Yeah…." Ron pondered Harry, a hopeful glint starting to dawn in his eyes.

"And the window in our room, it's unlatched?"

"Yeah…"

Harry grinned. "Well, then. What say we saddle you up for a Midnight Run, Romeo?"

Ron followed his best mate for the house eagerly, though he felt the need to ask:

"What the sodding hell's a Romeo?"

"OW! You big lubbocks, mind my head!"

It was deep night, underneath a bedroom window in Hampstead, and Ron was currently putting too much of his weight on Harry's head, as the larger bloke struggled to swing his way up onto the nearest branch of a tree. The Boy Who Lived groaned. "Geroff!"

"Right, all right, then…." Shifting his weight into the tree, Ron then hooked his knees on the branch, swung upside-down and clasped Harry's forearms to hoist the Chosen One up after him. The boys edged along the branch, towards the pane.

"Merlin, I hope we have the right room…." Harry muttered. "Cause if we guess Ron and Hermione's dad comes after us with a…. sawed-off shotgun…."

"Wands can win over a Muggle's little toy firecracker any day!" Ron dismissed.

Harry eyed him. "Vacation's over, starting tomorrow, bub. You've got a lot of training to catch up on. Are you sure this is her room?"

"How should I know? I've never been!" Ron frowned. A beat, and then he pointed. "I know…. because there are books on her sill…."

"Well, at least he hasn't put bars on her windows yet…" Harry cracked. He tentatively tapped against the glass. "Psst! Hermione!"

It took a moment before Hermione came to the window, her face lighting up in furtive disbelief.

"Harry! Ron!" Lifting the sill and then the sash, she ushered her boyfriend and best mate in, as they climbed cat-like through the window.

"Dear lord, that is hard, just like Fred and George always said…." Ron cricked out his back.

"My window was smaller," Harry quipped dryly, accepting Hermione's crushing hug from around his neck.

"What are you doing here?!" Hermione hissed.

"To see you, love."

She embraced Ron, coming to rest in his arms and smiling up at him apologetically.

"I'm sorry…."

"What the devil for…?"

"He's usually not like that…."

"It came from a place of caring. If I thought Ginny was going round with someone behind my back, I'd lock her away, too, and she's just my baby sister!" Harry fixated his attention out the window and onto the full moon, keeping his expression maddeningly placid.

"All right, I'd ask what happened out there, but I think I've been able to work it out, and anyway, we haven't the time!" The Chosen One finally said. He pointed to Ron. "You, and I can't believe I'm bloody saying this, but get in that bed with her and make sure she gets a night's peace! You've only got a couple of hours, so be back all the earlier next morning. I mean, sun is risen, you get the fuck out and down that tree, straight back to your folks' place!"

"What about….?"

"She can sneak out and back to us some other way, can't you, poppet?" Harry now turned to Hermione. "As for you…. I know what ideas your dad's got in his head aren't fair, and clearly you've got some things to work out. You sent your parents abroad because there you thought there was no other way, but think about holding someone else's wand for a change. Walk around in their shoes! Your mum and dad feel hurt, especially if they feel, in their minds, like you're neglecting them for us after just getting their memories of you back! Just because you might not understand their point of view doesn't mean that some of it isn't valid!"

Ron and Hermione were listening, nodding thoughtfully.

"Words of wisdom there, mate," Ron offered. "How'd you come about that?"

Harry scratched at the back of his neck. "I might have…. met up with the Dursleys for some closure, while you lovebirds were gone."

"You what?!" Ron nearly exploded, loud enough that Hermione had to frantically shush him.

"Your sister reacted just like that, but I'm glad I went because it helped me understand why they did what they did. How they felt."

"How could anyone understand how those….?!"

Harry held up a finger to silence Ron. He fixed his stare on Hermione. "I'm not defending your mum and dad, any more than I'm defending the Dursleys. But while we're on the subject of trying to understand how others feel… maybe you should do the same. Family is hard enough to live with if you can't see from their point of view." He flashed his best friends an awkward salute. "First light. I mean it, Ron. Don't get caught and damnit, don't get shot!" Harry ducked out the window, his best mates watching him disappear into the night.

Ron whistled. "He really is the best bloody mate we could ever have…"