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“Shay?” Hermione hummed as she sat up in the bed, rubbing sleep from her eyes. She couldn’t really see him in the semi-darkness of the room, but she couldn’t feel him in the bed beside her either.
She was used to him getting up in the middle of the night for unknown reasons but that didn’t mean that she didn’t look for him every time. When they had started - whatever this was, she had known what she was getting into, that he was dealing with residual issues from the war. She was as well, but hers came in the form of nightmares. Seamus’ came in the form of insomnia.
Hermione let out a soft sigh as she swung her legs out of bed and found her fluffy slippers. It being winter meant that the stone floors of Hogwarts were frozen. She padded over to the window of the tower and looked out at the freshly fallen snow. She could see him below the window. She wasn’t sure if he went there deliberately so that she would be able to see him when he went missing from the eighth year dormitories or if it was purely coincidence.
She wasn’t going to complain either way. If it meant that she could keep an eye on him without actually needing to stalk him then she wasn’t going to complain. She watched as he sat down in the snow and tried not to think about how cold he must be.
They’d all lost so much in the war and the fact that any of them had been able to come back to the place that held so much pain just further proved how brave every single one of them was - not that it meant that those who hadn’t been able to come back were brave. But Seamus had lost his best friend out there in those very grounds, the grounds that he frequented so often. Hermione couldn’t imagine what it must be like to have lost Lavender like that. There had been a moment that she had thought that Harry had died and it had been one of the most painful moments of her life, but she had been lucky and it had only lasted a moment. Seamus had to live with that feeling for the rest of his life.
It wasn’t as if Hermione hadn’t lost people as well, but she hadn’t lost anyone like Lavender - someone that she hadn’t even been able to stand but she didn’t hold that against Seamus, in fact she didn’t dare mention it. Seamus had loved the girl, and that was all that Hermione needed to know about their relationship.
Hermione shook her head slightly as she attempted to push away her thoughts of Lavender, of all the others that they had lost, and reached for her dressing gown. She pulled it on and as quietly as she could, without waking Dean who was snoring away on the other bed, somehow sound asleep while his best friend continued to lose his mind, she made her way out of their room and out into the snow.
Seamus looked lost. There was no other word for it. He didn’t at all look like someone who had a clue of what he was doing, let alone someone who would be able to tell her why he was out there in the middle of the night, but she didn’t care about that as she wrapped her arms around him gently and pressed a kiss to his temple. She didn’t know how she could make him better, or if better was even a possibility for him, but she knew that she wanted to help him, that she needed to help him.
“What are you doing out here?” Seamus asked as he relaxed in her arms, somehow snapping out of the trance that he had been in.
“I came to check on you.” She told him, her forehead resting against his shoulder as she attempted to offer him the comfort that he looked like he sorely needed.
It was an unlikely relationship, one that no-one had ever seen coming, but Hermione liked to think that they worked together. They both had a good work ethic, even if they were about said work ethic in completely different ways. And Seamus wasn’t Ron. Even with his pyromaniac tendencies, Seamus was able to keep his temper in check, whereas Ron was not. The redhead’s ability to keep his temper under control had only gotten worse after Fred’s death and while Hermione had felt for him, she had found that the very last thing that he needed was to be in a relationship with her - another person who was not able to regulate the when and where of when she exploded.
“I’m fine.” Seamus whispered, though it was clear that he was anything but that. She was pretty sure that his lips were turning blue as well, though it was hard to tell in the dim light of the moon.
Hermione just gave him a soft squeeze in the hopes of making him feel a little bit better. She wanted to say something, but no words wanted to offer themselves up to her so instead she ended up just holding onto him until he spoke again.
“It happened here, I think.” He whispered. Hermione didn’t need to ask who he was talking about, she just knew. “No-one has ever told me exactly where it happened, but I just… I can feel that it happened here, you know? I can feel her here. ”
Hermione chewed on her lip as she pulled back to look at him, her hand now cupping his cheek and her thumb gently running over his skin. “I did wonder why you always came to this particular spot.” She said softly. She didn’t want to tell him that she had been watching him for months, but she realised that he was probably aware of that.
"I miss her. I miss her every single day." Seamus said softly, letting out a small sigh before he pressed a kiss to his cheek. "Last year… She was all I had last year. Neville was so damn busy making sure everyone here was staying alive, Dean was dead in a ditch for all we knew, and then there was you, Ron, and Harry…" He trailed off, his hands on her cheeks now before he kissed her forehead. "We should head inside. I couldn't forgive myself if you got a chill because you were out here for me."
Hermione gave a slight nod. She didn't want to take him away from the place that he felt the most close to, but they couldn't deny how cold it was out here. She let him take her hand into his and followed Seamus back into the castle and up the stairs to the eighth year dorms. She pulled him into bed and wrapped her body around his, hoping that both of them would soon fall asleep, even though her brain was running at a hundred miles an hour as it tried to figure out how she could help him.
**
Hermione slipped out of bed in the early hours of the morning. She managed to get a few hours of sleep between all of her worrying and plotting, but she couldn't seem to get back to sleep now. The best idea seemed to be to put her plan in action, so after pressing a kiss to Seamus' cheek and pulling on some warm clothes she headed off in the direction of the Ravenclaw tower.
There was only one person that Hermione trusted to help her with this and that person was Luna. It wasn't just that she knew that Luna was creative - whereas Hermione didn't have a creative bone in her body - but Hermione also knew that Luna wouldn't ask any questions about why she was doing this. It wasn't her place to explain that Seamus was grieving or that he needed somewhere that he could go to mourn his best friend.
Hermione also knew that Luna wouldn't mind the early morning wake up call when she managed to gain access to the common room. She was fortunate enough that riddles were something that she could answer in her sleep and that meant that she could sneak in.
"Luna?" She whispered as she gave the blonde a gentle nudge as she tried not to wake the rest of the dorm. She doubted that they would be quite as pleased as Luna to see her there before the sun had even properly risen
Luna blinked open her eyes as she rolled over to look up at Hermione. She was definitely half asleep but she smiled up at Hermione all the same. "Hello."
"I need your help. Come to breakfast with me?" She asked, hoping that Luna would accept her invite without a second thought. That was the sort of person that Luna was after all.
"Let me get dressed and I'll meet you down there." The girl said with a smile and Hermione realised that she had probably overstepped some imaginary line but the only thing on her mind that morning was somehow making Seamus happy.
Hermione gave her a smile, a nod, and a "thank you" before she let herself out of the Ravenclaw tower and made her way down to the Great Hall so that she could give Luna the space that she needed to get ready for the day.
Hermione was halfway through her second croissant when Luna dropped onto the bench across from her, immediately grabbing herself a glass of orange juice as she smiled over at Hermione.
"Is everything okay?" She asked softly, her head tilted to the side. She knew that there wasn't much that worried Luna, or at least Luna didn't ever show anyone when she was worried.
"Yes, sort of." Hermione didn't know where to begin to explain her idea to the blonde, but she knew that she had to get it out or else it would never become a reality, and this was something that she really wanted for Seamus.
**
"Where are we going?" Seamus asked, frowning slightly, which Hermione was doing her best to ignore as she lead him out into the courtyard. She knew that he was confused as to why she would willingly walk out into the snow when it had taken her hours to warm up last night but she was armed with a warming spell today.
"Just wait and see." Hermione said in a sing-song voice. She had done her best to keep this a secret from Seamus all day, and that had involved keeping him inside, which hadn't been at all difficult when it came down to it, but she was still lucky that she hadn't aroused suspicion.
"Mione, you know I hate surprises." He groaned but he didn't pull his hand away from hers and instead gave her hand a gentle squeeze.
"I know but I promise you that it will be worth it." She didn't often throw the word 'promise' around all that often for fear of inadvertently having to break said promise. Having survived a war meant that she was careful about the things that she said, especially when she knew that tomorrow wasn't a given, but she knew that this was something that was well within her control, and that even though Luna hadn't let her see it herself yet she knew that the girl would come through for her.
"Okay, okay." A soft laugh escaped him and Hermione decided that keeping him in the dark was going to be completely worth it. This theory was backed up only when she felt his hand tighten around her own as they turned into the courtyard. Luna was stood in the same spot that they had been last night, a small statue at her feet.
Luna gave them both a smile and a nod before she walked passed them towards the castle, which Hermione was more than grateful for. She knew that this might be difficult for Seamus, but she hoped that she hadn't overstepped and that ultimately it would be something that he was glad of.
Hermione took him over to the statue, a fox and a rabbit nestled in together. His patronus and Lavender's. In Hermione's opinion it was perfect, but she knew that her opinion didn't matter - only his did. She turned to face him, to try to read his expression, to see if he loved it as much as she thought that he would have when she had come up with this idea at two in the morning.
For once Seamus' expression was proving hard to read however as he stood there, staring at the statue and at the inscription below it of Lavender's name. Hermione practically held her breath as she watched him and waited for him to say something, anything about it. She didn't want to force him into saying anything about it, however. He had the right to say and do anything in his own time.
Hermione didn't know how long they stood there for but Hermione was glad of the warming charm at any rate as it seemed to take a while for Seamus to be able process what was going on. The wait was worth it as Seamus eventually turned to face her and wrapped his arms around her so tightly that she thought that her eyes might pop out of her head.
"I can't believe that you did this." He whispered, his voice cracking all over the place. He had tears in his eyes but Hermione hoped that they were tears of happiness as he pressed a kiss to each of her cheeks and then to her forehead. "Thank you."
Hermione shook her head feverently. She didn't do this for his gratitude, she did this because she wanted to make him happy. She pressed her lips to his, hoping that he would understand that she just wanted him to have somewhere that he could continue to feel close to his best friend.