An: Sorry for the extremely long wait. I hope you enjoy this chapter. I apologize for any spelling and grammar errors. I don't have a beta for this story.
Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter.
Chapter 3
Hermione stood in front of the lake at Hogwarts. She was dressed in her old school robes and she realised that she didn't have her sweater as she was quite cold. A thick layer of snow covered the ground and the branches of nearby trees. Hogwarts didn't appear to be in session and the lake had a very lonely feel to it. As she walked around the lake she realised that it was completely desolate and she was beginning to feel very uncomfortable.
Hermione felt a hand on her shoulder and she spun around instantly to come face to face with a woman in her late thirties.
"My children," The woman said softly.
"Wwwhhat?" Hermione stammered partly from the cold and partly from the sudden appearance of the women.
"My children," The woman repeated.
Hermione felt something hit her in the back followed by a distant sound of distress. She spun around but there was no one there. The sound persisted though and Hermione thought the voice was rather familiar. She turned back to the woman but the sound was not coming from her.
"Go. He needs you." The woman said.
Hermione was confused. The woman was slim with long blonde hair and beautiful blue eyes. She was dressed completely in black and seemed to wear a sorrowful expression. Hermione thought she looked vaguely familiar but she couldn't place where she had seen her before. Who were her children and who needed her? Furthermore, who was this woman and how did she get to Hogwarts?
"Go. I will return later." She said as she faded away.
Hermione realised that the scene before her was slowly fading away and the voice became voice more distinct. It sounded vaguely like Harry's and she realised that there was a weight across her midsection and a foot entangled with hers. The temperature had increased and she now felt comfortably warm. Hermione opened her eyes and the sunlight in her room caused her to shut her eyes immediately. A very painful headache started to take effect and Hermione groaned.
She felt movement next to her and she opened one eye long enough to find her wand and summon a bottle of hangover potion. As soon as she got it she gulped it down. She lay still for a minute waiting for the potion to take effect before she tried to open her eyes. This time when she opened her eyes there was no blinding pain associated with it. She was in her room and the weight across her midsection was from an arm belonging to one Harry Potter. Fortunately, the foot also belonged to him.
Harry's face was contorted in pain and tears were leaking out of his eyes. He had a steady grip on her and she found it difficult to turn around to face him. Hermione struggled a bit but she managed to get both hands up and she gently held both sides of his face. She gently called his name and slide one of her hands gently through his hair. She whispered soothing things to Harry and eventually his eyes slowly opened. Hermione greeted him with a soft smile. She could see his eyes trying to adjust to her image and she gently summoned his glasses for him. She placed the glasses securely on his face and watched as his eyes adjusted.
"Bad Dreams?" Hermione asked softly.
"The usual," Harry answered gruffly. He didn't like talking about his dreams. He didn't like telling anyone that his worse fear was Hermione dying and that it plagued him at night. If Harry went to sleep upset he usually had horrific dreams of Voldemort torturing Hermione.
"Harry?" Hermione said in a hurt tone. She hated that he never talked to her about his nightmares.
"Hermione we've had this conversation before." Harry reminded her softly as he reluctantly removed his arm from around her slim waist. If had felt so good to hold her.
"Harry you need to talk about it. This is the third time this week you've had a nightmare." Hermione said as she slowly stretched out next to Harry. Hermione felt Harry tense slightly and she looked up at him.
"What's wrong?" She asked.
"Nothing," Harry managed to squeak out. Hermione's thigh had brushed a very sensitive area of his body and this area quite enjoyed the contact. Harry tried to control his reaction but found it quite impossible with Hermione so close to him. He decided to leave before he seriously embarrassed himself.
"Hermione, I'll see you later." Harry said as her turned his back to her and exited faster than Hermione could register that Harry was leaving.
Hermione blinked a few times. He was gone. She could still smell his cologne that he had wore to go on his date. Hermione frowned at the thought of his date. She didn't want to think about that. She turned her thoughts to the night before. She had drunk a little bit too much but she was having fun and lost track. It had been so long since she had last seen Adam. Harry had been angry at her when she got home though. He had stayed up to make sure she arrived home but friends always worry about each other. Hermione glanced at the clock. It was 10:30am. She decided to get up and have a shower.
In half an hour Hermione was downstairs and despite the late time she knew she would be the first person to the kitchen or so she thought. As Hermione opened the door she was greeted with the sight of two small children sitting around the kitchen table. Hermione paused and the children looked at her.
"Hello" said a young girl.
"Hello" Hermione said carefully as she looked cautiously around.
"I'm Sam, short for Samantha," the little girl said "That's my brother Nicholas and baby sister, Alex."
Hermione then noticed that the little boy was holding a sleeping baby in his arms.
"How did you get here?" Hermione asked
"A tall man with red hair let us in. He was outside when we came to the gate." Nicholas said.
Ron had let the children in but why didn't he stay with them.
"Where is the tall red head man?"
"He went to sleep." Sam said
"How did you get to the gate?" Hermione asked.
"Our mother brought us." Sam said
"Where is your mother?" Hermione asked
"She left with the rat." Nicholas said
"Left with the rat?" Hermione questioned as she started to get a sinking feeling in her gut.
"Yes the rat turned into a man and he took her. She left us to reach here by ourselves." Nicholas continued.
Hermione immediately realised that they were talking about Wormtail. Wormtail had been just down the street and they had been completely oblivious to that fact. Kingsley needed to be notified immediately. Pettigrew was number one of the list of wizards to be apprehended.
"Why was she coming here?" Hermione asked as she decided to take a seat opposite the children.
"She had something important to tell you." Sam said as he looked at Hermione.
"Do you know where they went?" Hermione pressed.
"No." both children replied at the same time.
"Where is your father?
The children shrugged.
"Do you have anywhere to go?" Hermione asked.
"No." Nicholas said.
"Oh"
Hermione thought back to her dream "My children." This must have been what she was referring to. Hermione asked the children for a description of their mother and it matched the women by the lake perfectly. On further questioning, the children revealed that their mother was Serena Clearmind.
Hermione instantly remembered the name from the research that she had done on Seers. Lavender and Parvarti had gushed that she was the greatest seer of their time. Interestingly, she was a distant cousin of Professor Trewlany. She was reclusive though and had little to do with the wizarding world. Lavender had showed her a picture of Serena when she was younger and that was why the woman in her dreams looked vaguely familiar. It was Serena who had visited her but the question was why?
"I'm hungry" Sam said innocently breaking Hermione from her thoughts.
"What would you like to eat?" Hermione asked as she opened the fridge and realised that it was still empty.
"Honey." The little girl said
Hermione pursed her lips. She was going to have to go shopping but she couldn't leave the children unattended like Ron did. She would have to speak to Ron about inviting guests in and leaving them unattended. Hermione only hoped that this wasn't another rude habit of Ron's.
"Wait here a minute please." Hermione said as she exited the kitchen and went upstairs.
She knocked softly on Harry's door. He answered the door with a towel wrapped round his waist and beads of water dripping down his firm chest. Hermione stared in admiration before Harry asked her what she needed.
"We have a problem," Hermione blurted out.
Harry indeed thought they had a problem. He had had a very cold shower to control himself and Hermione reappearing so soon was defeating the purpose of the shower especially when she stared at him like that.
Hermione waited for Harry to respond and when he didn't she offered more information. "Wormtail is in town and I have to go to the grocery for food."
Harry tensed at the mention of Pettigrew but he couldn't understand how their grocery problem could be put in the same sentence as Wormtail.
"Get dressed and meet me in the kitchen. I'll explain." Hermione said as she saw the confused look on his face.
Harry dutifully obeyed and was in the kitchen five minutes later. He found Hermione seated at the kitchen table with a baby in her hands and two small children seated next to her. Harry scratched his head, Hermione wasn't pregnant and he knew babies took nine months to come out so he wondered where the children came from.
"Harry, I would like you to meet Nicholas, Samantha and Alexandra." Hermione said introducing a puzzled Harry to the three kids.
"This" Hermione said indicating to Harry "is Harry Potter, famous Gryffindor Seeker"
"Hi" Harry said shyly. He couldn't fathom why there were three small children in his kitchen. "How did they get here?"
"Apparently, Ron let them in." Hermione told him.
"Why?" Harry asked dumbfounded.
"Don't know, ask Ron whenever he gets up" Hermione declared.
"Ok, where are their parents." Harry asked after some thought.
"Their mother was abducted by Wormtail, a few feet from our house and they have no clue about their father." Hermione replied.
Harry clenched his fists at the mention of Wormtail. Hermione began to explain everything the children told her but she neglected to mention the dream. She didn't need Harry worrying about her.
Hermione explained to the children that she would be going shopping for breakfast and that Harry would look after them while she was gone. The kids nodded and Hermione got up and handed the baby to Harry.
"Hold her like this Harry and be careful of her head." She explained to Harry carefully.
"Uhh, Hermione I don't exactly know how to take care of 3 kids." Harry pointed out to her. His own childhood hadn't been too good and he wasn't sure if he would be very good with raising children. How would he know what to do? Hermione always pointed out that he knew what not to do. She kissed him softly on his cheek before she went on her quest for groceries.
Harry was stuck in the kitchen with three kids. Despite his insecurities about being a father he had always wanted kids but he hadn't anticipated them appearing out of nowhere.
"So what would you like to do?" Harry asked as he slowly rocked the baby in his arms.
"Can you really play Quidditch?" Nicholas asked.
"Yes" Harry replied proudly.
"Can you teach us to fly?" Sam asked
"Yes, do you have brooms?" Harry inquired.
The children's faces fell. They didn't need to answer for Harry to know what that meant.
"Don't worry we can borrow Hermione's and Luna's." Harry said happily.
"Yes" Nicholas said jumping into the air and Harry felt oddly happy to see the boy so excited about Quidditch. He wondered what it would be like when he had a son.
"What about Alex?" Sam asked looking at her baby sister in Harry's arms.
Harry looked at the baby. He had no clue what to do. He would need to wake up Ginny or Luna but he didn't want to leave the children unattended. He summoned his patronous and sent it to wake up both girls. Sam marvelled at the patronous and Nicholas inquired as to what it was. Shortly afterward, a fuming Ginny entered the room.
"Harry don't you ever wake me up with that damn horse of yours again!" Ginny screamed.
"Ah Ginny," Harry said pointing to the children.
"Oh hello," Ginny said kindly.
"Hi" Nicholas and Sam replied back.
Ginny sent Harry a curious look.
"Before I answer, there's one thing we need to get straight, it's a STAG not a horse!" Harry stated firmly.
Ginny rolled her eyes. "Whatever floats your boat!"
"You have got to stop spending time with Hermione in muggle London." Harry said.
"So why are they here?" Ginny said as she headed to the fridge.
"There's nothing in there. His wife went to get us some food." Sam said.
"Wife?" Ginny said arching her eyebrow.
Harry gave her a confused look. "I think she's referring to Hermione." He told Ginny. "Hermione's not my wife." He told Sam.
"Not yet." Sam replied happily.
Harry gave the little girl a curious look when Luna strolled in.
"Harry, you Patroned us?" Luna said
"Patroned?" Harry repeated
"Don't ask." Ginny said. "Just get to the point."
Harry explained the presence of the children and that he volunteered to take them flying but he needed one of them to watch Alex. Luna agreed to watch the child while Ginny volunteered to help with the flying lessons.
Hermione returned to an empty kitchen and busied herself with putting away the mountain of bags. Shopping for a house of six adults was difficult enough but shopping for three kids was terrible. Hermione figured they needed clothes, toys, baby food as well as books. She had to admit she might have overdone it a bit on the book part. She assumed Harry was out in the garden playing with the children and she set about making breakfast.
After she finished making some sandwiches for Sam and Nicholas, Draco strolled in with a witch that Hermione wasn't familiar with.
"Smells good," Draco said as he tried to stick his hand into the bowl that contained the bacon that she cooked for Harry.
Hermione immediately slapped his hand away.
"I presume we have a guest for breakfast?" Hermione said a bit tersely as she placed bacon into the frying pan.
"Oh right, Hermione meet Tara, Tara meet Hermione" Draco said with a yawn.
Both girls stared at each other as Draco helped himself to some grape juice that Hermione had bought for him. Buying juice was difficult. Harry like pumpkin Juice, Ron liked orange juice and Draco like grape juice. She couldn't buy one without buying the other two or they would accuse her of favouring Harry over them. She did have a tendency to buy more pumpkin juice.
"I think we have another witch for breakfast." Tara said as she slung her arms around his waist.
"Another witch," Hermione spluttered as she stared at Draco.
"I wish." Draco said knowing what Hermione was thinking.
"Carol came home with Ron. They should be getting up around now as well." Tara said primly.
"Oh" Hermione said as she started gathering extra ingredients for breakfast.
"Oh no bacon, ham, sausage, eggs, bread, onions, garlic, mushrooms, green peppers, or butter for breakfast." Tara said.
Hermione levelled an annoyed gaze at her and said sweetly "I'm sorry but that's all that's available, perhaps if you tried another bed and breakfast!"
Tara's mouth hung open as if she were catching flies and Hermione smiled pleasantly before returning to making breakfast. Hermione's comment had caught Draco by surprise and he ended up spraying Tara with Grape juice.
"There's a bathroom down the hall to the right." Hermione informed her.
"Thanks but I think I'll use Draco's!" Tara fired back at Hermione before leaving the room.
"You didn't have to be so rude to her!" Draco sneered.
"She didn't have to list everything that I brought for breakfast." Hermione replied annoyed.
"She's on a special diet" Draco explained.
"Then go home and eat. I'm not going to go through the extra effort to prepare YOUR girlfriend a special breakfast." Hermione stated grumpily.
"You'd do it for Harry." Draco pointed out.
Hermione remembered last night's argument with Ginny and replied "Well that was then, this is now. I refuse to bend over backwards for any of you. Besides I thought you liked a girl with a hearty appetite." Hermione said subtly referring to Ginny. She wasn't stupid. She didn't miss the flirting that went on between the two.
"Sounds like someone woke up in a bad mood." Ron said as he traipsed into the kitchen with Carol right behind him.
"Speaking of waking up, I woke up to discover three children in the kitchen who claim you let them in, any memory of that?" Hermione said as she waved her spatula in the air.
"Ahhh, Hermione" Ron said as she scratched the back of his neck.
"Spit it out Ron." Hermione said angrily.
"You're burning the bacon." Ron said plainly.
After a few choice words, Hermione removed the thoroughly burnt b from the frying pan and placed it on a plate.
"You can't expect us to eat that?" Draco stated. He personally thought it should have gone from the frying pan to the garbage bin.
"You can't expect me to just waste it, do you?" Hermione replied
"You should have thought of that before you burnt it." Draco said smugly.
Hermione was about to throw the frying pan at Draco when Luna calmly strolled in with Alex in her arms.
"Oh eggs!" Luna said as she picked at the burnt bacon.
Hermione threw a smug grin at Draco.
"Oh another guest." Luna stated as she seem to notice Carol's presence for the first time.
"Hi, I'm Carol, Ron's new girlfriend." She said as she extended her hand to Luna.
Luna wrinkled her brow and looked the girl up and down before shaking Carol's hand with her grease covered hand. Carol immediately looked thoroughly disgusted and Hermione could swear she saw a look of satisfaction pass Luna's face briefly before she went back to looking dreamy.
Harry, Ginny and the kids arrived in the kitchen. "You didn't burn the bacon again?" Harry asked with a cocky grin.
Hermione glared at Harry.
"Bacon" Sam and Nick said as they ran to the burnt plate and helped themselves.
Hermione threw another triumphant look at Draco.
Tara chose that moment to wonder back into the very crowded kitchen and Harry couldn't help but say good morning to the girls drawing Ginny's attention to the two extra people. Ginny narrowed her eyes as Tara clung on to Draco.
"Draco this is not a bed and breakfast!" Ginny commented grumpily. Again, Draco had chosen to take a sip of his juice at that point and again, the juice landed all over Tara.
"I think its best I leave." Tara said as she looked down at her outfit yet again covered in grape juice..
"Tara, wait, baby, honey." Draco started saying as he went behind her.
"I'm obviously not welcomed here. Goodbye Draco." Tara said as she marched out of the kitchen towards the front door. Draco followed after her like a lost puppy.
"That was mean." Ron said.
"What, was it something I said." Ginny commented with a perfectly innocent look.
"Actually, I told her the same thing earlier." Hermione said with a small smile tugging at her lips.
"She just left and you are already talking about her!" Carol said jumping in to defend her friend.
"I think its best you leave too. We have some things to discuss." Luna said as she shifted Alex from her left hip to her right.
"Any guest of mine is welcomed" Ron said defiantly.
"Yes Ron, but we have important things to discuss." Hermione reiterated. After Ron still appeared not to get the hint Hermione elaborated. "Auror things," She said indicated to the two kids who were still eating the burnt bacon. Ron look absolutely mystified as to who those kids were. Hermione slapped her forehead. Luna moved over to Hermione and handed her Alex.
"Here let me show you out." Luna said calmly to Carol.
"I don't know what's going on but I can escort her out myself." Ron said as he linked his fingers though Carol's and exited.
"Is it me or did Ron not remember those children?" Ginny asked as soon as her brother left the room.
"You know how he gets when he's drunk." Harry said in defence of his best friend.
"That's no excuse." Luna said.
"At least we knew where Ron was. That's more than I can say for someone else who came home drunk last night!" Harry said angrily as he stared at Hermione.
"Draco was drunk as well?" Ginny asked slightly confused. She had gone to sleep right after dinner last night.
"He's referring to me and I'm a big girl Harry. I can take care of myself." Hermione informed him.
"You came home drunk last night?" Ginny asked astonished.
"She couldn't even get up the stairs properly." Harry said in disgust.
"I would have you know Harry James Potter that I would have gotten upstairs just fine without you." Hermione stated defiantly as she stepped closer to him.
Before Harry and Hermione could continue the piercing cry of a baby interrupted them. Luna cradled the child but she wouldn't stop crying.
"She's probably hungry." Hermione stated as she went for the baby formula she had bought and fixed up a bottle for the baby.
Hermione took the crying child from Luna, sat on the kitchen chair and started to feed the baby. Alex immediately started on her bottle and silence prevailed again.
"Nicholas, I guessed your sister is about nine months old is that correct?" Hermione asked.
Nicholas scratched his head and started counting on his fingers. "September is after August right?"
Hermione nodded and he continued to count up on his fingers till nine fingers were in the air.
"Yes nine months." He said proudly.
"How old are you?" Hermione asked him.
"Seven," He boasted.
"And Sam" Harry asked curiously.
"Five," the little girl said holding up five of her small little fingers.
The adults smiled at her.
An angry Draco barrelled into the room. "Gryf there was no need to be rude to Tara. I've never been rude to your boy toys." Draco shouted at Ginny. He had taken to calling her Gryf some time ago and nick name seemed to have stuck.
"Boy toys?" Ginny said through gritted teeth.
"I don't know what else to call all those men you've been through." Draco retorted.
"Don't make me sound like some type of scarlet woman!" Ginny screamed back at him.
"Draco, leave my sister alone." Ron warned.
Alex started crying again and Hermione frowned at them. Hermione calmed Alex down and she went back to her bottle. Ginny and Draco were still staring angrily at each other.
"I believe we are supposed to be having a meeting." Luna said as she started serving breakfast on the table. She had taken over from Hermione and finished preparing the breakfast that Hermione had attempted to make. Luna conjured two extra chairs and invited everyone to sit around the table.
"O wtz o iptat?" Ron asked as he dug into the omelette that Luna cooked for him.
Hermione shook her head. "Chew, swallow, then speak. If a seven year old boy can do it, so can you."
Ron glared at Hermione.
"We need to find Wormtail." Harry said seriously as he cut at the sausage on his plate.
"I thought we were discussing something new?" Draco said sarcastically before he helped himself to a blueberry muffin.
Harry glowered at him.
"First we need to find a safe place for the children to stay. Their mother was abducted by Petigrew just down the street and we need to determine what he's up to." Hermione said. Alex had finished with her bottle and Hermione was in the process of burping her.
"What's so special about their mother?" Ginny asked as she picked at the grapes on her plate.
"She's a seer, a very accurate seer." Hermione explained.
"What would he need a seer for?"Luna asked dumbfounded.
"I don't know but we need to notify Kingsley immediately. The Red team should assemble right away. Wormtail was 100 metres away and we missed him. I told you we should have put up an alert ward for magical entities within 100 meters." Harry said.
"And I told you Harry that it would go off constantly and we would eventually ignore it which is why the ward only covers our property." Hermione reminded Harry.
Harry stood abruptly, "I'm flooing Remus. I suggest you get ready Ginny."
Luna stood garnering some strange stares.
"Peter Petigrew isn't capable of making such a bold move on his own. He had help and you'll need the yellow team to go undercover." Luna said logically.
Ron shifted uncomfortably in his seat. "Be careful," he said softly.
"I always am." Luna said as she bent down and kissed Ron softly on his cheek before leaving with Ginny.
As she walked out the door Draco asked where was his kiss and Luna showed him her little finger. According to Luna, the little finger was more of an insult than the middle finger. Draco smiled and looked pointedly at Ron who blushed bright red.
"I better get going. If Petigrew is involved I'm sure there's black magic somewhere." Draco said before he too left the kitchen.
Ron stood abruptly to leave as well. "Where are you going?" Hermione asked.
"You can't expect me to sit around here while they're out there?" Ron replied.
"I'm pretty sure they would need me to do research and someone needs to stay with the children." Hermione explained to Ron.
Ron glanced at the children and knew he immediately that he did not want to get stuck babysitting. He had an idea. "How about this, you stay here, do the research and I'll see Kingsley about a place for the little sprouts."
Hermione glared at Ron, "Sprouts."
"Good settled." Ron said as he disappeared through the kitchen door.
Hermione looked at the blank space where Ron had once stood. How did she get stuck babysitting? She felt a small tug on her arm and turned to face Sam.
"Can I wash my hands? I can't reach the sink." The little girl said.
Hermione was holding a sleeping Alex in her hands so she levitated both Sam and Nicholas over to the sink. The dirty dishes that Hermione got stuck with cleaning soon followed the small children.
"So what did you do with Harry?" Hermione asked looking for ideas to keep them entertained while she went through the Potter library. Lilly had accumulated quite a number of books.
The children's faces both lighted up, "We went flying!"
Hermione Granger's voice could be heard echoing through the house as she screamed for Harry.
A small smile crossed Harry's features before he apparated to Grimauld place to meet Remus.
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