The Last War, Chapter Four: Whoa, We're Halfway There...
Disclaimer: I don't own any of this, I mean the author no discomfort, and guys? Please enjoy.
Author's Notes: I will admit that there are some parts in this chapter that are actually pretty adorable. *Sighs* Doesn't really make up for the bullshit we had to endure last chapter though... *Grumble grumble*
[INT. THE EBON HAWK MAIN HOLD -- NIGHT.
Everyone's sitting around the table, continuing to read the fic.]
(A/N PEOPLE! Thanks for the reviews so far, but I NEED MORE! So I'm holding my next chapter hostage until I recieve...25 MORE REVIEWS! MUAHAHA! *lighting crash*
So recc this to your friends, aquaintances, and strangers! Get me new readers NOW!
ARAWN: Like I said earlier -- doing our kriffing job for us.
BAO-DUR (strumming guitar): It's a black fly in your Chardonnay/It's a death row pardon two minutes too late/And isn't it ironic... don't you think/It's like rain on your wedding day/It's a free ride when you've already paid/It's the good advice that you just didn't take/Who would've thought... it figures... (Sighs) And now that the obvious Alanis Morrissette joke is out of the way, let's continue.
And thanks always to my lovely beta Raquelle!)
ATTON: Either she's being semi-polite, or the voices in my head have returned.
MICAL: I say the voices in your head are pretty tame then.
ATTON (mock-exasperated): Shut up.
Harry asked no questions when Hermione arrived, half an hour later on his doorstep, her children in hand. In a sense, he felt like he had been expecting her - as if he had cleared Ginny out of the way to make room in the house for Hermione. He had been sitting with his own children in the family room, explaining why he and Mummy wouldn't be living with one another anymore,
ATTON: You know, if it had been handled the right way, it could have actually been quite heartbreaking and moving. But no -- we got this bullshit. (Beat) Kriff this fic.
when Mary came in to announce "Mrs. Weasley".
For a second, Harry's stomach churned. Dealing with the daughter was bad enough; dealing with the mother would be absolute murder.
ATTON (sarcastic): Yeah, because it's not like they're -- oh, I dunno -- human kriffing beings! (Beat) No wonder Revan went nuts.
ARAWN: What was that, Atton?
ATTON: Oh nothing; just a bad rhetorical question.
ARAWN (amused): I see.
But relief washed over him when he saw it was Hermione, along with Rose and Hugo, who entered the room. He felt his relief multiply further as he saw she was unaccompanied by that red-haired brute.
ATTON (deadpan): And Revan's on his ten billionth box of Kleenex now.
He stood up to greet her, and then paused as he saw her tear-stained face.
"Harry," she began, stammering. "Would…would you mind terribly if we were to stay for a few days? It's just…"
ATTON (as Harry): You fought the law and the law won?
(Beat)
BAO-DUR: Here. Here's five thousand credits. Never do that again!
ATTON: Oh, much obliged.
She did not need to say anymore. "Mary, please get the guest rooms made up, and take Mrs.…Weasley and the children to her room." Harry said. Mary nodded and went out
"Actually, Harry," Hermione said. "I was wondering if you and I could go somewhere…private…just to talk and catch up."
ARAWN: Nudge nudge wink wink.
"Of course." He turned to his children. "Mrs. Weasley and I are going to go out for a short walk. Can the five of you behave yourselves and play together nicely while we're gone?"
ATTON AND MICAL (as Lily and Albus): But we want to help Aunt Hermione fight the law!
Lily and Albus nodded, while James looked somewhat reluctant at the idea. Nevertheless, he lead the others down the hall to the playroom.
MICAL: I will not correct this fic's spelling and grammar...I will not correct this fic's spelling and grammar...
He turned back to Hermione. "Come on. I know a lovely little place we can go. Just the two of us."
ATTON: *Humming Keane's "Somewhere Only We Know" -- off key*
BAO-DUR: *Sends Mical a quiet look of despair*
The streets of London were deserted that night as Hermione and Harry silently walked side by side. Each one felt questions tumbling over and over again in their heads, but they could not imagine how to say them, or even if this was the time to say them. Better to wait until they reached their destination.
The Oyster Shell was a cheap diner, but it was the go-to joint when you needed your artery-clogging fix. Mercifully, the place was deserted - deserted, save for two women seated in the far corner booth loudly debating on whether or not Michelangelo was gay, autistic, both, or neither.
ATTON: Here's a good question -- who cares?
A sad-looking, mustachioed waiter with a nametag reading Alfred led them to their seats and took their orders, before leaving the two alone.
For a while, neither of them could talk, instead looking out on the river covered in fog made yellow by the dirty street lamps, and listening to both the women's increasingly heated discussion and the tinny eighties-era jukebox as it played "Holding Out."
Finally, Hermione spoke. "So how's Ginny?"
Harry shrugged. "Don't know. As of forty minutes ago, she's no longer my problem."
KREIA (deadpan): How depressingly stupid.
"What do you mean?"
"I mean that I told her to get out."
Hermione caught her breath. It took a moment before she could speak again. "Really?"
"Really really. I don't know what possessed me to marry her in the first place. Maybe I felt sorry for her, maybe it was just some momentary lust."
ARAWN: Or maybe you actually liked her? I don't know.
He smiled. "But at least I got the kids. That's the one good thing that came out of this mess." He shook his head. "But look at me! I'm being so selfish right now. I ought to be talking about you, asking questions about you.
ARAWN: What about us, Harry impersonator?! We're the ones suffering through this bantha crap!
KREIA (mock-sternly): Arawn...
ARAWN: Well, it's true, dammit!
How are you? How is -" He gulped. "- Ron?"
Hermione took a deep breath. Now was the moment. "He's dead."
"Dead?" Harry mentally scolded himself for being cheered at the thought.
ATTON (deadpan): Insert obligatory Monty Python joke here.
MICAL (mock-innocent): What, "Bring Out Your Red-Haired Dead"?
ATTON: *Facepalm*
"Yes. I…I killed him."
Harry started. "Killed?"
"Yes." She began to sob. "Yes. Harry, I had to."
And for the next few minutes, alternating between sobs and tears, she unfurled her whole story to Harry: The time the abuse started, the times she had tried to walk out, the times he had reeled her back with threats of death and divorce custody, and finally the time he had snapped the bird's neck, causing something to snap inside her
BAO-DUR (singing and strumming guitar): A traffic jam when you're already late/A no-smoking sign on your cigarette break/It's like ten thousand spoons when all you need is a knife/It's meeting the man of my dreams/And then meeting his beautiful wife/And isn't it ironic...don't you think...
and to send him to a horrific fate.
"And now…now I don't know what to do or where to go, so I came to you, because it seemed like you were the only one I could trust, oh Harry, please, please don't be angry at me -"
Harry moved from the seat across from Hermione to sitting next to her, gently wrapping his arms around her shoulders as he cradled her and rocked her back and forth. For a few moments, the two sat there, entwined, enjoying the smell, the touch, the sheer sensation of each others' bodies.
ATTON (queasy): Please don't let there be a gratuitous sex scene or something...
Hermione's sobs finally quieted, and she snuggled deeper into Harry. For a moment, Harry wondered if she could feel his heart beat quickening as she lay her head on his chest. He noticed the frizz had grown out of her hair, leaving it in soft, shiny brown ringlets, while her figure had not been hurt by the birth of her two children.
VISAS (deadpan): Of course.
Even now, with her in his arms, he recalled the way they had slept chastely together during their search of the Horcruxes, locked together like two swimmers fighting the rising maelstrom.
ATTON: Oh, gag me with a vibroblade --
MICAL (amused): I would, but that would be pretty painful, wouldn't you think?
ATTON (weary): I wasn't speaking literally, Mikey.
Harry heard a polite cough. The waiter was standing there, carrying their orders.
Harry waved him off. "Just put those down here."
ARAWN (as the waiter): Right. Just...don't start humping like monkeys in the middle of the restaurant, 'k, kids?
The waiter set the plates down and hurried off to the counter, where he started to wash spoons and coffee mugs vigorously. By now, Hermione had settled down enough to take a sip of the tea she ordered. Harry took his chance to speak.
"I just want you to know Hermione, no matter what - my doors are always open to you. You have always been my dearest friend, you've seen me through everything, and I would be the most ungrateful person in the world if I didn't extend that same courtesy to you."
ATTON: That's the first sensible line of dialogue I've heard in the entire fic. *Sighs* We've hit rock-bottom.
BAO-DUR (amused): You're always saying that, Rand.
ATTON: No, seriously. Sion owes us a million credits. (Beat) I'm not kidding.
Hermione wiped away her last few tears. Harry felt a sudden urge to take her lovely face in his hands; to kiss away the tears that monster had caused to fall on it.
"You'd be alright with taking in a criminal - with housing a murderer?"
"To call you a murderer would be to say that thing you killed was human,
KREIA (deadpan): How charming.
and from what you've told me he clearly was anything but. You were acting not only in self-defense, but in the defense of your children. If this were a just world, no court would convict you."
Hermione let out a snort. "Somehow, I doubt the Wizarding World is enlightened enough to understand the feelings of an abused wife. My God, do you think I would have stayed married to him if divorce hadn't meant I would lose my children?"
Harry paused. She was right, as usual. The longer Harry lived in the Wizarding World, the more Harry wished he had never received that strange parchment letter in the mail one summer morning so many years ago. The way it denied the sacred healing acts of witchcraft in favor of the violent virility of wizardry, the way it covered women in hideous robes to conceal their natural beauty. He had fought for this world in the name of progress and equality, only to find it thrown back in his face.
(Beat)
ARAWN: What.
Hermione took a few bites of the buttered toast she had ordered with her tea. "Now, I'm just worried about what happens next. I can't stay with you forever…"
Even though I want you to, Harry thought to himself.
"…And I'm worried about what will happen to the children."
"The Chateau de Noir." Harry said abruptly.
"What?"
ATTON (as Harry): It's the Wizarding World equivalent of Bleeprin.
"The Chateau de Noir. It's the Black family home in France, where the Blacks went to get away from the world. I found out about it after digging through some old family records, but apparently Dumbledore didn't tell me about it after Sirius died."
"Yes well, that's hardly new, isn't it? There were a lot of things that Dumbledore didn't feel like telling us. Things that would have made a huge bloody difference."
"True," Harry replied. In the years since Dumbledore's death his affection for the man had cooled considerably. "Nevertheless, the Chateau de Noir would be perfect for us. It would get us out of the country - "
"Us?"
"Yes." His voice softened. "Us. I'm coming with you." He took a deep breath. It was now or never. "Hermione, the truth is…I love you. I don't know how it started or how it began, but somehow I realized I always loved you. I know this might not be the right time or the right place but I don't care. I just want to take you and the kids away, away from the grime and muck in this world and start afresh. We can live at the Chateau, we can get married right in the Grand Hall, we can send the kids to Beauxbatons…we can live happily ever after, if you would just give me your hand."
Hermione, for a moment, was overcome. It the past few hours her emotions had done a complete one-eighty, spiraling up from the darkest despair to the ultimate happiness.
KREIA (deadpan): My surprise cannot be contained. I am bursting with astonishment --
ATTON: *Barely holds back a chuckle*
She finally choked down the lump in her throat to take his hands and say:
"Yes. Yes Harry, oh Harry -"
And there they kissed, and somehow the world melted away around them, along with the blind stumblings and wretchedness of the past years, and they were young and new and fresh and in love. When they finally broke apart, they became aware that the diner was now empty. The radio now blared Erasure's "Always."
Hermione giggled. "You know, I always loved this song. I know it's ridiculously cheesy and eighties, but it always made me so happy."
MICAL: I -- what?
ATTON: Just pretend it's eighties; it'll hurt less.
Without another word, Harry stood up and took her hand.
"Would the future Mrs. Potter care to dance with me?"
Hermione smiled and stood. "The future Mrs. Potter would be honored."
Wrapping his other arm around her waist, Harry pulled Hermione close, as she placed her head on his chest. Together, the two whirled around the restaurant as the jukebox blared on:
Always I want to be with you,
And make believe with you,
And live in harmony, harmony, oh love.
(Beat)
ATTON: I...could make a witty comment to top this chapter off, but I'm too busy mopping up all the blood that just shot out my nose!