The Unseen

Not as much response from my last chap as I had hoped. Ah well. I'll chalk it up to the holidays and my American peeps being on break and traveling. For those of you who celebrate it, I hope you had a Happy Thanksgiving. For those of you who don't celebrate it...good lord you're missing out. Food glorious food!!! It's a fat person's heaven!

Anyway...back to reality. I hope you all enjoy this newest chapter. It's a bit of a mish-mash of transitions. I'll be starting up the Hogwarts term soon and I wanted all the loose ends to be nice and tidy when the proverbial shit hit the proverbial fan. *grins*

now to reply to some reviews:

ucdevil - bloody fantastic eh? I like your grading scale. And as for the question of Draco's wife: It will be answered in this chapter. So enjoy.

smurphy - yeah, it will be hard for Hermione to re-establish her Gryffindor courage and remake who she was. And JAmes will be there to help her, and she'll be able to help him as well. And Hermione telling Harry...we'll find out how he reacts right now. You have a good start in your thinking there. That actually has an effect on Harry's feelings, but the extent isn't known right now. There are other things...but we'll touch on those later.

RyGirl824 - I know...but it was kinda necessary to establish the kind of character Greyback will be in this story. I hope you like this new chapter...

distinctlyME - Yeah...I killed off Ron. He was just bothering me. Just sitting in the background festering like an old sore. Eew....just grossed myself out. Anyway, I'm glad that I was able to write the gore scene in a way that made you more comfortable to it. After I read your review, I laughed until I nearly peed. I didn't realize what I'd said until you pointed it out. I guess, though, if you think about it...the gore isn't necessarily what killed the person...it's more of an effect of being killed...if you want to get technical...which I usually don't, so just ignore me. I really like your story, and I hope you update yours soon. Look forward to more, and I hope you enjoy this little chapter.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Harry stared at Hermione when she had finished her story. She squirmed slightly under his gaze, as she couldn’t make out any emotion in his brilliant green eyes.

“Why…didn’t you tell me?” Harry finally asked.

“I was afraid, Harry.” She said softly. Harry was silent for a few moments longer, before he moved forward, and wrapped his arms around Hermione. She let out a breath she didn’t know she was holding, and flung her arms around Harry.

“You shouldn’t have ever been afraid of me…” he said into her curly hair.

“I wasn’t afraid of you….I was afraid I would lose you as a friend.” She replied. Harry’s hold on her tightened.

“Never.”

That was all Hermione needed to hear. Her fingers curled into Harry’s robes and she held on tight. Although no request was formally made, Harry stayed the night with Hermione, sleeping in a chair near her bed when they finally broke apart.

~~

Hermione didn’t really remember much about the service. It all seemed quite a blur to her. So surreal. She remembered it was a closed-casket service, because Ron’s body was too marred to be shown to the public. There were a lot of people there. So many people.

People shook hands with her at the receiving line. People fed her lines about their sympathy. Some even had the gall to give the stupid lines ‘I know how you feel’ and ‘Everything happens for a reason.’ Those had to be the most moronic sentences in the history of the world. Nobody knew how she felt. And what possible reason could there be for her to have gone through such a rough life?

James stood near her at all times, never more than a few steps away. When people started to get too close, or he could sense her stress rising, he would calmly turn them away from her with a few well places glares and a few diplomatic glimpses of his teeth.

After the service she had to deal with the business end of Ron’s death. Since they had no heirs, she would take over the estate, and her name was reinstated to all of their Gringott’s affairs. She supposed it was a small victory. Even when Ron had been at his worst there was still a part of her that enjoyed being with him. When he wasn’t drunk, and she was able to maneuver herself right, he was pleasant to be around, in fact. She liked going out with him, when they had still done things together. He made her feel safe…and she liked that feeling.

She wanted so badly to have someone to be there with her at night. When she had been at James’ flat she had felt protected by his presence so close to her. But here at Hogwarts…the first night here had been a novelty. Ron had still been alive…just not there….

After everything was over, and everyone had gone their separate ways, after Ron’s remains had been buried, she sat in her room alone. She was in the pajamas that she had stopped by the house to get. She had gotten most of her clothes together, and brought them back with her to fill up the wardrobe James had gotten her.

She clutched a mug of hot cocoa in her hands, trying to draw the warmth into her soul, where she felt a strange cold sensation.

She was startled out of her self depression by a knock on her door. She set her mug aside, and shuffled to the door in her slippers. She opened the door to find Draco Malfoy standing there, looking a bit awkward.

“Hello.” She said softly. He cleared his throat, and reached up to run a hand through his blonde hair.

“Um…Hello. I just…came by to…offer my condolences. I know he wasn’t the best person in the world…but he was still a part of your life. I know that hurts.” He said softly. Hermione frowned sharply. Not this again…

“How could you possibly know what I’m feeling? I’m personally tired of people coming up to me and telling me they know how I feel. So go on…tell me how you know.” She said, a bit angrily. Draco’s silver eyes widened slightly.

“I…I know because I went through it….my wife…Draco and Phoenix’s mother…she passed away a few years ago. She wasn’t a well woman. I didn’t love her. She didn’t love me….it was a marriage of convenience. And even though there was no love lost I still missed her…still miss her. She was a big part of my life. The mother of my children. You can’t replace that feeling. I know Weasley was cruel to you…but I’m sure there were some good moments…and those are the ones you’ll miss.”

Hermione was shocked. She hadn’t heard anything about Draco’s wife…and now she knew why. The woman was dead. He really did know a bit about how she felt. It was hard to explain to people. She missed the good times she had shared with Ron. She missed the old Ron, and loathed the one that had been lowered into the ground. It was confusing, really.

“Oh.”

It was the only think she could think to say. And she cursed herself for it.

“So…umm…yeah. If you need to…uh…talk to someone…I’d be glad to…listen….to you.” He said. He didn’t really have much experience at comforting women that weren’t his daughter. With Draca he could just take her up in his arms and kiss away the tears. He couldn’t do that with Hermione.

“That would be…..nice. Thank you.” Hermione said. Draco cleared his throat, nodded once, and then walked away. Hermione shut her door, a little dazed by the interaction.

Hogwarts was going to be an interesting adventure.

~~

Harry stood in front of the door, pacing back and forth, unsure of how to proceed. He finally decided to go straight for the direct approach. He stopped in front of the door, and raised his hand. The door was suddenly pulled open, and an annoyed looking James looked at his father.

“You’ve been pacing in front of my door for ten minutes. I can hear you, smell you, and my wards are ringing. Can I help you?” he asked. Harry noticed James’ tail was rather stiff, meaning he was getting ticked off.

“I wanted to talk to you, James.” Harry said softly. James didn’t sense any hostility in his father’s voice. He sighed, and stepped aside, allowing the older man to enter the room. Harry did indeed enter, and looked around. The décor was rather like his flat…very Slytherin. There were silvers and greens throughout, but even Harry had to admit it wasn’t overdone. It looked rather comfy.

“Yes?” James asked, closing the door and locking it back.

“You protected Hermione.” Harry said simply. James stood a bit straighter, and narrowed his eyes.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” He replied softly.

“I know everything, James. I know what you did for her. I just came by to say…thanks.” He said. James was shocked.

“What?” He asked lamely. Harry rolled his eyes.

“I said thanks, James. You’d think those ears would have picked that up…” Harry had meant it as a light tease, but James’ ears twitched, and he growled at his father.

“I have received your thanks, and now I ask you to leave.” James hissed softly. Harry frowned.

“I was only joking, James. I didn’t mean-”

“Well you did. Now if you don’t leave now, I’ll be forced to defend my property and take you out myself.” James said, the hair on the back of his neck already prickling. Harry could see his joke hadn’t been taken well, so he turned around.

“I’ll see you later, then.” He said, and opened the door, shutting it a bit harder than necessary behind him. James let out a sad little whine. It had started so well…then he had to go make fun of his ears. He just didn’t know how to be nice.

Oh well….you win some, you lose some. This just appeared to be a battle that James felt he and his father would lose.

~~

Phelan had taken refuge in James’ now empty flat. He would have been at home, but his father had decided it was time for a chat with his son. He had shown up when Phelan was eating supper with his mother.

Most of the Lycanthrope community had mixed feelings about Greyback. He had turned so many of them, and was the definite Alpha male. They were torn between hate and respect. No other werewolf had managed to evade the law so thoroughly. Most of the time if a werewolf wronged the human community he or she was put to death immediately. Fenrir had been on the run for decades and the Ministry didn’t appear any closer to finding him.

The Lycan community also wouldn’t turn him over. They didn’t work on the same levels as the humans did. Their respect for that particular Alpha went further than their fear of the Aurors who sometimes wielded silver instruments to help ‘persuade’ the werewolves to talk.

But when Fenrir came home it was always the same…He would mate with his bitch, and spar with Phelan. He said it was to toughen Phelan up, but Phelan was pretty positive it was just an excuse to knock him around a bit. They were both strong, and in recent years Phelan was able to almost hold his own against his father. Almost.

As of now he was sporting quite a few flesh wounds, and quite possibly a concussion. He’d had worse, he thought as he carefully licked at a nasty cut on his forearm.

He couldn’t wait until Hogwarts started. Although he was a bit unsure about how his lessons with Hagrid would go. The man was positively crazy about dangerous creatures. Hell, he had come across Phelan and Romulus when they had transformed once, and spent the night rubbing their ears and petting their bellies. Phelan still reddened a bit at that. Although he was in control during his transformation, he still sometimes worked on instinct. And instinct had told him that the belly rub felt good.

To Hagrid’s credit, he hadn’t brought it up afterwards. He might have gotten himself killed if he had. Fenrir wouldn’t have liked that. Not at all.

Good gods….this was going to be a long year.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

So....we got a little glimpse at a few of our peeps. Hermione told Harry, who promised not to abandon her. Then she had to go through the funeral. James and Harry still have a long way to go before they have any semblence of a father-son relationship. And Phelan has a bit of a complicated relationship with his father as well. Jeez...these people are screwed up.