Groundwork
When one of one’s first crushes seemingly comes back from the dead, years after their death, it is only natural to be skeptical.
This flashed in Hermione’s head while she stood, bewildered, Malfoy and his medical bag momentarily forgotten.
Dean Thomas, Luna Lovegood, Sirius Black, and Neville Longbottom had interrupted her check-up earlier. A loud bang at the front door led her and Malfoy to draw their wands and slowly make their way down the stairs.
A familiar patronus stopped their progress. “Open up, Kitten. It’s safe. There was an accident at headquarters so a few of us were sent to prepare this place as a temporary relief.”
“Sirius!” Hermione said before deciding to bound down the stairs as fast as she could.
Malfoy merely cursed and rolled his eyes before following her at a brisk but much less anticipatory pace. “Of course my cousin would send a patronus after knocking and scaring us half to death.”
He sped up to reach the door before Hermione, tucking her behind him out of sheer reflex, and pulled the door wide open. “Black! Weren’t you in Romania?”
Sirius grinned. “It’s not every day headquarters gets blown up.”
“Seamus?”
“Parvati.”
Draco snorted.
“I don’t mean to interrupt but shouldn’t you be asking us security questions?” Neville asked.
Sirius and Draco snorted simultaneously.
“As much as I’d like to pretend to know you well enough to ask you security questions,” Draco drawled,”the wards on this place only allow entry if you’re accompanied by someone with either Black blood or Potter blood upon first arrival. Seeing as how none of you have burned to death, I have to assume this is, in fact, my cousin, and despite the Black penchant for insanity, I’d like to think my cousin would know better than to bring someone that could be a danger to this particular location.”
“Hi Hermione!” Luna chirped brightly, seeming to not care or acknowledge the conversation going on around her. Hermione blinked from where her head peeked out from behind Malfoy.
She felt the shift of all eyes to her as it hit her that this was the first time she’d seen any of them since she’d left the hospital wing at Grimmauld Place. Ginny floo'ed occasionally and sometimes the rest of the lot would stick their heads in if they happened to be around during those calls but seeing any of the people in front of her? In person? She pinched herself to make sure they weren’t imaginary, not that she thought that would help.
They blinked at each other. She vaguely registered that her hair had grown back since they’d last seen her and the scars on her face had healed and were hardly visible now. She felt them looking her over and shifted uncomfortably.
This couldn’t be real. The whole thing reminded her of a surprise party. Was it a holiday? The calendar said it wasn't. It wasn’t her birthday either. Malfoy had stopped by for a check-up her last birthday and that hadn’t been more than a month ago.
Maybe she’d died and gone to heaven. But why did heaven still have a war going on and explosions and headquarters? Even dead she couldn’t escape the war. Was this what it was like to finally crack?
Well that put a damper on things.
Malfoy cleared his throat, looking out to the horizon to see if anyone else was outside, “Would you lot like some tea? We should go insi----”
“Your aura’s cleared!” Luna squealed, pushing past Malfoy to give Hermione a hug. “Oh look, it’s even stronger now!” Her hug got tighter before letting go.
Luna then proceeded to wander off into the house, looking curiously around her.
For a moment, everyone stood silently. Then Sirius exclaimed, “Kitten!” before pulling her into a hug.
The others soon followed.
The next few hours were a blur for Draco. A briefing of the eventful day at headquarters was given in the sitting room while Granger perched on the arm of a sofa next to Lovegood, looking for all the world as if she expected everyone to tell her to get out. Well, he certainly wasn’t going to do so. And a stern look at Thomas and Longbottom instructed them not to either.
His cousin raised a brow at him for that but said nothing.
“So then this bloke stumbles in,” Thomas was saying. “And he starts shouting about the fountain. How the fountain had to be protected and how the fountain had been untapped. He kept saying You Know Who almost knew.”
“Knew what?”
Thomas shrugged. “Beats me. He started gurgling and passed out. Dead within seconds.”
“Who was he?”
“Moody said it was one of his contacts.”
“A spy then?”
Longbottom nodded, “Moody said it wasn’t the leak we had but. . .” he shrugged. “Who knows.”
“And the explosion?”
Thomas and Sirius choked back laughter. “Completely unrelated,” Thomas said. “Parvati and Goldstein are testing a modification to the bombs we’ve been using, bigger impact, more offensive than defensive, not just as a last-resort to escape. They found some books with muggle instructions but it turns out some of the magical ingredients didn’t interact well with the non magical.”
“Fascinating,” Granger muttered. Draco’s lip quirked and he felt Sirius’ eyes on him. He quickly schooled his features back to neutral.
“It can all be repaired but Bill said it might take a week. In the meantime, everyone is over at Longbottom Hall getting checked over by the medics to make sure they treat any damage that might have been overlooked. We’re here to make sure this place has room for some of the strike team that has a mission nearby and the media team too I guess.”
“There’s ten bedrooms,” Granger piped up. “Not including mine but they’re all big enough to hold a few people. The beds will need to be transfigured into bunks but. . .”
“On it,” Thomas said, already up to start on the task. “The strike team won’t be here long so things might be tight before they leave but doubled up, it should be enough for everyone.”
Thomas dropped a package into Luna’s lap before heading upstairs with Longbottom.
Seeing Granger's curious look, Luna unwrapped it and held the muggle box up for her to see.
“Most of the safe houses have an intercom system now,” she explained to Granger. “It allows us to communicate with the other houses and announce things to everyone in a house, in case their wands are no longer available or they have too many wrackspurts to think clearly. I’ll show you how it works once I install it. I’m with the media team you know, so I’ll be around a lot.”
She looked around as if deciding where to install it. “I’ve gotten very good at handling muggle technology and figured out how to make it work in magical homes. I think this should go in the basement, it’s quite large isn’t it? That would be the best place to set up the tech room.”
Without further ado, she stood up and trailed towards the basement, as if this weren’t the first time she stepped foot in The Grey Moor House, as Regulus Black had named the house as a child when the house was gifted to him by his parents in an attempt to spite Sirius.
A part of Draco seethed at the thought of them installing the intercom system now even though he’d argued they should have installed it ages ago. With Hermione’s magic unstable and her being here so often alone, it only made sense that she have some means of communicating with them if she needed it. He’d been overruled of course, by Shacklebolt, Moody, and various Weasleys who saw fit to remind him that resources were limited and couldn’t be spared for. . . unnecessary purposes.
It only seemed necessary now that more of their favored ones would be staying here too. He glanced at Hermione to see if she’d comment on the injustice of it, or feel hurt that she’d once again been left out on something the rest of the Order benefited from, but instead, her eyes glowed in that calculating way that always stole his attention.
Silently solving some equation in her mind, her lips parting in a breathtaking beam, he knew she was calculating how to work having others here to her advantage. Could’ve been a slytherin that one, he thought with a slight pull of his lips. Once she reached to touch one of her curls and stood up, he knew she’d figured out how to.
“I’ll be right back. You don’t mind, do you Malfoy? Or should we finish my check up if you’ll be busy later?”
“Go ahead, Granger. I’ll be here.” They grinned at each other before she practically bounced away.
“So. . .” Sirius chuckled once they were alone. “Have you told her yet?”
Draco felt his cheeks pink but met his eye. “Even if she --- I’m her healer and I wouldn’t want to take advantage and she’s just now getting better. . . It wouldn’t be the right time, maybe soon but I can wait and that’s only if she --- I mean she’s not ready, not for anyone and me especially --- I don’t even know if. . .”
Sirius scoffed. “Such a gentleman.”
Hair pinned up in a braided coif she hoped conveyed a mixture of tidiness and business without looking too severe, room cleaned to show she could keep up with such things without being overbearing, books perfectly placed to show she was still intelligent but not a complete know-it-all with no practicality, Hermione greeted the guests entering the house one by one with a smile she hoped didn’t look superficial. Many of them paused to look at her as if surprised that Hermione still looked like Hermione.There was a muggle reference somewhere in there, some film she’d seen what felt like ages ago but she couldn’t remember the details.
It didn't matter.
She'd never been close to any of them, they'd joined later. Most hadn't seen her outside of Hogwarts robes, back when she still wore her hair loose, before the Horcrux hunt. The rest hadn't seen her since the escape. Some of them had never met her altogether, knowing her simply from the many stories they heard, all ending in what a tragedy it was that she was now completely broken.
She remained polite and courteous to them all, seeing them trudge up the stairs to choose rooms. Some settled their belongings in the hall as there were just too many of them. None of them seemed to want to room with her except Luna so space was tighter than expected. But she was determined to make a good impression and show them all that she was fit enough to battle, to work, to do something other than drive herself mad in this safe house with only the memory of others for company.
Malfoy stood at her side and she was slightly surprised he didn’t leave to join Astoria when Astoria stepped in through the floo. They greeted each other politely but not nearly as warmly as Hermione would expect from husband and wife or betrothed and betrothed or whatever such pureblood nonsense they were. Malfoy kept a careful eye on Hermione through it all and finally instructed Hermione to head to her room once he noticed she was starting to tremble and needed a nutrition potion.
She felt a flash of irritation realizing he’d been monitoring her to make sure she didn’t lose it in front of everyone and ignored the pang in her stomach at the thought of him not being kind to her just to be kind or to be her friend or . . . No it was just out of duty and the thought bothered her more than it should.
She fidgeted impatiently while he pointed his wand at one of her scars, it panged more than usual and had taken a vaguely blue color, making it look like the clearest of veins down her arm but none of the readings showed anything abnormal. Malfoy had just begun to tell her he’d look into it when she heard it.
Fred’s voice.
She stumbled down the hall, over the bundles and supplies and personal belongings that hadn’t been sorted out yet. Past her fellow Order members giving her mixed looks of concern or amusement. Tripping over a pair of shoes here, a sleeping bag there till the voice got louder and she was right in front of the camera she knew could see her, somewhere down in the basement.
“Fred?” She whispered. Her voice had never fully recovered, it was still reedy if she spoke above a murmur or a carefully enunciated sentence. She couldn’t shout, she wasn’t sure if Fred could hear her. But he was supposed to be dead.
“Hello, beautiful,” his familiar teasing voice said to her in greeting. She could practically feel his smile. What was happening? Shouldn’t there be some quota for how many imaginary people she could see in a day?
“What are you doing here? Or not here but there I guess.”
“Supposed to be dead aren’t I? No, don't look like that, no need to be embarrassed. Everyone was surprised but I’m not that easy to get rid of. I’m winking, imagine me winking, Granger. I was. . . unavailable. . . stuck in a dungeon you see. But! I'm starting Potterwatch back up again. A few adjustments of course, Potterwatch 2.0. I’m actually going to set up permanent headquarters at your safehouse, you don’t mind do you? I hear you have allllllll this space and sooooooo much time so maybe you can assist me, yes? I’ve been dying to see you since I got back and before you ask, because I know you’re just waiting to ask, I’ve been back for two months now. So will you assist me?”
Hermione nodded eagerly.
Fred laughed and said, “Still a swot, I see.”
“Shut up.”
He only laughed harder, “I can’t wait to see you Hermione, I’ll make you useful yet. I might even convince you to help pull a prank or two.”
She giggled. An uncharacteristic giggle, followed by her rolling her eyes. “Are you really serious?”
“No, I’m Fred,” he teased and chuckled. “I have to go, Hermione, but I can’t wait to catch up with you, I’ve heard we’ve both been . . . But I’ll see you soon, yeah?”
She nodded.
“Good,” he said. “Oh and Hermione? I know you’ll be tempted to read every book you can on radio communications but I’ve heard the library there is small so I’ve started getting some books for you and I’ll bring them when it’s time for me to start setting up. You can do your swotty studying then. Just don’t hand me any completely unnecessary essays on your research. I know it’ll be hard, but please try to restrain yourself, oh brilliant one.”
She rolled her eyes once more but couldn’t help the grin on her face. “Whatever, bye Fred.”
“Bye Hermione. I’ve missed you.”
The buzz of the intercom shut off and she felt herself give something between a snort and a sigh, ignoring the curious and confused looks of the other Order members. Ignoring Malfoy standing right behind her, a grave look on his face.
“You didn’t tell me he was back,” she said when he followed her into her bedroom, finally giving her her potions to wrap up his visit.
“It’s been a long day,” he said, avoiding her eyes. “You should get some rest, Granger.”