Sebastian had been concentrating on getting better. Despite the fact that he was awake and felt fine, he was still weak, and couldn't have cast a decent Killing Curse to save his life. Which, if he thought about it, was the only reason he would be casting Killing Curses, and therefore exactly the problem.
Carys and Noah had gone back to training, though Sebastian had another ten days' leave. The Aurors didn't want anyone going to training that wasn't in good shape and able to cast spells. Hermione was home with him everyday, but everyone was back at work. They were trying to keep up a normal façade, though the younger children had been sent to Lily and James'. They were in less danger with their grandparents.
Sebastian was training in the back yard when Noah found him. He was hot and sweating, working hard to get his strength back. When he saw his friend, he lowered his wand and dropped to the ground, thankful for a break.
"Hey. How was class?"
Noah shrugged. "Class. How's it going here?"
"Mom's inside working on those protection spells. She thinks she's nearing a breakthrough on them, though, so that's a good thing. I've managed to do an acceptable Cruciatus. The spider never knew what was coming. Still no luck on the Killing Curse though. I'm gonna give it until tomorrow, I think, and then try it again."
"Good call. Don't want to push it. I had lunch with Carys today. She said she'd be home a little late tonight. Said something about a special training session with Shacklebolt."
Sebastian nodded, ran a hand through his hair. "She's having a lot of those lately."
Noah lowered himself to sit beside his friend. "Want some advice, mate?"
"You'll give it to me whether or not I want it."
"Yeah, but this way you at least feel like you have a choice. I say you forget about training for the rest of the day, and concentrate on whatever this thing is you've got going on with Carys. I know that the two of you are fumbling around, trying to figure out how it works, but she's never going to latch on to any kind of relationship if she doesn't know you're serious about it."
Sebastian's brow furrowed. "What do you mean?"
"Look, you've got quite a reputation with the ladies. She knows that. We all know that. And I know that you wouldn't ever start something with her if you didn't intend to see it through, but you know women. They all think that we'll only like them until we get them. Which seems to be what Carys is doing. I think that you just need to tell her how you feel about her. I mean, really tell her, Sebastian. It'll make a big difference in the way she looks at things."
"You really think so?"
Noah looked at his friend. "Are you kidding? I'm the only one outta the bunch that can keep a girlfriend for more than a week or two."
"I've only been dumped once in my entire life." Sebastian said, his pride stinging from that last remark.
"That doesn't mean you've had a girlfriend for more than a couple weeks. You just dump them before they can dump you. I imagine that Carys thinks you're just waiting until you dump her and doesn't want to get too involved in the relationship before that happens. She doesn't want to be hurt, and she knows that so far, there's never been anyone in your life that has hurt you through a romantic relationship. And that while pain isn't your intention, you have inadvertently hurt plenty of girls while we were at Hogwarts."
Despite the fact that he wished it otherwise, Sebastian was forced to agree with Noah. He sighed deeply, expelling air in a loud rush. "Okay, Mr. Relationship. What do I do next?"
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Hermione found herself in Headmistress McGonagall's office. It was extremely abnormal for teachers to have meetings during the summer, but both women had news, and as Deputy Headmistress and Headmistress, they were the two that should be informed first.
"Please, Hermione, tell me what's on your mind." McGonagall could tell that the younger witch was practically bursting at the seams with her news, so wide was her smile, and so damp were her eyes. Hermione forgot that manners dictate she refrain from speaking until the Headmistress had spoken, and nodded excitedly.
"Harry and I are having another baby!" Hermione jumped from her seat to hug the woman that had been her teacher, confidante, and more recently friend since she had been eleven. "Minerva, I thought that you should be the first to know since I'll be needing maternity leave again during the middle of the year. It's only June, and that means the baby will come in March, and we just started trying." She took a deep breath and wiped tears from her eyes. "I mean, I'm almost forty! I thought that it would take forever to get pregnant, and two days after we decided to start trying, I wake up having morning sickness. It obviously didn't matter when we started trying, because my potion failed and I got pregnant anyway!"
"Congratulations, Hermione." McGonagall was truly thrilled for Hermione. She and Harry deserved all the happiness that they could get with all that they had been through their teenage years. "I am very happy for you. No one I know deserves this more than you do. You're a wonderful mother, and will be again shortly. However, I can't grant you maternity leave."
Hermione was floored. She found herself unable to speak for several seconds, and when she could, the words came so fast they didn't make much sense even to her own ears. "What? Substitute? Ministry? Policy? Why can't you? Did Arthur change-?"
Despite the fact that Hermione didn't manage to get out one complete sentence, McGonagall thought she understood what was being said. "No, there's no problem with a substitute and no the Ministry did not change it's policy. Arthur has nothing to do with this. In fact, he doesn't know yet. I'm retiring, Hermione. I won't be returning to Hogwarts next year."
Hermione was shocked beyond what she had been seconds earlier. She closed her eyes, pressed the heel of her hand to her forehead and took a deep breath. "Who's going to take over your post?"
McGonagall lifted one eyebrow. "Well, I imagine my Deputy Headmistress will take over. Provided she would like to be the youngest Headmistress or Headmaster in the history of Hogwarts and get yet another chapter in Hogwarts: A History."
"I can't be Headmistress! All the others taught for at least fifteen years longer than me and were at least as old as my parents, Minerva. No one will listen to me."
"Hermione, you are the most capable witch that I know. You've been teaching nearly twenty years. That isn't a short amount of time. And if you're younger, it's because you've worked harder and started earlier than all the others. If I didn't think you appropriate for the post, you know I would have found someone else. But I don't want anyone else to take over this school. Albus would want you to have this position. He always thought that you would end up in this office someday."
Hermione was staggered. "He did?"
"Most certainly. Who wouldn't want a witch of your talent and caliber to take over? What do you think, Hermione? Shall we sign some papers, or do I have to tell the Ministry that I need to start interviewing candidates for Headmaster?"
Hermione took a seep breath. "Let's sign the contracts."
"Very good." McGonagall snapped her fingers and the papers whizzed over from a cabinet across the room.
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Carys got home at six. She was tired, sore, hurting from a menagerie of bumps and bruises, and wanted nothing more than to gorge on the leftover pizza she knew would be in the fridge from the night before and take the longest bubble bath in recorded history. However, she knew her family. Which meant that that wouldn't be happening.
"I'm home!" she shouted up the stairs carelessly, dropping her purse on the hall table and kicking off her shoes for the sole purpose of irritating her father. It was a longtime habit that still made her chuckle on her way to the kitchen.
She found Sebastian sitting at the island, eating pizza. She ran to the fridge and yanked it open, then ran around the island and smacked Sebastian on the back of the head. He whirled around to face her.
"What the hell was that for?"
"You ate all the pizza!"
Sebastian lifted both eyebrows. "No, I didn't. Julian did, actually. I snagged a piece off of his plate."
"Okay, so where's Julian?"
"He went with everyone else to dinner. Mom found out today that she's pregnant. And that Headmistress McGonagall is retiring, so that means she's the new Headmistress."
Carys grinned. "I'll have to congratulate her. That's great. She's the youngest witch in history to hold that position."
"I know." He walked to the freezer, pulled out a box. "Sit, I'll fix you pizza since you're ready to kill over it. Hard day?"
"You have no idea." Carys rubbed the back of her neck with stiff fingers. She was sore from the top of her head to the tips of her toes. "Training today was hell. I've been itching to get home, stuff my face, and take a bath since about noon. We're working on wandless magic. Focusing it is harder than I thought. I've pretty much mastered silent spells, but I've always had my wand to direct the magic."
Sebastian knew what she meant. He, too, had managed to become adequate at silent magic, but he'd always had his wand pointed at where the spell was supposed to go. To send a spell without a wand, especially without speaking it, was a feat very few witches or wizards ever fully mastered. Even Aurors didn't always grasp the concept.
"How's it going?"
"Not good. I couldn't even get a good expelliaramus."
Sebastian winced. If Carys was struggling that much, he doubted that he would ever get it. He put the frozen pizza
in the over and noticed that she was rubbing her neck. "Sore?"
"Extremely. Shacklebolt is an expert at wandless magic. He put me on my ass more times than I'd like to
remember."
Sebastian laid his hands over hers, kneaded the muscles gently. Her head lolled forward until her chin touched her chest. "Better?"
"Much. You're an expert at that." Carys chuckled. "Must get a lot of practice."
There was his in into the conversation that they needed to have. "Carys, we need to talk."
Carys felt her heart sink. He was going to end whatever it was that they had going on, in an even shorter amount of time than normal. She'd been expecting it, and was surprised when hurt coursed through her. "Okay. What about?" she decided that she wouldn't let him know that she knew what he was going to do. It would serve him right if she made things as difficult as absolutely possible.
"I think you know."
Any lingering doubt about what he was doing fled. "Okay. I'm not making this easy for you, Sebastian." She felt anger mingle with the hurt. "I thought that it might be different this time, that I was different. I see now that I was obviously wrong about it."
"What the bleeding hell are you talking about?"
Carys' head snapped up and she whirled around to look at him. "You aren't dumping me?"
"No, I'm not dumping you. Why in Merlin's name would I do that? Carys, I was trying, apparently unsuccessfully, to tell you that I love you."
She was shocked down to the very center of her being when he said those three words. Those three words had changed history. Had changed lives. She had a feeling that this was about to change her future, and her life. "What?"
Sebastian framed her face with his hands. "I am in love with you, Carys. I wasn't going to tell you yet, but Noah said he thought you had some suspicions that I was only in this because you were convenient and that you were worried that I wasn't serious. Want to know why none of my relationships ever worked?" he paused for a long moment. "Because I've never been with you before. I couldn't be with another woman, because the one I wanted wasn't her."
Carys' mind had shut off completely. With an excited squeal, she launched herself at him at clamped her mouth on his. "My father is going to kill you."
"I'll die happy then."
Carys sobered in his arms. "I think I love you, too. I think maybe I was made to love you. And maybe that I always have." She lifted her eyes to his. "I want you to make love to me, Sebastian." She put a finger over his mouth to prevent him from speaking. "Don't say anything. Not yet, anyway. We don't know how much time we have. Whether or not we'll even live past tomorrow. And if this is the last night that I get, there's no one I'd rather spend it with than you. We don't know what'll happen tomorrow. If that's the day she chooses to attack, or if I'll wake up next to you and we'll get another day to be happy. But I know we have tonight. And I can feel that the time is right for this. For us."
Without a word, Sebastian turned off the oven and carried her up the stairs.
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