`Heeeey everyone, I'm sooo sorry it took sooo long to post this chapter, but its exam season and I'm off to university in September! So taking advice from a review, I decided to spend more time making my chapters longer. I will try and get them out monthly if possible, I love you all! xoxo
To those who were wondering Hermione's real name Amara is from Greek origins and it means eternal. Also her new owls name Aurora means goddess of dawn and is also from Greek origins.
Disclaimer: as usual none of this belongs to me apart from any non-canon characters. So… I'm gonna go jump off a cliff now. Goodbye cruel world! Loool, enjoy people and don't forget to review or else…
Chapter 3
Harry was weary, of life, of being the Boy Who Lived, of having to watch his back every time he stepped out, not being able to be a normal teenager. Granted he had a very eventful life, and had packed more in his short sixteen years than most full grown adults did in a lifetime. His latest adventures at the Ministry of Magic were testament to that. He had survived Acromantula, Basilisks, Death Eaters and Dementors; however most of these were down to sheer luck and of course his best friend Hermione Granger.
Harry moved away from the window he was looking out of and lay down on his bed with his hands behind his head, to stare at the ceiling was now becoming a favourite pastime of his. Ever since he came back to the Dursleys for the summer, he had just been left on his own and he loved it that way. It was a week before he was headed back to Hogwarts and he was glad that unlike some people he had utilised Mya's help and finished all his homework in the first week away from Hogwarts and spent most of his time focusing on improving his Occlumency. He smiled fondly in memory of the last real conversation with Hermione, or Mya as she was fondly known as, after the farce of a rescue at the MoM.
(Flashback)
Harry was sitting in a corner of the Gryffindor common room with Hermione, it was two days before the school broke up for summer and they were talking quietly about their past adventure in the MoM, everyone else was outside enjoying the great June heat after end of year exams or in the Great Hall. If anyone not from Gryffindor had looked over, they would have been astonished at how close they were, Hufflepuff's would be sighing in happiness, the Ravenclaw's would pretend not to notice but be calculating the outcomes and the Slytherin's would sneer and insult. Harry had his head in Hermione's lap in the comfiest sofa in the common room and was playing with her delicate fingers while his hair was being stroked with the other, they seemed like a couple, but that was only their friendship. One could say that they were almost siblings but that title didn't seem to fit rightly, watching closely you could see Harry smiling gently as Hermione's laughter rang out in delight.
"Mya, I've got to ask you a question and you have to promise to think about it before answering me."
She stared down at him for a millisecond before nodding slightly and he quickly sat up to face her, "don't you think it's a bit strange that I didn't know my own destiny until just a few days ago? I mean, I know that I'm supposed to kill Voldemort but no one said anything about 'neither can live while the other survives'. Apparently the prophecy was made to Dumbledore himself, all these years that I could be preparing to defeat Voldemort, all I have been doing is hiding behind him. It doesn't make sense."
She stayed silent for a few minutes before turning contemplative amber eyes to his face, "his actions this year, no matter how restricted, have been very strange. He seems to be more interested in the power he can gain. Harry I don't think we can trust him-"
She never got to finish because the portrait door banged open and both teenagers instantly had their wands trained on the people flowing in. The entourage stopped their murmuring when they say the two teens' battle stance.
The Minister of Magic, Cornelius Fudge, stepped forward and cleared his throat, "Harry m'boy, there is no need for that we come in peace, now; you have to go and get ready. The press conference starts in two hours and Weatherby has prepared your speech. All you have to say is what the great job the Ministry is doing and you can go. It will go splendidly-."
His voice was all jovial and he tried to tug Harry away by nearly pulling his arm off. He didn't notice Harry's pupils slowly turning black, or his jaw clenching. He did however notice the windows cracking and floor shaking and slowly backed away from the Boy Who Was Pissed, an expression on fear on his face. Hermione put a hand on his shoulder and Harry turned around to face her, they could see the look of concern on her face as she swept her knuckles over his jaw and smiled at him. Immediately the floor stopped shaking and the windows put themselves back together, he turned around and snarled while Hermione sat down again.
"First of all, I am not 'your boy'; secondly a snowball has more of a chance in hell than you getting me to do a press conference for youand lastly I never have and I never will support the Ministry and its practices, so I suggest you leave."
Fudge's entourage were murmuring in shock at Harry, who sat down swiftly and put his head back onto Hermione's lap, playing with her fingers again. It was almost as if they were invisible.
"Mr. Potter-"
"Your opinion doesn't count Weatherby, so don't even try acting important" Harry said almost lazily.
"But-"
Harry's head whipped round, "no, it isn't your life so bite me, jackass."
Percy's face turned purple as he was embarrassed in front of his boss and he fumed silently. Hermione just giggled and went back to running her hand through Harry's unruly dark hair.
Fudge spluttered in consternation, "Mr Potter, in dark times the whole wizarding community will be looking to the Ministry for guidance, we must show a united front!"
Harry quickly sat up and Fudge's entourage took a few steps back waiting for another burst of anger, "let me get this straight, Minister, you want me to go in front of blood sucking leeches, also known as the press, and tell them like a good little boy, what a bang up job the Ministry is doing to protect us all? Did I leave anything out Mya?"
Hermione shook her head in amusement and the Minister nodded frantically, eagerly like a puppy. He looked hopeful then crestfallen when Harry snorted and laid back to play with the ends of Hermione's curls.
"Just in case you got lost on your way in, the door is that way, don't let it hit you on the way out."
Seeing that there was no way to change his mind, they shuffled out of the portrait door. Harry let out a sigh of aggravation and looked up at Hermione, who's amber eyes where sparkling with amusement, he grinned and it was the last straw for her.
She laughed, and it seemed liked diamonds falling onto glass, it sounded so pure and untainted, like she hadn't gone through everything with him in the past five years, he marveled at her innocent laugh and the glow that lit her face when she did. Eventually her giggles died down and he waited for her to ask her question.
"Harry, I only know one reason as to why you refused Fudge but did you have another reason?"
He nodded, "the whole time after the Ministry, did you ever see anyone from the Ministry handing me a letter of apology? Or. Just now, did the Minister come here to say sorry? If I had those two little words, then it wouldve been cool."
She nodded thoughtfully and they resumed their earlier conversation about the summer holidays.
(End Flashback)
He grinned in remembrance and sighed, he missed the sound of her laugh, he kept on replaying it in his head over the holidays, but then started to brood a little (he could just picture her shaking her head and saying to him "you're too angst ridden Ry, feel the angst people!"), they had mourned Sirius together privately without a certain redhead with the emotional range of a teaspoon. He was glad Mya had kept them in solitude or the Weasley family would have one less loud mouth to feed. They had pulled out the photo album she had compiled of their fifth year Christmas break at Grimmauld Place and thought back to how happy he had been for his childhood home to be full again.
He frowned and jumped off the creaky bed to look out of the window once again, Mya usually sent him a note around this time of day, via her new owl Aurora (an early birthday present for Harry) but there was no sign of the inky black bird in the sky. He frowned in concern and sent his snowy familiar with a hastily scribbled note:
Hey Mione
Are you ok? You usually send a not around this time, is there something wrong, are you sick?
Yours
Harry
He sat down to wait for a response and ten minutes later, Hedwig came flying back in like she had Dementors on her tail feathers. Ripping the parchment in his haste and scanning the short message, he knew he had to get to her immediately. Flinging on his tattered shoes, harry absent mindedly cast a wandless notice me not charm on his Firebolt opened his window and kicked off into the sky in the direction of her home. He was glad he knew her are very well, as he pushed his broom to it fastest limit, his mind was running through a million reasons she needed to see him. My would not send such a message unless she needed help and Harry himself had trained Aurora and Hedwig into spotting spies that may try and impersonate him or Hermione.
From his birds eye view, he quickly spotted her neighborhood; her parents had done well for themselves and lived in an exclusive area of Chelsea. He could see her home from her and quickly landed and shrunk his broom to fit in his pocket, quickly rapping on the door, he caught a flash of blank and instantly had his wand trained on the stranger. She has pure black hair and silver eyes, there was something familiar about her but he was pretty sure he didn't know a person with this kind of coloring.
"Who are you and where is Mya?"
Her eyes widened and she swallowed, "Harry it is me."
He gave a sarcastic laugh, did this girl think he was stupid, he ought to know what his best friend of nearly seven years looked like, "I don't know who the fuck you are, but the Mione I know looks the complete opposite of you, so what's your next excuse?"
He tried to use his occlumency to calm himself but he was getting impatient, for all he knew his best friend could be knocked out… or tied up…or…or …
"Ask me a question, only Hermione would know the answer to."
Harry didn't miss a beat, "what did Hermione say when she saw me staring at Cho Chang in 5th year in the library? What did I say? What did she do next?"
She didn't miss a beat either, "I told you that she only likes you because she believed you were the Chosen One; you said you were the Chosen One, an I whacked you around the head with a Daily Prophet."
He ran through it in his head, only Hermione would know that, Ron wasn't with them and they had cast their strongest privacy charms, but he still wasn't convinced.
"What did I give Hermione on her sixteenth birthday and what was engraved on the back?"
"You gave me a silver snowflake pendant with a diamond in the middle. You had no two snowflakes look the same on the back. It was from our favourite book of poetry."
It was definitely her, nobody knew about that necklace apart from them both; he lowered his wand to get a better look at the new Mya and made a quick decision: no matter what she looked liked, she was still Hermione Granger, his best friend and the love of his life. Yep, Harry was in love with his best friend of seven years, although she didn't know it. He reasoned that she hadn't shown any sign of seeing him other than a brother, so he believed that if he stayed as her best friend and she was happy; then he would happily give her up for any man. But only if she was happy with them, if not then who knows, they might accidentally disappear for a day or to then reappear with a few broken bones or no limbs (not that he would have anything to do with it).
"Mya, what the blood hell happened to you, unless you had cosmetic and plastic surgery, I'm pretty sure that you don't look like this."
She gave a huge sigh of relief and hugged him tight, he relished the warm feel of her soft womanly body pressed against his, before pulling him into the house, after checking no one had followed him. She charmed the door with her strongest privacy and locking charms and dragged him towards the kitchen. Harry had been to her house before so he went to the fridge and helped himself to some pasta salad and juice and went to sit on the kitchen table when he noticed the contents. Hermione handed him the letter and he quickly read and reread before swallowing hard, there had to be some sort of mistake, but then he checked the letter one more time and using his innate magic did not sense any malicious magic in the letter or their contents.
He could hear Hermione, sorry Amara, grumbling in the background and looked up at her when she spoke in a quiet voice, "harry, what do you thin of this letter?"
He furrowed his brow, and then smiled. It was time to pay Bellatrix Lestrange a visit…
A/N: wooh! I got up to 2000 words, thank goodness, that is this month's chapter and I hope you enjoy it... Please review, flames will be used to grill steaks! Until June...