Chapter Five

CHAPTER FIVE

***

"You mentioned Dumbledore."

Hermione nodded.

"He is here as well, but you'll only find him in one place."

Severus pointed to a tent in the middle of the fields, in front of a large, squat rock. Hermione looked at him searchingly until he urged her to go forward, assuring her it was all right. With one step she found herself in front of the tent, its material shimmering like half-cloth, half-gas. A little disconcerted, she snuck one last glance at Severus before lifting up the flap.

A tall woman looked up at the disturbance. Her neck was long, and she had a coldness to her. Hermione only seemed to interest her for a second, as she looked away again. A young girl sat on a cushion on the ground, an older man sat beside her, smoking a pipe. The man had twinkling blue eyes and a smartly, trimmed beard. Hermione blinked in confusion. He looked like Dumbledore, but he couldn't be ... he was too young ...

"Headmaster?"

The man looked up, surprised. He took the pipe from his mouth and gestured to the rock outside the tent.

"Albus? Out there."

The man must have been Dumbledore's father, which made the others gathered in the tent Dumbledore's family. Hermione recognized them now; there were pictures of all three in Rita Skeeter's horrid book.

Hermione quickly backpedaled out of the tent, feeling awkward; she couldn't handle anymore of the tense silence. Severus was not outside the tent, but she could hear talking from the other side of the rock. Curious, she made her way over to see Severus taking over a seat Remus had just vacated. There was a rickety table set up beside the rock, and Dumbledore sat across from Severus. An old chessboard was set up on the table.

"I will win the next game," Remus said wryly, perching against the rock.

Albus looked up at Remus distractedly.

"Oh, that I doubt my friend ... that I doubt."

Severus amusedly placed black pieces on his side of the board. They were still, like Muggle chess pieces rather than the wizarding kind, standing frigidly to attention.

"Remus may not have won you yet, but I've knocked you off your high throne twice already, old man."

Albus gave a "hmph" and looked down at the board, patting his snowy beard as he contemplated a game strategy. Hermione felt a rush of relief and emotion as she saw her former headmaster, the solid rock everyone had depended upon during the war, untimely taken away from them. He sat there, humming distractedly under his breath, concentrating on his chess game as if nothing else existed.

"Headmaster."

He looked up for a brief second, and then back down to the chessboard. Hermione almost felt like crying. There, too, was something irrevocably different about Dumbledore down here.

"Professor."

He looked up again, a little annoyed at the continued interruptions.

"You can play as well, but you'll have to wait for Severus to finish."

Remus steered her away from the chess game and rubbed her shoulder soothingly. He could tell she was hurt, and he knew why.

"None of the Dumbledore family are quite themselves right now, Hermione. They're all waiting."

"What for?"

"Aberforth."

Hermione sniffed, gingerly dabbing the end of her nose with a crooked finger. She sat down on a lush patch of grass Remus indicated, and he sat down amiably beside her. One could see everything, and yet nothing of the fields from here. There was always something else tucked away ...

"Why are they waiting for Aberforth?"

"Their family has been torn asunder and kept apart for so long in the living that their only true reunion can be in death. They're waiting for all of the family to finally come home. They only need to wait for Aberforth now."

Hermione calmed, instantly comforted by Remus' steady presence. He seemed to be the most like himself and put together after Moody.

"You know as much as Moody."

Remus shook his head, chuckling.

"All I know, I heard from Moody."

Remus looked down at Hermione's robes and plucked at the sleeve. There were small holes and tears, and he pushed his finger through one of the holes and frowned.

"Why are they torn?"

"I came here through a forest, the trees tore it."

"Oh, Suicide Grove."

Hermione's eyes lit up.

"Really? That was Suicide Grove?"

Remus shrugged.

"It's just a name, Hermione. Those who commit suicide don't actually become a tree there. We just call it that because the trees have nasty tempers. Bloody things."

Remus got to his feet, brushing gray dust off his knees and motioning for Hermione to continue sitting.

"Wait here, I'll get you new robes."

Hermione couldn't see where he went; the gray fields seemed to stretch on forever and ever. He had just passed her line of sight before reappearing an instant later. She was still getting used to the flexibility of time and space down here.

Tonks was standing beside him with luminous black material pooled in her arms. She had a perky smile on her face, though the first thing Hermione noticed was that her hair wasn't pink.

"Wotcher, 'Mione."

Hermione felt a rush of gratitude towards Tonks for the familiarity.

"Hullo, Tonks."

Tonks looked over at Remus, twirling her finger in the air.

"Turn 'round, Remus. No peeking."

Remus did as he was told, and Hermione giggled, shrugging out of her tattered robes. Tonks helped her into the black robe, similar to what they were all wearing. It felt like cool mist and sea spray against her skin, making her hum with pleasure. So cool, so soft, so much better than silk.

"It must be good for you two to still have each other."

Remus looked over his shoulder, and then turned around when he saw that Hermione was dressed. He shared similarly puzzled looks with Tonks. Hermione's stomach did a turn.

"Oh no, I've just put my foot in my mouth again."

Tonks didn't let her off that easily.

"What do you mean, 'Mione? What were we up there?"

Remus put a hand against his mouth and exhaled heavily. He looked like he was going to be sick.

"I don't want to hear this..."

He made to leave, but Tonks grabbed his sleeve and forced him to stay put. She looked somewhere close to angry.

"You're not going anywhere. Go on then, Hermione. What were we before?"

"Tonks, it doesn't matter..."

"Tell me."

"Tonks, I can't..."

"Tell me."

Hermione looked miserably at her, wondering just how she managed to make such a cock-up of what was usually a happy event.

"You two were married."

Remus flinched as though someone had struck him across the face. His hand was still firmly over his mouth. Tonks looked pale, as if she didn't want to believe what Hermione was saying.

Remus and Tonks stood just a few feet apart. Their bodies angled away from each other's, as they looked at different points in space. Hermione slumped to the ground and sat, her head buried into her chest. After a tense moment, Tonks looked over at Remus.

"So it was you."

Hermione looked up at the scene. Remus was still staring hard at a spot on the ground. He looked like the slightest touch would knock him over. Tonks continued.

"I knew I had someone before ... I just never thought it would be you."

"I told you."

The choked response was the only one from Remus so far. Tonks rubbed her left arm.

"So I suppose the child is yours as well."

Remus abruptly turned his back on Tonks and Hermione, startling Tonks by his sudden movement. Hermione had a sneaking suspicion Remus had started to tear. What was going on? Why was this news so upsetting to them?

Tonks looked at her.

"I know there was a child. I could always feel something in the pit of my stomach."

Her hands folded overtop her lower stomach.

"Tell me about him. Her?"

"Him."

Hermione chewed on a thumbnail, wondering if she should say anything about Ted. She had done enough damage already. Tonks looked like she wouldn't go away unless she heard, though, and even Remus had his head turned slightly towards them.

"His name's Ted, he..."

"Is he like me?"

The sudden anguished outburst started the two women. Remus looked at them from over his shoulder, hand now clenched against his face. His eyes were red, but no tears had fallen. He shook uncontrollably.

"No. No, Remus, he's not. He's like Tonks. He's a Metamorphmagus. You knew this before."

Remus sank to his knees on the ground, one hand clutching his head, his teeth clenched. He looked like he was fighting the onslaught of an anxiety attack. Tonks looked down at him, wrestling something within herself, and then knelt down beside him. He flinched away from her, so she didn't reach out to touch him.

Hermione wanted to crawl under a rock and die. She didn't know such innocuous words could have demolished his composure so completely. She thought he was going to be a rock like Moody. Obviously, she had made a bollocks of that too.

"T-tell me ... about him." Remus' voice was strangled as he was fighting down emotion. Tonks was silent and looked guilty beside him.

"Are you sure?"

"Yes," Remus said it with such force that Hermione felt obliged to comply.

"He's ten years old now. He'll get his Hogwarts letter next year. He's been on the list to attend since he was born. He's very sweet. He lives with Andromeda; Harry looks after him a lot, too."

Remus had a twisted smile on his face, his eyes still red. The news was bittersweet to him. Tonks looked deliriously happy, but too conscious of the tense situation to fully enjoy the news. Remus shot her a hurt and angry look.

"I told you. I told you so many times."

"No one could know for sure."

"I knew. I knew it was me."

Hermione squirmed, wondering if she was supposed to hear any of the arguing. Remus and Tonks seemed to forget she was even there.

"I can't believe you thought it was Sirius."

Tonks looked liked she'd just been slapped. Her eyes blazed.

"And so what if I did?"

"You're cousins."

"Second cousins; and that means nothing in a pureblood family. And do you really think I'd let a thing like that stop me if I loved someone?"

Remus clapped his hands over his ears, too upset and overwhelmed to handle any of the arguing. Tonks looked equally as hurt, but she still had herself together and wasn't backing down.

"Well, are you happy now, Remus?"

He looked anything but. Hermione looked at them, frightened, and found herself pleading with them.

"Stop, please stop yelling."

She felt like her whole world had turned upside down. Tonks, the woman she had looked up to and learned from as a girl...now younger than herself down in the Underworld. She couldn't reconcile the two Tonks in her mind, and neither could she reconcile the steady, unshakable Remus from the living world with the frayed, jittery mess in front of her.

"And you, clinging on to his every word and more, like some infatuated schoolgirl...how could you fall for his act? It's been the same since school, only the most superficial, vapid girls fell for it..."

"Vapid? Vapid, am I? You really think me that moronic and immature...how could I have put up with you?"

"Stop, stop shouting at each other!"

Hermione's pleas were drowned out. A tall figure slipped in between Remus and Tonks. The hem of its smoke-like robes kissed and weaved through the ground. Hermione looked up to see Severus, confused and disturbed by the scene before him. He had a hand on each of their shoulders and forcibly held them apart.

"Nymphadora, walk that way. Remus, go that way."

He gestured in opposite directions, and they both rose to their feet, still shaking, but glad for the intervention. Remus sniffed, wiping his face with his robe sleeve. Tonks held herself and looked on the verge of enraged tears.

Severus was unconcerned with them after they began their parting and stooped down to where Hermione was. He reached out to touch her shoulder.

"Hermione? You look upset."

She fell forward into his chest and started crying. His arms circled themselves around her and the folds of their self-same, black cloaks enveloped her until she could only see gray, feel gray, hear gray, smell gray and taste gray on her lips.