The Golden Trio

jltat

Rating: PG13
Genres: Romance
Relationships: Harry & Hermione
Book: Harry & Hermione, Books 1 - 6
Published: 19/07/2005
Last Updated: 20/07/2005
Status: in_progress

What does Harry do now, after the events of book 6? My attempt on making H/Hr still happen after the less than favorable conditions we were left with in HBP

Chapters

1. Late Night Reunions

2. To the Burrow

1. Late Night Reunions

Title: The Golden Trio

Author: jltat

Disclaimer: This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by JK Rowling. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended.

Chapter 1: Late Night Reunions

Harry woke up with a start, at the sound of someone apparating into his flat with a faint pop. Said person then crashed into what sounded like a chair, causing it to topple over, causing the person to swear loudly. Harry slipped on a pair of pajama bottoms over his boxers and reached for his glasses and wand by his bedside. Slowly, he tiptoed towards his kitchen, where all the noise came from.

“Who's there?” Harry said, his wand raised as he flipped on a light switch. What he found, however, was definitely not a Death Eater, Lord Voldemort, or even remotely as sinister as he had expected

“Hermione? Ron?” Harry asked, slowly lowering his wand, “What're you guys doing here?”

“I told you we found the right flat, and there you were raving on about how we should have researched it more to make sure it was actually his and we weren't just popping in on some poor unsuspecting muggle who would have a heart attack and-”

“Oh, shut up, Ron,” Hermione said, rolling her eyes. Instead of saying anything further to him, she turned to Harry, with an extremely angry look on her face. “Harry Potter! How dare you! You haven't returned any of our letters, you didn't attend Bill and Fleur's wedding, we haven't seen or heard from you in 2 months, ex-plain-your-self.” She enunciated these words by stalking dangerously towards him and poking him in the chest with her wand, backing Harry into a wall.

“Whoa, hold on Hermione,” Harry said, looking slightly fearful. Dark Lords he could handle, but a pissed of Hermione was an entirely different story. Ron seemed to agree, as he just stood there with his hands jammed in his pockets giving a look of pity to Harry.

“Umm... hey Ron, Hermione. Long time no see. How are you guys doing?” Harry said, chuckling nervously. He mentally cursed at the Ministry of Magic for temporarily abolishing the ban on underage use of magic because Hermione still had her wand fixed on his bare chest, making him fidget.

Hermione's eyes narrowed, “Don't give me that bull Harry, I will ask you again to explain yourself.”

It had been 2 months since Dumbledore died. A week after the funeral, Harry decided to leave Privet Drive once and for all, and bought a flat under a muggle alias, partly for protection, and partly because he had to lie about his age to have ownership of his own flat.

He only had his mind on one thing. Revenge. Revenge on Snape, Voldemort, Bellatrix, Dolohov; anyone who ever hurt someone near or dear to him. In his mind, the only way to accomplish his goals of finding more Horcruxes, he had to get in shape, mentally and physically. Trying to retrieve the last Horcrux was hard for Harry to do, and he even had Dumbledore on his side. So he enrolled in muggle martial art classes, a gym, and bought a stackful of books on hexes, how to perform and defend against. However, all of those things kept him entirely too busy to keep in touch with anyone. In fact the only contact he had with the wizarding world for the past couple months was the Daily Prophet he got every morning, which kept him updated on the most recent attacks, which served as more reason for him to train harder and harder.

His birthday came and went, and he ignored the letters he received, placing them all in a stack on his mantle above the fireplace. However, as he stood there now, at the receiving end of the wand of one of the few people he actually feared, Harry thought not replying to those letters was exeedingly foolish and had he known that this was the response he would get, he would have written back pronto.

Harry sighed and launched into an explanation for his actions in the last 2 months.

“Now will you lower your bloody wand and stop poking me in the chest, I'm still sore from all the working out and I think your going to leave a bruise,” Harry said, now slightly irritated at the situation. Now that he was fully awake, he found that he did not very much enjoy people popping into his flat at 3 in the morning, demanding answers from him while prodding his torso with a sharp stick.

Hermione looked slightly apologetic, lowered her wand and then suddenly lunged at Harry and gave him a bear hug. “I'm sorry Harry, we were just so worried about you, and you didn't answer us for the longest time, we thought something happened to you at your horrible relatives but we visited them and they said you had left and then we were really worried and we couldn't find you and-”

“Hermione,” Ron cut her off, “You're rambling again. And your choking Harry so I think you might want to let go of his neck before his face turns purple,” Ron chuckled and Hermione released Harry, looking sheepish.

“Oh, I'm so sorry Harry!”

Harry wheezed for air, able to let out an, “it'sallright” Finally, after Harry got his breathing back to normal he looked at his two friends and didn't really know what to say.

“So... you guys, how'd you find me?” he said finally, rubbing the back of his neck nervously.

“Oh, lemme tell you mate, it was not easy. Once we found out you weren't at your Aunt's anymore, it was actually Ginny who suggested that you bought your own flat. You, my friend, are one hard man to find. Do you know how many muggles there are out here by the name of James Evans? Mind you, Hermione did most of the researching, but still,” Ron said, “I helped you know, it was hard work.”

Harry had to chuckle at this, it was nice to see Ron still acting like Ron even after Harry had read in the paper a couple weeks ago that his brother Percy had been hurt during an attack on the ministry.

“Well you guys found me, but I guess I should have seen that coming, Hermione can find a needle in a haystack if she really wanted to.” Hermione blushed at this comment. “But why did you guys decide to come so late?”

“Well believe it or not, this was the last address on our list,” Hermione explained, “And I wanted to wait until tomorrow morning, but this one over here,” she jerked her thumb towards Ron, “was admant on going, so here we are.”

Harry smiled, he had to admit, he was happy to see his friends again, it was getting lonely for him. “Well it's late, I don't want to make you guys apparate home at this hour so you two can stay here for the night and we'll all catch up in the morning. Hermione, Ron, you two can get my bedroom and the guest room and I'll take the couch there.”

“Oh, no Harry, we don't want to impose really-”

“Don't worry Hermione, I insist.”

“But I don't want to kick you out of your bed Harry-”

“Oh c'mon Hermione,” Ron said, while he yawned, “The man says he insists, let's just go to sleep, I'm knackered.” And with that Ron headed towards the guest room, “Thanks for letting us stay the night Harry, see you in the morning.”

“Alright, fine,” Hermione said, throwing her hands in the air, admitting defeat, “G'night Harry.”

“Night Hermione,” Harry said as he headed towards the couch. He fell asleep as soon as his body hit the cushions, and slept better than he had his school ended.

A/N: yea ok, so this is my stab at my own challenge i posted in the forums but i haven't written fiction in so long i'm afraid i'm off my game. So if anyone actually likes what i write, you can thank JKR and her abysmal HBP ship pairings for forcing me to write. Please review because i love feedback on what i write but honestly this was a spur of the moment thing and i can't guarentee when the next chapters will be coming, but i am fairly sure that i will continue it, because i like how i started it, which is rare. But if all goes as planned, this will end up being by best fic yet.

By the way, i am in desperate need of a beta, so if anyone wants to volunteer for the job, email me, my address is in my profile.

2. To the Burrow

Title: The Golden Trio

Author: jltat

Disclaimer: This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by JK Rowling. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended.

Chapter 2: To the Burrow

Hermione awoke to the rays of sunlight hitting her face. Looking at the clock she groaned. 10:49am. She never slept in this late. At first she looked around and wasn't quite sure where she was but slowly, as sleep worked its way of of her system, she remembered the events of the night before.

Actually, her mind corrected, it was more like the events of earlier this morning, seeing as how you and Ron jumped the gun and barged into a flat at ungodly hours of the night. A flat, I might add, that you weren't even sure whose it was.

Hermione sighed. Her brain had been doing this to her lately; makings remarks like that at everything she did. It got old pretty quickly. She took a look around, at the place that Harry had been calling home for the past few months. Beside the bed was a small night table with a glass of water and a simple frame with a picture of what had to be Lily and James Potter on what had to have been their wedding day. There was a dresser on the far side of the room with a mirror and random personal items such as a razor, a comb, cologne-

...since when has Harry worn cologne?

His closet, with its doors wide open, was full of muggle clothes, but they didn't look like Dudley's old hand-me-downs any longer. Apparently, Harry had found time to get a new wardrobe. Taking one final look around the room as she walked through the door she noticed that the drapes around the window as well as the bedspread on the mattress was maroon with gold trimmings.

A Gryiffindor through and through, Hermione mused.

Stepping from the hallway into the kitchen, Hermione was hit with the smell of bacon and the sound of it sizzling in a frying pan. Her grumbling stomach was proof of her hunger.

“Morning, Hermione,” Harry said with the skillet in his hand, “I made breakfast.”

“Mornin' 'Ermine,” Ron said with a mouthful of eggs. He was already at the table helping himself to the mountain of food Harry had cooked. There was eggs, sausages, bacon, pancakes, and french toast on separate plates on the table.

“You cooked all of this, Harry?” Hermione asked, looking incredulously up at him.

He merely shrugged, “Well, I suppose I can say that's the one good thing I learned from the Dursley's; how to cook. Anyway, sit down and eat before it gets cold.”

Once Harry finished with what he was cooking, he also sat down at the table, helping himself to large portions of everything. Hermione watched him curiously in betweens forkfuls of food.

Well, at least he's eating a lot more now. I can't say he hasn't been taking care of himself. He looks healthy too. Maybe from all the working out.

Ohh, Miss Granger, if I didn't know better, I'd say you've been checking your best friend out.

Nuh-uh.

Hermione blushed. She had a traitorous mind.

After the three were finished eating, they sat there for a long time, not saying anything. What was there to say? Finally, when the silence became almost unbearable, Ron cleared his throat conspicuously and said, “So guys, wut'dya reckon we do today?”

“I was thinking we should all go back to the Burrow, I mean the rest of your family will probably be relieved to see Harry again, not to mention we both left in the middle of the night with not so much as a note left saying where we went.”

Ron nodded in agreement while Harry looked slightly uncomfortable. Hermione was about to comment on it but then realized what he was thinking. Mrs. Weasley was going to kill him when he showed up. She almost laughed at the mental picture she had in her head but thought better of it.

***

“Harry!” Mrs. Weasley shouted as she, Ginny, and Fleur sighted the trio walking through the front door. She gave him one of her famous hugs and started off on how worried she was for him when he missed Bill's wedding and shot off a million questions concerning his whereabouts and his health (“your much to skinny Harry, have you been eating enough? Here let me make you something..”).

“Mum, your embarrassing him,” Ron said, smiling, “C'mon guys, let's go into the living room, it's too cramped in here with this many people.”

“You got lucky mate, she didn't even yell at you for sneaking out last night,” Harry whispered to Ron.

“Let's just hope she forgot about it, and is just happy we found you.”

“Ron Weasley, don't think I forgot about you, young man, I was worried sick when I woke up this morning and you weren't in your room. We will have a talk later, mister.”

Ron gulped. Harry laughed.

Once in the living room Ginny and Fleur each hugged Harry and gave him a peck on the cheek, both saying how glad they were to see him.

Hermione smiled slightly at a look Ginny and Harry shared. They seemed content with each other, even though they weren't going out. As the reast of the gang caught up, Hermione became lost in her thoughts.

She and Ron hadn't discussed their behaviors towards each other last school year but they made a silent agreement at Dumbledore's funeral to just drop the topic. Since then, it had been just like old times between the two, no jealousy, just friendly arguments and awkward silences.

Honestly, Hermione didn't even know how she felt towards the redhead anymore. At one point she did like him, but now, after all that had happened, maybe what she really needed was just a friend. She wasn't even sure what attracted her to him. Maybe it was the constant rows she found herself always in with him. Or maybe it was the fact that she was aware of his feelings towards her and she liked the thought of someone actually attracted her. It was too many “maybe's,” too many “what-ifs” that she was not yet ready to confront. As for now, however, she would just chalk it up to hormones and leave it at that.

And sitting there, in the Burrow, with her two best friends by her side, it seemed almost as though there was no war, no danger looming over the horizon, just three best friends who didn't carry the weight of the world on their shoulders and were just spending time together over the summer for the simple reason of being in each others company, like best friends ought to.

If only, Hermione sighed.

A/N: ok, so i seemed to have made a major mistake in the last chapter that everyone caught but me. I realized after that i messed up the ages but i think those parts made the story flow better so i'm not even going to change it. Sorry. Something else that i should say before i forget is that i'm going to write Ginny (actually, i'm not even sure right now as to how important she is in this story) like JKR did in HBP because that would make her “in canon” or wut ever. Yea i no, blah, but just bear with me. It pains me to write it like that as much as it'll pain you guys to read it, i swear. So i'll be keeping the characters “in character” to HBP as much as i can, and not OoTP, where they are as different as night and day, in my opinion. I think that's all i needed to address, so ta-ta for now, and don't forget to review.