Chapter 14
Harry and Hermione were lying on her bed, side by side. She was leaning her head onto his shoulder, with her eyes closed, and his left arm was wrapped around her shoulders.
Both of them had been content to keep things just to snogging in their impromptu session. It was a good thing, too, because they only realized that the door to the room had been left open the entire time after they had finished and shifted into their current cuddling position. And of course, neither of them wanted to get up now and disturb their position just to shut it after they were done, since they were still fully dressed anyway.
After another minute or so, Hermione couldn't resist heaving a happy sigh. She heard Harry speak right afterward, and she could almost see the smirk on his face just through his voice. "Enjoying yourself?"
Without moving at all, she simply grinned and replied, "Is that an actual question?"
That caused him to quietly laugh for a couple of seconds. "No, I suppose not."
At that point, she opened her eyes and moved to lie on her right side so that she could gaze at him. Not an instant later, he pulled his arm away from her and then turned onto his left side.
They silently stared into each other's eyes for a few seconds before Harry asked, with a bit more seriousness, "So, what brought all that on?"
The corners of her mouth twitched before she playfully said, "Well, considering I would have kissed you during our brainstorming if not for the fact that it probably would have distracted us from our musings for a while, along with how you stopped me from hugging you after you performed that first wandless Levitation Charm, I had some catching up to do."
He laughed again for a few seconds, but then his expression became quite soft. He whispered, "It still amazes me how I'm getting the chance to just be a normal teenager. Lying here with my girlfriend after we just finished snogging each other senseless. No worrying about megalomaniacs with visions of immortality hunting me at every moment of the day. Actually having – "
He abruptly stopped for a second. When he continued, it was obvious from his choking tone that there was a lump in his throat. "Having a chance to be happy, when I spent so long believing that was just something that I would never truly experience."
Unable to resist, Hermione scooted forward a bit to touch her forehead to his. Then, staring right into his eyes with all the love within her, she whispered, "That's all I ever wanted for you, Harry. For you to be happy."
The smile that rose to his face was watery but genuine. He responded just as quietly, "And you've done a wonderful job so far."
She knew that his moment of depression had completely passed when he then smirked and said more playfully, "But of course, you've always been brilliant at everything you put your mind to, so there's no reason it would be any different in this case."
She couldn't stop the giggles that left her at his cheeky compliment. Neither of them had a chance to say anything more, though, as there was a knock on the door at that moment.
Hermione turned over to see who was there, while Harry looked over her shoulder. They saw Jack and Miranda both standing at the entrance, small grins on their faces while holding bundles of sheets, along with one pillow each, in their hands.
Jack merely said, "Are we interrupting anything? Your sheets were finally finished, so we came to make a delivery."
As the teenagers sat up at the same time, Harry was the one to reply. "No, just lying here and talking at the moment, taking a break after Hermione finished her own practice session of magic."
To that, Miranda's grin widened just a bit as she responded, "Well, I can believe that you two were talking just now. I'm also sure that it probably wasn't just talking sometime beforehand, though you obviously didn't go too far since the door was wide open when we walked up here."
Though Hermione remained staring at her parents and couldn't see Harry's expression, she knew he must have blushed because her father started chuckling and said, "Harry, I may need to try and teach you how to bluff one of these days. Your face always reveals everything with things regarding you and Hermione."
She looked to Harry then and, sure enough, found that his cheeks were red. Without removing her gaze, she gently took his left hand in her right and gave it a squeeze. That caused him to smile and return the squeeze, and his cheeks started gradually fading back to their normal color.
With that, she let go of him and then stood from the bed, with him following a second later.
Miranda then said, "Well, if you two don't mind moving out of the way for a few minutes, I'll get the bed made again."
Hermione instantly responded, "Mum, you don't have to do that. I could take care of it myself."
Her mother retorted, "You'll be back at Hogwarts soon enough and taking care of your bed there anyway. Just let me have this while you're here."
Shaking her head in amusement, Hermione simply said, "Alright then." She and Harry then moved over to her desk to give her mum room.
The parents dropped all the bed material on the bed at first. Before Miranda could begin the process of putting the sheets back, Hermione called out, "Before you do, Mum, there's something you might like to see, if you and Dad will take a couple of steps away from the bed."
They seemed to be a bit curious but simply did as she asked. When she turned to Harry, he was looking at her knowingly, realizing what was on her mind. Leaning in so that only he would hear, she whispered, "We'll first summon one pillow each. Then, we'll set them on the floor and do the Levitation Charm on them for a minute or so. No wands, wand gestures, or incantations."
He just silently nodded. With that, the two of them waited one more second before holding their right hands out at the same time in the direction of the bed, silently willing the pillows to come to them. In an instant, a pillow zoomed over and stopped in the air right in front of each of them.
Jack and Miranda's eyes instantly widened in shock and amazement, but they had no time to say anything as Harry and Hermione grabbed the pillows and then placed them on the floor. Then, the two of them held their hands out again, thinking of the Levitation Charm. At that moment, the pillows began slowly rising into the air, continuing up until the teenagers gave the mental command to stop right below the ceiling.
At that point, Hermione looked at Harry for a second and smirked at him before then guiding her pillow to begin floating around his. As she was already looking at the ceiling again, she didn't see his responding grin before his pillow started to move in the same circular path as hers. When they increased the speed after a few seconds, the pillows appeared as though they were dancing around one another. The teenagers, too concentrated on their actions at the moment, didn't see the huge smiles that grew on the faces of Jack and Miranda as the parents marveled at the scene.
Harry and Hermione kept up their antics for about fifteen seconds before glancing at each other. With a simultaneous nod, they gently guided the pillows back down to lay on the bed again, dropping their hands and letting out small sighs after doing so.
Hermione said to Harry, "I only felt a small amount of resistance this time."
He nodded. "Yeah, same here. I think that means we really have a handle on those spells."
They both then snapped their heads back in surprise when Miranda let out a squeal of delight. The mother then rushed forward and grabbed the both of them in a hug before joyfully exclaiming, "Oh, that was absolutely amazing and wonderful! Thank you so much for letting us see that!"
She held the teenagers tightly for a couple more seconds before letting go and stepping back.
At that point, Jack spoke with a great deal of happy astonishment in his voice. "Is this something you've been learning at the school for your final year, or are you studying this on your own?"
Harry replied, "All self-taught. Hermione had the great idea that, if our intent was great enough and overwhelmed our mind in a way that our literal only focus is on casting a spell successfully, we could use that to bend our magic to perform to our will, even without using our wands."
Hermione instantly retorted, "Don't give me all the credit, Harry. You took that and came up with the ideas that we could not only deliberately use moments of great emotion to give us that focus, but also to cast spells using the wand gestures and incantations but without the wand and then slowly wean ourselves to the point that we could perform the spells with no wand, gestures, and incantations."
The parents grinned to each other for a second from once again seeing how the first instinct for the teenagers was to compliment and give credit to the other person first. Jack then said, "No matter who may have thought of what, you two should both be extremely proud of yourselves if this is something you're learning all by yourselves. I can tell you for sure that Miranda and I are proud."
The older woman just silently and decisively nodded at the statement.
Hermione gave her parents a warm, happy smile and replied, "Thank you, Mum. Thank you, Dad."
Harry, appearing as though he was beginning to choke up from emotion, simply nodded in return.
Miranda then looked over to the bed. "Alright then, let me make this bed up so that we can get out of your way. I'm sure you two have more practice that you would like to get to."
With that, she went to her task and finished in a few minutes. Once she was done, the parents bid Harry and Hermione farewell, heading across the hall to grab the sheets from the guest bed before returning to the first floor.
Now that they were alone again, Hermione shut her door before sitting down on the bed, a thoughtful smile on her face. Harry followed a moment later, sitting on her left side.
He couldn't resist asking, "What are you thinking about?"
She turned to him and said, "Just that, no matter how old I get or how many times I may hear it, it still fills me with warmth every time my parents say how proud they are of me."
He looked down at the floor, eyes growing wider and his overall expression becoming a bit tearful. He quietly said, "I think I can understand what you mean. When they included me while talking about being proud, along with them telling me earlier how I did a good job cooking breakfast, it…"
He trailed off, unable to finish his sentence. She placed her left hand on his thigh in comfort, causing him to turn his gaze to her with a small smile.
Then, she whispered, "That's what happens when you have people that care about you and want to see you do well, regardless of whether or not you have any relation."
Though he didn't respond with words, his smile did grow a bit, and the sadness disappeared from his eyes. Then, he simply put his hand on top of hers before turning his head back to the floor, smile never leaving his face as he did so. She scooted closer into his side so that she could put her head on his shoulder.
For a few minutes, the two of them just quietly sat there, never moving from their position. Hermione couldn't help thinking that, even though she and Harry hadn't even been a couple for a full week yet, this is what it meant to find someone that was truly a life partner. Someone that you could just silently sit with and be happy for the entire time while doing so, never wanting to budge.
Harry was eventually the one to end the stillness, when Hermione heard him give a quiet sigh before asking her, "As much as I hate ruining this moment, do you want to get back to our study session?"
She couldn't help smirking as she lifted her head off of his shoulder and gazed at him. She lightheartedly said, "Trying to earn another snog so soon already?"
He chuckled as he pulled his hand off of hers. "Not necessarily. I just know that you said you wanted us to do as much practice as we can while we're on holiday, since we'll have N.E.W.T. studying to do once we return to Hogwarts."
Unable to resist the tender smile that rose to her face, she replied, "It really does mean a lot that you truly want to do this independent study with me." That caused Harry to blush and give a shy smile before she added, "And yes, let's continue with it, shall we?"
She took a deep breath to put herself back in academic mode. "Alright, so. The last thing you mentioned before I interrupted things was about the use of emotions helping with creating a potion detecting spell, correct?"
He nodded and then opened his mouth to say something, but she instantly placed her index finger over his lips to prevent him from talking. "I know that you were probably about to elaborate, but let me see if I already have an idea of what you may be thinking."
He just nodded again and remained silent as she removed her finger.
She continued, "Now, I know you remember my horrified reaction at the church when you went into your hypothesis about how the two of us could have been influenced by potions in sixth year. Regardless of whether that hypothesis is actually true, my reaction can still count as a moment of great emotion under duress. And thus, if I could get my entire being to focus only on the horror that I felt during our talk that day, I could theoretically use that horror to force my magic to create a simple potion detecting spell, just like how I used my fury about needing a navigation spell to unexpectedly perform the Four-Point Spell. And by simple, I mean basically just a general 'does this object contain any kinds of potions in it' true-false kind of spell, rather than trying to have it fully identify the actual potion."
Harry gave her a great smile, making her heart flutter in happiness. He affectionately said, "As brilliant as always, Hermione. You're completely right."
Hermione couldn't help smiling right back at him. After a few seconds of gazing at one another, she took a breath to get back into study mode before saying, "So, we have a method for me to use in trying to create the spell. Before anything else, however, we'll need potions that we can do testing with. It defeats the purpose of using a potion detecting spell if we don't already have potions to use."
A pit started growing in her stomach when Harry's eyes widened and glanced away after a second, and his overall expression grew very hesitant. Unable to stop herself before she could think about her words, she said, "You're hiding something. You have to be from that expression."
He rubbed the back of his neck with his left hand before saying, "Well, your words about needing potions just reminded me that… I may have some months-old potions stuffed away in my trunk that I brewed during the summer but never consumed, which we could use for our testing."
His expression never would have fallen so much if this wasn't something he was afraid about her knowing. She had to ask, with a bit of a shake to her voice, "What kinds of potions, Harry?"
Heaving a sigh, he turned his head away from her, almost shamefully so, to face forward. Then, looking down at the floor, he whispered, "Some Sleeping Draughts, as well as… one large bottle of the Draught of Living Death."
Her mouth dropped open in absolute terror. With a much more pronounced tremble, she pleaded, "Harry, tell me you only made that potion for study purposes. Tell me that you never thought about drinking it. Please tell me that you would never have done it."
She knew the answer wasn't going to be what she wanted when he closed his eyes in pain. Then, after a few seconds, he guiltily said, "I can't tell you that I never thought about drinking it before, Hermione. Not unless you want me to lie to you."
She immediately put her right hand on his cheek, causing his eyes to snap open, and pushed his head so that she could look directly at him. With that, she begged, "Why, Harry? Why would you have thought about doing such a thing after the promise that we made to each other? After I promised you that I would be at the train platform on the first of September?"
He sadly replied, "That promise, once I remembered it, was the only thing that ever kept me from drinking it in the first place."
He lightly shook his head, eyes glancing down while doing so, before he continued. "I told you before about having nightmares every night when I returned from Australia. For that first week, it was so terrible that I thought I was simply going to die from lack of sleep. The war flashbacks, and the guilt trips over the people who died in the war or me no longer knowing my purpose in life, were already bad enough. But then, the dreams would always end up drifting to you. Not only because of everything that you suffered but also because I was so worried that I had so completely ruined my friendship with you by leaving that I may never see you again. And every single night, I would wake up screaming and crying from either watching your death or watching you walk away from me forever. It was so much more than I could stand. And when I had a flashback about the Draught of Living Death being an extremely powerful sleeping potion, it was the only thing on which I could concentrate."
He closed his eyes for a second, taking a very shaky breath while doing so. "On the afternoon that I had the potion finished and placed in a bottle, I was sitting on my bed in the Gryffindor dorm at one point. The bottle was laying in front of me. I stared at it, with the only thoughts in my mind being that I could no longer handle the sleepless nights, couldn't deal with no longer having a clear purpose in life, couldn't take the thought that I had probably driven away the last person left in my life after leaving you crying that night. And so, I picked up the bottle at that moment, intending to walk out to some remote spot in the forest and drink as much of the potion as I could before it took effect, hoping that such a large amount at once would be enough that I would peacefully go to sleep and just never wake up."
Hermione couldn't stop herself from closing her eyes and tearfully whispering, "No. No." The mere idea that Harry had ever even thought about such things was more than she could handle.
She felt him place his own right hand on her cheek, mirroring her earlier action. When she opened her eyes, though she could still see a large amount of sadness in his own, there was also the hint of determination.
He said, "But it was after I picked up the bottle that your words and voice suddenly flew to the forefront of my mind. You begging me to return to Hogwarts with you for the school year. You promising to be at King's Cross. Your last words being 'I'll see you later' instead of saying goodbye. And it was those recollections, and the momentary spark of light that came with them, that made me realize I couldn't just give up like this. Made me remember my own promise to be waiting for you on that day. And if I broke a promise to you, it would only prove that I was never worthy of your friendship in the first place. So, I dropped the bottle back on the bed and left the room to try and clear my head before I would go through with it anyway.
"At that point, I thought about regular Sleeping Draughts and went to brew some of those afterwards. But that night, when I was about to drink one, I heard your voice in my head again. This time, you told me that I may never be able to sleep again without potions if I started relying on them now. So, as tempted as I still was to just drink anyway, I stuffed all the potions down at the bottom of my trunk, to try and keep them as far away as possible. And from that point on, remembering your words gave me just enough hope that it caused the nightmares to lessen slightly, so that the most horrible ones involving you stopped coming every single night. Reuniting with you in September helped a bit more in that it allowed me to have those rare nights where a nightmare would be quick enough that I could just take a few minutes to breathe and calm down before going back to sleep. But like I told you earlier this week, I still always had some kind of nightmare every night even then. And if I was awake in the common room long before you came down, it meant that I had one of those about you."
That little bit of determination she could see in him disappeared before his next words. "Even still, I was too damn stubborn enough to try and keep my issues from you for all these months. And I was never able to muster the courage to get rid of the potions entirely, whenever my thoughts drifted back to them. With the Sleeping Draughts, they were too good to have on hand just in case, even though I ended up never using any of them because I would always hear you in my head if I thought about them after that one night, telling me again not to start relying on potions to sleep. And with the Draught of Living Death…"
His eyes glanced away in shame before he spoke again. "If I ever truly buggered things up enough that I would completely lose you from my life, well… would there even be anything left for me at that point?"
That did it. Hermione couldn't take this anymore.
She abruptly stood up, startling him as his hand dropped to the bed. Then, she took hold of his left hand in her right one and forcefully led him out of her room and into the guest room.
When she stopped them at his trunk and let go of his hand, she looked to him with tears heavily building up in her eyes. Then, she ordered to him, "Find the Draught of Living Death that's in your trunk and pull it out. Now."
Too afraid from having made her both distressed and angry, Harry immediately followed her command and dug through his trunk. A minute later, he turned to her and shut his trunk behind him. The bottle containing the Draught of Living Death, which looked to be a full liter in size, was now grasped in his right hand.
Upon seeing it, she instantly grabbed his left hand again and quickly walked them to the hall bathroom, shutting the door behind them once they were inside. She led him over to the toilet and opened the lid.
At that moment, she demanded, "Open the bottle and pour the entire draught into the toilet. Every last bloody drop."
His eyes went wide with fear at her use of language, and she knew that he was most likely thinking that he may have just ruined things regardless. But he did exactly as she wanted, and he even shook the bottle for about thirty seconds after it was empty just to follow her command to the letter.
When he stopped and nervously handed the bottle to her, she then shook it for a few seconds herself just to verify that no more potion remained in it. Then, as Harry took a few steps back, she set the bottle on the sink counter and flushed the toilet, waiting for a few seconds until the water had stopped flowing down the drain.
With that, she slowly turned to face him. He was visibly trembling, and his expression was both completely timid and absolutely terrified. But he didn't turn his eyes away from her, as though he was being led to the gallows and trying his hardest not to run away from his fate.
Her next actions, though, were definitely not what he was expecting.
She stepped up until she was barely a couple of inches from him. Then, she reached up and placed her right hand at the back of his head and brought his forehead down to hers. The fear left his eyes and was replaced by surprise.
At that point, Hermione finally whispered, "Then you now have no reason to hold onto it any longer. Because I'm never going to leave you, Harry. Ever. If I have my way, we'll have a very long and happy life with one another before finally going to our deathbeds together."
Her firm statement caused him to let out a watery yet relieved laugh for a few seconds. When he stopped, however, he became timid again and said with a quivering voice, "Hermione, I – "
She interrupted him by placing her left index finger over his lips, causing him to close his mouth. She held it there for about five more seconds before pulling it away.
Then, she responded, "I can't say I'm not upset about the fact that you ever even thought about drinking that potion. Which is why I forced you to get rid of it right now. But I am glad to know that there was still a part of you smart enough to remember that you were never alone, though I'm also sorry that it took me so long to physically come back to you."
She then took a longer breath before nervously speaking her next words. "Just answer me this one question now, Harry. Have you… ever thought about that potion at all over the past week?"
His timidity instantly disappeared as he resolutely answered, "No, not once. After everything you've done since the night in the common room, after the way you said in the Forest of Dean, with no hesitation, that you would never leave my life no matter how much I thought I didn't deserve to have you in it, I know exactly where I belong. That's why I was so surprised after you talked about needing potions for testing purposes. Because it made me recall for the first time since last week that those potions were still hidden in my trunk, and that I needed to get rid of them now that we were together. But of course, you instantly realized from my expression that something was up. And now, here we are."
Then, his expression and next words were both utterly full of remorse. "But still, Hermione, I am so sorry for scaring you so badly with that confession. For forgetting about your words in Australia until I was standing at that precipice. For being too stubborn and trying to hide my issues from you until last week, in a very misguided attempt to not place burdens on you and risk losing your friendship that way. I know that words alone can never atone for what's happened, and if there's anything at all you want from me so that I can begin making up to you and keep your trust, please, just say so and I swear I'll do it. Anything at all that will make sure I haven't just ruined things exactly like I feared I would."
By the end of his apology, his expression was completely miserable, just as he'd appeared when she first faced him after flushing the draught. Along with that, tears were now slowly starting to fall down his cheeks.
His expression started to get more fearful when she didn't immediately say anything. After waiting for ten seconds, she finally spoke. "First, a rhetorical question for you to answer anyway. You said, on the first day of this school year, that you would never break a promise to me. Do you still mean it?"
The fear in his expression was replaced with confusion, but he didn't hesitate when he answered, "Yes, I do. Then, now, and always."
She couldn't help the tiny smile that came to her face with that response, which put a small light of hope in his eyes. Then, she decisively stated, "Then just promise me one thing, Harry."
He pleaded, "Anything, Hermione. Just name it."
At this point, she put her hands on his cheeks and began softly wiping away the tear tracks on his face, until his tears finally stopped about thirty seconds later. He was once again looking at her with some surprise. And it was here that she tenderly gave her request.
"Promise me that, if you ever have any such thoughts again going forward, or anything that you simply feel you could use a bit of support to handle, you'll come to me as soon as you think about it. Don't let it sit and begin to fester in your mind, just come straight to me. Even if you have to pull me out of class to talk to me, don't hesitate to do so. No matter what troubles come to you, never forget that you don't have to deal with any of them alone, Harry. I'll do anything and everything to help you through them, just like I've always tried to in our friendship."
Her statements finally washed away all of the timidity and terror that had filled him, leaving only the wonderful affection he felt for her. After a few more seconds, he gave a small smile and replied, "I promise, Hermione. On everything that our relationship is, I promise that I'll tell you."
That made her smile in response as she wrapped her arms around his neck. He hugged her around the middle in return.
And as she gazed into his eyes, she lovingly replied, "Then we're alright, Harry. I promise you that."
His smile widened in happiness, and upon seeing it, she couldn't resist taking his lips with her own in a gentle kiss.
The kiss lasted for about ten seconds before they pulled their mouths away. Then, Harry quietly said, "You really are too good for me in every way, you know that?"
Hermione gave a low but amused snort in response before saying, "Even if that were actually true, I would still choose to be with you, no matter what."
He replied with nothing but tenderness, "And I'll always be thankful to you for wanting to make that choice."
She just gave him a quick squeeze with her arms, to which he smiled and nodded before finally pulling out of the hug.
At that point, he heaved a quick sigh before asking her, "So, the Sleeping Draughts that are still in my trunk. Do you want to use one or more of those for testing in this potion spell project?"
Hermione looked at her wristwatch and saw that it was approaching noon. She then said to Harry, "What do you say you stick that bottle back in your trunk, and then we take a lunch break first? It's getting close to twelve o'clock."
He nodded and replied, "Sure, that works."
After that, once the two of them reached downstairs, they ran into Miranda on the way to the kitchen. She ended up calling in Jack as well, and the group all had another family meal with some of the leftovers from the previous night's dinner, though taking smaller portions this time. While everyone ate their food, Jack and Miranda were quite the captive audience as Harry and Hermione spent time giving more details about their practice session with wandless Summoning and Levitation Charms.
Hermione couldn't help thinking, during the meal, about how much of a joy it was to see her parents always so excited to see magic or learn about its intricacies. Frankly, it was a reaction that everyone should have regarding magic. It truly was so amazing to have the ability to perform spells with a mere flick of the wrist, just like in fairy tales and other childhood stories. Maybe she would start appreciating that fact more now that the darkness of the last few years had finally been lifted. She had certainly been a giddy schoolgirl once again at starting to learn, and being successful at, wandless magic.
Once the four were finished with their meals, Hermione said to her parents, "Mum, Dad. Just to let you know, Harry and I will probably be in here for the next part of our magic session, testing potions detection since Harry mentioned having some bottles that he brewed as practice while studying at Hogwarts during the summer. So please, if we tell you not to consume anything that's sitting out, please listen."
Jack said, "No need to worry, Hermione. You two are the experts of the household with magic, so we'll listen to whatever you say."
Miranda nodded before adding, "And we'll try to stay out of your way as much as we can, so that we don't interrupt whatever you do."
With that, she and her husband poured themselves a glass of tea each to take with them. Then, the parents walked out of the kitchen, leaving the teenagers alone once again.
Hermione immediately said to Harry, "Alright, now go grab one of your Sleeping Draughts. I'll start setting up things in here."
With a silent nod, he quickly left the kitchen. She pulled out two identical coffee mugs from the cabinet and started filling each one up with tea. Harry returned at the exact moment she finished filling the second mug. When she looked to him entering, he was holding a clear bottle that showed off the purple Sleeping Draught within.
Hermione then said, "Now, I'm going to turn around so I can't see. I want you to take that draught and pour just a little bit into one of those mugs of tea. Make sure to stir and mix it in so that we can't tell any differences from the color of the tea."
He nodded, so she immediately faced the opposite direction and took a few steps away from the table. She could hear him going about his task, and as much as her curiosity was pinging in her mind, she resisted the urge to turn around until she heard him say, "OK, I'm finished."
When she walked back to the table, she looked in each mug and couldn't tell at all which of them was spiked with the potion. She then said, "Alright, I guess it's time for me to attempt my spell creation, while you still know which mug of tea is the spiked one."
He immediately asked her, "So, do you have any ideas on how you're going to go about this? It has to be you trying since I believe that your reaction to my potion hypothesis was stronger compared to my own, but what kind of movements with your wand or incantation are you going to use? Or are you going to try wandless and nonverbal immediately?"
She pulled her wand from her jeans and answered, "No, I'm definitely going to use the wand first, just so the absence of it won't be an extra variable yet. As to your other questions, what I'm thinking of attempting is to make the shape of the letter P, moving my wand from down to up in the straight line before then making the curl to finish the letter off. And I will call out 'Show Potions' as the incantation, ending the speech as I end the curl of the P movement. What I hope my magic will do is to place a lightly-colored letter P in the tea of the mug that you spiked. Basically, have a white-colored letter for dark things and a black-colored letter for light things if we try those at any point, so that the contrast will make the indication quite clear.
"And I'm already thinking, for that indicator I mentioned using for strictly poisons or venomous material, I'll just add a quick slash of my wand into the middle of the curl of the letter P instead of stopping with just the curl, and I'll use 'Show Poisons' for its incantation. And my hope and intention will be that a skull and crossbones image will appear instead of the letter, showing that the item is deadly to us."
Harry's eyebrows rose in fascination at her ideas, and a smile grew on his face as he said, "You really are brilliant, you know that? I'm not sure if I ever would have thought of so much like that so quickly."
She lightly blushed and gave a shy smile in response while saying, "You did come up with the ideas that allowed us to start deliberately performing wandless magic. But still, thank you."
She then grew more serious and took a deep breath. Looking at the mugs on the table, she murmured, "Time to truly put to the test the idea of strong emotions helping us to perform our magic."
Thus, she began trying to focus on the memory of the day at the church, and the terror she felt upon realizing that Harry was hinting to her with each point that she could have been dosed with love potions.
After a few seconds, however, another memory about potions immediately forced its way to the front of her mind. The quite recent memory of Harry telling her about having on hand a Draught of Living Death. Her whispering 'No' from hearing how closely he came to drinking it after brewing the potion. His pained confession that she had been the only thing that made his life worth continuing to live.
Then, another question assaulted her mind. She had complete faith in Harry when he told her, after they had gotten rid of the Draught of Living Death, that he had not had any such thoughts since they became a couple this week, that he knew exactly where he belonged. But what if… what if someone else drugged Harry with such a potion? Even if there were no longer any Death Eaters due to their execution, what if there were still other people that held Riddle's philosophy? Or even… what if someone at Hogwarts decided to try giving Harry a love potion like Romilda Vane had attempted, like many other girls had conversed about doing even if they never actually did so? What if someone wanted to get her out of the way and tried spiking her with a deadly potion, thus causing Harry that horrendous grief from losing her and then he would give up his own life afterward?
Tears started rising in her eyes as a single thought came to her mind and seemed to fill her entire being. No, that would never happen. Not on her watch.
With that, and not seeing Harry growing concerned at how close she was to crying, Hermione waved her wand in the shape of the letter P above the mugs, exactly like she had described to Harry, and tearfully yelled, "Show Potions!"
Terror immediately filled her when nothing happened at first. But then, after a few seconds, a white letter P slowly started to shine in the tea on her left, while the tea on the right appeared exactly as it had before her spell attempt. Her eyes widened in astonishment, waiting to see if this was a fluke and it would go away, but the P continued to remain there.
With a great smile, she turned to Harry while pointing to the left mug with her left hand and pleaded, "This one! The one on the left is the one that you spiked with the Sleeping Draught! Oh, Harry, please tell me that I'm correct!"
A huge grin came to his face as he exclaimed, "Yep, that's exactly right!"
Hermione dropped her wand on the floor and immediately leaped towards Harry with a shriek of joy. He caught her in the air and wrapped his arms around her waist, causing him to start spinning in place, while she tightly circled her arms around his neck.
As he spun her around, neither of them realizing that their shouts had gained them an audience from the kitchen doorway, she gleefully cried out, "I did it! I really did it!"
He laughed and replied, "You sure did, Hermione! Your cleverness truly knows no bounds!"
After he spun them in place a couple more times, he stopped and gently placed her feet back on the floor, ending with his back to the room entrance, before they let go of each other.
At that moment, they were both startled when they heard Jack say, "I take it we must have been successful at something, to state the plainly obvious."
Harry immediately turned around so that he was standing on Hermione's right side, and the two of them saw the parents happily watching them from the entrance.
Then, Hermione got the idea that she could show her parents. Breaking away from Harry and picking her wand back up, she whispered over the spiked mug of tea, "Finite Incantatem."
And just like she'd hoped, the letter P disappeared, leaving only two identical-looking mugs of tea. She then said, "Harry, come shuffle the mugs again, and make sure to keep track of which one is the correct one for the spell."
She turned around again, hearing Harry shuffle the mugs on the table, and waited until he said that she was all clear. Then, she called out, "Mum, Dad. Come over here."
Harry stepped out of the way as her parents walked into the room, with Miranda moving to stand on Hermione's left side and Jack standing on the right one.
Hermione then asked, "Do you notice anything different about these mugs of tea?"
The parents examined the tea for about thirty seconds, even turning the mugs in place just to check the mugs themselves, before Miranda answered, "No, they both look exactly the same to me."
Jack added, "Same to me, as well."
Holding up her wand, she knowingly replied, "Well, just keep watching."
Taking a deep breath to focus on the feeling that came with the earlier question of what would happen if she wasn't successful at creating this spell, she then waved her wand and commanded with nothing but determination, "Show Potions."
This time, after only two seconds, the white P appeared in the tea sitting on the left. Her parents gasped as she turned her head to look at Harry and said, "The one on the left again. That one is spiked with the Sleeping Draught."
Once again, he grinned as he responded, "Correct again, Hermione." Then, he added to the parents, "Your utterly brilliant daughter just came up with a spell for us that we can use to check whether anything we have is laced with potions."
Jack immediately turned to Hermione and said, "You came up with this yourself? That's amazing, Hermione!"
Miranda exclaimed, "So that's why the letter P appeared in the left tea but not the right one!"
But then, the older woman's brow furrowed in thought as she looked back and forth between the teenagers a couple of times. Then, she warily said, "Wait, is there a specific reason as to why such a spell would be necessary?"
Though Hermione was a bit hesitant to speak up with not knowing exactly what to say to her parents to mollify her mother's suspicion and concern, it seemed that Harry had a response at the ready and instantly spoke up.
"Because in sixth year, I received chocolates from a girl named Romilda Vane, a girl who was obsessed with me, that turned out to be spiked with a love potion. Hermione had warned me about a plot to slip me potions beforehand, so I never touched the chocolates. But because I never thought to just get rid of them outright, our former friend Ron Weasley ate them one day three months after I'd received them, with him assuming they were a birthday present for him, when I was looking through my trunk for something specific and just throwing things haphazardly onto my bed. And I had to take him to our Potions professor to get a love potion antidote, since he immediately fell head over heels with infatuation for Romilda Vane."
Hermione couldn't help hanging her head and quietly saying at that point, "I could have done more than just warn you. I should have actively put a stop to things."
In barely a second, a hand was pulling her chin back up, and she found herself looking into Harry's emerald eyes. As though he didn't even realize her parents were still there, he replied, "Without you, I wouldn't have known anything at all, and there's no telling what could have happened after I received those chocolates."
He dropped his hand but continued speaking directly to her. "More importantly, I also think you're absolutely right when you said at the church that we only haven't had to deal with anything like that this year because I've been such a prat to everyone."
At that moment, his voice became much more tender with his next words. "So, don't put yourself down, Hermione. You're the one that came up with the idea for this potion detecting spell. And with it, we shouldn't ever have to worry again about anything we receive or consume being laced with some kind of potion, regardless of what that potion may be."
Hermione couldn't help giving him a shy smile at once again getting to see the pedestal that she stood on in his eyes. He smiled back in return before surprising her by leaning in and giving her a kiss to her forehead for a second. That instantly replaced all of her shyness with happiness.
But then, she and Harry quickly looked to her father when he began slowly speaking. "So, these love potions. They essentially cause someone to develop feelings for another person that they otherwise wouldn't? And these potions are apparently not very hard to obtain, or even possibly make for yourself?"
Hermione sighed and reluctantly replied, "Yes, unfortunately."
Harry then quietly added, "Tom Riddle himself was actually a product of a marriage by means of love potions, where his pureblood mother dosed a Muggle man for a long period of time. When she thought that she could stop dosing him after she became pregnant, the man immediately left her once the potions in him wore off and he realized he had been forced into a relationship somehow."
Jack quickly frowned and closed his eyes in anger, his fists clenching at the same time, making both teenagers a bit nervous. Miranda immediately made her way to his side and covered his left hand with her right one. After another second, that caused her husband to take a deep breath before he opened his eyes and looked to her. He gave her a small smile and a nod before his hands both relaxed, though he shifted his left hand to link his fingers with Miranda's.
Seeing this, it suddenly hit Hermione that the way that she and Harry acted in moments of one comforting the other was eerily similar to what she was witnessing from her parents right now. That had to be a sign of things in and of itself. But she didn't get time to think any more on it as her father then turned his head back to her and Harry.
"Sorry," he said. "After you talked about that marriage by love potions, Harry, it caused me to instantly think about what if something like that happened to Hermione, and… well, you all saw my reaction."
He then spoke directly to Hermione. "You know, even after everything you revealed two summers ago that you kept from us, I never thought there could still be more terrible things that could happen in the magical world. To have the risk of actually getting physically trapped in a relationship – "
Hermione firmly interrupted her father there. "If you had known even half of what I told you had taken place through those six years of school, would you have let me return to Hogwarts?"
The expressions on her parents' faces both fell with some sadness, before Miranda regretfully answered, "No, we wouldn't have. In fact, we most certainly would have pulled you out if we had known that you spent a magical equivalent of being turned to stone for weeks in your second year."
Though her own expression remained firm, a bit of melancholy creeped into Hermione's tone when she responded. "And that's exactly why I never told you until I was already of age in the magical world. Because you would have separated me from Harry. And even at twelve years old, that was a response that I just could not allow to happen. As utterly furious as you both initially were about how I'd hidden so much from you, before I was able to convince you that I refused to back down from standing up for what I believed in and you both agreed to go along with my plan to keep you safe so that I could fight… at least I knew that you couldn't take me away from my best friend."
At that moment, she turned to Harry when she heard him take a very shaky breath. He was looking at her with tears building up in his wide eyes. She couldn't resist taking him in a soft embrace to comfort him. He hugged her back and placed his head on her shoulder, taking a deep but steadier breath at that point. He then nodded his head, signaling to her that her action was appreciated.
When they heard her mother speak up next, though Harry and Hermione didn't break their hug, they did shift their position to be standing so that they could twist their heads to the side and look at her parents.
Miranda quietly said, with a bit of relief in her voice, "Well, it certainly is a good thing that we never had the chance to pull you out, knowing how good you two have been for each other."
Her expression then became less somber. "And I'm also quite glad that you two are taking steps to keep yourselves safe with this potion detecting."
Jack remained silent but nodded his own agreement.
Harry instantly replied with quiet determination, "I don't ever want you or Hermione to be in a position of having doubts about my feelings for her. So, if there's anything I can do to keep that from happening, I'll do it."
That actually caused both parents to give him a happy smile. Then, Jack said, "Frankly, if something did happen, I'm fairly sure that the two of us would probably have suspected foul play to begin with, after what we've seen of you this week. But your declaration is still appreciated nevertheless."
Miranda added, "Nothing on Earth could fake the feelings that we've seen in each of you for the other over this holiday break. So, if something did happen and you acted in a quite different manner in comparison, we would certainly want to further investigate exactly what could have happened to cause the change."
Harry visibly choked up a bit before he was able to whisper just loud enough for all to hear, "Thank you so much for that kind of trust."
Miranda's expression turned gentle as she replied in what Hermione knew to be her motherly tone of voice, "You've earned it."
Harry just gave a slightly watery smile to the affirmation. Hermione couldn't help smiling as well, even if Harry wasn't looking at her, with how happy she knew he had to be at having people place such confidence in him.
After another second, Miranda looked to Jack and asked, "Well, with that, what do you say the two of us get out of their hair again and let them get back to practicing?"
Her husband just gave a nod.
When they turned their gazes to the teenagers again, she then said, happily and with complete gratitude, "Thank you both, though, for allowing us to witness your feats of magic. It's always so amazing getting to view what you two are capable of."
Hermione was the one to reply. "Of course, Mum. Anytime."
Her parents silently nodded and then made their way out of the kitchen towards the living room.
With that, Harry and Hermione shifted to look at each other again, having not yet separated from their hug. Hermione gave a resigned smile and said, "Well, I wasn't expecting that kind of talk. Although, my parents have also never really been slacking in the intelligence department, so I'm not surprised Mum made such a connection after you mentioned things being laced with potions."
Harry quietly replied, "I'm just glad that they trust me, now that they know about the existence of love potions."
She gently retorted, "Well, it's like what Mum said. They can see exactly what you feel for me. Just like they see those same feelings in me for you."
He gave a small smile before whispering, "Thank you again for convincing me to come here, Angel."
She affectionately replied, "Anything to help you shine, Emerald."
A low but happy chuckle escaped from him at her pun. He then brought his forehead down to hers, and the two just stood there for a minute, swaying a bit from side to side, enjoying the peaceful moment.
When Harry did pull his head away, he let out a sigh and said, "Ready to get back to our session?"
Her mouth twitched upward for an instant, but she just silently nodded.
Once they got back to work, Hermione spent five more attempts having Harry shuffle the mugs of tea around as she would then cast her spell to guess which contained the Sleeping Draught. She continued to guess correctly every time, and by the final attempt with her wand, the spell felt like second nature to her.
Then, she shifted to starting on wandless magic but using her gesture and incantation. After about an hour of attempts, she mastered the spell with the removal of the wand, wand gestures, and incantation. At that point, Harry requested that she stop and rest, since he could see her starting to get tired from her practice.
The two took a fifteen-minute break while Hermione sipped on a glass of water to refresh herself. Then, she spent a few minutes doing the wand gesture and incantation with Harry so that he would match her as closely as possible.
Once she had shuffled the mugs around while Harry had his back turned, it was time for him to begin his attempts. It took him three tries, with nothing appearing in the mugs on the failed attempts even after waiting for a full minute, before he successfully cast the spell and correctly guessed the spiked mug. He sheepishly said afterwards that he had been thinking that he was going to let her down if he failed, and that got him to become completely focused on getting the spell right. Her heart melted at the fact that he wanted to do well for her.
After performing it correctly once, though, he had no more issues on his subsequent attempts and quickly moved on to wandless casting. He practiced the spell for an hour and reached the point of being able to perform the spell completely silently and without the gesture. He did a few extra attempts like that before calling out that he was through, breathing somewhat hard but not looking quite as fatigued as their earlier session with the Levitation Charm.
Another fifteen-minute break was had to let Harry catch his breath. Then, it was time to start working on Hermione's poison-detector variation.
She went to the cleaner room and grabbed a bottle of bleach, with her argument being that it should work given that one is supposed to immediately get medical assistance if the cleaning product is ingested. Once she returned, she pulled out two new cups, filling one with pure water and the other with a half-and-half mixture of water and bleach. Hermione then asked Harry to make sure with magic that the colors and smells of both liquids were the same and then shuffle the cups while she had her back turned to him. Once he said everything was ready, and she truly couldn't tell the cups of water apart when she examined them, it was time to start the process anew of creating her spell.
This time, though, her first attempt didn't require as heavy a use of emotions as the potion detector. It seemed to her that the earlier practice of the potion detector might have been beneficial here as well, since this spell was just a variation on the original. In any case, she simply added in the extra slash with her wand at the end of the original gesture, and a small, black skull with crossbones immediately appeared in the water on her right. Harry confirmed her choice with a smile when she pointed to it. And from there, the process continued in the same manner as before, until the two of them were also proficient with totally wandless and silent casting of the poison detector.
When they agreed at that point to finally call their magic session for the day finished at five o'clock that evening, the two of them immediately wrapped each other up in a hug. After a few seconds, Hermione whispered, "Thank you again so much, Harry, for wanting to study like this with me."
She heard him chuckle for a second before he tenderly replied, "Anything for you, Hermione. Anything for you."
From there, when they told Hermione's parents that they were through, dinner was spent in a similar manner as lunch, with Harry and Hermione once again filling the parents in with more details about their new spells. Once the teenagers had exhausted their information on the spells, the group spent a few hours in the living room relaxing and watching the television.
And all too soon, it was nine thirty, and the group all headed upstairs to end the day.
Like always after they would finish brushing their teeth, Harry and Hermione stopped to gaze at each other between their rooms. After a couple of seconds, Hermione saw Harry's eyes glance past her and into her room. Knowing what was most likely on his mind, she spoke up first.
"You don't have to ask again if you want to stay with me tonight, Harry. Don't you remember our conversation from this morning when we woke up? About how we could wake up together every morning while we're here?"
He rubbed the back of his neck and sheepishly smiled. "Well, I just wanted to check and see if you were still onboard with that agreement before I made any assumptions."
A smile had risen on her face with his statement, but she remained silent as he continued, "I'll come knock in a few minutes after I get my pajamas."
She nodded her agreement, and in no time at all, the two were lying in her bed.
They remained silent, content to just gaze at each other for a minute. But then, Harry's face became quite despondent as he began talking. "Hermione, I truly am sorry for what I almost did in the summer. Sorry that I forgot your words until I was standing on the edge of the cliff. And though I didn't realize it at the time, I know now that, for you, losing me would have done to you exactly what losing you would do to me. And I can never apologize enough for putting you through the terror that you felt today while hearing my confession. Can never apologize enough that I almost went so far in the first place."
She looked at him with sympathetic sadness before placing her left hand on his cheek. Then, she whispered, "You didn't really forget, Harry. You just lost them in the shuffle a bit when your nightmares were trying their hardest to break you completely. But at the moment when you needed me the most, I was there for you, even if only in your head. And like I've mentioned so many times, I'll always be there for you, Harry. Always."
Moving forward to touch her forehead to his, she ended with, "You bestowed the nickname of Angel upon me. And I'll continue to do anything and everything so that I can live up to that name."
Though his eyes grew watery, and a tear escaped from one of them, a loving smile came to his face as he replied, "You already have, Hermione."
Rather than using words, she simply wiped the tear away before giving him a soft kiss, lasting for about five seconds before she slowly pulled back.
When they were looking into each other's eyes again, and she could see that his momentary depression had faded away, she said, "What do you say we just get some rest now? We could probably use it after our long practice session today. Not to mention, we had some fairly heavy talks, both between just you and me as well as with my parents."
He smirked for an instant and replied, "Seems you and I can't go a day without having such a talk, can we?" He then sobered up as he added, "But yeah, you're probably right."
He then put his right arm around her to hold her before leaning in to give her one more kiss, lasting just for a couple of seconds. When it ended, he whispered, "Sleep well, Hermione. Thank you for everything. And I love you."
She affectionately replied, "I love you too, Harry. And sleep well."
He smiled before closing his eyes. And it took no time at all before he sounded as though he was peacefully asleep.
Just like Christmas Eve, Hermione remained awake for a bit longer, continuing to gaze at Harry. She had to. Her mind was filled with the realization of how this moment, this entire week that she and Harry had spent growing closer, was mere inches away from never existing.
But then, she lightly shook her head and took a quiet but deep breath to clear her head of those what-if kinds of thoughts. It didn't happen. Harry was right here with her. He did remember their promises to each other. He stopped his actions that day because of her. And sure, maybe he was a stubborn git in trying to keep his problems to himself after they reunited. But even that still came from a place of him simply valuing her friendship so much that he was afraid of losing it if he burdened her.
Besides, no matter how much it pained him to answer whatever questions she had since the night of his confession in the common room, she knew that he had been totally truthful every time. Along with that, he'd kept every single promise he'd given her thus far, whether as small as not laughing at her when she sang in the graveyard or as large as the promise that he would never leave the house the day that she and her parents left to see the rest of the family. So, when he said that he had completely forgotten about those potions in his trunk after all that happened over this week, along with promising that he will come to her if he ever thinks that he's reaching another low point, she had complete faith in his words.
She couldn't help shaking her head again, but this time with a small smile. It was an astounding experience, getting to see exactly what kind of power she held over Harry. So many other people would probably take complete advantage of such power in their own selfishness. But her smile stemmed from the fact that she knew that he held the exact same power over her. And that was surely another reason as to why she thought they fit so well together. Because they both truly were willing to do anything for the other person.
At that point, Hermione couldn't resist brushing aside his hair to fully reveal the scar on his forehead. Then, she leaned forward and gave the scar a gentle, one-second kiss. When she pulled her mouth away, she didn't say a word as she snuggled closer to him and wrapped her left arm around him. She giggled in her mind when Harry, in his sleep, automatically tightened the hold that he had on her with his right arm, like she was a teddy bear.
She was able to remain quiet, though, and only then did Hermione finally close her eyes. And as she drifted off into slumber, her last thoughts were simply to give thanks that the two of them were together and would always be there for one another, no matter what.
A/N: Hopefully, the heavy material in this chapter was handled in a good way. It seems logical to me that someone who feels as though they no longer have a purpose in life could have their thoughts stray into a dark place like that. Although, that also could just be some personal experience seeping through.
To all those who made it this far, thank you for reading, and I hope you stay tuned for more!
