Disclaimer: I do not own any Harry Potter characters.
Summary: Harry and Hermione are friends and live in the same house while Ron is married to Luna. Both of them are famous in both the wizarding and muggle world. A woman suddenly turns up in their doorstep with a baby telling them that the baby is not safe with her and if the people who are after her find out that the baby was hers, they would kill it. Hermione offers to look after the baby and take care of her child until her name was cleared. In this time, Harry and Hermione get closer ... Will they remain friends posing as a family..or something more? (H/Hr)
Author's Note: Thank you for reviewing! I am terribly sorry if I have mistakes here, I just didn't update for such a long time and here I am writing this in the middle of the night.
The Baby
Chapter Seven: Goodbye
Harry was pacing around his room, the girls sighing as he walked pass them. Today, he was teaching third years how to repel boggarts. He laughed inwardly at the reaction he could get from girls. After a few more minutes of lecturing, he set his students to read a chapter from their book. Once everything was in order, he sat on the chair behind his desk.
He ran a hand through his chair, ignoring the sighs and giggling coming from the girls that were seated directly in front of him. What Heather had told him last night had really bothered him, adding to the fact that Hermione still refused to talk to him. Was it possible that he was falling for his best friend, Hermione?
'No,' he told himself. 'Red was just teasing me as always.'
'How would you know if she was teasing you this time?'
Harry sighed himself. The annoying voice in his head was back. Though it did have a point.
This issue also confused Harry. Why did she react that bad anyway? It wasn't like he and her were really together, so it really wasn't a big deal. Sure, it would be reckless if it was some other woman and a nosy reporter suddenly got wind of it, but this was Heather! He had sent Hermione a lot of letters, only to have them returned unopened.
'And what do you mean you're 'not sure?'' the voice continued. 'You know very well that you love her!
'I just need time to sort my feelings out, okay?' he replied, starting to get mad. 'And maybe what I felt then was just a spur of the moment kind of thing.'
The voice did not respond. And Harry smiled, please with himself. He scanned his students and was about to tell three boys in the back of the class to get back to stop talking and get back to work when the door was opened so hard that it was nearly knocked of it's hinges. Some people screamed in surprise.
Harry turned to the door, furious about the rude interruption. He opened his mouth to say something but closed in immediately when he saw that it was Hermione. She was shaking and her face was tear-stained. She ran to him and hugged him so tight he thought he was going to suffocate if she wasn't going to let go of him soon. However, some part of him didn't mind, which angered him.
"Hermione!" he exclaimed. "What happened?"
"I-it was awful!" Hermione said through her tears.
"Hermione?" Harry said, starting to get worried. At first, he had thought, no matter how conceited it was, that she came in like this because of their 'fight'. But now, he was sure that it was because of something else, something much more serious.
"It's H-Heather," Hermione choked out. Harry froze Heather? What was wrong with her? He just saw her last night and she was fine.
"What happened?" he asked, his voice louder than he intended. At hearing the volume of his voice, Hermione cried harder.
"It was all my fault!" Hermione wailed. Someone from the back of Harry's mind told him to dismiss the students, but he ignored it. The students, who went unnoticed by him, were watching the scene before them through curious eyes.
"Hermione, tell me what happened?" Harry repeated. Surely, it couldn't be that bad?
"Heather – she's – in – the – hospital," Hermione said through her sobs. "At – St. – Mungo's."
Harry didn't need telling twice. That was all he needed before he ran out his office. Hermione folllowed after him, her crying lessening. The students they left behind were staring at the door, their mouths open.
When one person finally found their voice, he voiced what they had all been thinking about.
"What the bloody hell was that all about?"
Harry didn't know how he got to St. Mungo's as fast as he did. He came to a halt in front of Heather's room, trying to get pass the Healers who refused to let him in.
"Sir," one of the Healers gasped as Harry struggled against them to get inside. "You will be able to go inside in a few moments!"
"Let me in!" Harry shouted. "I'm Harry Potter!" he said as though that would solve the problem.
"Harry Potter or not, you will still need to follow the hospital's rules. Please, sir," a brunette lady said. "We will be forced to call security if you do not stop this."
Harry knew by the strict expression on her face that she won't be changing her mind just by him mentioning his name. He never used that as an excuse to let him get something he wanted, but this time, he just couldn't help himself.
Harry went to sit by one of the chairs outside of Heather's room. This had to be a nightmare. It just had to be! He will wake up at any moment and Heather would drop by just as she had said the day before.
He told this to himself over and over again, but when Hermione dropped beside him, he knew that this was more than a nightmare. It was real. He shut his eyes tightly, refusing to show any emotion that might betray his feelings. After a long pause, he turned to Hermione.
"Angelica's with Professor Lupin."
"What happened?"
"Harry - "
"Tell me."
Hermione looked down knowing that she had no choice. She pulled out her wand and pointed at Harry. As she muttered a few words, Harry opened his mouth to ask what she was doing, but was silenced when an image, a moving one, appeared before his eyes.
Hermione and Angelica were by the pond in the park not far from their home. Angelica was making gurgling noises as Hermione laughed at her.
"Aren't you a sweetie?" she exclaimed. "We'll work on your walking soon." She picked her up and Angelica pulled at her hair. "No, honey, don't do that -"
She was cut of when a purplish blue light passed by her head and hit the tree behind them, which was blown to bits. Hermione got up and ran as fast as she could, Angelica in her arms. She was aware that whoever cast the spell was right behind her, not far behind. She reached for her wand but even more panicked when it wasn't there.
She screamed as another curse was cast and rushed to the maze in the middle of the park. She went in quickly, hoping that she would loose whoever was following her. She knew the maze as well as her favorite book, 'Hogwarts: A History'.
She turned, left and right, noting that the footsteps of the intruder was fading. Once she got out, she ran to the Washrooms which were close to the water park and hid in one of the cubicles. She desperately hoped that someone will notice this strange behavior and call the police or better yet, get spotted by a witch or wizard and alert the Ministry.
Angelica started to whimper as Hermione checked her pockets one more time for her wand. Hermion's eyes grew wide as she heard this.
"No, please," Hermione whispered urgently. "Angelica, no. Don't cry -"
The door was pushed open roughly as the doors of the other cubicles were thrown open. Hermione backed up until she felt the toilet's seat against her knees. She covered Angelica's body with her own as the door of their stall flew open.
"Well, well, well," a voice drawled.
"W-what do you want?"
"What do I want?" the person said. "I want you and that little girl dead."
"Leave us alone!" Hermione shouted. She gingerly put Angelica down, but her eyes were trained on the wand pointed directly at her.
Upon closer inspection, the hooded figure before her was quite short. Her voice also sounded remarkably as though it belonged to a woman. Hermione clearly looked as though she was thinking about using physical fighting, but thought better of it.
"Why should I?" the woman asked.
"We never did anything to you," Hermione answered as she stepped in front of Angelica in case the woman fired.
The woman laughed bitterly. "With you gone, I can have what I want."
"What do you want?" Hermione clearly had no choice except to stall the woman, keep her attention elsewhere for as long as she could just in case someone came to help.
"You know what I want," she said coldly. "When we were at Hogwarts, I was just this unknown brat that no one liked. I was an outcast. I instead, I just focussed in academics, hoping I would get recognized there. I failed because of you. Years later, someone caught my eye. Again, you beat me to him. But now, more than one person stands in my way, and I plan to change that!"
Hermione shook her head and raised her hand, which she found out a moment later was a wrong move because the cloaked figure suddenly averted the position of her wand to Angelica, who was crawling from behind Hermione.
"Stop or she gets it!" the woman said. Hermione stopped and brought down her arm. Gwen pointed her wand at Hermione and ropes wrapped themselves around her. Hermione was about to say something when something, or someone, hit the woman before her, which caused her to fall to the floor, the wand knocked still held in her hand.
"Argh," the woman shrieked as she fell. She sat up so fast that the hood covering her face was thrown backwards. Hermione's jaw dropped. Gwen Ethelsan?
"Get up and roll your wand towards me," a familiar voice stated carefully.
"Why should I listen to you?" Gwen spat out as she stood up, but refused to listen to Heather. "Stupefy!"
Heather dodged the curse easily and said, "Stop or I will have no choice!"
"Give me what you've got," Gwen said rather dramatically. Heather studied her for a moment before nodding to Hemione, indicating that she should step back.
"But -" she protested.
"Hermione, listen to me," Heather said firmly. Hermione reluctantly stepped back, making sure that Angelica was behind her. For a moment, Heather and Gwen looked at each other, as though forming an unspoken agreement.
"Crucio!" Gwen cried. She said this so suddenly but Heather, who seemed experienced with these kind of situations, was ready.
"Expelliarmus!" she fired back, but missed.
Gwen laughed. "I'm not that easy, if that's what you're thinking," she sneered. "I was with the Dark Lord before."
"You're a Death Eater?" Hermione asked, unable to keep her mouth shut.
"I joined to get the revenge I wanted so badly!" Gwen sneered "Avada Kedavra!" An emerald light shot out of her wand, towards Heather, who barely dodged it because of few feet between them. There as only about fourteen.
"We can talk about this," Heather began cautiously, her footing never went unbalanced. "You don't have to do this."
"Like you won't send me to Azkaban?" Gwen said coldly.
"Gwen, please, put down your wand."
Gwen laughed. "When I do, what will you do?"
What Heather did next was either stupid, or brave. She put down her wand.
"There," she said. "I'm not armed. Please, talk to us."
Gwen's eyes were wide in disbelief. "You know," she suddenly started to cry, "I didn't mean anything of what I did."
"What?" Heather said.
"I didn't mean it!" she sobbed, her hands brought up to her face. Heather walked to her slowly. When she was about three feet from Gwen, Gwen suddenly lifted her face and smirked. She yelled something, her wand pointed at Heather, something undistinguishable. A light, black and green mixed together, came out. Heather was too close to move out of it's way. It hit her in the chest and she fell backwards, motionless. Gwen grinned picked up her wand, and snapped it. She then turned to Hermione. They were five feet apart.
"Now that she was out of the way, where were we?"
Hermione glared at her, then looked at Heather. She wasn't moving. "What did you do to her?"
"Nothing," Gwen said as she twirled her wand between her fingers. She winced as Angelica cried. "Let's silence her, shall we?"
"No!"
"Avada Ked -" She was cut of when Heather, who came back into consciousness, threw her whole weight into her where they toppled on the floor. Gwen's wand rolled out of her hand. She threw Heather off of her, who looked as though she was going to collapse any moment and reached for it. Heather watched helplessly as Gwen narrowed her eyes at her and looked in Hermione's direction. She walked to her and stopped about five feet away, which was two feet away from where Heather was.
"You will watch the Mudblod die," she said speaking to Heather, yet, her eyes were trained on Hermione. She opened her mouth to say an incantation and just as she was finishing the spell, Heather pulled herself in front of Hermione. She had used the same spell she had used before. It hit Heather the second time.
"Crucio!"
"Heather!" Hermione shrieked as Heather leaned against her, unable to hold herself up.
"I'm -" Heather began softly as her eyes began to close.
Gwen's eyes narrowed in annoyance. "I'll just kill her!"
"- sorry."
"Avada -"
"Take -"
"Kedav -"
"-care."
"Expelliarmus!" a new voice shouted from the door entrance. The wand in Gwen's hand was knocked out of her grasp. She turned around fiercely just as the new comer yelled 'Stupefy!'. She slumped to the floor, knocked out.
The scene before his eyes disappeared. The white walls returned and Hermione's sobbing could be heard.
"It's my fault she's – she's - " Hermione wailed. He shouldn't have let her go. He felt something bad was going to happen last night.
"Mr. Potter?" A red-headed Healer asked. "Ms. Granger?"
Harry stood up quickly. "Can we see her?"
"Mr. Potter we need to inform you of how she is doing," the Healer said. When Harry looked closer, he saw that her nametag read: Nicole Saltindiek.
"Look, Healer Saltindiek, I really need to see my friend," Harry insisted.
"Mr. Potter, you need to listen to me," Healer Saltindiek said.
"But -!"
"Harry," Hermione said. She was now just crying silently, tears rolling down her cheeks. "Listen to her." Harry sighed angrily and ran his hand through his hair.
"Okay."
"Listen - "
"What do you think we're doing?" asked Harry rudely.
"Harry!"
"As I was saying," the Healer continued. "We tried everything we can do about the curse she was hit with, but it was just too strong."
"What? What curse?"
"She was hit with a Dark Spell -"
"What does it do?" Hermione interrupted quietly.
"It poisons the organs slowly and it multiplies very fast," Healer Saltindiek informed them. "Normally, it would take about an hour for it to fully spread, but since she was hit with two and a curse that doesn't actually get along with the first two ..."
"What do you mean?" Harry asked, his voice breaking and his eyes stinging. He knew the answer, but he had to hear it himself for him to believe it.
"Since she was hit with two curses," said Healer Saltindiek, "the spell would spread twice as fast. And since it was hit with the Unforgivable Curse, that will make it work faster."
Harry blinked fast. "Can't you do anything?"
Healer Saltindiek's eyes softened. "We're sorry," she said as Harry turned his head. He wouldn't cry if front of someone. "We tried everything, but there are just too much parts affected."
"Isn't there any kind of magic? Anything you can do?" Hermione asked desperately, she had stopped her crying. She sighed when the healer shook her head. "Can we go in?" Hermione pushed the door open. "Go," she told him. "I'll go in later."
Harry nodded and walked in, and as he was closing the door behind him, he heard Hermione ask 'Where is her family?'. When he looked at the bed, the person occupying it was not the person Harry seemed to know. He wanted to look away, not wanting to see his friend like this. But he didn't, knowing that these were to be the remaining moments he could spend with her. He walked to the right side of the bed.
"Heather?" Harry said. "Red, can you hear me?" he asked, he could feel his eyes watering. He closed them quickly to stop the tears, had to be strong for her. Heather was weak, but when she heard him, she opened her eyes. They were still the warm eyes he could remember.
She smiled weakly. "Harry?"
"Yeah, it's me," Harry said as he took hold of her hand. It was cold.
"I knew something like this was going to happen," Heather admitted, chuckling lightly.
"What?"
"Last night," she said. So she had felt it, too. "I –I felt something and I just couldn't seem to rest until I wrote you something. You'll find it on my bed. I just hope you forgive me for it."
"Heather, whatever it is, you know I will." There was a knock on the door and Hermione walked in. She went to Harry's side and choked back a sob.
"Hermione," Heather greeted softly. Hermione seemed to be able to hold back the tears forming. She hugged Heather tightly.
"I'm sorry for the way I treated you," she whispered in her ear. Heather shook her head. Hermione smiled. "Thank you."
"No problem," Heather said as she returned the hug. She was whispering as though she didn't want Harry to hear. "Just take care of Harry."
Hermione smiled faintly before she stepped back to let Harry talk.
"Love you," Harry said. Heather smiled again.
"Love you, too. Just take care."
"Heather, don't leave me," Harry said as he picked up her hand again.
Heather let her tears fall. "I'll never, ever, leave you, Harry. Don't forget that."
"You are now."
"I may not be here physically, but I'll always be here," she said softly as she slowly brought her hand to his heart. She let her hand drop to the white sheets. "Whatever you read in the letter, remember everything changed."
Harry nodded, allowing his a few tears to slip, he let go of her hand to wipe them away. He felt as though some part of him was dying. He didn't want her to go. He felt frustrated as more tears fell. Heather wiped his tears gently with her thumb.
"Don't cry," she said. Harry pressed his cheek against her hand. He wanted to remember her face forever, in his memory. "Don't forget what we talked about last night," she said, a slight chuckle escaping her lips.
"It hurts a lot," Heather said lightly. Harry understood what she meant. As much as it pained him, he nodded at her and took her hand that was on his cheek, to his lips.
"Go," Harry said, now sobbing into her hand.
"Tell my parents I love them," Heather said softly.
"I will," Harry said, as he leaned and kissed her on her forehead.
"I'm sorry," Heather said in a voice barely above a whisper as her eyes began to close. Harry tightened his grip on her hand
"It's okay, Red. Go on," Harry said. "Rest."
"Take care, Harry, Hermione," Heather whispered. "We will see each other again when it's time."
She gave Harry's hand one last squeeze and a smile before she closed her eyes. The pained look she had before was gone. She looked as though she was merely sleeping, and that was how Harry wanted to remember her. He looked at her face, as if craving it in his memory.
Harry stood up, sat on her bed and took her body in his arms. He buried his face in her hair and wept. After a long moment, he laid her back down gently. He nodded slowly, a smile gracing his lips.
"Take care," he said before he turned to face Hermione. She had a hand over her eyes, as though trying to cover her tears, but there were traces of them rolling down her cheeks.
Harry walked to her and wrapped his arms around her. She returned his hug. The two were in each other's arms, mourning for their loss.
"It's going to be okay," Harry whispered to the room before he decided that it was time to alert the Healers that their frind had come to rest.
Author's Note: I may not be able to update until a few weeks unless I could write the next chapter in the next week days. I need to visit my Auntie and a few days after that, we will be going to the cottage and come back just a day before school starts.