Disclaimer: JKR owns all things HP; I only borrow.
Author's Note: This fic is an experiment of sorts, which I wrote after reading several historical biographies. My attempt at writing a biography of Harry Potter.
Only One Love
An excerpt from The Life of the Boy Who Lived, by Kathryn Delancey, published in 2307, for the 200th anniversary of Harry Potter's death.
~*~
With the Second Voldemort War over, the wizarding world entered into what is now known as the Reconstruction period, where the world rebuilt what had been destroyed and wizarding society entered into a period of as much lighthearted entertainment as could be fit into each day.
Harry Potter, at just short of his eighteenth birthday, was the undisputed Most Eligible Bachelor of the wizarding world, a title bestowed on him repeatedly by Witch Weekly until the year he married, along with the Most Charming Smile award for many years after that.
With all this, it would not have been surprising if Harry had set out on the path of becoming quite a playboy but he did not.
It is the rather unfortunate fact (from the point of view of a biographer) that Harry Potter's personal life was quite boring when compared to the excitement and adventures of the heroism for which he was justly famous.
He had had, as told earlier, brief, adolescent relationships with, first, Cho Chang, and then with Ginny Weasley, but after his relationship with Ginny ended, it was more than a year before any girl's name was paired with his. The last year of the War left him with little time or energy to think about personal matters and so it wasn't until the Reconstruction period that he entered into his first adult relationship.
He had a brief affaire du coeur with the beautiful Marguerite d'Estillac, notable more for the attention the media gave it than for its depth or longevity. They appeared together at all the public events Harry attended for the months of their relationship, were seen holding hands and, on one occasion at least, Marguerite kissed Harry publicly. (Characteristically, for Harry, his reaction was to move backwards and put her from him, gently but firmly, although he softened the rejection with a smile and a kiss on her hand.)
The media, at least, was beside itself with excitement over this, Harry's first mature romance, and was even more thrilled that the couple was such a photogenic one. With Harry's black hair and Marguerite's blonde, the two made a striking couple so it is hardly surprising that the media was enthusiastic in its reporting of the two. (It was also exciting that Marguerite had been among the Beauxbatons students who came to Hogwarts for the Tri-wizard Tournament in Harry's fourth year, the youngest student who came, although there is no mention that Harry ever noticed her existence then.)
However, this relationship lasted no more than six months and shortly afterwards, Marguerite d'Estillac returned to France after an amicable parting with Harry.
How much Harry cared about Marguerite at the time is debatable, given his taciturnity about his personal life, but we know now that whatever affection and attraction he may have felt for her, it was certainly nothing deeper than that.
It was more than six months before Harry got involved with another witch, this time the equally lovely Valeria Sterling, who was a year behind Harry at Hogwarts and was noted for being the prettiest girl of her year in Ravenclaw. His relationship with Valeria was of even less longevity than that with Marguerite and it is doubtful that it was any deeper.
His relationship with Valeria mainly serves to highlight one thing that is now quite obvious to us with the benefit of hindsight, that Harry, for one, was never in the least threatened by the intelligence of a woman. (Marguerite d'Estillac had also been one of the brightest witches of her year at Beauxbatons.)
Both these relationships, brief as they are, are useful primarily in that they show several characteristics of Harry that were to become almost legendary. First is his determination to keep his private life private-at which he was remarkably successful, in spite of all the media's attempts to pry. (This is unfortunate from the point of view of the biographer but natural and even praise-worthy in him at the time.) Second is his kindness, in general, to women. It is noteworthy that both Marguerite and Valeria parted from Harry on friendly terms and, indeed, both were guests at his wedding. In spite of his dislike of public displays of affection, Harry's behavior to all of the witches he ever escorted to public events, indeed his behavior towards all women in general, was always perfectly courteous. He was, as one witch termed it, "the perfect gentleman-too much so, in some ways." Thirdly, as mentioned before, is that Harry was more comfortable with women of intelligence than not. None of the witches Harry was ever associated with were ever criticized for being silly or vapid.
Lastly, and most importantly and most famously, is the undeniable fact that Harry Potter, as he himself put it, knew only one true love in his life: his best friend and future wife, Hermione Jane Granger.
In most biographies, it would be natural and traditional at this point to tell the personal history of the other half of the couple, where they first met, any recorded first impressions, and the development of their relationship among other things.
For Harry and Hermione, that's hardly possible or necessary.
No story from Harry Potter's long life, from the time he turned eleven, is at all complete without the mention of Hermione. She-and Ron Weasley, to a somewhat lesser extent-are the two constants in Harry's life from his first year at Hogwarts to the day he died.
And because of Harry's reticence about his personal life, we do not know any details about his relationship with Hermione.
Aside from the scurrilous article written by Rita Skeeter during their fourth year, Hermione was never mentioned together with Harry in a romantic fashion. They were very old, very close, very platonic best friends and nothing more.
Hermione had her brief relationship with Ron-a relationship so brief as to hardly merit mention except for the fact that it put some strain on the friendship between the Trio for more than a month after the relationship ended.
After Ron, Hermione's name was coupled even more briefly with that of Terry Boot, a Ravenclaw classmate of theirs, but that relationship ended (to both Harry's and Ron's poorly-concealed relief) after just over two months.
During the next year and half, Hermione was almost conspicuously single. She went on a series of first dates, as we know from brief mentions in Witch Weekly, but none of those dates lasted much beyond the first date.
Other than that, Hermione was apparently perfectly content and kept busy with her research and training at St. Mungo's and her friendship with Harry, Ron, Ginny, Luna Lovegood and a very few others.
We do not know when exactly Harry and Hermione's relationship first changed from being purely platonic to becoming romantic. We do not know when Harry's feelings for Hermione deepened from friendship and affection into love. We do not know when Hermione's feelings for Harry changed.
We can only estimate, from the best of our knowledge, (a loose estimate, at best, separated as we are from the distance of 200 years), that it was sometime around Harry's 20th birthday, in the summer of 2000 that their relationship changed.
One can only wonder, now, whether the celebration of Harry's birthday somehow turned into a more private celebration for the two old friends-or whether it happened in some other way, at some otherwise-normal time, as an accident (a fortunate accident, at least) or a mutual recognition of feeling.
What we do know for certain is that by the time Hermione's 21st birthday happened, on 19 September 2000, Harry and Hermione were a couple. They made a tacit acknowledgement of their new relationship by having a formal, intimate dinner for two at the Avalon, the finest and most exclusive restaurant in London at the time, on the night of her birthday.
Hermione looked lovely in a gown of deep purple and it is not hard to imagine the young Harry staring admiringly at Hermione throughout that evening. Indeed, in the photos taken from that evening, in all of them, Harry is quite obviously keeping his eyes on her. His smile is a clear mixture of some pride and some passion and a lot of love. (It was an expression that would become very familiar to everyone who was at all interested in the relationship over the years.)
Harry and Hermione had their intimate dinner for two, reportedly holding hands through most of it. We may imagine the comfort of their quiet conversation with all the ease of their long years of friendship and the new, added element of romance and passion.
Harry was, for the first, last and only time in his life, passionately, deeply, in love.
It was a love that would become legendary in their own time, adding its own luster to Harry's already brilliant reputation and the fame of Hermione, which was nearly as great as his. And so began what would become the most famous marriage in the history of wizarding Britain and one of the greatest love stories ever known.
In light of all this, it is particularly interesting to note that the predominant reaction of contemporaries to the news that Harry and Hermione were a couple was surprise, if not downright shock. It had been considered that their relationship was something like that between siblings, that they were too close as friends for it to become more, especially with the example of Hermione's ill-fated romance with Ron.
The only person who expressed no surprise, and indeed was unequivocally happy about the new development in Harry and Hermione's relationship was the person whose opinion, arguably, had the most weight: Ron Weasley. Ron's only public statement about his two best friends getting involved was to shrug with characteristic casualness and say, "It's about time it finally happened and I couldn't be happier for them."
More interestingly and providing more insight into the relationship, is what Valeria said when she was asked about it. "Surprised? Yes, a little bit but not really. There was always some part of Harry that he never let me near, always some part of him held back. The most important part of him, the center of his life and his interest, was always reserved for Hermione and, in its own way, for Ron; whatever was left over, the periphery, if you will, of himself, was what he gave to me and to everyone else, really. It was something I learned very early on and I imagine everyone else has had to learn it too; that if you're going to stay at all close to Harry, friends with Harry, you have to accept that Hermione comes first. If you don't, if you try to fight that fact, then you'll lose. It was as simple as that, really. My surprise is because their relationship, close as it was, was so completely platonic, I think it would have been hard to change that. But I can honestly say that I'm very happy for Harry and Hermione."
It is easy for us to say, with the benefit of hindsight, that it is clear that Harry and Hermione were meant for each other, that theirs was truly a love for the ages. But in the interest of truth, not many of their contemporaries expected that would happen.
There were several of the more mean-spirited and scandal-minded publications of the time, who ran editorials speculating how long Harry would stay faithful to Hermione. There were stories printing rumors that Harry was sleeping with this witch or that. Those stories were given little credence as they were published by the less-reputable magazines of the wizarding world and were never substantiated with any evidence.
But one such scandalous story was not quite so easily forgotten.
This story was published a few years after they got married and it reported that Hermione had been seen in a close embrace with an unknown man and was certainly having an affair. This story caused rather more of a stir than it might otherwise have because it sent most of the wizarding world into an uproar of righteous indignation at the idea of Hermione cheating on Harry, after all that he'd already gone through. In response to the article, she received several Howlers and certain other packages filled with such unpleasant substances as Bubotuber pus (an interesting, if pitiable, instance of history repeating itself as Hermione had endured the same treatment after the scurrilous article written by Rita Skeeter in their 4th year.) It was, indeed, Harry Potter's Secret Heartache all over again-only not-so-secret and made much worse because Hermione was his wife now and he was so clearly devoted to her.
The story would not be worthy of so much mention except that it prompted the one interview Harry ever gave which was solely regarding his personal life.
The interviewer was a little-known journalist at the time but who would become one of the best-known and most reputable journalists in the wizarding world as a result of her interview with Harry. She was hand-picked by the advice of Luna Lovegood, the editor of the Quibbler (who was, by now, married to Ron Weasley.) The interviewer's name was Diane Walters.
The interview was recorded and broadcast live over the wizarding television networks as well as on many wireless networks and was, predictably, very brief.
Harry was interviewed alone-at his insistence, as we later discovered, Hermione had insisted on appearing with him but had been over-ruled by Harry. He began by stating very simply that the story of Hermione's infidelity was absolutely false and the man whom Hermione had been seen embracing was, in fact, Hermione's father. (Hermione's father, it will be remembered, was a Muggle dentist, which accounted for why the paper who first printed the story had not been able to discover his identity as they never looked beyond the wizarding world-and had, probably, not tried very hard as the scandal would sell better than the truth).
And then came the pivotal point of the interview. In what was clearly a previously-composed speech (Harry was not known for his eloquence) but no less sincere for that, Harry said, gravely, "I am breaking my own rule of not speaking about my personal life for one reason and one reason only and that is Hermione. An attack on her is an attack on me and I will not sit by while it happens. Hermione is, without a doubt, the finest and the most honorable person I have ever had the pleasure to know, as well as the cleverest one. I trust her implicitly; I love her. She is and always has been the voice of my conscience." He paused for a moment before meeting Diane's eyes squarely and his voice as he finished was filled with so much certainty it would have cowed even the most determined detractor of Hermione. "I will always love her."
It is fortunate for us that one of the recording crew was a trifle over-zealous (or careless) and it is due to this that we have the one glimpse into the private relationship of Harry and Hermione. It was a scene and a moment which would be replayed many times, a scene over which girls swooned and older women smiled sentimentally.
Hermione had been waiting on the sidelines for Harry and was, naturally, the first person he turned to once the interview was over and he was no longer speaking to the whole of wizarding Britain (or so he thought).
Harry looked up at her to see that there were tears glistening in her eyes-unusually for her, as Hermione was known for not crying in public. (The only time she ever cried in public, as far as we know, was at the funeral of Albus Dumbledore at the end of their sixth year. Not even at Harry's funeral many years later, when she was so clearly devastated, did she shed tears in public.) He stood up, giving her a slight, self-deprecating smile and asked softly, "What- was I so terrible?"
Hermione shook her head slowly, a smile trembling on her lips. "When did you write that little speech you just gave?"
He shrugged. "A couple days ago. It wasn't nearly as painful as I thought it would be either."
"You didn't tell me."
"Can't a man have a few secrets?"
"Did you mean it?"
Now, Harry sobered and we were given a rare glimpse at Harry Potter, the lover, the private man, the one whom only Hermione and a few very close friends got to see. "Every word."
Hermione smiled, slowly, brightly, the sort of smile that could have made a beauty out of the plainest face (which Hermione was not) and we saw what Harry probably always saw in her.
He lifted his hands to cup her face tenderly and then he kissed her, slowly, lingeringly, but with so much love and tenderness it was clearly visible to even the most cynical viewer.
The recording ended there but from all accounts, Harry was the more confused and uncomfortable when they realized their private moment had not been so private after all. Hermione, in spite of her vivid blush, recovered herself quicker and managed to joke, as the story has it, "We're pretty good for impromptu performers, aren't we?"
It was the most the public would ever see of the private life of Harry Potter and the most he would ever say about Hermione and his relationship with her.
Every biographer would wish that he had not been quite so reticent about his feelings and quite so determined to preserve his privacy. But he was and so we are left with that one inadvertent glimpse we were given (that took place in March of 2005) and the simple facts.
Harry married Hermione on 8 June 2001 in a ceremony that was remarkably small and simple, in defiance of the pomp and ceremony which was expected due to their fame and status in the wizarding world. The guests numbered just over fifty people, mostly close friends and family with only a few more distinguished guests who were invited purely to avoid giving offense, such as the current Minister of Magic, Alistair Morrow.
Ron Weasley was the best man, as was expected, but in a move that rather surprised most of the guests, he also helped give Hermione away. Hermione, a radiantly beautiful bride by all accounts, was escorted down the aisle and given away by her father and her best friend of so many years.
Harry and Hermione wrote their own vows, which provide another glimpse into their relationship.
Harry was visibly moved and his voice shook at several points while speaking the words. "All my life, I've known only one love. You've been beside me, helping me, from the beginning and we've faced everything together-and we always will. I promise to love you, to protect you, to be faithful to you, to be your friend and your partner for the rest of our lives. I love you."
Hermione's voice was soft and clear and she spoke her vows looking unwaveringly into his eyes. "You've been my best friend and the most important person in my life for so many years now and I know you are the love of my life. I will love you, help you, take care of you, and laugh with you for the rest of our lives. And whatever happens, I promise to face it with you, together."
And so they were married and, as we now know, they both kept the promises they had made on their wedding day, with admirable constancy.
Harry's personal life was settled and it might seem that he was destined to live out the rest of his days happily with the wife he loved.
But, as we know, fate was not finished with Harry yet and all too soon, he would be called on, once again, to show the courage for which he was famous.
~The End (of this fic, but not of the fictional biography this is from, or of Harry and Hermione's lives together…)