Disclaimer: I do not own any content relating to Harry Potter. I am strictly a fan fiction writer and do this only for my own enjoyment. I do not make any money from my writing.

Chapter 5: A New Beginning

A few weeks had passed since Hermione's visit to Potter manor. She had returned to her own home with her parents and tried to occupy her time with all manner of summer activities to keep her mind from going crazy with excitement. Her parents had insisted on spending a few weeks with her during the summer doing normal, family things, before allowing her to return to the manor.

Emma took some time off from their dental practice and spent the days shopping with Hermione or going to the movies. She even took a couple of days and went on a short trip with her daughter to the coast to spend time soaking up the sun on the beach. The girls had a great time and Emma reveled in the one-on-one time she got to spend with her soon to be adult daughter. She was growing up too fast for Emma's liking.

On the last day of their beach trip, Emma and Hermione were relaxing on a couple of beach chairs, when Emma finally gathered up her courage to talk to her daughter about a topic that was hard to discuss. Hermione was practically snoozing in her chair with her sunglasses on and wearing a floppy beach hat. Emma had noticed Hermione's changing body more than ever with the small bikini that Hermione was wearing.

"Sweetie, can we talk for a moment?" Emma asked nervously. Hermione rolled her head to her side and faced her mum. "I know we briefly talked in your room a few weeks ago about…staying safe, but I wanted to continue that conversation for a moment".

Hermione groaned loudly again, but before she could say anything, her mum interrupted her. "I know that this is a difficult conversation to have with your mum, but please humor me for a few minutes. Your father and I are so happy that you have found your first friend in Harry! However, we want to make sure that you both are…well, umm…respectful of each other's boundaries. Your father already spoke to Harry about this…"

Hermione suddenly sat bolt upright and glared at her mum. Her sunglasses and hat flung off her body and landed in the sand. "Daddy did WHAT?!" she screamed. "HOW COULD HE DO THAT TO ME? Oh god, now Harry is going to be scared off and he won't want to be my friend anymore!"

Emma sat up straighter in her chair and calmed Hermione by placing her hand up to silence her daughter's outburst. "Calm down Hermione. Your father did not scare off Harry and he only spoke of respecting your boundaries. He did not go into any…details or anything remotely embarrassing. He simply made Harry promise that he would look after you and keep a respectful distance from you. As your parents, it is our responsibility to ensure your safety and speaking with Harry about respecting you is only natural."

Hermione took a few seconds to calm down and she slumped back into her chair. She was still mortified that her dad had to have that conversation with Harry, but she slowly relented and realized that what was done was done.

"Sweetie, I can assure you that we trust you completely and we are beginning to trust Harry, having had a chance to really get to know him and understand his reasons for offering you this wonderful opportunity. I know you are getting older and are becoming a woman, but we just needed to ensure that Harry knows to respect your decisions and your privacy. I don't want to make any assumptions about you or Harry, but I happened to notice that you looked at the boy with a…somewhat obvious attraction. Perhaps as more than your first friend?", Emma asked, watching Hermione carefully for her reaction.

Her daughter instantly blushed and turned her face away. "That's what I thought. Hermione, it's only natural for you to see this boy as the handsome guy that he is. I won't even try convincing you to stop thinking about him in that way. But please take the time to get to know him as a friend first. Then when you have a solid friendship, you can possibly see if there is more to possibly explore with him. Just be careful not to go too fast."

Hermione only nodded and then slipped her sunglasses and hat back on. Emma had said her peace and went back to relaxing and enjoying the day.

Harry Potter spent the last few weeks as he normally did. Training hard with his tutors and occasionally with Dumbledore, who would come by and test Harry's progress in a wizard's dual. When Harry wasn't training though, he was keeping busy with transforming Hermione's new bedroom suite with the help of his house elves.

Harry was both nervous and very excited to finally have a friend his age. He was well on his way to becoming a very powerful wizard; however, he was also just a boy that had always wanted a friend. Quillby and the other elves helped Harry to carefully decorate Hermione's room with new curtains in light pastel colors, a new light purple bedspread, and some new chairs for her room. The elves assured Harry that Hermione would appreciate the new décor and she would be pleased.

Harry also went to Diagon Alley one afternoon and bought a new racing broom, just like his own, so Hermione could fly with him if she wanted to. He stopped by the women's beauty shop and purchased several items, such as common toiletries and other necessities with the help of the shop's owner who helped Harry after noticing his nervousness. "As a woman, I can tell you that your lady friend will appreciate her boyfriend going to such lengths to get her all the necessities that any young woman requires" the witch told him. Harry didn't bother correcting the woman, and simply paid for his purchases and left.

Quillby popped into Diagon Alley to take Harry's purchases from him and returned them to Potter manor. Harry proceeded to Gringotts's bank to visit with his account manager and catch up with the updates to the Potter holdings. He restocked his own bank bag with quite a few more galleons and picked up the new permanent portkeys that he had made for Hermione's parents.

A few days later, on Friday morning, Harry apparated to the Granger house once more. Harry was invited in and shared a big breakfast with the family. Harry gave the Granger adults the new portkeys he had made and gave them the instructions on how to use them.

"The portkeys will transport you directly into the main foyer of Potter manor. Please feel free to use them whenever you wish. You can visit anytime of the day or night, whenever you want to see Hermione. Please do not hesitate to drop by, even unannounced. My home is open to you" Harry told them.

"Thank you very much for these, Harry. I will admit that it will be very nice to see Hermione more often than we normally would when she was attending Hogwarts", Emma said, smiling warmly at Harry.

"We could also set up a night each week where you could come for supper, if you would like that" Harry added, hoping that they might actually take him up on that offer. He had spent so many years alone in the manor with only his house elves for company, that he would welcome the chance to get to know Hermione's parents better.

"That sounds lovely, Harry! How about we make Friday evenings our weekly family suppertime?" Emma said, quite excitedly.

Harry suddenly froze. Mrs. Granger had said family suppertime. Harry had his godfather, Sirius and several others around the house each week, but if he was honest with himself, it didn't quite feel like a normal family, which is another thing Harry had always wanted before.

"Is everything alright, Harry?" Robert asked when he noticed Harry's lack of response to Emma.

"Oh…uh, yeah, sorry. I just had one of those random thoughts pop into my head. Yes, Friday evenings sounds great" Harry stammered.

Robert and Emma glanced at each other quickly and Robert gave a small nod to his wife. They were both smart enough to guess what had triggered that response in Harry. The rest of the morning was spent ensuring that Hermione had all her belongings packed. Quillby popped in when called by Harry and took Hermione's belongings and apparated them all very quickly to the manor.

"Oh, one last thing I forgot to mention…" Harry said, looking at the Grangers. "Bella!" Harry called out. Suddenly a different house elf appeared. "This is Bella, another Potter manor house elf", he explained. "She will be Hermione's personal assistant while she is at Potter manor. You may call Bella to you if you need her assistance or if the portkeys ever fail to work. She is capable of apparating you directly to the manor if needed or she can help with anything else you need".

Hermione looked shocked at first, realizing that she now had her own house elf at her beck and call. "Harry, you really don't need to assign one of your house elves to me", she said.

"It's quite alright, Hermione. Bella doesn't have nearly enough to do at Potter manor, with just me to look after. There are five house elves that move between my various properties, but they tend to stay at whichever one I am staying at. With five elves looking after me, I know Bella could spare the time to look after you", Harry said.

Bella nodded eagerly at Hermione. "I would be honored to help Ms. Hermione with whatever she be needing or the other Grangers", the elf squeaked.

The Grangers said their goodbyes to Hermione and made sure to give her a few extra hugs. After a few minutes, Hermione was ready to go, and she placed her hand onto Harry's arm and a split second later, the teenagers were gone.

Friday afternoon was spent with Harry showing Hermione to her new bedroom suite. He gave her the tour of the ensuite bathroom, which was bigger than Hermione's entire bedroom at her parent's house. It had a very large sunken bathtub in the floor and a standing shower with enough shower heads that looked like it could easily accommodate six people in it at once. A double sink was along one wall with a space for makeup and hair at the end of the countertop. Quillby had already unpacked Hermione's belongings for her.

Hermione was indeed very appreciative of her new décor in her bedroom and thanked Harry and Quillby profusely for being sweet enough to think of her. Harry left Hermione alone so she could setup her room with her belongings in case Quillby didn't place things exactly where Hermione wanted them.

An hour later, Harry finally found Hermione in the library. He smiled when he saw her curled up on one of the couches, reading a book. He stared at her for a few moments, relishing in the fact that he had finally made a new friend. Hermione looked up and saw Harry standing in the doorway with a smile on his face.

"I hope it's ok that I am reading one of your books, Harry" she said, a little nervously.

Harry approached the couch across from her own and sat down. "Hermione, you don't need to ask permission to go anywhere in the house, or to use anything in it. My home is your home", he said with a smile. "I want you to be as comfortable as possible while you are living here. Nothing is off limits to you."

"That is very kind of you, Harry", Hermione blushed.

Harry took out his wand and summoned one of his current course books to him. He opened it and started to read, being happy to finally have some company.