Harry Potter And The Summer Of Surprise-Chapter 25
Another Conversation With Hermione's Parents
Disclaimer: I own nothing of Harry Potter.
Harry woke slowly, hearing knocking in his dreams. For some reason his lower body ached. He smiled as he remembered why, and turned his head to read the clock, but it was too blury. He fumbled for his glasses and slid them onto his nose, then tried again. He shot bolt upright in his bed. Quarter after ten! Hermione was gone and she hadn't woken him up so he could say good-bye. Tears came to his eyes as he swung his legs over the edge of the mattress and stood, picking up his pajama bottoms and tugging them on as he went to answer the insistant knock that he now knew was real. He unlocked the door, wondering why Hermione had locked it on her way out that morning and cracked it open to reveal Laura, as he knew it would be.
"Have you come to chuck me out, then?" he asked hesitantly, wiping his tears away.
"No," she replied, surprise appearing on her face, then she glanced at his throat and laughed to herself. "I've come to wake you and Hermione up. Breakfast is ready and I thought you might be hungry after..." she made a vague gesture to tell him she somehow knew what they had done the night before.
Harry blushed, then realized she had said to wake you and Hermione up! He snapped his head around and saw his beloved still fast asleep in his bed.
"What's going on?" he asked, happy but confused. "I know now that we forgot to set the alarm, but her father isn't knocking the door off its hinges to keep me from sullying his little girl anymore than I already have? What gives?" Laura smiled.
"Just wake up Hermione, get dressed and come downstairs. I think you're in for a surprise. We'll be in the dining room." She snickered again, turned and walked away. Harry closed the door and went back to the bed. He sat down on it and gently shook Hermione's shoulder.
"'Mione, love, it's time to wake up." She rolled over and smiled at him sleepily.
"Good morning, Harry." She moved to sit up. "Ooohh! My body hurts." Harry chuckled.
"I wonder why. It couldn't have been because you had me slamming into you last night could it?" Hermione smiled and pulled him to her and gave him a kiss. It was then that she noticed the amount of sunlight in his bedroom.
"Oh my God, Harry! What time is it?" She turned to the clock. "Half ten! My father's going to kill me. And you as well when he finds out what we were doing. I mean, it's fairly obvious. Look at your neck."
Harry got up and went to the mirror in the corner. A large purple love bite stood out against his light tan where Hermione had latched onto him during their passion last night.
"Oh, bloody hell," he said, sounding like Ron for a minute. "Laura saw this. That's what she was laughing at." He turned back to a giggling Hermione. "You gave me a hickey the size of England." She got out of bed and caught sight of herself in the mirror.
"That's nothing. Look at what you did to me." She had a similar mark on her lower abdomen.
"Oh, yeah. My payback. But no one is going to see that unless you wear one of those microscopic bikinis of yours. By the way, thank you for buying them. They definately made my summer." She cocked her head to the side as she pulled her nightdress down over her breasts. "Seeing you in one of them gave me the nerve wear something that I never would have any other time, and now I have a tan to show off when I go back to school." Her face fell at the thought that he would be returning without her.
"I forgot about that. I hope you have a good seventh year, Harry. I'll miss you."
She started to tear up, but Harry remembered what Laura had told him and said, "Hang on, now. Your aunt wants us both to come down to breakfast. She said that we were in for a surprise." She raised her damp eyes to his face.
"A surprise? What kind of surprise?" Harry shrugged.
"Dunno. But we can't go down like this," he indicated their clothing, or lack of. "You had better go and get dressed, and I'll wait for you here." She smiled and left the room. Harry changed into khaki shorts and a t-shirt, and was pulling on his sandals when she reappeared. He looked up as he finished fastening the buckle around his heel.
"Wow, Hermione! You look incredible."
She spun around, showing off the sundress she had put on. It was white with tiny pink and green flowers and showed off her tan (and curves, to Harry's delight) quite nicely. The finishing touch was white strap sandals, and he noticed that she had done the same thing to her hair that she had for their dinner date the month before, and had pulled it back in a clip, letting it fall in a shimmering curtain down her back. She held out her hand and Harry rose from his seat on his now made bed (He had 'no' idea how that had happened. He had just been thinking about making it as he went to use the bathroom, and when he came back, it was finished.). He took it, and together, they went down to breakfast.
They went through to the dining room and entered a little apprehensively, seeing Mr. and Mrs. Granger sitting at the table. David looked up and smiled as he stood. He walked over to them and wrapped his arms around Harry, who froze with shock. Hermione released Harry's hand and went to sit at the table. When her father released him, Harry did the same, choosing the chair across from rather than next to her.
He had just barely sat down when David took hold of his arm and hauled him out of the seat, propelling him to sit next to his daughter. He placed his hands on Harry's shoulders and forced him into the chair. He landed with a soft 'umph', and glanced at Hermione, who looked just as confused as he felt. She watched her father, who resumed his position in the seat at the head of the table next to her mother. Laura smiled at them from her position across the table.
"All right, what's going on?" Hermione asked. "Last night, you didn't seem to want me to even look at Harry, much less be in the same room with him, and now you move him from across the table to sit next to me? What are you playing at, Dad?"
Her father cleared his throat and replied, "Well, this morning I woke up with every intention of dragging you home, kicking and screaming if necessary, and when I couldn't find you in your room, I went nuts looking for you. We saw Harry's door was shut and I turned the handle only to find it locked, so I knew you had to be in there with him. Let me tell you that I almost went ballistic. I wanted to basically give Harry a sex change."
Harry sorrowfully dropped his eyes to the table. David Granger chuckled. "Don't worry, Harry. I don't feel that way now. Laura has opened my eyes to things about you I had no idea exsisted. I am sorry for the way I treated you yesterday." Harry turned his head to face the other man.
"You didn't do anything to me," he said.
"On the contrary, I was about to take the person you love more than you do your own life away. And after hearing how your family treated you during your time with them, I realized I can't do that to you. Or Hermione." He now addressed his daughter. "Laura also told me about how you were depressed at the beginning of the summer when you thought that he," he gestured to Harry, "Was in love with that other girl, what was her name, Ginny Weasley?" Everyone else nodded. "And I just want to tell you now, that if Harry Potter makes you happy, I have no more reservations about your seeing him." Hermione jumped up and ran to her father, throwing her arms around his neck.
"Thank you, Daddy! Thank you, thank you, thank you!" She punctuated each one with a kiss on his cheek.
He laughed at her actions and said, "Hey, save some of those for your boyfriend." Harry beamed from his seat. He felt as if he were floating. He had just gained acceptance from the family of the woman he loved.
I'll bet my Patronus would be the size of Hogwarts right now he thought as Hermione returned to her place next to him and gave him the same treatment she had her father.
David cleared his throat once more and added, "I just have one little request." Everyone turned to face him as he smiled.
"You let us all know if you decide to get married." Harry joined in the laughter, but inside his head, he knew that he had been considering that very subject. An owl inturrupted their breakfast just as they were starting to eat, and almost upset Hermione's eggs and bacon when it landed on the table in front of her. Harry and Hermione were shocked when they saw it was Hermes, Percy's owl. There were two letters attached to his legs, and Harry, seeing his name on one in Ron's handwritting, which appeared to have been written in haste and anger, pulled it off the owl. Hermes took off once more and soared out the window.
"This reminds me. I never did open the rest of the letters I got the other day," he said as he opened it. He and Hermione both read their letters and the adults at the table all turned to them as they both let out identical gasps of surprise.
"What is it?" Mary Granger asked. Hermione's hand shook as she stared at her letter. "Well, it's true then," she said to Harry, who nodded silently.
"Ginny Weasley is pregnant," she added, looking now at her parents. Her father's face once more looked as if it were about to explode in anger.
"You mean to tell me that Harry had so little respect for this girl that now he's left her for you when he got her pregnant?" Hermione shook her head quickly and was about to jump to Harry's defense when he stopped her with a hand on her arm.
"No, Mr. Granger. I'm not the father of Ginny's baby. We never slept together. I didn't really love her, and I think she knew that. I gave Hermione..." He dropped his eyes in embarrassment, his cheeks turning bright pink. "I gave my virginity to Hermione." Her father relaxed, realizing from Harry's expression that he could only be telling the truth.
"Well then, who has gotten this poor child in trouble?" Hermione swallowed.
"Well, it's not who we thought it would have been. We thought she had gone back to her ex, Dean Thomas, after she and Harry broke up at the end of last school year. But she didn't." Her mother spoke up.
"Then who is it? Does she know?" Harry and Hermione both nodded and looked at each other, both speaking at the same time.
"It's Draco Malfoy."