Disclaimer: Harry Potter isn't mine.

Warnings: None for this chapter!

Chapter 8

Harry was relieved to finally be home. Of course, Hermione was at Potter Manor as well, so it wasn't as perfect as returning home could be. And he wasn't restricted to his bed this time, although flying was certainly out of the question, as well as moving at a pace faster than a slow walk.

"Harry, here, sit down. I'll go get you some tea," Lily said, guiding Harry towards one of the sofas in the family living room. "And maybe some biscuits, too." Harry wanted to laugh. After all, it had taken her long enough to fuss over him this much.

"Do you still have house elves?" Hermione asked as she and Chris sat down as well.

Chris let out a sigh. "Hermione, I told you. House elves are dead useful, and it's not like we mistreat them. They're a necessity for a house this big."

That was enough to set Hermione off, and she began to talk about her pet project, S.P.E.W.

Sirius walked in and greeted them. "You look a lot better, Harry. I'm guessing that you don't need the cane anymore?"

Harry shook his head. "I'm done with it, as long as nothing hurts, but I've been fine so far."

Sirius leaned closer and whispered, "By the way, what on earth is Hermione talking about?"

Harry smirked, as Sirius had yet to encounter the full force of a proactive Hermione Granger. "S.P.E.W.," he whispered back. "Society for the Promotion of Elvish Welfare. She's been going on about it since fourth year."

"And the point is?"

"Apparently house elves are overworked, they should be paid wages and be given days off."

At that Sirius couldn't help but bark out a laugh. "How could you say that with a straight face? She should have meet Kreacher."

"Who's Kreacher?" Hermione asked, momentarily stopping her rant.

"My family's old house elf. He died a few years ago of old age, good riddance."

"You can't mean that! He was probably worked to death!"

"Actually, he was rather mad. My mother's doing, you see. She was rather mad herself. As batty as he was, Kreacher lived to serve the House of Black."

"They shouldn't have to though!"

"Hermione, you should check out the library. There should be at least a few books on house elves there. If there aren't, I'll lend you some."

Hermione left quickly at the prospect of doing more research, and then Sirius turned to Chris. "Chris, you have some explaining to do."

Chris shrugged, defeat clear in his stance. "She won't listen to me! She's out to get every bloody house elf freed. They even stopped cleaning Gryffindor Tower last year after she took to knitting hats and things and leaving around for them to pick up."

"I'm going to talk to your mother," Sirius said, getting up to leave the room. "I think a chat between her and Hermione is way overdue."

"What's overdue?" Lily asked as she entered the room, bearing a tray stacked with biscuits. "Where did Hermione go, Chris?"

"Library."

"Lily, I think you should talk to Hermione. I think she still needs help adjusting to how our world works and I think you're the perfect witch for the job."

"Of course," Lily agreed. "What happened?"

Chris groaned. He really didn't want to have this conversation. "She has problems with a lot of wizarding traditions. You know, house elves, engagement contracts, things like that. She doesn't understand. She doesn't want to understand."

"I'll talk to her Chris. Harry, do you need anything? More tea, extra pillows?"

"I'm fine, mother," Harry replied.

Lily nodded and left, saying she was going to go find Hermione.

Hermione was in the library, trying to find more information on house elves to fuel her theory for S.P.E.W. The Potter library had an extensive section on magical creatures, but very few of the books mentioned house elves.

The sound of the door opening caused her to turn around, but she lit up when she saw Lily enter the room. "Mrs. Potter! Do you know if there are any books on house elves here? I know the reference books have some information, but none of it is very detailed."

"I'll help you find a few," Lily said, "but why don't we have a chat first?"

Hermione closed the book that she had just opened. "Of course, what is it?"

"I was just like you when met James. Given, he was pretty arrogant back then. But I thought that I was right, and that the wizarding world was wrong. It does have some problems-"

"-Exactly!" Hermione exclaimed, interrupting her. "Could you help me with S.P.E.W.? I started it at Hogwarts. It's the Society for the Promotion of Elvish Welfare. It's to help the house elves."

"Hermione," Lily said gently. "I don't think that this is the place or the time. You must know from Chris that James and I don't have the best relationship with Harry. We're trying to fix things by being supportive of him and Daphne. Fighting for what you think is right is very noble, but now isn't the time."

Hermione sputtered, "But…but you're Muggleborn too! Don't you understand?"

"Hermione, I do understand. I was in a very similar position to the one you are now; trying to fit in with a pureblood family that I didn't fully understand. James' parents didn't even like me at first. It took me over sixth months to convince that I was worth an engagement contract."

"You had to sign one of those things?"

"Yes. I thought it was ridiculous, but now that I'm seeing it from the other side…in a way it makes sense. Pureblood families want to protect themselves. It may be rather Slytherin, but it's all about self-preservation. Please try to understand. Maybe it will help if you spend time with Daphne. She, her mother, and I will be working on the plans for the engagement ball. Maybe you would like to join us."

Hermione shrugged. She might as well, although she doubted she would learn anything.

Daphne's family joined them for an early luncheon a few days later. It was only Daphne and her parents this time, as Astoria was off visiting friends from Beauxbatons.

Although it was a casual get together, Harry decided to wear a set of plan robes over his button-down shirt and trousers. He was glad he did, since Daphne's father showed up wearing robes as well.

And his mother had clearly had a talk with Hermione, as his twin's girlfriend had shown up wearing a dress and with her think hair in a neat plait. Of course, there was no way she could outshine Daphne. Daphne showed up wearing a summery, light blue dress and her hair hung in ringlets.

Harry greeted her by kissing her hand and giving her a brief hug.

"How are you feeling?" Daphne asked as they headed to the dining room.

"Never better. I'm still not allowed to do much, but it's better than lying in bed all day."

"Just as long as you can dance at our ball," Daphne replied.

Lunch, consisting of delicious food and boring small talk, went slowly. Afterwards, Daphne gave Harry a chaste kiss on the cheek before hurrying off to talk about the details of the ball, while Harry went off with his brother, father, and future father-in-law.

#

Hermione went with Lily, Daphne, and Daphne's mother to the second floor sunroom. Daphne's mother pulled two large stacks of bound parchment out of her small bag. One was titled "Engagement Ball", and the other was titled "Wedding".

"First things first," Daphne's mother said, taking charge. "We know that we've already hired the orchestra for the ball, but I wanted to know your thoughts on for the wedding. Obviously there has to be music."

"Maybe a string orchestra for the ceremony and a larger one for the reception?" Lily suggested.

"Then the one for the reception has to be bigger than the one we're having for the ball," Daphne pointed out. "So maybe a thirty-two piece?"

Her mother made a quick note about it and then they moved on.

"The table settings are finally all taken care of. Lily, there are enough plates of Potter china, right?"

"We had to have some more made, but they were delivered last week. There's definitely enough for all of the guests."

Hermione decided to pipe up. "Sorry, but how many people are coming?"

"For the ball, there are 282, barring any last minute guests. For the wedding, the guest list currently has over 350, but that's subject to change until we send the invitations out. Now let's do the final touches on the seating arrangements…"

#

Several hours later, Hermione went to find her boyfriend. She found him in the library of all places, getting an early start on his summer homework.

"That was bloody awful."

"Really? Daphne's mum is nice; she's just more on the…traditional side."

"We spent three-quarters of an hour discussing who should sit next to whom."

"That doesn't sound that bad."

"No it doesn't, until you factor the petty dramas that won't allow people to sit next to each other! And then we talked about even more thrilling things, such as how Daphne should wear her hair with her dress and whether or not said dress needs to be hemmed an inch. An inch!"

Chris gently shushed her. "Best not let mum hear you. She's been going crazy planning everything, and this is only the ball before the wedding. She's trying to make things better between her and harry, and she thinks that it'll help if things go off without a hitch."

"Please don't tell me that it's going to be like this if we decide to get married."

"Don't worry, it won't be. The madness is mostly because that Harry's one of the most eligible people in Britain, or at least he was before he got engaged to Daphne, if we're just talking titles, property, and gold. And the Greengrass Family is old and respected. Events like these are made for people to show off. Since they're doing most of the showing off for Harry, you won't need to worry about it."

Hermione sighed with relief. She imagined a simple wedding in a church with flowers and a white dress. Hopefully her dreams would come true.

The ball arrived sooner than anyone expected, and thankfully, Harry was mostly back on his feet.

The ball opened with a dance, led by Harry and Daphne, and then other guests joined in. The Potter's ballroom was decked out for the occasion, and the several crystal chandeliers shone overhead, the result of a week of polishing.

Unfortunately for James, he had a slight run-in with Lucius Malfoy. "Is your second son still with that Muggleborn?" he questioned. "I'm surprised that you're letting him continue that little affair, it's becoming quite the scandal."

"My son's affairs are none of your business, Lord Malfoy."

"Oh really? Most of the people in this room know that you should make sure he calls the whole thing off now, before it becomes more embarrassing that it already is," Lucius continued in his silky voice. "I know for a fact that the Davis' daughter remains unattached."

"Chris is my son, in case you've forgotten."

"Well you seemed to forget that Harry is also your son until recently," Lucius fired back.

James paled, remembering his failures. "I'm aware of my mistakes; you of all people don't need to remind me of them."

"Well, I'd try to not make any more mistakes, Lord Potter."

The rest of the ball went off without a hitch, but the conversation with Lucius lingered in James' mind for the rest of the night.

Lucius wasn't the only one who was noticing the small, but growing scandal. Sirius invited Harry into his study before the Harry and Chris were due back at Hogwarts.

"You need to do something about your brother and Hermione."

Harry looked at him, confusion clear in his eyes, yet managed to hold onto his pureblood poker face. "What do you mean?"

"People like Lucius Malfoy don't believe that they should be together, and it could affect you in the Wizengamot. You need to at least talk to him, and try to get him to see the result of his actions. I tried to talk to James, but he's done."

"What do you mean, 'he's done'?"

"Apparently Lucius had a few words with him at the engagement ball, which went well, by the way. At this rate, the Prophet's society pages will be talking about it for at least the next few months. Anyway, James is done with the political games. He doesn't care what people think and he never will. He'll perform his duties when it come to you, but don't expect any support from him otherwise."

Harry shrugged. "I'm honestly not surprised."

"Me either. But you do need to talk to your brother. If Chris thinks that Hermione can shape up and live up to the Potter name that's great, but otherwise, he should end things now before their relationship actually becomes an issue."

"Fine, I'll talk to him. But don't expect him to go down easily."

"I don't. Now what about Quidditch?"

Harry beamed. "I've been cleared to fly. Technically, I should wait a few months, but the Healer's said that physically, I'm fully healed. I just need to get my strength back."

"So you'll be back in the air?"

"Definitely. I owled McLaggen the good news. He's with the Tornadoes on a trial basis. And this came in the mail from McGonagall." He held up a shiny red and gold badge.

Sirius let all pretenses of formality drop and let out a loud whoop. "I take it that Chris doesn't know?"

"No, but he's lucky he's still on the team, so he has no right to whine over not getting captain. Mother doesn't know yet either, but that's because I doubt she wants me flying so soon. And I still have to find a decent keeper to replace McLaggen and two chasers to replace Katie and Angelina."

"You'll find someone. Great players are hard to find, but it's definitely not impossible."

A/N: This chapter's been a long, long, long, long, long, long, time in coming. Life happens. Thank you everyone for your patience, and hopefully I can get some momentum going again. 7/12/2014 - I'm so sorry and I hate to say this, but this story is going on hiatus. I wish I could have gotten back into the story, but the inspiration's left and I'm not sure when it will come back. Thank you to everyone who's followed His Own Way this far, and hopefully I'll be back soon.