A New Family
Harry sat in his room at the Children's Home and looked at the snow that had covered the garden. Harry liked the snow because it seemed so magical and pure. When he saw snow he knew that he was safe from harm. He turned away and went to the little table and set about his homework from school which concerned geography. Harry had to colour in the seas, oceans and land and be able to correctly identify each country that was in Europe. Harry thought about what Hermione was doing at that particular moment at her house. He liked his first friend very much because she was the first person his own age that was ever friendly to him, and they always paired up with each other in class. Due to Hermione's help in the library during what should have been their maths lessons, Harry's grades where second only to Hermione's own which pleased the girl a great deal. Harry finished the homework after ten or so minutes and had decided to look out of the window again.
His thoughts returned to the Grangers again and he thought about how friendly Hermione's parents had been towards him. When they had found out about what had happened one evening when he came round for tea, they took him down to their own surgery and gave him some free treatment. Harry had promised to pay them back when he was grown up and had a job. The Grangers had told him that it was free because it was on the "Friend Of Hermione" discount. It had hurt when they had put the dentist probes in his mouth it had hurt quite a lot and he cried through the pain, but Hermione had held his hand the whole time and smiled at him to make him feel better and afterwards he got a lollipop to make him better still.
He wouldn't tell Hermione this often, but he was slightly jealous of her and when she had asked why he had said that it was because she had known her parents her entire life. Hermione had smartly replied that friends counted as family as well. Outside, the snow had got a little thicker so that he couldn't see the sandpit that he played in – as did Hermione when she came to play on most weekends. Sadly though she couldn't come to see him over the next few days as the run up to Christmas and the holiday itself would be very busy for the Grangers to drive Hermione over, though on the last day they had seen each other they had swapped Christmas Cards with each other as well as little presents that they had made.
Hermione's gift to Harry was a picture of the pair on the class trip to the local park where they had learned about trees and things. After the lesson in the park they had been allowed to play on the swings and slide. Harry's gift to Hermione had been wrapped with the aid of one of the workers at the home. He had asked what Hermione's birthday was and had saved up the pocket money he got and got Hermione two necklaces which symbolised their friendship. Harry was still looking out of the window when he heard a knock on the door and a very familiar bushy haired person stuck her head round the door itself.
"Hi Harry" Hermione said as she came in.
"Hermione!" Harry said happily and ran over and hugged her. "What are you doing here?" he asked, "I thought that you couldn't come until after Christmas" and Hermione smiled what Harry called a pinball smile.
"I asked my mummy and daddy if you could spend the holidays with us, and they said that they would find out" Hermione told him. They sat on Harry's little bed and talked and played with the few games that he had in his room until Harry said he was hungry. He led Hermione down to the kitchen of the home and found one of the staff inside.
"Can Hermione and me have some cookies and milk please Duke?" Harry asked, and the rather well built man put down the spoon he held in his hand and gave them a plate of cookies and a glass of milk each.
"Don't you want some as well?" asked Hermione to Duke. The black man looked at Hermione with a funny look.
"If I eat any more" he said, "I'll be too fat to get through that door" Duke patted his stomach jokingly and then went to his cooking. The two children sat down at the wooden kitchen table on wooden chairs and ate the cookies and drank the milk while swinging their legs under the chairs and table. They where half way through the cookies when the sound of a crash came from somewhere upstairs of the Children's Home. Harry, Hermione and Duke all looked at the ceiling in surprise as a scream could be heard.
"Oh oh" Harry said as Duke groaned.
"Tracy!" Duke hissed as he wiped his hands on the apron he wore before taking it off and going off in investigation.
"Who is Tracy?" asked Hermione.
"Tracy Beaker is new here" Harry told her as they finished the milk and cookies. "She does things and then blames it on other people" and just then one of the older children came in.
"Jenny wants to see you in her office" the older girl said.
"Thank you Justine" Harry said, and Justine left the kitchen to do whatever she was doing. Harry and Hermione put their plates and glasses on the workspaces for Duke to wash later and Harry led Hermione to where Jenny worked. Jenny was the person who ran the Children's Home and was kind to Harry when she had discovered Harry's circumstances. She had battled tooth and nail to find the Dursleys in order to prosecute them but she had been unable to find them. They had either changed their names or moved abroad. The two children paused for a moment as Harry knocked on the door before going in to see Hermione's parents chatting to the woman Hermione assumed was Jenny.
"Take a seat" Jenny said and Harry managed to climb into the seat that was used mainly adults. "Now Mr and Mrs Granger have come here to ask me to let you stay with them for Christmas and a little bit longer afterwards" and Harry looked at the elder Grangers with a puzzled look on his face.
"How much longer?" he asked after a moment.
"Well let's just say that it's a lot longer then just after" Jenny said, her dark face smiling at Harry.
"I don't understand" Harry said, and it was Jane who answered his puzzlement.
"We would like very much to adopt you if you'd like that" she said and both Harry's and Hermione's jaws dropped through the floor and halfway to Australia. After they had recovered both children jumped off their chairs and ran towards each other and grabbed the other's outstretched hands and jumped about in circles.
"Yaaaaaayyy" and then stopped. There was a slight pause. "Yaaaaaayyy" they repeated their dance again until they felt dizzy and had to sit down to recover their balance.
"I take it that that is a yes then?" David asked dryly and Harry nodded as tears began to run his face. Hermione went over to him and gave Harry a friendly and comforting hug.
"Yes please" Harry managed to sob intelligently.
"Well you had better to your room and pack your things" Jenny said, and Harry and Hermione raced out the office and up the stairs so fast that the adults considered that new speed records had just been broken.
#
Harry packed his things in a suitcase that he had been found with over a year ago when he was dumped on the doorstep of the Children's Home, assisted by an eager Hermione. Harry suddenly stopped and started to be teary again.
"Whats the matter?" Hermione asked him.
"I'm not crying" Harry said, "I am very happy" then he added in a whisper "I've got a family" and Hermione smiled.
"I've got a brother" she correctly pointed out to him. They finished packing and then Hermione dragged the suitcase down as Harry went to say goodbye to Duke and Justine. By the time he went back to Jenny's office the rest of the paper work had been completed except for one small thing that needed to be completed.
"What do you want to call yourself?" David asked.
"What do you mean?" Harry asked him.
"What he means is that do you want to change your last name to the same as ours or do you want to keep the Potter surname?" Jane explained kindly.
"Can I keep my last name as it is?" Harry asked his new parents and they both nodded. After a few last minute items Harry left the Children's home in the company of his new family as they drove to his new home. When they got there it was late afternoon because of all the extra shopping traffic it turned out that Harry had never got the full tour of the Granger (and now his) house.
"Go take him for the tour upstairs, Hermione" David said, "Your mother and I have to talk about something" and Hermione took Harry's hand and led him up the stairs.
"This is mummy and daddy's room" she said pushing open the door slightly to give Harry a look inside. It was a well furnished room with an expensive television in the corner and a plush looking bed on one wall. When Harry was done Hermione opened the next door to reveal a well fitted bathroom with a separate shower and bath. The next room was painted in pink and was clearly Hermione's room. A pink covered bed stood on one wall with a few teddy bears and a single doll lying on the duvet. Hermione showed him all the cupboards wardrobes which contained her toys and books that she read. One cupboard contained pencils, felt tip pens, paper and children's safety scissors as Hermione liked to draw often. A small drawer had a few colouring books for the girl as well. Like her parent's room everything looked expensive and then Harry showed Harry the room opposite. "This is the guest room" she said, then corrected herself, "I mean your room" and let Harry enter first. Harry's new room had several cupboards and wardrobes with towels in for when people had stayed here overnight. This room was mostly in neutral colours in its taste of decorations but on the way over from the home, Harry had been told by his new parents that he could have it painted in any colour that he wanted.
"This is great" Harry declared and then he went and jumped on the bed repeatedly.
"What are you doing?" asked Jane from the door.
"Sorry" Harry said, and got off the bed going bright red much to Hermione's amusement. "Can I ask you something?" he asked.
"You already have" Jane said, causing Hermione to giggle, "What do you want to know?" she asked.
"Could I have a few toys please, Mrs Granger?" Harry asked, and Jane looked surprised for a moment.
"Of course" Jane said, "And you don't have to call me Mrs Granger" she said, "You can call me or my husband either David and Jane, mum and dad or mummy or daddy. Whatever you feel comfortable with is fine with us" and Harry nodded. "Now that that is settled, lets go out for dinner" and Jane asked the children what they wanted.
Hermione instantly went for pizza, and Harry decided to go with Hermione's choice as he had never had pizza before in his life. Before leaving they took Harry's case up to his new room and unpacked. When it was time for them to leave they decided to go early because they could stop by the shopping centre and get Harry a lot of new things that they could put in the car. It was well towards seven when they came back from celebrating Harry's addition to the family and both children yawned from being exhausted and Jane made them some hot chocolate and poured it into mgs for them. Harry was used to plastic cups from the home and living with the vanished Dursleys and he was halfway through his mug when it slipped from his fingers and smashed on the floor shattering it and spewing out the contents over the tiled surface. Harry was frozen to the spots with his eyes as wide as a startled deer's and then he bolted from the room. Hermione and her mother ran from the room and found Harry in the cupboard under the stairs curled up in a tight little ball and shaking quite violently.
"What happened?" asked David as he had heard the breaking mug.
"Harry broke a mug daddy" Hermione said, "And he ran from the room like he was scared" and David looked at his wife.
"It'll be from his life with those horrible relatives of his" Jane said in answer to his unasked question. "I can not imagine what they put that boy through" she said, "But I would sure as heck like to get my hands on them and give them an dental operation – minus any pain relief" she added darkly. It was a sentiment shared by the other two Grangers in the family.
"How are we going to get him out of there?" David asked at last when Harry showed no signs of calming down.
"I can look after him" Hermione said, "Harry trusts me and he wouldn't hurt me. I will just put my arm around him like mummy does when I am ill" and Hermione bent down and went into the cupboard with Harry and put an arm around him – hugging him tightly and holding him close to her own tiny body. It wasn't long before Harry calmed down and fell asleep.
"All hail Hermione Nightingale" her father said and then picked Harry up and carried him to his room and put him into bed. It would take some time before Harry could stop being afraid of the Dursleys coming back for him. As he began life with the Grangers, he started to be more confident, but Harry remained serious friends with Hermione only. The pair excelled at many subjects at school and won contests for their age groups. Hermione excelled at writing and won two trophies of her own. Harry did well at sports and was picked for his year's school football team. Harry led a safe and relaxed life that only became troubled again when he reached the age of 11. That came in the form of Owls landing in garden carrying letters addressed to Harry and also in the form on an old man called Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore.
A/N:
Theres referances to a british (where I live) kids show. See if you can spot them if possible!
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