Disclaimer: Not mine. I wish it were so we would have had HHr, but alas it's JK Rowling's.
A/N: My reply to the challenge issued by PJ, you can find it here: http://talk.portkey.org/index.php?showtopic=26635 . This story will start right after fifth year, and it will involve sex, some blood, and such, so this is why it is rated NC17. I hope you'll enjoy it, I think this is the most complex challenge I've ever dared to reply to, so I sincerely hope I'll be able to pull it off well.
Thanks to my beta Gingercat!
Harry Potter and His True Sixth Year
Chapter Ten: Trouble in Little Whinging
Harry was taken aback.
"Why do you suggest that?" he asked, now serious.
"Well, see, I was thinking, Voldemort might try to use your connection again to trick you, so maybe you should close your mind to him" she explained, a bit nervous.
He thought about it for a while, and he realized it made sense. True, Sirius might not really be dead, but still it had been a close call. He didn't feel like risking something like that happening again.
"I think you're right" he said. "Occlumency will surely be handy. And, since I'm not going to let Snape teach it to me again, I guess at least you should master Legilimency so you can help me train"
She nodded, happy that he had accepted her suggestion. Making a mental note to search some books on the matter the next day, she resumed her reading.
--
As the first Quidditch match arrived, it was Gryffindor against Slytherin, Hermione was tense, watching the pitch from the stands. She knew Slytherins always played dirty, and feared for Harry's safety.
The fact that her boyfriend was reckless didn't do anything to ease her worry.
Covering her eyes at every bold move Harry made on his Firebolt, she let the gasps coming from the stands, followed by cheers, tell her if he had smashed himself on the ground yet or not. For the moment, he was still up in the air, trying to shake Malfoy from his tail, as he flew at full speed toward the Snitch, or so Hermione guessed.
Gryffindor was losing 120 to 20, due to Ron's disastrous play as Keeper, and Hermione felt bad for her former friend. She knew how much the redhead liked the sport and playing so badly was not going to raise his spirits, which from what she could see everyday when they met him in the corridors, were far from good.
Harry really needed to catch the Snitch soon, before it would be too late, and he knew it. Malfoy was taunting him as usual, but Harry was concentrating only on the little golden ball flying in front of him.
He was almost there, almost there, just a few more inches…
Suddenly his Firebolt jerked, and he turned to see Malfoy pulling Harry's broom to him. With a growl, Harry flattened himself on the handle, accelerating and effectively escaping Malfoy's grasp. The Snitch, however, was gone.
The boos from the stands told him Slytherin had scored again. The situation was getting desperate. Suddenly he spotted it. A grin spread on his lips, as he rocketed at full speed toward the Gryffindor stands, the little speck of gold hovering just over it.
Malfoy stood no chance, and Harry was a few meters in the lead when he realized that if he grabbed the Snitch where it was right now, he would crash himself straight into…Hermione!
Steadying himself for his boldest move ever, he turned upside down on his broom, and let it zoom just a couple meter over her head, outstretching his left hand toward the Snitch. As he closed his fist, he could feel the winged ball in it, and grinned, steering the broom upwards so that he would avoid hitting the other Gryffindors in the stands.
As he resumed a straight position on his Firebolt, he zoomed in front of the stands, his fist raised in victory, and stopped in front of Hermione, hovering there, and outstretching his other hand to her.
Blushing furiously, she took his hand and with his help mounted on his broom, then he flew the two of them away from the crowd, kissing her as they landed in the middle of the pitch.
Ron, who was walking toward Harry to congratulate him and thank him for helping them win even with the redhead's awful play, stopped in his tracks, jealousy resurfacing once more, and he stomped the other way.
--
That night, after the party in the common room, Harry and Hermione started working on his Occlumency shields.
She had quickly grasped the basics of Legilimency and could provide the not too forceful approach needed for him to start learning how to defend himself from someone probing his mind.
It took him three hours, but in the end he managed to build shields strong enough o resist her probing, even when it became a bit more forceful.
"Good job, Harry!" Hermione complimented him. "I'm really proud of you" she said, pulling him down on the couch with her for a kiss. He gladly obliged, and started sliding his hands under her sweater, making her shiver as his rough skin wasn't exactly warm.
It didn't take him much to find her bra and unclasp it, lifting the offending garment over her mounds.
She kissed him with new enthusiasm and even more passion as his hands started playing with her hardened nipples, and her legs locked around his waist, grinding their crotches together. She could feel him getting aroused, and was glad of the effect she had on him, because he was definitely getting her aroused, as her damp panties could prove.
"Oi! Get a room, you two!" Neville called to them as he entered the common room after a meeting with Luna which had gone more or less along those same lines. Well, to be truthful, it had gone quite a bit further, the Gryffindor boy thought with a blush, recalling their heated encounter in the Room of Requirements, where he and the blonde Ravenclaw had made love to each other three times.
The two lovebirds immediately sprang apart, embarrassed, as Hermione hastily covered herself, looking down.
Harry wrapped his arms around her, but she moved away, and up to the stairs to her dorm. The raven haired boy sighed, scratching his head, while Neville told him he was sorry and had no idea Hermione would be so upset. Harry reassured him it wasn't his fault, then remained for a while alone in the common room, staring at the fire and wondering how to make it up to Hermione.
--
For a couple weeks she avoided most intimate contact with him, limiting their exchanges of affection to only quick pecks on the lips.
Finally, he confronted her about it.
"Hermione, look, I'm sorry that we got caught by Neville the other night, ok? I didn't like it any more than you did, I can assure you" he said, and she nodded, still looking down.
He pulled her close, and this time she didn't resist. "Maybe we should follow their example and make some time to meet each other in the Room of Requirements" he suggested. "There, no one could walk on us"
She nodded into his chest. "I'm sorry for how I reacted these days, Harry" she admitted. "I was so embarrassed!"
He soothed her, both with words and rubbing circles on her back, and finally she looked up, Harry wiping away a couple tears with his thumbs, and she smiled warmly at him.
"I love you" she said, before claiming his lips in a deep kiss.
"I love you too, Hermione" he said, resting his forehead on hers, once they parted. "It kills me to see you sad"
"I know" she whispered, caressing his face. "I'm glad we are ok now" she admitted, as he took her hand and they walked out of the portrait hole to the Room of Requirement for some quality time together.
--
The four friend were studying in the library when suddenly Madam Pince appeared, quite troubled to say the least, and spoke.
"Mr. Potter, the Headmaster wants you immediately in his office" she said. Harry exchanged a look with Hermione and after a curt nod they both ran to the spiralled staircase guarded by the gargoyle. It had been instructed to let them pass without a password, and a minute later, they were inside the office.
"Ah, Mr. Potter. I see you thought wise to bring Ms. Granger with you" Dumbledore smiling said, his eyes twinkling, but not as much as usual.
"I'm sad I have to report to you a bit of bad news, Harry" the Headmaster continued then, seriously. "It seems that Voldemort had decided it was time to make an appearance, and sent his inner circle of Death Eaters to attack your relatives on Privet Drive. Order members are currently there, fighting to protect them"
"I want to go" Harry said, determined. His eyes were burning, and Hermione knew he hoped to find Bellatrix there.
"Now, Harry, the Order is definitely able to control the situation…" Dumbledore said, but Harry wouldn't be swayed. He remembered his chats with his aunt, and as much as he didn't care for Dudley and Vernon, he wanted to make sure she was safe. In the end, the Headmaster sighed.
"Very well, Harry. If you want so much to go…" the old man said, and prepared him a Portkey to the Dursleys' home. Hermione joined him on the trip, and when they more or less graciously landed there, they found the house on fire, and a skirmish between some Order members and a few Death Eaters still going on.
"Reducto!" Harry cried, striking down one of the two dark wizards, while Hermione silently cast a binding charm on another, just as their new DADA Teacher Professor Trevors had taught them to do.
"Harry!" Remus Lupin said. "What are you doing here?" he reprimanded the boy once the last two Death Eaters had been overcome too.
"I wanted to make sure they are safe" Harry said.
Tonks looked nervously at Harry, then at Remus, who nodded. Sighing, she spoke.
"Harry, your uncle and your cousin were killed in a most atrocious way" she said, telling them how the two male Dursleys had been cut to pieces.
"What about my aunt?" Harry asked, worried. Hermione placed a hand on his shoulder in a sympathetic gesture.
"She's been brought to Grimmauld Place. She's safe, luckily she managed to hide long enough for us to arrive, this upset the Death Eaters who set the house of fire, but she got just a couple burns" Remus explained, his face suddenly tired and weary.
Harry nodded, deep in thought.
"I'd like to see her" he said then. Hermione wasn't as surprised as Remus and Tonks by his request, he had told her about his aunt's different behaviour that summer.
Few minutes later, they were all in the Order's Headquarters, and Harry was chatting with his aunt, reassuring her that she would be safe there, and expressing his condolences for Vernon and Dudley.
Petunia nodded, and caught sight of Hermione, waiting on the other side of the room and nervously glancing their way now and then, even if she was involved in a conversation with Tonks.
"She's a nice girl, Harry" Petunia said. "Is she your girlfriend?"
Harry's grin spread wide. "Yes, she is. Amazing, really. I still can't believe it myself, I never truly expected her to like me back"
"Albeit you being a bit strange" his aunt joked, "you are a nice lad, Harry. Don't put yourself down" she told him and he actually laughed, and nodded.
"Take care, Aunt Petunia. Hermione and I have to go back to school, but we will visit at Christmas, for sure, if not sooner"
They kissed each other on the cheek, and then Remus prepared a Portkey to the school for the two teens, who embraced each other and then touched the object, feeling the usual tug behind their navel, before landing back in the Headmaster's office.
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