The Lost Horcrux

The Order of Merlin

Celesca skipped to Narcissa and they retreated to a couch near the window. Hermione sidled up to Luna.

"Don't worry, I wont let Narcissa turn her into a Malfoy," Hermione grinned firmly. "Good ploy with the unicorns, though. All little witches love unicorns."

"What ploy?" asked Luna innocently, whipping out a brush. "I am going to the stables. Harry said it was alright for me to."

Hermione shifted awkwardly. "Oh, right. Well, I'll bring Cesc to you in a while."

Luna took one last, almost sad look at Celesca before leaving the room. Hermione turned and frowned at the two on the couch. They were already as thick as thieves and chattering away rapidly. Hermione moved to a cosy chair near to the window, where she could eavesdrop on the conversation without it looking like that's what she was doing, and took a book down from a case that was in an alcove there. She felt that immediate sense of contentment that having a book in her lap brought to her. She didn't even have to know what it was about. There were just fewer things more symbiotic in the world than Hermione Granger and some oversized tome between her fingers.

She caught herself daydreaming as she sat there. It was quite possible, if all went to plan, that she would be married to Harry within a matter of days or weeks. This house, and everything in it, would then be officially hers, even though she'd been lording it over everyone as Lady of the Manor pretty much since she'd arrived. It would be beyond contestation as soon as it was official. And, as she sat there and watched out of the window at the birds rising from the distant orchard, she found herself in the throes of a romantic fantasy.

She dreamed of herself a year from now, sat in this same chair, looking out at the same orchard. It would be her orchard by then. Harry could be quaffing the cider pressed from its apples. She would have a book in her hand, and she'd be blissfully happy like that. Celesca would be there, too, but not talking to Narcissa. She'd be cooing to a newborn baby, talking to it with her incredible Seer ability.

And Hermione wondered then if she and Harry would have a boy or a girl first.

The thought jolted her to full alertness and set her heart to tremulous beating. All sound seemed to have stopped in the world and Hermione was smiling wildly to herself, she knew she was, and accepted that it might have looked like she was going a bit mental to anyone who was watching, but she couldn't help it. What would she prefer first ... a son or a daughter? It was such a happy conundrum to daydream away to.

She had to think she'd prefer a little girl first. She was falling a bit in love with Celesca and, if Luna ever decided she was bored with being a Mum, maybe she'd let Hermione adopt her. She rolled her eyes at her own insane silliness and considered what Harry would rather have. The very notion that they would even be able to have such a conversation was so wonderfully ludicrous that Hermione wanted to laugh out loud, just because she could.

The ring now missing from her finger had been such a burden ... the last true link to the Weasleys and her abusive marriage to the youngest son of that hated family. She was feeling like her old self again, more and more so with each hour that her hand was free of that ugly piece of tin. But it was more than that, because she felt like a better her, a stronger one. She'd come through a horrendous experience, been beaten but not broken ... and the universe had rewarded her with Harry and the love they were now drowning in.

And Hermione had to think it would reward her with a baby from him, too.

She hoped that would turn out to be true, but they had a world to change before all of that. Besides, she was supposed to be keeping an ear on what Narcissa was discussing with Celesca, but it was something that Luna's daughter was saying that turned Hermione back to the conversation ... and turned her stomach to boot.