Unofficial Portkey Archive

Chapter Twelve: Choices...

We all have big changes in our lives that are more or less a second chance. Harrison Ford (1942 - )

Harry felt like he was being torn in three different directions, and there was nothing he could do to stop it. In less than a week's time, they would be attack three separate points, and he would be leading an assault outside of Cairo. That alone made him train Ron, Remus and even Hermione harder than the others. They would not know what they were going up against until it was too late. All he had to do was hope they trusted him enough to believe that he knew what he was doing. Which, if he was honest with anyone, he didn't.

All he knew was there was something outside of Cairo that needed their attention. And the other attacks should be strong enough deterrents to Riddle's forces that the magical world will crawl out of its shell. He was tired of looking out past the lake at Hogwarts and seeing nothing but darkened mountains. He wished he could just rest in his mountains, even for a day.

There was not a moment that his mountains didn't call to him. He never told Hermione that, how the call to a place called home, only seemed to intensive when she wasn't around. He didn't know if he could. Even with their bond, the plains seemed all to distant sometimes if she wasn't there. If he needed, he could call them. But after living in the mountains for so long, it was like he had buried his anger there. For a long time, he had thought that was what had made the mountains grow as much as they did. He knew he was wrong now.

Passion fired his flames, built his mountains. Passion for life, for hope, for love. He had left Grace after her attack, and only returned when he had found that passion again. When Grace had her daughter. He couldn't remember a time when he was happier. Back then at least. He had lost that daughter and granddaughter, and he had thought he had lost his mountains as well. Now, now was different.

It hurt to have Hermione away from him. It hurt just to know that she was somewhere that he couldn't be. She had made the offer, and he had turned it down. Too much was happening too fast. Everyone needed him. But he knew she needed him more.

"Am I strong enough Grace? Can I let her in?" He looked out from upon the Astronomy Tower. He came up here a great deal, trying to think. More often than not, Hermione found him and snapped him out of his thoughts. Not now. He slipped her a sleeping draught. She had been working too much. Now he had a chance to think about what he wanted out of a relationship.

Seventy years of solitude could do that to some. Confuse a person, making it hard not to hold back everything they had. That had certainly happened to Harry. For so long, he had repressed any feelings he had. Despite looking younger, he still was an old soul. A lonely old soul.

He had given up a lot to make sure he could return. He had given up a normal family, with a child that loved him dearly. He thought he had returned because it was the right thing to do. That was what he had told himself over the years. Being back though, seeing Hermione again, made him rethink that stance.

Running a hand through his hair, he wanted to fly. Fly from this tower, from this castle, from this damn war, from his problems. One thing kept him firmly planted on the ground though. One thing. An anchor of sorts now that he thought of it.

Hermione.

He had to learn how to depend on himself without her, he had to learn how to be Harry sans Hermione. It was different, a lot more difficult that he had originally thought it was going to be, and then he had thought it was going to be rough. Not being able to handling life without her was what drove him to trying to kill himself. Life was just not life without her in his life. And until that moment he had not realized how much Harry had depended on Hermione.

So he chose to forget, and he chose to push away all thoughts about her, until he knew that he could move on. He never did though. Oh, he forget about her, hid her under pounds of mental bricks so that she wouldn't haunt him as years passed. And she didn't. He had other things to haunt him after the Second Great War.

It wasn't until Grace entered his life, did he realize something was missing. Something he needed desperately. Love. While it wasn't the love that he thought he needed, Grace's presence in his life made bearable, happy even. If but for a little while, he was happy.

The moon rose high over the mountains now, and he felt the cool wind scoring the tower. He relaxed and fell into his mountains. His plains. His world.

He landed upon a dragon, born from the fiery depths of his mountains. The dragons were one of the first things he had made in his mind. It took him quite some time to go beyond just the fire and shields of light he had started with, but once he had the strength, and knowledge, he made his first dragon. Conjuring a dragon like he had took a great deal of anger, passion, and fire. He finally created the dragon on the same day that Grace told him that she was getting married.

As a father, he learned to love differently. To love protectively. Looking back on it now, Harry realized that his love for Grace was no different than the love that he had always felt for people, especially Luna, Ron, the rest of the Weasleys, and everyone else in his family. He wanted to protect them. He wanted to keep them safe, away from from danger. He wanted them to be happy. But now, he felt something different. Something more powerful for Hermione.

His dragon had grown. Into something larger, something stronger. In the beginning, his dragon had looked like the stereotypical dragon, the gigantic sized beast covered in red scales, breathing fire and a wing span like a plane. Like out of the stories that he used to read to Grace when she couldn't fall asleep. He had named the dragon Smaug from Grace's favorite book.

Harry had learned to conjure other dragons, and soon the mountains, and some of his plains, could hold the dozen or so dragons he had at his disposal, but Smaug still remained his favorite. As Grace was his favorite. Time had changed that though. Smaug was no longer the the dragon he remembered.

Smaug's body stretched a mile behind him, weaving through the air. The bright red scales had darkened, now the color of burning coal. His body was now coated in flames that were left in his wake as he moved through the air. His wings were gone, his body propelled upon its will. But that wasn't the biggest different Harry felt. The power of Smaug had changed.

While still the protector of his realm of mountains, he could feel the different in the strength that Smaug lent him. As pure as before, yet rougher, more primal. More human. While Grace was in his life, the power of his mountains and plains seemed almost divine and when he created Smaug that power was infused into the body of the beast. He did not know where the power to make his dragon came from originally, but now... now the magic infused with Smaug illuminated of a different power.

"Should I give you a new name then?" Harry leaned over the dragon's neck and said. The dragon shook his head, and Harry felt the wave course through the dragon's body. Like watching a wave go through a piece of string.

He could remember some of the artwork the monastery had done by a Japanese artist. Some of his mountains had formed in the manner that. Looking at Smaug, he could see the influence of those paintings on his dragon. The dragon was unlike any he had seen in Europe, and looked more like a eel then a lizard. The face though, gave Smaug his dragon appearance.

"How about Ryusei?" Harry asked. Again, the dragon's body shook along with the nod. "Take me away from here. There was another change I'd like to see it." Another nod, and shock wave through the dragon.

They flew. It was unlike riding his dragon before; this time, if anything, the movement of Ryusei made feel like he was surfing or something. The wave that coursed through Ryusei was violent yet smooth. No matter how much the frequency of the wave increased, Harry was not afraid to fall off. He knew he had to get Hermione out onto Ryusei at some point.

In less than a minute, Ryusei had cleared the mountains. Motioning for Ryusei to turn around, a sense of surprise rushed through Harry as he looked out at his mountains. He had to smile slightly when he could see no difference between them. It meant that his strength had not come from the expansion but his skill in magic. Twisting around on Ryusei, Harry could tell that his plains did not expand either. But there was something different. He had felt them both change.

He leap off of Ryusei after giving the dragon a pat. He knew that it was a long way to the ground, but he was never going to hit the ground. With gravity diminishing the distance between him and the ground, he woke up from his meditation.

Although he had grown accustom to drawing from the mana by instinct, he did not need the meditation beyond journeying inward, and exploring the depths of his soul. Standing from the castle floor, Harry looked out to the darkened mountains once more.

He didn't know what exactly caused the change between him and Hermione, or why he wanted her to be such a strong part of his life, but he knew that she had affected his abilities. Harry couldn't help but wonder if he had done the same for hers.

I0I

Hermione felt sleep still pressing down on her as she woke up. Trying to clear the fog from her eyes, she had to guess that Harry had slipped her something. Laying back into the warm comfort of the bed, she decided she was going to be mad with him later. It wasn't the bed she had set up in her room, Grim wasn't here with her. No, this bed was slightly larger, a little firmer than hers, but the smell was all Harry. That alone made the extra time she spent in it worth it.

Sitting up after several minutes of just lying there, Hermione looked around his room. There was not much in the room. Just the bed covered in a large maroon quilt and some window shades that matched the quilt on the bed. A large armoire was set to the side of a door, which she thought either led to the bathroom, or his office. The other door was the same. She'd have to check on that soon. Beyond that, only a desk with a candle and book open were in the room. He didn't have many personal mementos, or anything to signify that Harry lived in this room and not someone else.

She could not help the smile that formed on her face as Harry entered the room, holding onto a tray of breakfast for her. Seeing him, made her heart flutter. Part of it she knew was the bond, but more than that, it was how she had always felt about him.

"I've got you something to eat, if you feel up to it," Harry said. Hermione nodded, staring at him for a moment. She wanted him to explain himself before she jumped on him. She could feel his worry, and she knew that something was bothering him.

"You going to tell me what I'm doing here?" Harry just smiled, and placed the tray over her. A complete breakfast of eggs over easy, toast, orange juice and apple slices was what she had to eat today. She shook her head, amazed at Harry's ability to pull resources.

Somehow, he had managed to contact farms and other suppliers to begin to send food and such to the school. When asked why he did, he just stared at them. And them as in everyone in the Order, including her. He asked how they could have not done something like that, how they could have just let things stay the same. He was more puzzled by their question, then it seemed that they were puzzled by his. He was her international man of mysteries.

"You needed some sleep, and I didn't want anyone to bother you." He shrugged his shoulders once before, giving her a kiss on the forehead. "I've got some work to do, you can finish the meal, then join me outside when you're done."

"Are we going to talk about yesterday?" Hermione asked. He gave her an odd look, like he didn't know what she was talking about. She let out a sigh and moved the tray off her lap. Crawling out of the bed (she was surprised at how big it was), she moved to wrap her arms around him. He seemed to ascent to the act, meeting her halfway.

"You are worth everything good in the world Harry," Hermione said. By the look on his face, she knew she would have to spend at least the better part of a decade to get him to fully understand that, but that was not going to stop her from starting now. When she pulled back, she could see the beginnings of a smile, and the sadness in his eyes.

As if he was reading his mind, he said, "if you keep telling me that, I might just believe you one of these days." He kissed her forehead once again before leaving her in the room. Like warm breeze in autumn.

Hermione let out a frustrating sigh. He seemed to understand her need to talk about their relationship, but he kept putting it off. She went back to the tray, knowing that she needed to eat something if she wanted to research today. Harry wouldn't let her otherwise. And although she knew he would never hurt her, she knew the only time he was forceful with her was when she was too wrapped up in her work.

One question at a time, was the only way she knew how to take the situation. The largest question was a work in progress, and she knew she could not have to hold off on talking about one at least: his fear of never having a family.

Harry had just laid her in his bed with her clothes on, which Hermione was thankful for. It saved them from having more awkward moments between them, or at least, more than usual. Somehow he seemed to have made it an art in avoiding awkward moments. Throwing a quick refreshing spell over her, she felt the dirt and grime of the previous day disappear. Although it did clean her up, including her clothes, she knew that it was only temporary, masking the problems for a short time before they came back.

"You want to explain something to me?" Hermione asked. Harry looked up from a series of maps he had laid across his desk.

"About?" He turned back to the maps, marking something on one with a pen.

"About not having a family; about your family being dead," Hermione said, sitting in his chair. She knew she had him; his body had stiffened and he had stopped moving.

"I don't have one," he said. Hermione tried not to feel hurt at his comment, or at least she tried not to let him know she was hurt by it. Taking a deep breath, she pushed through their bond a little, forcing him to open it up further than he had. There was a pain there, one that she knew she had to take care of immediately.

"What about me?" she asked. He looked up at this, and she must not have done as well with her emotions as she thought. "Am I not apart of your family?"

"I...what I meant was...." His voice trailed off, and Hermione did not stop the tears that began to fall. Nor did she try and hide the pain that he had caused. Maybe he didn't feel about her the same way she felt about him.

"I understand," she pushed off the chair, trying to stand. She wanted to be alone right now, and she wanted to work out how foolish she had been.

"Hermione, no I don't think you do," Harry said, grabbing her arm. She resisted being pulled into his chest, and tried to not let him be the strong one this time. "You don't understand how hard this is for me."

"How hard it is for you?" Hermione cried, pushing away from him completely. He thankful had let go of her arm. "How about how hard this is for me? I'm the one that has to deal with you when you get lost in thought, and have to explain to everyone what you mean." She angrily wiped the tears from her eyes. "I'm the one that has to try and figure out what to do to break you out of your shell." She stared at him for a few moments before walking past him, toward the door. She wanted to get away, no, she needed to. "And I feel like I'm the only one that this relationship means more than life to." She turned and walked out the door, heading toward her room. She didn't want to talk to anyone.

"Hermione, wait!" Harry tried to call after her, but she didn't want to hear him. She shut their link off to the minimum threshold, the point where he knew she was there, but he could not find her or feel her emotion.

Hermione felt proud of herself. Not because of the pain that had settled in her chest, but of the stoic disposition she managed to keep as she headed back to her office in the hospital wing. Waving her hand, she let her mana flow over the door, locking it behind her as she entered. She would know if someone needed her, but right now, she wanted to be alone.

Sitting down at her desk, Hermione tried to push away her anxiety. If she had known that her bonding to Harry was going to be this rough on her, she might have given it a little more thought. She didn't regret it, she just wished she had known what she was getting involved in before time. It might have helped her adjust a bit.

I0I

Harry stood on the astronomy tower again, this time debating about tossing himself off it or not. He always did this. Mess up whatever good was going for him. And it was almost always for the same thing. Because he could not admit what his problems were and that he could not deal with them

"What can I do for you?" Harry asked. He looked up from over the edge of the tower, to the figure in the shadows by the entrance.

"I figured if we were going to work together, we should talk," the man said.

"That would be one way of going about it," Harry said. "But that isn't the reason you're up here is it."

"Why do you think that?" The man stepped out of the shadows.

"Because Tonks must have tried to talk to Hermione, and she sent you to find me," Harry said. "Am I right?"

"Why do you act like you know everything?" Lupin said. Harry just shrugged his shoulders, turning back to face the mountains again. "Dammit Harry, you're pushing everyone away."

"So what if I am?" He kept his voice level, still seeing his mountains. Something was different now, something was off. He couldn't get Hermione's words out of his head; they kept pounding against him, like waves upon a cliff. "So what if I'm trying to readjust to life with people in them?" Lupin glared at him. "I'm not used to having people to lean on, and lets not forget I lived in a monastery for a good decade? Vow of silence and all." Lupin glared at him for a moment before looking away.

"What happened to you Harry?" Lupin looked back at him.

"I had to grow up," Harry said. He had lost the venom in his voice. "I'm not Peter Pan or anything."

"No, you're not," Lupin said. "You walked here, like you had everything under control, and you probably did." Lupin shook his head. "Its just difficult for me to understand that you are a grown man, especially since I missed most of that time."

"I missed most of that time too," Harry said with a humorless laugh. "Now, I'm here, trying to adjust to everyone again."

"You could have a little more tact when do it though," Lupin offered. Harry shrugged his shoulders, knowing that to be true. "You hurt her, pretty badly."

"I realize that," Harry said.

"I don't think you realize how much you hurt her, Harry." He looked back to see Dan walking up through the entrance. "Stacy's with her now. What did you say to her?" He hung his head, absently grabbing the flask he had kept hidden for so long. Harry took a long draw from it, letting the burn comfort him a little.

"Something that I have believed for far too long," Harry said. "You know the story of Rip Van Winkle? You all are Wip Van Winkle, and I'm the town. My life went on without you, and now I feel you're playing catchup."

"So you're saying that we should accommodate you" Lupin asked. Dan held his hand back, as if to stop Remus from continuing.

"We've had this discussion before Harry, when you came back to us," Dan said. "She'll understand." Harry looked at him for a long time. Why did everyone insist on digging up the past? He had buried it for a reason.

"No, she won't," Harry said. "How would you feel if Hermione died and it was your fault?" Both men stopped at this, and Harry fought the burning tears in his eyes. Taking another hard draw, Harry spoke again. "Grace died because I failed." He took another long draw, the comfort of the burn finding him again. He had missed it. "She asked for me to be there and I could, and because of that, she died, they all did."

"Who is Grace, Harry?" Lupin asked. Dan shook his head, moving closer to the man before them.

"His daughter," Dan said. He moved to place a hand on Harry's shoulder, but Harry only moved further toward the edge of the tower. "What happened Harry?"

"You heard me, I messed up, she needed me and I wasn't there for her," Harry said. He looked back to the mountains. "I don't know if I could go on, knowing I did the same to Hermione."

"You already have Harry," Dan said. Harry felt a bolt of fear rush through him, he felt his heart stop, the air grow cold and damp. He slowly looked at the older men. Lupin was nodding his head along with Dan's statement. Harry wanted to form words, but he found that he could not. He wanted to say something, to tell them they were wrong, but he could not. All he could do was stare.

"She's in her room right now, crying because you think that you do not have a family, that your family was dead," Dan said. Harry nodded, wondering how the older man had repeated Hermione's words back to him. Or maybe he didn't. Shaking his head, Harry turned back to look at the mountains.

"Grace and my parents are," Harry said, taking another drink. He held his hand back, offering them some as he leaned on the edge. Neither of them took it. "And don't give me any crap about you all aren't. I know that, but there is a difference."

"What difference? What if one of us died?" Lupin said, walking toward Harry. "What if Hermione died?" Harry glared at him, the fire growing in his gut. "What would you do then?" A strong wind picked up around them, and he felt the storm building from a distance.

"My methods are my own, but this war would not worth fighting anymore," Harry said. He took several deep breaths, though the waves of Hermione's words did nothing to calm his fiery heart. "I'd live long enough to finish what I needed to then pass onto the next adventure."

"What if I told you that you were the cause?" Lupin asked. Harry let out a humorless laugh.

"Impossible," he said. He shook his head, his hand going over his heart. He felt the flames burning there, the mark of the bond still there. "I could never do that." Harry pushed that though through his bond, through the fire on his chest. He needed to know she was still there.

"This is war, anything could happen," Dan said, although he did not look too pleased to be saying it. Harry shook his head.

"While she and I may fight and may hurt each other from time to time, there is still no way my actions could harm her," Harry said. There, there a pitter-patter of flame back from Hermione. His tension dropped a little. At least she was willing to respond to him still. "Phoenix flames do not harm their mate." He felt the sun beginning to crawl across the sky. The days were growing shorter, he could feel it in his bones.

"What does that mean?" Lupin asked.

"It means that as a totem phoenix, my flames will never hurt her," Harry said. He had told them enough of what they needed to know, back to the question at hand. "And there is a difference."

"What difference?" Lupin asked.

"It comes with being a father," Dan said. "If you can't protect your family, your loved ones, part of you can't help but question what type of man you are." Harry nodded, the fear resting finally in the pit of his stomach. The waves stopped crashing so fiercely against his mountains, and felt a little more peace enter him. Someone got it, someone understood.

"Every father's fear is that he will have to bury his child," Harry said. And no father feels right burying his granddaughter. "And I had to bury mine." He closed his eyes, praying that he had not conditioned himself to not cry all those years ago. A thought crossed his mind though. He had broken down once, once since he had stopped crying. It was in front of Hermione. She held him as his storm broke and she comforted him.

"Does she know that? Does she know your fear?" Lupin picked up. He seemed to be figuring something out. Harry shook his head, finishing off the flask.

"No, she doesn't," Harry admitted. "And as hard as it was to bury Grace, I know that if I had to, I would give Hermione up." He looked over at Dan. He felt a pain settle in his gut. He did not want to say what needed to be said, he did not want to admit it. "If she ever asked me, she could leave. By no way is she trapped with me."

"You've bonded to her, but not her to you?" Dan asked. Harry nodded and he could see the relief in Dan's eyes. "So she can get out of this?"

"If she wants to, she can," Harry said. "After the war is over, I'd leave again and she could get back on with her life."

"What would you do?" Lupin asked.

"Find some place quiet, live my life out," Harry said. He forced the smile and removed another flask from his jacket. A hand stopped him for bring it to his mouth.

"I think you've had enough," Lupin said, taking the flask away from him. Harry just shrugged his shoulders. "You could never love another again."

"I couldn't before I bonded to her, what makes you think I could now?" Harry asked. "It all comes down to her choice. I will stay with her as long as she'll have me. But everyone has to understand, I'm one of the oldest bastards here. I've always been an old soul, what's a few more years." He looked at the flask in Lupin's hand and debated with himself to take it. "I've seen life and death, hate and love in others. I wouldn't mind finding someone that loved me, and I believe I have. But if not, then she'll go on, and be happy. That's all I want from her. Her happiness will be enough through the bond for me to life off of, at least long enough for me to get my affairs in order." He held out his hand for the flask, but Lupin seemed to be preoccupied with Harry's words. With a sigh, Harry dropped his hand, realizing he wasn't getting his flask back any time soon.

"What are you going to do then?" Dan asked. Harry held back his smile at the protective look on Dan's face. He had worn that same look when Grace began to date.

"Give her some time to herself, let her figure out what she wants, then try and explain myself," Harry said. "She's her own woman. I won't tell her what she can or can't do, unless I know the sacrifice is too great for her."

"Like becoming a totem?" Harry nodded at Dan's question. "That's all I ask of you. You can't cage a bird and expect it to be happy."

"Which is why she is not bond to me, but I to her," Harry said. He gave them a sad smile before turning to look at the rising sun. "I think I can talk about our problems now Moony." He looked back at that werewolf, gaging the man's response. "That is if you want to. Dan you can stay, might be able to help mediate things between us."

"Sure, if you think that's okay," Dan said, motioning toward Lupin. Lupin however, had not changed his glare from Harry.

"You've changed," Lupin said.

"We've established this already," harry said with a shrug of his shoulders. He bit back the anger at the though that Lupin this was what Lupin was angry with him for. "I have been gone for quite some time."

"But does that give you the right to come here and treat us as lesser, like we don't know anything?"
"Do you?" Harry asked. He kept his voice level, not wanting to spark any more of Lupin's anger. "The school was in ruins, you were relying on outside help to get you through here. If you had reliable information, it would have been brought up by now. Or rather, it should have been. You asked me here to help get the Horocurxes, correct? And that is exactly what I am doing."

"What's the deal with this attack then?" Lupin growled. "Sending just four of us, two of them kids-"

"They are not children," harry snapped. He pushed down the anger he felt growing inside of him. "If I thought they were then I would have finished this damn war on my own."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Lupin said. Harry looked at the man, not surprised that he had stopped him in his tracks.

"It means, that you would have never met Death, you would only have heard of a shadow that cross the night, taking down the enemy," Harry said. "I may have returned eventually, if I thought they had grown up." He took a deep breath. "I put no children through hell, only protect them from it."

"So it took them five years to grow up?" Lupin asked. Ah, there it was, the reason for this. Lupin was angry with him for not returning sooner.

"No," Harry said.

"So then why not come back the day you left?" Lupin asked. "You left us alone for five years. Five years and you were alive. How could you be so selfish?" Harry felt his head snap on its own, the fire no longer contained.

"I was left alone for nearly eighty years," Harry screamed. "Ten with the Dursleys, God rest their souls, and seventy in the past. What's five years to a lifetime away from everyone that you had started to think as your family?" He felt heat rising around him, but that did not matter. "Was I selfish, damn straight I was." While Harry knew he was the source of the heat, Lupin's glare could have melted steel on its own. "And until you get it through your skull that it is okay to be selfish at times, and maybe I even deserve a little time to be selfish, then there is no way you will ever regain my trust."

He pushed his anger into flames, propelling himself into the air. With a twist, he felt his body change into his totem. He needed to blow off some steam, and it sounded like Dan was ripping Lupin a new one. Maybe the old Marauder might figure out what makes time away so hard, and what makes it even harder to come back.

I0I

"So what's wrong?" That had to have been the sixth time that her mother asked that question, Hermione thought. Not to mention the number of times Tonks asked her the question, and she couldn't forget about Luna's odd ways of asking.

"I'm telling you, I'm fine," she said, trying to mediate. When she had first left Harry's office, she had been, but with everyone badgering her like they had been now, it had given her absolutely no time to think over the problem that Harry had created in their relationship.

She had slipped into her islands rather easily, the plains were harder to reach without Harry. She would have to talk with him about that when she remembered to be angry with him. No, right now, she was slightly worried about her islands.

They had changed, and the change frankly scared her. When she had first say the sprouting villages, they were very tribal, primitive. Something had changed though. It was a rather big change.

Buildings, towers sprouted up from the very ground before her and bridges stretched from the islands closest to the beach. In the distance, she could see even more islands and some spirals peaking out from the waves.

Before she had a chance to explore, she felt herself being shook out of her realm. Tonks's hands were on her shoulder, and she looked panicky.

"What?" Hermione said with a little more anger than she probably meant.

""You just zoomed out there," her mother said. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine, and if some asks me if 'I'm okay?' or if 'what's wrong?' one more time, I will hex them," Hermione said. She stood from her seat behind her desk.

She knew she wasn't normally this angry with people, and had a little more patience, but she had felt Harry's anger spill over their bond. Several times...A single word a slipped through their bond as well, a word that Hermione knew she was going to beat the meaning out of later: granddaughter. Shaking her head, she didn't want to think about that right now.

Moving over to a cabinet Harry had given her, Hermione opened it up, removing the four glasses and a bottle of red wine. Another gift from Harry. How the man managed to get her wine was just another mystery she left up to the ages. She didn't complain when he gave her the bottle, and she certainly wasn't going to complain as she drank it.

"I shouldn't be sharing this with you," Hermione muttered to herself as she handed out the glasses. Deftly removing the cork, Hermione poured the other ladies a small amount before pouring herself a rather large glass. She sipped it slowly, letting her pallet get used to the taste. She had never had wine before, not even the rare family occasions before this trouble all started.

"Now, are you going to ask me a question that you think you can get an answer for, or are you going to ask if I'm fine again?" Hermione said, putting down her wine glass.

"What happened between you and Harry?" Her mother finally asked.

"We got into a fight, like all couples are prone to do from time to time," Hermione said. "We were establishing boundaries and when we talk again, we will probably work them out."

"Harry is very confused," Luna added. Hermione looked at the younger woman for a moment before nodding.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Tonks asked.

"You really think that Harry would have an easy time coming back?" Hermione asked. "He's gone through Hell just to make sure things turned out like they did." She knew she was angry with him, but she could not help defend him. Probably the same reason why Harry could not help but protect her. It just was the way things were.

"So why are you angry with him?" Her mother asked. Hermione had to be grateful for one thing. Her mother seemed to know which problems she wanted to avoid.

"Harry has his mind set to certain ideas, its is Hermione's job to change that," Luna said. Hermione felt the smile grow across her face.

"I couldn't have said it better myself," Hermione said. She nodded her thanks to Luna, taking another small sip from her wine glass. "Although, the topic was far from normal, the despite was like any other in a relationship. Personal, between me and him."

"Are you sure you don't want to talk about it?" Her mother asked. Hermione let out a sigh. She knew her mother wanted to be involved with her life, as she had not been for the last five years, but this was something she had to deal with on her own.

"Let me try it my way first, and then if it doesn't work, then I'll ask you all what you think," Hermione said. She had gotten them all to at least agree to that. Now she wanted to get the subject off of her. "So Tonks, you going to tell us what's up with Lupin?" And with that, she was free. At least for a little while as both her mother's and Luna's attention was now on Tonks.

She wanted to slip back to her islands, and look at them, see how they had changed. She felt sure of the knowledge inside of her, yet secure with the change as well. Harry had to know what this meant. And after, only after, she beat some sense into him, she might listen to him, might.

With a smile to herself, she brought her feet underneath and took another drink from the wine. Grim came over, his big eyes begging for some attention. Hermione scratched his head, happy to relax into a normal afternoon as the women around her tried to get information out of Tonks.

A/N: I apologize for such a late update. Real life has kicked my ass from here to Hell, and just now I'm getting back. I've been sorting personal problems out, so I apologize, but here is the next chapter. I should have another one within a month or so. Finals coming up in the middle of May. Thank you all for reading it. I hope I'm balancing the characters well, and would appreciate any suggestions if you think I am doing something wrong. Now that doesn't mean I'll take them, I just would appreciate them. Thank you and read and review.

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