Chapter 3: New Beginnings and What's Right.
After finishing packing his belongings, Harry collapsed onto the tiny bed and lay there staring at the ceiling for what seemed like hours. Sometime during the night, Harry had gotten up and taken off his clothes before climbing back onto the bed wearing only a pair of boxers.
His dreams were starting out as usual, the image of Snape leaning over Dumbledore right before he killed him. Just as the brilliant green flash from the killing curse left Snape's wand, Harry's nightmare shifted into the dream of the beautiful witch holding a tiny baby in her arms, their child.
Harry stood in the doorway in his dream trying to memorize everything about his surroundings that he could. Then he heard it for the first time, her soft, lilting, voice that was singing to the infant in her arms. Harry could not make out the words but he recognized the melody of the song. Her voice was angelic but because he was too far away, he couldn't identify the woman.
She was far too beautiful to be anything except a woman. Tentatively, Harry took a step forward towards them. She still had her back to him when he realized that she wasn't wearing a top. Harry was feeling overwhelmed with emotions and he started to tremble in his sleep. His breathing quickened and his heart started pounding in his chest. Swallowing nervously, Harry took another step closer towards them and he reached out his hand to touch her shoulder.
Just as his hand made contact with her bare shoulder, he felt a jolt and then he was encompassed by a feeling of love. The beautiful witch took a step backwards and leaned into his touch.
~AQ~
Hermione had just stepped inside of the door to Harry's room when he started breathing heavily and moving around in his sleep. Fearing that he was having another nightmare, she quickly strode over to the bed and pulled him into a hug while softly calling out to him, "Harry? It's okay, please wake up!"
His body tensed for a few seconds before he relaxed into her embrace. She was running one of her hands through his hair trying to calm him down while making soothing noises. As his breathing slowly returned to normal, Hermione realized that Harry had fallen back into a deep sleep.
Looking down at his face, she leaned down and placed a tender kiss on his scar before softly disentangling herself and covering him with the sheet that was bunched-up around his feet.
Kneeling down next to his bed, Hermione noticed that he looked more peaceful than she could ever remember seeing him from recent memory. His face was relaxed and the lines of tension around his mouth and on his forehead were gone.
Deciding that it would be best to let him sleep for a little while longer, she stepped out of the room and quietly closed the door. Once she was in the back yard Hermione quickly Apparated to Diagon Alley to grab some food before returning to Privet Drive.
~AQ~
Harry's dream drifted away into the mists of his mind when he felt the warm embrace and he dropped off into a very restful sleep.
When he awoke a while later, it was to the smell of bacon and eggs in his room. Snatching his glasses and putting them on his face, he quickly recognized Hermione sitting at his desk munching on a piece of toast while reading the Daily Prophet.
"Good morning. I was wondering when you were going to wake up." stated Hermione with a small grin on her face.
Harry smiled back at her and said, "Morning, Hermione. Thanks for bringing breakfast, I really didn't fancy going downstairs to cook anything after my little meeting with Petunia yesterday."
Frowning slightly at Harry's tone regarding his aunt, Hermione looked over at him and intoned, "Harry, I haven't seen your relatives all morning. I had to let myself in after no one answered the door, it was unlocked too. What happened yesterday?"
"Petunia and I had a nice long discussion about blood wards and my parent's belongings that she has kept hidden from me for the past sixteen years. It didn't end well though, she wouldn't admit to how long she had been hiding their possessions from me and I sort of used Legilimency on her to get the answers." Harry said after swallowing a bite of his eggs.
Hermione let out a small gasp as Harry mentioned using Legilimency on his Aunt. "I thought that you didn't know how to perform Legilimency, Harry?"
"Actually, I think I may have a natural talent for it, or it is a skill that Tom passed to me like he did with Parseltongue." Harry said before taking a bite of his toast. Swallowing, he continued, "The thing is, I didn't even use a wand or say the incantation. I was looking right into her eyes, and I demanded to know the truth about how long she had my parent's things in storage. The next thing that I knew, I was sifting through her memories very quickly until I found the one that I wanted."
Hermione was worrying her bottom lip between her teeth in thought before she answered, "Harry, it could be a combination of both. Either way, we should take some time and develop your skills in Legilimency and Occlumency. They would be really helpful in our quest to find the items that we are looking for."
"Who am I going to practice on, Hermione?" Harry asked. Wiping his mouth on a napkin, he said, "It's not like I can just walk up to people and start scanning their thoughts, especially wizards, because they could tell what I am doing and it isn't exactly moral to invade someone else's mind."
"You can practice on me, Harry." Before Harry could reply in the negative, Hermione continued by saying, "Harry, I'm a natural Occlumens, Dumbledore tested me himself last year. I don't know how or why I'm a natural, but Dumbledore mentioned that it's because I have a highly ordered mind with a near photographic memory."
Harry looked at Hermione with his mouth hanging slightly open before he replied, "Thanks a lot, Hermione. You don't have to do this you know. If I ever succeed in breaking through your defenses, I will end up seeing some things that you may want kept private. I'll try not to view those memories but it's hard to control most of the time. When I accidentally broke into Snape's mind during our fifth year, I saw him witnessing a fight between his parents when he was a little boy."
Hermione gave Harry a small smile before replying, "Harry, I trust you and I know that you wouldn't bring up memories like that if you could help it. We should pick up some books on Occlumency and Legilimency when we visit Diagon Alley later."
~AQ~
After a quick shower and a change of clothes, Harry asked Hermione to Apparate him to Diagon Alley. "Let's head over to Gringotts first, Hermione. I can get a few things sorted out and retrieve some gold from my vault so we can get those books. I would also like to visit a wizard optometrist to get some new glasses if possible. These old things aren't very durable." Harry said.
"You also need some new clothes, Harry. I mean you look good in your Quidditch robes so why hide it under those baggy things you are wearing now?" Hermione's face turned a bright shade of pink when she realized that she had said the last part aloud.
"And just how long have you been checking me out in my Quidditch robes?" Harry said with a small, teasing, smile on his face.
"Uh, right, we should really get going. Lots to do today you know." Hermione said in a very high-pitched voice.
Slightly embarrassed and still a light shade of pink, Hermione grabbed Harry's hand and turned on the spot. They arrived in the alley just behind the Leaky Cauldron with a small pop.
"You're really getting good at side-along apparition Hermione." Harry stated, letting her off the hook for now as they began their walk towards Gringotts.
"Thanks, Harry. I actually find it easier when apparating with you then when I do it on my own. I think that you're helping with the destination and I'm never that quiet." Hermione stated simply.
"I never really thought about it before but when I Apparated Dumbledore back from the cave to Hogsmeade, I had to do everything by myself." In a quiet whisper and with tears in his eyes, Harry said, "He, he was so weak…he couldn't help me at all. It was all I could do just to keep him standing so I concentrated as hard as I could and took us both back to the Three Broomsticks."
Hermione stepped closer to Harry and swept him into a gentle hug, before leading him over to a small waiting room just off the lobby in Gringotts. "Harry, it's okay, you did everything that you could that night. Just getting Dumbledore back to Hogsmeade was a big accomplishment. I can't Apparate that far on my own and you did it carrying an injured person."
Rubbing his back comfortingly, she said, "You really are a powerful wizard, Harry. There are things that you make look easy but are a stretch for most other wizards and witches to even attempt."
Harry was looking down at his hands on the table as he spoke quietly, "I'm nothing special, Hermione. I mean, take a look at my grades, nothing great there."
"Harry, please look at me." Once Harry brought his eyes up to look into Hermione's, she reached out, clasped her hands on top of his, and began speaking, "I know that you've been hiding your talents at Hogwarts so you can divert attention away from yourself. The question is, why? Is this something left over from the Dursley's abuse or is it to make others underestimate you?"
Harry's eyes widened in shock at her revelation. Coming to a decision, he pulled a wand from his sleeve that Hermione didn't recognize and with a quick flick of his wrist, she felt a rush of magic. The lock on the door clicked, and then the background noise from the lobby disappeared.
"What was that? You're going to get into serious trouble for using magic before you're seventeen!" Hermione said in a harsh whisper.
Holding up his hand to forestall further questions, Harry flicked his wrist a few more times before putting the strange wand back into his sleeve. His tone was serious as he said, "How did you know about the Dursleys, and when did you figure that out?"
"Oh, Harry. I'm so sorry." Hermione now had tears in her eyes as she looked up at him. Her voice broke a little as she began speaking again, "I figured out the part about the Dursleys during our third year. I just didn't say anything about them because I figured you would never bring it up and that it was probably a very sensitive topic."
Harry's mouth was hanging open slightly and Hermione reached across the table, lifted his chin up to close it, and said with a chuckle, "Flies, Harry, flies. I figured out the hiding in plain sight part during our fifth year. I never saw you actually practice the spells that you taught us during the DA. You just performed them as if you had been doing them for ages."
Pausing to gather her thoughts, she continued, speaking quietly, "It was such a horrible year for you but your grades on your O.W.L.S. were very good, minus the two obvious ones where the exams were interrupted. So why did you throw your O.W.L.S.?"
"You really are the smartest witch of our age, you know that don't you?" Harry proudly said with a smile before his demeanor changed and his physical appearance began to shift. His body grew a few inches and he filled out his baggy clothes. His hair was now just below his shoulders, it was still a little wild in the back but it framed his face and appeared more styled.
To complete the look he removed his glasses and looked up at Hermione's astonished face. Reaching across the table, he returned the favor and used his index finger to gently close Hermione's mouth while saying, "Flies, Hermione, flies."
"You're a Metamorphmagus!" Hermione whispered excitedly before she got a contemplative look on her face as she drifted through her memories. "Oh, I should have seen that ages ago when you mentioned that you hadn't had a haircut since your Aunt Petunia cut it all off and it grew back overnight. I guess that I just assumed that you were getting your haircut during the school year. When did you figure out that you were a Metamorphmagus Harry?" she finished in a rush.
Harry smiled at her as he spoke, "I figured it out during our fourth year actually. It took me most of that year to learn to control my abilities. I didn't realize that I was unconsciously keeping my appearance the same." He paused for a moment while he reminisced about that discovery. Smiling depreciatively, he said, "It came as quite a shock when I found out that I could control it and discovered what I really looked like.
He almost laughed at the expression on Hermione's face; it was a mixture of excitement and eagerness. Continuing, he said softly, "After I figured that out I decided that I would be safer looking the way that everyone had grown accustomed to seeing me; an undersized, average wizard, with messy hair and bad eyesight."
"Wow. I mean, wow. How many people know what you really look like, Harry?" said an astonished Hermione.
"Only two people have ever seen my real form besides myself." Harry said simply.
"So Ginny and I are the only ones that know what you look like?" Hermione asked.
Shaking his head in the negative, Harry whispered, "No, just you know, now. The only other person that I revealed myself to was Sirius during Christmas of our fifth year while we were staying at Grimmauld Place. He had been helping me by sending me a list of spells that weren't taught at Hogwarts."
Tears sprung to his eyes as he choked out sadly, "Merlin, I miss him."
Hermione was not expecting that bit of news and the shock of it shown clearly on her face. Tentatively she asked, "Harry, what are you going to tell Ginny?"
With a grim look on his face, Harry pulled a worn photograph from the back pocket of his pants and silently handed it over to Hermione.
"Where did you get this picture of you and Ginny? Colin would have shown me this for sure." The confusion in Hermione's voice was evident.
Taking the photograph back from Hermione and setting it on the table in front of her, Harry smoothed out the edges before saying reverently, "Hermione, that picture is of my parents when they were at Hogwarts. Remus sent it to me last week. He discovered it while going through some of Sirius' things in his bedroom."
All Hermione could manage was a tiny exclamation of sorrow and understanding as the pieces of the puzzle fell into place.
"I do love Ginny and I would do anything to keep her safe. However, I love her like a sister and a friend. When I pushed her away it was for a variety of reasons, all of them wrong, but I am glad that I did end the relationship. I was going to show her the picture and explain everything to her when we visit the Burrow next week. I just hope that she understands better after seeing this photo." Stopping to collect himself, Harry said miserably, "I don't want to hurt her more than I already have."
Taking his hands in hers, Hermione looked at Harry and said warmly, "I know that this is a really difficult burden for you to endure but I will be with you the entire time." before pulling him into a loving hug.
When Hermione pulled Harry into a tight embrace, he began weeping. He cried for the loss of his parents, Cedric, Sirius, Dumbledore, and his own innocence. Hermione was shocked at first but she just held on to Harry tightly and whispered comforting words until his sobs abated.
"Thank you for trusting me enough to show me what you really look like and to open up to me." Hermione whispered into Harry's ear. Pulling back from him so she could look into his eyes Hermione placed her hand on his cheek, and said lovingly, "I am so proud of you Harry, for doing what is right and not what is easy."
-->