DISCLAIMER: All credit to JK Rowling.
Chapter Seven
Harry didn't get a chance to talk to Hermione all that night, she was too busy with her aunt and uncle, discussing the issue of her parents. So the next morning, Harry got up, showered and dressed and reached Hermione's room just as the girls were heading down to breakfast.
"Mione? Can I talk to you for a sec?" Harry asked her quietly and she nodded immediately.
"Sure."
She let him into the room and followed him inside, closing it behind her, and standing there awkwardly, twisting her hands together.
"So..." Harry let out a deep breath. "About an eleven on the scale of awkwardness?" he asked lightly.
Hermione laughed, breaking the tension. "If not more," she agreed.
Harry breached the gap between them and hugged her tightly. Hermione had to stand on tiptoes, but she threw her arms around him and buried her face in his neck. She closed her eyes, and they stood there for a long time.
"What would I do without you?" he murmured, thinking about what Hermione's friendship meant to him and what he'd do if they crossed that line and couldn't survive it.
She laughed and pulled away. "You'd be screwed, remember?"
"Right," Harry grinned. Then he took a nervous breath and took her hands in his. "Mione..."
He tried to find the words to say without sounding idiotic or feeling foolish, but couldn't. Hermione stood there and looked up at him expectantly, patiently waiting. She was pretty sure she knew what he wanted to talk to her about... well, she was hoping she did anyway, but her stomach was still twisting nervously.
"This is stupid!" Harry complained after several half-finished sentences. "I can't think of a way to say this and not look like a prat."
"Because there is no way," she grinned, her eyes alight and dancing. "You're just going to have to look like a prat."
"But you know what I want to say."
She smiled shyly. "I'm... ninety- nine per cent sure, yes. But I think you have to say it."
Harry sighed awkwardly, staring at their entwined hands for a moment. When he met Hermione's reassuring gaze, there was still a faint smile on her face. Without saying anything, Harry leant forward and kissed her sweetly. As his hands moved onto her back, Hermione's hand rose to settle on his neck.
"Well, they do say actions speak louder than words," Hermione said softly when Harry eventually pulled away and Harry grinned.
"This isn't going to be easy," he warned her and she nodded steadily, meeting his gaze without any awkwardness or embarrassment.
"I know. But... I think it could be worth the risk," she answered, smiling.
"Me too," Harry grinned. "I wish we could do it without the entire Wizarding world watching though," he said unhappily. "When people find out about this..."
Hermione nodded. "It'll be fourth year all over again. I remember."
Harry too, recalled what Rita Skeeter had written about him and Hermione during the Triwizard Tournament, and the aftermath that had followed.
"Maybe we should like... discuss ground rules to help... make it less awkward?" Hermione suggested tentatively and Harry nodded.
"I think that's a good idea. And I think number one should be a definite limit on any PDA. And by that, I mean I want avoid being like Ron and Lavender, or Ron and Luna."
"Ron and Luna aren't that bad," Hermione said reasonably. "But I totally agree."
Harry grinned. "Ok. Anything else you can think of?"
Hermione sighed thoughtfully. "Well... if television and movies have taught me anything over the years, is that any problems could usually be solved through communication."
"So, communication? Is that rule number two?"
She nodded. "Yeah. And I think we should talk about anything, even if we don't think it's that important."
"And you laughed when I made up the 'banana' code word," he teased her and she giggled.
"I'm still laughing, because that's the stupidest code word I've ever heard!"
Harry rolled his eyes. "Oh, I should warn you- Sirius and Remus are very excited about this," he warned her.
Hermione blushed. "Really?"
"Yeah. Tonks too, I think Remus said."
Hermione was quiet for a moment. "What should we tell Ron?"
Harry grimaced slightly. He still wasn't sure how Ron would react to the idea of him and Hermione, whether he might see it as him being left out. There was also the possibility, although Harry hoped it wouldn't come to that, that they might end up deciding they worked better as friends.
"Maybe... maybe we should wait awhile? Just so we have something definite we can tell him?" he suggested and Hermione pondered that.
"Like a trial period? Maybe a month?"
Harry nodded in agreement. "Sounds good. So, breakfast? I'm starved."
"Me too," Hermione admitted and they headed for the door.
Just before they reached it, Hermione turned around and kissed him briefly, blushing scarlet as she pulled away.
Harry, immensely pleased with himself, responded by kissing her back.
"Less awkward?" he asked her.
"Yeah," she agreed, still flushed.
"It's just a matter of practice, I think," Harry smiled.
Hermione nodded. "Lots and lots of practice."
As they left the room and headed for the stairs, Harry lightly took her hand in his.
Harry and Hermione entered the dining room together, although not displaying any sign of what had happened that morning. The minute they entered however, Sirius sat up straighter and nudged Lupin none too subtly in the ribs, nodding towards them. Lupin saw what Sirius had seen, and they exchanged excited and triumphant grins.
"What's going on?" Tonks demanded, seeing their excitement, but being utterly confused. Her question drew the rest of the table's attention to them, and Sirius grinned.
"Just look."
He nodded over to where Harry and Hermione were loading up their plates at the buffet, and the whole table craned to look. A soft smile appeared on Dumbledore's face after a moment, and Mrs Weasley gasped softly, but everyone else just seemed confused.
"I don't see anything," Mr Weasley frowned.
Tonks did, however, and turned to face her husband as fast as she could. "How did this happen?" she demanded excitedly.
"I think they just... talked," Lupin said uncertainly, not wanting to share everything Harry had told them the night before.
"They look... happy," McGonagall murmured, watching them.
Snape didn't particularly care about Harry Potter's personal life, he was more content to sit there and eat his breakfast peacefully. However, he couldn't help but glance at Potter and Granger just to see what everyone else saw and he froze in surprise. The look on Potter's face as he looked at Hermione was almost identical to how Lily Evans had looked at James Potter so many years ago once they'd begun dating. It was something that Snape would never forget, for all the times he saw that look and wished Lily was giving it to him. His heart constricted at the memory, and he tore his gaze away abruptly, trying to banish the memory from his head.
Snape had spent most of the week so far wishing he wasn't here, because it reminded him of the number one reason he had nothing to do with the Muggle world for the past twenty years- everything in it reminded him of Lily.
He never paid much attention to Hermione Granger when she first entered his classroom seven years ago; after all, she was a Gryffindor. But from the first homework assignment they'd completed, it had hit Snape hard that Miss Granger, despite her Muggle upbringing, was a gifted witch and a very intelligent girl- very much like Lily Evans. He'd tried his best to ignore her, especially when she became best friends with Potter; but seeing her outside of the classroom as frequently as he had this past week, Snape couldn't help but see similarities between the two.
There was nothing strikingly obviously similar about them, but every now and then, Snape would catch a glimpse of her personality at a meal, or as she was laughing with Potter and Weasley, or watched a film or listened to music, and Snape was reminded of the only girl he'd ever loved. It was particularly painful because music that Lily had insisted on playing over and over again every summer, before their falling out, seemed to be if not still popular, at least in regular rotation and it was like a knife in Snape's heart every time.
Especially in light of what had happened the day before with her mother, Snape could see a resemblance not only to Lily and her sister; but between himself and his father. It was one of the rare times that Snape had actually sympathised and given a non-Slytherin student somewhat of a break, such as punishing Malfoy for mocking her.
Snape was also reluctant to admit that after seeing Potter in the Muggle world, he'd been forced to admit Dumbledore may have had a point all these years that Harry was a great deal like his mother, beyond his eyes. Not that Snape would ever tell anyone, particularly Black or Lupin, but Snape wasn't surprised by what they were seeing that morning. It had struck him years ago that it was probably inevitable somewhere down the line, as history tends to repeat itself. He wasn't excited about it, feeling that even Miss Granger could do better than Potter (ok, he may be a bit biased with that statement), but he wasn't surprised.
"What kept you two?" Ron asked Harry and Hermione as they finally sat down.
Harry glanced at her for a second before answering. "Sorry. We got caught talking and lost track of time."
Ron nodded in acknowledgment, but Ginny was gazing at them curiously from down the table.
And over at her table, Tonks was bouncing impatiently for Hermione to finish breakfast. "Dammit, I want to know what happened!" she moaned.
"Me too," Steph added eagerly.
Dumbledore couldn't help but chuckle to himself as Tonks and Steph jumped up as soon as Hermione's plate was reasonably empty, and dashed over to her, pulling a visibly surprised Hermione out of her seat.
"Mione, I need to talk to you now!" Steph insisted. "Wedding crisis," she explained to Harry and Ron who were looking puzzled.
"Right this second?" Hermione asked, as they pulled her towards the doorway.
"Yep, now. Ginny, you coming?" Tonks called over her shoulder, and Ginny immediately scrambled after them.
"I think it's a girl thing," Harry shrugged to Ron who nodded.
"Probably. What are we going to do today?"
It was just before dinner as Harry, Seamus and Neville were playing Exploding Snap, as Hermione sat in a nearby armchair reading; when Ron burst into the room with Luna at his side, coming straight to join them with an odd look on his face.
"What's up, Ron?" Seamus asked him, but Ron addressed Harry and Hermione.
"Why is everyone saying that you two are dating?"
Harry froze in surprise as Seamus and Neville looked at him in shock; and Hermione sat bolt upright in her chair.
"Who's everyone?" she demanded, horrified.
Ron sat down and shrugged. "I don't know. Everyone. Is it true?"
Harry and Hermione exchanged uneasy looks, which Ron didn't miss.
"What? You're not going to tell me?"
Harry shook his head. "It's not that, mate. It's just... I don't really know what to tell you. I don't think we can say we're dating if we haven't actually been on a date," he said slowly.
Ron's eyes widened, but Hermione didn't give him a chance to react before she continued. "Ron, we were going to tell you eventually, but we weren't really sure what to say. How did you find out?" she asked worriedly.
"Everyone's talking about it," Luna answered, because Ron still seemed incapable of speech.
"I thought it was just a rumour," Neville said sheepishly. "Like last month when people were saying that Crabbe was repeating a year. So, I didn't bother mentioning it. But it's really true?"
"Well... yeah, I guess it is," Harry said, sharing a small smile with Hermione.
They both turned tentatively to Ron. "Ron? Are you going to say anything?" Hermione asked hesitantly.
"When did this happen?" Ron finally asked.
"This morning," Hermione admitted timidly.
Ron relaxed and nodded thoughtfully. "Oh, ok then."
Harry raised an eyebrow. "That's it? Ok, then?"
"Well, I thought it might have been happening for a while and you were just keeping it from me. But that's ok, I mean I can understand why you hadn't said anything yet."
Harry was stunned by Ron's reaction. "So, how do you feel about it?"
"Well, I'm not saying it isn't going to be weird," Ron admitted. "But I mean, I think it's going to be weirder for you guys, so I can't really say anything, can I?"
Hermione, also looking relieved at Ron's placid reaction, sighed wearily as she sat back and looked at Harry.
"So much for keeping it quiet, huh?"
"I forgot where we were," Harry grinned. "I think ten hours could be a new record for a secret at Hogwarts."
Hermione laughed and picked up her book again.
Harry hurried up to Hermione's front door and knocked. As he waited for the door to be opened, he shifted his weight from one foot to the other quickly, in an effort to keep warm. It was just after New Years, and they only had a few more days before they would return to Hogwarts.
The door swung open and Jack Granger smiled at Harry. "Hello, Harry. Come on in, it's going to be a cold one today."
"Thank you," Harry said gratefully, stepping into the Granger's front hall. "Is Hermione up?"
Jack nodded. "Yes she is. Hermione!" he called in the direction of the kitchen.
Harry heard footsteps and then Hermione entered from the kitchen, dressed in her pyjamas and a half a piece of toast in her hand. She smiled somewhat self-consciously when she saw Harry, her free hand automatically going to her hair which was still tangled from sleep.
"Hi. You're up early," she observed, given that it was only eight-thirty.
Harry grinned. "Yes I am. I just wondered whether you wanted to come with me to St. Mungo's?"
Hermione frowned in confusion for a moment, and then her face lit up with understanding. "Tonks had the baby!" she gasped and Harry nodded.
"Yeah, at about four a.m. this morning. She went into labour last night."
"What did she have?" Hermione demanded happily, but Harry shrugged.
"I honestly don't know. Remus sent an owl to say she had it, but that was it. I think he was a little bit excited," he laughed. "Visiting hours start soon. You wanna come?"
Hermione nodded immediately. "Of course. Give me two minutes!" she instructed and hurtled out of the room to get dressed.
Jack looked at Harry wryly. "You know it won't really be only two minutes?"
Harry nodded with a smile. "Yeah, that's why I came early."
Jack laughed. "Good man."
It was a quick twenty minutes later that Hermione finally returned downstairs, showered, dressed and her hair blow-dried.
"What's that?" Harry asked, nodding to the small gift bag Hermione had in her hand.
She blushed slightly. "Something I... I made for the baby."
Harry was amazed. "Let's see!"
Hermione pulled out a little knitted yellow romper suit, with a matching little hat and booties.
"Wow, you made these?"
She nodded. "Well, when I stopped making stuff for the house-elves, I had a bunch of left over wool. I didn't want to waste it. Do you really think they're okay?"
"They're great," Harry assured her, following her out to the hall where she began to rug up against the cold.
"Nice hat," Harry nodded at her head with a grin, at the sophisticated winter hat Hermione wore on her head. "I bet someone with awfully good taste picked that one out."
"Yeah, Steph does have good taste, doesn't she?" Hermione giggled.
Harry had asked Steph for suggestions for Hermione for Christmas, and Steph had immediately suggested a hat that Hermione had yearned for when shopping in London.
"Bye, Dad!" Hermione called out to her father as she and Harry headed outside.
"Where's your Mum?" Harry asked as they walked down the street, having not seen or heard Emily the whole time he was in the house.
"She's at work already. Paperwork or something," Hermione explained.
Harry nodded. "So, do you want to Apparate near St. Mungo's or catch the Underground?" he asked her.
"Let's Apparate," Hermione said immediately, eager to see Tonks and the baby.
Harry knew this and chuckled. "Ok. One thing first."
Hermione smiled as he turned to her and kissed her softly.
"Hi," he grinned, pulling away and she giggled.
"Hi. Come on, let's go," she added impatiently.
They Apparated to a safe spot away from prying Muggle eyes near the empty storefront that hid St. Mungo's and passed through into the lobby.
"Hi, we're here to see Nymphadora Lupin," Harry said to the witch behind the counter who nodded.
"Maternity, level three."
Hermione grabbed Harry's hand as they headed up the stairs, towards level three. Although it had really only been about three weeks since they'd begun dating, Hermione was surprised by how easy it was. There were still moments of awkwardness occasionally, but these got easier with time, especially given their strict policy to talk with one another about anything that happened.
They could also officially say that they were dating now, after their first official date the week before. It had been nothing fancy, they had just gone to dinner and an ordinary Muggle movie, but it had been comfortable and easy.
When they found the maternity ward, Tonks was in a bed in the middle of the room alone, and she grinned happily as Harry and Hermione approached.
"Wotcher, Harry! Hey, Hermione!"
"Hey, congratulations Mum," Hermione beamed, embracing her.
"Where's Remus?" Harry asked, as they sat down beside the bed.
"He and Sirius went to get a cup of tea with my Mum. Remus is a little sleep deprived," Tonks laughed.
Hermione bounced impatiently on her seat. "So? What is it? A boy or a girl?"
Tonks beamed. "It's a boy."
"That's great! Does he have a name yet?" Harry inquired.
"Yes he does," a new, tired voice said from behind them and Harry and Hermione whirled around to see Remus, Sirius and Andromeda, Tonks' Mum approaching.
Hermione jumped to up embrace and congratulate Remus, and Harry followed suit. Lupin seemed tired and a little overwhelmed by it all, but happy.
"I think the nurse was about to bring him in, Dora," Andromeda said to Tonks who nodded.
Sure enough, within a few minutes, a witch entered the room with a tiny blanket-wrapped bundle which she handed to Tonks.
"Oh, he's so beautiful!" Hermione exclaimed in a soft voice, and Tonks smiled up at her.
"Thanks, Mione. You want to hold him?"
Hermione's whole face lit up. "Of course. And here, this is for you," she said, placing the gift bag on the bed before Tonks carefully placed her son in Hermione's arms.
Sirius couldn't help but exchange a smile with Harry as they watched Hermione's face settle into an expression of utter contentment, as she studied the baby's tiny features.
"So does he have a name?" Harry demanded, remembering the earlier question.
"Theodore Remus Lupin," Tonks confirmed, breaking away from her admiration of Hermione's gift. "Teddy for short, after my Dad."
"It suits him," Hermione declared, with a smile.
"He also has a godfather," Lupin said quietly and it took Harry a moment to realise he was staring at him.
"What? Are you serious?" he asked startled and Lupin nodded with a smile.
"Yes, I'm serious. Dora and I both agree."
Harry was completely taken aback, but in a good way. "Wow, I mean... Blimey- thanks, Remus," he said sincerely and Lupin embraced him again, as Tonks, Sirius and Hermione looked on with teary eyes.
"Harry, here," Hermione said quietly, and gingerly handed Teddy to him.
It was the first time Harry had ever had contact with a baby, and he couldn't believe how amazingly small he was. In addition to the realisation this was his godson, another real link to the family he had created around himself.
"So, how long was the labour?" Hermione asked Tonks, who groaned.
"Only about six hours, but I thought I was going to die!"
Andromeda laughed at her daughter's dramatic tone. "Honey, count yourself lucky. Normally first labours go on much longer than six hours."
"My Mum was in labour with me for thirty-six hours," Hermione volunteered and Tonks shuddered.
"Thirty-six hours? That's crazy! Mum, what about me?" Tonks inquired, wide eyed.
Andromeda sighed thoughtfully. "Oh, I think it was about eight or so hours."
"That's not too bad," Tonks conceded reluctantly.
"I think your Mum was in labour for about twenty-one hours, Harry," Lupin commented to Harry. "Is that right, Sirius?"
"Yeah, that sounds right," Sirius nodded.
"That's a long time," Hermione winced at the thought.
"Oh, Lily was fine," Sirius assured her. "James was the basket case, remember Moony?"
Lupin rolled his eyes as Harry grinned. "Yes, I remember. He drove us all mad!"
"Your Mum threatened to hex his ears off if he didn't calm down," Sirius laughed.
As they sat around the bed, Dumbledore arrived to visit Tonks and see the baby; and smiled softly when Lupin mentioned that Harry had been named Teddy's godfather. Andromeda talked more in detail about the time when she'd had Tonks, including her husband's alarm when baby Tonks' hair had turned bright blue an hour after her birth.
Tonks smiled sadly at the story, wishing her father could've been there for the birth of his grandchild. Hermione picked up on that and steered the subject smoothly to names.
"Well we wanted a nice, simple name," Tonks said, glaring at her mother.
"So Nymphadora Jr was off the table, then?" Harry teased and Tonks grimaced.
"Definitely!"
"Nymphadora's a lovely name!" Andromeda protested.
"It's really not, Mum. How did you even think that up?" Tonks demanded.
Andromeda shrugged. "I don't remember, sweetie. We just found it somewhere and I liked it. Finding a name that went with 'Tonks' was not easy, let me tell you."
They laughed and Sirius turned to Hermione.
"Well, how did your parents come up with 'Hermione'? That's not exactly common."
"No," Hermione admitted. "It's from The Winter's Tale, the Shakespeare play," she explained. "My Dad picked it- he wanted a name that was different, and sounded smart."
"Whilst I remember her and her virtues, I cannot forget my blemishes in them, and so still think of the wrong I did myself: which was so much that heiress it hath made my kingdom, and destroyed the sweet'st companion that ere man bred his hopes out of, true," Dumbledore quoted softly and Hermione smiled at him.
"Yeah, that's the one. Of all the names Shakespeare came up with, they had to pick Hermione," she rolled her eyes and Dumbledore chuckled merrily.
