Disclaimer: Since I'm not a RHr shipper, I'm not JK Rowling. Thus, HP is not mine, unfortunately.
A/N: Well, I got an email proposing me a challenge, and I found the idea fun to do, so here I am. Beware, though, this will involve lots of smut, and when I say lots, I mean it, lol. So, without further useless chatter, here it is!
Thanks to my beta Gingercat!
Depressed? No, Aroused!
Chapter Three: Getting Comfortable
Lunch passed smoothly, with Tom and Cathleen doing their best to make Harry feel at home and include him in the conversation. Hermione and her parents had agreed not to mention Sirius' death, as the brunette wanted her friend to relax and try to get past what had happened. Especially past holding himself responsible for that.
Tom was particularly interested in Quidditch, and asked Harry about the game. "Not that Hermione wouldn't be a reliable source for the rules and how the game is played, but hearing it from the point of view of a player must be interesting" he said, cutting the roasted chicken his wife had cooked.
Harry exchanged a quick glance with Hermione, giving her a smile as he remembered just how many practices or games she attended.
"Well, considering that she was always there when I played, I'm sure Hermione would be able to tell you lots about it, but basically there are seven players. A Keeper, two Beaters, three Chasers and a Seeker, that would be me. There are three golden rings, and the Chasers have to throw a red ball called a Quaffle through them to score, the Keeper obviously tries to catch the ball. There are two other magicked balls called Bludgers, and the Beaters use bats to throw them at the players of the opposing team. They can be pretty mean if they hit you" Harry said, wincing as he remembered his encounter with one of them in second year.
"Then there is this tiny golden ball, which has wings and can fly on its own. It is called the Golden Snitch, and my job as Seeker is to find it and catch it before the other Seeker. When I do, my team gets 150 points and the game ends. Until the Snitch is caught, the game continues, so it can last just a few minutes, many hours, or even whole days. That's rare, but it happened a couple of times" Harry explained over lunch. Tom was mesmerized by his speech, while Hermione good-naturedly rolled her eyes with a smile playing on her lips, and as she was involved in another conversation with her mother.
--
In the afternoon, the Grangers had to go to work for a few hours, so once they were alone Hermione took Harry for a tour of the house. She showed him the living room, the kitchen he had just seen at lunch, her own room, the bathroom. Harry was awed, it was much better than the Dursleys', but possibly that was because of the people living in it, who gave the whole home a more welcoming atmosphere.
He liked it.
Then Hermione out of habit took his hand and lead him outside, showing him the garden. When they came to the backyard, Harry grinned. He was right, there was a pool.
"I knew I had spotted a pool when we arrived" he said, turning to look at Hermione. She was beaming at him, it was really a sight to see him so carefree, and she knew she could get used to that side of Harry very quickly.
"Well, what do you say we make the most of it then?" she suggested. "It's been so long since I've been able to enjoy a good swim" she said, a bit wistfully.
"Er…Hermione? I don't have any swimming trunks…" Harry pointed out, his eyes widening a bit. Hermione saw that, and a giggle escaped her. Harry was a bit lost about what was so funny, still he noticed, once again, that he loved the sound of Hermione giggling, or laughing in general. That brought a smile to his own face.
"You find that funny, Granger?" he smirked, and Hermione knew from his face that she was in trouble. She barely had the time to think about escaping before he had grabbed her, tossed her onto his shoulder, and was marching directly toward the pool.
"Harry, you wouldn't dare…" she threatened, but Harry wasn't the son of one of the best pranksters Hogwarts had ever seen for nothing. The brunette found herself tossed into the cool water with all her clothes on.
She emerged a few seconds later, spluttering, her wet clothes sticking to her skin. That proved to be quite an eyeful for Harry, considering she was wearing a white t-shirt with no bra, and the coolness of the water had caused her nipples to harden.
The two teens looked at each other, blushing furiously, before Hermione bolted inside to get changed. Harry stood there, rooted to the spot, the image of Hermione with the wet clothes burned into his brain.
Finally, a couple minutes later he groaned, realizing he was starting to get hard because of it. "You're a fucking pervert, Potter" he chastised himself. "Thinking about your best friend like that"
He decided to try and push the image out of his mind, sitting on a nearby chair and waiting for Hermione to return. When she did, though, Harry guessed maybe the image of her with wet clothes and hardened nipples was less arousing than what he was seeing at the moment.
Hermione had come back with only a bikini on, and had brought him some swimming trunks of her father's. "Try these on" she said, tossing them at him with a wink, before diving into the pool, giving him a perfect view of her bum as she did so, considering that back there the bottom of her bikini was little more than a strip of cloth going between her ass cheeks.
"Bloody Hell" was all Harry was able to think while he closed himself in the bathroom trying on the swimming trunks. As he found one that fit him well, it was yellow with orange small drawings on it, he rearranged himself so that his raging hard-on was less conspicuous.
Embarrassed like never in his life, Harry went back to the pool, and quickly dove in to hide his condition.
He had to admit the cool water was a nice break from the hotness of the day, and slowly he relaxed enough to start playing around with Hermione, splashing each other, and chasing her around the pool.
If this was how his holidays would be, he knew he could get accustomed to it very easily.
--
When Tom and Cathleen came back that night, Harry and Hermione surprised them with dinner.
"Harry, really, you shouldn't have! You're a guest here and I'd never make my guests cook!" Cathleen said.
Harry shrugged. "If there's something I learned from the Dursleys it was how to cook, so I wanted to do it for you, to express my gratitude for having me here for the summer. I understand it was kind of on short notice…" he said with a glance to Hermione, who grinned sheepishly.
"Harry, we're really glad to have you here. From what Hermione has told us about you all these years, and it is lots, you're a really good bloke, and we are happy our daughter is friends with someone like you" Tom interjected. Hermione blushed a tiny bit at that, as Harry gave her a questioning look.
"Well, since you've worked so hard, and from the smell I'd say you cooked us a delicious dinner, so we better not let it get cold" Cathleen finally said, and a few minutes later the four of them were around the table for dinner. Harry and Hermione told her parents they spent the afternoon in the pool.
"It's nice to be able to cool down a bit" Tom said, "this summer promises to be one of the hottest ones we've had in a long time"
As everyone ate and chatted amiably, Harry couldn't help thinking his life with his parents might have been just like that if Voldemort hadn't killed them. Or his life with Sirius, if he hadn't spent thirteen years in Azkaban.
From there to thinking about Sirius' death was just a breath away, and so he was quiet through the rest of dinner. Hermione must have sensed his change of mood, because when he excused himself after dinner claiming he was a bit tired, she soon knocked on his door.
"Come in" he said, just knowing it was her. He was sprawled on the bed, face pressed down on the cushion, and a couple tears leaking from his eyes.
"You were thinking about Sirius back at dinner, weren't you?" Hermione said as she sat on the bed, running her hand through his unruly black hair.
"Yeah" he croaked out. "Seems unfair that I'm having fun when I should be mourning him, don't you think?"
"Harry, you know he wouldn't want you to waste your life mourning for him. He knew the risks of joining the Order, he was there in the first war too" Hermione reasoned, lying on the bed near him now, and wrapping her arms around him.
That was exactly why she had wanted to have Harry with her that summer, to prevent or contain moments like this.
Harry slowly relaxed into her embrace. "I know you're right, but it's hard not to feel guilty for having fun when he is dead" he finally whispered, turning so that he was facing her now.
"I know" she said softly, tenderly caressing his face.
"Can we stay here like this for awhile longer?" Harry asked, sounding almost hopeful, and Hermione nodded. "Of course we can" she whispered.
And so they did, with no other words spoken. There was no need between them, the silence wasn't awkward like it might have been with someone else. Both felt perfectly at ease, so much that they fell asleep in a matter of minutes, Hermione's arms still around him.
When Cathleen found them like that a couple hours later, she couldn't help but smile.
"Do you think we should wake them up so that Hermione can go to her room?" Tom asked from behind her.
Her mother turned and glared at him. "Don't you dare disturb them. They look so peaceful right now…"
With a sigh, Hermione's father relented. He knew there was a strong possibility Harry and his baby would become a couple, and he rationally knew Harry was one of the best young men Hermione could find for herself, but his fatherly instincts wanted to keep her his baby forever.
That wasn't going to happen though, and he knew that he would have to let her go, eventually.
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