Disclaimer: I own nothing. I own nothing. I own nothing. I own nothing. Do I sound like a broken record? Because I'm certainly beginning to feel like one.

A/N: Okay, wow you guys! That was a lot of reviews, especially in such a short amount of time. I feel all warm and fuzzy inside (wraps arms around self and grins). I'm so glad you guys are enjoying this story. Also, thanks very much for the suggestions regarding the Voldy problem. Let me assure you that I read them all and have come up with a solution. I didn't pick any particular one (I don't think—frowns—if I did, be sure to tell me), but rather combined some of the ideas you guys sent me. I hope you guys like how I deal with it.

One more thing, several of the reviews expressed concern over the fact that I have mistaken Hermione's age. That she is in fact older than Harry by almost a year. I hate to burst your bubble, but I am already aware of this. Unfortunately, I can't stand a romantic relationship where the girl is older than the guy. Call it a very large pet peeve of mine. I know it's utterly ridiculous, but I can't help myself. So, for the sake of my sanity, Hermione is younger than Harry (at least in this story). Feel free to blast me if you disagree. I know I probably deserve it for being so narrow minded (at least about this), but it's really something I just can't stand—especially if I have the power to change it. Other than that, all your questions will be answered in the upcoming chapters so…

Chapter 10: My, How Time Flies

Christmas Eve fell on a beautiful Saturday that year and Harry was determined to make it a Christmas Hermione would remember forever. Remus was home from Hogwarts for the holidays and Sirius had taken a week off from work at the ministry of magic.

Harry went over to Hermione's house early that morning. He had discussed his plans with her parents, so he knew they would be awake despite the early hour. Mrs. Granger ushered him in immediately.

"You know," she said, smiling slightly, "I'm starting to think it would be a good idea to get you your own key."

"Good Lord knows you spend enough time over here as it is," Mr. Granger added from the kitchen. Harry laughed, feeling the warm glow of familiarity surround him.

"Funny Mr. Granger, very funny," Harry said.

"I thought so," he said defensively.

"How are Sirius and Remus, Harry?" Mrs. Granger asked.

"They're great. Remus is on break from school and Sirius took some time off from the ministry."

"That's nice then," she added.

"When's the big day?" Mr. Granger asked, referring to Sirius and Elena's upcoming wedding.

Harry beamed at the Grangers. "January first. I'm so happy for him."

"You're a good kid Harry. Now go wake my daughter up!" Mr. Granger said, swatting at Harry playfully with the newspaper.

"Yes sir!" Harry said and shot upstairs.

"You know what?" Mr. Granger began. "I didn't think there would ever be a day when I told a boy to go wake my daughter up," he said, sounding puzzled.

"Oh honey, Harry's just a little boy. It's not like he's a hormonal teenager or anything," Mrs. Granger reassured him.

"Yeah. Funny thing though, I don't think I'd be worried even if they were teenagers."

Mrs. Granger just looked at him in amazement.

Harry was standing by the side of Hermione's bed, just watching her as she slept. He couldn't help remembering another time he had watched her sleep—a different time, another life. It was just after they had made love for the first time. Just hours after Harry had unknowingly impregnated his girlfriend.

It was the first day of March and Harry awoke feeling more rested than he had in many years. A large smile stole over his face as he remembered the reason for his good mood. Turning over on to his side, Harry gently stroked his fingers down Hermione's slender side. She gave a small murmur and snuggled closely against him. Harry ran his fingertips over her eyebrows, down her cheek, across her lips, and along her jawbone. He had never seen anything so beautiful in his life. Hermione rolled onto her back, flinging an arm over her head. The movement caused the blanket to slip below her breasts which were still bare. Harry stared, in awe of the perfection in front of him. Unable to help himself, he leaned over and gently took a nipple in his mouth while lightly caressing her other breast with his hand. Hermione's eyes snapped open as she moaned in delight. Without thinking, she rolled over on top of him and began kissing him deeply. They spent the next two hours making slow, sweet love to each other and discovering the secrets of each others bodies in the full morning light.

Harry shook his head to clear it of the memory. He reached over and gently shook Hermione's shoulder. She awoke almost instantly, as she always did, and looked at him with concern in her large honey eyes.

"Harry! What's wrong? Has something happened?"

"No, no nothing's wrong. I have a surprise for you. Get up and get dressed warmly. I'll be downstairs when you're ready."

She nodded and threw back the covers, leaping lightly out of bed. Harry made his way back to the kitchen and gratefully accepted the cup of hot cocoa that Mrs. Granger had waiting for him. Hermione joined them half an hour later, ate her breakfast, kissed her parents goodbye, grabbed her cup of cocoa, and left with Harry.

"I have a feeling those two are going to be friends for a very long time," Mr. Granger said to his wife, contemplating the door the children had just left through.

"I give them ten more years tops before they become something more than friends," Mrs. Granger said, not even looking up from the eggs she was scrambling.

"More than friends?"

"Yeah, you know, boyfriend girlfriend type stuff."

"Oh." And the conversation was left at that.

An hour later, Harry was guiding a blindfolded Hermione into a stable. He had sifted through all of his memories from both this life and his other life. He remembered that when Hermione was thirteen, she had mentioned how much she would have loved to go horseback riding, but her parents were always too busy to take her. Well, today Harry was going to make her wish come true…sort of. Because they were so young, they would only be able to ride ponies, but once they got better, they would be able to ride the horses.

"Harry, are we almost there yet?"

"Almost," he said and guided her three more steps. "Now, open your eyes."

She did and gasped in delight.

"Oh Harry, they're beautiful!"

"Well, I'm glad you think so. Now pick one."

"Pick one?"

"Yes Hermione, pick one. That is unless you don't want to go riding?"

She squealed in delight and threw her arms around him.

"Harry you're wonderful!" she said and kissed him on the cheek. Harry grinned and shoved her forward.

"Well, which one do you like?"

"That one," she said instantly, pointing to a rather kind looking female pony.

"Hey Sirius!" Harry called, waving to his Godfather.

"So did you decide?"

"Yes. Hermione wants to ride the brown one and I'd like to give that gray one a try," he said, jerking his thumb over his shoulder. Sirius nodded and went to find the riding instructor.

"Now, we'll have to spend the first two hours learning how to ride and handle the ponies, but after that we can actually take them out," Harry said, watching Hermione's face closely.

"That's okay isn't it?" he asked uncertainly.

"Yes of course it is Harry! This is the best present I've ever had. Thank you."

"You're welcome."

And so the three spent the rest of the day learning how to ride. Sirius, who was already an experienced rider, got to ride a large brown horse and lead the two children along.

"Hey Sirius, how come you know how to ride so well?" Hermione asked.

"Because my family required it of me. Being a Black meant that I was rich, but it also meant that I had an image to uphold."

"Oh yeah?" Harry asked with a snort. "Like what?"

"Well, we had to know how to ride, how to dance, how to speak French, Italian, and Spanish. We had to know enough about the economy and mathematics to keep the estates running. We had to know enough about politics to make wise decisions. Additionally, the males of the family had to know how to fight with fists, swords, and wands. The females had to know how to cook, clean, and sew, but they also had to know how to direct the servants."

"Wow, that sounds very medieval," Hermione said frowning slightly.

"Not medieval Hermione, traditional," he said, correcting the young girl lightly. She blushed faintly at her audacity. Harry was snorting with laughter.

"Boy am I glad I'm not you Sirius. Can you imagine me waltzing around a ballroom in a tux? I'd be a laughingstock."

Sirius smiled mischievously. "I don't have to imagine it. You've finished with your French lessons so in their place, you'll be taking ballroom dancing."

"What? Sirius, please tell me you didn't?" Harry begged, but Sirius only threw his head back and laughed.

"Oh no, you did didn't you?"

"You bet I did. You should have seen Remus's face when I told him. Nearly broke a rib he was laughing so hard."

Hermione seemed to be following Remus's line of thinking because she was laughing so hard that she was swaying dangerously on her pony.

"And I wouldn't be laughing if I were you missy," Sirius said, eyeing a Hermione who had tears running down her cheeks.

"Why ever not? It is terribly funny."

"Yes, but you're finished with your French lessons as well."

"So?"

"So when I mentioned Harry's ballroom dancing lessons to your parents, they thought it would be a marvelous idea for you to attend as well."

"You didn't! They didn't!...Did they?"

"Oh yes," Sirius said, smirking with glee.

"Oh no," Hermione said, her face falling.

"Is there anything else you have planned for me that I should know about?" Harry asked, glaring at his godfather.

"Not at the moment," he said and click-clicked his horse forward.

"I'll get you one day Sirius, you just wait."

Meanwhile, thousands of miles away, the dark presence that was Lord Voldemort raged deep in a forest. There were no animals near, they had learned quickly that those who stayed…died.

As for Voldemort, he was furious. He wished for a moment that he had hair to grab in frustration, but of course for that he would need hands as well. Fury gripped him and made the trees around him shudder.

It was because of that Potter boy that he didn't have a body. The spawn of those two traitors had caused his downfall. A debt that would be paid over a thousand fold in the future.

Suddenly, another image flashed before his eyes. A boy, perhaps ten or eleven years old, stood defiantly before him. He looked remarkably like James Potter. And then Voldemort knew. It wasn't James, but Harry. He was seeing an older version of the Potter brat.

He struggled to hold on to the vision, even as he knew he had already experienced whatever was about to happen. It was like knowing you had the ability to see the future, but still not being able to actually see it.

The boy, Potter, was dirty and disheveled. There was an equal amount of blood and filth on his face, but he still looked determined. No, not determined, defiant. The bloody brat looked defiant. Voldemort watched in confusion as Potter pulled a blood red stone out of his pocket and looked at it in confusion.

He felt hope and fury war within him, or at least within the him of the vision. The Voldemort in the vision wanted that stone badly, very very badly. His counterpart in the vision lunged at Potter and the vision suddenly ended.

"No!" The word wasn't voiced aloud, for he had no mouth or vocal cords, but nonetheless, a flock of birds far to the south took flight in fear.

It was always so, just as he thought he would learn something useful from the visions, he was cast out of them. They had been plaguing him for months now. Each different from the last, but none long enough for him to glean any information.

It had taken him several visions before he realized he was seeing the future and even more before he realized that everything he was seeing had already happened.

But how could that be? He wondered silently. How could I have experienced something that hasn't yet happened? He mulled it over until he grew too fatigued to think straight.

One thought however latched on. He would kill Potter, but before he did, he would torture the truth out of him. Because he knew that somehow, someway, Potter knew exactly what was happening to him and why. Yes, he would enjoy getting the answers out of Potter. Very…very…slowly.

The rest of the Christmas holidays went well and Sirius agreed that Harry could wait to start his dancing lessons until after the wedding.

The wedding itself was beautiful. Sirius looked handsome in his black and white tux and Elena was simply stunning in a crème colored gown. Remus was Sirius's best man and Harry was the ring bearer. Elena's sister Audrey was her maid of honor and Hermione was the flower girl.

The wedding was a mix of magical and muggle. Surprisingly enough, Elena was the only non-magical person in her family. She'd chosen law enforcement as a career because most of her family was in the magical law enforcement branch of the ministry. Everyone got along great, though it was a little awkward when her family learned that her new godson was to be the famous Harry Potter, the-boy-who-lived.

Harry sighed, realizing that it would have come out sooner or later. Sirius decided that the best course would be to bind the family to secrecy. Of course, the Callahans instantly agreed to the oath of silence and Harry was able to breathe easier.

Hermione didn't understand what the uproar was all about and made a mental note to ask Remus about it later.

After that minor catastrophe, the party started in full swing.

Harry had to carefully wipe away a tear when Sirius gazed into Elena's eyes and said "I do." Hermione, despite her maturity, was still too young to understand why people were crying on this very happy day. For the first time in her life, she shrugged her shoulders and decided she didn't really need to know why.

A few minutes later Harry and Hermione were laughing uproariously when Sirius and Elena shoved cake into each others faces. Harry even managed to gather enough courage to ask Hermione to dace with him. She agreed of course, and more than one person remarked upon the tiny couple swaying together to the music (since neither of them knew how to dance…yet).

Hours later, the bride and groom got into a horse drawn carriage and left for their honeymoon. They would be gone for two weeks. After that they would both be needed back at their jobs.

After the Grangers had left with their daughter, Harry climbed into the car with Remus and realized that he had never been happier in his life except for three occasions. The first was when Hermione had agreed to date him, the second was when they had made love for the first time, and the third was when she had told him she was pregnant.

He realized suddenly that this was what life was meant to be like; happy.

A/N: I know you guys were waiting to see how I would do the wedding. I'm sorry I didn't load it down with details, but I was afraid I'd bore you guys to death and dead people can't review. So, needless to say, there's the chapter. I hope you enjoyed it. Please review on your way out and if you have any other questions, well, you know what to do.