Little Hermione Granger was sitting at a table under the shade of a tree in the recreation area of the school she attended. She had been born in Paris, lived her early life in England and then her parents had decided to emigrate out to America. Here she sat one of two ‘Brits’ as her charming school mates called them. The other ‘Brit’ was a small, skinny and messy haired kid who avoided everyone. She had no friends here, too bookish, not sporty enough, no idea about Ninja Turtles, no one wanted to spend any time with her, let alone discuss who was the real villain, Paris or Achilles. She sat and read her book.
School had finished for the day and Hermione trudged outside and found a seat to await her mother to collect her. Time slipped by and parents collected their offspring, eventually only Hermione and the scruffy Brit were left. She looked at him, he was sitting with a book on his table reading and repeating and waving a stick about. Stupid pathetic boy she thought.
She heard the rumble of a powerful car approaching. A bright Daytona yellow sixties style Corvette Stingray convertible cruised up to the kerb (curb) and stopped. The driver stood up in the car and called out to scruffy.
“Harry, shake a leg, we are late enough already, Mooney will murder me.”
The vagabond looked at his hippy driver and replied. “We have to wait, I am not leaving here until Hermione’s mother collects her.” The driver jumped over the door and strode over to the child hobo.
“Who?”
Hobo child pointed at her and replied, “Hermione, she is in my year, she is really smart and the other kids tease her. She is waiting for her pick up. We have to stay to make sure she is safe, no one else will”
Hermione internally snorted, like she need protection from a bunch of trailer trash. She turned her page and pretended she had heard nothing. The hippy driver sat down with the vagabond child and their murmured conversation became background noise.
After what felt like long enough for the Roman Empire to rise and fall, a familiar vehicle pulled up at the kerb behind the pimp mobile of the annoyance. She put her book in her bag and stood from the table she was sitting at. The hippy and the hobo were standing, and to Hermione’s despair her mother, betrayer of the century stopped to talk to the Hippy.
“Hello, I am surprised to see anyone left, I got caught behind an accident on the freeway, I was worried Hermione would be sat waiting on her own.”
“My young pup insisted we stay so she would not be left alone, he tells me the other kids tease her because she is so smart.”
Hermione stopped and stared, she huffed out in annoyance and rolled her eyes, folding her arms as she watched her mother squat down to Hobo’s level and talk to him, “Thank you, young man for being so thoughtful about my daughter, I didn’t know she had any friends at school. What is your name?”
“I am Harry, and we aren’t really friends. I know how it feels to be an outcast, so I just wanted to make sure Hermione was safe.” He looked at Hermione, she gave him her death stare, it didn’t work and he lived. “I think she is ready to go home.” To Hermione’s absolute horror he looked at her and smiled his goofy lopsided grin and spoke to her. HE spoke to HER, the absolute gall of the boy. “Goodbye Hermione, see you next week.” Hermione was fit to combust, what was this annoying BOY playing at, she was going to have to speak to him now or endure a car journey long lecture from her mother about manners.
She drew in a breath through gritted teeth and replied, “Thank you Potter. I will see you at school on Monday.” She pulled herself to her full height, she was taller than Hobo Harry, and stalked over to her mother’s minivan and stood at the side door waiting. Her mother was talking to the Hippy. She was so embarrassing. If her father was still alive she would have complained to him, but he had abandoned her, like everyone did in the end.
Hermione was almost tapping her foot with impatience when her mother finally blipped the car door open and she climbed into the back and set about putting her seat belt on. She heard her mother laugh at something the Hippy had said and she sat in her driver’s seat, she looked up at the straggly haired waste of oxygen, “That would be lovely, send me the details, it will make a nice change for both of us.” Hermione sat in sullen silence the whole way home and ran straight to her room and threw her bag on her desk, flopping down onto her bed with all the drama an eleven year old could muster.
The following morning, she was dressed as instructed by the mothership and standing near the door, her backpack packed with essentials, including her copy of the Lord of the Rings, and her personal stereo. Whatever her mother had planned, she would survive.
They drove out of the area they lived in, and up into the nearby hills, eventually the navigation system turned them off the road and they arrived at a large three storey house sat in its own woods. She looked around it was a very restful and serene place. A large white owl sat on a fence and regarded her, she was sure she had just been judged. Very strange, she thought, then she saw the Corvette, the yellow Corvette from yesterday. Her heart sank. This was the Hillbillies’ house then.
Her mum bundled her out of the car and picked up her backpack. “Now Hermione, be nice. You might actually make a friend if you don’t bite his head off.” Hermione glowered and stomped along behind her mother up to the door. She would not bite him. She might hit him over the head with a book though.
The door opened and a smart looking man in a tweed jacket opened the door, “Mrs Granger, and young Hermione I believe, please come through, we are sitting outside since it is such a lovely day.” Her mother ushered her through the house and Hermione took in the polished dark hardwood floors, pale coloured walls covered in photos of people, through a large kitchen and outside through wide open doors onto a large deck looking across a lake towards some hills. It was quite beautiful, Hermione was determined to be miserable. She had not come here to enjoy herself.
The Hippy rose from an outdoor sofa and welcomed her mother with a kiss on the cheek, “Thank you for coming over, Harry hasn’t really connected with anyone, so we were really happy to see he had at least a person he knew. You are English as well?”
“French originally, Hermione was born in Paris, but we moved to England when she was a baby, and then out here the summer she changed schools.”
“I am glad you did, England is not safe for the likes of Hermione at the moment.”
“So I was told, I didn’t really believe it, but then Dan was killed and it all became very real.”
“I am sorry, it is always painful to lose loved ones.”
Emma nodded, “It’s been over a year, so it isn’t crippling anymore,”
As they were speaking the hobo appeared and called out. “Hermione, please come over here, you can sit in the shade and read if you want to.” She looked at him, he was wearing a nice white short sleeved shirt and a pair of navy shorts, to her surprise he looked smart and his smile was quite welcoming. She knew her mother would not want her to be rude so she made her way around the seating and the parasol Harry had been sitting under. She walked up to the table, and the hobo pulled a seat out for her, and smiled. Again. His green eyes were quite cute really. There was a pitcher of cloudy lemonade, the condensation thick on the outside and two glasses, a plate of cookies in the centre. A large and very old book was open at Harry’s seat. Hermione pursed her lips. He was annoyingly charming.
She heard her mother continue the conversation as she too sat and was offered a drink. “Did you lose someone close?”
“Harry’s parents, to the same people, Harry was barely fifteen months old, I am his godfather, and Remus here is my closest friend, we scooped Harry up and left Britain, for his safety, and ours I suppose. It’s allegedly all safe now, but we have lives here now.” He gestured with a wide sweep of his hand, “I would be reluctant to leave this.”
Hermione sat very still. She hated children with fathers, because hers had been taken. His loss still burned in her, she still cried at night sometimes when he couldn’t sit and read with her, no more piggybacks for his Princess. She sat feeling very uncomfortable. Harry had no parents. He had never had any parents. She had hated him, but he had looked out for her, and she had hated him.
She felt tears pricking her eyes and a burning pain in her chest. “Harry,” her voice was a little shaky. “I think I owe you an apology.”
“Really? What for?”
“For being awful to you, when you were being nice to me.”
“Were you? I didn’t notice, I saw you were hurting. I know that feeling, I had it for long enough. You lost your dad?”
She nodded and the tears trickled down her cheeks. The Hobo, no, Harry slipped out of his seat and wrapped her in his arms. He whispered into her ear. “It sucks doesn’t it. The people we love are taken and we can do nothing about it. I don’t even have memories of my parents just the stories my dads tell me.”
“I still miss my daddy, I know it’s pathetic, and soppy. But I was his little princess and he made everything special. Now all I have is horrible stupid children at school making fun of me because I am clever and I like books.” She sobbed into Harrys shoulder. “I am sorry I ignored you, I thought you were just another one of them, pretending to be a friend and then destroying my stuff, they tore my book. The one I was reading with my father, it’s ruined.” She was shaking with her tears now and Harry instinctively rubbed her back and murmured soothing noises as her grief tumbled out of her.
Emma was sitting watching the little scene at the other table, and her eyes watered a little. Sirius gently placed an arm on hers, “Harry told me Hermione is a witch, does she know she has magic?”
Emma shook her head, “no, she had a little incident, and the woman from the school warned us of the danger she would face from the purists. We sold up and moved here. We tried to give her a normal childhood, I thought Dan was killed in a random mugging, but then the MaCUSA people told me it was ‘them’, searching for little Hermione. What sort of people wage war on children?”
“Sick animals.” Remus answered as he sat into the chair. “Is that the first time Hermione has let go in front of anyone other than you?”
“She only cried in private, I could not get her to talk or to share, she refused to talk to therapists. She was so full of anger. I think I may owe your little boy a very large treat. I think this is the first time she has really let it all out.”
They looked at the two eleven year olds wrapped in each others arms and saw Hermione’s hair bush out with lightning crackling around in it like some sort of thunderstorm. and Harry’s magic responding wrapping her in a golden glowing blanket, absorbing and calming her wild magic.
Sirius was the first to speak, “Remy old friend, can you see this.”
“I can, is it what it looks like, I have only ever read about this, I have never seen it, not even James and Lily had that sort of response.”
“What is it we are looking at?” Emma said, “It looks amazing, what is it.”
“They are bonding magically. It hasn’t happened for over a hundred years and there is almost nothing in the books about it. It explains why Harry went to her aid, even when she told him to mind his own business. He would be drawn to her like a moth to a flame.”
“Magically bonding? What does that mean?”
“It means, that in all likelihood the father of your grandchildren is sitting over there comforting your grieving daughter.”
“Really, she isn’t even twelve yet. Surely it’s too soon to know that?”
“If the bond takes, and it looks like it is taking, they will seek each other from now on, when they are older, when, they, well you know what, the first time, the bond will seal and they will basically share everything, feelings, emotions, perhaps even thoughts.”
At the kids table Harry’s magic had Hermione wrapped in a golden shimmering aura, her magic more silver in comparison was weaving itself into Harrys as the two youngsters hugged it out.
Remus was watching open mouthed, “her magic is welcoming his, Pads, I think we might need to sort out the spare rooms and finish decorating the top floor”
“I think you might be right Mooney, old man.” He smiled, “Emma, how would you feel about you and Hermione coming to live at this house with all of us?”
Emma sat back in her chair and looked at her daughter, holding a boy she barely knew with a halo of light shimmering over her. “I have no idea.” She said absently.
Hermione was aware that she was a blubbering wreck and that the pain and anger she had been nurturing and holding onto as her last link to her lost father was spilling out of her, she could feel something filling the emptiness, warm and welcoming, this boy she had desperately tried to hate was holding her, and she did not want him to ever let go. She felt at home in his arms and loved.
She felt loved.
She had not felt this way since the last time her father had held her.
Hermione blinked away her last tear and sniffed, “Thank you Harry, thank you for holding me, thank you for understanding, I think I just might need a friend after all.” They separated a little and she looked into his eyes, those brilliant emerald orbs almost shining with, she stopped. She looked, really looked deep into his eyes, she felt it, right into her soul. Love. His eyes were glistening and he swallowed.
“Hermione, you are welcome, I don’t really know what just happened, but I think we are going to be best friends, I can’t explain, but I don’t want to let go of you. It’s like something missing in me has been found.”
Hermione nodded and wiped her face and nose with her hand, “Thank you Harry,” she kissed him on the cheek and the touch of his skin made her heart flutter. “Best friends.” She wiggled around in the chair and pulled him into it so they were squeezed in side by side, holding his hand, her fingers interlaced with his of their own volition. “I don’t want to leave now. When I arrived, I saw your car and I wanted to go home, now it feels like I am home.”
Harry turned to look at his new friend. “Do you know about magic?”
She looked at him sideways, “Magic?” she wrinkled her nose, “like pulling rabbits out of hats?”
“No. Like the fact you are a witch. Like the fact that Sirius, Remus and I are wizards, and like this,” He pulled a stick out from somewhere and with a little wave his book closed and flew off into the house.
“How did you do that?”
“Magic, Hermione. You can learn to do it as well. You are a witch Hermione.”
She looked around at the adults who were still staring, her mother spoke, “Are you OK Hermione? You look like you just had a really good cry.”
Hermione blinked and swallowed and nodded, “I think, I am mum. Sorry for being such a little monster. I love you mum.” She blinked away the tears that threatened again, Emma stood and covered the ground wrapped both kids in her arms.
“I love you too princess, I love you too.” She kissed Hermione’s forehead, “and thank you Harry, I think you have rescued my daughter from her grief,” She kissed his head for good measure. “Hermione, would you like to come and live here in this house with Harry and his dad’s. They think that the pair of you will need to be close together after the little light show you just put on for everyone.”
Hermione looked up at her mother, worrying at her bottom lip for a moment, “I don’t want to leave here, it feels like home. It feels happy.”
“I agree, I will talk to Sirius and Remus and see what we can arrange.”
“Mum. Harry says I am a witch, that I have magic?”
“He is correct darling, next year you will start at a school to teach you magic, but I think you can learn a lot when we are here as well.” Hermione nodded thoughtfully.
Proudly she said “I am a witch.” She smiled, for the first time in over a year.
Nineteen years later.
Harry stood at the edge of the same deck behind Hermione, his wife of over eight years with his arms enveloping the swollen belly of her very pregnant form, they watched as Emma walked up from the lakeside walking hand in hand with Remus and Sirius at either side. He felt the kick of his unborn daughter against his palm. “I am glad you came for lunch all those years ago, we have never looked back, any of us.” He whispered in her ear.
She smiled at her love and craned her neck around to kiss him. “I am glad we came that day too.”