A/n: Ahhhh I'm back! New chapter and everything. I know that it has been awhile since the last update but I had one hell of a time finding a new beta. But now I have one so I hope that I will be able to update at least once a week. Also on a side note the stories rating will be going up in the near future to more than likely R, but that may change. Don't forget to review! So without further ado the next chapter:
Chapter 7: The Grangers
"Hi, Daddy."
"Hello sweetheart. Hi Harry."
"Hi Mr. Granger. How was your meeting?"
"Fine, fine... A dentist's work is never done, you know..."
"Well, I've got everything ready to go," Harry said cheerfully.
"Good, well, let's get your stuff in the car."
"Uh... Harry, where's your Firebolt?" Hermione asked as she looked around at the pile of Harry's things that they had brought down thus far.
Harry looked down at his stuff as well and realized that his racing broom wasn't there. "Must have left it up stairs. I'll be right back."
"Daddy, can you take Harry's things out to the car while I help him look?"
They ran back up the stairs before getting an answer, and Mr. Granger took Harry's trunk to the car. Harry walked into his room and pried up the loose floorboard beneath his bed and pulled out his cherished broomstick.
"Well... that's a good hiding space."
"Yeah, it came in handy when Dudley was on his `diet,' " Harry explained. He then started towards the door when Hermione grabbed his arm. "What?"
"About what happened this morning before my dad got here..."
"Hey, we can talk about that when we get to your house." Harry leaned down and kissed Hermione lightly on the cheek.
"Uh... sure."
They ran back down the stairs and out to the car to see Mr. Granger shutting the boot of the car. "Harry, you'll have to keep the broom with you in the back seat. I think it could break if we put it back here."
"Yeah, okay."
"Goodbye Mr. & Mrs. Dursley, thank you for letting me stay the night."
"It was nice to meet you Mr. Dursley and thank you again for letting Hermione stay the night."
"She was an angel," Uncle Vernon called after them.
Harry stopped and turned to stare at Uncle Vernon, not believing that he really just said that. He continued to watch the Dursleys as he opened the car door for Hermione, though he waited until Mr. Granger was in the car before he actually said anything.
"Until next summer, then." Without waiting for a response, Harry quickly got in the car and watched as the Dursleys went back into the house.
As they went down the road Harry saw Mr. Granger look at him in the rearview mirror. "Harry, I was just wondering... are your Aunt and Uncle in their right mind?"
Hermione burst into laughter and so did Harry. "Why? What did they say to you?" Harry's laughter barely let him get the words out.
"Well, they just said that they were sorry for what I was going through, and that they understood."
"Oh, that's because they feel bad for you because Hermione is a witch. They don't really like the wizarding world, that's all."
"Don't like... Harry, they hate the wizarding world and everything to do with it! I wonder why he called me an angel, though..."
"I think it was because he was afraid that either you or me would sick the Order on him if he said something mean."
"Yeah," Hermione said as she snorted out a laugh.
"Oh, I see." Mr. Granger, however, looked utterly confused, but said nothing else on the matter.
The rest of the trip went smoothly, as Mr. Granger ask Harry questions about his life and what he likes to do for fun. Harry even explained to him about the game of Quidditch - much to Hermione's dismay - and Mr. Granger said he wouldn't mind seeing a game of that firsthand. When they finally arrived at the house, Harry practically lost the ability to speak.
"It's not much, I know... but it's home."
Harry looked at Hermione like she was crazy. "Not much? Hermione, this makes the Dursley's look like a shack!"
Hermione started to blush and Mr. Granger laughed, but she knew he was right.
Harry looked slowly back to the house to where he'd be staying for the next few weeks. It was a huge three story brick house with a large mahogany door. Once they got out of the car and Harry had his trunk, Hermione carried his firebolt and Hedwig's cage. As Harry walked in behind Mr. Granger, he stopped so fast that Hermione ran into him from behind.
"As you can see," Hermione started as she pushed Harry into the house. "To your left is the kitchen and dining room, and on your right is the formal living room and library. Daddy, I'm just going to give Harry a tour of the rest of the house and show him to his room."
"Ok sweetheart. Your mother and I will be in the kitchen fixing a late lunch. Once you're done, just come down to the kitchen."
Hermione lead Harry up a large set of mahogany stairs and onto a landing for the second floor.
"Down the hall to the left are my parent's bedroom and a guestroom. And down here are our rooms. This one's yours." They had turned to the right and walked down the hall until the reached a door on the right. When they walked in the room, there was a large queen-sized bed against the wall to the right and a door an either side of the room. "Your bathroom is the door on the other side of the bed and the closet is on the opposite side. There's a TV in the armoire over there. You can unpack later tonight."
"Sure thing." Harry sat his trunk at the end of the bed and Hermione sat Hedwig's cage on top of the trunk and the firebolt on the bed. "Let me open the window for when Hedwig gets here," He suggested, walking over and opening the window for Hedwig. He then followed Hermione out of his room and into a room across the hall.
"And this one's mine."
Harry could not believe how much her room looked like what he had always thought a girl's room would look like. It had a large queen-size canopy bed that had light pink fabric curtains with sheets to match. There was a large window seat that over looked a massive backyard. Her room had the same floor plan as his otherwise. However, on either side of the window seat were large bookshelves that were completely filled, but not only with books, but many, many pictures as well. Harry walked over to look at some of the photos that were scattered in with the books as she motioned him inside.
"Wow... nice room," Harry said as he continued to look over the photos of Hermione growing up. He couldn't really think of much else to say, considering the room that he knew he had grown up with.
"Thanks." Harry turned to watch Hermione, tearing his attention away from the pictures, and saw her shut and locked door before walking back and sitting on the bed.
"Harry... about what happened back at your house... I don't normally do things like that."
Harry turned and walked over to join her on the bed. "Well, I'd hope not."
"Honestly, Harry, I'm being serious! What happened between us was...."
"Amazing." Harry looked up to meet her eyes, and saw that she was starting to blush.
"Yeah, it was. It's just... what does this mean for us?"
Harry looked back at Hermione, unsure of himself suddenly. He didn't know if she wanted to hear what he was thinking, but he decided to say it anyway.
"I guess, if you want, you could be my girlfriend..."
"Harry, would you really want me to be your girlfriend?" she asked as she turned back to look at him after having turned away to try and hide her blush.
"Well, yeah, I wouldn't have said it if I didn't mean it..."
"Harry I... I..."
Hermione couldn't seem to get the words out, so she climbed into his lap instead and kissed him. In turn, he put his hands on Hermione's waist pulled her closer as they kissed each other feverishly. It took great control a few minutes later for him to pull away again.
"We should stop, your parents are downstairs. Plus, if we keep going like this, I might not be able to control myself."
Hermione started to blush all over again. "Well, I can't help it if I can't keep my lips off my boyfriend..."
"I'm going to have to get used to you calling me that, you know?"
"Well, that's what you are, right? Now, come on. I'll show you the rest of the house quickly."
"There's more?"
Hermione laughed as she pulled Harry out of her room and up another set of stairs. This set opened up to one large room that had the biggest TV Harry had ever seen or even imagined.
"This is the family room. We spend most time up here instead of in the down stairs livingroom. As you can see, we have a pool table, air hockey, pinball, all the computer stuff, a bar, and of course my dad's pride and joy - the 78 inch TV. The saddest thing is I think he loves that TV more than me."
Harry laughed at Hermione comment but then a funnier thought popped into his head. "Wow, I'd love to see the face on the Dursleys' if they walked in here. I think Dudley would faint right away."
"Yeah, but when Dad got it in the beginning of the holidays, the first people I thought who would get a real kick out of it would be the Weasleys."
This image sent Harry over the edge, and he started laughing so hard that tears were falling down his checks. "We should invite them over just for that, but I think this entire house would give Mr. Weasley a heart attack." Harry laughter was out of control.
"Harry, that's not funny."
"Then why are you laughing?"
They both had tears streaming down their faces from laughter, so she couldn't really deny the fact, even if she had wanted to. "Come on, lets just go eat."
They walked into the kitchen to see Hermione's parents putting hamburgers onto a large tray. "Hello Harry, it's lovely to see you. Hope you don't mind me not shaking your hand, raw meat." Hermione's mother gave him a quick, soft smile before looking back to what she was doing.
"That's fine."
Harry could see were Hermione got her looks from - her mother was only a bit taller than she was, but other than that, they had the same basic body build and hair style.
"Guys, we're going to grill these outside, so why don't you grab plates, silverware, and glasses, and go set up on the patio."
"Sure thing, Dad. Harry, you get plates and silverware and I'll get the glasses."
Hermione got everything out herself anyway, as Harry had no idea where anything was, and loaded it into Harry's hands before getting the glasses for herself. He walked out behind Hermione, and found that the backyard was huge and held a pool. There was a large fence encasing the whole of the yard, and the many trees made it all very cozy. The good sized pool was off to the left and it had a diving board, slide, and a hot tub that was connected by a small waterfall.
"Wow."
"That's what you keep saying... By the way, there's also a hot tub through those doors that we use when it's cold outside."
Harry and Hermione set the table together, and each time their hands brushed against the others, they would smile to each other. Mrs. Granger brought out a pitcher of lemonade and some chips that she had just gotten done frying, and then Mr. Granger brought over the burgers. They had a wonderful meal that consisted of stories and laughter. When they were done, Harry and Hermione cleared the table and put everything in the dishwasher while her parents put away everything else.
"Sweetheart, your mother and I have patients until 6 tomorrow and then at least an hour of paperwork after that. We should be home around 7:30 or so, but I'm sure you two can keep each other entertained that long, right?"
"That should be fine Daddy. We'll probably stay by the pool for most of the day."
"Ok then... Let's go upstairs and watch a movie before we turn into pumpkins." Once they had all gathered upstairs and each had a place in front of the TV, Hermione went over to a large tower that had rows and rows of DVDs held inside.
"So, what do you want to watch?" Mrs. Granger asked as she plopped down beside her husband.
"I will not watch a chick flick - there's another guy here, so for once I'm not outnumbered. But I could go for something funny," Mr. Granger replied with a grin to Harry.
"Alright." Hermione started reading over movie titles till she stopped and pulled one out. "How about Pirates of the Caribbean? Have you seen it, Harry?"
"Nah, the Dursleys won't let me watch the news, let alone a movie. Anything's fine with me."
"Good, then we'll watch this." Hermione placed the DVD in the player and sat down next to Harry. "I really like Orlando Bloom, he's rather cute. Ouch."
"What's wrong?" Mrs. Granger sat up at her daughter's squeal.
"Harry just pinched me."
"Sorry, didn't mean to."
"Yeah, I'm sure." Hermione said low enough so that only she and Harry could hear.
They all sat back and watched the movie in relative silence, and by the time it was over Hermione's head was resting on Harry's shoulder. Harry could have watched the whole movie again if he hadn't been so tried - he didn't really want to move given how comfortable he was, but knew they had to. They all got up and slowly made there way to their rooms. When Harry and Hermione got to their doors Harry looked down the hall to see if her parents had gone in their room before he spoke.
"Night Hermione." Harry leaned down and kissed her gently.
"Hmm, night." Hermione slowly walked into her room and shut the door behind her quietly.
Harry went into his room and took off his clothes before shutting the window. Hedwig was already there, so there was no need to keep it open all night. He then hopped into bed and went to sleep.
It was happening again... Sirius was falling again and he could not get close enough...
---------------------
"Harry wake up! You're having your nightmare again!"
Harry sat up quickly at the words in his ear to find Hermione sitting on the edge of his bed with her hands on his shoulders.
"I'm sorry... didn't mean to wake you. Was I loud?"
"No. Actually, I didn't hear you till I opened the door," Hermione said as she bit her lip sheepishly.
"Then, why'd you come to my room?"
"I don't know... something inside of me told me to check on you, that's all," she replied as her cheeks took on a pink tint.
"Well, that's weird."
"Do you want me to stay?" Hermione asked timidly.
"You can if you'd like."
Hermione rolled over Harry and crawled under the covers and pulled him back down so they could sleep curled up together. "Harry... are you ok?"
"Not completely. I just want this dream to end. I hate seeing it. It's bad enough that I killed him, but to have to watch it over and over again..." Harry started to let tears fall, but didn't even try to hide it from Hermione.
"Harry, you can't do this to yourself. Sirius wouldn't want you too."
Harry looked over at Hermione, her big brown eyes staring in to his. She wrapped her arms protectively around him and laid her head on his chest as he put his arms around her too. He then fell asleep rather easily, and the rest of the night, he only dreamed dreams of her.
*******
Harry woke the morning to the sound of someone knocking at his door.
"Harry, it's Mrs. Granger. May I come in?"
"Cover me, Harry," Hermione hissed to him, flattening herself against the bed to let Harry throw the covers over her quickly.
"Sure, come on in!"
Mrs. Granger walked in and shut the door behind her quietly. She looked to him for a moment before smiling. "Hermione, I know you're in here, so come on out."
Hermione slowly sat up, pulling the blanket off her, to reveal a large blush on her face. She looked like she was ready for her mum to start yelling at her, too. Harry was sure he didn't look a whole lot better.
"Mum, it's not what it looks like..." Hermione started weakly.
"I know."
"You see Harry had... wait, you know?"
"That's right. I had gone downstairs last night because I thought I had forgotten to set the coffee maker for the morning, and on my way back to my room I saw you sneaking across the hall into Harry's room. So, like any good mother, I listened at the door to see what was going on. When I was sure that you two weren't going to do anything more than sleep, I simply went back to bed. However, I don't think your father would like the fact that his 16 year old daughter spent the night in the same bed as a boy, especially one that's the same age. I'm not going to say anything to him for our own safety, so I'll try to keep him from saying goodbye to you in the mornings, just encase Harry has that dream again."
Harry and Hermione nodded but couldn't help think how nice she was being about this. "Now, we're heading off to work, so we'll see you two tonight."
"Mrs. Granger, thank you."
"Harry, anyone who has been through what you have needs all the love they can get."
Mrs. Granger walked over and kissed Harry's forehead and then left the room.
"Wow, I thought she was going to kill us," Hermione admitted as she let out the breath she had been holding.
"Yeah." Harry laid back down and Hermione laid down with him and placed her chin on his chest, even as he put a hand to his forehead where her mother had just kissed him. "So, what do you want to do today, Hermione?"
"Stay here with you all day."
"That can be arranged." Harry pulled Hermione on top off him and started to kiss her gently, just enjoying her presence.
"Harry, why did it take us so long to start doing this?"
"I don't know, but I was a fool for not realising how I felt about you earlier."
"Well, at least you figured it out before it was too late."
"Yeah, but now it's too late for every other guy," he said with a smile. He then ran his hands through Hermione's hair so he could better see her face.
Hermione leaned down and kissed Harry's lips, then his neck, and then went on to his chest. She slowly slipped her hand down his bare chest, then on down to the top of his boxers before sliding it around to the small of his back and rolled him on top of her instead. Harry continued to kiss her as he placed his left hand on her panty line and his right hand on the bottom of her tanktop, and started to push it up. He then pulled her up so he could kiss where his left hand had been. He slowly made his way up her stomach, kissing every inch of the way, which made Hermione giggle. Yes, making Hermione giggle. When he got to her chest that was still covered by the tanktop, he skipped over the fabric and moved up to kiss her neck, chin, and then finally her lips again.
After finally releasing her lips again, Harry started making his way down Hermione's neck to the hollow of her throat. As he kissed the top of Hermione's right breast, pushing the fabric down just a little to do so, he felt her take in a deep breath.
"Do you want me to stop?"
"If you stop, I'll kill you."
He couldn't keep the grin of his face as he went back to kissing her soft skin. They continued to kiss and touch each other with the passion of a couple who had been together years rather than just a day. Hermione could feel her whole body start to tingle and she dug her nails into Harry's back.
"Hey, easy tiger."
"Oh, Harry, shut up and kiss me!"
Harry did as he was told and started kissing her firmly on the lips again.
*THUMP*
"Harry, what was that?"
"I don't know."
They both sat up to see what had made the noise, taking the first break from their interaction ever since Hermione's mother had left earlier that morning.
"Harry, look."
Hermione was pointing to the window. Harry looked over to see Pigwidgeon flying around outside, beating against the window in an attempt to get inside. He got up and opened the window, and Pig flew in instantly and started to fly laps around the ceiling fan. Hermione stood up and caught pig mid lap and held on to him so Harry could remove the note from his leg.
"You can let him go now."
"No, not yet, because if you have to send a note back, I don't want to have to catch him again."
"Good point." Harry watched for a moment as Pig tried to get out of Hermione's grip before he actually opened the note.
"So, what does it say?"
"He's asking if I want to come and spend the rest of the holidays with him. You didn't tell him you made plans for me to stay here?"
"No, are you kidding? He'd have either let it slip to you or made it so we both went to his house instead. So... are you going to go?" She sounded a little concerned at the thought.
"Nah, I happen to like it right where I am. Let me just write him back and tell him what's going on."
"Ok... just don't tell him about us, okay."
"Why not?"
"Honestly Harry, do I have to explain everything to you? It's not the kind of thing one tells his best friend in a letter."
"Ah."
Harry wrote Ron a quick note on the back of the original, saying that he was staying at Hermione's house, and then retied the note to Pigs leg. Hermione hopped off the bed and walked to the window and threw the small, hyperactive owl out, and together, they watched as he flew away.
"So, where were we?"
"Harry, lets go for a swim in the pool."
"What?"
"It's not that I didn't like what we were doing... it's just... We were getting a little too close, don't you think?" Hermione turned and started towards the door before getting an answer.
"Hey, I thought you wanted to stay in bed all day."
"Maybe we can later on in the holiday!" she said with a smile. "Now, put on your trunks and meet me downstairs."
"I might need a cold shower first."
Hermione laughed in response and walked into her room. The thing was, Harry wasn't really kidding, he really did think he needed one after what they had been doing... Instead, he slowly walked over and grabbed his trunks from amongst his things and put them on. His bedroom door was still opened, but most of him didn't care, because Hermione had already seen him naked. He then walked into the bathroom, brushed his teeth and headed downstairs.
He only had to wait a minute before Hermione came down the stairs carrying two towels on her side before she took his breath away. She was wearing a bright blue bikini and her hair was simply cascading down her back. She stopped at the bottom of the stairs and looked at Harry. He had his mouth wide open and was just staring at her in amazement. She walked up and closed his mouth gently with one finger.
"Harry, it's not nice to stare. Now, come on. Let's go get in the pool." Hermione grabbed Harry's hand and pulled him along with her into the backyard.
She threw the two towels she was holding on to into one of the pool chairs. They walked to the edge of the pool and Hermione stuck her toes in and pulled them right back out, much to Harry's amusement.
"Are you afraid the water's going to bite?"
"No I just... Harry don't!"
Harry just grabbed Hermione despite her protests and pulled her with him as he leapt into the water. As soon as they surfaced, Hermione started to hit and splash him with water.
"Harry, honestly that's not funny! I could have gotten hurt."
"No, you couldn't... I wouldn't let anything bad ever happen to you when you're in my arms." Harry was trying to get close enough to her but Hermione kept splashing, keeping him at bay.
Finally Harry dove under the water and got her by her waist. When he got back to the surface he let his grip on Hermione go a little so she slid down into the water again until they were face to face. He then kissed her softly on the lips, just enjoying the feeling. Once they separated, she leaned back and looked at Harry, running her hands through his black hair in a vain attempt to slick it back. But, alas, it fell back to where it was moments before, and Hermione started to laugh.
"What?"
"It's just your hair... It won't stay put!"
"Hermione, has it really taken you five years to notice that?"
"No, I just thought it would stay put when wet. Come on, let's get in the hot tub."
"What, not hot enough here for you?"
"Actually it's not, I thinks it's rather cold right here."
"Think I can fix that..."
"Oh really? How?"
"Like this," he whispered, leaning in to kiss her again. He took one hand from her waist and moved it to her hair.
Hermione never knew how strong Harry was before, but he was only holding her with one arm like she weighed nothing. They slowly made their way back to the wall, and when they got there he lightly pressed her against it, pulling the two of them even closer together. They kissed each other with more passion than they might admit to later until Hermione heard someone calling her name.
"Who's that?"
"I don't know... Just swim over to the other side, quick!"
Harry ducked under the water and swam away from Hermione as she instructed, pulling back up when he reached the far side.
"Hey, Hermione. I figured I'd find you out here."
"Hi, Jill. How are you?"
"Fine, fine. Who's that?"
Harry was pulling himself up out of the pool, letting you see every muscle in his back as he did so. He then made his way over to the diving board, not even glancing in their direction the full time.
"That's Harry. He goes to my school and he's spending the rest of the holidays with us."
"Wow, he's gorgeous. Does he have a girlfriend?"
"Yes he does," Hermione said a little defensively.
Harry dove off the diving board and disappeared under the water, barely making a splash.
"That's ashame... I'd like to have had a chance with that!"
"Jill, I can't believe you just said tha…."
Harry had grabbed her suddenly and pulled her under midsentence. When she finally resurfaced her hair was everywhere, and she was spluttering, spitting water out of her mouth before turning on him.
"HARRY JAMES POTTER! If you do that one more time I'm so going to hurt you!"
"Hi, Harry I'm Jill. Hermione and I used to go to school together."
"Nice to meet ya. Oi, Hermione that hurt!" Hermione had finally gotten her hair under control and had hit Harry in the arm, hard. "So, was Hermione as smart when she was little as she is now?" She tried to hit him again, but he had moved out of her reach.
"Hermione, a smarty pants? No! So, Harry, I hear you have a girlfriend... What's she like?"
"Jill!"
"Hermione, it's fine, I don't mind. Well, let's see... she's nice, funny, smart, a great friend, and... ah, yes, a body to die for."
Hermione started to blush at his words, but Jill didn't notice - she was too intent at looking at something on Harry's forehead.
"Wow, how did you get that scar?"
Hermione looked over to Harry quickly, and watched as his face lost all traces of happiness instantly.
"When I was a baby, my parents and I were in a car crash. I was the only one to survive." Harry turned and swam back into the middle of the pool, away from them quickly before they could reply.
"Oh God! Sorry... Does he always act like that when someone asks about it?"
"Sometimes. It's been a bit harder lately, because his godfather just died and the guy who killed his parents is back."
"What do you mean, back?"
"Uh, released from jail."
"Oh man, how unlucky can you get?"
"Hopefully not much more," Hermione muttered.
"Well, hey, I have to go, but maybe the girls and I will come over some."
"Yeah, that sounds great! I'd love for Harry to meet some of my old friends."
Harry watched as Jill left and then Hermione swam over to him. She put her arms around Harry's neck and looked into his deep green eyes.
"I'm so sorry about what Jill said, I'm not even really friends with her. We just grew up next to each other, and now I seem stuck with her and a few of the other girls from around the neighbourhood."
"It's not your fault or Jill's... it's just been a hard year."
"I know, I told her. Let's get off a sad subject, okay? Jill said she and a few of the other girls are going to come over sometime."
"That sounds like fun. Now, I'll race you to the slide!"
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