AN: I'll continue posting the chapters up to my little booboo as I'm rewriting those parts. Enjoy!
Chapter 2: Tears of Morpheus
Harry woke way too damned early in the morning to an ear-shattering scream from his bedroom. He stumbled to his feet, rushing to the door; he pushed his magic into the door lock, and felt some sort of locking spell - he pushed on it, pulling at its bindings, and felt it unravel with a pop of wild magic, then slammed open the door.
She lay on the bed, arched rigid with her neck tendons in a rictus, screaming, again and again. Her whole body shook with...something, probably pain from the tone of her screams. A happy dream wouldn't produce that sort of terror, or pain.
She sagged into the bed, still shuddering, and started sobbing, begging. "Pleeeeasse...I don't KNOWWWW!" she screamed again, stiffening and sagging again, crying out that she "didn't know" over and over.
"Hell with it." he muttered, and sat into the bed next to her, at the head end, and pulled her up partially into his lap. She clutched at him tightly, burying her head in his chest, sobbing horribly.
She clutched at him for nearly a half hour, crying, while he rubbed her back gently and ran his hands over her scalp and through her surprisingly thick hair soothingly, until finally she relaxed, and looked up.
"H-hi. I hope I d-didn't wake you up." she whispered, trying not to enjoy the warmth of his arms as she sniffled.
He chuckled "S'alright. You obviously weren't enjoying it. Like to talk about it?"
"Er...I'd prefer not."
"Hey, now. You can tell me, or you can talk to a shrink."
He heard her murmur "Damn it. Fine. I...I was remembering something out of my past."
"What happened?" he asked, looking down at her.
"I-I was t-tortured. By a psychopath. They thought I had something they wanted. She w-wrote on my a-arm, and tortured me with a curse. It was sooo much pain. I thought I was g-going to d-die. I knew I was going to die."
He held her tighter, rubbing her back gently, as she shuddered.
"I can still feel the curse when I have nightmares. S-she...she's dead so I know it's silly..."
"Not at all. I'll tell you some day about a nightmare that actually hurt me."
"Why not now?" she said, her bright cinnamon-brown eyes gazing up at him, still glistening with tears, but red-rimmed with lack of sleep.
"I'd like you to actually get some sleep." he whispered, chuckling. She gave him a small smile, and curled up in his arms before he could get up. When he thought she was asleep, and tried to slip out of bed, she whimpered and pulled him in tighter, preventing him from getting away. He sighed, then slid further under the covers in his sleep pants and t-shirt and pulled her tighter into his chest, dozing off.
The incessant patting of a feline paw, coupled with a loud purring, slowly woke Hermione out of a (for once) restful sleep. She murmured "Go 'way, Crooks." but the batting continued.
She finally opened one eye, and instead of the usual rumpled orange fur and squashed face of Crookshanks, she saw a gray calico with fierce battle scars on his face, and no tail to flick about.
"Er...hi. Are you trying to get me up?" she whispered, only then noticing the warm arms around her and the sleeping man beneath/beside her.
"Oh! You're wanting to wake him up." she said, grinning despite herself.
"Throw him out the door and go back to sleep." she heard, murmured against her hair.
"He seems rather determined."
"He is." Harry said, sliding his arm out from underneath her and stretching as he sat up. He glared at Mister, who looked unconcerned but batted Harry's face, then took off for the kitchen.
"Little bastard." Harry murmured."Language!" Hermione scolded, swatting his arm.
"Hey! My apartment, I can swear if I want to."
"Oh, fine." she huffed, but giggled a bit. Harry looked over, and saw it was nearly 8:30.
"Shit-er, crap. She'll be here in a few-"
He heard the door open. The doorway that led into the apartment was almost on a direct line to the doorway of his bedroom, and he saw Murphy, all 5 foot of her, bristling in fury when she saw Harry curled up with Hermione.
"Dresden..." she said through clamped teeth.
"Karrin, it's fine. It's my fault." Hermione said, getting up and straightening out her sleep clothes, which had bunched up a bit. "I had a nightmare, and Harry was kind enough to help me get back to sleep."
"He'd better have been a gentleman." Murphy said, her teeth gritted.
"Perfectly." Hermione said, with a steady stare at Murphy.
"Fine. Dresden, get up and cook so we can get her home." Murphy said, then stalked off to the couch.
"Hmm. She looks angry."
"Why?"
"She threatened me last night about being gentlemanlike with you. I'd imagine that's what it's about."
"Ahh." she said, smirking. "Thanks. I slept better because of you." She pecked his cheek, then got up and bounced towards the shower, grabbing her handbag and the clothes Murphy had given her.
Harry stumbled out of his room, still clad in his sleep pants. Murphy, despite her 5 foot stature, grabbed him and pushed him against a wall with a thump.
"So help me, Dresden...we talked last night. What the hell was that about?"
"She had a violent nightmare. I thought she was gonna fall off the damn bed, or snap a vertebra. What was I supposed to do, sit there and let her scream?"
Murphy's fury died away as she sighed. "No, I suppose not. What brought it about?"
"I don't feel comfortable talking about it without her permission." he mumbled, then set off to the kitchenette to start breakfast, grabbing a half dozen eggs out of the ice box, along with bacon, bread, and the other morning breakfast staples. He also put the percolator on. Karrin sat on the couch again, watching him carefully.
He heard the shower stop, and only a few minutes later, Hermione strode out of his room, dressed in the clothes Karrin had donated to her. They fit pretty well, actually, even though Hermione was taller and a bit fuller than Karrin; they didn't know she'd used some tailoring charms to adjust them when she put them on.
"That was fast." Harry said, from the stove.
"Drying charms, and a few hygiene charms. Quick and simple. And can't you get some hot water?"
"Sounds handy. Usually I gotta do everything the slow way. And no, hot water heaters blow up in my apartment." Harry said, looking intrigued at the thought of spells for hygiene.
"You should have learned them at your magical school..." she said, looking at Harry curiously.
"Apprenticed. A bad master at first, then a good one, but a traditionalist. And we didn't cover personal hygiene using magic."
"That's...odd. Are you sure there won't be trouble with the ICW about this?"
"Only the three of us know. Are you going to report it?" Karrin again had to wonder why she was worried about it.
"Er...no. Of course not. I'd be culpable."
"Then don't worry about it. I'm gonna have to make up a bunch of crap anyways for my reports. You should probably think of a cover story anyways, for norms. I suggest that you were dosed with GHB again, and Harry stopped the guy as he was leaving with you, but in the ensuing scuffle he got away."
"Simple and easy. Apart from the embarrassment of having that happen again." she said, blushing.
"I already talked to your friend Sally, so she's heard that story already."
"You told her?"
"I had to ask around and figure out who your friends were, mostly to let them know you were okay."
"And to gather information on me, I'd wager. How much did you learn? What gaps in my past are you curious about?" Hermione blurted, glaring at Karrin, with her hair frizzing slightly from the excess energy building up. Murphy could see the energy buildup as a visible aura, but kept talking smoothly and calmly, having dealt with Harry in a rage before; her voice stayed even and soothing.
"Relax, miss. All I did was take a look at the official records. I did see the previous situation with GHB, the responding officer is actually a friend of mine. Although I'd be interested in knowing what school you went to after Primary in Britain."
"And I. Can't. Tell. You. I'd be in even more trouble if someone found out." she muttered, her aura flaring even more. Harry stepped behind her and placed his left hand on her bare shoulder next to the tank-top strap, and she felt the excess energy drain out of her, calming her down perceptibly as she sighed, her breath wobbling. Harry discharged the power from his right hand, against the stone of the wall with a sparkle of static.
"You need to calm down." he whispered, close to her ear. She shivered a tiny bit at the feel of his breath on her sensitive ear. Honestly. I just can't control myself when a man does that, can I?
Karrin watched the two suspiciously, but when no more intimate behavior was forthcoming, she sat down on one of the chairs at the tiny kitchen table. "The eggs are about to burn." she said, looking at the pan. Harry rushed over and saved them, then finished up breakfast, while the two women glared at each other, each irritated at the other.
He shook his head as he walked over with three plates, full of eggs, bacon, toast, and sausage.
"Eat up, then we can get you home." he said, giving the pair a Look. Karrin dug in quickly, eating efficiently and expeditiously. Hermione took a taste, and was surprised. "Pretty good." she mumbled through a mouthful of sausage and egg, and Harry grinned.
"For a man, you mean?"
"Oh, no. My Harry from Britain is actually an amazing cook. Nothing to do with gender at all. Maybe it's the name."
"Hmmph." Harry said, smirking as he dug into his pile of food. I'm just lucky the brownies left us with the right things for breakfast. That week of nothing but Frosted Flakes could have made them give me weird looks.
Harry was in the shower and dressing, while the two women cleaned the dishes.
"Karrin?"
"Hmm?"
"You aren't...er, with him, are you?"
"Dresden? Oh, God, no. I can't do serious. And Dresden can do nothing but. Although I have a sneaking suspicion he had some sort of steamy, short-lived romance a few months ago, but nothing concrete."
"Alright then. I was curious about why you were angry with him earlier. And with me." Hermione eyed Murphy suspiciously.
Karrin sighed, setting a plate down and picking up another as she dried it. "To be brutally honest, I was worried about both of you. Harry normally has a will of iron, but...he's more fragile than he seems. He lives all alone here, except for that cat. He gets the worst sort of cases imaginable, and sees some of the worst things possible. In the end, though, nothing ever seems to go his way."
"And for me?" Hermione was curious about what wasn't going his way, but didn't ask. Not yet.
"Despite his will of iron, no man is immune to a beautiful young woman inviting him into her bed. I knew intellectually that he wouldn't do that with you so soon after a traumatic experience on your part, but the fact is I was worried you had tricked him or something. That you couldn't help yourself. Honey, I think you need to see someone. A counselor, a shrink, somebody. This is the second time you've been preyed upon by a predator, and this time was far more serious...you could have been killed, or worse, kept as a food source." Hermione shuddered violently, closing her eyes tightly. "In fact, that was the likely scenario if he got you away. You wouldn't have denied him or argued...and in fact, you'd feel eager for whatever he wanted. That's what the Kiss does. Harry knows it all too well. Ask him some time, when you get to know him better. And when you don't think he'll blow up at you."
"Oh." Hermione said, deep in thought. Karrin took pity on her though.
"Look, I'm not saying that he's off limits, or that you shouldn't be his friend at the very least. Just...handle him with kid gloves, okay?"
"I will. And Karrin...you're right. I need to talk to somebody. I just...don't even know where to begin. I don't know of anybody with the right training who could deal with somebody like me..."
"A wizard, you mean."
"We refer to it as witch for the female, but yes." Murphy raised an eyebrow, remembering Dresden say the exact opposite, but let it go for now.
"That's definitely a hard question. Maybe at the moment, it's enough to talk to Harry. He can probably understand your problems better than some of us. And I'm always available for a call, or a chat. I'm busy with work, but I understand that sometimes your problems don't have convenient schedules."
"Thanks. I really appreciate it. Both the save and the advice."
"No problem, hon. We women got to stick up for each other." Karrin said, smirking.
The three pulled up to the apartment building in Hyde Park, garnering looks from passers by as a towering man in a black leather duster got out of the tiny Saturn coupe, then two much smaller young women got out as well. His staff was likely drawing more attention, but if they ran into any Reds he wanted the firepower. Hermione had her fingers on her wand handle, hidden in her bag at the moment; she wasn't sure what she could do to a "Red" but wouldn't be caught unawares again.
They took the stairs up to her place, after a brief look from Karrin to Harry that had Hermione wondering.
Harry and Karrin looked in first, prodding the door open with his staff. They proceeded to check her flat thoroughly, and finding nothing but what should be there (including her large orange tom, Crookshanks), relaxed.
Hermione sat down at her cozy little kitchen table; she had a slightly larger flat than Harry's basement apartment (apart from his dungeon/lab/pantry, which she'd never actually gotten to see.) She looked over at her phone and answering machine, and saw that she had a handful of messages already.
"Crud. Sally's already probably called me. Over and over. And she was likely watching for me to arrive, so she should be here in 5, 4, 3, 2..."
The door banged open, and both Dresden and Murphy whirled, not aiming their weapons but surprised by the entry.
The girl that entered, pale with raven-dark hair and dark purple eyes, was made up with dark eyeliner and mascara. She wore all black; a black t-shirt with some sort of pithy slogan that Harry refused to focus on over her breasts, strappy black jeans with a lot of pockets, and black sneakers.
"Hermione Jean Granger! Where the hell have you been since yesterday!"
"Sally, please. I'm not in the mood for it at the moment."
Sally noticed the two others in the room, and quickly settled down. "You'd be Karrin Murphy, yes? We talked this morning."
"That's right. I appreciate your help."
"Oh, it's no problem. I appreciate you letting me know that she was okay...she hadn't answered any calls. I didn't think she'd go off to a club like that herself, the foolish girl."
"Sally!" Hermione said, shocked at her friend.
"Don't you start with me, missy. I should put you over my knee." she said threateningly. Karrin covered her mouth with a snort, and Harry had a sudden coughing fit. Hermione couldn't decide if it was laughter or surprise, but blushed at the thought; Sally didn't bluff.
"Harry Dresden, Karrin Murphy, this is Sallindra Clyde. She's been my best friend since I moved here, until the unfortunate incident tomorrow where she will be smothered with a pillow..."
"Harry, is it? Is this the..."
"No, Sally. This one I just met. And he saved my life." she said, smiling a bit dreamily. Sally caught the look and wondered just what the hell had happened.
"Well, Mr. Dresden...hmm, weren't you on TV recently? Thanks for helping her. She clearly needed the help if her common sense didn't do the job for her."
"No problem, Miss Clyde. Hermione, it's been a pleasure meeting you. Murph, we should get going." Harry said, with his best "business-like" persona.
"Hmm. Let's get moving. Miss Granger, here's my card. Call me if you ever need to talk."
"Here's mine as well. You're free to stop by and visit whenever, as well. Either my office or home."
Hermione stood, and pulled him into a big hug. "Thanks again. I owe you one." she whispered into his chest. She felt him hug back genuinely, but only briefly before he gently pressed her away. She turned and grabbed Murphy, pulling her into her own hug.
"Thanks."
"No problem. Call me when you're not in a crisis situation sometime."
"I will."
Once the hugs and goodbyes had been exchanged, and the odd couple that had saved her life and turned it upside down were gone, Sally turned to her.
"Now, spill. What the hell happened to you?"
Hermione told everything. Sally was the only person she had ever told the accurate story of her life, magic and all. Sally wasn't in on the secret of magic "officially", but she was pretty well clued in to the magical world by her friendships with a number of practitioners and hedge-magi, and from Hermione's stories.
"So it was a Red Court Vampire?" she asked, as Hermione finished with the attack.
"That's what Harry and Karrin said. When it transformed..." she said, shuddering. Sally wrapped her arms around her friend, cradling her against her shoulder.
"No more clubbing for us for a while, my dear." she said once she'd released Hermione. The shaky nod she got in return was all she needed to see.
"What happened after that? Those hugs looked a little too intimate for someone who only saved your life and held your hair while you puked."
Hermione rolled her eyes. "He took me back to his place. I was still really heavily doped, I don't remember the ride at all. I do remember his car, a battered old VW bug."
"Hmm. Probably the only thing he can keep running for any length of time. If what I've heard about Dresden is true, he's crazy powerful, and that kind of power tends to ruin electronics, and even electric lines."
"He has this nice little cozy basement apartment. I could feel the wards around the place, and they were strong. He gave me a cloth with something on it when we got back there. The cloth burned like hell when it touched wherever that creature licked me, but my head got clearer. We talked for a while until Karrin got there, and she asked me about what happened."
"It's not going to let out the secret, is it?" Sally asked, concerned for her friend.
"She said she'd do a bit of creative writing. I imagine the story will be more in line with what she told you over the phone last night."
"Everybody in the know around Chicago knows Karrin Murphy. She's a bit of an avenging angel among the practitioners."
"After that, he gave me his bed and he slept on the couch. I took an ice cold shower and jumped into bed, thankfully he gave me a t-shirt and some shorts. I'll tell you something...as I fell asleep, I felt really comfortable. His scent was all over the bed, and it was very nice.
"I woke up a few hours later, and he was cradling me. I apparently woke him and probably everybody else in the boarding house up with my screaming. I had the Bellatrix nightmare again." she said, and Sally sighed, rubbing her hand over her face.
"I told you to talk to somebody about those nightmares."
"Who am I going to talk to, Dr. Ruth the Wizard psychologist?" Hermione scoffed.
"Fair point. Just try to find somebody who you can talk to. I'm too close to you for professional."
"Anyways, he was comforting me. I told him, in general terms, about the dream, and he just held me tighter. I fell asleep again, and I was wrapped around him. I have a vague memory of him trying to get up once I'd fallen asleep, or seemingly had, but he couldn't get away." Hermione said, giggling.
Sally laughed, and hugged her friend again, thankful she was alive, but more importantly, thankful she was in good spirits after an attack like that.
"The next thing I know, I had a big furry beast on top of me. His cat was patting my face, trying to wake me up. Harry woke up after I talked to the cat, and just before we both got up, Karrin came in the front door; she could see through the bedroom doorway, and saw us lying together...and she kinda flipped her lid."
"Uh-oh. I didn't think they were..." Sally said, trying to remember how the tiny blonde and the tall dark-haired wizard had interacted.
"We talked later after breakfast, when he was taking a shower. She said she isn't interested in him...or rather, can't be. Not sure I believe it quite yet."
"Hmm, how does that work?"
"I guess she can only do casual, and he can only do serious. There was something weird though."
"Which was?" Sally said, her eyebrow raised lasciviously.
"Nothing like that, you pervert!" Hermione squealed, slapping Sally on the arm, then sobered. "There was a picture in a box in his closet...I was looking for a pair of shorts that fit. He...he had an engagement ring there. Along with love letters. All either undelivered or opened and returned. There was a photo there of him with a Latina woman."
Sally put one hand to her mouth. "Oh. That's so sad..."
"Yeah. I didn't have the heart to ask him who she was."
"If it's who I think it is...There were rumors going around at one time that Dresden was seeing Susan Rodriguez, the lady that had a by-line in the Midwestern Arcane. She had some good stories too, probably real events, not the usual Bat Boy claptrap. She had some really incredible footage of a real werewolf, before the powers that be buried the footage, only showing a grainy, staticky version."
"The Arcane, that yellow supernatural rag I caught you reading?"
"Apparently they get real stories more often than not. They just sound crazy. Like the Enquirer."
"So he and her..."
"Something happened to her...about 2 years ago, just around the time of that big fire at Bianca's Velvet Room. She disappeared from town. Her articles got sparser in the paper...then stopped entirely."
"Oh...Merlin, that's sad." Hermione said, slumping against her chair.
"Sweetie...I'm sorry. I didn't..."
"Sally, it isn't your fault. I'm feeling the natural effects of a life debt followed by him taking care of me, and letting myself get my hopes up. I shouldn't have..." She felt tears forming, and felt her despair growing.
Sally knelt in front of her, at eye level. "Hermione, listen to me. Despite the fact that he may have been serious about her...she's not here. And he is, and you are. He still has the ring, buried away in his closet, so she must have rejected it, whether for good reason or not. She has no claim on him. And obviously he's at least aware you're a woman."
"Yeah, a crazy, crying slut. Just what I want him to think." Hermione said thickly, tears in her eyes and sniffling.
"Enough of that, or I really will take you over my knee!" Sally said imperiously. Hermione blushed brightly. "It sounds like he genuinely cared for you. He helped you when he didn't have to, and when you had a nightmare, he held you and comforted you until it passed." Sally said, pulling the business cards over to her and looking. She smirked. "Oh, and look at this."
Hermione took the card from Sally's hands and inspected it. It was similar to his phone book ad on the front.
HARRY DRESDEN — WIZARD
Lost Items Found. Paranormal Investigations.
Consulting. Advice. Reasonable Rates.
No Love Potions, Endless Purses, Parties or Other Entertainment
His office number and address were listed below. She flipped the card, and saw his home number scrawled in a slanted hand on the back. She blushed.
"I'm not saying you need to go out and try to jump his bones. I don't think he'd need that or enjoy that. Well, he probably would at first. But he sounds more like the type to start slow. So start slow. Call him in a day or two, go out for coffee or a friendly dinner. Get to know him. Learn what makes him tick. By the time you're ready to ask him about his old flame, he'll probably either have decided you're a friend and answer, or he'll have put you down as a potential girlfriend and want to clear the air."
Hermione looked at her friend with a bit of awe. "How do you do that?"
"Magic." Sally said, grinning. Hermione grabbed a pillow from the couch and began to pummel her, giggling madly as she set off a pillow war.
Karrin Murphy drove away from the apartment building in her Saturn, Harry brooding as he hunched over in the seat next to her. She looked over at him, one eyebrow raised.
"What's eating you?"
"Hmmph."
"Sorry, I don't speak Man. You need to actually use words." she said, lying slightly; she'd long ago deciphered the Male language, composed of a series of grunts and context-sensitive gestures. The Male language was a necessary proficiency to hold any position in the Chicago Police Department.
What he'd said was "I don't want to talk about my love life, especially with you."
He looked over at her and sneered, saying "It's none of your fucking business." with his expression.
"That Sally character was...interesting. Kind of cute. I think I understand why Granger got into the club scene she did."
"Hmm." This grunt was more noncommittal, more or less meaning "I suppose so" in a distracted tone.
"That whole vampire sexual factor is a huge pain in the ass. We have more false alarms for so-called vampire attacks because of it."
"Ermph." ("I really don't want to talk about it.")
"This annoyance wouldn't have to do with Susan, would it?"
Her only answer was a growl. ("Shut the fuck up!")
"I mean, it couldn't have been easy seeing a young woman nearly-"
"Shut the fuck up, Murphy. Or something's going to happen to your car." he said, looking away and returning to his brooding. She noticed the air conditioner spark a bit, and her radio warbled, but continued running. Hmm, surprisingly direct for him, especially for such a dramatic shift from Male to English.
"Okay, okay." she said, holding her hands up momentarily in defeat. Or success, as she saw it. She had hit the nail on the head. Harry had taken care of the Vampire so nastily because he saw in Hermione what he believed he could have saved Susan from.
Murphy cursed, once again, the bad luck her best friend suffered from. He barely managed to make enough to hold onto his apartment and office, and crawled through acres of shit to do so. His most important cases, the ones that saw him literally saving the world, seemed to have no monetary reward whatsoever, and he usually paid the bills with small, simple cases like finding lost items and exorcising houses of poltergeists, or the less than rewarding scutwork he did for the Chicago PD.
His luck with women was the worst. She knew, more or less, the story of Elaine. His first love. The girl he'd grown up with, lost his virginity with...the girl who had attempted to "kill" him at least twice now. The first time, she'd been in thrall of the bastard that had been their former master. The second time...Murphy wasn't sure about that. Elaine had come down on their side in the end, and she'd departed for the West Coast. Murphy had made sure she caught that train.
Then there was Susan. They had a good year or two. Harry was commitment-phobic, and most unusually for a man, he had very good reason. The whole situation with Elaine would sour anybody on women. He now carried a heap of regrets for Susan. For what could have been, for what they could have shared. And in the end, she'd rejected his engagement ring, left town, and she knew he hadn't heard from her in nearly 2 years. Until that whole affair with the Denarians.
Harry had never said anything about what happened, but she knew the pair of them had been locked in his apartment, the wards activated while they rode out an attack by one of the Denarians. She had a suspicion about what had happened, from things she'd put together. She knew Susan was infected; that she could have easily ripped Dresden's throat out in the throes of passion otherwise, and that she'd been doing some heavy-duty lifting, from the destruction she'd seen at the crime scene she'd been called to at the Hilton. She'd accidentally found the coil of silvery rope in the basket near the door once, and when she'd asked what it was doing there, he'd blushed like a tomato and refused to answer.
A clue, Sherlock.
She knew it had been more or less a good-bye for the two. Before, when she'd been gone for 2 years, he'd carried a hell of a torch and run himself into the ground looking for a cure. Following the Sidhe Courts affair and the battle over the Lake, he'd lightened up, finally. The Denarian case had pushed him into darker territory again. They'd probably shared a "romantic" interlude, rope included.
And Susan was out of his life again. Probably never to return.
A tiny part of Murphy, the love-child of her inner romantic and her libido, had cheered when Susan left. Because it meant that Harry was free.
That was the part that had snarled at the two laying in bed together, when she walked in that morning. That was the part that had threatened Dresden with emasculation if anything had happened between the two.
The problem was, most of the time, that part of her mind was pushed way to the back. And her logic had come to the fore. She knew Harry couldn't be anything less than 100% into everything he did. He never under-did anything. And she knew from the other part of her brain, the cynical old spinster, that she couldn't do serious again. Not after two failed marriages, two painful heartbreaks. She needed crazy, wild, relatively simple, safe relationships. Where she couldn't be hurt.
In a way, she felt a kinship with the girl she'd only met early this morning. Hermione had felt like a lost soul. Her tendencies to go out and try her damnedest to get raped by creeps in dark clubs had to have a root in her fear of committing to anything fully; she could blame the attempted rapes for her hesitance to get near to anybody. She felt safe in her bad relationships with club-goers, with her one-night stands and quiet interludes in bathrooms or on couches. The older adult part of Karrin, the part that had learned from her mistakes over the years, clucked and scolded the younger woman for her tendency to throw herself into bad situations, but that tiny little part of her that had been the same way at a younger age completely understood the impulses.
For all that the younger girl had seemed to go through in her life, judging from her impulses, actions, and nightmares, she either hadn't learned from them or refused to learn from them.
And now she'd met Harry. And like most people he met, something about her life changed because of his presence.
She hoped this girl wouldn't damage her friend.
Because she'd destroy her.
