Meet The Godparents
A/N – Everything recognizable from the Harry Potter Universe belongs to JK Rowling and her various and sundry corporate partners. I'm not her, and this is a fanfiction.
Firstly, to the person who left a review about jumping ship but blocked any responses, the only thing I can say is that along with jumping ship on this story, you're jumping to a conclusion. Please read Maeve's dialogue carefully. Yea, a temporary bit of angst is in the air, but they'll work through that.
And as for Maeve, no she isn't just here to serve as an obligatory Deus Ex Machina. Or a Deus Ex Platform 9¾ for that matter. Think of her as the Anti-Dumbledore. On the old 9 point alignment compass, I'd rate Albus a LN sliding towards evil while Maeve is a definite CN shading towards good.
We've passed through the Looking Glass and out the back of the Wardrobe (no, this isn't a crossover) and we're now where they need to be. Lost in the woods, but together.
Chapter Fourteen – Common Ground
The flare of light illuminated a large room as the pair came tumbling out of a round passageway. Hitting the carpeted floor and rolling, they came to rest against an overstuffed sofa. Breathing heavily, Harry patted the floor for his glasses, which had gotten knocked off his face as they tumbled into the room.
Chuckling, Hermione picked up the wayward spectacles, tapped them with her wand to put them back to rights, and straddled Harry and placed them on his face. Smiling down at him, she reached out and ruffled his hair.
"You sir, are a genius."
"All I did was run into a stone wall; you're the one that figured out that it had the same password as Gryffindor Tower." Looking around, Harry sat up with an amazed look on his face.
"Merlin's saggy socks."
Laughing, Hermione reached down and took Harry's hand. "Looks just like our Common Room, doesn't it?"
Wrapping his arms around her waist, he smiled. "Now that you mention it, it does look a tad bit familiar." Leaning forward, he gently kissed her on the lips. Hermione's hands came up and cradled his face, pulling him closer to her as she returned the kiss. Leaning into him, she could feel his hands begin to move up her back as their kiss deepened.
Feeling his tongue brush against her lips, she opened her mouth and began moving against him as his tongue explored her. As she reached her hand down to begin undoing his shirt, Harry broke the kiss.
"Mi, I don't want the common room floor to be our first time." Looking over at the stairwell, he nodded.
"Oh, and your old dorm room is way more romantic, I suppose?" Smirking at him, she noticed two small objects lying on the table beside the divan.
"Well it does have the built-in advantage of having a bed up there." Sliding his hands underneath her shirt, he lightly ran his lips over her neck, eliciting a delighted shiver in response. "I came up with the last brilliant idea, it's you turn."
Stretching across him, she grabbed the two pins from the table. "How about these?" In her hand were the Head Boy and Head Girl pins they had seen on Monday in Minerva's hand.
"I think my old dorm bed looks a tad more comfortable than those do." Shaking his head, he grinned. "And didn't we turn those down on Monday?"
"Get up, you lazy prat, or I won't share my brilliant plan with you. Or anything else."
Kissing him once more, she waited until he began to try to roll her onto her side before she broke the kiss and slid reluctantly off him. Grabbing his hands, they both came to their feet. Winking at him she headed for the stairwell to the girls dorm. When he stated to follow, she laughed.
"Go stand by your stairwell, silly."
Looking confused, he did what she directed. Noticing she had the Head Girl pin in her hand, he held the Head Boy pin out as well. When she touched the pin to the railing that flanked the stairwell, a faint rumbling could be heard and a stairwell appeared heading down from the Common room floor.
Copying her, Harry soon had his own stairwell descending down from the Gryffindor Common Room. Grinning, he looked over at Hermione who was beaming at him.
"Last one downstairs has to make breakfast."
Taking the stairs two at a time, Harry bounded down the unfamiliar steps as quickly as he dared. When he finally reached the bottom of the winding set of stairs, he was amazed to see Hermione lounging between a pair of doors when he finally reached a spacious waiting area. Looking around he could see four sets of arches, labeled for each of the houses along with passageways labeled 'Great Hall', 'Quidditch Pitch', 'Library', and 'Headmistress' Office'.
"If I ask, will you tell me how you did that?"
Grabbing his hand, Hermione pulled him close and kissed him passionately. Putting her mouth beside his ear, she whispered "Glisseo" as her hands roamed his body. Grinning, he nuzzled her ear in return.
"Bad witch. I can't believe you slid all the way down here." He reached for the doorknob of the door that had his name on it and began to turn it. Shaking her head, Hermione kissed him and pulled him towards the other door.
"My room, it's going to be much more suitable." Smiling slyly at the confused look in his eyes, she took his hand and led him to the other door.
Turning the knob and slowly opening it, Harry's eyes got big as he saw that the room contained hundreds of candles, and a large bed that was already turned down. Soft music was playing in the background, and the scent of a subtle perfume filled the air.
"While you were busy running down the steps, I was thinking about what would make the perfect room for us."
Taking his hand and drawing him into the room, she kicked the door shut as she started to kiss him again. Walking him backwards to the bed, she began pulling his shirt up and running her hands over his chest. As the bed halted their progress, she pushed him back onto the bed, straddled him, and smiled slyly.
"Prepare to be shagged senseless, Mr. Potter."
Laughing, Harry pulled her closer to him and turned so she was beside him.
"I believe you're about to have your way with me, Miss Granger. Told you so."
Kissing his way down her neck, he felt her shiver in delight.
"Harry, we talk too much" she said in a husky voice as she pulled his shirt over his head.
"There's a remedy for that." he replied as he returned the favor. The pair tenderly removed their remaining clothing as the candles began to dim around the room
A change in the lighting of the room woke Harry. Hermione's hair was covering his chest as he gazed down at her sleeping face. Kissing her softly on her forehead, he tenderly brushed the hair from her eyes. Feeling her start to move against him, he smiled as her eyes cracked open a bit.
"Morning beautiful."
Smiling as she stretched against him, he turned so they were facing each other. Wrapping his arm around her, he snuggled against her as she sighed contentedly.
"I'm beginning to regret telling Minerva 'no' about coming back."
"You think?" Looking up at him, she batted her eyes. "Why do I think that we might have set the record for the fewest NEWTs of any Head Boy and Girl pairing in the history of the school?" Giggling at the look on his face, she caressed the side of his face with her hand.
"Harry, you're a very bad influence on me, you know that?"
"I'm the one who got taken advantage of last night. I distinctly remember someone saying they were going to shag someone else senseless before this all began." Looking around, Harry spied a door leading off the bedroom.
"How much you want to bet that shower is big enough for two people?"
Lazily rolling out of bed, he took her hand and placed a gentle kiss on the back of it. Drawing her out of the covers, he kissed her gently before leading her towards the other room.
The shower was big enough for two, but only if they were very well acquainted. Only through the marvels of magical plumbing did the water stay hot long enough for them to finish. While dressing involved a pillow fight over whose back was the most difficult to wash, they finally returned to the common room, not overly surprised to find a small table set for two.
Shaking her head, Hermione gallantly gestured at the table.
"It seems someone has taken pity on me and decided that you don't need to make breakfast after all." Laughing at the look on Harry's face, she pointed a finger at him. "Remember, 'last one down makes breakfast'?"
"Ah, that's why you hurried. You've heard about my legendary cooking skills."
Blushing she kissed him briefly as he seated her. "Not at all, I was just in the mood for something else last night." Grinning she shook her head as he took his seat and food appeared on the serving dishes on the table. Reaching over, she put her hand on his.
"Someone is going to a great deal of trouble to make us comfortable here. Kind of makes you wonder, doesn't it?"
Eyeing her with a half smile, he nodded. 'Back to work, eh? Any ideas on how we get back?" Helping herself to a grapefruit half, she shrugged.
"I don't think we ever 'left', not really." Looking around as he spooned eggs onto his plate he shrugged.
"Still doesn't look like the nursery to me." Using the tongs to select a couple of pieces of toast, he extended them to her. "These look about the way you like yours." Smiling as she blushed, she took the toast and nodded to him.
"Thanks Harry, I'm almost afraid to ask what else you've memorized about me." Sighing as she watched him blush, she shook her head. "What I mean is I think we got hijacked out of our dreams. Our physical forms are still back in the nursery, while the real 'us' is here."
"Good thing for those mirrors, the others will hear if Teddy needs something and be able to take care of it, although they're probably going to be in a big surprise when they find us lying there with 'no one home'." Looking up as Hermione's glass crashed to the floor, he saw her face go pale.
"Merlin, Harry. Ginny. Ron. How are we going to tell them?" Feeling the blood drain from his own face, he stared.
"This isn't going to be good. They're not going to take us being in love well at all"
"Well, that sounds like a cue if I ever heard one." Harry's wand appeared out of nowhere as he swung around, stepped between Hermione and the voice, and stared.
"Sirius?"
Hermione put a hand on Harry's shoulder as her wand extended past him.
"Harry, remember Sirius isn't with us any longer." Squeezing Harry's shoulder, she nodded. "How were you rescued from the Ministry after you'd been recaptured?"
"A cute couple of teenagers flew up and rescued me on a rescued hippogriff named Buckbeak by using a timeturner from a locked room at Hogwarts." Smirking, Sirius shook his head. "Harry, I'd say this one is a keeper, but that's what we have to talk about."
Staring at him, Harry slowly lowered his wand.
"Sirius, if you're here, does that mean we're dead?"
"You two aren't dead, so stop worrying about Hermione. Unfortunately, I'm functionally dead, but that's not important right now. We need to talk about you two and what happens next." Gesturing towards the table, he smiled.
"Hermione, if you could not point your wand at me, things would go a bit quicker. While I'm technically dead, I'm still willing to bet that your hex would hurt here and now. So if you could both sit down, we can talk."
Harry stepped forward and put his arms around Sirius. "It's my fault that you're dead." He kept saying it over and over. Hermione watched with tears rolling down her cheeks while Sirius wrapped his arms around Harry and hugged him tight.
"Nonsense, there's no one to blame but Bellatrix and Molly put paid to that debt." Holding Harry at arm's length, Sirius gave him an appraising look. "You've grown up, Harry. James and Lily are very proud of you. Everyone is." Smiling at Hermione, he winked.
"And you've become a real heartbreaker, young lady. If I were ten years younger and still alive, I'd be tempted to see if I could give young Prongs here a run for his galleons." Laughing, he hit himself in the forehead.
"That's right, you two have managed to soul bind yourselves, wouldn't do me any good." Smiling at the shocked looks on their faces, he nodded. "We need to talk and you two have a decision to make."
Turning Harry around, Sirius started him towards the table. When they reached where Hermione was standing, he put his arm around her and started ushering her towards a seat. The table now had three chairs, though there were no plates other than Harry and Hermione's. Smiling at them, he watched them slowly sit, as they looked at each other, nodding occasionally. Shaking his head, he took his seat.
"By the way, being that obvious that you're carrying on a private conversation is normally considered rude. Used to creep me out when your mum and dad would do that from time to time. If you're going to keep on doing that, you need to practice being a bit more discrete so you don't weird folks out." Watching Hermione blush and Harry look a bit taken aback, Sirius snickered at their reaction.
"I'm not here to lecture you two about manners, that was just a helpful observation."
Looking bolder, Harry reached over to take Hermione's hand. "Padfoot, what's happened to us?" Looking over at Hermione, he blushed.
"It's as if I've been in love with her forever, but somehow I just realized it." Shaking his head, he sighed. "That doesn't make any sense."
In a small voice, Hermione added, "It was the same for me. Last night when we were being chased, it was as if I'd loved him all my life. We didn't even think about it, we just were." Squeezing Harry's hand she looked at him. "How did we miss it?"
Watching the pair, Sirius seemed to come to some sort of decision before turning his attention solely to Hermione.
"Let me ask a couple of questions. Hermione, don't think, just answer. When did you know you were in love with Harry?"
"Second year. The last thing I thought before the basilisk petrified me was about not being able to see Harry and warn him." Looking surprised, she blushed. "I never told you."
"Harry, same question, no thinking, just answer."
"Third year, when we were rescuing you." Blinking in surprise he blushed. "But I fell in love with you on the train that first day. I just didn't know what it was." Looking at her, he smiled as she nodded. "You were the first person who ever thought I was important enough to get to know. And then you fixed my glasses without even thinking about it." Ducking his head, he smiled. "I'm sorry I never said anything."
"Part of the problem was you were both scared. You were the first real friend the other had, and you held onto that so tightly that you never noticed you actually loved each other." Sitting back in his chair, he looked from one to the other.
"Do you remember that day in the library during the Tri-Wizard tournament?" Watching both of their faces light up as they chorused 'Pinky-swear' in unison, he sighed. "Well that oath the two of you cobbled together out of your own hearts is when you formalized your soul bond"
Grinning at their matching blushes, he continued. "And the two of you were one sentence away from marrying each other at the tender ages of fourteen and fifteen. That would have set the kneazel on the pixies."
"So why are things different for us here?" Looking thoughtful, Hermione idly squeezed Harry's hand as she toyed with her grapefruit.
"That's where things get a bit fuzzy." Looking a bit unsure of himself, Sirius shrugged.
"Hermione is correct, in that you were diverted from your dreams into the Borderlands, where the elves hold sway. By coming there, your connection to your sleeping bodies allowed you to generate physical forms here and interact with the land. While your emotional states were more in control, your conscious minds still had a bit of control over you."
Pausing, he saw that Hermione was nodding thoughtfully while Harry was still looking a bit puzzled.
"Harry, think about your dreams. While you'll do things in your dreams that you wouldn't necessarily do in real life, there's still that little voice in the back of your head telling you that 'this is stupid' or 'this is wrong' or 'she's Ron's girlfriend'."
Smiling blandly as both of them blushed, he continued. "However, the patronus spell touches on the inner self of the caster, their soul. When you cast that spell here, your souls finally took over and you expressed yourselves as your patronuses. Suddenly, everything emotional that has been hidden from your hearts and minds came to the forefront." Leaning back in his chair, Sirius looked very smug.
"Convenient that a couple of dementors just happened to be running around the Borderlands at the right moment, no?" His eyes gleamed mischievously as he watched the two realize what had happened the night before.
Breaking into a fit of coughing that sounded suspiciously like 'Boggart', Harry shook his head. Hermione was sitting back with a stunned expression on her face.
"I'm not certain whether I should hex you until you can't sit or thank you." Shaking her head, she looked up at Harry. "We've been truly and royally had, Harry."
Looking blank as the two wizards burst into laughter, she blushed and sighed.
"You know what I mean." Turning to Sirius, she pointed her wand at him and waited until the tip began to glow before continuing.
"Why now? Why meddle in our lives right now? Not that I'm complaining about the outcome mind you, but I just have this uneasy feeling that there's something else here that you haven't told us about yet." Twirling her wand around, Hermione smiled as she watched Sirius' eyes try to follow the tip.
"Better answer, Padfoot. Trust me, she's not going to let go of this, and you don't have the advantage of being the bloke she loves, so there's little incentive for her not to be creative while she persuades you to be answer." Watching Hermione carefully, Harry chuckled as she quirked a wry smile while threatening Sirius.
"This is 'Plan B'. Trust me, you two; this is much better than 'Plan A'." Looking nervously over at Harry, Sirius swallowed. "Harry, it's not pretty, and the original plan wasn't mine. This one isn't totally pretty, either, but it's very close to the plan your folks think I'm here to implement."
"Albus," Hermione's voice broke in, cold as ice. Looking up at her, Harry could see she was no longer smiling.
"The original plan, the one you were hiding from James and Lily, it was Albus', wasn't it?"