Chapter 2:
Harry had never been so glad that neither he nor Hermione was seeing anyone. He had brought it up earlier that day to be sure and was fucking thrilled to confirm the witch was unattached to another.
Harry had managed to pull the witch away from Flourish and Blotts after a rather amusing and endearing struggle. He was only successful after rudely commenting on the fact that she's skipped too many meals while lost in research and her jeans don't fit as tight as they usually do. The silent stinging hex she'd sent his way was worth it, just to see her all fiery and mad. Harry enjoyed the view of her swishing her hips as she stomped away before he caught up to her. He was only able to talk her into dropping by his favorite little bistro for some take-away sandwiches after he agreed to admit that he had, in fact, been checking out her arse. Then, the handsome wizard twirled his life-long companion and disapparated without a word as to where he was taking her, only to appear moments later on the outcropping of rock where Sirius Black had once hid as a furry fugitive. Blind side-alongs are something Harry never would have considered attempting with anyone other than the witch in his arms. The trust required must be bone deep for the uninformed passenger to make it in one piece without their magic subconsciously lashing out. He would never risk harming her that way, his confidence in her loyalty was absolute. He tried not to think too long on how amazing she smelled or how perfect she felt there against him in one of his favorite places on earth.
The mountain that held the small cave overlooked Hogwarts grounds including the Black Lake on one side and Hogsmeade Village on the other. After Harry had transfigured a paper napkin into a somewhat thin but functional picnic blanket, the pair settled down to enjoy the view of the castle that housed their childhood boarding school and the magical forest surrounding it. Harry had tried all morning to find a subtle way to ask if Hermione was single, and he couldn't take it anymore. So, he'd thrown caution to the wind and finally just came out with it.
"So, what happened between you and that bloke from the Misuse of Muggle Artifacts Office?" Harry laughed when Hermione pulled a face of disgust. He watched her get herself situated on the blanket beside him before sliding her shoes off and wiggling her toes with a breathy little sigh. It was insanely endearing. A wrinkle appeared on the witch's forehead and Harry realized she had decided that it was entirely too warm for the cardigan she had thrown on that morning. She shrugged off the garment while responding to Harry's question and he gave his eager dick a mental lecture at the sight of bare shoulders and sexy collarbones, lest it become extremely difficult to hide his attraction to the gorgeous witch.
"He kept trying to call me 'Hermy'. You know I can't tolerate that kind of ridiculousness and I loathe when my name is shortened," she complained.
"A nickname!? Oh, the horror!" Harry teased in an attempt to make his favorite witch smile. She made a swipe at him but he caught her hand and kissed her palm in apology.
"It's a good thing Ron never really attempted to pin me with anything new after I got him to give up on 'Mione' while we were still in school. I think the only person I might ever allow to use a true nickname for me would be you. But, you prefer to stick to generic terms of endearment like Sweetheart, Honey or Love."
"Of the terms of endearment you've heard me use, which do you like best?"
"I like 'Sweetheart' least overall." Hermione's response was immediate.
"What did 'Sweetheart' ever do to you?" Harry acted offended on the endearment's behalf.
"It's the name you use when you are attempting to gently admonish me for not taking care of myself to your standards." He had to admit she was right.
"Fair enough, what else?"
"'Babe' and 'Darling' are nice. 'Beautiful' is my favorite of the bunch so far, I think."
"All are acceptable. But, none are exclusive to you specifically."
"You go around calling many other witches 'Honey' and 'Babe'?"
"Pfft, certainly not anytime recently." The wizard recovered.
"Well even so, I wouldn't want to be confused with just any passing woman in your life. I guess if you ever decide on a pet name to use just for me, let me know." The comment was meant to sound like a throw-away remark but Harry had heard what she was really saying.
"Oh, I chose a nickname to call you in my head ages ago," Harry admitted with a smirk, his green eyes shimmering with mischief. "But, I've kept it to myself purely out of self preservation."
"Would this nickname be more appropriate in or out of the bedroom?" Hermione teased lightly, her grin naughty and the way she bit her lip was insanely attractive.
"Either really. But, if I'm being honest, I've chosen a different nickname for each scenario rather than one to use for both," he'd whispered into the space between them like he didn't want anyone to hear them talking alone on the side of a mountain. She'd then proceeded to try and convince him to tell her the nicknames he'd picked for her, but he refused her with a grin each time.
"I'm not going to confess all my secrets to you just because you pout your lips and press your tits together, but let me assure you I appreciate your efforts so much and politely request you accept suggestions from the rest of the participants on future methods of persuasion," Harry had stated cheekily, with a wink at the witch.
"Harry James Potter, you are the only other participant present." Her tone was amused as well as indignant.
"I know, Kitten." He said with a waggle of his thick eyebrows. "And this participant thinks you should take off your top altogether, but I was trying to be more subtle and less upfront about it," Harry gave her a smirk, grinning when she'd burst into peals of laughter that echoed off the hills and valleys below them. Once able to collect herself, the witch declared that she liked 'Kitten' best so far.
As they sat side by side in the cozy pub booth, Harry wondered if she was still curious over what he could possibly have chosen as her nicknames and why he would want to keep them to himself instead of just telling her.
"What are you thinking about?" Hermione asked, looking at him with those big honest eyes.
"You. Always you. Sometimes naked, sometimes not. Depends."
"Other magical beings can feel how powerful we are, Harry, even if they don't understand what they are feeling. They will act instinctively to lessen or control a potential threat, even if they would never call us dangerous out loud." Harry looked for fear in Hermione's gaze, but instead it held fire. "It's the reason why I sought you out in private when you expressed interest in pursuing Animagus transformation. It's why we decided to attempt our Animagus forms together in secret and register privately with the ICW, not with the British Ministry. We both instinctively knew we were likely to have a magical creature as our form and I still haven't figured out why we knew that. It's extremely rare and a sign of having a very large magical core. If the general public knew, people's attempts to separate or control us would become much less subtle. Sirius told me that it was one of the reasons he'd never planned to register in Britain. He'd never have been able to pass off his Grim as a normal wolf or dog."
"I'd become the bogey man in the night even more than I already am. Way worse than Sirius ever was." Harry sighed. "People love and hate me in turns. They don't know what to make of me. They already don't understand how I could have taken down a Dark Lord so much more experienced and magically knowledgeable than myself. They assume it means I performed unspeakable acts of Dark Magic to defeat him and I refuse to make the lengths that monster went to in order to stay alive public knowledge, let alone throwing the Hallows into the mix.
"So, they fear me and revere me in equal measure because I am everything they can't control. I'm lucky the world thinks I lost my parselmagic when I defeated Riddle. I don't know why they think that. It's like society decided they were just going to erase part of me they were uncomfortable with." Her wizard took a large swig of his beer before continuing. "It's crazy how much biology and the sentience of magic affect the way people react to even the smallest things, let alone the big ones. I still have no idea how I could have managed a giant magical bird for an animagus when I can talk to snakes."
"Harbingers of Death; birds and snakes. The Hallows are a part of you, Harry, regardless of their location on the earth or their physical condition. You told me you felt them bond with you, with your magical core. It makes sense if you really consider your specific magical circumstances. You could probably just call them to you if you had need of them, which is amazing and horrifying. But honestly, if you don't get to terrify people a little bit then what's the point of even getting up each morning?" Hermione leaned into his shoulder, pressing a kiss to his bicep.
One patronus later, and two new butterbeers appeared on the table. Hermione took that moment to ask the age-old relationship question, where is this going?
"So now that we've acknowledged the mild to moderate interference from our loved ones and society at large, the next question is why we ourselves have been placid in our dealings with this nonsense." She was nothing if not direct.
"More to the point, why have we never seriously considered crossing that invisible line I mentioned earlier." Harry countered.
"It's cute you think I haven't considered it. Repeatedly. In explicit detail." His witch teased, reaching up with her mouth to press a kiss to the side of his jaw.
"I know I have… since puberty. So what's been holding us back? And don't say that obvious tripe people always push about not wanting to ruin the friendship. You know as well as I do that isn't a valid risk for us and friends don't look at each other the way we do." His admission made her relax so much.
"Well I think the most obvious response is Ginny." Hermione went for the throat.
"Or Ron." Harry grasped at the only straw he had. They had dated more recently than he and Ginny, after all. But, she wasted no time in closing that avenue down completely.
"You know Ron and I would never and could never work. That ship sailed a long time ago and it's not even worth bringing up. Not to mention he is utterly hopeless when it comes to anything from simple kissing to even the most vanilla sex and I don't have the energy to tolerate someone so out of sync with my needs ever again."
"When you say hopeless?" Harry hedged.
"To this day he has never once touched my clit unless by accident and he refused to perform oral sex, which he fully expected to recieve.'' The look on his face would make Hermione laugh for years to come.
"WHAT?! But.. what? Nooooo. You... but... What?! You dated for over six months! Suffering is not a superpower, you know!"
She just gave him a look that ended that line of questioning. Hermione took the moments Harry was occupied with horror to enjoy their silent closeness and consider what they had discussed. Their conversation had traveled to a place they had never ventured before and so far they seemed to be on the same page, which was exciting. Even their chats this afternoon while up on the cliff top had been substantial in her opinion.
"Have you ever brought Ronald here, or anyone else?"
"Nope, just you."
"Just me? Why?"
"Who else? It's not just here, I haven't asked Ron to go with me to Godric's Hollow either. He just, he doesn't get it. He doesn't understand how important Sirius was to me or why I still can't bring myself to celebrate Halloween. He thinks that the war being over means that I should just forget about my parents and my godfather. Bringing him here means nothing to him."
"Well, I've always said that he has the emotional range of a teaspoon. But, I'm honored to share these places with you and not just because they hold such deep meaning for you but because of how much they mean to me."
"What do you mean?"
"Sirius was… Harry, his impact on our lives is immeasurable. It doesn't matter that he was only able to be in your life for a couple years and was forced by Dumbledore to spend that time in hiding, something I still don't understand. Sirius loved you unconditionally and did so even before your parent's deaths. You never had to question his sincerity or motivation. Sirius didn't care that you were the Boy-Who-Lived and he didn't give a fuck about any prophecy. You're my best friend, Harry, even then I knew what his support meant to you.
"Even more, he was really good to me too. Remember when he would send little notes for me in the letters he sent you? Did you ever read them?"
"No, I asked him about it once and he said you were important to me so you were important to him."
"He was making sure I was eating and taking care of myself, not letting myself get too burnt out on schoolwork and keeping you boys in line. My parents had never checked on me in that way and Molly's force-fed mothering always grated. Sirius was special, but Ron never made a connection with him so he just saw someone who was barely around. He didn't mourn with us after Sirius' death. He certainly can't comprehend the idea that your parents' love doesn't go away just because you don't remember having met them. Your parents died for you, Harry. They sacrificed their magic in a completely selfless way and that magic lives in you, protecting you. Ron doesn't understand any of that the way you do, but you've always been a lot deeper than him, emotionally speaking."
"You know, it's pretty attractive when you're being nice to me."
"What about when I'm being mean to you?"
"Hot as fuck."
After a few moments more to process the disaster that was his closest friend's prior sex life, Harry finally was able to pick up his jaw from the table top and blink the shock out of his green eyes. He cleared his throat and took a sip of his drink, pulling the witch beside him from her daydreaming.
"So, Ginny?" Hermione pressed.
"Ginny," Harry repeated with a sigh, scrubbing a hand from his forehead down his face in frustration.
"She wants you. Staked her claim on you even. She is fully of the mind that you are already her property and nobody else has any chance of interfering in your predestined love. Except she doesn't act like someone who is in love, at all really. I mean, you two are clearly not together right now and yet that doesn't seem to be a problem for her at all," Hermione thought the girl had some serious mental health issues going on but kept that opinion to herself.
"That's because she doesn't love me, likely never really did." Harry found her ability to treat him like a commodity distasteful in the extreme. "It's hero worship and a perverse attachment to a fantasy she dreamed up as a child. We dated for less than six weeks in sixth year and have been out of school for over three years without going on a single date or having ever had sex with each other even while we were dating. She doesn't even know me. Her only interest is in herself and how she can use me to get what she thinks she deserves in life. Ron can be the same towards me in that way, and towards you now that I think about it."
"Is that Molly's influence?" Hermione wondered aloud, lightly scraping one fingernail against a scratch along the edge of the table.
"Oh, for sure." He agreed, tucking a lock of hair behind her ear, his fingertips lingering along her jaw. "I'd never say it to anyone but you, but sometimes I worry that the diary forcing her to fixate on me in an attempt to gather information caused more damage under the surface. I worry Riddle took a harmless crush egged on by her mother's indoctrinated hero-worship and twisted it into something malignant and unhealthy."
"We will just have to make sure she never has the opportunity to get the jump on us, just in case. I won't ever just write someone off as dark when they've done nothing but come into contact with something out of their control and have not shown any truly violent or hateful tendencies. But, you are absolutely right in that it is a possibility that she would have a more healthy outlook on the situation if Riddle had not manipulated and possessed her the way he did. The whole thing is atrocious, really." Hermione felt sorry for the girl, but that didn't mean she would let her guard down.
"At one point, I felt like I had to do with my life what the Weasley's expected of me out of some strange sort of reciprocity for treating me like a human being and not an indentured servant. Admittedly, not many people had before I met Ron and his family." Harry figured it was way past time to lay all his cards on the table as far as Hermione was concerned. There was nothing he couldn't say to the witch.
"Birds born in captivity think freedom is a crime," She recited, smiling as she saw a streak of lightning flash across vibrant green irises, his Thunderbird close to the surface.
"I think I would just waste away if I had to be a true part of that family. I mean I get that a family that size is all they've ever known and they are used to it. The Weasley's have had historically large numbers of children for generations. But, I didn't grow up with that. I spent a very, very large amount of time alone, and now I crave that solitude as an adult. Or at least some semblance of silence occasionally. But, not a single one of them respects anyone's right to privacy or space." Hermione snorted at Harry's statement.
"Of course not, their parents never respected them enough to teach them that privacy or space were things you had a right too. I'm not saying my parents were perfect or any better really. But I didn't grow up with siblings either and I can't stand all the noise and constant frantic movement wherever they are. I think I would suffocate or explode if I had to deal with it day in and day out."
"It wasn't so bad when we were at Hogwarts." The wizard argued with the most minimal of effort for his first friend.
"No. But there were dozens of children in any given room all with different personalities so nothing stood out as a huge red flag. Plus, you could find places to sneak off and be alone if you needed too. I did often, and I know you did too."
"There is nowhere at the Burrow to hide from any of them, and there are always so many of them there." His voice sounded… tired.
"You and Ginny could get a place elsewhere. You don't have to live under Molly's roof to be a part of their family if you want to be." Hermione gave him an out, a test. Whatever you want to call it.
"Let's put aside the fact that Ginny and I have nothing in common past Quidditch or Ron, and that she is not the kind of woman I would ever want raising my hypothetical future children. What I want to ask is, in this world of magical travel and instant gratification, in what way do you think marrying a Weasley and then living away from the Burrow would create privacy?" She giggled at that, because he was right. Molly Weasley could and would track her children down anywhere.
"Well so far all you've said about Ginny is that she isn't actually in love with you yet, doesn't know you well and her family is overbearing. Those are things that could be worked around or change over time if you wanted to be with her." Harry turned to face her fully then. Hooking a finger under her chin, he lifted her face to his. Kissing her lips lightly, it was barely a whisper against her skin, then he met her eyes and spoke with such sincerity.
"Okay, Love. I'm going to tell you something and I want you to listen closely because I need you to really hear me."
"I like 'Love' even more than 'Kitten'." She whispered against his thumb that was caressing her full bottom lip as his hand cupped her jaw.
"I don't want her, Hermione."
"Good, because I hear she's a huge slut," Hermione snarked, making Harry laugh. "I'd also like to take this opportunity to put before you a bit of random trivia. Tell me Harry, how long does the average publicly traded love potion usually last?" Her tone was benign but the tilt of her eyebrow said she was just barely refraining from calling him stupid.
"Uhh, I think it's about five or six wee…" He trailed off, his forehead wrinkling a bit before he jerked his head up to look at her with eyes wide. "Oh, for fuck's sake! You've got to be kidding me!"
"We will never know for sure unless she admits it or we break all kinds of laws to dose her with Veritaserum. But, your sudden interest in her after avoiding her awkward attention for years never seemed to make sense to me. I didn't say anything before now because I honestly wasn't sure if you two would eventually end up together and I didn't want to seem catty. I have been screening you for behavioral modifications twice monthly on the down low ever since, though. Sorry, not sorry." Harry burst out laughing in disbelief before collecting himself with an amused chuckle.
"Do you run a diagnostic spell or are you potioning me as well?" He quirked that sexy eyebrow again.
"The spell. Potions almost always have long term side effects regardless of the application. My intention was to protect you from outside influence, but not to your detriment." She tried to feel bad about it. Really she did.
"My thoughts were similar when I began running the same spell on you each month starting when Victor Krum sent you that charmed letter after the war thinking he could bag himself a quickie marriage contract to a war heroine with an Order of Merlin to save his bankrupting family." Hermione's jaw dropped and this time Harry really belly laughed. "I'm glad I never let myself wallow in guilt about it considering you've been doing the exact same thing. It seems there are no lengths we would not go for each other's well being."
"So, what I hear you saying is that you feel something for me," Hermione teased.
"Merlin witch, I feel everything for you. You're the only person I've ever felt any of it for." His eyes were bottomless as he stared into hers, willing her to believe him.
"I told myself from the very beginning that I would be a fool to ever fall for you. I knew I'd never survive it when you didn't feel the same way. But, I did it anyway. I never stood a chance. I've spent years wanting you to want me. I never even considered that you actually would." Hermione murmured against his jaw as she leaned in to hug him to her. Needing him as close as possible.
"You have no idea how much I do. You're so lovely. How did the universe come up with you?"
