Chapter 17 - Laying The Cards Out
Harry had his fingers crossed early the next morning ; sincerely hoping that Hermione got a decent night's rest.
Granted, it was a lot of information she had to take in, as he had practically loaded each and every one of his burdens and trials onto her.
A part of him felt extremely guilty for doing this ; for encroaching upon her peaceful, innocent life with his horrifying tales of Horcruxes and Hallows.
Well, not the Hallows.
Not knowing exactly why, he found that he had omitted any mention of the Deathly Hallows and consequently his account of his would-be seventh year was sketchy at best.
Nor did he tell her of Snape's memories and his last deeds.
He went downstairs to find the three Grangers already at the table.
He looked at Hermione and was slightly surprised to see her looking back at him unblinkingly. In his opinion, she looked as close to normal as one could get, although she seemed slightly winded by all that Harry had told her the previous night.
He had a feeling that there was an iota of disbelief in her feelings, as many of his tales defied all logic and reason (something that the practical know-it-all in her couldn't accept too easily).
Other than that, her facial expressions and body language seemed at peace with the world, and this more than anything else assured Harry that she wouldn't have lost too much sleep or had too many nightmares because of him.
Exhaling loudly, he took a seat besides Hermione.
All four of them were silent as they ate their breakfast, but Hermione kept glancing at Harry as if she wanted to say something.
After she opened and closed her mouth for the third time, Jane couldn't stand it any longer and asked, 'something you want to say, Hermione?'
'No!' she blushed, and resolved to kept her head down for the rest of the meal.
Harry, who finally noticed hat Hermione was trying to do, gulped audibly.
He had completely forgotten that they had agreed to tell her parents about the change in their relationship now.
Clearing his throat loudly, he tried attracting Hermione's attention to let her know that he was ready. But it looked like she was determined to keep her head down as she wasn't responding to his silent calls.
He stretched his right hand out under the table and reached for Hermione's.
Instead of meeting her hand as he hoped to, his fingers brushed her thighs and she let out a loud 'Eep!' in response. He withdrew his hand immediately, feeling mortified.
Thomas and Jane raised their eyebrows suspiciously, although they seemed determined to maintain the silence.
Harry finally met Hermione's eye. He nodded to her and subtly gestured to her parents.
Hermione, whose face was still red from Harry's contact with her leg, gave him a small nod and then continued eating.
Ten minutes passed, although it seemed much longer than that to Harry, as he waited for Mr. and Mrs. Granger to finish their meal so he could bring up the big topic.
As soon as they finished, Harry cleared his throat loudly and stopped them from getting up.
'What is it Harry?' Jane asked curiously. Even Thomas looked at him in interest.
Losing nerve, Harry glanced at Hermione for reassurance, although if he was the guy he claimed to be, he knew that he would have to be the one to break the news to her parents.
'Um... we have something we want to tell you, that is, me and Hermione,' Harry started off.
'Hermione and I,' Hermione muttered under her breath.
Harry scowled at her.
'Well, what is it? There are people here who have to go to work,' Thomas grumbled good naturedly.
'Well, um... me and Herm - I mean, Hermione and I, w-we - '
'Harry and I are together,' Hermione blurted out loudly, effectively ending Harry's rambling.
'TOGETHER! Together!' Thomas cried. 'Just what do you mean by together?!'
'We, um... we've evaluated our friendship carefully and we both came to the same conclusion that it would be much more meaningful if we turned it into something more ; something more special than it already is,' Harry said.
Jane nodded approvingly at the boy her daughter had taken a fancy to ; he might have stuttered and stumbled a lot, but he came through when it mattered the most.
Hermione's face lighted up like a Christmas tree and she beamed at Harry's sweet words.
Noticing Hermione's wistful look and his own wife's seventy mm smile, Thomas felt himself lightening up very quickly.
Three people were staring at him, anxiously awaiting his reaction. And to his great surprise, a genuine smile appeared on his features and he nodded firmly at the young couple.
'Okaay, fine with me, I guess, if you're just dating and nothing else...' Thomas added awkwardly.
Jane sighed in relief ; she knew her husband had a heart of gold and he wanted only what was best for his daughter, but he could be incredibly thick-headed and stubborn at times.
Hermione looked pleased. Her father had approved and she hadn't even needed to turn on her 'daddy-i'm-your-only-daughter-so-let-me-have-what-I-want' look. Harry, on the other hand, looked as though someone had just saved him from the path of an incoming bullet train.
Harry and Hermione exchanged happy and relieved looks and they were all about to get up when Thomas stopped them.
'Everybody stay put!' he ordered, and they all hastened to sit down.
'What?' Jane rolled her eyes. 'Is it time for the talk again? The one where all they're allowed to do is sit close and hold hands and nothing else. The one where you'll kill him if he so much as pecks her on the cheek?'
'Don't be silly. I don't have to mention that again. Harry knows what's coming to him if he even tries anything as ridiculous as kissing her on the cheek. And they both know perfectly well that they can't hold hands for more than five minutes. I don't have to explain that to them. No... what I want to know is, how are we supposed to leave them alone the whole day?'
'The same way we did yesterday,' Jane responded drily.
'They weren't dating yesterday.'
'Um... Mr. Granger ?' Harry asked.
'Hm?'
'I think I can speak for the both of us when I say that we're mature enough to be left alone.'
Thomas took a long, hard look at Harry and Harry looked right back before Thomas said, 'I'm pretty sure you are, but it's very easy to lose a grip on that maturity, you know. You guys are teenagers.'
'Well, if there was someone who could stay invisible and monitor us without bothering us, would that be okay?'' Harry asked.
'Hmmm, yes, I don't see why that shouldn't work out,' Thomas replied.
'Well...' Harry began hesitantly, he knew Hermione was going to be mad at him for this. '... I have a friend who fits that requirement.'
'What?'
'Um... he's trustworthy and definitely strong enough to keep us from doing anything stupid,' Harry said. 'Not that we're planning to do anything stupid,' he added quickly.
'Who is he?' Thomas asked suspiciously.
'Erm - his name is Dobby,' Harry replied.
'How old is he?' Thomas asked.
'Ummm... I don't know,' Harry replied lamely.
A suspicious look graced Hermione's features and she asked Harry, 'How tall is he?'
Harry's eyes widened. 'Er - he's around this high,' he said, pressing his hand against the edge of the table.
A moment of silence, and then -
'A HOUSE ELF?!' Hermione shrieked, 'you're keeping a house-elf?! Oh, that's just great, because-'
'Hermione, it's not like that, he's more of a friend, he's like-'
'My boyfriend's a ruthless slave-driver. There's no need for a monitor while we're home alone, Daddy. I don't think we'll be doing anything that teenagers do when they're alone.'
'Oh, Christ,' Harry muttered.
Thomas and Jane exchanged nervous looks.
'Listen, Hermione I'm not a slave-driver. I consider Dobby a friend and he wanted employment. I even gave him three simple rules. Never to punish himself, never to call me master and to accept wages.'
'How much will he get?' Hermione asked.
'That's upto you entirely,' Harry said.
Hermione opened and shut her mouth like a goldfish. A pleased smile appeared on her face. 'Okay,' she muttered.
'Can we see him?' Jane asked nervously.
'Sure,' Harry said. 'Dobby!'
To their credit, Hermione's parents didn't scream out in shock or fall backwards off their chairs when Dobby appeared and it was with gobstruck expressions that they made their introductions.
'Dobby, we need you to do something for us, while me and Jane are at work,' Thomas said.
'Of course sir, what can Dobby be doing for the great Harry Potter's Miss Grangey's parents?' Dobby said eagerly.
Harry's eyes widened and he quickly looked at Hermione. Hermione tried looking back at him as nonchalantly as she could, but it was futile. They quickly looked away, blushing.
'We'll need you to keep an eye out on the house while we're gone, you know, make sure Harry and Hermione don't get upto anything that - '
'Oh no sir! Dobby possibly couldn't interfere in Master Harry Potter sir's private life, if he and Miss Hermy were to mate, Dobby possibly couldn't - ;
'Dobby! You're gonna get me thrown off the rooftop!' Harry moaned out.
Dobby looked at Harry for a long moment, neither one of them able to comprehend what the other was thinking.
'Dobby, you're not prying,' Harry said, 'can you just make sure what Hermione's dad said doesn't happen and we'll all be fine?'
There was a moment of heavy silence and then-
'Dobby will do what Harry Potter asks.' With a snap of his fingers, Dobby vanished.
Thomas, however, still wasn't done.
'How much money do you have Harry?' he asked.
'What?!'
'How much money do you have with you?' he repeated.
'Like... in the bank?' Harry asked dumbly.
'No, not in the bank. What you have over there is none of my business. I meant right now, here in this house.'
'Err... I don't know really. Not much, as I'm planning to stop by at Gringotts before I shop for my third year books at the end of the holiday.'
'Hmmm.'
'Why?'
'Oh, nothing really. Surprisingly enough, I trust you around my daughter but there's nothing to say you won't slip a few gold coins to this Dobby during some crazy moment.'
Hermione rolled her eyes.
'Are you done Dad?' she drawled.
'Yes he is dear,' Jane answered for her husband, and they made their way to the living room.
'You guys can order Chinese for lunch if you want and there's microwave popcorn if you get hungry in the evening. Will you guys be okay?'
'Yes, mum,' two cheeky voices replied and Jane swatted Harry on the back of his head.
'Okay, you be good now,' Thomas said, getting into the car.
A few minutes later, they were sitting upstairs in Harry's room, talking quietly.
'Any word from Ron yet?' Hermione asked.
'Nope, not yet. Although he should be sending a note soon through Pig,' Harry replied.
'Pig?'
'Sorry, I forgot, he doesn't have it yet. I meant Pigwidgeon, that's his owl. He gets it next year.'
'Oh.'
A comfortable silence developed between them, with Harry skimming through a magazine and Hermione humming a pleasant tune under her breath while cross-checking her and Harry's essays.
'Harry?' Hermione started uncertainly.
'Yeah, Hermione?'
'Um... do you know a lot about house elves?'
Oh, no. I should have guessed. 'Hermione,' he groaned, 'I treat him as a friend and I already told you that you can decide how much he's paid.'
'Th - That's n - not what I was talking about,' Hermione mumbled.
'Huh? Then what are you on about?' Harry asked.
'I meant, d - do you know if they follow orders perfectly to a fault or do they overlook things sometimes?'
'I don't know, I guess they follow instructions perfectly why?'
'Do you want to find out?' she asked.
'How are we going to find out?' he asked.
'Oh, um... we can check to see if Dobby follows what my dad told him earlier today,' she mumbled.
Harry had to smile at Hermione's phrasing. Approaching the topic with some logical question that would end up in her getting not only what she wanted, but also giving her some knowledge in the process.This was a Hermione way, a pure Hermione way of asking him if he wanted to kiss a little bit and cuddle with her.
And so he proceeded to do just that.
Sure enough, thirty seconds later, a reluctant Dobby appeared with a cracking loud pop that was more than enough to break them out of their tender embrace.
'Well, I guess they follow orders perfectly,' Hermione growled.
'Dobby is sorry, but Dobby is being ordered to stop Master Harry and his Grangey from - '
'Mating,' Harry drawled out, 'Dobby, we're not doing anything of the sort. Look at us. Does it look like we're doing anything adults would do?'
Dobby looked at them sheepishly and muttered something on the lines of, 'Master and Grangey not be going any further than that,' before disappearing, this time much more quietly than before.
Harry and Hermione exhanged nervous smiles before they moved apart and continued reading.
'You've become really mature,' Hermione commented.
'Yeah well, you know how that happened,' Harry said. 'A seventeen year old's mind and soul stuck in the body of a thirteen year old.'
'Does that mean you have the hormones of a seventeen year old as well?' Hermione asked bluntly.
Harry gulped.
'Well?'
'Yeah, I guess I do,' he said hesitantly, 'but I don't think of that when I see you,' he added quickly.
'Hmmm, that's okay,' she said, 'why would you?' she added so softly he could barely hear her.
'Excuse me?' Harry frowned.
'Nothing, nothing at all,' Hermione muttered.
'I heard what you said,' Harry said sternly.
'Then why'd you ask?' Hermione snapped back.
'That's not important here. I don't like what you said Hermione. If you really feel that way, I'm sorry I lied to you because the truth is when I first saw you in the hospital wing after I was in the Chamber, I didn't see a cute and giggly fourteen year old Hermione.'
'Is that supposed to make me feel better? You saying that you don't think I'm cute?' Hermione said angrily.
'I saw a hot and matured eighteen year old Hermione,' Harry said sharply. 'The one I knew in my previous life. And when I say mature, I mean mature in all the right places.'
Hermione's eyes widened and she looked at Harry blankly for a long moment, before the insecure expression on her face gave way to a brilliant smile.
'Really?' she asked.
'Yeah, I didn't tell you before because I didn't want you to think I'm some kind of perv.'
Hermione laughed softly and moved closer to him.
Stroking his arm softly with her fingers, she whispered, 'no danger of that,' and then proceeded to kiss him soundly on the lips.
*
'So there's something I've been meaning to ask you,' Hermione said seriously as she lightly fanned herself with the newspaper.
It was shortly after lunch and they were sitting outside in the front lawn, where the peaceful summer air was lulling Harry into a lazy slumber.
'Yeah, I'll finish the essay by the end of the week' Harry yawned, struggling to keep his eyes open.
'You're not even listening to me,' Hermione growled.
'Alright, I'll do it by the end of today, happy?' Harry fell to the side and his eyes closed.
'I want to be in a threesome with you and Ron!' she snapped loudly.
'Alright, I'll do it, I'll do it now!' Harry shouted out and after fumbling for a moment for his glasses he opened his book again.
'You'll do what I said?' Hermione asked challengingly, her eyes glinting wickedly.
'Of course I'll do anything you say darling,' Harry winked and gave her a cheesy grin and a sloppy kiss on the cheek.
Hermione shook her head in amusement. She turned serious. 'I wanted to know something about the Horcruxes.'
'Did I leave anything out when I first told you about them?' Harry asked.
'No, not exactly. I, uh, just wanna know what you're going to do about them this time.'
'I'm planning to destroy them like I did last time,' Harry said simply.
'Great answer sailor. When are you planning to find them and destroy them? You said V - Voldemort comes back at the end of your fourth year. That doesn't sound like a lot of time.'
'Hermione, that's almost two years,' Harry laughed uneasily. He could easily understand Hermione's concerns. Standing back, taking things easy and delaying action was not an admirable decision especially where Voldemort was concerned. He needed to obtain the Horcruxes and destroy them as quickly as possible. And then there was the much harder task of cleansing the Ministry of the bigots and Death Eaters, without killing them.
'You've got a point though,' Harry said. 'Now the diary's just been destroyed, I'm not a Horcrux and the Horcruxes that are easily obtainable are the locket and the diadem.'
'What about the ring and the cup?' Hermione asked.
'And old Thomas himself,' Harry added with a smile.
'Yeah,' Hermione said unnecessarily.
'Well, the ring and the cup will have to wait for some time, I'm afraid. We can't do magic outside of school and you can't Apparate so we'll need some adults who we can trust completely to help us with that.'
'Sirius?' Hermione asked.
'And Remus... and maybe even Tonks,' Harry replied, 'All said and done, no matter how much I loved them, I didn't spend as much time as I would have liked to with any of them. I got to know Sirius at the end of my third year, we barely stayed in touch in my fourth, he was cooped up in that damn house in fifth and he... he d - died at the end of the year, barely two years to the day I first met him.'
Hermione nodded understandingly. 'Even Remus Lupin too, right?'
'Yeah,' Harry said, 'the only Marauders left. They're all I have of my parents.'
There was another moment of silence as Hermione allowed Harry to brood silently.
Finaly, when she could stand it no longer, she asked something that had been brewing in her mind ever since Harry had told her about the order in which Voldemort made his Horcruxes.
'You told me that there were a lot of minor, seemingly insignificant changes that have happened since the time you came back right?'
Puzzled, Harry simply nodded.
'And you're not a Horcrux right? Are you sure of that?' she asked.
'Well, yeah, I checked when I was down in the Chamber.'
'How did you do that?' Hermione asked curiously.
'Well, I conjured a snake and tried singing to it, but it just slithered away. So I couldn't talk to it, which means I don't have the Horcrux in me. So then I just vanished it and conjured a broomstick to come up to the castle level.'
'You can vanish living organisms and conjure naturally charmed objects?! When do we learn that?!! I mean, I've read upto fourth year level and it doesn't go that far, though I did miss a few areas in Transfiguration because I was so busy last year with discovering the heir and brewing the Polyjuice, but it might not be in fifth year either considering all the advanced theory that we need to learn first to get it right, and - '
'HERMIONE!!' Harry shouted, 'take it easy... You're rambling.'
'Sorry,' Hermione blushed, 'I lost control of myself.'
'That's okay,' Harry chuckled. 'By the way, it's been five years since I was in second year, but I do vaguely remember transfiguring birds into water goblets.'
'Yeah, but that's because we didn't create the bird, Professor McGonagall handed it to us and we turned it into a simple, pretty much useless object.'
'A water goblet isn't useless,' Harry said.
'Yes it is, all it does is hold water or any liquid.'
'That's what it's supposed to do,' Harry said, wondering at what point of time their conversation had gone from intelligent and sensible to dumb and meaningless.
'But it's a Muggle object. You created a broomstick, something that is inherently charmed to fly and accelerate and slow down and you get the meaning!'
'Yeah, so.. What were you trying to ask me anyway?'
Hermione glared at him and then continued, 'Well, if you're not a Horcrux, then something or someone had to have become a Horcrux that night he tried to kill you on Halloween. You said that when his curse rebounded, a part of his soul escaped and latched onto the only remaining living thing inside the building, which was you. But you're not a Horcrux.'
'So you're saying that something or someone else became a Horcrux that night?' Harry asked, fear rising in him.
Hermione nodded slowly.
'Do you have any idea?' he asked hopefully.
'Well, maybe it's some object that Voldemort picked up and initially decided to make a Horcrux out of with your death. I don't think it can be a living thing, because both of you were the only ones there.'
'Well, that's lovely. Another Horcrux whose identity we have no idea of. Not to mention we have no clue where to find it and even if we do find it, we have no idea of the protections that cover it.'
'You're just a bright little ray of sunshine, aren't you?' Hermione asked rhetorically.
'Well, what I said was actually kinda true,' Harry pointed out.
'It could be that he brought the snake with him that night,' Hermione said.
'And if he did, and it became a Horcrux, what then? It evaded Sirius, Hagrid and whoever else came to visit my house after that Halloween and slithered away to Little Hangleton or Albania or wherever the hell it stayed for thirteen years?'
'Yeah, that rules the snake out, doesn't it?' Hermione remarked.
'And at this point of time, the snake isn't yet a Horcrux. Dumbledore said Voldemort made a Horcrux out of it after he killed Frank Bryce, the Muggle gardener.'
'So how many Horcruxes are there as of now, including the one that's been destroyed?' Hermione asked, 'there's the locket, the cup, the diadem, the diary, something he used on Halloween, the ring and Voldemort himself. That's seven.'
'I was an accidental Horcrux and in my old world, he thought that when he created Nagini, he had seven Horcruxes, although he actually had eight. All along, he wanted seven because it's the most powerful number. So depending on whether he knew whether he had created a Horcrux that Halloween night, he's going to make Nagini a Horcrux sometime next year.'
'Which means we have to go to Godric's Hollow and scout around for Horcruxes,' Hermione supplied.
'We have lots to do,' Harry groaned.
'We still haven't talked about Voldemort's rebirthing party itself and what to do with the Ministry and its corrupted ranks,' Hermione added helpfully and Harry groaned even louder.
AN - Well, here it is, in the first week of December (almost)!
One bad thing that's happened to this story is that I lost the notebook in which I wrote down the basic storyline and all the minor details of the story, and the sad part is that I had practically handwritten the final few chapters containing the final battle etc etc in that notebook, so now I'm running off memory and whatever strikes my mind until I write it down again in a new notebook.
Like promised, the next chapter will be out by the 20th, if not even before... :)
As usual, please review when you're done reading!!