[A/N: Thank you to Calamity Owl for beta-reading this chapter!]
Harry's recovery wasn't quite what Hermione expected. After a slow start the next morning, he quickly fell back into their usual routine of cooking, cleaning, and studying. She found he was much more interested in helping her with her DADA or Charms work than he was in talking about his experience, but a little gentle questioning (or possibly nagging, based on the looks he gave her once or twice) eventually induced him to open up.
The Dreamless Sleep Potion ensured Harry slept like the dead on his first night home, but the second night brought nightmares for them both. Neither ended up sleeping much, but Hermione did manage to leverage the content of Harry's nightmares as well as the endless silence of the night (well…silent for London, anyway) to draw some more memories out of her new-ish bedmate. Periodically one of Harry's memories would trigger the shadow of a recollection in Hermione, too, a grotesque looming just beyond the outskirts of her consciousness, but nothing came to her more concrete than vague feelings of terror and malevolence.
The dawn found them both exhausted, and after a quick breakfast they decided to go back to bed to give sleep another try. This time, for whatever reason, they managed to get a solid hour and a half of sleep uninterrupted by nightmares before a honking delivery truck for the family three townhouses up the street dragged them from their slumber.
They were still a little groggy after that, but the drizzle had slowed enough for them to take a nice walk along Regent's Canal. Harry kept an eye on the water as if it were a wild animal that could attack at any moment, but he seemed to feel confident enough in his ability to wrench apart and rearrange reality to his will to enjoy the walk with her.
When they got back to the house, they discovered Dobby had celebrated Harry's return to the country by setting up a three-course meal with all of his favourite foods. It would normally have been a little early for supper, but they'd accidentally skipped lunch and ended up tucking in immediately, pausing only to thank Dobby after each course.
Afterward, Hermione offered to help clean, but Dobby resolutely refused and ordered them both upstairs to relax. As they climbed the stairs, Harry asked, "Do you suppose Dobby is trying to…um…encourage us to go make some babies for him to dote on?"
Hermione blushed a bright red. "The thought had crossed my mind. On the one hand, he's not usually so subtle. On the other hand, though, maybe he's so excited about that possibility that he's willing to try anything, even subtlety."
"Heh. For him, that's practically desperation."
The two of them paused for a moment at the top of the basement stairs, their bodies halfway between walking toward the sitting room and continuing upstairs.
"Harry?" Hermione's blush was incandescent by this point. "There's nothing else to do tonight…"
He looked down at the floor. "I…don't know if I can. For the first few days, you were all I could think of, but by the end I just felt dead inside."
"It's alright." Hermione threw her arms around him and hugged him tightly. "Don't worry. Just come to bed and let me hold you and we can do whatever you're up for, even if it's just sleep."
"Are you sure?" he asked. "You're going to be bored out of your mind going to bed this early."
She grinned and leaned up to whisper in his ear, "That's the idea, love."
Harry gave an involuntary shiver at her tone, then looked down in surprise. "I'll be damned," he said. "It does have a mind of its own."
Hermione started laughing so hard that she tripped on the first step and would have fallen had she not caught herself on the railing.
The two of them had a nice lie-in the next morning, though with somewhat less sleep than a normal lie-in might have entailed, and Harry spent the rest of the day talking about more of his experiences and helping Hermione with her Charms work. That evening, they went over to 12 Grimmauld Place so Harry could catch up with Sirius and Remus. Hermione had a hunch Sirius noticed something had changed between them, but the older man was unusually cautious about Harry's feelings that evening and didn't make any jokes.
The next day, Hermione arranged for Harry to join her for her first luncheon at Bathilda Bagshot's house. The old woman was a lovely host and adroitly took Harry's mind off of his recent trip with stories of his father as a boy and his mother's frustration with being sidelined during her pregnancy. Harry had always known that Lily was one of the main potioneers of the Order of the Phoenix, but he hadn't realised her skill with Charms and especially Ancient Runes made her one of their better cursebreakers, too. After they finished eating, Harry sat in on an hour-long session of historical questions from Hermione, and Bathilda's detailed and vivid answers turned it into the first History of Magic lesson he ever stayed fully awake for.
That he got to stare at the way Hermione's eyes lit up when she learnt the answer to a difficult or obscure question probably had something to do with that, too.
Afterward, Harry took some time off just to relax and just sit around while Hermione made notes on her conversation with Bathilda and re-read the relevant sections of her textbooks. Luna came by that evening after dinner to check on him and ended up giving an impromptu lesson in basic "matchstick to worm" transfiguration to both of them. (That particular sub-field didn't come up much in Auror work, though they all had their go-to animals in case they needed temporary distractions in the field. Harry now preferred a mixture of howler monkeys and hyenas after having one too many cute dogs shredded by Dark curses. Even though he knew the dogs were really just pieces of wood or rocks, it was still disturbing.)
As Luna was grabbing some floo powder to head home, Harry spoke up to stop her. "Hey, I think I'd like a quiet day tomorrow, but it might be nice to get all of us together again and I promised Dobby he could make a huge dinner one of these days. What are you and Rolf doing the day after tomorrow?"
"We're free…" Luna trailed off and stared off into space.
"Are you al—" Hermione began, but stopped when Harry held up a hand.
"She's thinking," he mouthed.
After another ten seconds, Luna refocused on Harry and continued, "...but I think it's too early. Would next week be alright?"
"Sure," Harry said, "but why?"
"I'm worried Sue and Nev will slip into their old habits with each other if they meet up with us now," Luna said. "I'd like to give them a few more days to adjust before putting them back into our group."
Harry blinked. "Wait, what?"
"Hermione didn't tell you?" Luna asked. "She convinced Sue to let Nev take care of her this week. I went to see them yesterday and the two of them are doing well. Sue was helping Nev in the greenhouses and she somehow kept forgetting to remind Nev to use magic to move heavy bags of dirt and fertiliser. I thought about saying something, since that poor man probably got so used to being unable to levitate them when he was younger that he's forgotten he can, but Sue's wrackspurts seemed to fly off when he carried them and I didn't want to lure them back." She paused. "I think the ones that flew off joined the flock over the guest house where they've stashed Augusta."
"What do you mean?" Hermione asked.
"Sue told me Augusta didn't approve of her staying over unchaperoned, so Nev threw his grandmother out," Luna said.
"Merlin's pants!" Harry said.
Luna nodded. "That was more or less my reaction, as well."
"Oh, dear," Hermione said. "I never meant to put a wedge between Nev and his grandmother."
Harry spun around. "Don't you dare apologise for this! She's had this coming for years. I have no idea how you catalysed this, but thank you."
"I convinced Sue to stay with Nev this week," Hermione said. "I knew his grandmother wouldn't like it, but I never thought it would go this far."
"Some people," Luna said, "think events 'spin out of control,' but that's not quite true. Events are never really in control in the first place. All you can do is try your best to see where they might go next, but you never know what you could never have known."
Hermione paused for a moment. "That's either incredibly insightful or a tautology," she said, "and I can't figure out which."
"Don't worry about it," Luna said. "I don't." She turned back to Harry. "Let's wait until Sue's ready to go home before we have that party, but it does sound lovely."
"OK," Harry said. "I'll owl you an invitation when we're ready."
"Thank you." Luna waved one last time to each of them and vanished into the floo.
As soon as she was gone, Hermione stalked downstairs, pulled the tequila out of the cupboard, poured herself half a shot, threw it back, and coughed violently. She held the bottle up to Harry (who'd followed her down) while she coughed, but he declined.
"Are you alright?" he asked.
"Better now," she said after a moment. "I know I can't drink every time I talk with her, but I really want to."
"I understand," Harry said. "We'll help you build up a tolerance."
She arched her eyebrows. "To Luna or tequila?"
"Yes," Harry said.
Six a.m. in mid-January in Britain might as well have been midnight for how dark it was when Sue knocked on the guest house door. A few stray, cold raindrops stung her face, whether harbingers of a storm or laggards from one she couldn't tell.
Augusta opened the door a few minutes later wearing a housecoat and an expression that could kill small animals. "What brings you to my personal Elba?" she asked.
"Spriggy told me you were usually up and around by now," Sue said. "I think it's time we talked. Nev's doing some pre-dawn greenhouse work, so we won't be disturbed."
"Come in, then." Augusta stepped aside and gestured for Sue to enter. The guest house had a small sitting room downstairs, and Sue made her way there and sat down on an armchair. She had intentionally dressed in an older style than she normally did for meetings, with lovely crimson robes that stayed just on the acceptable side of the line between "everyday" and "formal."
Augusta sat across from her and fixed her with a glare. "Come to gloat, girl?"
"No." If hardened criminals couldn't break Sue's calm, Augusta wouldn't. "I came to ask if you knew why your grandson was Sorted to Gryffindor."
"Honestly, no." Augusta's glare faded away as her eyes widened a little in surprise. "I confess I don't understand why you would sneak over to discuss that."
"Because that's the core of the problem confronting the three of us," Sue said. "I need you to understand why he's a Gryffindor or we'll never have peace."
"Then you've a long morning ahead of you," Augusta said. "Minerva told me he was a hatstall, and I'd always assumed the Hat was taking pity on him and putting him in his father's House in the hopes it would put a spine in him."
Sue took a deep breath and consciously stilled the hand that twitched toward her wand. "No, Dowager. You have it exactly backwards. Neville couldn't imagine himself in Gryffindor until the Hat finally convinced him."
"Wait…the Hat fought him on it?" Augusta asked.
"Yes, it did," Sue said. "I didn't realise why until I saw how he tried to 'protect' Ron from Sirius Black in our Third Year. He didn't even have a wand, but he didn't let that stop him."
Augusta glowered. "Fat lot of good he did in that incident."
"Dowager!" Sue's voice cracked like a whip and Augusta jerked backward a few inches. "I am an Auror. I know men with decades of experience who would have wet their pants at the thought of facing down a Black unarmed. Nev didn't hesitate."
"There's a line between bravery and foolishness," Augusta said, "and you lot have a history of treading across it."
"Yes, especially our Fifth Year," Sue said. "We made some damn foolish decisions that nearly got us all killed, but I want you to focus on what Neville did. The Wendigo put him under the Imperius and tried to make him torture me, but he wouldn't do it. His curses simply had no intent. It tortured him twice before giving up and switching to Harry."
"So?" Augusta asked.
"So Nev was willing to face the Cruciatus Curse, his biggest fear, instead of torturing me," Sue said. "That was and remains the second bravest thing I've ever seen."
"What good did it do, though?" Augusta asked. "Harry's the one who actually beat it."
"Bravery isn't just about winning!" Sue said. "By that metric, Frank was a failure for not protecting Alice better."
"Don't you dare mention my son!" Augusta said. "He faced down the worst of the Death Eaters for his family! What has my grandson ever done to compare with that?"
"Face down four dozen Dementors for a hundred Hogwarts students!" Sue shot back.
"Humph," Augusta said. "Harry defeated those, too."
"That he did," Sue said. "And if not for your grandson, the death toll would have been in the dozens anyway. Harry was too late! Nev, Luna, Seamus and I had to hold them off ourselves for several minutes while Ron and the Twins were fighting off another dozen at Zonko's. We were overwhelmed, falling apart from Magical Exhaustion and the effects of the Dementors, and not once did Nev even consider leaving. He was on his knees and still managed a shield one last time to protect a Firstie from a Dementor. Death and despair were literally staring your grandson in the face and he spit right back at them. That's the bravest thing I've ever seen, Dowager, and why the Hat was dead right about his Sorting."
"I'll allow that's quite impressive," Augusta said. "I don't see what this has to do with me, though."
Sue prayed to Morgana for strength and soldiered on. "Because I needed you to accept that your grandson is genuinely brave before we got to the next part. He loves you and your absence is hurting him, but he will never, ever let you hurt his friends or convince him to hurt his friends. He underwent the Cruciatus for me because he wouldn't hurt me, for Morgana's sake! Why would you think he would give a dead flobberworm about scandal if he thought I needed help?"
"Because sometimes you have to think about the long-term repercussions of your decision for your family," Augusta said.
Sue snorted. "I've heard that line of reasoning in the Wizengamot before to justify why some of the older members don't want to step up and make difficult votes," she said. "Like I said, though, Nev is a Gryffindor. He's going to do the right thing every single time, face the consequences, and then do it again until he doesn't have anything left to give. You need to accept that, Dowager, or you need to stay out here."
"And let you take advantage of that nature?" Augusta asked. "I think not."
"I don't keep a ledger of my friendship with anyone." And that was it. Sue's patience had officially run out. This woman was going to bleed. "However, I have done one thing for Nev over the years that I would hope might weigh more than a little in my favour. I trust you're aware of how badly bullied he was for his first few years at Hogwarts?"
Augusta nodded.
"Well, there was one particular bully who really got under his skin," Sue said, her voice as calm as the eye of a hurricane. "This bully really knew how to get to him and convince him he was a worthless excuse for a wizard, but Harry and I refused to let that bully win. We spent years showing Nev the wonderful man and wizard he was inside and never gave an inch to that bully. Nev has grown so much and now he doesn't let them hurt him, and I think he's so strong now that he's even forgiven them."
"I've heard a lot of people talk about forgiveness over the years," Augusta said, "and all too often it was just the ones who couldn't fight back anyway."
Sue rose from her seat. "That bully underestimated Nev just like you're doing now, and do you know what he did to them?" She leaned over and shot Augusta the sort of grin that made some petty criminals immediately confess. "He evicted her from his house. Have a lovely day, Dowager."
Before the older woman could put together even a single word in the face of that vicious grin, Sue spun around in an angry tornado of crimson robes and strode out of the guest house into the pre-dawn dark.
Fortunately, Nev wasn't back by the time she returned to her room, so she transfigured the second bed back into a chair and settled in to read a copy of that Sakurai monograph whose publication Harry had just underwritten. Nev hadn't actually used that bed since the first night she stayed with him, but he'd left it in place out of what she assumed was principle while he slept in her bed and let her cuddle him. That didn't keep the nightmares entirely away, but they were less frequent now and waking up to Nev comforting her helped her get back to sleep.
He walked by her room a few minutes later, covered with splotches of mud and…Sue's eyes narrowed.
"Neville Francis Longbottom!" She leapt from her chair, her wand flowing smoothly into her hand as she moved. "Is that blood?"
He jumped and gave her a sheepish grin. "Um…only a bit."
She stomped up to him. "Show me."
"The Snargaluff was in a bad mood this morning when I went to get a pod." Nev held out his arms, revealing long, thin, deep cuts running down the outside of his forearms. "I was going to put on some Murtlap Essence after I showered."
"I'll deal with it." Sue aimed her wand at his left arm and said, "Episkey," then did his right arm a moment later.
"Thanks!" Nev flexed his arms. "Good as new. I never did get the hang of that charm."
Sue shrugged. "It isn't easy, but it's important for all Aurors so we can fix minor injuries in the field."
"Well, thank you for fixing me," Nev said.
Sue nodded and the conversation lapsed into an awkward silence.
"I'll just…um…clean up," Nev said.
"And I'll…read," Sue said.
"Alright," Nev said. They nodded awkwardly to each other and hurried off.
By the time Nev finished and came out, Sue had run the next conversation through her head at least a score of different ways, and each one ended badly, awkwardly, stupidly, or some combination of the three. It still had to happen, though.
She waited until the shower had been off for awhile before rising from the once-and-current chair, and put her book down. Something Hermione had told her had been rattling around in her brain for a week now and she decided to see if there was anything to it. "Spriggy?" she called out.
The dignified elf popped up right in front of her. "Can Spriggy help Miss Sue?" he asked.
She nodded and went for it. "Is Lord Longbottom sufficiently dressed for a visitor right now?"
The elf disappeared and reappeared a few moments later. "He is sufficiently dressed for Miss Sue," he said.
"Thank you, Spriggy," she said. "That will be all."
"Miss Sue is welcome," Spriggy said, and vanished again.
Sue patted down her robes one last time, smoothing out any wrinkles from sitting, and made her way down the hall to the master bedroom. The door was closed, as she expected, and she took a deep breath and knocked.
Steps hurried to the door. "Is everything alright?" Nev asked as he opened it. He wore only dark grey trousers and an old, torn undershirt that concealed little of his chest or arms. Stubble covered about half of his face, so she'd probably caught him mid-shave.
"Everything is fine, really," Sue said. "That's what I wanted to talk to you about. May I come in?"
"Oh…um…sure." He motioned her in. "Please ignore the mess."
She looked around as she walked into the master bedroom. It was done in an old style, with heavy, dark wood dressers, an armoire, and an elegant (if possibly a bit overdone) four-poster bed. It was all spotless. Even the bed was made, and the only clothes laying about were some clean ones carefully placed on the bed.
"What mess?" Sue asked.
Nev spun around and sighed. "Spriggy?"
The elf popped up in front of him. "Spriggy cleaned young master's room while he was answering the door so he makes a good impression," the elf said. "Young master's clothes for the day are on the bed." Before Nev could respond, Spriggy disappeared again.
"He…um…doesn't usually do that," Nev said. "Um…thank you, I guess?"
The elf reappeared just long enough to say, "Young master is welcome."
Nev shrugged and looked over at Sue. "Just when you think you…Sue, are you blushing?"
"I'll explain later," she said, resolutely ignoring the implications of that interaction. Hermione had been more correct about the elves than Sue had thought. "Right now, though, I was hoping to discuss something with you."
"Oh! Alright, then." Nev rubbed his neck self-consciously. "Do you mind if I finish shaving while we talk? I feel a bit awkward right now."
"Of course not." Sue sat down on a free armchair as she spoke. "I'm the one who interrupted your daily routine, after all."
Nev waved that comment off as he went back to a large mirror near the bathroom and drew his wand. He pointed it at his neck, said, "Novacilum," and began carefully moving the tip over his neck. "What did you want to discuss?"
"Well, I've been here for a week," Sue began. "I'm feeling a lot better than when I arrived and pretty much all of that is down to you taking such good care of me."
"I'm just glad you feel so much better," Nev said.
"I really do," Sue said. "I think I'd be alright if I went home now."
"That's good." Nev was trying to sound happy about that, but he was a shite liar.
"That's what I wanted to discuss with you, actually," Sue said. Her mouth was going dry and her stomach felt like it had signed up for a gymnastics competition without inviting the rest of her body, but she pressed on. "I need you to understand that I'm capable of going home and being fine because I don't want you to feel obligated to let me stay when I ask you to let me stay anyway. Which…um…I'm doing. Right now."
Nev spun around to face her and yelped as his wand cut a bit deeper than he'd intended. "You…you want to stay?"
"Yes, I do," Sue said. "If it's not too much trouble."
"Trouble?" A few drops of blood pooled along Nev's neck as he spoke. "You haven't been any trouble at all. I've been happy to have you."
"It hasn't been too much of an imposition to sleep in my bed?" Sue asked. She was trying to tease him, but she had a bad feeling some of her nervousness crept out and turned that sentence into a genuine question.
"And miss what? This?" Nev gestured at his bed, the movement dislodging some blood drops that fell to his shirt. "That bed is big enough for four people, and even the "family" dining room seats a dozen, to say nothing of the formal dining room. This whole house is oversized for just me. Having you here makes it feel almost alive again."
"But what about…I'm sorry, I can't do this." Sue rose as she spoke and drew her wand again. "This is going to drive me crazy. Hold still."
"Oh, am I dripping?" Nev looked down at his shirt. "Oops."
"Yes," Sue said. "Now hold still." She strode over to him, took his chin in one hand, tipped his neck up a little, and said, "Episkey" again. "There we go."
"Thanks," Nev said sheepishly.
"No problem," Sue said. As an afterthought, she waved her wand over his shirt and pulled the bloodstains out of it. "Anyway, what about your Gran?"
"Honestly, we didn't interact all that much," Nev said. "We had supper together, of course, but otherwise she's kind of like having a lodger. She would get up on her own schedule, have tea on her own, spend time in the conservatory or parlour, and I'd just sort of see her in passing. Since you've been here, though, we've had every meal together, you've helped out in the greenhouses every day except the first, and I've even practised duelling with you. You've been a part of my day, not just a shadow in my house. It's been grand."
Sue smiled to try to cover up her nervousness about her next question. "I'm glad. So…um…about sleeping arrangements?"
"You can sleep anywhere you'd like," Nev said. "Literally. I'll set up something on the roof if you want."
"Not bloody likely." Sue rolled her eyes. "Honestly, the only place I want to sleep is next to you."
Nev's eyes widened. "Really?"
"Really." Sue smiled. "Every morning when you wake up and see me, you have this look on your face like you can't believe you're not still dreaming. A girl can get used to being looked at like that." She paused and let her smile shift into a smirk. "And I'd be lying if I said I wasn't interested in how else I can get you to look at me."
"Looking at you is one of my favourite pastimes," Nev said, blushing. "I wouldn't say no to learning some new ways to do it."
"It's a date, then," Sue said. "Um…just so you know, I dropped by to see your Gran this morning."
"Oh, dear." Nev looked down at the ground. "How did that go?"
"Not as well as I'd have liked," Sue said. "I wanted to try to convince her to come back because I don't want to make you choose between us, but she started her usual shite about you and I wasn't in the mood to put up with it."
He sighed. "Thank you, but you really shouldn't have done that. I'm used to it by now and this will probably just make it worse."
"This can't go on," Sue said. "If you have any children, will you let her treat them like that?"
Nev's head snapped up almost as if she'd slapped him. "Of course not!"
"And will you let her talk to their father like that in front of them?" Sue pressed.
"Oh." Nev pursed his lips. "I see what you mean. You're right. This does have to stop, doesn't it?"
"Yes, it does," Sue said gently. "You've been terribly patient, but it has to stop."
Nev nodded. "It will, then. I should probably give her a day to calm down after your conversation, but I'll talk to her tomorrow."
"Good luck." Sue put her free hand on his arm. "I know how hard this is going to be for you."
"Thanks," he said. "I'm going to need it."
She laughed. "I feel like I'm sending you off to war."
"I feel like I'm going off to war," Nev said, smiling.
"Well, then." Sue trailed her left hand up his arm, brushing her little finger along it as she moved. He shivered briefly under her touch, then her hand was off his arm and resting on his cheek. "I think it's traditional to send men off to war with some…good memories, isn't it?"
"That…" Nev swallowed. "That's the tradition, alright."
"I thought so," Sue said, and casually, almost lazily, vanished his undershirt. "Far be it from me to ignore tradition."
Nev reached around her waist with his free hand and pulled her close. "I've always felt strongly about tradition," he said, his tone low and hungry.
Sue gently pulled his head down and whispered into his ear, "Show me."
He did.
