Harry jerked awake as the Hogwarts Express came to a full stop and Papageno pawed at his slumbering chin. Harry's hand flew immediately to his face, to wipe a trail of drool that was running down his jaw. Then he felt cautiously inside his coat pocket. Tom Riddle's diary was still there, still unanswered, providing a tangible link to the best path Harry had yet found to clear Hermione's name.
If only he could figure out the best way to use it.
"Are you coming?" Neville quipped, jumping up. "Or do you plan to stay there till January? It might be fun, actually. I'd like to know where the Express goes when we aren't using it."
"I don't know, the Island of Sodor?" Harry joked.
"Where?"
"Nevermind."
Harry followed Neville from the train. He was holding Papageno like a baby, just in case he somehow lost him on the crowded platform. Harry felt a thrill of excitement as he joined the throng, for he knew he'd be seeing Hermione again soon to return her dæmon to her. Harry felt a pang of sadness at that. He'd gotten used to having Pap around, and he'd miss him when he was gone. He actually hurt at the thought.
Pretty much the same way he ached without Hermione at his side, really.
Harry contented himself with the knowledge that Hermione would be close by for a few minutes anyway. He was looking forward to seeing her face. His world lacked something without her smile in it, like having a crackling fire with no warmth. Harry said his goodbyes to Neville and picked up his travel bag, then set off in search of a familiar face.
But when he found some, his heart sank. For though he found his parents, stood with Lyra and Sirius, Hermione was nowhere to be seen.
It was the first thing he asked when he joined them.
"Where is she?" he demanded. "Where's Hermione?"
"Her suspension carries to the home, too," Lyra explained. "Hermione is being restricted in her freedoms, both for her own safety and that of others, on the off-chance that she is responsible for the attacks at Hogwarts. Essentially, she is confined to our flat in Oxford."
"So ... will I be allowed to come and visit her?" Harry asked frantically.
"I'm afraid not," Lyra sighed sadly. "Dumbledore was very specific about the terms. There are others at the school who have advocated a far more severe punishment. This is the best we can hope for under the circumstances."
"Well, that sucks," Harry moaned. "Can I at least write to her? Can I send her a Christmas Card?"
Lyra smiled warmly at him. "I'm sure that will be allowed. It will cheer my girl up no end, too, for she's been in complete high dudgeon around the flat this last week or so! She's too free-spirited to be caged up like this."
Harry grinned at that, his mind flooded with images of a frustrated Hermione stomping round and around the flat, with that adorable pout that she always wore when she was angry plastered to her face.
"Okay, well I suppose that'll just have to do," Harry sighed. "But I have something for her. Here."
Harry held out his hands and offered Papageno to Lyra, who backed away sharply, her eyes bulging in fright.
"No!" she hissed lowly, gasping as she stepped clear. "Pap will have to walk alongside us."
"What ... so not even you touch him?" Harry breathed lowly.
"No, I don't," Lyra confirmed. "Harry, try to understand ... if people from my world saw what you were doing, they'd run from you like you were a devil or a land-ghast or something. Someone who openly touches the dæmon of another would frighten people, probably as much as seeing someone without a dæmon! Forgive me, it is still shocking for me to see it. I can only imagine what it must be like for Hermione to feel it. Actually, I can't imagine it. The concept is beyond my understanding."
Harry just stared in disbelief as he listened. Just when he thought he was getting to grips with this complex relationship, something happened to make him see just how much he still had left to learn. Or, perhaps, unlearn ... if this was such a violation he was committing, every time he touched Papageno, perhaps he shouldn't be doing it at all.
The problem was, it didn't feel wrong. In fact, it was quite the opposite. And the dæmon said so, too. Not only that, but it made Harry feel unspeakably close - to Hermione and Papageno - in ways he couldn't describe for anything else. It was all very confusing.
Then Lyra was saying goodbye, jerking Harry back to the moment. She beckoned Papageno to follow her and Pantalaimon and off she went. Bizarrely, Sirius went with her, rather than staying to return home with the Potters.
"What's that all about?" Harry asked, watching Sirius disappear through the barrier and away from Platform Nine-and-Thee-Quarters.
"Oh, well," Lily began with a wicked smile. "Sirius has been spending a lot of time at Lyra's lately. A lot of time."
"It's our fault, actually," James grinned shrewdly. "We needed his room for something, and I think he finally got fed up of kipping on the sofa!"
"What did you need his room for?" Harry queried as they, too, left the platform.
"You'll see," Lily smiled, her eyes twinkling. "So ... you've had an eventful term, haven't you? Tell us all about it."
So Harry did, launching into an impassioned defence of Hermione before he'd even told his parents the details of what she'd been accused of. He got around to that eventually, but he decided to omit the details about the diary he'd found. He still felt it was his best hope of saving his closest friend, and he didn't want his parents to confiscate it before he'd had a chance to use it.
"And then Dumbledore suspended her," Harry completed as they entered the flat door. "Which I think was totally unfair, but Hermione didn't, so I suppose it's okay that he did, and she left Pap with me, so it wasn't so bad, and she's coming back for the new term, and Dumbledore will let her join the Duelling Club, which I cant wait for by the way ..."
And so on and so on until Harry finally ran out of breath. Lily pounced on the opportunity presented by the pause.
"Pop the kettle on, sweetheart," she urged as Harry prepared to start ranting again.
"What if it doesn't fit me?" Harry jested cheekily.
"Ho ho ho," Lily drawled, rolling her eyes in the same sort of way that Hermione did when Harry told her a bad joke. "And fetch me a bit of cake from the fridge, will you? I'm starving."
"Maybe you should give the cake a wide berth," Harry teased. "I noticed on the Tube that you're getting a bit podgy round the middle."
"Thank you very much!" Lily cried with a laugh. "I think I might need to do a bit of Mumming while you're at home, young man! Teach you a few manners!"
"I'm only joking, Mum," Harry grinned, though he wasn't really kidding. His Mum had put on a bit of weight since he'd last seen her. And, he reasoned, if he ever started getting that fat, he hoped someone would tell him. He saw it as doing his Mum a service.
Then he spotted Sirius' bedroom off to the right.
"Er ... Mum?" Harry began, dropping a tea bag into Lily's favourite mug. "Why have you painted Sirius' room pink? Don't get me wrong, it's a funny prank ... but isn't it a bit much to lower the value of the property?"
James chuckled lowly, as he emerged from depositing Harry's bag in his bedroom. "I told you, son, we needed the room for another purpose."
"And that purpose requires lurid pink walls?" Harry quizzed, raising an eyebrow suspiciously. "What are you doing? Training a herd of flamingos to dance the bolero?"
Harry snorted at his own witticism.
"Well, we were going to for butter yellow, but it was a little bit blinding when the sun came through the windows," James went on shrewdly.
"To be fair, I think we should have gone with paint that changes colour to reflect the mood of the occupant," Lily mused thoughtfully. "That would have been useful."
Harry laughed out loud. "It would have been constantly black in that case! Sirius will have a fit when he sees this."
"Sirius has already seen it," Lily told him gently.
"In fact, he helped paint it," James added.
Harry frowned doubtfully. "Sirius helped paint his own room pink?"
"It isn't his room anymore, sweetie," Lily went on carefully.
"Then whose is it?" Harry demanded.
"Well, they haven't moved in yet," Lily smiled. "But they will soon. It's all decorated and ready for them."
This Harry had to see. Clearly, his parents were keeping a mystery from him, the answers to which promised to be in this psychedelic and pink-frilled vision.
Then he stepped into the room and became all sorts of confused.
"Mum ... there's a cot in here," Harry muttered as he backed slowly out of the room. "And a high-chair. And little toys. Are we ... having a baby over to stay, or something?"
"Well ... you're half right," Lily smiled gently.
Harry blinked as the shock of understanding settled on him. Lily stood and moved to her immobilised son, who could see immediately the reason for his mother's extra girth now she'd taken her big coat off.
"You ... you're ... you ..."
Harry couldn't form the words.
"I'm really glad you worked it out so fast," Lily replied in a whisper. "I bet your Dad ten Galleons that you'd know within an hour of getting home. So ... what do you think?"
"You ... you're ... having a baby!?" Harry breathed, totally stunned. "I'm going to have a little brother or sister?"
Lily nodded with a beaming smile. "You can feel her kicking, if you want?"
Harry watched, open-mouthed, as his mother took his hand carefully and placed it to her belly. Harry's heart was speeding so fast in his chest it was making him giddy. He didn't know what he was supposed to be trying to feel ... but then a little bump hit into his palm, where it was flush against Lily's womb. It caused Harry to gasp in surprise.
"She kicked me!" Harry hushed in his wide-eyed astonishment. "She really kicked me! Hold on ... how do you know she's a she?"
"Because your Mum's a mum," James smirked from the couch. "They know these things!"
"I'm ... I'm going to have a little sister!" Harry murmured reverently. He could barely get his mind around the concept. "When? When does she get here?"
"A few more months yet," Lily replied. "We had a test last week and she's perfectly healthy and doing fine. Are you excited?"
"Excited? I cant wait!" Harry cried in glee, then he crashed into his mother with a big hug, only to pull away quickly in his horror. "I'm sorry! I'm sorry! I hope I didn't hurt her! I didn't, did I?"
Harry put his ear to Lily's belly just to check.
"No, she's fine," Lily smiled down fondly. "She'd have kicked you back if you did. She's a feisty little thing, this one!"
"Okay, that's good," Harry breathed in relief. Then he beamed up at his mother as a burst of restless enthusiasm flooded through him. "Oh, I have so much to do! I'm going to be a big brother! I'm going to have to give her some of my old teddies, so she doesn't get lonely at night ... and I have this nice blanket she can have, because it can get very draughty in Sirius' room, you know ... and we'll have to deep clean the carpet, in case she doesn't like the smell of wet dog ... I wonder if she'll be allergic to dogs? I hope not ... I wonder if she'll be allergic to Sirius! That would be so funny! ... and I'll have to dig out those old story books of mine ... do you think she will prefer Roald Dahl or Enid Blighton? ... but she'll be too little for those at first, wont she? ... I'll have to stick to Zoric the Alien and Thomas the Tank Engine to start with ... what else have I forgotten? I'm sure Hermione will tell me. Oh! I haven't told Hermione the good news! Is Hedwig home? I'll write to her right now!"
Then Harry shot off like a dart in the direction of his bedroom.
"Hey! Wait!" Lily called back fruitlessly as Harry raced away and closed his bedroom door behind him. Then Lily huffed good-naturedly. "I don't know, I tell my son I'm pregnant and the first thing he wants to do is run off and tell his little girlfriend about it! I feel like I've been replaced already!"
James chuckled as Lily slid down onto the couch and into his wide, waiting embrace. "Don't worry ... you'll always be the number one girl in my life."
"Hmm, even when this one pops out?" Lily quirked, rubbing her engorged belly. "I have the feeling she's going to be a total Daddy's Girl ... and you'll dote on her just the same. I feel like I'm becoming starved of love in this family!"
James laughed deeply, hugging Lily close as she huffed again. "Don't fret, honey. I'm sure when Harry and Hermione make you a grandmother you'll have plenty of use left!"
Lily frowned hard. "Do you want to sleep on the settee tonight? Keep running that mouth of yours and that's where you'll end up. Grandma Lily, pfft! ... shut up, James! I hate you."
But James just laughed harder still.
Hermione walked around her bedroom in a sort of heady daze. She had the goofiest grin on her face, and she didn't really know why. She was, of course, over the moon to have Papageno back with her, but it wasn't that. Even he knew that, as he preened himself on her pillows and watched her restless orbit of the room. He wanted to tease her, couldn't wait to in fact, but he thought he might let her enjoy the moment a bit more first.
For Harry's Christmas Card had just arrived. And he'd signed it in a very peculiar way.
Love from Harry xxx
Hermione swooned like a loon as she read it again. She felt like she wanted to explode with giddy happiness. Harry had never signed his letters like that before. She stopped her pacing and beamed at her dæmon.
"Harry sent me kisses, Pap! Did I show you?"
She proffered the little card in both hands as evidence.
"I think you showed me," Papageno quirked seriously. "Or did I miss the first seven times that you did?!"
"Oh, hush you," Hermione grinned. "He sent me his love, too. I bet you missed that!"
"Oh, I didn't miss it," Papageno replied silkily. "I've been positively drowning in it since you went away. Harry is so smitten with you it's unreal. I cant believe I didn't notice how much before. The way he snuggled me sometimes ... I swear he was pretending I was you!"
"I know, I could tell ... and I was insanely jealous!" Hermione huffed lightly, flopping down onto the bed. She opened her arms and Pap padded into her lap. "But you are me, so I wont be mad at you. Besides, I'll get my turn soon enough."
"Then I'll be the one who's jealous!" Papageno quipped back. "So ... are we going to tell him soon?"
"Tell him what?" Hermione asked shakily.
"Tell him that we're in love with him."
Hermione sucked in a breath at her dæmon's brazen statement, but she couldn't deny any of it. Of course she couldn't, this was their heart that Papageno was vocalising. To deny it would be to deny that they both needed air to breathe.
"Do you think he already knows?" Hermione mused quietly. "I mean, he must be starting to understand more about dæmons now. You said he went crazy at the boys in his dorm when they tried to touch you."
"I thought he was going to fight them all," Papageno agreed. "He was so fierce and protective of me ... so I think he's getting a better idea about what it all means. Even at the station, when Lyra wouldn't touch me, I could tell he knew that what we do isn't normal. It means something important, he knows that ... he's just taking a while to catch up to us and understand what his heart is trying to tell him, that's all. Give him time - he'll get there."
"So ... you think I shouldn't tell him? How we feel about him, I mean?"
Hermione's voice was childishly little with her nerves. Papageno looked up at her.
"I think we should give Harry the chance to tell us," the fluffy cat replied. "I'm in no doubt anymore that he feels the same for us as we do for him. No doubt at all. But you remember how scary it was when we first realised it. Realised that we didn't just love Harry because we were supposed to, or because Dust wanted us to, but because we just did. It's bound to be the same for him, too."
"You don't think he'd run away, do you?" Hermione asked desperately.
"No, but I think it might be overwhelming for him if we just fall at his feet when he isn't ready," Pap clarified. "He loves us so much, Hermione, more than anyone ever has, I think. And he has so much love to give, too. It isn't going anywhere, and it might even get stronger, but I think it might overload him if he cant process it all at once."
"Then how long should I wait?" Hermione demanded. "I want my Harry Hugs, Pap! And I don't want to wait ages for them! You've had them ... you can still have them! It just isn't fair that I cant!"
Papageno smirked as much as a cat could. "I don't think it will be long. He was so angry when he found out what Lockhart was doing to you ... I genuinely don't think he was joking about smothering him to death. And the way Harry appealed to Dumbledore about you joining the Duelling Club was proof enough. There was no way Harry would have taken no for an answer there."
"Ooh, maybe that's it!" Hermione twittered dreamily. "Maybe I should let Harry curse me at Duelling Club, pretend it hurts really badly, and then say he has to kiss me better?"
"In front of the whole year?" Pap quirked. "For it seemed like most people were signing up."
"Of course. I want the whole school to know when it finally happens."
"You wouldn't rather it be somewhere a bit more private and romantic?"
Hermione frowned. "Hmm, yes I suppose that would be better. It would be a nicer memory. Hey, wouldn't it be horrible if we had our first kiss in the Chamber of Secrets! We might have just killed the basilisk or something, and had wee and poo-juice dripping on us from the old plumbing! Yuk! That wouldn't be a story I'd like to tell the kids."
Then Hermione had to throw out a hand to keep her balance. The idea of having children with Harry had threatened to make her faint.
"Speaking of kids, do you think we should tell Harry that we knew his Mum was pregnant?" Papageno asked. "He seems so excited about it in his letter."
Hermione picked up the three sheets of parchment that came with Harry's Christmas Card, holding them tight to her chest and smiling deeply. Harry had sighed these with love and kisses, too. Hermione had already memorised almost every word he'd written to her, focusing on his adieu more than all the other parts put together.
"I don't think it would hurt if we told him," Hermione considered. "It was obvious when Lily and James came to see us. Harry will make such a good big brother, wont he? I wish I could tell him right away, because he sounds quite nervous about that in his letter. But poor Hedwig needs a rest."
Hermione and Pap looked over to the window, where Hedwig had covered her head under her wing, on the perch Hermione had made for her. She gave out a low hoot of thanks and went back to sleep.
"It's a pity, really, that we don't have secret diaries," Hermione huffed. "Like Tom Riddle's. Harry and I could communicate instantly then."
"Well ... why don't we?" Pap replied quietly.
Hermione blinked at him. "We could have them, couldn't we? It wouldn't hurt anyone if we did."
"No," Pap agreed. "And then we wouldn't have to wait for tired little Hedwig to recover and send replies back and forth."
"Pap! That's brilliant!" Hermione cried, kissing her dæmon as she leapt up with a burst of boundless energy.
"Where are you going?" Pap demanded.
"I'm going to see Sirius, right now," Hermione grinned. "I'll absolutely insist that he helps us make these diaries. Tonight."
"And if he wont?"
"Oh ... he will. Trust me."
Hermione's face lit up with hidden meaning. Papageno cocked his head at her.
"And what if he tells Lyra? She might not let us do this."
"Oh, he wont tell Lyra, either," Hermione replied, her eyes flashing deviously.
"What makes you so sure?" Pap asked suspiciously. "What aren't you telling me?"
Hermione knelt down on her bed and Pap trotted close. Hermione flicked a mischievous grin at the cat. "Sirius will help us ... because if he doesn't, I'll be the one who tells Lyra something. Specifically, that I found a pretty little Lyra-sized ring in Sirius' coat pocket the other day. Not any old ring, either Pap ... it was an engagement ring! Sirius is going to ask Lyra to marry him!"
