Disclaimer: I still do not own Harry Potter or any of it's characters!
Authors note: This chapter is dedicated to my dear friend MorticiaYouSpokeFrench!
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Several things made themselves known to me after I hung up.
One: I was shaking like a leaf. My teeth were chattering and I couldn't hold myself up against the counter I had been perched on.
Two: The tiles beneath my hands were cold and soothing when I pressed my forehead to them.
Three: Harry. Was. Real.
Harry Potter, the Boy-Who-Lived, The Chosen One, the Savior. Harry. He was real and the whole world of magic was real. It wasn't just some fantasy that my childish mind created to deal with the bullies. It was as real as the tiles beneath my head, and the heart in my chest.
The realizations came crashing, unrelentingly; the trials, the laughter, the pain, would all become reality when I finally turned 11. No, it was already reality. This was the world that I now called home. And while one part of me was elated, overjoyed, manic, with the realizations, I was also terrified beyond all recognition.
The terrors that Harry and his friends faced were very real possibilities, ones that I wasn't sure I would be able to face.
I wasn't really sure how long I had lain on the counter, but after a short while I finally came back to myself. I was nowhere near ready to fully comprehend the situation, but I had to get myself together. For Harry. I had to call him back. I had to... I wasn't really sure what I had to do, but I had to do something. I was hardly a damsel in distress, and I wouldn't let the facts of this world rule me.
It was very nearly 8:30 when I finally grabbed the phone intending to call Harry for the second time that night; and the sitter walked into the kitchen. I had almost completely forgotten that she was around, hardly remembering that I was not yet old enough to be home alone. But all she did was tell me that she was going to cook dinner and not to be long.
As she shuffled past me to the kitchen proper, I nervously dialed the number again.
It rang, once, twice, and someone answered.
It was quiet for a moment, and then, "Hello?" The greeting was said with much more conviction this time, but by the same voice from before.
So the Dursley's had yet to return home; good.
"Hello? Who is this?" The voice sounded a touch exasperated but still quiet, as if he felt that the Dursley's would swoop down on him like bats from hell if he spoke loudly.
I cleared my throat, "Ah, um, yes," I stuttered out. "Ha-, hello, my name is Hermione Granger."
I swallowed down the use of his name at the last second. Not entirely sure what to continue with, I awkwardly remained quiet. My mind raced with the choices presented to me. I thought of what I could say, what I ought to say, and what not to say, but I wasn't sure if I should say any of it at all.
"Yes?" Harry cut my inner ramblings short; he hadn't even offered his name!
I had always thought that Harry was rather sassy before entering Hogwarts, but I hadn't known what a feisty little bugger he could be until then. I let out a strangled laugh, and felt myself calm down.
I decided to go along with it, "Yes, what? You didn't even tell your name yet." I stated matter of factly. There was a short silence which was finally broken by a rather surprised sounding, "Oh!" I supposed that not many people asked for his name, and he didn't exactly know that I was calling for him specifically. Well not yet at least.
He continued shyly, "Um, my name is Harry."
The way he said it was overwhelmingly adorable, and I felt my face light up with glee. He was actually speaking with me! I was probably grinning like a loon, but at the moment I couldn't care less.
"It's great to meet you Harry!" I replied happily.
I couldn't remember a time where I had felt such distinct happiness in this life. Though my parents were loving and kind, I had always felt as if there was something missing, like there was something more I needed. I felt it most often when I was at the park with my mother and saw all of the other children and siblings playing with each other.
I missed my siblings. My sisters and my annoying older brother. I admitted to myself on occasion that I was lonely, but I had been a loner in my last life. It shouldn't have been a big deal, but it was. I could distinctly feel the hole in my heart their presence had originally filled.
I knew that Harry and I were the furthest thing from friends at the moment, but that could easily change now that I foolishly called him up.
I didn't care; I would act the fool if it meant that we were friends. That I would not be alone any longer. I knew that it was selfish of me, but that didn't stop me.
"Hermione?" Harry asked quietly. I was off wool gathering while he had been trying to get my attention. Whoops.
I replied, "Yes, Harry?"
"Um, why exactly did you call?" He asked curiously. It was a valid question. Why would some random girl call his relative's home and ask for his name? It was certainly suspicious. And I was reluctant to answer.
I had been trying and failing those last few months to come up with a good reason I would be calling in the first place. I finally settled on one that, while rather dubious, still had a hint of truth in it.
"Harry," I started calmly, "I really need to tell you something important, and while I would rather talk to you in person, I know that it wouldn't be possible at this time." I laid it out carefully.
He would have to take the next step, one that I was almost certain he would choose. He was a rather curious creature by nature and would wonder at how a girl he had just 'met' had something important to tell him. I hoped that I was right, seeing how I didn't fancy being hung up on.
I heard him swallow slightly, "What is it?" he asked nervously.
This was the moment of truth, Harry would either believe me, or he would think it a horrible prank and never want to speak with me again.
"Harry, I," I started, "I have these dreams you see." I twisted the phone cord around my fingers nervously.
It was as close to the truth that I was willing to reveal at the time. For one, who would believe that I was 'reincarnated' into a fictional book series? I was almost certain nobody would. Perhaps Luna... But that was a thought for another time.
The reason I was going with 'dreams' was because they were often associated with memories. And while I hadn't actually lived the whole 'Hogwarts experience', I had often submerged myself into the world so much, I sometimes had dreams about living through it. Not to mention that ever since I found out that I was the Hermione Granger, I quite often had nightmares of trolls trying to smash me to bits or being tortured by Bellatrix Lestrange. That was a bit not good.
"Dreams?" Harry replied, confused.
"Yes, they, well, I sometimes see this boy in my dreams," I said slowly, "His name is Harry Potter."
I don't hear anything for a short while and I feared that he would hang up the phone, but to my surprise (and relief) he states, "Go on…?" I can tell that he is confused, but willing to hear me out, something that I am eternally grateful for.
"I see this boy, and he goes to school in a castle, Hogwarts, with his friends and they have great adventures, but it's a magical castle! And there are witches and wizards and trolls and unicorns and, oh Harry, it's wonderful!" I rush to get it all out. I was so excited to tell Harry these things years before he originally found out.
"Magic?" Harry says slowly, "My uncle says, 'There is no such thing as magic.'"
His voice is low, and neutral. He probably thought that I was playing a nasty prank on him, rubbing it in that he was a freak, that he wasn't normal.
I rushed to rebuke that statement, "You don't believe that, Harry,"
"Hasn't anything strange happened around you, something you couldn't explain?" I willed him to believe me, "Something that was just like magic?"
He didn't answer, and I was becoming desperate, he had to believe me!
"Harry, please, In my dreams, the boy, Harry Potter, he has strange things happen to him all of the time! He," I tried desperately to remember the books details perfectly, I didn't want to mix canon with fanon and screw up royally, "He accidentally turned his teacher hair blue! And, he shrunk his cousins jumper because he didn't want to wear it!
"And I, I can make books float down to me from high places and I can also change the color of things if I really try hard enough!" I was starting to cry, "Please, Harry, I, I think you are the boy in my dreams, I," I trailed off, not knowing how else to make him believe me. What else could I possible do to make him believe me?
Harry was quiet while I cried silently, he wasn't going to believe me. I just knew that he would never speak to me again, even if we did happen meet in the Hogwarts Express in a few years.
He hadn't hung up on me, I could still hear him breathing, but he wasn't saying anything either.
There was only one thing to be done about it, I would have to convince him. In person.
"Harry," I started unsure, "There is one way, that I know of, that will surely convince you I am telling the truth." I ended up sounding more confident than I felt. I was doomed if it didn't work. But I wouldn't, couldn't, back down.
Despite his obvious reservations, Harry curiously asked, "How can you convince me if you are so far away?"
I had never attempted Apparating before, and I knew the dangers, but I would be killing two birds with one stone. I would both convince Harry that magic was real and meet him all at once. I would think of the consequences at a later time.
"There is a type of wizardly transportation that will instantly bring me to your location. Mind, it is extremely advanced and I am unsure if I will be able to complete it.." I trailed off.
I had to keep a straight head and concentrate.
"I require silence and concentration, so please stay on the line but don't speak," I told him quietly but firmly.
I would not lose a limb or an organ or.. I shivered and pulled back from those kinds of thoughts. I needed to clear my mind, as Snape would say. I wasn't sure if that was actually how you learned Occlumency, but it was a good exercise to help calm myself down.
Breathing in and out slowly, I started to concentrate on trying to feel my own magic. When I finally found out that I had magic, I began meditating to build control over my accidental magic, or wandless magic. To my utter surprise and joy, my hard work had payed off and that was the reason that I could now levitate objects freely and use Alohomora wandless.
I let the thoughts flow away from my mind and felt my magic, like a ball, somewhere in my midsection slowly swirling with magic. I could almost see it in my minds eye, like a great ball of energy, the color was something I couldn't describe but that didn't matter, I knew suddenly that I could do it.
I could Apparate to Harry.
And so I did.
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