Harry lay motionless on his bed in Grimmauld. His sheets now soaked with his sweat. It made him so uncomfortable, trying to squirm his way to a warmer part of the bed, but it was to no avail. The nightmares that plagued his sleep every night made him go through the nightly ritual of getting up, drying himself off and then drying the sheets on the bed. He was too lazy and tired to shower at this time of night. He used to only have nightmares of that one fateful night that took his parents. Every day it seemed it would get more vivid. Then the addition of Ginny lying motionless in the chamber did nothing to help him. His vision going foggy as the venom of the basilisk ran its course; only to have his life saved by a phoenix. Third year when he was hunted by a werewolf, which was formerly his teacher and still friend, and he met his innocent godfather. Fourth year facing the very calm Sphinx and watching Cedric's body drop to the floor of the graveyard; watching Voldemort's new body form from a cauldron and watching his parents save him once again. He wondered how many times they were going to save him before he could look after himself. It hurt, he had the weight of the world on his shoulders, but he couldn't even look after himself. Then of course the fateful night when Snape murdered his mentor, Albus Dumbledore, tended to drive home the fact he was inadequate. He should've fought the spell Dumbledore put him under. He should have saved his life; but it was always was the same thing that made him wake up in the middle of the night. Hermione lying motionless in the Department of Mysteries, except this time, she did not get up when Madam Pomfrey took care of her.
The undesirable sensation of being inadequate crept up to him, hitting full force. What if he were in that situation again? Could he save the next person, and the one after that? Suddenly a feeling that wasn't his made him feel angry, but the cold in the room, against his sweaty boxers snapped him out of his reverie.
Harry went to perform the drying charm on his boxers, but the spell wouldn't work. The tears falling freely, he tried again and again but the simple drying charm just wouldn't work. He cursed loudly and threw the heaviest object he could find, a book, straight at the window. The window withstood the onslaught.
"Perfect," Harry thought, "I can't even break a fucking window properly."
Lupin ran into the room to see what the noise came from. Harry was throwing anything he could find at the very resilient window. Lupin crossed the room in a step and grabbed Harry around the waist. Harry turned around and started pounding into Lupin's chest, with a force Lupin really didn't know Harry had, meanwhile Hermione had just entered the room. He was underfed, but make no mistake, Harry could throw a wallop. Lupin held tighter as Harry wanted to collapse. Lupin held on tighter as Harry's sobs stained his t-shirt, all the while him beating into Lupin's shoulders. Hermione felt her heart break watching Harry in such a state.
"Hermione, do me a favor, grab me some clean sheets from the cupboard down the hall. Dobby is in the room next to it, wake him up and tell him we need his help in Harry's room."
Hermione nodded silently and left the room to get a clean sheet for Harry's bed and to wake Dobby. It only took one prod before Dobby was awake and sensed the distress of Harry, so he disappeared to Harry's room.
Harry turned his back on Lupin, embarrassed that he let his emotions get the best of them.
"Harry, it's ok to cry. I sob like a little girl, every single time I transform. The only bad part about it, is I'm still going as a wolf, and that sounds pretty, I think Tonks said, wrong?"
Harry smiled.
Hermione returned to the room and handed the sheets to Dobby, who with some impressive magic had outstretched the sheet and set it on the bed. Harry got into the bed and set the blanket over himself. Dobby gave Harry a sleeping potion as Lupin was leaving the room, and shook his head at Tonks who had just arrived and was looking at the bruises now forming on his chest in surprise, and they left for their room together. Dobby placed a goblet of Pumpkin Juice on the table, with a cooling charm to keep it nice and cold for the morning, and went back to bed. Hermione just summoned a pillow and placed it on the chair in the room and pulled it close to Harry's bed.
***
Diagon Alley was much livelier today. Of course the growing anticipation of this year's Quidditch World Cup just didn't do the alley much justice for the few days witches and wizards alike flocked for memorabilia. This had been the first time in nearly forty years England had made it to the luxurious final, and the residents were taking advantage of the price cuts to attract more customers. Any shop with Quidditch team memorabilia was flooded with patrons, young and old, short and tall, stock and built. Even though Weasley's Wizarding Wheezes held no memorabilia, the twins prided itself on jokes of all kinds, where youngsters would kindly, albeit forcefully, do their best to drag their parents to the overly crowded shop.
"Blimey!" A tall red headed, twin less, baritone exclaimed, "I think everyone in Diagon Alley is stopping here before they leave!"
The owners of the shop stood proudly, while standing over many blueprints to expand their shop. Their plans required the building behind them to be adjoined, and might cause more than a few galleons more for what the property was worth, but they'd get by. The arrival of England's Seeker in their shop definitely helped for publicity. The seeker, an old Hogwarts student, who was around in the twins' first year, was nicely pranked by them. Of course they had somewhat of a friendship, but to come to their shop, was a little unusual.
"Fred, George! It's great to see you! A joke, shop - who would've known it would be you two competing with Zonko's and by the looks of things, winning."
"Ah, dear Charles, what would you expect from two… miscreants such as ourselves, as I think you put it?"
"Yes, well," the seeker stammered slightly flushed, "just thought I'd stop by and, give you a present. As its England's first time to the cup in nearly forty years, I thought I'd give you and your family a spot in my personal box this year."
The eyebrows of the twins shot straight up and smiled.
"What say you Fred?"
"Aye, I think we can manage George!"
The seeker smiled, gave them a pass that said `Unlimited'.
"No don't go crazy boys, just your family and maybe a couple friends. No need to invite Oliver, he'll be there because his brother is playing remember."
"How could we forget?" one of the twins quipped
"He's been badgering us all bloody summer, `Oh Jake this! Oh Jake that!'" the other mimicked
Charles shook his head, then shook their hands and decided to peruse the rest of the store, where he was flanked by the twin's brother Ron, and of course he struck up a conversation on his favorite subject.
***
Harry awoke the next morning very thirsty. It felt like sand once again was all over his mouth. He looked over at his bedside table and found his favorite drink, nice and cold, waiting for him. Harry silently praised Dobby, and drunk it all in one go. Setting down the goblet he noticed Hermione asleep in the chair beside his bed, in her pajamas. Harry tried to get up without waking her, but the bed creaked way too much for that to be successful.
She woke up, and getting up this early was normal for her, the grogginess that probably should've been there, didn't affect her.
"Uhm… Hermione, I know it doesn't look like much, but this is my bedroom." Harry said awkwardly
Hermione smiled, "Mmhmm."
She pushed him back on the bed and got a pair of robes out and another pair of boxers out of his trunk. Realizing she wasn't going to leave he might as well get dressed.
"I chose some good clothes for you," she said sweetly laying them flat on his bed for him to wear
Harry grabbed the boxers, went to put them on, then stared at Hermione for a second before she clued in.
"Oh!" she flushed. She turned her back to Harry so he could change
Harry blinked a few times, before realizing she wasn't leaving yet again, so he quickly changed his boxers and pulled on his robes. When Hermione turned around, she was a bit put out, that she couldn't see him in his boxers any longer but put that thought out of her mind so she could do what she planned to do this morning.
"Harry?" she asked
"Yeah?" He answered as he walked towards the window where a waiting Hedwig was tapping the window, with a letter.
As Harry let Hedwig in and undid the letter from his leg, Hermione spoke once more.
"Did you even read any of the letters sent to you this summer?" she questioned very shyly
Harry looked at her abruptly, "Yeah, though, the ones Ginny sent me kept getting more and more desperate, so I just stopped."
"No Harry, I mean the letters from me."
"Well, to be honest, I just started burning any and all letters, because well, the usual jargon from Ron was `We'll get you here as soon as possible mate.'. Ginny's letters were just," Harry shuddered, "And you never sent me any letters."
"Yes I did Harry. The letter that you tried to burn, that didn't. That one was from me. I helped put a charm on Ginny's letter to you to tell her when you opened it. But it kept coming back saying you were burning them. So I put an inflammable charm on a letter I sent you."
"One letter… one letter Hermione. Three weeks, and you send me one letter? Ginny sent one every two days. Hell Ron even sent one a week. But you, you send one letter. The past 5 years, I'd get a letter every 4 or 5 days from you. Do you have any idea how that feels when the one you most look forward to sends one letter?"
Hermione was elated that he looked forward most to her letters, but her heart broke when she saw the sad expression on his face.
"Harry, I'm sorry! I wanted to send more, but it was difficult! I wanted to say the same things in the letter, but because of those things I couldn't send it! I only sent the one that you got because Hedwig made sure I did!"
"So it takes my owl, to get you to send me a letter? Glad I'm such a good friend of yours! I sent you letter after letter, and you respond because you were forced to. That makes me feel all fluffy inside."
"I love you, Harry! That's what I wanted to say in those letters!"
Harry started to shake his head. She couldn't, anyone who did had died and he had no intention of letting her on that list. Now he felt like a prat. Those three words were hard to write, let alone say. No, she was not allowed, this can't get out, she's a target now sure, but now, if this got out, she might as well wear a target saying `Hit the bulls eye and you get a one way ticket to Voldemort's inner circle!'. Harry realized he loved her too; as a friend, definitely, but something more?
"You see! This is exactly why I was afraid to send that letter! You're reacting just the way I thought you would! All-"Harry cut her off
"All what Hermione!? All afraid for you? Can you imagine what would happen if people knew? If he knew - he'd probably hunt you down instead of me, just so I could watch him kill you! You can't love me that much for it to take an owl to pester you enough to send it."
"How dare you!? You tried pulling this with Ginny, but not me Harry! I've been your friend ever since the troll and I'd go with you to Voldemort right now if you wanted to. Even if we were sure to die, I'd go. You won't stop me! Look at me! Straight to my face, tell me you don't feel anything towards me!" her tears were shining as they fell down her face
Yes, that did it. Harry realized he did love her as something more. This was going to be very difficult. Harry put his heads in his hands and sighed. He stood up, placed the letter that came with Hedwig that was for her in her hands and looked her in the face.
"Nothing." He whispered
He walked past her and left the room. He could hear her sobs as he made his way down the stairs.
***
The letters that came with Hedwig earlier that morning were from Professor McGonagall, now the headmistress of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, requesting a meeting with the trio. Hermione and Harry had a short conversation about when they would go, but other than that they never talked to each other the whole morning. Lupin noticed this. He mentioned to Tonks that they seemed farther apart, but she just told him to let them deal with it themselves.
Deciding they should fill Ron in, they persuaded Lupin and Tonks to take them to Diagon Alley. Harry decided this would be the perfect opportunity to bring Harry, or so Tonks thought they should call him, Junior. So he set off for the orphanage and told Mrs. Rawley that they were just going out to lunch. She gave him permission, and demanded he be back by about three o'clock. Reluctantly agreeing he brought Junior to Grimmauld Place.
Traveling by floo powder to The Leaky Cauldron, all 5 of them made sure they had no loose effects about their bodies that they might lose in the jump.
"Have you ever been to Diagon Alley, Junior?"
"Once, when I was a baby, but my parents never had a need to go there; plus my dad wasn't really comfortable there."
Lupin nodded in understanding as Harry tapped the correct bricks, and the five of them went into Diagon Alley.
Junior's eyes were wide open; looking everywhere he could to take in everything he saw. The Gringotts building really took his breath away. The Owl Emporium and Quality Quidditch Supplies really caught his eye, and like any pre-teen he was drawn to the latest broom model in the window. He told everyone he'd never had an owl before. Harry played with the galleons in his pocket and made a note go get him an owl when he could.
As they approached Weasley's Wizarding Wheezes the crowds started to realize who was in Diagon Alley. The few people who didn't believe in the Daily Prophet were all waving and trying to get his autograph, whereas the ones who did merely looked at him in disgust and tried to put distance between them.
"Let him bloody through!" Ron yelled
With the expected scolding of `Ron!' from Hermione, he shrugged his shoulders and did his best to drag the five entering the shop out of the crowd. Though to no avail a slightly busty, blonde decided to be bold and flung her rather, frilly undergarment towards him which gently landed on his right shoulder. Harry looked at the pink garment; sighed a great sigh and shrugged it off his shoulders. Junior was thoroughly enjoying laughing at Harry with Ron.
With a disgusted look and glare from Hermione towards the daring aficionado, a glare that did not go unnoticed to a reporter with pointed glasses, she helped pull Harry to towards the back of the shop.
"Who might you be?" Ron asked Junior
"My name is Harry. But everyone seems to want to call me Junior."
"Well Junior, welcome to the shop!"
Hermione butted into the conversation, "Don't go filling his head with pranks Ronald."
"Fancy seeing you here mate, please don't use your dangerous dark arts spells on me!" Fred or maybe George exclaimed, holding up their hands and putting mock scared expressions on their face.
Harry glared at them, when the other twin continued.
"Charles Wallington, yes the England seeker, close your mouth Ron," as he flashed the pass and continued,"gave us a pass into his personal box at the cup this year! And of course you're invited." He said pointing to them.
"Brilliant! Bloody brilliant!" Ron yelled, where he received another scolding from Hermione.
"Do I have to wash your mouth out with flobberworm dung before you realize cursing is not necessary?"
Ron flinched at the thought, but shrugged and turned his new smile to Harry.
"Is it alright if I bring Junior along?" Harry asked
"Wow…" Harry thought, "Almost sounds like he's my son or something."
"Sure, we got loads of room!"
Of course Lupin and Tonks reminded him, that he couldn't be out in public for too long in case something happened. So they told Ron they needed to meet with Professor McGonagall on the 1st of August and they said their goodbyes much to Ron's annoyance as he had to stay and work, they went on their way to Quality Quidditch Supplies, where Harry was asked every five minutes by an eager Junior, to take a look at the new Firebolt model; and of course, all hell had to break loose. With a shrill scream, the dark mark appeared over a nearby establishment. Almost just as fast as the mark appeared, people started screaming and Diagon Alley became much panicked.
Before Tonks, Lupin or Hermione for that matter had decided to draw their wands, Harry's wand was out and he was running towards the mark.
"HARRY!" Hermione screamed
Tonks auror instincts kicked in. She set off after Harry, who both at the time had no idea Hermione, was following them.
Lupin took Junior into a nearby building and stayed with him for as long as he could.
Meanwhile Harry was way ahead and was in sedulous of a Death Eater. Harry was firing continuous stunners, while the myriad of curses and hexes came from the Death Eater. Finally hitting the Death Eater with a stunner Harry bounded him grabbed his wand, snapped it, and set off for another target. Though Harry's next target was not human - the cold on this very warm summer's day went straight to his bone. An all too familiar scream filled his ears as he turned his head to see a dementor much closer than he expected. What really scared him was that he had only felt its presence at the last second, because if he had waited only a second later to do his next action he might not have lived. In sheer cunning he dove to make some distance and turned around sharply and pointed his wand.
Thinking of Hermione's confession of her love for him an enormous stag emerged from his wand. Before the stag had fully left his wand, the antlers clipped the dementor, blowing the dementor 50 feet, as well as Harry backwards with just as much force, slamming him into several tables at the board up ice cream parlor, known as Florean's Fortescue.
As Hermione was running franticly, she took a sideways glance to just see Harry's body flying through the air in the opposite direction. Realizing who it was she skidded to a halt, and bolted in the opposite direction.
"Harry!" she screeched
But just before she reached him the debris that covered his body merely blew away from its rested spot, to reveal a very angry and very dangerous Harry Potter. Pushing Hermione out of the way with his arm, he stormed in the direction of the dark mark once again. By this time some aurors had arrived at Diagon Alley, but that did little to stop the onslaught of the dementors inching their way closer to their prize: the souls of the inhabitants of Diagon Alley. Harry's vision flickered to different colors - something he didn't pay much attention to, but bodies that lay dead had no color, enemies were marked, and what allies were there were outlined in a light blue. Dementors steadily surrounded Harry, but with another Patronus conjured, one that of five times its normal size, it careened through anything dementor trying to get near Harry.
Harry's facial expression turned into pure hatred as he watched a dementor set down a soul less boy, no older than fifteen on the ground, now in search of its new prey.
"PRONGS!" Harry thundered, "THAT ONE!" he pointed
Harry watched the stag run towards the dementor, meanwhile the appearance of it getting brighter and brighter, until it had to expand to accommodate the blinding light inside that threatened to explode. The stag plowed its way through the dementor and sent it several hundred feet in the air, only for the cloak for the dementor to return to the ground with nothing inside.
Harry looked around to see Lupin fighting two Death Eaters. Harry shot a stunner at one and Lupin quickly took hold of the advantage and downed the next one. Lupin very much relieved looked around to see Hermione being approached by four Death Eaters. He rushed to her aid, while screaming for Harry.
"Well if it isn't The Mudblood. I'll have fun with you!" Bellatrix Lestrange said evilly
"Reducto!" Lupin yelled, blasting one of the unsuspecting Death Eaters from behind. He flew 5 feet and landed with a thud.
The remaining three turned around, and Hermione stunned one of them, while Harry had vengeance in his mind.
"Sectumsempra!" Bellatrix dropped like a brick screaming as blood drew from her new wounds. She was apparated away by the remaining Death Eater by the time Harry and Lupin had gotten to Hermione.
More aurors arrived on the scene, and because of Harry's stag Patronus, that didn't seem to want to give up, the dementors fled, and the Death Eaters took that as a sign to escape as fast as possible. The adrenaline started to simmer in his veins, and the exhaustion started to make its way into Harry's limbs as he fell to his knees.
St. Mungo's healers arrived on scene soon thereafter. Checking Harry over quickly, set chocolate in Harry's hand, which he absent mindedly nibbled on watching as the frantic healers rush everywhere they could to attend to the wounded. The healer told him to wait while she fetched Hermione and Harry a potion. Lupin had gone to help Tonks, after bringing Junior to their side, in whatever way he could. There wasn't much he could do, being a werewolf, and not an auror, but that didn't stop him from trying.
The once lively atmosphere of Diagon Alley was now eerie and sullen. If anyone could help it, the inhabitants had boarded up their doors and stayed inside just waiting for more trouble to occur. Feeling somewhat restless, even though he was exhausted, Harry did not want to wait for the healer, so he illegally apparated Hermione, Junior and himself near #12 Grimmauld Place. Hermione looked a little pale, knowing what Harry had just done, but Harry paid no attention and just headed for the front door.
Harry walked through the entrance hall and fell into a chair in the kitchen. Hermione quickly looked through the cupboards, and finding what she was looking for, gave Harry the Pepper-Up Potion she had found. Harry smiled gratefully but thrust it back into her hands nudging them to her lips. She took a sip and gave it back to him, where he then gave the rest to Junior.
"Drink up." Harry commanded
Junior complied and felt quite a ways better than he had before.
"Pepper Up Potion, Junior. It helps quite a bit after an ordeal like that."
"Aren't you having any?" Hermione asked concerned
Harry waved her off, and escorted Junior back to the orphanage. A little earlier than expected, which would probably earn him some points in the eyes of Mrs. Rawley.
"Those were the same ones who attacked my parents." Junior whispered - it was more of a statement than a question.
"Yes and no. The one they follow has many who agree to do his every beck and call. It's possible the ones that attacked you were there this afternoon, but not very probable." Harry replied
As they approached the gates of the orphanage, Harry silently put his hand on the shoulder of the young boy.
"I won't let anything happen to you. We may vary in our age, but I would love for us to be friends. You wouldn't start Hogwarts for another year, but if I can convince, the headmistress, would you like to go? You wouldn't take classes, but I could tutor you as best I could."
Surprisingly the boy flung his arms around Harry's neck and hugged him.
With a whisper of, `I'll be back.' Harry parted ways and went back to Grimmauld Place where he collapsed on the couch in the living room.
A/N: Ok so there's that chapter. Now everyone remember an H/Hr story just isn't the same without a little bit of angst, so just bear with me for a few chapters and everyone will be happy. Speaking of which, I've only got one more chapter after this then I have to start doing weekly updates or something like that. Maybe more frequent. Anyways, hope you enjoyed the chapter and please r&r
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