The After Life

The Phoenix Wand

Harry looked out of the window of the Head Students Common Room, watching the first sunset of October drop behind the Cairngorm Highland peaks. It was picture-postcard pretty, but Harry's dark mind was impervious to the rugged beauty before him. He was turning the slip of parchment Fleur had given him over in his hand, in much the same way he had a dozen times since she'd given it to him.

It was so well worn by this point that the address written on it was barely legible anymore.

Hermione, curled up in one of the deep armchairs nearby, put down the book she was reading. Harry felt a surge of guilt for disturbing her, knowing, as he surely did, that his emotion had spiked and roused in her too. Hermione's sensitivity to him now was bordering on the invasive. Not that Harry had the slightest problem with that, he was just a tad jealous that he couldn't sense her in the same way.

"Sickle for your thoughts?" Hermione asked, her sombre tone betraying that she already knew the answer.

Harry sighed, resigned. It was pointless to be evasive. "Just wondering where she is. Where they both are. What they're doing, what they're thinking. It's getting obsessive."

"Just do what I do, and hope that they are frigid with paranoia," Hermione replied. "It helps me sleep at night."

Harry grinned at that. There was something oddly alluring about this dark side of his fiancée.

"Besides, we know where they are," Hermione went on. "And their residence there will likely be of some duration."

"True," Harry huffed. "Where else could they be so well concealed?"

"It's odd though, don't you think, that they chose the Muggle side of London to hide in," Hermione mused aloud. "They generally despise all things Muggle."

"Then they are suffering where they are," said Harry, darkly pacified. He moved from the window to lounge on the squashy couch. "So much the better."

"There, don't you feel better? You're certainly a nicer colour."

"Which is?"

"A sort of mauve," said Hermione, eyeing him as though he were a homework curiosity. "It's your contented colour, I think."

"I hope one day I get to see you in that way," said Harry. "It seems very unfair that this is a skill for you alone."

Hermione smirked at him. "You just don't like being inferior to me! Well, sorry to break it to you honey, but it will take more than you awakening to the Phoenix Bond for us to be equal!"

Harry laughed at that. "I think we both know that. But at least I can walk properly. I just wish I knew where you were hurting...so I could kiss it better."

"Oh, in that case," Hermione blushed. "I hurt everywhere. If you start now you might have kissed every inch better by bedtime."

"If only that had been a Triwizard challenge, instead of pulling Ron from the Lake," Harry rued. "You know, I often wondered about that."

"About what?"

"Why the Merpeople picked Ron over you for who I'd miss most," said Harry, conversationally. "If I'd been asked, I'd have as likely picked you as him, or at least not been able to decide between you both."

"That much at least is true," said Hermione. "Considering that you refused to leave me behind and it cost you in the Task. I never told you how sweet I found that, by the way."

"You did?" Harry grinned.

"Insanely," Hermione returned, unabashed. "I thought about it for weeks afterwards. And you think you can be obsessive..."