Chapter IV: Of Dinners
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"I don't understand why you refuse to let me throw a party for the bloke, I mean he is my best mate as well, shouldn't I also have some say in how he spends his bloody birthday?" Ron grumbled as Hermione passed him a bag filled with food before closing the trunk of their car.
"Because he doesn't need a big party right now, what he needs is us, Ron, don't be such a prat just because you want to get pissed-"
"Oi, that's not the only reason."
She smiled, cocking an eyebrow at him before turning to thank the doorman who had opened the door for them as they entered Harry's building.
"Well not the only reason…"
"Ron, he drinks more than enough for the three of us combined-hell, he drinks enough for your entire family, mine, and probably even our extended family. We really ought not to give him excuse to do so more as it is… besides, you know him, Ron, he's always preferred the private affairs, what better than a small dinner between friends for his birthday?" she asked him as they entered the lift and pressed the button for the penthouse.
"Mum's going to murder you for this, you know? She thought that she'd be throwing Harry's birthday party…"
Hermione groaned. "You still didn't tell her?"
"Have you met my mother?" Ron incredulously asked her. "I don't have a death wish, no matter how much of a risk it may be to not try to appease you."
"Molly really needs to learn how to stay out of other people's business."
"Oi, that's my mum."
"And you're a mummy's boy, I know that, and I almost accept it… were it not for the fact that it makes you a total scared shitless dunderhead…"
"Come on!" he moaned, quickly growing agitated by the turn the conversation was taking.
"No, you come on, Ron! It's really about time you got out of that blasted nest! That woman has far too much control over you as it is so why do you keep kissing up to her? When are you going to finally grow up?"
He growled lowly as the doors to the lift dinged, signaling their arrival at the intended floor. "I can't keep on this whole affair if I feel like I'm not the only woman in your life," she continued as she rummaged through her purse while walking towards the doors of Harry's apartment.
"And who the hell else is in my life then?"
"Your mother! I'm not into that whole incestuous affair shite, Ron; I have more self-respect than that."
Ron cringed. "Hermione, I love my mum and all, but have you seen the woman? She's not particularly my type as it is so no need to worry about that, really."
"Ugh, not everything is meant in such a literal sense," she shrieked, not bothering to turn the key she had placed in the lock as she turned her full attention to Ron. "Either grow the hell up or I'm out, Ron, I swear to you, I'm out!"
"No need to get bitchy about it… all you had to do was calmly tell me your worries," he mumbled, much to her gratification as he gave up.
"Good," she smiled, returning to the key. "You have two weeks to leave the nest then," she told him in a definite tone with a very self pleased nod. "now make sure to be quiet, I wanted to surprise him with this, all I told him was that I wanted to do something special today and I was going to surprise him at some point so he's probably not expecting us."
"Because it's easy to be quiet when you're carrying ten kilos worth of food!" he grumbled to himself as he followed Hermione through the familiar path towards the sitting room.
"Harry?" she called out as she entered the room.
"Oh, you tell me to be quiet so you can ruin the surprise like that? How disappointing," he pouted.
"Shut up, Ron; be useful, help me find the prat, will you?"
"No need to."
"And why's that?" she absentmindedly asked him as she made her way towards the door heading to the library.
"You may want to look at that pile on the floor-you know, before the chesterfield over there…"
She didn't even turn as her body stiffened, and merely cringed. "No…"
"Sorry, love," Ron sighed, putting the food on the nearest table and walking over to his mate who was absolutely sloshed and beyond comprehension.
She sighed as she turned, watching her boyfriend checking for a pulse… wouldn't be much of a shock given the amount of alcohol he consumed really, come to think of it. "Can you go and pick up materials for the `drunkards first aid'?"
He looked up at her, smiling pitifully, trying to ameliorate the already dreadful situation however much he could by mollifying her to whatever extent possible. "Sure, love, I'll be back before you know it, yeah?"
"Thanks Ron," she told him with a weak, pained smile.
--
"Oi, we're here!" Harry heard a voice bellow from the first floor of his apartment.
"Ron!" he listened to another familiar voice chastise him.
"What?-this place is huge, if anything I was helping him, I mean the prat couldn't even hear us when I rang that blasted doorbell."
"You're such an obnoxious bastard," she huffed and Harry couldn't contain a chuckle as he made his way towards the salon where he knew Ron and Hermione would have sat themselves by then, as was already habitual since he had given her a key to his apartment years ago.
"Harry, mate, thank Merlin you're here, I need some salvation from this one," Ron greeted him with a grin, taking obvious pleasure in the glare that Hermione sent him.
"Berk," Hermione laughed as Harry embraced Ron before moving onto her. "How are you, love?"
"Oh, you mean since you left me at that hell hole?"
"Precisely."
He smirked. "It was utterly disgusting, I actually had to-"
"Oi, as far as I'm concerned you two are the idiots to go into that business, not me, so I shouldn't be subjected to your regaling, I'd like to keep my appetite, thank you very much."
"As if anything could possibly hinder it," Hermione quipped.
He beamed at her. "Oh love, you know me so well, it's almost enough to make me swoon actually. Where is the food anyway? I don't smell anything." Ron asked curiously, a small twinge of fear passing over him at the possibility of a lackluster and foodless evening. Reunions were great and all, just not as great without that main, vital component, as far as he was concerned.
"Ron!"
"I was just asking, besides, it's Harry, he expects as much. If you can't be yourself in front of your best and closest mates, then when can you?"
"He does have a point," Harry acquiesced with a shrug. "And it's on the stove, finished it about an hour ago so I placed a heating charm over it."
"How did you even find the time to prepare a meal after everything you had to do today?" Hermione asked him in awe.
He shrugged. "Needed something to distract me as it was, and I don't cook often so it's a nice change of pace every once in a while anyway."
"Find anything?"
"We'll talk about it tomorrow, yeah?"
Ron sighed. "That's it; I'll just go put this wine to chill so that, on the off chance that you two won't be able to hold off this conversation, I at least don't have to bear witness to it."
Hermione laughed as she watched her boyfriend leave the room. "He really is something… not quite sure what that something is half the time, but something nonetheless."
"You two have been together a long time," Harry soberly commented.
"Yeah… we have, haven't we?"
"On and off for eight years now, if that's not long I don't know what is… how are you handling Molly's hints towards marriage anyway?"
Hermione shrugged. "Ron and I both know we're not ready for that, as routine and comfortable as our relationship is, we just aren't ready for that. Plus, Ron finally learned to stand up to that cow so it's all good."
Harry's eyebrows shot up in surprise. "`Cow'? I must admit, I'm impressed, it's such a rare occurrence that you ever speak ill of anyone."
Hermione rolled her eyes, more so in aggravation at the thought of said cow than with Harry's quip. "I just-I hate how she has to control everything. I mean, God forbid that Ron and I don't get married and start popping out children as soon as possible so we can finally live up to this picture perfect image that she has set up in her head. The woman is delusional.-And then, to add insult to injury, she would barely stand the sight of you after the war while you were going through your issues, called you a disgrace even, but now-now that you're better, over it, you're suddenly good enough for Ginny again?! It's preposterous, the meddling hag just needs to mind her own business, it's terrible what she's doing to Neville at those dinners, purposefully hinting at you and Ginny being together like that."
Harry chortled as he listened to Hermione's rant. "So I take it you're not a fan of her then?"
Hermione grinned sheepishly, blushing lightly. "Don't tell Ron."
"Never… besides, I can't deny that she can be a hag at times as it is… almost makes me not want to attend the dinners… you know, were it not for the fact that it's a chance to see you two."
Hermione laughed. "That's the only reason I attend anymore-to see you and the twins."
"So what'd I miss?" Ron asked as he reentered the room, throwing an arm around Hermione's shoulders.
"Nothing," Harry told him.
Ron sent him a doubtful look. "Nothing?"
"Nothing you'd want to hear," she assured him, giving him a small peck on the cheek.
--
"Harry?" she called out, slapping his face lightly to try and get him to regain consciousness. "Harry?"
"Ugh…mn…fr…" he grumbled, swatting away her hand.
`Well at least he's not totally lost,' she thought to herself as she nudged him again. "Come on, Harry, it's time to take a shower."
"Umnnffrrr…" he mumbled again, incoherently, as he raised his head a bit and just as Hermione thought she was making some progress she learned just what had forced Harry to sit up.
Or, more so, what couldn't make its path up Harry's pipe when he was lying down in the position he was in. And she found out far more than she would have liked as she found herself covered in that "compelling factor".
She groaned, damning the gods for having such a useless scrougify that would never do much to truly rectify her current situation… there'd still be the residuals stuck to her clothes regardless, a fact that was painfully obvious as she examined the stains on her top after casting the spell.
"Okay, Harry, now that you've used me a your personal throw bin ,how about doing your best girl a favor by sitting up and letting me take you to the loo, yeah?"
He groaned from the floor, turning a bit so he could raise a tired and somehow oddly bleary eyebrow at her. It was an abnormal sight that just exuded this sense of wooziness. He finally sighed as he said "Help me up?"
"Of course," she smiled, propping him up against her shoulder and slowly pulling him off the floor, amazing herself with her own strength, and were it not for the rather sordid situation she probably would have compared herself to Wonder Woman at that moment…
"Yer amazing, Mione."
"Don't call me Mione, Harry, you very well know I despise that name yet somehow whenever you're drunk you have this inexplicable affinity for it-which, by the way, is far too often for my liking," she muttered as she helped him off the ground, staggering under the weight of his strong body.
"And yer smarr... and beeuteefool... and lurve ya, ya know I lurve ya, right Mione?"
She smiled slowly, blinking back the tears as she helped him through the door to the master bedroom of his flat. "I know... I love you too, Harry, I really do. No one could ever take your place in my life," she promised him as she clumsily led him to the bathroom.
He smiled goofily at her. "But I reaally lurve you, Mione... really."
"Yes, well then how about you prove it by staying sober," she mumbled to herself as she whipped off his shirt and slowly took off his pants before leading him to the bath where she seated him on the tub floor as she turned on the shower.
"Are ya tryin' to sedooce me, Mione?"
"Trust me, Harry, if I was, you'd know it," she distractedly told him as she set the temperature for the water before turning to him and spraying him with it, handing him a bar of soap with the other hand, all the while praying he was at least capable of doing that much by himself.
Luckily for her, he was.
--
"So… last night was fun," Harry commented as he and Hermione sat in his office reviewing the notes and pictures that he had received from all of the aurors that had inspected the hotel room the day before.
Hermione smiled, looking up from the files. "Yeah, it was; I really miss us just hanging out, it's been far too long since the three of us just got together like that."
He smiled. "Hey, when's that bloke going to finish with the autopsy anyway?"
Hermione furrowed her eyebrows. "Ionesco? He has a huge line of bodies he needs to finish with at the moment but he promised to get to mine as soon as possible so give it a day at most."
"Why don't you just get someone that's free then?"
She shrugged. "He's the best, I trust him, besides, I don't need someone to muck up this case for us because they can't even do a decent preliminary autopsy."
"Ever the perfectionist," Harry teased her with a grin.
"You'll thank me for it-that much I can promise you."
"And I'm sure I will…"
She cocked an eyebrow. "And yet you sound doubtful…"
"No… it's not that…"
"Then what is it, Harry?"
He shrugged slightly, frowning. "I was thinking about the case last night and everything you mentioned yesterday in your statement."
"And?"
"And why would whoever did this get to the trouble of roasting his… well… his… you know…"
"Genitals?" Hermione offered with a sympathetic smile as she watched him stumble, clearly amused by how affected he had been by the unique form of torture.
"Yeah."
"Probably personal."
"You think?"
"Well, like you said, they roasted them, why do that when you could use a few well placed crucios or some other dark hex, there are more than you can count… this was revenge, that much is obvious…"
"It's twisted is what it is."
Hermione nodded, biting her lip lightly. "Yeah, it is, but who knows why they did it."
"At least it's the last one, yeah? I mean if it was personal it should be, right?"
"I think that you know as well as I do that now you're just being idealistic. We can't make presumptions like that, we can't afford to. Plus, when you assume-"
"You make an ass out of you and me, yeah I remember that one, don't know how many times you repeated that during the war."
"Well you always were an impulsive prat, you needed that reminder. Good lord, I even made it easy to remember for you," she winked.
He chuckled. "How could I forget, Merlin knows I'd be lost without you, Mione."
She gasped. "Oh you're just a right bastard!"
He grinned as they both returned their attention to their files.
"Harry?" Hermione finally interrupted the silence, always one to fall victim to her curiosity regardless of whatever people may have constantly repeated to her about that pesky old adage about that can that got killed.
"Yeah?"
"I-I know that the whole roasted-'
He winced. "Please," he begged, voice strangled. "Please, don't finish that thought-I know what you're talking about, that's more than enough."
She smiled. "Right, well…"
"Yes?" he goaded her.
"I was just wondering…"
"And?"
"Is-well apart from the… well from that, is this what your day usually consists of?"
He sent her a quizzical look. "Why do you ask?"
"I don't know," she shrugged helplessly. "I guess it all just seems so morbid."
"Rather fitting, wouldn't you say?"
She shook her head. "No," she honestly retorted. "That's why it confuses me why you'd join this department of all the other departments."
"I'm good at it… it's been a long time since I've felt as if I was really talented at something. I suppose there's a sense of security and worth in that… I like it."
"It's not the only thing you're talented at; you're worth far more than you realize, Harry."
He gave her a small smile. "To each their own, yeah?-Anyway, we have work to do, we should cut the chit-chat as it is, Buckley would have a coronary if he knew how much we talked about totally unrelated issues…"
"But, Harry-"
"Let's go check the lab and see if they've at least finished with the biopsy, yeah?"
"Ha-"
"Come on, let's go, no dilly-dallying," he stopped her, clearly unrelenting in his quest of avoiding the conversation that she was so adamant about instigating.
She sighed. "Yeah, okay… they should at least have some preliminary tests done…"
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Author's note: A bit of a filler, but it was more of an interlude into their day to day lives than just the case which I'll be switching from on and off, I figured the case is a bit nasty, worthy of having a break from every once in a while as it is, lol.
Anyway, next chapter the focus will return to that as well as explain part of the reason why Harry was in the state that he was during that period displayed in the flashbacks.
wish me luck in getting out the next chap, I have a feeling it'll take a while, lol. so, in advance, I apologize for the wait
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