Harry Potter belongs to J.K. Rowling, not me.
It's for the Best
Chapter 10 - Meet the Parents
The ride to the house where Aunt Petunia and Dudley were staying was uneventful. Harry told Hermione the directions as they chatted about nothing in particular. He was nervous about being reintroduced to her parents as Hermione's boyfriend, and was glad that wasn't the first stop on their trip. He was broken out of his thoughts by Hermione voicing her own concerns.
"What do you think Petunia will think of me?"
"What?" he asked, looking at his girlfriend like she'd lost her mind. "Who cares what she thinks?"
"Well, you're nervous about seeing my parents. She's the closest thing you have…"
"Don't finish that statement," said Harry firmly. "She IS NOT my mother, and we most certainly do NOT need her approval!"
"But you said she's changed since…it happened."
He sighed. "Yes, she seems to have changed, and maybe we can be friends." He smiled. "She might even like you. But she blew her chance to be my mother long ago."
"Then why are you taking care of her?" she asked tilting her head slightly toward him while still keeping an eye on the road.
He blinked and was silent for about ten seconds before coming up with an answer. "Because she's still my mother's sister," he said firmly.
"If you say so," she answered. "Is that the house?"
Harry looked in front of them to see a familiar red brick, two story, four bedroom house with a garage in front of them. "Yes. Pull in the driveway."
Two minutes later, Harry was ringing the doorbell with Hermione standing next to him.
"What are you doing here?" sneered Dudley Dursley as he answered the door, "and who is she?" His eyes began roaming down Hermione's body, making her feel dirty.
"I'm here to talk to your mum, and this is the brightest witch at Hogwarts." She blushed at the compliment. "She knows a lot more creative curses than Hagrid, and I don't think she appreciates you checking her out."
Although his ears turned a little pink, Dudley pressed on. "How do you know? She might like a real man who…"
"Get your filthy eyes off of me or I'll remove them for you," said Hermione with her wand pointed at his now pale face. She then leisurely moved her wand down as she slowly and clearly spoke. "Or maybe I'll remove something else instead." Dudley retreated up the stairs to his room, leaving Harry and Hermione outside with the door opened. They walked inside.
"Dudders, who was that?" came a woman's voice from the kitchen.
"It's Harry. Dudley went upstairs."
"I'll be right there." A minute later, Petunia emerged, still wearing an apron over her yellow dress. "Hello, Harry. Have a seat." She looked at Hermione as both teenagers sat down on the couch. "and this is?"
"Oh, this is Hermione Granger, my girlfriend."
Harry's aunt looked confused. "What about that redhead you introduced me to at…Vernon's wake?"
Harry looked decidedly uncomfortable. "Er, well, that's…complicated. Ginny and I are still friends, just, er, not…Suffice it to say we're not together anymore and now I'm dating Hermione."
"Oh, well, I'm sorry to pry. It's none of my business, anyway." Petunia looked sad.
"Anyway," said Harry, "I have news. I don't know how else to say it. Number Four Privet Drive was burned to the ground last night by Death Eaters."
Petunia sat down on the recliner. "Really?"
"Yes," said Hermione. "The picture was on the front page of our newspaper. The Dark Mark was above the house." She handed her the Daily Prophet. "Dobby saw it when he got your mail and told us."
A few stray tears flowed down the middle-aged woman's cheeks as she glanced at the picture, but then she looked straight into her nephew's eyes. "Then you were right. Moving here saved our lives. Thank you."
"It's no problem," Harry said quickly, looking down at the carpet. "I'm just glad I didn't trust Dumbledore to protect you."
Taking a deep breath, Petunia got up. "Why don't you join us for lunch?"
"We'd love to," answered Hermione before Harry could refuse.
Dudley was silent throughout the meal as the other three chatted. Hermione mentioned that Petunia shouldn't give her insurance company this address in case Voldemort still wants to go after them. Harry gave her the address of a different house he owned, and decided to give that address to his bank as well. Petunia seemed very impressed with Hermione's knowledge on several topics they discussed during lunch. After having Dobby start getting mail from the other house every day, Harry and Hermione left, with Petunia specifically saying, "I'm glad to have met you, Hermione. I do hope we meet again."
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At the same time, Professor Dumbledore was in his office at Hogwarts examining one of his new instruments. He glanced up at his companion.
"Severus, it appears I was mistaken in my prediction. I had thought young Harry would've driven straight to wherever his aunt is now staying to tell her the news of her house, but his motorcycle is still at the Burrow."
"Perhaps the ungrateful, arrogant brat doesn't even care for his family."
"Or perhaps he has found another method to communicate with her. I had hoped to find Petunia Dursley's location so you could relay it to Tom. It would help your status as a Death Eater to lead him to Harry's remaining family, and would help my plan at the same time. If Mr. Potter has no family left, he's much more likely to completely sever his ties to the muggle world, which would tremendously help his popularity with the pureblood families who hold traditional values. Although it would still help if he were to marry a pureblood."
"Then you haven't given up your plans regarding the Weasley girl?"
"No. I can't use that particular girl anymore; it would be too obvious now. I'm lucky that Harry hasn't realized that I sent him treated candies to begin with. Of course, if he does, I'll simply say that I suspect the owl was intercepted during the trip. I'll be sure to express appropriate remorse over the thought that my gifts were used in such a fashion."
"So which girl will you use? I'll need a hair sample to mix the potion for him."
"I think it would be too dangerous to put the potion in Harry's food with the Granger girl nearby. She's too smart for her own good, and I may need to eliminate her for my plan to succeed. I will have to decide on the new pureblood girl and rethink my strategy before school begins."
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In his effort to delay the inevitable, Harry insisted on stopping by the bank before visiting the Grangers to change his address on record from the one Petunia was living at. That was handled very quickly by the same woman who'd helped him on his last visit. Hermione put her foot down when he suggested they check out the house Harry was claiming as his address.
"Harry, we both know that you are just trying to delay meeting my parents. We also both know it's not going to work. If you still want to check out the house after our visit, I'll be happy to drive there, but not before."
Harry sighed. "Fine, but you'll miss me after your dad kills me."
"And why would he want to kill you?" she asked, exasperatedly.
"Because I'm dating his daughter," he answered as though it were obvious.
"He hasn't killed Viktor, and he dated me."
"Did he ever meet your father?"
"Well, no, but…here we are." She abruptly ended the conversation as she pushed the button on her remote garage opened and pulled into the three-car garage. She parked in between the pair of Mercedes. "Good; they're both home." After practically dragging Harry out of her car and pulling him to the door, she rang the bell, "Just to make sure they're not snogging on the couch when we walk in."
"Hello, honey," said Marissa Granger as she pulled her daughter into a hug. "And who do we have here?" she asked, eying the boy next to Hermione. "Don't tell me this is that scrawny boy named Harry that I met a few years ago?"
"Hermione, is that you?" came a male voice from behind his wife.
Looking at her mother, the teenage girl took the direct approach. "Yes, this is Harry Potter, my boyfriend."
"Boyfriend?" repeated her father, giving Harry a stern look that caused him to swallow.
"Come on in," said Marissa. She then turned to her husband. "Adam, why don't you get some drinks for us and let's sit down in the living room."
Casting one last glare at Harry, the man said, "Yes, dear."
Holding her boyfriend's hand, Hermione pulled him onto the couch with her while Marissa sat on one of the two recliners facing them.
"Well, I've been reading and hearing about Harry Potter since about a week before Hermione started Hogwarts…"
"Mother!" she said while turning red. Harry looked at his girlfriend with a raised eyebrow.
"I simply mentioned that after reading about your story I did the math to figure out that you would be in my year. That's all!" Her mother chuckled.
"Anyway, before my daughter interrupted, I was going to say that she never mentioned dating you."
Both teenagers blushed and Adam entered the room with a tray holding four cups of iced tea. "Er, well, we started going out today, actually."
"So this isn't any kind of long-term thing, then," said Hermione's father with a look of relief.
"Actually, sir," Harry said, clearing his throat nervously, "I hope it will be long term, sir. She's been my best friend for a long time, so I feel that I know her already, er, and know how brilliant she is, in every sense of the word, and hope that…" He took a deep breath. "…that this, er, relationship becomes, er, permanent, one day, sir."
Hermione squeezed Harry's hand affectionately as she blushed. She actually wanted to kiss him, but didn't think that would be a good idea at the present time. Maybe later.
"Do you know what you're saying?" asked Adam as he stood over the seated teenage boy.
"Yes, sir," he answered, looking the man in the eyes no matter how much his instincts told him to run away and hide.
Hermione's father smiled. "Good. Now that that's settled, you can call me Adam." He held out his hand and Harry shook it while continuing to hold Hermione's right hand with his left.
"And call me Marissa," added the smiling woman sitting across from Hermione. "Perhaps now you can shed some light on certain matters regarding Hermione's time at Hogwarts."
"Like what?" asked Harry.
"Well, for one thing, she was injured last June, and has been very evasive about what exactly happened."
Harry glanced between Hermione's horrified face and Marissa's curious face. He didn't bother looking at Adam. "Hermione, if you don't want me to answer, I won't. But I'm not gonna lie."
Taking a deep breath, Hermione answered, "Might as well get this over with."
Harry looked at Marissa with an expression of deepest remorse. "It was my fault. You see, I…"
"You said you wouldn't lie, Harry! It was NOT your fault! You told me not to go with you!"
"Would one of you just tell us what happened?" asked Adam, clearly impatient.
Hermione explained the events of that night, starting with a brief explanation of Harry's connection to Voldemort, pointing out that acting on a vision last Christmas had saved Mr. Weasley's life. Harry then described the vision he'd had, and together they explained how they'd flown to the Ministry, and what had happened there.
"So, how do you take the blame for that?" asked Hermione's mother. "Do you think you should be in Azkaban instead of this Dolohov?"
"No, but…"
"No buts, Harry," said Adam. "If you do anything to hurt Hermione, then I'll kill you myself, but you're not the one who cursed her. I may not like the idea, but you're in a war, and terrible things happen. The blame lies with the terrorists, not you. They're the ones trying to kill people. You were trying to save a life."
"But I shouldn't have endangered Hermione…"
"You didn't have a choice about that!" said Hermione firmly. "I'm not going to let you face that danger alone."
"But I'm the one that has to!"
"And I choose to be at your side! That prophecy didn't say you have to be alone."
"What prophecy?" asked Marissa.
Hermione looked horrified. "I'm sorry, Harry. I didn't mean to…"
"I know, Hermione. It's not really a secret that the prophecy exists, just what it says. They probably should know about it if I'm dating you." He turned to his girlfriend's parents to see they were staring at him. "To put it simply, a prophecy was made before I was born that I'd be the only one with the power to destroy Voldemort. He heard part of it and that's why he killed my parents. He wanted to kill me, but when he tried, his spell backfired. That prophecy is why he won't leave me alone. Well, that and revenge for what happened to him while trying to kill me as a baby. The point is that there is a reason trouble follows me, and being my girlfriend does place Hermione in danger."
"The Daily Prophet has had me as your girlfriend for years," retorted Hermione. "It doesn't matter whether I actually am or not. Voldemort probably already believes it, so I might as well enjoy the benefits. Harry," she said gently, squeezing his hand again. "You're stuck with me."
Adam spoke next. "It looks like Hermione's made her choice, and she's just as stubborn as her mum. If she makes up her mind about something, then there's nothing anyone can do about it. She seems to have made up her mind about you, long before today. I know I couldn't change her mind about you even if I wanted to."
The young couple stayed at the Granger residence for a few more hours, talking mainly about Hermione's real Hogwarts career, as opposed to the highly edited version of their adventures she'd told her parents. After shaking Adam Granger's hand once more, and being hugged by Marissa, Harry left with Hermione (who'd been hugged by both of her parents).
Harry said he didn't feel like checking out the house Petunia's and his mail was now being sent to, but decided to have Dobby and Winky clean all his houses so they'd have something to do. True to their predictions, they arrived back at the Burrow just in time for dinner.
Time passed quickly after that, and before they knew it, Harry, Hermione, Ron, and Ginny were at Kings Cross Station. Both Harry and Hermione had their vehicles packed (Arthur had shrunk Hermione's car for her) in their trunks. They watched the Weasleys disappear between platforms nine and ten. A few seconds later, hand-in-hand, the new couple crossed the barrier onto Platform Nine-and-Three-Quarters.
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