Chapter 12--Hermione
"So, you told Charles to come over around one." Hermione rubbed her hands over her face as Harry nodded warily.
"Yeah, because I didn't know we were invited to your parents for lunch. I thought we were going over later in the day. Do you want me to cancel?"
"No. His schedule is filling up fast at the hospital and I'm sure he values his time off. I can move my parents to tomorrow."
"I don't think we should. We should tell them where you are living before they find out from someone else. Maybe…maybe we could have them here at noon, and then they won't be here for long. We'll just tell them that we are still working out the kinks of living together and meshing two schedules. I don't want you to have to tell your parents yourself and I'd also like for you to be there when Charles examines Janie," Harry explained, trying to figure out a way to make both of them happy.
Their first conflict as a couple had arisen. Harry had received an owl from Charles yesterday confirming one in the afternoon as the time to meet at Grimmauld. Unbeknownst to Harry, Hermione had accepted an invitation to have lunch in London with her parents, with the kids.
"Yeah, I can run that by them I guess. That may work. Mum is always bugging me to have more friends than you and the few people I had at work…maybe they can meet Charles and that'll keep her quiet for a bit."
Harry wiped Janie's hands followed by Ben's then lifted them down, promising that they'd leave for the park in 15 minutes. It was only ten in the morning and they were bouncing off the walls. Hoping that they'd nap that afternoon so he could help Hermione unpack her items that were sitting in boxes in almost every room, he figured he'd run them around outside.
"Why don't you ask while I take the kids to the park down the street? If it doesn't work, we'll figure something out."
Hermione nodded and sipped on her coffee, having just woken up a half hour earlier. Harry had been up, showered and dressed by seven, even before Janie had woken up to his movements in the bedroom. He relished the half hour he had of peace and quiet before she came down that morning followed by Ben.
"Okay. Thanks," Hermione yawned as Harry forced the kids into light jackets and took them outside and down the street.
Hermione finished her coffee in silence idly reading the Daily Prophet, skipping over the piece about Harry getting a job at the Ministry. She wasn't used to having a morning to herself or even used to waking up in Harry's bed. Everything was happening so fast and a bit out of control that she felt she needed this time to sit down, take a deep breath and reassess her life.
Accioing a quill and paper to her from a desk in the next room she wrote down a list of things that were going to
happen and that needed to be done. She made a schedule to help her figure out how she was going to unpack, meet with
her parents and Charles, take Ben shopping for clothes since he wouldn't stop growing, and come up with a schedule
for her and Harry to follow at work. Once the list was made, she felt much better. What needed to be down was now in
ink, and she could refer back to it and show Harry if need be.
But even the best laid plans go awry. Hermione managed to get a shower and when she made her way back downstairs, hearing that Harry and the kids were back, she saw a message propped up on the window sill.
"Fish just dropped it off," Harry explained as he lay pinned to the floor by two hyper active children. Hermione made an offhanded comment for Ben to get off Uncle Harry then saw that Harry seemed to be enjoying it as much as the kids so she left them at it, wondering if she was going to have to repair his glasses yet again. The note was from Hannah Abbott, who was asking to meet with Hermione about a case they had worked on five years ago, when they were first year healers. She was seeking to do a research paper on the Wizarding Flu to move up in the Healing ranks and knew Hermione had some hard-to-find medical books.
"What do you think, Harry? One more for lunch?" Hermione explained the note and Harry did his best to shrug as he crawled around on all fours with Janie and Ben on his back.
"You're going to hurt yourself before you even begin the program," Hermione laughed as he twisted to catch Ben before he fell.
"This can't hurt as bad as being flung to the floor," Harry responded managing to sit upright, pretending to push his daughter away as she came running at him. "Why not invite Hannah over? Maybe you can set her up with Charles or something."
"I have enough on my plate then to try and play that game," Hermione sighed, then raised her voice over the excited squeals of the children. "I'm off to call my parents and tell them about the extra guests we're having." After owling Hannah to come over for lunch, she trudged upstairs to find her cell phone, the only way her parents felt comfortable communicating with the wizarding world.
Her parents weren't home so she left a message explaining the change in location, the reason and that there would be two extra bodies for lunch, and told them just to come over at one with everyone else. As Harry kept Ben occupied, Hermione scrounged around for a few extra chairs and a nicer tablecloth than the faded yellow one on the table.
An hour later a disheveled Harry found her in the kitchen setting up the table for lunch, moving the children's booster seats to an area near where she and Harry would sit.
"I would've helped," Harry kissed her quickly then hesitated feeling how perfunctory her kiss back was. Hermione knew he could tell she was stressed and was trying not to show it so much. It wasn't fair to upset his easy going attitude with her worries and stresses. But as he questioned her, while they put together a fruit salad, she found herself wearing down and becoming more detailed in her reasons why she was stressed.
"I mean, in addition to getting you and I settled here, I'm just wondering how we'll be able to mesh two lives together so quickly. Ben has fit right in, Janie doesn't seem upset but I'm not sure what to tell my parents about visiting, or if we should put up something on the floo so George just doesn't pop up in the middle of us…doing something," Hermione explained.
"Look, we've pretty much meshed our lives together from the moment Ron and Ginny died and now we just happen to be in one house together. I think and hope people will respect the privacy and announce a visit before they come and your parents are more than welcome anytime." Harry stirred some pears into the salad as Hermione slid the last of the cut up apples into the bowl.
"I agree. It seems Katie has calmed George down a bit, maybe I'm worrying about this too much."
"No, you're just trying to make everything fit and I don't know if it'll happen right away, but
it'll happen," Harry responded, placing the bowl to the side. He turned and pulled Hermione against him,
rubbing her shoulders to try and loosen up some of the muscles he could feel were tight.
"Another thing, while I'm on a roll…is…well…what're we going to do about us, when we…well…the charm?" Hermione stammered concentrating more on his hand movements than her thoughts as she let her head fall forward and rest on his shoulder.
"What charm?"
`Men!' Hermione thought fondly. `Harry really can be clueless sometimes!'
"Me not getting pregnant is what I mean. Last night we kind of forgot to say it," she felt his hands still suddenly and she tilted her head up to look at him. A strange look crossed his face---one of disbelief and terror. "Don't worry, I started this morning so I'm not pregnant, but there are longer lasting, more semi-permanent charms out there that a qualified healer can do. I'm thinking I should look into that."
"Oh," relief filled Harry's face and for a moment Hermione wondered if that was the first time Harry had ever thought he could be a father again.
"Did you even know there were other things besides just saying the charm each time?"
Harry let his hands dropped and shoved them in his pockets, silently shaking his head.
"Ginny never told you?"
"Well, no. We came to the decision that we weren't going to use anything. She's stop playing Quidditch when she became pregnant, then start back up a few months later."
Hermione's brain crunched some numbers quickly and the results surprised her.
"I don't mean to be nosy, but…it took you and Ginny a year and a half to get pregnant with Janie?" Hermione laid her hand on Harry's arm seeing that he was struggling with keeping a personal situation to himself. She was sure he was thinking something along the lines of: `Is this still something I need to keep to myself since it really didn't matter anymore?'
"Janie was Ginny's second pregnancy, Hermione. Ginny didn't want anyone to know she lost a baby, only six weeks along, about four months before she got pregnant with Janie," Harry's voice was quiet, reflective and his eyes blinked slowly as if he was recalling the images. Abruptly, he gave a small shrug. "The doctors just said it was hard for her to get pregnant. Everything was functioning normally for her and I. Maybe we knew on some level right after we got married which is why we didn't try to avoid pregnancy."
"Harry-," Hermione whispered feeling her throat close at this very personal piece of information and knowing how much it must have bothered him and Ginny at the time.
"I told Ginny to talk to you about it, after all, you'd understand from a medical point. But, I think she felt ashamed that her body betrayed her because when she got pregnant with Janie she made us wait for three months before telling everyone, which you knew…but maybe not the reason why she waited to tell."
"I thought…I thought it was so she didn't steal Ron's thunder. He was so proud when we got pregnant that he told everyone before we were out of the hospital with the positive test in our hands."
"Yeah, Ginny was about three weeks along then."
A reflective mood settled over them and Hermione felt the need to hug Harry.
"I know now why you were so quiet that Fall. I'm sorry I kept bothering you about why you weren't very talkative," Hermione squeezed him tight feeling his arms slide around her waist. She vividly remembered him going through the motions of practicing with Ginny for Quidditch, occasionally refusing lunch dates with her and Ron and in general being a bit to laid back. Ginny, however, had kept up a good front because Hermione hadn't noticed anything wrong with her. "Just tell me to mind my own business if I bother you about something you don't want to talk about." She felt him place a kiss on top of her head.
"I don't have any secrets from you. I truly didn't think to tell you this because it was never on my mind until just now. If you want to know something, just ask."
And Hermione did want to know something…something that had been moving around in the back of her mind for the past few months. She never felt she had the right to ask Harry given that it had just been a year when Ginny died when she first began thinking about him and Janie.
Now seemed like an appropriate time, given what they had just talked about and her heart thudded painfully as she began speaking. Harry knew her well enough to know she usually had a reason for asking her questions.
"I do have a question, following on the heels of what you just told me. Are you happy with just Janie, or do you see yourself wanting more children in the future?" She held her breath as Harry did what she predicted he would. His hands stilled on her hips and she could hear the thump of his heart beat a tad bit quicker under her ear.
"I-I don't know," he began slowly. "A few minutes ago it shocked me that we forgot the charm and an image of me being a father again did come to my mind, but I had never thought of having anyone but Janie as my child."
Hermione nodded knowing that the realization that he could be a father (probably any female out there would be willing
to have his child) was going to take a bit of time to settle. She switched the subject slightly.
"After work next week, I'll go see a healer about getting a more permanent charm."
There was a knock at the door and Hermione pulled back from Harry, leaned up and kissed him quickly.
"Wait," Harry said quietly and Hermione stopped halfway across the kitchen on her way to get the door.
"What's wrong?"
"I meant wait before you do anything…with the healer. I'd like to know what else is out there." His look pierced through her in a way she had never felt before--making her speechless as an ache moved through her chest. There was something etched in his face she couldn't read but it took her breath away so she just nodded and made her way to the door to let her parents inside.
---
"So, Charles, you worked with Hermione before Ben was born?" Mrs. Granger asked among the chatter at the table.
"Not really with her. Whenever she was researching something, I happened to be in the medical library doing my own research…we met that way."
Already, Hermione could see that her parents liked Charles, and if she hadn't told them why she was now living with
Harry, her mother would probably be inviting him over for dinner right away. Her father was uncharacteristically quiet
but every time she glanced over at him he'd smile and wink. Hannah had arrived on the heels of Charles and after
stammering out a hello pulled Hermione to the side wanting to know why he was there. Apparently, not known to Hermione,
she had an interest in him but had been to shy to say much more than the pleasantries required by working near him in
the hospital.
As luck would have it, Hannah was seated right next to Charles and Hermione could hear him ask Hannah questions about
how work was going and how she had come to know Hermione and Harry. Cutting up another piece of ham for Ben, Hermione
pretended to not listen in but was secretly hoping something would happen between the two of them. Hannah was shy, very
sweet and at the age of 25 could probably use a night or two out on the town.
Suddenly, Charles laughed at something Hannah said about Hogwarts and Hermione felt her father freeze next to her. Turning from Ben she laid a hand on her father's arm.
"Dad?"
"I'm fine," he breathed looking at Charles curiously. Hermione's eyes flicked to Harry who was also gazing at Charles with interest. Her mother asked Harry a question so he turned before she could register what seemed to catch his attention.
"What?" Hermione pushed, whispering as not to disturb her mom and Harry's conversation.
"What did you say Charles' last name was?" her father glanced at her, then took a bite of his sandwich, trying to appear nonchalant.
"Meyer. Why? Do you know him?"
He shook his head at first then shrugged, swallowed and then answered her question.
"He reminds me of someone, that's all."
"Who?"
"A mix of two people actually."
"He was adopted, does that help?" Hermione picked Ben's fork up and put it in his hand, trying to get him to use it correctly.
"Really? Do you think…would it be wrong to ask him what his middle name is?"
"I already know it, dad. It's on the records at work. It's a very haughty-taughty sounding name and he
said he had no idea where it came from when I asked."
"What is it?" Her father whispered, then declared he was full and pushed himself back from the table, getting read to stand and clean up his plate the Muggle way.
"It's Brentwood," Hermione said offhandedly as she put the fork in Ben's hand again. She then jumped as her father grabbed her arm, hard. Turning around she saw his face go white and in the natural silence that fell across the table she heard his ragged breathing.
"Dad?"
Responding to Hermione's panicky tone, everyone turned to Mr. Granger who was staring at Charles and muttering
something to himself.
"Honey, are you okay?" Mrs. Granger stood up and grabbed her husband's shoulders.
"I think I know why," Hermione's father began, taking a deep breath to steady himself, "why Charles is so familiar to me."
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A/N: I know you all are thinking it…and NO, Hermione's father didn't have an affair and give Hermione a half brother. I'm not that clichéd (well, most of the time) but, you'll have to wait to find out how he knows Charles. Hehehe.
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