Title: Best Friends Having Lunch
Author: AddisonJ
Chapter 1:
"I've always liked flower names for girls."
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter; that would be JK Rowling; but I really like the world she created.
Incorporates the epilogue; hence, angst for us Harmony shippers.
A/N: This is my first Harry Potter fic! Please read and review! And hang on, Chapter 2 is cheerier.
Thanks to my beta, Tears of Mercury.
"Hermione, over here!"
Harry Potter waved his hand in the air so his best friend, Hermione Granger, could see that he had already secured a table for them. The best friends were having lunch, as they did every week. It was their time away from work and significant others, away from the press and fans, and away from the past and its expectations as well, if they wanted to. It was time for the best friends to sit and chat and just enjoy each other's company.
Hermione gave Harry a smile and shook out her robes. She then gave him a big hug and kiss on the cheek, which he responded by squeezing her just as strongly back. When the hug ended, she sat in the seat next to him at the small table in the café. It was a hidden, out-of-the way spot that they preferred to the more popular restaurants on Diagon Alley. Harry had found it while on a stakeout as an Auror. The food was good, cheap, and the dining room was quiet enough to have a chat, with enough privacy if needed and enough exits in the unlikely event of needing to escape the few Death Eaters that still caused havoc in the wizarding world. The steak and kidney pie was excellent as well.
"Harry! I hope you weren't waiting long! I had to review a report Millicent completed and it was due in an hour. I'd owl, but I knew I wouldn't be too too late." Hermione started with her apologies, but Harry just looked sympathetic and patted her hand.
"No worries. I knew you'd be here. I was only here a minute before you," he smiled in that lovely way of his.
"Busy day?" she asked, her smile reflecting his.
He nodded a bit humbly. Harry had been just promoted to lead an Auror team, one of the youngest wizards to do so. But Harry was Harry, and always kept his accomplishments hidden under a barrel. No, it wasn't as grand as saving the wizarding world from You-Know-Who, but Harry was always humble.
"A bit busy," he agreed. "Need to learn some more about the team. And a bit more paperwork and all that."
Hermione gave him a sympathetic look and patted the arm her hand still touched. "There, now. You'll do wonderfully. You always do. And if there is anything you need from me…"
"Hermione, you've helped enough. And we do have a librarian on staff-" Hermione's eyebrows raised and Harry hurried to continue before Hermione could criticize the librarian skills of Madam Elkfort "-but we'll be fine. If there is anything at all that I think I need your help with, you know I won't hesitate to ask. And you're free to refuse and say you're too busy." Harry placed his hand gently over hers. She smiled.
"Anything for you, Harry."
Their eyes met and stayed that way until the waitress came to take their orders.
"The usual, loves?' she asked. They had the same waitress most days. She was discrete enough not to say their names or act impressed that two celebrities would be regulars. And she certainly never contacted the Daily Prophet. No, these lunches were discrete. Not secrets -- both Ron and Ginny knew about them, but never asked to attend. It was as if they knew the two best friends needed some private time away from the busyness of the Weasleys.
Harry and Hermione looked at each other and laughed. It was the same every week. "Yes," Harry responded, "the usuals," and handed the menus back. The waitress smiled as well, being in on the joke. She clucked a bit under her tongue as she moved away, giving them privacy.
They talked. They talked about everything and nothing. They were just happy to be alone together, to not have to worry about interruptions from others wanting their attention. They could just be themselves.
They were so close. Best friends since they were eleven years old. Ron was part of the Trio as well, of course, but these lunches were just for Harry and Hermione. Harry and Ron would have alone time when they went to Quidditch matches together. Hermione and Ron had alone time every day before and after work. But Harry and Hermione needed these lunches. They needed to be just themselves. And today, Hermione needed to talk to Harry about what had happened at the Sunday dinner at the Burrow the past Sunday.
They talked about Teddy and Neville and Luna for a bit as Hermione recognized that Harry was avoiding the topic that she needed to discuss. The topic that caused him to meet her eyes with surprise and concern the Sunday before. She couldn't talk then; too many Weasleys were jumping over Ron and her, giving them hugs and shouting congratulations. All Harry could do was give her a quick hug and smile when there was a free moment, but Ginny interrupted with her squeals of joy and hugged both Hermione and Ron together.
"I knew it would happen!" Ginny exclaimed while Molly dabbed her eyes.
"I'm so happy for you two!" Molly wept tears of joy and gave them more hugs.
"So…" Harry started. They had already started eating their steak and kidney pies when Harry finally started the conversation he had wanted to have last Sunday. The conversation with his best friend, to find out how she really felt about Ron's announcement. About how their lives were about to change significantly.
"So…" Hermione added, trying to avoid the inevitable.
"Pregnant?" Harry said, somewhere between a statement and a question.
Hermione nodded vigorously, trying not to think too deeply about it all and how it complicated everything. "Yes, pregnant!' She looked at Harry for a moment, then darted her eyes back to the meal before her.
"Well," Harry breathed, "our children will be at Hogwarts together."
Hermione's eyes grew wide and she had a false smile plastered on her face as she focused on her fork. "Yes."
Harry put a hand on hers to still the movement of her fork. Hermione glanced up to look into his eyes and she knew it was a mistake, because the moment he said "'Mione," she remembered.
***
She remembered.
She remembered the Horcrux hunt. The days in the tent when Ron was gone. The tired, the cold, the frustration, the fear. The fear of never knowing if that day would be their last, if evil would win.
In one of those nights, Hermione lay weeping in bed. The tiredness, the fear, the frustration, was coming to a head and Hermione just needed to cry and let it all out. Harry came to her, comforting her, hugs that turned into gentle caresses that turned into kisses that turned into much more.
Later, when Ron had to destroy the locket and saw his greatest fears, seeing Harry and Hermione coupling, Harry said that Hermione was like a sister. He said it to keep Ron sane, to focus on their mission.
They never talked about it. They were too busy looking for Horcruxes, then finding out about the Deathly Hallows, escaping from Death Eaters, then destroying Voldemort. They would never talk about it, but… sometimes they would exchange this look. This look that would remind the other of what had happened, of what they did, of how they comforted each other with no plans for the future, for living in the moment because that moment may be their last, for progressing their relationship along a fast track because it was war and they may not live to see another day.
In one of their rare lighter moments, they had discussed children's names. How Muggle names could be so different from wizard names. What Muggle would name their child Nymphadora? And that's when Hermione said,
"I've always liked flower names for girls."
She was looking directly at Harry when she had said it, and he had looked right back at her. It was a look that said maybe…maybe when this is all over, there will be time for us. There will be time for a little cottage somewhere far away from the madness where we can rest and forget and have little children, little girls with bushy dark hair and green eyes with flower names.
"Oy! Is that food ready yet?" Ron's voice had broken their stare. He was hungry and couldn't be bothered with the discussion. "I'm starving!"
Hermione had looked away first. Had she said too much? Did she expect too much? They never discussed the future, but in that glance she knew … she knew Harry was thinking the same as she. They were like two halves of a whole. They completed each other's sentences. Yes, they fought, but it wasn't the ridiculous juvenile sibling-like fights that Ron and Hermione shared. It was a higher level based on larger issues.
They didn't discuss it. That was the problem. They didn't share with anyone what happened. So, when the war was over and Voldemort destroyed, the expectation was that Harry would go back to Ginny and Hermione would end up with Ron. What happened was that Harry traveled the world for a year while Hermione went back to Hogwarts to complete her seventh year. She wrote him every day to tell him about how they were rebuilding the school under McGonagall as headmaster, how more Muggle borns were attending and how she wanted to join the Ministry of Magic and fight for the rights of the Muggles and half-bloods to prevent the likes of Voldemort from happening again. Harry, when he did write back and it was more than a sentence or two, fully supported her passion and her beliefs. Ron, on the other hand, decided not to complete his seventh year and instead became a professional Quidditch player. He traveled and begged Hermione to drop her studies and join him on the road. Harry knew that was a ridiculous demand to someone like Hermione, whose love of learning would not be satisfied sitting in Quidditch stands all day.
When Harry returned, that was a chance for the two to explore their feelings for each other, but there never seemed to be the right moment. They fell back into the Trio of best friends who acted like siblings. Except Ron was laying claims on Hermione and Hermione was hoping Harry would stake his claim but he did not. Why? Did he want Ron to feel that he was more than just the second banana? That he had a right to try to win Hermione's affection? But Harry didn't try. For whatever reason, he sat back and let Ron woo Hermione.
Hermione was puzzled. But Ginny clung to Harry, and Harry didn't resist, so Hermione stopped having the wistful dreams of the cottage by the shore and the bushy black haired girls with green eyes and flower names.
When they finally did talk, it was too late. Ginny had comforted Harry when he was upset, and one thing led to another, and Ginny became pregnant. Of course Harry married her; that was the way he was. He would not have a child of his without a parent. He would do the right thing, even if it meant losing the one thing that meant the most to him in the whole world.
Harry avoided Hermione's eyes at the small wedding at the Burrow. It was difficult, since Hermione was a bridesmaid and Ron the best man. Hints that Ron and Hermione were next were thickening the air around them.
Hermione finally found Harry alone between dances. She seized the chance. "Dance with me, Harry." It was not a request but a statement. "Dance with me, for old time's sake."
It was not a remembrance of Hogwarts, of fighting trolls and flying thestrals. It was a remembrance of clinging to each other in a tent in the woods.
"Why?" Hermione had asked the question the moment she was in Harry's arms and the music had started. They kept their distance from each other, as Harry tried to not look into her angry brown eyes. "Why Harry? I thought…" but she could not complete the sentence. She knew that he knew the rest of the words.
"It …. happened and I have to take responsibility," he said, each word sinking heavily into their hearts.
"But … us" she whispered, tears threatening to fall from her eyes.
"I know," he brought his head close to her ear and whispered. "I know. I wish -- I wish it was different. I wish -- I wished it was us. I wish you were in white today."
Hermione's eyes flashed and she stared at him. He had never declared himself in love with her, he had never mentioned marriage, but here it was, and here it was, his wedding day to Ginny. "Oh, Harry," she nearly sobbed.
But she could not lose composure on the dance floor. She was the best friend. It was his wedding. They were surrounded by happy Weasleys and that was that.
Ron and Hermione announced their engagement two weeks later.
***
Last Sunday, at the Burrow, Ron announced that Hermione was expecting.
Harry knew that Ron and Hermione's marriage was having difficulties. He knew enough of each of them to know that it wasn't right, that it wasn't working out as well as they would have liked. And really, if one really thought about it, it was inevitable. The war brought them together. Harry brought them together. Without that glue, Hermione would remain the bossy bookworm and Ron the genial athlete. She would follow the rules and he would break them. She would be ambitious and overachieve while he would do just enough to get by. As 2/3s of the Trio, it would seem they should have wedded bliss, but those who knew them well, and who refused to simply nod and agree, would know that it was not the best of matches.
Hermione was contemplating divorce. And then she got pregnant.
Meanwhile, at the Potter-Weasley residence, all was not bliss either. Ginny and Harry were growing apart. She took care of the children and he was busy with work, but they had little in common other than the children. She adored being Harry Potter's wife and all the notoriety that brought. He abhorred the spotlight and preferred to putter about in the back garden, or visit the Grangers and help them with odd jobs around the house. Hermione's parents loved Harry. Ron was never quite comfortable with their Muggle lives, but Harry, being raised by Muggles, fit right in. he was polite and deferential to the two dentists, and treated their only daughter with care. The Doctors Granger had hoped that Hermione and Harry would one day be a match, but, Ron seemed alright. Hermione would never complain to them, especially after they thought she was too young to marry, and she still felt horribly guilty about sending them to Australia during the war. She didn't want to bring any more strife into their lives.
***
Present day. Back at the Café:
"Pregnant?" Harry's question carried the complications that she had tried to forget: the failing marriage, the impact on her career advancement at the Ministry, the fading hopes that they would ever be together.
"Pregnant," she answered with a sad resignation. She had a tight smile and lifted her eyes to meet his. "I've always wanted kids. Ron would be a great dad. He'll teach them to ride a broom and I'll scream for their safety."
Harry smiled and nearly laughed at her attempt to break the tension. "You'll give them a love of learning and a sense of justice," he replied quietly, seriously.
The best friends held their hands tight. Through it all, they would have each other.
Best friends having lunch don't dwell on the fact that they were drifting apart from their spouses. They don't dwell on lost opportunities. Don't dwell on the past, on the dashed hopes. So instead, they talked about work. Talked about Teddy and Neville and Luna. Talked about everything except what's really important, what they really wanted to say. Didn't talk about nulling wedding bands or doing something for their own selfish reasons. Didn't talk about disappointing others and running away together. Doing something just for them. Doing something that would cause a world of hurt in the short run, which would make the front page of the Daily Prophet and heap scorn on the Boy-Who-Lived. Doing something that would lead to their own happiness …
No, instead they eat their steak and kidney pie, and chat about Teddy and Neville and Luna. Chat about what is, not what might have been. Chat about reality, not dreams. Chat about today, not yesterday or tomorrow. Chat about their lives married to people who loved them more than they could love them back. Accept their lives. Accept the disappointments. Accept the expectations. Accept the sadness and the melancholy. Make the most of it. Spend that time before waking up, when they are between awake and sleep, dreaming. Dreaming of coupling in a tent in the woods, coupling with a girl with bushy hair and a boy with green eyes and the girl saying, "I've always liked flower names for girls."
A/N: This plot bunny hit me when I realized that Hermione/Ron also named their daughter a flower name. It's my first Harry Potter fic, so please review. Chapter 2 is cheerier.