"Are you sure you want to go to this? We don't have to if you don't want to. You really look like you are having second thoughts about the whole thing." Spencer says as he cradles Athena by the door, his eyes never once leaving our daughter. "I have to do this. I've not seen my friends since the end of the war, and that was fourteen years ago." Adjusting my dress I glimpse the eye roll Spencer gives at my response. He knows I won't back down from going no matter how much I may want to. "You're not the same person you were fourteen years ago, Hermione." Is all he says, finally lifting his eyes from our daughters now sleeping form to look at me. "You think I don't know that? I moved to America and joined your team, we got married and I had Athena... I know I'm not the same person I once was, but that doesn't mean I can keep running from the past." I say flatly, crossing the room to pluck Athena from his arms and put her in her car seat... she looks so much like Spence it's not even funny.
"How are we even getting to this school of yours? You've mentioned means of magical transportation before but none of them seem safe nor logical for traveling with Athena." As soon as he's sure Athena is going to remain sleeping in her seat he starts questioning me. He never has been able to fully grasp the concept of travel in the wizarding world and it drives him crazy. "We're at my parents house for a reason, we're taking the floo directly to Hogwarts. I wrote McGonagall and got permission to use the floo in her office the day I got the invitation for the reunion." Spencer nods his head before looking up at me confused. "You never did explain why you have seven and fourteen year reunions instead of the muggle standard of five and ten. Wouldn't that make much more sense to go by fives instead of sevens?" I roll my eyes at him and hand him Athena's car seat before walking over to the closet to get the bucket of floo powder. "Seven years of schooling, seven years between reunions." I say, throwing a handful of powder into the fire and watching the flames turn green.
"You two go first, I'll follow. When I shout the name of the school you need to step into the flames- and no, they won't hurt you or Athena." I explain, raising my hand to stop his river of questions before they can begin to flow. "Hogwarts!" I shout and shove Spence and our daughter into the flames, watching with a grin as they both disappear. A second later I grab another handful of powder and send myself through the floo network, landing gracefully in McGonagalls office. Taking notice of Athena's empty carrier I look around the room and smile when I see McGonagall cradling my daughters small form while talking adamantly with my husband. Upon walking closer I realize they're talking about Athena. "She's absolutely precious, what exactly did you say her name was, Mr Reid?" McGonagall asks, cooing at my baby. "Her name is Athena Minerva Reid. Hermione and I named her after the Greek and Roman goddesses of wisdom and knowledge." He explains, not realizing that our daughters middle name might have come from somewhere else. "Actually her middle name is after the best professor I've ever had, Headmistress." I say, finally drawing attention to myself.
McGonagall grins widely at me before handing Athena back to Spencer so she can hug me. "It's good to see you again, Miss Granger... or perhaps I should be calling you Mrs Reid." She says, squeezing me tightly. "The two of you may feel free to leave her carrier here if you'd like, however I must insist you not allow me to keep you from the reunion any longer than I already have. I trust you can still find your way to the great hall, Hermione?" After releasing me from her anaconda like grip, she directs Spence and I out of her office and towards the great hall. As I lead Spencer towards the great hall I warn him not to bombard my school friends with too many questions about the magical world. "Just hold your questions until we get back to Mum and Dads tonight then you can ask away and I'll answer anything you want to know." I say just as we reach the open doors to the great hall, my voice wavering slightly at the end of my sentence. "It's not too late to back out." "Yes it is."
With a deep breath I walk into the hall, Spencer and Athena right behind me. As soon as we enter the hall, Spencer catches sight of Luna and Dean Thomas, the only of my magical friends he's ever met, and rushes over to talk to Luna- taking Athena with him. I move to follow him, but stop when I make eye contact with a set of green eyes I'd know from anywhere. Harry. His eyebrows shoot up into his hairline and he smacks the ginger to his right on the shoulder as I approach them, alerting Ron to my presence. "Hermione? Is it really you?" Harry asks when I'm within earshot, causing the other members of table to look up at me in shock. "Yes, it's me, Harry." I whisper, preparing for the telling off I'm sure is to come. Harry stands there gaping at me, not really sure of what to say... but the ginger woman sitting to his left finds words for him. "Where the bloody hell have you been? Do you know what you put all of us through? How long we looked for you? You broke my brothers heart when you left! Suddenly you think it's okay to just appear out of thin air fourteen years after dropping off the face of the earth?!"
I forgot how vocal Ginny could be about her thoughts. "It wasn't like that, Ginny. I never meant to hurt anybody... I just needed to get away." I begin to explain, sitting down in the seat across from Harry. "Then fucking explain it, Hermione." Ron growls, having finally recovered from his shock. "After the fighting stopped, I was tired. It wasn't the kind of tired that a few days of sleep couldn't fix, I needed change... so I went home and contacted my Uncle David and asked if he could help me get away from here, from everything haunting me. I was in America the next day and meeting with the American MOM the day after that. They got me set up in a muggle college and I was recruited to work for my Uncles agency in 2006." I finish, watching as Harry's face flashes with recognition at the mention of my Uncle David. "You mean the uncle that works for that America intelligence agency- the FBI?" He asks to clarify, having not expected me to join my Uncles line of work. He always adored my Uncle Rossi.
I open my mouth to confirm the answer he already knows is right when suddenly my child is thrust into my arms, smelling like a dumpster. "She relieved herself while I was talking to Luna, and I'm not sure where the bathrooms are here." Spencer says sheepishly, rubbing the back of his neck. All conversation at the table ceases as they take notice of Spencer, expressions varying from confusion to anger. "Who's this, Mione?" Harry asks, his classic face of pure confusion masking his features. "Oh, how rude of me not to introduce myself, I'm Dr Spencer Reid. Hermione's husband." Spence says, extending his hand towards Harry so he can shake it. Harry's eyes widen as he accepts Spencer's hand and glances in my direction for conformation. Ginny scoffs and rolls her eyes, but I can see the anger behind her expression. She's pissed I hurt her brother, and she's not about to be quiet about it. "I don't think you're being honest with us. When the bloody hell did you get married? How did you even meet him? Does he know you're a self righteous swot who breaks everything she touches?" She snaps, reaching out to place her hand on Rons shoulder.
"Not that I agree with the way she's going about asking, but how did you meet him? You're not the type to rush into anything so you've had to have known him for years." Harry observes, his nose scrunching slightly when he gets a whiff of Athena as he leans closer to me. "Love, can you take her to Luna and ask if she'll go change her?" I ask Spence, passing our smelly child back over to him. "Not a problem, I'll be right back." I wait until Spence is out of earshot before I snarl at Ginny with a rage I didn't know I was capable of. "Listen closely, Weasley, because I'm only going to say this once. You can be mad at me for leaving all you want, but don't you dare question the integrity of my marriage or start slinging insults at my husband. You forget, not only did I fight and help win a war, I've got more knowledge of murder and how to get away with it than you could ever dream of knowing." Harry's eyes widen at my outburst and Ron grins slightly, Ginny looks flabbergasted.
"Luna and Dean went to get her cleaned up, they said they'd bring her back to us in a little bit. Luna has a bit of baby fever at the moment so they'll probably keep her half an hour or more." Spencer says as he slips into the seat beside me, eyeing my former best friends with caution. "So, how exactly did the two of you meet?" Harry asks, trying to break the tension Ginny and I had created before Spence's arrival. "I interned for my Uncle Rossi for eight years before I was recruited to join his team, Spencer and I met in 2005 when he joined the team, we began dating in late 2006, and we were married in 2010, four years after I officially joined the team." I explain Spencer and I's timeline in the simplest words I can, not willing to tell them our relationship had began while I was researching evidence for my Uncle and practically body tackled Reid in excitement when he offered to help me out. "So the entire reason the two of you got together was work? Typical Hermione." Ginny scoffs, she's truly getting on my nerves.
"What of it? Just by glancing at you I can tell you've been throwing yourself, unsuccessfully, at the feet of the gentleman with the raven hair for years. The way you glanced at him when Hermione mentioned marriage, the possessive way you place your hand over his when another woman passes, the look on your face when he shows any interest in anything my wife says... You're an open book and you don't even realize it." Spencer says very matter of factly, draping his arm around the back of my chair and watching with a smile as Ginny's mouth drops open and Harry's eyes widen comically, Ron looks like he wants to laugh. Ginny opens her mouth to tell him off... but Spencer isn't quite done yet. "As for Mr Green eyes, he's not interested in you. Not even in the slightest. When Hermione mentioned marriage his eyes shot across the room to the gentleman with the white hair, every time said gentleman looks his way he smiles and chews his bottom lip slightly, he also has a habit of clenching his fist when the pug like lady across the room caresses the chest of Mr Blondie. He's not interested in you because he's gay, you're just too self-absorbed to notice it."
Ron howls with laughter at the expressions on his sister and his best friends faces, not expecting Spencer to turn towards him next. "You, however, are not as easy to read as your sister and your friend. The way you look at my wife suggests you may still have feelings for her, but your constant twisting of your wedding band indicate you're missing your spouse and wishing they were here with you for backup. You seem to feel sorry for your sister because of the way you place your hand over hers when she looks at your friend, but you also appear to be relieved at the revelation of your friends homosexual tendencies. The constant tapping of your foot suggest you're anxious about something, but I'm not sure what yet." Spencer says, turning slightly to look for Luna and our daughter. It takes everything in me not to laugh at the expressions on my friends faces, they weren't expecting to be profiled. After everyone takes a few minutes to recover, and Luna returns my child, the five of us fall into comfortable conversation- Ron even asking to hold Athena.
"What's her name?" He asks, carefully cradling her small form, his eyes softening when she coos softly at him. "Athena Minerva Reid." Spencer says with pride, he loves the fact she's named after two goddess of wisdom and knowledge. He swears that she's going to be the smartest person to ever walk the earth when she gets older with our combined gene pool. "After McGonagall?" Harry asks with a grin, leaning over Ginny to get a good look at my baby. "Yes, had to name her after the best professor I ever had... it's just a bonus it's also after the Roman goddess of wisdom." Ginny rolls her eyes at me, but finally leans over to look at my child, her eyes softening considerably. "Are you going to move back to England when time comes for her to attend Hogwarts?" Ron asks, mesmerized when she sneezes and her nose scrunches up cutely. "Why would we? The most logical thing would be to send her to the American equivalent of this institution, but Hermione wants her to come here, so we can bring her at the start of term and pick her up on holidays. No relocating needed." Spencer says, his eyes conveying a new find.
As the night draws to a close several hours later, I overhear Spence and Ron talking as Spence finally claims our daughter from my friends arms. "I figured it out a the moment you asked to hold Athena, but I didn't think you'd like it very much if I told everyone for you. Congratulations." Spence says before walking over to me, leaving a stunned Ron in his wake. It takes me a moment to piece together what he means but when I do I smile slightly to myself. Ron's wife if pregnant, probably still in her first trimester, that's why he kept twirling his wedding ring around his finger. "Ready to get back to Mum and Dads?" I ask Spencer, leading him towards McGonagalls office with a grin. "Yes... but can you explain how the pictures move now? Is it electronic or magical? How did all the food appear and disappear into thin air? Was it summoned or created? Oh! Do the staircases actually move?! Dean and Luna were telling me about how the stairs leading up to Gryffindor and Ravenclaw towers like to rearrange themselves daily to keep students on their toes..."
It's going to be a long night.
(Just an idea I had... Did you like it?)