CW: Infertility
After breakfast, Hermione, Luna, and Susan met in the Entrance Hall. Hermione and Luna had to wait for Susan, who seemed stuck in a hushed argument with Cedric Diggory at the doors of the Great Hall. Cedric kept shooting meaningful looks over at Hermione and Luna, but Susan was shaking her head, having none of it. She finally brushed him off and strode over to Hermione and Luna, annoyed.
"Well?" she said impatiently. "Shall we go?"
Hermione glanced at Luna, who shrugged.
"We shall," Hermione said. "Ready?"
As Daphne wasn't yet one of the Shadows, there was no conveniently placed ley line near the Greengrass estate, so the three girls instead took the ley line to the coven house. From the coven house, they then Floo'd to the Greengrass estate, where they were welcomed by Evelyn Greengrass, who was only too eager to see them.
"Hot chocolate?" she offered them, smiling. "It's rather chilly this morning, and I'm reluctant to let the Christmas spirit entirely go."
The three thanked her, taking seats at a small table set up in the parlor. Hermione glanced around as they waited, taking in the decorations.
The parlor was tastefully decorated, with beautiful garlands of pine, holly, and ivy draped around the walls. There was an enormous fir tree that was adorned with garlands of holly with red berries and small lit candles. There was a large sun-shaped serving plate on a side table, and a smaller sun-shaped dish with candied nuts in it. From her seat, Hermione could see a large wreath hanging in the entrance way of the mansion; one with berries, holly, and pinecones with a large golden bow at the bottom of it.
"Christmas, my ass," Susan snorted, and Hermione and Luna broke into giggles.
"I'm glad it's not just me," Hermione said, amused. She glanced around. "I'm still picking up on these things, I think but this is very much decorated for Yule, isn't it?"
"Very," Luna assured her. "People who celebrate Yule lean on lots of nature imagery. Christmas families are more decorative."
"Think more garish, for Christmas," Susan advised. "Tinsel, colored fairy lights, fake snow, ornaments…"
"Muggle Christmas things, then," Hermione said, nodding. She paused. "You okay Susan?"
Susan gave her a flat look. "Why? Do I not look okay?"
"You're more snappish than usual," Luna said, forthright until the end. "And we both saw you fight with Cedric in the hallway just before we left."
At this, Susan deflated.
"I'm—yeah, I'm okay," she said reluctantly. "I'm just annoyed. Cedric is—he's been hanging around me a lot lately." Her expression was wry. "It's all your fault, you realize."
Hermione was startled. "Mine?"
"Yours," Susan said dryly. "Cedric's been trying to learn more about covens. He keeps asking me about ours, how it works, how ritual magic works, on and on and on." She gave Hermione a frank look. "I'm fairly certain he intends to try and ask you out again as soon as his time limit on courting you expires."
"Oh, no," Hermione groaned. "Are you serious?"
"As a Killing Curse," Susan said, and Hermione sighed.
"Isn't he dating Cho Chang now?" Luna asked, blinking. "She's in my House. She's made sure everyone knows that she's dating a Hogwarts champion."
"Yeah, isn't he dating Cho Chang?" Hermione echoed immediately, leaping on Luna's point. "Cho Chang is beautiful and athletic and closer to his age, anyway. Surely he's not going to dump Cho Chang on the slim possibility I would go out with him again."
Susan snorted.
"Since when are men sensible when it comes to matters of the heart?" she asked cynically.
"They aren't," said Evelyn Greengrass, coming in with four hot chocolates floating before her. She gestured, sending the cups and saucers to settle down in front of the girls, and she gave them all a conspiratorial smile as she took her own seat. "You'll learn to appreciate it, in time. A man in love will go to the ends of the earth for the woman he loves, even if it's not a sensible or smart choice at all."
They sipped at their hot chocolate, exchanging polite small talk over how the Greengrass' holidays had been.
"It was much quieter than usual," Evelyn admitted. "With Daphne at the school for the Ball, it was only Astoria here at home with us. Though I'm happy for her – every young woman should have the experience of dancing the night away at a winter ball. And Daphne wrote to say she had an incredible time." She frowned. "Though – she didn't go with Cassius, she said."
"Cassius Warrington was laid up in the Hospital Wing, as I understand," Susan told her. "He was playing Quidditch in the corridor or something, and Bludgers shattered his kneecaps."
"Oh!" Evelyn exclaimed, eyes going wide. "Well! That's—that's certainly more understandable then, isn't it? That's good – I don't want the Warringtons coming knocking, claiming we've slighted their son when we're negotiating over Daphne's contract—"
Hermione sighed.
"About that," she said. "Daphne's engagement contract – betrothal contract? – whatever it is you call it, you need to make sure there's a clause in it about the groom's fertility being checked before it's sealed, not just Daphne's."
Evelyn blinked.
"I'm sorry?" she said.
"Betrothal contracts contain clauses about providing heirs, don't they?" Hermione said. "Millicent Bullstrode's did, anyway. I'm just saying – there's reason to believe that Cassius won't be able to provide Daphne with magical children. So if you're hoping for Daphne to give you grandchildren some day—"
"Cassius Warrington is infertile?" Evelyn said again, astonished. "He's so young!" Her eyes were wide. "How?"
"Exposure to Dark magic, if rumors are true," Hermione said gravely, and Evelyn gasped, a hand going to her mouth in shock.
"I must tell Rowan immediately," she said, standing. "He's meeting with them in an hour or so – I'll be right back—"
She hurried from the room. A moment later, a small blonde head poked its way through the doorway, and Hermione smiled.
"Hello, Astoria," she said. "How has your holiday been?"
"Good," said Astoria, coming closer. She paused, looking up at Hermione, scrutinizing her. "Exposure to Dark magic? Is that what it was?"
Hermione shrugged. "I mean, who can say for certain?"
"You can," Astoria said plainly. "Daphne warned me to stay away from Cassius for now, but that you were going to take care of everything."
"Did she say why?" Susan asked, giving Hermione a curious look.
"No," Astoria said, shrugging. "Just 'Slytherin business' or something." Astoria seemed to lose interest in the topic. "Are you all in Hermione's coven together? You're going to help my mum?"
"That's the goal," Susan said, nodding.
"That's so cool," Astoria breathed. "Harry Potter is in your coven too, isn't it? Can you all walk through fire like he can?"
"Err—" Hermione hesitated. "I'm not sure about 'walk through fire', but we can all throw fireballs."
Astoria's mouth dropped. "No way."
Luna, Susan, and Hermione obligingly all summoned fireballs that they lobbed harmlessly through the air, letting them dissipate before they hit anything, and Astoria practically bounced with excitement.
"I want to start my own coven," she confessed, all in a rush. "I really, really want to – I have a few friends who said they'd do it with me if we could get coven rings—"
"You need to make sure everyone's come of an age before you link your magic together," Luna warned her, and Astoria's mouth dropped open in indignation, ready to protest.
"I don't want to wait—"
"Astoria, leave these girls alone," Evelyn Greengrass said, sweeping back into the room. "They have important business to discuss with me today."
"What, about you having heirs?" Astoria said, his voice snippy. "I know how babies are made, mother. I'm not too young to understand."
"I know that, love," her mother said, weary. "But it's different knowing these things in the abstract, and another thing entirely to hear in detail how you parents plan to accomplish it."
Astoria paused, considering this, before her face wrenched up in disgust.
"Gross," she announced. "Right. Bye, Hermione!"
She left the room making gagging noises. As soon as she was out of sight, Eveyln Greengrass sighed heavily while the other girls dissolved into giggles.
"Merlin save me from the melodramatics of twelve year-olds who know everything," she sighed. "Now. You have information for me?"
"Yes," Hermione said. She paused, considering how best to phrase this. "There are two ways we can do this and help you," she said finally. "One is more invasive than the other."
"Invasive?" Evelyn repeated, mildly alarmed.
"A fertility ritual with the coven all chanting around you," Susan summarized. "On either Imbolc, Ostara, or Beltane."
"Oh." Evelyn settled down. "I thought that was the easy option," she admitted. "There's something even less invasive than that?"
"Most people consider others watching them have sex rather invasive," Hermione pointed out, and Evelyn shrugged.
"Whatever it takes," she said, her voice rather bleak. "Wouldn't be the oddest thing we've tried."
Hermione didn't think she wanted to know what else they'd tried.
"There's a simpler option that you could try first, if you wanted to," she told her. "It allows you to try and conceive the normal way – it just requires you follow a careful potion regiment and diet."
"Oh!" Evelyn frowned. "That's unusual. What's that entail?"
Luna unrolled a scroll with a calendar on it, while Hermione withdrew a small box. Inside were three rows of vials, with five vials in each row.
"These contain bits of dehydrated, concentrated potions in them for you to take," she told her. "You need to fill the bottles with water, swirl three times clockwise, and drink the entire thing before the concentrate dissolves entirely. You need to take one bottle a day for five days in a row, starting on the third to fifth day after you start your cycle."
"That's it?" Evelyn asked, looking puzzled.
"They're powerful fertility potions," Susan told her frankly. "There will be side effects – hot flashes, nausea, bloating, headache."
"You also have to take a bunch of other things," Hermione added. "This is just the first one."
"Do you know when your cycle is due?" Luna asked. "We can help you fill out the calendar."
Evelyn Greengrass did know when her next period was due, as a matter of fact.
"January 2nd," she told them. "It's rarely off." She paused. "And… there's very little chance of me being pregnant now and it not happening at all. It's been a busy December."
Hermione carefully avoided discussion of that.
"If your cycle shows up on the 2nd…" Hermione hummed. "We'll have you start the potions on the 6th. That way, we'll have a day's grace if it's a day early or a day late."
Luna was already counting down on the calendar. "How many days between cycles for you?"
"Thirty," Evelyn said.
"Then you'll end up ovulating around the 18th," Luna said, drawing a circle with another circle around it and a star inside on the date. "That means your best odds are…"
She drew hearts on the calendar on the 18th, the 19th, the 16th, 14th, and 12th.
"Try to have sex on these days," Luna said. "You can in between too if you want, but these days especially. Especially the 18th and 19th," she added, drawing another heart on those two dates.
"In the meantime," Hermione said. "You need to start taking these immediately."
She handed over a large box, filled with small vials, each one stoppered with a small cork. Each vial had ground powder in the bottom of it.
"There's two condensed potions in each of these," Hermione told her. "They might make you feel sick or queasy. That is entirely normal. But you will need to take these until at least your sixth month of pregnancy, but probably through the entire thing."
"Sixth month?" Evelyn's eyes widened. "That's—"
"It's important if you want a healthy baby," Susan warned. "Surely a little nausea—"
"No, no, it's not that," Evelyn said hastily. "It's—I—" She faltered, before flicking a tear from the corner of her eye. "It's just been so long since I've made it to the sixth month."
There was an awkward silence, before Hermione cleared her throat and moved on.
"Now. This is very important, so pay attention," she said, unrolling another piece of parchment. "These potions are very powerful, and they can interact with other things very badly, do you understand? You will need to only drink the things on this list, and try to eat these foods. On this side, make sure you avoid these food and drinks, do you understand? It is imperative you do not deviate, or all our work will be for naught."
"Water, fresh fruit juice, coconut water, milk…" Evelyn read. Her eyes flicked to the other side of the paper. "Wait, I can't have tea?"
"No tea or coffee," Hermione said firmly. "The only tea you can have is ginger tea to help with morning sickness, and that's it. Anything else will react very poorly with the potions and can cause you significant harm."
"Avoid lunchmeats, patés, meat spreads, tuna, swordfish, marlin, and king mackerel." Evelyn blinked. "I've never even heard of king mackerel."
"Well, it should be easy to avoid then, shouldn't it?" Luna said reasonably.
"Avoid desserts high in sugar. Eat lots of salmon, tilapia, herring, and cod," Evelyn read. "Dark leafy greens, red meats, and lots of fruits and vegetables." She glanced up. "None of this sounds too hard."
"There can be no cheating," Susan warned her. "None. You cannot have so much as a sip of tea or coffee for the entire duration of this process."
"For a child?" Evelyn's smile was sad. "I would stop tea for the rest of my life."
They discussed the plan and scheduling. It was decided that Evelyn would use the potions to help her conceive in January, February, and March, and if she were not pregnant by April, they would begin preparing for a powerful fertility ritual to be done on Beltane. Evelyn seemed uneasy at leaving the most powerful ritual so late in the game.
"Can we do Ostara?" she asked. "So we have a shot at it on Ostara, and then again on Beltane if Ostara doesn't take?"
Hermione bit her lip.
"We can discuss it," she conceded. "If you get your cycle in early March, we can discuss it. It would still be enough time to prepare."
"Do we really think this is going to work?" Luna asked, as soon as they reached the Coven House, Flooing out of the Greengrass Estate. "Some muggle pills and having her not drink tea?"
"Honestly? Yes. I do," Hermione said, with no small amount of certainty. "She and her husband don't have trouble conceiving to start with, and the muggle Clomid will help ensure that as well. After that, taking folic acid, a prenatal vitamin, and avoiding tea and coffee will go a long way."
Susan looked at Hermione sideways. "What aren't you telling us here?"
"It's like I told you – I think there's something in her tea," Hermione said. She bit her lip. "I—I've got someone looking into it, but the expensive blend of tea that Evelyn Greengrass especially likes – I think there's something in it that's causing miscarriages. But I didn't want to go into detail about all that unless I have proof."
Susan whistled. "Wow. That'd—that'd be a scandal."
"It'd explain why only some of the purebloods have lower birth rates than the rest of them," Luna said, considering. "Only some of them have snooty tea parties all the time."
Hermione shrugged, helplessly. "We'll find out soon enough."
