video; man's greatest treasure (after the blood rains stop)

[reparo]

[The video isn't accidental this time, and focuses on Hermione - her face rosy-cheeked and smiling, actually smiling.


To the observant eye, one can tell she's in the old, dilapidated house that some people used during the final battle in Hatthevar as a sort of refuge. (It's the Macarena house.)]

Friends - ah, I've been thinking all day what I'd say to us all after a battle as final and difficult and hard as this one. I didn't get to say this to my friends back home, I didn't get the chance to say this to Harry, but...here goes.

Well done. You did your best, and you somehow saved the day. Look at this place. Look at this world! I know the beacons are being repaired, so it's still sometime before we leave but I think we could say we're leaving it better than we found it?

[Like it's hard. She lets out a tiny laugh.]

Also, I think - and I'm not taking any feedback on this - that I've earned myself this.

[The view focuses on the floor, where she is sitting currently, and specifically on a half-empty bottle of wine. Hermione gone wild.]

Comments

un: ut malum pluvia | audio

[somebadnews]

[ Five is still coming to terms with something he thought was impossible. Killing Matthias had ripple effects that went beyond what he hoped, and they also managed to contain Anurr. It's the first time he hasn't thought they were a plague on the world bringing about the next inevitable apocalypse. ]

Imagine that. [ He has difficult choices ahead, and the 'what now' feeling persists, but he's unmistakably happy to see her alive and well. (Part of him doesn't trust it, but he's trying.) ]

I'll have to admit that went better than I expected.

audio

[reparo]

Is that my favourite little pessimist?

[somebadnews]

[ He'll give her one pass, for the celebration of it all. ...And yes, he may have also been drinking before he got her message. ]

I must have grown at least a couple of inches in three years.

[reparo]

Me too! We must measure. Come over here, I want to see if I'm indeed taller. Your forehead felt very much at kissing height earlier.

[somebadnews]

Thanks for resisting. [ He's an unlovable old man, don't make it weird. But he would actually like to check on her now that the dust has settled. ]

I'll drop in before the party gets started.

[reparo]

What party? Kamala's dance party? We need music for that.

Oh, and - and - I stole coffee for you. Did you know? Well, liberated a small bag back on the train.

[somebadnews]

I don't know if you like dancing to flute music, but...

[ Their options are limited. Coffee is the more persuasive motivator. How did she manage to hide that from him? ]

You must have really stashed it away. I thought you would have run out by now.

[reparo]

I think I lost track of all the things I have in the bag, if I'm honest. The bloody chastity belt is still in there since Taravast.

[somebadnews]

[ She's lucky he has a vague memory of what she's referring to. He'll still say he got the worst assignments. ]

You kept that next to the coffee?

[reparo]

It doesn't imbue the coffee with anything, you silly man.

[somebadnews]

[ Mhm. He liked the coffee from the train, so he won't turn his nose up too much about how she stored it. ]

At least you were prepared if you ran into anyone from Taravast.

I'd say they were the most gullible, but no one caught on when I was peddling a fish god. There might not be hope for any of them.

[reparo]

You were what?

[somebadnews]

My assignment in Yancai. I never saw any fish god, but I'm pretty sure it was just another cult.

I made up everything I said, and they still bought it.

[reparo]

[She laughs, actually laughs.]

Fishy business, that.

[somebadnews]

It wasn't the worst.

[ Unlike that pun (which he'll let slide, since she's in a good mood). Cults are a weirdly effective way to get your foot in the door, as it turns out. ]

[reparo]

Glowing endorsement from Five Hargreaves right there.

[somebadnews]

Yeah, well. My scale might have gotten a little skewed after a while.