Disclaimer: if I were JK Rowling, I would certainly be rewriting OotP so that Sirius wouldn't die. If I were making any money out of this, I'd probably be out to buy something. Is that clear enough?
Summary: Tired of the old 'I'll love you forever'? This is a story against the odds. Hermione has loved. And loved again. And again. Because loving one person for a lifetime is just too long.
Warning: This is NOT your typical romance story, you have been warned. On with the story then, and I hope you like it. Constructive criticism is greatly appreciated, or any reviews for that matters. Flames are fine too. Am that desperate for feedback, I know. Enjoy!
A Lifetime Is Just Too Long
By: FromHereToThere
The phone rang, loud and clear in the apartment. Situated in the middle of London, this home was a real blessing, as it was set in front of the Leaky Cauldron, a good spot for a muggle-born witch such as Hermione Granger.
'Wonder who's calling me on the phone' Hermione thought to herself. She took the child from her lap and placed him on the floor, running straight to the phone. She was of that sort of people who nearly jump onto the receiver whenever it rang, and absolutely hated to miss a call.
"Hello?" she asked, bringing up the receiver to her hear.
"Hey it's me. I was wondering, when I could come pick up Arthur? Because my boss won't let me go until I finish those papers and it's going to take me a bloody long time… I won't be out of here before 5 or 6, probably 6"
She sighed, her schedule for the day suddenly fell apart in way too many little pieces. Quick-witted as she had always been, she immediately thought of an alternative to her new problem.
"Seamus… I have plans already made for this afternoon, I cannot cancel them. I guess you'll have to pick him up at Harry's place then, since he's coming in an hour to get Paul. I can just ask him to take Artie with him at the same time, I'm sure he won't mind," she replied.
After a few more indications on how to get to Harry's house through the Muggle way, Hermione hanged up the phone. She let herself fall onto the couch, sighing deeply. That had been a close call, she couldn't miss that meeting with her editor or else she would have been killed, or at least, tortured to no end.
Accompanied by screams, two red headed toddlers aged of 3 years came running –and stumbling– to her. Their little pudgy arms raised, in delight at the sight of their mother they had just left a few minutes ago and already missed. They made there way to where she was sitting.
"Mommy! Mommy!" they both yelled in unison, they climbed onto the couch with difficulty, and, happily giggling from having mounted this obstacle, they encircled their mother's waist, one on each side of her.
"Mommy when is Daddy coming?" the little boy asked.
Hermione glanced at her watch and said: "Well he should be here now, but you know your father, honey, he'll probably be here in an hour. If we're lucky"
She patted the boy's head. He looked at her with his wide blue eyes.
"You look so much like your father at times it's quite peculiar Damien. I at least hope you won't end up following his path…" she said that last part to herself, rolling her eyes at the thought.
"Do I look like Daddy too Mommy?" the little girl asked. She too opened bright blue eyes and stared in anticipation at her mother. Who could resist such a sweet little thing?
"Yes you do Eve, you both do," she smiled, kissing both of them on the top of their heads, while hugging them closer to her.
Closing her eyes, she wondered… how had it started again? Oh yes… She loved to replay these years in her head. They had been the best in her life, maybe even better than Hogwarts.
Harry and Hermione, both 17 at that time, were studying in the Gryffindor Common room. Ron was in the Hospital Wing, he had been hit by a bludger at the last Quidditch game, and was in a very bad mood about not being able to play his favorite sport for a while. Tired of listening him rent, his friends had decided to visit him as little as possible, and were doing their homework instead.
"Of course you cannot put that in your essay, it's scandalous!" Hermione said, sounding clearly alarmed. "How the thought even crossed your mind is beyond me, Harry…" she trailed off, raising a quizzical eyebrow at him.
He grinned at her, his deep green eyes glittering at her. "What, you think McGonagall is not going to like this? Can I put it in the essay Snape asked us to do then? You think he'll like it better maybe?"
Hermione paled at his words. Harry grinned even wider. She really was gullible. How he loved making fun of Hermione at her own expense… How he loved her. It was after he had defeated Voldemort at the end of his sixth year that he had started to notice things in a wider range.
Lots of things. Such as Cho just being a plain ordinary girl, maybe pretty but nothing more. How Parvati maybe was only a façade and had no depth at all. How Ron could be so close-minded about things sometimes. How Malfoy and Zabini were not that bad, despite the fact that they were in Slytherin. How Hermione had always been here for her.
That last thought was what had triggered it. The 'Hermione is not only your best friend she is also a GIRL' reflection. Maybe she wasn't an attractive girl, but she was so fun to be around with, at least when you talked to her you knew it wasn't going to end up being a conversation about cosmetics or cute puppies.
But Harry always had been shy. It had been around 6 months now that he had discovered his feelings for Hermione, and still he had never told anyone about it. No one. Not even Ron. He used to blush whenever he touched her hand. He used to stutter when he asked her something. Now he had overcome that. The summer had made him more daring.
He exploded in a fit of laughter, a puzzled Hermione staring at him.
"What is it?" she asked.
"You're so naïve, 'Mione, I can't believe you actually thought I was going to put that in my essay!" he whipped a tear from his eye, still chuckling a bit.
She humpfed at him, her nose in the air, and crossed her arms, not looking at him. Smiling, Harry put on hand on her shoulder and the other one to her cheek, making her look straight into his green orbs. His smile faded.
"I was just kidding," he said on a strangely serious tone. Very gently and slowly, he began caressing the smooth skin at her collarbone. He was immersed in that movement for a few seconds, before finally snapping out of it, and looking straight into her eyes.
"Harry?" she whispered, not knowing what else to say. This was all so new to her. What was she supposed to be doing? Slapping him for doing that? Or something else… No book could have given her that answer.
He slid the hand that was resting on her cheek so that that it rest behind her neck, and his other one down to her shoulder. Unconsciously he had neared his face from hers, their nose were only millimeters apart. "Hermione," he murmured, closing his eyes and breathing in her scent.
Not being able to resist this anymore, she leaned forward and pressed her lips against his. His eyes shot wide open at this as he smiled against her lips, kissing her back softly. He pulled her into his lap, and slipped his arms around her tiny waist.
"Mom! I need help with my homework, I don't understand this stuff!" Paul, a nine years old boy, yelled from his room, his voice sounding clearly annoyed.
Hermione snapped back from her reminiscing. She got up and took little Damien and Eve by their hands, guiding them to their room. "You stay here and play, okay? We'll go down to the park if Daddy isn't here in 15 minutes!" she said. The toddlers cheered and started to play a game while waiting.
Hermione left the door opened and crossed the hallway, entering her eldest son's room. The said room was quite messy. Dirty laundry was scattered all over the floor, the bed was undone, and a few books lay opened here and there. Over to the desk, there were bunches of papers everywhere, and the only thing that helped people to know the color of this piece of furniture was that Paul hadn't managed to put anything on the desk's drawers –yet.
Gazing at the figure of her son crouched over his paper, a pencil in his hand, and a scowl of incomprehension over his features, she smiled slightly. 'Paul… he is such a handsome kid,' she thought. He had his father's green eyes but he had his mother's hair, wavy honey brown hair that he kept long in a low ponytail. He was a smart kid too, but maybe a bit too distracted at times for her own taste. 'Tsk, Quiddicth and girls, that's all he ever thinks about…' she sometimes mumbled under her breath.
Paul almost slammed the pencil onto his desk and shot his head back in frustration, a growl escaping from his lips. "Mom… I hate this stuff! I never understand anything. Why do I have to go to a Muggle's school anyways? I'm never going to use Math in Hogwarts as far as I'm concerned…" he said, sighing.
"Well, you will find Math quite useful once you start Arithmancy," Hermione answered pointedly. "I guess however that you aren't going to get any work done now, as I can see you're way too excited about seeing your dad…"
Paul grinned and nodded: "He is going to make me practice my flying! After all, I'm entering Hogwarts in only 2 years and I need to live up to my reputation and be a Quidditch's seeker for the Gryffindor team, right?"
"Excuse me young man? What did you say?" she said on a falsely angry tone. She got up and wrapped her arms around her son's shoulders, balancing him right and left, smiling. "You are going to live up to MY reputation as well, meaning being at the top of your class. All your classes, right?" she laughed.
Her son pouted and quickly laughed as well. "I guess so Mom…"
"What do you mean 'guess so'? I was awaiting for a 'of course Mom, I'll do my best Mom, and even have better OWLs and NEWTs scores than you Mom!' "
Before Paul could retort anything to that, a 'POP' was heard inside the apartment. More specifically inside Damien and Eve's room. A resigned look on her face, Hermione let go of her son and marched reluctantly towards her twins' room.
"Hallo there Hermione!" said a grinning Fred, holding one toddler in each arm.
"Daddy, Daddy! Mommy said I looked like you!" said little Eve, wiggling in her father's arms, smiling broadly.
"Me too me too!!" added a very excited Damien.
"Do you, now?" he asked them as he put his offspring down on the ground. Fred Weasley advanced towards Hermione, hugged her and kissed her on the cheek. "Looking good honey!"
"Fred I told you to stop calling me honey," she said in frustration.
He grinned, "Sorry" he said, not sounding sorry at all.
She sighed, rolling her eyes. "Sometimes I wonder what made me date you Fred…" she muttered more to herself than him. Passing her hand through her wild hair, she blinked a couple of times before looking at him straight in the eyes again.
"Well, I guess it must have been my sparkling intelligence, also my well-known charisma, and of course, my astonishing looks," he said, flashing her one of his dazzling white smiles. She snorted and playfully hit him on the shoulder. "You can also add to the list your inexistent timing. You're almost half an hour late!"
"True, but at least it's better than other times, right?"
"Well, I did tell the time when you arrived 3 hours late that I'd hex you to another planet if you couldn't manage to show up a bit more on time… Guess that it convinced you, didn't it?" she smiled sweetly at him, her eyes twinkling with mischievousness.
"I think George and I have rubbed off on you…! Look at this, the great Hermione Granger, best student to have graduated from Hogwarts in more then a century, and there she goes threatening to curse her ex-husband! I wonder who'd ever have thought it could have happened… So yes it DID convince me!" Fred replied, his eyes glittering with contained laughter.
Hermione grinned triumphantly.
Harry Potter walked over to the door of his house, situated in the London countryside. After Sirius' death, he had sold number 12 Grimauld place, and had waited to get out of Hogwarts before buying his own house. A broom in one hand and an attaché-case in the other, the 19 years old Quidditch star walked into his home. As he entered he breathed in the fresh scent of clean laundry mixed with the sweet smell of old books.
"Hermione?" he asked to no one in particular, putting his broom against the wall and his briefcase next to it. He looked around and wondered where his wife could be. He smiled at this. His wife, Hermione. How he loved the sound of that. Hermione Potter. Hermione.
He remembered when he had asked her after their Hogwarts graduation, asked her to marry him of course. It had turned into something quite memorable: he was so scared that he took Ron to practice his speech, and Hermione had walked in on them rehearsing, her honey eyes wide as plates. He smiled as he remembered this.
"Hermione?" he was now getting quite worried. Usually when he'd get home, she would be working on her papers (due in a month knowing her), or reading in the couch in the living. However, today she wasn't at her desk of anywhere in the room. Harry took a quick glance in the kitchen, no one. He ran upstairs, and found light in the bathroom. He breathed in a deep sigh of relief.
"Harry," a faint whisper was heard. He walked into the bathroom. Hermione was sitting on the floor, hidden between the toilet and the bathtub. Her knees were raised up to her chest, and she obviously had been crying, tear strains were drawn on her cheeks, haphazardly, as if made by an unsure pen.
His eyebrows furrowed in confusion, he kneeled in front of her and collected her tiny frame in his arms. "Hermione, what is it? What's wrong?" he whispered to her, unsure of what to say.
She sobbed and indicated in a swift wave of the hand a nearby pregnancy test. Pregnancy test??? Harry's eyes shot wide open, and he quickly picked up the tube, his hands trembling in fear, or was it excitement? "What does blue mean?" he asked, worry written all over his features.
She breathed in hard, as if it was painful to her: "Positive"
Harry couldn't help it, he started to smile, and then grinned as if his life depended on it. He hugged Hermione closer to him and, tears forming in his eyes, he said: "It's wonderful… We're going to be parents!"
However this did not seem to fit Hermione. She got up and imposed her frame on his still crouching figure. "EXCUSE ME???" she yelled so loud the neighbors could have probably heard her, if there had been any, "You're not the one carrying the child here! I have exams in a couple of months, I'm in college Harry! I can't…" she ended, at a loss of words.
Running a hand through her hair, she watched Harry get up on his feet and step in front of her. "Hermione, your exams are in one month. That means you'll have time to take them way before you even start showing. Plus you can always make a potion against morning sickness and other stuff that might prevent you from studying correctly… right?" he replied, hope in his eyes.
She sighed, and whipped the strains off her cheeks with both hands. She looked at him straight in the eyes. "What will I do next Harry? That will give me a diploma for only… wait a second," she paused, thinking.
Harry's smile grew wider, "Since you've been taking two courses at once for two years, that means you're having your degree in June. You can get any job you want with that, 'Mione! Who wouldn't want you? Smartest witch in Hogwarts? You're bond to get a job as soon as you get out of college!" he exclaimed.
Hermione rested her back on the sink, her hands covering her eyes. She stayed in this position for a second before suddenly throwing herself at Harry, her arms wrapping around his neck. "We're going to be parents!" she squealed joyfully at him.
Author's note: thank you all for reading this! I hope you liked it. If in any case you didn't, I'd like to know why. I'd like also to get your impressions on this story, I told you it wasn't a typical romance story didn't I? Further explanation shall be given in the next chapter though!
So please stay tuned and review, of course! '
-FromHereToThere-
