A/N: Wonderful! Y'all survived, heh heh :) Thanks very much for all the wonderful reviews!! They truly make my day and please keep it up! A few people guessed the meaning of the ending of Chapter 7; good job! Without further ado...
Chapter Eight
Harry froze, staring at the scene before him.
A ring of blue light surrounded Emerson's head and he looked up in alarm, feeling cold dread creeping into his heart. One of the things he had most been dreading seemed to have occurred. He couldn't bear to mention it to Hermione but Harry's fear of this very outcome had been at least partially the reason why he'd canceled those two previous appointments. And now it had happened.
But it couldn't be. There had to be a mistake! There had to-
He looked desperately to Susan. "What does that mean? Does that mean she's.. she's not.."
Susan seemed bemused by his reaction. "What?"
"The light! Her light is blue and mine is green! Does that mean she's not my daughter?" Harry demanded, panicking slightly.
"Harry."
He turned to look at Hermione, who seemed to be trying not to smile. How could she find anything amusing about this! What the hell was going on? "What?" he asked sharply.
She sighed. "Didn't you read the information sheet that was included in the packet?"
"What information sheet?"
"The one explaining how the Patrius Test works," Susan said, looking at him like he was slightly demented.
Harry shook his head, frowning. "No. I thought it was just an instruction sheet for filling out the forms. What does that have to do with this?"
Hermione rolled her eyes. "Well if you had read it, you would have spared yourself the near heart attack you just had."
"What just happened is actually pretty common, especially between fathers and daughters. The daughters oftentimes take their mother's color. Likewise, boys usually take their father's color. Then in those cases, the test goes one step further. If she really is your daughter, what I'm about to do should change both your auras to dark green," Susan explained.
Harry felt a surge of hope flare through his embarrassed discomfiture. And even though he was slightly irritated at Hermione (Why hadn't she told him?), he couldn't help grabbing her hand as Susan began the second part of the charm. He saw Susan begin to draw a big circle encompassing both his and Emerson's heads before he clamped his eyes shut. Emerson had to be his. She just had to be!
"Cognatio Cuiusmodi."
Again Harry felt the strange warmth on the back of his neck but he kept his eyes closed, silently willing the light to turn the right color. He kept them shut for what seemed like an eternity before the sound of a baby's soft cooing made him slowly open his eyes. Emerson was waving her arms trying to get at the band of light that pulsed around both their heads. A dark green band of light.
Harry forcefully expelled the breath he hadn't been aware he'd been holding. Overcome with emotion, he got up quickly and cradled his daughter to his chest. He squeezed his eyes shut and fervently said a silent prayer of gratitude to every deity that would deign to listen. He wouldn't have to give up that tenuous link to a family that he finally had.
Emerson was his. She was really his.
**************
Hermione sat alone in Harry's living room late the next night, deep in thought. She had been spending more time at Harry's flat than she ever had and to be completely honest, she didn't mind in the least.
She loved being around Harry, of course, he was her best friend. But something about being a father brought out another side of him. A tenderness. The memory of the way he had been at the MoM yesterday was enough to bring tears to her eyes. She had known exactly what he'd been thinking, when he'd had that little scare in Susan's office. How could she not? Hours upon hours spent studying his facial expressions, his postures, she knew him so well. She knew what he feared but she let him go on thinking that she didn't. Even with her, Harry could be such a private person.
Hermione's confusion was steadily mounting. Her feelings for Harry were becoming even more difficult to control. Listening to him talk about Julia had been both fascinating and harrowing. Her emotions had been all over the place: jealousy of Julia for being with him; smug satisfaction that they'd lasted less than a week; guilt for thinking that way about a woman who was most likely dead. What had distressed her the most though was a surprising amount of anger at Harry for having a casual fling when she was right here in front of him, loving him so much that it hurt. Why couldn't he see it? Why couldn't he see her? She'd wanted to hit him.
Not that she was entirely blameless. She badly wanted to take the first step. But his apparent blindness didn't do anything to bolster her reserve to tell him how she really felt. Her fear of the destruction of their friendship was almost palpable, but she loved him so much! Why did it have to be so hard? Why had she gone and fallen in love with him? She would watch Harry pretend to eat Emerson's little toes and the desire to kiss him would be so strong that she wanted to weep.
'But it's not all bad,' Hermione thought to herself almost defiantly, trying to shake her somber mood. 'We have fun too.' And, well, they did.
They'd a great time reading the baby books they'd picked up, laughing and arguing about what certain things meant. Harry had been terrified by the chapter on SIDS and had been checking and double-checking Emerson's breathing every night. Which didn't help his disposition the next day. So far he hadn't taken Hermione up on her offer to stay home with the baby and other than Susan, she was still the only person who knew about Emerson. Harry was planning a "Meet Em" party for the weekend, though, and all the necessary people had been notified.
Hermione smiled to herself at the memory of earlier. They had gone shopping in Muggle London for even more things for Emerson. Who knew babies needed so much! An elderly woman in the store had stopped to coo over Em and complimented them on their beautiful daughter and remarked on how much Em resembled Hermione.
They hadn't had the heart to correct her, but Hermione could barely look at Harry for the remainder of the trip. She couldn't bear for him to see anything; her emotions were surely clearly displayed, despite all her best efforts for the contrary.
Harry came into the room then, wearing jeans and a dark green jumper, barefoot and holding two glasses of white wine.
'Molly is right,' she mused silently. 'Green does bring out the color of his eyes. And would it be too forward to run my hands through his hair? And his lips-'
Hermione sighed and took the glass that Harry offered.
He grinned. "To our sanity."
She gave him a weak smile. "To our sanity."
They sipped their wine in companionable silence. "So how are things with Evan?" Harry asked, swirling the wine in his glass.
She swatted his arm playfully. "Honestly, Harry! Try to get it right. It's Ian."
He rolled his eyes so hard that she expected them to pop through his glasses and bounce on the carpet. "Sor-ry. How are things with Ian?"
"Ok, I guess," Hermione shrugged.
Harry looked up at her, clearly intending to interrogate her but Hermione jumped up. She didn't want to talk about Ian. Just thinking about him made her feel terribly guilty. Here she was spending so much time with another man while continually canceling dates and lying to her boyfriend. They'd already had more than a handful of fights about this very subject. She knew she wasn't being fair to him.
Not so subtly changing the subject, she said "So, everything ready for Sunday? Have you heard from Ron?"
Harry stared at her for a long moment before he nodded. "Yeah. He'll be here but he has to go back that night." Ron was the tour manager for the Chudley Cannons, who were currently on the road. "You know you can tell me anything, right?" he added suddenly.
Not anything. Hermione nodded. "I should probably go. Dr. Garg said I could take my vacation starting next week but only if I put in some extra hours this week. I don't really mind, because then I'll be off almost 3 months."
His eyebrows arched. "Three months? What'll you do with yourself? Lots of reading, no doubt."
"I thought I'd spend some time with my dad, maybe convince him to go away with me one weekend. He's taken up golfing, did I mention?"
Harry grinned. "Don't let Mr. Weasley hear. He'd bombard the poor man to death." Ron's dad was still as Muggle-crazy as ever.
They laughed. Harry stood up and walked over to her. He grasped her shoulders and looked into her eyes and Hermione had to will her knees not to betray her.
"Hermione, thank you. For everything. I'd have been lost without you this past week and I know Em and I are gonna need you badly. You are invaluable." He leaned in and for one glorious second Hermione was sure he was going to kiss her. Well he did kiss her but not where she had hoped and Hermione squeezed her eyes shut, feeling his warm lips pressed to her forehead. I love you, Harry.
She pulled away and smiled shakily. "What are friends for, huh? Good night."
Unable to stay there and look at him any longer, she apparated into her living room, dropped her bag and let out a scream of frustration. Then she surrendered and allowed the tears to come.
************
The latin is from the same place as before. Cognatio "Connection by blood"; Cuiusmodi "what kind?"