ceredwensirius (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
ceredwensirius) wrote2008-06-13 06:27 pm
ceredwensirius) wrote2008-06-13 06:27 pm
Entry tags:
Innocence Chapter 45
Disclaimer: I don’t own Harry Potter or any of the characters, I just like to play with them
Abolish
Hermione stood on the sidewalk and looked up at the dilapidated five story building that the ministry had given to F.L.E.M. at Sirius’ request. Andromeda stood by her side and by the look on her face she shared Hermione’s opinion of the building. They were joined by the seven other members on F.L.E.M.’s committee who had all come to see their new headquarters. Andromeda and Hermione shared a look that clearly said, ‘beggars can’t be choosers.’ Hermione looked around at the lonely, deserted street, assuring herself that no muggles were watching. She withdrew her wand from her robes and flicked it at the door, opening it.
The building opened with a large waiting room that housed an enormous desk that would need a receptionist to sit behind it. The nine witches were heard to murmur, ‘Lumos,’ as each used their wand as a flashlight. The room was lined with chairs and a few coffee tables that still had old muggle magazines on it. The women cast their eyes about the dark, dusty room and wrinkled their noses in distaste. Hermione looked between the two doors in the room. One was at the left hand side of the room and most likely led to stairs. The other door was at the back of the room and just to the right of the reception desk, leading to the rest of the floor. She walked to the door at the back of the room while Andromeda investigated the door on the left.
“Stairs,” commented Andromeda to Hermione who nodded. She walked over to Hermione to join her in exploring the building.
Hermione was paused by one of her committee members. “I’m going to get started on this room,” said Primrose Jorkins, sister-in-law to Bertha Jorkins who was murdered by Voldemort.
“I’ll help,” offered Lysandra Fortescue, whose husband was also believed to have been murdered by Voldemort. He had disappeared before the last battle never to be seen again.
“Thank you, that will be a big help,” said Hermione. “This whole building is going to take a lot of work.”
“Good thing this charity has such deep pockets,” commented Elladora Bode, wife of Broderick Bode who was murdered on Voldemort’s orders. She followed after Hermione who had stepped through the door which led to the rest of the building.
Lysandra and Primrose stayed behind while the rest of the ladies followed Hermione. The door opened into a long hallway that was lined with four medium sized offices, two on each side. They peered into each one finding a small desk with a chair in each one. The offices were just as dusty as the reception area had been. They passed a lengthy room with a large window that contained a long table and about ten chairs. It looked to be a conference room which pleased Hermione. She entered and cast her eyes about, taking in the dusty interior of the room.
“I’ll get to work on this room,” volunteered Hillary Abbot, aunt to Hannah Abbott, the girl Ron was dating, whose mother, Hillary’s sister-in-law, was murdered by Voldemort.
“Thank you, Hillary,” said Hermione as she left the conference room to explore the other side of the hallway.
Hermione entered what appeared to be a small employee break room that was lined with cabinets and counter space upon which sat an old, forgotten coffee maker. A water fountain stood in one corner and in the center of the room was a small table surrounded by five chairs. Next to the break room were two bathrooms, one for women the other for men.
“I know a few plumbing spells,” said Jane Bones, sister-in-law to Susan Bones who was murdered by Voldemort. “I’ll see what I can do.”
“Thank you, Jane,” replied Hermione. She continued to the end of the hallway which opened into another hallway which was lined with five more offices.
The center office was enormous, the back of which was lined with windows and contained a huge desk and a large bookshelf. Hermione walked to the back of the office and peered out the window which offered a view of a rather busy street that contained more office buildings. She looked around the room, thinking she would take this office as hers. She exited to explore the offices to the left and the right. All four were roughly the same size as the four offices which lined the other hallway, maybe just a tick larger and also contained a single desk and chair. At the end of the hallway was what appeared to be a supply room.
“I’ll get busy on that first set,” said Elladora Bode, who smiled at Hermione and turned on her heel.
“I’ll join you,” said Arrakis Bagman, wife of the former quidditch star Ludo Bagman. Hermione had to suppress a giggle every time she considered about what Sirius thought of the name Arrakis.
“I’ll get these two,” said Ursula Ollivander, wife of the wandmaker who sat to the right of Hermione in the Daughter’s chamber, indicating the two offices to the left of the office that Hermione considered hers.
Andromeda pointed to the two offices to the right of Hermione’s office. “I’ll get these two.”
Hermione nodded and reentered her office, took another look around and began cleaning it. She first conjured a few candles to hang in the air, thinking she would need to get a few oil lamps for the large room. Then she stretched her arm out and began sucking dust particles into her wand. Once she cleared the dust away she noted that the office was still pretty dingy. She cast a few cleaning spells on the walls revealing the white paint underneath all the grime. She cleaned the desk, the chair and the bookshelf and then looked around, thinking it would be satisfactory.
She started to think about how the charity would be organized and remembered that there were still four floors they hadn’t explored. The other witches gathered in her office, their self appointed tasks all finished. Hermione did another walk through noting that the building wasn’t hopeless, that maybe all it needed were inhabitants to care about how it was maintained.
“Let’s all go to the conference room and talk about what we would like to accomplish,” said Hermione. She exited her office and walked back down the hallway that led to the conference room, followed by her fellow committee members.
Hermione sat at the head of the table and waited for the other witches to find their seats. Once they were settled she began to speak. “I’m still reeling from last month’s victory but clearly I’m going to have to get over it because we have a lot of work to do.” The committee members all beamed at the young which who had such incredible drive and determination. “We talked a little about how we want to organize ourselves last month and outlined what our main goals will be. I think we are going to need three subcommittees, one to serve as a political lobby, another to work as a watchdog group and a third to help muggleborns in our community who have been discriminated against. So, who wants to head a subcommittee?” The eight witches looked around at each other for a moment, a quiet murmur filling the room as they talked amongst themselves. The first to speak up was Lysandra Fortescue.
“For years I ran a business with my h-husband,” she began. It was still difficult for her to talk about his disappearance. “I’m familiar with a lot of the laws that govern businesses in our community and have a pretty good idea what can and cannot be gotten away with. For instance, it is perfectly legal for a proprietor to refuse to serve a muggleborn.”
“So you think you would like to head up the watchdog subcommittee?” asked Hermione, looking around the room for reaction from the other committee members.
“I think so, yes,” she replied.
“Any thoughts from the committee on this?” Hermione opened it up for discussion.
“I think Lysandra is perfect for the job,” said Ursula. “I too ran a business with my husband before the war. We will be reopening within the year and so I will need to keep abreast of those sorts of things already. It’s easier to keep an eye on what’s going on along Diagon Alley when you’re actually there.”
“Any objections?” queried Hermione. The six remaining witches nodded their heads in agreement, commenting that it was perfect match. “Alright, that’s settled then.” Hermione conjured parchment, a quill and a pot of ink and began to make notes.
“I’ve served on the Wizengamut for the last nine years,” said Elladora. “I’d like to head up the political lobby sub committee.” Hermione smiled at the confident witch and looked around the table for comments. She had considered this a task she might give to herself but Elladora’s connection to the Wizengamut made her a perfect fit.
“Would you have to relinquish your seat?” asked Hermione.
“Oh, no,” replied Elladora. “You see a lot of that on the Wizengamut, that sort of conflict of interest is commonplace.” Hermione raised her eyebrows in surprise.
“My part time position at the ministry grants me access to the law library,” said Primrose. “I’d like to serve on her sub committee.” A murmur of agreement went up around the table.
“Good, I like that,” said Hermione. “The first thing I want you two to work on is to draft a piece of anti discrimination legislation that I can forward to L.M.O.M. and also research how to abolish law that is already on the books. I told you all last month about my attack on Diagon Alley at the hand of a pureblood. He got away with it because of a very old law that was never removed.” Elladora conjured her own parchment, quill and ink and took notes on Hermione’s instructions. “I’ll need that draft just as soon as possible, by the next Daughter’s meeting would be really great.”
“That leaves just one sub committee,” said Hermione. “Who would like to deal with the public and handle complaints from muggleborns who have been discriminated against or even injured.”
“I’ve served on the Society for Distressed Witches committee for twenty years,” said Andromeda. “That is much of what I did, taking complaints and helping witches resolve their problems. I’d like to head that sub committee.”
“I agree,” said Arrakis. “No one here has more experience than Andromeda. I served on that committee with her for the last five years and would like to serve under her.”
“I think that’s a perfect it,” said Hillary. “Don’t you all agree?” Another murmur of assent went up.
“I think,” started Hermione, “that each sub committee should take a floor and hire who they need. Our work of course is volunteer but we’re going to need part time volunteers from the community and full time employees to really run this charity.”
“That means you are going to need a human resources department,” said Hilary. “Both Jane and I have experience from when we worked at the ministry. I’d like to head that department, or sub committee, what have you.”
“I agree,” said Jane. “You are going to need some way to manage hiring, firing, employee complaints, etc. There are lots of laws governing employment and you’ll need experience dealing with all of that.”
“This is all volunteer,” reminded Hermione. “We can always hire people to handle human resources.”
“True,” said Jane. “But we have the experience and are willing to do it. It would save the charity the money it would take to hire management and we wouldn’t need to do it full time. We would delegate most of it to our employees who bring home less galleons.”
“So that just leaves me with public relations, membership drives and fund raisers,” said Hermione, thinking that didn’t sound so bad at all.
“You are the public face of F.L.E.M.,” said Andromeda. “It only makes sense.”
“We should all have a hand in that,” said Jane. “You can’t do it all by yourself. It’s something we should all take part it in, although I agree you should head that up.”
“I guess that’s really true,” said Hermione thoughtfully. “So, who gets what floor?”
“I think the first floor should be for the complaint office so that muggleborns could just come right off the street and talk to the receptionist,” said Arrakis.
“Arrakis is right,” said Andromeda. “We should be able to get to them quickly instead of shuffling them to a different floor.”
“Anyone disagree?” asked Hermione. A quick discussion proved unanimous agreement.
“You should take the top floor,” said Lysandra. “You’re the Chairwitch, it only makes sense that you be up there.”
Hermione realized she hadn’t considered that, she had automatically assumed she should be on the first floor. She was at the head of the organization whether she was Chairwitch or not. “Well, I’d like to get a look at it first but it sounds like a good idea.”
“We need to get public support behind the abolishment of that horrid law,” said Primrose, going back to the public relations discussion. “We need to plan out an aggressive campaign.”
“I agree,” said Andromeda. “The more pressure the Wizengamut feels, the more likely they are to go along with our wishes.”
“You should involve your husband in this as well, Hermione,” said Hillary. “You too Elladora, the more voices we have against the law, from within and without the Wizengamut, the better.”
“Wow,” said Hermione. “Look at us go.” She beamed with pride at the committee which worked so well together.
“Time to explore those other floors,” said Ursula. The other witches excitedly agreed.
“Alright then,” said Hermione. “Meeting adjourned.”
0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0
On her way home from the F.L.E.M. committee meeting Hermione stopped off at Diagon Alley to pick up the ingredients for a calming drought. She thought it might come in handy given her anxiety level over her committee work and her approaching NEWTs. It was only next week that she would sit for her exams and she was exhausted. She got at most four hours of sleep at night but had managed to hide it from Sirius. They would lie down together at night but she would set her alarm for three in the morning and then crawl back into bed before he awoke. Sirius had no idea how hard she was pushing herself.
Everyone commented on how tired she looked and encouraged her to take it easy. Sirius had taken to forcing her to relax by giving her foot massages. While he was rubbing her feet she would close her eyes and float away on his deep, melodic voice. More than once she had passed out and been carried to bed. He didn’t really give a damn if she got an ‘E’ instead of an ‘O’ and just humored her whenever she would go on about her potential marks.
The reason she wanted the calming drought was because she had started to get little spasms along her midsection which she attributed to nerves. She had found the drought in one of her text books while brewing a potion in the kitchen. She knew Sirius was used to her brewing in preparation for her Potions NEWT and would never question what this particular potion was for. If she mentioned the spasm to anyone they would rush her to St. Mungo’s only to discover it was just nerves and frankly she just didn’t have time for that. She reasoned that there would be plenty of time to relax once school was over.
Hermione reached for the door to the apothecary just as it was being opened by another patron. Hermione looked up into face of Lyra Edgecomb who had been smiling her beautiful smile until she saw Hermione. The upward curve of her lips disappeared into a thin line and her brow furrowed angrily. Lyra gave Hermione a cold once over and spun away, her magenta robes whipping around her six inch heels.
Hermione watched her walk away and couldn’t help but feel that underneath the make up, the perfect hair and the alluring wardrobe was a rather insecure witch. Sirius had dated Lyra for over six months although how exclusively had never been discussed with her. The rumors at the time were that he had developed deeper feelings for her but that was all to be found in the gossip columns. They had stopped dating a few months before the marriage law was enacted so she knew their breakup didn’t have anything to do with her.
She had been putting off asking him whether or not he had any more obsessive ex girlfriends lingering out there. He had spent a long time being considered both quite a catch and more than a bit of a rogue. It stood to reason there might be a whole bevy of Lyra’s out there just waiting to sink their claws into her. She shook her head and entered the apothecary resolved to ask him about it when she returned home.
Hermione selected her ingredients and paid for them and then went to one of the public transportation fireplaces and floo’d home. The smell of something cooking greeted her senses making her smile at his thoughtfulness. She took her ingredients to the kitchen and then went in search of Sirius. She found him outside tinkering with his motorbike, wearing tight jeans and no shirt. Her breath caught looking at his firm toned chest and the way his jeans hugged his perfect arse. He flashed a sexy smile when he saw her and got up to give her a hug. He pulled her into his arms and planted a soft kiss on her mouth.
“How did it go?” he asked, before settling himself back in front of his bike, acutely aware that she was practically drooling.
It took her a minute to realize he had asked her a question. She tore her eyes away from him and focused her gaze on the bike. “Great! We go into the building and organized ourselves. I’m really excited about all we’re going to accomplish.” She leaned her back against the house, taking some of the pressure off of her back. “Then I stopped by Diagon Alley…” Sirius interrupted her.
“What! Hermione, I don’t want you going there by yourself!” He looked genuinely alarmed.
“It was a quick stop to the apothecary, Sirius, that’s all.” She felt a little guilty for not considering how he might react to her shopping trip.
“I don’t care, Hermione. I don’t want you going off by yourself.” He loved her independent streak but he wanted her to take sensible precautions as well.
She put her hands up in surrender. “I’m sorry, Sirius. It won’t happen again.” She paused. “Guess who I saw.”
He paused and looked up at her. “Who?”
“Lyra Edgecombe.” She watched him for a reaction.
“Oh,” he said casually, wondering where she might go with this. “How did she react to seeing you?”
“Same,” she replied. “It did make me wonder something, though.”
“Hmm, what’s that?” he asked. He felt he knew where this conversation was going and started to pack up his tools.
“Well…do you think there might be another ‘Lyra’?” She pushed off the wall and followed him into the house.
“Erm, well…” He set his tool kit down and walked into the kitchen. “I, uh, dated a number of women before we we’re married.” He opened the oven and checked on the casserole he made. Before he left the kitchen he picked up a small box she hadn’t noticed earlier.
“I know,” said Hermione. “This isn’t a jealousy thing. Every time I see her it’s tense and I was just wondering if I could expect this from anyone else.” She followed him into the living room.
Sirius sat down and patted the seat next to him. “Before we chat about that I wanted to tell you how proud I am of all the work you’re doing. I got a little something for you.”
She sat next to him and grinned at the box. “What did you do?” she said, clearly pleased.
“Open it and find out,” he replied.
Her fingers fumbled with the box, nervous and excited. She finally got it open and let out surprised sigh. “You didn’t!”
“Yes I did,” he said, pleased with himself.
She picked the ruby ring out of the box and put it on her right ring finger. She held it out so she could admire it. “How did you know?” She snuggled close against him.
“Well, you couldn’t take your eyes off of it.” He nuzzled her neck affectionately.
“Thank you so much. You spoil me, do you know that?” She kissed his neck, wishing her belly wasn’t keeping her from crawling into his lap.
“Hey, what was that look for?” he asked gently.
“I’m just so big, I used to be able to crawl right into your lap,” she said with a pout.
He shifted his body so he could reach around her and leaned in for a kiss. His hands caressed her arm and then ghosted over her breasts. “Better?”
“Much, thank you.” She smiled gratefully at him.
“I’m not complaining,” he said, letting his hand rest on her belly. “You know how sexy I find you, just thinking about you pregnant with my children…” He growled softly and nipped at her neck. “Besides, these,” he caressed her breasts, “have never been more inviting.”
“They are impressive, aren’t they,” she said with a giggle.
An alarm was heard from the kitchen. Sirius got up to check on dinner. “Hungry?”
“Lately, always.”
Sirius chuckled as he took the casserole out of the oven. He dished out two plates of food and brought them to the dining room where she joined him. He set her plate down and took the seat beside her. “You really don’t have anything to worry about, from women I dated I mean, Lyra was sort of unique.”
“Unique how?” She took a bite of the casserole he made. She made a little noise of enjoyment.
He glanced at her and grinned, he thought it was adorable, the marked increase in her appetite. “Well…do you remember when you accused me of being a playboy?”
Hermione blushed. “I was only repeating what Mrs. Weasley said.”
“Well, I never got very serious about any one woman.” He took a bite of casserole.
“So did you get serious about her?” Hermione shoveled more food into her mouth.
Sirius suppressed a laugh and shook his head. “No, but she didn’t take the hint.”
“Oh, so what did you do?” Hermione got up and went to the kitchen for a glass of milk. “Are you thirsty?”
“How about a beer, baby.” He waited until she returned to answer her first question. “I didn’t do anything. She was so persistent; it seemed like more trouble to be firm with her.”
“Persistent?” She took a sip of her milk.
“Yeah, wherever I went she seemed to turn up. Remus called her my stalker.” He took a last bite of his casserole.
“I couldn’t believe she just took Cliodna’s obvious abuse that day.” Hermione took their plates into the kitchen.
“Actually, that doesn’t really surprise me. She’s sort of desperate for acceptance. I thought she was really confident when I first met her but the longer I knew her the more I realized she was really quite insecure.” He left the dining room for the family room. “How are your feet today?”
“Swollen,” she replied. “I got that impression from her too.”
“Come here and let me rub them.” He sat on the couch and waited for her to join him.
Hermione would’ve skipped into the family room but she was far too big for that. “Just don’t let me fall asleep.”
“I’m not going to stop you from falling asleep because your body needs rest.” He gave her a challenging look, daring her contradict him.
Hermione huffed but she sat down and stretched out, giving her feet to him all the same. His smug look irritated her so she closed her eyes and let his talented hands sooth her feet. “You are so good at that.”
“That’s because you’re so beautiful.” He chuckled at the face she made.
“That doesn’t even make sense, Sirius.” She was pleased by his comment all the same.
“It doesn’t have to make sense.” He deliberately lowered his voice knowing it had an hypnotic effect on her.
His hands kneaded and rubbed, soothing away the tight, swollen feeling. He talked so she didn’t have to, using his voice against her. He watched her eyes fluttering open occasionally, fighting the sleep her exhausted body so desperately needed. He knew her mind was trying to go over all the things she needed to study when her foot rub was over. He also knew she would never willingly give up the pleasure of having her feet rubbed. His job was to wait her out. It didn’t take long, it never did. He recognized the deep breathing and tiny wheeze that indicated she was out. He rubbed her feet a little longer for good measure and then carried her to bed.
0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0
Sirius sat in the chambers of the Wizengamut, suppressing a yawn, wishing he were anywhere but there. He knew that today was important because Kingsley was going to call on him to talk about Hermione’s attack. Elladora Bode was going to say something about it as well and then the endless discussions would begin as to whether or not the law should be changed or abolished. He knew what he was doing here was important but he hated every minute of it.
He knew Hermione was having trials of her own today. She was at Hogwarts sitting for her NEWTs. When he had left her that morning she had dark circles under her eyes from a lack of sleep. She was also a nervous wreck, completely stressed out and fretting about material she wasn’t sure if she had covered.
“And now I’m going to give the floor to one of our junior members, Sirius Black.” Kingsley met Sirius’ gaze and gave him a little nod.
Sirius cleared his throat and stood to his feet. “My wife was attacked two months ago while shopping along Diagon Alley.” A muscle jumped in Sirius’ jaw. “She was three months pregnant at the time and could have miscarried as a result of the attack.” He hadn’t realized he would have such a strong emotional reaction to recounting the events. He took a deep breath to continue. “She was slammed against the wall, pushed to the ground and then kicked.” A sound of collective shock went around the underground chamber. “This violent action on the part of Draco Malfoy was not a crime. Auror Dawlish had no choice but to release him because of an archaic law which states that if a pureblood attacks a muggleborn with non magical means it is not a crime.” There was dead silence. “I move to open a discussion on abolishing this law.” Sirius sat back down and waited to see what would happen next.
Elladora Bode stood up and seconded Sirius’ motion after which, just as he predicted, began the endless discussion on a subject that was to him, obvious. A page entered the chambers and brought Sirius a note. He read it and without saying a single word in explanation he stood up and rushed out the chamber.
0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0
Hermione set her quill down and breathed a huge sigh of relief. She had just finished her last exam, Muggle Studies, for which there was no practical. Hermione walked to front of the Great Hall, handed in her paper and promptly fainted. She was immediately taken to the infirmary where she was revived.
“How much rest have you been getting, Mrs. Black?” Madam Pomfrey was stern and eyeing Hermione imperiously.
“Not nearly enough,” said a deep voice from the doorway. Sirius walked over and parted the curtain, looking cross and concerned. Hermione groaned in the back of her throat.
“You’re pregnant, Mrs. Black, you need to slow down. How far along are you?” Pomfrey began to examine Hermione thoroughly while Sirius watched on. Hermione looked anywhere but into his eyes.
“About five months,” replied Hermione.
“Just over halfway done, then. I am prescribing a week of bed rest…” Hermione interrupted with a small noise of protest.
“That’s easy enough to arrange,” said Sirius, staring straight at Hermione.
“I can’t stay in my bed for a week!” she cried, dismayed.
“You can and will,” said Sirius firmly, allowing no room for discussion. “I’ll send a note to the Chief Warlock to let him know I’ll be out for the next several days.”
“After that you have got to slow down, Mrs. Black.” Madam Pomfrey left Hermione alone to deal with her husband.
Sirius conjured a chair to sit on and settled next to her, picking her hand up in his and kissing it. “It’s about more than just you, sweet. It’s about those babies as well. I’ve been telling you for months that you need to slow down and it turns out I was exactly right.” Hermione sighed and nodded her head. “It’ll be over before you know it and then you can go back to taking on the world.” He gave a cheeky grin, letting her know he was teasing her a little. “Deal?”
“Deal,” she replied, wearily.
“Harry is moving in today with the help of Ron and Ginny, I believe,” said Sirius, giving them a change in topic.
“That’s right,” she replied, sounding tired.
Madam Pomfrey walked back into Hermione’s curtained off room. “Alright, Mrs. Black, I’m discharging you. You be sure to go home and get some rest.”
“Don’t worry, Poppy, she will,” assured Sirius.
True to his word, Sirius got her home and put her to bed. She took a long nap, emerging from her bedroom several hours later. In her family room were Harry, Ron and Ginny along with Sirius and Mrs. Weasley. She was greeted warmly as she made her way into the room and sat down beside Sirius.
“How are you feeling?” asked Harry.
“Much better,” answered Hermione.
Sirius leaned over and kissed her temple. “Good.”
“Are you all moved in?” Hermione leaned into Sirius, resting her head against his chest.
“Yeah, the only thing we have to go back for is graduation.” Ron gave Hermione a concerned, scrutinizing look.
“I thought you were going back to see Hannah,” said Ginny.
“I am, I just meant classes were over,” replied Ron.
“Well, I have to get dinner started,” said Mrs. Weasley, getting up. “Ron, Ginny, don’t over stay your welcome. Hermione, take care of yourself.” She paused to look at Hermione critically. “Sirius, make her take it easy.”
“Got it covered,” replied Sirius. “Thanks, Molly.” He gave Hermione a significant look as Molly returned home by way of the Floo Network. She just rolled her eyes, already resigned to whatever he had in mind for her.
“Hannah’s waiting for me,” said Ron. He got up and gave Hermione a hug before leaving. “Take better care of yourself.” He returned to Hogwarts through the fireplace.
“All my stuff is in my room but none of it is arranged. Ginny do you want to help me?” Harry was trying his best at casual.
Ginny giggled and glanced shyly at both Sirius and Hermione. “Sure, Harry.”
Sirius shook his head sadly once there backs were turned. Hermione pushed against him playfully. “Be nice,” she admonished.
“Alright, alright.” Sirius patted her leg. “Are you hungry?”
“Starved.”
Sirius got up and went to the kitchen to make dinner for everyone.
Abolish
Hermione stood on the sidewalk and looked up at the dilapidated five story building that the ministry had given to F.L.E.M. at Sirius’ request. Andromeda stood by her side and by the look on her face she shared Hermione’s opinion of the building. They were joined by the seven other members on F.L.E.M.’s committee who had all come to see their new headquarters. Andromeda and Hermione shared a look that clearly said, ‘beggars can’t be choosers.’ Hermione looked around at the lonely, deserted street, assuring herself that no muggles were watching. She withdrew her wand from her robes and flicked it at the door, opening it.
The building opened with a large waiting room that housed an enormous desk that would need a receptionist to sit behind it. The nine witches were heard to murmur, ‘Lumos,’ as each used their wand as a flashlight. The room was lined with chairs and a few coffee tables that still had old muggle magazines on it. The women cast their eyes about the dark, dusty room and wrinkled their noses in distaste. Hermione looked between the two doors in the room. One was at the left hand side of the room and most likely led to stairs. The other door was at the back of the room and just to the right of the reception desk, leading to the rest of the floor. She walked to the door at the back of the room while Andromeda investigated the door on the left.
“Stairs,” commented Andromeda to Hermione who nodded. She walked over to Hermione to join her in exploring the building.
Hermione was paused by one of her committee members. “I’m going to get started on this room,” said Primrose Jorkins, sister-in-law to Bertha Jorkins who was murdered by Voldemort.
“I’ll help,” offered Lysandra Fortescue, whose husband was also believed to have been murdered by Voldemort. He had disappeared before the last battle never to be seen again.
“Thank you, that will be a big help,” said Hermione. “This whole building is going to take a lot of work.”
“Good thing this charity has such deep pockets,” commented Elladora Bode, wife of Broderick Bode who was murdered on Voldemort’s orders. She followed after Hermione who had stepped through the door which led to the rest of the building.
Lysandra and Primrose stayed behind while the rest of the ladies followed Hermione. The door opened into a long hallway that was lined with four medium sized offices, two on each side. They peered into each one finding a small desk with a chair in each one. The offices were just as dusty as the reception area had been. They passed a lengthy room with a large window that contained a long table and about ten chairs. It looked to be a conference room which pleased Hermione. She entered and cast her eyes about, taking in the dusty interior of the room.
“I’ll get to work on this room,” volunteered Hillary Abbot, aunt to Hannah Abbott, the girl Ron was dating, whose mother, Hillary’s sister-in-law, was murdered by Voldemort.
“Thank you, Hillary,” said Hermione as she left the conference room to explore the other side of the hallway.
Hermione entered what appeared to be a small employee break room that was lined with cabinets and counter space upon which sat an old, forgotten coffee maker. A water fountain stood in one corner and in the center of the room was a small table surrounded by five chairs. Next to the break room were two bathrooms, one for women the other for men.
“I know a few plumbing spells,” said Jane Bones, sister-in-law to Susan Bones who was murdered by Voldemort. “I’ll see what I can do.”
“Thank you, Jane,” replied Hermione. She continued to the end of the hallway which opened into another hallway which was lined with five more offices.
The center office was enormous, the back of which was lined with windows and contained a huge desk and a large bookshelf. Hermione walked to the back of the office and peered out the window which offered a view of a rather busy street that contained more office buildings. She looked around the room, thinking she would take this office as hers. She exited to explore the offices to the left and the right. All four were roughly the same size as the four offices which lined the other hallway, maybe just a tick larger and also contained a single desk and chair. At the end of the hallway was what appeared to be a supply room.
“I’ll get busy on that first set,” said Elladora Bode, who smiled at Hermione and turned on her heel.
“I’ll join you,” said Arrakis Bagman, wife of the former quidditch star Ludo Bagman. Hermione had to suppress a giggle every time she considered about what Sirius thought of the name Arrakis.
“I’ll get these two,” said Ursula Ollivander, wife of the wandmaker who sat to the right of Hermione in the Daughter’s chamber, indicating the two offices to the left of the office that Hermione considered hers.
Andromeda pointed to the two offices to the right of Hermione’s office. “I’ll get these two.”
Hermione nodded and reentered her office, took another look around and began cleaning it. She first conjured a few candles to hang in the air, thinking she would need to get a few oil lamps for the large room. Then she stretched her arm out and began sucking dust particles into her wand. Once she cleared the dust away she noted that the office was still pretty dingy. She cast a few cleaning spells on the walls revealing the white paint underneath all the grime. She cleaned the desk, the chair and the bookshelf and then looked around, thinking it would be satisfactory.
She started to think about how the charity would be organized and remembered that there were still four floors they hadn’t explored. The other witches gathered in her office, their self appointed tasks all finished. Hermione did another walk through noting that the building wasn’t hopeless, that maybe all it needed were inhabitants to care about how it was maintained.
“Let’s all go to the conference room and talk about what we would like to accomplish,” said Hermione. She exited her office and walked back down the hallway that led to the conference room, followed by her fellow committee members.
Hermione sat at the head of the table and waited for the other witches to find their seats. Once they were settled she began to speak. “I’m still reeling from last month’s victory but clearly I’m going to have to get over it because we have a lot of work to do.” The committee members all beamed at the young which who had such incredible drive and determination. “We talked a little about how we want to organize ourselves last month and outlined what our main goals will be. I think we are going to need three subcommittees, one to serve as a political lobby, another to work as a watchdog group and a third to help muggleborns in our community who have been discriminated against. So, who wants to head a subcommittee?” The eight witches looked around at each other for a moment, a quiet murmur filling the room as they talked amongst themselves. The first to speak up was Lysandra Fortescue.
“For years I ran a business with my h-husband,” she began. It was still difficult for her to talk about his disappearance. “I’m familiar with a lot of the laws that govern businesses in our community and have a pretty good idea what can and cannot be gotten away with. For instance, it is perfectly legal for a proprietor to refuse to serve a muggleborn.”
“So you think you would like to head up the watchdog subcommittee?” asked Hermione, looking around the room for reaction from the other committee members.
“I think so, yes,” she replied.
“Any thoughts from the committee on this?” Hermione opened it up for discussion.
“I think Lysandra is perfect for the job,” said Ursula. “I too ran a business with my husband before the war. We will be reopening within the year and so I will need to keep abreast of those sorts of things already. It’s easier to keep an eye on what’s going on along Diagon Alley when you’re actually there.”
“Any objections?” queried Hermione. The six remaining witches nodded their heads in agreement, commenting that it was perfect match. “Alright, that’s settled then.” Hermione conjured parchment, a quill and a pot of ink and began to make notes.
“I’ve served on the Wizengamut for the last nine years,” said Elladora. “I’d like to head up the political lobby sub committee.” Hermione smiled at the confident witch and looked around the table for comments. She had considered this a task she might give to herself but Elladora’s connection to the Wizengamut made her a perfect fit.
“Would you have to relinquish your seat?” asked Hermione.
“Oh, no,” replied Elladora. “You see a lot of that on the Wizengamut, that sort of conflict of interest is commonplace.” Hermione raised her eyebrows in surprise.
“My part time position at the ministry grants me access to the law library,” said Primrose. “I’d like to serve on her sub committee.” A murmur of agreement went up around the table.
“Good, I like that,” said Hermione. “The first thing I want you two to work on is to draft a piece of anti discrimination legislation that I can forward to L.M.O.M. and also research how to abolish law that is already on the books. I told you all last month about my attack on Diagon Alley at the hand of a pureblood. He got away with it because of a very old law that was never removed.” Elladora conjured her own parchment, quill and ink and took notes on Hermione’s instructions. “I’ll need that draft just as soon as possible, by the next Daughter’s meeting would be really great.”
“That leaves just one sub committee,” said Hermione. “Who would like to deal with the public and handle complaints from muggleborns who have been discriminated against or even injured.”
“I’ve served on the Society for Distressed Witches committee for twenty years,” said Andromeda. “That is much of what I did, taking complaints and helping witches resolve their problems. I’d like to head that sub committee.”
“I agree,” said Arrakis. “No one here has more experience than Andromeda. I served on that committee with her for the last five years and would like to serve under her.”
“I think that’s a perfect it,” said Hillary. “Don’t you all agree?” Another murmur of assent went up.
“I think,” started Hermione, “that each sub committee should take a floor and hire who they need. Our work of course is volunteer but we’re going to need part time volunteers from the community and full time employees to really run this charity.”
“That means you are going to need a human resources department,” said Hilary. “Both Jane and I have experience from when we worked at the ministry. I’d like to head that department, or sub committee, what have you.”
“I agree,” said Jane. “You are going to need some way to manage hiring, firing, employee complaints, etc. There are lots of laws governing employment and you’ll need experience dealing with all of that.”
“This is all volunteer,” reminded Hermione. “We can always hire people to handle human resources.”
“True,” said Jane. “But we have the experience and are willing to do it. It would save the charity the money it would take to hire management and we wouldn’t need to do it full time. We would delegate most of it to our employees who bring home less galleons.”
“So that just leaves me with public relations, membership drives and fund raisers,” said Hermione, thinking that didn’t sound so bad at all.
“You are the public face of F.L.E.M.,” said Andromeda. “It only makes sense.”
“We should all have a hand in that,” said Jane. “You can’t do it all by yourself. It’s something we should all take part it in, although I agree you should head that up.”
“I guess that’s really true,” said Hermione thoughtfully. “So, who gets what floor?”
“I think the first floor should be for the complaint office so that muggleborns could just come right off the street and talk to the receptionist,” said Arrakis.
“Arrakis is right,” said Andromeda. “We should be able to get to them quickly instead of shuffling them to a different floor.”
“Anyone disagree?” asked Hermione. A quick discussion proved unanimous agreement.
“You should take the top floor,” said Lysandra. “You’re the Chairwitch, it only makes sense that you be up there.”
Hermione realized she hadn’t considered that, she had automatically assumed she should be on the first floor. She was at the head of the organization whether she was Chairwitch or not. “Well, I’d like to get a look at it first but it sounds like a good idea.”
“We need to get public support behind the abolishment of that horrid law,” said Primrose, going back to the public relations discussion. “We need to plan out an aggressive campaign.”
“I agree,” said Andromeda. “The more pressure the Wizengamut feels, the more likely they are to go along with our wishes.”
“You should involve your husband in this as well, Hermione,” said Hillary. “You too Elladora, the more voices we have against the law, from within and without the Wizengamut, the better.”
“Wow,” said Hermione. “Look at us go.” She beamed with pride at the committee which worked so well together.
“Time to explore those other floors,” said Ursula. The other witches excitedly agreed.
“Alright then,” said Hermione. “Meeting adjourned.”
0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0
On her way home from the F.L.E.M. committee meeting Hermione stopped off at Diagon Alley to pick up the ingredients for a calming drought. She thought it might come in handy given her anxiety level over her committee work and her approaching NEWTs. It was only next week that she would sit for her exams and she was exhausted. She got at most four hours of sleep at night but had managed to hide it from Sirius. They would lie down together at night but she would set her alarm for three in the morning and then crawl back into bed before he awoke. Sirius had no idea how hard she was pushing herself.
Everyone commented on how tired she looked and encouraged her to take it easy. Sirius had taken to forcing her to relax by giving her foot massages. While he was rubbing her feet she would close her eyes and float away on his deep, melodic voice. More than once she had passed out and been carried to bed. He didn’t really give a damn if she got an ‘E’ instead of an ‘O’ and just humored her whenever she would go on about her potential marks.
The reason she wanted the calming drought was because she had started to get little spasms along her midsection which she attributed to nerves. She had found the drought in one of her text books while brewing a potion in the kitchen. She knew Sirius was used to her brewing in preparation for her Potions NEWT and would never question what this particular potion was for. If she mentioned the spasm to anyone they would rush her to St. Mungo’s only to discover it was just nerves and frankly she just didn’t have time for that. She reasoned that there would be plenty of time to relax once school was over.
Hermione reached for the door to the apothecary just as it was being opened by another patron. Hermione looked up into face of Lyra Edgecomb who had been smiling her beautiful smile until she saw Hermione. The upward curve of her lips disappeared into a thin line and her brow furrowed angrily. Lyra gave Hermione a cold once over and spun away, her magenta robes whipping around her six inch heels.
Hermione watched her walk away and couldn’t help but feel that underneath the make up, the perfect hair and the alluring wardrobe was a rather insecure witch. Sirius had dated Lyra for over six months although how exclusively had never been discussed with her. The rumors at the time were that he had developed deeper feelings for her but that was all to be found in the gossip columns. They had stopped dating a few months before the marriage law was enacted so she knew their breakup didn’t have anything to do with her.
She had been putting off asking him whether or not he had any more obsessive ex girlfriends lingering out there. He had spent a long time being considered both quite a catch and more than a bit of a rogue. It stood to reason there might be a whole bevy of Lyra’s out there just waiting to sink their claws into her. She shook her head and entered the apothecary resolved to ask him about it when she returned home.
Hermione selected her ingredients and paid for them and then went to one of the public transportation fireplaces and floo’d home. The smell of something cooking greeted her senses making her smile at his thoughtfulness. She took her ingredients to the kitchen and then went in search of Sirius. She found him outside tinkering with his motorbike, wearing tight jeans and no shirt. Her breath caught looking at his firm toned chest and the way his jeans hugged his perfect arse. He flashed a sexy smile when he saw her and got up to give her a hug. He pulled her into his arms and planted a soft kiss on her mouth.
“How did it go?” he asked, before settling himself back in front of his bike, acutely aware that she was practically drooling.
It took her a minute to realize he had asked her a question. She tore her eyes away from him and focused her gaze on the bike. “Great! We go into the building and organized ourselves. I’m really excited about all we’re going to accomplish.” She leaned her back against the house, taking some of the pressure off of her back. “Then I stopped by Diagon Alley…” Sirius interrupted her.
“What! Hermione, I don’t want you going there by yourself!” He looked genuinely alarmed.
“It was a quick stop to the apothecary, Sirius, that’s all.” She felt a little guilty for not considering how he might react to her shopping trip.
“I don’t care, Hermione. I don’t want you going off by yourself.” He loved her independent streak but he wanted her to take sensible precautions as well.
She put her hands up in surrender. “I’m sorry, Sirius. It won’t happen again.” She paused. “Guess who I saw.”
He paused and looked up at her. “Who?”
“Lyra Edgecombe.” She watched him for a reaction.
“Oh,” he said casually, wondering where she might go with this. “How did she react to seeing you?”
“Same,” she replied. “It did make me wonder something, though.”
“Hmm, what’s that?” he asked. He felt he knew where this conversation was going and started to pack up his tools.
“Well…do you think there might be another ‘Lyra’?” She pushed off the wall and followed him into the house.
“Erm, well…” He set his tool kit down and walked into the kitchen. “I, uh, dated a number of women before we we’re married.” He opened the oven and checked on the casserole he made. Before he left the kitchen he picked up a small box she hadn’t noticed earlier.
“I know,” said Hermione. “This isn’t a jealousy thing. Every time I see her it’s tense and I was just wondering if I could expect this from anyone else.” She followed him into the living room.
Sirius sat down and patted the seat next to him. “Before we chat about that I wanted to tell you how proud I am of all the work you’re doing. I got a little something for you.”
She sat next to him and grinned at the box. “What did you do?” she said, clearly pleased.
“Open it and find out,” he replied.
Her fingers fumbled with the box, nervous and excited. She finally got it open and let out surprised sigh. “You didn’t!”
“Yes I did,” he said, pleased with himself.
She picked the ruby ring out of the box and put it on her right ring finger. She held it out so she could admire it. “How did you know?” She snuggled close against him.
“Well, you couldn’t take your eyes off of it.” He nuzzled her neck affectionately.
“Thank you so much. You spoil me, do you know that?” She kissed his neck, wishing her belly wasn’t keeping her from crawling into his lap.
“Hey, what was that look for?” he asked gently.
“I’m just so big, I used to be able to crawl right into your lap,” she said with a pout.
He shifted his body so he could reach around her and leaned in for a kiss. His hands caressed her arm and then ghosted over her breasts. “Better?”
“Much, thank you.” She smiled gratefully at him.
“I’m not complaining,” he said, letting his hand rest on her belly. “You know how sexy I find you, just thinking about you pregnant with my children…” He growled softly and nipped at her neck. “Besides, these,” he caressed her breasts, “have never been more inviting.”
“They are impressive, aren’t they,” she said with a giggle.
An alarm was heard from the kitchen. Sirius got up to check on dinner. “Hungry?”
“Lately, always.”
Sirius chuckled as he took the casserole out of the oven. He dished out two plates of food and brought them to the dining room where she joined him. He set her plate down and took the seat beside her. “You really don’t have anything to worry about, from women I dated I mean, Lyra was sort of unique.”
“Unique how?” She took a bite of the casserole he made. She made a little noise of enjoyment.
He glanced at her and grinned, he thought it was adorable, the marked increase in her appetite. “Well…do you remember when you accused me of being a playboy?”
Hermione blushed. “I was only repeating what Mrs. Weasley said.”
“Well, I never got very serious about any one woman.” He took a bite of casserole.
“So did you get serious about her?” Hermione shoveled more food into her mouth.
Sirius suppressed a laugh and shook his head. “No, but she didn’t take the hint.”
“Oh, so what did you do?” Hermione got up and went to the kitchen for a glass of milk. “Are you thirsty?”
“How about a beer, baby.” He waited until she returned to answer her first question. “I didn’t do anything. She was so persistent; it seemed like more trouble to be firm with her.”
“Persistent?” She took a sip of her milk.
“Yeah, wherever I went she seemed to turn up. Remus called her my stalker.” He took a last bite of his casserole.
“I couldn’t believe she just took Cliodna’s obvious abuse that day.” Hermione took their plates into the kitchen.
“Actually, that doesn’t really surprise me. She’s sort of desperate for acceptance. I thought she was really confident when I first met her but the longer I knew her the more I realized she was really quite insecure.” He left the dining room for the family room. “How are your feet today?”
“Swollen,” she replied. “I got that impression from her too.”
“Come here and let me rub them.” He sat on the couch and waited for her to join him.
Hermione would’ve skipped into the family room but she was far too big for that. “Just don’t let me fall asleep.”
“I’m not going to stop you from falling asleep because your body needs rest.” He gave her a challenging look, daring her contradict him.
Hermione huffed but she sat down and stretched out, giving her feet to him all the same. His smug look irritated her so she closed her eyes and let his talented hands sooth her feet. “You are so good at that.”
“That’s because you’re so beautiful.” He chuckled at the face she made.
“That doesn’t even make sense, Sirius.” She was pleased by his comment all the same.
“It doesn’t have to make sense.” He deliberately lowered his voice knowing it had an hypnotic effect on her.
His hands kneaded and rubbed, soothing away the tight, swollen feeling. He talked so she didn’t have to, using his voice against her. He watched her eyes fluttering open occasionally, fighting the sleep her exhausted body so desperately needed. He knew her mind was trying to go over all the things she needed to study when her foot rub was over. He also knew she would never willingly give up the pleasure of having her feet rubbed. His job was to wait her out. It didn’t take long, it never did. He recognized the deep breathing and tiny wheeze that indicated she was out. He rubbed her feet a little longer for good measure and then carried her to bed.
0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0
Sirius sat in the chambers of the Wizengamut, suppressing a yawn, wishing he were anywhere but there. He knew that today was important because Kingsley was going to call on him to talk about Hermione’s attack. Elladora Bode was going to say something about it as well and then the endless discussions would begin as to whether or not the law should be changed or abolished. He knew what he was doing here was important but he hated every minute of it.
He knew Hermione was having trials of her own today. She was at Hogwarts sitting for her NEWTs. When he had left her that morning she had dark circles under her eyes from a lack of sleep. She was also a nervous wreck, completely stressed out and fretting about material she wasn’t sure if she had covered.
“And now I’m going to give the floor to one of our junior members, Sirius Black.” Kingsley met Sirius’ gaze and gave him a little nod.
Sirius cleared his throat and stood to his feet. “My wife was attacked two months ago while shopping along Diagon Alley.” A muscle jumped in Sirius’ jaw. “She was three months pregnant at the time and could have miscarried as a result of the attack.” He hadn’t realized he would have such a strong emotional reaction to recounting the events. He took a deep breath to continue. “She was slammed against the wall, pushed to the ground and then kicked.” A sound of collective shock went around the underground chamber. “This violent action on the part of Draco Malfoy was not a crime. Auror Dawlish had no choice but to release him because of an archaic law which states that if a pureblood attacks a muggleborn with non magical means it is not a crime.” There was dead silence. “I move to open a discussion on abolishing this law.” Sirius sat back down and waited to see what would happen next.
Elladora Bode stood up and seconded Sirius’ motion after which, just as he predicted, began the endless discussion on a subject that was to him, obvious. A page entered the chambers and brought Sirius a note. He read it and without saying a single word in explanation he stood up and rushed out the chamber.
0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0
Hermione set her quill down and breathed a huge sigh of relief. She had just finished her last exam, Muggle Studies, for which there was no practical. Hermione walked to front of the Great Hall, handed in her paper and promptly fainted. She was immediately taken to the infirmary where she was revived.
“How much rest have you been getting, Mrs. Black?” Madam Pomfrey was stern and eyeing Hermione imperiously.
“Not nearly enough,” said a deep voice from the doorway. Sirius walked over and parted the curtain, looking cross and concerned. Hermione groaned in the back of her throat.
“You’re pregnant, Mrs. Black, you need to slow down. How far along are you?” Pomfrey began to examine Hermione thoroughly while Sirius watched on. Hermione looked anywhere but into his eyes.
“About five months,” replied Hermione.
“Just over halfway done, then. I am prescribing a week of bed rest…” Hermione interrupted with a small noise of protest.
“That’s easy enough to arrange,” said Sirius, staring straight at Hermione.
“I can’t stay in my bed for a week!” she cried, dismayed.
“You can and will,” said Sirius firmly, allowing no room for discussion. “I’ll send a note to the Chief Warlock to let him know I’ll be out for the next several days.”
“After that you have got to slow down, Mrs. Black.” Madam Pomfrey left Hermione alone to deal with her husband.
Sirius conjured a chair to sit on and settled next to her, picking her hand up in his and kissing it. “It’s about more than just you, sweet. It’s about those babies as well. I’ve been telling you for months that you need to slow down and it turns out I was exactly right.” Hermione sighed and nodded her head. “It’ll be over before you know it and then you can go back to taking on the world.” He gave a cheeky grin, letting her know he was teasing her a little. “Deal?”
“Deal,” she replied, wearily.
“Harry is moving in today with the help of Ron and Ginny, I believe,” said Sirius, giving them a change in topic.
“That’s right,” she replied, sounding tired.
Madam Pomfrey walked back into Hermione’s curtained off room. “Alright, Mrs. Black, I’m discharging you. You be sure to go home and get some rest.”
“Don’t worry, Poppy, she will,” assured Sirius.
True to his word, Sirius got her home and put her to bed. She took a long nap, emerging from her bedroom several hours later. In her family room were Harry, Ron and Ginny along with Sirius and Mrs. Weasley. She was greeted warmly as she made her way into the room and sat down beside Sirius.
“How are you feeling?” asked Harry.
“Much better,” answered Hermione.
Sirius leaned over and kissed her temple. “Good.”
“Are you all moved in?” Hermione leaned into Sirius, resting her head against his chest.
“Yeah, the only thing we have to go back for is graduation.” Ron gave Hermione a concerned, scrutinizing look.
“I thought you were going back to see Hannah,” said Ginny.
“I am, I just meant classes were over,” replied Ron.
“Well, I have to get dinner started,” said Mrs. Weasley, getting up. “Ron, Ginny, don’t over stay your welcome. Hermione, take care of yourself.” She paused to look at Hermione critically. “Sirius, make her take it easy.”
“Got it covered,” replied Sirius. “Thanks, Molly.” He gave Hermione a significant look as Molly returned home by way of the Floo Network. She just rolled her eyes, already resigned to whatever he had in mind for her.
“Hannah’s waiting for me,” said Ron. He got up and gave Hermione a hug before leaving. “Take better care of yourself.” He returned to Hogwarts through the fireplace.
“All my stuff is in my room but none of it is arranged. Ginny do you want to help me?” Harry was trying his best at casual.
Ginny giggled and glanced shyly at both Sirius and Hermione. “Sure, Harry.”
Sirius shook his head sadly once there backs were turned. Hermione pushed against him playfully. “Be nice,” she admonished.
“Alright, alright.” Sirius patted her leg. “Are you hungry?”
“Starved.”
Sirius got up and went to the kitchen to make dinner for everyone.