Chapter 5
Thur,15th, Aug, 1991
Harry
“Haz! Hermione’s on the phone!” Harry was reading Hogwarts a history on a lazy morning when Uncle Sev called for him down stairs.
Harry ran down stairs and took the phone from Severus, flinging himself onto the couch.
“Hi Her-“
“HARRY!” Hermione yelled down the phone, causing Harry to jerk his head back. Severus gave him a curious look, “you won’t belIEVE what I just got!”
“What?” Harry chuckled, giving Severus an I don’t know look, and expecting to have to sit through half an hour of Hermione raving about a new book.
“So it started this morning. We were eating breakfast and an owl flew through the window. AN OWL!”
Harry furrowed his brow, looking at Severus with a sense of panic. What the bloody hell was an owl doing flying through Hermione’s window?
Harry’s mind cast back to this morning when he got his own owl through the window, with his hogw-
No? Surely not? She can’t-
“And THEN it dropped a letter onto the table, A LETTER!”
Harry’s brain was whirring, “what did it say?” He asked.
“Ohh this is the good bit. Apparently I’m a WITCH and I’ve been accepted to a WIZARDING SCHOOL?! What nonsense. I don't know who thought this was funny but it’s far past April and I am NOT a fool!”
“Yeah… Um, Hermione? I think you should come for tea…”
— — — —
Frantic knocking shook Harry from his thoughts. He had barely moved for hours, explaining it all to Uncle Sev at some point.
He was happy. He was thrilled. It was just.. a shock.
Harry opened the door to reveal Hermione, Steve and Jean Granger all looking very perplexed.
Harry led them through to the house to the dining room where Uncle Sev already sat at the table.
“Severus, what is going on?” Steve asked.
“You might want to sit down,” Uncle Sev said, gesturing to the seats opposite.
The couple did, Hermione nervously glancing at Harry before taking the seat opposite him.
“Hermionie said you were going to explain this letter?” Jean said, looking at him questioningly.
“Hermione,” Severus started instead, looking kindly at the girl, “have you ever done something strange? Something you never thought possible and had no cause?”
And every part of their life that has been kept from the Grangers came spilling out over the dinner table.
— — — —
“So Hermione’s a witch?” Jean asked, looking disbelieving.
“Apparently so,” Uncle Sev said.
“But, how do we know you're not pulling our legs?” Said Steve.
With that Uncle Sev pulled his wand out and levitated the vase in the middle of the table.
All three Granger's eyes looked like they would pop out of their heads then Steve turned to Harry,
“And you can do this too?”
Harry felt a bit nervous so Uncle Sev stepped in.
“No, Harry just got his letter this morning as well, they’ll be learning together.”
They seemed to accept this and the group sat in silence for a few minutes, the Grangers looked vaguely ill.
“So there’s a whole world of you out there?”
“Yep,” Severus said, looking mildly bored.
“Woah.”
The Grangers stayed well after dinner but this time, Harry and Hermione didn’t run away to play.
The families sat in the living room, Severus was now explaining Hogwarts after spending the entirety of the meal talking about the wizarding world in general.
The adults were still in full swing conversation as Hermione fell asleep around ten, Harry feeling his own eyes getting droopy as the night dragged on.
At some point Harry must have fallen asleep as well because what seemed like hours later, he brushed consciousness in Uncle Sev’s arms, barely catching the tail end of a conversation in hushed whispers.
“Yeah ____ be exhausted.”
“____ talk tomorrow, Severus?”
“Yeah, I’ll call you.”
“Thank ___, we really appreciate __.”
“No problem, have _ safe-
He felt the soft pressure of Hermione who had fallen asleep at his side on the couch lift off, and he was asleep again.
— — — —
The next week was amazing. Harry spent his days flying in the garden with his Uncle, Reading but mostly hanging out with Hermione.
Ever since they found out about each other, the two had been practically joined at the hip, having at least three sleepovers , going on day trips and just playing in the garden- Uncle Sev had even taken them all to Diagon alley.
The Diagon alley trip had been interesting considering Jean and Steve went as well. The pair looked very out of place in their muggle clothes and with their faces of awe. Besides this, the day went well, the pair setting up a Gringotts account and Hermione getting a lot of books.
Apart from that, their summer was relatively muggle and sunny, both of them having a blast.
— — —
“Uncle Sev! The pool’s deflating again!”
“It’s because you jamp on it again,” Hermionie said, glancing up from where she’d plonked herself on the grass, soggy, and a bit annoyed.
Uncle Sev raised an eyebrow as he came out of the house, wand in hand.
“What?” Severus gave him a look, “I didn’t jump!”
“I can cook, come on Haz, how else would it pop, magic?”
Harry crossed his arms, sticking his tongue out at Hermione behind his back, who stuck hers right back out at him.
Uncle Sev fixed and re-filled the pool and Harry immediately filled his water pistol, aiming right for Hermione’s face. Severus chuckled and Hermionie re-filled her own weapon, aiming right at Harry and then switching to Severus when he kept chuckling.
Harry and Hermione both stopped to look at the older man who had gone dead quiet, face blank and eyes narrowed on Hermione’s pistol.
Severus slowly turned to go back into the house and Hermione looked at Harry, a worried expression on her face.
“Do you think he’s ma-,” Hermione cut herself off with a shriek, she had just turned to him when a great spray of water hit her in the back, sending her falling into the pool.
Harry looked up to see his Uncle with a fountain of water, coming from god knows where, flooding out the end of his wand. Almost in hysterics.
And so happened the great water fight of 1991…
— — — —
Saturday, 24th, August, 1991
There was a storm. A big one.
Harry assumed most families were struggling more than they were- being muggle- but it was still very annoying.
They could technically leave the house via floo but they had nowhere to go, Diagon alley’s shops were mostly empty as the rain battered and flooded the narrow street and the only wizard contact they had were those at Hogwarts, who were all still away home for the summer.
Harry was extremely bored, having books as his only source of entertainment. He liked reading but he hadn’t been able to see Hermione or ride his broom in days. Even back with the Dursley’s he’d had freedom, they never cared where Harry was as long as he wasn’t getting into trouble, or having too much fun.
Harry sat in the house for hours on end doing absolutely nothing, and he was driving Severus mad.
Harry’s Uncle had been asked just about every question that could ever come into Harry’s head in the space of two days and he looked like he was at his wits end.. but Harry was just so bored.
— — — —
Severus
Severus was going insane.
Institutionally mad.
He was sitting on the couch trying to read his favourite book on potions for the thousandth time.
“Where did water come from in the first place?”
Harry was lying across his lap, literally twiddling his thumbs and staring at the ceiling. It had been three minutes since he last spoke.
Severus looked down to the face of the only family he had. The only person he’d ever told he’d loved and perhaps the only person that never even gave him the chance to regret the vulnerability of that. And tried not to throttle him.
“Er, I don’t know, Haz. Why don’t you go try to find a book about it?” Calm, and kind.
“We don’t have any books about the planet.”
“Why don’t you try to find another book then?” He said impatiently.
A frown cracked Harry’s features and Severus set his book down, resting a hand on Harry’s head.
He sighed, “I’m sorry, I know you're just bored, I shouldn’t have snapped like that,” he said, hand stroking the boy’s hair.
“It’s okay,” Harry responded, still looking a bit put out.
“No it’s not, I need you to understand that, yeah? That wasn’t okay, no one should speak to you like that, especially when you haven’t done anything wrong. I’m sorry.”
“Okay,” Harry said.
“Okay?” Severus asked.
“I understand,” Harry said with a sad smile.
“Good,” he replied, putting a bookmark in his book, “why don’t we go and brew your first potion?”
“Really?!” Harry’s jumped to life, his eyes as round as his glasses.
“Yeah, come on, I have a little potions lab in the garage.
“Cool!”
The next few days were a struggle for keeping Harry entertained, at one point the pair even had a water fight. In the living room. Thank Merlin for magic or the upholstery would be wrecked.
— — —
Harry
The storm lasted five days and on the 30th of August, Harry awoke like Dudley on Christmas to a clear blue sky.
He rushed downstairs to find Severus in the kitchen, drinking coffee and making breakfast.
“it’s sunny!” Harry exclaimed, and Uncle Sev’s drink almost sloshed out of his mug.
Without a second thought Harry rushed past and threw open the back door.
“Wait, Harry!” Severus yelled, and Harry stood stock still from his place in the garden, turning around slowly with wide eyes.
“sorry,” he said in a broken voice, he didn’t know what for. But Uncle Sev just looked at him and cracked a grin, sighing exasperatedly.
“Your socks are caked in mud, honey.”
Harry looked down and wriggled his toes, “oh”
“Come in, we can go flying later, you’ll catch a chill like that,” Severus said, making Harry peel his socks off before stumbling into the kitchen for breakfast.