Disclaimer: I have given up hope on acquiring the rights to Harry Potter. The odds are insurmountable. So, alas, I do not own Harry Potter in any way, shape, or form. Oh, also, I forgot to list my references for the last chapter: "Never go for the geniuses. They never want to sleep." Is from the West Wing. "Because you've never had a big sister and you need one" Also hails from The West Wing's best episode Two Cathedrals, spoken by the character Dolores Landingham to future president Jed Bartlet. "I have…homework…" "I'm gonna pretend you didn't say that." Is courtesy of Captain America: Civil War. Iconic.

Chapter 49

"Oh, Harry!"

Harry Potter had scarcely opened the front door of 12 Grimmauld Place before a wall of force slammed into him with such ferocity that he staggered backwards at least five steps. It was the first Saturday of July, fifteen days since Harry had last seen his best friend and girlfriend Hermione Granger. Sure, they'd written letters back and forth every single day, but for Harry, reading the meticulously written words of how Hermione was spending her time was a far cry from actually spending time with her. And as entertaining as it was to mess around with his godfather, or work out and spend time with Nymphadora Tonks, he missed Hermione more than anything.

Until the day before, when she had written to him that her parents had agreed to let her visit Harry in London for the day. Since then he had been bouncing off the walls with excitement, and no amount of boxing and running with Tonks could quite calm him down.

Until now. Now, he was more content than he had been all summer, with his arms around Hermione as she burrowed into his chest, exclaiming incoherently about how much she'd missed him. He would have said something similar, except Hermione was squeezing him so tight he could barely breathe.

"So which happens first, Tonks, Harry passes out or Hermione lets go?"

"One Galleon says Harry passes out."

"Why can't the two of you just let them enjoy the moment?"

"Moony, make a bet or close your mouth."

"I'm sorry to subject you to this." Harry muttered as he rested his cheek in Hermione's bushy brown hair. "Tonks and Sirius can be ruthless."

"I don't mind." Hermione giggled into his chest. "I'm still with you, that's what matters." She pulled back, but kept her arms around his neck, and Harry got his first good look at her face. Her skin was its usual glowing self, and her deep brown eyes were brimming with joy. He was certain his own eyes looked fairly similar. She flashed him one of those dazzling smiles that snatched the air out of his lungs, filling his entire body with a familiar sensation of warmth.

"It's good to see you." He said, wincing slightly at how lame it sounded, but Hermione's smile only widened.

"It's good to see you too, Harry. And thank you for those flowers that you sent, they were gorgeous." Harry blushed, to which she gave another small laugh and looked over his shoulder. "Hi everyone!"

"Hello, Hermione." Lupin was the first to answer. Harry turned slightly, allowing Hermione to keep her arms around his neck, so he could see everyone else in the entrance hallway. Lupin held his usual neutral expression, a copy of the Daily Prophet folded under his arm. Next to him was Tonks, who was too busy grinning and bouncing up and down on the balls of her feet with excitement to say anything. Leaning on the opposite wall was Sirius, who held a knowing smile.

"Afternoon, Hermione." He winked. "This clumsy ball of energy next to me is my second cousin, Tonks."

"Harry's written loads about you, Tonks. It's nice to meet you." Hermione turned her smile to the Auror.

"You wrote about me?" Tonks raised her pink eyebrows warily at Harry. "It better have been nice, or I'll beat you up."

"I might have mentioned this nice old lady named Tonks who – "

"Ugh, you're the worst." Tonks rolled her eyes before turning back to Hermione. "But it's great to finally meet you, Hermione!" She beamed. "But I have to let you know, as Harry's quasi-big sister, if you hurt him I'm going to have to kill you. And I'm very good at killing people. I'm an Auror, you know."

"W-what?" Hermione stiffened, and it was Harry's turn to roll his eyes.

"Ignore her. Plus, she's an Auror-in-training, she's not that good at killing people." He appeased, to which Hermione relaxed a bit, even cracking a smile. Tonks mumbled something about turning Harry into a grease stain, but he ignored it. He turned back to the three adults in front of him. "As nice as it was to have this advance guard greeting Hermione, do you guys mind going literally anywhere else?"

"Moony and I will be in the kitchen if you need us." Sirius grinned before slipping through the kitchen door, followed by Lupin. Tonks watched them walk away before turning back to the teenagers in front of her.

"I have to go prep for my Auror tests." She winked. "But I'm coming back for dinner. See you two later!" She waved goodbye before Disapparating with a CRACK. Just like that, Harry and Hermione were alone in the entrance hallway. Hermione still had her arms around Harry's neck, leaning back so she could gaze up at him excitedly.

"I really missed you." She whispered.

"I missed you more."

"Not a chance, Harry Potter." She fired back, still sporting a radiant smile. "You know, I told myself I was going to be calm and collected when I first saw you today."

"Oh?" Harry raised an eyebrow.

"I was going to let you open the door and give a simple hello and wait for you to invite me in." She explained, her cheeks tinging pink. "I told myself I would wait at least a few minutes before throwing myself at you."

"Hermione Granger, I hate to break it to you, but you failed miserably." Harry grinned.

"Failure isn't always a bad thing." She smirked before hopping up on her tiptoes and planting a quick kiss on his cheek. "Would you care to show me around your new home?"

"I'd love to." Harry grinned. "But it'll be a bit awkward walking around with your arms around me like this."

"Shut up." She giggled, stepping back and letting her arms fall to her sides. Harry took her hand in his and led her down the length of the entrance corridor.

"See this gigantic hole in the wall?" He pointed to a gaping hole halfway between the front door and the staircase. "A portrait of Sirius's mum used to hang there, but all she did was shout about Sirius being a blood-traitor. She was insufferable, actually, so we got rid of it."

"Did you have to carve up the drywall?" Hermione looked at Harry skeptically. "Couldn't you just…remove the painting?"

"Believe it or not, Sirius Black and I possess more than two brain cells." Harry huffed. "It was up there with a Permanent Sticking Charm, as a matter of fact. So, such drastic measures had to be invoked."

"Ah." Hermione sighed. "And the rest of these paintings are not blood supremacists?" She gestured to the walls around them as they continued down the hallway.

"I reckon some of them are, but they aren't openly declaring it." Harry shrugged. "They probably saw what we did to Walburga and are keeping their mouths shut."

"Walburga? That's an odd name."

"Okay, Hermione."

"Hey!" Hermione swatted Harry on the shoulder indignantly, to which Harry just snickered. "I'll have you know that I was named after a beautiful Queen from a Shakespeare play, thank you very much."

"Well, you're not a Queen yet, but you certainly are beautiful, so I guess you're living up to your name." He offered, the words leaving his lips before his brain could even process them. Hermione squeaked in response, her cheeks turning a deep scarlet. They reached the staircase and Harry led her up, pointing out the empty spaces where the heads of former house-elves had hung before he and Sirius got rid of them.

"That's barbaric!" Hermione cried out in shock. "The Blacks had house-elves?"

"They actually had a house-elf when I got here, but I talked Sirius into freeing him." Harry shrugged. "He was surprised when I brought it up, but he didn't need much convincing to see how horrible of a practice it is to own a living creature like that."

"You got Sirius to free a house-elf?" Hermione whirled around. She was one step above Harry and was looking down at him with a mixture of shock and admiration.

"I know, right?" He smirked. "It's starting to become a habit, I reckon." Hermione just stared, clearly amazed. "You want to make out with me right now, don't you?"

"Well, when don't I?" She fired back, and it was Harry's turn to be stunned into silence. He opened his mouth but his vocal cords were completely useless, so he motioned weakly for them to keep going up the stairs. Hermione giggled but happily turned and bounced up the stairs, leaving a flabbergasted Harry to follow her with his eyes before he could get his legs to work. Once he reached the landing showed her around the drawing room, which was still set up for the boxing lessons he and Tonks held every so often.

"So Tonks is turning you into an even bigger jock?" Hermione teased, picking up one of the boxing gloves and staring at it disapprovingly. Harry rolled his eyes.

"It's a good way to burn energy." He explained, nudging the other glove on the floor with his foot. "And I do find it rather fun, truth be told. Sometimes I imagine the pad is Malfoy's face. Or Snape's."

"Well," Hermione glanced over and stared at him appraisingly as she dropped the boxing glove, "it certainly seems to have its benefits."

"Care to elaborate?" Harry said smugly, barely fending off the blush that threatened to grace his cheeks. Hermione raised an eyebrow coquettishly before stepping towards him. "I'm a bit dense, so I'm not very good at picking up on – "

That was as far as he got before Hermione's hands had grabbed two fistfuls of his shirt and pulled him into their first kiss since they had camped out on the Astronomy Tower. Harry couldn't help but smile before eagerly reciprocating Hermione's actions, lifting his hands up to cup her cheeks. The feeling of her skin on his sent pleasant shivers down his spine, like he was being injected with liquid happiness.

Hermione let out a soft purr as she pulled away, her eyes filled with passion and unbridled joy. Harry grinned at her, keeping his hands on her face and slowly brushing a few curls of tawny brown hair from her eyes to behind her ear.

"Sorry…" She whispered, her cheeks flushing as she ducked her head a bit. "I just really missed doing that."

"I know how you feel." Harry smirked, sliding one of his hands down so he could cup her chin and tilt it upwards. She gave him a shy smile as they locked eyes, unclenching her fists and smoothing over the wrinkled patches of fabric she'd left on his shirt. She hopped onto her tiptoes to plant another brief kiss on his lips before stepping back.

"I think you have a tour to finish." Her tone was very matter-of-fact despite the cheeky smile she held. Harry nodded and gestured for them to walk out of the drawing room, and Hermione did so, practically skipping out. As she left, Harry followed her with his eyes for the second time that day, and as his gaze drifted downwards he realized with a jolt that he wasn't the only one whose body had undergone certain changes in the last two weeks. Shaking his head at himself, he left the drawing room and resumed his tour of Grimmauld Place.

"Are you excited to see my room? I did all the decorating myself." Harry grinned as they reached the first mahogany door on the third floor. Hermione rolled her eyes but nodded, and he opened the door with a flourish. Truth be told, he wasn't the biggest fan of his room. The black ebony floors were intimidating, and the window on the wall opposite the door was small and didn't let very much natural light in. Nonetheless, he had done his best to make it his own. The four-poster bed originally had black curtains with gold trim, which repulsed both him and Sirius, so his godfather had used a color-changing spell to have the bed mirror the scarlet and gold curtains of the beds in Gryffindor Tower.

The dark green walls were adorned with several Gryffindor pennants and a couple of pictures Harry had acquired from Colin that were enlarged to the size of posters. One was of the Quidditch team after their victory against Ravenclaw that year. Harry was squatting next to Katie Bell, and behind them stood the rest of the team. Harry was flashing the camera a thumbs-up and sporting a gigantic smile, the Snitch still clutched in his other hand. Each of his teammates were laughing and chattering merrily, and George Weasley ruffled his hair every few seconds.

The other picture depicted the entirety of the Gryffindor Gang following an early-morning Quidditch practice from second-year in which they had all come out to cheer Harry on. Harry was in his practice jersey still, looking like a sweaty mess. Hermione was in front of him, her back pressed against him as he had one arm wrapped around her torso, the other holding his broom over his shoulder. Ron and Dean were on either side of him, while Lavender and Pavarti stood on either side of Hermione and Seamus and Neville crouched in the front. All of them were grinning from ear to ear, looking like the happy group of friends that they are.

"It's very…you." Hermione said with a smile as she glanced around the room. "You better not be using that." She warned as she laid eyes on the Firebolt laying in the corner of his room. Harry shrugged innocently.

"London's too busy. All I really get to do is service it with that amazing kit you gave me." He grinned. Hermione blushed a bit but returned his smile. "And please don't be offended that none of the posters are just you and I. I keep those nearby at all times." He walked over to his bedside table and picked up the only object on it besides a spare quill – a black leather photo album, his Christmas gift from Hermione. He flipped it open to his favorite photograph, the one where he was out cold in the middle of History of Magic. He felt his cheeks heat up a bit as he watched Hermione kiss him on the nose bashfully before returning to her diligent note-taking. "You know, Seamus found this in the dormitory one day. He said he was rifling through my stuff looking for some parchment he could borrow, and he ended up finding this. He and the other boys were almost as bad as Sirius. Well, not Neville, but the rest certainly were."

"Oh, you poor thing." Hermione cooed, stepping next to him and resting her head against his shoulder as she looked down at the album in his hands. "Did I ever tell you that I hung the map you made me up on my dormitory wall?"

"Did you actually?"

"I did. Lavender and Pavarti lost their minds. I think they used it more than I did. I came back from class one day and found them tapping all the heart markers and just staring in awe."

"Hey, some of those moments were private!" Harry cried out crossly.

"Oh, I had already told them everything by then. It's not like they were learning anything new." Hermione giggled, nuzzling her head into Harry's shoulder. He rolled his eyes and shook his head in disbelief.

"Do you tell them everything? About us?" He asked, somewhat nervously.

"No, not everything." Hermione placated. "I mean, if I told them about every time we kissed I'd be talking until their ears fell off." She laughed again, and this time Harry joined her. "But if they ask about certain things I'll tell them. I don't really like to keep things from them since they're my friends. They asked a lot about France, especially once they found out about us."

"I see." Harry nodded slowly, thumbing through the album.

"Do you tell the boys a lot about us?" Hermione asked in a lilting voice.

"Did you not hear what I said about that time they found this?" He held up the book in his hands. "They're merciless sometimes. I made the mistake of telling them about our first kiss one night and they made kissing noises for hours. I got no sleep because of those lunatics."

"Well, what are friends for?" She teased, her hand finding his and squeezing it affectionately. "I am sorry, though. I'm sure it can get on your nerves from time to time."

"You're worth it." Harry smiled reassuringly, turning and planting a soft kiss on the crown of her head. "Plus I think some of them are just jealous that I'm dating the prettiest girl at Hogwarts."

"Shut up." She mumbled, burying her face in his shoulder in an unsuccessful attempt to hide her blush and her giddy smile. "I'm not that – "

"Hermione Granger, don't you dare finish that sentence." Harry warned, still smiling. "Honestly, you're beautiful. Gorgeous. Breathtaking."

"You're just reciting a thesaurus page." She muttered, her face still burrowed into his upper arm.

"Seriously?" Harry sighed. "I mean, not only are you assuming that I've ever opened a thesaurus – which is an egregious assumption by itself – but you're seriously trying to convince me that you aren't pretty?" He didn't wait for her response and pressed on. "Look, I'm not a very eloquent speaker, so I can't exactly compare thee to a summer's day, but honestly? That doesn't even matter. Hermione, you are beyond words. The English language does not feature sufficient words to describe just how beautiful you are."

There was a brief pause, and Harry wondered if he had said the wrong thing. Then, without warning, Hermione crashed into his side, her arms encircling his so tight he lost feeling in his fingers within seconds.

"Harry Potter," she finally pulled her face from his shirt, resting her chin on his shoulder and beaming up at him, "you really are the sweetest boy I've ever met." Before Harry could even open his mouth to reply she relinquished her death grip on him, stepping in front of him and wrapping her arms around his neck to pepper his face with kiss after kiss.

"I should compliment you more." Harry mused as his cheeks were blitzkrieged by the impossibly soft lips of one Hermione Granger.

"I wouldn't mind that." She smiled shyly before brushing her lips against his. "At this rate, we're never going to finish the tour." She stepped back with a content sigh.

"There are worse things in the world than kissing my girlfriend in every room of this house." Harry smirked. Hermione giggled again, flashing him another warm smile. With that, he laced his fingers with hers and brought her back to the corridor. The tour took much longer than expected, and with each room they exited Harry found himself feeling giddier and giddier, while his hair and shirt grew more and more disheveled. The Black family library in particular

"You two look like you enjoyed the tour." Sirius mused as Harry and Hermione entered the kitchen. The Marauder had his fingers laced behind his head and his feet rested on the kitchen table. Lupin was moving about the kitchen, preparing lunch for himself and Sirius. "Moony and I took the liberty of making something for the two of you."

"What is it?" Harry tensed, fully expecting to be set on fire or become the victim of another one of Sirius's pranks.

"Relax, Harry." Lupin sighed, grabbing a picnic basket off the countertop and handing it to him. "There's a door at the end of the fourth floor, past Sirius's room. It opens to a metal staircase, and that leads you to the roof. Go enjoy the fresh air."

"Oh…" Harry blinked in surprise. "Thanks, guys." He grinned, examining the wooden basket before turning to Hermione. "Shall we?"

"I suppose we shall." She returned the smile, giving an appreciative wave to the two Marauders before leading Harry out of the kitchen. "Check the basket." She whispered once they left the room. Harry did so immediately, and was relieved to see no prank-based materials in there, instead finding a decent picnic spread: sandwiches, strawberries, peaches, figs, and several bars of Honeydukes Best Dark Chocolate.

"Nothing dangerous. Unless you count choking on a peach pit." He smirked before ascending the staircase all the way to the roof of 12 Grimmauld Place. He was surprised to find that it was not just the roof, but a modest terrace, complete with a bench that overlooked the street below. They sat down there and happily dug into the food, making quick work of the sandwiches.

"I know I was starving, but this is seriously delicious." Hermione chowed down on another peach.

"Snogging really is exhausting isn't it?" Harry smirked before popping another strawberry into his mouth, pulling out the stem and tossing it into a nearby waste bin. Hermione blushed but rolled her eyes.

"I suppose it's nothing compared to the workouts Tonks is putting you through."

"I'll take kissing you senseless over jogging any day of the week." Harry grinned, and Hermione's blush deepened. "Chocolate bar?" He offered her one, which she happily took. "Are your parents going to be cross with me for giving you chocolate?"

"Please." Hermione took a sizable bite. "Dark chocolate is actually fairly effective at fighting cavities and plaque, it turns out."

"Really?" Harry raised his eyebrows in genuine surprise. "That's surprising."

"Dark chocolate is amazing." Hermione continued, taking another bite. "It kills oral bacteria, it's full of antioxidants, it improves your brain function, and it increases dopamine and serotonin levels."

"So you're saying I should eat this at every meal?" Harry smirked again as he polished off his first bar before grabbing a second. Hermione responded by leaning in and planting a lingering kiss on his lips, which surprised him so much he didn't even react in time to close his eyes until she was pulling away, licking her lips.

"I wouldn't mind that." She gave a shy smile. "It tastes nice."

"You're unbelievable." Harry shook his head in amusement, to which Hermione just shrugged coquettishly. He placed his still-wrapped second chocolate bar back in the basket and gave Hermione a taste of her own medicine, smiling into the kiss as Hermione let out another purr when he brought his hand up to cradle her head.

The taste of dark chocolate lingered on Harry Potter's mind for a very, very long time after that.

A/N: Howdy, everyone. With life slowly returning to normal and university approaching, my life is growing increasingly busier, thus updates are more likely to take a bit more time like this one did. Sorry, sorry, but I certainly have no plans to abandon this story. Anyway, today's lone reference: "You want to make out with me right now, don't you?" "Well when don't I?" is from, believe it or not, The West Wing. God I love that show so much.

Anyway, to all of you amazing people who review, who favorite, who follow, I love you all from the bottom of my heart. It makes my day to see that my writing has such a positive impact on the world, and I hope to continue that trend. Thank you all for all of your support, and stay safe!