I saw her and I said to James, "I'm in love."

James was texting to Albus or Victoire or whichever cousin our twisted huge family has. He hummed. I waited. About ten text-sent pop sounds later, he jumped a bit and turned his eyes to me. "What?" he asked.

"I'm in love? That thing's gonna get you killed you know, if you keep putting all your goddamn attention into it."

James wasn't having any of it. "You're in love with who?"

"Whom," I replied calmly. "With her." I pointed to her as discreetly as I could manage.

James turned his head and let out a soft "whoa".

I know. That's what I felt several moments ago.

The thing about me that you have to know is, I'm a very calm person. You have to be if you want some degree of emotional privacy as a Metamorphmagus. You need to train yourself not to change your hair colour according to your favorite person in the vicinity. That's very cute and all when you're a baby. Still cute when you're a kid, but once you step into teenage years, it becomes inconvenient when all you want is to "play it cool", you know? And now I'm an adult, that'd be simply embarrassing.

I know my mum didn't care about showing her emotional status for everyone not colourblind to see, according to hearsay from Harry or Ginny or Ron. But I'm not my mum. I've been told many times that my mum was a lot more chipper than me. I don't know why they keep telling me that. Maybe they just want me to be happier by setting up a role model out of my late mother, as ridiculous as that sounds?

I sometimes think that even though I'm a Metamorphmagus like my mum, I'm more like my dad. Not that I know about him much, mind you, but a kid has a lot to think about when he's an orphan yet at the same time he has thousands of family members. Have you seen the Weasleys? Honestly.

Anyway, I'm in love but I'm pretty sure that my expression didn't change at all. Totally cool. This woman is gorgeous. Not in a super model way or something. She's just so… I don't know. I just can't take my eyes off her. She's different, like she knows a lot of things and has been to a lot of places, yet I can still picture her sitting next to the fireplace in the Burrow and drinking tea with a book on her lap. It's unsettling, to be honest.

James is saying something.

I turned my eyes to him. "What did you just say?"

"She's coming our way, mate." James stuffed his phone in the back pocket of his jeans, seeming a little nervous, which is totally out of character for him.

She is coming our way. Yes she is. Suddenly I don't know the purpose of my own hands anymore. Where should I put them? Why do I have them if I can't come up with a comfortable place to put them? Do I look at her? Do I pretend that my phone buzzed? Do I pretend to have a stroke? Do I pretend to be high?

I don't know what I'm doing and she's in front of us. She might be in her 30s? I don't know. I can't breathe.

She opened her mouth.

"James? James Potter?"

What?

James visibly jumped. Chill, mate. She just said your name. It's not like she screamed your name when she came.

Wait, what? What now?

"Yes, ma'am. I mean, My Lady. I mean, yes. Yes. I am. James Sirius Potter. James Potter. The Junior. Just James. I mean, yes. My pleasure. And you are?" James stuttered his way through it. I'm proud of him. I still can't form a sentence.

She smiled. I've never seen such a smile before. It's not sunshine or daisies or unicorns or rainbows. It's a little warm and a little sad at the same time. It's like that first moment when there's a breeze and you realize that summer is ending soon, but it's not unpleasant, especially if you're a fan of autumn.

"I'm Hermione Granger. Glad to make your acquaintance, too."

"Hermione Granger? You're Hermione Granger? Oh my god. Oh my god. I'm such a fan. You fought next to my dad in the war, yeah? And your thesis on that new application of dragon blood is so inspiring!" James is beaming.

"Thank you." She gave him another smile. "Are you taking me to Harry? Is that why you're here? Harry said in the last letter that he was going to send you to welcome me, since he has this meeting that he can't get out of."

"Oh yes, definitely. Jeez, dad didn't say that you're so hot. What are you, 40 years old now?"

Way to go, James.

She didn't take offence. "More or less." And then she turned to me. She's staring at me. "Teddy?" Her voice is somehow lower. She looks a lot younger at that moment, like a school girl.

I straightened. "You know me?"

She closed her eyes for a bit. "You were still very young when I left Britain," she said. "No wonder you don't remember me."

And suddenly she's hugging me. She's tiny compared to me, but I still feel enveloped. Her hair smells nice. I don't know that scent. I tentatively put my right hand on her back between her shoulder blades. I shouldn't have done that, because now she's hugging me harder. She's so soft. I'm getting hard. This hug needs to stop. Right. Now.

She pulled back like she heard my thoughts. "Shall we?" That's directed to James, who's currently staring at me with a thoughtful look.

"Yes, this way, Hermione. May I call you Hermione?"

"Don't be ridiculous. I'm practically your aunt."

We're driving to James's flat in Muggle London and then taking the floo. James is driving. Hermione takes the shotgun. I'm on the backseat. James struck up a conversation about her academic theory about something. I'm not listening. I'm just feeling her voice and thinking.

It's not a secret that Harry and Ron have a third best friend. They talk about her. Not a lot, but they're not keeping her a secret from us kids. We've all been curious once, but the moment we got a textbook she wrote, the curiosity disappeared. You don't really get curious about your textbook writer. No one does. We all tend to avoid them. So all we know is that she's their best friend, she fought in the war, and she left for academic achievements. Nice and easy.

Come to think of it, why hasn't she come back to visit? Ever? If she's such a good friend of Harry and Ron's?

James is enamoured. He might have a crush on her. I can tell. What about her? I can't see her face on the backseat. Well, a little. I can see her left ear, partly obscured by her hair. It's pale and delicate. I want to touch it. I want to lick it. I'm being weird. Her neck is there for me to observe, too. I know if she turns around this moment and sees me, I might as well kiss my chance with her goodbye. This is so creepy, staring at that little patch of skin like a serial killer or… skin… fanatic.

James saved me from myself. "Are you coming with us, Teddy?"

I turned my eyes to him. "Sure. Why not?"

He has this meaningful little evil smile in his eyes in the rear mirror. "I thought you had a date with a certain blonde?"

"It's not a date. It's just a drink."

"So? Are you going or not?"

"I can cancel."

James whistled. I know what's on his mind. He's such a child.

"Are you single, James?" Hermione asked.

James suddenly tensed. "Ah, no?"

Hermione laughed. "Is that a question?"

James chuckled nervously. "Hey, Hermione, are you obligated to tell my parents everything regarding to me? Like, real-aunt stuff?"

I guess that's the problem when you have parents. You love them. They love you. But somehow you just cannot be the people who know each other the most.

I'm a little surprised that Hermione actually thought about it for a bit. I can tell James is surprised too. People all give quick answers when they're asked about this. Angelina will say "you bet your ass I will tell Ginny everything kids". George will say "nah dude this is between you and me, pranksters' honour". But Hermione, she's thinking about it like she's not sure.

After a moment, she said, "I guess it depends."

James is a little miffed. "Depends on what?"

She shrugged. "On whether or not it's necessary to tell them?"

"How do you decide that?" I asked. I didn't realise that I was already leaning forward and ready to participate.

She turned around and looked at me. "Well, I guess if James's secret might put him in grave danger, then I should tell Harry about it. Otherwise I'm a pretty good secret keeper." She paused for a moment, added, "What about you, Teddy? Do you tell Harry everything about James?"

I don't know why, but her words warmed me in an unexpected way, like in her way of asking, she put me in the same level as her - adult, independent, guardian of that big child sitting in the driver's seat. It means that she doesn't see me as a child; instead, she sees me as a partner in crime in this car if James spills one of his secrets, and that pleases me enormously.

I looked into her eyes and said, "I'm the best secret keeper in the world."

She shivered. Maybe. Maybe it's just a trick of light and shadows and the speeding scenery outside the window. She didn't look away though. I didn't look away either. One moment passed and then we missed our opportunity to look away without being awkward or weird, so we have to keep looking at each other. I can't control myself that well. I looked down to her lips for a split second, but she caught me. I can tell.

Damn it.

She silently turned around completely. James glared at me for a bit. Merlin, give me a break.

"So," James said, "if I tell you something about my love life you wouldn't tell my parents?"

Her voice is steady. "No. Unless your girlfriend plans to kill you."

"That's not as far-fetched as you would imagine," James laughed a bit.

She's totally relaxed now. "So you have one? Girlfriend?"

James hummed.

"And Harry doesn't know?"

James hummed again.

She laughed a bit. "Okay. I won't tell him, but I want a full report."

James laughed along. "You need to win my trust first."

She might murmured something like "Harry Potter's fucking son". I'm sure I heard wrong.

It's pretty uneventful after that. We flooed to the Ministry, sat outside Harry's office, and waited for him to end whatever's going on in there. An assistant Auror, Kris, said that Auror Potter knew we'd arrived and he'd meet us as soon as possible. It's interesting, the Auror Office. Everyone's constantly on the move. Only one or two are sitting at their desks and chewing their quills. I'm guessing case closing report.

Hermione sits between me and James. James is on his phone again. He's been on his phone ever since Malfoy Industries invented a method to make Muggle devices work normally in magical environments, which means five years ago. I think. Harry threatened to reducto that thing once, but he never did. I guess for a man like Harry, the more ways to find his family at any given time, the better.

She wasn't doing anything, just watching the office and taking it all in. She's been away for quite some time, after all. I can feel her beside me even when I'm not looking at her. I don't feel warmth or smell her scent or something like that. No. I just feel her presence.

And then someone said, in a weak voice, "Merlin's balls. Hermione."

I looked up, and there's Ron. He's pale as a corpse.

Hermione stood up and said calmly, "Hi, Ron."

And then he's kissing her. And my blood turned to ice in my veins.