11. Granger In Love
"Tonks, you don't really wanna stay here with them, do you?"
"No no no no! We're going to a hotel, maybe unless they have soundproofed bedrooms."
"Sooo... Wanna go now?"
"Harry, do you really want to just leave her alone like this?"
"Uh, yeah? Oh fuck, she's calling us over. Tonks, hide me."
She just smirked and started walking. "Hide yourself, you big baby," she told him.
Harry chuckled quietly and hurried to her side, loudly whispering "Don't let them kill me!"
She looked at him and nodding her head, told him seriously, "I'll see what I can do."
He looked back at her a little too seriously for her liking though, so she went closer and took his hand in hers as they neared the family, "Don't worry about them, baby! "
"I know, I know."
She just squeezed his hands reassuringly and smiled at him before letting go and turning towards Hermione's mum who extended her hand in greeting.
"Wotcher Mrs. Granger! I'm Tonks!"
"Oh Hermione told us about you, didn't you?" She asked with a look towards her daughter.
"You used to have pink hair, right?" Dan asked before Hermione could answer.
"Oh yes, we saw you at the station once, I remember." Emma said, turning back towards Tonks.
"Yes, we met at the end of Hermione's fifth year! And yes, I did have pink hair that day, probably."
"That day?"
"Mum, she can change her hair and looks at will. Metamorphmagus, do you remember?"
"Oh yeah! Well, nice to finally meet you, Tonks. I'm Dan Granger!" Hermione's dad also shook her hand, before turning towards Harry who for all his fears over meeting Hermione's parents was feeling a bit neglected . Dan shared a look with Emma who simply walked up to him and ignoring his nervously extended hand, simply engulfed him in a hug.
After pulling away and holding him at arm's length, she smiled at him and said, "Harry Potter!"
He gave her a nervous smile back, "Yes ma'am."
She just kept staring at him for a few more seconds with a happy look on her face and then let him go and gestured towards the house.
"Come on inside, you must be tired."
Dan also greeted him with a handshake as they all walked towards the house, with Emma slinging an arm around her daughter's shoulder.
"That went better than I had expected," Harry said to Tonks who grinned at him.
"They seem like nice people."
"Yeah. I don't know why I've never really properly met them before."
"Really? Never?"
"Well, just hello, nice to meet you! That's all."
"Then why did Mrs. Granger hug you like that?"
"I don't know. It was weird."
Hermione's dad soon walked in with drinks. "So... How was the flight?" He asked after sitting
"It was great. The first time for both of us, actually!" Tonks answered.
"Oh yes, you must be used to... Uh, what are they called?"
"Portkeys?"
"Yeah, That's instant teleportation, isn't it?"
Tonks explained after thinking about it for a few seconds, "Well, almost instant, for short distances, that is. It increases a lot as distance increases."
"Really? Exponentially or is it directly related?"
"Uh... Meaning?"
"You didn't take mathematics?"
""Mathematics?" Tonks asked with a confused look on her face.
"We don't actually have that at Hogwarts." Harry explained.
"Really? I didn't know that."
"We do have Arithmancy, but I don't know if that's the same."
Hermione's dad just nodded in response.
After glancing towards the kitchen a few times, he turned to Tonks, "Correct me if I'm wrong, but you work in the magical police, right?"
"An auror, yes sir, not exactly like the police but similar."
"So on a bodyguard mission, right now?"
"Oh! No no no, I'm on vacation sir. I'm Harry's girlfriend, not his bodyguard."
Harry almost laughed at the sudden change in Dan's expression.
"I thought you were dating my daughter."
Harry and Tonks looked at each other simultaneously, both with their eyebrows raised.
"Uh, heh, no sir!" Harry answered nervously, "Hermione and I are just friends."
"Ohhh? Well, that's good!"
After some more seconds of awkward silence, he got up and said, "I'll go see if they need any help in the kitchen - oh!"
Emma gave Harry a wink as she and Hermione came in with trays filled with snacks.
"What are we talking about?"
"Uhhh..." Harry started to speak.
"Portkeys... And their speed." Tonks spoke slowly before he could answer.
"Tonks was telling me that you don't have maths at Hogwarts."
"No, arithmancy is the only subject that needs maths, and they teach it as part of that."
"You took it, right?"
"Yeah dad, why?"
"Oh I was just wondering how the time is related to distance with those portkeys? Is it an exponential increase?"
"Well, almost. There are some irregularities - "
"So, Harry, you like lasagna, right?" Emma asked him quietly, seeing the look on his face.
"Uh, yes ma'am!"
"And you, Tonks?"
"Love it, ma'am!" She answered with a smile.
"Good... Why aren't you two having anything? Eat. Go on."
"So, that trouble back in England, that's all over?" Dan asked after his discussion with Hermione was over.
"Yeah. It's been nearly a month now since Harry, uh, finished Voldemort off."
Dan and Emma both looked at him with a mixture of shock and awe.
"You killed him?"
"Ummm..." Harry wasn't sure how to respond, but Hermione told them, "It was horrible. You don't know what he had to do, okay? He saved hundreds of lives there. So don't you look at him like that."
"Yeah, we get it, honey. Just got shocked for a moment."
After some tense moments, Hermione's mum said, "Anyway... Come on, you three. I'll show you to your rooms. You can freshen up while I ready the dinner. Tonks, you don't mind sharing with Hermione, do you?"
"Actually, ma'am, Harry and I would be perfectly fine in a hotel. We really don't want to intrude on your family time."
"Oh shush! There's no way you're staying in a hotel while you're here. Now come along."
"Really ma'am, we'll be fine," Tonks said again.
"Harry, do you want to leave?" Emma turned to Harry with a slightly dissapointed look.
"Ummm... No ma'am, we just wanted to give you some time together."
"What kind of reason is that? You're staying here. No more arguments!" She told them resolutely.
"Yes ma'am!"
"And we'll safer with the two of you around. Just make sure Hermione is sneaking out in the night."
"Mum, I told you I was sorry."
"And we forgive you, dear. I meant sneaking into Harry's room." She said with a wink.
"Why would I sneak into Harry's room?"
"Oh, you know..." Emma started to explain but was interrupted by her husband, "Harry's not her boyfriend, Emma. She's still single."
"What?" Emma cast a weird look at Harry. "I'm not single," Hermione said to her father.
"What?" Dan asked Hermione.
Harry shared a look with Tonks while Hermione explained to her parents about Ron, "I'm with Ron. Who you haven't even asked about yet, by the way!"
"OH!" "That ginger?"
"Yes! Don't call him that. And why would you think I was with Harry? He's with Tonks."
"Well, since Harry came with you halfway around the world and Ron didn't, we ho-, thought..." Her mother told her.
"Ron has lived in the magical world all his life. So he was a little scared of aeroplanes. That's why he couldn't come."
Dan scoffed, "Yeah! Sure."
"Dan! Stop it." His wife admonished him.
Tonks whispered to Harry, "Should have run when you asked!"
His laugh reminded the Grangers of their presence in the house. Emma suddenly exclaimed, "OH! So that's why you want to go to a hotel."
Harry awkwardly rubbed the back of his head, looking at Tonks to handle the situation but she just stared right at Emma and nodded a little hesitantly. Harry, expecting the woman to be scandalised, was surprised when she started laughing.
"Couldn't you just use magic to soundproof a room?" Dan asked.
"Eh... Yeah, but we thought you might be uncomfortable with the idea."
"We're more uncomfortable with the idea of you staying in a hotel when you can just live in here," Emma said and then added with a wink, "and while you're at it, would you mind doing it to our bedroom as well?"
"Hi!" Tonks said to Hermione when she walked into their room.
"Hello," she said with a tired smile.
"So..."
"How're you doing?"
"I'm okay." She came and sat down beside Harry on the bed, kneeling her head on his shoulder.
"So, what exactly happened?" Tonks asked from behind them.
"My spells were too weak. Nowhere near permanent. Dad got his memory back a few months back and started asking mum questions, then she got her memory back. They kinda figured out what I did, then they tried to contact people they knew in England to see what was happening in England. Of course, this was before the battle, so even their friends could tell them that something was wrong, so they decided to stay here for now and hope I wasn't dead, because it wasn't as if they could have done anything to help me by coming to England. They were mad at first, but now they've mostly forgiven me because they're glad I'm alive and came here to find them."
"Breathe, Hermione." Harry told her amusedly.
"I'm happy for you." Tonks told her.
"Yeah, I'm happy too, it's just..."
"What?" Harry asked, part of him expecting the reason to be himself.
"Well, um," she said getting up from his shoulder and looking at him with an apologetic expression, "See, because of everything I've told my parents about you, my mum is kinda in love with you."
"Ahem, what now? How?" Harry asked over the sound of Tonks laughing.
"Well, think about the things I've told her about you. My first friend, famous but doesn't show it at all, jumped on an enormous troll's head to save my life, let's see what else, slayed an enormous snake, and your patronus incident in third year, the tournament -"
"What patronus incident?" Tonks asked.
"You don't know?" Hermione asked, slightly bewildered, "Really? Oh wait, yeah, how would you know? We didn't tell anyone about the time turner."
"TIME TURNER?""
"It's nothing, Tonks."
"It's NOT nothing. You know how we caught Pettigrew in our third year?"
"Yeah, and then Remus changed and he fled."
"Yes, and then Remus went into the forbidden forest and Sirius, injured in his animagus form, was attacked by dementors and then put into a cell to await the dementor's kiss."
"Where he was rescued by you two flying on a bloody hippogriff, the symbol of love." Tonks said.
"Oh I remember mum's face when I told her that," Hermione said, hiding her face in her hands, "she was squealing... so badly!"
"Heh, and the patronus?"
"Yes, now what you might not know is that while we were saving Sirius, we were also present in the hospital wing."
"With a time turner?" Tonks asked.
"Yep."
"What the hell were you doing with one?"
This time, it was Harry who laughed while Hermione answered, "Taking classes! But that's not the point. The point is we went back in time, saved Buckbeak, the hippogriff, somehow got Remus to attack us in the forest and get off Sirius, escaped from him and went to where Sirius and Harry were attacked by the dementors because Harry thought he had seen his dad there."
"What?" Tonks cast a confused look at Harry.
"Before he fainted due to the dementors, he saw someone cast a patronus that drove away the ENTIRE army of dementors in Hogwarts, and he thought it was his dad."
"Everyone says I look just like him. How was I to know I would travel back in time?" Harry said in response to the look Tonks was giving him.
"How many were there?" Tonks asked, still staring at Harry.
"Uh..."
"Probably more than a hundred." Hermione answered.
"Hermione?" Tonks asked, finally looking away from Harry.
"Hm?"
As sweetly as she could manage, she said, "Get out!"
"Huh? Oh! Oh right! Bye! Good night... Have fun!" She said as she closed the door right before Tonks turned to Harry with a predatory grin.
"Now let's test these silencing charms, shall we?"
A/N:
Sorry about the title! I was in a weird mood when I thought it up, and then I just went with it.
Anyway, thank you for the reviews everyone! They mean a lot.
Take care! :)
