A/N: Okay, everyone seems to think the same as the FF.net readers did - that I was either too harsh on Ginny, or
that her snapping her wand doesn't equal her giving up her magic.
Technically we're both right. Yes, I was harsh on Ginny, but given that in my story she slipped Harry a love potion
that could have had serious repercussions, I believe that she's got a long road to redemption ahead of her. Trust
me. By the time I've edited and posted all my written chapters, you'll understand.
As for her snapping her wand, everyone's pretty much right, all she'd have to do is buy a new wand. That was my point. :o) Right now she's voluntarily giving up her ability to practice magic, as she's not really at a level of skill to do non-verbal or wandless magic at the moment. But by giving that up and going so far as to snap her own wand, it shows how deeply affected she in hindsight by what she's done to Harry. I promise, it will all make sense in the end.
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After a good night's rest in Godric's Hollow, Harry woke up to find himself spooning Hermione, one arm snug around her waist and keeping her close. Sometime in the night Hermione had shed her clothing, and was laying next to him in nothing but her bra and knickers. Realizing that this was about to cause a 'reaction' like he'd discussed with her in London, he carefully disentangled himself and rolled over. A few seconds had passed, with no relief in sight. Harry groaned. He'd been too tired the previous night to care about any repercussions related to sleeping in the same bed as Hermione, but now he was wishing he'd been thinking about the next morning. Checking over his shoulder to make sure she was still asleep, he gingerly climbed out of bed and headed down the hall in search of a washroom. A cold shower would certainly take care of the problem at hand, at least temporarily.
Minutes later Harry felt refreshed as he returned to the bedroom, where he discovered Hermione sitting up in bed, waiting for him.
"I have to say, I'm surprised, Harry," she winked at him. She clearly wasn't making any effort to cover herself up. "Most guys in your position would've made a move, but you left instead."
"Most guys are more concerned with what's between their legs than what's in their hearts," he countered, smiling at her, causing her to blush. "And don't think that the thought didn't cross my mind." He crawled on all fours across the mattress until he was leaning over her, one knee on either side of her waist. He dipped his head and captured her lips, giving her the best good morning kiss she'd ever experienced.
Hermione moaned, enjoying the sensation of his lips against hers.
Harry leaned back. "Well, sleepyhead, I think we should get out of bed and get started." He yanked the covers off of the bed in one swift motion as he leapt to the floor, leaving Hermione shrieking as she grabbed a pillow to hide under. He unceremoniously scooped her up off of the mattress, and carried her down the hall to the bathroom. "I think a nice shower would wake you up," he winked as he lowered her feet to the floor. He held her tight with one arm while he stripped off her lingerie with the other.
Hermione looked up at him, her blood running hot. Harry's hand slid from her waist down to cup her bare bottom, pulling her hips into his. She gasped, grabbing at him, begging for more.
Next thing she knew, a torrent of freezing cold water was pouring down on her head. Harry had shoved her into the shower and turned the faucet on. "Wake up time," he said, grinning as he turned to leave the bathroom.
"Harry Potter, you are one big tease!" she spluttered, pushing her sopping wet hair from her face.
He turned to flash her a dazzling smile before he left the bathroom. "You're one to talk." He replied, thinking of all the teasing she had done in London.
Hermione gave him a sheepish grin as she drew the shower curtain across. "Are you saying you didn't like it?" she pouted, sensing his thoughts.
Laughing, Harry faced her with his hands on his hips. "Don't make me come in there and show you how much I liked it!" he threatened, making a move to pull the shower curtain back. Hermione shrieked in protest, but that wasn't about to stop Harry from making good on his threat. He slipped in behind her and wrapped his arms around her waist, pulling her close. Her skin was slick from the freezing cold water that still beat down on them, but Harry didn't care about the temperature. He was concentrating on the feeling of his girlfriend's wet, bare skin rubbing up against his own.
Hermione gasped as his fingers snaked their way around her sides and made contact with her nipples. As he teased her, Harry placed soft, light kisses across her shoulders and the base of her neck. Shivering from the sensations and not the temperature of the water, Hermione instinctively pressed herself back against Harry. His hardness pressed into her backside, and she groaned inwardly as she realized that it was her making him feel that way.
With his hands slowly sliding from her breasts down past her hips, Harry knelt carefully on the shower floor; his eyes level with Hermione's hips. He had never had such a lovely, up-close view of the brunette witch's bum before, and he was thoroughly enjoying himself. Reminding himself of the task at hand, Harry licked a slow line along her spine from the small of her back to the base of her neck. The heat of his tongue against her cold skin was enough to give Hermione a spasm of pleasure as Harry's mouth continued on to her neck once more. He nibbled up to her ear, his tongue darting out to gently flick at her ear lobe.
She turned in his arms, sealing her lips to his in a hot, wet kiss. Their tongues danced back and forth as Harry fiercely pulled her into him, allowing her to feel just how aroused he was by the entire situation. He slipped his hand between them and began to rub his thumb in little circles just below the juncture of her thighs, causing Hermione to moan loudly. Then carefully he slipped one, then two fingers inside of her, sliding in and out in rhythm with his thumb.
Though Hermione was thoroughly enjoying the sensations Harry was created deep within her, she desperately wanted to return the favour. Sliding out of his grasp she knelt on the shower floor as he had earlier, and moved forward to take him into her mouth.
Just then the water quickly changed temperature and began cascading down her back in hot sheets. She started, and found Harry quickly slipping past the curtain.
"Tease!" she yelled after him, flushed from the all too brief experience.
"Are you saying you didn't like it?" he called from down the hall, mimicking her earlier words.
Hermione resigned herself to enjoy the rest of her shower in peace, though she couldn't get the thoughts of Harry's fingers touching and teasing her the way they had out of her head.
Upon arriving in the kitchen, Harry spotted a bookshelf similar to the ones in the library. It was much smaller, and sat on the countertop next to the sink. There were quite a number of books upon the shelves, with some interesting names that served the purpose of distracting him from wanting to run back to the shower and finish what he'd started. A Witch's Guide to Cooking; and Breakfast, Brunch, Lunch, Lupper, Supper: Meals for All Occasions. Harry chuckled to himself. Lupper? When Ron had told him about Lupper, he'd thought it was a joke or an excuse Ron had come up with so that he could eat some more. Harry spotted a title that inspired him to remove the book from the shelf. Conjuring Meals: How To Cook Without Really Trying. He suspected that this had been another book belonging to his father. Harry flipped through the pages in a Hermione-like way, poring over each paragraph and spell. He found something under the breakfast/brunch section that interested him. There was an accompanying picture with plates upon plates of eggs, bacon, sausage links, pancakes, hash browns, and any other breakfast food one could imagine. It being a wizard's photograph, he could see the steam rising from the warm food, the juicy plumpness of the sausages, the butter melting as the syrup flowed down the pancakes. Seeing the image was enough to make Harry's mouth water. He made up his mind that this was the perfect spell and decided to try it out.
"Ientaculum epularum!" he chanted, enunciating the Latin words as he flicked and pointed his wand at the Maplewood breakfast table. Immediately there were several heaping dishes filled with delightfully hot, steaming breakfast goods. There were several pitchers of juice, in flavours like pumpkin, orange, apple, peach, loganberry, and grapefruit juice. A jug of pure maple syrup sat in between the pancakes and the waffles, with a dish filled with creamery butter resting in front of it. A large bowl of freshly whipped cream and berries was next to the waffles, clearly there for the intention of drenching the waffles in sugary goodness. There were also tea and coffee pots, each with the freshly brewed caffeinated beverages swirling inside. Small containers of milk, cream, and sugar surrounded the pots, with two of the largest mugs Harry had ever seen. Several plates of eggs made every way imaginable, crispy bacon, golden brown sausages, hash browns and home fries were scattered between the drinks.
Harry had never salivated so much in his entire life; not even at Hogwarts with the great feasts that Dumbledore summoned every day. 'Mione! He called out, barely able to keep himself from attempting to swallow everything at the table.
What smells so good? Came her reply. She entered the kitchen, wrapped in nothing but an oversized bath towel. Harry was so absorbed in the food that he didn't even notice.
"Sweet Merlin, where did this all come from? There's no way you conjured a feast like this!" she exclaimed, taking in the vast array of breakfast in front of her.
Harry held up the cookbook. "I'm guessing by the title that this was my dad's," he said, showing her the cover.
Hermione was unable to tear her eyes from the food. Her stomach growled loudly. Without waiting for an invitation from Harry she sat down at the table and began to fill her plate. Following her lead, Harry began to tuck into the feast in front of them.
Nearly an hour later, the young couple was completely stuffed. They had slowed down a bit after the first ten minutes of eating, but the food tasted far too good to stop. When they finally couldn't eat any more, Harry noticed a dab of the whipped cream and berry mixture on Hermione's neck. "How'd you get that there?" he chuckled good-naturedly. He'd been eating just as quickly as she had, and was sure that at some point he had dripped maple syrup onto himself.
Hermione flushed, realizing she had been so absorbed in the wonderful taste of the food that she had barely thought about table manners. Before she could make an excuse Harry's lips were on her neck, and he was gently licking the whipped cream from her skin. A warm, tingly feeling began to spread from where his tongue was against her neck into the rest of her body.
He sat back, licking his lips. "Tastes good," he smirked. Hermione chose that moment to notice that he had definitely gotten maple syrup on himself. He had probably been cutting his pancakes into pieces so quickly that he hadn't noticed the syrup that was making the crease of his elbow all sticky. She bent her head to fasten her lips to his arm, hungrily sucking on his skin to remove the sticky sweetness.
Harry's mouth went dry as Hermione raised her head, grinning at him. "I could say the same," she breathed, savouring the taste on her tongue.
They locked eyes, sensing that things were about to get out of control right then and there. While Hermione's eyes were focused on his, Harry's hand deftly crept across the table, latching onto the bowl of whipped cream. He moved a step closer to her, dipping his fingers into the bowl. Before she realized what he was about to do, Harry smeared the whipped cream across her chest and neck.
"Harry!" she gasped, looking down at her body. There was a mess of cream and berries on her skin. She looked back up at him, seeing his eyes crinkle as he laughed. Without warning she grabbed the container of syrup and dumped it over Harry's head. He gaped back at her. Harry had definitely not been expecting any retaliation, let alone an entire jug of the sugary liquid tossed at him. Rather than grab for some more food and toss it at his girlfriend, Harry tackled her to the floor, accidentally taking the bowl of whipped cream with him. It clattered to the floor as he pinned her to the tile, splattering its contents everywhere. They were enveloped in a sticky, sugary mess as they rolled across the kitchen tiles, Hermione desperately trying to take control and not let Harry keep her pinned to the floor. Hermione decided to try something she had been secretly working on during the last few months of school.
Cubosto, Hermione thought, aiming the spell at Harry. She was wandless, and was hoping that her skills at wandless magic were as good as she thought it was.
Immediately Harry went still, laying on the floor. "What'd you do to me?" he asked, unable to move.
"Wandless magic," Hermione grinned. It had worked better than she'd hoped, for he hadn't even heard the incantation in her head. She quickly performed the counter-charm, allowing him to move again.
"You can do wandless magic?" he asked, his eyes wide in amazement.
Hermione gave him a confused look. "Why are you so surprised, Harry? You can do it too," she said with a patient air, as if she was dealing with a young child. "Remember when you removed the glass in the zoo, at the snake exhibit? I remember you telling me about that. You didn't have a wand; you didn't even know you were a wizard!"
Harry's mind began to recall events where something magical had happened and he hadn't performed any spell. The memory of his Aunt Marge blowing up like a balloon came to mind, causing a smile to spread across his face. "I guess you're right," he said slowly, still wrapping his mind around the fact that Hermione was capable of doing wandless spells.
"You've just never tried to focus it before," she pointed out, purposely glancing at one of the plates of bacon on the table. "Try to summon that bacon without your wand." She suggested.
Harry focused his concentration on the bacon, and said out loud, "Accio bacon!"
A strip of bacon levitated itself from the table to Harry's hand.
"Good, but try something different," Hermione smiled. "Focus on not just the bacon, but the entire plate of bacon. And don't say the spell out loud, just think it in your head."
As Hermione finished her sentence, Harry had the plate of bacon zooming from the tabletop into his hand. He turned to her and grinned. "Not so hard after all." Hermione was positively glowing now, much like she had in St. Mungo's. "You're uh, doing the light bulb thing again," Harry said, holding back a laugh.
"I think I've figured that out, too. We can control it. It happens whenever something extremely emotional happens between the two of us."
Harry looked confused. "What's so emotional about floating bacon?"
"I was proud of you for having done the wandless magic successfully," she said, kissing him on the cheek.
"So we can control the glow?" he asked, wondering how.
Hermione nodded. "Just think dull thoughts."
Harry looked at her funny. "Dull thoughts?"
Nodding again, Hermione added, "Think of yourself looking like a normal person, not like a human light bulb. How else do you think I've stopped myself from glowing this past week?"
"You've been in a glowing kind of state all week?" he asked.
"Harry, I've wanted to be with you for years but I never thought you'd want me back. Why wouldn't this be emotional? You became a knight in shining armour to me when you rescued me from that troll in first year, and you've meant even more to me every year since. I'm the happiest girl in the Wizarding world now that I know how you feel about me. You're lucky I can control it every day."
Harry leaned over and kissed her, setting the plate of bacon down on the tiles.
Hermione broke off the kiss and stood up. "As nice as this is, we're sitting in a puddle of whipped cream, berries, and maple syrup. We need to clean this up and get back to business. Voldemort isn't going to wait around for us to play house."
Reluctantly agreeing, Harry performed the necessary cleaning charms as Hermione fetched the magically expanding trunks they had bought in Diagon Alley. They found the emptiest spare room they could find, and brought the shrunken versions of the exercise equipment they had bought at Harrods into the room. Using Enlargement Charms, the young couple restored the workout gear to its normal size. The room was quickly filled with an elliptical, rowing machine, and a set of free weights. A pair of yoga mats rested against the weight stand, along with a water cooler to keep them hydrated.
"It's time for the physical training to start," Hermione said, moving back towards their bedroom. She chose a cropped sports bra and spandex shorts from her trunk, and changed into them. She came back to the room to discover Harry had stripped down to his boxers. Despite their having seen each other wearing much less, it was still a sight for the two of them to enjoy. Hermione spread out one of the yoga mats on the floor, and began to stretch. Harry, not having much experience in physical training with the exception of Quidditch, chose to join her in her stretches. He spread out the second yoga mat behind her and began to follow her every move. When he found himself faced with something that required more flexibility than he was capable of, he simply chose not to try it and enjoyed watching Hermione perform the move instead.
Fifteen minutes later they were warmed up, their muscles loose and limber. Hermione chose to begin with the elliptical, so Harry went for the rowing machine. He settled himself into the seat and grabbed the bar, pulling on the cord. He continued for minutes before feeling any burn in his muscles, and decided to take a break and watch Hermione again. He couldn't help but notice how great her legs looked as she moved with the machine. He tapped her on the shoulder, indicating that he would like to take his turn on the machine.
Hermione acquiesced, and moved back to the yoga mat. As Harry worked on the elliptical, she went through several yoga moves that required such a high amount of flexibility that Harry would've crippled himself if he tried to imitate her. He turned his head to watch her over his shoulder, his mind marvelling at the possibilities her flexibility could turn into.
"Behave, Harry," she warned teasingly, sensing his thoughts. He immediately turned his attentions back to the machine he was working on.
Minutes later Hermione decided it might be a good idea for the two of them to take a break. They relaxed on the yoga mats and sipped water from the cooler. "So about these Gryffindor Horcruxes," Hermione began, "I was thinking… We are in Godric's Hollow, which was named for Godric Gryffindor. We can assume that something of his remains in this town, but where would it be?"
Harry shrugged. "Is there a museum?"
"I don't think so," she shook her head. "This town is a bit too small to have enough artefacts and relics to build a museum. It's got to be somewhere else-Harry, where are you going?"
Harry had gotten up from the mat and headed down the hall. "I saw something this morning," he said. "I was on my way to the bathroom when I woke up, and there was something on the wall in this room with a lion on it." He stopped in front of a door that was ajar. Hermione had followed him from their new exercise room, and stood behind him as he pushed the door open. Directly on the wall in front of them was a large golden shield.
Harry's mind flashed back on the memory of the night Voldemort had attacked. "My father was killed in this room," he said quietly, looking around. He was silent for a few moments. "And I'd bet a hundred Galleons that that's Gryffindor's shield." Pushing the memory of his father's murder back into the recesses of his mind, Harry focused his attention on the golden shield in front of him. It was pure gold, with no trace of any other colour. The front of the shield was embossed with a roaring lion.
Hermione's eyes widened. "That's it," she whispered. She had seen a picture of the shield in an obscure tome in the Hogwarts library.
"It's been here all along," Harry realized. They had believed that the search for the Horcruxes would be so difficult, and one of them had been right under their noses. "My father really was a true Gryffindor."
"Voldemort wouldn't have known about the charm on the house," Hermione said, delicately running her fingers across the lion's mane. "When he killed your father, Gryffindor's shield was right here. It fit perfectly with the other artefacts belonging to the founders, and he believed that the house would be permanently destroyed when he was done. The shield would have been concealed, and there would have been no reason for anyone to come back to the house."
Harry nodded, unable to speak. All he could think was that, had he made the trip to Godric's Hollow sooner to visit his parents' graves, he would have eventually come upon the shield when he discovered the house was still intact.
"That doesn't matter, Harry," Hermione understood his thoughts. "What matters is we've found it now, and we can destroy it."
Harry lifted the shield from the wall and carried it to the library. "How do we destroy gold?"
Hermione began to sift through the numerous books in the library, searching for a method of destroying the precious metal. "One more Horcrux down, only three more to go," she said brightly. She and Harry were one step closer to the final battle with Voldemort.
One step closer to peace for the Wizarding world.