SOUL PIECES

Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter

AN: Before you read, just remember…you: very nice people!

To .Miss.H.Granger. my review #100 ( well, if the story hadn't been deleted it would be #300, but…)

Obrigado.

Chapter 26: Life isn't a fairy tale

"Oh, miss Granger! Please meet Professor Claire Larousse. She is training Mister Potter-"

"Professor Larousse?" interrupted Hermione with a trembling voice," But-but Professor Larousse isn't a man?"

Claire laughed.

"I am sure I am not a man!"

But then Claire noticed Harry behind Hermione. He was with James in his arms, his eyes full of…despair.

"Oh," she said, "You must be Hermione."

Hermione didn't say anything. She was paralyzed. Tears began to drop from her eyes.

"Hermione-" she heard someone said behind her. She turned around and saw Harry.

"Hermione-" he repeated, "I…"

"No, Harry, please don't say anything. I couldn't bear to hear one of your lies." And with that she disapparated.

Harry looked in shock Hermione disappeared.

"Hermione!" he cried out aloud and every thing soul in the room looked at him in concern.

"What happened, Harry?" many voices spoke at same time.

He seemed lost. Not sure of what he had to do.

Claire looked at him and smiled sadly.

"Go after her, Harry," she said, "please, give me James and go after her."

It was an absolute silence when Harry entered Grimmauld Place. He took care to didn't make any sound near Mrs. Black but since he was away from the 'peril' he began to shout,

"Hermione! Love!"

As he reached the top of the staircase, he looked and found the door to their bedroom was wide open. He could see her standing by the side of her bed, stuffing various articles of clothing into the large overnight bag that sat on the bed.

She was packing.

Oh God…

"Hermione, sweetie…"

"SHUT UP!" she snapped without looking at him.

"Mione, please, don't leave…" he pleaded, tears falling from his eyes.

"I am not leaving this house, Potter," she said dryly, her eyes glowing with tears. "I think…well, James needs a father figure. Even if his father is someone like…you. I will sleep in his bedroom."

"Hermione, please, I know how you are feeling-"

She gave a sarcastic laugh.

"Hah! I supposed you don't! You can't even imagine how I am feeling! There is nothing you could say, Harry. Nothing. You lied. You made me feel like an idiot."

"Hermione-" he implored.

"Did you laugh?" she asked in a trembling voice.

"W-What?"

"Did you laugh everytime you were with her? Did you laugh when you realized that I thought Professor Larousse was a man?"

"No! Of course not! You have to understand-" he begged but she seemed not be listing.

"You know I think Snape was right," she said, motionless, looking at their bed.

" What are talking about?" He was confused. He didn't noticed that her eyes were black. Lifeless.

"Snape. He was right. You are arrogant prat. Just your fath-"

"Don't talk about my father, Hermione!" he shouted, a little angry that she had talked about Snape and his father. "I know you are mad at me so, please don't offend someone who can't defend itself."

Hermione seemed didn't listen Harry and continued to speak,

"You know, I wonder if you inherited your behavior from your father or- well, it could be from your mother," she said bitterly, " the great Lily Potter! But what about Lily Evans, maybe she liked to fool-"

SMASH!

Harry hit Hermione right on her face. His body trembling with angry.

How dare she?

"Shut up!" he shouted, not noticing Hermione on the floor. The look of sadness and disbelieve in her eyes. "Shut up!"

Harry's shouts brought Lupin, Tonks, with James in her arms, and Ron to the bedroom. They had just arrived from McGonagall's manor.

What they saw was something…bizarre. Harry, glowing with angry yelling at a confused and trembling with fear Hermione. The young witch was on the floor. Her cheeks flushed, her right eye…black.

"What the hell is happening here?" demanded Lupin.

Harry seemed to be in so much angry that he didn't say anything until…

"H-Harry…he-he h-hit me," said Hermione with a whisper. Her words brought Harry back to reality... what he had done.

"Oh, god! Oh, god!" he cried in angst, "I sorr-"

"Did you hit her!" yelled Ron with a roar. His face red with angry. "You bastard!"

Ron tried to get Harry but was interrupted by Remus who grabbed his shoulder.

"No, Ron! We don't need more violence!" Remus said in a calm but firm voice. "Please, take James to his room-" Ron wanted to protest but Remus cut him off. "Take him, Ronald. Nymphadora, please, if you could heal Hermione…you know I am not very good at-" Just then Hermione interrupted. She had just got up from the floor.

"No," she said with a hateful voice, "I don't want to be healed. I want to carry this…mark. I want to make him see every day what he did!"

"Er," Tonks managed to say, "If it is what you want, Hermione…Remus, I think I go see James." And Tonks left the room.

Remus took a deep breath and looked at Harry who was sat in the edge of the bed with his hands covering his face.

"Now, can you please tell me what happened?"

Harry put his hands on his lap and sighed.

"I lost control…I couldn't think straight-"

"Oh, of course! You never think, Harry!" Hermione snapped in a sarcastic ton of voice. A ton that neither Remus nor Harry had heard before…a ton that made Remus shivered. "Maybe that's another thing that Professor Larousse could teach you!"

"Hermione, I swear-"

"Please, Potter, I am done with your lies!"

"Enough!" cried Remus. "Enough! I know you two have to talk about Claire, er, Professor Larousse-"

"How did you-" questioned Harry.

"I knew who she was since the beginning, Harry. Tonks told me. I just didn't say anything because it wasn't my place. That's something you need to discuss alone. What I want to know is why did you hit her, Harry."

"I don't know what happened, Remus."

"It's easy! You hit me!" yelled Hermione.

"You call my mom names!"

"Whoa! Whoa! Hermione, what did you say about Lily-" Remus was saying when he noticed Hermione's eyes. They were black. Lifeless.

With a fast movement, she put her hands on her temples and began to shake her head.

Remus and Harry exchanged worried glances. Harry came towards her and put a hand on her shoulder.

"Hermione, sweetie-"

She snapped and looked at him, as she never had seen him before.

"I am sorry what I said about your parents, Harry," she said.

"It's okay, luv. I am so-"

"I have to see James, " she murmured as she didn't heard Harry. "I have to see James."

And she left the room.

Harry was about to follow her but Remus stopped him.

"No, Harry," said Remus, " We need to talk. Tell me, what really happened."

"Well, after Hermione left the manor I came after her and she was here…packing," Harry said in a painful voice. "I tried to talk…apologize- but, I don't know- she-she laughed."

Remus' eyebrows arched in question.

"Laughed?"

"Yes, she laughed and then…and then she said that Snape was right about me. About my dad. And then, she said something not so nice about my mom."

Remus nodded.

"And," Harry continued, "I don't know what happened. I just felt so much angry towards her and I-I-" The young wizard couldn't continue. Hot tears began to drop from his emerald eyes.

Remus came towards him and hugged the young man.

"I hit her, Remus," Harry sobbed. "I hit her!"

Remus broke the hug and look Harry into his eyes.

"Harry, what you did was uncalled. Terrible. I can't pad your head and say that everything is gonna be alright. A relationship isn't only snog and shag. A relationship is about love…and trust. I know you love her, Harry, but sometimes, only love isn't enough."

"But Remus, I swear, I didn't do anything!" Harry said wiping his tears, a little ashamed that he had cried in front of Remus.

"This isn't about what you did, Harry. This is about what you said, or what you didn't say. I should have told Hermione about Claire."

"I know. I know."

"I think you two need to talk; and not only about Claire but also about your behavior towards a certain Mister Wood," Remus said.

Harry groaned and Remus smiled despite the situation.

"Harry," Remus spoke again after a few moments in silence. "Is everything alright with Hermione? I mean, about her behavior."

Harry closed his eyes as he tried to remember something.

"Yeah. I mean, it's nothing very noticeable. Just a few things. Sometimes she seemed very irritable and she doesn't have much patient with James." Harry decided not mention the silence charm. "And she is having dreams-"

"Dreams?" asked Remus. "But Nymphadora said that the disguise potion-"

"No, I don't think it's about that. You see, one night she woke up screaming. I asked what had happened and she said it was nothing. And just a couple of days ago I heard she murmuring while she was sleeping."

"What did she say?"

"She said, 'I have to go James. I have to go'."

"She is dreaming about your son, " Remus said almost to himself.

"I think so. Remus?"

"Yes, Harry?"

"What do you think is going on with Hermione? I mean, look at her today. Did you notice her eyes? And what she said about my parents…I don't know…it was like she's a totally strange person. It wasn't her. I can't loose her, Remus. I just can't."

"I don't know, Harry. I don't know but we need to find out."

You won't believe, James," complained Sirius Black, "that toad of my brother wanted to talk with me!"

James Potter looked at his friend in surprise. Lily stopped her reading and also looked at Sirius.

"Regulus? What did he want?" James asked.

"Oh, well, I don't really listened to him. I made him leave my home!"

"Sirius!" cried Lily in annoyance. "Why did you do that? He is your brother!"

"He is a bloody death eater, Lily!"

"Still!"

"Lily-" was saying James when Sirius began to speak again.

"However he said one thing before he disapparated that, um, made me wonder."

"What did he said, Pad?" asked James.

"He said, 'horcrux'."

James' eyes opened wide.

"Do you think-"

"I don't know, James."

Lily looked at them in confusion.

"What are you talking about? What is a horcrux?"

"Don't you know what is a horcrux?" asked Sirius in disbelieve.

"Obviously not!"

"She is a muggleborn, Sirius. This isn't something we learn in Hogwarts."

Sírius nodded and explained everything he knew about horcruxes.

"Oh, my! That's horrible!" said Lily.

"Man," commented James, "you really know about this stuff."

"Prongs, my dear friend, I am a Black."

"Too true. Too true."

Suddenly, a baby's cry was heard…and Hermione Granger woke up.

A week had passed and the 'situation' between Harry and Hermione was far from good. Okay, Hermione wasn't fighting or yelling at him anymore…to tell the truth, she wasn't speaking to him.

Harry told Ron what had happened and why he loose control and hit Hermione. Ron forgave him but only after punched Harry himself.

Harry's training wasn't going well either.

First, the training with Remus…He badly could make some furniture stir.

Then, the training with Mad-Eye. Merlin, Harry simply couldn't kill that bloody rabbit! He couldn't even make the rabbit faint!

At that moment he was there, in McGonagall's manor, waiting for Claire. And what a surprise! When Claire showed up she wasn't alone. She was with Ginny.

"Ginny? What are you doing here?"

"Good afternoon to you too, Harry," Ginny said smiling.

"Er, good afternoon but tell me what are you doing here?"

"Well, I asked Professor Larousse if I could have some physical training too. You know I can't use magic because I am not seventeen yet but I think it may be good. This doesn't mean that I intend to fight but it's good to be prepared. At least I can run faster."

"Er, but what about your mom?" asked Harry.

"Well, she didn't like it very much but I said I was too boring and I need some exercise. So, here I am! You don't mind, do you?"

"Of course not."

Oh, man, Hermione will be so pissed off!

They're training for about two hours when that happened. Harry didn't know exactly how that had happened. The fact is, somehow, Ginny lost her balance and the two of them fell on the ground- Ginny on the top of him.

"Er," Harry said, a little shy, trying to get up but Ginny didn't move.

The youngest Weasley looked at him with brighten eyes, leaned her head and kissed him on the mouth.

AN: So, what do you think? Tell me!

But first, I few things…I know that in the first part Harry and Hermione were a little OOC but that was on propose, okay? If you had noticed, I didn't 'write' their 'feelings' during the fight…so, er, lets say there is something behind their behaviors.

Oh! And thank you so much who read and reviewed last chapter!

Kisses!

And if you live in Brazil…

Happy Tiradentes' Day!