Spoilers - Deathly Hallows.
Chapter Three
Over the next few days, Harry and Hermione fell into a domestic routine. They took it in turns to cook tea every night, they argued over what to watch on the TV and Hermione put herself in charge of cleaning the flat, as Harry hardly ever kept the place tidy.
It was Friday morning and Hermione had just had her usual morning shower. She wrapped herself in a fluffy pink towel before coming out of the bathroom. Only to come face to face with Harry.
"Oh Harry, you scared the life out of me!" Hermione said, animatedly as she held the towel more securely around herself.
Harry could not stop looking Hermione up and down wearing just her towel. Her wet hair fell onto her bare shoulders; droplets of water could be seen on her freshly washed skin which had the distinct aroma of citrus fruits. It was intoxicating Harry's senses.
"Something the matter, Harry?" Hermione inquired, cheekily, she could see him staring.
"What? … oh umm… no, nothing."
"Aren't you supposed to be in work?" Hermione asked, with raised eyebrows.
"Nope, day off" Harry smiled "In fact I'm having Teddy over for the day and he's staying here tonight as well, if that's okay with you?"
Hermione looked happily surprised "Oh that's great! Yeah that's fine with me, of course. Is Tonks's mum dropping him round?"
"Yeah Andromeda phoned yesterday and asked if I wanted to have him over. I'm just a bit worried though."
"Why's that?" Hermione frowned.
"Well I've never looked after a toddler on my own before."
"Don't worry, I'll be here" Hermione assured him.
"But I thought you had your Healer training stuff to do today?"
"Well I'm waiting to hear if I have to go in this afternoon or not, in the meantime I'm staying here and I can help you."
Harry smiled at Hermione gratefully; he kept gazing at her until Hermione coughed loudly to bring Harry out of his day-dream state.
"Uh Harry" she was blushing right red "D'ya mind moving, so I can go and umm, get dressed?" She indicated that she was still only in a towel.
Harry blushed red as a tomato as he realised he was blocking the doorway, he hastily moved aside, allowing Hermione to head back to her room. She closed the door and leaned against it and said very quietly to herself "Oh my god." She was grinning like a Cheshire cat and still blushing. Hermione came back out twenty minutes later, her hair now dried and left down, and she was wearing jeans and a cute blue blouse.
"Hermione" Harry smiled, as she came into the living-room. "How are we supposed to keep Teddy entertained? There is nothing here for him to do, or to play with?"
Hermione had already thought about this whilst she had been getting dressed, and was now smiling at Harry.
"What time is Tonks's mum dropping him round?"
"Thirty minutes."
"Okay, well I'm just popping out; I will be back by the time he arrives."
"What are you going out to get?" Harry inquired, curiously.
Hermione grinned "It's a surprise. I will see you in a bit" and she disapparated away.
Harry tidied up the flat as quickly as was humanly possible, before he sat nervously on the sofa twiddling his thumbs. He soon heard the sound of knocking on the front door, signalling the arrival of Tonks's mum with Teddy.
"Hawwy!" the almost three year old toddler said, gleefully as he rushed into the flat to hug his godfather's legs.
"Hey little man" Harry said, delightedly "Look how much you've grown!" he ruffled the little boy's hair.
"You sure you're okay to look after Teddy till tomorrow, Harry?"
"Yes I'll be fine; my best friend will be here aswell. Actually, she said she would be back in time to see you."
"I'm here!" Hermione announced as she came in through the still open front door, laden with shopping bags. She placed them on the floor before greeting Tonks's mother. "Hi, Andromeda, I'm Hermione."
Andromeda smiled "Nice to meet you Hermione. Tonks and Remus spoke very highly of you. So you're Harry's best friend are you?"
Hermione grinned "Yep and we're roommates now too" she informed her "And don't worry you are leaving Teddy in very capable hands" she smiled down at the toddler who grinned back up at Hermione.
"I don't doubt that for a minute" Andromeda smiled, happily "All his things and his pyjamas are in the bag" which she handed to Hermione "And if there are any problems just let me know, okay? I will pick Teddy up at 10:00am tomorrow morning."
"Okay that's fine" Hermione assured her "We'll have fun won't we Teddy?" Hermione said to the toddler who giggled.
Andromeda grinned down to Teddy "Come and give grandma a hug and a kiss goodbye" and Harry and Hermione watched on happily, as Teddy did just what his grandmother requested before she disapparated away.
"Come on then Teddy" Harry said, as he took his godson by the hand, leading him into the living-room, Hermione following along with the shopping bags.
"What did you buy, Hermione?" Harry asked, curiously as Harry let Teddy climb onto the sofa.
"I got some toys for Teddy to play with, some food for dinner and tea. Aswell as some finger-paints, thought we could have some fun with those" Hermione grinned "And also some bread and a small ball, thought we could take Teddy down the park and feed the ducks and have a play around."
Harry beamed at Hermione, impressed with her idea.
"Hermione that is brilliant!" then he turned to his godson "Look Teddy, isn't Auntie Hermione kind getting you lots of things to do, hmm?"
Teddy looked up at Hermione and said happily "Mione!" which made both the adults laugh.
Teddy was fascinated with the toys; most of them lighting up and flashing different colours, played music, and some of the toys had numbers and letters of the alphabet for him to try and learn.
Hermione was laughing at Harry trying to show Teddy how to fit the right shape blocks into the right holes in the cube. Teddy kept pointing at Harry and saying the word "Funny!"
This sent Hermione off into hysterics. She loved watching Harry talk in a baby voice, and Teddy seemed to be immensely enjoying the company of both Harry and Hermione.
By the time they got the finger-paints out, Teddy was still full of so much energy. Hermione was being strict, but not too strict, in making sure Teddy did not get the paint everywhere. He followed the instructions perfectly and enjoyed making handprints with the paint, and messy pictures on paper with a paint brush. Harry and Hermione joined in and made their own, Harry admitted he was rubbish at art in school and was no better now. The same could not be said for Hermione's paintings, which were pretty imaginative. It was another undiscovered talent by Miss Granger Harry had thought.
Whilst Hermione was busy putting more paint into a bowl, Harry dipped his paintbrush into the glossy red paint and when Hermione turned back round to face him, Harry dabbed it on the end of her nose.
Harry laughed heartedly, whilst Hermione exclaimed.
"Harry! Ooo you are in such deep trouble!" Teddy giggled as he watched them.
Hermione reached across the table to get more paint, only for Harry to realise she had leant in some pictures that were still wet, and when she sat up straight, the front of her blue blouse was covered in red, green and orange paint.
"Uhh, Hermione" Harry indicated for her to look down.
Hermione did just that and she gasped "Oh my god!" and she ran out of the room.
Teddy giggled and said "Messy Mione!"
Harry laughed "That she is Teddy" and they carried on painting.
Hermione got rid of the paint off her top (and her nose), regretting wearing a pale blue blouse to do painting in, before she changed into a clean pink top.
"Right shall we have some lunch then?" Hermione wondered, as she came back out of her room to re-join Harry and Teddy.
Following lunch, Harry and Hermione took Teddy in his pram down to the large local park. They at first fed the ducks by the lake not far from the main park area. Teddy was not that keen on the swans, but he loved the ducks swimming around in the water. Harry and Hermione took it in turns pushing Teddy on the child's swings, and they did the same with placing him on their laps as they slide down the slide in the park, which was full with kids out enjoying the sunshine with their families. They took lots of photos that day, as Hermione had noticed earlier that Harry had no pictures of Teddy anywhere around the flat, and thought this was as good an opportunity as ever to change that.
Teddy and Harry were having fun kicking the ball about on the large playing field, whilst Hermione was watching from a bench nearby and also thinking about a few things. Hermione smiled happily at the thought of how Harry would make a great dad in the future. He was bonding so naturally with Teddy and appeared to be having so much fun with him.
Hermione was brought out of her dream like state, as a woman with long blonde hair, she looked in her mid-thirties, came to sit on the same bench.
"Gorgeous day" the woman instigated conversation.
"Yes it is certainly is" Hermione concurred back.
The woman laughed as she saw Harry falling over when he dived to catch the ball Teddy had kicked over to him.
"Your husband seems to be having a lot of fun."
Hermione looked confused "My husband?"
"Yes, the man over there with your little boy?" she pointed to Harry and Teddy.
Hermione blushed bright red "Oh no, he isn't my husband and that's not our son."
"Oh I'm sorry, please forgive me, I just assumed you were. I saw you all earlier by the lake."
Hermione smiled "Don't worry about it" she bashfully said "Sorry I don't even know your name?"
"Oh sorry…Hi, I'm Melissa" the woman said with a smile.
"Nice to meet you, my name's Hermione" she replied in return, smiling back at the woman, before she thought some more about what Melissa had said.
"If you don't mind me asking, Melissa, but what made you think that the three of us were a family?"
Melissa looked at Hermione kindly "I hope you don't mind me saying this, it's just…I saw the way he was looking at you, I can see he really likes you."
"Do you really think so?"
Melissa chuckled "Yes I honestly do. So you two are definitely not together then?"
Hermione shook her head "No, we're best-friend's and we share a flat, that's all."
"And the little boy?"
"Oh he's Harry's godson; we are just taking him out for the day."
Melissa smiled happily, and they both turned their attentions back to Harry and Teddy having fun on the grass playing with the ball, Teddy giggling to his hearts content.
Melissa then watched Hermione momentarily, a knowing smile on her face as she saw Hermione beaming as she watched them both play.
"I hope I'm not crossing the line when I'm saying this, Hermione, but…am I right in thinking that you have feelings for this…Harry, friend of yours?"
Hermione looked quite stunned, but blushed nonetheless "What makes you think that?"
"Well for one thing your blush says it all" Melissa grinned, knowingly "but also, I can tell you like him, just by the look in your eyes when you are watching him. I know I have no right interfering in your business, but if you did want my advice…I'm a woman who knows what its like to be in your shoes."
"How so?" Hermione inquired, curiously.
"I was in the same situation myself. I had feelings for a guy I was really close friends with, but I never thought he felt the same way about me."
"So what did you do?" Hermione wondered, with keen interest.
"I married him" this made Melissa and Hermione laugh, before Melissa continued seriously "What I'm trying to say is, the best thing I ever did was tell him how I felt. I was lucky in that he did feel the same way, and I've never looked back since. Just trust your instincts."
"Mummy!" a little girl, about six years old, who looked exactly like Melissa came running up to her, and Melissa got off the bench to pick up her daughter, her husband walking over to join them. "It was nice meeting you Hermione, good luck."
Melissa gave a bright smile before she wandered off with her husband and daughter. Leaving Hermione sitting on the bench, with a lot of thinking to do.
By the time Hermione and Harry had got Teddy home only half an hour later, the twenty one month old was spark out. Hermione had transfigured a stool from her bedroom into a cot, which had been placed in Harry's bedroom. Hermione had laid the sleeping toddler in it carefully and retreated back to the living-room where Harry was sitting watching TV.
"Teddy alright?" Harry inquired, politely as Hermione came into the room.
"Out like a light" Hermione grinned, as she came to sit closely next to Harry on the sofa and rubbed her forehead.
"And are you alright?" Harry asked, concernedly, but with a smile.
"Yeah" Hermione gave a slight laugh "Didn't realise how tiring it was looking after a toddler."
"I know, tell me about it!" Harry laughed too "He's so full of energy! More than you and I put together, I think."
Hermione giggled "You got that right."
"D'ya fancy a cuppa?" Harry wondered.
"Oh yes please, thank-you" the instant Hermione finished the sentence the phone rang and she answered it "Hello…yes…oh Sarah, do I have to? Yes…oh alright…okay I'll be right there, bye!" and she hung up the phone, turning to Harry in annoyance.
"I'm sorry but that was my boss, I've got to go to St. Mungos for about three hours."
"Aww no, so you're leaving me to look after Teddy on my own?"
"I'm sorry" Hermione said, apologetically "I really don't want to leave you, but I've got to go. I'm sorry. Just call me if there are any problems, yeah?" she kissed Harry's cheek and disapparated.
Harry lay back against the sofa, thinking Teddy would probably stay asleep until Hermione returned.
Oh boy how wrong he was.
After a two hour nap Teddy woke up crying his eyes out, Harry eventually got him to calm down before all hell broke loose. Teddy went running round the flat, pulling things out of lower drawers, books off the lower shelves. Teddy found paint from earlier (that Harry had forgotten to clean up) and Teddy began to make paint hand prints on the walls. Harry tried to control his godson but was failing miserably.
Harry managed to grab Teddy so he could feed him his tea, but that did not go down swimmingly as the toddler got his food absolutely everywhere, including on Harry himself.
Harry heard a knock on the door and he answered it, swiftly, to reveal Ron who instantly laughed at what he saw.
"Harry, what's going on here, mate?"
"Teddy! He's going mad, I've lost all control!"
"I can see that!" Ron said, with a chuckle. They went into the living-room stepping over bits of food, paint and books on their way "Where's Hermione?"
"She was called to St. Mungos; I've been on my own for like three hours. I'm no good at this Ron! Hermione was so good with Teddy; she kept him from running riot. Now that she's not around, it's like Teddy knows I'm a weak target."
Ron just laughed, heartedly "You can fight off death eaters, kill Voldermort, as well as fight the bad guys for a living, but you can't control a toddler?!"
"Got it in one!" Harry cried, exasperatedly, before stopping Teddy from pulling CD's off a shelf.
Harry managed to restrain Teddy and sat him on the sofa and told him sternly to stop messing around.
"So how's it going then, I mean, you and Hermione living together?" Ron inquired, very curiously.
"Yeah really well, it's been really good actually" Harry said, as he handed Teddy a toy to play with.
"You sound surprised" Ron chuckled "Didn't you think you'd get along? I mean come on you and Hermione were, actually you still are, inseparable!"
Harry blushed slightly "I don't know, just thought it might be weird the two of us sharing a flat. But we're having fun."
"What kind of fun?" Ron wiggled his eyebrows and winked at Harry.
Harry rolled his eyes "Not that kind of fun, Ron! Although we kind of had an awkward moment this morning, I caught her coming out of the bathroom with just her towel on."
Ron raised his eyebrows and grinned mischievously "Ooo I bet you loved that!"
Harry sighed "Ron how many times, there is nothing going on between Hermione and I" Harry tried to say convincingly, but this was not working.
"But you want something to go on between you and Hermione, don't you?" Ron said, knowingly.
"I have no idea what you're talking about" Harry said, blatantly trying to deny everything Ron was saying.
"Oh come off it Harry. I've known both you and Hermione long enough to know how you feel, even if you won't admit it. Harry, I know you fancy Hermione like crazy!"
"I can't think of her like that Ron, she's only just split up with Chris."
Ron grinned, triumphantly "Aha! So you say you can't like her out of principal, yet you do like her?
Harry sighed "Are you ever going to let this drop?"
"Nope" Ron grinned "Come on Harry, just admit it. I won't tell her I promise."
"Fine!" Harry said with a huff and blushed crimson "Yes you're right."
"I want to hear you say it" Ron said, drawing it out as painfully long as possible.
"Okay I really fancy Hermione; can you drop the subject now?"
Ron gave a gloriously wide grin "No chance! So come on, why don't you just tell Hermione the truth?"
"She doesn't feel the same way, she only thinks of me as a friend."
"That is the lamest excuse and the biggest load of rubbish I've heard for a long while. Harry, Hermione does have feelings for you."
"But how can you be so certain?" Harry said, with an uncertain look on his face.
"I just know, trust me." Ron said seriously "You just need to tell her how you feel."
They talked no further about it, as Teddy had got bored of the toy Harry had given him, and instead picked up Harry's wand (which had fallen out of Harry's pocket at some point) and Teddy ran out of the room again.
"Oh no, not the kitchen!" Harry cried, as he rushed out of the room in pursuit of Teddy, Ron hot on his heels.
"No Teddy, don't touch that!" Harry cried, very alarmed, as they reached the kitchen.
Teddy had been waving it around and some of the magic sparks had hit a bag of flour, causing the flour to explode in the kitchen. It landed everywhere.
"Teddy!" Harry cried, and rushed to the toddler who was covered in flour from head to foot "Don't ever do that again Teddy, and don't touch any wands, do you understand?"
Teddy was nodding and Harry got him cleaned up with a wave of his wand, before setting the toddler in his cot, to keep him out of harms way for a while.
"Oh god, Hermione is going to kill me when she sees the state of this place!" Harry said, with his hands on his head as he was now back in the kitchen with Ron.
Ron chuckled "You're even talking like she's your wife!"
Harry threw a tea towel at him and laughed, rolling his eyes at the same time.
"I really don't want to be here when she turns up" Ron said, anxiously "Knowing Hermione she will blame it all on me!"
Then the boys heard the sound of the front door opening.
"Oh god it's her!" Ron cried "I'm off, bye Harry, good luck!" and he instantly disapparated on the spot.
Harry rushed out of the kitchen only to find Hermione standing in the hallway, front door now shut, her mouth hanging open in stunned shock.
She looked directly over at Harry and looked him up and down. Food was all over his t-shirt, flour completely covering him (including his hair) his glasses were placed at a strange angle, and Harry looked worn out, breathless and stressed. Hermione gazed at Harry for no longer than five seconds before her shocked expression turned into one of great amusement, as she burst out laughing.
"Harry!" she giggled, hysterically "What an earth happened?"
"Teddy! That's what happened!" Harry said in annoyance, as he saw her laughing "It's not funny, Hermione."
"Oh it is" Hermione said in hysterics "I go away for three hours and I come back to this!" she tried to calm herself down "Where is Teddy?"
"I've cleaned him up and put him in his cot out of harms way. I was going to clean up the mess by the time you got home, but I didn't have time…I'm really sorry, Hermione."
Hermione looked quite surprised and gave a sympathetic smile "Harry, you don't need to be sorry, you silly thing. Harry, are you afraid of me or something?"
"You can be pretty scary y'know. You went mad at me the other day for not putting the loo seat down, and for not cleaning up all the vegetable peelings I had left in the kitchen."
Hermione grinned at the memory "I'm sorry, the main thing is no one got hurt and you are both still alive."
Harry looked anxious "I may not be alive once you see the state of the kitchen."
Hermione raised her eyebrows and strode straight past Harry into the kitchen and gasped.
Harry inwardly groaned and mumbled to himself "She's gunna kill me, I'm so dead! I'd better start making a Will; Ron can have the TV and my Firebolt…"
"Harry?!" Hermione called out to him.
"Oh no!" Harry moaned, scared of what she was going to do to him.
Harry, reluctantly, entered the kitchen to find it completely clean, no food, paint or flour to be seen anywhere.
"What, what happened?" Harry said with a stunned look on his face "This place was like a bomb had hit it a minute ago!"
Hermione said with a bright smile "Just used a very thorough Scouring charm, that's all."
Harry looked flabbergasted "So you're saying all I needed to do was use that charm and the kitchen would have been cleaned?"
Hermione nodded and grinned "Ahuh" she chuckled "Think I need to send you back to Hogwarts, mister" she patted his head before heading out of the room to clean the rest of the house.
"Why is she always right?" Harry moaned, before leaving to go and shower.
Harry and Hermione had their tea and gave Teddy a bath later on. As Harry returned from phoning Ron (so Ron knew he was still alive and Hermione had not killed him) Harry came into the living-room, with a bottle of wine and two glasses in his hands, to discover Hermione was sitting on the sofa with Teddy on her lap. Hermione was stroking Teddy's dark brown hair and she kissed his head as she was singing him a lullaby. A bedtime story book lay discarded on the sofa next to her.
Harry was watching Hermione with a sweet smile on his face.
'She would make an amazing mother one day' Harry thought silently to himself.
Hermione stopped singing as she had sensed Harry watching her in the doorway, she looked over at him.
"He's fast asleep" she said softly, getting up with the little boy in her arms, his head lay on her shoulder "Going to put him to bed."
"Alright" Harry whispered with a smile and went to sit on the sofa, pouring out the wine.
Hermione came back in a minute later, smiling at Harry as she sat next to him.
"Teddy looks so cute and innocent when he's asleep."
"Shame he doesn't behave like that when he's awake" Harry chuckled, as he handed a glass of red wine to her.
"Yeah you're right" Hermione giggled, saying thanks as she took the glass.
"You were great with Teddy today, Hermione" Harry praised to her "Honestly, you were a natural."
Hermione blushed and smiled "So were you."
"No I really wasn't" Harry laughed.
Hermione chuckled "Apart from the 'almost turning the flat into a bomb site incident' you were amazing, especially all that stuff at the park. Was really quite sweet. Was nice to see that softer side to you."
"Hey I can be a soft-touch when I want to be" he grinned, about to prove his point "Come here" he brought Hermione closer so she could cuddle up to him.
Both of their hearts skipped a beat at the closeness, smile plastered on both Harry and Hermione's faces. This is what they both wanted, yet neither knew how the other felt, and they were both too proud to admit it.
"I know you can be a big softy" Hermione grinned "One of the things I like most about you."
Harry blushed and then an intriguing thought came into his head "Would you ever like to have kids, Hermione?"
"Yeah, yeah I would. Although, got to find someone to love me first, that is going to take a while." Harry was about to interrupt but Hermione beat him to it "What about you, you ever thought about having kids?"
"Sure, although I'd like to be married first."
"Me too" Hermione admitted "Looks like we are both going to have to try looking that little bit harder to find our soul-mates."
"Yeah" Harry smiled as he looked down at Hermione lying in the crook of his neck "I'm looking alright."
...