Chapter Four - Date with Domesticity
Another gorgeous summer's day dawned and Hermione's parents woke up and started getting ready for work. Hermione's mother knew her daughter and Harry had said they wanted a lie in, but she could not help but want to go in the room to check on them. She knocked on the bedroom door but heard no response from inside; consequently she quietly opened the door and looked at the scene in front of her. There was her daughter and her soon to be son-in-law, fast asleep snuggled up together with Harry's arms wrapped tenderly around Hermione.
Mrs. Granger gave a huge smile then she heard her husband coming out of the bathroom.
"Hey honey come over and look at this" she nodded her head in the direction of their daughter's bedroom. He came over and looked inside the room.
"Isn't that just a beautiful sight?" she said dreamily.
He smiled "They really do look great together, and I'm pleased to see they are both fully clothed."
"Oh honestly!" laughed Mrs. Granger "Look at the way they are lying, it's like Harry is holding our little girl and protecting her like he never wants to let her go. It's so sweet!"
"He's a good guy, I can tell he is going to make our Hermione very happy" said Mr. Granger. "Actually looking at these two, doesn't it remind you of …" "us" they said in unison and smiled.
"Yeah it really does" Mrs. Granger said and smiled, her husband gave her a kiss. "Well we best leave them to sleep in peace, got to head off to work" he said and Mrs. Granger closed the bedroom door as silently as she could so as not to wake either of them up.
Only an hour or so later, Harry slowly started to wake up and the obvious pressure on his torso told him that Hermione had fallen asleep with her head on his chest. He stayed as still as he could so as not to wake her, and managed to grab his glasses off the beside table and placed them on. Now that he could see clearly, he smiled, he could not see much of Hermione's face, but he could tell by her steady breathing that she was still sound asleep. Harry could still not quite believe what had happened these past few days. Hermione had agreed to marry him and now he was sleeping in the same bed with her and she was currently lying fully asleep in his arms. Life at the moment could not get any better.
Harry smiled down at Hermione and started playing with her curly hair. A few moments later Hermione began to move and her eyes fluttered open and looked up into Harry's deep emerald eyes.
"Hello" he said sweetly.
Hermione smiled "Good morning!" she said with a yawn and stretched and snuggled closer to Harry.
"D'ya know I could get used to this" she said happily.
Harry grinned "Me too" he kissed the top of her head.
Hermione smiled "Have you been awake long?"
"Only a few minutes, did you sleep well?" he asked.
"Yes actually, the best nights sleep I've had for a long time, how about you?"
"Yeah same here, strangely enough ... Hey I'm starved do you want me to make us some breakfast?" Harry offered.
Hermione raised her eyebrows "No, no don't be daft this is my house I should go make the breakfast."
Hermione made to get out of bed but Harry grabbed her arm gently and turned her around before kissing her deeply, once they parted Hermione looked perplexed but happy "What was that for?"
Harry laughed "Just felt like it, and no you don't have to make breakfast Hermione, I offered to do it so I will, you just lie there and relax and I will call you down when it's ready."
Harry kissed her cheek and Hermione grinned as Harry climbed out of bed and made his way downstairs and into the kitchen. On one of the counter's he spotted a piece of paper, as Harry moved closer he noticed it was a note written by Mrs. Granger:
Hermione and Harry,
We will be back at 12:30pm for lunch, help yourselves to anything in the kitchen. Any problems just give us a ring.
Love, Mum and Dad xx
Harry placed the note back on the counter and started routing through the cupboards and the fridge and found some ingredients and began cooking pancakes for Hermione and himself. A few minutes later they were ready and he went to the bottom of the stairs and called out "Hermione! Food is ready!"
"Okay coming!" he heard her call back.
Harry went back into the kitchen, sat at the breakfast bar and poured syrup over the two plates of pancakes.
The sound of light footsteps, soon followed, and could be heard coming down the stairs and into the kitchen.
"Ooo do I smell pancakes?" Hermione asked happily as she appeared wearing a dressing gown over her pyjamas.
Harry grinned "Yes, I made them myself."
Hermione sat down opposite Harry "Thanks Harry. Y'know I've always wanted to try some of your cooking."
Harry grinned and watched her as she took a bite "Mmmm wow these taste amazing!" she tried to say without spraying bits of food all over Harry. After the two of them had eaten their breakfast and cleared up, they both took separate showers and got dressed before deciding to sit in the back garden.
Hermione told Harry about her mum being a keen gardener, the garden was not exactly huge but Harry could tell how much work and effort had been put into it. Trees, flowerbeds and a pond were further down the garden and the couple settled on a table and chairs situated on a decking area at the front of the garden. The midday sun was beating down on them, it felt extremely tranquil and all that could be heard were birds chirping away in the trees.
"I've always loved summer, it's definitely my favourite time of year" Hermione said blissfully as she scooted her chair closer to Harry's "It makes me feel like a little child again, always brings back lots of happy memories."
Harry sighed sadly "The only memories I've got of summer is the Dursley's making me do chores, and leaving me with Mrs. Figg when they went off on holidays" he looked glum.
Hermione took his hand "Oh Harry I'm sorry. I didn't mean to bring that all back for you."
She looked honestly very ashamed of herself and Harry kissed her cheek and gently started rubbing her hand he was holding, to reassure her.
"It's alright Hermione, really, its okay. Besides it wasn't all bad, all those summers I've spent with you and Ron when we started Hogwarts has more than made up for it."
Hermione smiled and cupped his cheek "Well rest assured all those summer's with the Dursley's you can put them behind you, you wont be treated like that again Harry, not if I have anything to do with it. I'm going to make this the best summer you've ever had."
Harry grinned at her and enveloped her into a hug "Thank you, I don't know what I'd do without you y'know."
Hermione giggled once they had let go of one other "I know, I wonder about that all the time. I need to be here to keep both you and Ron in-line or you'll both just go off the rails."
Harry laughed and kissed her cheek "That we would."
They fell silent for a few moments before Harry spoke again with a grin on his face. Hermione knew that look all too well, it meant he was planning something.
"You know what would make this summer the best of my life?" he asked her.
"What's that?" Hermione asked with a hint of curiosity.
"If we got married this summer" Harry said simply.
Hermione's eyes widened "You … you … say that again?"
"What if we got married this summer?" Harry said clearly.
"Are you serious?" Hermione asked.
"Yeah" smiled Harry "Why not? You just told me that summer is your favourite time of year and to be totally honest I really don't want to wait much longer. I don't want you to be, Hermione the woman I love and my best friend; I want you to be my wife aswell, as soon as possible."
Hermione's eyes shined "Harry that is so sweet! But seriously, can we plan it all so soon? I want it to be perfect."
Harry smiled "And it will be, you are the queen of organisation and planning, we can plan it together so easily … and Hermione trust me, on that day as long as you're there and we get married then it will be perfect."
Hermione was grinning from ear to ear as she pondered for a moment to let all of this sink in "a summer wedding" she said to herself and grinned excitedly in Harry's direction "let's do it!"
"Are you sure?" Harry asked her thoughtfully.
"Yes! Yes! Yes!" she cried out joyously and leapt out of her chair and tackled Harry in a massive hug, Harry laughed. Hermione wouldn't let go of him, not that he was complaining.
They stayed in that position for a while, both beaming with happiness. From over Hermione's shoulder he could see the figure of Hermione's mother through the kitchen window, she was moving about but she hadn't appeared to have spotted them sitting outside.
Harry pulled apart from Hermione "Your mum is home" he said.
Hermione looked rather surprised and glanced down at her watch "Oh she's early, come on lets go in and tell her our news" she grinned, they held hands and made their way indoors.
Hermione's mother turned round when she heard the back door open "Oh there you two are, was wondering where you had got to."
"Hiya mum, yeah we were outside having a chat and enjoying the sunshine, you're home a bit early aren't you?" inquired Hermione.
"Yeah, well your dad and I thought we would take the rest of the day off to spend with you both."
"Aww thanks mum. Where is dad?" Hermione suddenly asked as she realised her father was not about.
"He should be back in a few minutes he went to get some food so I can make us a bit of lunch."
Harry interrupted her "I can make lunch if you like, actually no I insist, you have been so kind to me, the least I could do is cook for us all."
Hermione's mum looked rather impressed and surprised "Well I'm not going to argue with that. Thank you Harry darling that would be lovely. Hold onto this one Hermione" she said as she looked at her daughter "found a man that can cook and wants to do it without being asked, well done darling, don't find many of them around."
Hermione and her mum dissolved into giggles and Harry was blushing bright red. Once the girls had composed themselves, they moved into the living room and Hermione's mum asked them;
"So what have you both been up to this morning?"
"Well actually mum, Harry and I would like to tell you something. We have decided that we want to get married this summer" there was a small pause where they all looked at eachother before Mrs. Granger broke the silence.
"This summer? Oh I've always loved a summer wedding! Are you both sure about this?" the two of them nodded happily "Well then all I have to say is, I'm delighted for you both! Aww come here!" she rushed forward and kissed them both on the cheek.
"So you're fine with it being this soon?" asked Harry.
"Of course Harry. I'm not at all surprised you both want to get married this soon and in no way are we going to try and stop you, plus Harry the sooner I can call you my son-in-law the better." Harry blushed at this remark but Mrs. Granger was too thrilled to notice "Ooo this is very exciting have you decided on an actual date yet?"
Harry and Hermione shook their heads "No not yet. I think we should wait till Mr. Granger comes back and we can discuss it all then" Harry said.
"Discuss what?" Mr. Granger asked as he placed some shopping bags by the doorway and came into the living-room.
"Hi Dad, Harry and I have decided we want to get married this summer and we need to pick a proper date." Hermione told him.
Her father raised his eyebrows "This summer? That's great! We thought it would be pretty soon, didn't we love?" he said to his wife who grinned and nodded. "So when during the summer were you thinking?" he asked as he sat down next to Harry.
"Well I reckon August would be good" said Harry "Ron and Luna's is the end of July and if we did August we would have lots of time to get everything sorted."
The three Granger's were nodding in agreement; the four of them spent a few minutes discussing dates and everything else before finally coming to a decision.
"So if the stag and hen parties are on the 16th, we get married on the 17th yeah?" Harry verified.
Hermione grinned and nodded "Yeah that's right. So that's settled then, August 17th, that is the date of our wedding!"
Harry and Hermione beamed at eachother and hugged joyously, then squeals of delight were exchanged between the two Granger women before they also hugged as did Harry and Mr. Granger. "Well done son, nicely handled."
Harry chuckled "Thanks, just hope we can plan all of this in time."
"Oh bad move Harry!" no sooner as Mr. Granger had said those words, Hermione and her mother began talking about wedding dresses and what flowers to have.
"I see what you mean" laughed Harry.
Mr. Granger chuckled "Come on, you can help me put the food away while the women start the plans going."
They left the room and picked the shopping bags off the floor and went into the kitchen.
"Harry let me give you some of my pearls of wisdom that I have learnt over the years of living with these two women, when it comes to trying to get involved in plans for anything, never disagree with a Granger woman, you will never win!"
Harry laughed "Oh I know I learnt that very fast! Hermione can get very scary if I say something she doesn't agree with."
Mr. Granger laughed "You catch on quickly Harry; well I'd better get on with lunch or I'm going to be in big trouble with the missus."
"Oh I'm cooking lunch by the way" Harry interjected quickly.
"You don't have to" Mr. Granger tried to assure Harry.
"No I want to, but I could do with an extra pair of hands" he said as he smiled at Mr. Granger.
"Oh Harry even if you didn't offer I would stay in here and help anyway. There is no way I would go back in that living-room, I'd only get yelled at for saying the wrong thing."
Harry laughed and so the pair of them set to work preparing spaghetti bolognese for their lunch. Not so long later the food was ready and they all sat down at the kitchen table.
"Mmmm this is amazing Harry" Mrs. Granger said.
"Yeah he's a great cook" added Hermione "he made me pancakes for breakfast this morning and they were the best pancakes I've ever tasted!"
Harry blushed at Hermione's compliment.
"Where did you learn to be such a good cook Harry?" continued Mrs. Granger.
"I used to cook for my Aunt and Uncle all the time when I lived with them."
Hermione scowled when Harry mentioned them but Harry saw her expression and quickly changed the subject.
"So what are we going to do for the rest of the day?"
"Well I was thinking we could go shopping" Mrs. Granger suggested "I bet you could do with some new clothes Hermione?"
Hermione nodded "Yeah I do as a matter of fact."
Harry could have sworn he heard Mr. Granger mumble next to him "Oh no! Please not clothes shopping!"
Harry tried not to laugh and replied "Yeah sounds fine to me."
"Excellent!" said Mrs. Granger
"Uh, excuse me" interrupted Mr. Granger "What if some people don't fancy shopping?"
Mrs. Granger looked at her husband with a slight smile "Don't worry honey, we will allow you to get us pizza and rent a film this evening as a treat."
She stopped talking to let him think it over, and it didn't take him long to answer. "Deal!" he said simply and Harry, Hermione and her mum laughed.
Before the four of them went to the local muggle shopping centre, Harry wanted to stop off at Gringotts. So Mr and Mrs. Granger stayed in the house while Harry and Hermione apparated outside the wizarding bank.
"Harry. Why did you want me to come with you?" Hermione asked.
"Because I've been thinking and I reckon it's about time I made my account into a joint account."
Hermione looked stunned "You mean ….? …"
Harry smiled "Yes, I want you to be able to go in there and take out as much money as you need to at anytime."
Hermione was still in shock "Harry you really don't need to do this y'know, I have enough money of my own, honestly."
Harry took her hand "I know you do Hermione, but I want to do this. Hermione you are so precious to me and you're the person I trust the most in the world. I know you're not likely to go mad and spend all of it, and remember you will be my wife very soon, what kind of husband would I be if I did not make sure you would always be financially stable if … anything did ever happen to me?"
Hermione still wasn't completely happy with Harry letting her have free access to all of his money, but she knew it was best not to argue so she grinned at him and hugged him tightly "Thank you, oh I love you!"
"I love you too" Harry said back to her and they kissed briefly.
They went into Gringotts and Harry took some money out of his vault, then the two of them spent a bit of time signing a lot of documents and Hermione was given a key to their now joint vault. Harry was also given a statement showing the amount of money he had in the vault.
"HOW MUCH?!" screamed Hermione who got extremely embarrassed after everyone had turned to look at her when she had shouted. The statement read that it worked out to be over ten million galleons.
"OH MY GOD, HARRY! How did you get to own so much money?!"
"Well my mum and dad left most of it to me; then Sirius left me all his known possessions including a few million and Grimmauld Place of course."
Hermione breathed a big sigh "Wow, I always knew you had quite a bit of money Harry, but I never knew it would be this much! I can't quite believe this, do you know what this means, we will never have any money worries, ever!"
Harry grinned "I know. But don't go shouting all this about."
"Oh course not, you know me I wouldn't do that. Money doesn't matter to me; there are more important things in life. We have eachother, that's all that matters; as long as I've got you i'm happy."
They both smiled and Harry kissed her "I feel exactly the same."
They hugged before then leaving Gringotts and disapparating back to Hermione's house.
"We're back!" Hermione called out from the hallway.
Mr and Mrs. Granger joined them, "So ready to go?" Mrs. Granger asked
"Actually can I just say something?" said Harry quickly.
"Yeah course Harry" Mrs. Granger replied.
"Well I just made my vault in Gringotts a joint account so that means that Hermione is free to take out money when and if she needs to, and what with the wedding coming up, I asked for one of these."
He reached into his pocket and brought out what seemed to be a credit card and he handed it to Hermione.
"That's a muggle bank card" stated Mr. Granger.
Harry shook his head "Actually it's a wizard bank card disguised as a muggle bank card, you can use that in any muggle or wizard shop, it does not matter which."
Harry looked then at Hermione "Hermione I got this just for your use only, use that anytime you want, to buy things for the wedding, whatever you like. You can go wild as far as I'm concerned" he stepped forward and took her hand "I know how much this wedding means to you, to the both of us. I want it to be the biggest and best day of our lives, so if you want to get something go ahead and get it sweetheart." Hermione stood their astounded and then snogged him senseless, not caring that her parents were watching.
When they finally parted, both breathless, Mr. Granger spoke up.
"Wow Harry … actually, if you don't mind me asking, how much money do you have then, if Hermione can spend however much she likes?"
"Dad!" shouted Hermione.
"No, Hermione its okay, he's perfectly allowed to ask the question, well I think you both better brace yourselves. My late parents were very rich and my also late godfather was also a quite well off man and they all left everything to me and it works out that myself, and now Hermione, have around …. Ten million pounds/galleons."
Hermione's parents gasped and Mr. Granger had to steady his wife as she looked like she was about to collapse.
"Harry! That's just … oh my goodness. You and Hermione are set for life!" she exclaimed. Harry nodded.
"Son, I'm so pleased to know that whatever happens, my daughter will always be financially stable and that means a lot, thank you" and Mr. Granger went up and hugged him.
After the shocking revelation had sunk in, they left the house and arrived at the shopping centre, the place was huge and covered three floors. The girls went one way and the guys went another. Harry was not looking for much in particular, so he and Mr. Granger went to get new clothes for Harry, Mr. Granger bought himself a new suit for Ron and Luna's wedding besides a few other things, including new mobile phones for both Hermione and Harry. Harry did not have a clue how they worked, but with a few handy tips from Mr. Granger, Harry got the hand of it.
Then they spent the rest of the time sitting in the food court after being in all the shops they wanted to. Harry and Mr. Granger bonded really well after spending all afternoon together; they almost felt like father and son. Harry felt like he could talk to him about pretty much anything and was no longer nervous around him. The topic of conversation Harry thoroughly enjoyed was Mr. Granger telling him all about what Hermione was like as a baby and a few embarrassing stories.
The two of them then made their way out of the shopping centre and waited patiently for the two women to join them.
"I dread to think how much they will come back with; you're going to regret giving that card to two women" Mr. Granger told Harry who laughed.
Then suddenly the two of them heard, and saw, Hermione and her mother approach them, both giggling excitedly and the guys mouths dropped open, they were carrying what looked like hundreds of shopping bags. Harry had never seen that many shopping bags in his life.
The two Granger women came closer and Mr. Granger shouted, "Oh my god! What the heck did you two buy?!"
"Well we could name everything, but we would be here till Christmas" Mrs. Granger said.
Harry grinned at Hermione "Looks like you had a good time?"
Hermione grinned too in response and kissed him briefly "Oh yes I had fun! And don't worry I didn't use that card to buy all of this, mum paid for some things, anyway what about you and dad?" she looked at them both, slightly worried, "Have you have a good time?"
"Yeah we did" replied Harry with a smile "Didn't buy as much as you obviously did" he chuckled "oh and your dad got us both new mobile phones."
Hermione looked at her father "Thank-you Dad!"
"Anything for my little girl" he replied sweetly.
Hermione smiled "Shall we go get that pizza then, I'm starving."
"Okay but let's get all this stuff in the car first" Mr. Granger added.
"Here let me take some of those for you" Harry said and took some of the shopping bags off Hermione. "Thanks Harry" she smiled gratefully.
The four of them got in the car and Harry handed Hermione her new phone and they both happily exchanged numbers and got used to all the settings and features on their new mobiles.
Soon Mr. Granger got the pizzas and went to the local Blockbusters and got a DVD. Before long they arrived back at the house, they deposited their shopping bags in the hallway and Mr. Granger put the film on and Harry and Hermione settled on the sofa and shared one of the pizza's, while Mr. and Mrs. Granger did the same and shared the other.
"Dad why did you have to pick a horror film?" said Hermione who was hiding her face in her hands.
"Thought it would be fun" he replied.
Hermione stared at her father in shock "Fun! Fun?! It's so scary!" she said in dismay.
"Don't worry Hermione, I'm here to protect you" Harry said softly and she snuggled up to him and hid her face in his chest whilst Harry wrapped his arms lovingly around her. Mr. Granger smiled at the couple and turned back to the film. After all the pizza had been eaten and the film was now at an end, Hermione's mum turned off the television.
"Looks like someone needs to go to bed" she said and looked at Hermione. Hermione had been lying fast asleep against Harry's chest for about twenty minutes.
Harry smiled "All that shopping must've taken it out of her" he chuckled.
Mrs. Granger grinned "Well we're going to head off to bed Harry: we are at work early again tomorrow, we'll probably be gone by the time you both wake up."
Harry nodded "Okay, yeah that's fine."
Mrs. Granger got up and kissed Harry's cheek "Night Harry, say goodnight to Hermione for us."
"I will. Night, sleep well" Harry responded.
"G'night Harry" Mr. Granger replied and they left the room.
Harry sat there staring at the beautiful young woman sleeping against his chest; she looked so peaceful; he did not want to wake her up but forced himself to do so.
"Hermione, come on we've got to go to bed" he said quietly and nudged her gently. She slowly opened her eyes and looked at Harry with tired eyes "Sorry, I must have drifted off for a while there."
Harry smiled "It's alright, your parents have gone to bed and they said to say goodnight." Hermione smiled in response, Harry continued "Now lets get all of our shopping upstairs shall we and we can sleep then."
"Sounds good to me" Hermione said with a smile and moved off Harry who got up and pulled Hermione up with him.
They reached the bedroom and put the bags on the floor in a corner, and then Harry noticed Hermione had dropped one just by the door, he grabbed it but Hermione suddenly snatched the bag out of his hands.
"Harry you can't look in there!" Hermione protested.
Harry looked rather puzzled "Why not?"
Hermione blushed "Umm there is some … personal stuff in there."
"Hermione you know you can tell me anything."
Hermione gave an awkward pause but finally gave in "It's some stuff for ... umm … our wedding night" she blushed crimson and Harry developed a cheeky smirk on his face.
"And that's all I'm saying, now you stay here while I go brush my teeth, and no peaking in the bag or you will be in deep trouble!" she ordered.
She left the room leaving Harry still smiling and trying to restrain himself from looking inside the bag she had now put with the others.
He could not wait to see what it was she had got 'please let it be lingerie' thought Harry. The idea of Hermione in lingerie made Harry go all giddy, so to take his mind of it he got changed and went to also brush his teeth after Hermione had returned.
He came back into the bedroom to find Hermione already in bed, completely out for the count. Harry smiled at her, she looked so angelic lying there, and he went over to the bed and got under the covers. He wrapped his arms around her and he too soon fell fast asleep.