Dauntless Dimensions
Chapter IX
Its Dauntless in this New Year
It was the fourth of January, and Ginny Weasley was at the train station smiling as Harry gave her a huge hug, and a sneaky kiss to the lips when those around them except 'his girls' looked away, and making her swoon, before he bound onto the train with Susan and Dora sneakily kissing her too when hugging her goodbye while giggling before skipping onto the train after Harry while he laughed and offered a wink. She had hugged him back, of course, and even returned the kisses, and hugs while blushing up a storm as the other girls gave her a teasing grin, and blew her an extra kiss each.
During the holidays, Ginny had spent more time at Harry's place during the holiday than just that long weekend. She had slept over plenty of times, no matter how much her mum might complain; it was nice making new friends.
Harry was always so kind and funny, smiling and looking after her, and well, lots of things. He was not like most boys, as he didn't mind hugging or cuddling, and taught her lots about the muggle stuff he had at his house, which was a lot of cool things, she found she missed as much as him when she had to go home. Harry had even bought her a mobile phone to use, which did all sorts of amazing things, and meant she could talk to him or any one of her sister-wives (as long as they had a phone) any time she wanted. The phone had to use a little magic to shield from magic, and so that it always returned to its owner for safety reasons, but other than that, Harry made sure the monthly bill was paid, with unlimited everything.
Of course, Ginny agreed to marry Harry, especially if it would help her family, but Harry was a great and kind guy. Though, her mum was still angry about the whole marriage thing, but that was mostly with Dumbledore for being a stupid git. Thankfully, though Molly was uncertain about Harry's Slytherin wives to be, she did like Harry once she got to meet him properly. However, Ginny did feel that she must do what was right by her, and her family if she could; as long as it was with such a nice and fun boy, as Harry.
Ginny might have just been a silly girl crushing on her hero, but meeting him and spending time with him, she came to a conclusion, everything she had heard about him was rubbish and silly. He was so much stronger and nicer than she had been told in the bedtime stories. He was disobedient and in control of himself, and did not even like Dumbledore, so completely out of some silly old man's control.
Harry didn't answer to any authority, not even his guardian, Sirius Black, and even when Andromeda told him and Dora off for disappearing that first day he didn't seem to care. Not much like the Dumbledore follower, she had been led to believe. He was free, independent, and she couldn't deny there was something different, special, amazing about him. He had power, and you would have to be blind not to notice.
Ginny liked to see the freedom and mischief in Harry's eyes. It made her smile, and the way he would hug her, so caring, nothing like her brothers, most of them were jerks. It made her smile as she waved the train away with Harry and her new friends onboard. She loved them all so deeply, and would miss them greatly, especially Harry and Susan.
It was nice that she was getting on so well with Dora and Susan, but she did worry that she might not get on so well with the Greengrass sisters, as they were both Slytherins, (well the first was; the second to be sorted in her year). Though, if they weren't worth it, Harry wouldn't have vouched for them, even though he hadn't met the youngest yet, who would be in Ginny's year.
Ginny sighed, as it was nice having a few new girl friends since she only had her best friend, Luna before, and they didn't get to hang out too much lately, even though they lived so close. Luna was always off looking for some odd creature that may or may not exist, and was a little crazy, so when they met up; they didn't talk about normal things like she could with Susan, which was nice, though she still loved Luna to bits.
They were best friends, and secretly hoped that Luna would become one of Harry's wives too, because she knew that out of everyone Ginny knew; Harry would love Luna for who she was, and enjoy her strangeness, and Ginny wanted Luna to have love like she would.
Ginny waved more as the train whistle blew, and the man along the platform checked all of the doors were closed before the train started leaving. She kept waving until the train had rounded the bend out of sight. She would miss them, but come September the first she would get to go with them next time; she couldn't wait, even though she knew she had too.
Turning to her mother, Ginny pretended as if the 'talk' was not going to happen again. She had been given three different versions so far. She had to wonder about her mother. She was not even eleven yet, and her mother thought she was going to do adult things like that. Maybe her mother would fail more as a mother to a daughter as she had had to deal with six sons first and foremost.
Sure, Ginny liked Harry a lot, and it was nice to cuddle, but 'that' was going quite a bit too far at her age. Could she even have babies? She was sure her mother didn't even give her a very well informed version of 'the' talk. She just gave her, these are the bad things of it, 'the' talk, which she wasn't sure was very productive for her understanding anything, and it confused her enough that she had talked to Dora about 'it', and talk about embarrassing to get a proper 'talk'.
Ginny quivered; her cheeks already lit up. If she was not mistaken, she was going to get embarrassed some more with some other bad thing of 'it'; that was just a 'mothers propaganda' according to Dora. She hadn't even known what 'it' was until her mother started in on this, and quite honestly, she would rather stay oblivious until she found out from someone Dora, preferably her age, but that was not meant to bed as she already knew too much, and feared Harry knew her woes.
However, Ginny just followed her mother dejectedly, wishing someone could possibly save her.
She wondered sadly whether Luna knew anything about it that wasn't diseases, even though they had cures anyway, and babies. She would have to invite her round for a sleepover to find out, so she could teach her correctly, just in case bad information was a pureblood thing, and Ginny didn't know whether anyone could count on Luna's father to be well informed. She hadn't had a proper, sharing a room type sleepover for a while either, so it would be fun, hopefully.
Meanwhile on the train, Harry sighed as he sat down properly after waving to Ginny as the train rounded a corner, out of sight. It had been quite the holiday, and he sat wearing some cream-coloured cargo shorts and a white tee shirt, and white running shoes listening to Tonks giggling about something with Susan as they took seats too, giving him the occasional glance, just wearing normal robes as they all floo'd to the station.
Harry mildly wondered what they could possibly have to gossip about him, but shrugged it off. They were probable still talking about this morning when he had been changing to go to school when Susan barged into his room while he was only wearing his boxers.
It was somewhat amusing as she squealed and charged out. He normally didn't lock his door unless he was 'normal' aged and with Dora, and she hadn't thought. She had been talking with Dora and Ginny about it since. He even got Susan's aunt and Dora's mum confronting him until he told them she just barged in, and he was in underwear before they left him alone, embarrassed. He shook his head clear wondering whether he should start locking his door from now on, but he always forgot anyway.
It made it worse that Sirius was mocking him, even if Remus tried to stop him, even he was supressing some snickers. It wasn't like Susan would never see him naked in the future, after the marriage thing, or before depending on what the future held for them.
However, Harry let that drop from his mind as Hermione opened the sliding door; smiling at Harry as she greeted him, Susan and Dora. He had to wonder how she somehow got to the 'magical' platform from the muggle world wearing her school uniform of robes; he had to wonder about her sometimes, and the lengths she might travel to be magical world prepared.
"Wow, Harry," Hermione said sighing, as she was surprised as he hugged her, but she hugged back before he returned to his seat and she just took the seat opposite him after he gestured for her to take the seat. "I missed you making trouble and being fun."
Harry couldn't help but laugh. "Yeah, well, don't you worry, Hermione, I'm sure you'll love what I have planned for the Welcoming Feast, but it may be a while before you realised what I've done!" he said with a crafty grin.
She rolled her eyes. "I won't doubt that at all. So did you enjoy your holiday?" she asked him, smiling.
"Yep, next time you should come over too," he said with a grin. "Dora and Susan came over, and Ginny too!" Harry laughed, holding a bemused smile he asked laughing. "So, you missed me?" He was amused, poking his tongue out childishly.
Hermione's cheeks stained red, but she replied truthfully. "It just wasn't as fun without you pulling some weird stunt." They both laughed. "Where do you live anyway? According to the paper, they say you live somewhere in Ireland, but that's all really."
Harry chuckled with a roll of his eyes. "Yeah, South Coast of Ireland," he said with a shrug. "Though we've been talking about moving some place without as much rain. Sirius was thinking somewhere like Spain or Italy, but I would prefer Australia, or Hawaii or something."
"But then wouldn't you have to go to school, there?" she asked, confused, and concerned, worried she would lose her best friend.
Harry just shook his head. "We have magical powers, Hermione, so commuting from the other side of the world is like walking through a doorway to us. We just want a change in scenery, and, well heck knows where we'll go. I left it to Sirius with Remus… oh, Remus is an old family friend, and not as irresponsible as Sirius. I'm actually hoping for somewhere near Rome if they choose Europe, as it seems like the sort of place I would like to see with all its ancient culture and stuff."
"Wow, you must be loaded if you can think about moving anywhere on the planet on a whim," Hermione said, awed. "I wish I could just up and leave to some place new, but my parents are only dentists."
Harry shrugged, feeling a little uncomfortable. "So, anyway, Hermione, how was your holiday? I only received a couple letters, but then Christmas is the time of having too much fun."
"Not when you're the family nerd," she blurted out before slamming her hands over her mouth.
Harry burst out laughing while she blushed, and the other two girls started paying attention and snickering.
"If you need a cousin or two turned into frogs, I'm sure I can sort it out?" Harry suggested, smirking.
"Harry!" Dora reprimanded. "I don't think you should even joke about that, there are morons without a sense of humour, and if they overheard-."
"I would beat them up too!" he interrupted, smirking.
"You're dangerous to society," laughed Susan, amused.
He just smirked, leaning over, and poking her small nose. "I'm not in the muggle world, but then they don't live in the dark ages."
"Anyway, how are you going to capture Quirrell?" she asked, looking at him, hoping he would dish out something amusing.
He shrugged, but with a grinning look. "I don't think you need to know of my awesome plans."
"Why would you capture Quirrell?" Hermione interrupted, confused while they laughed.
Harry looked at her in surprise. "Oh right, sorry, I forgot you still believe Snape is trying to steal the stone, but he's not, it's Quirrell. It took a while but really, Snape is obvious, but no. It could not be Snape, it's too obvious, but Quirrell, just looking, and listening, he puts everything on, over the top. Then he's the new guy, and for some reason, nobody ever lasts a full year with the defence job; it should be obvious to look at the weirdo new guy first!"
"I never thought about that," Hermione said, surprised. "Aren't you going to tell Dumbledore? You are Head Girl?" she asked, looking to Dora. "Harry could get hurt doing everything himself."
Dora looked to her, near amused. "If you think Dumbledore doesn't know, then go and tell him yourself. Trust me; Dumbledore knows a lot, since the paintings and anything else connected to the school spy on us and the other teachers."
Hermione was buggy eyed, as she hadn't thought about that. "Wow, I, just wow, I hadn't even given that a thought, but it explains why Dumbledore supposedly knows so much about what goes on at Hogwarts."
"Yeah, and you were thinking Snape was the thief," Harry agreed, shrugging. "But then I had hoped he was so we would be rid of him when it came out, but, whatever," he said shrugging.
"Well, I guess we'll have to hope he screws up somewhere else or we'll never be free of that jerk!" Hermione said, smiling, amused.
"Or he could find a girlfriend and be so happy, he stops being an arsehole?" Dora suggested while snickering, and got three eye rolls for her troubles.
They soon settled into a rhythm of chatting about the holidays and waiting to get back to school for the new term welcoming feast. However, after the whole trip Hermione, Susan, and Dora noticed one thing, one important thing. Harry had disappeared, and they worried what he was up to as they remembered that this feast was the feast he was going after Quirrell on, even though the stuttering bore-pot was sitting at the teachers table without a clue.
Meanwhile, after knocking out that giant three-headed dog, Harry had to burn some annoying weed that tried strangling him to death. However, he had thought that would be the most annoying, until he came across a room with thousands of fluttering winged keys all over the place.
Looking around the compact room, Harry saw three old and badly maintained flying broomsticks floating by the door he entered. He thought about using a broom as they were intended, (though why anyone would leave the way through, seemed incompetent, but maybe it was a magical world thing? Or that was why they were such shoddy brooms,). However, instead he decided to just watch the keys for a moment, as they fluttered. They were rather enjoyable to way, and swam around the air like thousands of tiny migrating birds.
Harry looked from the keys to the next locked door. It was a big rusty lock, so the key was probably big and old, but that didn't matter as the wall next to the door was strikingly weak, and caved open with a single kick. Harry shrugged and walked in, nonchalant, and rolled his eyes, because if Voldemort had trouble with any of these 'traps'; Harry was not impressed.
Walking into the next dark chamber, Harry mimicked closing a door behind him while chuckling, and feeling the air through the darkness, Harry knew wherever he was, it was exceptionally vast. Though, Harry felt that he was prepared for anything, but when the touches' blazed to life he wasn't prepared for a giant chess set. However, he just walked around the side where a chess piece graveyard lay, and then through to the next room, frowning as nothing stopped him cheating. Harry felt like someone using cheat codes while playing a video game, it was that easy.
"Wow," Harry muttered to himself, annoyed. "If anyone is stupid enough to go through the trouble of all these tests when so far, stun the dog, burn the plant, break the wall and walk around the edge are the walk-through guide, I'll shake their hand, and give them the gaming 'trophy' myself, for being idiots," he said as he came across a surprised and dopey looking troll.
"Seriously, and the other teachers didn't question this?" he asked himself, near amused as the dog was obviously Hagrid's, the plant, Sprout's, the keys Flitwick's, and the chess set, McGonagall's, so this had to be Quirrell's. "Really, what kind of 'teacher's' do we… ahh… maybe the other teachers don't know what the other obstacles are, only Dumbledore does!" he said thoughtfully as he dodged the club swing nonchalant as the 'monster' gained some sense that Harry was there.
"Hey mate, quit that!" Harry said, annoyed as he caught the club with his left hand; its hit causing a boom as it crashed. The ugly things eyes opened wide with mad shock, struggling, but Harry's fingers crunched into the rough wood, holding it steady.
Harry's eyes were like frost as they investigated the trolls. "Mate, you have no idea who you're pissing off!" he said, annoyed as he tore the club from the baffled, angry, growling troll and broke its jaw as he hit it, breaking the clubs handle.
"Time for you to burn!" Harry added, and as he said the words, a fireball started forming in his hand. "Fira!" he hissed as the fireball burst out, engulfing the troll in flames. It seemed oblivious for a moment before it started screaming, charging Harry, he sidestepped and it bumped into a solid wall.
Harry watched for a moment as it cried, falling to the ground, and withering in agony, burning to death. However, Harry could not care less. The creature may be stupid, but it didn't have to attack. It could have just looked the other way, but it chose to attack a creature so much more dangerous.
Shrugging, Harry continued on to the next room, ignoring the monsters cries of pain. If the monster hasn't any self-preservation instincts that normally kicked in at out-strength-ing it then that was its problem. He thought its senses would have realised that Harry was the predator or something.
Harry frowned as he entered the next room, yellow flames lighting up the door he entered while black flames led the way forward. He rolled his eyes as he looked at the weird poem and the bottles of potion on the only table in the room. Why would anyone really leave the way to walk through the black flames? Though, knowing Dumbledore, Harry knows he had.
However, Harry just used 'break', and the black and normal flames went out like he blew out the candles on his birthday cake early.
"They don't make magical flames like they used too," Harry commented to himself, laughing as breaking was fast becoming his most useful spell. The world break was from didn't have near this much use for it. "Though, thinking about that, I could have probably grabbed the key earlier too with the same spell," he said, shrugging as he finally entered the next room, bored with how easy all of this had been.
Shrugging, as one man's stupidity was his gain; he entered the next room, bored with how easy this had been. It was just a large brick room, dead end with a large mirror sitting in the centre doing nothing. Harry took caution as he approached, but looking into the mirror, he saw himself, and only himself, and it was confusing.
"Mirror mirror, who's the coolest of them all," Harry said jokingly, and as expected it only showed him, and if it really did show anything you wanted it to, and then it was pretty cool. He looked the mirror over but other than some Latin that named it, and some crap he couldn't see any sign of where the stone was.
"Wait a moment. I've seen stuff like this," Harry said, looking closer. "Yeah, it's probably some kind of freaky enchantment like from TV or Video Games!" he said to himself looking over the mirror, as his newer home world did have those things too.
It took but a moment for his reflection to show him the red stone and then place it in his pocket, and for real him to actually-have it drop into his pocket.
Harry set up his bomb around the mirror so it would destroy the mirror, the stone, and the evil mo'fo trying to steal the stone. Knowing Dumbledore, he wouldn't check on it, so, unfortunately wouldn't die instead, or as well, but whatever. As long as one irritating bastard met a gruesome end, along with the stone, then who cared? He bet its creator had spares, and only gave Dumbledore it, or a fake just to get him to piss off.
Harry made it in quick time back out of the 'traps' where the giant three-headed dog had woken up, but it just whimpered as it saw him fly out, lobbing the broom back down after him. Harry then pacified their fear with a scratch behind the ear each and a promise to bring them a treat, something he should have just done anyway. After all, they may be guard dogs; they loved a treat just like any other normal doggo, and any pet of Hagrid's likely all turned out to be big softies.
Shrugging, Harry left the dog(s) and found his way back to his seat at the Ravenclaw table next to Hermione while she looked at him for an answer. He just gave her this amused smile that bugged her, and didn't tell her what he had been up too. Though, just a glance at the teachers table showed that Dumbledore was worried as he wasn't oblivious to Harry turning up to dinner so late.
Harry looked to Hermione as she gave him a 'look'. "You probably don't want to know, Hermione, but it's all in the good fun of being a hero. Oh, and don't forget, next holiday, you're welcome to stay over as long as you want," he added with a smirk.
Later that month, Hagrid almost got Harry and Hermione into trouble when they were sneaking Norbert; the Norwegian Ridgeback Dragon, Hagrid had won off 'some bloke in the pub' (that was probably Quirrell/Voldemort), out of school to be taken to Charlie, Ginny's brother who worked with dragons in Romania.
It was a good thing Harry could reverse time, because Malfoy had found out and grassed on them, and they had forgotten the invisibility cloak. But Harry reversed time enough to remember it. Though, Hermione never had a clue. McGonagall, unlike Malfoy, did not catch them in the end.
Harry guessed Quirrell would soon go after the stone, and was just waiting for the explosion to announce the end of Quirrell's life. Harry wondered whether he would be lucky enough for the Mako bomb to destroy Voldemort as well. But figured evil bitches like him weren't that easily rid of, or he would be gone already. Anyway, Harry really wanted to spend some time 'punishing' him eventually when he finally found a way back to life.
Harry and Hermione had just found out Professor Dumbledore was not in school, on Valentine's Day. Harry had sent a large bouquet of roses to Ginny, and given some to Dora, Susan, Daphne, and even Tracey, with more being sent to Astoria; in every different colour he could find. Harry wasn't sure what all the colours symbolised but he was sure his girls would love them anyway.
However, the look of humiliation and joy on Hermione's face when he handed her a bouquet too was a priceless treasure, and Dora had a laughing fit just watching her, and Harry made it worse as he kissed Hermione's cheek, and she looked like she might forget to breath, and pass out, but luckily, she didn't or she would be teased forever if Dora had her way, and she wasn't sure she wouldn't be reminded of her reaction any chance the older girl got.
Down in a chamber beneath the school, Quirrell and his master were nearing their target: The Philosophers Stone, and it was nearly in their grasp, and they had just taken the correct potion to get through the flames to a large chamber where they came across a large golden framed mirror.
It was then when some bleeps caught their attention. Looking down at his feet, Quirrell saw a little black box with a red screen with blinking writing that was getting faster.
It was fastened to the floor at the base of the mirror.
"Too late Quirrell and Voldemort," Quirrell read in shock. "I've already stolen the stone, goodbye, lots of love, Harry Potter."
"What!" they both screamed in shock as one continues beep sounded. The last words the Professor muttered were. "Oh shit," as Voldemort tried to make him run as the Dark Lord realised what Potter left for them, and Quirrell got the impressions from his master, and all would not be well. Then an explosion of fiery death engulfed Quirrell, and rocked the castle at its foundations, but magic, and good construction held everything together perfectly. Though, unfortunately, Quirrell wasn't made as well as the school, as he knew no more and Voldemort's spirit screamed his outrage and ran away, fleeing the castle in need of a new scheme to bring him back to life.
Harry and Hermione were just heading outside, Hermione still embarrassed, but she had been so happy putting her new flowers in a vase, and leaving them on her bedside table, as her heart was light, and she was ecstatic to have such an amazing and thoughtful best friend.
However, Harry and Hermione were startled from their walk, when Albus Dumbledore came rushing into the Entrance Hall. He looked shocked to see them, and Harry smiled at him cheekily as his watch bleeped. The old man really needed a clue. Harry smiled brighter. Then a huge explosion rocked the castle at its very core. Hermione had to hold onto Harry to keep from falling down. The shaking ground didn't even faze Harry, as he helped his friend stay on her feet. Soon however, the ground slowly stopped shaking, and Hermione reluctantly let Harry go while blushing brightly. Though, Harry hadn't noticed Hermione's embarrassment as Harry's eyes were on the old man.
Dumbledore looked at Harry in shock. He had very little doubt that Harry was the cause of that explosion by the cheeky, and mocking 'ha-ha,' look on his face.
"Professor Dumbledore," Harry said pleasantly as though what just happened was a normal everyday occurrence. "Next time you hire a defence teacher, make sure he isn't an evil git bent on stealing Philosophers Stones, to resurrect Dark Tossers."
Harry then took the shocked Hermione Granger by the hand, and led her outside, and they walked off. She must have also realised Harry had destroyed Quirrell. Albus wondered where the stone was though, and whether it survived whatever Harry used to blow up Quirrell, which was likely to be something muggle made, like a bomb.
Dumbledore then laughed a little humourlessly. Harry stole the stone first. He had to hand it to the boy, as he was good. The other teachers thought him a lazy troublemaker, though McGonagall suspected there was more to him than he showed the staff, and loads of people really liked him. Albus shook his head clear when he saw the other teachers coming over.
Dumbledore - along with McGonagall, later walked in shock through the key trap to find the door leading to the next room still closed and locked with a wall to the side smashed down. They had already found the three-headed dog unconscious. They continued through finding the giant chess set had been ignored.
"Albus who could have done this?" asked McGonagall shakily.
He sighed tiredly. "Harry Potter did this," he replied nonchalant.
"B-but he's just a first year."
"He may have used muggle means," the old man replied grimly. "We both know that the muggles are rather clever."
"But still, he's eleven for Christ's sake," she retorted doubtfully. "And even if he did, what could we do?"
"Um, nothing," he replied sadly. "We can't prove anything. And even if we could the ministry won't be too pleased to learn what we hid in the school."
Harry spent the rest of the summer happily causing mischief. He had even roped the Weasley twins into helping him with some of his more elaborate Slytherin pranks. Their favourite to date was their Malfoy clothe eating prank, but they also used a hypnosis charm so he did not notice. The charm would eat away at his clothes leaving him in a pink bikini. It was hilarious, and the school was talking about it and mocking him for weeks.
Pansy Parkinson, a horrible Slytherin girl had recently pissed Harry off by trying to hex him, so Harry gave her an amusing potion to make her blurt out embarrassing truths. It turned out that she was jealous of Daphne and Tracey, and even Hermione for having such a thoughtful boy between them.
Harry felt a little guilty about that prank, though everybody laughed when she spoke her truths, it probably wasn't fair of him, and she had found the antidote left for her by lunch with a warning to be careful about what she says, and since then, she stopped being as bitchy.
Harry and Hermione were eventually back, on the Hogwarts Express heading back to Kings Cross station, where Harry knew he'd get to see Ginny again, and maybe her best friend eventually. Luna. It had been too long, even if it was only a few months. He missed Ginny; she was adorably amusing. Harry couldn't wait for her to join him at Hogwarts to assist in tormenting a certain old man.
Ten points to the house that got it right.
"You did that to that Parkinson girl didn't you?" Hermione suddenly accused, as they took their seats. "With the truth and everything?" she asked with a small smile at the memory. "I feel kind of sorry for her, as she doesn't have the guts to just make friends with us, and be normal, you know?"
Harry shrugged with a small smirk. "Yeah. I asked Daph and Tracey to try being a little nicer to her, and she kind of seems to be trying to be a nicer girl… wait, are you annoyed about that, Hermione?"
Hermione shrugged with a small smile. "No. It was pretty funny, but I'm glad you gave her the antidote, instead of waiting for it to wear off..."
Harry chuckled. He thought he might be having a bad influence on her. He loved her to bits, and was glad he met her. And yes, he knew she was having more than friend feeling for him, but he couldn't help that, and if she wanted to be more than friends in the future, he would be okay with that. It wasn't like one extra wife would be a problem, especially when he met his other half and hoped she was into weird stuff like that.
"That was quite funny, at first," he admitted. "Though, I didn't like that I made her cry like that; she didn't deserve to feel like that."
"Yeah," Hermione agreed with a sweet smile. "She may be a little racist, and a bit of a… naughty girl; I think she's a good person deep down. I just hope that Malfoy doesn't snub her when they're older, and gets a clue."
Harry smiled at her his eyes twinkling in mock of Dumbledore. "Yeah… probazzbly been friends for years by the way. Malfoy lets her be so close to him, and most boys our age are a bit more on the dim side."
Hermione paled a little and frowned. "A-and you're not?"
Harry shrugged impishly, and winked, causing her cheeks to light up. "If I am, just be upfront with me, Hermione, because I'm freaking awesome, and I promise, if its within my power, I will never hurt you, or any of my friends… I'll do everything within my power to make sure you have an amazing time in whatever you want."
Hermione smiled smittenly. "Thanks, Harry… but big headed much?" she asked amusedly while he just shrugged and blew her a cheeky kiss that made her blush a little more before she managed to regain herself. "A-anyway, eh, whatever happened to the Philosophers Stone?" she asked to change the subject.
Harry grinned and pulled off a little his wooden amulet box from around his neck. Hermione watched him curiously, as she had never noticed the amulet until then, and watched as he opened a disc shaped amulet. Then a red stone fell out, and she gasped.
"Oh my god," Hermione shrieked. "You stole the Philosophers Stone."
Harry giggled. "Yep, bloody awesome, isn't it?" he asked handing it to her.
Hermione could barely believe she was holding the most valuable stone in all of history, and her best friend had stolen it. She knew he was the only person too ever show any interest in her, and was the most interesting and fun person she had ever met. She knew she loved him, and the fact he had shown her, and admitted to her his crime, realised he cared for her like that too. But to steal, the stone from all those traps was brilliant. And right out from under Dumbledore's crocked nose.
"How did you do it?" Hermione asked in wonder as she handed him back the stone.
Harry laughed. "Okay. I'll tell you. But not here. I'll meet you on the fifth of August in the Leaky Cauldron, where I'm meeting Ginny… maybe even her friend Luna if she's allowed. Then you can stay around my house until school. We'll floo to mine after we've done our Hogwarts shopping. That way you'll get a whole month with your family, and a month with me..."
Hermione brightened, as she had been invited before, but nothing so concrete. "Okay. I'll have to ask my mum and dad first. Who's Ginny and Luna?"
Harry chuckled. "She's Ron's younger sister. She's also one of my future wives… and Luna is her best friend. They live near each other, and they'll be going to Hogwarts September with us."
Hermione smiled slightly, but it would be nice to have another girl or two to hang out with during her shopping trip. "Okay. I can't wait."
All too soon, the train had arrived at the station. Harry had introduced Hermione to Ginny before they had all parted ways.
to be continued…