A Day At The Park
Evening At Grimmauld Place
Hermione Granger stood framed in the doorway of Harry's bathroom an amused smile playing across her lips as she watched Harry attempting to bathe Teddy. Harry was crouched on his knees at the side of the tub, soapsuds in his hair, sopping wet holding a remarkably dry Teddy whose hair had changed to a lovely shade of blue, which Hermione had deemed as his happy color because he always seemed to produce it when he was involved in an enjoyable activity. Harry again attempted to submerge Teddy into the bath when suddenly a wave of soapy water rose up and crashed against Harry's face and chest. Harry sputtered as water shot into his mouth and up his nose. Teddy clapped and beamed at his godfather as though Harry had just performed some sort of trick for him.
Hermione burst out laughing. Setting Teddy down Harry turned around; mopping his sodden fringe out of his eyes and gazing at Hermione's laughing form uttered.
"Amused?"
Hermione held up her thumb and pointer fingers a half inch apart and said.
"Just a bit."
Harry rolled his eyes and stood to his feet just as Teddy made a bid for freedom. Hermione knelt down and in one graceful motion scooped the laughing toddler into her arms, stood to her feet and sauntered across the room to where Harry stood dripping all over the titled floor. Hermione held Teddy out to Harry and cheekily intoned.
"Seems as though you've lost your quarry Mr. Potter, not at all a good sign for someone who was purported to be quite an outstanding seeker."
Harry rolled his eyes a second time and replied.
"Ha Ha…right old comic you've become! When you're done laughing think you might be able to lend me a hand with this."
Harry gestured towards the wet bathroom and his mostly dry godson. Hermione gave Teddy to Harry as she slid her wand from her back pocket and with a casual wave of it dried up all the water on the floor. With a second wave she dried Harry's soaked clothes. She then turned to the tub and with a flick and a swish refilled it with warm soapy water. Turning back around to face Harry and Teddy, she leaned in close to Teddy and spoke in a carrying whisper.
"Behave."
Sweetly she kissed his forehead. Straightening up she motioned towards the tub. Harry stepped forward and carefully lowered Teddy into the bath. He waited for another swell of water to wash over him but it never came. Anti-climatically Teddy plopped into the water and happily began admiring the tiny ripples of water his hands made when he patted his palms against the surface of the water. Hermione's cheeky grin returned as she strolled back to the door stopping on the threshold she asked.
"Any particular requests for dinner?"
At the sight of Harry's raised eyebrow, she added.
"I sent Kreacher to look after Andromeda…she'll need someone to do the cooking and help out with her potions and as house elves are immune to wizard illnesses there's no chance of any of us catching the flu and giving it to Teddy."
As Harry nodded Hermione repeated her earlier query.
"So, any requests for dinner?"
With a wave of his wand Harry formed the bubbles floating in the bath into a variety of magical creatures; centaurs, goblins, thestrals, unicorns, chimeras, mermen, and trolls emerged out of the bubbles and began frolicking about. Teddy giggled excitedly as he attempted to grab the gamboling figures. Harry shrugged and in reply stated.
"Whatever you fancy is fine by me."
Hermione exited the room and called over her shoulder.
"Whatever I fancy it is then."
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Harry and Hermione tiptoed quietly out of Teddy's bedroom leaving the door cracked just a bit in case the little boy called out during the night. The two had just spent the better part of two hours getting Teddy settled for the night. Following his bath Teddy had insisted on a bedtime story from each of them. Harry had reenacted his Hermione and Ron's escape from Gringott's on the back of an aged blind dragon complete with sound effects and patronus like figures of the scenes weaving and hovering about the room. Teddy and Harry had whooped and clapped so exuberantly that it had taken several minutes for Hermione to settle them down. For her part, Hermione had taken a more practical approach and read two stories to Teddy one from The Tales of Beetle and the Bard and another from a The Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Anderson. This quieter less boisterous approach led to Teddy's drifting off peacefully to sleep. After kissing Teddy goodnight, they'd headed downstairs for their now late evening supper.
Hermione went to the cupboard and began pulling down bowls and plates. She then set about filling the plates and bowls with stew and warm toasty bread fresh from the oven. While Hermione attended to their meal, Harry disappeared down into the cellar to retrieve a bottle of Rosemerta's best meade. As Harry stepped back into the kitchen he summoned two goblets and filled them before setting them at the side of each plate as he slid into his chair directly across from Hermione.
As usual dinner with Hermione was a pleasant affair, the pair laughed and talked and generally caught each other up on the happenings in their lives that the other may have missed. Once they finished desert and set the kitchen to rights Harry and Hermione adjourned to the lounge room and sat before the fire and conversed over a bottle of nettle wine that Harry had summoned from the cellar.
"So then he gave me his number and address and asked if I'd like to get together sometime and catch up…I said I would…so I reckon I'll ring him later in the week and set up a time and place to meet."
Harry took a swallow of his wine as he finished telling Hermione about his encounter with Dudley earlier in the afternoon. Hermione replied in a querying tone.
"It's wonderful that Dudley's had this change of heart but I'm curious as to what finally brought him round."
Harry refilled both their glasses with wine and said matter-of-factly.
"Dementors."
Hermione raised an eyebrow quizzically and asked.
"What do dementors have to do with Dudley wanting to make peace with you?"
Harry smiled.
"Seems that my saving his arse from those two dementors back at the start of fifth year changed Dudley's mind about me. Once he realized I'd saved his life he wanted to set things to rights between us but by then I was back at Hogwarts. And by the time I made it home for summer hols I wasn't exactly much for company having just lost Sirius and all. Then I was back off again after only a fortnight and by the time we had a chance to talk again he was going into hiding and I was off to hunt horcruxes."
Hermione smiled warmly at Harry and said.
"That's really wonderful Harry."
Harry took in the warm glow suffusing Hermione's cheeks, the happiness lighting her eyes, the soft curvature of her full lips as she smiled and found himself fighting back the urge to kiss her. Something of his thoughts must have shown on his face because at that exact moment Hermione's brow furrowed a bit as she inquired.
"Harry, what's…"
Harry cut her off by saying.
"Dudley asked me to bring you when we get together, says he'd like a proper introduction and he reckons you'll get on really well with the girl he's seeing."
Hermione looked surprised.
"Dudley wants to meet me and introduce me to his girlfriend, why in Merlin's name would he want to meet me."
Harry scratched the back of his neck and replied.
"Probably because he thinks you're my girlfriend."
Hermione's eyes widened in astonishment.
"Me…why on earth would Dudley think I was your girlfriend?"
Harry drank another swallow of wine then offered an explanation.
"Well to begin with he thought you were my wife and that Teddy was our son and I suppose that when I corrected him on Teddy being my godson and not my son and our not being married I guess he just assumed that even though we weren't married we were still a couple…"
Hermione cut across Harry's words with her own.
"Your cousin thought we were married…and…and…and that Teddy was our son!"
Harry nodded.
"Yeah, that's what he thought."
"What on earth would give him the impression that we were together."
"Apparently I look at you the why my dad looked at my mum."
Hermione gazed at Harry a clearly baffled expression marring her face. Without giving her time to voice her confusion Harry began recounting the portion of his conversation with Dudley that he'd omitted earlier.
"And that's when he said `I saw how you were looking at them…at her…it was exactly the way your dad looked at your mum on that picture that used to sit by your bed…' after that I set him straight about Teddy being my godson and that you were my friend from Hogwarts I thought he'd caught on till he asked me to bring you with me when we meet up…said he fancied a proper introduction to my girlfriend Hermione."
Harry stopped talking and downed the rest of his wine. Hermione likewise finished off the last bit of wine in her glasses then uttered.
"I can't imagine what your cousin was seeing to think that you and I were…were together."
Though the statement was clearly rhetorical Harry answered it all the same.
"Obviously he saw how happy you make me."
Thankfully Hermione's glass was empty otherwise she'd have gotten wine all over the couch when the glass slipped from between her fingers. Harry took no notice of Hermione's shock and continued speaking aloud.
"I was all ready to convince myself that Dudley was mistaking our friendship for something more when the oddest thing happened…you put your hand in mine and everything suddenly made sense. I understood what Rita Skeeter, Viktor Krum and now Dudley were seeing, they were seeing what I'd been to bleeding blind to see for far too long…"
Harry briefly halted his soliloquy and staring into Hermione's lovely brown eyes took a deep breath and said.
"I've spent the better part of my life wishing to be normal…to have what everyone else had…someone who loved me…a family…a place to call home…that's all I've ever wanted. I didn't realize until today…until Dudley saw me looking at you that I had all those things and so much more with you."
Harry heavily emphasized the last word he spoke then paused to allow what he'd said to sink in. He knew from the look on her face that Hermione was about to protest…to refute his words…try to find a logical solution to his sudden strange behavior. Rather than give her the chance he spoke again.
"You're thinking I've had too much to drink or that I've gone and confounded myself somehow but I haven't. The only thing I've done is looked at a few old photographs and finally figured out that I'm madly in love with you Hermione Jane Granger."
As the words left his lips Harry leaned forward, Hermione closed her eyes and her breath caught in her throat as she steeled herself for what she knew was coming. Her heart hammered in her chest and Harry drew nearer and she caught the odd combination of spice, fresh air and sunshine that was peculiar to Harry and Harry alone. Then she felt his lips brush against the side of her cheek just missing her lips. The contact lasted a few seconds too long for it to be purely platonic and Hermione felt something akin to a jolt of electricity rocket through her leaving her breathless. Harry's warm breath caressed her ear as he whispered.
"Goodnight Hermione."
With that Harry slowly stood to his feet and strode across the room and up the stairs. Hermione merely sat there to stunned to move, her pulse racing wildly, heart thumping frantically, skin warm and tingling where Harry had touched her. Slowly she raised a trembling hand to her cheek and gently fingered the spot where Harry's lips had been and allowed herself to wonder how it was that a simple nearly innocent touch from Harry left her aroused and breathless a feat that Ron, her boyfriend of two years had never once managed.
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