Work Text:
Tab A, Slot B
"Harry, what are you doing?”
"What does it look like I am doing here?"
"Frankly, you are doing nothing."
"Nothing, did you just say nothing? How can you say that, huh? Look, Hermione, I am trying my best here."
"Your best isn't good enough, Mr Potter."
"Well these things need patience."
"I have been patient enough with you but I am not a saint! So just do something already and quit the staring."
"If you stop pestering me, maybe I will be able to do something."
"I am pestering you? Call that ingratitude, wow. I expected better from you, Harry."
"Of course you are pestering me which is why I haven't been able to get this thing up. Your incessant interruptions are stressing me out here."
"I am not interrupting, only asking you to do something, anything that helps here because you are being lazy here."
"I am not being lazy; just... well you distract me so much I lose my focus which tends to affect my performance here."
"I thought with your job profile working under pressure should have come naturally to you, Harry."
"It does and let me tell you I am great, fabulous even under pressure but there is a difference between pressure and torture and this is torture."
"Oh really, you don't say. How does this even qualify as torture, Mr Potter?"
"When you have an uncooperative partner, it's nothing less than torture to perform, Mrs Potter."
"You are calling me uncooperative?"
"If I wasn't clear before... yes. You aren't cooperating with me, Hermione, and we need to work together on this."
"Oh, so when I lose my patience after wasting 30 minutes; extremely precious 30 minutes of my life which I would never get back I am being uncooperative? How much longer did you expect I would be willing to wait here?"
"As long as it takes."
"That's what scares me; we don't have forever here, Harry, in case you are forgetting. At least I don't have loads of things to do besides this, namely cooking, helping Fiora with her homework and yes making sure her snacks are ready when she comes home from school she would be starving and would ... "
"Please don't mention our daughter right now."
"I wouldn't if you hadn't provoked me."
"If you could quit complaining, you could be useful here actually, you know, but no you would rather irritate me, delaying things even more."
"Whose fault is it that things aren't up yet, huh? And don't you blame me again, Harry, this is all on you. All I am doing here is asking you to hurry up - finish what you started."
"I want to finish this more than you do, don't you get it? It's not exactly thrilling me either to be stuck like this."
She lets out a breath, closes her eyes and again looks patiently at her husband, who seems to be trying his level best to finish the task.
"Okay fine, let's not argue else we won't ever finish this, Harry. We need to work as a team here."
"Thank god you finally got that. You know, you can be so stubborn at times!”
"Harry... I am warning you don't make me rethink here."
"Fine...let's stop arguing, after all we have less than 30 minutes on hand here."
"That's right. So calm down, take a deep breath and let's start doing this again."
"I am tired, god this... this is so exhausting."
"I am not exactly having fun here too, for your kind information."
"Yeah alright... let's do this and discuss the other things later."
"Should we go in for a consultation here, it might help you, you know."
"I don't need a damn consult, Hermione! Do you think I don't know what goes where in this?"
"I never said that, I know you know perfectly well what goes where in this...it's just that..."
"What?"
"I can't help but think your technique needs some help, you could do better if we get a reference."
"I DON'T need any reference for this, I am perfectly capable of doing anything once I put my mind to it and this... this is a piece of cake for me I'll have you know."
"That seems to be taking forever."
"You’ve started again, fine you can do this all by yourself. I won't help, I won't even lay a finger now. Go ahead, Miss Independent, use your hands."
"Are you really challenging me here? I'll have you know I can do this all by myself but I won't, and it isn't because I can't but because I won't."
"Scared you won't get the desired results without me, huh?"
"Please, get down from that high horse... and don't think you can manipulate me into doing this, Harry, because you can't and won't. It's your duty to do this."
"Did you just say this is my duty? Are you serious here?"
"Yes! I said that and I am serious, you should finish what you start and you very well know YOU started this, so now don't you dare leave me with this, Harry Potter."
"As if I could..."
He mutters under his breath making her snicker, which earns his wife a glare.
"Stop glaring at me and start doing something, it's not like I am scared of you."
"Then be quiet for five minutes, maybe that will help."
"Fine!! And remember we have less than 20 minutes now."
He cannot believe this is happening to him. He absolutely cannot, sometimes he wonders why do these things have to happen to him, with him of all the people. He has a temper and a sharp tongue, he knows that but he also knows he is a good person and he thinks he really doesn't deserve to go through something like this.
Letting out a sigh, he begins focusing once again and prays to all the gods in the heavens to help him. If this thing does not come up, none of them would be able to save him from the woman who is his wife. She would lord this over him for all his days to come; the mere thought of the nightmare has him freaking out. He is not willing to face or live with it for the rest of his life.
He sends a silent prayer before commencing, help me, someone please help me.
Really all he needs to do is pay attention, once Tab-A enters Slot-B... well his job's basically more than half done, all it would need to get completed then would be the perfect alignment.
"Harry..."
"What?"
"Your angle... it's all wrong."
"Crap!"
"It's ok, that happens sometimes, and you just gotta remember to be a little gentle as well. Also, sometimes too much pressure isn’t good either."
"I know that madam, don't worry I would be so gentle you would be amazed."
"Yeah well don't be too gentle, firmness is equally important as is gentility."
"I really must have sinned so much in some past life to be tied down like this. No man deserves what I am going through here."
"Don't blame your inability to perform on some past life, Harry, since whatever is happening to you right now, it's on this one which is why you are tied down right now."
"Hermione, can you please stop? The more you talk the more I get delayed."
"Mr But-I’m-The-Chosen-One, you don't even want to take a look at the chart, why don't you understand it will help."
"And why don't you get it, that should you leave now to take help of some chart that I don't need to consult with in the first place, then this thing... it would come down in a moment and after so much work I would be damned if that happens."
"I am beginning to think maybe I should be the one blaming karma and some past life here. Harry, please can you hurry up now? I am getting tired."
" You are getting tired? I am doing most of the work here, you just have to maintain your position and relax."
"So, are you saying that you think that staying in one place like this isn't tiring? I'll have you know my back is killing me, and god I think my legs have fallen asleep too."
"I’m not enjoying myself either, I’ll have you know! And you’re not really helping!”
"I’m not helping? You’re kidding me, right? I’ve been nothing but patient with you, and really, you’re the one at fault here!”
"Fine, it is my fault but would it kill you to be patient? You always are, so what’s got into you today?"
"Nothing has got into me today!! Maybe my irritability is your influence rubbing off on me!"
He mutters under his breath something which she can't hear and asks him,"What did you just say?"
"Nothing... hold on, I finally got this."
"Oh god, YES. Finally, Harry!!! Yes, yes just a little bit more there. That's it, nice and easy."
He lets out a grunt as he executes the last step, closes his eyes and takes a deep breath. Finally, he exhales and steps back.
"YES!" he screams in excitement.
"OMG we did it, Harry, we did it!"
"Yes, we did!"
"Careful now..."
"Oops, thanks."
"No problem... just don't go close to it now if this falls down again Fiora would kill us.”
"That she would! God, I never knew dollhouses were so much hard work and all because you had to be able to get Tab A into Slot B correctly."
"Neither did I, the ones that were made when we were kids were so much simpler, weren’t they?"
"You think I played with dolls as a kid?"
"What?" His wife laughs at his comment, particularly his expression.
"No, no I meant toys used to be so much simpler when we were kids."
"Hmm, that is true... sometimes it scares me what would be out in the market by the time we become grandparents to tell you the truth now, especially after today. Who knew bumping into a dollhouse accidentally would waste over an hour of my life?"
She smiles at her husband and with a mischievous glint in her eyes replies,"If you had let me consult the chart that came with this, it would have been up a lot sooner."
"It might have but then there was also the risk of the end you were holding falling down and I didn’t want to start from square one all over again."
They turn around at last and open the door of their daughter's room which shut itself a while back when they were setting up the dollhouse and notice their friends standing outside, their eyes taking in the Ron, Lavender, Neville, George and Alicia.
"Lavender, Ron, what are you doing here?" Harry asks.
"What has happened to everyone, you guys look like you saw a ghost." Hermione pipes in almost simultaneously.
"Heard them more like it." Ron pipes in making everyone snicker.
”We wanted to discuss throwing Luna a surprise birthday party.” Neville replies finally.
"Mumma, mumma ... I am hungry." Fiora’s voice suddenly makes everyone turn around as the youngest Potter-Granger enters her home and dumps her school bag on the chair beside the door.
"Fi, love, come here first. I will get you something in a jiffy but look what papa got for you today."
"What is it mumma?"
"It's a surprise."
Their daughter rushes towards her room as they follow behind her.
"Yay a dollhouse! Papa, thank you. I wanted this for so long for my Barbie." Fiora comes rushing in towards her dad who opens his arms as she jumps into them and kisses his cheek once she is held safe and secure.
"I know, love, that’s why I got it for you. My princess should want for nothing."
"Love you papa."
"Love you too." He says kissing her forehead lovingly.
The next minutes of the little family are spent in admiring the dollhouse as Hermione shows Fiora its various features while Harry admires them, the rest of their friends watch Fiora’s enthusiasm with smiles on their faces. Fiora pulls down Alicia, who pulls down George, and pretty soon Neville is sat on the floor too included in the little girl’s play.
Ron comes up as he puts an arm around Harry’s shoulder shaking his head, “I’ll never understand why you two insist on getting these muggle toys especially since you can’t assemble them with a spell.”
Harry doesn’t mind Ron’s words though, he knows his friend doesn’t get things that are related to the world they grew up in sometimes. He looks at Hermione, her eyes shining as she’s helping their daughter arrange her various dolls into the different rooms of the doll house, as Fiora’s toothy smile lights up her face.
He looks at his friend as he calmly replies, “Because sometimes the most rewarding thing in this world is knowing that you’ve done something to make those you love most smile like that, Ron.”
Magic might make things faster, easier and far more simpler Harry thinks to himself, as he crouches down beside his wife and daughter to participate in the next stage of setting up the doll house. Ron too taking a seat on the floor, behind his goddaughter.
These are the moments that he knows he’s missed as a child - playing with his parents, and he knows that as a child. Hermione was so lonely too, she never had the joy of sharing such simple things with someone else but now she’s become their daughter’s playmate.
She also watches their daughter with her own friends, and it heals the lonely five year old Hermione within her, and as he joins them, the five year old Harry within him too finds himself healing too, one day at a time.