The Light

Chapter 64- The Good Life

Hermione stood at the window, blanket wrapped around her, staring out. The headquarters building was an old terraced house, which someone by the name of Edgar Bones had suggested to Dumbledore. It was in the middle of a miner's district, where the houses were tightly packed and the gardens were green boxes, sectioned off by overgrown hedges that spiralled into the neighbours' green boxes. It wasn't the most obvious or secret of headquarters, but it seemed to have done its job so far as Voldemort hadn't come knocking just yet.

It wasn't as terrifying as Hermione remembered war being, but she wondered whether it was just because she had grown accustomed to the perpetual heaviness of terror looming in the air. Even so, somebody left the house and her eyes lingered on the way the door closed with a resolute finality behind them, and she internally wondered the probability of them ever coming back.

Lily poked her head around the door and said, "They're back!"

Hermione wanted to ask 'All of them?'

Throwing the blanket on the bed, she followed Lily out of the infirmary room and down the stairs, skipping every other step in her haste. They entered the meeting room and found it relatively empty- only the freshly battle-scorned team, Datner and Caradoc were there. Order members came and went, sometimes staying for seconds, sometimes staying for weeks. Lily and James had bought a small cottage with the money his parents had agreed to give them in Godric's Hollow (Hermione avoided looking at the graveyard every time she paid a visit); Peter and Remus had rented a small apartment nearby together and Dumbledore had a school to run. Only God knew where Sirius slept.

Hermione had taken the liberty of practically living at headquarters with Caradoc. When she wasn't sleeping, she was planning- in between breaths and blinks, she found snatches of serenity within the monotonous strategy-making. It was good for her to have something so consuming to focus on.

As soon as she set foot in the room, Hermione's eyes landed on Remus. He didn't look particularly beaten up, but there were dark circles under his eyes and his usually soft face looked harder than she remembered. The raid had lasted longer than they expected, resulting in a stakeout and a total of three separate attacks. They appeared to have been successful, however, for Datner was grinning with the twins. She'd know if it was a failure; failure meant death and death meant a harrowing silence that not even Fabian and Gideon had the ability to break.

Hermione headed over to Remus, folding her arms around her. "Are you alright?" She asked once she got close enough.

"Yeah," he replied. "It wasn't too bad."

Remus raised his eyes to her and Hermione held his gaze. There was a straightforward calmness in him that made her believe he wasn't lying. It was just hard to imagine any act of war not being wholly terrible.

She nodded and said, "Good."

"What about you? How's the leg?"

Hermione shrugged half-heartedly. "It's a leg," she replied.

He shot her a look. "A magically poisoned and dying leg, the last time I saw it," Remus said, glancing down at the very much alive limb in question. "But you're up and about, so I suppose it can't be too bad."

"She'd be 'up and about' even if it had dropped off, this one," a voice from behind her said. Sirius appeared by their side, a smile curling his lips. His hair had grown out and was brushing his shoulders, and it looked like he was trying to start growing a beard. He hadn't picked up a brush since they'd left Hogwarts. He looked soft and cuddly and the fond smile he was giving her made Hermione want to hide him away and protect him forever. "You're just a nutter."