A/N: Whelp, there goes Liverpool from the title. We are not a very happy household right now, so hopefully that won't translate to what we're doing here because I feel like we're building up to something. Where Mouldy-Voldy is, I do not know but I feel like we need an appearance soon. The holidays can only stretch so far lol It's been busy, no doubt.
-0-
In the end, they'd struggled through it. It wasn't very succinct and Minerva had cleared her throat a few times just to bring her back to the point but in the end, she had accepted it was going to be whatever it was going to be and had been given quite a few promises of fealty in return.
As the last of the visitors exited the gate to return to Muggle life, Hermione turned to Minerva.
"Honestly, war is hell."
Minerva laughed and wrapped her arms around Hermione tightly.
"Come, let us have a picnic," Minerva smiled. "We could let Feedle cater for us, so the little ones can have a chance at doing the cooking?"
"Sure," Hermione smiled. "Are we inviting everyone, or just those here?"
"We probably need to speak to everyone soon, learn what these things are and distribute the information?"
"Probably." Hermione nodded. "Alright, how about you go and ask Feedle and get Alec. I'll head to London and tell the Weasleys and I suppose Albus will bring the others?"
"Probably," Minerva sighed. She rubbed her forehead and chuckled when Hermione captured her hand and kissed her palm.
"What ails you, my beautiful woman?"
"Ha," Minerva chuckled. "Flatterer."
"I only speak the truth, mo gaol."
"Kiss me?"
Hermione smiled and pulled Minerva into her body where she held her so carefully. She leaned her a little, throwing her off centre and making Minerva giggle before letting their lips touch just a little. Once, twice, she teased her until Minerva snorted again and slid her hand into Hermione's hair. Hermione moaned against Minerva's mouth as they kissed until they drew apart panting.
"Fuck, Min, I love you."
"As I love you, my beautiful Leannan."
"Right, you go home, get Alec and let's go have a beautiful afternoon in the sun. Even you and I haven't had much sun in a while."
There was a little look in Minerva's eye that made Hermione lose her breath.
"We have been rather busy," she demurred.
Hermione laughed and kissed her again before stepping away.
"Go, I'll inform those downstairs and maybe have them start on them setting up while I nip down to fetch the others."
"Perhaps we should make a point of it, through the holidays and now this new thing has begun?"
"Oh, that's a good idea. That way Charlie can come next month too."
"Yes," Minerva smiled. "Good idea."
"You know, I think we should close up shop and you should let me make you cum more often."
Minerva threw her head back and laughed so hard, Hermione had to wind her arms around her to hold her steady. When Minerva finally got her breath back, she cupped Hermione's face and kissed her hard.
"You will be the death of me, mo Leannan."
"And what a way to go," Hermione grinned. "Go on. I'll see you in a bit."
Minerva kissed her impulsively again and stepped away. They kept their hands tangled for as long as possible until Minerva finally stepped outside the gate and disappeared with a pop. Hermione stared at the space she left and laughed a little before she turned and walked back to the castle. She couldn't wipe the smile off her face, no matter how much she tried.
-0-
Honestly, the way she stepped through the air and reappeared in London made Hermione grin to herself. She looked like nothing much; her most comfortable jeans and her favourite pink jumper to stave off the cool breeze up at the Castle, but now down here in the city. She pushed her sleeves up as the door opened.
"Hey!" Ginny grinned as they hugged. "You look thoroughly fucked."
"Damn," Hermione blushed as she pushed back her hair. "What the hell, Gin? I just addressed a room of about 50 strangers looking like this."
"Mhmm," Ginny grinned. "Look, I'm only teasing because at least someone's having some fun. Mum's going stir crazy."
"Then you'd better be nice to me then, and maybe I'll give her something to do!"
"Wait," Ginny grabbed her back before she could move further into the house. "What do you mean?"
"There's been a few -" She made a face. "Incidents, I guess. We're going to the Castle for a picnic and a meeting."
"Oh, nice, I'll get the others."
"Is Bill home?"
"No, but Mum can summon him."
"Good." Hermione nodded upstairs. "Go on then, I'll get your Mum." She wandered further towards the kitchen and found Molly staring out over the garden behind the house. Hermione didn't need any empathic powers to know she was crying. She watched her shoulders shake and cleared her throat.
Molly sniffed suddenly and wiped her face with a tea towel as she turned around.
"Oh, hello, Hermione, how are you?"
"Fine," Hermione said softly. "How are you?"
"Just fine dear," she tried, but Hermione just held her eyes for a while before she sighed. "My family is everything to me, Hermione and it is fractured."
"No," Hermione said softly. "Not fractured, just displaced for the moment. I have no doubt that once Percy realises that he is working for a government that has no backbone, he'll come to his senses, but I understand him, to a point as well. The Ministry is so," she sighed and dropped her hands to her sides. "Limp. Wanting to help steer them to a better place is something, I think, we'd all like to do. He just got a little carried away at the water-fountain."
"Charlie hasn't come home because he believes me to be shallow. All this time, he imagined that I don't know my own son."
Hermione looked at her and chuckled.
"As someone who didn't really have that experience, I understand him being scared. I came out to Min and then look what happened."
Molly snorted and then covered her mouth as she laughed.
"I am sorry, Hermione, for being so -"
"Don't," Hermione said softly. "Regardless of why he went overseas, he now knows he always has a place at home. And he has done so well there, as far as I know?"
"Oh yes," she said proudly. "So, so, well. He is head of his department and has published more than a few papers on his work."
"Then everything that happened, regardless of why, worked out really well for everyone. And now that he knows he can come home whenever he likes, I'm sure he will start doing so more often."
"I sometimes forget you are Ron's age, sweetheart. You have so much wisdom for one so young."
"I have years and years of wisdom to call on," Hermione grinned. "So I'm basically cheating."
Molly chuckled again and Hermione was yanked into her arms and hugged tightly.
"Thank you sweetheart."
"You are most welcome." Molly stepped back and wiped her eyes again before she blinked and seemed to realise that Hermione should not have been in her kitchen without cause.
"I am so sorry, is everything okay?"
"Yes," Hermione chuckled, this time. "I have come to extend an invitation to a picnic at Hogwarts. Some things have changed and we thought we'd have a get together to enjoy the weather while we go over the few things we need to."
"Oh, do you want me to -"
"No, we're giving the elves something to do for a while. We're going to meet on the North Lawn out of the view of any arrivals. Ginny is upstairs telling that lot. I can take them with me, if you like?"
"If they want to, yes. I'll just -"
"I don't have a way of telling Arthur or Bill. I know they may be at work, but Albus is at the Ministry clearing up some final questions and details and I have no doubt that if he sees him, he'll probably grab him."
"I have not seen Arthur since yesterday morning. He fire-called yesterday but didn't say much, just passed on the good news, then had to go."
"He probably couldn't. I think that Albus will have him back in no time."
"If you're sure."
Hermione felt a little tendril of worry make itself known but didn't show it.
"I am."
"Okay, we'll meet you at Hogwarts?"
"Yes. See you there."
Hermione turned to walk away but something niggled at her.
"Molly, what did Arthur say last night?"
"Nothing of consequence, he mentioned something about re-divisioning. Oh," she smiled. "He had a promotion to a different department."
"Did he seem happy about it?"
"He did."
Hermione stared at her and felt that little tendril of worry become a little louder.
"He sounded happy to be promoted to a different department?"
"He -" Molly frowned. "He did."
"Right. Change of plans, I want you to take them up to Hogwarts now. Apparate straight to the gates, Min will let you in. Do that now. Don't wait."
"Sweetheart, I don't know what's happening?"
"I don't either, but it's not right. If Min asks, I've gone to the Ministry."
"You can't go to the Ministry on your own! Bill was only saying the other day he wasn't completely okay with Arthur going on his own."
"I can, Albus will be there." Hermione called as the others came down the stairs. "Get to Hogwarts. Watch your backs."
"Where are you going?" Harry asked with wide eyes.
"The Ministry."
"Hermione!" Ginny called.
"It's fine. Go, don't wait." She turned back to them and glanced at the neighbourhood they were in. "Might be worth packing for a while, and anything you wouldn't want to lose."
"What?"
"I think they have your Dad, which means, they might very well be able to find a way to get here. So get packed and get out. Now."
Molly's eyes widened as she caught the tail end and she motioned to the others to go upstairs while Hermione closed the door behind her and stepped out of the wards. It should have surprised her when she stepped onto the unprotected street that Minerva appeared behind the conifer that they had been using for that very purpose.
"Leaving without me Leannan?"
"That's interesting," Hermione smiled. "Did you know?"
"I knew something?"
"I think the Ministry has properly fallen and I'm worried they have Arthur and maybe Moody. Albus went there alone."
"He could -"
"He could, but not against the whole Ministry."
"And you were just going to do what?" Minerva asked, with her hand on her hip.
"Don't be like that," Hermione muttered. "You went with Charlie."
"To a long-forgotten canal bank, Leannan. Not the bloody Ministry."
Minerva's clarity was rather stark and she winced as she met her lover's eyes.
"Okay, but I wasn't going to -"
"Leannan," Minerva sighed. "It doesn't matter what you were going to do. You were going to go on your own and while your power is great, my love, I do not want to test it against the might of our corrupt government en mass."
"When you put it like that, it sounds so simple."
Minerva snorted and pulled her behind the tree.
"Will you please not go cavaliering about the country, saving the world? At least not without me."
"Not without you?" Hermione teased.
"If we are to die, lover, we will die together."
It sobered Hermione's mood and she wrapped her arms around Minerva tightly.
"Come on then," she sighed and kissed Minerva's hands. "I don't know what we're walking into, love, but if there's a chance to save them, do it. No matter what."
"Leannan, you're not ordinarily an unintelligent person but if you think I'd save even Albus over you, you have another thing coming."
That threw her a little and Hermione frowned at her.
"But -"
"I love you, Hermione." A funny look crossed her face and she snorted while she rubbed her head. "I'm going to marry you. If there is ever a choice, the answer is always you, no matter my love for anyone else."
"Well," Hermione muttered, a little embarrassed. "Let's make sure it doesn't come to that, alright?"
"That's the plan," Minerva chuckled. "Do you have one, by the way?"
"Um, yeah," Hermione nodded confidently. "We're going to walk through the front doors, take our people back and then, we're going to walk out of the front doors."
"Oh," Minerva nodded with mirth twinkling in her eyes. "Is that what we're going to do?"
"Weren't you a spy, at one point?"
"Yes I was, come here -"
They kissed deeply and chuckled when a wolf-whistle broke the quiet street.
"Fuck off, Gin," Hermione muttered as they parted.
"Ginevra."
"Minerva."
"Go straight there," Minerva instructed Molly without needing the details. She'd no doubt already seen most of it through Hermione's memories. "Severus will let you in. We'll be back in a jiffy."
"Be careful," Harry muttered.
"Promise," Hermione whispered as she hugged him. "We need to talk about the other things as well."
"Yup," He nodded grimly.
"Take care, you lot," Minerva sighed. "Be on your guard."
Minerva's hand slid into her own and Hermione felt the tug of Apparition behind her navel and cursed her lover, quite severely in her head, while she listened to the woman laugh as they disappeared.
-0-
They appeared on the muggle street where the Ministry was located and blinked as they looked around.
"What the -"
"Quite," Minerva muttered.
The magic in the air was so thick, they could smell it and Hermione frowned as she looked around.
"This isn't right -"
"No," Minerva whispered, it is not.
"I mean, this is Muggle, isn't it?"
"Yes, we should be between the Treasury and the -" She paused. Wand out, they're coming around the corner.
You really were a spy.
Will you please -
I know, Hermione smiled at her gently. I love you.
Tha gaol agam ort, mo leannan.
"HALT!"
They stood at the end of two wands that shook a little when they realised who they were pointing at.
"Oh, it's only Ol' McGonagall," one of them muttered. "Who's that?"
"Dunno," he muttered. "Who are you?"
Do not speak.
Hermione almost opened her mouth to argue when Minerva spoke up.
"My niece. Please allow us through."
"Not supposed to," he sneered. "Muggleborns have to be re-sorted."
Hermione frowned but before she could speak, Minerva did so again.
"Gentlemen, I am afraid I am at a loss. What are you talking about?"
"You really don't get out much, do you, lady." Hermione bristled at the tone, but she felt Minerva's mind soothe hers.
"Not often," she muttered. "Explain."
"By order of the Minster, all muggleborns must be collected for re-sorting."
"Re-sorting for what?"
"Expulsion," the other one sneered.
Hermione couldn't help it. She really did try to stop herself, but her wand sliced through the air in a long, tight arc and both of them dropped to the floor.
"Shit, Hermione," Minerva swore as she looked around. "Bloody hell."
Hermione didn't apologise, but Minerva wasn't particularly upset by it either. She did wince as she watched Minerva transfigure both of them into rocks and with a tough swallow, kicked them down the closest grate.
"Not ideal," Minerva winced. "But for now -"
"We can tell someone, I suppose."
"Or not," Minerva glowered as they looked up at the front doors of The Ministry.
New flags hung there and they stared at the new Ministry slogan with disgust.
"Well, that's fucked up," Hermione muttered as the gold lettering sparkled in the dull, muted background that seemed to permeate everything. "Magic is Might?"
"Blood purity has a lot to answer for," Minerva muttered. "Come, be on your guard. I will answer for us, but be ready for anything."
"I told you we'd be going through the front doors."
"Leannan, will you -"
Just a little levity, babe.
Minerva growled as she marched up the steps. Hermione didn't try again, but she followed along dutifully and, despite being on tenterhooks while making sure nobody was about to kill them, she enjoyed the view of her lover's ass as she marched onwards.
Hermione!
