Chapter Seven: The Promise
The rest of the holiday went off without a hitch. The party Harry had thrown he cancelled, sighting a temporary conflict of interest with the Ministry. Many were disappointed, though Alfred admitted he was not one of them. Hermione asked him once why he stayed on with the Potters for so long, he just smiled and said there are sometimes people we need to look after in this world, when they can't do it themselves.
She found out, though Harry did not want her to, who attacked her. He did not stop her and only consoled her when she read the papers. Her break had been difficult, and although she was unsure about returning to Hogwarts, with Harry by her side, she figured she would be able to survive it.
The papers tore through Neville so fast, questioning him and his actions against her. Hermione herself still could not believe it was Neville. He was so quiet and calm around her. How could he do something like that?
Harry studied the papers, and everything about the case, coming to his own conclusions before the authorities, which were the same thing. She was surprised often at the intellect that Harry showed when he wanted to apply himself. His potential seemed limitless, but he always hid it, rather to pretend to be something he wasn't. As he was reading through a journal in the library, Hermione figured it was time to approach him on the subject.
"Harry," she sat down across from him, while he peaked over the book. "There is something I need to talk to you about." He set down his book and sighed.
"You want to talk about why I am "suddenly" so smart and intelligent, despite the way I act at Hogwarts, correct?" Hermione felt her jaw drop He smirked and continued. "Let's add to that physically fit, instead of the slightly clumsy man I was there too, shall we?" She nodded as he moved over to her side. "People will only see what you want them to see," Harold said. "I've done what I needed to ensure that they do not see me the way I see me." She looked at him, questioning his sanity almost. "After Hogwarts, I'll be leaving, on a world tour so to speak." Silence filled the room for a moment.
"What? Why?" Hermione asked, shocked by his statement.
"Because there are some things that I've yet to learn that I need to learn, that night on the train proved what I've been worried about all this time," Harry stood from his chair and walked to the fireplace. The picture above it was of his parents but this time, the portrait included Harry as a child of eight.
"But why can't you learn them here?" Hermione asked, moving next to him.
"Because what I need to learn is not taught here," Harry said, turning to look at her. "There are some things that I can't learn at a school like Hogwarts, a lot of things actually."
"Why did you come back in the first place then?" Hermione said, searching for the answer. He just smiled lightly.
"I wanted to know if I had at least one friend on this planet beyond Alfred," he said, before walking away, putting his hands in his pockets. For the first time that she met him, he looked ashamed, embarrassed almost of what he had said.
"Harry," Hermione said rushing him in another one of her bear hugs. "You have to promise me something." As he always was with her hugs, he was slightly taken back but quickly hugged her in return.
"Anything," he said, and the sincerity in his eyes caused he to blush slightly.
"You have to promise me no matter what happens, you'll always be my friend, and you'll come back to me, understand," Hermione said, forcefully. He stared at her for a moment, as if contemplating it before nodding. "No matter what happens, no matter how long it takes, you'll have to come back to me, understand?" He nodded once more the smile spreading on his face, contagious with her as well.
"I'll come back, that much is certain," Harry said. He made a movement like he wanted to stand up, but stopped, instead choosing to relax on the floor for a moment. "But it may be a few years."
"Why do you have to you have to go? She asked again. He sighed once more, happiness that was there gone.
"Someone once asked me if I like to dance with the devil in the pail moonlight," Harold said. HE was back, the man that women wanted, but not the man Hermione wanted to be with. Harold hid himself, secluded the world from his fears and pains. "I'd like to tell him no if I ever get the chance to, but rather than let someone else dance, I'd choose to be the devil's dancing partner."
"So you take up the fight, when no one else can?" Hermione asked, watching the pain in his eyes return. He solemnly nodded. "Is that what this training if for?" When he did not answer, she only hugged him tighter. "When you return, I'll be ready for you." She would train as well, not knowing if it would do any good. But she had to try, she had to be
I0I
Harold looked out across the sea of students, now graduates of Hogwarts. The year finished without fanfare. Hermione stayed close to his side, and despite the many dates he went on, they seemed to grow closer. He could not explain it, but had come to the conclusion he did not want to. She was there for him.
"I must admit, I'm not really good at this," Harold chuckled, trying to see through the flashing photographer's cameras. "I'd rather let Miss Granger here give you a speak, but I think the reporters have bothered her enough. So I apologize once more for my speech. It isn't poetry, let me tell you that." Some more chuckles and laughter in the crowd. "This year has been an experience for me. Every day is an experience if you think of it. There is no tomorrow, because it never comes, we are always one day behind, and we always are trying to speed our way through life, trying to ensure that we make it to tomorrow. But it never comes. I've found that even with my life of extravagant living and such, that there was nothing better than the life I have here, because I found some things to cherish and hold onto.
"Life is a rat race, there is no doubt about that," Harold said. "I don't got much more to add beyond take some time to smell the roses, and visit old friends. Maybe those are the two things worth stopping for some days," he gave a heart warming smile for a moment before sitting back down. The crowd applauded for him, the reporters taking shots for the paper.
"That was really good," Hermione said as he sat back down.
"Yours would have been better," Harold said, smiling slightly. She returned the smile, before turning her gaze out onto the floor.
"You really have to leave don't you?" Hermione said, looking at her feet.
"Yeah," he said, shaking his head. "And I know if I don't leave soon, I never will. But I need to go Hermione, I need to. There are no two ways around it."
"When are you going?" She asked quietly. He put a finger to his mouth, motioning her to be silent for a moment. Dumbledore rose to speak, but Harold tuned him out. He had to remain stoic about this. He could not let his feelings, personal or otherwise, get in the way of business. He owned Potter Enterprises, a successful potions company by the ripe age of sixteen. He had mastered the art of theatre and could practically talk his way out of any situation, his fault or otherwise. Then why, for the life of him could he not tell Hermione the truth that he was the "knight" covered in darkness that night on the train. He was the one that caught her assaulter. He was a hero to say the least, to some degree at least. Looking at her, he realized that is was something else there, something in her eyes that made him open up Christmas morning. Why could he not tell her everything?
Dumbledore's speech was over, Harold realized, and it was time. Smiling at Hermione for a moment, he reached up, like all of the other graduates, grabbing the hat on his head, and with the rest of them, threw it up into the air. Hermione giggled at him for a moment afterwards as the hat hit him in the head. He returned her smile, letting himself get lost in the lessons of adolescents.
"When are you going?" Hermione asked, once the reporters had stopped hounding him for pictures.
"Soon," he said cryptically. "As soon as I'm sure that you're alright." Hermione blushed at this, and he could not help but blush as well.
"I am, its just, as soon as you leave, the sooner you get back," Hermione said.
"Trying to get rid of me now?" Harold asked, trying to hold back the slight pain in his chest at that statement. The shocked look of horror on her face when he said that cause the pain to go away though.
"Oh, Harry, I'm sorry, its just that I….I don't know what it is," she managed to get out. The crowd had died down, and he was done with pictures for the day. Pulling her aside, he pulled her into an awkward hug, the first he had ever really initiated.
"Its alright," Harry said holding her close. "I don't want to leave either but I have to Hermione, I have to."
"You will come back to me right?" Hermione said, gazing up from his chest. Her tears were evident in her eyes, and he felt them welling in his. He wiped away a stray tear on her cheek, before nodding. "Promise me?" She was pleading with him now, and he knew that there was no place he would rather be. He had to go though; the world needed him to prepare.
"I promise," He said smiling slightly. "I promise I will return before my twenty fifth birthday." She returned the smile as well. He gave her a definite, something chose to rarely do in the first place. He would return before then, even if he was not ready.
I0I
Five Years Later
Hermione sat behind the counter of the county library, reading the newspaper. She found it hard to concentrate at the moment. There were just so many things that had happened to her since she graduated Hogwarts.
She had begun to attend the University, majoring in Medicine. Her mother had remarried the Commissioner of Scotland Yard, after her father had disappeared. Both had been pressuring her to quit her job at the library, but she could not help it. She enjoyed being around the books. If Madame Pince had not been so stubborn and decided to stay after her death, then she would have gladly taken the job as the Hogwarts librarian. But being in the normal world had its advantages, that she had to admit. She had also taken up judo and started calisthenics to get her body into better shape.
Death Eater attacks had increased, as did the normal world's knowledge of the wizard culture. The breach between the two was so large, that her stepfather, James Gordon, had just been hired by the Ministry as a joint effort to reduce crime not only in the wizarding world, but the normal world as well. However, Hermione soon learned though, her stepfather was also fighting the crime within the system, all the corrupt cops and Aurors there were in the greater London area were working against him, aiding the enemy.
But that wasn't what caught her eye the most. It was sporadic at the moment, but the intervals were coming closer and closer together. This figured had been taking down criminals, mainly petty thugs at the moment all across London it seemed. The criminals had little in common, but all were saying the same things about this masked vigilante.
"It's a demon I tell ya, a demon," one man said as the police took him away.
"B-b-b-b-bat, man," another barely croaked out. That one was hung from a ornament alongside a building at least twenty stories above the street.
The Batman as the papers had taken to calling the creature of the night. She disregarded it at first, as another one of those crazy loons that seemed to be popping up every where. But even her stepfather, a conservative, whose opinion Hermione came to value greatly, believed he was doing the city some good.
"I will never condone vigilantism," he said over dinner at her parents' house one evening. "All I'm saying is it's about time that someone stepped up in this town to fight the good fight."
Hermione settled back into her thoughts. The Batman seemed familiar to her. It reminded her of the man who saved her class on the seventh year train ride to Hogwarts. She looked at the watch to her left, touching it lightly. He even had time to return the watch from her dearest friend, her only friend at the time.
"Hello miss, can you help me find something," a voice said. She did not look up from the papers at the person at her counter at the moment.
"Yes what is it?" she said, going over the article again.
"I was wondering if you could find me an open date in your calendar to have lunch with an old friend," he said smoothly. Hermione looked up at him, ready to tell him off. This was a library, not a dating show. She felt her jaw drop at the handsome man in front of her.
"Harry?!"
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