Author's note: It is useful to read the Voldemort scene from chapter 12 again before continuing here. A part of this chapter relies on the terms I explained back then.
I was taken from the land of dreams when the first rays of the late morning sun tickled my face.
As my consciousness slowly returned and the world gradually became less foggy, I felt the warm and soft body of my soulmate pressing against me, a sensation that had me smiling widely. She was heaven, MY heaven to boot. And also my safe haven.
I opened my eyes and quickly reached for my glasses on the nightstand before returning to my favourite task ever: Watching my girlfriend as she slept.
No matter awake or asleep, Hermione simply was too gorgeous for this world.
Now that I was bound to her by soul, I truly believed in the idea that she was made for me in every aspect imaginable: From her divine hair that seemed to have the light itself dancing upon it to her petite fingers, I simply could not take my eyes off her.
Her body was like the most stunning artwork I had ever seen, new and intriguing details appearing with each time I gazed at her, and I felt like it was one of my finest moments when I had given her the pet name Aphrodite. Sometimes I wondered how much other woman would give to have her looks.
"Well, nobody can have her hair, that's for sure.." I thought when I remembered how she casually had invented a potion to tame her hair – at the mere age of thirteen.
"I am so blessed." I sighed loudly when it dawned on me what the beautiful woman cuddled into me would be able to envision once she reached adulthood. Remembering her love of being in control I came to the conclusion that she could easily establish a dictatorship around herself if she wanted. Her intelligence certainly was far more than sufficient for that - though luckily her sense for equality was just as sufficient as her intelligence.
"Little angle, little devil." I whispered and couldn't resist moving my hands over her exquisite curves, an action that made me feel like I had drunk a cocktail of endorphins.
Lucky wasn't even close to describe the position I found myself in: Having a woman as magnificent as Hermione Granger as a soulmate was the best thing that could ever happen to me, and each stroke of my hands was designed to prove the truth of this assessment.
The love of my life happily sighed in her sleep as I did so and instinctively snuggled closer into my bare body, something that made me close my eyes temporarily. She felt so damn good in my arms.
I didn't even know how much I had needed to wake up next to my girl until it actually became reality. It made my life so much better to stay with her during the nights, in so many ways as well. With her sleeping next to me I felt safe and carefree, warm and relaxed. I felt loved.
As I caressed her smooth skin I once again realized that she had filled the hole in my life that nobody else was able to fill, just as I had completed her life.
At one point I stopped my ministrations and gingerly made my way out of bed to allow my brunette girlfriend her beauty sleep. I knew Hermione would be completely fine with my decision, should she wake up due to my movements. Sometimes I woke up and she was already up and running.
As I made my way to my trunk I passed by all the scattered clothes of the previous day, a huge grin forming on my clothes when I remembered what a wild night it had been yet again.
"Damn, I love her fire." I thought as I rummaged through my trunk in search for a new pair of boxer shorts.
Sometimes I was afraid my hunger and desire would frighten my girlfriend, but every time such a thought passed my mind I was proven wrong with Hermione throwing back twice as much passion. Her vigour was so, so sexy.
After putting on my underwear and a simple t-shirt I went to the window behind Hermione's desk and opened it, the icy winter air welcoming the invitation to come in. Fresh, cold air always made the last bits of sleepiness leave my mind.
I smiled while gazing around the neighbourhood, the frost gathered over night sparkling charmingly in the orange-red light of a rising sun.
The long shadows of the houses nearby and the dreamily-colourful sky combined with the sounds of an occasional car passing by the residences truly made the scenery feel sleepy, but not lifeless. I understood why people liked having a house in this area of London.
At some point the colour of the sun became the hair colour of a family I knew very well, and my thoughts soon drifted off.
"I wonder what they're doing right now.. Fred, George and Ginny.", I mumbled to myself before a chuckle escaped my mouth, "Well, most likely they are abed. Like my soulmate."
"They really are great friends. Reliable, supportive, funny.. Mr. and Mrs. Weasley did a good job at raising them, I guess. Well, what happened to Ron, then?", I thought and furrowed my brows, a notch of anger building up inside of me as I thought of the person I once considered to be my best mate, "And how can he rationally believe in what he thinks of me and Hermione? Well, he was right about me becoming her boyfriend, but I was clueless when we had the argument at the end of our forth year. And I didn't "take" Hermione, nor did I take her away from him. If she had loved him, which is absolutely impossible with his behaviour, then I would have welcomed their union."
"Really?", A voice inside my head asked me, "Imagine them coming together and you realizing your feelings for the girlfriend of your best mate."
I felt myself tensing as I closed my eyes, taking a deep breath to focus before I would build up my nasty and infamous temper.
"This never happened nor will it happen. Hermione and I are bound by soul and she is MINE." I mentally declared and tightly gripped the frame of the window I currently rested my arms on.
"But what if.."
"No, thinking about non-existing scenarios only is a waste of my energy.", I concluded before sighing, "But talking myself into a rage just by thinking about what really did happen isn't good either."
"That's right, my love." I heard the lovely whisper of my soulmate next to my left ear before I felt her hugging me from behind, her chin resting atop of my shoulder. I felt that she was completely nude.
"Did I wake you?" I gently asked as I turned my head to look into her captivating eyes and she responded with the slightest of a nod.
"More the fact that it's suddenly twenty degrees colder in my room, but yeah.. You're the cause for that." Hermione explained and I quickly closed the window and turned up the heating, realizing my girlfriend was feeling cold in her state of nudity.
"The question is: Why are you already awake, my love? I thought I tired you out last night." She asked with an enticing grin on her face that had me chuckling.
"I want to stress that this was a mutual effort. And I remember you being just as exhausted as I was before we fell asleep.", I defended myself, "But to come back to your question, the sun just woke me. You know, sometimes that just happens."
"Well, now that we're both awake, why don't we use the time for some.. fun?" She seductively breathed against the shell of my ear as I felt her right hand creeping down towards my boxer shorts.
"You're so naughty." I moaned when she had reached her destination and I bore my now ablaze gaze into her fawn-brown eyes.
"And you love me for it." She countered with a knowing smirk and that was all I needed for my hormones to take control.
"Oh, I'm gonna show you just how much." I growled and walked us back towards her bed before I indeed showed her what she made to my male teenage brain…
After a session of intense love-making Hermione and I drifted off to sleep again, but by the time lunch rolled around we both left the bed and shared a long shower where it took us quite a bit of restraint to not get intimate again.
Once we were done showering she and I went downstairs and had self-made pizza for lunch, which was a lot of fun to prepare with my soulmate by my side.
Around two p.m. we quickly did the dishes with the help of magic before settling into the living room to work on our occlumency skills.
In wonder I gazed at my girl as I observed how quickly she picked up this difficult topic, making me feel rather embarrassed about how poorly I did during my first days studying how to shield my mind.
"You're a marvel, you know that?" I sighed when she had managed to defend her mind against a mild legilimency attack of mine – which was absolutely impressive when one considered she was a bloody beginner.
"I've taught you since the summer, Harry. It's way easier to develop my own skills this way." She played the modest one but I just planted a quick kiss to the lips of the girl seated in my lap.
"That might be.. But you're still so damn intelligent.", I almost moaned and spontaneously kissed her again, "And I hope all our children will inherit your brains."
"Harry!", Hermione giggled and leant back against my front before craning her head to look into my eyes, "It's far too early to think of our future children."
"So you want children with me?" I cheekily countered and instead of throwing a provocation right back at me, she smiled warmly at me.
"They will have the best father in the world." Hermione replied and I couldn't help but grin like an idiot.
"That's the biggest compliment ever."
"I know. But I also know it's true.", My girlfriend then smirked slightly, "Until then, let's continue practising how to make them."
"Gladly, my lady.", I said and couldn't believe I was fortunate enough to hear such words from the woman I once thought to never call mine, "Though weren't we practising something entirely else until now?"
"You're right. Now is studying time. Focus.", Hermione took a deep breath and gave her boyfriend a determined look, "Can you try me again, but with more force? I want to test my limits."
"Okay, so.. what memory do you want to hide this time?" I asked and Hermione didn't have to think about her answer for a second.
"The memory of you producing a patronus for the first time. It was overwhelmingly impressive and amazing." She said and I pecked her lips for her response.
"Thank you. I couldn't have done it without the feelings you made me feel even before I fell in love with you.", I told her in all sincerity before casting her a challenging gaze, "Are you ready?"
"Absolutely." Hermione confirmed with absolute confidence.
"Okay, here we go.. Legilimens!" I pointed my wand at her head and a second later I found myself inside the gigantic library that was my girlfriend's mind.
For a few moments I again marvelled at how pronounced and detailed everything appeared, how in control she was of her thoughts, knowledge and memories. But then I started searching for the information she tried to hide and the library started attacking me.
Thanks to her massive knowledge of virtually every subject imaginable she had the ability to throw all kinds of random facts at me. And these facts sounded through my own mind in an attempt to confuse me and stop my assault.
I felt my focus on her mind slipping away, but unlike my latest and mild assault on her memories I now started working on regaining my focus and pushing back her presence. As I continued browsing through her mind the voices inside of my own head increased in volume and the amount of infos she threw at me increased, but I had practised enough to fight my way through an attack on my own mind.
At one point I reached an area inside her library where a bookshelf immediately vanished once I approached it and I knew I had found my objective.
I applied even more force into my assault and imagined pulling the desired bookshelf towards me - even if I couldn't see it. A counter-force soon struggled to avert the realization of my goal, but thanks to Hermione's low level of experience I soon saw a bookshelf zooming towards me. As I made contact with it, my vision changed and I found myself standing at a clearing of a lake surrounded by forests, the moonlight illuminating the frozen masses of ice.
It was awfully cold as a hundred dementors swarmed the area, descending upon two individuals on the other side of the lake as one of the two put up a silvery shield that broke after a few moments.
Despite knowing exactly what would happen, I couldn't feel but feel excitement: My first corporeal patronus was one of the key moments in my life. There was a distinct before and after.
A sudden sense of foreign shock flooded my neural system as I called out my own name with the voice of my soulmate, the Harry from the memory abruptly dashing towards the shore of the lake, his wand raised and a gaze of fiery determination in his burning emerald eyes. Slowly I got the feeling my girlfriend was referring to this look when she rhapsodized about the fire in my eyes.
"Expecto Patronum!" My self of the past roared with a commanding voice and forth sprang a stag of majestic grace, a foreign feeling of overwhelming surprise, amazement and admiration spreading in my mind.
The stag dashed across the lake's frozen surface and smashed its antlers into every dementor in its range, making the creatures of horror flee before the patron's might and effect. The mammal bowed to my self from the past once the threat was averted and vanished. I decided I had lingered inside my soulmate's mind long enough and retreated.
"You were amazing!" I exclaimed once I saw the world through my own pair of eyes again and warmly smiled at Hermione.
"You still won in the end, though." She pouted and I thought it was the cutest thing ever.
"Come on, you're an absolute beginner and you resisted my serious assault this long. That is crazy!" I countered and my girlfriend's eyes sparkled happily. Praises did wonders to her.
"You're right, I'll get to your level eventually. And then I'll surpass you." An evil smile crept up her face and I chuckled heartily.
"You always want to be better than everybody else, right?"
"Absolutely.", She purred and crooked her head, "Better, smarter.. prettier."
"Am I not the prettiest girl you've ever seen in your life?" She asked with her sexiest voice and that alone was enough to cause my trousers to bulge painfully.
"I don't have to think about that twice. Your body belongs on a poster and into the magazines.. oh, actually not. I don't want to share you." I told her with a growl and Hermione smirked with the smugness I knew she loved to feel.
"Just imagine how good I'll look in a few years." She teased and I just whistled in return, remembering what I saw inside of the Mirror of Erised this year.
"If you'll look even remotely like what you and I saw in the Mirror of Erised a few months ago then I won't be able to keep my hands off you for more than a few minutes." I moaned and Hermione giggled evilly.
"I know. And I'll have so much fun teasing and torturing you.." She whispered, her hands sliding up and down my legs.
"Don't forget I can do the same." I reminded her, loving the game we currently played.
"You're right. You'll be so, SO awfully sexy..", She stroked my ego and also the fire inside my guts, "The kind of guy I just want to throw me on a bed or bend me over a table."
"I see we're training mental discipline right now." I said with hunger in my voice as I restrained myself from not doing what she just talked about.
"Yeah.. but my parents are at work, so we don't have to worry about a thing should we really need to shag again. Unlike yesterday when we lay on the couch." Hermione giggled and I laughed as well, vividly remembering how I had carried her up the stairs and thrown her onto the bed to claim her as mine. Daniel and Jane luckily hadn't seen us on the stairs, so the high risk was rewarded.
"And besides, you heard what Sirius said: Soulmates make love more often because it is a natural urge. Sex makes us stronger." My girlfriend laughed at her own statement and I soon joined her.
"That might be true, but I still don't want to shag you all day!" I laughed and my soulmate elbowed me not so gently.
"Hey, are you saying I'm not pretty enough for that?!" She jested and I groaned with a smile.
"You know exactly what I mean! If I shag you all day, how am I supposed to do anything else in life? Though please mind, love, you're regally beautiful."
"Queen Hermione Jane Granger, first of her name, conqueror of the world.. has a nice ring to it, hasn't it?" She whispered and gave me a look that told me her dark side loved the idea of ruling over all of mankind.
"What about the mental discipline thing, love?" I teased her and she rolled her eyes with a sigh.
"Okay, you're right..", She dramatically paused before smiling at me like a small child would, "Now, where is my big house? I want one. No, actually I want a house in every major country of the world."
"Hermione!" I heartily laughed because of her allusion to a prior conversation before kissing the top of her head.
"'Kay, I'll shut it."
"How about you test my mental shields to take your mind off things?", I suggested with a small grin, "I'd say you're better at Legilimency than at Occlumency at the moment."
"You prat. I'm gonna make you pay for that insult of your queen.", She pretended to feel genuinely insulted, "Whatcha hiding?"
"The evening I realized my feelings for you. It's a marvellous memory."
She took our game to the next level when she immediately pointed her wand at me after I had said the words, not giving me as much as a second to prepare.
"Legilimens!"
My mind was organized like an onion: Many layers, spherical and the closer one got the centre, the more valuable the knowledge became. Though my defence also increased in ferociousness when somebody tried to forcefully reveal my secrets.
"Submit!" I heard Hermione's commanding voice inside my head as I felt a piercing pain trying to penetrate my first mental shield, a negative sensation I had grown used to by now.
"Whatever you search I do not possess a memory of it." I countered and tried to convince the intruder of my cluelessness.
"You're wasting your efforts." I continued with my attempt to demotivate Hermione, which turned out to be ineffective.
"Submit!" She once again commanded, this time with a lot more aggressiveness. I felt my first wall crumbling under the force of her assault.
"What do we have here?" Hermione's voice rang through my mind as she browsed through my knowledge and memories of the most trivial things. I deliberately guided her towards a few thoughts to distract her and make her lose focus, but my intruder was experienced enough to not lose orientation.
I then thought of things I knew were of interest for her, harmless things that would catch her attention and distract her a bit.
"I said.. SUBMIT!" I knew what was coming and again couldn't find a way to stop it as I felt like someone squeezed the sphere that was my mind, with painful precision and force to boot. I knew I was groaning in the physical world right now.
My mind felt like a walnut under the attack of a nutcracker and I tried my best to relax, knowing relaxation would allow my shields to become elastic and thus make Hermione's static assault ineffective, but at the same time I felt her presence inside of my first layer, stabbing into the now elastic fabric of my walls. I hoped to outlast her offensive, knowing how exhausting such attacks were, but I soon found out that this hope was nothing more than wishful thinking.
After around half a minute she broke my second layer of defence, which hurt so much that I completely lost focus for a few seconds, and by the time I regained control I felt her presence dangerously close to the centre of my mind. My slip-up had allowed her to skip like half a dozen of my defensive rings.
Throwing caution to the wind, I abandoned my mental defence of the outer layers in order to protect what was most valuable and enforced it with everything I got.
"SUBMIT!" I again felt her trying to make me cave in by pressuring my inner walls from all sides, but I found myself fighting her off this time since I could concentrate my protection on a very small area of my mind.
When I felt her assault losing a bit of its intensity, I decided it was my chance to counter-attack, so I did.
I thought of my fight with the basilisk in my second year, how it had terrified and unnerved me, and felt an abrupt retreat from my inner defences.
However the danger was by no means averted, so as I pushed her back as far as I could before I felt her slamming back into me, causing us to lock in a stalemate.
"Only pain awaits you." I told her as I tried to get a hold of her presence in my mind, only to feel yet another tormenting attempt to pierce through my mental shields.
"Submit and the pain will subside.." Hermione now was whispering to me with a temptingly soft and warm voice, a part of me feeling sudden hope because of her words.
"You mean YOUR pain." I countered and tried to shake her off as if she was a pesky fly, which earned me an even more searing dose of anguish. That girl really was in control of her brain.
My vision then suddenly changed and I saw a mental projection of MY Hermione kissing Ronald Weasley like her life depended on it. I tried to push back this lie but found myself in a partial shock, her new method to overwhelm me proving to be effective.
"How could I ever fall for you, Harry Potter? You're far too gentle to be a real man like him. You are a mental wreck, unlike him. You aren't even as tall as him!" The Hermione from the projection exclaimed with genuine disdain before Ron cupped her face and they started making out again. That was all it needed to finish me off.
The next thing I knew was that I opened my eyes and immediately felt the heat that each of my cells seemed to emit, making my body feel like a portable radiator. The level of sweat on my forehead also felt unreal.
"I think that was your best achievement to date, when it comes to occlumency that is." My soulmate praised me from her comfortable position in my lap and I released a gigantic sigh.
"It felt like the bloody toughest fight I ever put up. I never managed to resist you this long before." I said and Hermione giggled.
"I think you would have won this time, if I hadn't used a dirty trick that is."
"That was unfair on another level, love." I weakly chuckled but Hermione clicked her tongue.
"Voldemort and the death eaters won't be any fairer to you. You have to be prepared for everything thrown at you. And I think my strategy caught you off-guard." She defended herself and I shook my head.
"That was the most painful thing you could have shown to me in order to break me. And it seemed so.. real. That means you put a lot of will power into this projection. Or do I have to fear you're thinking about what you just forced me to see?" I asked with a humorous undertone, knowing exactly that I was the only one she would ever kiss like that. Being soulmates really had a ton of benefits.
"I only thought of it because I knew it guaranteed my victory. You know the only man I can think of is you. You're the sole centre of my attention, Harry James Potter." My girlfriend confessed and I grinned smugly. How I loved it when she stroked my ego.
"So you think of me as a man? Not a boy?" I teased and Hermione's chocolate-brown eyes then zeroed in on mine with a sense of sincerity that left me breathless.
"I know you're just fifteen.. but everything you've experienced made you grow up faster, made you manlier than your dorm mates at school. You don't have the problems of a boy, Harry. You're faced with burdens far greater than those of the average adult, even. You always take things seriously, and it shows. Remember when I told you about your drive and how strong it makes you? Well, that might be because you always know how bad things turn out when you don't accomplish something.", Hermione then smiled again, "So yes, I think of you as a man. Especially since we're sleeping together. I'd only spread my legs for a real man."
I chuckled because of her choice of words.
"I thought Ron was a real man." I stated and my soulmate giggled as well.
"Oh please, he's less mature than you were in our first year. The only thing that makes him appear more manly is that he's taller than you, but since you're currently going through a growth spurt I think you have a chance to catch up to him. And even if you don't, I don't care: You already have a very nice height." Hermione explained and I grinned.
"How tall do you want me to be?" I asked teasingly.
"Tall enough to make my legs shake just by standing in front of you.", She sighed with a dreamy smile, "I want you to tower over me."
"Well, that's a goal I can reach when we consider how tiny you are." I half-joked and my brunette beauty rolled her eyes.
"Don't pretend it bothers you."
"No, you don't know how horny this makes me at times."
"Actually, I do know."
"Right.." I sheepishly mumbled and my girlfriend kissed me in return, a small grin gracing her angelic face.
"Anyway, I guess we can conclude the occlumency session for today, right?" Hermione reminded me of what we actually were supposed to do and I smiled widely.
"It's so damn easy to lose focus with you."
"I know that feeling all too well.", She declared before climbing out of my lap, "I'm proud of your occlumency skills, by the way. I'm sure you'll do even better tomorrow."
"Thanks, love.", I told her with affection in my voice but raised a brow when she was about to leave the living room, "Where are you going?"
"I'm gonna get my photo album. Don't worry, I'll be back within a heartbeat." She said and as she walked away from me I couldn't help but stare at her juicy rear.
"Damn, her bum looks so tight in jeans.. Looks as good as it feels in my hands." I thought with a horny grin only to hear a giggle in my mind.
"We share a soul, you perverted prat. How often do I have to remind you?", She wasn't the slightest bit mad but rather extremely amused, "And we'll DEFINITELY focus on controlling our thoughts in tomorrow's occlumency session."
"Oh come on! Don't pretend you don't enjoy it when I'm staring at your arse. Isn't that the reason you exercise in the first place?" I teased and again heard my lovely girlfriend laughing in my mind.
"It's also the reason you exercise with me."
"Well, it's a mutual gain, I'd say."
"Do you want me to hex you when I'm back downstairs?"
"Ha, like you could hurt me."
"Okay, you're right.. I love you too much."
"I know, sweetheart.. I know." I leant back in my seat and folded my hands behind my head, relishing in the joy her words made me feel.
I then heard her walking down the stairs again and within the next minute the woman of my dreams was back in my arms, seated in my lap with the photo album I once gifted her.
"Care to take a walk down memory lane?" Hermione asked me as she opened the first page, revealing pictures of us in our first year.
"Yeah, I think I never saw all of your pretty pictures.. 'Would be nice to see what made it into here." I chuckled when I inspected the photos on the front page, from her first interaction with me on the Hogwarts Express to the sorting ceremony and our first classes.. she and I were so young at this point.
"Do you know why I love this album? You can have pictures of events impossible to capture with a camera. Like.. this for example." Hermione said as she flipped to the second page and pointed towards the photo in the top left corner, showing me atop of a colossal mountain troll whilst a young Hermione cowered in the corner of a destroyed lavatory.
"I like that you can see yourself from third-person perspective despite the pictures being drawn from your own vision of the moment." I nodded with a hum before I laughed again.
"You know, I was so fucking stupid back then. I could have been killed so easily."
"You're still quite stupid from time to time. Heroically stupid, of course." Hermione giggled and I just grinned before kissing her scalp.
"Here.. our first picture as real friends. Don't mind Ron next to us." She then guided my hand to another picture on the same page that showed me, Hermione and Ron with childish grins on our faces and all. It was a beautiful picture, despite Ron being in it.
"He's part of the glorious moment. I hate to say it, but he has to be on the photo or it wouldn't be truthful." I sighed and my girlfriend intertwined our fingers.
"I know." She just knowingly smiled at me before we indeed took a tour down memory lane, dozens of old memories brightly reappearing as we re-experienced our past.
When Hermione and I reached the very end of our first year, a brief thought suddenly flashed through my mind and I knew I wanted to share it with my girl – if she didn't already hear it through our soulbond.
"You know, to be honest with you, back in our first year I never thought of girls being cute or beautiful, but now seeing these old pictures.. I gotta say you certainly were a cutie in your own unique way." I verbally told her with a grin and my soulmate raised a brow.
"In my own unique way? That sounds like you're actually saying I wasn't cute, you know?" Hermione once again proved that her mind was as sharp as it could get and I smiled weakly at her.
"Well, back then I think most people focused too much on your bushy hair and or your front teeth to see your beauty." I gently stroked her thigh and my girlfriend sighed lightly.
"Yeah, that's because it was true.. I wasn't pretty back then, let's just face it.", Hermione admitted before a question plopped into her mind, "Imagine I was a complete stranger and you only saw this picture of me, could you predict how I'd change physically in the next years?"
"I'd probably imagine you'd turn out way different than you did." I confessed.
"In a less pretty way, I assume?" Hermione asked.
"Yes. Though I would have still fallen for you with your personality, if that's your next question, love."
At that, she lovingly smiled at me.
"You know me too well, Harry James."
With that she flipped the page and we started studying the pictures of our second year.
"Wow, how did you change so much in so little time?", I exclaimed when I looked at a photo of her and me in Diagon Alley after our "meeting" with Lockhart, "Here, suddenly she has a few curves and her face is a bit more feminine!"
"Harry, I'm TWELVE on that picture!", Hermione giggled and slapped my arm, "But yeah, you can't imagine how happy I was when my chest finally grew in size. There was a time where I thought I'd stay as flat as a blade of grass. Especially because most of the other girls in our year started hitting puberty a lot earlier than me."
"I'm also VERY glad you didn't stay as flat as a blade of gras." I added with a dirty grin, making my girlfriend laugh because of my comment.
"I take that as a compliment." Hermione herself couldn't suppress a dirty smirk as she replied.
"It was intended as such." I kissed her scalp and showed her how much in love I was with her entire being.
My gaze then fell on a photo of me, her and Ron fighting against the pixies and I couldn't suppress a loud groan.
"I will never understand how you could like that idiot!" I exclaimed and heard my girlfriend sighing in agreement.
"Well, I'd love to retort with something clever, but I myself can't tell you why I liked him. In second year I probably was the most girlish, but once I started understanding what it meant to be a teenage lady, it got better." She explained and for a while we both silently gazed at our shared memories, the pages flying by in record time.
"Oh my god, I can't tell you how much I missed you." I sighed when we reached the end of our second year, a picture of me and her in the middle of a bone-breaking hug inside of the Great Hall depicted on one of the photos.
"Reuniting with you felt like someone had sent me straight to heaven.", Hermione lightly blushed, "And if I remember correctly, that was the first moment I realized how handsome your eyes are."
"Interesting. I think you never told me that."
"Well, it's not like that meant anything at that point in time." She concluded as we then entered third-year territory.
"OH MY GOD, how didn't I see your beauty earlier?" I heavily groaned when I inspected a picture of me, Ron and her with a newly-bought Crookshanks in her arms.
"Yeah, you had a tan after your vacation in France and damn, you look HOT on that picture! Your curves also start showing here, love.." I almost growled and smirked at my girlfriend: She was such a beautiful woman.
"I thought you liked my light skin?" Hermione asked with genuine curiosity.
"It's the best! But a tan apparently suits you as well." I honestly replied, which appeased my girlfriend who leant back against my front.
"Remind me to ask my parents if we can go to the Mediterranean Sea for the summer. I bet you'd love the beaches there." Hermione smiled widely and I could only grin in amusement.
"You know exactly why I'd enjoy them."
"Yes. Pervert." She giggled before we continued reliving our past.
"Oh, Hermione.. I didn't know you included that moment." I whispered with awe in my voice as I stared at a photo showing me in my third year standing next to my godfather shortly after we had left the Shrieking Shack and re-emerged close to the Whomping Willow. I still could hear Sirius' words inside of my head, when he offered me to live with him.
"Of course I did. I save all that is dear to me, and you certainly are the person most dear to me." Hermione lovingly whispered back and I leant in for a kiss that lasted several moments.
"That's exactly why THIS could happen.", I said and pointed towards the next picture showing me producing my first corporeal patronus, the silvery stag taking up half of the picture, "But I think I told you so too many times to count."
"So tell me something new." Hermione teased and I shrugged my shoulders.
"I don't think I can do that spontaneously. Not any more, at least." I had to disappoint her but my girlfriend didn't mind. She knew she asked the impossible.
"So.. now our forth year, hey?", My brunette witch then pointed towards a picture of us during the Quidditch world cup, before the death eater attack of course, "Why in Merlin's name did you decide to let your hair grow? It's not like you look bad with it, but compared to your current hairstyle it's horrible! You look awfully sexy with your hair this short, it puts so much emphasis on your eyes.."
"At that time I thought it fitted me, so I let it grow out a bit.", I explained with a grin, "But since you just can't resist me with short hair I'll keep it 'til the end of time."
"Yes please." Hermione happily sighed before tousling my hair.
"My Hogwarts champion." She giggled and then pointed onto a picture of me and Hermione sitting under a beech at the lake, which took place shorty after I had been forced to participate in the Triwizard Tournament.
"Had I been in love with you at this point in time, then I would have at least used that crap competition to impress you, but as you know this wasn't the case." I snorted with a small grin.
"Or asked you out to go to the Yule Ball with me."
"I'll never understand why you didn't. Even without romantic feelings I actually expected you to ask me. I was VERY anxious when I realized you didn't even show a sign you were aware of me being an option for you." Hermione shook her head in disbelief.
"Well, you were pretty much genderless to me until this summer." I defended myself with a chuckle but the brunette raised a brow.
"I remember you looking at my front during the ball." She stated with an insinuating undertone and I burst out laughing.
"Yeah, that's why I said "pretty much genderless". Though I quickly forgot about you being a woman after the ball, didn't I?"
"Yeah, sadly. At that point I already had the hots for you.", Hermione then skipped to the pictures of the Yule Ball, "Here, that's exactly why the girls at Hogwarts are drooling over you."
She pointed towards one picture showing me in my dress robes and I chuckled in amusement: I kind of understood what she was referring to.
"Well, you certainly looked ravishing yourself, young lady." I guided her hand to a picture of her during the opening dance, her periwinkle blue dress elegantly flowing down her gorgeous body.
"Now you'd love the prospect of another ball, right?" Hermione teased knowingly and I nodded within a heartbeat.
"Maybe we can organize one for our OWL graduation. It would be one of the best days in my life."
"Oh come on, aren't you more interested in what you want to do after said ball? Don't think that I'm oblivious to the underlying message of your wish." Hermione giggled, amusement sparkling in her fawn-brown eyes.
"'Don't know what you're talking about." I pretended innocence with a not-so innocent grin.
"You just want to shag me all night after the ball!" She gasped with a laugh and I shrugged my shoulders in nonchalance.
"Everybody is entitled to celebrate in the way he or she wants to." I tried to keep a straight face, which failed miserably and my soulmate punched my arm.
"You are insufferable!", She laughed, "Come on, let's continue our memory trip. We've almost reached our fifth year, and from thereon you know all the pictures, right?"
"Yep. And then I'll be quiet so you can concentrate on creating pictures of our latest experiences." I replied and tousled her tawny tresses affectionately. I loved how silky-smooth it felt under my touch, even if I knew that was because of a certain potion.
"Here. The last picture that has Ronald in it." Hermione calmly told me when we had reached the end of the forth year, the picture in question a memory of our last day at school when my brunette girlfriend had asked me if "everything is going to change". She of course had been right, just as always.
"This was mere hours before our argument on the train. 'Still can't understand how he came to the conclusion that you are rightfully "his" girl. That kind of possessiveness is disgusting and sometimes I'd really like to hurt him for that.." I growled with a dark voice and Hermione firmly took my hand.
"I know Harry. Sometimes I feel the same..", She sighed before locking her eyes with mine, "But that's the evil within us. We must never give into this temptation."
"Yeah, and it's incredibly difficult not to resort to violence when somebody else has previously hurt a person I care about." I mumbled as I lost myself in her chocolate-brown eyes.
"I think if the circumstances justify it, I'd never hold you back from physically attacking another. No matter if you wanted it or not, you have a gift for violence." Hermione sincerely replied and I felt my shoulders slumping.
"I wish I didn't have that gift. 'Just shows my parallels to Voldemort." I felt my throat getting very dry at that statement.
"And I know you hate it. That's the difference between you and him. But to be honest I don't mind. Knowing what you could do to defend me makes me feel incredibly safe..", Hermione then stopped and left a pause, indicating she needed to gather her courage in order to continue, "But somehow I'd like to see someone trying to touch me just so I could see you in all your viciousness.. That's my twisted side, I know, but I just feel so incredibly powerful, knowing what you'd do for me. How I can turn this.. gentle, loving young man into a monster so abhorrent it would scare death himself."
At her last words I felt a shudder running down my spine: Was I really that bad at times?
"Can I ask you something.. truly brutal?" Hermione then whispered with hesitance in her voice and I just silently nodded for her to continue.
"Imagine we defeat Voldemort but instead of helping the others rebuilding the world and restoring the old order, I ask you to violently overthrow the ministry and seize power for yourself and me. Would you do it?" She asked and I knew that it took her a lot of strength to form the phrase.
I felt my body trembling lightly just by thinking about my answer and the muscles of my jaw twitched when I reached my conclusion.
"I wish I could answer this with a definite no. But then I'd lie to you. You are the reason why I'm fighting for the light, as I've told you countless times, love. But I know it could be the other way around as well. And to be honest, I'm too scared to think about what would happen then. So to come back to the question.. yes. I'd do it." I watched how her eyes didn't convey even a bit of surprise or shock, and when I finished my explanation she just nodded firmly.
"You and I are both too corrupted to be knights in shining-white armour." She soberly stated and I sighed in agreement.
"Yes.. we've both experienced things that left us scarred and in pain. That's why I'm so happy to have you: We eliminate the other's weaknesses and highlight the strengths, you cure the evil within me just as I am your salvation from the abyss of darkness." I linked my hands in front of her abdomen and slid them under her pullover to touch her bare skin. I felt her closing her eyes at my contact.
"With you I can't help but burn as brightly as all the stars in the sky combined.. There's no way I could turn bad this way." Hermione sighed as I started worshipping her flat belly.
"Same." I whispered and leant down to kiss the brunette beauty on her enticing lips, an action she welcomed whole-heartedly. Soon enough I found myself snogging her full force, my hands still gliding all over her abdomen, electrifying my own body.
"You sexy little thing..", I told her through our mental connection, "The gods really had a good day when they created you."
"You should rather thank my mother. I take after her quite a lot, don't you think?" Hermione evilly giggled and rolled her hips against my pelvis, making me moan with pleasure.
"If you continue like this, I'll take you here and there." I declared with a growl and suddenly the brunette witch had jumped out of my lap, leaving me with bulging trousers and an aching need for more.
"Well, then we simply stop. How did you phrase it earlier: "How can I be productive when I shag you all day long?"?", She had a demonic smirk on her face before she snatched the photo album from the couch, "Well, then I suggest we do something productive now. A pity I didn't get to update the album.."
Hermione then turned around and left the room again, but of course not without swaying her hips in a way that only worsened my state of dissatisfaction.
"You are so mean!" I loudly called after her with the growl of a dire wolf and threw my head back.
"How would you feel if I had left you this full of desire?" I added and heard the brunette giggling on the staircase.
"As horny as you feel now!" She responded with a sing-sang voice and I closed my eyes in defeat: My girlfriend was a bloody master manipulator.
"If it soothes you, it took me all of my willpower to pull off that trick of mine." Hermione admitted when she had returned to my side and I exhaled deeply.
"At least you're suffering as well." I chuckled weakly.
"That's the price I'm willing to pay to tease and torment you." She replied with the devilish grin I felt entranced by.
"You're so gonna pay for this tonight.." I declared with a tightened jaw and the tawny-haired witch stared back at me with a challenging shimmer in her eyes.
"That is if you can claim the top spot this night. You know I won't hand it to you easily." She mentally reminded me and I grinned.
"Me neither..", I countered before a book held by my girlfriend's hand caught my attention, "What do you have this time?"
"Something productive for us to work on.", Hermione replied with a small smile as she settled down next to me, "'Remember the book Dumbledore gave us about the tomb? I thought now was a good time to study it."
"Oh, that's exactly what I need to get rid off my boner." I chuckled and Hermione laughed aloud because of my choice of words.
"That is precisely why I got it in the first place." She explained with a humorous tone.
"I love how versatile your intelligence is, Hermione." I sighed as she opened the book, which still had the cover of "The Lord of the Rings" to make it appear inconspicuous to the untrained eye. Within a minute I felt my primal urges freezing due to the unnerving nature of the tome's content…
"Are you fucking kidding me? They've got the archway that leads to the world of the dead hidden within the DoM? Since hundreds of years to boot!" I gasped and couldn't believe my eyes as I read the letters in front of me.
"And not only that, 'seems like it was in a state of slumber until Voldemort's resurrection. Ah, but that way they found out about the tomb's existence! When the archway regained its magical abilities during the resurrection, the DoM noticed. When they noticed, they started investigating." Hermione added and I snorted.
"It's sounds like they'd really love to break into the tomb and steal its secrets. As if relocating the archway wasn't enough!", I exclaimed before furrowing my brows, "Anyway, how does one transport a massive, magical archway all the way from Stonehenge to London?"
"I don't know, Harry. Though the DoM seems to know."
"These bastards.. Imagine they release their knowledge, the ministry could never deny Voldemort's return any further!" I hissed and my girlfriend took my hand in hers.
"Should I ever decide to run for Minister of Magic, the first thing I'll do is to decrease their independence." Hermione soothed me and I laughed softly.
"Yeah, please do that! You've got my vote." I replied honestly.
"And of course I'd fight for the rights of house-elves and other magical creatures." My brunette added and I chuckled dryly.
"Unlike the seven here." I said and pointed towards a paragraph of the text.
"They were so vile and gory.. See, they killed everybody they thought to be unworthy of life and pushed them through the archway as their victim's soul left their body. Each time they wanted to enter Elegia, they had to "free" a soul as a price – and judging by the frequency of their roaming, I'd say they killed thousands." Hermione shook her head in disgust.
"Why were they interested in the realm of the dead again?" I asked when I noticed I had forgotten a bit of the cruel story.
"The seven wanted to persuade the dead to fight for them, which eventually, they did. Though it took some time, according to the tome." My soulmate reminded me with her calm lecturing voice I had loved ever since our first year.
"Do you think there was a ritual in order to travel between the worlds?" I asked with twisted curiosity and my girlfriend nodded.
"Here. Whoever wrote the book states that the Unspeakable already tried to enter Elegia, but failed miserably. So there has to be a ritual. Thank god they don't know it."
"So they practically killed people to experiment with their newest gadget. Great." I sarcastically snorted and rolled my eyes.
"Well, they've had the archway in their possession for a long time now. It has only become of interest since the resurrection of Voldemort." Hermione corrected me and I groaned.
"I hope they'll lose interest in it. Imagine the DoM learns how to reach Elegia and convinces the dead to fight for them or some crap like that. Now I have to fear to be assassinated by the dead every time I go to sleep."
"I think the knowledge of the ritual required to enter the realm of the dead died with the seven during the Barathrum.. Well, actually not. Since their spirits live on in the tomb, they can tell Voldemort since he's.."
"The son of darkness and the spirit of the seven wants Voldemort to finish what they started. As much as I hate these alchemists, they were phenomenal wizards if they managed to conserve their mind within a statue. Has anybody done anything similar since then?" I completed Hermione's train of thought.
"Not that I know. Containing soul fragments though is more common, as we know now." My girlfriend reminded me.
"I hope these statues in the tomb have an anti-horcrux protection. If the seven were powerful enough to hide their graves until now, I bet they could pull that off. Though why should they? They want to help Voldemort.", I mumbled before a thought struck me, "Hey, since I am linked to him, couldn't I possibly enter the tomb as well? And you are linked to me because of our soulbond, so.. do you think we'd find the entrance?"
"Intriguing thought, Harry.", Hermione widely smiled at me, "What happened to the "stupid" boy I talked to during a travel through time itself?"
"He claimed the Brightest Witch of Her Age as his girlfriend and is now enjoying the benefits of that." I teased and Hermione kissed me briefly.
"Lovely. I'd like to hear the whole story someday.", She chuckled mildly before her face became more serious again, "But yes, I think you have a point. We really might be able to enter the tomb."
"Imagine we can.. Do you think we should?" I hesitantly asked and the brunette shook her head.
"No. Our skills are quite advanced for our age, but I fear we are nothing against the might of these seven alchemists AND Voldemort's most recent defences of that place." Hermione spoke the sobering truth and I sighed.
"Let's schedule a meeting with Dumbledore for the first week after the holidays. He wanted to tell us about the ring horcrux, we can tell him about the tomb and the archway." I suggested and my soulmate nodded in agreement.
"Who knows, maybe he thinks we should enter the tomb immediately because we have the power of love on our side." Hermione half-joked and I chuckled.
"Unfortunately that's wishful thinking.. I guess."
"Maybe we'll never have to enter the tomb. When we're talking about it, we always assume Voldemort will succeed creating his last horcrux, but that requires the murder of a very special victim. What if he just fails with that? Wouldn't that make the tomb completely obsolete?" My girlfriend asked and I hummed in thought.
"Well, that means we destroy all the other horcruxes in record time. Do you see us doing that? We're still missing four out of six, currently." I countered and Hermione shrugged her shoulders.
"Life is unpredictable. Who knows, maybe Voldemort has written down their location on a list and we'll find it.", She lightly grinned at the thought, "Just imagine: Lord Voldemort, scariest wizard of our time, writing down his darkest secret on a damn shopping list."
We both had to laugh heartily at the thought…
Author's note: So this was part two out of four. We're halfway through here!
The original (and way too long) chapter 30 was supposed to describe the events surrounding the turn of the year (so 95/96), but now I'm simply addressing these things in four chapters instead of one. And this was the last chapter taking place in 1995, so the next update will start the 1996 plot. Finally!
But coming back to this upload, I felt like a dialogue-heavy chapter was a good thing to really demonstrate the dynamics of a relationship that changed basically over night. One day Harry and Hermione were boyfriend and girlfriend, the next day they were lovers and then they became soulmates. I'd hazard to say that changes a lot ;-)
But of course I had some ideas I wanted to focus on during these conversations. Here are a few thoughts I want to share with you.
1) When Harry points out how much Hermione physically changes over each summer, I was making fun of the abrupt change in appearance in between each of the movies (of course this does not apply to the books). The most apparent it was, I think, in between the second and the third one. In the last scene of year two the trio looks like a bunch of kids and then at the beginning of PoA (within eight weeks!) they are teenagers. I know why it's that way, blah blah, but still: It never ceases to put an amused grin on my face - so I had to include this phenomenon in my story.
2) The idea for the chapter title and the central scene (the walk down memory lane) came to my mind when I recently listened to an Oasis song called "Hey Now". In the lyrics you'll find a line saying "I took a walk with my fame down memory lane" and I was like: "Wait a minute, why don't you have Harry and Hermione looking back at their past experiences and adventures?"
3) So yeah, the veil in the ministry is the archway to the land of the dead in my story. I guess this is somewhat based on canon, but what definitely is NOT based on canon is the idea of the veil/archway being the centrepiece of an antique, necromantic site. A site nowadays known as Stonehenge.
Don't ask me why, but when I was younger and watched OotP, I always thought: "Yeah, this archway must have been part of Stonehenge!" So when I started writing this story (or planning it) I made fun of my younger self and indeed made the veil a part of Stonehenge.
4) When I referred to the scene at the end of CoS with Harry and Hermione hugging, I know this only happened in the movies. But I like mixing the plot of the books and the movies. It allows me to create the most harmonizing results.
I don't know how long part three out of four will take me to write, but I'll give my best to have it done by the start of February. In the meantime, I hope you enjoyed this update..
'Til the next time!
NewOrderFan05