Mia was upstairs getting ready to go to sleep in the bedroom Hermione's parents had set up for her. Cooper was here, too, so Hermione would likely stay here tonight. She'd driven, which Harry always found amusing. Her parents' friends would be suspicious, though, if Hermione and Mia showed up at her parents' house all of the time without a car. If it was just a quick visit, she could apparate in and out of Mia's room. Holidays, though, people expected to see Hermione's car here. Harry was a mainstay at her parents' house for holidays.
Harry, for his part, was upstairs with Mia. She liked to hear some of his auror stories, and he liked telling them to someone who didn't look at him as if he was the great Harry Potter. Hermione didn't look at him that way either, but she didn't really want to hear his stories in detail. Over thirteen years after the war, she still had no real desire to hear about criminals in the wizarding world. She met more than her share due to her job. Mia liked the details. She was old enough now, Harry could tell her most of them without editing much out.
Cooper was snoozing in front of the fire on the same throw rug that Mia used to nap on when she was little. She always seemed to nap better with the warmth of a fire lulling her to sleep. (She still did, truthfully.)
Her parents were putzing around in the kitchen. The house was quiet. Peaceful, which made her realize her parents were likely just about done. She sipped on the tea her mum had made them, a plate of Easter treats on the table by her elbow. She stopped feeling guilty about her mom doting on her when she was an adult herself. Her mom liked doing it, and Hermione enjoyed knowing that she was still special and mattered. The sofa was positioned perfectly so that Hermione was able to see the street. A few cars drove past, but overall it was quiet. Her parents lived in a pretty quiet area.
Another Easter in the books. She hadn't known what to do at Christmas without Mia here. Her parents had known it, too, and went out of their way to entertain her.
She realized, after the fact, that they'd done it - and known what to do - because she hadn't been with them for more than one holiday. She wanted to say it was different. That they at least had one another. She knew, though, that it wasn't the same.
Hermione knew it wasn't that Mia was choosing someone or something else over her. She was, like it or not, growing up. Yes, she was only eleven, almost twelve now, but it all started here. Going to Ilvermorny. Spending Christmas break with friends, learning quidditch.
Harry came downstairs around the time Hermione thought her parents were ready to go up to bed themselves.
"Sorry I was gone so long. She really liked my stories tonight. Did you still want to take Cooper for a walk around the block, Hermione?" Harry asked. She stared at him for a minute, because she was fairly sure she hadn't said any such thing. Now that Cooper heard him mention the word ‘walk' he wouldn't relent. He had a look in his eye she recognized, though. This wasn't her best friend, Harry. This was DMLE employee, Auror Harry Potter.
"Yes," she said, setting her teacup down. "You took so long, I thought you forgot."
"No," he said, grabbing Cooper's leash. Not that he needed it, but her parents lived in a very residential neighborhood in town so they leashed him while taking him out. He was well trained and friendly, but was kind of scary looking. She assured her parents they'd be right back in and would lock up when they did.
"What's wrong?" she asked once they were two doors down from her parents' house. He'd been here since coming back with her after she'd gotten Mia from the subway station. He hadn't received any owls or anything that she was aware of.
"Harry," she said softly when he didn't answer her. What on earth happened that had him this pensive? She could … feel it rolling off of him.
"I don't think that's Mia," he said. "In fact, I'm quite positive that it's not."
"Harry," she said again. The tone this time was quite different than the last one.
"I'm serious, Hermione."
"You think someone polyjuiced themselves as my daughter to have Easter with me?"
"No, I mean, I don't know, but," he said with a shrug. "Cooper, I swear to you, didn't recognize her when she got home."
"It's been months!"
"Okay," he nodded as if agreeing it was possible. "At the train station. I didn't think anything of it at first, because Leo and his sister were there, too. So it was busy. I swear to you, now, she was seeing you for the first time. Not the first time in months. She acted as if she hadn't seen that Peanuts Easter video a dozen times already."
Hermione nodded slightly at that. She admittedly hadn't noticed Cooper's reaction to Mia, but she had noticed how entranced she'd seemed by the video they watched.
"That still doesn't mean…"
"I caught her yesterday looking through the photo albums in the living room."
"So? Harry." Where was this coming from? Surely, he was being unnecessarily paranoid. "She'd been separated from me. From her home. It was the first time ever."
"You're right. She could have been homesick. Feeling nostalgic after being gone for months. I recognized the look in her eyes, Hermione. You wouldn't, because it's not something you've really experienced. Not an entire lifetime's worth. Again, I missed it at the train station. It's the same look I have every time I see a new picture of my mum or dad."
She stopped walking, staring at him now. She knew what he was talking about. She'd seen that look in his eyes several times over the years. She missed over a year with her parents from the time she sent them off. It wasn't the same at all.
"I told her a story tonight, the one where we had to chase down that thief that stole from the jeweler's cart in Diagon Alley."
"Right," she said with a nod.
She knew the story. It was from while she was pregnant with the girls. Harry had gotten hurt. Not severely, but enough she felt bad that she was at Severus' house and not Grimmauld Place to take care of him. (The idea of asking Severus if Harry could convalesce at his home hadn't occurred to her at the time.)
Cooper, for his part, didn't seem to care about the reason for this impromptu walk. He was sniffing the ground with interest as they walked. He wasn't even tugging on the leash despite her slow pace, so he knew this wasn't a W-A-L-K.
"It was sort of a test. Coupled with everything else. I just figured I'd see how she reacted to hearing a story she's heard before. I swear to you, Hermione, she never heard it before."
"Harry," she said, knowing she sounded doubtful. "Maybe it has been a while since she heard it. You don't relay it every time you see her. Maybe you changed a detail or two so it seemed like a different story."
"And today, here at your parents' house. Again, the same thing, looking at things, as if she'd never seen them before. Nothing in that house has changed since the last time she was here!"
This wasn't first year Harry flying off the handle, jumping to conclusions. This was almost thirty-two-year-old, seasoned investigator and auror Harry Potter. She had to hear him out. Follow the trail with him.
That didn't mean she wasn't certain he was wrong.
"So if not polyjuice potion, what? I have stayed out of the limelight. I'm quite sure no one knows I'm living in the middle of the woods in Northern Minnesota. The pet store in Minneapolis might recognize me, but the most they know is I live north of there."
Harry nodded, but was silent. She could tell he was thinking something. She knew his various looks by now. He had something to say that he wasn't sure he should.
"Well," he said, drawing out the word, "she does have a twin."
She crossed her arms over her chest, causing Cooper to glance back at her because the gesture shortened the length of his lead.
That stung.
He may as well have slapped her.
"That's not even remotely amusing, Harry Potter. How could you!"
"I'm not saying it to be mean or hurtful, Hermione. That's the last thing I'd ever want to do. You know that! Come on. I don't bring Eden up often. I know it stings. So, I'm here pointing out that she does, in fact, have a twin. And I'm telling you there's something not right about that witch sleeping in the bed at your parents' house."
She stopped walking, turning to look the way they came. At her parents' house. A house where, as Harry just said, her daughter was sleeping. She shook her head, a shiver going through her that had nothing to do with the chill in the April evening's air. She looked at him again. Could it be? What did that say that she hadn't even noticed there was anything different about her daughter?
"How would that even be possible?"
"I don't know. I could try to find out, if you let me."
She dropped her arms to her sides then and started walking again. He was serious. And he wouldn't joke with her about something like this. Ronald, maybe, but Harry wouldn't. He wasn't cruel. It was one of the things that made him so good at his job.
"Let me think about it," she whispered.
"Okay. I just, I couldn't not say something."
"I get it. She's really been looking at the pictures like that?"
"I swear to you, Hermione. I knew exactly what she was thinking and feeling just by looking at her."
That certainly pointed to him possibly being right in this. He, of all people, would know that look. If he was right. Well, that meant, Eden was here. In her bedroom at her grandparents' house.
"What do I say?"
She had no idea. Did she confront her? Hug her? Contact Severus to find out if something happened to him? Then, that wasn't possible. She wouldn't just show up here, pretending to be Mia if something happened to her dad.
Would she have?
And that led to.
"Where's Mia?"
He shrugged. "I don't know. I don't know what's going on. I presume she's where Eden should be. If I'm right."
She stopped walking again, grabbing onto his forearm. She squeezed tightly. Morgana. It just dawned on her that the girl back at her parents' house could be her other daughter.
"I mean, they're your kids. Daughters of you and Severus Snape. Would I put it past them to be a freak of nature, find out they have a twin while at school and do something like this? Not really, because I know you!"
"What if it's really Eden, Harry?"
"Well, other than you'll have to find a way to get her back to Snape because you have the wrong child, you'll get to know Eden."
She wiped her cheeks, not even realizing she'd started crying.
"Could it be?"
"Maybe I'm jumping to conclusions, but I don't think so."
Harry had learned his lesson about jumping to conclusions. It was likely why he'd waited until he had put a few things together that he could offer as evidence to her. She swallowed, smoothing her hair, and then reached to fiddle with her necklace and the wedding band on it.
"I wonder what they're doing tonight," she whispered.
"I really wish you two would just talk."
She had heard this for years. He had heard her responses to him for years. There was just no sense arguing again. She was not going to chase after him! He could have asked her to stay the times he'd visited while she was at St. Mungos.
"He agreed, Harry!"
"Because you thought he didn't care."
"He didn't. Clearly. I went out of my way to make him an Easter basket…"
"That's what made you leave? Really?"
"I told you!"
"You did. I just presumed you were mad. You know, pregnancy hormones. Doubly so."
"No, I mean, it wasn't just the Easter basket. It showed me that after a year of living together he truly didn't care! I fooled myself into thinking he did. That he could."
"Hermione! You can't hold that against him. You just can't. He went to St. Mungos with you, and was just as nervous as you were. I know you don't remember that, but he paced and barked at the mediwitches if they didn't answer his questions quickly enough. He stayed away after they were born because he didn't think you wanted him there."
That wasn't exactly true. He had visited, but his time doing so had gone from being there the entire time she was in labor and having the babies to he came, checked on them, and left after bidding her good night. (Or good morning in one case.)
"I've said it before, but you have yet to actually answer my questions. So, I ask you again, how many Easter baskets do you think Severus Snape gave or received before that year, Hermione? Merlin, if I'd known that was truly all that set you off, I would have said something twelve years ago."
"He could have said something!"
"What? What could he have said, Hermione? You left St. Mungos with Mia and came right to my house. You sent him a patronus telling him to pick up Eden. Not to come get you, Mia, and Eden. Just Eden. My house. Not his. The one you'd lived in as his wife for over a year. Yes, he certainly knew that's where you'd be staying, but he wasn't going to go there. And do what? Apologize for something he didn't even know he did wrong? You know that. I can see how frightening that probably was to him. I truly get it. Especially twelve years ago. He finally has the albatross of my parents out from around him and then he gets you. He had to think everyone would expect her to leave and him to chase after you. Did you ever think to tell him you didn't want to leave?"
"We made an agreement!"
"Yeah, before you slept together for months."
She was regretting telling Harry that part of their relationship at this moment. She'd asked his advice. Of course, he'd said it was possible for a man to sleep beside a woman night after night and not truly have feelings become involved. He told her later he didn't think Severus could do that, but it was much later. By then she'd been gone.
And here they were.
She sighed, gripping the ring tightly with her fist. "It doesn't matter."
"Well, it might if that girl in the bedroom at your parents' house is Eden Snape."
Of course, he was right.
"Neither of you has filed for divorce."
"I don't believe in divorce."
Harry snorted at that. They'd had this discussion before. He knew that wasn't why she hadn't filed. She loved the man, damn it. And divorcing him seemed … wrong.
"Yeah, well, I didn't think you'd believe in marriages done to satisfy a procreation decree either. Never mind the fact you haven't even seen your husband for nearly twelve years and live on separate continents, not just homes."
"Says the wizard who was exempt from it."
She didn't sound mad or bitter. She was teasing him. He knew that. She didn't hold it against him that he got out of it. Oh, sometimes she did, but those days were few and far between anymore.
"Hey, I would have married you!"
She laughed softly. "That's kind of gross, Harry. No offense."
"None taken. I would have, though."
"I know. If Severus hadn't agreed…"
"Really?"
She'd never told him that before. If Severus had said no, she would have asked Harry. She knew the fears about any residual evil remaining from him sharing his body with a horcrux for eighteen years was rubbish. She hadn't told anyone else she thought that, because that would have led to madness if Harry Potter was eligible. Harry wasn't sure it was rubbish, and it wasn't as if there were any tests they could run to find out. That was the reason he had no wife or kids today. He didn't want to risk it.
"Really."
"Huh. I never knew that. I always wondered if I made your list."
"You two were the only ones I would have considered of my options."
"Wait," he said. "That means I made one of your lists?"
She snorted softly. "Yes, Harry, you did."
"Ron didn't, I assume?"
"No," she said. "He did. It just wasn't one I considered a serious list."
"Not unexpected."
"I know. I couldn't have been what he wanted. I'm not making a difference in the magical world with my job as I thought I would when leaving your house that April day. I am, though, to the people in this town who couldn't afford my services otherwise."
They walked around the block, taking the long way, which Cooper did not mind one bit. She paused at the sidewalk that would lead to her parents' front door.
"Harry?"
"Just act normal. She's still your daughter."
"But…"
"Hermione, relax. I'm here until Tuesday. We'll figure it out."
"Okay," she said.
"I think your parents like me."
"Oh?"
"Yes. They made the sweet potatoes with real sweet potatoes instead of the canned ones."
She smiled softly. "That was one year, Harry, because they forgot to buy them and the store was out!"
"I know."
"They do like you, though. Of course they do, Harry. You're like their son." It was a relationship Harry cherished as much as her parents did. Harry was still friendly with the Weasleys, but it was different. There'd never been him being their future son-in-law hanging over his head with her parents. They just liked and included him. She was pretty sure most people in town assumed he was their son despite the last name difference.
Eventually, they returned into her parents' house, letting Cooper off his leash.
"Harry," she whispered on the stairs.
"Yeah?"
She slid her hand into his and she didn't need to say more. Her door was left open, even though her parents knew that she and Harry weren't involved like that. If Harry was sleeping with her it was purely platonic. Still, she respected her parents and their rules, even if she was thirty-two.
She got ready for bed then and Harry did, too, before joining her in bed. He slid his arms around her and she pressed her face against his chest.
And she cried.
She didn't know what else to do.
So she let it all out.
And out.
And out.
Story ©Susan Falk/APCKRFAN/PhantomRoses.com