I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For

Chapter 9: I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For
A/N: Welcome to the self-titled chapter of my story (I'll usually refer to it at HPU2). This is the one that features the scene that named the story far before I knew that it was going to be based around U2. This is kind of the point where my story started to take shape and become more than just a random Harry and Hermione fluff fic. So, therefore, I hope I can use this chapter as a springboard to go on to better chapters. Hope you enjoy it. Please read and review!

P.S. Just a small warning. There is some questionable content in this chapter. I don't want to move it up to R again, but I may have to. Hopefully, I can get some opinions on it in the reviews. Just be warned.

***

To her surprise, Jake wasn't angry at Miranda for missing the rest of the day at work. He told her that she was right to try to find out what's going on in the wizarding world. They really didn't have any link outside of Hermione and after they overreacted last year, they couldn't even guarantee that anymore. After relaying the story to Jake, the one thing she was surprised about was his reaction to the Weasleys asking Harry to join them.

"Well, why didn't he?" Jake muttered in a grumpy tone as the two got into their pajamas and into bed.

"I'm not sure. He did say that he wanted to spend more time alone with Hermione. Something that he hadn't been able to do in a while." Miranda explained with a bit of a sarcastic tone. She found it to be a very sweet gesture, but not all that shocking. It was obvious that the two fancied each other.

"Wants to get in her knickers is what he wants." Jake whispered lowly. "I know the type. She was the only contact he had for two weeks and now he's attached. I won't stand for this."

Miranda rolled her eyes. "Jake... If you spent thirty seconds talking to him or even read a book, you'd see that he wasn't that way. He's actually quite a good friend to her. We spoke together over tea."

Jake didn't seem all too happy about that one. "Why didn't he come talk to me? I was the one who told him his place."

"He's probably scared of you."

"Good. He's the strongest reason that Hermione's been in so much trouble lately."

"She's always had a bit of spitfire in her, she's just never had a the reason to unleash it. Harry give her that reason." It all made sense to Miranda, why didn't it to her husband? He always was protective of his daughter though. He punched out Will Snow, his long time piano player and friend and the father of Hermione's childhood best friend when he said that Hermione was a bad influence on Jack and she couldn't say goodbye when they moved.

Jake sighed a bit. He know Miranda was right. She usually was, but he hated to concede on things that had to do with his little girl, but he had to let her go sometime. "You're probably right. You said he plays Piano? Maybe that'll be a good conversation starter."

"Yes. It will be." Miranda stated matter of factly in a tone that very much resembled Hermione on her good days. "Just don't be too hard on him. Wouldn't want to alienate your future son in law." Before he could register her remark, she had turned off the light and rolled over to go to bed.

***

The next day, Hermione and Harry got up extra early so they could repeat what they were trying to do the day before; to go down to the other side of the lake and speak candidly. For some reason, every time they tried they were interrupted by Lupin, Dumbledore, The Weasleys... Death Eaters, however they felt that no one new could really interrupt them. At least they hoped.

"Hermione, you know that I'm not asking you to go with me. It may be dangerous and this task was given to me by Dumbledore to do alone..." Harry muttered as they walked down a hill together to go deeper into the woods.

"He never said that." Hermione turned in front of him and they both stopped. "Look, I'd follow you to Hell and back, if it meant I could keep an eye on you." She sweetly smiled at him and he knew there was no arguing with her.

Harry walked off a bit on up ahead of Hermione and stopped by a large oak tree to lean against it. He let out a long sigh as he took in the natural beauty of the English countryside; a sight that he never really had the chance to see. "I left the Muggle World behind because I was missing something in life. But after 5 years, I still feel that void."

Hermione walked up behind him and wrapped her arm around him. "Harry...?"

"I don't know, it's just that I still haven't found what I'm looking for." Harry looked down at his feet and let out another sorrowful sigh.

"Well... what are you looking for?"

"I wish I knew..." Harry brushed her off and walked again. "After third year, I started to feel better about things a bit and then the next thing I knew, it was taken away from me with Sirius, now I'm just as lost as ever. I feel alone."

"Harry not even in the darkest times of the past five years were you alone. You always had Ron, Hagrid, Dumbledore and I."

"I know, but there some things that the the four of you could never give me. This thing with the Order got me excited. I felt that I had something to really fit in with, but then it fell apart." Harry began to look pensively into the wilderness.

"Harry... Sirius wouldn't want you to be this way. He was always looking out for you and this isn't how he'd want to see you in this state of mind. And no matter what you always have someone to turn to. You're never alone." Hermione spoke quite sternly to try to get him out, but it was no good.

"I always have someone to turn to, but as the case with Lupin, they all get hurt. He was sent to look after me and he ended up half dead." Harry picked up a rock and threw it with all his might against a tree. As a child, he never could express frustrations or his Aunt and Uncle would send him to his cupboard without supper or worse, he'd get a lashing from Vernon's spiked belt he got especially for Harry.

"Harry! We've been over this. No one loves you or tries to protect you out of obligation. They do it because they care about you." Hermione yelled, almost at the verge of tears. Harry was distraught at the sadness in her voice and he quickly pulled her into a hug.

"But what would they say if they knew I killed someone?"

"You froze. It happens to everybody. I know for a fact that you wouldn't have killed him if you could think of something else to do." Hermione brushed it off as if all he did was stun him. She did have to admit, it did freak her out a little that Harry was able to do magic like that, but she didn't want to mention it to him. They would have years to have a conversation like that. Today was not that day.

Hermione ran ahead and got into Harry's way to stop him from continuing. "Actually, I was thinking about that. We're more or less cut off from the Wizarding World, so if we get into trouble, what would happen?"

Harry stood their starring blankly at her. Hermione was known to have some pretty off the wall ideas at times. A certain Polyjuice Potion came to mind. "I've been reading some of the books that Dumbledore gave us and there's some really advanced magic in those books. Some stuff that I'm not sure even Kingsley's mastered."

"Then what makes you think we can learn it?" Harry asked his friend as if she were crazy. Kingsley was probably the greatest wizard in the world next to Dumbledore. Good wizard, that is.

"I believe in us. We did some real good with Dumbledore's Army. Helped a lot of people including ourselves. If we do a little bit each night, we might be able to actually make some progress." Hermione smiled proudly at herself. She normally wasn't one to tell people that she could easily accomplish something, but Harry needed it. "We'll have to do it out of the house, under the cover of night, so my brother doesn't bother us... or my father."

Hermione began to walk ahead, until Harry grabbed her by the hand and stopped her. "I didn't agree to this yet."

"Oh, Harry. Come off it. We should probably head back and prepare. Merlin only knows how late we'll be out." Without being able to protest it, she was already half way back to the boat.

"...why do I even bother with her?"

***

Around midnight that night, the two snuck out of their respective rooms and out to the dock. Harry looked up at the sky and saw all the stars in the Muggle skies for the first time in his life. Though he grew up as a Muggle, he never really watched the heavens because he was always more worried about his Aunt and Uncle. The first time he really did take the chance to take in the beauty of the stars was when he got the Hogwarts and it was over powered by magic. The natural beauty of it took his breath away.

"Harry, are you ready?" Hermione gently asked him by putting her hand on his shoulder. He turned to her and simply nodded and they walked to the end of the dock together. "I figured it'd be better to do it here. No sense to start up the boat."

"I agree. We may not be in the wizarding world, but I'd rather not be in the woods after dark." They both opted for the ground facing each other rather than the old white bench that was directly next to them.

"Okay, so rather than sleeping, I decided to read though some of the books and one thing I found that really struck me was a mind link." Harry raised his eyebrow inquisitively. "A mind link will create a mental bond between two people. Not telepathic, but empathic. I will be able to sense when you're in trouble and visa versa."

"How do you think that will help? LaVey probably could use that against us." Harry was generally worried about his friend's well being. He feared that it would make her more of a target to both LaVey and Voldemort.

Hermione's brow wrinkled in concentration, a look that Harry always found undeniably cute. "I'm pretty sure we could use it against him too. Think about it. It's almost if our two minds will act as one."

Harry knew that there was no hope arguing with her and decided to just concede. "Okay, how do we do it."

"That's what I'm not so sure about. It says that first we must bleed into each other, sit in a pentagram from us in our most natural state and recite the incantation 'Duos mens reputo ut unus, duos pectus pectoris pello pepulli pulsum ut unus' in perfect unison." Hermione seemed a bit confused at the description of the spell.

"Well, it appears we need to swap blood through an open wound and then draw a pentagram with it... and sit in it... naked..." Harry blushed at the revelation of what the spell was asking of them. Hermione's mind began to race and she quickly decided that she wanted to back out of the spell, although the thought of it kind of excited her for some reason.

"Um... we don't have to do it, you know." Hermione brushed back her bushy hair that was blowing around in the wind. "But, um... it will be helpful."

"Um... yeah, I agree." Harry quickly shot out. Hermione then went into her bag and grabbed a kitchen knife from one of the pockets.

"Now, it really doesn't specify where to make the wound, so rather than going all Vampire and sucking each others blood, I figured a bloody handshake will suffice." With that, she cut her right palm with the edge of the knife and then passed it to Harry who did the same. "Now, here does nothing." She inched her bleeding hand towards Harry's and they met in the middle. "Ouch!" Hermione pulled her hand back at the stinging sensation, but quickly put her hand back in Harry's.

"Think that's enough?" Harry asked the visibly pained Hermione.

"No... Here, I have an idea, but let's get un-undressed first." Hermione again quivered at the thought, but when they turned away from each other, she knew there was no turning back. With out talking, she took of her pajama pants and then her shirt, leaving her naked to the world, but most importantly Harry. "For this to work, I think we need to face each other."

Harry was worried about that. He was generally comfortable around Hermione, but both of them being naked to each other wasn't his first choice of situations. They both turned around and gazed into each others eyes for a long while, until curiosity was too much to bare. Harry took a quick look at Hermione's chest, which was a little bit larger than what he thought it would be and Hermione gave him a quick elevator eye, noting that his holly and phoenix wand wasn't the only arsenal he was carrying.

'He's just a friend,' She thought to herself. 'It's Harry, not Ron.'

'Come on, Harry, get a hold of yourself. It's just Hermione.'

"Well, I was thinking that we could do both of the directions at once. Cut our other hands and grasp them while completing the incantation." Hermione spat out so she wouldn't concentrate on Harry's growing wand out of the corner of her eye.

"G-g-good idea. W-w-w-what was the incantation again?" Wordlessly, Hermione passed him the book which she had underlined. She couldn't bare to speak anymore.

They two of them together drew the pentagram out of both of their blood and sat facing each other in the center. "Well, here it goes..." Hermione stated as she grasped both of Harry's hands. "Duos mens reputo ut unus, duos pectus pectoris pello pepulli pulsum ut unus," they both chanted at the same time and the pentagram of their blood lit up, forming a barrier of light around them. After saying the spell three times, the light grew to such high proportions that they didn't know where it actually ended. Suddenly, it collapsed and they were left alone on the dock.

"Harry... what's that smell?" Hermione looked around and saw that everything but their wands, the dock and the magic book was completely charred to unrecognizable states. "Oh my God! Our clothes! We've got to get inside before someone catches us!"

Hermione gathered up her stuff and ran towards the house shouting 'alohamora' at the door. "See you in the morning, Harry. We'll see if it worked then!" Before he knew it, he was alone on the dock. He decided to stay there a while at watch the stars for just a little bit longer.

***

A/N: I hope you all enjoyed it. With all the stars and stuff, I'm trying to make Harry a little bit more human and I'm trying to explore the magical world too. I hope that I can strike up a balance soon (I hope it comes next chapter). On the topic of that, I would like to say that finally a favorite character of mine from the plots will be appearing next chapter as well as more of the Grangers (especially Jake and Michael). Hope you enjoy!

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