The first week at the Granger household had already beat Harry's entire life at the Dursley's, as far as the young boy was concerned. He'd been allowed to go with Harold—his new dad—to his new home.
That was so weird to think still. He had a dad now. He had a whole family now. One that wasn't like the Dursleys, his wildest dream come true.
A smile broke out on his face at that, and it grew wider as he remembered when he'd walked up to the four-bedroom three-bathroom house. The garden was nice and pristine and there had been a tabby cat sat upon the wall watching them curiously.
He had walked in the door with his new father and the older man had told him to be quiet as they snuck into the living room.
Joan- His mother, had spotted Harry and smirked, winking before pulling her daughter's attention to her.
"Hey, Hermione, sweetie. Remember we were telling you about how we were going to adopt someone?" She asked, giggling lightly as her daughter's head whipped up to her with manic energy.
"Yeah! Did you find out when it's happening?" She asked excitedly, rocking back and forth. She seemed really happy, it was a stark contrast to how Harry would expect a person to react. His closest experience with a sibling was Dudley and he'd be wailing and throwing tantrums at the idea of a sibling. "Do you know if it's a brother or sister?! Oh, I really want to share my books with them! I hope they won't ruin them though… oh, and I hope we'll be in the same school! And-"
"Alright, alright." The older woman in the room laughed, putting up her hands. "Calm down, sweetie. It's a brother."
"It is?!"
"Yeah… and we lied about there being an appointment next week. It was this week. Look." She nodded her head over and Hermione turned with confusion, spotting her father before her eyes landed on Harry and her jaw dropped.
"Um, h-hi?" Harry said nervously, hoping Hermione's reaction was a good sign. As it turned out, it was as her eyes suddenly got a bright twinkle as she hurried forward.
"Harry!" She squealed excitedly and suddenly he was in a tight hug, almost being knocked over. Her parents laughed as Harry shook his head from the impact and awkwardly hugged her back. "You're my new brother?!"
"If he wants to be. There's still a trial period and stuff like that." Her- their father waved off, smiling and prying them apart. "Now give him some room to breathe, sweetheart. There's a good girl."
Hermione's cheeks tinged pink when she realized she'd been squeezing the life out of him. She met her friend's eye and he smiled. He decided to answer her question.
"I want to be your brother." He said, quiet and shyly but still loud enough that smiles lit up the room. Then he turned to the adults. "Um… what now?"
"Now, I'll give you a tour. Hermione, your father's going to go over the new room one more time. Help him please while I show Harry around." Their mother requested and Hermione nodded excitedly, grinning widely at Harry before rushing to follow her father. Joan walked up to Harry with a very gentle smile. "Well Harry, you already saw the hall. This is the living room."
"It's… blue," Harry observed, looking around. It was indeed very blue, with a dark blue carpet, and lighter blue furniture—two single chairs, a footrest, and one triple seated couch. The wallpaper was navy going up to the white ceiling which had a miniature chandelier hanging above them with fake gold accents.
There was a bulky silver TV in the middle of the room on a dark oak TV cabinet, which was not only holding the TV up but surrounded it on either side with open-faced shelves and even covered the top with two cupboards.
There was a nice crystal patterned glass table in front of the couch.
Joan chuckled with a soft smile. "Very blue." She leaned down and whispered very conspiratorially, as though uttering a deeply personal secret. "It's Harold's favourite colour."
Harry smiled lightly, much to Joan's delight, though he didn't do much more as he wasn't sure if it would be a bad idea to laugh or not. Oblivious to Harry's still cautious thoughts, the older woman began speaking again. "Now, once you're in school, you'll be in the same schedule as Hermione. When you come home, you let us know right away if you have homework and we do it together in the living room."
Harry went to say he understood until his mind caught up with what he just heard and instead ended up doing something he immediately regretted. He asked a question. "Wait, I'll be allowed to do homework?"
Joan froze at that and her smile faded. Harry immediately thought it was his fault and looked down.
"Sorry, I didn't mean to ask a question." He immediately apologized, braced for being shouted at or hit. Hands did land on him, but not violently. To his surprise, he was suddenly finding himself in a hug. "Uh… Mrs. Granger?"
"Harry, I will never get mad at you for asking a question, okay?" she asked and he paused, confused. "It's not bad to be curious and it's wrong that your old relatives ever told you that it was. Asking questions is how people learn. We encourage Hermione to ask all the questions she can think of and we want you to do the same okay?"
"…O-Okay…" Harry nodded, though he couldn't help a small part of him wondering if it would just be a trick to get him in trouble in the future. Joan sighed but didn't comment on it.
"Well, anyways, you definitely will be allowed to do homework here. We expect you to do it, but don't worry if you need help with it, okay? Hermione is really clever but we don't expect you to match her just because you're becoming a part of the family now. We want you to have a happy normal life, okay?"
"Oh… okay." Harry nodded, hoping she really was truthful. She certainly felt sincere. After that, they had gone into the kitchen, having to pass through the hall to do so. Harry had immediately flinched upon seeing a cupboard under the stairs and Joan's gaze had turned hard and she had said her next words with conviction.
"Harry, don't worry. So long as you don't want to, we will never make you go in that cupboard as long you live, okay?"
"But where will I sleep then?"
He hated how heartbroken the older woman's eyes looked at that as she pulled him into a side hug. "You have a bedroom, Harry. Your own bedroom, and it's going to be a safe place for you, alright?"
There had been yet more affirmations and consolations in the kitchen and garden, as Harry asked about cooking and gardening and realized he wasn't expected to do either of them.
It was so weird to him. Everything the Dursleys forced him to do it seemed he wasn't expected to do by the Grangers while the things they refused to allow him to do the Grangers typically had no problem with.
The closest thing to being the same Harry could find was neither allowed sweets, however, the reasoning and methods were entirely different. The Dursley's refused sweets to starve Harry and taunt him by giving them to Dudley.
The Grangers were merely dentists looking out for their children's health so they didn't want to allow any sugary sweets. They would allow sugarless sweets occasionally, and on weekends only they could have a small number of sugary goods as long as they didn't exceed a certain amount of sugar but that was it.
Harry was more than fine with this, however, as it was much better than what he was used to.
Finally, they'd gone upstairs, finding two bedrooms on the very top floor. One door was open, showing a neatly decorated room with dozens upon dozens of books neatly stacked into bookcases and all around, along with a few simple trinkets and small posters on the hot pink walks.
Hermione's room no doubt.
Dead ahead of them was one of the three bathrooms in the house, that the two children would be expected to share. It was a simple small bathroom, with a white porcelain toilet, shower bath combo, and a sink. It was only big enough to hold the bath and that was it, so it was hardly a large room.
Finally, the room that would be his own. Harry's first-ever bedroom. It wasn't much, as he walked in. The walls were a scarlet red, there were a few empty bookshelves dotted about and a few drawers, and a trunk at the bottom of the bed. A small desk sat in the corner with two chairs. The bed itself—meant for one person—was simple with an oak wood frame, in the middle of the room pressed against the rightmost wall as Harry walked in, a gentle green duvet covering over the top.
Hermione and Harold looked up upon hearing them enter and smiled, the latter somewhat sheepishly. "Well, here you are. It's a bit empty at the moment but give it some time…"
"I love it." Harry declared simply, smiling as he looked around. And he really did. He loved everything about it.
Following his first day, he'd been given a week off school to get used to the new house plus time for him to be transferred. In the meantime, he continued to read.
He'd found out Hermione had the same book on Latin Dudley had stolen and had happily read that again, understanding it more this time. He also read whatever other books Hermione would let him borrow.
He preferred the fictional stories, but when he was in the right mood he could really enjoy the educational material as well. Perhaps not all of it, Math books were only so entertaining, but he was always happy to learn more about history and he especially enjoyed the few simple chemistry books she had in her possession.
He'd spend his time reading in the living room or talking with the older Grangers, getting to know his new guardians. He was even allowed to watch the TV while the adults were in the room, something which blew his mind consistently, even if he was only allowed a few hours to watch it each day.
Hermione would always get back home with her father at half three, whereupon the whole family would be in the living room, as Hermione worked away happily on whatever homework she had. She always happily showed Harry and walked him through it whenever he asked, happily trying to teach him.
He didn't always grasp it but he did his best for the girl's sake and was always happy when he got it and saw her face light up with that happy smile. Mind you, he could admit if there was such a thing as knowing too much, Hermione probably qualified.
He didn't take any offense to it, he was happy to have someone who would happily talk to him and try to teach him, it was so rare, but she often went off on a lot of tangents and made it quite clear how much she knew.
Harry felt like she was showing off, though he never really mentioned it. Fortunately, her parents seemed to notice and gently chided her into calming down and remembering just because she remembered and knew a lot didn't mean everyone else would or would enjoy having the information forced on them.
She looked a little put out at first but Harry had assured her he liked learning. Fortunately, Hermione did seem to understand maybe she shouldn't go off on rants all the time, though learning not to was definitely going to be slow going.
Once homework was finished, they'd all gather in the kitchen which had a four-person table and they'd eat whatever healthy meal Joan had cooked that night. Harry couldn't help but notice he always seemed to have exceptionally large helpings and with some prodding discovered it was because he was underweight and needed extra helpings to make up for it.
He had no idea how to respond to that so he simply hadn't, just eating patiently. At least Hermione hadn't seemed too jealous about it. Following that, the kids were free to either hang out in the living room or go up to their rooms. Either way, Harry and Hermione usually always ended up reading together.
They finally finished their first book and continued to foray into books about Telekinetic and other such subjects happily, even if Harry had to prove multiple times to Hermione he had his abilities after her father brushed them off.
It was this brushing off of his powers that worried Harry though. What if the powers would upset his guardians? What if they didn't like him once they found out? Would they finally realize why the Dursley's considered him a freak and throw him out?
It was for this reason Harry continued to hide his special talents from the two older Grangers. He trusted Hermione, but he was too scared to use his abilities if he didn't have to.
Of course, funny enough, whenever Harry didn't want to do something, that tended to be when something would come along and force him to do it.
And on Monday, such a situation did come when he finally joined Hermione for school. It wasn't far from their home, Crossdale Primary School being only a ten-minute walk away. Harry could have sworn he'd seen the same Tabby from the start of the week following them.
When they'd arrived, Hermione had set off for a line of children waiting outside for their teacher while Harry had been taken inside by Harold and up to an office where he'd met the headmaster of the school.
Before he knew it, barely ten minutes later, Harold was leaving and Harry was being brought into his new class, where he was immensely pleased to see Hermione.
He had to introduce himself to the class and they all said hi back before Harry was then settled into the only empty seat. By luck, it happened to be beside Hermione.
However, a part of Harry couldn't help but wonder and worry about his newly adoptive sister. She had been separated from everyone else. Was it intentional she was the one seated alone?
He decided he could ask when they got home. In the meantime, they had done basic multiplication in Math, punctuation in English, learned how to use computers in I.T., and done a skip rope game in P.E.
Every time he was expected to have a partner, he had gone to Hermione who had happily taken him each time, though he was upset to see no one else ever tried to go to her first.
No one seemed to want to take her on to their team and he was reminded uncomfortably of when Dudley would scare everyone away from picking Harry.
Finally, lunch had come around and the two new adoptive siblings had been eating together outside, Hermione squealing happily and speaking a hundred miles a minute explaining her delight at being in the same class as Harry when it happened.
A group of mean-looking boys—trounced in nasty looks only by Dudley's gang—along with two sneering girls who Harry rather thought could do with tripping so they'd fall on their faces in the hopes they might break their nose and fix their bad looks, walked up to the siblings.
"Well, look at that. Granger actually found someone stupid enough to hang out with her." One of the boys had laughed when they'd got closer, before turning to Harry. "You should get far away from her. She's a total freak!"
And that… that was the wrong thing to say to Harry.
"Excuse you?" he asked in a calm but dangerous voice, more bravely than he felt as his eyes narrowed into a glare. He grabbed Hermione's hand and squeezed it gently as he'd caught her flinch out the corner of her eye.
"I said she's a-"
"She's my sister." Harry snarled, surprised by how natural the words came to him even though it had only been two weeks, as he stood up calmly. "Leave her alone."
"Harry, no! he's not worth it!" Hermione warned but Harry stood his ground.
"Another Granger? You don't look as stupid as her."
"Shut up!"
"Oh, what's the matter?" The leader sneered cruelly with mirth in his eyes. "You should know if you're her brother how weird she is. What are you going to do? Hit me?"
He was baiting him. Harry knew it. He'd seen it happen before. He wasn't going to take it. Instead, Harry gave a cold glare.
"I don't need to," Harry announced, very briefly looking around before throwing one hand to the side and causing all of the group's legs to sweep out from under them, throwing them to the ground. With a grunt, Harry turned and grabbed Hermione, hoisting her up and hugging her as he heard her small sniffle as she flinched. "Come on Hermione. They're not worth it. Let's go find somewhere else to sit."
Hermione had thanked him for his actions but she hadn't cheered up at all, for the rest of the day. No matter his best efforts, Hermione had gone from being the excited know-it-all ball of energy he was used to, to quiet and reserved, only talking when she was responding to a question.
Even on the car ride home, she had been quiet, even as Harry tried to just hug her in the hopes it would cheer her up. Sadly, it seemed Harold was somewhat used to this as he hadn't seemed entirely surprised to find Hermione like this.
They'd gotten back home and Hermione had gone straight to her room instead of sharing her homework or anything. Joan had just sighed and told Harry if he had any to leave it on the table and they could deal with it later.
They had no homework, however, so Harry had done what seemed like the right thing to him. He'd gone into the kitchen and poured a glass of water before making his way upstairs.
He knocked gently on the door along from his room. "Hermione? It's me."
"Go away..." He heard a small upset voice. Harry frowned.
"I have some water…"
"Just put it outside the door." Came the same small voice. But Harry shook his head, before opening the door. Hermione looked over and frowned, looking away. "I don't want to talk."
"That's fine." Harry shrugged, walking forward and putting the water down on the table before sitting down beside her. "You don't need to. Those guys were jerks though. Don't listen to them."
"But-"
"I don't think you're a freak," Harry said simply. "And if anyone should know what a freak is…"
"You're not a freak either!" Hermione immediately scolded, frowning at him. "You shouldn't have attacked them though… I'm not worth it."
"Yes, you are." Harry shot back immediately and the girl looked like she was about to object. Harry sighed. Then he got an idea.
Hermione needed cheering up. What always cheered him up? "Hey, Hermione? Watch this."
She looked up confused until she saw a few of her books lift off the shelves, spotting Harry's hands held out as he focused with a deep concentration, the books coming over and dancing around them in a pattern.
One came over and gently pressed against the girl's cheek before joining the others and despite herself, she giggled as she watched the show. Harry smiled as well as he made them do more complicated moves such as flips in the air, and loop-de-loops, enjoying Hermione's delight in it all the while.
And then Harold walked in.
"Well I'm glad to see you're happ—" He stopped as he saw the books and his eyes widened as he froze. Harry immediately froze as well as his own smile turned to a look of worry and fear and he dropped them all. "What the… How did… what…."
"A-Ah! Sir! I'm sorry!" Harry immediately apologized. "I've always been able to do it; I just didn't want to upset you! I'm sorry!"
"Upset- Harry calm down!" he immediately instructed, walking over. Hermione looked between them with a confused and worried expression, while her father furrowed his brow in confusion. "Harry, how did you do that?"
"I've always been able to do it…" Harry answered quietly, looking scared. Harold blinked.
"It's not rope?" He asked, seemingly trying to find a logical explanation. Harry shook his head.
"No." The raven-haired boy said as he made the glass float over, proving as much when he made the water come out and go back down. "No rope. I'm sorry."
"…For what?" Harold asked confused, raising a brow.
"For being a frea-"
"Harry! You are not a freak!" Harold interrupted immediately standing up. He let out a sigh. "I… this… I don't know what this is but you're not a freak. Come on. Both of you, let's go downstairs."
"Dad?" Hermione asked, confused. "Why?"
"Because you said he could move things with his mind in the hospital and I didn't believe you. Clearly, you were right though. This makes no sense… there's got to be an explanation… but Joan has to know first." He shook his head. Then he saw Harry's apprehensive face and his gaze softened and despite his confusion, he gave a calm smile. "You're not in trouble, I promise."
That calmed Harry down a bit and he nodded, following the man, Hermione right behind him. Soon enough, all three were at the table with Joan looking around them confused at the faces she was seeing.
"Harold? Did something happen?" Joan asked, confused. Harold shook his head, sitting the children down before setting the water down on the table.
"Well… yes but nothing bad. However… I just can't wrap my head around it." Harold frowned. "You remember Hermione talking about moving things with her mind while Harry was in hospital?"
"Of course." Joan raised an eyebrow. "I told her, she's just got an overactive imagination."
"I said the same thing but… Harry, please. You won't get into trouble." Harold gently coaxed. Joan looked at her husband extremely confused until Harry sighed and put out a shaky hand… and the glass rose into the air before coming into Harry's hand.
"…What?"
"I don't know…"
"How is that possible?!"
"I don't know!"
"Um… is this… am I not allowed to stay anymore?" Harry spat out the question on his mind and both parents went wide-eyed in alarm. "The Dursley's hated-"
"We aren't the Dursleys." Joan immediately reminded him. "You are not going anywhere just because of this. Okay? There's a simple, logical explanation. There has to be. There is no need to worry, okay? We won't throw you out. I just need to figure out… how…."
There was silence for a moment as both older adults were deep in thought. Then very suddenly, a laugh made them all jump and turn to the door, all going wide-eyed as they saw an elderly man with a long flowing white beard and elegant silver hair.
"Dear me. I do apologize for entering unannounced but I could sense what was going on already." The stranger hummed, a twinkle in his eye behind his half-moon spectacles. He wore a set of royal blue robes with purple stars on them.
"Who on earth are you?! What are you-"
The man held up a hand and smiled a very kind, grandfatherly smile. "I understand you might be worried by my presence. I do not blame you. I had intended to come in a little later but I could sense the magic young Mr. Potter was performing and knew I needed to intervene."
"Magic?! What-" Joan didn't finish as her eyes went wide before narrowing suspiciously. "How do you know his name?!"
"Harry Potter. It's a name very well-known where I'm from." The man said mysteriously and Harry felt very confused as the Grangers all shared looks. "Perhaps, introductions are in order? I am aware you are the Grangers. My name is Albus Dumbledore and well… I have come to inform you that young Harry and Hermione are a wizard and witch, respectively."
