Chapter 5
Harry lay in bed the next morning, looking at the blank page in front of him, trying to put words on the page. He had been reliving his memories over and over since his session with Steve, so that now it was as vivid as the day it happened. However, his mind was having a problem putting worlds that matched his experience.
Harry tossed his notebook and pencil to the night stand, wanting to not think about his assignment. He leaned his head back on the wall and closed his eyes, listening to Peter's pencil as it moved across his pad of pater. Occasionally a pair of feet would walk past their open door, sneakers squeaking on the linoleum hallway floors.
"Harry Potter?" an unfamiliar voice asked as she knocked on the open door.
Harry opened his eyes to see a women in her mid-twenties, looking between the two boys. Harry raised his hand. "I'm Harry."
"You have a visitor," the woman said kindly.
Harry jumped out of his bed. "What?"
"A guest. I came to take you to the visitors lounge."
If only Harry knew where that was, he would run there without looking back. Somebody had probably come to get him out of here. Harry walked out of the room waiting for the woman to lead the way.
She smiled, seeing his excitement, and set off down the hallway.
"I'm Abby. I am the community programmer. I put on events and I am in charge of visitors day. First, I have a couple rules I need to inform you of since this is your first visitor."
Harry was barely listening, not really caring about rules, but he did respond, sensing she wanted some sort of sign that he understood. "Okay, what are they?"
Abby turned a corner, continuing her walk. "You are to stay in the lounge. You may walk outside, but to do so you need to get permission. Visitors can stay until seven. Other than that there are no time limits. You may go get meals with them, but once again you need to check with somebody." At this point she stopped outside of a closed door. "Also, please keep your voice at a reasonable level, remember you are not the only with a visitor."
"Got it," Harry quickly responded.
"Great," Abby replied enthusiastically. She opened the door for Harry and he leapt in, quickly looking through the room, trying to find a familiar face. He spotted her in the corner, sitting in an overstuffed chair with a Styrofoam cup of tea in hand.
"Hermione," Harry exclaimed, running towards her.
Hermione set down her cup on the table next to her and stood up. Harry reached her and enveloped her in a tight hug, happy to feel something familiar. He stepped back and looked at Hermione, taking her features in.
She looked different. Her hair had been cut short, to a little bit above her shoulders. It was not as frizzy as he remembered it, but softer and wavier. She didn't have make-up on, which at least was something familiar. Her brown eyes had seemed more vivid in his memories. Now, they just looked dull, weighed down with exhaustion and emotion.
"You cut your hair," Harry stated, at a loss for any significant words. "It looks nice."
Hermione smiled, sitting back down in her chair. "Thank you."
Harry sat down in the seat of front of her. "So, are you here to help me get out? Where's Ron?"
Hermione bit her lip, looking anxious from his questions. "Um, Ron is out on a mission from the Order, and he won't be back for a while," Hermione stated as if she had rehearsed this sentence for a long time.
"Oh, I'm sorry Hermione," Harry said sincerely, remembering how close Hermione and Ron had been getting the last time he saw them. "Do you know what the mission is? Is he able to contact you?"
Hermione shook her head, a tear slipped down her cheek. "No, he's not allowed any contact and Moody is the only one that knows what his mission is."
"Well, does that mean it's just you getting me out of here?"
"No, you are to say here," Hermione answered, trying to sound strong.
"What do you mean?" Harry started to smile, thinking this must be a joke.
"Moody thinks it would be best if you stay here."
It took everything in Harry to not start yelling madly. "Do I need to remind you that Voldemort is out there? Which speaking of, how did I survive him again, and how did I end up here?" Harry's voice was constrained and accusatory.
"We don't know Harry. All we know is that you came here from the hospital because the Dursley's were your next of kin and were the ones that were called. They thought it was best if you were sent here."
Harry rolled his eyes. "Of course they did."
"As for Voldemort, he has been quiet as of recently. He is obviously up to something, but there is nothing to be done except for the spies to try to figure out what he is up to. As to you being here, Moody thinks this could be a blessing in disguise. Nobody would look for you here. We put tons of protections here. There is nothing to be done right now that you would be able to help with. This might be the safest place for you right now."
"So, I'm just supposed to stay here? Do nothing?" Harry's voice was calmer, but still confused.
"What else would you be doing? You would go crazy, wanting to do something to help. And not be able to do anything, you would end up doing something stupid. At least if you go crazy here, they can take care of that pretty easily." Hermione meekly chuckled at her own attempt to joke.
Harry took a couple deep breaths, wanting to release his hostility, because he wasn't mad at Hermione. He wasn't really that angry, he was just frustrated. "I just can't believe the best thing for me to do is stay here. This is the last place I would ever think of me being stuck."
"I'm sorry, but that's what the adults decided. Look at this as a good thing. This is time that you should spend looking after yourself for a while. You have been investing so much time looking after everybody else, maybe this is an opportunity for you to look after yourself." Hermione had concern written all over face. "I'm not going to lie. I've been worried about you, and I think time here will do you some good."
"You wouldn't be saying that if you were the one that is stuck here, without a wand. Which where is my wand?"
"We don't know. It wasn't where you faced Voldemort. We don't know, so you are going to to just have to go without it for a while."
"I can do that," Harry whispered mildly, not wanting to make any trouble for Hermione.
There was a long pause while they both just looked around the room, avoiding each other's eye contact. There were about five other groups of people in the room. Some were playing board games while others were just sitting in little groups that were in the middle of discussions. Harry checked his watch and saw that it was 11:30.
"Do you want to go get lunch?" Harry asked amiably.
Hermione perked up. "Yeah, that would be nice."
Harry laughed, "you say that now." He stood up and went over to one of the staff members, this particular one was sitting by the door reading a book.
"Um, I'm Harry Potter. I was wondering if it was okay if my visitor and I go off to get food?" Harry asked nervously.
The man looked up. "Yeah, of course. I'm just going to make a note of that in my handy dandy clipboard." He jotted something down on the paper on his lap, waving Harry and Hermione off.
As they left the room, Harry let out a breath as he just let their past conversation behind him, determined to enjoy himself with Hermione. From what she had said, there was nothing he should be worrying about but himself. He would have to just have to try to make a best out of this situation.
They walked through the cafeteria and Hermione and Harry went through the line to get food. Harry chuckled as he saw an expression on Hermione's face that he could imagine was reminiscent of the look his own face wore when he caught sight of the food. They took their trays and sat down at a small empty table, sitting across from each other.
Hermione was the one that broke the silence. "Okay, now I see why you want to leave. I don't know what they are thinking. This food is not going to be helping the people with eating disorders. Not to mention the food is enough to make anybody crazy."
Harry laughed, an honest to God laugh. "Thank you. I thought the same thing when I tried the food the first time."
Hermione and him laughed together, feeling like there was nothing wrong with the world outside these walls and they were just two friends sharing lunch.
Harry watched as Hermione's eyes lit up as she laughed, her eyes finally the golden brown that he had so many memories of being spellbound by. It made him realize how selfish he had been.
Once the laughter had subsided, Harry studied Hermione for a moment as she took a bit of the food. "How have you been doing?"
Hermione put her fork down and let her head fall to her hand that was supported by her elbow on the table. Her face relaxed, as she gave thought to the question. "I'm tired and I'm worried."
Harry took her hand that was lying on the table and squeezed it comfortingly. "Worried about Ron." It was more of a statement than a question.
Hermione's eyes widened. "And about you."
Harry gave a knowing look to Hermione. "There's nothing wrong about you caring about Ron. It's not like I have a problem with it."
Hermione quickly defended herself. "I know, and that's good. It's a given that I'm going to be worried about Ron, and not just because of my feelings for him," Hermione almost had to choke out the last part of the sentence. However, she continued on more strongly, "I just want you to know I care about you as well. I just want you to be happy and I know this going to be a difficult time for you, and I just worry."
Harry felt the tug of guilt in his gut as he thought about this. Harry's voice softened seriously. "You don't have to worry about me. I am not going to do anything crazy while I am here. I will try to make the best of this." Harry gave Hermione's hand a reassuring squeeze.
Hermione's face showed relief flood her face. "I will sleep better knowing that."
"Good. Now, how about lets go back and play a game. I am so going to kick your ass at checkers."
Hermione giggled, "I actually don't doubt that. I'm not very good at checkers."
As they stood up, Harry gave Hermione a long hug, whispering a thank you in Hermione's ear. As they separated to walk back the visitors room, Harry left his arm around Hermione's shoulder, walking side by side.
A/N I know, another kind of short chapter. I kind of just had to get her introduced back into the story, before I go on. Now, I feel like the story can move forward. Hermione won't be back for a couple of chapters, but there will be talk of her, so that is good. I still don't know how long I am going to make this story. I know the ending already, so I guess when I feel like I have studied Harry's character enough, we will get to the ending. If you haven't noticed, that is mainly the purpose of this story. We always think of superhero Harry, but really what kind of person is he, measured by normal standards.
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