Chapter 5
After a full week of living in the same quarters, Harry was going insane with need. His need for Hermione knew no bounds. He was careful, however, since one of his sons shared his gift. His powers grew each day. He was able to block his emotions off from his son - Brian Sirius. He smiled each time he called him Sirius. His son crinkled his nose as if something smelled bad. Harry knew he didn't care much about the name.
"Sorry, love. I wasn't here to warn your mother about your name," he told him. "But you know your name sakes are both great wizards." His son smiled to let him know he understood.
The four of them had a grand day. They took a stroll at the lake. Of course Harry was stopped every few seconds by students who wanted to meet him in person until he put on his invisibility powers on so that he could spend quality time with his sons.
The children squealed in glee and the passersby turned to look where the noise came from. It amused Harry that people become frightened when they hear happy noises and can not see where the noise came from. People often fear what they do not see. Too often they associate the unseen with ghosts. Even that was a puzzle to Harry since they obviously live with many ghosts in the castle. Maybe the fact that they cannot see was what frightened them most, he mused.
After a few students passed with wary steps near the lake where they played, Harry decided to take the boys back inside the castle. He'd forgotten to remove the invisibility protection. When they arrived at the door to Hermione's quarters, he opened the door and pushed the buggy, where the boys quietly lay asleep, ahead of him. Harry should have sensed the other presence in the room, but he tried to tune everyone out when he was with his son. He wanted to give them his undivided attention always.
Harry stopped so fast the buggy jerked. He heard a man's voice in the common room. It was an unfamiliar voice and the only other person in the room was Hermione. He pushed the buggy ahead and walked inside the common room where he thought they would see him. When Hermione didn't look up to acknowledge him, he remembered they were still invisible. He was about to announce their presence when he saw the man take a hold of Hermione's hand.
"Hemione, you've been ignoring me for weeks. Are you feeling all right?" Simon asked. He'd tried owling her but he never received a reply. He'd tried flooing her, but it seemed her floo network was blocked. He was a bit concerned and decided to leave work early to check up on her. He'd also heard that Harry Potter was back, he was the root of his worries really. He didn't like the fact that he now had competition for Hermione's affections.
"I'm had a lot of things on my mind, Simon." She tried to remove her hand from his, but he didn't want to let go just yet. She didn't really want to make a big deal about it because she knew how affectionate he was, but she was sure she felt Harry nearby. She couldn't see him, but she felt him as soon as he walked in the door.
"You look as though you haven't been sleeping much either. Do you want me to prescribe you a sleeping draught?" Harry wanted to snort. As if Hermione, as brilliant as she was, would need someone else to fix her a sleeping draught.
"You're right. I haven't been sleeping well, but you don't have to give me anything. There are just a lot of things I need to sort out."
"I heard Harry's back. Is he bothering you?"
Hermione could feel the temperature change in the room. She knew Simon's comment made Harry angry. She hoped Harry had enough self control to keep hidden. No one outside the close family and friends knew of his invisibility powers.
"No, why would you say something like that?" Harry also wanted to know. His dislike for the man grew with intensity as he stood there listening to them. He noticed the little Brian Sirius getting agitated and quickly blocked Brian Sirius off from his emotions.
"Well, I know how devastated you were when I met you, it must be really hard on you now that his back. It was obvious that you started to get on with your life and his return must have turned your life upside down once again."
"I don't really feel like talking about that right now. I'm doing fine."
"I'm sorry I didn't mean to pry. It's none of my business of course, but I thought that since we've become so close in the past year or so, that you'd confide in me if you needed someone to talk to."
Harry decided to walk the boys into the nursery and put them in their cribs. He was eager to let his presence known.
"Simon…"
"Hermione?" Harry called out as he walked into the room from the nursery.
"Harry, did we wake you?" Hermione pretended he just woke up from a nap.
"Er, yeah." Harry decided to play along. But he knew from her expression that she knew he'd been standing in the same room listening to their conversation." "The boys are still asleep though. I heard voices. I thought you still had lessons?" He looked at Simon. "Oh, hello, I'm Harry, and you are?" He held out his hand.
"I'm Simon Blake; it's a pleasure to meet you at last." Harry wanted to punch him out for the straight faced lie Simon just gave him. Harry had no reservations with opening up himself to Simon's emotions. He wanted to know everything there was to know about the bloke, especially what his intentions were for his Hermione.
"Pleasure, I'm sure," Harry said. At the touch of Harry's hand, Simon felt a small shock through his body. He didn't think anything of it. He thought it common to feel some kind of electrical shock once in a while. He was however a bit intimidated by Harry. He'd heard many stories about him when he arrived and even when he lived in America. The news of the Dark Lord's demise traveled quickly and Harry's and his friends' involvement in the defeat of the Dark Lord was well publicized. He also knew that it was Harry alone in the end that defeated the Dark Lord. He knew his powers were great and instead of being afraid, he felt more determined to take Hermione away from Harry.
She needed to lead a normal life, didn't she? Harry would only complicate her life and her sons' lives. She needed someone like him, didn't she? He kept his musings to himself, but Harry felt everything.
"Well, I really should be going." Simon was flustered. He lost all the confidence in his musings with one look at Harry's eyes. He felt as if Harry could see straight to his soul.
"What's your hurry? I wanted to talk to you a while and show my appreciation for taking care of my wife while I was indisposed?" He stressed the word wife.
Hermione should be amused, but she wasn't. She watched the two of them trying to get one up on the other. She would not have it. But she needed to tackle the problem one at a time, which meant one man at a time. "Thanks for stopping by Simon."
"Come on Hermione, he can stay for supper can't he?" Hermione glared at Harry. It pleased Harry immensely that she knew what he was up to, which only meant they were still connected closely than she lead him to believe.
"I'm sure Simon has plenty of patients waiting for him, don't you Simon?"
"Er.. yeah. I really need to get back. It was nice seeing you again Hermione. I'll see you again soon. Harry." He nodded at Harry's direction to which Harry merely grunted.
Simon practically ran to the door. His anxiousness doubled when he looked at Harry. If he still had any confidence in winning Hermione from Harry, he lost it as soon as he caught a glimpse of the way Harry looked at his wife. He knew Harry would never give her up without a fight. Simon was not stupid. He knew he had less than a chance against him. He thought he did, until he shook his hand.
As soon as Simon shut the door behind him, Hermione rounded in on Harry.
"What was that all about?"
"What was what?"
"Oh, please Harry. `I wanted to talk to you a while and show my appreciation for taking care of my wife'. And what were you doing to him. He practically ran out of here." Hermione wanted so much to laugh out loud. She'd never seen Simon so frazzled before. Not even when there were complications during her birthing.
"I wasn't doing anything, Hermione. I just shook his hand." He put on the innocent look with the puppy dog eyes, but Hermione knew better. "Besides I only told him the truth."
Hermione didn't know how close they'd been standing staring into each others' eyes, but she felt as if Harry just had his way with her. His eyes had never had such intensity as it did at that moment. She felt naked under his scrutiny and to her surprised, she felt alive again.
Harry on the other hand had to put up a good fight with his desire. Hermione was so close, yet he knew that if he kissed her then it would not be enough. He wanted all of her once more, mind, body and soul. He knew by the look in her eyes and the way she shuddered just moments ago that he could take her body, but it would truly not be a victory if he didn't have all of her.
Instead of giving in to his more basic urges, he turned around to face the large fireplace and said "Maybe we can have that talk now."
Hermione took a few seconds to recover from her heightened awareness of her body. She didn't know what she was thinking, but she knew she'd wanted Harry to do whatever it was she saw in his eyes.
"All right," she answered instead of telling him to go to hell. She hated not being in control of herself and she always lost it when she was with Harry.
Harry motioned for her to take a seat. He took the seat across from her. He didn't trust himself yet not to touch her.
"I should like to say I'm sorry Hermione. No don't. I need to say this before I loose my nerve again. I wanted to tell you everything when I walked into the room while you were correcting papers, but I knew something was off when I saw how thin you looked."
"Harry…"
"Hermione, please, let me finish." She nodded for him to continue. "I swear to you, I didn't know I was gone for so long. See, where I was it didn't seem as if so much time had passed. I didn't know where I was at first. Everything looked the same, yet everything was different. It took some time for me to realize that I wasn't in the same world anymore."
"I don't understand, Harry."
"I'll try to explain it the best I can, but even now I have a hard time understanding. See I went through the curtain in the department of mysteries." Hermione gasped. "Yes the same one that Sirius fell through when he tried to save me. I didn't know what it's called, but everything looked the same. The buildings were the same, places were the same, houses were the same, and the only difference was people. There weren't any people in that place except for what I thought were people who popped in occasionally. But I was wrong about that too. They weren't people at all. They were souls passing through on their way to the either heaven or hell I guess."
Hermione listened with rapt attention. Her mind was reeling with the information. She felt guilty for thinking Harry had abandoned her.
"Let me tell you, not all the souls were friendly. The only real residence in that place, I began to dub the in between world, the waiting room. It seemed it was a place where souls become acclimated to their new life so to speak. It is where they wait to be accepted to their final resting place. As I said before, not all were friendly souls, but the permanent residents were those who have not fully accepted that they were dead. They seemed to be in limbo and do not want to pass through yet. It was Nearly Headless Nick who explained to me about where I was. While I was trying to figure out where I was, I leapt home to Avalon and then to Grimmauld Place trying to find you and finally I leapt to Hogwarts thinking that grandfather would have an explanation. At first I thought I was dead because although I was able to use my powers, just the innate powers mind you. I could not use spells or hexes and I couldn't find you. But each time I used my powers, I became weaker. The thing is, I didn't know just how weak I was becoming because not only did I not know where I was, I didn't know what day it was, or if it was night or day. Everything just seemed gray."
"I'm sorry Harry, I had no idea."
"Don't be Hermione. I'm not looking for pity from you; I want you to understand what I had to deal with. I want you to know that I didn't intentionally stay away for as long as I had. When I finally reached Hogwarts and Nearly Headless Nick explained to me what was going on, I began to understand and I helped some souls who wanted help get on their way. My empath powers went on overdrive when I opened up myself to find the emotions that first drew me to enter the curtain. I felt as if I had been struck by a million lightning bolts at once. It took me a while to figure out which emotions belonged to which soul and as I did, I didn't realize I became weaker."
Hermione fought back the tears that were threatening to fall. Her heart felt as if it had been pierced by an arrow. She felt Harry's pain and it started to melt the ice around hers. The wall around her heart was crumbling down piece by piece like an old brick building.
Harry looked as if he had relived the pain again. He shuddered at the thought of all those emotions bombarding him. It was as if the flood gates broke and water started pouring in by the gallons.
"By the time I found the one person sending out the emotions that had haunted me here, I was spent. I was so weak he had to fend off the last few souls who still needed my help. When I regained consciousness, I thought I had died once again. The person who'd been sending out the emotions stood over me. He grinned like a madman and I couldn't have been happier to see him."
"Who was it Harry?"
"It was Sirius."
A/N: Sorry this was short and it took so long to get posted. Hope you like it nonetheless.
Thank you once again for your reviews.
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