Disclaimer: I don't own anything but a simple idea. Characters and such below to the great authoress JKR who has me eagerly awaiting a package on Saturday...
Landing neatly in the parlor, nothing new at all, Hermione arrived at Harry's. Brushing the dust and ash off herself she made her way from the hearth to the hallway. Just as she was about to call out Harry's name, the cacophony coming from the kitchen gave away his location. She headed down the hallway ignoring the rather derogatory comments made by the portrait of Sirius' mother behind that drab drape.
Hermione encountered quite the sight as she walked into the kitchen. A large quantity of dishes, cookware, foodstuffs, and other unidentifiable objects were scattered throughout the entire space. Next to the sink stood a young man, aged 20 years with haunting green eyes that belied his age.
"Harry, whatever are you doing?" Hermione asked in wonder.
"Apparently nothing of use to society!" he snapped.
"Oh," Hermione quickly assembled a correct assessment of the situation. Today's paper held an article recounting what became of the heroes of the war. While many others went on to take Ministry jobs or be memorialized in marble tombs, Harry had chosen otherwise. While Auror was his previous job of choice, the reality of facing all the evil magic in the world in one exceptionally dark night meant he had little taste to repeat that on a routine basis. Instead he chose a life behind the spotlight the world had foisted upon him. A life that few understood.
"Harry, what are you doing?" Hermione asked again as she crossed the room.
Harry looked at her ready to snap again. However, her expression clearly showed her understanding and the fact that her question merely was relating to the current culinary state of affairs.
"Well, cooking," he said.
"What?" she asked.
"Basically everything that I could find to work with. Want a piece of pie?" he asked with a half grin. He floated the pie tin containing pumpkin pie over.
"Think I'll stop at just a piece?" Hermione asked as she hopped on bit of counter she had cleaned off and grabbed a fork. She simply dug into the entire pie.
This caused Harry to give a full smile. "Seriously, I am not going to share this Harry," she said. This caused Harry to sense a challenge. He dove at Hermione. As Hermione was thoroughly enjoying the pie, her reflexes were a bit off making her an easy target.
Harry attacked her sides and she began convulsing with giggles as he tickled her.
"Harry!" she breathed, "That is not fair!...I'm going to drop the pie!"
Luckily they both could perform wandless magic and the well known levitation charm was utilized to spare the pie a dire fate. The pie hovered in midair above the storm in the kitchen.
Now having her hands free, Hermione bolted from Harry and ran from the kitchen. Obviously Harry followed her. They ran through the lower levels of the House of Black howling with laughter. Thankfully Kreecher was long gone. Only the moanings of the less than charming portrait of Mrs. Black disturbed the laughter of the two young people.
Though years had passed since the tragedies they faced as school fellows, this was the first time the two had truly laughed and played. Finally, Harry caught Hermione. Now in all reality, he could have caught her almost instantly, he was the youngest Seeker in a century, but he was enjoying himself. He happened to have caught her in the hall, in front of that despised portrait that no one could quite remove.
"Honestly, did you think you could escape me?" Harry asked mimicking Hermione.
Hermione was too winded from laughing and running to respond. She just smiled at him. She was lightened by the laughter and her eyes had some of the long lost glimmer in them. Harry found himself stilled, he remembered the girl who had asked about a boy's toad. Hermione sensed this too. The two stood for a moment simply staring at each other as if they had never seen the other before this very moment.
In a way, it was true. For seven years they were mates in school. They were warriors in a war. They were survivors of a horror. This was the first moment where the two began to live again. This was a moment where yet again they became something different.
At this moment something pulled Harry forward toward Hermione. Lost somewhere between surprise and expectation, Hermione begun to close the distance too. In another moment that had as momentous implications as the moment Lily gave all her love to her son, the two heroes of the wizarding world met in a simple kiss.
Like any other pair of young people, they enjoyed the kiss. Thus it was unsurprising that the two of them stumbled back against the wall. Actually, it was not the wall, but the portrait that Hermione was backed into as Harry and she continued their first true kiss. They shifted a bit again causing both their bodies to now be touching the painting. Lost in each other they did not notice a most startling effect, at least until the portrait began to spark.
While Harry thought the sparks he saw through his closed eyes were merely the proverbial fireworks, Hermione was a bit more practical. This could also be due to the effects of the sparks hitting her bare forearm. She suddenly broke the kiss with a yelp.
"Ah!" she exclaimed, "What is that from?" Both summoned their wands instantly and turned around in a circle. They then saw the painting.
Slowly the painting was smoldering from the edges in towards the portrait proper. The curtain previously covering it was gone. The image of Mrs. Black stared in horror as she was slowly engulfed in flames.
Hermione and Harry stood in awe. Harry was alternately ecstatic and horrified, not to mention puzzled. No one could remove that awful portrait. He had no clue as to why it was now obviously destroyed. As he thought that, the gilded frame fell to the floor and shattered.
Hermione, a bit more analytical, began to process the preceding events. Her intellect and the female disposition to overanalyze assisted in this. Again, she quickly surmised the correct interpretation.
"Harry, don't you see, it was the energy flowing from us, as we, uh, you know, that caused the portrait to finally disintegrate!" she excitedly told Harry. She may be the brightest witch of the age, but it didn't make speaking of her feelings any easier.
"So you're saying that our kiss caused the end of the portrait?" Harry slowly said as he turned again to look at Hermione.
"Yes, that's right," she said.
"Oh," Harry said in summary.
"Yeah," Hermione said, suddenly shy, eyes averted.
"Well Mrs. Black obviously didn't like that," Harry said chuckling. He quieted and asked, "But, uh, Hermione, what did you think?"
Hermione was unsure of how to respond. For the witch with all the answers, she had no ready reply. As usual, Harry took the worst possible meaning from her pause. His face fell and he began to turn away to return to the kitchen.
"Harry! Where are you going?" Hermione panicked as he began to leave.
"Well, I just thought…" he began and drifted into silence.
"Harry, don't think. That's my job," Hermione teased, finally looking up at Harry.
Now Harry, the poor dear, still was utterly confused by the females of the world, so he was without a doubt befuddled by Hermione right now.
"Contrary to popular belief, Harry, I don't always have the answer to every question asked. And that question was a particularly difficult one," she explained. "I wasn't thinking Harry. Likely for the first time in my entire life I did not have a coherent thought in my head. When you kissed me my mind turned off. I wasn't thinking, I was only feeling and frankly that was a bit scary for me, Harry."
"Oh," the ever eloquent Harry replied. "That's new."
"Yeah," Hermione said having used up all her explanations.
"So what were you feeling then?" Harry asked having not really gotten an answer.
"I don't know. I've never felt that before, ever," Hermione weakly said.
"Well, maybe you need to feel it again," Harry said becoming a bit more of the impish young man he should be. Before Hermione could think, speak, or react, he was kissing her again.
The sudden and much more intense kiss, well, let's be honest, snog, again made Hermione stumble back to the wall. For the next few moments the two were lost to the world. Thus, they again did not notice a few changes in the so-called Noble House of Black.
Finally the two came up for air but did not separate themselves. In fact, Hermione uncharacteristically nestled closer to Harry. Harry, uncharacteristically liked the embrace and held her tighter. Never had Harry liked the clingy sort of girls and never had Hermione ever displayed such emotional dependence.
Harry always had a house to live in, be it the Dursleys or Hogwarts as a child, then Sirius's as an adult. He had never had a home. In fact, he never before realized what the difference between the two was. In this moment, Harry found what home means. Hermione made his home.
Hermione who had lost so much and been drifting since the losses of the war found that she was finally in the present moment. Usually she was lost in the past or thinking despondently of the future. Now she found her rock, her home in this moment with Harry.
As they both relished the unexpected feelings so suddenly evoked, the House of Black changed dramatically. We all know that small children express the first hints of magic when they are frightened or upset. Well, it appears that the unshielded emotions from the two most powerful wizards of this age caused a bit of a stir in the dreary house.
The dingy, grey walls which contained the pompous decorations of a House of prejudice and hate were overwhelmed. In those moments that Harry and Hermione were forming an irreversible bond, so different from their childhood filial love, the House of Black became the House of Potter.
The grey faded to cream. Dark wood furniture covered with awful black upholstery became warm cherry wood covered with golds and reds. Portraits of the far from loved Black family were instantaneously replaced with portraits and photographs of those beloved by the pair. The tapestry of the Black family tree became a tapestry of the Order and the families of Hermione and Harry. Perhaps the greatest difference is the one it would take the two to the longest to discover. Above Harry's rooms on the second floor would be a new set of rooms containing all the items from Hermione's small flat.
For now the two pulled away from each other and took in the much brighter hallway. The cream and gold wallpaper light by golden sconces invited them to explore the changes. Holding hands the two looked into each room and reminisced over each portrait. Yes, today was quite a different sort of day.