The Journey Cycle Pt 2: New Zealand (pt 2 complete

Dear Readers,

I really hope that you are enjoying this fic and please, please, leave reviews or even click the stars, only there's been this deafening silence for over 8 chapters now and this is starting to give me chills.

Love it, please review, - hate it, still review, but no flames please. They hurt but concrit never does.

Here's the next 3 chapters for your delight - or otherwise.

The Squig xxx

13

Jed was the first to rise or so he thought until an extremely odd sight greeted him as he walked into the living room. Their newest guest was lying partly on her side on the floor with her head shoved in to his fireplace at an angle. “What in hell’s name are you doing?” The sight was just too weird. Banging her head as she retreated back into the room, Hermione apologised profusely before laughing at the expression on the man’s face, “Sorry, wizarding communications, I was just trying to firecall someone and your grate is rather small”.

The fireplace in question was one of these hyper-modern ones set about a foot up the wall. It was a living flame gas fire, a slot banded with shiny steel about a foot high and six long, the tiny flames licked around artfully arranged pebbles but it was a bugger to get your head in. Hermione sat back on her heels with a sigh, “Sorry, I told Ginny, my girlfriend that I would call her when I arrived here”. The man was still bemused, “You are welcome to use the phone if you need to”, but Hermione grinned ruefully, “Ginny teaches at the school we all attended and there isn’t even electricity there let alone phones, but most fireplaces, even gas ones have a proper flue and this can be connected to the Floo network, and, using a little of this powder that Severus makes, we can either call each other up or even step through into each other’s fireplaces without setting foot out of doors, so convenient”, she sighed.

The man was still clearly baffled but he said, “I’ll see if Sammy is awake, we have a more traditional fireplace in the bedroom. Gimme a sec”, he disappeared as he said this and Hermione could hear murmured words from beyond the open door. Jed stood at the doorway and beckoned her in. She picked up her small jar of Floo powder and walked towards him.

She peeked her head round the door, “Sorry about this....”, to see Sammy wave her in, “No worries. Harry told me about this fire-talking malarkey but I’ve never seen it. Do you mind?”, he enquired, “No, of course not. I just need to tell her that I’m all right”. Sammy was sitting up in bed wrapped in a gown and Jed was sitting on the end of the bed. He indicated the fireplace and she scurried in and knelt before it uncapping her jar. She threw a generous handful of the powder in the grate, tapped it with her wand and intoned clearly, “Ginny Weasley, potions dungeon, Hogwarts school of witchcraft and wizardry”, then sat back on her heels, “It takes a few minutes for an international connection. Sorry if the view is a bit unprepossessing”, she laughingly indicated herself and the picture she must present with her back and arse to her hosts.

Then all at once there was a talking disembodied head in their fireplace and the strange witch leant into the green flames and kissed it warmly on the mouth, “Hey, you. I finally got here. I’m staying with these two lovely chaps”, she waved behind her, “And Harry and Sev are here. I had to be rescued, my handbag got nicked at the airport but nothing that isn’t replaceable. Good job they didn’t try and steal my case, they wouldn’t have got five yards before being hexed with the charms I placed on it, not to mention I’d defy anyone except Geoff Capes to lift it without seriously straining something”.

(A/N Geoff Capes was for many years Britain’s strongest man)

Jed had crept closer to the fire, “Can she see me?”, he whispered. Hermione turned, “Here is my white knight, Gin, meet Jed”, and his question was answered when a fire-green robe-clad arm extended from the fireplace, “Hi, I’m Ginny, pleased to make your acquaintance”. It had to count as one of the oddest experiences of his life to date that he found himself kneeling on the floor and shaking hands with a woman who was over ten thousand miles away. He was soon scooted aside by his lover eager to get a closer look at what was going on. “Oh, wow, you’re the image of Draco. Hi, I’m Ginny. I’m Harry’s unofficial sister, you must be Sammy Black, Sirius’ son, pleased to meet you”.

By now all three were kneeling in the hearth as the two men watched and listened to the conversation for a while before Jed gently drew his lover away, “Let’s leave them to a little privacy and go start breakfast”. Both men stood and Sammy tapped Hermione on the shoulder indicating that they were leaving her. She gave them a thumb’s up to show her understanding and they exited.

“He’s fretting, ‘Mione. He’s bloody devastated, if you must know and Ben is playing up at school. He misses his mum and keeps cheeking Esme when she tries to bring him back into line and Henry isn’t sleeping properly and has a detention for dropping off in Charms”. Hermione sighed, “I know Nev’s a mess, love, but I was at my wits’ end. I can’t keep going on like this, pretending that everything is fine. He wants us to be old and I’m just not ready for that. As for the kids, I miss them sorely but I just needed a bit of ‘me’ time and a chance to talk to Harry. I won’t be gone long and I am going to have so much fun teaching this wizarding virgin a little of the ropes. I’ll probably go back to him, Gin, but he has to change, too, not just me. I know he has wizarding protocol on his side but I’m a person and a muggle-trained one at that. He knew I had high expectations of myself when he married me and I can’t sink into obscurity and early retirement. I’m just too damn young to just sit on my hands and wait for the grandkiddies. I totally see Harry’s point in just disappearing into thin air. I love him and the kids but I feel trapped. Tell him I’m okay and I’ll firecall him later in the week. I’ve taken all the leave I’m due from work, so I may be out here a while but I will be back and we’ll sort it all out but I’m still angry with him”, she dashed tears from her eyes.

She felt the ephemerality of Ginny’s arms as they reached from the fire to hold her and she sobbed onto the faintly green shoulder. Ginny’s fingers wiped her face and they kissed, “Take care of yourself and give my ‘brother’ and brother-in-law my love. Don’t be a stranger and I’ll hear from you soon”. They said their goodbyes and Hermione closed and sealed the connection. It wouldn’t do to have her angry relatives launching themselves half way around the world and disturbing her good hosts. She dried her face and, sniffling, left the room.

The smell of cooking emanating from the kitchen told her where her hosts were and she silently made for the stairs, her head down, so she didn’t see who she bumped into until she felt strong arms go about her and she wept freely on a cotton-clad shoulder, “Shit, now I’ve caused trouble all around the ruddy world and here I am harshing your honeymoon”. A deep voice reassured her from above, “It’s all right, you mad impulsive Gryffindor doxy, you”. Hermione found herself smiling against the cloth that her face was buried in, “Is that ‘doxy’ in the magical sense, you snarky ol’ bastard?” Severus grinned into bushy hair, “No, you trollop, I meant it strictly non-magically, you strumpet, running away from hubby and kiddies and the first person you call is your secret girlie lover”, he sighed with more than a tinge of amusement and stroked her hair as he held her.

She pulled away and sniffed loudly, “Thanks for that, Sev”, as she ventured to look in his eyes, “What have I told you about diminuting my given name, you wicked creature?”, he tried to sound his usual sarky self but, as in so many things, love was definitely making him lose his touch and Hermione knew it, “Sorry, Severus”, she apologised but she was still grinning at him through her tears. He offered her his hanky and she wiped her face. “Come on, let’s go into the garden and talk, bend my ear for a bit and tell me all about it”.

They sat in the swing seat and Hermione finally opened her heart to the most unlikely person and Severus listened, holding her hands between his own. There were no pat answers to a situation like this and Severus didn’t try to offer any, to her delight. He was a level-headed sounding board and this was what she needed, all her other friends being a tad too close to both of them, even Harry, although she knew he would always stand with her, she didn’t want to make him feel he had to choose. In Severus’ case this wasn’t so and she knew it. Her and Severus had become good friends over the years, mainly due to Hermione’s gentle persistence. Any friend of Remus Lupin’s was a friend of hers and he remembered her patience with him when he and Remus had first started living together and her assistance when they had first moved into the shop. She had been a good friend indeed to him and now it was time for him to return the compliment.

This was how Harry found them both when he emerged with damp hair and comfy clothes on, nothing restrictive today if he knew anything about his best friend, she would start Sammy’s training in earnest today.

Sammy hung his head over the balustrade and called them all in for breakfast and in they trooped and up the stairs. Hermione then got the chance to meet with the final member of the household and she shrieked, “Fuck! Snuffles!”, as the dog bounded up to her, wagging his brush of a tail before she cast a shocked open-mouthed look at her hosts. Sammy held up a hand, “I know, he looks just like my dad in full change mode. Until Harry explained it, I thought Severus was insulting him but it would seem as if I’ve inherited the ability to some degree”, and he told her about the otter to her evident amazement.

“Merlin! I read something along those lines last night. A full-on Animagus who can change even without magic, even if it’s when you are asleep. Wow, I never heard of such a thing before”, she rubbed her palms together with glee as she was seated and they all ate.

“So, what are we doing today?”, Jed ventured as the meal was finished. Harry huffed out a breath, “Haven’t a clue”, he said, grinning, “I had no idea that ‘Mione, here, would be showing up, much less with a friggin’ wand or several. Suddenly it becomes much more viable to actually train you in something. What do you suggest, oh ‘Mione mine?”

Hermione looked around the other four faces, “Well, that depends on a lot of things. How much time do you chaps have off work for instance?” Sammy said, “Well, Jed ‘n’ I always take a chunk of annual leave at this time of year to go to the rally which has become a bit of a pilgrimage for us and afterwards, we usually load up the truck with the gear and the dog and bugger off somewhere to a beach for the rest of it if we’re not going abroad. We both work for ourselves so we can’t take too long. You know how it is, if you’re not working, you aren’t earning, but we could possibly pinch a bit more time from somewhere. Now I’ve got three captive magicals and a wand in my house, it’d be a shame not to have you teach me at least some stuff and we don’t mind you staying as long as you want to, any of you, all of you”, he glanced at his fiance and they exchanged a warm look.

Hermione smiled as she saw it, “I don’t mind pitching in, you know, cooking and cleaning and the like, and once I’ve talked to the insurers then I’ll have plenty of money to put towards food and the like”. Jed said, “Well, er, feel free to use the fireplace if you need to”. Hermione grinned, “The phone will be quite sufficient, thanks, these are muggle insurers and traveller’s cheque issuers and I bank with a muggle bank and hold very ordinary credit cards. The chap at the airport let me use his phone to stop all my cards and cheques and I’ll need to talk to them today. I should be quid’s in by tomorrow night. In fact, I would like to take us all out for some food while I’m here, how does that sound? To say thank you to my knight in shining red armour who rescued me last night”, and they all agreed that this could be a pleasant excursion.

“You won’t have the energy to cook anyway, not when I’m done with you”, she remarked archly raising a brow at Sammy, who gulped, making Harry and Severus laugh. “So, Mrs G-L, what would be the first thing that you would wish to teach our erstwhile young wizard here?”, Severus purred. Hermione turned to him, they were wearing matching smirks, “Well, Professor, I think a few simple charms, some ‘foolish wand-waving’ to begin with, maybe a little domestic magic. After all, Jed here has to see some benefits of taking up with a wizard after all”, her eyes danced.

Harry explained briefly that Severus’ own art did not depend on the use of a wand and that the comment ‘foolish wand-waving’ was part of his initial spiel to his new first formers each year whilst he taught as they returned to the spectator sport that was Severus and Hermione in full flow. “Well, Madam Auror, that seems like a suitable place to start. Shall we?”

They all rose and Hermione instructed Sammy to change into loose sweats and trainers while she and Harry ‘tidied up’ in seconds to Jed’s amazement. He stayed completely still while dishes washed themselves, the table cleared and everything was restored to their rightful places. “I like this type of magic”, he breathed slowly, nodding as the room was set to rights.

She grabbed a few cushions from the sofa as they all headed out into the garden. “Harry, cast a ‘notice-me-not’ would you, love?” she asked her best friend and added as an aside to the other two, “Harry can cast this over whole cities if he wants, but it’ll just keep out the attentions of any unwary muggles. We keep magical things very secret as I’m sure Harry will have explained to you. Most of us can cast this over ourselves, to go unseen in the non-magical world but Harry’s magic is off the scale, so he’s the best for this little task”. Sammy felt the shiver of magic down his spine as Harry essentially raised a dome of invisible magic over the whole back garden, “Whoo, that still feels weird to feel magic cast nearby”. Hermione grinned at him, “And so it should. Harry’s magic is some of the strongest anywhere”.

Hermione created an arena for them to practice in once the dog had been shut into the house and took charge of Sammy’s first lessons in Charm casting and simple spell-work. Harry and Severus sat off to one side, inside the charmed area but keeping well out of the way. Jed had grabbed one of the books and settled himself in the swing seat. He may not be magical but the fact of his husband-to-be being a wizard made Jed want to study as much as he could. He would support his Sammy where he could. Reading was a thing he loved and he could do this at least.

She began with a simple summoning charm, the Accio. This took some time to master as Sammy was having problems with the whole idea of summoning until Harry remarked, “Come on, Sam, you’re in the sack with Jed. It’s gettin’ hot and heavy and the lube’s in the bathroom. What do you do? Stagger out of bed and ruin the mood? Or Summon the damn thing? Or you need that cushion for under him, you know”, Harry smirked knowingly and on his next try, the cushion slapped into Sammy’s hand. He dropped it in surprise and exclaimed, “Ha! Did it! Hey, Jed, did you see that?” His face was lit up like a kid who’d just ridden his first few yards on his bicycle without the stabilisers.

On an impulse, Hermione reached out and hugged him, “That was great. Now, let’s try again. Only This time with a bit more intent. After me, one two, and....”

“Accio cushion”, his tone was strong and commanding and the thing sailed through the air to his hand again. Harry grinned, “Spoken like a true Black. Well done”. Severus humphed before Harry nudged him, “Oh, behave, you, we’re trying to cram seven years of study into as many days, some of the finesse is bound to fall by the wayside. You can do a few simple potions with him in the evenings but we’ll need the daylight for wand-work and the like”.

Severus had to grudgingly concede that his was one of the arts that they would touch on in only the most rudimentary fashion and he rolled his eyes to see Hermione stepping back, “Someone else’s turn now”, she turned to her fellow wizards. Harry stepped up and they began work on a simple Leviosa next and Sammy worked hard until he could raise the cushion and lower it at will, “So this is how you managed that heavy suitcase of yours?”, he directed at Hermione with a grin. She nodded, “Well, I can’t even lift the damn thing, not without giving myself a triple ruddy hernia, you saw how much I was carrying”. The lesson continued.

Jed tuned out curled up as he was with his book. He had on his lap, Hogwarts: A history, and, as instructed, was reading the last three chapters. His eyes grew wider as he read of Tom Riddle and the tiny child he had tried to kill along with the child’s parents who did not survive his attack only to be defeated and quite unable to regain a full corporeal form until one night in a churchyard at a place called Little Hangleton, he forcibly took blood from a fifteen year old boy, the very same he had tried to kill all those years earlier, the lad with the scar on his head....

The next chapter dealt with the Order of the Phoenix and the information that was being fed to them from a well-placed spy deep undercover in Voldemort/Riddle’s empire, a man who had had to commit all sorts of unspeakable acts in his service of the Light, a man who had remained irascible and alone on both sides not quite trusted by either particularly as his penultimate act was to kill the headmaster of the school where he was the Potions instructor.....

The final chapter had details of the endgame, the final vanquishing of their foe and the freeing of the wizarding world from it’s shackles of terror, the rounding up of the Death-Eaters and their fate at the hands of the Dementors in Azkaban jail. One of the prime movers in the final round-up and the one responsible for hunting down the most in the aftermath dubbed the brightest witch in many generations......

....and here they all were, teaching his fiance to summon and lift cushions, with good grace and infinite patience and humour, in his garden. He let the book fall to the grass in his astonishment. Here were the cream of wizarddom and they were here in his garden teaching Sammy three-on-one. His gast was well and truly flabbered!

As they took a rest from the next bout of training, Sammy wandered over to his thunderstruck lover and sat beside him, “What is it, love?” Sammy threw his arms around Jed. Jed gulped and pointed to the book wordlessly, “You need to read the bit Hermione mentioned”, He whispered hoarsely. Sammy shrugged, “Why? You’re the reader here, fill me in”, and Jed just shook his head, “No, sweetie, you really need to read this”. Sammy blew out a breath moving his fringe with it, “Nah, just give me the S. P., babe”. Jed was incapable of speech which Hermione spotted and came over to the swing. She spotted the book and lifted it restoring it to the seat, “You know, then”, she murmured into the shell-shocked face. A short nod was his only response.

Sammy looked between the two of them, taking in the concern on the woman’s face and the awe on his lover’s. “Okay, I’ll read it after dinner”, he said, softly. “I need more food, this magic stuff takes it out of you”, and Jed came back to the real world again. Food: he could do food and shot into the house without another word. Harry noticed, “What’s upset him?” Harry asked Hermione, cocking his head at the back of their departing host, before he clapped eyes on Jed’s reading matter, “Oh, bollocks”, he muttered and hared off after the man.

Jed heard someone enter the kitchen behind him and turned defensively. Harry held out his wandless two hands, “It’s okay, Jed. I take it you read the last bit like Hermione said?” The man nodded, not daring to take his eyes from his guest, “You’re him aren’t you? The one who defeated that Dark Lord character?” By way of reply, Harry stepped forward his hand at his head, moving the hair away so Jed could see, the tiny faded line of the scar on his forehead. “And Severus was the spy and your friend out there led the clean-up afterwards”.

Harry blew through his pursed lips, “Well that is a bit of a shortened account, but, yeah, essentially that’s who we all are. I did say I was famous a bit, that’s why me and Sev ran off to travel. My world still wants it’s pound of flesh from me, particularly now there’s another one. Another Dark Lord rising as we speak. A Spaniard this time. Sev and I’ve seen him, watched him marking his followers in a wood near Madrid, watched him burn the crossed bones mark into naked flesh, smelled the singeing, it made Sev sick to his stomach. We think some of Voldemort’s surviving Death Eaters are part of this. It’s sort of like the Nazis in the second World War and I hate to say it, but your Sammy is descended from one of the worst pureblood families. They weren’t Death Eaters but they always sympathised with his side. Someone once said that to be a Black was the equivalent of wizarding royalty and your young princeling out there needs to know all this. Don’t desert him, Jed, he’ll need you so much when the fun bit wears off and he’s left the scion of a bunch of fascists. Eventually he will have to decide what to do, whether to come over to England and take his place as a Black and a wizard or whether to stay out here and just continue to be plain old Sammy Black. The choice rests with him”.

Jed sank down in a seat resting his head in his hands propped on the kitchen table. He turned frightened eyes on Harry, “Is he in any danger?”, he whispered. Harry shook his head, “No, not at the moment. We are keeping a lid on this in our world, but eventually the wizarding world will have to know that the last Black has been found. Everyone thought that the Blacks had all died or married out. The Black sisters, Sammy’s cousins, all married into Death-Eater houses save Nymphadora who’s mother was disinherited for marrying a muggle. Sirius and his brother are both dead, Sirius was killed by one of the Black sisters, his cousin Bellatrix who was very close to the Dark Lord and his other cousin was my ex’es mother who married a Malfoy, hence Draco Malfoy. Sirius’ brother was a fully fledged Death-Eater and would have been the scion except he was killed without an heir”, Harry sighed, “So you see, there’s more to this than just the magic. Sammy isn’t just yer average Joe Bloggs wizard, here”.

This didn’t comfort the dark haired man one whit, “So this is why Hermione is so anxious to train him, isn’t it? To get the goodies hooks into him before he can be grabbed by the Dark side?” Harry raised his eyebrows, “I hadn’t thought of it like that though I know she relishes the teaching of a complete unknown wizard but, to be honest, it wouldn’t surprise me if that was the case, Hermione always was cannier than either me or Ron. He was the third in our so-called Golden Trio. He’s an Auror like me and ‘Mione and a master tactician in his own right. He pretty much planned the Endgame between me and Voldemort. Magic is fucking ugly sometimes, Jed, even while it’s fun to wave a wand and do the dishes and so on but it can be bloody brutal and we all lost loved ones in the last war and now there’s some other idiot thinks he can take over where Voldemort left off. If he finds out about Sammy, he could well be targeted for either killing or as a bonus for their side, It would give this new fella a lot of credibility to have a Black in his ranks”.

The other three entered at this point and Jed dived out of his seat to envelop his lover in an anxious hug, holding him tight. Sammy was exhilarated by his morning’s work and was concerned to feel his lover shake so hard in his arms. He tried to communicate with looks but Sammy wasn’t understanding him so Jed excused them and bodily hauled his lover away for a tense conference in their bedroom. Hermione asked, “What’s going on?” Harry explained that their host had read the three final chapters and that Harry had filled him in on the rise of de Santos, “I had to tell him, there’s so much they need to know and they have to know enough for Sammy to choose properly what he wants to do. It’s only fair. Jed made an interesting point, too, he wondered if we have an ulterior motive in training Sammy and I quote, ‘Are we just gettin’ our hooks into Sammy before the baddies can claim him’, or something like that?”, he looked pointedly at his best friend who blushed and looked down.

“’Mione?”, Harry insisted, “Well, okay, that was part of my decision to come all the way out here. I mean, we can’t let de Santos near this one, can we exactly?”, she admitted ruefully. Severus mumbled something to the effect that she was a worse meddler than ever Albus Dumbledore had been and, insufferable wench that she was, she took it as a compliment. He had to smile at this, “So what of the future for our Mr Black?”, he enquired. Harry shrugged, “I suppose that rests with the man himself. We can’t force him to accept this and we can keep his secret if he wants to slide back into obscurity but somehow I think he wants to explore his full heritage and who are we to deny him?”

“That’s as may be”, Severus demurred, “But he will need better training and more of it to fully realise his place in our world. Maybe it would be better for him to return to being Sammy Black, solicitor, fiance to Jed and friend to Frank and company”. Hermione’s eyes glittered, “Fiance? That’s a new one on me”. Harry smiled, “Sammy asked Jed to marry him a mere few days ago after finding out a bit about himself and Sirius. Poor Jed, one minute he has a good life and a devoted boyfriend and then he meets us. Poor bugger, his life’ll never be the same again if Sammy decides to take this further”. He piped down as their hosts re-entered the kitchen.

“I want to do this”, the blond declared, “I know who you all are, now. Jed told me. Bloody hell, the three most famous wizards and witch on the fucking planet and you’re here teaching me how to levitate cushions. I should fall at your feet but I believe that as royalty that is supposedly beneath me”, he suddenly barked out a laugh at how ridiculous this sounded in his own ears, “Please help me. I want this so much. It’s like a missing bit of me that I’ve found. I’m not a freak, I’m a fuckin’ bona-fide wizard and I want to be one, in honour of my dad if nothing else. It’s like the only bit of him I have. I never even saw him until you showed me that photo”. Sammy could feel his voice cracking as he spoke and Jed held him.

“Aye, and I’ll stand with him. You reckon us muggles marry wizards all the time?”, he addressed the room at large and Hermione nodded, “Yup, never knew I was a witch until I was nine. Both of my parents are complete muggles, not a scrap of magic between ‘em”. Harry shrugged, “My mum was a witch but my aunt, her sister, and her husband were the ones who brought me up and they hated magic and all it stood for although I know ‘Mione’s folks are at least sympathetic”. Sammy planted a kiss on Jed’s cheek, “Well, love, then I will follow in the time-honoured footsteps of my father and the other mavericks in my family line. I love you and want you in my life for ever. You haven’t changed your mind about marryin’ me or anything have you? ‘Cos if you have then it all stops here and I go back to bein’ plain old Sammy Black again”. His tone was light but his eyes were deadly serious as he looked into the brown eyes of the man he loved.

Jed pulled him closer, “I’ll stand behind you and beside you all the way, Sammy, my love. Just let’s not get killed or anything and see if we can find you a bit of in-depth training or something”. He closed his eyes and sank his face into Sammy’s hair and inhaled his lover’s scent that he loved so much. Hermione congratulated them on their upcoming nuptials. “Well, in light of that, I’ve a little treat for you all this afternoon but don’t ask me to join in ‘cos I’m totally crap at this particular wizarding skill but Harry is one of the best”.

Harry frowned at her but she raised a brow at him as she slipped from her seat and went back into the lounge. A few moments later she returned and laid a cigarette packet on the table. Severus also frowned, “Smoking, Mrs G-L?” Hermione rolled her eyes, “It’s only so they didn’t snap in the trunk”, she said by way of explanation as she undid the pack and pulled out three tiny twigs of wood with even tinier bundles of twigs attached to one end, withdrawing her wand at the same time.

Harry’s face lit up, “’MIONE”, he shrieked, “You sodding i>marvel. Oh my god. Brooms”. She grinned widely at him as she tapped them with her wand and they grew in length and girth until she had three full sized brooms lying across the kitchen table. “Didn’t manage to find a set of balls in time but I nicked the brooms from our shed at home. None of my kids or my husband are particularly good flyers and these things are going to waste. Nana Longbottom bought them for the kids the other Christmas, and although our Ben can quote you chapter and verse on league tables going back into the mists of time, he’s not really a player. Like Ernie and Ron and the footie, he’s strictly an armchair critic. Have fun, boys”.

This lightened the atmosphere somewhat and Severus found himself grinning as he stroked the shaft of the broom nearest to him. Hermione gazed his way, “I didn’t know if you were a flyer or not, Severus, but I popped the extra one in anyway”. He left the broom handle and squeezed her hand instead, “I am not a flyer of Harry’s calibre but I know one end of a broom from the other. Thank you, I haven’t had the pleasure for many years”.

Sammy was still too gobsmacked to speak. Flying! His dream. This was simply too good an opportunity to pass up and he laid a reverent hand on the broom nearest to him. Harry explained, “These aren’t sports brooms in the same way that a Nissan Micra isn’t a sports car but these are excellent to learn on. Come on. Fuck! I haven’t flown in a good long while. Not since Draco took ill. Me and him were on the Quidditch teams at school, seekers, and I haven’t been able to face flying since he became ill. Come on, Sammy, let’s teach you how to fly”, he grabbed a broom and headed for the stairs, Sammy and Severus in hot pursuit.

Jed and Hermione followed on at a more stately pace and he quizzed her on the next activity, “Harry did explain to us some of the principles behind it, with diagrams, but I am somewhat mystified even so”. Hermione smiled, “I’m afraid I didn’t manage to squeeze in quidditch balls and you need goal hoops and stuff, let’s see if Sammy is a flier first shall we?”

They settled side by side in the swing seat to watch. First of all, Harry extended the notice-me-not zone to quite high in the sky above the garden and he warned the others of their fly zone only within the bounds of the property before shouting, “Just need to get me flyin’ legs a minute”, and expertly kicking off from the ground. He zoomed around getting faster and faster while the others watched open-mouthed before flying to the apex of the fly-zone and executing a perfect Wronski feint diving at the ground at full speed and pulling up mere inches from the ground with a loud whoop of joy. He came back to earth waving a fist in triumph to the applause of the others. He hopped elegantly from his broom and bowed deeply to his audience.

Hermione murmured to her companion, “He could have flown for a team you know, he got loads of offers before he joined the Ministry, shame really. In a lighter-hearted age he may have been one of the best ever but he felt his duty was helping mop up the other baddies that were still about so he became an Auror with Ron and I, and he hasn’t lost his touch even after all this time, bless him”.

Jed cast her a sidelong glance, “You really love him, don’t you?” She turned surprised eyes to him, “Yes of course! I’m not in love with him or anything. I may have had a teeny crushette on him in, like, third year at school or something but Harry is truly special, one of a kind and to know him is to love him”, she sighed. If I am completely truthful and you must never say this to him but...”, she waited for the man’s nod to continue, “When he and Draco got together, I had the hugest crush on his lover even though Draco was as bent as a nine-sickle coin. How sad is that?”, she giggled. Jed felt himself warm to this woman.

“So, if you’re such a brain, how come you’re not a flyer like Harry?” Hermione shrugged, “We can’t all be good at everything”, she mock-huffed before biffing Jed in the shoulder as she rolled her eyes then apologised to Jed, “Sorry, for a moment, there, it was like gossiping with Ron again. He’s also gay if that means anything though him and Harry were brothers in all but name though I think that Ron was definitely interested but by then Harry had got together with Draco and if there’s one thing I can generalise about us magical types, it’s that we’re fierce and faithful lovers and partners, for the most part anyway”, she qualified with a blush.

He regarded her with an amused smirk on his face, “Hmm, so you leave your husband back in England and come out here and the first person you call is a woman that you seem to be intimate with”. Hermione sighed deeply and blew out a breath, “I know, I’m so fucking confused, I always thought I was straight but I think I’m in love with my best mate who’ll never leave her hubby. Gods, life can be a bugger sometimes, magical or otherwise. It was after the war and lots of folks were pairing off and marrying or settling together. Neville and I drifted into it. We were totally crazy about each other and the guy is such a rock, but times change and so do people. It seemed like the right thing to do at the time and I would never regret having the kids. I love ‘em to bits, but....”, she let her voice trail off.

They were silent for a while as they watched Harry teach Sammy to fly. He wasn’t having much luck to start with and kept falling off his broom to much hilarity but eventually he managed to gain the air and Jed watched wide-eyed as his beloved took his first few turns in the air, Sammy screaming out like a five-year-old, “Jed, Jed, watch me, I’m flying”. Jed looked on smiling benignly and applauding his lover who if truth be told, really needed the encouragement.

After a while, Sammy was mastering it a bit though to Severus’ eye, he was not the natural that his Harry was. He took over the training while Harry zipped off back into the sky, zooming around high in the air, doing loop-the-loops lazily and a few other flying tricks before flying down to Sammy’s fiance, stopping in front of the swing. He turned and patted the broomstick behind him, “Come on, hop on, these brooms are sturdy, they can hold two skinny-arsed gits like us, come on”. Jed glanced at Hermione who pushed him bodily from the swing, “Go on, it may be a while before Sammy can take you up. Have a go, Harry’s an excellent flyer”.

“Okay, so what do I do?”, Jed approached cautiously. Harry grinned at him, “Well, there’s no sissy bar, so you’ll have to hang on to me”. Jed threw his leg over the stick and held on to Harry’s jacket as he was suddenly swung into the air. When he dared to open his eyes, he was at least thirty feet from the ground supported by nothing but a slender stick of wood, “Whoa”, he yelled in Harry’s ear, hanging on tight to Harry, “This is bloody brilliant”, he exclaimed as Harry spiralled higher. Harry called back over his shoulder, “Thought you’d like it, the wind in the hair and all that. We don’t even have helmet laws on brooms”, he chuckled to Jed’s evident amusement.

Jed gee’d him on, “C’mon, do one of those dives again”. Harry cast a quick glance backwards, “Stay glued to me and hang on tight, up we go”, as he lurched into a steep upward trajectory, Jed plastered to his back then dived straight down. Jed screamed with delight and ‘whoa’d’ as Harry pulled up again, a bit further from the ground but it was still exhilarating and Jed said so as he climbed off clapping Harry on the shoulder and beaming at him. Sammy came rushing over, “What did that feel like?”, he quizzed, his eyes alight, “Better than bikes”, was Jed’s ecstatic reply.

They clutched each other tight and kissed for New Zealand in front of their guests. “God, that was amazing”, Jed murmured as they parted. Sammy looked up into Jed’s eyes, “The flying or the kiss?”, he asked archly. Jed descended again tasting his beloved thoroughly, “Both”, he whispered as he held Sammy tight, “God, I love you, my wizard. Be mine, stay with me”, his voice was cracked and emotional, “I’ll always love you, my fey weird little otter”, and they clung together. Hermione caught Harry’s eye and winked. These two were good together. She admired Jed’s strength in himself and somehow knew these two would be okay but they would need protection as Sammy trained. Harry leaned into Severus as they witnessed the love flowing between this wizard and his muggle. Hermione snuggled into Harry’s other side and was held by him, his arm around her shoulders as they stared, their eyes damp.

Harry took Sammy up to show him the same move he had demonstrated to his lover and Sammy had to reluctantly agree with Jed. Bikes didn’t have a patch on flying although the freedom and the exhilaration were decidedly similar. They called it a day after this and it was one very tired learner wizard who was led back into the house that night to shower and change before they headed out into downtown Wellington to find sustenance and fun for the evening. Hermione proved herself an amusing guest by telling funny stories all night to the ribald laughter of her hosts. They had an excellent meal followed by a night in the boys’ nearest decent pub before all piling into a taxi and heading back to the house, Hermione sagging against a shoulder as her day and her jetlag caught up with her. Sammy lifted her from his shoulder and he and Harry got her indoors from the taxi before he left Harry to tuck her in. The whole day had been exhausting to them all and Severus had enjoyed his own time up in the air. It was a reasonably early night all round. Hermione was completely oblivious to the sounds of love all around her. She slept on as various men shouted, cried, shrieked, screamed or otherwise communicated their ecstasy to the rafters before settling to sleep with the loves of their lives twined around them.