GRANGER DISCUSSIONS

Staring out her window up into the summer sky, she could only look at the stars. Wishes for those that had a heart left to dream. She had nothing but the pain. Hermione sighed as she hugged the stuffed monster to her chest, her feet curled under her legs as she continued to look longingly out into the darkness… a Wendy praying for her Peter, though there was now no chance of flying so free again.

Ignoring the nausea that caused her stomach to churn again, Hermione looked down at the ugly toy in her arms, the first gift that Harry had given her after they'd officially come out together as boyfriend and girlfriend. She'd been shocked at the stuffed monstrosity, only her parents having brought her up right had she graciously accepted the gift. He'd been so happy that she'd liked it; he'd been on cloud nine. Hermione had wanted to lock it away in a trunk that would never open.

It had finally been Lavender of all people that had explained it to her. The blonde bombshell that she had somehow become friends with to set her straight and leaving her to realize that the depths to Harry Potter were more than she had ever truly appreciated before.

"You don't even get it, do you?" Lavender's voice had been harsh. "A boyfriend that gives a thoughtful gift instead of the standard of candies and roses, and you just toss it aside."

Hermione had been angry, but the girl's words had hit hard. "Thoughtful? How is an ugly stuffed animal thoughtful?" She pointed to where it had been sitting on her bed. "You would want something like that?"

Lavender had thrown herself down on her own bed, her hands clenched. "That in particular…no." Her head shook from side to side. "It doesn't mean to me what it should to you. He'd have to find something else special to me."

"How can you say I should appreciate an ugly stuffed monster…"

"Troll." Lavender had spat.

Hermione had stopped then, the words she'd been about to say had faded like bubbles under the ocean. "What?"

"For someone so smart, you can be a real idiot sometimes." Lavender had lifted herself up to a sitting position on her bed. "It's not a monster, Hermione. It's a troll."

"A troll…"

"Like the whole reason that you two ever got close." Lavender directed her along the thought. "He saved you from a troll."

She'd broken down, then, much like she had with her parents earlier… the fact that she was constantly ruining everything with Harry, depending upon someone else to save her. The toy troll had gone with her everywhere after the conversation with Lavender. Hermione had carried the fluffy figure and had carried it to Harry and begged his forgiveness, her guilt finally outweighing her fear of what Harry would do… but he had only smiled and kissed her, making the world okay again.

There had been fights since… the arguments over Draco Malfoy, Harry being proven right again as Snape and Draco allowed for Death Eaters to attack the school from within. Hermione had felt like less than dungeon slime at not trusting in Harry, but he'd not even considered it at all, instead turning to her for comfort at the loss of Albus Dumbledore.

Tears fell down her cheeks as she counted all of the fights and arguments and spats and disagreements since they'd gotten together… everything, and it all led her to one simple conclusion: it was all worth it, every heartache and every crossed word, if at the end of the day she had Harry's love, it had been a trial worth suffering through.

And that led to the crux of her dilemma. She didn't have Harry's love anymore.

Someone had cast a spell on those cookies which had led to her and Ron, Harry and her best friend, to have sex together, effective destroying hers and Harry's relationship; his and Luna's; but worst of all, the dynamic of the three of them together was destroyed…

And now Harry was off by himself, most likely intending to try and destroy the horocruxes, Voldemort's soul fragments, alone.

"Honey?"

Hermione turned to find her mother standing in the doorway, the antique teas set in her hands. She focused on the sterling of the pot and tray, the flowered patterns on the cups and bowls rather than the piteous look that filled her Mum's gaze.

Nodding silently, Hermione moved over to move a few books off of her desk so that her mother could set the tea set down. Tears threatened to fall again as she watched her movements knock over a picture that held the spot of prominence on the desk, her and Harry. She noted that the wizarding picture had the two of the separated, Hermione crying and Harry with his back turned away from her rather than the normal view of the two of them hugging and laughing.

After her mother set the tea down, Hermione moved over to sit on the foot of her bed as her mother poured tea. She watched as the older woman took a deep breath through her nose and Hermione braced herself for what was about to be said. "I'm sorry for what happened earlier."

Hermione nodded silently. There was no reason to bring up that her parents had offered no comfort, no support after they'd learned what had happened.

Sure, everything had started okay with Hermione arriving at her front door in a state of emotional hysteria. Her mother and father had immediately dragged her into the house and started railing on her questions… concern tinting every inquiry. Once the chance of physical damage had been gotten out of the way, her mother had immediately started about if Harry was okay.

Her parents both knew of the danger Harry was in. It was yet another nail in her coffin that he'd saved her from her parents, the fact that she'd never told her parents all of the truth about the state of the wizarding world. Harry had changed all of threat once they had started dating seriously, his love and respect for her enough that he'd felt the need to let her parents know everything… and it would have been bad, but Harry had actually told them everything, even some observations that Hermione herself didn't know or realize. Roger and Dianne Granger never had a chance against that Potter charm.

Soon after, Harry was involved in almost every aspect of her life, not that she minded. He embraced the muggle world just as he did the wizarding, his awful Aunt and Uncle having kept him from the joys that he'd never really understood or experienced in the muggle world. Soon, Hermione found herself seeing the world she'd lived in for her first ten years opening up to her in ways that she'd never appreciated before… and her parents were all for anything that allowed for more time with their only daughter in an environment they could understand.

It was with all this that her parents had to listen as Hermione revealed her betrayal of Harry, though the reason and cause was not hers, but that of spelled cookies. Her mother had broken down, the words forced and rape tumbling out, while her father had wanted to have words with anyone that could do such to his daughter… but that had led to questions about Harry again, which ultimately led to the ring.

Hermione had pulled it out from beneath her shirt, the ring still sparkling, the three charms forcing another threat of wetness from her eyes. Dianne Granger had cried anew… she, at least, understood as only women often can, that Hermione had not been to blame for all that had fallen. Her father, unfortunately, a male and somehow sympathetic to Harry, had demanded to know why she still had Harry's mother's ring.

His mother's?

Hermione had to sit there in silence a she considered the depth of hurt Harry must have endured, must be enduring, she amended, leaving a ring that was one of the few remaining links to his parents with a woman that had cheated on him.

Her father's accusing stance had been too much for her and Hermione had retreated immediately to her room, the sound of rising voices from behind her the only other sound besides the pounding of her feet on the carpeted floor and the sobs she desperately fought to hold back.

"Are you okay?" Her mother's voice broke her from her silent ruminations.

Nodding, she took the offered cup of tea from her mother. "Thank you. And no. I'm not okay. I don't think that I'll ever be okay again."

"Dear…"

"No." Hermione forced a smile at her Mum before sipping at the tea. "I've screwed it up royally this time, Mum… and I can't think of what to do."

"Have you tried talking to him?"

Hermione laughed, hard and brittle. "He nearly killed Ron…"

"Did he hurt you?"

"Physically?" Hermione was already shaking her head. "Barely raised his voice to me. I can say that if I'd found him in such a state that I wouldn't have started throwing curses and hexes around and wait for questions and answers after the smoke had cleared."

"What are you going to do?" Her mother asked.

Hermione shrugged. "I have absolutely no idea. Normally, I'd have the others to rely on in cases where things weren't going right… but that's gone now, too. There's no way I can talk to Ron, and then there's his entire family and that includes Ginny. Lavender and Pavarti are on vacation and not due back until a few days before school starts."

"And the grownups?"

Sighing, Hermione finished her tea, glad for the warmth that filled her stomach. "The Order is in disarray. I think that there was an unspoken hope that Harry, Ron and I were going to help provide some direction… that was the reason for the big meeting this morning."

"I take it that…"

"The drama of my life took over." Hermione finished sarcastically. "Oh, you could say that."

"Well…" Dianne finally took a sip of her own tea. "What about the big plan? Surely Harry still needs to find these things you won't tell me about."

Yeah, but not with me or Ron." Hermione set her empty cup down, her fingers shaking. "He's gone off to meet his destiny and I'm here… and all I can think of is that whenever he did anything off on his own, the results were always worse than when there was someone to cover his back."

"Maybe he can find someone to help him out." Her Mum offered.

Hermione wiped at her cheeks. "That's what I'm afraid of… that he'll find someone else.

O X O X O X O X O X O

"Have you tried talking to him?" Roger Granger sighed, his hands gripping the bottled beer in his hand so tightly that his knuckles were white. "There's got to be something…"

Remus Lupin was leaned back in the chair, his eyes boring holes into the kitchen table where his own beer sat untouched. Licking his lips, he brought his gaze up to meet that of the man who he'd come to regard as a friend, all due to introductions from the young man they were currently discussing. "Harry won't talk until he's ready."

Roger pushed off from the kitchen counter where he'd been leaning, his face turning up to look at the ceiling, the direction of his look to where he'd see his wife and daughter if the minor detail of walls and the ceiling hadn't been in the way. "She's hurting… aching for him. They're so much in love."

"And you know as well as I do how hard a love like that can turn ugly." Remus finally took a pull off of the beer. Setting the bottle back down, he sighed as he shrugged his shoulders. "You tell me, Roger… you come home tomorrow night to find Dianne in bed with another man. We can prove that she didn't want to, but the fact still remains…"

"That she slept with another man,"

He hated what he was about to do, but Remus' loyalty was to Harry. First, foremost and always. "Now imagine that it happened while Dianne was still a virgin, before you and she had had your moment."

All of the colour drained from the man's face at his words. Remus nodded at the look of incredulity that filled the man's gaze. "Harry and Hermione had both decided to wait… maybe marriage or maybe not, to make sure it was a commitment that they could share forever."

"Her mother and I hoped… but we never really believed…" Roger ran a hand over his balding head, his eyes losing focus. "It's a father's worst nightmare, the wondering about his daughter's sexual experience…"

Remus nodded. "Harry always respected her…"

The fist slamming down on the table caused the beer bottle to overturn, the malted liquor spilling across the rough wooden finish and falling to the marble tiled floor. The sometimes werewolf met the man's eyes and could easily recognize the anger… the rage that was there. "I want to know who did this! Who did this to my daughter!"

Remus idly righted the overturned bottle. He grabbed a handful of napkins in the center of the table and tried mopping up the amber spill, but only ended up making more of a mess. "I agree, and trust me when I say people are looking into this, but I'm not sure what can be done…"

"I want to talk to Harry. He'll see me."

"No." Remus sighed, throwing the wet napkins down in disgust. "You won't. He's locked himself in there so tight that nobody is going to see him until he's ready."

"Just knock down the door. Break open a window or something." Roger sounded desperate.

"He's used magic to seal the house… most likely with the assistance of a very loyal house elf." Remus took a sip of the beer left in the bottom of the bottle. "Unless he decides to open up, everyone else is going to be locked out."

"Have you tried the fireplace… or an owl? Anything?"

Remus nodded. "Nothing works."

Roger sighed loudly as he threw his empty beer bottle in the trash. "Why would someone do this? What kind of sick…"

"It may have been a plan by the enemy… a way to disrupt Harry's confidence." Remus offered as he accepted another beer from Roger, who pulled a fresh one for himself from the icebox. "Or it could have been someone that just wanted them apart."

"Who's looking into it?"

Remus laughed after he swallowed nearly half the bottle. "Everyone, to one extent or another, but the one leading the charge is probably the best person for the job."

"Really?" Roger's eyebrows went high on his forehead. "Who?"

Remus took another drink before answering. "Ginny Weasley." At Roger's look of skepticism, Remus leaned closer to the other man. "She's a good friend to both Harry and Hermione… brother to Ron… and one of the youngest ever to be inducted to the Order… but more than all of that, she's in love with Harry; has been ever since she laid eyes on him. It nearly broke her heart when he and Hermione got together."

"How is that a good thing?"

"Because," Remus killed off his beer. "She plans on getting Harry for herself on her own merits, not because someone used magic to get them apart.

"You mean she'd get them back together…"

"Just so that she could be the reason they finally break apart for good?" Remus reached for another beer. "Oh, yeah. Definitely."