Harry Potter and the Curse of the Prophecy

by quizgirl

After hearing the Prophecy, Voldemort is convinced that as long as he and Harry both live, no one can harm them. And what is better than to have Harry on his side, as his Heir? As it turns out, Harry may not have much choice in the matter. Post OotP.

18. Hermione's Birthday Present

The disclaimer I forget sometimes: I don't own Harry Potter. It would be fun, but I'm not making any money in this either. That's that.

And thank you Amber Eyes!

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Ch18: HERMIONE'S BIRTHDAY PRESENT

So hold me when I'm here
Right me when I'm wrong
Hold me when I'm scared
And love me when I'm gone
Everything I am
And everything in me
Wants to be the one
You wanted me to be
I'll never let you down
Even if I could
I'd give up everything
If only for your good
So hold me when I'm here
Right me when I'm wrong
You can hold me when I'm scared
You won't always be there
So love me when I'm gone

Love me when I'm gone...

(-When I'm gone, 3 Doors Down)

Harry used a lot of the next nights to dream about Hermione. It was incredible how good it felt to dream about her instead of getting visions that Voldemort planted in his mind.

However, what had made Harry a bit uncomfortable at first, was that his dreams had taken a drastic turn. They were no longer so innocent, now, in his dreams, he and Hermione would go much further than they had ever done before. He felt like a freaking pervert, but who was he to stop it really?

At least, now he had one more reason to put silencing charms around his bed. He could only imagine how embarrassing it would be for the both of them if he was caught moaning and gasping in his sleep, while calling Hermione's name.

Harry spent more time in his bed the morning of Hermione's birthday than usual, before he got up to take a cold shower. He wanted to wake up a bit more before he went down to breakfast.

Oh, the lessons with McClaggan was exhausting! The lessons could go on for three or four hours straight with intensive training, and every time he looked like he had been in a battle for days. He had cuts and bruises everywhere, his muscles was sore and stiff, and honestly, it got old. However, he knew it was crucial to learn, and Harry wouldn't have it any other way. Somehow, the pain made him feel like he was doing something, and that was the important thing at the moment. He hated to go around doing nothing these days.

And McClaggan made Harry be on constant vigilance too, at least most of the time. Every time McClaggan spotted Harry in the halls, he would fire curses at him. The moral was easy: if Harry failed and didn't manage to watch himself, McClaggan would push Harry even further the next lesson.

Harry only wished he could fight back; for even though McClaggan did it all the time, Harry was still not allowed to practise magic in the halls. He could only thank Merlin for quidditch reflexes!

However, it was a different story with transfiguration. The lesson where they were tested for which animal they were most likely to become had ended in complete disaster!

Harry shivered from the memory and quickly took a comb to flatten his hair. He had actually changed his mind about becoming one now.

/Flashback/

"All right Ms Patil, you're the next," McGonagall's curt voice echoed through the classroom. The student were standing in a line against the wall, as each one were tested. So far only a couple of people had gotten clear results.

Parvati stepped forward nervously, and McGonagall began to take her measurements with her wand. It took a while, but as McGonagall kept doing her business, Parvati's shadow slowly started to change form.

It was funny to see each ones shadow change form. It looked absurd even, sense your shadow was always something that you carried around. However, Harry guessed he shouldn't been surprised; there was still many things he didn't knew about the wizarding world.

Parvati had kept her eyes closed the whole time, but when she opened her eyes and saw what her form was, she grinned widely. Her shadow had formed to something that looked like a small, delicate bird.

Harry was very happy for her, and could only hope that he would have the same luck.

McGonagall moved to Lavender next, but was unsuccessful. Apparently Lavender didn't have the power, and her shadow didn't change one bit. Harry was surprised though, because if he wasn't much mistaken (which would be weird because of Lavender's smile) she had no desire to become an Animagus herself.

With a nod of understanding McGonagall moved on to the next person – Neville. Harry had expected to see Neville's shadow changing, but was disappointed to see that it only changed halfway. So far it didn't look anything but some kind of large mammal... Apparently Neville missed the last bit.

Hermione was the next one, and after that it was Harry's turn. Harry held his breath; it was now or never of her. Somehow he knew that if it showed that Hermione didn't have the ability, then she would think it was all for the best and stop everyone else from becoming one. Becides, it would be difficult for him to do it without her, nor did he want to.

Harry carefully watched Hermione's shadow as McGonagall tested her. No change... No change! Harry was about to lounge at McGonagall when Hermione's shadow suddenly crouched down and began to change. The change was slow, and if Harry didn't know better then he would've thought that Hermione forced it to change. He didn't care though, as long as it continued changing.

When the shadow stopped changing everybody, including Harry, held their breath to see what form it had. It looked like a huge, oversized cat, although it was hard to tell. "Congratulations Ms Granger," said McGonagall, and gave Hermione one of her rare smiles. "You have the ability."

Hermione's smile brightened Harry's day, at least for one more minute until McGonagall began testing him. Harry closed his eyes, and focused on the magic inside him, like they were supposed to.

The silence in the room was almost dizzying, and Harry opened his left eye to see what they saw. His heart leapt in his throat. His shadow was changing!

At the moment the shadow looked a lot like Parvati's shadow, although much bigger and not completely formed. Harry began to grin widely, however, without warning the shadow began to change back like it had changed it's mind!

The hell?

He watched silently as his shadow melted together to a ball, before it began to stretch. And stretch. Then it stretched some more. Harry was horrified when he saw what it was. It was...

"A snake!" said Lavender with a gasp, and she was right. Everyone saw it and it was no doubt in the world.

Harry's animagus form was a snake. A large one!

/End flashback/

Harry gritted his teeth as he gave up combing his hair. Akin, who usually stayed in his backpack or in his dormitory while Harry attended to classes, had been delighted at the news, and wanted him to begin practise right away. Harry refused though. He didn't want to be a snake, it was too Slytherin!

The whole school knew now, and not surprisingly people had began to shy him again. It was weird to see small first years escape from him though.

Harry sighed, it was no use to stay away from them. It wasn't his fault after all, was it?

Putting on some dry clothes he went down to breakfast. What greeted him was not the cheerful mood he had been hoping for, but grim faces and low whispering. For once it didn't even to seem to be about him.

"What've happened?" Harry asked, as he sat down beside Hermione.

"Oh, it's awful!" said Hermione sorrowful, shaking her head. "It's been another attack. A big one."

"Yeah," said Seamus, "fifty muggles and twenty-two wizards killed."

"Dementors?" asked Harry, feeling sick.

"And Death Eaters," added Ron. Harry noted that the boy didn't have so much appetite as he used to.

"Didn't you dream it?" whispered Hermione, bending her head close to his, exposing a very smooth-looking neck and an adorable earlobe.

Harry shook his head, desperately trying to hide the blush he felt creeping up his chin. How inappropriate! He scolded himself.

"Let's check the names!" said Dean urgently, and the others nodded. However, before they could do that, they were disturbed by a rasp bird voice.

Harry turned his head sharply, and heard many others in the hall gasp.

There was an absolute and total silence as they watched the black, ugly raven fly ungracefully around the hall, looking and searching...

It searched the hall a couple of rounds, and the air was so tick with tension that someone could have cut it with a knife. Harry thought it looked like an ordinary raven at first, but as it made it's way towards the Gryffindor table –because it did, unmistakably - he saw that the raven wasn't like any other ravens he had seen before. This was so ugly it looked like the Death itself, like a Thestral did, only in bird form. The raven made a turn and flew towards Ginny and Dean. Dean looked puzzled, but Ginny looked more terrified than she had been in the Department of Mysteries. Whatever it was it was not good, and one of them was about to pay.

It settled in front of Dean, sticking out it's foot, that had a black letter with red band fastened to it. Ginny let out a choked sob of relief, her eyes full of tears, and so – surprisingly - did Ron. Harry couldn't ever remember seeing the two Weasleys in a state like this.

What was going on?

Dean looked shaky as he unfastened the letter, and, even though it was hard to tell, Harry could have sworn he saw him pale considerately. Dean began to read the letter slowly, the Great Hall silent and waiting. When he, however, reached the end of the letter, he frowned and began to read it all over again. And again. And again.

Somehow McGonagall had managed to get to their table without anyone noticing, and placed a wrinkled hand on Dean's shoulder.

"Come Mr Thomas, let's go to my office, shall we?"

It took some time before Dean gave any response, and Harry felt bad for him. Whatever had happened must've been terrible, and somehow it wasn't hard to imagine what it could be.

It took some moments before Harry could take his eyes from the spot where Dean had just sat, to where Dumbledore was speaking in the front of the hall.

"...and that is why we have decided that all classes are cancelled until noon. My condolences to everybody who knew someone involved in the attack. This is a difficult time, and it is important that we stand together and support each other. Thank you."

That meant they still had Defence Against Dark Arts, Harry thought, and felt guilty for looking forward to it. He looked at the raven again and suppressed a shiver; it was to most ugly bird he had ever seen. It's feathers were dull and messy, and it's feet had claws that reminded him of a spider. However, it was it's eyes that made it look most horrid, they were yellow, black and empty, and were staring right at Harry, as if saying: 'I will see you again soon...'

He didn't need anyone to tell him what that Raven was. It was death; someone in Dean's family had died.

Suppressing a new shiver, Harry gently took the daily prophet from Dean's seat. He was just about to read it when Hermione took one hand over his gently.

"Don't," she said softly. "He'll tell us when he's ready."

"But..." Harry protested. "Everybody else's going to read about it!"

"That'll be their choice," said Hermione firmly, "becides, they might not know what they're looking for."

Harry shrugged, and looked over at Ron, who was staring at Hermione angrily, and looked like as if he struggled to find something to say to her but then thinking better of it.

"What a way to celebrate your birthday, huh?" said Harry apolitically, and stroked her chin. "What do you say to go out for a bit? We have a free period after all."

"I'd love to," said Hermione, and blushed prettily. Ron scoffed.

They both knew that in times like that they needed to hold on to the good moments, and Harry had planned this carefully. It was just a little sooner than he had expected.

They linked arms all the way down to the entrance of the school, nodding politely to McGonagall and even to Filch when they passed each other on the way.

Harry opened the large, wooden door, and was greeted by a high and warm sun.

Still holding hands with Hermione, he guided her to a nearby bench and sat down. Somehow this reminded him of when they were outside the restaurant, only this time nothing was going to ruin the moment.

Harry reached his hand down in his pockets, and fished up a small, wrapped present and enlarged it. Smiling, he gave the gift to Hermione, praying that she would like it. He didn't know how to respond if she didn't.

Carefully, she took the gift from Harry's hands. She used some moments to feel around the edges, before she opened it with such tenderness that he wished she could do the same to him. When she had unwrapped the present, it fell down in her lap, and she gasped loudly. She turned to Harry with hot tears in her eyes.

"Is this..?"

"Yes," said Harry, and took her hand in his. "It's a two-ways mirror. That way - as long as we carries it - we can talk to each other whenever and wherever we are. I have one, that belonged to my dad. Sirius gave it to me last Christmas, but I never got myself to use it or even open it. Actually," Harry admitted, feeling the well-known shame wash over him, "I never even opened it until the day we left Hogwarts for the summer. This one-" said Harry, nodding to the mirror Hermione had in her hands, "-belonged to Sirius. I can't think of anyone I would rather share it with than you."

"Oh, Harry," said Hermione, her tears flowing freely down her cheeks now. "It's wonderful! You have no idea how much this means to me."

Harry smiled, and brushed some of her hot tears away with the palm of his hand, before both of them got up from the bench. They both shivered a little, and couldn't help but laugh.

"You're so wonderful," Hermione said, and leaned in to kiss him lightly on the lips. Harry pulled her closer, smiling to himself. The kiss was tender and passionate, and spoke more than words could ever hope to achieve.

However, when he was about to deepen the kiss, Hermione pulled away:

"If you want more... you'll have to catch me first!" she said with a wink, then took off. Her hair hang as a curtain of curls behind her, and the mirror she had in one hand reflected the light from the sun. Harry was yet again struck with her beauty.

He merely stared after her for some moments, blessing his luck, before recovering. She wanted it that way?

Grinning, he started to run after her, catching up the distance fast without even being short of breath. All the mornings he had used to run through the summer must had done him good.

Hermione, however, was faster than she appeared to be, and she reached the lake before he did. When Harry finally caught up with her, he grabbed her arm and pulled her in for a well-deserved kiss.

This time Hermione deepened the kiss herself, and he felt her chest rising and falling dramatically for being short of breath under him. Harry stroked the back of her hair gently, his other hand resting around her waist. He was oblivious to anything except the beautiful girl in front of him and the hot sun on his face.

Hermione rested a finger on his cheek, and broke off the kiss slowly, smiling with mischief. Harry, afraid hat she would run off again, kept a firmly grip on her arm, but she just kept smiling up at him, and then started to undress.

Harry stared at her with wide eyes, his mind racing furiously, slightly panicking. What was she doing? Did she expect him to-?

Hermione stepped out of her pants, and took of her Hogwarts robe and the top underneath, so that the only thing that was left on her was black underwear. The sun glowed on her already tanned skin, and Harry couldn't take his eyes of her.

He gulped; surely she wasn't about to do just what he was thinking?

"Come," whispered Hermione, and guided him towards the lake. Realization dawned for him, she wanted a bath. He almost laughed of his own stupidness, but some part of him (that he didn't really want to give much thought to at the moment) was more than a little disappointed.

Nervous, he started to step out of his own clothes as Hermione started to step into the water. Luckily he had on reasonable boxers for once, that were blissfully wide.

Undressed and safe, he decided to have a little fun. Without warning he started to run towards her, splashing water everywhere.

"Harry!" shrieked Hermione, but Harry grabbed her waist and leapt deeper into the water with her, so they had to swim.

Harry, suddenly aware of that he wasn't a terribly good swimmer, took a better hold of Hermione.

She, however, decided it was time for revenge and ducked under the water to tickle him. It was torture! Laughing, he pulled her up and used a moment to study her features.

She looked, if possibly, more beautiful than ever. Her hair, no longer wearing any resembles of being bushy because of the water, hang in dark tendrils down her back, and there were small water drops on her eyelashes.

Harry, unable to resist, kissed her softly, and allowed them to just float weightless in the water. Hermione wrapped her legs around Harry as they kissed, and the feeling of her against him so tightly as she was now, made the feeling he had had for a while to increase.

However, who was he to say it was love? He had never truly experienced it before, that he could remember anyway, so how could he know that what he was feeling was more than teenage hormones?

He remembered Voldemort's, or rather the Boggart's words 'I'll kill everybody you love, Harry...' all too well. It didn't matter if the words was from a boggart or not, it was still true. However, just as much as he couldn't allow himself to believe that what he felt was love, he couldn't let Hermione go. He wanted her, he needed her, and he never wanted to leave her or hurt her in any way. He cared for her more than he had ever cared for anyone before. It was scary, but also comforting in a weird sort of way.

"Hermione," Harry moaned, and Hermione smiled against his lips.

"Yeah?"
"Don't leave me."

Hermione paused for a moment before answering. "I won't. I'll always be there for you."

That wasn't completely the answer Harry wanted, but he could settle with it. At least for now. Their relationship as boyfriend and girlfriend was still fairly new, and it would be stupid of him to expect her to give him promises of undying love. She was there now... That was all that mattered at the moment.

-

For the next few hours Harry felt as he was walking on a cloud, everything seemed so perfect, the threat from Voldemort seemed ages away, and his Animagus form being a snake didn't even bother him much. That was not to last, however.

When Harry, Hermione, Parvati and Ron went to their DADA class that day around noon, Harry was in for another nasty surprise.

It started as it always did. They read a text in their defence book for twenty minutes, then McClaggan would speak for another twenty, and then the rest of the period would be practical. It was what McClaggan had to show them while he was speaking that messed up Harry's day, and loudly too.

McClaggan had told them about discovering dark arts, and had used a sneakoscope as an example. However, when McClaggan had held it up high for the class to see, the detector started to spin and screech loudly. Harry could almost feel it stare at him, and somehow he knew that the detector reacted to him.

He had no idea what to do as McClaggan stepped closer to him step by step, looking around the class, but he felt just as bad as he had in his second year when he had been framed for attacking and petrifying several people. This time, however, Harry had no excuse: he knew there was a reason for it to react. Oh yes, there hadn't passed much time since Harry had used Dark Arts, even though it was not on purpose. Becides, he realized, his link with Voldemort had grown stronger. Harry remember with dismay something from the 'All About The Unforgiveables' book he had read over the summer:

'When the caster put so much emotion in the curse as he or she would have to do for the curse to work properly, it is not without a prize. Not only would the caster risk a life-sentence in Azkaban, the Wizard Prison guarded by Dementors, but the caster's soul would also be affected. The soul would be forever marked, depending on how much the caster enjoyed it.

The feeling of power is addict able, and the caster would in most cases feel strongly tempted to use an Unforgivable in the future. If recently used, it would have an effect on Dark Detectors,-'

Harry's head started to spin. He remembered stopping at that exact sentence, and tossing the book across the room in frustration. Now, as McClaggan only had a few steps left, he deeply regretted that. What was he going to do now?

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Okay, not a big cliffie, but at least it was one. I can't lose my image, and the chapter was long enough, so I had to end it here. Sorry! (However, I'll have more reason to apology later in the story. Did I say later? Er... I meant in a few chapters! Enjoy the good times! winks)

So, how did I manage? The Harry/Hermione fluff I mean. You'll get more of that, but I'm more the Action/Angst/Adventure person. , That's my element.

I must say that I'm amazed. Several of you actually took pity on me and left me a note! (Anybody who knows how to see how many people that visits? Is that even possible here?) Feel free to drop suggestions, point out mistakes and so on. It helps, really.

Did you notice the small song in the beginning of this chapter? You'll get more of that too, probably.

On to you who reviewed! (if you don't see your name on the list you forgot to review)

Holimontski: Thanks for the review! Akin is not that important, but he's funny to have around.

MortyM: Yes, I only got four reviews for chapter 16. Depressing really, but at least you remembered! Thank you for the nice comment!

Kaylee: Thank you, I thought so too!

Bukama Stealth: Yes, he do, we just don't see it. And Hermione's action was on purpose, to be explained later... coughAkincough!

Fhippogriff: Wow, that was a lot of good comments! blush Very nice of you to review more than the last chapter. As pointed out in Fiction Alley there's a reason for the story to come in chapters, with a review button. The break is definitely over, as I'm sure you've discovered when you read this... :)

Sadie Angel: I can't see you there, but thanks anyway, it means a lot!

TuRn: Hehe, thanks! You're right, I can't! What to do now, what to do... By the way –congratulations! Your review is number 100! ten extra points to you

Meg, LaNaHwAnNa: Tanks for reviewing, I'll update asap. Did you see my new story here?

One last note: If you don't want to see review-comments in the end of the chapters let me know. I'm just checking it out, sense it seems to be the only easy way to respond to you wonderful guys who review. Take care!