A day off…right (revised, some typos hunted down and removed, too)
Disclaimer: If I somehow obtain the copyrights to HP, I'll make sure to let you know.
A/N: So, Chapter 8 has arrived! Starts with a bit of romance and then it's humor all the way. Next Chapter will be also mostly romance, humor and adventure thrown in the mix. When you read the romance part, please say "Awww!" (as wow, fantastic! Not aww, I cant believe this crap!) and when it's humor, please laugh! Reviews would make me happy. I know, I had a look at the Mirror of Erised! I also saw this story in the Recommended section, but I dare not hope! Enjoy the story, ignore the typos!
Harry blinked his eyes in the sudden brightness that dazzled him after the trip to the darkest corner of his own mind. He noticed that the candle had burned out and there was now nothing but ash in the small bowl in front of him. He stood up slowly and stretched to banish the stiffness from his limbs after the long trance. He walked out of the training room to the kitchen where Bruce was waiting for him.
Bruce looked in his eyes again - the sharp look seeming to connect right with his brain to evaluate his mental state. After just a moment an easy smile formed his face.
"So…" Bruce said, egging him on and gesturing for him to sit opposite him.
"It helped. A lot," Harry smiled. "I probably never would have realized what was going on in my mind otherwise. Thanks, Bruce - for everything."
"Don't thank me just yet, Harry," Bruce grinned. "Your training is not over yet. Besides, I must tell you that now when you have realized your fears it doesn't necessarily mean that they'll just disappear. If my own experience is of any indication, you'll probably have a few nightmares the few next nights. That's why I wanted you to take time off. Realizing your fears is one thing - letting your mind getting used to them so they don't affect your life so much anymore - that takes a bit more time."
"Fortunately my fears are something I can hopefully prevent from ever becoming true," Harry nodded his understanding. He just had to make sure to take out the Horcruxes, Voldemort and his Death Eaters while trying to keep Hermione as safe as possible at the same time.
"I wish you the best luck with that, Harry. See you next Monday."
"You bet!" Harry grinned. "No way I'm going to miss that fun! See you then!" With that, Harry went back to the house next-door where - he hoped - a pretty young witch was waiting for him.
He found her in the living room, going through the pile of new books she had purchased with his funding. Looking at her, Harry felt a new kind of warmth in his chest. The morning he had woken up next to her for the first time he had felt like a candle was lit in his chest. Now he felt like there was a happy little arsonist with a flamethrower having the live of his time in there. He felt his legs carry him towards her. He left his hands pull her close. He felt his lips against hers - warm and passionate. The song of a phoenix was roaring in his head and a herd of centaurs running in his chest. Overall, it was the best feeling - ever.
"Wow again," she said when they finally parted, eyes still closed like she was savoring the taste of his lips. She looked a bit surprised, a bit flushed and very, very pleased. "What was that for?"
She opened her eyes and looked into his and what she saw took her breath away…again. She had seen the whole range of emotions in those eyes to this day - lifeless from loss, dull from disappointment, alive from happiness, twinkling from mischief and even electrified from rage. Now those eyes seemed totally different from all that she had seen - they were like on fire. His gaze seemed to ignite a fire of her own inside her, made her understand that her greatest fear had been just that - an irrational fear without any cause. She could see it in his eyes just how much in love he was with her. She felt that she wouldn't be able to look in those fiery eyes much longer.
Harry felt that he wouldn't be able to look into her eyes much longer, either. You can look at the flame of a candle, or a torch, or a fireplace as long as you want. You can't look into the sun for long however much you want to. Sooner or later you close your eyes. When you see the sun's fiery blaze flaring in a girls eyes, you close your eyes and kiss her.
This time they found it impossible to break contact. They were unbreakably together - like the sun seems to be composed of many tongues of flame but is still just a single ball of blazing fire. However, standing upright seemed to become a problem. They started tumbling towards his room, on the way there becoming painfully aware just how many useless objects were there in the house and that somehow their only purpose seemed to be standing on their way. They got to his room and fell on the bed together with their lips still together - hell, their tongues still twisting around each other, thankful for the extra energy they could now spare from being on their feet. That energy was desperately needed somewhere else at that moment.
When the kiss eventually ended - due to lack of energy, they were somewhat surprised to find themselves still wearing their clothes. They thought that in a passionate kiss like that they would have ripped them right off each other, or they would just be burned off by the heat of their bodies. They remained lying on the bed to recover their strength. After a minute or two they felt enough energy return to form coherent words.
"So," Hermione started. "I still want to know what was it for." She turned her head to look at his face. She knew, but she needed to hear him say it, anyway.
"For loving me back," he said with a smile.
"Harry, I thank you for explaining to me what I feel, but I would like you to say it clearly."
"You asked what it was for. You posed the question wrong, Hermione," Harry answered, a grin on his face.
"Fine!" Hermione rolled her eyes but couldn't stop grinning, herself. "Do you love me? More than a friend?" She looked into his eyes again.
"I love you. More than anything." He returned her intense gaze.
"Harry?" she said in a low, husky voice.
"Hmm?" Harry suddenly noticed just how dark her brown eyes had gone.
"Wanna shag?"
The next moment Harry was sneezing blood through his nose all over the bed.
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The rest of Saturday had passed and finally it was Sunday. That meant they would be meeting Ron soon. Hermione had left early to make sure that her parents had left the house on their short vacation before she allowed Harry to apparate back there. When he asked her why she was reluctant to let him meet with her parents she had mumbled something about the need to keep him all to herself for a while. That, she said, meant not allowing her parent to monopolize his company to get to know her new boyfriend better.
They had barely apparated to the Granger's living room when they heard a crack of apparation outside and Ron's loud voice calling out.
"Oy! Anyone home? Herms? Harry?" They saw a familiar red-haired head peering through the windows.
"Ron!" Hermione called, opening the front door. When the tall boy appeared in the doorway, she proceeded to scolding him. "Never heard of a doorbell before, have you, Ron?"
Harry stepped behind her and wrapped his arms around her waist.
"Don't think he has, love…He's been to Privet Drive twice so far - first time through the window, the second through a closed fireplace!" He smiled to Ron. "How's the summer so far, mate?"
"Fine, just fine," Ron replied, looking thoughtfully at his arms around her and the expressions on their faces. "Love, huh? Think we have some things to discuss, the three of us, before we get to the food, moves…"
"Movies, Ron!" Hermione butted in with a correction.
"More food, more movies et cetera and so on," Ron finished. "May I come in now?"
"Wow, someone has taught Ron manners," Harry whispered to Hermione when Ron passed them.
"I heard that!" the redhead told him and rolled his eyes.
"You did?" Harry asked in an incredulous tone. "By Merlin! Anyone else would have been deaf long ago from all the yelling you two have done! Actually, for a while there I thought that was the reason you could carry on with it for so long!"
That earned him a punch to the shoulder, but as he had noticed it coming at the last moment, he managed to successfully neutralize it from having its full intended effect - though he didn't show it, of course. He was sure that Hermione could come up with a new, even more painful form of punishment.
"So where can we crash for a nice little chat?" Ron asked.
"Um, let's go upstairs to my room," Hermione told them and led them there. As Ron made to sit down on her bed she pushed him away at the last moment, making him fall down to the floor on his bum. "Sorry, Ron, but only my boyfriend is allowed on it. Why don't you grab a chair?" she told him. Seeing him go red on his face and starting to choke, she had to add: "Don't be stupid, Ron! We're not having sex yet!"
'Well, not because I haven't tried,' she added in her mind. She had to feed Harry the counterpart to the Nosebleed Nougat on Saturday to finally stop him bleeding all over the bed. 'It's really a cruel joke of Nature that men start to bleed from the nose when they are facing the chance of having real sex for the first time in their lives,' she thought again. Well, anyway, she had warned him that the threat to bleed to death wouldn't save him from having sex with her the next time. She had decided to give him some time to get used to the idea, though.
When Ron had finally sat down in the chair and Harry next to her on the bed, a bit of a nervous silence descended on the room. Finally, Harry cleared his throat and decided that if he wouldn't start, they'd probably spend the rest of their natural lives sitting there and staring at each other.
"Well, er, Ron, When I got back to the Dursleys at the start of the summer, I had a disagreement with uncle Vernon. When Hermione found out she dragged me out of there and, er, so it started, I guess. Then Moody transfigured the Dursleys into mice - remember Malfoy in fourth year? Well, apparently Crouch Jr. was impersonating Moody rather accurately. So we - me and Hermione - had the house all to ourselves and, khmm, sometime after that I realized that I was totally in love with her." Harry was rather red in his face when he finally finished the brief summary of his summer activities. Ron was looking thoughtfully at him, which was rather unnerving, Harry thought. He would have expected an explosion or something similar, but Ron seemed to take it rather well.
"So it's true that you and Ginny stopped seeing each other after the funeral - not that you had the opportunity, anyway?" Ron asked him, looking straight in his eyes. Harry realized that depending on his answer the expected explosion might still come real.
"Yes, we stopped seeing each other, Ron," he sighed. "And as his older brother, I think I own you an apology." When Ron gave him a confused stare he continued. "You see, I think what I felt for her wasn't actually love. Remember our first potions lesson? We were sitting around a cauldron full of Amortentia and when I breathed in the fumes coming from it, I thought I recognized something in it - a smell I knew. So a bit after that when we met Ginny, I realized it was her perfume. I thought I was in love with her since that moment…only I wasn't."
"Wait…You thought you were in love with her but you were not? That doesn't make any sense, mate. If you think you are in love, how come you're not?" Ron asked him.
"The fumes must have addled my brains, Ron. I heard what Slughorn was telling us about the potion, but it never registered until…later. When I sniffed the potion I though I was smelling the scent of the person I was in love with - I just jumped on the "Stupid Train" and enjoyed the ride." Harry shook his head in disappointment over his own actions.
"Er, what do you mean with you thought you smelled the person you were in love with, Harry? Isn't that what the love potion does?" Ron asked another question.
"No, mate. Slughorn said to us when I was getting high on the fumes that it doesn't create love - it's impossible to manufacture. It creates obsession, infatuation - that kind of feelings," Harry explained.
A look of understanding, shock and horror formed on Ron's face.
"MERLIN!" he shouted, not quite muffling a small gasp from Hermione. "He did say that!" Ron slapped his hands on his head and rubbed his temples as if suffering from a horrible headache. "Mate, any room on that "Stupid Train" for one more?"
"Make that two more," Hermione's weak voice came from next to him.
"Huh?" was all Harry could come up with. He looked at Ron, but he seemed to be equally confused. "What do you mean?"
"I 'gulp' thought too the exactly same thing," she said, looking at them. "That makes all three of us, I think."
"So, er, who did you two think you were in love with?" Harry asked.
"Em, Herms," Ron told first, his face now matching his hair.
"And me - Ron. Though I want to clarify that I didn't think I was in love with him - it was more like the need to control him, possess him was increased hundredfold. We used to argue a lot before we got hit with the stuff - afterwards we just argued…more and louder."
"But doesn't the potion have a certain duration when it's effects work? I remember Fred and George saying the potions in their shop lasted for 24 hours." Harry wondered.
"The potion can be altered so that it's duration is different - and this is about the potion when you drink it. Inhaling the fumes like we did…I think we were lucky that's all what happened," Hermione explained.
"Ok, last question from me," Harry took a deep breath. "Ron, when we took you to the Hospital Wing after you were poisoned, you were unconscious. And, er, you called after Hermione, I think. How would you explain this?"
"Well," Ron seemed to consider the question. "I think that if I would have been in a battle, it would have been your name. But for the aftermath, I'd prefer Herms help. It's either her or someone who can show me a Healers certification, because after that Lockheart and your bones stuff I'm not letting anyone else near my injuries. Besides, I think it would have been highly, em, 'misleading' and probably have irrevocably damaged my reputation as the ladies man had I called after you," Ron finished with a wide grin. "And while we're still on the subject of your love life - I had a chat with Ginny when we got home. I don't know if she'd like you to know that, but I'll tell you anyway." Ron leaned back in the chair.
"When I learned you two had broken off, I asked her why. She told you that she had felt good in your company, but there were things that would have prevented you two ever really getting together. She knew that you would always trust Hermione more than anyone, for one thing, and we three had gone through so much together that it would be impossible for someone else to understand us like we understand each other. You and her had only being possessed by Voldemort and being good at Quiddich going for you." Ron held a small pause. "She also said that she was glad that you and she got together for a time. Whatever she might have told others, she never had gotten over her crush on you - that's why she was going through her boyfriends like that. But when you eventually did get together…she liked it, but she felt like it wasn't meant to be - that's what she said, anyway," Ron finished.
"So how is she now?" Harry asked Ron.
"Oh, she's loads better! Actually it seems like after getting over her crush on you her hexing abilities really went up - and they were already good enough to begin with! The rest of us Weasley men really feel like we should hate you for that, as it's we who usually get hexed now. But don't worry, mate!" Ron grinned at him again. "Were smart enough not to want end up between her and Hermione for hexing you!"
"Well that's good to know!" Harry laughed. "Ok, seems that we've exhausted all the topics concerning my love-life. As you seem to be taking the fact that me and Hermione are together way better than I thought you would, I can only assume you found someone else - so who is she?"
"Well, she's blond…" Ron started.
"Is she?" Harry asked right away. "Ron, I think I'm starting to see a patters here - Fleur, Lavender and now this new girl. Really attracted to blondes, aren't you?"
"Shut up, mate. Ok, she's blond, she's a genius bordering on madness, like I like to think - kinda like Dumbledore I guess, she's a very good listener and she's the best Quiddith commentator Hogwarts had since Lee Jordan left - plus she's loads funnier!"
"Hmm, who might that be? Any ideas, Hermione?" Harry asked her, brow furrowed in a thoughtful expression.
"Can't say that I have, Harry. You know I pay more attention to Quiddich players than Quiddich commentators," she smiled at him.
"Oh, very funny, very funny indeed. So what do you think about it - me and Luna getting together?" Ron asked them.
"I think it's fantastic, Ron," Harry said right away. "Care to explain how you two got together?"
"I'd like to hear about that, too, Ron," Hermione said immediately.
"It happened thanks to my Dad, actually. Funny how that went... See, he got the Ministry to try out this Muggle program called "Neighborhood Catch"..."
"Neighborhood Watch," Hermione corrected him again.
"Yeah, that - I take it you both know what that means, then. So you probably don't know that, but Luna actually lives near our home…" Ron tried to continue, but was now interrupted by Harry.
"I think Cedric Diggory's father mentioned it when we met to portkey to the World Cup, Ron."
"Please, you two wanna tell this one yourselves? I could just sit back and enjoy myself for a while, you know, while you tell me my story," Ron said sarcastically. "Ok, so Dad got this Watch program, and as the Lovegoods live near us, it fell to me to check on their house from time to time. Well the very first time I popped in at their place Luna and I started talking and we just talked until the rest of my family suddenly apparated there. Seems we kinda lost track of time and they thought we might have been attacked or something. So when we got that sorted out I had to leave, of course, but went back every evening from that day on. We really liked each other and it got more serious over time. And now we're together. Really makes me sad that I'm not going back to Hogwarts this year so I could be with her, but she hasn't actually decided yet if she wants to go back or not. She told me that without Dumbledore she doubted there was anything worth her time there."
Harry was feeling very much the same way. Without Dumbledore Hogwarts was just a castle to him.
"So now what we do?" He asked.
"Let's enjoy our day off," Ron said. "I need to get back to that madhouse tomorrow so I wanna enjoy today as much as I can."
"What have you been up to, anyway, Ron?" Hermione asked him. "You and wedding planning - they just don't seem to go together."
"Ah, I'm not really part of the wedding plan - unless they wanna use me as a bouncer," Ron told them as he stood up and stretched. They noticed that he had grown a bit taller again, but somehow also seemed a bit more muscular. "When I got back home I told Bill, Charlie, Fred and George right away that I wont be going back to Hogwarts next year. I didn't tell them anything specific, but they're not stupid. They understood that I was going with you to do something dangerous - on the level that might get the Weasleys mentioned in the history book, they said. And they told me that if I were going to do that, at least they would do their best to prepare me for it. Remember the small Quiddich pitch near the Burrow? It's gone. They built an arena over it and started to train me from that day on. I felt like a bloody gladiator every day. But I've learned a lot, too." He laughed. "Thy said that if I was going to be known for doing something epic in the future then they at least were going to be mentioned as the ones who taught me everything I knew!"
"Good!" Harry said. "I've been training too. Maybe we should book the arena for a day sometime and see what we've learned!"
"You're on, mate! Now…is there any food in the house or do I have to eat Crookshanks?" He quickly dodged the pillow.
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Later that day the four of them - Crookshanks and his three human servants - were sitting on the living room couch and watching the movies. Though the red-haired one seemed to be a much closer relative to him down the evolutionary path, Crookshanks found that he liked the other two much more - so he let them pet him. The sounds coming from a strange, flashing box were kind of fascinating to the half-kneazle, but seemed that his human servants were really loving it -especially the red- and black-haired ones. After the sounds and flashing ended, the two above-mentioned servants seemed to be begging the third - his favorite servant, as she was usually the one to bring him food - for something. Then the flashing and sounds returned. He felt tired after a while and fell asleep. When he woke up, the flashing and sounds were still there, but somehow rather louder. Maybe because they were not coming from that strange box but from the room itself? He decided to go find a quieter place for a nap.
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'What.An.Idiot.' Each word was accompanied by a thud of a head hitting the table. Hermione Granger was sitting in the kitchen of her parents house and contemplating the life universe and everything. Though those three words she had thought were usually aimed at one or both of the two boys she had grown up with during the last six years, right now most of her ire was directed against herself. She also had the worst headache of her life. She had tried soothing tea. She had tried aspirin. She was now considering the benefits of stupefying herself. A Loud crash from the living room sent another wave of pain through her temples.
'Why? <thup> Why? <thum> Why? <thump> Why did the Dark Lord and the Chosen One have to use the Grangers living room as the battleground for their last confrontation?' she asked herself.
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The Dark Lord and the Chosen one stood face to face - the embodiments of good and evil in this universe. Their fate had been sealed from the first day they met and they both knew it. Still, it is the nature of darkness to lure, to offer power, to blind.
"Join me, Chosen One, and together we shall rule this pitiful world!" the Dark Lord was trying to seduce the young hero.
"I'll never join you, Darth Bilius!" the young hero relied defiantly, raising his glowing lightsaber in a ready position. The Dark Lord raised his own, and attacked.
Ok, so maybe these were not really lightsabers but instead two padded wooden poles enchanted to buzz and glow with neon lights - red and blue, respectively, but the Dark Lord and the Chosen One sure used them like ones. In other words, they were causing much damage to the property around them.
The Dark Lord thought that the best defense was a good offense - he planned to rush his opponent and take him out as fast as possible. He attacked in a flurry, the lightsaber a blur in his hands. But somehow the Chosen One seemed able to block each and every last of his blows. He took a step back.
"Impressive. Most impressive." He was thinking hard on what to do next.
"Ah, thank you, my Lord! Your high praise means much to me!" the Chosen One bowed to him, then pressed his own attack.
The Dark Lord had excellent reflexes - something to do with what used to be called great Keeper skills. Still he suddenly discovered that he was no match to the Chosen one, who's attacks seemed to come from al directions at once, hitting him quicker than he could block them. He was starting to feel desperate. Luckily the arrogant young punk held his attacks after a while.
"Say, Darth, where did you learn to use your saber like that? Retirement Home For Ex-Dark Lords?" the Chosen one was grinning at him.
'That's it! That punk is going down!' the Dark Lord thought to himself. 'If I cant beat him with skills, I beat him with cunning!' He was careful not to smile and give his plan away.
He attacked the Chosen One suddenly, but as the hero blocked his attacks and started to respond with his own, he timed it carefully - and dropped his saber after what seemed to be a particularly powerful blow. When the point of the blue saber started to hover near his nose, he quickly dropped to his knees and started begging.
"Please! Please! Please have mercy!" he yelled.
"I'd like to, Bilius, but you hurt my girlfriend with your actions. I need to punish you. Nope, down with the head it is!" The Chosen One started to raise his saber.
"Please! I have a new girlfriend! I have five brothers - one of them an idiot - and a younger sister! I have an old ghoul and a garden full of gnomes! Please don't kill me!" he put on his best dramatic act. He wished the entire universe could see his brilliant acting abilities. Well, he'd have to kill all the bastards later for seeing him humiliated, too, but that would be a bonus.
"Ok, Bilius," the Chosen One sighed. "I guess I can see where all the darkness is coming from. I forgive you. Here," he stretched out his hand to help the other man to his feet. Suddenly the Dark Lord snatched up his saber and whacked at the offered hand hard.
"ARGHH!!!" the Chosen One yelled, rubbing at his wrist. "You bastard!"
"What can I say, mate," the Dark Lord replied as he got to his feet, grinning. "I'm evil!"
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Hermione raised her head as the two boys entered the kitchen. Harry was rubbing his wrist and Ron seemed to have trouble moving without wincing.
"So how did it go?" she showed some polite interest.
"Well," Ron 'ex-Dark-Lord-Darth-Bilius' Weasley replied. "Harry lost his arm from wrist down. I'm minced meat, so I shouldn't be talking to you. Or move. Ouch!" He was finding out the price of being evil. "That one hit was priceless, though, you should've seen his face!"
"I hope you were careful, though. What were those crashes I heard?" She stood up and walked towards the door leading to the living room. "For your sake I hope you didn't break any…" She stood at the door, gazing at the destruction within with her mouth hanging open. She wondered if even ten pairs of Weasley twins could have caused so much damage in such a short time. To tell the long story short - there wasn't anything in the room that had survived the battle unscratched.
She turned to the so-called embodiments of light and darkness, who suddenly felt that there was a power way beyond them, and it was mighty pissed at them at that moment.
"I want that room fixed in ten seconds or heads will roll!" Hermione yelled in her best imitation of Mrs. Weasley. She got a demonstration of the quickest spellcasting she'd ever seen in her life in return. After that Ron said a hasty goodbye and disapparated home.
"Harry, I got something for your nightmares upstairs, follow me," Hermione told him and sprinted up the stairs. Harry followed him at a slower pace and found her at the door to her room. She pressed a small vial into his hands, kissed him on the cheek, wished him goodnight and slammed the door in his face. Harry was surprised to find himself left in the hallway with an equally surprised Crookshanks.
"I think she's still a bit angry - what you say?"
He made his way back downstairs, drank the potion and dropped down on the couch he himself had repaired only a few moments ago. He suddenly felt something drop on his stomach. He peeled open one of his heavy eyelids to find a ginger, big ugly half-kneazle getting comfortable on his stomach.
"Gerroffme, Garfield!" he mumbled, before he fell asleep.
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A/N: This small bit was removed from the story as suggested by some reviewers, who said that it was killing the building up of suspense. The reviewer is always right, so I gut it, but for those who liked it or didn't get a chance to read it yet, here it is. It was placed right after the scene with Hermione in the kitchen before the duel.
Now, the most common thought going through the readers heads as they made it to this point in our story was a rather unsophisticated 'HUH?' It was followed in no specific order by 'What the Hell?'; 'What's going on here?'; "Last confrontation? They haven't even found the Horcruxes yet! Did guardian even read the bloody book?!', 'What the heck is she doing sipping tea in the kitchen when there's a battle going on?' and a lone 'Screw you, guys, I'm going home!' by a lone R/Hr shipper who had accidentally found the site.
Now, are you interested in finding out what's really going on?
/Overwhelming YES!!!!! from the readers is assumed/
Ok, kids! Find out next year when this story continues!
PS: there's no point reading any further!
OK, you're smarter than me. Here's what's really happening…