Hermione's Love Life, Or Lack There-Of

So?

Hermione's head snapped up to glare at Ginny.

'Don't tell me you have forgotten what happened when you introduced Draco to the family?' said Hermione.

She was given an innocent look in return.

Ha! As if that was going to fool her!

Ginny knew exactly what the consequences of the entire episode had been. She had been there, just as Hermione had been, and she had seen the after-effects.

'Ginny!' said Hermione, 'don't act as if you can pretend nothing happened! You remember just as clear as I do that by the time you and Draco left The Burrow, the two of you had managed to terrify your entire family!'

And Hermione hadn't been able to stop any of it. She had tried to interfere again once she had sent Penny away, but it had been her against the rest of the Weasley family.

After suffering under the affects of a nasty skin irritant curse, Hermione had washed her hands of all of this. She had taken a deep breath, retreated to the border of The Burrow's primary garden and waited, ignoring all she heard and saw.

She waited, until it was finally over and she could effectively yell at everyone.

But no one would listen to her. The rest of the Weasleys had been too terrified of the amount of damage Ginny and Draco had done in that short amount of time to pay any attention to her.

And what damage they had done.

Charlie....

Merlin damn it!

Ginny was still giving her an innocent look. How could she...?

'For Merlin's sake, Ginny!' said Hermione. 'You Hexed Charlie so badly that he couldn't sit down for two weeks!'

Brian had not been impressed, but hadn't dare complain in case Ginny turned on him again, doing more than giving him donkey ears, a pig nose and green scaly skin.

Again, nothing had changed. Ginny was just staring back at her.

Did Ginny really want Hermione to have to reel out the entire list of injuries the other Weasleys had suffered from?

Fine! It seemed she did.

Ginny had now cocked her head.

'And those two and Lee ended up having to stay in their bedrooms for a week in complete darkness,' said Hermione. 'You were just lucky that they could scrounge up a holiday so that they could arrange for others to look after that shop of theirs.'

Oh no. No. No. No!

It had obviously been the wrong way to try and get Ginny to see sense. Bringing up the twins and Lee had just made Ginny have that kind of smile on her face now. The smile that meant that Hermione was in trouble.

'No!' Hermione snapped. 'I still do not have any sympathy for them and that dratted shop of theirs, so don't start!'

Ah for Merlin's sake.

Ginny was just getting worse. She was now grinning like a Cheshire cat.

Shit! If Ginny dared to...

No! Hermione couldn't let her. Definitely couldn't let her.

She had to change the subject, had to use someone else in the hope that Ginny would stop brewing whatever idea it was in her head.

'And your dear, favourite brother and your childhood sweetheart were hurt the worst of all!' said Hermione. 'Six weeks, Ginny!'

The Head Auror of Harry and Ron's group had not been impressed, as the two had been forced to spend those six weeks at their desks and do as little fieldwork as possible. There had been a need for the backlog of paperwork to be caught up with, Ron and Harry had admitted this to the rest of the Weasleys with strained smiles, but the two hadn't enjoyed those six weeks.

They had had to endure many weeks of nasty comments from other Aurors, and various workers of The Ministry, who simply didn't understand exactly how Harry and Ron could allow themselves to be so badly wounded, especially when it had nothing to do with work. It wasn't as if Ron and Harry could actually explain how and why they had ended up hurt, the dynamics and relationships within the Weasleys was private and no one would understand it, especially if they weren't involved in the War.

But Ron and Harry had tried, just like the rest of the wounded Weasleys, to keep all of this from Ginny. Despite how annoyed they were that Ginny might be going out with an unsavoury character, there was a forgiveness born in all of them that meant that grudges could slowly ebb away.

Not forgotten, but forgiven.

And it seemed that Hermione's words had finally gotten through. Ginny was finally letting remorse show in her features.

It may have taken weeks for Ginny to finally forgive them completely, especially after all of the Weasleys had apologised to Draco for their skewed pre-perception, but she had in the end. Even if the apology had only been an after-thought once they had forced Draco endure a long Talk.

But that wasn't the point.

Or the fact that the entire episode still made Hermione cringe.

And make Ginny scowl.

Like she was now.

Hmph.

Think over that Ginny. Think over it long and hard. The logical conclusion will present itself in the end.

Maybe that would keep Ginny quiet for a while.

Hermione glanced at Ginny again.

Or not.

'Still Mione, everyone misses you,' said Ginny. 'And we do all wish that you would come around more often.'

And that wish didn't only apply to The Burrow and seeing the rest of the Weasleys there. Hermione rarely could get out of the Sunday Meals, or the Weasley Gatherings, she had actually been quite lucky so far and had managed to limit the amount of hours she actually spent around them.

It just meant that she had to have a long list of excuses and answers to any questions sent her way, though that was putting it politely. More than once she had actually been manhandled away from Aunt Molly and Uncle Arthur in order for the rest of the Weasleys to get the 'real' explanations from her.

They never liked her answers, though more fool to them in the first place. It wasn't as if they didn't know that Hermione would be completely truthful if pushed.

But they wanted to expand on that. They wanted to figure out a way that she couldn't get out of inviting the Weasleys to her own apartment. They wanted to be able to do all of this, without Hermione being able to complain about it.

And she had even heard that the Weasleys were hoping to manage this, with Hermione willingly allowing them.

That had resulted in her rolling her eyes, throwing her hands in the air and muttering angrily under her breath 'when had they ever managed to convince her of something like this before?' The other Weasleys hadn't been impressed.

It had nearly resulted in yet another argument between them. Only Bill had stepped in, ordering for neither side to see each for two weeks. Hermione had welcomed it, until she learnt that this meant that Bill would be 'popping round' once a day in order to 'keep an eye on her'.

She had seriously wondered how Bill had kept his job at Gringotts during that time, even if he was simply doing paperwork at the main building of Gringotts in Diagon Alley. But somehow he had, managing to make a nuisance of himself until Hermione found herself all of a sudden locked in a room with the rest of the Weasleys.

Where she was told that she wasn't allowed to leave until they had made a significant breakthrough. She had then spent the next couple of weeks finding herself being 'kidnapped' by Bill at the oddest of moments until finally, it had been worked out as far as it could.

The Weasleys had agreed to not push Hermione into an arrangement she was happy with, and she had promised that she would spend more time around them. And despite what the Weasleys complained about, Hermione was around them more often than before.

She hadn't been this often with them since...since the War.

'Mione,' cut in Ginny's voice. 'Please. You are a Weasley. All of our homes are yours.'

And there was the look that Ginny usually reserved solely for the male Weasleys. For a reason.

Exactly what impact would that have against Hermione? Ginny knew that her -I'm your baby girl- look only worked on her brothers and other male Weasleys. Not on anyone else.

And especially not on Hermione.

'Please Mione,' said Ginny, 'come to the Gathering. It's only Weasleys coming, and it won't be complete unless all Weasleys are there.'

It had been a title bestowed upon her in the middle of the War. A sign of how she still had a family upon her birth parents 'disappearing'. It was used as a way to comfort her, an act that had only taken moments to complete, Hermione had never found out exactly how the Weasleys had managed to steal the adoption papers out of The Ministry but it was a safety blanket for the rest of her life.

And to any she may add to her life.

Most of the time, Hermione was proud that she was Hermione Granger-Weasley. It was her connection to her life before the War, to her life during it and the fact that she had survived it all.

But every now and then, it wasn't. The problems that could run along with this sometimes felt as though they outweighed all of the good points.

Hermione would then almost wish that she wasn't.

Almost.

As she did now. There was something in Ginny's voice, catching Hermione's attention. There was a Tone, and that Tone meant that...

'Is your mum worrying?' said Hermione softly.

Not that there was ever a time when Aunt Molly wasn't worrying. All of them may no longer be on the front lines of the War, and attacks on them by the Servants still out there may have dwindled, but this simply meant that Aunt Molly now worried over all of them returning to 'normal' as quickly as possible.

She pushed, to the point of nearly being over-bearing, for all of her children to be happy.

'A bit,' said Ginny, gently skimming her right foot over the ground.

A bit?

Aunt Molly never worried only a little bit. Either she was content, watching over her brood with a small smile, or else scurrying around, her voice more insistent as she tried to pin one of her family down as she fired out questions and comments.

There was no in between.

Ginny's eyes rose so that she looked straight into Hermione's.

'Mione,' said Ginny, 'she just really wishes that you had married a Weasley. She would feel better if....'

Ginny gave the slightest of shrugs.

Ah.

Marriage.

The War had turned the entire family paranoid. It had taught them exactly who they could trust, and who they couldn't. By the end of it, several harsh life lessons had been drummed into their skulls, and they had all become...

Everyone was looked at with narrowed eyes, with mistrust swirling in their minds as they analysed every word, every movement of the ones they interacted with. And it stayed with them.

Even once it had all ended, after even the Resistances had declared the War over, none of them could just return to the life they used to have. They still watched anyone who hadn't been a member of the Resistance, with hooded eyes. They didn't trust those Others (witches and wizards who didn't know the truth about the War), and that was probably why all of the Weasleys Taken were partnered with someone else who had played a part in the real War.

It was just easier to be with ones who knew what you had gone through.

Hermione had fought alongside various other Resistance members. She had seen them at their best, and at their worst. But none had ever caught her fancy. None of them had caught her interest.

And so Hermione had spread her net further, including others in her search to find her own Partner. The rest of the Weasleys hadn't been impressed with her list of ex-boyfriends, mostly because of her ex-boyfriends' failings (real or not), but also because they were all Others.

Others were still not regarded with much respect.

But who else could Hermione view as potential Partners? There was no one within the members of the Resistances, or if she truly wished to keep to the ones she trusted, the Weasleys. But she could hardly pick a Weasley, as...

'Aunt Molly knows just as well as I do,' said Hermione, 'that there is no one left.'

The ones who were still single...

'But what about-?' said Ginny.

'No!' Hermione said.

She couldn't let Ginny continue that train of thought. Hermione knew the depths of Ginny's mind. She knew that once Ginny managed to catch a thought, and started down that path... There was nothing anyone could do to stop her.

Such as Ginny managing to convince Hermione to come with her when she introduced Draco to the Weasley family for the first time.

'But you-' said Ginny.

'Ginny! Enough!' said Hermione. 'There isn't a single Weasley left. You know it. And so does Aunt Molly. Ron is quite happy in his relationship, as is his Partner. No doubt their Promise Rings are still on their fingers?'

Despite what had seemed to always be one of the main topics of the Hogwarts Rumour Mill when it was still a student, and had been echoed within the many members of the Resistances, Hermione, Ron and Harry were not involved. What many had taken as signs to this Trio of Partnership could never be unproven, despite the number of times the three had tried. People wanted to see the closeness the trio had had since they had first started Hogwarts grow into something more due to the War.

And when Ron had finally gotten up the nerve to ask Harry out, though Hermione had been told that it was more of a 'problem with his balance and then it had just happened', the Rumour Mill of the Resistances had gone into overdrive. By the next day, many of them had been convinced that it was only a matter of time before Ron and Harry would approach Hermione and ask her to become their Partner.

It had never happened. Ron and Harry were Soul Mates in Love, unlike what they shared with her. It was more than friendship, Hermione felt as though she shared a part of her Soul with them, but she would never be a part of what those two felt for each other.

Not that this had ever stopped the other members of the Resistances from still thinking that one day the three would hook up. They still thought it could happen, even after all of these years.

And sometimes Ginny liked to still tease Hermione about it.

Ginny's mouth twitching gave it away, even when she tried to look serious when she nodded to Hermione's question.

'Do I have to continue this?' Hermione said.

Was Ginny really going to make Hermione have to go through the entire reason all over again?

Another nod.

Merlin damn you, Ginny. May Merlin damn you completely.

Hermione sighed.

'Fine,' Hermione nearly hissed. 'Aunt Molly is the last one holding onto the notion that Bill is ever going to settle down.'

Hermione raised a hand, even though she knew that would hardly stop Ginny.

'And no,' Hermione quickly added, 'I don't want to hear about the girlfriends he's had since his last one, no matter how entertaining it might be.'

Ginny snorted.

'You should have seen Her trying to evade mum's questions about exactly what She does with her life,' Ginny said. 'When mum finally managed to get it out of Her, Bill was keeping quiet, several-'

'I don't want to know Ginny,' said Hermione.

She didn't.

Bill's choice of potential Partners could range from females of Resistances, to Others. He didn't seem to be very particular about who these girlfriends were, and would go out with them for a little while. Sometimes it was for a few weeks, sometimes for over a year.

Hermione loved Bill as a brother, he had been there for her more times than she could count and he was the one who had approached Hermione about being adopted as a full Weasley, but his ex-girlfriends were usually a lot to be desired. This one wouldn't be any different.

And unless Hermione was mistaken, there had been slight emphasis on any references to whomever Bill was now dating. Not that this was anything new, none of the other Weasleys ever approved of Bill's girlfriends...

Just like they did with her's.

'You'd like this,' said Ginny.

Hermione snorted.

Hardly.

And this finally seemed to get through to Ginny.

'Save it for when you come then,' said Ginny, 'where you'll see-'

'See that everyone is still taken,' cut in Hermione.

'But what about-?' said Ginny.

'No!' said Hermione, 'for the last time Ginny, there is no one left! Percy will never go through the entire ordeal again! He has no wish to have anyone else in his life, even someone who he knows well! He is having enough problems with Penny without adding someone else to it!'

'But Penny knows you,' said Ginny.

'That's not the point,' said Hermione.

'He loves you-' said Ginny.

'As a sister,' snapped Hermione. 'That is not enough for him to ask me to become his Partner, even for Penny. I love Penny as if she was my own daughter, but Percy doesn't need someone by his side. He's happy enough as he is, as is Penny.'

Ginny bit her bottom lip as her shoulders sagged.

Hermione had never admitted it, but at one point she had thought of becoming Percy's Partner. Percy had been floundering, lost in the death of his beloved Penelope. He had badly needed someone, and while he had talked to the Weasley family, there had been numerous times when it had just been the two of them, up long after they should, and just talking.

But...

It was a fact of life for many of the Resistances after the War. So many of them had lost their Partners, had lost the ones they had shared their life, the War, with. And they couldn't handle it.

They flailed as they tried to once again live in a World that didn't contain a War, and look after their children.

And so, for their own sake, and their children's, many had found ones they trusted, to become their Partner. It was a partnership, friendship. It meant there were two to look after the children, to give the children guidance and someone else there by your side.

Hermione had seen and heard of it happening often.

She had never done it. The closest had been with Percy before the rest of the Weasleys had managed to help him get his life back on track.

'George and Lee-' Ginny said.

'Know that they are to stop giving me lists of potential Partners,' said Hermione. 'I told them what would happen if they gave me a new one!'

Ginny sighed, gently shaking her head.

'How can you not have forgiven them yet?' said Ginny.

And then Ginny paused.

That was a bad sign.

A very bad sign.

It meant that there was more to this conversation than just Ginny's worry of when she had last seen Hermione, or Aunt Molly's wish that Hermione was Partnered with one of the remaining single, straight Weasleys, even if that did only leave, Bill, Percy and Fred.

Shit!

'Mione,' said Ginny, 'can't you just forgive them and let it all lie now? It's been ages!'

It may seem like ages, it always did to any Weasley who didn't seem to be her. But for Hermione, no time at all seemed to pass from the point of the fight, to when she made up with them. It was just too short when they were supposed to get on again.

But she was always 'convinced' otherwise.

'Mione?' said Ginny. 'Surely you can? You've forgiven them quicker for worse ones.'

Hermione snorted.

Again, there was a difference of exactly what constituted as 'bad' and 'understandable' between Hermione and the rest of the Weasleys. It was what many of the arguments constituted from. Hermione wouldn't forgive the twins and Lee for what the other Weasleys viewed as the 'nicer' ones, and they couldn't understand why she was holding such a grudge.

Hermione never could explain exactly why she did. Maybe it was because she had never been able to explain, even when she was still a student at Hogwarts. Harry and Ron had always tried to drag her into as many light-hearted moments as possible, make her laugh ever since she had uttered those fateful words that being expelled was worse than being killed.

Those two had made it their mission to make her laugh more, to make her enjoy being more light-hearted.

And she had overheard Ron and Harry speaking to each other during the War. How all of the ground they had won with Hermione over her attitude towards 'fun' had been lost once War had been declared.

Hermione had retreated back into her shell.

During the War, Harry and Ron, and eventually the rest of the Weasleys, had made another attempt. But it hadn't worked as well as the first time.

Hermione did regain some of the humour, but not as much as she used to. She had heard all of them lament about it, but nothing they could do was able to change it.

And it clearly showed it when she had yet another 'disagreement' with one of the Weasleys.

'Mione?' said Ginny.

Ah, yes.

Forgiving the three of them.

'No!' Hermione growled.

'Mione,' said Ginny, tilting her head. 'You know that they play pranks on everyone! All of us do! There was no need-'

'I already know that!' said Hermione. 'But they know full well that I don't like it when I am pranked! How can they have forgotten what happened to them after they gave me pink bubblegum hair for my graduation?'

It had been bad enough that the Elders had agreed that the momentous occasion of all the students who had been delayed in graduating from Hogwarts could use the reconstructed Great Hall for the ceremony. This didn't include only the ones who had fought during the Second War, but also the students who had left Hogwarts, refusing to believe that the War started when it did.

They could understand that, truly they could. But the Elders had gone too far when they had allowed the children who were Servants, the ones who had managed to slip through the net of witches and wizards The Ministry had named as Death Eaters, to be there as well. The Elders had given a long talk over all of this, asking for best behaviour on both sides as the graduation was a significant event in everyone moving on.

It had been allowed, in the end, but that hadn't meant that the graduation had been without incident. Even if the entire prank of Hermione having pink coloured hair, and the excitement that brought, was put to the side.

The Servants had been more than happy to use it as an excuse to annoy Hermione all over again. And apparently, the correct response was not to pull several of them aside and give them one of her 'infamous' Talks.

Or to 'allow' the rest of the Weasleys to partake.

The Elders wouldn't listen when Hermione had said that she hadn't 'invited' the Weasleys to help her out. They had just punished them collectively.

And the Weasleys had added their own bit, informing her that she should have seen the lighter side of the twins and Lee's prank. And bringing up the fact that Harry and Ron had also been pranked. (Harry found himself sporting periwinkle robes with a dark blue Wizarding hat that shot out rainbow sparks and Ron's hair had turned silver and long, with a knee- long silver beard). That had led to her refusing to talk to them for three weeks, until once again, Bill had interfered and forced her to work it out with them.

It was supposed to have caused the twins and Lee to back off a bit on her, but then her twenty-fourth birthday had come along and...

Hermione could feel her hands clench.

'Mione?' said Ginny.

Hermione gave the slightest shake of her head.

'Mione?' said Ginny. 'You can't still be annoyed about your graduation. That was over two years ago!'

True, but her birthday had meant that all of her aggravation over her graduation had returned full force.

It may have only played out in front of the other Weasleys and their Allies, but Hermione hadn't found the funny side of it. She knew what the twins and Lee were underlining in the prank, even if Fred, George and Lee had never spoken of it.

It was yet another jibe about Hermione's weight, and exactly how much she ate.

'Mione?' said Ginny. 'What is it?'

Hermione gave a soft sigh.

'Mione?' said Ginny.

Ginny wasn't going to give up.

Damn.

'Birthday,' Hermione muttered.

It hardly needed any more explanation than that.

Ginny would know exactly what birthday Hermione was speaking of.

The twins and Lee hadn't dared do anything to any of her other birthdays.

There, go on.

Go ahead. Cover your mouth. Try and hide the fact that you are grinning.

Hermione could see it anyway.

And even after all of these years, she still couldn't see exactly how it was as funny as the rest of the Weasleys claimed it to be.

Or exactly how Fred, George and Lee had managed to convince Charlie, Brian and Bill to help them. Hermione had bet that it was a sudden streak of insanity.

And no one could convince her otherwise, even when Charlie, Brian and Bill told her that they had done it knowing full well what the consequences would be.

'You looked really nice, Mione,' said Ginny.

Hermione gave a soft snort.

But that hadn't been the outfit she had wanted to wear when celebrating her birthday at The Burrow.

She didn't know how any of them had managed to get into her apartment, and she personally didn't want to know, even if it might mean that she would be able to stop them the next time.

Or what spells they had used on her clothes so that whatever she chose to wear, it would immediately change to the loose-fitting dark brown blouse that hung off her shoulders, and a dark gold-brown flowing skirt that danced around her ankles with her every moment once it touched her skin. Nothing she did managed to change it back, even though she had tried various other clothes, and so she had been forced to arrive at The Burrow like that.

And to her anger, the twins and Lee, the ones she somehow knew had been responsible, didn't even seem to notice. They had simply given her appreciating looks as their mouths twitched. That was it.

And the three of them, with the help of Bill, Brian and Charlie as she found out later on, weren't even finished. Not even close.

Several hours later, the Weasley family and their friends had finally sat down for lunch out in the garden. Yet when Hermione had settled into her chair, between Charlie and Oliver, and tried to place food on her plate, it instantly changed to something fattening, sugary and/or sweet.

She tried several times to get what she had taken from the bowl to remain as it was on her plate, but she couldn't do it. And with her strangled cry, Ginny and Katie, who had yet to sit down, made their own attempts, but it still happened.

Nothing the three of them could do could stop it.

Hermione had not been happy, especially once she had realised that the rest of the Weasleys and their friends were laughing. At her.

That was when she had figured that Fred, George and Lee were once again pranking her. They were chuckling along with everyone else, but there was something about them that caught her attention.

It was the way they were looking at her. The way their eyes were sparkling, their mouths were twitching and their over-the-top actions.

It just...

And that had been when Fred had grabbed her and-

'And Mione,' said Ginny, cutting into her thoughts, 'you did agree to forgive them. They apologised that night, without even being ordered to by the rest of us, and that is a first, even you have to admit that.'

Hermione bit her bottom lip.

Yes, that was true.

They had apologised, along with Bill, Charlie and Brian. None of the six had been forced and she had...

Hermione gave the softest of sighs.

But she still wished that...

'It doesn't mean that I will accept the fact that they believe they can prank me whenever they think I need it,' muttered Hermione.

That had been their excuse several times. That the only reason they had done it was because they thought she needed a lift and had thought that through their prank, they would be able to.

Though they had used it also for why they had pranked someone else. Hermione had been slightly flattered that they would, even though she had a suspicion that this was just an excuse, that they would have done it anyway. But she couldn't let them know that.

That would just make them worse.

'It's their way to cause laughter,' said Ginny, giving her a small grin. 'And they don't mean any harm.'

Hermione gave a gentle shake of her head.

They never did, but they knew how she felt about pranks. She found them humiliating, even if they weren't directed at her. She had told them that.

And while she knew that she couldn't very well be excluded from all pranks, she still...

'Especially towards you,' cut in Ginny.

Hermione sighed again.

She knew. She knew.

She would never doubt that.

'But there is probably nothing you have to worry about,' added Ginny. 'When you come you won't have to talk to them. And they will probably go out of their way to avoid you. They have been trying to give you space.'

In some areas yes, but not all.