Harry had latched onto Hermione hard. That was nothing more than undeniable fact by the time the week was closing out for the young raven haired child.
He had never really expected he'd have a friend before but he'd gotten one in the bushy haired girl and while he was always worried she'd suddenly turn around and decide he was a freak not worth her time eventually, it never seemed to come.
She genuinely cared about him, even little injuries. If he accidentally battered his hand off the frame of the bed, she'd fuss over it and make sure he was okay and hadn't bruised it too much.
it was such an odd feeling, one he wasn't used to, having someone care… but he didn't want it to go. Maybe that was why he latched onto Hermione so much.
The girl didn't seem to mind as far as he could tell though, in fact she came to visit every single day just cause Harry had made a comment about it making him happy on the second day that she had come to see him. He'd expected that to be the only visit but it wasn't.
They mainly read together, though it wasn't always 'The Cunning Cub and the Daring Snake' that they read. Sometimes, Hermione would bring in other books and Harry had to wonder if the Granger house wad connected to a library.
Hermione mainly brought in fiction books such as The Runaways, Fox's dream and Owl Moon, though she also occasionally brought in some bizarre stuff for a girl her age to be interested in. At least Harry believed it was bizzare. He didn't know much about America but he was pretty sure most little girls had no interest in reading about random old dead men from its past.
Yet Hermione had brought in not one, not two but three different books about historical American figures, no more than four on British ones, an algebra textbook Harry didn't understand at all yet Hermione seemed to take as some kind of relaxing hobby book like a colouring book and she even had a book on British railways.
He'd never voice it out loud for fear of driving his new friend away but Hermione was a very odd girl. Then again, he supposed he could be a very odd boy as well.
He'd certainly weirded Hermione out at least twice. The first incident had been on Wednesday and had been mostly harmless. Harry had been in for three weeks and the two of them had been nearing the middle point of Cunning Cub when Harry had heard a word he'd never heard before and had asked Hermione what exactly a dentist was.
Hermione had frozen at that, and Mrs. Granger who'd been in the room at the time had looked as though she'd taken personal offence to the query. Perhaps she had, as very suddenly she'd talked to Harry for the longest length of time yet as she explained to him exactly who a dentist was and what they did.
Harry had been surprised but also slightly enthralled to listen, curious about the world he'd never got to know much of before. And following that incident, he'd started to manage to talk with the women as well more and more.
Heck, he was even managing conversations with Mr. Granger when the man was around. He had a very calming atmosphere about him, seeming very laid-back and kind. With gentle brown hair, calm blue eyes, a young and kind face and an athletic build in many ways he really did seem the opposite of Vernon Dursley.
Mrs. Granger meanwhile may not have been the exact opposite of Petunia Dursley but she was still nothing like the horse waved woman. In fact, Mrs. Granger looked mostly like an older Hermione with black hair instead of brown and sweet kind teal eyes with a simple concern in them that was a hundred times more comforting to see then any look his aunt had ever given him. She also lacked the buck teeth her daughter had, which seemed to be a unique trait to the youngest Granger.
As for the second time Harry had freaked her out, he had truly genuinely thought he'd blown it. Thought he'd done the worst possible thing and scared Hermione from him.
Revealed he was a freak she didn't want to associate with. It hadn't even been for truly good reason, just instinct. Harry was now allowed out of bed by the Thursday and he'd been on the couch with Hermione reading alone, Mrs. Granger at work and Mr. Granger down at the cafeteria getting some food for them.
The two young friends had been close to the end of the book, Hermione had taken over completely as reader as Harry got completely enthralled in her ability to tell stories. She could be a tad dry at times if she got too caught up in the way the logic in the books worked but other than that she could be wonderfully captivating as her own excitement poured into her readings.
Harry had learned in this week alone why books were used for entertainment so much as Hermione had sold him on how fun they could be with her storytelling. And while he wasn't particular a massive fan of the real stuff, at least not at first, he couldn't help but still enjoy Hermione's excitement over sharing that knowledge. With time, he even started to look into it himself as he realized how little of the world the Durlsey's had ever actually let him find out about and he wanted to know everything they had kept from him, going so far as to read one of the autobiographies Hermione left behind into the night that Thursday.
He was getting ahead of himself though as during the day, as Hermione had gotten near the final chapters of the book, she had gone to grab her glass of water for a drink and misjudged her grasp. She let out a small gasp as she knocked it over and it fell to the floor and on pure instinct Harry, halfway across the room, threw out his hand.
The glass and the water stopped in mid-air and Hermione's eyes went the widest Harry had ever seen. He put the glass back on the table and only as it thudded down and Hermione's mouth dropped open he realized exactly what he had just done.
"How did you do that?" Hermione had asked breathlessly, stunned. Harry's heart had started to race a million miles a minute. What if she hated him now she knew the truth? Was she going to scream at him he was a freak? Run away and leave him?!
His heart had ached hard at that last possibility despite the short period of time he'd known the girl. She was the first truly nice person he'd known, first friend he'd had and he didn't want to lose her!
Instead however she just tilted her head curiously. "How…."
He… shouldn't lie. He decided that then, she'd be mad if he lied and there would be an even bigger chance of her running. He just had to suck it up and hope. "I've always been able to do that?"
"You have?" Hermione questioned, blinking surprise. Her voice didn't sound mad it sounded… curious? "Can you do it again?"
It was Harry's turn to blink this time, having not expected that. He saw no reason not to though so he put out his hand and lifted up two of the books on the table telekinetically, making them dance in the air for a moment before they suddenly zoomed to his hand and he grabbed them.
Hermione started clapping, surprising him. "That's really impressive! Is that like a magic trick?"
"I… don't think so." Harry frowned, not knowing how wrong he was. "I've been able to do this since I was a baby."
Hermione stopped in thought before gasping. Her eyes light up. Then she said something surprised him. "Pick me up!"
"H-Hermione?"
"If you can pick me up I think I know what it is!" She said excitedly and seeing no reason not to, even smiling as the sensation of the power running through him calmed him and Hermione's excitement and acceptance emboldening him he lifted her into the air with his power.
Well, he tried to. He did succeed but he felt a splitting pain in his head suddenly from the effort, his breathing becoming laboured as Hermione squealed from being brought off the ground. It was only for a moment and only for a few feet but then she dropped and Harry sat down.
He didn't hear his friend scrambling over but suddenly she was there, holding his water to him which he took thankfully as she started chattering excited.
"I don't believe it! You're telekinetic, you have telekinesis! But mom and dad said there was no such thing as powers but there were no wires on me so there has to be! Oh this is so good, there must be books on this! Oh I can't wait to find out everything about this!"
"There's books on this?" Harry asked stunned and Hermione stopped, staring at him as if he had grown a second head. Honestly it was a miracle this look was only coming now and not when he'd lifted her up with… telekinesis, did she call it?
"Well there has to be! There's books on everything!" She said firmly. Harry raised a brow.
"Everything? I don't think you can a book for just anything..."
"Oh I know you can!" Hermione said determinedly with a light glare though it wasn't an angry one but a determined one. Harry put up his hands in defeat, he wouldn't argue with it.
Soon enough, Harold Granger had entered the room and Hermione had exploded with excitement going nuts to the man about how Harry could move things with his mind. Harry had worried at first the man would get mad or think he was somehow teaching his daughter bad things like Petunia used to accuse Harry of doing with Dudley.
Instead however the man seemed to chuckle, roll his eyes and brush it off as childish imagination, even though it seemed to upset Hermione a tad that he wouldn't believe him.
She had gone to say Harry could prove it but had stopped short. Harry assumed she must of saw how Harry felt about it when her eyes glimpsed his face and she suddenly stopped.
However, Harry's greatest fear was put to rest when Hermione came back with triple the energy she normally had the next day and it didn't escape the boy's notice there were several books on a certain subject in her most recent haul.
Harry had read with renewed and excited vigour with his friend and neither had even realized when they'd ended up leaning against each other to read, both to excited to find out more and read more.
And even when they did realize, while both may have been embarrassed, neither rushed to change position if the other didn't, reading more. Joan, who was the one watching them again, had smiled sweetly at them doing so.
Harry thought he heard the woman mutter something like 'cute' under her breathe.
Sadly though, no matter how much he didn't want it to, all good things must come to an end and the end of the week approached. It was close to time for Izuku to leave and Harry knew there was a good possibility this might be the last time he would see Hermione.
He really hopped doctor Johnson hadn't walked in on him that Friday night as Harry may or may not have gotten a bit teary at realizing he might be about to lose his new friend whether he liked it or not.
The next day, his final day before he was to be released he'd been quiet and rarely responded, though he looked up with brief hope when he'd heard the door open.
"Hermione?"
Instead, in walked doctor Johnson and a man Harry didn't know who had a thin body, shaggy black hair and hazel eyes. Harry deflated and sighed, not noticing how the two men shared looks and the doctor nodded at the mystery man.
"Harry, this is Nathaniel Richardson." Doctor Johnson introduced the man, who sat down and smiled holding up a hand.
"Please, just call me Nathan, or Richard." The mystery man, Nathan, instructed as he pulled out a letter. "Now, you're Harry Potter, correct?"
"Yes sir." Harry nodded quietly, not meeting his eye.
"I'm from a special organization. We specialize in dealing with… bad situations with children." Nathan explained and Harry blinked confused. "Tell me, you stayed with the Dursley's on number four Privet Drive, correct?"
"Yes…" Harry sighed. The brunet man raised a brow and frowned, adjusting his spot on his seat.
"Right, and please, answer this question completely honestly. This is confidential so the only ones who need to know what you say here are me, you and your doctor here. Now, do you want to return to the Dursley's?"
"No!" Harry said instantly looking up before covering his mouth, saying in a quiet worried voice. "S-Sorry for shouting."
"No, it's okay. Clearly that answers my question." Nathan frowned as he shared a look with the doctor, both frowning. "Do you feel… safe, with the Dursleys?"
"No." Harry shakes his head honestly, not daring to look at the adults. He could hear Vernon and Petunia screaming in his ear about how ungrateful and unworthy he was to say that.
"Understandable." Nathan said instead, making Harry look up in surprise. "I will explain in a moment. Now, do you have any other family?"
"….Only my aunt Marge and she… she's just as bad as the Durlsey's." He opened up a bit, surprised the man was actually listening to him. "She lets her pets loose on me for fun a lot…"
Nathan suddenly snarled and Harry flinched, worried he'd said something wrong.
"Sorry, that wasn't at you Harry, it's just… that is horrible." The man sighed, writing down something in a notepad Harry only just realized the man had ready. "Alright, did the Dursley's ever mistreat you?"
Harry hesitated. What did he say here? Was he mistreated? Or was it normal for a freak like him to be treated that way?
But then, Hermione didn't seem to think he was a freak for his powers…
"Just tell us how they treated you. Don't bother trying to filter it, we can work out what is mistreatment. Just be honest…"
And so, Harry, after a deep breath started speaking. He hated talking about the cupboard, the frying pan, the favouritism for Dudley and whatever else came to mind.
By the end Doctor Johnson was leaning by the door with a small look of horror and Nathan looked very angry,
"I see…" Nathan said in a deceptively calm voice, raising his eye to Harry's one last time. "Last question. Is there anyone at all you feel safe with, or around? Friends? Family? Hell, strangers? Is there anyone?"
"…Hermione." Harry decided quietly. "Granger. She and her parents f-found me when i… disappeared and she keeps visiting and… She's my friend…"
"How long have you known her?"
"A week."
Nathan stopped, then hummed and slowly wrote something before looking up. "You have to stop seeing her."
Harry went wide eyed.
"No! Please, she's the only one whose been nice to me! Please don't take her away, please don't take my-"
Nathan held up a hand and frowned.
"I've heard enough. I'm… deeply sorry for that bluff but I needed to know for sure you were telling the truth on that one first. Alright Harry, do you know what has happened with the Dursley's?"
Harry sighed in relief that Hermione wasn't going to have to stop seeing him even if he wasn't sure he'd get to see her again. He shook his head at the man's question, having heard nothing about his relatives all week.
"They were found after a mass of noise complaints came in, screaming away in their house like maniacs. The police found their son, Dudley, locked in the cupboard and Vernon and Petunia Dursley screaming their heads off about freaks and brats. They started screaming about how their nephew was at fault for all this which obviously couldn't be true and a bunch of other odd stuff. Soon enough we heard about you, and realized with the sign in the cupboard saying Harry's room and a brief look into some family history we realized you'd have to be their nephew."
Harry nodded, confused. "S-So then you're what… sending me back to them?"
"Back to- Good heavens no!" Nathan said appalled, making Harry go wide eyed. He wasn't going back to the Dursley's?! He was finally getting away from them?! "I wouldn't send you back there even if my life was on the line! Those monsters were not fit to look after children and they never will again if I have anything to say about it. Along with your own account, you are never going to go back there if I can help it."
Harry's excitement undoubtedly showed on his face as he was overwhelmed. "R-Really?! Wait but then… where will I go? Do I have to go to an orphanage? What if they don't want me… the Durlsey's said no other family would be willing to take a freak-"
"Stop that." Nathan said sharply, surprising Harry. "I know it may be hard to realize when they have been putting it in your head for years but you are not a freak Harry. And there are many families who might want you."
Doctor Johnson smiled. "In fact, I believe you have an appointment with one today, mister Richardson?"
Nathan smiled at Harry as the boy stared in shock. "Yes, one family already visited just two days ago, right after you became estranged from the Durlsey's as we couldn't leave them to still be your guardians. Of course, normally there would have been a waiting period, some time for you to adjust, and a chance to meet them first but given the circumstances we figured it couldn't hurt for the office to meet them at least."
Harry's jaw dropped. "B-But who…"
"Hello Harry." A soft voice said and Harry looked up to see the smiling face of Harold Granger. His heart started beating faster. Was this a dream?! "Hope you don't mind Doctor but I was walking by and I overheard and well, I thought he might prefer to actually know why from the source."
"You w-want to…. W-What, adopt me?" Harry asked, stunned and confused. Harold nodded and took a seat. "Why?"
When Nathan and doctor Johnson nodded permission, his… potential adoptive father, oh wow, that was… this was really happening?! His dream for years was finally…
"You see, Harry… Me and Joan, we'd been discussing the idea of siblings for years before we had Hermione. Then we finally had her and we loved her, she was our little bundle of joy, everything to us… and the only kid we could have. Due to… complications Joan couldn't have another child. We were devastated but we had Hermione and promised to love her as best we could and appreciate what we had."
Harry nodded, leaning in curious and enraptured. So far though, it sounded like they wouldn't be adopting because of Hermione though, so…
"But here's the thing, we still always wanted more than one kid, even if we loved Hermione. You can't just wipe out a desire like that so easily, so we considered adoption every now and again. We recently actually talked to Hermione about it and she was only all too excited about the prospect of a sibling. She's always been an innocent only child and I think… she's reclusive at school, she was excited because it would mean she'd have a friend."
Harry nodded, that made sense. Wait but then…. His eyes widened.
"You're dead on the money there if you guessed you're the first real friend we knew she had. Not that that's the only reason or anything, it's just a good extra point to us deciding to apply for adopting you. The second thing was when we found you it wasn't hard to tell your current guardians were… negligent at best. With everything involved at the first day of hospital we decided to keep an eye on you, both in general to make sure you were okay and to keep an eye on you to make sure you were safe. We heard about the Dursley's as it was on the news, though your name never got out. It wasn't hard to put the pieces together though." Harold hummed, sighing sadly before looking up, his already soft smile somehow getting softer. "In part, our visits were us getting to know you though that's just coincidence, not intention. We saw how much Hermione seemed to like you and well… mister Richardson?"
"Doctor Johnson has mentioned how you seemed to latch onto young miss Granger." Nathan hummed, clicking his pen. "Which is a big plus to the Grangers adopting you if you want that, as we think it would be best for your mental health if you were able to still interact with miss Granger. Even if you choose another family, if you want, we'll make a stipulation you must be allowed to visit the Grangers. We agreed once we met and they explained the situation that, on the condition you agreed to it, they could be the first family we assigned you with. If all goes well, it will be a fairly quick adoption process in terms of actually getting you into their house and we can get started on making them your legal guardians ASAP."
Harry felt his jaw drop at that, hope swelling rapidly inside him. Mister Granger took over again.
"Anyways, me and my wife knew we don't know much about you but we do know we can't just let someone in your situation go without help and well, we can provide it, Hermione really likes you, and I think what really settled it for Joan was when you asked what a dentist was. She's been muttering to herself ever since how she has to get you into a good home. All things considered, it just makes too much sense not to apply for adopting you and we really do hope you'll say yes."
Harry's mouth dropped open. He rushed to give his answer but Harold continued one more time, sounding a bit nervous.
"Of course, I understand if this it too uncomfortable for you or if you don't want to think of it as an adoption or something similar, not wanting to call me dad or Joan mum or whatever, we don't expect you to be that comfortable or that and we-"
"I'd like to be adopted." Harry said suddenly but firmly. "Please."
The smile on Harold's face was a surprising relief for Harry, the older man standing and nodding to the other two. Nathan smiled and rummaged around his bag.
"You're lucky I keep the preliminary documents on me then and have the authority to get them signed." He chuckled, pulling out a paper. He gave it to both of them to read over. They both did, being told to sign it in various places.
It was general stuff, mostly for Harold to confirm he would look after him and treat him well as his charge, and would take responsibility as a guardian for Harry. Joan would have to sign it as well when they got to the Grangers house but as it turned out Harry could go today, which was in part the reason for all of this happening now.
So Harry could be discharged into a new house right away that might want him. He'd never been so happy in his life before.
Though one thing that didn't just make Harry feel happy but make everything in the world feel right…
There was a single section for him alone that regarded how he'd be referred to from now on while under the care of the Grangers. He could keep going by Harry Potter, change to Harry Granger or…
There was a third option, to have a double barrelled name. Harry had never felt more happy or like everything in the world was right then when he signed for the third option.
And from that moment on, Harry would always be happy to know he would be known now as:
Harry Potter-Granger.
