A/N: Ok, here we go again. As usual I still own nothing really, and Lady Starlight has cured my insanity as
much as humanly possible.
Chapter 2: Butterbeer and Daddy's Girl.
***************************Godric's Hollow***************************
July 2, 2015
6:30 am
A soft chirping hoot broke the silence of the morning, and chocolate eyes blinked open, glowed green for an instant and an alarm clock, presently showing, "Get Up, You Vagrant", clicked off, a drawer opened in the nightstand and it vanished into it. Hermione stretched slightly, readjusting her head on Harry's shoulder. Morning, Harry, she whispered, kissing his shoulder as she felt him blink awake slowly. She pulled back, stretching her arms above her head, and smirked as she watched his eyes glass over. She purred softly, rolling on top of him fully and reaching up to hold his face in her hands.
She kissed him for a long moment, sighing as she felt him warm against her belly. How much time do we have to get to your parents' place? Harry asked as his fingers drew small circles in the small of her back.
Didn't you get enough last night? she grinned, kissing his nose, as she ground her hips against his. He shook his head slightly, and she laughed, lowering her lips to his.
No, he replied simply, and reached up, pulling her head down to his shoulder as his other hand held her hips still, but I don't think we have time, do we?
Hermione sighed, and rolled on her side facing him, waiting as he rolled to face her. Not if we are to get Sirius up in time to get there, she replied wistfully, shrugging slightly, I'll make it up to you. She wagged her eyebrows and he chuckled as she rolled of the bed and bent back down, kissing him quickly and darting back, thwarting his attempts to pull her back to bed.
Come on, Mione, Harry wheedled, flowing to his feet and pulling her to him, walking them both backwards towards the bed, I'm sure your parents won't be too annoyed, if we are a touch late...I'm pretty sure they've figured out that their oldest daughter isn't exactly...innocent. Harry closed his eyes suddenly, and dropped his head to her shoulder.
Hermione guided them both to the edge of the bed and Harry sat down, waiting as Hermione sat down next to him, and grabbed his hand, holding it in her lap and running her thumb over the back slowly. She licked her lips, "I know, Harry, but she's an adult, or close enough as to not matter...we weren't much older."
"I know, but she's my baby, Mione," Harry replied plaintively, shrugging, "But I guess it was inevitable, wasn't it?" She nodded and stood, bending down to kiss him quickly before finding a black silk robe hanging off the end of the bed before slipping it on and belting it loosely.
"I'm going to go get our son up and going, Harry, go take a shower," she stopped at the door, and opened it, she smirked as she looked back over her shoulder, "We should have time if we combine activities."
***********************12 Grimmauld Place****************************
6:30 am
Emilia dozed dazedly as she lay in the arms of her...boyfriend, lover...what exactly he was now she did not quite know, consciously, at least. She knew what word the back of her mind, the part that had already accepted what had happened last night fully, wanted to use, but she carefully did not bring it to the forefront of her thoughts. She also did not think on what they would do at Hogwarts the next year, separated every night in separate dorms, as she already knew she would never sleep properly again without the slow heartbeat next to her ear that was already one of her favorite sounds. Emilia was already the front-runner for Head Girl for her seventh year. Only her mother, and in some subjects, her father had had class scores the level she routinely obtained, but that was an entire year away. It was only today, that her OWL results would arrive, which was the reason that they were supposed to go to her Grandparents this morning, honestly, for Jane to congratulate her over them.
For now, however, the only real thought on her mind was just how...perfectly her body fit against his, her chest compressed against his, her head under his chin, and their legs intertwined in a complex knot. The tans that they had both picked up from hours in the sun training at both Quidditch and other more...serious endeavors contrasted sharply with the crumpled light blue sheets of the bed. They had dozed off on top of them, only to start again and again, both of them plenty warm against each other to not need anything else.
Emilia glanced up, wanting him to wake up so they could go again, but at the same time, perfectly content to lay here. She sighed softly as her brain began to race again, as she started to process, to dissect what had happened the night before. Even now, with Xander asleep, she could almost feel the thoughts skittering along his mind, the dreams that occurred as he muttered her name breathlessly; she absently started to reach for them and then stopped herself, not wanting to intrude.
She gnawed her bottom lip as she felt him stir, his heartbeat picking up a beat or two a minute. Dark eyes blinked open after a moment, and he pulled back a bare inch or two, just enough to look down to find her eyes. "Hi," Xander whispered.
"Hi," she replied shyly, and for the first time in quite a while, she felt insecure about just about everything.
"You alright, Em?" he asked worriedly.
She smiled at him, leaning forward to cuddle with him again, "I'm a little sore, but I'm fine, Xander." Emilia was totally unaware of the soft, purring sound that she started to emit as he slowly started to pet her back, slowly trailing down to her bum and up again. "Are you alright with this, Xander?"
He grinned, knowing what she was really asking, "Shall I show you just how, happy, I am..." Emilia Luna... Her eyes lit happily, and she nodded.
If you must, she replied, rolling over onto her back and pulling him on top of her.
**************************Canton, England****************************
7:30 am
A soft, double pop sounded in a Muggle living room, and Emilia and Xander appeared, looking around. A seventeen-year-old girl leaned against a doorframe, smirking, dark blue eyes twinkling. "Hi, Em...Xander," she called.
Emilia ignored her, as she wrapped her arms around Xander's neck and leaned in, kissing him deeply. Anastasia snorted behind them and Emilia extended a hand backwards, one finger extended, as she continued the kiss. She pulled back a bit and smiled as he straightened up, "I'll see you at the Hollow, later?" Emilia asked with just an edge of worry in her voice.
"If not sooner," he replied, rather quickly, and she giggled as he kissed her cheek. Xander took a deep breath, "I suppose I better go face Mum." Unconsciously, he glanced in the direction of his parent's house, about three hundred yards away across a shared yard. He glanced up as a clock chimed the half hour, and squeezed her hands as he stepped back.
"Do you want me to come with you?" Emilia asked, pausing to smile and nod to her Grandmother as Jane came into the room, and talked to her younger daughter. Anastasia rolled her eyes slightly, but nodded. Jane left, back towards the dining area, and Anastasia slipped over.
"Break it up you two, you can get back to shagging later," Anastasia muttered.
"I love you too, auntie," Emilia replied smugly.
Anastasia rolled her eyes as she moved to a cabinet and flicked a wand at it. The doors opened and china floated out and started to march towards the dining room. She supervised it absently as she kept half an eye towards the pair in the corner of the room. A tan colored owl on a perch near the window hooted at her, and she mouthed something to it. Her Familiar launched itself into a short flight, looping around the stream of china to alight on her shoulder where she petted it.
"I'll be fine, Em," he ran his thumbs over the back of her hands, before leaning back in to give her a quick peck. "Though if you haven't seen me by tonight, you'll come rescue me?"
"You know it," she nodded, and glanced back towards the dining room where she could feel the rest of her family...the part that wasn't standing in front of her that is. "I'm a Potter-that's what we do, honestly." She smiled at him as he kissed her forehead and slipped out of the house through a side door that led to the yard.
Emilia glanced up as her aunt, or surrogate sister, it was confusing, stopped at her shoulder. "So, Em," she whispered, "was he any good?" Anastasia smirked, and licked her lips suggestively. Emilia flushed, and just nodded, her hair falling forward to hide her face. "So...how many times, did you even get any sleep, you do have bags under your eyes, luv."
"I am not telling you that, Anna," Emilia gasped. She paused and a thoughtful, almost malevolent look crossed her eyes, "Unless you want me to tell me, just how good Nathan is... Just how long will it be before there is a little grey-eyed sprog on grandmum's floor?"
"He is utterly brilliant, at least he was for me twice last night," Anna replied without a trace of shame, though not very loudly, Emilia noticed. "As to the other, I remember the charm, dear." She cocked her head thoughtfully, and Emilia did not quite meet her eyes, the expression too eerily similar to her mother's, or grandmother's or her own for that matter for comfort. "Now, spill."
Emilia's cheeks burned, and she looked down, playing with a small gold locket that Xander had given her for her last birthday, "No...we didn't get any sleep, Anna..." she mumbled.
***********************Godric's Hollow******************************
3:47 pm
Emilia sat cross-legged on the wide railing of the expansive back porch, looking out at the full pitch that her father had installed, when they had rebuilt the house. Along with acquiring the ruins of the town, he had doubled the size of the old play area along with adding a small set of stands, which he had claimed were necessary for Hermione to get the proper feel of things. Emilia pushed aside an abandoned book set next to her on the railing and gnawed absently on her bottom lip. She took a sip of her butterbeer, one of her parents' alcoholic ones, as she watched her younger brother, along with Justin Black, Lawrence, Virginia and Andrew Weasley, the first two Fred's sprogs, and Bill's oldest playing some bastardized version of Quidditch with a Snitch, one Bludger and eight Quaffles.
Emilia glanced over out of the corner of her eye, as the source of her own emerald eyes sat down in one of the Adirondack chairs Hermione had fallen in love with on a trip to Salem in the States and brought back. He watched the kids playing, not looking over at her, even though she could feel his attention on her, and knew that she could feel it on her. She smiled slightly, and took a sip of her beer before clearing her throat, "Hi, Daddy."
"How are you doing today, Poppet...you're a touch quiet this afternoon," Harry mentioned as he took a sip of his beer, turning in his chair to watch her. "Are you feeling--alright, I think that your Mum still has some of her chicken soup in the coldbox."
She smiled slightly, "I'm just thinking, Dad."
"I wonder where you got that."
"Yeah...I have no idea where that came from," she replied, and they both laughed softly. She looked back towards the ones playing on the pitch; she had almost joined them, but decided she needed to think over events last night a touch more. "Dad...about last night..."
Harry closed his eyes, "Are you fine with it? Are you pregnant?" he asked softly, his voice showing just a touch of exasperation.
"Yeah, I'm...perfectly fine, and I did the charm, Dad. I have no aims of starting a family yet, I want to at least make it through the academy first." Emilia spun all the way around on the railing and dropped her legs out in front of her, leaning forward to grab his hand for an instant. "You aren't...disappointed in me, are you, Dad?" she asked in a soft, soft voice. She dropped her eyes, not catching it as he flowed to his feet from the chair without seeming to move, and pulled her into his arms. She shook slightly, until he bent his head, to kiss the top of hers.
"No, Poppet, I never could be, I know you probably thought this through for days..."
"Months," Emilia corrected him with a small smile as she leaned against his chest, feeling utterly safe.
He nodded knowingly, and let her go, sitting back down on the edge of the chair he had vacated, and watching as Emilia perched on the edge of one facing him. She held out her hand, and the bottle she had been drinking from floated over. She took a drink, her throat suddenly dry. "Then I guess that you've guarded all the hoops then," Harry looked away for a minute, then back at her, "Em...I would...literally move Heaven and Earth for you. There is not a damn thing on this plane of existence or beyond that I wouldn't stand between you or your brother or your mother, even though I'd be on the couch for a month, to keep you safe. But I can't guard you from your own heart...If you are happy, I am bloody well overjoyed...and as a bonus, I will get to tease Moony for the next fifty years about his son wanting to become a Potter..."
"DAD," Emilia laughed and she took a breath as the smile faded somewhat, "We aren't there yet...Can I ask you a personal question, Dad?"
Harry suddenly looked as uncomfortable as his daughter, "Em...some things you just have to learn on your own...I can get your mum..."
Emilia blushed and dropped her head forward, causing a curtain of black curls to shield her face from her view. She reached up, playing with a single lock hanging on the side of her head, that she kept in a small braid, and brought the end up to examine it closely. "How did you and Mum...first bond..."
Both of Harry's eyebrows shot skyward, "What happened, Emilia?"
"I...don't know, Dad."
Mione, I need you...Harry sent across the ether and, hundreds of kilometers away in the middle of the Ministry of Magic, Hermione looked up from a stack of paperwork. She had been stuck with it as it was her week on call, with the month split between her, Harry, Remus and Tonks. She said a spell sending it to secure storage, and vanished.
Hermione appeared on the porch, literally touching Harry's shoulder as she reappeared, and looked between the two, What's wrong, Love? As an answer, Harry just waved towards his daughter. Hermione sat down on Harry's knee after shedding her robe, and faced Emilia, "Something wrong, honey?" she asked, leaning forward, knowing Harry's hand was already reaching for her waist to steady her.
"No...yes...I dunno, Mum," Emilia replied, her voice strained. She looked at her mother and worried her bottom lip absently, Just how are you going to get out of his one, Emilia? she asked herself, You got yourself into this, girl, are you a Gryffindor or not? a soft, familiar voice asked. Yeah, I am... "Dad, can you just answer the question...please?" Harry glanced at Hermione as she twisted slightly and leaned back against him, smoothing down the skirt she had been wearing under her robes while she 'conversed' with him quickly.
"First bond...I don't know, Em," Hermione replied for both of them, she looked down at her belly as Harry's left hand automatically interlaced its fingers with hers, "I don't know that there was a point where you can say where it began...I can tell you to the minute when we knew, for sure, that we could hear each other in our heads...I could always, even when we were...fighting sixth year, knew where he was, what he was feeling" she turned her head, looking back at her husband, he reached up and wiped a tear that slid unchecked from an eye, before leaning up and kissing her cheek. She should know, Harry.
Are you sure that you want to, Mione...is that a wound you want to reopen? And there is the fallout to consider with Justin and Nate, they are good kids...even if their dad is Malfoy...
Emilia watched the pair of them impatiently; she took a drink of her butterbeer, and glanced over as Dobby appeared on the pitch with a bucket of iced bottles of pumpkin juice. The players shot down, swarming the tiny elf; who Emilia could see beaming at their praise even from the porch. Dobby was family as much as any of them; he just happened to be the shortest and got a salary instead of an allowance. Em returned her brother's wave and shook her head as he pantomimed her playing, and pointed to their parents and used her hand to imitate a mouth. He nodded and went back to the rest.
We should have before, Harry, she reasoned, he shrugged, deferring to her judgment. Hermione took a breath, centering herself, "Em...you have to promise me, that what we are to tell you, won't color your thoughts about certain people...people make mistakes..." Emilia shrugged. "No, Emilia Luna, I want your word," Hermione insisted.
Emilia looked to her father, he nodded, "Fine, Mum, I give you both my word that whatever dire secret you are about to reveal, I will try not to let it change my mind about certain people, whoever it is that I will get mad at after this, I suppose."
"Good enough," Harry said, "You explain, Hermione, I'll fill in where appropriate, I'd probably ramble."
She gave him a mock glare, and turned back to Emilia, "Where you and Xander are, Honey, is where I imagine that your father and I should have been at the start of our sixth year...if absolutely everything hadn't been bollixed up beyond any possible comprehension."
"I've heard the stories, Mum."
"No...you haven't," Hermione said, "scoot back, Harry, this will take a while." Harry obediently slid all the way to the back of the chair and Hermione cuddled with him almost absently, and once more Emilia reflected to herself how much her parents acted like they were eighteen on occasion, not just looked like it. "You've heard stories, Honey, but they are nothing like the reality. At the start of our fifth year, your Dad wasn't in the greatest of shape, he had seen Voldemort," Hermione paused and glanced back at Harry. Emilia didn't even take an extra breath at the name, even though more than one of her classmates were still afraid to say it. "Kill someone in front of him, and your dad felt responsible for it, even though there was nothing he could have done or foreseen."
"It's alright, Mione," Harry said, squeezing her hand, "Going into the year, well I suppose that's when one could say we almost lost the damn war before it started. And I don't mean the screw-ups at the Ministry...Dumbledore was still trying to hide the truth from me, to 'protect me' or 'give me a childhood' or some such nonsense. He isolated himself from me, and had Snape to try to teach me Occulmency."
"He had that traitor..." Emilia snarled; her eyes flickering as she started to rise, her hair starting to waver in an invisible wind. Harry chuckled slightly as Emilia sat down sheepishly, "Sorry."
Hermione just waved it away, "To make fifth year short, your dad was fighting every night, at least the best that Snape," she spat the name, "had taught him, but he was fighting a losing cause...It wasn't until sixth year when Tom realized, that your dad seeing his thoughts was as much a danger to him, as Tom seeing into Harry's. And then seventh year, he didn't dare, your father and I were in there together, and it was entirely too dangerous for him. But, here's where it gets a tad wobbly, honestly." Hermione bent forward, her hair falling around her face, exactly the same as Em's except for the color, even down to the small braid, as her daughter repeated the gesture unconsciously.
"At the end of the year, three events happened, two that we knew of then, or at least that your dad knew of, and one that we didn't find out about until a year later. At the end of the year, Sirius, your brother's namesake that is, died, trying to rescue us after we rushed in trying to rescue him." Harry let out a soft groan as he tightened both arms around Hermione's middle and leaned forward to rest his head on her shoulder. "Voldemort had tricked your dad, and though he had a bit to blame in it, so did I...in the end we did what we would do today, given what we actually knew then, we went after him. Tom wanted Harry to retrieve a prophecy that he wanted, the same one that's in your textbooks now."
Harry nodded and picked up the thread, "After Sirius died...and your mum was hurt in that battle...That one, was almost the worst really, in some ways, Albus decided that he would finally clue me in on just why I was the mortal enemy of the Darkest Wizard the world has ever seen."
"All of that...screwed us up, Em," Hermione said tiredly, "Your Dad was trying his best to be brave, to give the outward appearance of everything being normal, and I...got scared."
"Mum," Emilia leaned forward.
"No, Em, I was...getting almost killed at the Ministry shook me badly, and then, when your dad told Ron and I the prophesy," Emilia noticed immediately, the slight, identical, hiccupping pause that either of her parents still got when mentioning the pair that her and her brother's middle names commemorated. Hermione didn't seem to notice, though, as she continued, "I shut down, I backed away...and then, I started to plan to try to keep your dad out of trouble, at the same time, unknown to either of us, someone else, or possibly some ones else, was plotting."
"Why do I get the impression that here's the part I had to give my word about?" Emilia mused, glancing up to see the five Quidditch players troop into the house to do something before the rest of the extended family showed up for the barbeque this evening.
Harry laughed bitterly, "Because you take after your mother in more than just your looks, Poppet." He pulled Hermione back against him tightly, as she turned slightly, getting closer in the large deck chair, "I'll explain it, Love, you still hold a touch of a grudge..." Harry took a deep breath, "Ginny had a crush on me for years, had it before she even started Hogwarts, Molly had brought her up on tales of my heroism or some such bullocks, and then when I saved her from Tom in my second year, her first, she evidentially decided she was in love with me...Honestly, I never paid her much attention either way, she was the sister of my best friend, and I had other things to worry about. I guess by the end of fifth year she had gotten tired of trying to hint that she was available and...willing, though to this day, I still can't seem to remember her much before sixth year."
"She gave your dad Amortentia, Em...and at the same time, she had me under the influence of a Confunding talisman that was used to redirect my attentions from your dad to Ron." Hermione shrugged, "Molly used to talk about how nice it would be if Harry and I were to pair up with Ginny and Ron, so she could have her 'big happy family' and Ginny took it to heart. There is some evidence that it was Snape who may have first manipulated her to use it, but there was a problem..."
"She had to use enough to beat down his defenses," Emilia said quickly, her eyes widening in horror as she looked between her parents. "Just how weak were you, Dad, Mum?"
Hermione smiled darkly, "In instants, you cut through to the issue, a fact that our...poisoner never realized until too late. Until I told her at my wandtip, in fact." She reached out and Emilia fell across into her parents' chair, letting her mother pull her into her arms, "The night Dumbledore...died, your Dad was under so much Amortentia, that he couldn't fight Snape really. I'd guess that maybe three quarters of his magic was bound up in the fight against the potion, at the levels she was giving to him, and I was fighting the amulet's influence, with the same draining effect. The night Dumbledore died, we both broke the effects, but we were still fighting the drain, and there was still...inertia...to our feelings. It wasn't until after I caught Dobby, where he had been tricked into putting it into Harry's food, that I finally sussed out what was going on...I flushed it from your dad's system and then...I destroyed the amulet, after I sussed out what was going on with me..."
"So, Aunt Ginny..." Emilia said, her face white and revulsion filling her words.
"Let's just say that it was years after you were born that our relations were warm again..." Hermione replied, "But that's not the point, not for this discussion, our powers were depressed, including our bond...So when they snapped back, it appeared instantly and in full force, and we were instantly back were we were at the end of fifth year, if not further along. All of that...fear and mistrust that had grown between us, over pitiful, miniscule things, was gone."
"So you two would have...been together sixth year?" Emilia asked.
"I don't know," Hermione replied honestly, "I would like to think so, but with the events as they were, I just don't know. As it was, when we were free, we didn't wait at all. It wasn't just that we were madly in love the instant we were off the potions, though we were...we never expected to live through that year, Em, we fully expected to die taking him out, knowing that we were going together." Hermione leaned back against Harry, "Now, what's your story...Em?"
Harry and Hermione shared a look, waiting, as Emilia frowned, looking away from them. She stood from her chair, and took a step to the rail and leaned over it, resting her forearms on the wide top. "I..." she started and paused, took a breath, "It...honestly...wasn't some damn fool rush to be an adult, just so you know," Emilia said, her voice betraying little of the sudden terror that she felt. She tapped her fingers on the rail, "I'd thought about truly being with him...since Christmas. Since that day that Sirius came running down the stairs yelling...he walked in on us doing, stuff. I had to bribe him..." She shook her head as she glanced down, behind her, Harry felt Hermione sigh silently. "I think I knew then, 'cause even though I was embarrassed as all hell, by the way, he didn't really see anything...It was more because my, brother, walked in, than anything. If you had asked, I would have admitted it." She smirked slightly as a thought passed, "Definitely not as disconcerting as what Anna said happened when she and Nate got caught in his pool by Ginny and Draco..."
Hermione looked back at Harry, "Um, Em, Anna is my sister, I know that..." a soft, slightly malicious glint came over her eye as she thought about getting back for her much younger sister's Halloween prank when she had charmed Hermione's work robes to vanish, taking with them whatever Hermione had on under them along for the ride in the middle of the day. It would have been terribly embarrassing if the timing hadn't just happened to fall when Hermione was in her office.
Of course, the fact that Remus had just so happened to step in the door for a meeting when the spell went off was not the greatest resolution. But Hermione, having already scheduled the meeting with him, simply closed the door and sat down behind her desk, carrying on. She lasted a good five minutes before Remus finally got up and gave her his robe to cover herself, and congratulated her on her marauder-worthy spirit.
"They were shagging in the pool, Mum, of course Aunt Ginny and Uncle Draco came out starkers thinking they were alone, or so Anna tells me...Says Draco's not too shabby under all those dark colors he wears..."
"Ladies," Harry said, clearing his throat and looking at each of them in turn. Both of them glanced away, hiding slightly red cheeks behind curtains of hair. I would have paid to see that one though, he whispered and Hermione snorted, reaching back to tap the side of his head lightly.
Emilia shared a hidden look with her mother, and they both smirked. She shrugged and looked away for an instant, in the general direction of a certain Gryffindor's house that was several hundred kilometers over the horizon, and then back to them. She watched as Hermione reached down pulling off the trainers and socks she had been wearing and wiggled her toes, before pulling her feet up under her as she wiggled back to rest more fully in Harry's lap. "Honestly," Emilia sighed, "you two are more like teenagers than I am..."
"We're making up for lost time, dear," Hermione said primly, as she tucked her head under Harry's. "Now continue, we were talking about your sex life..."
"When it happened last night, I knew right away what was going on...I hadn't thought about the possibility, not like I should have, especially with you guys being my parents, but I knew. I knew, because in retrospect, that was the second time that the bond manifested..." Emilia waited as Hermione's eyes widened, she glanced back at Harry, who just shrugged. "The first time...was closer to yours, I suppose...The Cup game last April, when you two and Xander's parents were supposed to be there, but got caught up with that hostage situation and didn't make it until after it was over, remember?" Both her parents nodded silently. "When they stooged Xander at the exact same time I took that Bludger as I caught the Snitch...I saw him falling, and I..." she made a soft, choked sound for an instant, "I felt my magic reaching out for him, then I was hit, again somehow, and I fell like fifty feet...we were both lying there." She sniffled softly, "I could feel how hurt he was, I really think that I was feeling his injuries instead of mine...and I remember looking up at Poppy even though she was thirty meters away working on him, she gave him something, and I felt myself slam back into my own body, and the hurts I had were not the ones I had just been feeling."
"I never talked to him about it, though somehow, I know he knew," she added after a moment and took a drink of her beer, draining it and setting it aside.
"Come here, Poppet," Harry said softly, his eyes flickered, subtly making the chair larger. Emilia nodded, and flitted across the space between them, and let her father pull her up against him.
She wiped her eyes quickly, and took a deep breath. She shook her head, answering some question, unheard, and settled back against Harry and Hermione, crowding them terribly but neither minded. "So, Em, what did happen last night?" Hermione asked quietly.
A sudden smile bloomed on Emilia's face, "Well, Mum, first we kissed, a lot, then..."
"You know what I mean," Hermione replied, laughing.
Emilia nodded, "When I could feel it starting to fully link, it wasn't like last time, totally, I could feel the edge of my magic, my aura, soul, whatever start to intermingle with his...It was slower, than last time, at first anyway...But more...inexorable, I guess too. Xander felt it too, he offered to go, but I could tell he didn't want to, not for any reason in the world, but he would have if I had asked... We didn't hesitate for a bit because we didn't want to bond to each other, but..."
"That it's a Marriage Bond?" Hermione supplied, softly. Emilia nodded jerkily, and Hermione leaned forward, pulling her daughter to her, "Its not really, Honey, you know that..."
"I know, mum, and I...Its not that I don't love him, Merlin I do, but...I'm scared, one can get a divorce with a sheet of paper, this isn't that simple, is it?"
Hermione closed her eyes, biting her lip for a long moment as Harry buried his face in her hair, "No, it isn't, Em," Harry's voice rumbled softly. "But it's not really a marriage either, the name is just what's been hung on it over the years. It's not common, but not unheard of...It just got that name..."
"Because most of the people who show it, are married, yeah, I know, Dad," Emilia muttered. "I always knew where he was, when he came in a room, what he wanted to eat in the morning by just catching his eye across the table." She laughed softly, "We were sleeping together in the same crib half the time when we were newborns, what with Mum and Tonks having us only a month or so apart and Remus and Dad being gone all the time to cover for you two. I don't remember a time when he wasn't there, honestly. Hell when we were playing Quidditch together as kids, I knew when he got hurt, even without looking." She let out a long, loud breath, "When it started to bloom last night, and I recognized what was happening in that instant, I decided, I didn't think, I just did...It was going to happen, I just got to choose when, and I did, and I don't want to take it back, but..."
"You want him here, don't you, Em?"
"You have no idea," she replied fervently.
"Then call him here, he and his parents were coming over tonight anyway, I guess we all need to talk about this," Harry said, as a second conversation started between him and Hermione on exactly how they were going to explain that the Lupins' and Potters' eldest were now, for all intents and purposes, handfasted. Emilia looked back, catching his eyes and nodded. She started to reach into a pocket of the cargo shorts she was wearing, and Harry shook his head, "No, call him, Em, you might as well get used to it now." Her eyes widened in sudden wonder her hand fell away from her pocket...
Xander...come here...please... A soft, shocked, feeling filled her thoughts. She stood suddenly just as a muted POP sounded an arm's length from her. Xander staggered as she launched herself at him and tucked her head under his chin. His right hand came up automatically, cradling the back of her head, as his left slipped lower, supporting the small of her back. He held her silently, not feeling the need to speak as she shook slightly in his arms.
Three hours later, as the smell of cooking food wafted down the hill from the house, Emilia and Xander sat on a large flat rock next to the large, magically crystal clear waters of the lake set on the property. Out on the water, much of the rest of their extended family under eighteen played in the water, the five from the game earlier, had been joined by Nathan and Anastasia, who had looked puzzled at the odd look Hermione had given them when they arrived. Xander's younger sister had flooed in with Remus and Tonks, and left a trail of clothes, which she had had on over her suit, all the way from the back deck to the diving platform thirty meters down the shore from the sunning rock.
Emilia sighed as Xander ran his hands through her wet hair, slowly pulling loose tangles. She dropped her head to his shoulder as he gave up on her hair and started to trace idle runes on the small of her back, she smiled and kissed his shoulder as she recognized Ehwaz. She didn't look up as Anastasia and Nathan dropped next to them, Nathan grabbed Anna and kissed her, rolling on top between her legs. Emilia looked over at them and glared, "Would you like the rest of us to leave so you can enjoy the water?" she asked, crooking an eyebrow.
Anastasia sat up, adjusting her bikini top and smirking. She leaned back against her boyfriend, and laughed as he blew on her wet neck. "Would you, Em? After all Nate and I only got two or three hours alone last night, unlike some people I could mention." Nathan laughed, and Emilia rolled her eyes.
"I'd rather sit here with Xan, thanks," Emilia replied seriously, "You two go on ahead with what you were doing. Its not like no one's seen it before." Anne smirked at her, and tangled her fingers in Nathan's shaggy blond hair, pulling him to her as she reached up, tallying a score in the air with one finger.
Back up on the porch, as Harry, Remus and Roger stood over a large grill, flipping large hunks of meat with absent flicks of wands, tongs or in Harry's case, one lazy finger in the air, Tonks sat on the railing, nursing a beer. She looked down at her bare feet peeking out from the tattered hems of the battered and torn jeans she had slipped on over a swimsuit, just in case she ended up in the lake, and sighed. She glanced over to the grill at a loud laugh as Harry handed Remus an absolutely huge chunk of bloody meat on a plate, and then over to Hermione sitting cross-legged next to her, her work clothes gone and replaced with a pair of khaki cargo shorts and a long-sleeved t-shirt worn over a green bikini top, the strings of which could be seen at her neck.
"Our families are absolutely fucked up, sis," Tonks said with a small smile. She glanced over at the grill, "Oi, Wolfie, make sure that you have Harry fix the same for the kids..." He waved in acknowledgement, and she looked back to Hermione. "Be glad that your sprogs like their meat dead, Hermione."
"They still eat like you wouldn't believe," Hermione replied, "Both Em and Sirius figured out how to tap their powers at least to a degree years ago...the bloody metabolisms on them...and from Harry and I, too, I'm just glad that Dobby loves us."
"Yeah," Tonks agreed. She winced slightly as she watched her fourteen-year-old daughter, who was currently clad in a neon orange bikini and still dripping from the lake, chase down and tackle one of the Weasley twins' sons for something he had done, sending the poor boy flying fifteen feet. He got up, shaking his head slightly and Tonks let out a breath she hadn't known she was holding. "Did I tell you that I had to go to Hogwarts a week before the end of school for her?" Hermione shook her head, and took a drink.
"You know the statue that sits in the center of the Grand Staircases?" Tonks asked. Right after the Ministry's public awarding of several Orders of Merlin, first class and innumerable lesser ones, an eight-foot statue of a phoenix with its wings spread shielding a bronze plaque holding the names of those who had died at the Second Battle of Hogwarts had been installed. Hermione nodded, it was one of the few such monuments that the Ministry had put in place that she found both tasteful and appropriate. Fawkes himself had modeled for it, and the two names at the top of the list both with asterisks marking their posthumous receipt of the Order of Merlin, she knew as well as her own.
"I guess the Gryffindors lay flowers there every week, or mementos, what ever, it would have driven Flitch crazy...It was Abby's turn, and she had just laid her flowers and put a little Gryffindor flag to replace one that was worn out when the latest of the Parker kids and his cronies came along."
"Tony Parker's kids, the dumbarse that told Harry that the Dark Lord would rise again and that it was all an illusion when we arrested him in March?" Hermione asked.
"The same," she nodded and took a drink of her beer. "He came up to my little, delicate girl, and asked her where her dog collar was," Hermione's eyes widened, and Tonks shook her head, "Wait, it gets better. Boy then proceeded to ask if Elliot, who I guess she is seeing, even though he's two years ahead of her, had his shots, because he was sure that Elliot might catch something from the animal." Hermione's eyes flared slightly, putting aside Xander and Emilia's relationship, Tonks and Remus' children were almost her own. Tonks raised a hand, forestalling Hermione's outburst. "He topped it off by saying that her brother, who she loves deeply, must be an animal and likes the dirt as he proved it as he slept with a Mudblood whore..."
Hermione's eyes did light then, causing Harry's head to snap to her. She held up a hand, waving him back as she took a breath, calming herself. She looked to Tonks with hard brown eyes, "Dumbarses can't even get the insult, right. What did she do?"
Tonks gave her a small, lethal smile, "My petite, four-foot-something, third year at the time, threw his arse through a door. According to Neville, who was the one who found them, he has become an awesome Head of House by the way for Gryffindor, the other two ran and Parker shit his pants when he looked up, with a broken leg and a concussion, mind you, and saw her standing there, her eyes totally black and her fangs showing...I'm just glad that they aren't full wolves...I'd love them just the same, but that and the hormones they already have...I'm actually glad it was her and not Xander that heard that...That would have been bad."
Hermione nodded, sighing, "What are we going to do with our other two, Tonks?" she sighed and scrubbed at her eyes, "It's going to be hard enough on them at Hogwarts."
"Let them switch off between here and our place I suppose," Tonks replied with a shrug, she turned at Hermione's slightly surprised expression, "I know what it's like too, Hermione, Lupin and my connection might not be strong enough for outright telepathy and I doubt that if one of us kick it, we both are gone, like theirs or yours, but I know what its like to not be able to be with them every night..."
"You can't sleep, skin crawls, your mind starts trying to search out and find them," Hermione supplied.
"Stomach aches, can't concentrate..." Tonks went on, "I don't know what I'd done if you hadn't developed that Animagus potion for me, that let me choose what form to be so I can be with him those two, three days out of the month...It helps that he figured out how to make himself transform-never thought I'd be glad for anything from Tommy's crowd, but I am."
"I have a confession, Tonks," Hermione said after a moment, Tonks cocked her head in a silent question, "I sorta helped Em get ready for last night, I knew what would probably happen, I didn't expect this though."
"I figured," Tonks replied. She reached over and took Hermione's hand, "We both knew this was coming, sis. Wotcher, it's a hell of a lot better than some damn broom closet at Hogwarts or the Astronomy Tower."
"Technically, it could be argued that they are hand-fasted," Hermione said thoughtfully, "If both families agreed, we probably could get Albus to allow them married quarters."
"I doubt it," Tonks growled, shrugging and finishing her beer. She tossed the empty in a large can set on the porch for such things and summoned another from a large, open, cooler filled with beer, pumpkin juice, and Muggle sodas on ice, with her wand. She flicked her wand at it, popping the cap off and took a drink as she slid her wand back into her back pocket. "Albus isn't Minerva...and this isn't the same as you and Harry, Hermione. When it was you two, you were both Heads already and already of age, assigned to the same suite so as long as you were discrete; she could pretend she didn't know. And by the time she found out, you were actually married; it was a fat acompli. Both of you could have walked out at any time and that school would have been closed a month later as soon as all the parents found out that the 'Chosen One' had left." Tonks shrugged again, "Albus can't set that precedent..."
She looked out over the grounds, watching as Abigail, Virginia, Elliot and Justin, shot past, all of them with slightly malevolent looks carrying bags marked with the intertwined WWW of Weasley's Wizarding Wheezes. "Now if it were next year, it would be different, you know that Em, baring her hexing a Professor or something is going to be Head Girl-"
"And Xander and that weird kid from Ravenclaw who never leaves the library are probably up for Head Boy..." Hermione glanced over as Tonks carefully hid a laugh at something, "What?"
"Nothing," Tonks replied, her voice carefully level. She looked up as Anastasia walked up from the lake, her arms tightly wrapped around Nathan's left one. "You could ask your sister if she would sublet?" Tonks remarked, jokingly, knowing that Hermione's sister, and the Ravenclaw son of Ginny and Draco had been named Heads for the next year this very morning.
Hermione's expression however, was thoughtful, "That is an option, though Albus owes us, Harry and I, you and Remus, by Merlin he could at least fight the Regents for-" she began, but just as she started to continue, an unearthly howl screamed out over the lawn and several seemingly innocuous rocks, along with the lights in the house, started to flash a bright red. Hermione met Tonks' eyes in mid-air as she tumbled from the porch, already blurring into motion towards the lake, where the wards were telling her an intruder had just ripped though them, a feat that should have been impossible for only one person in the world who was not actually already here and though she still held issues with Albus Dumbledore over some of his treatment of Harry, he was an authorized guest.
A/N: dun, duh...Duhhhh.....Next time, An unexpected guest.