Unofficial Portkey Archive

What I Always Wanted

Chapter 3: Symptoms, Symbols, Envy and Answers

Hermione sat in her office staring into the multi-colored inkwells sitting on her desk surrounded by translation and Ancient Runes texts. A frustrated sigh escaped her lips as she stared down at the blank parchment before her. Glancing at the clock sitting to her right Hermione noticed that it was nearly noon. Another perturbed sigh floated up from her throat. She had been sitting at her desk for nearly five hours and she was still no nearer to getting anything done than she had been before. Propping her hands up on the desk Hermione closed her eyes and steadily massaged her temples. She had to get herself to settle down and focus and perhaps get down to the apothecary in the basement of the Ministry and pick up a headache potion to quell the throbbing in her head.

For the past few weeks Hermione had been a bit off color. She'd been tired and listless for about two weeks then she had started having headaches and getting a bit short with people for no apparent reason. Harry, who'd become unnervingly observant over the years, had picked on the fact that something was wrong and had been after her for days to see a healer. Hermione had waved off his concern chalking her recent lethargy and short temper up to stress. Hermione shook her head to clear it of her wandering thoughts and tried to focus on the task at hand. Mr. Moore needed this translation done by the end of the week and as she was the department authority on such matters it was her responsibility to get it done. She snatched up her quill, stared at the text in front of her and began translating.

Hermione had been working progressively for about half an hour. She was so absorbed in her progress with her work that she didn't hear the knock on her door or the soft creaking of the hinges as it opened. Hermione was so involved in her work that she did not notice the tall, broad shouldered and barrel-chested man with the sandy brown hair and bright blue eyes who entered the room and closed the door until he spoke.

"Well I see some things never change."

At the sound of the deep voice meeting her ears, Hermione's head snapped up and a smile graced her face as she said.

"Patrick, what in the name of Merlin are you doing here?"

The tall solidly built wizard smiled as he replied.

"Why I'm here to see you of course."

Hermione's smile widened as she pushed her chair away from her desk and quickly rounded it to hug the man standing before her. Hermione wrapped her arms around Patrick and hugged him tightly before stepping back. Patrick returned the squeeze and kissed her cheek before letting her go. Eyeing Hermione up and down Patrick took in the sparkle of Hermione's dark brown eyes and the glow that suffused her skin and said.

"You're even more beautiful than I remember."

Hermione rolled her eyes.

"Always the flatterer Mr. Belby always the flatterer."

Patrick shrugged and smiled. Hermione pointed towards the couch and Patrick took a seat. Once she was settled beside him she asked.

"So what brings you by?"

Patrick replied lightly.

"The Australian Ministry just drafted a new proposal that they'd like adopted by the Wizarding Federation. Each ambassador was asked to present the proposal to his or her own Ministry for consideration. Felton had some other duties to attend to so he handed off the job to me."

"Sounds like Ambassador Felton regards you highly to trust you with such an important job. Things must be going well."

"I wouldn't say Felton regards anyone highly. For all intents and purposes I'm just a glorified owl but the pay is good and Australia is beautiful…especially those Australian birds."

Hermione laughed.

"Patrick you always were a cheeky sod."

Patrick ignored Hermione's characterization of him smiled and said.

"As I've got some time to kill before my meeting with Minster Stanley I thought I'd pop in and see if you could be pried away from your desk and enticed to have lunch with an old friend."

Hermione smiled as she answered.

"I'd love too."

Harry sat behind his desk quill in hand, hunched over a journal scribbling notes from the three sets of case files spread out before him. Since his return from Transylvania things had been remarkably quiet. In the three weeks since the Horntails had been home the most they had been called upon to do was a bit of surveillance in Aylesbury, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, and Uppingham. Harry was sure that Melbourne had something to do with the present inactivity of his team. He knew that Melbourne was purposely trying to annoy him but Harry was refusing to let Melbourne see he was getting to him. Harry made a point of saying how much he was enjoying his well-earned time off anytime Melbourne was within earshot. He also gave the aurors under his command additional time off in two and three-day clusters depending on what mindless activity they were assigned. When the team wasn't out doing field work Harry hand them in combat training or helping out the other auror units so as not to lose their edge.

To keep himself busy Harry was reviewing the case files for the missions he and the Horntails had done in Transylvania, Romania and Yugoslavia. He was checking for similarities and patterns in the findings, looking for a connection he may have missed before. He also planned to cross-reference some of the older cases he'd worked on to see if he could find any parallels there as well. Harry was making a notation in his journal when he glanced down at the pictures taken at all three scenes. He noticed a series of symbols that had been magically etched into the walls at all three sights. Harry rummaged through his desk drawers and pulled out the diary he nicked in Romania, the one that he and Hermione had been trying to decipher for ages. Flipping through its pages he noted that the symbols etched into the walls were very much like the symbols in the diary. Harry focused his eyes on the pictures of the three different sights and stared at them intently. There were three rows of symbols in each picture. The first two rows matched the symbols in the diary perfectly and were the same in each picture. However the third row was slightly different in each picture except for the last five symbols, which were all the same. Harry snatched up his journal and located the pages that held Hermione's translations. He was able to find all the symbols with the exception of the five from the pictures. Quickly Harry shoved the pieces of parchment back into their case folders; grabbing the diary, the files and his journal Harry bolted out of his office.

"Hermione I think I've sussed out the answer to your missing translations!"

Harry burst into Hermione's office face lit up in exhilaration over what he'd just discovered while looking over the case files. Harry was so excited about his find that it took him a moment to realize that the brown haired witch pulling a book from the shelf was not Hermione at all but her assistant. Daphne focused her gaze on the open doorway and smiling brightly said.

"Oh hello Mr. Potter… I'm afraid Ms. Granger isn't here at the moment."

Harry ran a hand through his tousled hair.

"Hi Daphne. Sorry to barge in like that but I was hoping to catch Hermione need to discuss a case I'm working on with her. You wouldn't happen to know where she went or when she'll be back would you?"

Daphne nodded.

"She went to lunch. I think she said they were going to the Leaky Cauldron."

Harry opened his mouth to thank Daphne when he realized she had said they curious Harry inquired.

"You said they…it isn't work related is it. I'd hate to interrupt if she's in the middle of something important."

Daphne shook her head.

"No need to worry its nothing like that, just lunch with an old friend of hers from Australia."

As soon as Daphne said the word Australia a frown crossed Harry's face and took up residence. The image of a tall, burly blue eyed wizard with an insipidly annoying grin plastered across his face rose to the surface of Harry's mind. In as off handed a voice as he could manage Harry asked.

"This friend of Hermione's…was he a tall, burly kind of fellow, light brown hair, blue eyes?"

Daphne nodded.

"Yes that's describes him perfectly. Said his name was Patrick I believe."

Harry nodded then turned to leave. Daphne called after him.

"I'll let Ms. Granger know you stopped by."

Harry didn't answer as he made his way out of the door. His mind was consumed with thoughts of Patrick Belby, Hermione's ex-boyfriend. Harry wondered what Belby was doing in London and why he was having lunch with Hermione. Patrick Belby was the older brother of Marcus Belby. Belby and Hermione had met several years earlier in the Ministry's archives while both were conducting research. Apparently Patrick had been looking in the wrong section for the information he needed. Hermione who had always been a wonder at finding any and everything sorted him out and pointed him in the right direction. Somewhere during the course of that meeting Patrick Belby had become so captivated by Hermione that he asked her out right then and there. What made her say yes to the git Harry had never been able to figure out but she had indeed said yes. The date much to Harry's vexation had gone quite well. The two shortly thereafter became an item. Neither Harry nor Ron ever liked Patrick; they found him annoying and not worthy of their Hermione. Yet despite their objections she had dated the dolt for nearly two years before Merlin saved them from having to hex the bugger to death by having him accept a position as one of Ambassador Felton's assistants and move to Australia.

As far as Harry knew Hermione hadn't spoken to Patrick Belby since he'd moved. So why in the name of Morganna had he suddenly shown up and taken Hermione to lunch? Without giving any thought to what he was doing Harry stuffed the files, the diary and his journal into his robe pocket as he hoped into the lift. Once the lift clanged and jangled its way up to the ground floor Harry exited and headed to the apparition departure point and apparated to the Leaky Cauldron.

As Harry strode through the doors of the Leaky Cauldron his eyes immediately settled on Hermione. She and Belby were sitting at a table towards the back of the room laughing and chatting. Harry strode purposefully towards then ignoring the greetings called out to him by the various Ministry staff scattered about the room that regularly lunched at the Leaky Cauldron. Coming to a halt at the table Hermione was sharing with Patrick Harry spoke in a rather quiet tone of voice.

"Hello Hermione."

Hermione looked up a pleasantly startled expression on her face.

"Harry I didn't expect to see you here."

Before Harry could vocalize a reply Patrick Belby inserted himself into the conversation.

"Well if it isn't Harry Potter himself, how goes the dark wizard hunting?"

Harry's reply was an inclination of his head and a terse voicing of the wizard speaking to him last name.

"Belby."

Hermione immediately caught on to the fact that something was wrong. She laid her hand on Harry's arm to get his attention. Once his gaze met hers she asked.

"Is something wrong?"

"No nothing's wrong…but I need a word with you…in private."

Hermione nodded and after turning to Patrick and excusing herself from the table she and Harry walked over to the far end of the bar where no one was sitting. Harry waved Tom off as he began to make his way over to them. Once he was certain no one was within audible range Harry said.

"I just stumbled onto something that I think you should take a look at but seeing as how you are otherwise engaged I suppose it will have to wait."

Hermione's left eyebrow rose markedly as she asked.

"Is this about that translation I've been working on for you?"

Harry nodded.

"I think I may have found a pattern that could be of use to you…thought I should tell you straight away…but I don't want to interrupt anything."

Harry's voice trailed off and Hermione had to bite down on her lip to keep the laughter at bay as she realized that Harry was jealous over the fact that she was having lunch with Patrick. Hermione looked at Harry and said as earnestly as she knew how.

"You haven't interrupted a thing. If you give me a moment I'll say my goodbyes to Patrick and then I'll take a look at what you found."

That said Hermione turned and walked back to the table she and Patrick had been sitting at. Patrick rose to his feet and with a grin asked.

"You have to go?"

Hermione hugged Patrick and placed a kiss on his cheek.

"It's been lovely seeing you again Patrick we must do this again soon."

Patrick nodded in agreement as returned the hug and kiss while Harry watched scowling at him from the bar. Stepping back and looking into her eyes Patrick asked.

"Should I be worried about your world-famous, evil-thwarting boyfriend hexing me?"

Hermione laughed as she answered.

"Don't worry the lion of Gryffindor is only marking his territory at the moment. He'll only resort to fangs and claws if you persist in infiltrating on said territory."

Patrick laughed.

"Well you can tell the king over there that this raven knows when to surrender. And you can also tell him that I think he's a very lucky man."

Hermione smiled.

"I'll do that."

Patrick gave Hermione's hand a squeeze and smiled before he turned and headed out the door. Hermione turned and walked back to where Harry was sitting at the bar and taking the seat beside him said.

"You can stop scowling now."

Harry's response was a question.

"What's he doing in London?"

Hermione called out to Tom and ordered two cups of tea and a sandwich before replying.

"Patrick has an audience with Minister Stanley, he's filling in for Ambassador Felton."

"And lunch…what was that all about?"

Hermione sipped her tea.

"Just catching up with an old friend."

Harry added.

"Who also happens to be an ex-boyfriend."

Hermione smiled.

"Ex is the operative word in that sentence Harry. Patrick and I have been over for ages. When we ended things we made decided to continue being friends. We owl each other from time to time and whenever one or the other of us is in the area of the other we have lunch or dinner and catch up on the other's news. But there is nothing more to it than that."

Harry frowned and gnawed his bottom lip for a few moments before saying.

"I've made a right fool out of myself haven't I?"

Hermione grinned as she spoke.

"Yes you have made a bit of a fool of yourself. But there are moments, given the proper circumstances that even your making yourself look the part of a foolish prat can be forgiven."

His hopefulness evident in his voice Harry asked.

"Is this one of those moments?"

Hermione's reply was one word.

"Depends."

"On?"

Hermione paused a moment before answering.

"Whether or not you came here because I was having lunch with Patrick or because I was having lunch with a bloke who wasn't you."

Harry sighed.

"Both. I wouldn't be pleased with you having lunch with any bloke who isn't your Dad or has red hair and bears the last name Weasley but it was doubly vexing considering that in this instance you used to date the git."

Hermione pushed the sandwich she'd ordered towards Harry as she leaned forward and kissed him softly on the lips.

"You are very cute when you're jealous. Now then show me what you've sussed out."

"THIS IS BLANTANT INSUBORDINATION AND I WILL NOT STAND FOR IT!!!!"

Agamenous Melbourne was livid. His roaring voice could be heard all over level two of the Ministry of Magic. Harry stood to the right of the irate Melbourne staring straight ahead. His stiff posture and stoic expression did nothing to belie the fact that he was smiling on the inside. Harry was so pleased that he had managed to get one past the berk who called himself his superior he could barely contain himself but contain himself he did as now was not the time to let his emotions show.

Caiaphas Artaxerxes, the Chief Minister of Magical Law Enforcement sent a quelling look in Melbourne's direction as he looked up from the report he was reading and said.

"Agamenous calm yourself."

Melbourne who was opening his mouth to say something else clamped his mouth shut and stared fuming at Harry. Chief Minister Artaxerxes finished reading the file and raised his eyes to Harry and said.

"Potter, please explain why you've done this."

Harry cleared his throat and responded choosing his words carefully.

"Sir I know what I did was not exactly conventional but I felt that the situation warranted some sort of action. It was clear to me that more was at work in those cases than young wizards dabbling in the dark arts. But Deputy Minister Melbourne disagreed. He was adamant about his position. I believed that if I could show him more concrete proof that he'd amend his thinking."

Harry paused and Melbourne cut in.

"So you stole pertinent evidence from the scene of an auror investigation and withheld it from any and all scrutiny!"

Harry remained silent. Melbourne turned to his superior and said.

"Do you see what I have to put up with Caiaphas? Impertinence and arrogance! I can't even be sure that this so called diary is real! FOR ALL WE KNOW HE MAY HAVE MANUFACTURED IT HIMSELF JUST TO FEED HIS INSUFFERABLY OVER-INFLATED EGO!!"

Melbourne's last sentence was spoken at a shrieking level. Harry turned to face Agamenous Melbourne, he had every intention of throttling the man but Caiaphas Artaxerxes rose from his seat and stopped them both cold.

"Agamenous you will control yourself! We have already had the diary authenticated."

Melbourne clamped his mouth tightly shut once again. Artaxerxes continued.

"Potter, while I am impressed with your refusal to give up I is equally distressed by your methods. We have rules Harry and those rules should not be circumvented no matter what."

Harry nodded and replied.

"With all due respect sir I understand your position and concerns over what I've done and the way I've done it. But I took an oath sir, an oath that required me to promise to protect the wizarding community from all harm and threats of danger. When I took matters into my own hands sir I was simply doing my best to honor my word, to honor my oath. I know from personal experience that sometimes there are more important things than rules…and I felt this was one of those times."

Caiaphas Artaxerxes looked at the young man before him and nodded his head. He then picked up the file in front of him and handed it across the desk to Harry as he said.

"Assemble your team, and brief Shacklebolt's and Tonks' squads on the nature of the mission. Then see to your personal affairs, the lot of you leave for Greece first thing tomorrow morning."

Harry nodded and exited the room. As he cleared the doorway he heard Artaxerxes tell Melbourne to close the door and have a seat, the smile he'd been hiding burst across his face triumphantly as he strolled down the hall to gather his troops.

"Hermione are you alright?"

Paige's voice sounded miles away not at all like she was standing just beside Hermione. Paige gently shook Hermione's shoulder as she queried her again.

"Hermione…are…you…alright?"

Hermione gulped air and swallowed as she nodded her head stiffly. Unconvinced Paige helped the younger witch to a seat and conjured a glass of water and pressed it towards Hermione's lips and admonished.

"Hermione just try to calm yourself. Take deep breathes and sip a little water, it'll help."

Hermione nodded and followed Paige's advice after several minutes her world righted itself. She set the glass of water aside and exhaled slowly. Paige queried her once again.

"Better?"

Hermione nodded.

"Much better, thank you."

Paige sat down beside Hermione and said.

"I take it that this wasn't planned then."

Hermione shook her head no.

"The subject has never even come up outside of our agreeing not to engage in ummm…er…congress without the benefit of the proper charms."

Paige chewed her lip then offered.

"Well the contraceptive charms have been known to fail before. Your concentration has to be perfect otherwise the spell may not be strong enough. And there have been cases where an exceptionally powerful wizard or witch has been able to overpower the charm. But most often its as simple as getting caught up in the moment and forgetting to perform it all together."

Paige paused for a moment then asked.

"Have you and Harry had any lapses in the past month or so?"

Hermione was about to say no that she and Harry were always very careful when it came to that sort of thing. She was about to tell Paige that she always performed the charm herself before she and Harry got to lost in themselves to think properly and forget. She was about to tell Paige that something must be wrong and to get her wand back out and perform the test again but then she processed Paige's question, Have you and Harry had any lapses in the past month or so, and she remembered Harry's return from Transylvania. One minute they'd been talking and the next they were ripping each other's robes off. After Daphne's interruption Harry'd apparated them back to his flat and they'd pick up things right where they'd left off, neither one of them thinking to perform a bloody contraceptive charm. Hermione closed her eyes and nodded affirmatively to Paige's question.

Paige wrapped her arm around Hermione's shoulder and hugged her. Hermione accepted the offer of comfort and the two women sat in silence for several minutes before Hermione straightened herself and asked.

"So I'm about four or five weeks along you'd say."

Paige nodded as Hermione continued speaking.

"That sounds about right."

Hermione paused and took a deep breath before turning and speaking directly to Paige.

"Paige I hate to ask this of you but it'd mean a lot to me if you'd keep this to yourself until I've had the chance to speak to Harry and we decide what to do."

Paige smiled and grasped Hermione's hand.

"Hermione you needn't worry nor ask me not to say anything, this was a professional consultation, as your healer any and all visits are kept strictly confidential.

Hermione returned Paige's smile with a weak one of her one and said.

"Thank you. I really appreciate all you've done."

Hermione stood to her feet. Paige followed suit. As the two women embraced Paige said to Hermione.

"If you have any questions or if you just want to talk I'm here."

Hermione smiled in earnest and nodded. The two women separated and said their final goodbyes. Hermione slipped out of Paige's office and calmly walked to the apparition point at the end of the hall. As she prepared to apparate she placed a hand to her abdomen as the truth of the matter slammed into her consciousness. She was pregnant. Correction…she and Harry were pregnant. With that thought revolving about her brain Hermione apparated home.

A/N: I've just found out that I have to go out of town on business for at least a week possibly longer. Obviously this will interrupt my writing schedule. I will attempt to do some writing while I am away and if we are lucky I'll even post a new chapter but in the event that I can't please bear with me until I can treat the story properly. I hope this chapter will be enough to hold you all until I can post again. As always thanks for reading and I look forward to reading all of your reviews.

~Searcy~

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