Disclaimer: J. K. Rowling owns the Harry Potter Universe all other claimants to anything to do with the H.P. story are simply hangers on to her glory. I thank her for allowing us mere mortals to play in her world and I promise that while I have Harry in my care nothing bad will happen to him. I will leave that to J.K.R. herself in her books.
LOVE CONQUERS ALLChapter 3Shopping and Surprises
Hermione had moved very close to Harry, she looked at him and asked, "What's all this you want me to keep doing, about then?"
The next remark just seemed to drop out of his mouth without any input of his own, and he looked shocked at himself as he said it, "You're very pretty, you know."
Her smile froze, her brown eyes were gleaming caught in his green, this was something she had secretly wanted to hear from him for years, "Do you really think so?" she whispered.
He nodded, very slowly, his mind whirling, Hermione put her arms around his neck, and her eyes glowed in a remarkable smile, "You really are extraordinary, Harry," she said, her smile waning slightly, but warm affection still burning in her eyes, "usually I think I know what to expect from you, but then you go and totally surprise me."
He chuckled very softly, "Then I must be inspired by your unpredictability."
Hermione giggled back at him, "Well, someone has to keep you on your toes, Mr Potter."
"Well that you certainly do," he breathed, his smile now fading. He felt lost, wallowing in a warm endless sea and his only anchor was she who he thought so beautiful sitting beside him. His soul clutched onto that, never wavering, "all the time."
"Hmmm." Hermione stretched her arms languidly, and then without trepidation, draped them back around Harry's neck, leaning her chin on his shoulder, "whatsoever would you do without me?"
"I'd..." he choked, "I'd rather not think about that."
Hermione's expression cleared, from one of amusement to one of revelation, "Me neither..."
Harry vaguely felt Hermione's fingers dip into the shaggy black locks at the back of his head, near his neck, but it felt a world away as he gazed at her lovely face. Something in her eyes had perceptibly shifted, and his whole world was moving with it, as it started he found himself leaning forward, space slipping away between him and Hermione, so quickly and at the same time in slow motion. He tilted his head, his heart uneven, tightening, skipping and seemingly trying to climb its way out of his throat. Hermione tilted her head the other way, her hands sinking into his hair and pulling him towards her.
Then he felt it. Oh dear God, he thought. Oh Hermione... how could I have missed you for so long? Her lips were so soft, so utterly, utterly soft! It was the most perfect, the most delicate little thing he'd ever felt in his life - a pursing of lips, a slow, gentle touch that made him feel like he had been hurled through a Portkey. All he could do was sigh, and hold her. God, he wanted to hold her for all eternity!
As they parted, his eyes opened, and he looked to Hermione. She clutched his shoulders, smiling lazily, "Mmmm, I like this Harry!"
Harry flushed, looking down and feeling rather embarrassed all of a sudden. That's when he felt the lips on his cheek, peppering kisses there. His eyes fell shut and he sighed, his body slowly burning up under the attention. He was worried for a moment he'd have to reign in her behaviour (as loathed as he would be to do it), but thankfully she leant back to regard him again. She tilted her head and sighed, "I'm so incredibly glad we did that."
Harry licked his lips and nodded, "Join the incredibly glad club, so am I."
"I want to do it again?" she looked positively, delightfully wicked and they did it again, twice, in leisurely succession.
She sighed, the delight in her eyes shifting to perceptive warmth that Harry found awesome but extremely comforting, "Sometimes I think you're all I will ever need, Harry. When I'm with you alone - I - I fear nothing and I am at one with myself," she smiled, as if a weight had been lifted from her shoulders, "I'm proud. Very proud of myself when I'm with you."
A hint of gravity twitched in Harry's brow, "I wouldn't ever want you to be anything other than my Hermione."
She gave a happy sigh through a bright smile, pulling him to her and kissing him again. Harry felt the world suddenly jar and spin again, in an altogether pleasant way. He decided that all was right with the world when he was doing this. It wasn't a deep or particularly complicated kiss, it was different, he thought. Utterly special, perfectly eloquent. But he wouldn't mind a bit of the heavy stuff later on, he added to himself and judging from Hermione's opening mouth, neither would she.
However it was all cut painfully short by Tonks. "Come on gang foods ready!" she shouted and the mood evaporated as Ron came thundering down the stairs.
x-x
All of them went out into the kitchen and sat around the table, Molly served them Steak and Kidney pie, garden peas, mashed potato and onion gravy. There was silence for about a quarter of an hour.
"We will have to do some Muggle food shopping tomorrow," said Harry eventually, "it wouldn't be right for us to eat your mum out of house and home. I still have a load of Muggle money left from the other day, we can use it for food and if we go to the pictures, and things,"
"I'm sure my mum won't mind if we eat some food."
"Ah but Hermione, I know that your parents are dentists, so they won't have Mars Bars, Crunchies, Pop-corn, Crisps, Chocolate, Twiglets, nuts, Coke and all my other favourites" said Tonks who looked quite prepared to expand the list if it appeared to be necessary.
"I see what you mean, if we're going to teach them about Muggles lets do it properly," said Hermione grinning.
"Can you bring some of those things back for Arthur, I'm sure he would love them?" Molly asked.
"Of course we can," said Tonks, "and we should be going soon Harry, I want to ask your aunt if I can rent the spare room. It will be far more convenient if I can stay in the house with you."
"My uncle will want at least double what it is worth, if he lets you stay at all."
"Ah. But with people like him, money is usually the great leveller, let's see shall we. Don't forget everyone, its full Muggle gear tomorrow and don't forget your wands. There's no need for homework for the first few days Ginny, we will be sorting out a program of what we are going to do."
Hermione gave Harry a gentle kiss and said goodbye, opened her Floo she went home, taking a little Floo powder with her so that she could get to the Leaky Cauldron in the morning. Harry and Tonks said goodbye to them all and then they took their Portkey back to Harry's room in Little Whinging.
He put his dress robes away but he left the box in Tonks' bag then he went downstairs to find that Tonks was having a bad time with his uncle.
"What's the problem Tonks?" he asked.
"Your uncle says that I can't stay in the spare room, at any price."
Harry thought for a moment and with a smile said, "Didn't you tell us that your dad is the local area BBC TV News presenter and didn't you tell us that he was always looking out for odd, unusual bits to fill in the end of the programmes?"
"Yes he is and he is," said Tonks looking slightly puzzled.
"Well how do you think he would view the story of a great fat bloke in Little Whinging, who wouldn't let his nephew's body guard stay in …"
"Five-hundred pounds a week," said uncle Vernon.
"Done," said Tonks immediately counting out twenty, fifty pound notes from a big bundle and handing them to Petunia, "that's two weeks in advance."
"Would you both like a cup of tea?" asked Petunia smiling. They both said yes please and as they went into the kitchen, on the way Tonks asked Harry if he was sure that he wasn't in Slytherin.
When they were in the kitchen Petunia asked Tonks about her hair, so Tonks explained about her being a Metamorphmagus and did some funny things with her hair, changing the colour and making it longer and shorter; after a while Tonks went home and Harry went to bed and had very pleasant dreams of kissing a certain bushy haired bookworm.
x-x
The next morning by nine thirty, Tonks had moved into the spare room and at nine forty five they used their Portkey to travel to the Leaky Cauldron. After about five minutes Hermione arrived and closed her home Floo, she and Harry were just getting into some serious kissing and a cuddling when Ginny, Ron and almost immediately Parvati arrived. Parvati was looking wide eyed at Harry and Hermione who were still cuddling, then she gave them a great big smile and told them that it was about time. She looked very happy as she greeted them all and was introduced to Tonks, then they went out through the back of the Pub and entered Diagon Alley.
Their first call was the bag shop, because that was where they also sold things like Floo powder, they were all looking around and Hermione bought a big jar of Floo powder for her house also a pocket pouch of the powder. Harry bought a small silver dish, the shopkeeper had told him that this was a talking dish, if you cast a flame charm on it and dropped in a pinch of Floo powder you could talk to any connected fireplace, he also bought a pocket pouch of Floo powder. Then he ordered himself a magic bag similar to the one Tonks had, he told the shopkeeper to take the money out of his Gringotts account, but when nobody else was listening he changed the order to five, a black, gold, copper, brown and one dark blue.
Harry thought that it was very pleasant to be walking through Diagon Alley holding Hermione's hand, she wanted to look in her new vault and Harry into his, so as they were going towards Gringotts they arranged to meet in Florean Fortescue's ice-cream parlour when they had finished. When they arrived at the bank, Hermione spoke to a free Goblin she enquired about her vault and the Goblin shook her hand and welcomed her to the bank then gave her the key to her vault, he called another goblin that took her Ginny and Tonks to Hermione's new vault.
Then Harry asked how much money he had in his vault and he passed over his key, the goblin placed the key on his large ledger and tapped it with his wand, he looked in the Ledger and told Harry that their was a slight problem in that his old vault wouldn't hold all his money because he had "two million two hundred and forty five thousand six hundred and ninety seven Galleons, do you want to know about the Sickles and Knutts," he passed Harry a new key for vault seven hundred twenty.
Both Ron and Parvati looked stunned, Harry said that he wanted to go to his new vault and number seven one four and passed over that key, the goblin went through the same procedure with the Ledger and this second key, he returned the key to Harry and called yet another goblin to take the three of them down to both of the vaults.
Vault seven hundred twenty was the first one they visited it was much larger than his old vault and it was almost full. Harry took about one hundred Galleons, then they went to vault seven one four.
When it was opened the goblin went and sat back in the trolley to wait for them, they looked around and realised that it was like a junkyard and it would take days to go through everything properly. However there were two things that caught his eye, there were six tall neat piles of Muggle twenty-pound notes, each about two foot high and an envelope. The envelope contained what appeared to be an inventory of everything that was in the vault, it didn't appear to be very accurate as it said things like, Muggle money, jewellery, books, so he stuffed it into his pocket to read later. Then he took about three inches off the top of one of the piles of notes and gave Ron and Parvati about quarter an inch each.
As Ron started to complain Harry said, "You both are coming with us to learn about Muggle ways, when we are out you will have to pay for the things we want and that way you will learn about their money, I will give Ginny some when we catch up with her."
They went back to the ice cream parlour and the others were just finishing their ice-creams, Hermione stood up and came around and gave Harry a big hug and kiss, "You shouldn't have given me all that Harry," he just smiled at her.
"Don't worry," said Ron.
"You heard him," said Harry, giving her another kiss.
They paid Florean Fortescue and left the ice cream parlour then went back to the room where Tonks and Harry had arrived by Portkey, this is a secure grate she told them, it is called LC77, please don't tell anyone else about it. Hermione opened her home grate, my home is called Hermione's Grange and I will go first, so they all Flooed to her house without any problems.
Immediately after they arrived she closed down her Floo connection.
x-x
The six of them had arrived in the Grangers dining room so they move out into the hall and looked into the lounge, then the study, they found a downstairs Loo and the kitchen. Tonks suggested that the first thing they should do, was to go food shopping and they asked Hermione how far it was to the shops, she told them it was about a three quarters of a mile to a supermarket. But there are some smaller shops just around the corner at the top of the road so they decided to go there today, but we must all try to keep together Tonks told them.
As they were walking up the road Tonks asked where they were and Hermione told them that they were in Breakinham in Kent, which wasn't very far from Little Whinging although it is also quite near London. By this time they had reached the corner and turned left.
It was one thirty, there was a burger bar, they were hungry the result was obvious and they had a great laugh deciding what they were going to eat. This was especially true of Ron, Parvati and Ginny who had never been in a burger bar before. Harry made Ron pay telling the girl behind the counter that he wasn't used to the money as he helped him.
"Where did you get all that money Ron?" Ginny asked him, when they sat down, Tonks cast a distortion spell around them so that no one else could understand what they were saying.
"Harry gave it to me, should we give Ginny some, she has to learn about it as well?" Harry took about another quarter of an inch off his pile and gave them to Ginny.
She asked, "How much are these things worth?"
"Well one of those is worth round about four Galleons," said Hermione, Ginny tried to give hers back to Harry.
He looked at her and told the three of them, "Listen all three of you, Ron paid for the food and we are all eating it, whatever we want we will buy and it is better that you three actually spend the money, because that way you will all learn about Muggle money."
"But how the heck much have I got here?"
"I have absolutely no idea Ginny and really, it doesn't matter, tell her what happened in the bank, Parvati."
"When you three went through to Hermione's vault, Harry asked how much money was in his vault. The goblin told him that they had to change his vault because the old one 'wasn't big enough to hold all his money' and there were about two and a quarter million Galleons in it. Then we went and opened the vault that his godfather had left him the key too, in it there were six piles about this high," she held her hand well over her head but above the table, "of these in there. So you see it really doesn't matter, we're here to learn, we must try not to think about it."
"Ok, sorry Harry, I'll try to ignore it," said Ginny.
"You just do that, or you won't learn what you are supposed to. Besides I don't think that your mum and dad will be too poor from now on," said Hermione.
"What did you three think of the food then?" asked Tonks.
"It was nice," said Ginny and Parvati together.
"Well, really I could do with some more, but it tasted OK," said Ron.
"You don't need anything more here, we're going to get some real junk and you can top up with that," Hermione told him grinning.
"I think I like this job, I wonder if Dumbledore would give it to me permanently," said Tonks with a smile as they got up and left the burger bar.
When they were outside they looked at what was around them, over the very busy road there was the entrance to a train station and on their side were a newsagent's, launderette, general food store and a record shop.
The girls went in the food store and the boys into the newsagents, Ron was amazed at all the variety of news papers and magazines for sale but all they bought were sweets, nuts, chocolate, popcorn, crisps and things like that. The pair of them had two big bags full of snacks and they had spent over seventy pounds, once again Harry made Ron pay, this time he didn't need help and he didn't get confused with the change.
Having finished they went outside, the girls weren't there so they went to the food store and Harry called Tonks from the door, when she came over they put all their bags into the magic bag and went into the store with her and then went across to the others. Harry told them that they had not bought any soft drinks so they went and chose a large assortment, when they went to the till Harry made Ginny pay, she did quite well.
When they went out, they put all their bags into Tonks' bag, then Hermione took Parvati and Ginny into the newsagents, when they came out they had an armful of Muggle fashion magazines. The six of them then walked back to Hermione's home, on the way Tonks told them that next time they went shopping she wouldn't use her bag and they could carry everything like the Muggles, they all hoped that she was teasing.
x-x
Soon they were back in Hermione's house and they started putting their things away, Mrs. Granger had emptied two cupboards for them to use they also put some of the soft drinks in the fridge. Tonks and Hermione were thrilled with what the boys had bought and they made up an assorted bag of Muggle snacks for Mr Weasley.
All of them moved through into the lounge where Hermione showed Ron, Parvati and Ginny how the TV worked. Whilst they were fighting over the remote control Harry reminded the other two that Friday was July the twelfth and it would be Ginny's fifteenth birthday, so the trio went back to the kitchen.
"We had better talk to Mrs Weasley before we plan anything," said Hermione, "if you two go back to the Burrow with them one of you can ask Mrs. Weasley what she's doing and if she isn't doing anything then we will. Or we will anyway, just what depends on her Mum."
Good, do you need any money they both asked? "I don't think so, but I will let you know if I do."
"Do you know what she would like?" Harry asked and Hermione answered.
"Well I know that she would like to tryout for the Quidditch team properly, I should think she wouldn't mind a broom, would you like us to share with you?"
"No, that's alright I'll get it, she deserves a lot of presents" after saying that Harry wandered back into the lounge.
"I was told he was a nice guy," said Tonks, "he's not just nice, he's amazing, is he always like this?"
Then Hermione said dreamily, "Yes, pretty much, unless Voldemort is actively on his case of course."
"Did you know that he's asked Dumbledore and me to teach him how to kill Voldemort?" Hermione looked aghast, "As I said one amazing guy," Tonks said as they followed Harry back into the lounge.
When Harry had re-entered the lounge Ginny and Parvati were reading the Muggle fashion magazines and Ron had found a game of cricket on the TV.
"What on earth sort of a game is this?" he asked.
"Ask me when you've a day to spare and want to get really bored, I might be able to explain half of it to you. Why don't you switch that thing off and try something else?" Ron switched off the TV and Ginny put down her magazine and went over to the piano and hit a few of the keys, it wasn't a tune,
"Can you play one of these Harry?" he shook his head.
"And I can only play a bit of classical and I don't think you would like that," said Hermione, as she and Tonks re-entered the room.
"Let me have a go then," Tonks sat down and started singing and playing 'Great Balls of Fire'.
When she had finished, Ron looking incredulous said, "What on Earth was that?"
"That was Muggle music," said Tonks.
"You must have some records, where do you keep them darling?" Harry asked Hermione.
"They are up in my room, let's go up," so they all followed Hermione up to the first floor.
"Knowing my Mum and Dad I had better show you this first," she said.
She opened the bathroom door and pointed to a toothbrush rack with five variously coloured toothbrushes and then looking very embarrassed she said, "You all know that they are both dentists and I just knew that they would do this for you all. Please pick a colour and use it at least once sometime today it's the only thing that I will get into trouble for, not letting you clean your teeth."
Leaving the bathroom they all followed Hermione across the hall to her room.
x-x
It was a very girly room but it was also, very much Hermione's room, it was pale blue with pink white lace lots of satin all in all it was very light and summery. However it also had a large writing desk, two six shelf and one three shelf book cases that were overflowing, a cello, a computer on its own separate desk, a Hi-Fi, a record rack with records and CD's. Of course there was also Crookshanks who was curled up fast asleep in the middle of a King-size four-poster bed, which had pink and white drapes and a huge pile of Teddy Bears.
Hermione switched on the computer then she put Abby Road on the CD player, Tonks sat at the computer and started playing Solitaire, showing Ginny, Parvati and Ron how to work it.
Harry was looking through the books, Hermione came over and took out three and put them on top of the low bookcase by the door.
Then Ginny said, "The Muggles don't do badly for themselves, do they."
"It is one thing that makes people like Voldemort and the Malfoys appear to be so stupid," Harry said with a catch in his voice, "they condemn things because they don't take the trouble to try to understand them.
If it ever reached the point where the Muggles decided they had to get rid of Voldemort, because he was causing them too many problems, then they would find a way. One Muggle marksman with a high power rifle could put a hole through his head from a mile away, but no, the idiot would try to hide himself away somewhere unplotable and carry on his evil ways from there.
So the Muggle scientists would have to develop detectors to find all the unplotable areas and believe me they would find them, then they would totally wipe them out with bombs. If they don't understand it and they can't see what is there, they will bomb it until they know what is there, nothing. Really they can do it Ginny, that's why he has to be stopped."
Pensively he looked at Hermione, "I don't want to think about it any more darling, come down stairs and give me a cuddle." He took her hand and she picked up the three books then she went with Harry back down to the lounge.
"I've never heard him talk like that before," said Ron sounding apprehensive.
"The trouble is, he is right, witches and wizards have to stay in the background and be discreet. We think that his last encounter with Voldemort in the Ministry has radically altered something in him." was Tonks reply, and she started trying to teach the other three about the computer.
Ginny persisted, "Has he been changed for better or worse?"
"Not like that Ginny, Harry's still as good as he has ever been," Tonks answered, "it's his power and attitude that seem to have changed. It seems that he has decided that he wants to have a life and the only way for that to happen is for him to get rid of old snake eyes and as soon as he thinks that he is ready, he will go after the evil git.
We had better keep a close eye on him, but when they meet again Voldemort had better look out."
x-x
AUTHORS NOTE: The astute amongst you will have noticed that Ginny's birthday in this story is on July the 12th and not August the 11th as per JKR, this story was first published on the 21st of December 2003 about six months before JKR told us the correct date. To use the corrected date in this story is just not possible as you can easily determine for yourselves as you read through it.
As an aside, in book five August the 11th is the day before Harry's expulsion hearing in the MoM, he and most of the Weasleys were at Grimmauld Place trying to find something to distract Harry and no one mentioned Ginny's birthday.
So I still think that my date is better and it is no accident that they both add up to eleven, unless August the eleventh has some significance for Ginny in the story, I wonder what it could be?
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