Title: The Blending 15

Author: red rooster dawn

Pairing: Harry and Hermione

Disclaimer: don't own them, don't make no money on them

Summary: The most gifted witch of her generation with the most powerful young wizard. Hermione wants to be with Harry. What lengths will she go through to be with him? What are the limits of her powers?

Author's note: From the beginning it appeared to me that these two young people were destined to be together. Of all the wizards Hermione could latch onto, Harry was the one. She is the most gifted witch of her generation. She would seek out an equally gifted wizard. It makes no sense for her to be with an idiot, clown, and total screw up that she has at least one major fight with and doesn't speak to for long periods of time.

part eleven Time to get ready

18 December

Minerva asked Albus if they could sit down and talk about Ms Granger and Harry. Ms Granger had given her about a dozen journals to review. Ms Granger wasn't satisfied with their evaluation of her talents.

She thought the professors should review her journals. Her skills were much better then they had given her credit for. They covered areas that weren't tested on the OWLs and the staff wasn't completely aware of.

"Tell me again why we're looking through Ms Granger's journals?" asked a perturbed Snape. He hated obnoxious know it all who thought they were better than everyone else. It was the holiday season and he wanted to relax for once.

"For one I told her that we would, but more importantly I wanted to see exactly what she has learned while she's been here and when she learned it. I also wanted to know the reasons behind why she learned what she did." replied McGonagall.

"It should give us some insight into how Ms Granger thinks when she is solving a problem. We all know that she spends a lot of time in the library. At first we thought it was to learn more about Hogwarts and the wizard world. She had been raised in the muggle world and knew nothing about us." added Dumbledore.

"Looking through her journals also gives us insight on how they decided to fight Lord Voldemort each time they met with him. Her thought process was truly amazing for someone so young. They were learning things at age twelve that we don't teach to our students until sixth year." stated McGonagall.

"It's truly amazing some of the things she knows how to do. It's not hard to understand now why her rating is so high. She has learned a lot to be sure, but the breath of her learning is extraordinary. It is so diverse and detailed." observed Dumbledore.

"Her knowledge of potion making is substantial." observed Snape as he skimmed over the list. "But the quality and ease of her work has always been lacking. It's an area in which she still struggles with."

"You might want to check out some of the pages near the end of the journal Severus. She mentions that she took small samples of her work to be analyze at a laboratory in the muggle world. She told the lab what the potion was used for.

They did a test on all the solutions. They gave her a chemical analysis of all her old potions. With the help of a chemistry professor she devised a process to make all the potions using only purified chemicals that they use in their world.

All her new potions came back much purer and more potent than anything she has made here. You need to check out her potions against your own and see if they are good as they are supposed to be and if they are good or better, then you should check the procedures that she has devised in making them." directed McGonagall.

"Just how many potions are we talking about Minerva. I have some time over the next two weeks to test her potions if there aren't too many." replied Snape wondering why he had to do this. He really didn't like the idea of being given extra work to do.

"I think they all should be tested. If her potions are indeed much better than yours, we'll need to take a look at her process and compared them to yours. Our goal should be to produce the best potions we can." directed Dumbledore.

"It's not always about making the best potions, it's about the methodology, the history, the way of life." argued Snape.

"I don't think you will be able to test them all in two weeks. She has nearly two hundred and fifty potions listed here that she's made." observed McGonagall.

"That seems to be an improbable accomplishment even for the gifted Ms Granger, but if anyone can do it I suppose it would be her. She has always been an overachiever. I do have two students who could assist me over the break." moaned Snape. He would be very busy for next few months.

"Thank you Severus, we can test her other skills later next month. We might have to reevaluate at what age we teach certain skills in the future." added Dumbledore.

"Maybe some things we can, but many of the students have difficulty learning how to do the basic skills. It wouldn't be prudent to accelerate their learning until they have mastered the basics." countered McGonagall.

"Still, after what Potter accomplished two years ago when he taught the other students some very advance spells against the Dark Arts, maybe we should expect more from them." smirked Snape. He always believed that the students were being coddled and not pushed hard enough.

"Did Ms Granger happen to mention why she wants us to check her work?" asked Snape.

"A little bit of knowledge can be a dangerous thing. She found out about her magical rating. She was curious as to what it meant and how it was determined. I informed her it was a measure of her magic skills and knowledge gained from the results of the OWLs.

She told me that the OWLs didn't fully measure her skills or her magical knowledge. Her knowledge of magical skills is considerably more than what was on the test." replied McGonagall.

"And from what I can see here, I would have to agree with her assessment." affirmed Dumbledore.

"We could always give her the seventh year test. It encompasses much more material than the OWLs." suggested Snape.

"There's time for that later. There is a lot of material we can test her on now. Minerva, inform her that we will tested her and Harry the third week of next month. We need time to make a list of the charms, spells, and other skills she has mastered and test them." directed Dumbledore.

"I don't understand why you're placating her. What does it matter anyway, she has the highest rating already. I seriously doubt we'll ever see another student of her ability again." sighed Snape. It was going to be an awful lot of work for no apparent gain.

"We have the obligation to do things right. We can't expect our students to put forth the extra effort to do things right and not be willing do so ourselves." argued McGonagall.

"Have you figured out how much this will affect her rating Minerva?" asked Dumbledore.

"I'm not sure Albus. I haven't had the chance to assign a value to the list of skills she has mastered. I was more interested in seeing what she had learned and how old she was at the time. I wanted to see how much she had learned and how difficult it was.

I think she has learned a lot more than we might have expected. The breath of what she has learned is amazing. If I didn't know their history I would have wondered why she would have learn some of the things that she has.

It's interesting to see the thought process behind how she and Potter dealt with Lord Voldemort. But as for your question of the value of all this work, I would say anywhere from six hundred points to as much as a thousand.

It's hard to tell because there is a lot of material here that we don't usually teach or isn't commonly learned any more today. Potter has at least ten to fifteen spells that aren't even taught here. Severus is the only one that I know who uses most of them." replied McGonagall.

"He got them out of my old potions book that I use to teach potions. He was given it when he didn't have a book of his own. He denies that he still has it although he used my notes to make potions last year.

They were ways I have found that simplify making the potions. Those spells were written in the book too. Potter has since mastered them. He said he doesn't have the book, but he hasn't returned it to me either." offered Snape.

"You might want to check out the old storage room up on the fifth floor. It's where they put all the old stuff that we don't use anymore. Not many people know about it.

I wouldn't be surprise if Potter came across it during one of his late night walks when he was supposed to be in bed. He probably hid it in there." replied McGonagall.

20 December

Hermione needed to contact her parents about the wedding. There were no telephones to the real world. The only possible way was to send a message to her parents via owl mail. She wrote a short note asking her parents to meet her in London.

She gave the note to Harry who tied it the owl's foot and sent it on its way. She had such wonderful news to tell them. A few days later she met them outside the train station. They went to lunch at one of their favorite restaurants.

"I have so much to tell you Mom!" greeted Hermione excitedly.

Mrs. Granger looked at her daughter. She seemed to be so happy, happier than she had ever seen her. She was surprised to see how tall she had grown. Hermione had stopped growing when she was fourteen.

She took a quick look at her feet to see if Hermione was wearing three inch heels or something, but saw only flats on her daughter's feet. She wondered how it was possible that her daughter had grown three inches after not growing an inch for three years.

"Hello to you too Hermione. Oh, I'm fine. The Johnsons are thinking about selling their house. I can see that you're very happy about something. Have you grown?" asked her mother.

"Hi mom, what? Yeah, I grew three inches a few months ago." replied Hermione.

"Are you ready to go home? We have a special Christmas planned this year. Where's all your stuff?" asked her mother.

"No mom, my stuff is back at Hogwarts. Mom! I'm getting married!" replied Hermione with glee.

"What! Who are you marrying?" asked her mother.

She was totally shocked that her little girl was getting married. How was that possible? She wasn't even eighteen yet. What was wrong with those people with whom she had entrusted to take care of her girl?

"Harry! We getting married Christmas eve! Isn't it wonderful!" replied Hermione excitedly.

"You're not old enough to be getting married Hermione. You should wait until you're at least twenty five." countered her mother. Harry was the boy they met this summer. He seemed okay.

"Make that thirty. She'll need time to develop her practice before she thinks about getting married." added her father with a wink.

"Mom! We've been together for six and a half years. That's more than enough time. There is no one else in the world I want to be with. They get married much younger in the wizard world." argued Hermione.

"You're not always going to be living in the wizard world Hermione. I know you're very smart. But you know that there is more to life than magic." her mother countered.

"I know that mom and I will deal with that at the appropriate time. But for now I'm getting ready to marry Harry. I want you to help me pick out a wedding gown." pleaded Hermione.

"Do witches even wear wedding gowns or white?" asked her mother realizing that she wasn't going to change her daughter's mind.

"I don't know whether other witches do or not, but I will be when I marry Harry. What's the matter daddy?" asked Hermione. Her father was looking at her a little funny.

"You look so beautiful Hermione. When did you become so beautiful? You were always cute and adorable, but I never remember you being so beautiful as you are now." replied her father.

"Thank you daddy. It's a long story, but it happened when Harry and I became one." replied Hermione.

They spent the next several hours going from one bridal shop to another looking at wedding gowns. Hermione finally found the one she liked. Her mother and father both agreed that she looked absolutely beautiful.

"Do you think Harry will like it?" asked Hermione.

"He would love you even if you were wearing a potato sack, but I do believe he will love seeing you in this gown. You look beautiful in it." replied her mother.

"I love him so much mom. I don't think I could live without him." wailed Hermione.

"I know you love him dear. He's all you have talked about whenever you've been home the last six and a half years, but I'm sure that somehow you would manage to survive if he wasn't there and something were to happen to him." her mother smiled. Young love.

"I almost left Hogwarts last September. They wanted me to be with Ron. I was ready to leave and come home. I didn't want to be a witch anymore." wailed Hermione.

"He's not that bad is he? I thought he was your friend." countered her mother.

"He's more Harry's friend than he is mine. I only tolerated him because Harry likes him so much. We seem to have a big fight every year and then he doesn't speak to me for weeks on end." replied Hermione.

"That can happen Hermione especially when you're good friends. Sometimes you say more than you should thinking that they deserve to hear the truth, but sometimes it's better to hold your tongue. Hearing the truth can hurt and it isn't always the best thing." countered her mother.

"I thought they wanted me to blend with Ron instead of Harry. There was no way I was going to let that happen. There was no way I was going to blend with Ron for the rest of my life.

I was almost out the door when Professor McGonagall caught up with me. She told me I didn't have to blend with Ron. She said I could choose to blend with Harry instead if that was what I wanted. So I chose Harry for the Blending Ceremony and not Ron.

Ron was quite upset with that. Why I don't know. But it was the most wonderful experience of my life." replied Hermione.

"If he was upset Hermione, it was probably because he likes you more than what he has let on. What was the ceremony?" asked her mother.

"It was a ceremony where two people are joined together as one. We were only supposed to be joined together for a couple of weeks, instead we were together for three months. We only separated last week." replied Hermione.

"I don't think I understand Hermione. What is this ceremony?" asked her mother.

"It's kind of difficult to explain. They call it a Blending Ceremony. It entails magic. During the ceremony two people become one person. While you're blended with the other person you're supposed to gain or learn something from being with the other person.

You're supposed to become a better witch or wizard and in some cases a better person. The ceremony uses a lot of magic for visual effect. During the ceremony the witch and wizard hold each other in their arms.

They begin to spin around in a circle. There's a flash of smoke, a colored flame appears where the two people begin to blend. The blending creates a color flame base on your magical powers. It's usually either red, green, or blue.

The flame usually reaches eight to ten feet in height. When the flame dies down only one person is left standing there. The other person is inside you. They say that when Harry and I blended together the flame was over thirty feet high and had all the colors of the rainbow." sighed Hermione.

"Wow! That must have been a beautiful sight. It's too bad they didn't film the ceremony. I'm sure many people who weren't there would have loved to have seen it." agreed her mother.

"Well you know they aren't too big on technology mom. I know I would have liked to have seen our blending. It was supposed to have been a once in a lifetime experience. They say no one had ever seen anything like it before.

It might explained why I grew three inches and why they say I became more beautiful. They say all the boys couldn't take their eyes off me when I'm in the room. I don't know why they say that because I think I look the same as I always have. Maybe it's because I'm so happy to be with Harry." replied Hermione.

"Hermione, you are more beautiful now than you were last summer. It's true. You've gone from being cute and adorable to being very beautiful. I don't know what the reason is. Maybe it's maturity or the way you carry yourself now. Maybe who you are now is how Harry has always seen you. There is so much elegance in your manner now." smiled her mother.