~A/N> Sorry for the little cliffie in the last chapter, but I made sure it wasn't long between updates so
you weren't left hanging for long. There's a bit of a cliffie at the end of this chapter as well, but I will be
updating again next week. For any of you that ship R/L as well as H/Hr, I think you may like this chapter and hopefully
find it a bit humorous. Plus the drama starts to return a bit at the end, and continues on into the next chapter. Thank
you so much for all the great reviews on the last chapter, and your idea's on Sorcha were interesting and fun to
read :) Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoy this chapter. You'll get to know Sorcha a little better. Thanks
again to Lisa for her encouragement, and to all of you for the inspiring reviews! Even though I don't get to reply
to them often, I do read every review that I get and appreciate each and every one of them. H/Hr shippers are the best
and I love being a part of this ship! :D
"I'm standing right here you know," Hermione replied, glaring at Sorcha's back as she led Harry out of the kitchen.
"I know, and you should be following me instead of making snide comments," Sorcha replied, barely glancing back at her.
Hermione, with her fists clenched at her sides, turned to look at Remus and asked, "This is who you got to train us? This...this...shebeast?"
"That...shebeast as you called her is the best witch Guardian of her time, and there is no one better suited to train the two of you," Remus replied, trying to suppress a smile at her choice of words. "You'd better hurry on after them, or she'll start teaching Harry without you."
With a loud 'Hmph!', Hermione turned and stalked out of the kitchen, following the sound of Harry's voice into the Library. "Finally," Sorcha said as she entered, completely cutting Harry off. "I will not tolerate distractions or tardiness. Next time it happens, I will no longer instruct you."
With her mouth moving, but no words coming out, Hermione glared at the woman standing in front of her. Seeing how angry she was becoming, Harry walked over to stand by her and gently placed his hand on the small of her back. "Calm down Hermione, she's here of her own accord, so why don't we let her teach us as much as possible?"
Harry's touch on her back was enough to make her feel a little better, but it didn't diminish the anger all together. Looking at him, she gave him a slight smile and a quick nod of her head, letting him know that she would try, but only because he asked. When the two of them looked back at their new teacher, she stood staring at them intently, watching their interaction. "You two have a very strong bond already. But it is the wrong type of bond. You have felt for each other feelings of being more than friends, yes?" As both teens stood there blushing she said, "I'll take that as a yes. The connection between a Guardian and her Charge is very strong, and sometimes that connection can overlap into emotion." Looking directly at Harry she added, "It may have worked for your mother and father, but that is the only known emotional connection between a Guardian and her Charge that has lasted such as their's did. And of course you know how it ended, your mother had a lapse of judgement and two powerful Guardians were killed that night, along with a Charge. I will not let that happen again."
"Who do you think you are?" Harry ground out, glaring at her. Hermione had immediately reached out to grab his arm, trying to stop him from losing his temper such as she had, but it was of no use. "You know NOTHING of my parents relationship!"
After speaking his last word, Hermione watched in shock as Sorcha went sailing across the room, her back and head coming into contact with the wall. She had looked like a ragdoll sailing through the air, and if the sickening crunch as she hit the wall was any evidence, she had hit very hard. Running over to her, Hermione kneeled down next to her and said, "Sorcha? Sorcha, can you hear me?" Looking to the back of her head, Hermione could see that she was bleeding from a gash that was most likely from hitting one of the picture frames on the wall. Without a second thought, she placed her hands over the gash and closing her eyes, she concentrated hard and tapped into her healing powers, putting all of her energy into closing the wound. When she felt Sorcha stir, she opened her eyes and the blue glow from her hands diminished immediately.
Lifting her head up, Sorcha reached up to feel the back of her head, noting the wetness of the blood that still clung to her hair. Gently probing her scalp, she found no evidence of a wound and looked to Hermoine with a bit of surprise showing on her face. "You healed me?"
"I did."
"But how do you know how to heal already?" she asked, unsteadily standing up.
"Firenze, the Divination teacher at Hogwarts, helped me," Hermione replied, looking proud.
Sorcha, after staring into Hermione's eyes for a moment, then turned to Harry and said, "And you...you have a lot of magical power that you have not tapped into yet. Who has been training you?"
"No one," Harry replied quietly, not looking up to meet her gaze. "Headmaster Dumbledore was training me last year, but then..."
"Yes, I know all about that unfortunate business with him and Snape," Sorcha said, causing Harry to look at her then. "Snape never was one of my favorites. Why Dumbledore ever let him in the Order, I'll never know. I told him that I sensed he was dangerous, untrustworthy, but Albus said he just needed to be given a chance. That chance cost him his life."
Silence descended upon the room, all three of them standing lost in their thoughts until Sorcha clapped her hands together, causing Harry and Hermione to jump, as she said, "Now, on to training! You two have much to learn, the first lesson being control so there are no more magical mishaps."
~*~
Two hours later Sorcha finally bid them goodnight, leaving Harry and Hermione laying flat on their backs on the Library floor, trying to catch their breath and slow the pounding in their heads. "I...stand...by what I....said...before," Hermione panted, closing her eyes as pain sliced through her head for the umpteenth time. "That witch...is a shebeast."
Harry chuckled quietly but then stopped when his head pounded even more at the movement. "She is rather unpleasant, but you have to admit, she did teach us a lot today."
"Oh yes, two hours to teach us how to keep control of our magic so that neither of us throws her into a wall by accident again, and then teaching me how to 'sense' where you are in a room is bloody brilliant," Hermione replied, and then let out a little 'eep' as she realized she'd sworn.
"One thing I have definitely learned today," Harry said, laughing despite the pain, "Is that you have quite the mouth on you when you get angry."
"You can thank my dad for that," Hermione said quietly, a picture of her father coming to mind. "Mum always tried to get him to watch his words, but he didn't care. He said it wasn't like I wouldn't hear it elsewhere, but I don't think I can ever remember mum swearing...well, maybe once or twice, but that's it."
While she had been reminiscing, Harry moved to lay next to her on his side, his head in his hand propped up by his elbow on the floor. He lay there watching her as shadows crossed her face when she spoke of her parents, and he knew only slightly how she was feeling. Reaching out, he slowly hooked one finger around a stray strand of her hair that lay on her cheek and slid it to the side. When his finger brushed her cheek, she looked over at him and smiled at him, her smile holding just a hint of sadness due to her lingering memories. Still staring into her eyes, he started to slowly lower his head toward hers and once the distance between them was closed, he settled his lips onto hers in a tender kiss. Her lips were so familiar to him now, their unique softness and taste that was Hermione, and he kissed her harder.
Putting a hand on his chest, Hermione reluctantly pushed him gently away from her, causing him to look at her questioningly. "What is it?" he asked, his voice sounding rough and husky even to his own ears.
"I spoke to Firenze today," she replied, her cheeks coloring. "It was a little more uncomfortable than I thought, but he just listened to everything I said, and after a few moments he told me what he thought."
When she was quiet for a bit, he smoothed her hair away from her face with his right hand and asked, "And? What did he say?"
Taking a deep breath, she replied, "He said...'Follow your heart. It will never mislead you.' "
As they stared at one another, the silence of Grimmauld Place settling over them, Harry asked, "And what does your heart tell you to do when it comes to you and me?"
Looking deep into his eyes for a moment, she used her senses to probe deeper into his inner thoughts and feelings, the way Firenze had taught her to that morning. After some time had passed Hermione smiled and before he knew what she was doing, she pulled him back down to her and kissed him, putting everything she felt for him in the kiss.
When they broke apart some time later, she looked up at him with vulnerability shining brightly in her eyes and asked, "Does that answer your question?"
"Yes it does," he replied, smiling down at her. When she moved to kiss him again, he said, "Just one second," and picked his wand up from the floor where it lay beside them. Performing a locking charm on the door, he looked back at her again and asked, "Now, where were we?"
~*~
An hour later, Hermione walked into the room she shared with Luna, a huge smile plastered on her face. Reaching up, she placed her fingertips on her lips, feeling their puffiness from the kisses she and Harry had shared, and her smile grew bigger. With a flick of her wand, all the candles in the room lit and when she turned to go to her bed, she froze. There, on Luna's bed, were Ron and Luna in a compromising position looking very guilty and uncomfortable.
Trying to stifle the laughter that threatened to escape her, she cocked one of her eyebrows and asked, "Am I interrupting?"
"Yes."
"No."
When they both answered at once, Hermione lost control and started laughing, the situation too funny to feign seriousness. When she was finally able to get herself under control she said, "Why don't I just step out for a tick and you can let me know when it's safe to come back in?"
Without waiting for an answer, she turned and made her way back out of the room, bumping into someone in the hallway as she was closing the door behind her.
"Hey, I was just coming to find you. Have you seen Ron? I can't find him and I promised him a game of Wizards Chess before bed," Harry asked.
She couldn't help it. The laughter erupted from her again, the trials of the day and her tiredness from all of the training finally catching up to her stole her ability to suppress it, and she knew Harry probably thought she'd gone mad. Finally able to stop and catch her breath, she looked at him with a mischievous glint in her eyes and pointed toward her door. "He's um...in there. But he's a little busy at the moment playing a game with Luna."
Harry's eyes widened and his eyebrows raised as she said this, and then he too started to laugh. Once he had calmed down he said, "If Remus and Mrs. Weasley knew what they were doing, he'd be right back at the Burrow with Ginny and his parents."
"Then it'll just be our little secret, won't it?" she asked, smiling.
Smiling back at her he replied, "Yes it will. Our little secret." Bending down to give her one more quick kiss, he took a few backward steps away from her and said, "I'll see you in the morning. Oh, and if you don't get back in there soon you can always come stay in Ron's bed."
"Cheeky git," she said, and listened to him laugh the rest of the way to his room, the sound only disappearing after he'd closed his bedroom door.
About half an hour later, fatigue finally replaced humor and knocking on the door to her room she said, "Ron if you're not out of there in five minutes, I'm coming in and levitating you out, with or without clothes on. It's your choice."
Two minutes later, a very red faced (and thankfully dressed) Ron came walking quickly out of the room, mumbling a quick, "Sorry," to her as he breezed by. Walking into her room, she walked to her bed and sank down gratefully onto it.
"Sorry about that," Luna started, sounding very happy and not one bit sorry. "It's just with Ron, once he..."
"Please don't say anymore," Hermione pleaded, cutting her off. "I've seen more than I should have already, I don't need to know more as well." Quickly changing into her pajamas, she crawled under the covers and fell asleep immediately.
She found herself walking through a mist that seemed to be floating atop the floor she walked on, and when she looked around she realized that she was back at the Halloween Ball the night before. Feeling a sudden overwhelming sense of dread, she sought out Harry and Seamus, seeing neither of the boys. Walking through all of the dancing couples on the dance floor, she found Ginny dancing with Neville and asked, "Have you seen Harry or Seamus?"
Ginny turned toward her, but instead of the intense hazel eyes that she usually had, her eye sockets were empty and Hermione clamped her hand over her mouth to stop herself from screaming at the disgusting sight. Running amongst the couples again, she found herself at the front of the Great Hall, face-to-face with Damien. Voldemort was standing off to his right with his wand trained on Harry, who was struggling to break free from the strong hold of the unidentifiable Death Eater that was restraining him.
Looking to Damien's left side, she saw Seamus's unmoving body lying on the ground. She made a move as if to go to him when Damien put his hand out to stop her and said, "You can only save one of them. It is your choice Guardian-which one will live, and which one will die?"
Harry was her Charge, of course she should choose him. But what if Seamus was still alive, maybe there was a chance that she could save them both. Looking back and forth between the two, she stared at Seamus and watched him to see if he was even still alive. What if he was already dead and she chose to save him? Then she'd lose them both...
"Well?" thundered Damien, pulling her from her thoughts and making her jump. "Which is it then?"
"I-I don't know," she replied, a sob escaping her as she said it. "I don't want to choose, I want them both to live!"
"Wrong answer," Damien said as he sneered down at her. Turning to Voldemort, he nodded and Voldemort used the Cruciatus curse on Harry, who started to scream as the curse was left on him a very long time. Over his screams Damien said, "The Irish boy is already dead. You knew who to choose, you just didn't have the courage to do it. Not that I mind, it'll just make it much easier to kill you when the time comes."
As she stood there, trying to get her body to move so that she could help Harry, the scene around her suddenly transformed and she looked around in confusion. After a moment more, she realized she was in Elysian and as she went to take a step forward, she jumped back as Lily suddenly appeared in front of her.
"Hermione, thank goodness!" Lily said, looking somewhat stressed and relieved. "I've been trying to contact you but I couldn't get through, there was some sort of evil barrier surrounding your mind."
"I-It was Damien," Hermione replied, fear notable in her voice.
"Yes, I know. That's why I was trying to reach you. It's Harry," she said, sounding almost desperate now. "He's in trouble Hermione, you must go to him. You're out of Damien's control, you just have to wake up and get to him. He needs you. Now!"
"But how...?" Hermione started to ask, but Lily simply evaporated before her eyes. Shaking all over from the things she'd seen in Damien's nightmare and frightened by Lily's distress, Hermione closed her eyes and concentrated on Harry, on where she wanted to go... Next thing she knew, she was standing next to Harry's bed as Harry thrashed around wildly while muttering something over and over again.
"Hermione?" Bloody hell, when'd you get here?" Ron asked from where he sat on Harry's bedside, trying to hold him still while trying to wake him. When Harry started thrashing even more he said, "Nevermind, I don't care. Just help me with him, will you?"
Seeing the sweat that beaded his forehead, Hermione placed her hands on Harry's temples and muttered an incantation, immediately seeing what he was seeing. Jerking back quickly, breaking the connection, she looked at Ron and said, "Go sleep in my room with Luna, Ron. This is something I have to do by myself."
"What?! Are you mad?" Ron asked, giving her a look that said he clearly thought she was.
"Just go!" Hermione ordered, and once Ron was out of the room she sealed the door shut and cast a silencing spell, praying that she could do this alone. Once again placing her hands on his temples, Hermione closed her eyes and concentrated until she could see Harry's nightmare start to play out in her own mind. Gathering up all of her Guardian magic she took a deep breath and in a clear tone of voice said, "Teleportus."