Note: After reading a few Harry Potter/Worm cross over stories I had this idea pop into my head. It's kind of dark and angsty, as well as ignoring HP cannon and probably the same for Worm.
xxxxxxxxxx
The fire raged.
Heat so intense that Hermione could smell the acrid stink of her hair burning. She attempted, again, to get to her feet but her badly broken ankle collapsed under her causing her to fall in a heap and grit her teeth in agony. She looked up at the burning building and could see the demonic faces in the cursed fire that was quickly consuming everything in its path. She was crying, her tears vaporizing instantly on her scorched face.
They had gotten the alert in their bedroom. The shrill alarm waking them both from a light sleep having just drifted off. Harry had practically fallen from the bed in surprise at the sound, his wand already in his hand. A moment to clear their thoughts then they had shared a look as Harry's face had contorted in anger.
"It's Potter House," he'd said.
The orphanage had been Harry's idea after the war. So many of the muggle born had lost their parents to the violence that Harry had decided to found Potter House in order to help kids with no place else to go. With the Black fortune at his disposal he had found it trivial to finance the project, and within months of the wars end construction had started. By a year after the war Harry had managed to find every magical orphan in the country and move them all to Potter House. Between Harry, the house elves, and several staff members the children were well taken care of. Spoiled even if she were being honest.
It was the happiest that Hermione had ever seen him.
Perhaps it was seeing him happy, or watching him throw himself heart and soul into a project to help children, but Hermione had found her feelings for her best friend start to change. Hermione had always found Harry fanciable, but had never felt that rush when looking into his eyes like she had with certain other boys and then men in her life. She had always thought of Harry as more of a sibling than anything else, but watching him work with the children and staff at Potter House, and seeing the genuine joy in his face while doing so, had woken feelings in her that she never knew were there. Suddenly he was in her every thought and even a light touch on the arm or casual hug could drive her to distraction.
For a while she tried to hide how she was feeling, pretend everything was normal, hoping her feelings would pass. This became increasingly difficult when Harry insisted on hiring her to oversee management of the Potter and Black estates (at an obscene salary to boot). He claimed that while he loved working with the children, actually running the business and political side of two huge estates required quote "The smartest person I know, so sorry but you're it."
Once Hermione started spending every day at Potter House she realized she was going to need to have a conversation with Harry, and soon. She felt that once she told him what she was feeling, that he would let her down easy and they could go back to being just best friends again once she knew that her feelings would never be returned. She just needed to find the courage to talk to him about it.
She could not have been more wrong.
She would never forget the look on his face when she told him. He had been preparing for a blind date with some witch that an acquaintance had set him up with. Hermione had been a mess all day, arguing with herself as to if she should or shouldn't tell him how she was feeling before his date. She had forgotten three appointments and then ran herself into a wall attempting to overhear Harry talk to his date via the flu network. After helping her up and checking her for a concussion Harry had had enough.
"Hermione you need to tell me what's going on. You've been out of sorts all day." he'd said with that infuriating little half smile he sometimes wore, the wanker. He took her hands, sitting her down on the office couch, "Please, tell me what's going on with you."
He had such an honest concern on his face that Hermione was momentarily overcome with tender feelings for him. She took a deep breath, gathered her Gryffindor courage, and blurted out, "I think I'm in love with you!" and then let out an unladylike "eep" and covered her mouth with both hands in horror.
For his part, Harry had looked at her with wide eyes and his jaw practically on the floor for several moments as he tried to work out the meaning of the words she had just uttered. After the initial shock she watched as his eyes took on a steely determination, and then dare she say, a smoldering desire she had been dreaming to see directed at her.
"Oh thank Merlin!" he muttered an then he was kissing her.
He was kissing her and it was better than even her dreams had been. The world melted away and some time later they had wound up sans clothing, wrapped around each other, on the very same couch. Harry had missed his date but judging from the goofy grin on his face he hadn't cared at all.
Several months later he had proposed, and several months after that they had been married in a small ceremony held in the Hogwarts fields near the forbidden forest. Hermione Jane Granger became Hermione Jane Potter and she didn't think she could have ever been happier.
Life went on, and they threw themselves into Potter House and the difficult job of helping muggle born children acclimate into the magical world. Soon they were talking about starting a family of their own and in fact had just made their first incredibly pleasurable attempt at such on that terrible night when the alarm went off.
"It's Potter House." Cold dread had sunk into Hermione's bones when Harry had said those words.
Soon they were both scrambling for clothes and Harry had grabbed her hand and apparated them both to the lawn in front of Potter House.
What followed was a nightmare.
They both recognized Fiendfyre when they saw it. The demonic flames had started at the north end of the building and were moving quickly. Dead house elves and staff members were strewn on the lawn, obvious victims of spell fire. Just as they both processed this information Hermione was hit in the ankle with some kind of bone breaking curse, shattering most of her ankle and lower leg. The events that followed were blurry for several minuets but she was fairly sure that Harry cleared the area of enemies with extreme prejudice.
The next thing she knew, Harry had carried her away from the building, told her to stay put and then she watched her love run into a building being consumed by Fiendfyre to try and save children. He apparated out holding burned children, always going back to try and save more. Each time he returned he was more and more burned, more and more injured. Before he left her for the last time he had took her head in his hands gently kissed her lips and told her he loved her more than anything. She watched him once again disappear into the flaming house.
Then Potter House exploded.
xxxxxxxxxx
Hermione Potter, widow, witch, and dimensional refugee woke from the nightmare screaming her dead husbands name, covered in cold sweat, and crying just as she always did when she was visited by that particular memory. Even all these years later.
She took some time to try and get her breathing and heart rate under some semblance of control and to wipe her tears away on the blanked. A glance at the clock showed that is was just past four in the morning but she knew there would be no more sleep this night.
Groaning and dragging herself out of her bed she stumbled to the shower and went about waking herself and making herself presentable. Today was her first day at her new job after all.
It had taken some time after she arrived in this new dimension to figure out what she wanted to do. Eventually, and after much soul searching, she decided that she wanted to teach. It had been a small task for her to gain the proper credentials. As far as she could tell she was the only real mage on the entire planet, and she was overqualified for the job. All it took is some forged records and a few simple obliviate charms, and she was a fully accredited teacher.
Finding a job had been tougher.
This earth was in the middle of a full blown economic depression, so jobs in general were very hard to come by. She could also never have brought herself to stay in England. There were too many memories both good and bad for that to be an option for her. She had finally settled on migrating to the United States.
The US was far enough from her memories, and had ample opportunities if you went to the right areas, to find teaching jobs. She also like the idea of helping undeserved youth. She thought Harry would approve.
After her morning absolution's she made herself a light breakfast with tea, and then dressed herself smartly in a nice Gryffindor red sweater and dark slacks. She had considered leaving her hair down but her curls seemed especially unruly today and so she had opted for a tight bun held together by one of her many smaller wands.
She observed herself in the bathroom mirror with a critical eye. She still looked the same as she did at 19, even as she closed in on her thirtieth birthday. Her clothing hid her many scars but she imagined she could still see the jagged scar on her chest or the hated word carved into her arm. Harry had always been so good at making her believe she was beautiful, but without him all these years her old insecurities had stormed back with a vengeance. She just couldn't see herself how Harry had seen her, as a beautiful, desirable woman. To Hermione's eyes she looked like a plain girl with bad hair that was trying just a little to hard. With a sigh she decided it was as good as it was going to get and turned away.
She headed out to her small desk in the living room and decided to review her class notes and student records again. Since she was coming in mid-year, she wanted to make sure she was up to speed on all of her students. Several had interesting academic and behavioral records. She could speculate that some of these students experienced huge life-changing challenges, causing a precipitous drop in achievement. Other causes could include drugs, gangs, bullying or any number of issues. Hermione looked forward to trying to help these kids.
Several house later she found herself welcoming her first group of the day to her classroom for sophomore algebra. Hermione stood near her desk at the front of the room and welcomed each student or group of students into the class, mentally counting as they came in. It was also entertaining to observe their reactions to her English accent.
When she reached 34 students the influx stopped and the bell rang. She was several students short but she supposed there could be stragglers.
Sure enough, just as she was about to introduce herself a girl entered the room late.
She was tall, with long curly black hair that spilled out around the hooded sweatshirt she was wearing. Her jeans looked two sizes bigger than she needed and her trainers we ratty, with tape on the toe of her right foot. She had a beat up backpack slung over one shoulder and didn't say anything to Hermione as she walked in and surveyed the room. She moved toward one of the nearest empty seats, avoiding getting close to as many people as she could. Her posture was hunched and she didn't make eye contact with anyone. Hermione couldn't see much of her face but thin lips and some rather large glasses.
Warning bells were going off in Hermione's head as she remembered another young person, with green eyes, who had similar body language so long ago. After they had been together for a few months, Harry had finally managed to unburden himself of what had gone on at the Dursley's as he grew up. Hermione remembered it as the moment when Harry had finally decided he could trust her with his whole self. She still considered it one of her proudest moments. The stories however... Well to say she had been furious on his behalf was tantamount to saying the sky was blue. Unfortunately the Dursley's were already long dead so it wasn't as if she could hunt them down an claim bloody vengeance, much as she want to.
The girl in the hoodie looked an awful lot like an abused Harry Potter to her eyes.
Hermione introduced herself to the class and then took roll, taking note of the girls name. Hermione had always had a prolific, near eidetic memory so all the relevant information on the girl shot through her mind's eye in an instant. This was one of the students that she had been most curious about.
The girl had been a middle school phenom. At the top of her class in all subjects. In fact she could have easily qualified for a performance based scholarship to the selective Arcadia High School across town. Some of her middle school teachers had gone so far as to write letters of recommendation to the school board.
On preliminary university exams at the beginning of freshman year, she had scored in the 98th percentile and her initial high school performance was exemplary, but soon her performance began to lag and then tank completely. Late or missing assignments, truancy, multiple detentions and several write ups for behavior related issues. By the end of her freshman year she was near to failing most of her subjects. Only her above average test scores were keeping her afloat and Hermione had made note that some of the staff had accused her of cheating but hadn't been able to prove anything.
This year had been much the same with only the girl's test scores keeping her just barely passing.
The class passed quickly for her as she fell into the groove of sharing knowledge with others. She watched the girl throughout noting that she never interacted with anyone or attempted to answer a question during the lecture. There were several other students that she wouldn't even look at.
Yes, Hermione told herself, she would find a way to help Taylor Herbert if it was the last thing she did.
