The Calm After All The Storms.
All The Calm After All The Storms
Years have past and the results of the war sat, as most passively stated, “is what it is.”
Harry and Ginny married quickly after the war in a field of starlight and paparazzi cameras in what the most anonymous critics called, “a trauma bonding event.”
It probably was.
Harry had quickly landed a good job at the Ministry, but with his new wife’s acceptance into professional Quittach, Harry often found himself stewing quietly without her. For those in the inner circle, they knew he had picked up the bottle as his marriages distraction only lasted until the clips of her luggage snapped shut and her mind flew away as fast as her broom.
It was what it was.
Hermione and Ron took things just as fast and public. For Hermione, she road the adrenalin of war and fame until she came to and nights that were once filled with so much passion and fire had faded away with the stacking of bottles. She was breaking from the facade of a perfect world as she was a hero to something that no longer exsisted. She worked at the Ministry and often saw Harry, and as of late, had been sleeping on her office couch, rather than with.. you know… Ron.
It was what it was.
George never recovered from the loss of his twin. He didn’t live under the Burrows roof, but lived on the property. He had tried to leave, get a place of his own, but his mental state failed him and his family had nothing to say that hadn’t already been said so they watched sadly and silently and with soft hands as they showed him the cabin they built away from the home and hopefully most of the ghosts. His space is always silent and as dark as his soul.
“It is what it is.” He often whispers into the night as he sits inside his home that stands without a single mirror.
Ron was failing the shop that was suddenly dropped in his lap and this grew a resentment towards his brother as he tried to talk to the sole twin about rent and expenses while George looked at him blankly. His other brothers have tired to help, but no one was Fred and this was the damning factor. The shop would have wooden boards over the windows by next year, Hermione sadly predicted.
It was what it was.
Remus had moved into the Burrow part time for much of the same reason everyone else seemed to constantly flock to it. It’s warmth. With the death of the son, Remus who had already lived in misery could hardly bare another day as Tonks ran from everyone and everything.
When he wasn’t at the Burrow, he was he found company at the House of Black, with Sirius, the two attempting to make up for lost time in a world that didn’t seem to fit them or make much sense. There was talk that Ron was going to sell his bothers work to the pair who were going to open an apothecary shop. It was the only plan Ron could stomach because he didn’t feel as though he fully failed and lost it all
A shop, that oddly enough, connected the old Order to one last person.
Severus Snape.
No one knew anything about the nothing that was said, and the two remaining Marauder's lied everyday about the minute amount they knew that was more than literally everyone else. It was simple. They sent lists of their hardest needs through a port key mail which meant he was too far away for an owl. He’d send their requests, they’d pay him and then the pair would send another list. Rinse and Repeat. Nothing less. Never More. Severus had fled into the night the week of his hospital release where from that moment to the day he left, that man found no peace from the stories people demanded him to tell.
Hermione wasn’t surprised to hear that he fled and it was a notion that was shared among everyone who had known him, that Severus was never going to flourish in the limelight of the world. Not with his story that only he could tell. Not after what he did and who he fooled and the world that he ran along side everyone else’s, but was an entirety different realm he was locked in. He faced a pain longer than everyone else. He had spent well over a decade totally alone. He watched the most of the world with a pure heart and richous intentions as he murdered and shed innocent blood.
The world had broken him, and the world collectively understood. The Ministry officially pardoned him and he would be left alone.
And that was the long and short of that.
Other members were still around. Minerva, now headmistress upon a throne of blood and bone, rebuilt the school in all its dignity. She hired Neville, and the few times he and Hermione talked, he really seemed to be finally blossoming. Minerva also worked closely with another.
Draco Malfoy.
Never having done anything for anyone, Lucius and Narcissa would meet their fate and peacefully flee the UK as the brutal backlash became too much. Their exile was all over the papers, Hermione remembered this quite clearly.
She also remembers, as a last favor, a last string to be pulled, a last act of manipulation and his only act of humility, Lucius surprised the world by requesting that his son to be forgiven. Lucius stood before the camera and admit aloud his son was and always had been innocent and furthermore reluctant in everything for forever. The man took it into himself and told the world he persuaded Dracos actions. He asked for his son to be left alone and allowed to stay. And that’s the only thing that man asked of the world that owed him nothing. On the morning of the Malfoys departure, Draco was offered a Ministers job working with the school where he would work closely with, you guessed it, Headmistress Minerva Mcgongll. His dept to be worked off in loyalty.
He took the job and for the most part, near everyone just left him alone too.
It’s January first.
The world is quiet as it recovers from the winter festivities and the new year celebrations. An odd cocophany of emotions linger. Loss and departure. Silence and space. The rooms feel more open and the houses more empty. The mess of last year still touches every home but often we’re told to leave it all behind to start anew.
Start new... Hermiones eyes linger on the window, her quill tip tapping her lip as her eyes watch the falling snow.
“I think I might like that.”
….
Quill sat out on the wrought iron fire escape of the multi level city apartment building. It’s the weekend night so the city is awake and she enjoys people watching from above. The air is chilled but she loves it, opting to wear her robe and wrap herself in the faux fur extra soft blanket. She hits from the pipe again and X-hales out slowly, watching the smoke dance with the fog of her breath. Her phone buzzes, dulling the music that plays on the Bluetooth speaker inside her bedroom.
She smiles.
Sev:
What are you doing?
She shifts in her seat and puts the pipe on her lap.
Quil:
Smoking. Tired.
She was in Boston and her friend was in Maine. They were both night owls. And these days they’re schedules mirrored each other. He used to work at Hogwarts so he was awake very early. There was a battle or whatever and he got really hurt. He left England and left every single thing behind but a storage unit. She had visited him many times in the hospital and had sat with him for many hours. Now he lives alone in his world where no one bothers him and he spends his days brewing potions, growing plants, editing books and fishing the ocean. He was a tried man who struggled to understand his exsistance and survival… and that was about all she knew about that. But she knew more than everyone.
He lived comfortably, but he lived in pretty much desolate solitude. Which, knowing him as long as she had, she knew that’s what he really wanted and for now, what he needed.
Sev:
Meet me for dinner?
She shifts and looks down as a group of people pass below her. They’re drunk, leaning against each other and laughing loudly as the girls heels tap like horse hooves on the concrete sidewalk. From the distance she can hear a siren ring out. A few buildings over, she heard a dog barking. Quietly she turns back to the phone and takes another hit before answering, blowing smoke onto the screen as she typed.
Quil:
Can we go out after?
A pause, she waits looking at the screen for the three bubbles that take a moment to appear.
Sev:
If you come here.
He liked the city, he just didn’t prefer it these days. She remembered when they were younger and she about had to kick him out of her apartment. He’d tell her it was nice to feel so small in such a huge city. He felt like his problems didn’t matter because here there was a collection of everyone’s separate chaos and being so small and dwarfed made him feel comfortable.. He used to always ask to come to her. He’d come when the sun was setting and stay the nights in her apartment, and in the morning they’d get breakfast at a cute mosasic decorate cafe a few streets down. These days though, the silence of the end of a life so rough and hard had taken its toll and the last time he came around he just seemed hypervigalnt and uncomfortable. He still came by, but these days she was going there more times than not.
Quil:
Ya. Where?
Sev:
My house. 7pm.
She looked behind her in the window at Sol who lay on her bed, his big tail slapping the bed when he finally caught her attention. Always her companion, they shared a cognitive link that made them as close as either her or Severus had even seen of an actual familiar. In all the years, Severus had mentioned many times of how uncomfortable Sol would make him in more tumultuous or physical situations. She never denied this because she trained him for just that. He wouldn’t bite Severus unless she told him too, and really was a sweet boy, but Sol had always felt something over the darkened man, and at one point years ago he told her Sol had always been right. His arm. The group. Voldemort. Hogwarts. Albus. Harry.. She knew everything from his school years so she knew Lucius. Sirius Black and the werewolf Remus Lupin. James was dead and Pettagrew was a mess of a human. She knew who Minerva McGonagall was, but everyone else took more time to explain. She remembered the two weeks she worked there. Something that came after she had enough of the secrets and second life. That two weeks was a gift, and silenced her until the war was over.
He had crated a life that was, for the most part, a mystery that she spent the entirety of their time together putting together as it came.
Quil:
You okay?
She knew about Hogwarts, because she had gone to Illvermorty. She knew about the Death Eaters because he had been called or showed up injured or rushed. She knew he was a teacher, head Slytherin and potions master.
She was a creature healer and a Herbologist who loved viney plants and snakes and skulls. She wasn’t affiliated with anyone and that’s probably why Snape had kept her around. America was so disconnected, and this made her a silent abnormality in his life. She spent plenty of time with him over there and enjoyed England quite a bit. He’d take her so many places and they hiked so many hills and climbed so many rocks. They got stoned and sometimes higher in the most beautiful places in either country and, even though he was such a dark and temperamental man, he openly called her his friend and could at times be quite protective.
It probably didn’t help they had slept togeather.
Sev:
Come distract me.
It wasn’t a sexual innuendo, at least, not intended to be. How the night would end was just that and anything like that had never been planned.. It just happened. Don’t do drugs kids.. or do.. Everything feels better when you do.
If anything, he just wanted to eat good food, get high in some empty splace, and take a walk in a park or somewhere they both enjoyed while she talked and he responded. That’s how they’ve always been. She was social and loved by the city, and he was quiet and watched her as she wondered.
Quil:
Don’t threaten me with a good time
Sev:
… I’ll see you tomorrow, Quill.
She smiled as she turned back up her music, but not where it was before. Lower…. Slower. She takes in the city as well as a final hit and crawls back into her bedroom happy and properly high where the vines decorated her walls, her canopy decorates her bed and the room is all the black, orange and brown boho and always had and always will feel warm and cozy.
…….
Hermione Granger groans over the extensive amount of paperwork as she sat in her dark office under the sole main light. Scattered around her are candles, but that’s just so she can feel more at home and less enveloped by the blackness. She checks the clock and groans again.
Why did she make these plans…
Because, her concious reminds her, you don’t do anything with anyone anymore.
And that was true.
War had a weird impact on her. Children shouldn’t see war, and she didn’t belong as deep as she had gone, or knew what she had learned, or saw what she had seen.
First, she jumped on Ron as she chased the feeling of exsileation and lust for life she had felt for so many years. It was a whirl wind that eventually died out and when she left him, she hurt so many more people than Ron. They said they understood, but she wasn’t sure they truly did.
So, lost to the world she works late at the Ministry because it keeps her mind full while her home was quiet and empty.
A knocking comes from the office door and she turned around in her chair to see the door slide open and Draco Malfoy standing, watching her from the threshold. He worked late too, probably for the same reason. The empty Manor must be so… uncomfortable…
”Hey.” She sighed out as she fell back into her chair and promised herself that was her last sigh.
He doesn’t talk, he just looks around the room.
”Snack break?” She offered.
He glanced back at her before slowly nodding his head.
Togeather they walked the empty hall that lit as they traveled and extinguished as they passed. They stood apart on the empty elevator and didn’t really say much of anything but the silence held no tension for Hermione, and seemingly, neither for him. This had become a sort of awkward tradition. Every now and then when they were both here this late, Draco had darkened her doorstep a scattered amount of times.
He rarely spoke to her, and she remembered the bullying, so really said nothing to him either but in some way it was nice. It was better than sitting alone in her office.
“I need to go after this though okay? I got plans tomorrow that I have to wake up early for.”
She wasn’t sure why she offered up her personal life for conversation but as they entered the dark meal hall, Draco nodded his head.
”I…” He started before dying off. “Will be around.”
”You sleeping here again?”
He nodded and grabbed a container of fruit and a chocolate bar.
She never asked why or pried because she believed that she understood.
“You ever think about getting a second house?” She shrugged as she scanned her options. “You know… Somewhere new to stay?”
He bit into the chocolate bar as he watch her grab pudding from the cooled shelves.
“Ya.”
”Why don’t you?”
”How do you know I haven’t?”
“Because you still sleep here.”
He pauses. “I have a lot of work.”
This wasn’t totally true. These days Draco worked directly for the school and its best interest, so yes he had work. But she knew…
She enjoys the company to much to to question him though. “I bet.”
A pause before he asks. “What about you?”
”What do you mean?” She asks as he leads her over to a random table and they sit across from each other.
“What do you mean?”
”What’s so important tomorrow?” His voice drool and overly casual.
Egg shells. After all these years they walked on egg shells, but now to make the other one stay.
Tomorrow was Saturday so she couldn’t lie and say work.
“You know.. I was invited out with friends.”
He nodded and picked fruit from the container.
“I do know.” He cleared his throat. “My old Hogwarts friends, we meet every few weeks for dinner.”
”You guys spread out?”
He looked up at her, her stone silver eyes glinting like a innerlid of a snake.
”Didn’t we all?”
She wasn’t sure about that because that wasn’t really the case for her. Hermione and Ron were rarely in the same building, but they could co-exsist comfortably. She always saw Ginny because her world of friends announced every time she returned from her travels. As for the rest of the Weasleys, Molly and Aurther invited for family dinners often enough that she felt bad for repeatedly saying no thank you. She saw. Sirius when she saw Remus. She saw Tonks a very very scarce few times. Tonks always had a sadness behind her eyes and smile and laughter.
There was only one twin, but there might as well have been none.. She had never really seen Minerva since the battle, and Hermione avoided all that. She hadn’t even seen the castle or its occupants since the war. She only spoke to Nevill who worked in Herbology, and Draco who worked above the school, but really she didn’t count that since their conversations were so scattered and only held in the moonlight hours. Nevill was married to Luna, so she saw her too. The others were still around, and she knew what was going on in their lives.
She frowns when she thinks again over what he said. Was he really so lonely? She’d look away when she saw him look up at her.
He wasn’t who she remembered and every time he placed himself infront of her she was always somehow unprepared. His father was taken from his words, his expressions softer, tired, but softer. He held on to his mother’s love and loyalty and worked hard to be like her. He dressed well and still had all the wealth in the world but Hermione could tell, all he really wanted was for his life to restart as something far, far different.
“I’ll umm.” She stumbles over her words. Gaining her confidence she looks up at him to see Draco continue to look at her, waiting. She looked him oven in the very dim light. “You wanna do something some time?”
His brow furrows and he looks more cautiously at her.
”I know you go see Minerva at the castle every now and then.” She made it less of a one on one event and into something more calm and tolerable. “Maybe I could come with you?”
”I’m not inviting you.” His voice is dark but she wouldn’t label him dismissive.
“I’m asking to come.”
He looks at her before nodding, she could hear his walls shift and can see a fierce glint in his eye. “Yeah. Sure. I plan on going next Friday if you want to wait that long. It’s the start of the Required Return period for the staff.”
She ran the time in her mind. “Oh ya. School starts soon.”
She had trouble keeping up with the dates these days. Not at all with her deadlines and dates, but of where her days were in relation to anything in her old life as a war torn student.
She slowly raised from the chair.
”I’m gonna head home now. Thanks for the snack break.”
A quiet hint to invite her for a pudding cup again, she gives him a sad smile as she tired to ignore how lonely he really was.
….
She came through the doors of the pub and looked around. An oceanside hub with a dance floor, 2 bars, 4 rooms and a center court yard and dock. You can also walk among the beach but it’s small and full of very sharp rocks. Her friends are in a dining space; one of the two rooms dedicated to drink and dinner.
Candles dot the ceiling, the wood and wrought iron bases decorate the rooms along with old timely scenery and dark painted flowers in large brass frames. The tables are much of the same thing. Iron and old wood and the matching tables with worn resin topped gloss. She’d sit next to Harry because the other option was Ron and she wasn’t going to do that. It’s fine though. Kinda. Ron looked like a mess.
“What’s wrong?” She asked after he didn’t order food, just another drink.
“Everything.”
“Tell us, mate?” Harry pushed. He and Hermione spoke more often then Ron did with either of them because, Like Draco, Harry worked with the Ministery so their paths easily crossed.
“Like what?” She reached her hand across the table, palm open, and he took her hand.
“Freds legacy is done.” He tells everyone around him, “I pulled the money for the best accountant to come up with some sort of plan. I used that guy you suggested, Hermione. He had nothing acceptable to say. I refuse to rebrand what’s left of my brothers old supply or sell their inventions and patents…”
She squeezed his hand. “What did he say?”
”They. Thanks to you guys he even asked his friends.. A small team. You know I have nothing left and everything to loose, I needed to know if I could save this.”
His eyes gloss over and Hermione adjusts her seat so she can reach a little further across the table.
”And?”
He shrugged. “With what I have left and the debt I’ve occurred already, I have maybe… 6 months to sell everything if I want to survive this.”
She held his hand tightly and reached her other over and lay her hand on his. “I’m so sorry, Love.” She sighed out her obvious sadness.
”It feels like I’m losing my brother again.” Ron whispered to the table top as he pulled his hand away.
“I could help with some mo-“ Harry tired.
”No.” Rons voice was sharp. ”They told me what I needed to hear. This is my sinking ship, and i can’t pull any of you on board. I don’t even know how Remus and Sirius can take over. They can’t pay off my debt. It’s…”
His voice breaks. Everyone knows if everything was lost, at the very least selling to the pair would be like keeping it in the family and reviving it’s dying.
”It might help to talk to George again.” Hermione’s voice was very strained as she said this. She know the turmoil behind her words.
Ron shook his head no. “What happens to a shop of inventions when the inventor leaves?”
The two looked at each other before Ron cleared his voice and picked back up his cigar.
”I have six months.”
”I’m so sorry.” Harry sighed.
Ron shrugged away nothing but pretended to rid himself of everything. “It is what it is.”