H P Boy who Lives 7th year
Chapter 18
The Letter
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What will happen when Hermione reads book six and discovers something that she had no clue about...a letter that Harry left for her because he thought that he was going to die...
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Pendragon Wing- Common Room
Hermione curled up with a book by the fire, while the others gave makeovers to one another. They had turned the Common Room into female central. The couches were pushed against the far walls, so they could conjure huge colorful pillows all over the floor, and soft comfy sleeping bags. The artfully lit Christmas tree provided the room with welcoming light.
"Your turn baby sis, after all this was your idea." Rory stood in front of her blocking the light from the fireplace.
Hermione looked up at her with eyes pooled with tears. "I was there and couldn't see it, feel it, or anything. He was in pain, so much pain. I was too blindsided with being right or making him see me to notice. How could I be his soul mate and not know." She was reading HBP and it was killing her inside. "I was so obsessed with having things my way and he needed me to see so much!" She burst into tears.
"Oh sweetie, he loved you so much. Even then and all that year he did nothing, but try to keep you safe." Rory knelt down in front of her. "He didn't want any of you mixed up in his destiny. Especially you, he loved you that much."
"It was his idea..." Hermione sniffled miserably. "…His suggestion that he ask me out, so he could see how I felt about him." Hermione was miserable.
"Who is he, sweetie?" Rory asked gently.
"Ronald! He really thought that I fancied him! Ron confided in him about his feelings for both Luna and I. So, thinking that he could keep me away from the Great Hall that night, he suggested that Ron ask me out! He lied to Ron about how he felt about me! He didn't wish for his feelings to muddle up something that had been in the works since third year! He was willing to throw away us, so I could be happy with Ron!" Hermione was hysterical now. "They'll be safe and happy and my sacrifice will have been worth it?! He was prepared to die that night. He left us notes and everything to read after it was all over! He placed them in secret compartments in our trunks, the three of us devised that past summer!" Hermione got to her feet and ran to the stairs.
"Hermione come back!" Rory chased after her.
"Not a chance in hell! I have to read that letter!" Hermione raced up the stairs to her floor, made a beeline for her room, and straight for the trunk. "Hocus Pocus." She waved her hand along the side of the trunk opening a panel on the side, revealing a letter and a small box. "Oh Goddess, it's really here!"
"What's going on?" Ginny asked worriedly.
"Is Hermione all right?" Luna nibbled on her fingernail.
"Maybe reading the book wasn't such a smashing idea after all." Emma eyed her worriedly.
"That's what Michael gave you outside? The book…" Dromi knelt down next to her.
"Uh-huh and now she's in a frazzle over it." Rory was kneeling on the other side of her.
Hermione, with shaking fingers opened the box. Inside was a large beautiful golden heart shaped locket, with a familiar lightning bolt across the face of it. She opened the heart and found a picture of him smiling at her on one side and a picture of the two of them caught in their first intimate encounter. They'd been sitting under a tree and he had pulled her up to her feet with both hands. She had ended up in his arms...they had just stood there for a time holding hands and staring at each other. Ron must have snapped a picture of it. The world had stopped for those brief moments. It was then she knew that he had the same feelings for her, as she had for him.
Oh goddess, how can this hurt so much like it actually happened!? She turned the locket over it had the words Harry loves Hermione inscribed on the back of it. "He did know all that time..." She put the locket on, set the locket box down onto her lap, and reached for the letter. Her hands were shaking, so badly that she nearly lost her hold on it.
"Don't Hermione." Rory tried to take the letter away from her.
"I need to do this alone." Hermione vanished.
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Highgrove- Common Room
Harry sat up and threw off the blanket. "Son of a bitch! Is nothing in my life sacred! She included the locket and letter in the book! Hermione's reading the book!"
"Easy Harry, it's just the whiskey playing tricks with your head. Now lie back down and I'll get you some very strong coffee." Will had watched over Harry, while the others were in the Media Room watching The Lord of the Rings trilogy.
"That explains this disgusting taste in my mouth and the god-awful headache, but not Hermione finding the letter and locket. Damn it! That's what Mikey gave her! It was the book!" Harry got unsteadily to his feet.
"Where do you think you're going, baby brother? You drank nearly a full bottle of fire whiskey. You need to eat and have loads of coffee." Wills put his hands on his shoulders to steady him.
"Before the finale battle..." Harry squeezed his eyes shut to ward off the wave of dizziness that was threatening to overcome him.
"I left her something in her trunk. Two things actually a letter and the locket..." Harry raked his fingers through his hair.
"A sort of farewell letter, because I really believed that I was gonna die..." Harry swore in parseltounge.
"How could I have forgotten about this? I poured my soul into that letter! My feelings that I felt for her...I was in love with her! It all came out in that letter! She needs me! I have to go!" Harry vanished.
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Grand Staircase second floor landing
Hermione sat on the landing, where she had lain on that horrible night, and opened the letter.
Dear Hermione,
That sounds rather impersonal as I write this to you. My dearest Hermione Anne, yes that feels much better...You made my life worth living. During those times when I wanted to give up, or was tired of the training, I would picture your beautiful face in my mind and that kept me going. I was so blind too so much, because of destiny that I didn't realize how very much I loved you, until it was too late. I loved hearing 'ignore him.' Hissed into my ear all the time or getting kicked in the shin under-the-table, because you were miffed at me about something. I'll miss the looks you gave me when we were into trouble again. The secret glances at me of concern or was there more? Well, I guess we'll never know.
I want you to be happy, follow your dreams, and live a happy life full of love and happiness. If it can't be with me then perhaps Ron will fit the bill. I see you two killing each other as a couple, but if that's what fate deems then who am I to get in the way.
I had this dream. To be completely honest lately it's been a constant dream of mine...We were married, very happy, had five kids, and one on the way. Draco was married to Ginny. We were like brothers, if you can fathom that ever happening. They had a son, twins girls, and one on the way as well. Talk about crazy, huh...Prince William was in it and it looked like a younger version of my Mum named Rory...God I must be losing it! Us with five kids is amazing! Draco, Ginny, and Prince William...that's just crackers!
Sorry, about that here I am rambling on about some wacko dream...God this hurts to write...I had a locket made, so that way I'll always be near your heart... No matter where you are...
I love you Hermione Anne Granger. I will till the end of time, no matter if I am an angel from above. I want you to always remember that. My Destiny sucks, but I'm saving our world. So my death will not have been in vain.
Take care of Ron, if not as a boyfriend, then as a sister. Please watch over Hedwig and Beaky for me and do me a favor learn to fly a broom. You need to spread your wings and fly. I wish we could have a chance...have a go together, but what's done is done.
Oh yeah, that creepy ring is yours to keep. It's probably a piece of junk anyway and has no hidden secrets. I love you remember that always my beautiful angel.
Love Forever
Harry James Potter
Hermione found herself pulled into Harry's arms.
"I will love you forever and till the end of time." He whispered into her hair.
"You thought you were going to die... You loved me even then... Had the dream as well..." She sobbed against his chest. "Did you think I would just choose Ron, after reading this, and seeing the locket? I love it and I will never take off ever unless I absolutely have to."
"I wasn't all there, angel. I knew the prophecy and the odds. I was overloaded by a myriad of emotions at the time. The dreams were so real, but they didn't make much sense. The nightmares were much more believable and I couldn't let either of you get hurt or die." Harry let her cry. He sang to her the song that was playing from the locket when he touched the lightning bolt on the face of it. Jim Brinkman's- Destiny. He had heard it a few times on the Muggle radio and Hermione had the CD in her secret stash of music for her Discman. So he had chosen that as their song.
Hermione's crying subsided, as he softly sang to her the song that she had secretly thought of as their song. She sang softly with him and just rejoiced in being in his arms.
"I have a confession to make." Harry loved resting his chin on top of her head when he was holding her. She fit so perfectly in his arms.
"Confession is good for ones soul or so I've been told." Hermione snuggled closer to him. It was evident that he had been drinking, but she said nothing.
"I, uh, drank a little tonight. I was in a temper after you left the way you did." Harry closed his eyes and waited for her to implode on him.
"How much is a little?" Hermione turned in his arms, so she could look into his eyes. She was concerned not angry.
He had the guiltiest expression on his face. "A little over half a bottle of fire whiskey, after I took the bottle back from Draco." He winced when she gave him the look he knew all too well. It was worse than being slapped in the face. "I rambled on about stuff...I was toasted about your whole 'Me Mab' statement and the no wand magic was an issue as well. I kind of drank on an empty stomach, so I passed out before divulging too many details about last Saturday."
Hermione touched his brow with her hand. Mab had taught her how to bring out her latent sleeping powers. Like the abilities of empathy and healing with her mind. Still, Harry needed to learn that drinking was a bad thing. So, she tamped down the urge to make his impending hell disappear and triggered it instead. "Oh baby, you don't look so good."
Harry had felt her in his mind, but he was still too numb mentally to sense what she had done, and the aftermath of having drunk nearly a bottle of whiskey was hitting him now. "I don't feel so good." He moaned as nausea started to afflict him, his head was blowing off, or it felt like it, the castle was excessively bright, and suddenly everything was extremely loud.
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Hermione ported them up to his bathroom suite, just in time for him to worship the loo. "I'll go get Aunt Lily." She kissed the top of his head and then went to leave.
"No not Mum. She'll skin me alive." Harry gasped out between bouts of getting sick.
"She'll know what to do to help you with this nasty reaction the alcohol is doing to you. I could get Aunt Gene instead." Hermione bathed his face with a cool cloth.
"No this will pass eventually...by Merlin I hate being sick." He was beyond miserable.
"My Healers bag is in my room, but I haven't covered hangovers in my lessons as of yet." Hermione could feel his misery, but a lesson must be learned from all of this.
"That's okay, angel. I couldn't keep a potion down if I tried." Harry had never been this sick in his life.
"Hermione, are you in here? Rory said you were upset after finding something..." Lily walked into her son's bathroom suite. "James, your son was drinking again, but he managed to find Hermione!" She called into the other room.
"I told them absolutely no Stag party!" James stalked into the bathroom. "William swore to me that it wouldn't happen!"
"Stop yelling my head can't take it." Harry lost the battle to keep down even water. "It's too bright in here. My eyes are stinging from the glare."
The bathroom was lit by a few candles. It was not bright at all and neither was his bedroom.
"It hits him faster than normal wizards." James arched a brow at Lily.
"Why were you drinking, Harry James Merlin? Who gave it to you?" Lily wanted answers before she made him a remedy.
"Hermione and I got into a bit of a disagreement over something. Ron mentioned the word shag while growling at her and I didn't wish for her to bust up Highgrove, so I wouldn't..." He got sick again.
"He wouldn't let me go; therefore I made him let me go." Hermione rubbed his back, as if that would help. The only thing that was going to help him was if she took it away and that was not going to happen.
"She elbowed me in the solar plexus, stomped down on my instep, punched me in the nose, and then kneed me in my lower body. Then she transfigured me into a Giant Tortoise for going off to hide for two weeks, evidently she's still really sore about that." Harry tried to will being sick out of him, but it was no use.
"I did lose my temper, but Ron deserved to be a weasel, and you did run off to hide like a turtle that hides in his shell. You see he got drunk, because I did all of that and more without using my wand. He conjured the bottle and got himself drunk, because he was steamed about it. My reading book six and finding out things brought him here to me." Hermione bathed his face with the cool cloth as she spoke. "All of that, plus Michael's passing, made him wish to be out of it for a while."
"And now I'm paying for that bugger of a decision." Once again he paid homage to the loo.
"How much did he drink?" Lily felt for what her son was going through, but he brought it on himself.
"He drank almost a full bottle of fire whiskey and on an empty stomach no less." Hermione took some of the nausea away, but the other symptoms remained.
"By Merlin...all of that and he's still conscious," James was amazed that his son was not passed out cold.
"I did pass out minutes after the drinking, but Hermione needed me. So I woke up." Harry leaned back into Hermione's arms. "I feel terrible."
"Well, with that much rubbish, it's a wonder that you didn't have a worse reaction, and with an empty stomach no less." Lily turned to James. "Go fix your Marauder cure for him make it extra strong, then a Marauder sandwich, and lots of strong tea or coffee."
"Mum, I was hoping that you had a potion for it." Harry got sick again.
"Alas, no..." Lily felt for what he was going through, but she knew that he was learning a valuable lesson. "James, stop thinking like a man about his boy's first hangover and do as I say!"
"I'm going, Red...One super hangover remedy and the rest coming up." He vanished Merlin style.
Harry was once again able to lean back in Hermione's arms. "Is food such a good idea? I mean what's the use. I'll just heave it up again." He moaned. "I'm dying I just know it..."
"You are your father's son." Lily sat down next to him. "He gets a little sick and he thinks that he's dying."
"Well, it feels like it...Then again maybe not, but its close." Harry was way beyond miserable, but being held by Hermione was making it a little better.
"What a lovely locket. Was that with the letter that you found?" Lily admired the golden heart that Hermione was wearing.
Hermione handed her the letter. "He left me the locket and that, because he thought that he was going to die." She hugged him closer to her.
Lily read the letter, and then brushed away the tears, flowing freely from her eyes. "What is so difficult about saying I love you to the one you love? Your father was the same way."
"Yeah, but Dad wasn't in a life-or-death battle with Voldemort, at the time, when he was pursuing you. I was messed up emotionally and it was hard to focus on all the emotions going through my head. I didn't wanna step on Ron's toes. He really was crushing on her at the time." Harry was feeling worse again and bent his head towards the loo. "Give me a break I don't have anything left in my stomach!"
"Just because one argues with a very good friend, does not mean that they wish to have their future children!" Hermione growled.
"Yeah, I know it was big sister, little brother, but like I said I was clueless and emotionally overwrought at the time." Harry's stomach settled down. "I'm sorry for leaving without saying good-bye, for barely remembering our reunion, and for whatever else you are angry with me about." He chanced a drink of water.
Hermione wrapped her arms around his waist and hugged him close. "I will love you forever till the end of time." She eased some of his suffering, by absorbing it into herself, before letting it leave her body, as Mab and Celestra had taught her.
"You beautiful are very good medicine." Harry felt warm and cozy all over and the nausea was disappearing.
"One Marauder cure, sandwich, and very strong tea," James appeared with a tray loaded with what she requested. "Bottoms up, Junior, don't think just chug it."
Harry reluctantly took the goblet and did as his father commanded. He gagged and held his throat, as the disgusting concoction slid down his throat and into his tender stomach. "What in Grandfather's name was in that tripe?" He croaked hoarsely.
"It's an ancient family cure passed down from father to son for generations. Dad used it on Padfoot and me for our first hangovers, but didn't pass on the secret until we refused to learn our lesson. Now since you're intelligent minded and not as wild, and rebellious as I was. This might be lesson enough for you." James handed him the plate with the colossal sandwich on it. "Trust me you'll be able to eat that now. Never drink on an empty stomach, and in your case don't drink the hard stuff at all." James added hastily when Lily and Hermione glared at him.
Harry reluctantly finished the sandwich and drank the tea. To his surprise he was feeling much better. His sensitivity was not as acute as it had been and his head was barely pounding. "Thanks, I feel loads better now."
"Good now it's late. We'll see the two of you in the morning. I'll tell the girls that Harry is looking after you. Sleep well. I love you." Lily kissed them both on the cheek before James reached down and scooped her up into his arms.
"Sleep well. We'll see you in the morning." James vanished with Lily.
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"Up you go handsome lets get you ready for bed." Hermione helped him up to his feet. "Unless you feel like you can manage that yourself." She smirked when he shot her an I-can-dress-myself look.
"I can manage to undress and get ready for bed." Harry fumbled with his cuff links, because he was still not mentally coordinated enough to figure them out.
Hermione carefully went about removing the cuff links from his tuxedo shirtsleeves and undid the jeweled studs that replaced regular buttons on his shirt. "There now that wasn't so difficult now was it?" She conjured a little box and set them all inside it.
He went about getting that god-awful taste out of his mouth. "No that was quite painless actually." He was focusing on her now, like a wolf sizing up his prey.
"Harry James, what are you up to now?" Hermione knew that his James side was in complete control.
"Nothing, my sweet, I'm just gonna finish getting ready for bed. That usually involves taking a shower." Harry chuckled when she bolted out of the bathroom.
Someone is definitely up to something. How he can be this romantic and still be semi-sloshed is amazing. She thought, as she stepped into a room lit by beautiful candles and the soft glow of the Christmas tree in the other room. She was startled when soft music began playing as well.
Maybe I should go join the girls. She was still on an emotional rollercoaster of her own; the atmosphere was overwhelming her senses. It wasn't something that she was comfortable with yet.
Harry stood in the doorway watching her silently battle with herself. He'd purged the rest of the drunkenness out of his system by using a spell Merlin had taught him. He was dressed in the pajama bottoms that matched what she was currently wearing that being his Pajama shirt.
He'd thought of making the room romantic in his mind and really liked the result. "A galleon for your thoughts, my heart," He silently walked over to her and nuzzled her neck.
Hermione jumped in surprise. Her heart beating so fast, that she was sure it was going to burst from her chest. It felt as if an electric current had jolted her. "I was going to join the girls downstairs." She was melting inside from his kisses.
He turned her around, so he could look down into her eyes. "Why is that, my angel?" He placed kisses all over her face.
"Oh... Because... um... You're still... um... probably sloshed and need to... um... sleep it off." Hermione could barely think.
"I'm completely sober, now that I'm clear enough to remember how to purge it out of my system with a spell." Harry swayed to the soft music, with her in his arms, as he continued to assault her senses with slow mind numbing kisses.
Hermione wrapped her arms around his neck, kissed him back, and the two of them called it a night.
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Chapter 19
Missing Heir
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I do not claim any of JKR's characters only that I love being able to create my own kind of mischief with her beloved characters. I do not claim any other things that are owned by other companies that I may mention once and a while in the stories...Although the original characters and ideas are mine and I loved creating them. So please review if you wish but try not to flame me too badly.
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Cindra 2004-2008
