Disclaimer: Not mine. If it were, Harmony shippers would be celebrating.
A/N: My response to the "Hermione's sister" challenge by Strawberry Nerd. You can find it here: http://talk.portkey.org/index.php?showtopic=26786 . I hope you'll like the story, it will start from HBP, during sixth year, but hopefully this new character will help change things, uh? ;)
Thanks to my beta Gingercat!
A Sister's Influence
Chapter Eight: Confessions
Shock filled the common room after Harry's declaration of love for Hermione. The brunette, still sitting on the couch, looked at him with wide eyes, while Harry was still standing in front of her, his own green eyes boring into hers, his stance almost challenging anyone to say something about it.
Of course, the first to recover from the shock was Ginny. She scoffed, looking at Harry disbelievingly.
"You are in love with her? For Merlin's sake, Harry, look at her! She's plain, boring, always into her books! I can understand that you want to defend her because she's your friend, but lying like this will only hurt her more, don't…" she said, but she could not finish her sentence, because Harry's outstretched arm sent her flying to the other side of the room, slamming her against a wall.
"Don't call me a liar, Ginevra. You know how hard it is for me to express my feelings so openly, so you should know I'd never lie about something like this" he said, finally turning to look at the redhead, his green eyes aflame. "Or, you should know, if you really knew me, cared for me, not for the hero everyone thinks I am"
With that, he gently took Hermione's hand, and lead her out of the common room, to the room of Requirements. She followed him without protesting, still in a daze because of what Harry had said.
"I reckon we need to talk" Harry sheepishly said, as he lead her inside the room, this time the romantic setting being somewhat appropriate he mused.
Sitting her near him on the couch, he took a deep breath, and started talking.
"I know this might seem sudden, Hermione. But since we got close again, after your sister's letters, I started noticing little things about you, things that made me realize just how much I had missed you this year, how much I treasured your company.
Then, every time you smiled at me, I felt this fluttering in my stomach, something like what I felt earlier this year when looking at Ginny, but while that was savage, sudden, this new feeling was gentle, building slowly, and I knew, I just knew it had always been there, not coming out of nowhere. It had been slowly growing, year after year, and it was only now making its presence known. I don't know how I knew that, but I just knew.
I knew that I'd do anything to protect you, which is one of the main reasons I'm going through this training and I'm willing to teach the others. If all of this can be useful to keep you safe when the battle comes, then I'll do it.
I'd tell you more, but this being in love thing is pretty new to me too, so I'm just getting used to it right now, and…" but he didn't finish the sentence, because Hermione, who had been attentively listening to him till now, stopped his ramblings claiming his lips with a fiery kiss.
The raven haired boy, caught by surprise, took a moment to register what was happening, but finally he put his arms around her, pulling her even closer than the little couch had forced them to be till now, and kissed her back with all that he had.
Their tongues circled each other, almost warily at first, then they grew bolder, exploring, dancing together in their mouths. For minutes they kept it going, Harry's hands now caressing her sides while hers were buried in his unkempt mane of black hair, running through its silkiness.
She knew she would love to do that often, so nice was the sensation of her hands running through his locks.
When they finally parted, Hermione looked up at him, her bright chocolate eyes sparkling.
"Oh, Harry" she said, almost breathlessly, and it sent a tingle down Harry's spine. "I never thought you might feel the same, I've had a crush on you for years now, but since fourth year when you made it clear you liked Cho, I always thought you'd never like me back so I learned to bury it deep down in my heart. I thought I could settle for Ron, especially after you got with Ginny, but Ophelia opened my eyes, telling me it was silly because we had nothing in common but you, and she even pointed out I can't have a civil conversation with him if it doesn't revolve around Quidditch"
Harry chuckled, the rumble in his chest evident to Hermione as he still kept his arms around her, keeping her close to him.
"Yeah, pretty shallow, isn't it?" she joked. "And then, you and I had that talk, we worked out our differences, and resumed being close again, and just like for you, when we were together I would feel this tingling in my skin if you touched me, and I felt myself melt every time you grinned at me, and I knew there was no way I could love someone else like I love you, Harry" she finally admitted.
Neither spoke for a long time, but it wasn't awkward. They just revelled in their closeness, marvelling at how well they fit against each other.
"I'm scared" Harry finally said. "I know Malfoy is planning something, but I can't prove it. He's being very attentive, and I'm scared I won't be able to intervene this time, and if I can't, something bad might happen and affect our lives terribly"
Hermione hugged him tighter. "If it happens, it won't be your fault, Harry. No one is expecting you to stop every dangerous thing that comes our way. Our main focus should be on finding those Horcruxes Dumbledore has been telling you about, and to get ready for the fight"
Harry nodded, starting to feel drowsy, but not wanting to let her go. Hermione made no protest about that, and in the following silence, Harry could feel her breath become more and more regular.
With a last smile as he looked at her peaceful face once she had fallen asleep, he closed his eyes and let the tiredness wash over him, and lull him into sleep too.
--
As usual, news travelled fast in the castle, so by morning everyone knew about Harry being in love with Hermione. And many suspected they were together now, so it wasn't really a big shock when the two of them entered the Great Hall for breakfast hand in hand.
Of course, they had to endure a fair bit of teasing from Ron and the other Gryffindors, while Ginny scowled at them from the other end of the table.
Both blushed at being the centre of attention, but they knew it was unavoidable, so they just let the others have their fun while they piled their plates with sausages, toasts and such. A healthy breakfast was always a good way to start the day.
Apart from that, though, their day was pretty similar to the previous ones. Harry had feared Ron might be angry at them, but the redhead had reassured him.
"I knew it would end this way, that's why I'm dating Lav" he said with a wink. Harry chuckled.
Later that night, when Harry and Hermione were once again planning the next session of the DA, he decided to ask her something that had been on his mind since the letters had arrived.
"Hermione, if it doesn't upset you, what exactly happened to your sister with that Jason guy?"
The brunette looked up from the piece of parchment she was writing on, and sighed. "It's a long story, Harry. But if you really want to know it…"
He nodded, so she set the quill down, and started to tell him the whole story.
"It started when I was eleven years old, just before receiving my Hogwarts letter. You know when I got here I was almost twelve, so this happened some months before I arrived to Hogwarts to start school. Almost a year before, to tell you the truth, but the climax wasn't until the summer after our first year.
My sister and Jason had officially met in high school through a tutoring program. She had noticed him before that though, she thought he was nice because he held doors open for girls and acted more like a gentleman than most of the other guys in school. Not that it was difficult, considering how teenage boys usually act" Hermione said. Harry mock scowled at her.
"Hey, I'm a teenage guy too!" he said, pretending to be outraged. She stuck her tongue at him and continued.
"In the tutoring program Ophelia was trying to help him with English but he didn't want actual help. He played on Ophelia's slight crush on him and asked her out, slowly manipulating her until she was doing his homework for him.
I guess he resented that she was better than him at everything and so he made fun of her for reading and mocked her for just about anything she liked. Her grades began to slip and she started to think that she wasn't worth anything, that she wasn't very pretty and that she was lucky that he was dating her because no one else would. She eventually reached the point where she was clinically depressed. Then the asshole broke up with her in favour of a prettier girl" she said, her face distorting in rage. Harry could clearly see she was still pretty angry at this Jason bloke and for good reason, he had to admit. He would be angry too, in her place.
"Seems familiar" He said, trying to lighten the mood with a joke. Hermione caught his meaning and laughed.
"Yeah, I guess he and Ron share some traits, but at least Ron doesn't manipulate people, he just ask them to do his homework for him, plain and simple" she quipped. Harry heartily laughed. "Plus he never hid the fact that looks are the most important quality he looks for in a girlfriend, right?" Harry added, referring to the Yule Ball thing when Ron had banned Eloise Midgen from his possible list of dates because of her looks.
Hermione rolled her eyes muttering something similar to "horny prats"
"Anyway" she started her story again, "After the break up, Ophelia was a complete wreck. It happened a couple weeks before I came back home from here, and during that summer I did all I could to help my sister get back to normal, even going as far as brewing a few potions I'd already read about to counteract the depression.
I even used potions as a way to get Ophelia back into reading and studying hard since they were two things that we had always shared. She slowly got back on her feet and threw herself into her studies, coming out as valedictorian as a way to sort of mock him and I slipped him a contact potion that would make most of his hair fall out- since he was genetically predisposed to baldness anyway what fell out didn't grow back" she admitted with a blush.
"A true Marauder I'd say" Harry winked at her. "So you've not always been such a stickler for rules, uh?"
"I want you to know it was after I had met you and Ron so it was probably your fault that I did that" Hermione said, in an innocent voice which didn't fool Harry.
"Is that so, Miss Perfect?" he teased her. Hermione couldn't hold her façade anymore and burst into a fit of giggles. "You should have seen him completely bald, he was sooo ridiculous!" she said.
"I can believe that. See, that's why I've always know to stay away from you when you're mad. As Ron would say, you're brilliant, but scary" he said, tickling her side.
After a while, she calmed down enough to resume telling him about Ophelia and Jason.
"Jason, after graduation, was a complete failure, no one would hire him, and so he decided to try to get Ophelia back in order to live off of her hard work. He stalked her for awhile, making her paranoid, I swear during that period even Moody would have found her fears excessive!"
"Somehow I find that hard to believe" Harry said. "No one can be more paranoid than Moody" he added with a smile.
"She was. Anyway, through my urging she finally got a restraining order. Jason continued to make threatening phone calls, telling her that he looked forward to getting to know me much better unless she helped him" Hermione could see Harry tense at that. She cursed herself for telling him that, it wasn't like Jason was a real threat anymore, plus she could deal with him on her own anyway. But now Harry was going to go berserk.
"Did he touch you? I swear I'll find him and shred him to pieces if he harmed you in any way!"
"Harry, calm down. He didn't touch me. He was arrested before he had the chance to try anything but the damage was done, Ophelia became hyper sensitive about my safety, and she still is." Hermione shrugged, hugging him to try and calm him down.
Harry begrudgingly let his anger subside as he kept listening to her. He couldn't believe someone so awful could exist. He knew awful on another level with Voldemort, but this Jason guy was a real pain in the ass too, albeit of a completely different kind.
"Originally she was majoring in psychology, it was my idea because I thought that she could use some professional help and deal better with the whole Jason fiasco, but my plan failed when that quickly lost her interest and she changed to biochemistry where she is quite happy. I guess I can't complain about that, if she's happy it's fine with me" the brunette said.
"You two seem really close. It must be good to have someone just a little older than you to confide in, knowing she understands where you're coming from since she has recently gone through almost the same thing" Harry said, a bit wistfully.
Hermione snuggled into his embrace. "It is. I guess we have always been close, but that incident really strengthened our bond. She always makes time to respond to my letters, and she would duel Voldemort himself to keep me safe on any level. I guess I'd do the same for her"
"And you'd have a much better chance to win, too" Harry joked. She smiled warmly at him. "Not as much as you though" she whispered, kissing him softly. He kissed her back, pulling her on his lap.
A few minutes later, Hermione burst into a fit of giggles, and she wouldn't stop. Harry looked worriedly at her, before finally asking, "What's gotten into you?"
"I just remembered something she said. She said she'd love to come here and tell Snape and Dumbledore off for how they behaved through the years. Snape because he's a "complete asshole" standing to her definition, and Dumbledore because "he must have gone senile if he thinks it's wise to have dangerous things like the Philosopher's Stone, Dementors, Dragons and such in a school"
Harry laughed out loud with her, and before long they were in hysterics, rolling on the ground with tears threatening to fall from their eyes they were laughing so hard.
When they finally calmed down, Hermione settled against Harry's right side again. "You know, the Dursleys should watch out too" she said, blushing as she had to admit talking about Harry's relatives with her sister. "I'm sorry I told her, Harry, I know it wasn't my place, but I just had to get it off my chest…"
"Don't worry. I think I might give her more details, just for the fun of seeing Vernon being beaten by a girl" he joked.
"Well, she says these things but she never truly hit anyone. I'm sure she would though, if someone hurts me"
"Should I be worried?" Harry asked, a smirk on his lips as he pulled her closer.
"That depends on how you behave, Mr. Potter" she teased him, kissing the corner of his mouth. He smiled down at her.
"Does she like to go out?" he asked then.
"Well, let's see, she loves to go to see Manchester United play, she's a bit of a crazy soccer fan, a bit like Ron with Quidditch, and that's what she misses the most about England. Then she likes to go out with her friends, or spend some time on her skateboard"
"She skates? It must be fun!" Harry exclaimed. Hermione shrugged. "I never got the hang of it, but she likes it lots. Says it relaxes her, just like flying for you"
Harry nodded, before they once more started working on those DA plans.
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