Chapter 4 - Confrontations
Harry angrily strode through the front doors of Hogwarts castle, a letter from Headmistress McGonagall clutched in his fist.
Dear Mr. Potter,
It is my regret to inform you that both of your daughters were disruptive in transfiguration class today and received detention. Miss Jade Potter stopped misbehaving, but Miss Raven Potter continued. Therefore, we request your presence tonight at 7:00 PM in the hope that you may be able to help us resolve this issue.
Thank you for your time,
Headmistress McGonagall
Harry couldn't believe it. His two angels had never misbehaved before. They were very good girls and Harry was always proud of them.
After being rejected by Hermione, he had moved away immediately to the southern part of England and after a month of being lonely, decided to blood-adopt a child. He went to an orphanage that only housed the children of witches and wizards and met many children, but instantly fell in love with Raven and Jade, who were twin sisters.
So, a couple hours and plenty of signed forms later, 9-year-olds Raven and Jade were Potters and timidly exploring the new Potter Mansion with Harry, who was giving them a tour. Over the next few years, the three grew into a proper family and loved each other very much, with Harry telling them stories of his, Ron's, and Hermione's adventures in Hogwarts.
Although Hermione had broken his heart, Raven and Jade were there to mend it and he was quickly back to normal. The only pang of sadness came whenever he spoke of Hermione to the girls, and although he tried to not let it show, Raven and Jade were both very intelligent and observant and he knew that they knew that Hermione had done something to make him sad.
Something that was definitely not helping Harry's mood was all of the students holding out parchments and random objects to be signed. But Harry had dealt with it before and chose to use his best tactic: just ignore it. Headmistress McGonagall appeared at the end of the Entrance Hall and cried, "Shoo! Shoo! All of you, into the Great Hall for dinner or you'll be receiving detention!"
With much grumbling and quite a few foot-stamps, the students reluctantly complied with Headmistress McGonagall's command. McGonagall then walked up to Harry and gave him one of her rare smiles. "So good to see you, Harry."
"And you, Professor McGonagall," replied Harry amiably.
"Oh please, Harry. I feel old enough as it is with the children calling me professor! Can't you do an old woman a favor and call me Minerva?" asked McGonagall, who seemed to have changed a bit since Harry had last seen her.
"Of course, Minerva. I just wish we weren't meeting again on such bad news," replied Harry.
"Ah, yes. Raven and Jade," replied McGonagall, who seemed to be deep in thought. "It's quite odd, actually. They behaved perfectly well in their other classes today. I don't understand what happened; all of the other professors loved them!"
"Er…Hermione is the transfiguration professor, unless I'm mistaken?" asked Harry, who had an eyebrow raised.
"You are correct," replied McGonagall as she led Harry toward her office. "Why would that be a problem?"
"Oh, it's nothing," said Harry. "Let me just have a word with my girls in private. I'll have this sorted out in no time," replied Harry.
"I trust that you will," said Minerva, who had stopped outside of her office and said, "Spotted Tabby," to the stone gargoyle, which leapt aside to reveal the staircase to McGonagall's office.
Harry stood on the top step and rode it to the top, then took a deep breath before opening the doors and stepping in. Raven and Jade were sitting in front of McGonagall's desk but facing Harry, who conjured a chair a few feet in front of them. His two girls were looking at their feet.
They sat in silence for a couple minutes until Harry quietly said, "Do either of you have anything to say for yourselves?"
Raven looked up and said, "It was my fault, dad. Jade wouldn't have done anything if it weren't for me."
Jade looked up sharply. "No, daddy! It was both of us." She glared at her sister. "We deserve equal punishment."
"But according to your professor, you stopped, Jade," said Harry.
"Yeah, b-but…" stuttered Jade, who sighed and gave up.
There were a couple more minutes of silence before Harry broke it again. "I'm very disappointed in the both of you. I expected better from you two."
When Raven looked up again she had tears in her eyes. "I'm sorry, dad."
"You shouldn't be apologizing to me," said Harry. "I expect you two to apologize to Professor Granger tomorrow. And I'll know if you haven't." Raven and Jade glanced at each other. "And now, the question that I really want answered. Why Professor Granger? You two behaved perfectly in the rest of your classes." Harry reclined in his chair to wait for their response.
"You know those stories you tell us about when you were in Hogwarts?" asked Raven.
"Yes," said Harry, pretty sure where this was going.
"Well, whenever you talk about Professor Granger, you get really sad. We thought, well…" trailed off Raven.
"You thought she hurt me? You thought that you would get her back for me?" asked Harry, arching an eyebrow.
Both girls nodded.
Harry sighed. "As much as I appreciate the sentiment, even if I wanted to 'get back at Hermione' I would do it myself. You guys just need to worry about yourselves, okay?" They both nodded. "And for the record, well…it's actually my fault we aren't friends anymore."
Both girls' heads snapped up, shocked. "W-what?" stuttered Jade.
"I made a mistake, and because of it I ran away and didn't talk to her again. The fault is completely mine," said Harry heavily.
"But weren't you two best friends?" asked Jade. "Why didn't you try to talk to her again?"
"Well," said Harry, scratching his head, "it's really complicated, but basically…I was scared. Scared that she would hate me."
Raven and Jade looked at each other in shock. They had never seen their dad scared before.
Harry sighed again. "Okay, now its time for the hard part. Punishment." Raven and Jade looked at each other gloomily. "Well, Raven, I hope this talk we had will stop you from continuing to misbehave, but you did keep going after the first detention, so you still need to be punished. So…I think you should have detention with Professor Granger for the rest of the week and if you disrupt her class again this month you'll receive a suspension." Harry gave her a minute to let that sink in.
"I guess that's only fair," said Raven.
"What about me, daddy?" asked Jade.
"You served your punishment already, didn't you?" asked Harry.
"But I already told you that it was my fault too!" cried Jade. "It's not fair to Raven if you only punish her!"
Harry had to hold back a smile. He loved them so much and it made him happy when they stuck up for each other. It made him wish he had a sibling.
"If you're sure…" said Harry. Jade nodded vigorously. "Alright, you'll be joining Raven in her detentions, then." Harry stood up. "Well, that settles that. And I mean it when I say that you two are going to apologize to Professor Granger tomorrow."
"Okay," they said simultaneously.
"And always remember that I love you guys and I'm only an owl away, okay?" said Harry, crouching down and holding out his arms.
Raven and Jade both hugged him, saying, "Love you too, daddy."
Harry stood up, hiding the tears in his eyes. It would (most likely) be three months until he saw them again.
"Alright, girls. You better behave, or I'm taking back your Christmas presents," Harry joked before leaving the office. Harry stopped before going down to McGonagall to give himself a minute to smile.
They would be alright.
***GMAC***
Hermione checked her watch-it read 7:25 PM. She had five minutes until she was supposed to meet Headmistress McGonagall to discuss what Raven's punishment was going to be.
She liked to get to meetings early, but grading the papers had taken much longer than she thought it would due to the fact that her mind kept wandering to what Raven had asked her today before leaving. It was like she had reopened the wound, and Hermione constantly found herself on the verge of tears for the rest of the day.
She turned a corner and walked right into somebody, making her fall over backwards. She quickly scrambled to her feet, face beet red, and said, "Oh my gosh, I'm so-"
She stopped short as she saw who she had walked into. Her breathing picked up and her heart fluttered in her chest. It had been so long since she had seen him, and he looked as handsome as ever.
Harry seemed to recover himself first. "Sorry about that. Please excuse me."
Hermione felt her heart twist in her chest as he walked past her without another word. 15 years of friendship, gone. Her chance to be with Harry, gone. She hoped that when they saw each other again, they might at least chat and perhaps Hermione could finally confess her feelings to him. And now here she was…watching Harry walk away…again. Well, this time she wouldn't let him. This time, she would do things differently.
"Harry!" she cried, and felt relief when Harry stopped and turned around.
Hermione slowly walked up to him and stopped right in front of him, her heart pounding in her chest. "How are you?"
Harry looked taken aback. "I-I'm good. Excellent. I forgot, I wanted to apologize for my daughters' behavior. Believe me, I'm astounded that they would do such a thing."
Hermione said, "It's alright. I've seen much worse, believe me."
"A-and how are you?" asked Harry.
"Great. The beginning of the school year is the best day of the year," replied Hermione. She scolded herself mentally. Enough of the small talk, just do it already! "Harry, I want to tell you something."
"Look, you don't have to apologize. None of it was your fault. You love Ron, not me. That's cool, it's fine. Let's just get over it and move on. I-I've missed you," said Harry.
"I've missed you too," said Hermione, her heart fluttering again. "But that's not what I wanted to tell you."
"Oh, wait," interrupted Harry. "Are you and Ron married yet?"
"Ummm…no, we kind of…broke up a week after you left," said Hermione. "Because what I really should have said was-"
Harry's watch beeped and he looked down at it in alarm. "7:45 already? Oh man, Hermione, I'm sorry but I have to go. I was supposed to pick up my girlfriend 15 minutes ago." Hermione felt her heart shatter in her chest and she stopped breathing. "I'll…uh, I'll see you around, yeah?" Harry started walking away.
"Yeah, sure," Hermione replied weakly.
But Hermione knew that Harry wouldn't go out of his way to talk to her. That conversation they had just had felt too weird. It was like they were just acquaintances.
Hermione watched Harry turn the corner leading to the Entrance Hall, then sighed and continued on to Professor McGonagall's office.
They were awkward around each other and Harry had a girlfriend. Hermione felt tears gather in her eyes as she realized that Harry had moved on and didn't love her anymore, their friendship was completely wrecked, and it was all her fault.
Because what I really should have said was I love you too, Harry.
A/N: Both of them have really bad luck, don't they?
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