Author's Note: The last chapter I posted was not the updated chapter. There was a very important bit of text that i added in my draft on Word but forget to update the chapter i uploaded before i posted it. I copied the updated text and i'll post it here. If you read the last chapter after 2am on November 28th then you've already read the updated text.
Updated text:
There are laws about smuggling purebloods out of the UK. If they can get off the island by themselves the muggle way then it's fine, but if they are the crazy kind that are afraid of cars and don't have electricity in their houses then you can get in trouble for bringing them out of Britain without filling out the proper paperwork. If they get caught doing something odd then it could blow back on you for bringing them over without informing the ICW. You're friends aren't those type right?" Abby asked.
"Neville is. Luna might be. But then again Neville is dating Susan Bones and her aunt lives in Notting Hill in a modern town house. They should be fine and we'll make sure to look out for them." Hermione said thinking about their friends they wanted to get off the island.
"I'm sure your friends will be fine then. The law is really there to help prosecute criminals who get off the island and cause trouble. It's another charge they can level on a criminal when they get caught. Like charging mobsters for tax evasion." Abby explained.
"But how can the ICW blockade the UK if Dumbledore is the Head of the ICW?" Hermione asked.
"Um, no he's not. he might have told you guys that but the head of the ICW is a Japaneses Arch Mage by the name of Hagiru Sato. The UK hasn't had a repetitiveness since the 80's, and they've been kicked out of the ICW since the 90's. Don't you guys get international news in the UK?" Abby asked.
"Not really. The Prophet covers a few stories but then again their news staff is small and they don't have international reporters." Dora said in a voice that sounded haunted.
"Well the UK is not in the ICW and until you just brought him up I've only ever heard of Dumbledore in passing." Abby said.
"How can we be this cut off from everything?" Dora asked.
"You're an island. Technically in Island inside and island. the only magic you know is what's taught at school, the only mag world you know is the one in the UK, the only press you get is a paper practically run by purebloods, and from the way you guys talk about it, it sounds like the UK mages just go with the flow. it's the opposite in America. Magic is all over the place, not concentrated in one place. Every city has a paper and news station. in fact we have whole tv channels dedicated to Magical programming, and American's pride themselves on question everything.
"That's good to know. What else should we know about America so we can fit in better?" Harry asked.
"Let's see, we drive on the correct side of the road like most of the world." Abby said with a smirk.
"Hey!" Dan said laughing...
That was the text i added. It's important to the story and when i read a review asking about the ICW it clicked that something was wrong. I looked back and saw it wasn't the updated chapter. Aside from that thank you for all the reviews and PMs. Keep them coming it's fueling me to keep typing. At a certain point you guys are going to catch up to me and i'll start posting one chapter a week. For now i'll try to put up two.
FBtMW!FBtMW!FBtMW!FBtMW!FBtMW!FBtMW!FBtMW!FBtMW!FBtMW!FBtMW!FBtMW!FBtMW!
The plane landed in Newark New Jersey and taxied to a hanger just after nine o'clock local time. They got off the plane and gathered around Abby as she held out the gold business card with 'Office' on the front. With little warning they were spinning through the air before they landed in nice big office. The walls were white marble to match the white marble floor with black marble diamond inlays. Most of the floor space was taken up by a big old mahogany desk covered in files and brown leather desk chair. They were ushered out of the office before they got a good look around.
The bank was closed at this time of night and the only few goblins still in the building guards in armor carrying battle axes. Most of the lights were turned off and in the low light the goblins blending in with the shadows. Abby lead them out the front doors which were shut and locked by a big goblin as soon as they walked out. The outside of the building was nothing remarkable to look at. It looked like every other old brick and mortar building in the financial district. The sign above the door proclaimed the place to be Gringotts Saving and Loan. Abby expanded their cars in the almost empty parking lot behind the bank.
"Just follow me and I'll lead you right to the building. Oh, and you can take off your glamour watches. This is your new home, you don't need to hide here. If the British ministry sends someone here to get you they will run into about a dozen of the best trained Aurors in the world." She said getting into a black Maserati GT.
She lead them out of the parking lot with Harry following in Dan's car, and Hermione following him. She took them up 7th avenue all the way to the park. She cut down 59th street heading west and hooked a right heading north on Central Park West. As they drove Harry was doing his best to keep his eyes on the road and look at all the sights and sounds of the city around him. He had a feeling Abby was driving slow so they could look.
They drove past the museum and Abby pulled into a covered driveway in front of a big white marble faced building. The roof of the covered driveway proclaimed The Potter, and Harry smiled. Abby got out of her car and told the valet something. He moved her car just to the end of the driveway as a large man in a dark green suit with long coat, vest, white shirt, green tie, and white peaked cap walked up to Harry as he got out of the little sports car. Harry took off his glamour watch and put it in his pocket.
"Welcome to The Potter. Are you here to see someone?" The big six foot tall three foot wide black man with a friendly smile asked.
"No, I live here. Well I'm a new resident. Harry Steel, the penthouse." Harry said shaking the big man's hand.
"Right, we were told to look out for you. I'm Mike by the way. We got a few deliveries that came in today for you. They are waiting by the front desk. Do you need help with your bags?" Mike said.
"I think we can manage Mike. Thanks for the offer." Harry said getting the Granger's bags out of the little sports car so the valet in a green vest could take the car.
"It's my job sir." Mike said getting the door for him.
Harry lead the group into the Lobby with Abby following him close behind. The lobby was green and white marble with big green marble pillars and dark green carpet runners. There were dark brown leather wing back chairs set off to the side in little corner alcoves with brass ashtrays and wood newspaper racks. The front desk was a big mahogany wood bar with a huge wood mailbox grid covering the wall and a tall thin woman in her early twenties with black hair pulled back into a bun. She was in a dark green dress and white blazer. She smiled a when she saw them.
"Good evening, welcome to The Potter. How can I help you?" She asked but before they could answer Mike chimed in.
"This is Harry Steel and his family. They are moving into the penthouse." Mike said with a grin.
"We've been expecting you. You have two gift baskets, and a few letters." She said getting on the short wooden ladder on a brass track and pulling a small letter from the top mail box. She handed it to him before she pulled two huge gift baskets covered in shrink wrap from behind the counter.
Harry handed off the small weekend bag he was carrying to Dan and took the surprisingly heavy baskets. They were full of wine, chocolate, cheese, and fruit. One tag said it was from his New York Gringotts account manager Venom Drinker. The other, smaller basket was from John Coldwell, Building manager of the Potter.
"Thank you, Beth." Harry said reading her name tag.
"You are most welcome. If you need anything just pick up the phone and hit '0' and it will connect you to the front desk here. Room service is done by the menu in your kitchen. And once again, Welcome to The Potter." Beth said with a winning smile.
Harry nodded as he followed Abby to the brass plated elevator. He got on and made sure everyone was in before he hit the top button that said Penthouse. They rode to the top. When the doors opened up they saw a small entryway with green and white marble tile, dark wood walls, and a big green door with a gold knocker and a nameplate that read Penthouse. Under that was STEEL. He opened the door with a gold key from his ring of keys and let everyone in. The first thing they saw was an eight foot tall grizzly bear standing on it's hind legs in a roaring poses with his arms up.
"Fuck me!" Harry said almost dropping the two baskets.
"Wow, would you look at that." Dan said looking at the bear before looking around.
The apartment was huge with fifteen foot high white plaster ceilings, dark wood paneled walls, and green and white marble floors. It was easy to see who designing the building. It was also easy to see the Potter men were hunters. There were stuffed deer, elk, and moose heads on every wall and bear skin and other animal hides on the floors acting as runners in the big fifteen foot wide hall ways left and right of the entryway.
The entry way was the halfway point of the house with two wings left and right. In front of them was a formal sitting room with uncomfortable looking Victorian style white couches and polished wood tables and the formal dining room with a huge wood table with place settings for 24 people. Behind the dining room was a huge kitchen with a professional eight burner range, big steel door refrigerator and double ovens big enough to bake a side of beef. All of the counters were white marble. In fact aside from the stainless steel appliances the whole kitchen was white. It was the only room in the house without dark wood paneling. The walls were white marble.
On the left wing of the house was all the living areas. Starting with the double doors leading to a modern shooting range that was 50x100 foot, with a long table across the width of the room acting as a shooting bench and gun racks on the wall with the doors full of hunting rifles and hand guns. There had to be about thirty long guns and at least as many handguns. Under the racks were ammo crates full of ammo cans. On the back wall were thick metal plates and targets on stands that could be moved forwards or backwards and left or right with a remote on the long table. The room was under heavy wards. You could feel the magic in the room.
"Nice!" Dan said but his voice sounding muffled. Harry looked confused for a second before picking up a 1911 off the gun rack. He checked to make sure it was loaded before he fired at a target. Everyone flinch expecting a loud report but it sounded just barely audible.
"Sound muffling charms! The room is covered in them!" Harry said leading them out of the room. "That's so cool! Did you see all those guns?" Harry asked.
"We have everything to go hunting. Maybe we can add to the already impressive collection of trophies." Dan said patting the younger man on the back. They knew where they were going to be spending all their time.
Across the hall from the shoot range was another set of double doors. Harry opened them and inside was a huge 50x100 foot library with a big fireplace on the back wall. The walls were lined with floor to ceiling wood bookcases full of books with a big wood and brass ladder on a track. Green carpet covered the floor and gave the room a warm feeling. There were two big dark wood desks facing each other from the left and right sides of the room with big leather office chairs. There was a big 4x12 foot dark wood table in the middle of the room with eight big brown leather chair around it. In front of the fireplace on the back wall were two big wing back leather chairs and a leather sofa. There was a door on the other side of the room. Harry looked inside and found a small white marble bathroom with a toilet and sink.
"I love it." Hermione said walking to the desk on the right and sinking into the big brown leather desk chair. "Oh baby." She said with a sigh.
"That good is it?" Emma asked sitting in the other desk across the room and sighed as she sank into the chair. "It is. This is where you can leave me." Emma said.
"Come on we still have a few more doors." Harry said.
Harry opened the door next to the library and found a big 50x100 foot game room. There was a full mahogany bar with two dozen bar stools and about a hundred bottles of different booze on shelves. There were three glass door refrigerators full of beers and sodas. The bar had three keg taps but no kegs. There was a full sized pool table, a Foosball table, a big air hockey table, a table tennis table, and two real green felt topped card tables straight off a casino floor. On the back wall was four pinball machines, and six stand up arcade games, including pacman, galaga, mortal kombat, and streetfighter. There was even an old fashioned coin operated slot machine. There was a jukebox in the corner and it looked like the whole room was wired for sound.
"Best. House. Ever!" Harry said practically running around the room just pointing at things.
"I have to agree. This is like a man's playground." Dan said walking across the hall and opening another set of double doors before stopping dead in his tracks. "Harry! You need to see this!" Dan called out.
"What is it? Something good?" Harry asked leading the rest of the group over and they too stopped dead.
The room was 50x100 foot. It was split in half and turned into two 50x50 foot rooms. One side was a gun room and man's study. A dark green rug took up the middle of the room. Around the room on every available wall space were wood display cases with glass doors and glass shelves filled with guns. There were two big wood desks one on each side of the room facing each other. In the middle was a big table with a leather top and gunsmithing tools. There were a couple guns laying on the table in different stages of repair. Around this side of the room were museum style display case tables with antique firearms, blades, and war memorabilia from every war the Potter's fought in. But it was the other side of the room that there were all staring at.
The room was set up like a garage with two hydraulic lifts and four foot deep mechanic's pits carved into the marble floor. There were tools on pegboards around the room and tool carts, and tool chests. There was a cherry picker holding a stripped out V8 short block. Sitting in one of the bays was a half disassembled dark gray 1969 Ford Mustang Boss 429. Sitting in the other bay was a complete 1969 Chevy Camaro convertible in jet black with white racing stripes. The car was sitting low on fat tires and big five point muscle car rims. Harry slipping in behind the wheel and turned the key. The car turned over a few times and started right up. Harry revved the engine a couple time and an exhaust fan in the ceiling kicked on and sucked the fumes out of the room. Harry killed the engine and grinned.
"While, I got a convertible so you can start driving your own car again Dan." Harry said making them laugh.
The last room at the end of the hall was a 50x80 foot movie theater with a raised seating platform with three levels. Each level had a big couch and four recliners, and tables to hold drinks with little reading lamps. At the front of the room was a big 15 foot tall 26 foot wide screen. At the back of the room behind the raised seating was a entertainment center with a big projector. On the side of the room was a small concession stand with a popcorn maker, and glass display shelves for candy. There were two big six stall bathrooms at the back of the room one for boys and one for girls.
"First order of business. We need to upgrade this set up with a modern projector, blu ray player, and video game consoles." Harry said.
Harry lead the group back to the other side of the hose where the bedrooms were located. This side of the house was slightly shorter than the other wing but it was still big enough for each bedroom to be 30x50 foot. Each room had a 30x20 foot sitting room with a couch, a couple of chairs, a entertainment center with a TV and VCR. Behind that was a 30x15 bedroom with a king sized bed two end table and a dressing table, behind that was a 15x20 bathroom with a big tub, stand up shower, toilet, and double sink. Opposite the bathroom was two 10x7 foot walk in closets.
Each room had some kind of theme. Half the rooms had some kind of hunting theme. Be it woodland hunting with deer heads on the walls, or waterfowl hunting with stuffed birds and wooden duck decoys. Or African safari with stuffed lions and zebra skin rugs, and safari furniture. Or arctic hunting with a set of stuffed white wolves, moose and elk heads on the walls, bear skin rugs, and wolf fur blankets on the bed.
The other four rooms looked like they were designed by a woman. They played on a color theme. Everything in the room was the same color but different shades. For instance the the blue room had dark blue oriental rugs, Ming vases, powder blue couches, and sky blue bedspreads. In these room the walls were covered in tasteful art and there wasn't a dead thing in sight.
The only bedroom that was different was the master suite. The room was 50x100 foot wide. It consisted of a big 50x50 room, The walls were dark green on top with a wide dark wood chair rail and wood paneling under that. The floor was also dark wood. There was a big fireplace opposite the bed with a leather couch and two chairs. The back wall was covered in big windows with heavy dark green blackout curtains. Hanging above the huge fireplace was a Norwegian ridgeback head that was stuffed and mounted on a big wood plaque. There were two doors on the left side of the room and one door on the right. There was a big green oriental rug under the big king sized four post bed made of dark wood with dark green curtains and bedding.
All of the furniture in the room was big and grand. The bed was bigger than a king and the four post bed frame around the huge bed was massive with a big dark wood and green leather bench built into the foot of the bed. The nightstand tables had enough room to house a lamp, an alarm clock, a pitcher of water, a drinking glass, and a felt lined tray to hold your wand, jewelry, wallet, gun and glasses, and there was still room on the table for a book or two. There was a chaise lounge chair next to each end table. There were two small writing desks in the room one on each side with a chair, bankers lamp, leather writing top, calendar, date book, stationary and gold pen set. The couch and stuffed chairs were big and heavy but also soft and comfortable. Looking around the room Harry was struck by the grandness of the room. Everything was so big it made the huge Dragon's head hanging on the wall like normal.
On the right side was a 25x30 master bathroom with a huge tub big enough for four people, and stand up shower also big enough to fit four, a double sink and two roomed off toilets. On the left was a 20x10 foot wide man's closet and a 20x40 foot woman's closet. The man's closet looked like a country club locker room with racks for clothes covering three quarters of the walls and a big leather topped island in the middle with drawers for folded clothes. The other wall was shelves for shoes, and pulled out draws for watches, tie clips and pins, and cuff links. Also on that wall was bench to put on your shoes. The woman's closet was ridiculous in a house full of ridiculous. There were racks and shelves for everything you could possibly think of. There were four chairs and a fainting couch in the room for entertaining Harry guessed with a laugh.
Both closets were half full of clothes, shoes, coats, and jewelry. Both closets had separate sections for different occasions. In his grandmother's closet she had a dozen or so Chanel skirt suits in pastel colors and dark colors for things like afternoon tea and functions of that sort. Hunting/shooting/riding clothing like wool and tweed suits and skirts, flannel and canvas shirts, and leather riding boots and coats. Lounging clothes like cashmere sweaters and cardigans, well worn jeans and slacks, and house coats in three different fabric weights. The last section was formal events and parties clothes like ball gowns, fancy dress, shawls, capes, witches robes and hats, and cloaks.
His grandfather's closet was set up much the same way with different kinds of suits/ slacks and jacket for all of the same occasions. The two big differences were his lounging clothes and his hunting/sport section. The hunting section was impressive. His granddad had everything from arctic fur lined leather jackets and pants, to full tweed gentlemen's hunting and riding outfits, to full African safari khakis, boots, and even a pith helmet. For lounging clothes his granddad only wore jeans, canvas button up shirts, and black band t-shirts. All of them had oil and grease stains on them from years of use fixing cars and guns. Harry found a 1981 AC/DC concert t-shirt and that made him smile. He took a white dinner jacket off the hanger and slipped it on. It was way too big on him. His grandfather, like his dad was tall and well built, but it was the same style jacket Sean Connery Wore in Goldfinger. Most of his grand dad's suits were nice. He would have to have Hermione resize them for him when she got her new wand. Or maybe not if he kept growing from the potions. If he was lucky he could get to where he should have been. He ditched the jacket and picked up the pith helmet and set it on his head. He looked at his reflection and laughed.
He walked out of the closet and looked at the opposite side of the room again. Something didn't feel right. The master bathroom took up half the 30x50 foot space sectioned off by the wall. If the bathroom was 30x25, what happened to the other 30X25 foot space?
Harry felt the wall with his hands and found a very slim gap in the wood paneling. He traced his hand over the door panel and the panel pushed in and slid to the side to reveal a vault door with no dial or keypad. There was just a red crystal embedded into the center of the door about the size of a sheet of paper. On a guess he placed his right hand on the red glass and after a few seconds it glowed. Harry heard a series of clicks and clanks and the heavy vault door pushed in. Behind the door was a bank vault. The floor, walls, and ceiling were made of plate steel covered in runes that glowed faintly. There were metal shelf units full of valuables.
Walking around the room he saw velvet lined steel boxes filled with jewelry. Shelves with packs of hundred dollar bills. Ten pound bricks of gold and silver. Trunks of old rare books. Trunks of fur coats. Boxes with gold coins. One shelf unit just had shrunken old fashioned cars and motorcycles from the 20's, 30's, 40's, and 50's. There were shelves with swords and knives. One shelf unit had leather and wood gun cases with custom engraved and gold filled guns. He even found a box full of wands and a shelf full of old racing brooms. Hermione walked into the room and found him in the vault.
"Wow. Would you look at all this stuff." Hermione said.
"Well now I know where the jewelry from the master closets went. By the way the master closets are full of nice things if you and your mum want to talk a look. Ball gowns and the like. We have to exchange these old bank notes for new ones. By my count that stack is five million dollars in cash. For some reason I think that might have been grand dad's walking around money." Harry said pulling a nickel plated 1911 with gold filled engravings out of a wood case.
"Yes, you're grandparents sure seemed to be flashy rich people." Hermione said pulling a white fur coat out of a trunk and pulling it on. "What do you think?" She asked with a smirk as she modeled the big fur coat.
"It looks good but it's missing something. Here." Harry said putting a platinum and diamond encrusted tiara on her head and laughing.
"You're joking but I make this look good." Hermione said walking out of the vault to look in the full length mirror in the bathroom.
"That you do love. That you do." Harry said coming to stand next to her in the bathroom. He took the pith helmet off and that's when he really saw his reflection for the first time in days.
"My scar. It's gone." Harry said rushing up to the mirror to get a closer look at his head.
"What do you mean your scar… Oh my god! Harry your scar is gone!" Hermione yelled as she grabbed his head to look at his forehead.
"What's going on in here? I heard yelling!" Dora said rushing into the room.
"Dora, my scar is gone." Harry said.
"Well yeah, you have a glamour… no, you took it off. My god kid. Your scar is gone." Dora said.
"What does this even mean? Is Tom dead?" Harry asked.
"No. If he was dead we would have heard about it by now. But you know what? You died. You died for a whole minute and when you got back up you were Harry Steel. Not Harry potter. Harry, I think you're connecting to the prophecy is severed." Dora said.
"Holy shit!" Harry said feeling light headed. Both women grabbed him and took him into the bedroom. They dropped him into the black leather sofa in the room.
"Harry, we have to call the goblins and mum." Dora said.
"Look I agree. But it's like three in the morning there. We'll call her in the morning. For now let's take a look at the roof and then head off to bed. Is Abby still here?" Harry asked.
"Yes. She's taking notes about things we want to change. Dan and Emma are taking the blue room. But they want to get a new tv for the room. I'm in the arctic room next door. I like the bear skin rugs and wolf fur bed spread. Hermione, are you in the green room or the pink room?" Dora asked.
"Green I think. I'll go see what it needs." She said walking out of the room only to walk back in to drop off the teira and fur coat.
"Dora, I feel kind of weird in this big room, should I offer it to Dan and Emma?" Harry asked his sister.
"I don't think so Harry. It's you house, you're the master. You get the big room." She said.
"Right, but they're older and married." Harry said.
"Harry, in less than six weeks Hermione is not going to be staying in the green room. If you both sack up it will be less than six days. Where do you think she's going to be staying?" Dora asked. He looked at her confused for a second and then his eyes got really big.
"Here? Is that's going to be okay with her folks you think? I don't want to put them in an awkward position. They're living with me and then I'm going to be, well, you know, with their daughter. That can't be cool with them." Harry said.
"I think maybe you should just let things happen, and as awkward as it might sound now, you should talk to Dan about this." Dora said.
"Yeah. That's a great idea. What am I supposed to say?" Harry asked.
"Tell him exactly what you said to me. You two have been bonding over the last few days. If things keep going like they are and you and Hermione get to the point that you want to move in together then talk to him. Ask him if he'll be cool with it. If not, then ask him what he would be cool with. Maybe they can move into another apartment in the building. Who knows, you might bring it up with him and he might just laugh and shrug. He's an easy going guy." She said standing up and patting him on the back.
"Yeah. I should go put that stuff away and get the cash out of the safe." Harry said getting up.
Harry retrieved his small duffel bag, his backpack, and his metal briefcase full of Euros. He put the euros in to the safe and stuffed the 500 packs of hundred dollar bills into the case. It didn't fit by half so he dumped out his backpack and shoved the old currency in to the back pack. He walked out of his room and met the groups as they were heading up the back stairwell located in the kitchen to get to the roof.
Dan was leading the way so he got to see the roof first. The stairwell opened right up into the floor of the roof garden. As soon as his head got above the stairwell the lights around the garden lit up. The roof was 400x120 foot and the stairwell was located in the back center of the roof. The roof was totally sealed from the outside world by a bird cage of steel beams that bolted to the perimeter of the roof and shot up twenty foot before it peaked in on all four sides and met in the middle in a rectangular pyramid of glass.
The roof was laid out like a french garden with paths that criss crossed and broke up the big space into smaller easier to manage sections of lawn and garden. Lining the paths were old fashioned gas lamp posts that cast a soft glow around the roof. Around the outside edge was a running track and just inside the track was 18 holes of miniature golf laid out around the edge. There were no windmills but there were oddly sloping natural greens with small ponds, rocks, and sand traps. There was a big white gazebo draped in white Christmas light in the center of the roof. There were picnic tables and a brick and mortar grill close by. The large lap pool was located on the right side of the roof and there was a good sized hot tub next to it. There was a small shack in the corner by the pool. The little 10x10 foot shack was expanded on the inside and acted as a field house. There were two bathrooms in the little shack along with putters and balls for the mini golf, horseshoes for the spikes stuck in the ground by the gazebo, Frisbee, footballs, and baseballs and gloves.
They were all too dead to play around tonight but they all promised to try to get in a game of minigolf and try out the pool soon. They all headed back down and Harry handed the backpack to Abby.
"Hey Abby, can you do me a favor? I've got five million in hundred dollar bills but they're old bills from the 90's. Can you exchange them for new hundreds?" Harry asked.
"Sure, I'll have it with me when I stop by in the morning. Remember we have a ten o'clock appointment at the wand makers. I want to leave here at nine." She said.
"I understand. I'll have everyone really to go by the time you get here." Harry said.
"Good, I'll see you in the morning." She said walking out the front door. Harry locked it behind her and turned around to she Hermione standing there.
"Walk me to my door?" She asked with a smile.
"Sure." Harry said taking her hand. He lead her to the right and as they walked he realized how ridiculous his house was. That made him laugh.
"What?" she asked.
"This place. It's so over the top." Harry said.
"It is, but it's fun. You need fun in your life Harry. We all do. Look Harry, no matter what we do, we need to take time to be fun. These last few days were good. You were not Harry Potter, The-Boy-Who-Lived, a teenaged boy with the weight and guilt of a whole country on your shoulders. You were Harry Steel, a teenaged boy that learned to drive, and got to make out with his girlfriend. Before you go back to being The-Boy-Who-Lived, maybe you should try living as Harry Steel for a few more months. You might even get lucky kid." She said with a mischievous grin which made Harry blush, then a questioning look fluttered across his eyes
"What makes you think I want to go back to…" Harry started.
"Harry, if there's one thing I know it's that you are going to save that backwards, cesspool of an island. Andy is working with the goblins to get our friends out. Then she's going to get as many innocent people out. Will she get them all? No. There are just too many people and the purebloods have a head start. As we speak some one is most likely getting killed. And it sucks. But it's not your fault. It's not my fault. But one day we're going to get word from back home that is going to put you over the edge. Then you're going to want to go back." She said with a sad smile as she lead him to the couch in her room and sat him down. Once he was down she sat in his lap.
"I don't know what you're talking about. My scar is gone. The prophecy is broken. It's not on my head to save the British wizarding world. It's not on me to fight a grown up war for people that could care less about you and me. And hopefully I won't have to. Maybe I'll get lucky and the old man and voldemort will kill each other before they come looking for me. But I know this much. The second Tom is dead things will go back to the way they've always been in the UK. The purebloods will get off for the right amount of gold, the sheep will forget that the wolves are among them, nothing will change and the next dark lord will come to power in that vacuum of shit. And you know what? I don't care if it does. Because that island is cursed Hermione. It will always be the dark hole of magic. Abby's words unlocked something in me. I just don't care. I can't care. The island is not worth saving. The light side is just as bad as the dark. They can all rot for all I care. We have friends that we care for. We can offer them asylum here in the US. but it's on them to take it. I can't keep sacrificing my life for people too dumb to know that it's time to get off a sinking ship. I have you and that's enough for me. I'd also like to get a hold of the records for the next generation of kids that are going to start Hogwarts and offer them an alternative here in the states. But I can't make people go." Harry said with a sad shrug as he dropped his head onto her shoulder.
"So in your mind it's a write off?" Hermione asked.
"Yes. At a certain point the Island will die. The snake keeps eating it's own tail until there's nothing left. It's not my fault and it's not my job in life to fight for the sheep." Harry said with a head shake.
"What's time is it?" Hermione asked looking at her blank wrist and pulling out a small notebook she always carried in her pocket. She wrote down the date and looked at him.
"It's ten minutes to midnight. Why?" Harry asked looking at the watch in his pocket as she marked down the time. She wrote something else and closed the notebook.
"I'm marking down the date and time so I can remember this conversation. That way, in a few months, when you make the decision to fight the war I can mark it down and calculate how many days it takes for your Gryffindor instincts kick in. It will be a fun experiment." She said with a smirk.
"You have that much confidence in me?" Harry asked sounding hurt.
"I do. I'm confident in the fact that you can't stand by and watch innocent people die. It's what makes you, you. You always save people. It's in your blood. Your very soul. And it's not a bad thing. It's what I love about you. Just like a I'm confident I'll be right beside you when you do because watching out for you is what I do. And I'm confident that we won't die fighting this war because we have outside help this time. It's not just a group of school kids fighting adults with schoolyard jinkes." Hermione said hugging his head to her chest.
"You're sure?" Harry asked looking resigned.
"I am. Just like I'm sure we should be songging instead of talking about this heavy stuff. Now," she said slipping off his lap and flicking off the light in the room leaving just the light spilling in from the bedroom behind them. It cast the room in a dim light and harsh shadow.
"You're a teenaged boy, and I'm a teenaged girl, and I'm sure that you would much rather be doing this then talking." She said pulling off her shirt and dropping into his lap. Harry stared at her with open mouth shock.
"I don't know what to… where to." Harry floundered. Hermione grinned, leaned over mashing her black lace covered chest into his, and kissed him.
"Don't think, just put your hands wherever. Just let them wander wherever they want." She said with a grin as she attacked his mouth again pushing him over on the couch and laying on top of him. At some point kissing turned into touching and they both fell asleep topless and happy.
Emma got up at 2am. After years of getting up at 7am everyday she could never sleep past her normal start time even if she just went to bed a few hours ago. She got out of bed and took a walk to the kitchen to get a bottle of water. The house was so big they needed to put a mini fridge in their room. On the way back to her room she stopped off at her daughter's room. She opened the door and saw both kids cuddled together on the couch. The door creaked and Harry's eye shot open. He looked confused, then he looked down and saw Hermione topless, then he looked at her with wide panicked eyes. He was about to start waking Hermione when Emma waved him off. She approached the couch and pulled the throw off the chair. She laid it over them with a smile. She disappeared into the bedroom for a few minutes and came back out with an old fashioned alarm clock. She set the clock on the table by the couch.
"It's set for seven. No one will be up that early. You can make it back to your room." She said with a smirk as she slipped out the door and shut it. Hermione rolled her head and looked at Harry's wide eyes.
"Was that Mum?" She asked in a voice heavy with sleep.
"Yeah, she set an alarm for seven." Harry said.
"That's nice, go back to sleep Harry." She said rolling over so she was spooned up to him and took his arm and wrapped it back around her so his right hand was cupping her breast. "Hum, that's better." She muttered as she passed out again. Harry shrugged, smiled, and went back to sleep. Had he still been connected to the dark lord's mind he would have killed Tom with the happy thoughts he was having at that moment.