Forgotten Yesterday
Chapter 31: Sweet Dreams
Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter or any characters borrowed for use in this story.
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Hermione was already waiting when Harry arrived back to his rooms.
"He knew you weren't going to call me," she said very plainly as she followed him upstairs.
"Where's Kaity?" Harry asked with a heavy sigh.
"With Claudia. Those two are quite a handful. I can't imagine how they're going to be when they start school."
"I haven't been giving her enough attention lately." he sat on the side of the bed and stared at his hands. "I feel bad about it. She… I… I wish I could be there for her more."
"She understands." Hermione sat at his side. "She knows you're not sleeping. She knows you're worrying about too much. She knows you love her. You don't give her enough credit Harry. Kaitlyn sees more about you than you know."
"She reads me like a book. She's one of the three people in the world I can't hide anything from."
"Are you going to tell me who the other two are?"
He smiled a little, "Snape and you."
"What about Cho?" she asked a little cautiously.
"I hate admitting it but there were so many things I was never able to tell her. And in some ways I'm glad I didn't. I never told her about the Dursley's or what I saw with Voldemort during the tri-wizard. And she never did believe I was completely innocent in Cedric's death. I wish I could have changed a lot of things about our relationship."
"Harry, if you kept so much from her and she didn't trust you, why did you marry her?"
He smiled his wistful half smile again. "She was my dream girl. She was my first love, my first real crush. She was… She was an ideal. And I did love her. When we got married I loved her more than anything. But after a while, I still loved her but… All we actually had in common was quidditch and we were on the same side of the war. And then that was fine."
"Would you do it again?"
"What?"
"Marry her?"
"I don't know." he hung his head, "There are ten million things I would do differently if I could go back in time. And I don't know if I was able to change those things if I would end up on the same path I ended up on." Harry stopped a moment, "and I'm rambling."
"You're exhausted, Harry." she reached over and twined her fingers with his. "You need to rest now."
He nodded and handed her the vial. Harry went about changing clothes while Hermione finished preparing the dreamless sleep potion. "I diluted it a little bit. I didn't think you'd want to be out for a full day."
"Would it last that long?"
"Snape made it."
"Well that explains a lot." he climbed into bed. "I shouldn't have talked about Cho so much." he studied her face carefully. "I'm sorry."
"You don't have to be sorry, Harry." she handed him the goblet. "Go to sleep."
"You don't have to stay if you don't want. I won't be going anywhere."
"True, but I need to grade some things and anyway, I like watching you sleep."
Harry smiled and snuggled into the pillows as the potion's effects began to work on him. Soon he was silently sleeping for the first time in weeks.
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Hermione hardly noticed the hours pass as she watched at Harry's bedside. It was wonderful to see him sleep peacefully after so many restless nights. She had finished her grading and had started reading. She felt so close to having a breakthrough in regards to the dark marks. Snape's comments about it being like the Crucatius gave her a tantalizing clue. She was reading up on the origins of the unforgivable curses. She thought that might somehow be tied to how Voldemort created his mark. She had just begun a chapter on the original intended uses of the Imperius curse when she heard a small knock on the door down stairs.
"Remus, What is it?" she asked upon seeing the werewolf outside the door.
"Snape needs you."
She nodded and followed him down to the dungeons. Sirius, Draco and Snape were talking quietly in the inner hallway.
Snape pulled Hermione into the conversation when she approached them.
"Hermione, I need you to brew a batch of Veritaserum. Please as quickly as you can."
"Why? What's going on?"
Sirius and Draco stepped aside and Snape lead her closer to the main body of his office. They remained in the shadows as they looked in. She could see a young man in the large chair before the fire. He was leaning forward, his head resting heavily in his hands. She noticed the white mask lying on the floor and looked again to the man clad in heavy black robes. The sleeves had fallen back a bit and as he sat up and stared into the fire she could see the black tattoo burned into the flesh of his forearm.
Snape pulled her back to where they had been a moment before. "You understand the urgency now."
"Of course. Harry's going to very cross he slept through this. But where is the rest of the order?"
"Welcome to the inner circle, Hermione." Draco leaned back against the wall.
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