Chapter Text
On July 31, they celebrated Harry’s Birthday and on August 1, Hermione Potter opened Ollivander’s shop once again. Even after grievous injuries, mortifying peril and danger, she still felt the need to carry on the mission she had been given the year before. As she walked to the front of the store, however, Hermione was astounded by something she truly didn’t expect.
There, instead of the normal sign that she remembered, there was “Ollivander & Potter”. Her face went slack. Had she even bothered to look at it after Ollivander had died? Had he truly made this change and not had the chance to tell her? Such an idea was like receiving a gift from the old man from beyond the grave and she took that to mean that this was what he truly wanted. She was so happy to oblige him.
To her surprise, as she entered the shop, there came another from behind her, apparating into existence. She immediately pulled her wand and pointed it at the man, who let out a shocked hoot and held his hands up beside his head. He was dressed in an ever so expensive grey suit with a top hat that reminded her a little of Harry's.
“Oh my! Please! I am not a vagrant!” The man said in an excited, very startled tone.
“It’s not vagrants I am wary of.” Hermione said, then she immediately pulled her wand back. “Wait, aren’t you Giavonni?” There was a sudden realisation that he had his same lion’s mane quality of his hair and that same very rounded nose that almost made her recall him fully.
“Yes!” He suddenly bowed to her with great respect. “Giavonni Ollivander, at your service, Mrs. Potter. I am here to discuss something amid this shop and its essential worth.”
“Worth? What are you talking about?” Hermione said this as she began to bring out her stands and cases. There was a very long moment where she wasn’t even listening to him. There was the spot she remembered. In front of the lobby, there was the space in front of the shelves where he fell. Then there was the place behind the counter where she struck down such a monster. Then she shook her head and sighed. “I apologise, what was this about?”
“My apologies, miss, but I was told that you came under the ownership of the shop in his name. It seems there was some contingency that you were required to create wands, maintaining the shop thusly. I have many sources claiming that there has been nary hide nor hair of yourself, Mrs. Potter and I am…”
That was when he looked around the shelves, the cases and the cabinets and saw with horror that they were all gone. With an expression of utter horror, he looked at her and then back at the shelves. “Where did they go? Where are the wands? What has happened to them?”
“Are you saying that you have had this shop watched and you took it upon yourself to see that I was living up to my end of the terms of inheritance?” Hermione glared toward him as he gazed at her with incredulity. “Giavonni, what is the meaning of this? Were you not the recipient of the inheritance your father meant for you to have? What business is it of yours whether I maintain and manage this shop? If you really must know, I was spending the majority of the last four months fighting a Dark Lord and an entire army of Death Eaters and dark creatures. I could not personally attend to the shop, so I decided to make sure that none would behold its treasures, nor touch them without my say so.”
Then, to his utter shock and profound disbelief, she began to open the cases, her bag and the case that his father had used. Every single one of them was full to bursting with wands, wand boxes, books and there came a smell that he remembered so well from his time in the shop with his father. He watched as she began to wave her wand, using it with utter ease as she began to place all of the wands and all of the supplies into their rightful places on the bookshelves and even remodel the shop a little bit to the way she liked it, much like he told her to do.
Giavonni’s eyes were in tears as he saw this and to her surprise, there was a big grin across his face. As stuck up and aristocratic as he looked, he was suddenly a little boy with glee and in a candy shop. He gazed at all of the wands and all of their marvellous glory and even saw her own wands with her labels on them.
“These are astounding! Oh my God! They’re just like dad used to make!” He began to weep a little bit as he turned away from her, pulling out a handkerchief. “I’m so sorry that I doubted you.”
“You… you really only wanted to look after the shop?” She asked this and he could only burst with a few more tears as he nodded. “But your father said that you didn’t care about wand making.”
“I don’t care about wands like he did. I love wands because he loved wands. I only watched and gazed at his creations, wishing I could create them myself. It angered me so much that you would leave these just lying around, as if to collect dust and cobwebs. I couldn’t bear the thought.” His face went up with glee as he began to suck up cobwebs and dust with his wand, like he used to do. “Now, I know you deserve to be on that sign out front.”
With his most profound thank you and a hearty handshake, Giavonni Ollivander tipped his hat, purchased three expensive wand handles, and bid her adieu. As he exited the shop, there came sudden thought. She suddenly brought forth two items she had received from two very esteemed and wonderful old men. It was so good to be back where she could revive her career to its fullest and begin a life without such turbulence.
That was when she noticed something very strange. She placed the mandrake wand onto the stand and it was the perfect size, but it moved when she put even a little pressure upon it. There was a long moment as Hermione studied the stand. It was very ornate marble and it was still as lustrous as when she received it, thanks to its charms. However, now that she placed the wand it was meant to bear and display, she pressed more and more downward until then there was a sudden snap, causing her to gasp.
Her eyes went to their very widest as she produced from the base of the stand a wand. This wand was very long, had round pieces of wood fashioned through its shaft and was made of elder wood. As soon as she held it up, there came two gasps from her door that had just opened at the front of the shop. There stood Alexis Hargroom and Emery Nighttale, both with wand making cases and textbooks. She stood there, looking from them to the wand in quick succession.
“So, now that your lessons can begin, what can you tell me about the Elder Wand?” She held it up as an example and they both dropped their books.
If anyone had told him that he would have a normal school year of any sort, Harry would have called them quite mad. To his surprise, though, after a very long stint in the newspapers, magazines and impromptu interviews by onlookers, his seventh year at Hogwarts was quite the state of affairs in what one would consider “normal”.
The year began with all of them boarding the train to Hogwarts, good as new after a month of repairs and replacement parts. Professor Mcgonagall stood before her students at the sorting ceremony where Ryan Deadmoon’s sister, Sarah was accepting into Gryffindor, much to Donovan and Ryan’s glee. They were still dealing with the horrible loss of their brother, but they held strong as Hogwarts students.
To their shock and astonishment, there was, indeed, a replacement for the role of Defence Against the Dark Arts, but it was none other than Sirius Black. Much to Snape’s horror, once he returned to the role of Potions Master, the role of DADA needed further consideration and Sirius volunteered to act as it for the time being.
Parvati and Padma were always going to be at odds with one another, especially with their sudden choice in men, but Pari just called them both stupid and skipped merrily along.
Ron married Luna during their Christmas visit, December 13, 1997, twelve days before Christmas. Her father already had the sea shore cabin they asked for picked out, bought and paid for before they were even signed with the licence and Harry, as a wedding gift, got Ron a Chocolate Frog Card.
To their astoundment, Ron held up Ronald Weasley, Duke of Gryffindor and Wizarding Hero who helped to defeat one of the most evil entities known to the Wizarding World. To say this was something of a dream come true was beyond words or even mentioning. It was just going to be one hell of a feat to trade for a Harry and Hermione Potter card, but he would see that done, come hell or high water, as Donaghan Tremlett, the final member of the Weird Sisters he needed, came into his collection. As he put all of the Weird Sister cards together, they immediately began to play soundless music as the rest of the cards rejoiced, including his own.
Then, there were the NEWT’s and the fact that Hermione wished to have them in private, along with Harry and Professor Mcgonagall. All of them eyed Hermione as they all sat with an official from the Ministry, who specialised in giving the tests. The bespectacled man gazed at the office where the two students sat and he saw, with some amazement that both of them were filling out parchment, casting spells and charms at a moment’s notice.
“There we are, I have prepared my N.E.W.T’s in alphabetical order also categorised by size and severity in score.” Hermione said as she turned them into the man, who was quite large, balding and still blinking as he began to look over the parchment.
“I must say, Mrs. Potter, I am perplexed by such a sudden request to have your tests in private and under such circumstances. Is there really a reason for this?” The man asked this as he gave her an “O” in Arithmancy with 106 points.
“Yes, actually, you see, there seemed to be some stipulation that we are unable to offer certain occupations to certain individuals given their age and inexperience. As you have seen from my husband’s performance under duress, in test situations and in times of great rest, he has proven to be sufficient for the applied position under discussion.” Hermione said as she pulled the paperwork from her bag and handed some of them to him, some to Professor Mcgonagall and kept a few.
“Applied position?” The man asked as he looked from her to Harry, to Mcgonagall.
“Yes, Professor for Defence Against the Dark Arts, it seems the rules implemented by Armando Dippet prevent Mister Potter from being accepted in the position.” She said as she signed a few of the forms and then added them to Hermione’s stack before stamping two of them.
“Wait, this is all for me being the professor for…” Harry began and the man was dumbfounded to see that he was just as confused as he. “Why are we doing this now? Don’t we have all summer to consider this?” Harry asked this and Hermione rolled her eyes very hard.
“Yes, Harry, because I would love to consider you for a position while I am bottle feeding one darling little daughter and you are rocking the other daughter to sleep in your heavenly, fatherly arms, but as you can see, it may be rather detrimental to our health, especially yours.” Hermione explained as she sighed and put her hand on an ever growing stomach that held no less than two nearly fully grown eating, crying entities within.
“There are twins?” The man asked this and both Harry and Hermione looked at one another and sighed.
“Yes, Lily Luna Potter and Rose Minerva Potter will be born very soon.” Hermione said and Professor Mcgonagall visibly clapped and bounced a little bit as she heard the names again. Both students eyed their Headmistress and she blushed a deep red as she looked off to the side.
“Alright, and what seems to be the problem with his employment in this position. Do you not have all of the required paperwork?” The testing expert asked this and that was when Hermione handed him a letter of resignation from Sirius Black and then the extended CV of Harry Potter.
“Please, just sign this and initial this second page of the application and we can take it from there.” Minerva Mcgonagall was happy to see that the man had no hesitation in signing the forms and handing her the proper documents. “There we are, thank you, Professor Potter. We await your owl when the summer break ends.” She promised Harry before both he and Hermione were able to leave.
“Well, you had to finish your N.E.W.T’s a month early. How does it feel? Shall we take the car?” Harry asked as he and Hermione walked out of the front doors of the school.
“No, Madam Pomfrey says to walk as much as I can. And are you asking whether I would have liked to graduate Hogwarts like a normal person rather than finishing my curriculum early because of a slightly irresponsible pregnancy?” Hermione asked with a pointed glare that he very easily returned with a grin at her hypocrisy. “I don’t suppose that would have worked. It’s not as if any of our years ended or began normally. Why should this year be any different? At least we saw our seventh year.”
He nodded at this as they began to walk across the grounds, waving at Hagrid as he fed the very large dogs that played around his house. It was a beautiful, sunny day that Scotland very rarely saw and the two of them made their way toward Hogsmeade.
“I suppose life has been a little uncomfortably comfortable lately. Winning the Quidditch Cup this year may be the last bastion of excitement I have.” Harry thought for a moment as they walked and Hermione sighed as she pressed her hands on her belly. Whoever Braxton was, their contractions were quite the annoyance.
“Yes, Harry, because having children and becoming a professor at Hogwarts will be ever so boring. When has anything ever happened at our beloved school? I can see the conundrum.” Hermione continued to judge his opinion as he chuckled a bit and he sighed as they made it to the Three-Broomsticks, where they were greeted by the people, but they were used to seeing them by now as they also handed Harry Butterbeer and Hermione accepted Pumpkin juice.
“You really sound like you’re going to love motherhood. Are you sure you wouldn’t prefer another year of hiding and fighting Death Eaters?” As Harry asked this, Hermione leaned her head back, having heard it.
“That continues to be a ripping good laugh, my dear husband, especially after the sixteenth time. I am ready to hire a nanny as little as possible, get filthy diapers off of bottoms and fall asleep amid stuffed animals, if that is what it takes. Now, come, dear husband, let us retire to our room before we prepare for that adventure.”
“Good, I was wanting to rent a Cruppy again.” Harry admitted this as she snorted, then slapped his shoulder.