A/N: Hey guys, thank you for sticking with this story, I know that I have taken a really, really, really, long time in putting this out. I'll try and write some more now that I am on school holidays. I have about half, maybe less of the next chapter written so its should be out soon. Thank you for your reviews, I love them. It makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside. I'm just amazed that no one has sent angry reviews to me saying that I should update quicker. I really though that I would have many of the damn things. Thanks to everyone who loves this story and is reading it. Just so people know, the curse will be introduced in the next few chapters I hope. Any way, it will be out soon.
Disclaimer: I own nothing! All hail JKR! The real owner of HP!
The Truth Found Out
The next morning, Draco woke up the latest. He looked around to find that both Harry and Ron were downstairs and when he took a quick look in the girls' room, he also found it empty. He went downstairs and found everyone sitting around the table in the Kitchen.
He sat in the unoccupied seat next to Hermione after bidding everyone good morning and thankfully took his breakfast from Mrs. Weasley. He ate quickly and started to get into a few conversations.
He could see Harry and his father in a deep conversation about Quidditch, the Weasley Twins were sitting in a corner and writing what was most likely was another order form. Yes, he had learnt about Weasley's Wizarding Wheezes. It wasn't that hard actually. You could hear Mrs. Weasley yelling at them about it all the time. But she now learnt that she wasn't able to stop them, and had half accepted it. Remus, Tonks and Sirius were in what looked like a serious conversation, probably something about the Order by the looks of things, Mr and Mrs Weasley were having their own conversation about something, Hermione, Ginny and Sierra were in a conversation about some things to do with school, and Ron was just eating all the food he could within the small amount of time that he had been given to eat.
After breakfast had been eaten, they all just sat in their little conversations and talked until Sirius stood up.
'I'm sure that there has been one thing on your minds since last nights' big surprise,' He started.
'Oh no.' James muttered, leaning back in his chair and ruffling his hair in nervousness. It was a habit that he had not gotten rid of after school and was certainly not giving it up now.
'So, I would like to ask the question for you, that way it will all be clarified, James, I'm sure everyone gathered here would like to know, well, except for me because I already know, how did you survive Voldemorts attack on your house 14 years ago?' Sirius asked.
James started to get fretful as he saw that everyone at the table was looking at him. He ruffled his hair some more before his eyes landed on Harry. The boy was looking up at his father with complete hopefulness; he wanted to know. James sighed and leaned back in his chair again and tilted his head back. He leaned forward again and rested his head in his hands. He lifted it up after a while and they could see the tears swimming in his eyes.
'That night was the worst in my life. I was hoping to never think about it again, but you all should know. Lily and I were sitting in the living room, playing and talking to Harry, who had just learnt to say his first words,' James rubbed his hand on the back of Harry's head and smiled at his son. 'I had left my wand on the table next to me and Lily's was in our room, she had left it there that morning, we didn't have a care in the world at that moment. It was just us and our son. It was at about midnight when we heard the click of the lock. We might have been carefree at the time, but not completely dumb; our ears were on full alert. I heard it and gave Harry straight to Lily and told her to run upstairs, get him out. I took my wand up from the table and took it outside into the hallway to make sure that Lily was able to get out.
I fought with him for a little while, but I soon found my wand across the other side of the room. I looked at him in horror and started to back away, I knew I was going to die. I reached the wall and put on a brave face, I wasn't going to let the bastard see me cower before him. There was only one thing, he didn't kill me; he knocked me out. He probably just wanted me to suffer without a family. I came to after everyone had left. I started to call for Lily. I found my wand in the corner next to me and I started to make my way up the stairs to find her. I saw what looked like a hand out from under the rubble. I went over and pulled your Grandmother out from under the rubble Harry. It wasn't even your mother that was killed by him. I was completely shocked. This took some time to overcome.' James said.
'Hold on, wait a sec, that means that Lily could still be alive.' Remus said. James nodded.
'I thought that through, I looked for her and everything, but she wasn't in the house. After, I walked around the house to try to find you. I couldn't find you around the house anywhere. I looked all over the place. I was seriously scared. I could hear what sounded like a motorbike in the distance, but it sounded like it was getting further away than coming closer. I got up and walked out of the door, or what remained of it. I found a nearby alley and turned into my animagus before heading for the nearby forest. I stayed there for a couple of days to lie low. After that, I wandered the towns; putting spells on myself to make sure I wasn't noticed and stayed well away from Wizarding communities.
'On the odd occasion that I happened to stroll into one of our towns, the only name on many peoples' lips was yours Harry. Everywhere I went in those towns, all I heard was your name and your disappearance. Apparently some people had seen you around muggle London sometimes, but mostly in the town where I think your Aunt and Uncle and dreadful cousin live. Is that right?' James asked. Harry nodded silently; he wasn't particularly interested in telling his father just yet about how his dreadful relatives treated him just yet.
'I've been wandering through the cities and finding out some information for years. I knew I couldn't try to come into Hogwarts, that would have been a dead give away. And walking into Wizarding London would have been just plain stupid.
'I have tried looking for your mother Harry, I have, but I don't know where she is. I haven't found out anything about her, nothing at all. But I know she's out there somewhere.' James concluded. He had his head in his hands and Harry swore through his blurry eyes, he could see James' own tears slowly making tracks down his face.
Harry took his father into a hug and James hugged him back. Both sat just sat there hugging, and the others slowly made their way out of the room; they knew it was a father/son moment.
The kids went upstairs and sat on the beds, just lying there silently. After about half an hour later, Harry walked in. His eyes were a little bloodshot. They could all tell at once that he had been crying with his father.
Harry went to lie back down on his bed and Sierra cuddled in close to him, holding him tight. Everyone could see the slow tear running down his cheek.
They all just laid in silence as the day went on, but were soon in better spirits and went outside to have snowball fights with the other Weasleys, Sirius, James, Remus and Tonks.
There was a lot of laughing, screaming, running, human shields and snow going everywhere.
'Hermione!' Draco yelled as Hermione ran behind him as a snowball just missed him. Apparently it was meant to hit Hermione.
'Sorry! I had to get away somehow!' She squealed. Another soon followed the first and Draco had to duck to avoid it. Unfortunately, Hermione wasn't that fast and got a mouth full. She stood there, dumbstruck, while Draco was on the ground laughing so hard his sides hurt.
Hermione wiped all the snow off of her face started throwing massive snowballs at him.
Draco was not ready for that little development. The only way he stopped her was by grabbing her arms and pinning them to her sides. Hermione tired to get her arms away, but only succeeded in making herself fall on top of Draco. She started trying to make him eat snow, but he rolled her over and changed their positions.
Draco started trying to get her back, and she helped by screaming at the wrong moment and getting snow all in her mouth. Draco laughed himself stupid at Hermione trying to get it all out of her mouth and when she was done she grabbed his collar and flipped them over again, but Draco was soon to catch up and they made another turn.
Draco got another load of snow on her face and when she was trying to get it off, he brushed what was on her mouth away and kissed it gently. Hermione was shocked for a second, but gained composure again and pulled him closer.
The next thing both knew was them being bombarded with snow all over. It turned out that they had witnessed the exchange and planned the attack themselves.
Draco and Hermione quickly got up and started to attack them back. The fight went on for hours before everyone got tired and headed back inside for something hot to drink and eat.
After eating and drinking their fill, they sat and talked for hours longer.
After about an hour, Draco took Hermione's hand and they slowly made their way out, without anyone noticing, or so they thought. Harry and James had watched the two look at each other and give small, barely noticeable nods, and leave. They smirked at each other knew exactly where they were going.
Draco took Hermione up the stairs and into his room. They both lay down on his bed and had their arms around each other.
They just laid in silence for ages before Hermione spoke up.
'I wonder what it would be like not to know whether your mother was alive or not.' She said. Draco looked deep into her eyes.
'I pity Harry because of that. I wouldn't be able to stand not knowing whether or not my mother was alive. It would kill me inside. My mother is the only nice one to me. I'd want to find her.' Draco said. Hermione nodded.
'That's what I'm scared of Harry doing; going looking for her.' She whispered. Draco held her tighter to him. He leaned his head down lower to her ear and she could feel his warm breath on her neck and it made her shiver.
'How about we forget all of this.' He whispered. Hermione looked at him quizzically.
'How?' She asked. Draco gave her a meaningful look and she quickly understood. She captured his lips in what he took as a yes and clothes were quickly discarded. They had their night.
The next morning, they both woke to each others scent. Hermione was the first to wake and she felt oddly light-headed. But it was a good light-headed. She reminisced about what happened last night. It was the best she had ever felt. She looked over to where Harry and Ron were supposed to be sleeping and didn't see them there.
Why would they be there? Unless they wanted to see what was happening. They probably stayed in the girls' room or down on the couch. Hermione thought.
Just then, she heard Draco stir and faced him smiling lightly. He opened his eyes to where his angel slept and saw her. He smiled down at her and he saw her smile back. He captured her lips in a soft kiss, and when he broke it, he could see her blush lightly. Draco smirked slightly at the girl.
'Good morning sweetheart.' He whispered. Hermione looked up at him and smiled again.
'Good morning to you too sunshine.' She whispered back.
'We better get up, but I really don't want to see the others though. But I do need a shower.' He joked.
'We both do. Especially before we go down to breakfast.' She said.
'I also want to stay here with you.' He said, burying his head in her neck and kissing her gently. Hermione groaned lightly and tilted her head back and closing her eyes.
'I want to stay here too.' She whispered.
Just then, they hear a knock at the door.
'Are you two decent?' Harry yelled through the door. Hermione groaned and Draco rolled his eyes.
'You can only come in if you want to see us naked.' Draco called back. There were strangled-like sounds coming from behind the door and Hermione tried to stifle giggles.
'Did you two have to do that last night?' They heard Ron yell. Draco rolled his eyes again and Hermione blushed.
'Yes!' Draco called back out to him. He obviously wasn't as embarrassed about it as she was.
'We'll be out soon! Hold your horses!' Hermione called out to them. They could hear them mumbling something and had to stifle laughter. They got out of bed grudgingly and gathered their clothes before putting them on and leaving the room.
'Finally.' Ron grumbled. Hermione shot him a glare and smiled at Draco before entering her room to get changed and going to have a shower.
Draco got changed and went to have a shower himself. As much as he loved the smell of Hermione, he didn't particularly think that everyone else would.
After they both had a shower, they went down to have a late breakfast. They could see James, Sirius and Remus smirking at them out the corner of their eyes and Sierra was shooting sly smiles at her cousin, who was promptly ignoring everyone apart from Hermione because of the attention that they were attracting. Everything was silent apart from the odd snickers coming from the males at the table.
'Hermione, will you come with me for a second?' Sierra asked, breaking the silence. Hermione looked at the girl curiously, but nodded all the same.
'Sure.' Hermione said cautiously.
'Great.' She said and took Hermione's hand and led her into the room just off the kitchen.
'You do know that everyone could hear you last night.' She stated as soon as they entered the room. Hermione looked at her with wide eyes.
'What?' She whispered fearfully.
'Let's just say that you're going to get a couple of weird stares around here for a while. Just be lucky that Molly and Arthur went home last night pretty soon after you and Draco left the room. They wanted to check on things at their house. And if Draco was that good, tell him to give Harry pointers, just in case that ever happens between us. And get one of adults to put a silencing charm on the door next time. I don't think anyone slept very well last night. Oh, and get ready for Weasley blackmail, Fred and George taped everything. What we could hear anyway. They weren't going to go in and tape it. Just be careful.' Sierra advised. Hermione had completely blanched. She was as white as a ghost.
'Oh. My. God.' Hermione whispered. She was standing stock still and was trying to take in everything that the girl was telling her. 'You truly are a Slytherin.' She added. Sierra giggled.
'Trust me; I'm not as bad as some others I know. Tell me; were you a virgin before last night?' She asked. Hermione shook her head.
'Really? Who?' She asked.
'Victor Krum, last year.' Hermione mumbled.
'Who was better?' Sierra asked.
'Draco.' She mumbled again.
'Really? I wouldn't have guessed.' Sierra said thoughtfully. Hermione was still in a little bit of shock.
'I won't be able to look any of them in the eye for a long time.' She said.
'Draco seems to have gotten over it rather quickly. Trust me he loves you, I just meant that he doesn't seem to mind that heaps of people heard. I think it only matters that he had you, he doesn't really care what the others think.' Sierra added.
'Is Ginny here?' Hermione asked suddenly. Sierra looked thoughtful for a second.
'Yeah, I think she is. Why?' She asked.
'I have to talk to her about something. I hope you don't mind, but I am rather hungry and you pulled me out of breakfast.' Hermione said pointedly.
'Oh, yeah, go have breakfast.' She said. They walked back into the room and Hermione blushed furiously. She sat back down in her seat next to Draco and started to eat her breakfast again.
After finishing her breakfast off quickly, she went to go find Ginny. When she found the young girl, she told her absolutely everything that Ginny wanted to know. It felt good to get it all off of her chest. She had wanted to tell Sierra, but that would have been a bit awkward, talking to her about her cousin in that way, so she turned Ginny; she would get the younger girl to tell Sierra all about it. Maybe.
The girls spent an hour talking, mostly about what happened, but other things made their way into the conversation too. Apparently she liked Blaise Zabini, which Hermione thought was rather incredible. She had laughed a little when Ginny had told her, but soon realised that the girl wasn't joking. Hermione then looked at the girl with shock.
'You're not serious?' She had asked. Ginny had nodded.
'Yep. I'm not lying.' She had said. 'Don't judge me because of this Hermione.' Ginny had added.
'I just lost my virginity to Draco Malfoy; I don't think I'm in any position to judge you for just liking him.' Hermione had replied.
'True.' Ginny had answered. 'Promise you'll keep my secret?'
'Of course.' Hermione had promised.
The rest of the day was spent relaxing, sitting in front of the fire and drinking hot chocolate. They talked and talked for ages before they all got very, very tired. The all went to bed early, desperate to get some sleep for the next day.
The holidays were more like normal holidays after that. Snow ball fights, hot chocolate, sitting by the fire and just plain talking to one another.
There was romance of course. Sierra and Harry could be seen under the remaining mistletoe, Draco and Hermione didn't even bother with mistletoe, Ron was sending constant love letters to Pansy, which where quickly returned with a reply. Hermione saw some of them, they were rather mushy. Even Ginny got up the good old Gryffindor courage to write an anonymous letter to Blaise saying Merry Christmas, and was given a return letter, asking who she was and how she knew where he lived. She had gotten the address from Draco.
Everyone in the house now knew about Ginny's crush on Blaise. Though, it wasn't Hermione who had told them. Ginny herself had accidentally let something slip one night at dinner and everyone had put the pieces together and had stared at her with wide eyes.
Ginny had her hands clamped over her mouth with wide, frightened eyes and had run out of the room in that way. Hermione had followed her and everyone soon came to their senses and gave Ginny the benefit of the doubt. Ron hadn't, but that was just the older brother part of him being overprotective. Hermione and Sierra soon sorted him out, but he still wasn't happy about it. The girls just gave up and ignored the looks he shot her and how he seemed to be constantly depressed, with the only thing that was able to cheer him up were his letters from and to Pansy, but then he would just go into his stupor again.
The ride to Hogwarts after a couple of days of sitting around and talking was none more exciting: though, Blaise did come in looking for Draco. Ginny turned as red as her hair and faced the window. Sierra and Hermione covered their mouths and also looked out of the window so that Blaise wouldn't see their laughter. Soon after Blaise arrived, Pansy flew into the room and into Ron's lap, making him considerably happier since the male Slytherin entered. They were snogging each other senseless within the first few minutes. Draco and Blaise talked animatedly about some things while Draco's arm was constantly around Hermione's waist or shoulders, he refused to let go of her. Actually, he hadn't wanted to let go of her all holidays. Now he wouldn't.
The lunch trolley came around and they all snacked out on all sorts of lollies and treats.
Halfway through eating, Blaise brought up the subject of an anonymous letter that he received a couple of days after Christmas. Hermione, Sierra, Harry and Draco all started choking on what they were eating and Ron pulled himself out of the kiss that him and Pansy had been occupying themselves with and stared at Blaise with hatred. Pansy looked slightly hurt. It looked like Ron was jealous that Blaise had gotten a letter like that.
Ginny, on the other hand, was watching out the window with such determination that Hermione wasn't surprised that it didn't shatter under her gaze. Her face had turned redder than her hair and her freckles were barely visible beneath it.
'Yeah, I don't know who it was from, but I sent them a letter back asking who they were and how they knew where I lived. I didn't get a reply though. It was really strange.' Blaise concluded. Ever since Draco and Hermione and Ron and Pansy had gotten involved, he had resolved differences with the Gryffindors and they now could have considered each other friends.
'Don't you get letters like that all the time?' Draco asked once he had stopped coughing. He was rubbing Hermione's back because she was still choking and coughing on her food.
'Yeah, but the people writing them usually make themselves known, so at least if they are a huge idiot I can try to avoid them. Who knows, this person might actually be nice enough to think about dating, but I wouldn't know because they didn't put down a name.' Blaise reasoned.
'Thank God they didn't.' Ron muttered. Pansy looked at him strangely and Hermione hit him very hard in the arm. He glared at her and rubbed the spot where she had hit.
'What was that for?' He complained.
'For being a complete git.' Hermione responded, snuggling deeper into Draco's embrace. He wrapped both his arms around her and kissed her head softly. Hermione smiled despite herself and hugged him tighter.
Draco looked at Blaise thoughtfully.
'What if I tried to help you look for her?' Draco asked. Ginny whipped her head around to face him with a scared expression, but soon realised what she had done and faced the window again. Blaise looked at her like she was going crazy and turned back to Draco.
'You think you could? That would be great mate. Really helpful.' Blaise replied clapping Draco's shoulder and getting up.
'Well, I must be off to find Crabbe and Goyle. Those two couldn't find their way around the train if they tried.' Blaise bowed and left the compartment.
As soon as Blaise had left, Harry and Sierra burst into hysterical fits of laughter that seemed to be what they had kept in throughout the conversation.
Hermione glared down at them, but Draco stopped her from saying anything by placing a sweet kiss upon her lips. Hermione greedily accepted and wrapped her arms around his neck, kissing him more passionately. Draco responded and pulled her onto his lap. He moved his arms up and down her back, coming to a rest on the small of her back and gently rubbing the spot with his fingers. Hermione gave a small moan and he slipped his hand under the back of her shirts. It was cold, so she was wearing a few.
'Hey, we heard it; we don't have to witness it too.' They heard Harry say behind them. They turned around and glared at the boy who was smirking at the couple.
'Shut up Harry, we're just lucky that you two haven't started yet; you're worse than us.' Draco snapped at him. Harry and Sierra blushed profusely.
'Hey, no one's as bad as Ron and Pansy though; you have nothing to worry about there.' Ginny said. They all laughed at this and Ron shot them all a glare from behind Pansy. This only caused them to laugh harder.
'He heard it!' Ginny laughed.
The rest of the trip was spent playing games, having visits from Fred and George, Blaise again and even Crabbe and Goyle came in for ever a shorter time.
They arrived at Hogwarts hours later to have a quick dinner before retiring for the night in their warm, comfy beds, for a good nights sleep.
A/N: As I said before, hopefully the next chapter should be out pretty quickly, but don't take my word for it. I'm worthless with deadlines. Just keep an eye out.