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Chapter 64
Harry and Hermione had hoped that Parkinson, Crabbe and Goyle would all be suspended and sent home or even permanently expelled, but that wasn't the case. According to grandfather Charlus, Professor Sinistra had argued that as the Slytherins had cast nothing more dangerous than jinxes, this was a case of school bullying not anything more serious.
The three Slytherins were punished for that but it was a loss of house points and detention and not anything more permanent. Harry wasn't exactly happy about that and when he saw them next in the corridor he went out of his way to remind them that he was the only person in the school who could open the chamber of secrets and if they ever went after Hermione, or anyone else he cared about again he was going to throw them down into that pit and leave them there to rot.
The fact that the experiment to open parseltongue protected doors had worked and the curse breakers were enchanting something that he could put potential passwords in, and that they would be able to open the chamber somehow never came up in the conversation.
With Hermione's request that he run what amounted to a magical self-defence class, Harry and her were wandering around the school looking for somewhere they could hold the class. The seventh floor was completely off limits. A lot of the unused classrooms were already being used by other students working on projects or learning spells for class. The corridors were completely out because of school rules. They really didn't want to resort to practising out on the grounds. It was early December and the magic of the castle meant that there was snow everywhere. Cold and wet were not exactly the most fun ways of training.
"Harry, I honestly think the chamber will be our best hope." Hermione said as their search of yet another floor resulted in nothing usable. All the secret rooms that they found with the aid of the map were just too small.
"I don't really want to use the chamber, though. Not with how one stray spell brought the ceiling down the first time I was there. Kinda hard to teach you to dodge spells when we are all too worried that a stray spell will bring a few thousand tons of rock falling onto our heads." Harry shuddered at the idea. If he hadn't been so preoccupied by saving Ginny and had far more nightmare inducing things on his mind after, then that cave in could have left a far bigger scar on his mind than it had.
"Yeah, but there has to be spells or something for that. With the dungeons and everything in this school, there has to be something keeping it all from having had any problems for a thousand years." Hermione said.
"But that would be a whole research project on its own. It could take us months to find and master the right spells. There has to be a better option."
"It's a pity we can't just use space expansion charms on one of the secret rooms. Unfortunately, only the headmaster can change the school like that and it takes a lot of work beforehand to make sure what you're doing won't affect the thousands of spells that have been added to the castle over the centuries." Hermione lamented.
Harry suddenly stopped, struck by a thought. "Hermione, what are the limitations on space expansion magic?"
"Honestly, they are kinda ridiculous. In the forward for Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, Newt Scamander mentions carrying a small magical zoo in a briefcase. And you remember your tent at the World-Cup, it had a mansion inside it." Hermione said, managing to sound both interested in what he was thinking about and having a tone of teasing him about how much money his family actually had.
Harry wasn't worried about the teasing. In fact, he kinda liked it. It helped him keep perspective. With his upbringing, Harry would never be like Malfoy, but he also didn't want to risk it. "What if I just order a custom trunk that's just one massive reinforced room inside it?"
"That… would work, really well, actually. Though even if you order one today you probably won't have it until after Christmas." Hermione said, turning on the spot and leading Harry back the way they came. Now they had a plan, there was no need to continue the frivolous search. "The question now is who all are you going to teach?"
"Wait, I thought it would just be you?" Asked Harry, confused.
"Well I was thinking." She sounded nervous, like she was worried Harry would reject her idea. "Originally my idea would have depended on the size of the place we found to practise, but if you are ordering a custom space anyway it makes sense to think of it the other way around. First there is Ron. He is nearly always with us so it makes sense to include him." She paused to see if Harry agreed and he honestly did.
"And if Ron is with us a lot that also means Susan is with us as she probably needs self defence as well." Again, that made sense considering what had already happened during what was likely to be their last Hogsmead visit if this war wasn't ended soon. "And she wants to be an Auror and may know some spells she would be willing to share from her aunt."
"Well, next it's the twins and Ginny. They are our friends and Ron's siblings." Hermione looked at Harry expectantly.
Harry thought about it, six people, seven if he included himself. It was more work than he had been considering but not a lot more and it gave him ideas about how they could train for being outnumbered. "Okay fine, you can ask them if they want to be included. Now I need to go find out how much a custom expanded trunk with everything we need is going to cost me. Right after I work out who to go to about building it."
-ϟϟϟ-
The month progressed and it came time for the Christmas break. There was some question about what the Potters were going to do this Christmas, because they didn't know if Charlus was going to be able to get time away from the school. As a professor it was expected that he would remain in the school to watch over the children that remained. If Charlus was kept at the school then naturally Harry was planning on staying as well.
Unfortunately having Dumbledore at the school to protect it from Voldemort worked against them. The public may not have the faith they used to in his character, but their faith in his power was unshaken. They believed, with good reason, that wherever Dumbledore was was the one place Voldemort would avoid. Their faith was so strong that Headmaster Greengrass took the unprecedented action of cancelling the Express for the holiday. From what Harry heard from his grandfather, it would cost the school more to pay the wages of the staff who ran the Express than it would cost to just buy the floo powder for the few students who were going home.
With so many students staying there was no hope of grandfather Charlus having the holiday off. Harry fully intended to stay with his grandfather until he got something he wasn't expecting, an invitation to Christmas at the Grangers.
This pulled Harry in two directions. On one hand he could spend Christmas with his grandfather, on the other Christmas with his girlfriend. Hermione was super supportive from the start. She had gotten a letter from her parents at the same time telling her that her parents had invited him. She immediately realised the position it put Harry in. Hermione went straight to being supportive and made it clear that while Harry was welcome to spend Christmas with her family, she would of course be happy to have him with her, he also had her complete support if he decided to stay in the school.
It was grandfather Charlus though whose input had the biggest effect. Harry had taken the letter and showed it to Charlus. His grandfather had read it and looked like a weight had been lifted from his shoulders.
Harry had of course asked about his reaction, a little hurt by the idea that his grandfather was happy there was another option than spending time with him. Grandfather Charlus had immediately walked over to Harry and pulled him into a hug. "I'm sorry Harry. I know you would love to experience a real Christmas with your family. Years with those people were not fair on you, and while Christmas at Hogwarts was a vast improvement it was no substitute for a real family holiday. But as much as you deserve it I'm not up to it. For me it hasn't been two years yet. Everything is still so raw. Every little thing about the holidays reminds me your grandmother is gone, I see the echo of where your dad, my son should be. I fear that a Christmas with me, at least as I am now, would be nothing but a disappointment."
"You're far more likely to find me brooding over an old photo, or two thirds into a bottle of scotch. Not exactly the Christmas spirit you need. Go spend time with your lady. Make some positive memories. I know it's not ideal but just give me time. Maybe next year if not the year after I promise you we will do the family Christmas."
The two men hugged it out for a few minutes and neither acknowledged the tears the other had in his eyes when they broke apart. One holding back the tears for the memory of holidays and family past, the other tears of sympathy for what could, no should, have been.
-ϟϟϟ-
The trip to Hermione's home was quick, simple and painful. Painful because Harry had tripped over his own two feet on the way out of the floo and bumped his head on the mantle as he did his best not to fall flat on his face.
The Grangers lived in an older house that had been refined for modern standards. This meant that even though it had a chimney it was at one point replaced with a gas heater and central heating. To prevent any interference with a mix of gas, water and electricity, the Grangers floo had been installed upstairs in the spare bedroom. This had the advantage that if any non-magical people were in the house and someone came through the floo then it didn't happen in front of guests and cause an issue.
The only downside was that because Hermione's parents didn't know what time they were arriving, the first they knew that there were two teenagers in the house was a bunch of swearing coming from the room above them. They of course immediately rushed upstairs to find Harry walking around the spare bedroom gripping his head while trying to verbalise every foul word in the English language while Hermione tried to get him to hold still long enough so that she could check if there was any damage.
There wasn't any significant damage, Harry had a slight lump on his head and once he calmed down a little his pride was actually more damaged than his head.
Because they had used the floo instead of arriving at King's Cross at nine o'clock at night the two teens actually arrived just in time for lunch. It wasn't much, just tomato soup and toasted cheese sandwiches, but it was warm, filling, and most importantly it gave them all a chance to catch up as they sat around the table.
"So what's all this about an expelled student trying to kill you?" Emma asked Hermione. Both Charlus and Hermione had told her parents about the incident, only this was the first time they had been able to hear about it from their daughter. Hermione wasn't exactly happy about telling them because she knew they would worry. They already knew how dangerous the magical world was getting, being woken up because your house was being attacked by zombies will clue you in pretty fast. But she still worried about them and their reactions. Hermione had taken hold of Harry's hand under the table for reassurance and told them everything starting from Harry getting stabbed and all the way up until Malfoy's friends had cornered her in the ladies room and she had knocked them into the chamber.
Of course the Grangers had questions. "How did this Malfoy boy sneak up on you well enough to stab you with a knife? Don't you have a map that shows you where everyone in the school is? And weren't you worried about an attack?" Dan asked.
Harry looked sheepish. "I was expecting something but honestly I wasn't expecting something aimed at me. I killed a dragon in front of everyone. I know it was stupid now but, I think I was relying a little too much on the intimidation factor when it was just me. I didn't have my map on me because I left it in one of my text books and I wasn't expecting someone like Malfoy to know how to turn invisible. Honestly I was stupid and over confident and I was lucky that the undead fool needed my living blood. Not many people get a second chance like I do. Trust me, I am not making the same mistake twice."
"Then there was that attempt outside the school. After everything that happened? Getting stabbed, all the criminals, including the boy who stabbed you, breaking out of prison you still went out?" Dan asked obviously thinking they had made some stupid choices.
Hermione took that one. "Yeah we went out. You need to remember that they were broken out of prison. They didn't break themselves out. Because they couldn't. Not because it's completely impossible but because of the effect of the dementors. That was our last opportunity to get away from the castle, when we knew that the escaped criminals were still going to be recovering from their dementor exposure. We stuck together as a group just in case. And our precautions worked. We are fine."
Harry couldn't help but feel bad because he remembered the old lady screaming as she realised her husband had died. Hermione knew about it but she didn't remember it the way he did Harry tackling her to the floor had resulted in a knock to Hermione's head and she was a little dazed at the time. Because of that it was harder on Harry than her, to Hermione it was like she had read about it in the Prophet. So Hermione's emotional connection to it was more about comforting him as he worked through it.
Hermione's parents didn't bring up the incident in the bathroom. Probably because it had officially been labelled as school bullying and the one who had cornered Hermione had been punished. With how much grandfather Charlus kept the older Grangers in the loop neither Harry nor Hermione believed for even a second that they hadn't been told about the incident.
"Plus we are taking steps to make sure we stay safe going forward." Hermione finished.
Of course the Grangers wanted to know exactly what she meant by that. So Hermione told them all about the self defence class they were setting up.
"Wait, I thought you already knew that stuff. Wasn't that one of the things you learned with Charlus over the summers?" Asked Dan.
"No." said Harry. "What my grandfather and godfather taught us was the spells. Those we are pretty good at. This will be more along the lines of reflexes. Making sure we do the right thing in the right situation. For example, it's no good just knowing the shield charm if you don't instinctively cast it at the right time. Without stopping to think."
"That makes sense. So it will cover more nor- uh… mundane aspects of self defence?" Emma almost said normal but switched to mundane worried about implying her daughter was abnormal. Harry nodded in answer to the question as he had just taken a bite of his sandwich.
"Be that as it may. Hermione we aren't exactly happy with how much danger you have been in this year. We know it's not your fault but as your parents we do need to consider what's best for you. We know you have to remain in Hogwarts until you have sat your OWLs. But after that we want you to seriously consider travelling abroad to finish your education. You could find another magical school, or even a mainstream one where you can catch up on your mundane education. But you would be away from this band of, let's be honest, magical terrorists. Your mother and I agree though that if you are involved in one more incident this year it won't be your choice any more; as your parent's, we will withdraw you from Hogwarts after your OWLs and arrange for you to go to school overseas." Dan said in a firm tone that said he was saying how it will be, not that this was something that could be negotiated.
Harry was surprised when Emma turned to him. "You should consider leaving as well. Go somewhere where you won't need to learn to defend yourself from someone with some serious mental problems and way too much power."
It was obvious what they weren't saying. There was little chance they could convince Hermione to leave Harry behind so they wanted him to go with her. They also honestly believed it would be safer for both of them. It made it difficult for the two teens to argue with them when their opinion was coming from such a good place.
The rest of the meal was spent in an awkward silence until everyone was finished and Hermione had Harry follow her upstairs to her room where they could talk. The two teens got comfortable on Hermione's bed just laying there, Hermione snuggled into Harry's side and his arm around her. Their closeness was as much a product of the size of the bed as it was for comfort.
"What are we going to do?" Asked Harry.
"Nothing." Said Hermione. "I'm already sixteen. I will be seventeen and of age a few weeks into the start of the next school year. They can't force me to leave the country and they can't keep me from leaving for Hogwarts the minute I come of age. We will be starting apparition lessons when we go back after Christmas. Worst case scenario I'm a couple of weeks late next year and have to pay the tuition myself. Luckily for me there is this boy who was trying to impress me and gave me a bank vault full of gold coins." She smiled at Harry
"We could leave. I'm sure grandfather would sign off on me leaving if I asked." Harry offered. He knew how important a relationship with your parents was and he didn't want Hermione to lose that.
"Wouldn't work love." Said Hermione. "Voldemort would follow you wherever we went. And before you even suggest it, Voldemort wouldn't let me go either. Not only am I a poster child for everything he and his sycophants hate, he knows how important I am to you. If I left he would send someone after me and I wouldn't have anyone I could trust to help me. Maybe if we hadn't ever been friends my parents would be right. But we did become friends, and more than friends." She paused for a second to give him a peck on the cheek. "And Voldemort knows enough about me to send Inferi here to my home. No, it sounds crazy but I'm safest here with you and the people I can trust to protect me just as I would protect them. Because whether or not I leave I will still end up fighting for my life. Only difference is here I think we can win."
Neither really liked the idea but they knew it was the truth, their situation was so messed up that their best hope was to stay where they were and defend themselves as a team. All because some madman was fixated on needing to kill a teenage boy.
The two talked for so long they actually fell asleep right where they were, still wearing the robes they left Hogwarts in.
-ϟϟϟ-
Harry and Hermione were woken the next day by a smirking Emma who had her head around Hermione's door calling to them. "Come on up you two we have things to do today."
Harry was disturbed to find himself waking up in Hermione's room, with Hermione in his arms while Hermione's mom called to them. His first thoughts were lost to panic. Plenty of media had taught him that being caught in his girlfriend's bed by his girlfriend's parents was a one way ticket to angry adults. Angry adults possibly welding deadly weapons.
It took a few seconds for it to register that Emma was genuinely smiling at them. And a few more for his heart rate to slow down to the point where it wouldn't have doctors worried about his heart exploding.
"Okay we're up mum. Let us get changed and we will be right down. What are we doing, how do we need to dress?" Hermione called over, as she kept using Harry's chest as a pillow.
"Well Christmas is tomorrow and we still need to get some of the shopping done. So warm and casual but there is no rain forecast." Emma called as she repeated from the room. "Breakfast in fifteen minutes. Harry, your stuff is in the guest room."
Harry jumped out of bed much to Hermione's disappointment and hurried out of her room and into the guest room. His trunk was where Emma had said it would be and he quickly pulled out some mundane clothes and his dragon skin coat. It passed as leather easily enough and it was both warm, comfortable. Besides, with all the talk last night of attacks he wanted to be wearing the closest thing to armour he owned. Actually, considering it was dragon hide and was layered with enough protection magic to have Alastor Moody declare it adequate, it would probably stop most bullets so it really was armour.
He quickly got changed out of the wizarding robes he was still wearing, pulled out the few hundred mundane pounds he kept in his trunk and after a quick visit to the bathroom he made his way down stairs carrying his coat to hang next to the door ready to leave.
He was just hanging up his coat when Hermione started down the stairs carrying the matching coat he had given her. "Great minds think alike." He said, nodding to his own coat.
Hermione smiled. "It really is a cool coat and I don't get anywhere near enough chances to wear it. Besides just because there is no rain forecast doesn't mean it won't. You know how reliable the *weather forecast is."
After breakfast they made their way out the door. Harry expected them to take the Grangers car to go shopping but they didn't. The four of them made their way to the nearest London underground station on foot. From there it was two train rides until they got to the area Emma wanted to shop. Unfortunately Harry was completely lost, the places he knew in London were the Grangers home and Charing Cross Road were the Leaky Cauldron was. They could have told Harry that Buckingham palace was just around the corner and he would believe them; he had no idea where he was.
Luckily Emma seemed to have a plan and she dragged the rest of them into clothing shop after clothing shop. She had Hermione try on at least a dozen items of clothing in each one with an almost constant commentary about how different styles and brands fit Hermione's figure.
If Harry or Dan thought they would escape this treatment they were mistaken. Emma and Hermione both had them trying on clothes as well. It was about eleven o'clock when Harry had enough and needed a break. Luckily he had the perfect excuse as it was in fact the night before Christmas and he still needed to get one last gift for Hermione.
"I need to duck away for a bit. Pick up one last gift for Hermione. Why don't we meet back up in an hour for lunch?" Harry said as Hermione eyed up a rack of mens dinner jackets.
"You can't go off by yourself. Regardless of how dangerous that is, you don't know your way around London. What if you get lost?" Emma denied.
"It's not that dangerous. The people who would be after me know their way around London even less than I do. They won't be out there looking for me. And if I get lost I can just call the night bus." Harry said countering her points.
"I have a better idea. Why don't we split into two groups? I will go with Harry and you can take Hermione to some of the girly shops we have been avoiding. Plus it will give Harry and I a chance to talk man to man. And I know my way around London so I can actually help Harry find what he is looking for
Harry sighed. This wasn't what he wanted. But it wasn't as if Dan was going to give him a 'stay away from my daughter' speech at this point so he didn't see a reason to not go along with it.
So Harry and Dan left Hermione and Emma in one of the clothing stores and started walking up one of London's many streets filled with shops.
"So what are you looking for and what's your budget?" Dan asked before they had gone too far.
"Well I have a hundred I can spend and I was thinking, jewellery of some type." Harry said. He had more money on him than that but didn't want to spend it all, 'always keep enough money on you to get home.' That had been advice he gotten from Sirius.
"Well there are a few places we can go that should have something in your price range. I think I know just the place." and he led Harry up a few different streets.
"So Harry, what's your long term intentions for my daughter? Considering where you slept last night I want to make sure you are serious." He asked as they walked.
Harry considered how he was going to answer. He thought about it so long they actually walked past ten shop openings. Not small shops either, fairly large ones for the centre of a city. In a way it helped that Sirius had ambushed him similarly a few days ago, it meant that he had already thought some about these topics. Though he wondered what it meant that both his godfather and his girlfriend's father had thought he needed this conversation.
"Sir, I'm not exaggerating when I say Hermione is the most important person in the world to me. That may sound unbelievable considering our age but it's true. Of all the people I care about, Hermione and Ron are the two I have known the longest. I had three years to develop my relationship with Hermione before I ever met my godfather or grandfather. Maybe it would be different if I had met them earlier but yeah, Hermione is number one. I intend to be in her life as long as she will have me."
"And if she gets pregnant?" Dan insisted.
"I find the bastard who did it and kill him." Harry said.
Dan stopped and stared at Harry forcing Harry to stop and turn around to see him. "What does that mean?"
"It means Hermione has a strict, no risking pregnancy before she has finished her N.E.W.T.s rule." Harry shrugged. "She takes her education seriously. Also I grew up as an orphan and the same person who killed my parents is after me. I don't want to put any kid of mine through that. So Hermione and I are in complete agreement."
"Then you haven't…" Dan started but trailed off, not able to finish the question.
"What we do is between Hermione and myself. But no, we have done nothing that would risk a baby."
"But last night?"
"Last night you and Emma dropped a rather heavy topic on us. We spent so long talking about what we are going to do that we fell asleep together." Harry explained. He may not be prepared to speak of what he and Hermione did together but had no issue being honest that last night they had been too emotionally drained to do more than cuddle.
Not long after that the two men walked in an awkward silence to a small out of the way jewellery store. There Harry was able to find something he really wanted to give Hermione. It was a pair of diamond earrings. They didn't have a large diamond but instead had a string of small diamonds that would dangle from each ear. They set him back almost his entire budget but they were definitely worth every penny.
The fact that Dan then went and bought a pair of earrings for Emma, though in a higher price range, told Harry that Dan at least thought he had done the right thing.
A/N
Back in the 90s the weather forecast, especially in Britain, had a reputation of not being great. They work with so much more accurate data now that their predictions are good but back then when the data was less good the predictions were a lot worse.
remember I need comments or energy drinks I don't mind which.