Eight

Many thanks to my lovely betas Anogete and Dacian Goddess.

JKR's, not mine.

~*~

Hermione stood in the doorway to the Ministry’s ballroom, flanked by Severus and Lucius. Her pale pink dress robes were adorned with a few chosen pieces of jewellery and matched the dark grey and the black that the two men at her side were wearing perfectly.

As they walked inside, she let her eyes sweep through the large hall. Narcissa had created the scheme for the decoration, and Hermione had to admit that it looked perfect. The predominant colour of the room was white, softened by a generous assortment of summer flowers. Silver candelabras and roses ranging from pale yellow to dark red decorated the tables. The walls were adorned by climbing roses in the same colour range, filling the whole hall with their scent. The ceiling had been enchanted to look exactly like the sky outside, as it was slowly moving from dusk into the night. Hermione noticed a number of small lanterns that were floating beneath the ceiling and would provide light later on. She had the impression they had just entered a large magical garden instead of an underground ballroom.

Kingsley and Narcissa came to greet them. For the first time Hermione genuinely smiled at the other woman. ‘This is wonderful.’

Narcissa was visibly pleased with her compliment. ‘Thank you. The occasion called for something sufficiently festive.’

Kingsley and Narcissa needed to attend to new guests who had just arrived. As they were leaving, Narcissa turned once more to Hermione and said, ‘Do take care of my garden, Miss Granger, will you?’

‘I will. I promise,’ Hermione answered, surprised by Narcissa’s acknowledgement, or was that a blessing? In any case it was nice.

Severus looked after them. ‘That was a very clever move of Kingsley, to choose the tenth anniversary of Voldemort’s downfall as the day of his inauguration as Minister.’

Lucius nodded. ‘Of course it was very clever. I suggested it.’

They walked around the room, searching for their table. Hermione smiled when she saw everybody who was anybody there. The occasion forced even those who didn’t support Kingsley to attend in order to celebrate the decade of peace and honour those who had lost their lives in the fight against Voldemort. Lucius was truly ingenious when it came to these things. So was Severus, Hermione thought, looking at them.

Molly hissed at them as they passed the Weasley table. ‘It’s a disgrace.’

‘Yes, isn’t it?’ Lucius agreed politely as he walked on, leaving her to work out what he had just said.

Hermione briefly glanced at the table holding the large number of redheads. ‘You know, one could almost feel sorry for them.’

Lucius shrugged. ‘One almost could, but they’ll recover. That sort always does.’

Ginny chose that moment to walk over to them. ‘You bitch! It’s all your fault. You dried-up spinster with your damn books. You’ll be sorry for this, I promise.’

Hermione tried to calm her down. ‘Ginny, don’t…’

But Ginny didn’t listen. ‘I know you are behind this. My brother wasn’t good enough for you. You spun lies about my family. You and your Death Eaters, you slut,’ she shrieked and pulled out her wand.

Before she could do anything, Severus looked intently at her wand, and it flew out of her hand. He caught it swiftly. ‘Miss Weasley, I strongly suggest you do not make a scene.’

Now, Ginny rounded on him. ‘Give me back my wand. I hate you, you—’

Severus just waved his hand in a wordless and wandless Silencio and effectively shut Ginny up. He stalked over to the Weasley table, dropped her wand right in the middle of it, and walked away as if nothing had happened, leaving Ginny standing in the middle of the hall.

Lucius and Hermione followed him to their table.

Severus looked at Hermione, concern in his eyes. ‘Are you all right?’

‘I’m fine. But I take back what I said earlier. I’m most definitely not sorry.’

Lucius smiled. ‘Good, besides it’s not your fault that evidence pointed to Arthur Weasley in the embezzlement of funds and that he subsequently lost his popularity.’

‘You are right. I was as shocked as everybody else when I read about it.’

Severus said, ‘Better remember that, if Potter ever asks.’

It turned out that Harry and Draco shared their table. Hermione gave her friend a hug. ‘Harry, it’s good to see you.’

‘It’s good to see you too, and congratulations on publishing your first book.’

‘Thank you.’

Harry grinned and inclined his head toward the Weasley table. ‘Heard you had a chat with an old friend.’

‘Yes, it’s always nice to catch up.’

After a sumptuous dinner, the dead were honoured, and then it was time for Kingsley to officially take over as Minister for Magic.

His inauguration speech had exactly the right length to ensure that everybody knew he was important enough now to be allowed to bore them, but was short enough not to spoil the mood of the occasion. Hermione was pleased to hear Harry named as Kingsley’s successor as Head of the Auror Department, but she was even more pleased to see Draco take Harry’s hand at the announcement.

The rest of the night passed uneventfully with drinks, a bit of dancing, a few more attempts of a Weasley having words with someone who wasn’t inclined to listen, and yet more drinks until Hermione, Severus, and Lucius decided that it had been a wonderful party and that it was time to go home.

~*~

Hermione opened her eyes and squinted at the sun that was finding its way through a chink in the curtains. It felt very early. Definitely too early to get up. She stretched and settled back into Severus’s arms, her head on his chest. Behind her, Lucius stirred briefly, obviously came to a similar conclusion regarding the time of day, and snuggled against her back, his arm wrapped around her middle and his hair falling over her shoulder. The tickling sunbeam on her nose made her smile as she drifted back to sleep with her two wizards at her side.

~fin~