Unofficial Portkey Archive

Without Love by Stietoe
EPUB MOBI HTML Text

Without Love

Stietoe

AN: Sorry, but it turned out just PG-13, hope you enjoy it anyway!

***

The year 2030

Harry was watching his wife sleep… He knew he would only have mere minutes to gaze upon her uninterrupted, before his house would explode with the frenzy to get to the station on time…

Even now, after fifteen years of marriage, she was still the only witch he wanted. Disbelief flooded him for the umpteenth time since he had realized this brilliant witch loved him, all of him, unconditionally… Every new day, it was like he was waking up to a dream… It terrified him sometimes, that one day he was really going to wake to find it all was just a wonderful figment of his imagination…

He remembered the shock of realisation like it happened yesterday.

It hadn't been enough for him to come to the insight that he had fallen in love with his best friend… She loved him back, and had for about as long as they knew each other. She had never come out about it, because she thought she could never live up to those Muggle women he used to chase around.

How could she think that? Worst of all, she had gotten it in her head that he was some kind of womanizer-extraordinaire… While his male ego had been a bit flattered by that, it was quickly established that he didn't go to as often to Muggle dance clubs, and didn't sleep with as many women as she thought he had.

He had spent the better part of the first months of their marriage convincing her that she had nothing on those women. He wasn't the best with words, but she seemed to know he meant it… It had just taken her a while to get confidence in her physique, just because she wasn't as skinny as a anorexia patient…

Oh, his wife… For such a brilliant witch she could be awfully silly sometimes.

But, just as well, he had struggled with the guilt of hurting her all those years. He couldn't imagine how he could've thought she had been pining away for Ron during that time, while he himself had been a constant reminder of what she thought she could never have…

He had expected her to be at least mad at him, or yell at him, but she had stayed calm when he had been the one to freak out. What had finally convinced him to let bygones be bygones, was when she explained to him that she was tired of wasting time, when they could do much more interesting things instead of fretting over the past. She had enough of holding on to her hurt, she had allowed it to be a part of her for too long… Now she wanted happiness and pleasure!

Oh, and she may not have had much experience in the sex department at the start, but she had always been a quick to learn student… Ultimately they had explored the ways of making love soon enough, as equal partners. Hermione had rather quickly overcome any shyness in the bedroom department, and to this day she could surprise him still with the amazing ideas her mind came up with.

Oh, yes, he was one lucky bastard to have Hermione by his side. To have this amazing witch allow him to love her, and of course to make up for lost time…

Hermione stirred, and Harry watched longingly at a predictable spectacle: how she scrunched up her nose, before burying her face in her pillow. Bringing up one of his hands, he stroked the still bushy wild hair out of the way. She had quite a few silver locks, and he found them so endearing he implored her not to use spells to cover up the graying hair.

After all, he didn't cover up his graying hair at his temples, did he? Of course, Hermione announced that with men, it was different: it was considered as distinguished. Despite her lamentation about the unfairness towards women with graying hair being considered old she didn't spell the silver locks away, and Harry liked to think it was because he asked her not to…

Hermione looked up at her husband who sporting a very naughty grin:

"Urhg, Harry, it's too early, you dirty old man!" Hermione joked.

Harry chuckled: "I can't help it, you know what seeing your hair all wild does to me. I can't imagine why you insist on keeping it in a bun all the time when we're in public! Other then to annoy and torture me, of course," as an afterthought, he added with a pout, "And I'm not old! You're old!"

"Harry, now you're acting like a baby. And yes you're old, you're fifty, that's half a century!"

Hermione loved to tease her husband. Harry grumbled:

"Just you wait, in less than three weeks, I'll tell you you're half-way to being antique! See how you'll like that!"

Harry grabbed his wife's swatting hands, and tackled her to tickle her mercilessly.

"Harry, no! Stop! Please, the kids are going to be here any sec…"

Hermione hadn't even ended her sentence or the door to their bedroom banged open.

"MORNING!!" Twin voices shouted.

Two ten-year old dark-haired boys, almost identical replicas of their grandfather James Potter at that age, minus the glasses, stormed inside the room.

"Eww! You weren't having sex, were you?"

"No, Josh, they still have their pajamas on, so they weren't doing the nasty business!"

Hermione yelled: "Jonathan and Joshua Potter!"

But before she could go into lecture mode, they had already sprinted out of the room. Hermione was going to start after them, but their oldest daughter, Jackie, appeared in the door opening:

"Mum! She's taken over the bathroom again! Can't you tell Josephine to hurry up already?!"

"It's Joey! Jacqueline…" came from one of the closed doors in the hallway, "And I need to take my time! I want to look extra special!"

Jackie yelled back to the closed door: "Why? Do you want to look pretty for Billy Longbottom?"

"No!"

"GIRLS!" Hermione interjected, "Look, Jackie, just use our bathroom, ok? But be quick, your father and I still have to take a quick shower, too…"

"I won't take that long, mum, unlike some we know!"

Her oldest daughter walked of in a huff, that reminded Harry so much of the old Hermione, it was uncanny. Jackie had inherited Hermione's bushy hair, but her eyes were as green as Harry's. Joey, on the other hand had inherited the sleek red hair, from Harry's mother, or Hermione's grandmother, they were still battling it out, whose side she had it from… Her eyes were also green, but they had little specks of brown in them.

Harry, in the mean time had captured his two sons, and Hermione was helping him getting them ready. While the girls would both be off to Hogwarts, they would be staying for two weeks at the Burrow. Ever since Arthur had passed away, Molly lived only for her grandchildren or the children she considered as such, and was most insulted when they didn't consider her as a babysitter.

Harry and Hermione had planned to treat themselves to the honeymoon they'd never had. To a casual onlooker it would seem unwise to give the aging Molly the care of these two little Potter demons. But Molly's years had not taken away her ability to handle energetic twins, in fact her wand was as quick as ever, and though the twins adored her, they would never cross her… too much…

A scream sounded from the girls' bathroom and Joey stormed out of the door: "MUM! DAD! Look at what these criminals did to me!"

Hermione had long since gotten used to the theatrics of her youngest daughter, but Harry remained sensitive to screams of 'damsels in distress', as she teased her husband with.

Harry hurried over to Joey to asses the damage. Apparently, the twins had somehow gotten something on her toothbrush, because it looked like all her teeth had vanished! And not in the Muggle way of blackened-teeth-who-look-like-they're-gone, but really invisible.

Looking at Hermione, he saw she was having difficulty looking disapproving at her boys, and since she would be more useful to find a spell to reverse the prank, anyway, he indicated she should take Joey, and that he would handle the twins. It was strange, Harry would've never expected Hermione to be even a little lax with the twins.

She was rather strict with her girls, but they never got into much trouble, and for now Harry was still their hero. As for the boys, Harry would've thought he would be the one to laugh at the twins jokes behind Hermione's back while she would be fuming. But she had a considerate soft spot for her little boys, and often it was Harry who found himself in the role of reprimanding the twins. Hermione said he was better at not showing amusement, because of his training as an Auror.

With all the theatrics and chaos, they managed to get at King's Cross in the nick of time. Jackie had her nose buried in some or the other book for the whole ride there, and didn't look up until she heard the boisterous voices of her one-year older best friends since her birth: Ron and Luna's triplets. Three loud red-headed boys who had an appetite that even put their father to shame. Luckily, they weren't too much of pranksters, only occasionally, which was according to Luna, only due to Jackie's sensible influence.

Joey had quickly kissed her parents goodbye, and sprinted off in search of her best friends Scarlette Creevey and Colleen Wood. After waving off the train, stopping by the Burrow together with Ron and Luna, Harry and Hermione only arrived back home around noon.

"Do you think we're too old for this?" Hermione asked, picking up some last minute items to bring along on their vacation to Greece, their honeymoon.

"This coming from the woman who attacked me like a randy teenager last night? Are you kidding!"

Harry scooped his wife in his arms and when she squealed he stated dryly: "It always turns me on when you squeak like a pig!"

"Harry, you big buffoon! Put me down!" Hermione couldn't help but laughing, though, "Oh, Harry! Please, you're going to hurt your back! Please put me down!"

"I love it when you beg," Harry dropped her on the bed and pinned her down with his weight. He wiggled his eyebrows, making Hermione chuckle even more.

Dramatically she said: "Oh, yes, my big hero, please come and rescue me from my dull fate!"

Harry just turned serious and blurted out: "I love you…"

Hermione's chuckles eased, she never got enough of hearing him say that: "I love you too, Harry…"

He took her lips in a tender kiss that quickly turned more passionate. Hermione brought her arms around him, as well as her legs and moaned in his mouth when she felt his arousal press the right spot through their clothing.

But her mind intervened, before it could totally melt from Harry's drugging kisses:

"MHarry, mm… we're never… mhm… going to get to Greece… if we keep this up…"

Harry, however, changed the subject: "Do you hear… mhm… that?"

"Mwhat?"

"Nothing," Harry grinned down at her, "Complete silence, in the middle of the day…"

Catching on, Hermione smiled, a silent deserted house during the summer vacation was indeed a rare thing.

"Race you!" Harry said and sprinted in the direction of their pool house.

Hermione didn't waste any time to follow her husband, there was a hot tub with their name on it, and it had been ages since they had gone skinny-dipping in their indoor pool…

Greece could wait for a few more hours…

***

Please, review?