A/N: JKR owns the characters, only the plot is mine.
Chapter 2:Help us please?A fifteen year old witch was in trouble. What she was about to do was, she knew, very dangerous and bordered on the illegal. She was an underage witch and about to do some very powerful magic in a cemetery over the grave of the last person to defeat the threat to her world. The grave of Harry Potter. He died the night he defeated Voldemort on Halloween back in '81. She hoped this ritual will bring a similar hero now to help save her world. It had taken four hours to set up the pentagram and the necessary rues and the tokens. Now all that was left was the blood sacrifice and the incantation. It had taken her months to find this ritual and more months to practice this particular incantation. She stood at the northern most point and sliced her palm open and began to chant. The runes started to glow and she could feel the magic being pulled from her body. She hoped it would be enough. After fifteen minutes of constant chanting and blood letting, a figure stood in the center of the pentagram just as she passed out.
Harry Potter knew something strange had just happened because he was no longer on the astronomy tower of Hogwarts. It took a minute to clear his vision and when he did, he nearly fainted. There on the ground in front of him was a woman he thought he would never see gain. Hermione Granger. He knelt beside her to see what was going on. The palm of her left hand was still bleeding. Being on the run with the brightest witch of the age for ten months you learn a few things. A quick episky and her palm was healed. He wondered how much blood she lost to bring him here.
"Hermione." He said softly and got no response.
"Hermione!" still no response.
"Hermione!" "Please answer me."
"Ugghh"
"Hermione, how did you get here?"
"Car."
"Did you drive?" He knew she didn't look old enough to drive but had to ask.
"Parents….waiting."
That was all he needed to know as he picked her up and carried her bridal style toward the gate. He wondered for the first time why she used this particular cemetery as he passed through the 'Kissing Gate'. He saw the Mercedes 2000 series out side the gate, but not the occupants. He turned and leaned back against the car setting off the alarm glad that her parents drove a top of the line model. It was only seconds later that the man he thought was Hermione's father came out of the café' across the street. He was stout but not fat, probably in his late forty's.
"Get away from my car…" his voice trailed off as he came around and saw his daughter in this strangers arms. "What happened to her and who the hell are you?"
"Harry Potter and this is how I found her."
The man Looked at Harry and than turned to look back at the cemetery a couple of times. "H-Harr-y?"
"Yes, that's me. If you don't mind opening the door, your daughter is starting to get heavy." Harry stepped away so he could open the back door.
"Of course, of course." As he reached past Harry to open the door.
After Harry had Hermione laid down in the back seat of the luxury sedan. He stood and turned extending his hand, "Harry Potter, not sure how I got here, or where here is, but here I am."
"Dan Granger, Hermione's father. As to how you got here, that would be Hermione. To tell the truth, I didn't think it would work."
"Is your wife here too?"
Dan slapped his forehead. "She's still in the café'. We just figured someone bumped the car."
"You need to get her. Hermione needs attention ASAP."
"What's wrong with her?"
"Blood loss and exhaustion as far as I can tell. How long will it take to drive to your home from here?"
"About six hours."
"That's too long.' Harry raked his right hand through his hair. 'You need to get Emma, now."
"How do you know my wife's name?"
"I'll explain later. Time is running out, Dan, get your wife."
Dan hurried into the café', paid his bill and was back in less than three minutes.
"We may not have a lot of time, so I'm going to make this short. You apparently know Hermione's a witch. I'm a wizard. She needs help. There is a magic way of transport called apparation. You will feel like you're being squeezed through a tube, but it will not hurt you. Now, I need you to trust me. I'm going side-a-long apparate you, Mrs. Granger. I need you to look in my eyes and picture Hermione's bedroom. I'll take you there and come back for Hermione. Then Mr. Granger can drive home. Hopefully she has what I need in her trunk."
"How do I know I can trust you?" argued Mr. Granger.
"You don't, but if I meant you harm, you would already be dead." He looked at Mrs. Granger, "Ready?"
She looked in Harry's eyes and gasped at first at what she saw, then nodded. Harry gripped her upper arm and with a soft pop, he was gone.
"Mrs. Granger, while I'm gone, get in her trunk and remove her potion kit and cauldron. Take them to the kitchen. I'll brew what she needs when I get back."
When he returned to Godric's Hollow a moment later Mr. Granger had already started the car. Harry opened the rear door and carefully removed Hermione from the rear seat. "Have a safe journey home, Mr. Granger. Hermione will need you alive."
He closed the door and was gone.
Harry gently laid Hermione on her bed, then stood back and looked at her for the first time. She looked just like his Hermione did two years ago, before the war started to take its toll on her. Unknown to him tears started down his face. He didn't know how long he stood there mourning until Mrs. Granger touched his elbow.
"She's going to be alright, isn't she?"
"Yeah, she should be." Harry said as he unconsciously wiped the tears from his face. "Where's the kitchen. I need to brew that potion."
"Down stairs. Follow me." She turned and led Harry down the stairs and into the kitchen.
Harry looked into the potion kit on the table. "Some things never change." He said with a small smile, and started to remove the necessary ingredients to brew a blood replenishment potion, put the cauldron on the stove and set the burner.
"Excuse me?" Mrs. Granger inquired.
"My Hermione would have had the exact same ingredients' in her kit."
"Your Hermione? What do you mean, 'your Hermione'?"
"I'm not sure.' He frowned, 'Maybe it's the same Hermione. I'm a little confused right now. Let's get her fixed up and then we can figure out where and when I am." Harry responded as he prepared the ingredients. "I need for you to remove Hermione's clothes and get her ready for bed. I imagine she will be out for the next twelve to twenty four hours. She should be in something comfortable."
Mrs. Granger stepped back and shook her head, amazed at the ease at which this young man just stepped in and took over. From the look she had seen in his eyes before he brought her home, he had seen and done things a man his age shouldn't have. She contemplated this as she went up stairs and did as he ordered. No, that's not right. He didn't order her, it was more a request or a suggestion.
She had just pulled the cover up over her daughter when Harry knocked on the door. "Is she decent?"
"Yes." She responded and Harry entered the room with a glass with a red looking liquid.
"I need your help. I need you to raise her up a little and let her head tilt back. I'll have to open her mouth to pour this in and maybe help her swallow it. Then all we can do is wait." Mission accomplished, Harry conjured a chair, sat down and held her right hand.
Mrs. Granger was amazed at the chair that just materialized out of thin air. "Who are you?" she asked in pure amazement.
"Sorry. Harry, Harry Potter. I thought maybe Mr. Granger told you when he got you from the café'."
"No. He just said we had to leave now. Where did you come from?"
"Truthfully, I don't know. Hermione here apparently did something to bring me to here. How or why I don't know."
"Did you know my daughter?"
Harry frowned and thought for a moment. "I knew 'a' Hermione Granger. Whether or not this is the same one, I don't know. Did she ever mention me in letters from school?"
"No. Your name was never mentioned until the end of last summer while she was researching. Apparently some evil wizard that was supposed to have been killed in back in '81 has come back and she was looking for a way to send him back where he came from. Apparently you killed him when he attacked your home. What I don't understand is how you are here, when according to her research you died that night too."
Harry sat back in his chair, never letting go of her hand, contemplating. "Well then she is not the Hermione I knew. I need her awake to find out why she did what she did. In the mean time I think it would be best if no one knows that I'm here. I need a better understanding of what's going on, who's alive and who she trust, if anybody."
Emma Granger studied Harry in silence for a moment, then out of curiosity she asked, "Harry, were you a soldier?"
Harry was shocked by the question and it showed on his face when he looked at Mrs. Granger. "W-Why do you ask?"
"It's in your eyes, Harry. Every man that has seen war or a lot of death has the same look."
Harry sighed a deep breath looking down at the hand he held. What could he tell this woman? That he saw her daughter die? That everyone that he ever cared for was killed because of a maniac? Because he trusted the wrong people? That he couldn't end the war soon enough? He decided to keep it simple. "Yes." He half whispered. Then his stomach growled and Harry blushed at the sound.
"You must be hungry. Would you like some tea and something to eat?"
"I don't want to be a bother…"
"Non-sense, Harry. You're saving my daughter's life."
"A couple of sandwiches and some tea would be nice."
Mrs. Granger returned fifteen minutes later with a plate of sandwiches and a pot of tea with milk, sugar and honey. She pulled out the desk chair and watched as Harry ate noticing that he never took his eyes off her daughter. Things started to click in her head. Harry loved her daughter from wherever he was from and apparently she had died or he wouldn't have left or if he was pulled away from her he would have been very angry.
"Tell me about your self, Harry."
"There's not much to say, Mrs. Granger…"
"Emma, please call me Emma."
"All right, Emma. I'm an orphan. My parents were killed by a maniac when I was a baby. I was raised by people that didn't like me much. Found out I was a wizard on my eleventh birthday. I went to Hogwarts and met my first friends, fell in love, was betrayed a few times, ended a war. That's my life in a nut shell." He said in a bland voice and a shrug of his shoulders.
Emma was no psychologist, but she knew people. Harry was hiding a lot. From the look she had seen in his eyes there was a lot of pain in what he hadn't said. She looked at her watch, it was nearly ten and she knew Dan wouldn't be home for hours yet.
"Harry we have a spare bedroom if you want to lay down for a bit."
"I'm fine."
"It'll be a while yet before Dan gets home. I'll see you in the morning. The guest room is just down the hall if you change your mind." She laid a hand on his shoulder before she left the room.
Dan Granger normally had the patience of a saint, but right now he wanted to be home to find out how his daughter was doing. He was tempted to push the Mercedes to its limit, but then he remembered Harry's words, "Have a safe journey home, Mr. Granger. Hermione will need you alive." What did he mean by that? Did he know something or was it just concern? What ever it was he would heed the advice and be there for his little princess what ever the reason.
At four thirty in the morning, with reflexes honed in battle, Harry jumped from his chair, wand at the ready when Dan Granger burst through his daughter's bedroom door. His wand tip glowed as the stunner left his wand and struck Mr. Granger. Frozen in place, fear and disgust were etched on his face as he realized what he had done. Emma appeared instantly and knelt next to her fallen husband and looked at Harry quizzically. "What happened?"
'I...I g-guess I was d-d-dozing a-and he burst through the d-door and I stunned him." Harry stuttered out around the lump in his throat. "Sorry, war reflexes." Harry apologized as he walked over and cast 'envenerate'.
It was a slightly groggy Dan Granger that sat up and uttered "What the hell?"
"Dan. Language!" reprimanded Emma.
Harry snickered.
"What's so funny?" Demanded Dan.
"That was so reminiscent of my Hermione." Harry replied as he sat down again.
"What may I ask are you doing in my daughters' bedroom?" Dan asked rather heatedly.
"Watching, guarding." Under his breathe he mumbled 'praying'.
"Dan you're tired. We're all tired. Let's get some sleep and talk in the morning. There are a lot of things we don't know yet." urged Emma.
"And you trust this, this boy alone in our daughter's bedroom?" he said pointing at Harry.
"YES." She said forcefully.
Dan looked at the steel in his wife's eyes and knew there was something about this young man that had won her trust completely. He didn't understand it, but he knew to trust his wife.
"Okay." He said evenly.
Harry was amazed. Emma was not a big woman and Dan, he was sure, could have easily hurt her. Yet he had backed down when Emma had answered him with conviction. Just like he had when Hermione did the same to him.
At six the next morning the adult Grangers woke to the smell of coffee tea and bacon. Knowing Hermione couldn't cook to save her life, they were curious what was going on. When they entered their kitchen, they found Harry at the range slipping an omelet on to a plate. He turned to set the plate on the table with the other two all ready there.
"Morning." He greeted them when he saw them with a smile. "I hope you don't mind that I fixed breakfast?"
The Grangers stood there a moment with their mouths slightly gapping. "No. Not at all. Not many young men can cook."
With a shrug he replied, "It was required for me growing up."
They all sat down to eat. "This is marvelous," exclaimed Emma. Dan nodded his head in agreement as he savored the food in his mouth.
"This is as good as yours, Em.' Dan tried to compliment.
"Nice try Dan, but you know as well as I do, I could never cook this good."
Harry blushed at the compliment. "I'm sure you could if you're any cook at all. I could teach you how I did this. It's quite simple really."
"Very well, I'll do my best to learn," she replied with a smile.
"If I could teach Hermione who couldn't cook, you should be able to pick it up the first time."
"You taught Hermione how to cook like this?" Dan asked in surprise.
"Well not this good, but she did a very good job of it."
Dan and Emma just looked at each other.
"Do either of you have to work today? I'm sorry but I don't know what day of the week it is and if you're like my Hermione's parents, you have a dental practice to run."
"Well it just happens to be Saturday, so no neither of us needs to go to work today. And yes we are both dentist too. Why?" Emma replied.
"While I wait for you daughter to wake up, I would like to get to know you and her. Find out what you know that will help me understand what is going on."
"We can do that. Shall we go to the sitting room?" asked Dan.
"I would prefer to be able to monitor Hermione while we talk. I can conjur comfortable chairs in her room for us."
"You can do magic with out getting into trouble?" asked Emma.
"Yes, I'm of age. The trace automatically dispels on your seventeenth birthday or if you know the spell to disable it. I know it and will remove the trace from Hermione's wand. If you want that is."
"I'm not sure that is a good idea." Said Dan hesitantly as they walked up to Hermione's room.
"The trace in my world is put there for two reasons. One to track children of first gen. witches and wizards and two to keep the secrecy of our world. I don't know about here. Do you trust Hermione to not abuse this gift?"
"Of course we trust Hermione, it's just she has never been able to do magic at home before."
"I know and it always bothered her that she couldn't show you she was learning. Now she will be able to. And I can put up some wards that will be able to hide the fact that she is."
"Wards?" asked Emma.
"Magical barriers that you can't see without mage sight or the proper spell." Explained Harry. With three quick flicks of his wand three comfortable chairs appeared in the bedroom.
"So tell me about you and Hermione. I never got a chance to meet you in my world." Harry stated as he sat near Hermione.
"Well as we said we're both dentist. We meet at Uni. during our second year. We dated and fell in love. We married just out of school and had Hermione two years later. Unfortunately due to complications in her birth, I was unable to have any more children. We thought about adopting once but for some reason never followed through with it. So Hermione was an only child. There were many times as she got older, we wished that we had gone a head and adopted. She was so lonely growing up. No matter how hard she tried, she just never seemed to be able to make friends."
"Her love for books and learning." Interjected Harry.
"A mirror image of her in your world, Harry?" asked Dan.
"Very much so.' Harry reminisced as he looked at the girl in the bed. 'Even after she entered the magical world where she thought she would finally fit in, she found it hard. She just had a hard time helping others without coming off to strong. It took a troll and a couple of immature boys to get her to relax. It didn't happen overnight, but it did happen."
"A troll?" asked Dan.
Harry looked at him as if he forgot who he was talking to. "It's not important." Harry waved it off. "So, what has she told you that might help me understand why she nearly killed herself to bring me here?"
"She only has two friends at that school of hers, a young man named Neville I believe." Harry eyes shot up in surprise. 'and a young girl named Luna." Emma noticed Harry's look of surprise. "They're just friends Harry, nothing romantic I can assure you. The only other people she mentions are her teachers, a Professor McGonagall and Professor Lily Potter."
"P-P-Potter?" Harry stammered.
"Yes, they seem quite close. She helped Hermione research the ritual she used to bring you here. Why do you seem so surprised?"
Harry had to take a couple of minutes to get himself back together. "It could be my mother,' Harry all but whispered. 'I never met my mother. As I told you last night, I'm an orphan."
"Oh dear." Emma gasped as she covered her mouth with her hand. "Do you really think so?"
"Maybe. I don't want to get my hopes up."
"I can understand that. You poor dear."
Harry stood and walked to the window near the head of the bed and looked out at the back garden in full bloom in the mid-morning light. "You have a beautiful garden. Do you take care of it yourself?" Harry inquired trying to change the subject. Even with all he had been through, he refused to be pitied.
"Yes I do. It's a hobby, you know. Just something to do. It relaxes me. Do you garden?"
"Not in a while. Too busy trying to stay alive. When I was a child it was one of the chores I had to do. I didn't really mind, it got me out of the house for a while." He responded blandly with another shrug of his shoulders.
"Did you have nothing that you had a passion for?" asked Emma.
Harry returned to his seat, "Defense was my best subject, flying on my broom was as close to bliss as I could get. The only thing that felt better was holding my Hermione." He stated as a lone tear leaked out of his left eye.
Dan and Emma exchanged a knowing look.
Dan cleared his throat. "If you don't mind my asking, what happened?"
Harry hung his head and with a heavy sigh. "She died. A week ago we entered what turned out to be the final battle where I finally killed the leader of the terrorist in the magical world. The one that had dogged me all my life. I trusted my best friend to watch her back. He betrayed that trust once again. When I finally had a chance to look for her, she was dead. My friend was no where to be seen. He tried to apologize, but I had heard from others that he just left."
He looked at Hermione as he continued, "I had emptied my vaults and collected all that I owned and was ready to leave England for parts unknown when she brought me here. Everything I own is in that ruck-sack." Harry nodded to his pack by Hermione's bed.
Dan looked at it. "That's not much Harry."
"Ah, but that's the beauty of magic, Dan. There are four trunks in there that are one and a half times the size of Hermione's school trunk."
A/N: Next chapter, Hermione wakes up.
