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Hermione smiled nervously at the woman who greeted them at the gatehouse outside Harry’s hometown. Harry had explained that his living situation was classified by the American government, and that there were some security hoops to jump through before he could bring her fully home.
“Hello, Miss Granger, I’m Doctor Allison Blake, and this is our standard non-disclosure agreement,” the woman said, setting a thick stack of paper down on the table between them.
“Oh, this is…more than I expected,” Hermione said, looking at it as she sat down.
“I told you…” Harry began.
She flashed him a nervous smile. “You did,” she assured him. “I just…wow. But I mean, it’s not like Death Eaters were ever going to care about paperwork being in the way, were they?”
“Probably not,” Harry agreed, “but it’s not really about me, anyway.”
“It’s not?” she asked, starting to skim through the pages.
“There is a section about you now,” Doctor Blake told Harry. “And your…well, guards, though I suppose we can take that out, now that you’re of age.”
“I suppose I should read through this again sometime,” Harry said, putting a hand on Hermione’s shoulder as he peered over it. “I was only nine when I signed it.”
“Nine?” Hermione echoed, “but you couldn’t have understood…” she gestured down at the section on “classified spatiotemporal disturbances”.
“I mean Jack explained it,” Harry said, reddening, “and I…where I was before was…”
Hermione reached up and squeezed the hand that was on her shoulder. “I know, I’m sorry,” she said quietly. “This is just…I’m sorry, extraterrestrial encounters?!”
“It sounds more exciting than it was,” Dr. Blake said.
“I—okay,” Hermione stared down at the last page for a minute, then shakily signed her name.
“And you might have noticed the section about Harry still isn’t very specific,” Dr. Blake said, taking the paperwork from her. “The Statute of Secrecy is still in effect here.”
“Jack and Zoe know because they’re family,” Harry told her. “And then Allison and Fargo have clearance.”
“And Henry,” Allison said.
“Henry knows now?” Harry asked, and Hermione looked over to see his eyes lit up.
Doctor Blake smiled at him. “Your proposal was very well-received,” she said. “And Henry was deemed the man for the job.”
Harry hugged Hermione around her shoulders, and Dr. Blake smiled warmly at her. “Welcome to Eureka.”
Hermione stared around as they walked, her hand clutching Harry’s tightly. There was a petrol station off to their left, but the auto outside was hovering in midair. Two dogs were walking towards them on the other side of the street, and as the people near them moved, Hermione saw that their leashes weren’t attached to anyone but a robot that was floating behind them. They passed a small group of children—primary students, Hermione guesses, who were scribbling on the sidewalk with chalk, and Hermione blinked down at what looked like the most complicated arithmancy equation she’d ever seen.
“Cafe Diem first,” Harry said, tugging her towards what looked like a small diner off of the main street
“Harry James!” The man at the counter gasped, and hurried out from behind it to sweep Harry into a hug. “Oh, you’ve grown four inches, at least…” He held Harry out at arm’s length, looking him over. “And you stopped eating properly again for a while, even if you do seem to be starting to make up for it recently, and…” his eyes fell on Hermione and he beamed. “And this must be the brilliant Miss Granger we’ve heard so much about!”
Hermione felt her cheeks redden, but she let the man pull her into a hug too.
“Vincent makes the best food you’ll ever have,” Harry told her.
“And you weren’t eating properly until recently either,” Vincent tutted when he let her step back. “What were you doing? Being some sort of war heroes in some secret government operation was all Fargo would tell us, and you being only seventeen and all—”
“It’s, er, pretty classified, yeah,” Harry said, “and it had to be me, for…classified reasons.”
“Hmmph. And what’s your excuse for neglecting nutrition, young lady?”
“I—” Hermione cast an uncertain look at Harry.
Harry took her hand again and squeezed it. “I needed her,” he said quietly. “I couldn’t have done it without her.”
Vincent hummed. “Well, nothing we can do but make up for it now,” he said, and slipped back behind the counter to start piling foods on plates.
The food was amazing, and somehow much more filling than it looked. Several people came over to greet Harry while they ate, and she smiled and shook hands even as she despaired of remembering everyone’s name.
“Hey, little bro!” Hermione looked up and smiled at the young woman making her way towards them, smothering a giggle at the disgruntled look on Harry’s face as she ruffled his hair, and then let herself be pulled into a hug. Zoe had visited them in Britain almost as soon as the war had ended, and it’d been a clear relief to Harry to have her there. Besides that, she was one of the most brilliant people Hermione had ever met, and since talking to her Hermione had started keeping a list of questions in her purse to ask her sometime. Glancing around the cafe and mindful of what Harry and Doctor Blake had said about the Statute, though, she refrained from pulling it out quite then.
“It’s good to see you again,” Zoe told Hermione warmly. “I’m supposed to tell you you’re expected at Henry’s garage at 2 this afternoon.”
Harry grinned. “Allison told me he has clearance now.”
Zoe nodded. “And hasn’t stopped talking my ear off about it, so you two better give him enough to tide him over.”
Harry grinned.
“What…” Hermione began tentatively.
“Oh, I, er, figured you’d probably have questions, and someone here would be able to answer them better than I could,” he said, “so I asked if you could talk to someone for a while, as kind of an official consultation and collaboration between, well, our kind of work and theirs? So you can ask Henry whatever, and you can also probably do some experimenting if you want.”
“Experimenting?”
“Yeah, I mean, Henry’s probably got questions and ideas of his own, but…”
Hermione’s hands flew into her purse for her notepad, and she started scribbling furiously.
Harry watched her, grinning, and ignored the teasing look Zoe was giving him over Hermione’s head.
“You’re not staying?” Hermione asked, when Harry made to leave after introducing her to Henry.
“Nah,” Harry said. “I’ve got an appointment at GD, but I’ll be back later.” He pulled her into a kiss and then slipped out the door.
“So,” Henry said, tapping his fingers on a notebook he had lying open on the table. “I have so many questions, but I’m sure you do, too.”
“So many,” Hermione said, pulling out her own notepad.
Henry laughed. “Trade?” he asked, offering her his. “And then we can decide where we want to start.”
Hermione beamed at him and took it.
“So what were you up to?” Hermione asked, as they waved goodbye to Henry and Harry started leading her back towards town.
“I had a project I needed some specialised equipment for,” Harry said. “Mineral pressurisation and welding, mostly, I’ll show you later. How was your talk?”
Hermione didn’t miss the pointed topic change, but she didn’t press. Henry had been wonderful. She felt like they’d only scratched the surface of a vast ocean of possibility. She was woefully undereducated about much of the science he’d talked about, but he’d given her several recommendations of texts to look up to start fixing that. Henry, in turn, had only a basic grasp of magical theory, but he’d gotten more excited the more she’d explained. They’d even had time to run a few quick experiments, and Hermione desperately hoped she’d get another chance to work with him before they went back to Britain.
“This is home,” Harry said, finally stopping outside what looked like a bunker.
“It’s…”
“I know,” Harry said, smiling sheepishly. “It’s more like an actual house, inside, though. And it’s really secure, which, you know…”
Hermione nodded and watched as Harry let a panel next to the door scan his face, then let him tug her inside.
“Hey, kiddo.”
“Jack!” Being in Eureka had made Harry more relaxed than Hermione had seen him in a long time, but she felt another wave of tension go out of him as he greeted the man ambling towards them. He let go of Hermione’s hand to hug him tightly.
“Hey,” Jack murmured. “You made it, you’re safe.”
“Yeah,” Harry said, finally stepping back. “It’s good to be home.”
“It’s good to have you,” Jack said, “and not just because we finally get to meet—”
Harry blushed. “Hermione, this is Jack,” he said.
“It’s wonderful to meet you,” Jack said, shaking Hermione’s hand.
“It’s nice to meet you too, sir,” Hermione said, smiling nervously.
“Threat identified,” a vaguely female voice said, and Hermione looked around, startled. Zoe was there, but it hadn’t been her voice.
“What threat?” Jack asked, frowning at the ceiling.
“This…Hermione,” the voice said. “Harry perceives Hermione as a threat. Readying defence mechanisms alpha, delta, gamma…”
“What?” Harry asked.
“Your heart rate reflects a fear response,” the voice said.
“Sarah,” Jack protested.
“Defence mechanism alpha deploy—”
“Sarah go to sleep for 30 minutes.”
The voice huffed, and then went quiet.
“Sorry about that,” Jack told Hermione. “She can be a little…overprotective, but I’ll…talk to her. List you as unconditionally cleared to be here.”
“Who…?”
“Oh Sarah’s the house,” Harry said. “She’s usually great, she can be a little touchy sometimes though. What smells amazing?”
Hermione reluctantly let the topic of the maybe-living house go to let Harry tug her towards the table.
“Don’t worry, it’s all Vincent’s,” Zoe told Harry.
“Hey,” Jack protested. “I can…” he sighed dramatically as both Zoe and Harry raised eyebrows at him. “Alright, I, yeah, well, I didn’t want to ruin Hermione’s first day in Eureka with my cooking.”
Conversation flowed easily as they ate. Jack told some positively outlandish stories about things he’d had to do as the sheriff of a town like this, but both Harry and Zoe swore they were true. Jack gently drew out some stories of their time at Hogwarts, even if they carefully didn’t talk about the war, and Hermione got Zoe talking about her time in medical school and some of her more recent cases.
“Alright, well, I’ve got to head out,” Jack said when they were all pleasantly full. “Zane’s doing some sort of overnight experiment tonight and I’m on duty to make sure it doesn’t get out of hand.”
“Good luck,” Harry said with feeling, and Jack grimaced, but he stuck his hand out to shake Hermione’s again.
“It’s really great to have you here,” he said. “I’ll see you for breakfast. Stay out of trouble.” The last bit was directed more at Harry than Hermione.
“And I told Pilar I’d catch up with her tonight,” Zoe said. There was something slightly off in her tone that made Hermione suspect it wasn’t the whole truth, but Harry was hugging both of them goodbye and then it was just the two of them alone in the (hopefully no longer threatening towards Hermione) house.
Harry sat back down at the cleared table, looking nervous, and Hermione joined him, twining their fingers together. Harry smiled nervously back and took a deep breath.
“So there was a second part to the proposal I submitted to GD,” he began. “If you wanted to…they’re interested in a long-term collaboration. I know you were looking at Ministry jobs, but I thought you might…”
“They want to hire me?” Hermione asked. She was surprised, but replaying parts of her conversation with Henry, some of it had felt like an interview.
“Only if you want to,” Harry said. “I didn’t promise them anything, I just…I thought you might like the opportunity.”
“I—it’s a wonderful opportunity,” Hermione said. “I just don’t even know where to start. Would I have to move here?”
“Not necessarily,” Harry said. “They’d love to have you full-time, in which case, yeah, you’d have to be here, but they’re open to occasional consultations, too, if you…if you didn’t want to be here.”
“You’re staying here,” Hermione realised aloud, watching him.
Harry shrugged uncomfortably. “I’d like to,” he said. “I—I need to be away from…everything back there, for a while, and here would be…being here would help. But it’s not…I mean that doesn’t mean you have to. We’ll make it work, or I’ll figure out how to manage in Britain if you…”
“No,” Hermione said quickly. “Of course you can stay here if that’s what you need. I—sorry, the job’s a lot, and I need to think about it, but whatever happens, we’ll make it work, I’ll visit, or if you’re up to visiting—either way I’m sure the Ministry will give you as many international portkeys as you want—”
Harry chuckled, and Hermione’s heart warmed to see some of the nervousness go out of him for a few moments.
“Thank you,” he said, squeezing her hand, “and you don’t have to decide anything tonight, about that, or…” He swallowed, and ran his hand through his hair.
Hermione tilted her head at him, worried but at a loss for what was bothering him. “Was there a third part to the proposal?” she ventured.
Harry let out a sharp sound that might have been a laugh. “Yeah, I suppose,” he said. “I, er, didn’t submit this part to GD, but…er, this is what I was making earlier.” He drew his hand away from hers to reach into his pocket, and Hermione chewed her lip, thrown by the change in topic. He slid out of his chair and onto one knee beside the table holding a small square box. “Hermione Granger,” he said softly as he opened it. “Will you marry me?”
Hermione gasped. “Mineral pressurisation and welding,” she said faintly, echoing his words from earlier as she stared at the braided gold band, the diamond set into it, and the series of smaller rubies bracketing the diamond. “Oh Harry, it’s beautiful.” She slid to the floor beside him to wrap her hands around his, which were still holding the box.
He smiled shakily at her, but he seemed to be waiting for something.
Hermione racked her brain. “Oh, yes!” she said when it hit her. “Sorry, yes, of course I will!”
Harry let a long breath, and Hermione tugged gently on his hands, shuffling forward on her knees until she was close enough to press her lips to Harry’s. He let go of the box with one hand, to slip it around her waist, and she leaned into him.
“And I’ll take the job,” she said, when they finally broke apart. “We’ll stay as long as you need.”
“I’d like that,” Harry said, “but like I said, it’s okay—I don’t want to drag you away from home.”
“You’re not,” Hermione said, smiling up at him. “You’re just giving me more reasons to stay.”