At 11 Grimmauld Place, a messy-haired wizard got off the Knight Bus and walked next door. No one saw him enter 12 Grimmauld Place, and no one heard him collapse, sobbing, just inside the door.
Hermione was also sobbing, though she wasn't able to control herself as long as Harry had. She had reached a park that she had always gone to when kids had picked on her, and was now crying on a bench.
Curse Harry and his bloody nobility! She thought to herself.
He wouldn't be who he is without it, a voice she recognized as her conscience told her.
I know! She thought angrily at it. It doesn't mean I have to like it all the time! And what about my father, hmm? What's his excuse?
He wants to protect you, her conscience said.
Hermione snorted. You don't rip someone's heart out to protect them, she snarled in her head.
Harry would have done the same if you were his daughter, her conscience said.
Hermione snorted again. No he wouldn't, he would get to know the boy, and then run him out of the house.
Her conscience had no response, and let Hermione continue sobbing. It was less than twenty minutes later that Emma Granger found her daughter in an exhausted stupor on the park bench.
Harry had managed to pick himself up and go to the room he had been in the last time he had been here. The tears were still streaming down his face, but he was used to doing things with tear-filled eyes. When he got to the room he collapsed on his bed and started his own internal debate.
At least I won't come between Hermione and her parents now, he thought.
Right, his conscience responded sarcastically, because I'm sure she'll just let you go off by yourself like she always has.
She won't leave her parents, Harry thought, rather weakly if he was being honest.
His conscience merely snorted, not lowering itself to reply.
Like Hermione, Harry sobbed himself into an unconscious stupor, but no one came to find him.
As Harry was still sobbing, Emma carried her daughter into the house, glaring at her husband viciously when he tried to approach. She placed Hermione on her bed before going downstairs to reprimand her husband.
"I warned you!" She said to him in a voice that Voldemort would have fled from. "I told you to talk to him! How could you not see how important he is to our daughter? As soon as Hermione is awake, she's going to go to Harry. Hopefully I'll have enough time to tell her he's welcome here, or we'll lose our daughter!"
"I was just teasing him…." Dan tried to defend himself, knowing he had been fairly serious. Emma just looked at him in disgust, and went back upstairs to wait for her daughter to wake up.
She wasn't waiting long before her daughter began to stir. She was quickly wide awake and heading to the door. She hadn't even realized that her mother was in the room, and jumped when she heard, "Hey!"
"Mom, I'm going to Harry," she said quickly, and in a tone that said nothing would stop her.
She was very surprised when her mother smiled and said, "I know, honey. I just wanted to make sure you were going to come back with him rather than stay with him."
It took Hermione's usually quick brain a moment to work out what her mother was saying. Once she did, she flung herself at her mother with a squeal and a quick-but tight-hug before fleeing downstairs. She only stopped at the door for a moment to say thank you to her mother before continuing her mad dash. She was on the Knight Bus and headed towards 11 Grimmauld Place before her father could try and say anything.
Harry, too, was awake, but not even close to happy. Even Kreacher thought he was depressing. He just sat on his bed, rocking back and forth while squeezing his pillow and wishing it was Hermione instead.
Harry didn't hear the door to Grimmauld Place open all of a sudden, and wasn't even aware that a person was in the house until the door to his room slammed open. He barely had time to jump in shock before a bushy-haired missile hit him. They both took a moment to hold each other through tears and enjoy the other's company.
After a moment, Hermione pulled back with her hands on her hips. "Harry James Potter, what were you thinking?" She asked, doing her best to appear angry and distraught when just being with him again made her want to sing.
Harry responded, "Hermione, I will not come between you and your parents. Ever." He turned away sadly and whispered to himself, "Even if it breaks my heart."
Despite Harry's efforts, Hermione heard him, and struggled not to gasp. Despite having been in his mind and seeing how much she meant to him, she had lived with insecurities as long as she could remember, just like he had. She was amazed that leaving her could hurt him that much, and that he would put himself through that for her and her parents. She desperately wanted to hug him, and threw herself at him again.
When she pulled back, she said, "You're not going to come between me and my parents, Harry. I'll admit, I might be a bit mad at my dad for a while, but my mum insisted that when I came to you I bring you back."
Harry looked at her in disbelief. It was still strange to him that she wanted him around, how was he supposed to believe that her parents did?
Hermione saw the disbelief that was clearly written all over his face, and decided she would try and prove it. Concentrating on the memory of the conversation she had had with her mother, she pushed it into Harry's mind.
Harry absorbed the memory with all the calm of frightened child; none at all. He had to sit on the bed in his shock, sure that his legs wouldn't hold him. He pinched his arm.
Hermione had to giggle a bit at that, though she also rolled her eyes. "Yes, Harry, you're really awake. And you're going to come to my house!" She bit her lower lip and looked away. "Unless you don't want to…."
Harry stood up to comfort his girlfriend; he hated seeing her like this. "Hermione, of course I want to-"
"Good," she said cutting him off. "Because I'm not giving you a choice," she said with a smirk to let him know she had been acting. "Now come on!" She grabbed his hand and his trunk and pulled him out the door where they called the Knight Bus. The attendant on the bus just rolled his eyes; in two days, they had been on the bus six times.
Although the trip took less than ten minutes because of the way Ernie drove, Harry still had plenty of time to worry about what his reception would be like, and his girlfriend let him, so he could find out how groundless they had been.
When they got back to the Granger residence, Emma greeted them. She had been sitting by the window, anxious for their return. She pulled Hermione into a hug, and then-to the amazement of the teens-turned and did the same thing to Harry.
When Mrs. Granger hugged Harry, he couldn't help but compare her to Mrs. Weasley-the only person besides Hermione who had ever hugged him that he could remember. It was very different, and he liked it a lot more. It had the feel of motherliness that Mrs. Weasley had, but in a different way; it was more comforting than smothering-and Harry found himself squeezing her back and crying. Something about her made him feel like a lost child who had been found again.
Emma looked startled at the fierceness of the hug Harry was returning, and couldn't understand why he was crying. She looked to her daughter with the silent question in her eyes. Hermione just shook her head with a mix of sad understanding and anger, though Emma had no idea what she was angry about.
She mentally shrugged the question off for right now, and led Harry-who was still hugging her-indoors. It was a little awkward, but something about this young man (she couldn't think of him as a boy) called out to her, and she continued to hold him.
Dan jumped up when the trio came inside, very confused by the sight of his wife and Harry hugging while his daughter carried his trunk and still held his hand. And he was crying! He wasn't sure what had happened, but he was grateful that his wife had made him stay inside.
He immediately went to his daughter to apologize and hug her, but she shrugged him off with barely a glance in his direction. Unable to bear it, he slunk back to his chair and sank into it, watching as Hermione kissed Harry's cheek, removed her hand from his, and brought his trunk upstairs. By this time Harry had stopped crying, and was just holding Emma.
After a few moments, she gently let go of Harry and led him to the couch, whispering to Harry, "Talk to my husband for a little while. No matter he says, don't leave." She then kissed his cheek and headed upstairs to talk to her daughter.
Dan and Harry both shifted uncomfortably, looking anywhere but at each other. Finally, Dan broke the awkward silence. "Harry, I wanted to apologize for-"
"There's no need to apologize, sir," Harry quickly interrupted. "You want to protect your daughter. I want to apologize for leaving without actually talking to you."
"Well, let's talk then," Dan said, not knowing what else to say. After another moment of awkward silence, Dan decided to do as his wife had told him to do. "Harry, do you think you're worthy of my daughter?"
To Dan's surprise, Harry snorted. "Sir, no one is worthy of your daughter. As a father and someone who knows her, I'm sure you already know this, but your daughter is smart, loyal, brave, and beautiful. I don't think I've met anyone else with all those qualities. I myself can only claim to be loyal and brave. Who can be worthy of that?"
Dan was coming to believe that the young man in front of him might be, albeit grudgingly. He doubted anyone else his age was so mature. However, he decided he would play the 'father-protecting-his-daughter' role a little bit more. "No one can. However, Hermione seems to believe you are." He leaned forward in the chair and gave Harry a stern look. "Now, what are your intentions towards my daughter?"
Harry replied unhesitatingly, "I intend to make her smile every moment of every day; when she's not smiling, I can't. However, I will make her unhappy if it will keep her safe. If me leaving her will protect her, it doesn't matter how much it will hurt the two of us, I'll do it."
Dan smiled a little bit, admiring the maturity of the young man in front of him. "If you keep thinking that, we'll get along just fine, Harry.
"On a different subject, Hermione tells me you play a sport called Quidditch. What is that, what position are you, and how do you play?"
"Well, sir…" Harry started. They were talking for a while, leaving the women to talk in peace.
Upstairs, in Hermione's bedroom, Emma was talking to her daughter, and not mentioning that Harry's trunk was in her room. "So, honey, tell me about the handsome young man downstairs," she said in a slightly teasing tone, causing Hermione to blush.
"Mum, he's a great guy," Hermione started. "As you said, he's handsome, but he's also brave, loyal, honorable, talented, and smart-when he tries, at least," she said with a small smile. "He's also probably one of the richest people in the world, but he doesn't care. He even gave me access to his vault," she said as the smile turned a little sad.
That smile turned into a mask of anger and sadness when Emma asked, "But why was he crying when I hugged him?" Hermione pulled out her wand and casted a silencing charm and a locking charm before conjuring a bucket. "What's this for?" Emma asked, a little wary now.
Hermione patted the bed next to her, indicating her mother should join her. She sighed and responded, "You're going to want it. I hope you haven't eaten too much today." With that ominous beginning, she launched into the tale of "Harry Potter before Hogwarts". Her parents knew most of what happened since first year, as she talked about little else.
"When Harry was fifteen months old, the Darkest wizard to date went to his house to murder him." Seeing the dual look her mother had, she said, "Yes, he went to kill a fifteen-month-old baby, and yes, that is the one who has been back for over a year. Anyway, his father was murdered as his mother ran with him. She begged for Harry not to be killed before sacrificing herself for him. Apparently, this created some type of blood protection for Harry, so when Voldemort went to kill Harry, the curse bounced back and hit Voldemort instead.
"Many people feared that he wasn't gone, and that even if he was, his followers were still around. So they did they only thing they could think of, and placed him with his last living blood relatives to continue the blood protection. Then the horror begins." Hermione's face darkened. Her parents had seen the beatings, but they weren't aware how far back the abuse went, or the emotional and mental abuse that went with it.
"You saw the beatings," Hermione said to her mother, who nodded. "That was just a small part of it." Emma paled; she wasn't so sure she wanted to hear this anymore. But she steeled herself, thinking that she could handle it for her daughter. "When Harry was given to the Dursleys, they locked him in a cupboard under the stairs and decided they weren't going to buy him anything; all of his clothes are the castoffs of Dudley. I think you may have seen the cupboard, by the way." Emma's face went from pale to a dark red in seconds; she had seen it, and it was tiny. "When he was two," Hermione continued, "they began teaching him to cook and clean. Being two, he wasn't very good at it to begin with, and was hit with a spatula or a wooden spoon every time he messed up.
"By the time he was three, he could make almost any dish from scratch and a maid would have been jealous of how well he cleaned. The Dursleys still weren't happy; he received beatings for looking at the tv or trying to play with a toy, then thrown in the cupboard for the day. They let him out to cook, but he wasn't allowed to eat.
"At four, they decided he was strong enough to weed the garden. He wasn't. For every weed he couldn't pull, he received a hit with the paddle; there were a lot of weeds. It was a year before he could finally weed-a long year. He tried to kill himself twice before; once with drain cleaner, and then by jumping off the roof. The two occasions were Christmas and his birthday."
Emma grabbed the bucket and puked. What monster made a child want to kill himself before he was six? But her daughter wasn't done.
"The Dursleys birthday present to Harry when he turned six was a spatula so he could cook them food. Dudley's present on Harry's birthday was a wooden bat; he was told that Harry was for practice." Emma lost her stomach contents again. "When Harry tried to run, he was thrown in his cupboard. Unfortunately, he was often thrown literally, breaking bones. That year, he tried to kill himself twice again-it became a yearly ritual until he came to Hogwarts. I won't go over each attempt.
"Finally, they went to school. Harry thought that he had a chance of making friends there. Anyone who tried ended up on the end of Dudley's fist. People didn't try long, and Dudley soon had a gang who made the game Harry Hunting. While he was home, he was still doing all the cooking, cleaning, and weeding. Despite all this, Harry did his best at school. He was top of the class, like I was." Emma gave a small smile, hoping things were going to get better. They weren't. "When he showed his aunt and uncle his report card of all A+'s at the end of the year, he was beaten so badly he had broken ribs and forearms. They then threw him in his cupboard, exacerbating the breaks." Emma threw up again. "They left him there for a week, since he couldn't do anything for them. He had to set his arms with his legs. The first time he did it, he cried out with the pain; after they broke his legs," Emma vomited again, "he set them silently. The rest of the time he was at school, he didn't try to make friends or do anything.
"He had to struggle for survival from the age of two. He was more mature than most adults by the age of 6, even if he doesn't know it. The reason he cried when you hugged him was because it made him think of being held by his mother. Other than myself and Mrs. Weasley, you're the only female who has hugged him, but he thinks of me in a different way, and Mrs. Weasley was too smothering. It was the first hug he had that made him think of a hug from his mother. The same almost happened when he hugged Sirius, but with everything that's been going on, his emotions are too wild for him to control."
When her daughter was done, Emma placed the bucket on the ground and pulled her into a fierce hug while they cried. When they were done, Hermione did the scourgify charm on the bucket, and Emma-trying to lighten the mood-asked, "Did I hold up better than you?"
Hermione shook her head. "No. But you probably would have, had I been able to throw up."
"What do you mean?" Emma asked cautiously.
"I wasn't in my body when I found out about all of this," Hermione responded. "I was in Harry's head and lived it." Emma immediately grabbed for the bucket, retching. When she was done, she sobbed into Hermione's arms.
After they gathered themselves together, Hermione scourgified the bucket, they cleaned themselves up, and they headed down stairs, where Harry was just finishing up by explaining the value of the snitch.
When they saw the women-and the tear stains-both men jumped up and asked simultaneously, "What happened?" Both women just shook their heads; they would both tell them later.
"What have you boys been up to?" Hermione asked, since Emma was trying not to cry at the sight of Harry.
"Harry was just explaining Quidditch to me," Dan said before Harry could say anything.
"Did he also mention that he's one of the best seeker's Hogwarts has seen?" Hermione asked with a smile at Harry's blush.
"You're biased Hermione!" Harry argued.
Hermione smirked. "Yeah, but McGonagall's not, and she's the one who said it!" Harry blushed more, but stopped arguing. Unfortunately for his red face, Hermione wasn't done. "She also went on to say she included Krum in that," she added, enjoying the deep red his face turned.
"Who's Krum?" Emma and Dan asked simultaneously. Harry groaned and put his head in his hands.
Hermione's smile grew wider. "Viktor Krum is the seeker for Bulgaria. Anyone who hasn't seen Harry in action says he's the best seeker in the world." Hermione's parents ogled at him.
Hermione decided to take pity on Harry and asked if they wanted to play Monopoly. The three Grangers struggled to keep the smiles on their faces when Harry asked what it was. He just shrugged when they said he would find out, and said, "Okay. I'll make lunch while you guys set up."
Emma jerked as though she had been struck and growled/shouted, "No!" Harry flinched and cowered away from her, looking like he expected a beating-which he instinctively might after those bloody relatives of his, Emma though/growled to herself. She went over to him and pulled him into a hug, whispering, "I'm sorry, Harry, I didn't mean to snap. But after Hermione told me how you grew up-" she cut herself off when Harry stiffened and Hermione gasped.
Harry wrenched himself from Emma's arms and screamed at Hermione, "How could you do this? I trusted you!" He bolted out the house, tears streaming down his face. Hermione was out the door right behind him.
Dan turned to his wife, and said, "Okay, what happened?" Emma sighed, saying she would be right back.
When she came back down the stairs, she handed him the bucket Hermione had conjured to him. "You'll need it," she said before giving him the exact lecture Hermione had given her. When she was done, the bucket was almost full.
Meanwhile, outside, Hermione had tackled Harry and was struggling to hold him still. "Will you at least let me explain?" She shouted through her tears.
Harry stopped struggling as much when he heard the tears, but was stubborn enough to argue, "What's to explain? You betrayed me."
"I would never betray you Harry," Hermione said. "You've been in mind, you know it's true. But they have a right to know if you're going to be living with them. They need to know that something small might get an unexpected result. Harry, you may be one of the strongest people I know, but the Dursleys did a lot of damage. They have a right to know."
Harry struggled with himself to accept this as true. He finally grumbled, "Fine, but I don't want pity."
"It won't be pity, not from my parents," Hermione said. "They'll mostly be pissed at the Dursleys, and say sorry a lot. My dad will mostly be sorry he can't legally kill them, though."
"Hermione, can I get up now?" Harry asked after a moment of contemplation.
"But I like holding you," she protested.
"Yeah, but there's a really special girl I have to apologize to, and I think she might appreciate a kiss," he said. He barely finished the last word before Hermione flipped him to face her and kissed him. Harry decided that it was a good compromise.
A bit later, when they got to Hermione's house, Harry stated he didn't want any pity, and that he had come to like cooking. He decided to not notice the bucket. He then went to the kitchen to cook. Emma went to follow, but Hermione shook her head and said, "Let's go set up. We discussed it, and he said he was just going to make sandwiches."
When the money was handed out and the sandwiches served, Hermione asked what pieces everyone wanted, saying she was going to transfigure them into whatever they wanted, and animate them so they knew how many spaces to go without being told. Harry went with the stag, Hermione went with an otter, Emma decided on a panther, and Dan wanted a Hawk. Hermione quickly cast the spells to transfigure and animate them, as well as the lightweight charm on the Hawk so Dan's piece could fly.
Harry was the first one bankrupt, but he was quickly followed by Dan. They'd only been playing for half an hour, but the Granger women were good. However, they were pretty even and were more or less tied four hours later. The three Grangers were so intent on the game (Dan was rooting for both of them) that they didn't hear Harry get up and start cooking. When he returned about an hour and a half later, it was with four bowls filled with a food none of the Grangers had eaten before. The women quickly declared a tie and abandoned the game to eat.
"Harry, this is delicious!" Emma said. "But what is it?"
Harry smiled, pleased with the recognition. "It's chicken pepperoni. I fry the pepperoni first, then fry the chicken in the sauce. The pasta is cooked separately."
They all picked up after the meal and watched Batman Begins. Neither of the adults said anything about Hermione sitting in his lap.
"Wow, that was great!" Harry said. "I've never been allowed to see a movie before. Can we watch another?"
Dan forced a laugh and said, "You can tomorrow, Harry. For now, let's go to bed." Harry started, and looked nervously at Hermione.
Hermione took a deep breath and said, "Harry and I are sleeping together in the literal sense, not the figurative sense. Neither of us is ready for that. But holding each other in sleep prevents us both from nightmares."
The father part of Dan struggled to argue, but he consciously beat it down. "What have you done?" He asked.
The teens blushed a bit, and Harry looked down sheepishly, but Hermione said, "We've only gone as far as kissing."
Dan breathed a sigh of release, as did Emma. They both allowed the teens to continue upstairs, and waved Harry's thanks away.