Chapter 2: Memories and Reunions
Hermione and Ron looked over the man standing with Professor McGonagall carefully. Harry was dressed in a loose fitting suit, looking to be a size or two too big, and he had the same old familiar round-lensed glasses. "Your scar," Hermione noted as she pulled away from her childhood best friend. She smiled as she looked at his forehead and saw the once dominant mark that stood out prominently was now just barely a thin line above his brow.
"Almost healed entirely," Harry said as he stepped back.
"Two things, mate," Ron said crossing his arms, "Where have you been and how did you do magic when even the Aurors brooms seemed to have faulted out?"
"I don't know what in the world you're going on about," Harry blinked at his red headed best friend.
Before he could react Hermione reached for the collar of his button up shirt and pulled the shirt open, revealing the blue form fitting suit underneath. "Oh, and how did this get here?" Hermione asked with a knowing smile.
"Not very ladylike to rip open other men's shirts, Hermione," Harry said dejectedly. He thought about another retort but the pointed stares from his friends made him sigh and turn away. "I couldn't do magic. What ever happened on the bridge cut my magic just like everyone else's." Harry said removing his glasses.
"Then how did you fly, and fix the bridge?" Hermione asked in confusion. "I'm fairly certain there's no other way to do all that without very heavy Muggle technology."
"It wasn't magic or technology, it was just me, and …" Harry said glancing to from Hermione, to Ron, on to McGonagall. "…the final gift from my parents."
"Let's pretend Hermione doesn't fully understand what's going on," Ron said, though it wouldn't be hard to pretend what was actually happening. "And explain exactly what you mean?"
"Hermione I'm sure you've studied the scientific journals," Harry said with a small smile. "Do you believe there's life on other planets?"
"There's the possibility of it, but there's never been any solid proof," Hermione looked down in thought. "It's mostly wishful thinking and the stuff science fiction movies and books are made of."
"Not anymore," Harry gave a tight smile.
"What?" Hermione asked as Ron stepped up to stand at her side.
"I want you both to know, I'm still Harry… I'm still your best friend. It's who I was raised to be … but …" Harry choked on his words for a moment. "There's more. My name … I was born Kal-El, the only son of Jor-El and his wife Lara. I was born on the Planet Krypton many thousands of Earth Years ago."
Hermione and Ron stared at him in disbelief which caused him to sigh and take a seat on the cushioned couch. "I think I should start at the beginning, don't you?"
"It's a good place," Hermione mumbled, taking a seat beside him.
"After the war was over, and I was freed from the Horcrux I'm not sure you noticed but I started to do things a little off kilter…" Harry said looking at his hands in his lap. "Like me wanting to spend as much time as I could in the sun light and also me getting larger and stronger without actually doing anything differently… But it all changed for me on my eighteenth birthday when we all went out, the three of us and Ginny …"
---
Five Years Ago…
Harry smiled as he apparated to drive just outside the oddly built home known as the Burrow. He made his way up to the towering structure and on around to the kitchen entrance. "Mum, I'm home," Harry said as he walked into the home, causing Molly to almost throw the platter she was holding into the air.
"My Word, Harry Potter do you have to sneak around like that!" Molly Weasley hissed before pulling the boy into a motherly hug. "Happy birthday, Harry dear, Kingsley didn't work you all night did he?"
"He said he was going to make me work overtime, but it was actually a surprise party at the office," Harry explained as he Molly finally let him go. Harry had spent the last few months working as an assistant for Minister Kingsley Shacklebolt before his Auror training was to begin in the following fall. "I managed to get to my flat in time to get a few hours sleep."
"And judging by the fact you're bright and aware this early you obviously didn't party too hard then," Molly said before sighing. "Perhaps you can talk some sense into that foolish best friend of yours and his girlfriend."
"Concidering what we survived I can't fault them in letting their hair down a little," Harry smiled at the matriarch of the Weasley family.
"Breakfast is almost ready, Harry. Would you be a dear and go wake Ron and Ginny up for me?" Molly asked, going back to the stove.
"Sure, no problem," Harry nodded and started up the stairs. He reached for the door to Ron's room, but his eyes widened when it turned and opened itself.
"H-HARRY!" Hermione gasped and pulled the white button up shirt she had on closed. "W-What are you doing here?"
Harry gapped as he unconsciously glanced down to her bare legs sticking out of the bottom of Ron's dress shirt to her shocked face. "What am I … What are you doing here?"
Hermione flushed and avoided Harry's eyes. "That should be obvious …"
Harry blinked in confusion. "What should be obvious? You coming out of Ron's room in one of his shirts alone … oh… Oh … OH! Ooh…"
"Yes, now be a dear and slide out of the way so I can get to the second floor bedroom so Molly won't castrate my boyfriend for … you know…" Hermione said clinging the shirt as tightly closed as she could, though giving the still shocked Harry a nice view of cleavage.
"Sure, um … sorry to interrupt …" Harry said stepping aside, making a mental chant of 'sister-sister-sister-sister-sister with nice curves-sister'.
He watched her go and gave himself a mental excuse that he would not be eighteen year old, straight, and male without having some kind of reaction to seeing a female, best friend or otherwise, ninty nine percent nude.
He shook his head and turned to go to Ginny's room and found the door open. He walked inside and started to question where she was when he heard the shower running in her newly added private bath. He glanced to the wall and his eyes widened when he found the wall transparent as well as the shower curtains and could plainly see his red-haired girlfriend washing the soap from her hair. He gasped and shut his eyes tightly, rubbing them before opening and seeing the solid wall. "Stupid imagination … all Hermione's fault…" Harry whispered before going to her window and pulling open the curtain, letting the bright sunlight in.
He closed his eyes and enjoyed the warmth from the rays of light. "Happy birthday, Harry …" Harry smiled turning at the sound of his girlfriend's voice, his jaw dropped when he saw her standing there in nothing but a towel wrapped around her still wet body.
"G-Good morning, Gin …" Harry stammered as she approached him with a sway of her hips.
"Why don't you open your present, Harry …" Ginny smiled lovingly, "We could take off where we left off last year on your birthday …"
Harry gulped loudly as she smiled up at him. "I especially would like to thank you for expanding my room with the private bath … you have no idea what it's like having to share a bath with a house full of boys …"
"It wasn't a problem, Ginny …" Harry said taking a step back with each of her steps forward. She started to undo the towel from around her but gasped when Harry grasp her wrists.
Her excitement turned to disappointment when he sighed. "Ginny we can't … Not yet…" Harry whispered, with a small smile. "I respect you and I respect your parents far too much to betray their trust in their own home."
"But … But Ron and Hermione have done it all summer," Ginny complained, pouting slightly.
"Do we look like Ron and Hermione, Gin?" Harry asked with a slight twitch of his eyebrow.
"Well, no I have bigger breasts and you have a nicer arse," Ginny said after a moment of thought.
"Haha, other than the fact you looked to make that comparison between Ron and I, that's cute but you're worth the wait for me, Ginny," He said leaning down to kiss her gently, "And on that note I have to use your loo … I'll meet you down for breakfast."
Ginny watched him make his way to her bathroom, gaining a smirk when he picked up a bottle of lotion from her make up table then closing the bathroom door behind him.
Harry had just opened his jeans and placed some lotion on his hand when the bathroom door swung open and Ginny walked in and smiled at the flustered young wizard. "Don't look surprised, Harry, I grew up in a house full of boys, I know exactly what you're about to do. I just wanted to give you a little something to help. I know, you want to wait till marriage, but I just thought I'd help you along with your little exercise …" She said before pulling open the towel, giving Harry a full view for several moments before closing the towel again.
"There you go, love, a sneak peak of what's waiting for you to be ready." She purred before turning and walking back out of the bathroom, gripping the handle. "See you at breakfast Harry …" she said as she closed the door.
"Bloody hell …" Harry murmured staring at the door.
---
Present day
"She bloody flashed you!" Hermione blanched, her brown eyes flashing angrily.
"Ginny is my girlfriend, and she wasn't the only one who showed me skin that day Hermione," Harry noted, not noticing the worried look that crossed Ron's face when he called Ginny his girlfriend.
"Can he finish the story before you interrupt?" Ron cut off any counters.
"OK, but one question, exactly what were you going to do with the lotion?" Hermione quirked an eyebrow.
"My hands were dry …" Harry said with a flush, which deepened at the knowing looks from his two old and still best friends. "Really…"
"Anyway," Harry cleared his throat, "IF you recall that evening, we all went out for dinner at a Muggle pub in London." Ron and Hermione looked downcast at the memory. "Yeah, you two did get a little carried away, but … we did have a good time, didn't we?" Harry shook his head.
"You two really cut loose on the drink while Ginny and I only drank soda, so we could be the designated 'drivers' so you two wouldn't apparate home and leave a leg or arm or worse..."
---
Five years ago
"Ok, Ron, one foot after the other, Mate …" Harry said as he half led half carried Ron out of the pub into the late night London.
"At least my imbecile brother can walk," Ginny complained as she struggled to carry a giggling Hermione piggy back.
"Oy, Gin-gin, we're leaving my legs at the booth!" the blurry-eyed witch on Ginny's back yelped looking back at the pub. "I'll need those in the morning! With out them how ever will I walk again?" she slurred before breaking into a fit of giggles. "I know! I can wiggle along with my butt cheeks! Hic!"
"We need to go back for m'girlfriend's legs, Mate …" Ron finally opened his eyes. "They're very nice legs, see?"
"Lets get you home and I promise I'll come back for them, ok?" Harry said, shaking his head.
"Oh Harry, you're always so good to us," Hermione giggled, "you are the bestest best friend in the whole wide world! Heh bestest is a funny sounding word…"
"You two really need to go easy on this…" Harry sighed.
"Why? We saved the world, we have every right in the world to enjoy ourselves!" Hermione cheered almost falling off Ginny's back.
"I'll remind you of that in the morning when you're hugging the toilet…" Ginny said with a smirk.
"Hey, can you spare a dollar, mate," a ragged looking man said walking up to the four.
"Do you know who you're talking too?" Ron snapped, "This is the greatest wizard in all the world, he'll make you into salted mongo feet and feed you to a shockkull!"
"Hehe, you sound like Luna," Hermione giggled loudly.
"Look, I just wanted a dollar but you had to be a smartass …" the man said pulling a gun. "Now, give me everything you have, or the girls get it."
Harry frowned deeply, none of them had brought their wands, and with Ron laying on him there was little chance he could get it away from him without one or more of them being shot. "Look, sir, we don't want any trouble …" Harry said pulling is wallet from his pocket.
"That's very generous of you …" the man smiled looking at the wallet, "But just in case one of you wants to try to follow me …" he said turning his gun on Ginny.
"NO!" Harry said dropping the obliviously drunk Ron to the ground and stepping between them as the gun went off.
"HARRY!" Ginny screamed, she knew what those Muggle weapons could do to a person's body, and there was little chance he could have missed Harry at that range.
Ginny unconsciously dropped Hermione who dropped hard on her rump, cursing loudly too drunk to realize what was going on around her. "Oh my butt … if I only had my bloody legs!" Hermione slurred before falling to her back.
"Harry!" Ginny said turning Harry around and began searching his torso for any kind of wound.
"He must have missed or something …" Harry lied, just as freaked as his girlfriend.
Ginny looked up at him before looking all over for any bullet holes or signs of blood, and found none, not even a slight rip of his clothing. "Thank Merlin …" She whimpered pulling him to a tight hug.
"See?" Harry said hugging her back, "I'm ok…"
---
Present Day
"Ginny never said anything about that …" Hermione frowned, "at least past the part of me saying I forgot my legs … she won't let me forget that …"
"I told her not to say anything," Harry smiled sadly, "No harm no fowl, right? Anyway, the bullet did hit me, I felt it hit me right in the chest … but it didn't even penetrate my shirt. I had no idea why, so the following morning I had planned to go visit Dumbledore's painting at Hogwarts. I had figured the old bastard had forgotten to mention something else about me…" Harry said finishing with a small growl.
"But I never got the opportunity, as first thing in the morning I received a letter from Gringotts. It said some strange activity was happening in my vault." Harry smiled, "That's was when I disappeared that morning, and didn't return until now. When I opened the vault, there was an odd green glow inside, I walked inside and found a small green crystal among my mother's belongings, as well as a pensive and small vial of memory …It showed me … it showed me the day my parents found me…"
"Dad and Mum were out watching shooting stars when one came incredibly close, just a few hundred meters from them …" Harry explained, "They ran to see what it was out of curiosity, what they found was a type of crystal craft … and … a baby. Me." Harry closed his eyes sadly. "Mum and Dad wanted a family together … but do to an injury while facing Deatheaters Mum couldn't bear children. They saw this as a gift from above."
"The crystal seemed to speak directly to my mind, like a Horcrux only without any sense of evil inside it … it was pure … I could feel nothing but love from it." Harry shook his head, "It told me to go north."
"It also seemed to promise to share with me who I truly was … who I was meant to become …show me where I truly belonged, which even with the Weasleys and at Hogwarts I never truly experienced." Harry sighed, "I hadn't intended to be gone as long as I was. I went to Professor Mc … Minerva and asked her to create me a portkey to the Arctic. After some convincing and promising I wouldn't do anything stupid she did, she also reluctantly swore to never tell a soul where I had gone."
"I honestly had no intention of being gone as long as I was …" Harry smiled regretfully.
"So what did you find up there?" Ron asked, as Hermione nodded for him to continue.
"My Fortress of Solitude, and my past." Harry closed his eyes.
---
Five years ago
Despite the freezing temperature, Harry didn't feel the slightest chill. All he felt was the faint vibration from the green crystal in his pocket, that was growing brighter and brighter as he ventured farther and farther into the Arctic Circle.
He pulled it out and stared at the brightly glowing crystal. "Ok, I'm here … now what?"
'Throw.' Entered his mind, and he took a deep breath and threw it what seemed like for miles. "Alright … now what?" he gasped when the ground began to shake. "What in the…" he gasped as gigantic crystals burst from the ice, coming together, making what Harry could only describe as a crystal palace.
Once the shaking had stopped he quickly made his way to the structure, into the large entrance way that seemed to bid him welcome. "Hello my son,"
Harry gapped when he looked up at two large crystals. In one crystal there was a dark haired man in a white gown with a black diamond symbol with a curved line through it forming an S. In the other was a bushy haired woman in the same dress. "Who … Who are you?"
"I am Lara Jor-El, your mother," the woman replied with a trembling voice.
"And I am Jor-El, of the House of El, your father," the man replied with a ghost of a smile on his lips.
"Who … am I?" Harry asked staring up at the man who claimed to be his birth father.
"You are who you are," Jor-El replied, "You are Harry James Potter: Adopted Son of James and Lily Potter, Best friend to Ronald Weasley and Hermione Granger, courter to Ginerva Weasley, Boy Who Lived, and Slayer of Tom Riddle." He then smiled, "You are also Kal-El, our son, and the sole survivor of the Planet Krypton. A planet doomed to its people's own foolishness. You have great power, some of which you have yet to discover. You also have many questions … But here … in this … Fortress of Solitude, we will seek these answers… together. So my son … let us speak …"
Five Years Later
Harry opened his eyes; it felt like he was only at the Fortress for hours, but he felt … older. His body felt stronger, lighter, more powerful… He looked down his snow suit was gone. In its place was a blue form fitting suit, a yellow belt across the red tights, and red boots with the symbol of the House of El just under his knees, and draped across his shoulders was a long flowing cape.
He looked down at his chest and saw the same symbol that was on his parents' chests, but instead of silver and black, it was crimson and gold. "Your chest now proudly shows the two symbols that make you who you are," Jor-El explained, "the Symbol of the House of El, but in the colors of the House in which you call home, which you call your new family." Jor-El took a sad expression. "Even though you were raised as one, you are not human. A part of you will always be an outsider of their world. Go my son, live among them; see where your powers are most needed. They're a good people Kal-El … Harry, they wish to be. They only lack the light to show them the way. For that reason above all else, their capacity of good, I have sent them you … my only son."
Harry slowly stood to his feet and was about to ask Jor-El what he meant when he heard familiar voices, far away. "HERMIONE!!" he heard Ron's frantic cry, followed by Hermione, "ROSE!!"
He gave his parents one final look, before taking to the air, leaving the two spirits watching proudly.
---
Present
"I'd like to see this Fortress," Hermione mused scratching her chin.
"I thought you would," Harry said with a fond smile. "I have a feeling you'll be fond of my birth mother, she reminds me a great deal of you."
"So now what?" Ron asked leaning against McGonagall's desk.
"Where's Gin?" Harry asked trying and not succeeding at holding back a goofy grin.
"She's … um … she at the Burrow …" Ron said awkwardly. "Harry, there's something you really aught to know …"
"It can wait," Harry said standing to his feet, unconsciously dodging Hermione reaching for him. "I really want to see her. I'll be back in a bit and we can talk more." He said and in a flash he was gone.
"Oh boy …" Ron sighed, glancing at Hermione sadly.
---
Harry smiled brightly as he touched down at the foot of the Burrow drive way. He quickly made his way to the kitchen entrance when he saw the lights still on.
"Mum, I'm home!" Harry said brightly as he entered the door.
"What is all the … oh my goodness …" Molly said as tears filled her eyes. "Harry …" She said staring at the tall young man before her. "Harry is it really you?"
"It's me. I've come home." He said before Molly pulled him into a tight hug.
"Where have you been! You just up and vanished, why …where … oh Harry I'm so happy you're home!" Molly cried hugging him tightly.
"Mum what's …" Ginny asked coming into the kitchen and gapped at the scene. "H-Harry?" she gapped awkwardly.
"Hi Gin…" Harry grinned at the redhead pulling away from Molly.
"What's going on, Love?" He heard Neville voice as he entered behind Ginny. "Harry?" he gapped at his old friend and unconsciously put an arm around Ginny's waist.
"Harry … um …" Ginny stammered glancing from Neville to Harry and back again.
"You two need to have a talk," Neville said with an encouraging smile to the shorter redhead beside him. "Mum, let's let them have some privacy …"
Molly glanced horrified at Harry for a moment in realization, then gripped Harry's arm. "You're still family, Harry," she whispered desperately, causing Harry's bad feeling to intensify. "You'll always be family. Never forget that."
"Let's go to the Garden, Harry …" Ginny said weakly leading the confused Harry outside.
"Gin … What's Neville doing here, what's going on?" Harry asked in confusion.
"Should you be surprised that a husband lives with his wife?" Ginny asked avoiding eye contact with her childhood flame.
Harry felt his blood run cold. "H-Husband?" he asked his eyes widened.
"Nev and I … we'll be married two years this December …" Ginny hugged herself and turned away.
"But … what about …" Harry stammered.
"Us? Harry you've been gone for five years," Ginny's voice shook. "You left without a word to anyone, not even Ron and Hermione knew where you went. You just disappeared. We didn't even know if you were alive or dead till McGonagall finally said you had 'matters you had to attend to' but that didn't make sense. Hermione and Ron were still here and as lost as I was."
"I'm still in love with you …" Harry said in a defeated tone.
"No you're not," Ginny gave a half laugh half sob, "I've thought about this a lot since you've been gone. I don't think you were ever in love with me. You probably didn't even realize the difference; I didn't till I really thought about it. You're in love with the normalcy being with me would bring you, not with me."
"Does … Does Neville make you happy?" Harry asked tears in the corner of his eyes.
"Sometimes yes," Ginny said with a fond smile. "Other times he gives me reason to practice my Bat Boogie…but he does make me whole…" she then walked up to Harry from behind and hugged him tightly. "We never really completed each other as much as we tried, you and me, but there's someone out there who'll do that for you. It's just not me."
"I better be going," Harry said sadly as Ginny pulled away.
Ginny nodded and started back toward the Burrow when Harry spoke up again. "Hey Gin?"
"Yes, Harry?" She asked turning back to him.
"We did have a good run though, didn't we?" He asked with a smile.
"Yes, yes we did…" Ginny nodded, before turning and going back into the home, and into her waiting husband's arms.
---
"Even though you were raised as one, you are not human. A part of you will always be an outsider of their world."
Harry remembered his words as he hovered high above England his cape floating in the low gravity.
"We never really completed each other as much as we tried, you and me," Ginny's words floated through his mind. "But there's someone out there who'll do that for you."
"Is there?" Harry asked out load before he heard a small splashing and a light but familiar humming coming from just outside Hogwarts Castle.
His enhanced vision looked down to see a figure sitting on the dock built out over the lake, her feet dangling in the water, playing with her bushy hair.
"I had a feeling you'd need someone to talk to," Hermione said not looking back as the blue and red clad man touched down on the wooden pier.
Harry said nothing as he approached her sadly. "So you know about Neville and Ginny now, eh?" Hermione asked kicking her bare feet in the water and watching the Squid move in the distance. "If you hadn't rushed off faster than a locomotive we could have made that revelation a tad easier on the both of you." She tutted.
"Locomotives aren't very fast," Harry said standing behind his best friend. "I think I clocked in just above a speeding bullet."
"Cute," Hermione said as he stood beside her, his cape brushing her back as it waved in the breeze. "By the way have you seen the Quibbler, Superman?" She asked handing the rolled up news paper up to her friend.
"Superman?" Harry said reading the headline "SUPERMAN STOPS BRIDGE DISASTER". "I like it …" He said with a small smile.
"Why did you leave us?" Hermione asked in a small voice.
"Why?" Harry asked looking up at the moon. "What right did I have to drag you on another foolish, potentially dangerous quest?" He sighed running a hand over his face. "If it wasn't for me, Hermione you and Ron might have had a completely different experience at Hogwarts. You wouldn't have had to be concerned with if you'd see the next summer, you and Ron could have been a happy couple as early as you'd have liked. You'd have made the perfect head girl, Hermione, and Ron was well on his way to being Quidditch Captain in sixth year, but it was my fault that didn't happen. I wasn't about to drag you into one of my own problems again with the sacrifice of your own lives and happiness."
"Happiness?" Hermione asked, "Over a year of that time I have no memory of, thanks to my own foolishness." She pulled her legs from the cool water and stood up to stand beside her friend. "I know you were disappointed in us, Harry. The way Ron and I were acting when you left was no better than Malfoy. But in our minds … my mind I thought why should we hold back? We WON! We survived everything Voldemort threw at us… everything B-B-Bellatrix threw at us … Why should we be concerned about anything but our own enjoyment now that the war was over. It was the time of celebration, of 'parties'." She spat the last of her sentence out, looking out at the water. "I know you were aware of Ron and I getting a taste for the drink, but alcohol was only the beginning. We started to go to nightclubs and parties. Wild parties… Looking back it was pure foolishness but at the time it was exciting, invigorating … it wasn't long before we were lost in a world of drinks… sex … and … drugs…"
"While you were out finding yourself we were losing ourselves." Hermione let out a bitter laugh that shook Harry to the core. "And then I even started to blame you for it. Where was the Great Harry Potter? Why hadn't he come to hex us to our senses and save us like he always does? I even thought about hating you for a time… but I was usually partly drunk at the time." She shook her head. "Then as if we weren't disgraces to the Wizardry World enough, I became pregnant out of wedlock. Best thing to ever happen to me, it was."
"What? I thought you and Ron…" Harry gapped, the expression looking remarkably silly in his outfit.
"Thought we were what?" Hermione blinked before starting to giggle, moving on into full on laugh. "Married?! No, Ron and I aren't even seeing each other anymore. It just never worked out past that, especially with everything going on and with everything we did scrutinized. We've let it downgrade into a best friend role, which made people even more angry about us not getting married 'for little Rose'."
"You and Rose saved us, Harry …" Hermione sobered quickly. "Rose was the ultimate wake up call … Especially when I had to do a paternity test to determine the father…" Hermione hugged herself. "Ron asked a simple question after I found out I was with child … he asked … what would Harry say if he saw us like this? How would he look at us … COULD he look at us?"
"You should know I'd never…" Harry drifted off feeling ashamed.
"Leave us?" Hermione let out a small snort. "When you did for five years on a whelm and come back like some kind of superhero in tights? You're better off without us, Harry, everyone took to the air over the last five years, Ginny and Neville, the other Weasleys, Luna, but Ron and I, without you we stumbled and fell. That's when I realized we're leaches, the two of us, without you to show us the way, we just stumbled around, falling into every trap … every temptation… and it wasn't your fault, it was ours… I don't want to be like that, Harry … And when I think I have a handle on it all … you come back … and save me again."
"You're not a Leach, Hermione…" Harry tried to cut off but she wouldn't hear of it.
"Yes I am, Harry, I was from the moment you and Ron saved me from that damned Troll," Hermione sobbed loudly. "That's why we had little fear of drinking back then, after we got out of Hogwarts, we always knew you'd be there to watch over us and keep us safe, and then you left… and instead of being smart we continued to be more and more stupid…" Hermione let out a small laugh, "But when Rose came I had a purpose, I had someone who depended on me as much as Ron and I depended on you. It was quite the eye opener."
"Hermione … I … I'm sorry …" Harry stammered, unsure how to respond.
"Don't be sorry, Harry, you've never done anything outside be noble and selfless," Hermione smiled sadly. "If either of us is sorry it's me. That's why I'd … I'd like you to give me the opportunity to be your friend again… this time on equal footing."
"Do you even have to ask?" Harry gave a small smile.
"Only on one condition…" Hermione said stepping to stand directly in front of him. Harry nodded and looked quizzically at her. "Don't save me all the time or try to protect me from every little personal demon. If I fall, let me pick myself up. All I ask is for you to be there for me, but I don't want a hero, I want a friend. Ok?"
"Sounds fair to me," He said holding out his arms, and this time Hermione accepted the hug.
"Good … just next time come as Harry," Hermione whispered into his chest. "The tights do look good on you, but the Harry I know wears glasses and his knickers under his pants."
"These aren't knickers they're …"
"I don't wanna know, Harry."