Hermione's Plan
Healing
By Chem Prof
Chapter 12, Healing
“Harry, can I talk to you … privately?”
Harry immediately shot a glance at Hermione, but she just shrugged, letting him know that it was his decision. She rose from the couch and sent a look at Ron, who got up as well and the two of them left the room, followed by Remus and Moody. As soon as they were out the door, Ron grinned at her and held out two sets of Extendable Ears. Hermione hesitated, desperately wanting to know what Ginny was going to say, but knowing she should respect Harry’s privacy. Taking a deep breath, she shook her head and headed down to the kitchen to wait. She had to trust that he would share whatever happened with her later.
Of course, she was right. As soon as Harry found her in the kitchen, he would relate the gist of what Ginny had said, and later show it to her in a pensieve memory.
As soon as everyone had left the room, Ginny’s composure crumbled, and she collapsed as Harry took her into his arms to comfort her. “Ginny, I’m so sorry. This has turned into a nightmare for you and I’m sure I’ve only made it worse. I wish I could have figured out a less painful way to let you know about me and Hermione, but I didn’t know how to say it.”
Without lifting her head from his shoulder, Ginny sobbed, “Harry, what happened to us?”
“Nothing happened, Ginny,” Harry said calmly as he pulled back and sat down next to her on the sofa. “It just wasn’t meant to be.”
“But I’ve loved you ever since I first saw you,” she protested.
“No, Ginny, that wasn’t love,” Harry tried to explain. “You can’t love someone you don’t really know. I only understand that now, and I know Hermione better than I’ll ever know anyone else. You were in love with the idea of me. It was only a crush, or an infatuation maybe. But I’m with Hermione now, and I’m going to be for the rest of our lives. You just have to accept that.”
With a supreme effort, Ginny nodded her head sadly in reluctant acknowledgement. “I’ll always care for you, Ginny, and I’ll never forget everything you’ve done for me,” Harry continued softly. “Can we move on from here?”
“I guess,” she finally managed. “Can I have another hug, though?”
“Anytime,” he responded as he pulled her into another friendly embrace. “One thing Hermione’s taught me is that you should always give a friend a hug when she needs one.”
“Thanks, Harry. I know I should do it myself, and I’ll try to later, but can you apologize to Hermione for the things I said the other day? And please tell her that if I couldn’t have you I’m glad she’s the one who’s with you. I can see that you make each other happy.”
After one more final hug, Harry gave her a smile and stroked her on the cheek, then left the room to go find Hermione.
Hermione looked up nervously as Harry entered the kitchen, but was quickly put at ease by the smile on his face. He walked up behind her where she was sitting and leaned over to hug her and quickly related the conversation. She felt her body relax as the tension left her when he got to the message Ginny had asked him to relay. Then he told her that Ron and Ginny were leaving with Moody for Diagon Alley and their shopping expedition, and that Tonks had arrived. The pair then decided to go to St. Mungo’s and the older couple said they would be glad to accompany them.
-ooOoo-
Molly was in somewhat better condition than she had been that morning when Fred and George had visited, but still had a vacant look in her eyes. She did recognize them, but their conversation consisted of simple pleasantries and questions about how they were doing and when they would be coming over to the Burrow that summer. Hermione feared that she had mentally blocked out the horror of the previous night and was constructing a world in her mind where everything was peaceful and normal.
Mr. Weasley was still in his coma, but the healers said he was recovering and would be released from the coma in a week or two. They confirmed, however, that he would probably lose the use of his legs. Harry inquired about the wizarding equivalent of wheelchairs, and told them that money was not to be an issue in any of the Weasleys’ treatments, and that they should contact Griphook at Gringotts for whatever was needed.
Seeing Charlie was perhaps the most difficult. The muscular young man who had been in the prime of his life was now lying there slowly fading away. The healer informed them that his injuries were just too severe, that his magic was simply not strong enough to deal with all the damage to his body. The best strengthening potions they had were insufficient. Hermione’s heart broke as Harry turned to her, his eyes pleading with her to think of something they could do.
She wracked her brain trying to come up with anything she had read about transferring magic to an injured person. She thought that magically bonded people, like Bill and Fleur were now, and she and Harry were becoming, could share magic in that way, but there was no one like that for Charlie. Finally she had an idea that they might try.
“Harry, do you remember that strengthening spell we learned from Ix Chel? It’s supposed to let you draw magic from your surroundings and feed it to someone who needs it.”
“Let’s try it!”
After telling the healer what they were going to attempt, and having Tonks assure her that they knew what they were doing, they arranged themselves at either side of Charlie’s bed. Each of them took put one hand on Charlie, Hermione’s on his forehead and Harry’s over his heart, then stretched their other hand across him to grasp each other’s. Then they reached their senses out to gather in the magic around them.
Since they were in the midst of a large group of wizards, and beyond that in the center of a large city, there was life all about them; they just needed to draw its magic into themselves and pass it on to Charlie. Several minutes passed, and the adults in the room could see the pair tiring under the strain as a faint glow began to build up on the head and chest of the red haired dragon keeper. The healer gasped, and hurried over to the bed to cast some diagnostic spells. Incredibly, they showed that Charlie’s magic had doubled, although it was still perilously low. Then the two teens slumped back in their chairs as they broke apart, physically exhausted and magically drained, having done all they could.
As she drifted back and forth in and out of consciousness Hermione felt Tonks help her up, and was aware that Remus was doing the same for Harry.
“Come on you two. I think that’s enough of doing the impossible for one day. Let’s get you home.”
-ooOoo-
(Tuesday)
Hermione awoke to find herself alone in her bed. It was the first time in months that she hadn’t been snuggled up to Harry when she woke in the morning, and she immediately missed it. She vowed that it wouldn’t happen again, and that she would speak to her mother about the two of them sharing a bed. One way or another she was determined to do so, even if they had to use the bed in her magical trunk. As she lay there wishing he were with her she recalled the prior evening and how exhausted their efforts with Charlie had left them. Getting the tired teens home had been quite the challenge for Remus and Tonks. Hermione had managed to warn them of the wards she had set, so they avoided the embarrassment of being stunned by her own traps.
The only other way in or out of the Granger property was the apparation point by the shed in the back yard, which neither Remus nor Tonks was familiar enough with to do accurately. They finally decided to use her cell phone to call her parents, who drove out to pick them up outside the wards. The shields she had put on the car allowed them to pass through without being stunned. When they finally arrived, Emma took the teens up to their bedrooms while Dan showed Remus and Tonks where the storage shed was, and they could apparate back to Grimmauld Place.
Of course, when he heard about this, Moody insisted on coming over to check it out, and found himself caught by the restriction barrier until Hermione could be roused from her nap to give Dan the password to relay to him. At that point both teens managed to wake up enough to eat some supper and fill Dan and Emma in on their day. Moody grudgingly complimented Hermione on her wards; his only suggestion was to change the Confundus charm to a notice-me-not type repellent charm, so anyone who managed to breach the first set of barriers would have trouble even figuring out which house belonged to the Grangers.
-ooOoo-
At breakfast Harry and Hermione reviewed their to-do list, which hadn’t diminished at all. In addition to going to Hogwarts, they had been asked to come to the Ministry of Magic to give formal statements about the attack at the Burrow, and they had also received an owl from Bill asking them to stop by the beach house in Brighton if they got a chance. They decided to try to take care of the first two items in the morning, then visit the newlyweds in the afternoon.
Moody was waiting for them by the time they finished breakfast, and they soon found themselves in the atrium of the Ministry building. Hermione noticed Harry looking around with some trepidation, and she realized that his last two visits here had been under extremely unpleasant circumstances. They were taken down to level two where the Department of Magical Law Enforcement was located, and Hermione was relieved to see Kingsley Shacklebolt as one of the two interviewers, along with an Auror she didn’t recognize. Harry evidently did, because he scowled when he saw him. (Later he would tell Hermione that he was one of the Aurors who tried to arrest Dumbledore, and later Hagrid, during fifth year.) Shacklebolt officially introduced himself and the other Auror, Dawlish, and said that he was present in his role as the Auror in charge of the Sirius Black case, while Dawlish was the lead investigator on the Burrow attack. Shacklebolt began the questioning.
The first topic was Peter Pettigrew, and the two students related the story of how he had been the Potter’s real Secret Keeper, and had faked his death and hidden in his rat animagus form for twelve years, living with the Weasley family for much of that time. They also explained how they had discovered who he was on the night Sirius Black had been captured. Dawlish angrily interrupted at this point to ask why they had never told anyone this before.
“We did!” they sputtered indignantly. “But your idiot boss, Fudge, didn’t believe us,” Harry continued.
“He said we were disturbed!” snapped Hermione, folding her arms across her chest indignantly. Questioning her mental acuity was one of the worst insults imaginable to her.
Once Shacklebolt had calmed everyone down, Harry went on to describe Pettigrew’s role in the resurrection of Voldemort, and at the doubtful look on Dawlish’s face rolled up his sleeve to show the scar on his arm from where Pettigrew’s knife had drawn his blood. “Fudge didn’t believe me that time either,” he growled at Dawlish before the Auror had a chance to ask.
They finished by describing how they had guessed that Pettigrew had been hiding during the attack on the Burrow and that they had used the spell to force him back into his human form, then stunned him as he tried to flee. Shacklebolt finally decided they had all the information they needed on Pettigrew and formally turned the questioning over to Dawlish.
This time they were asked to describe their actions during the fight at the Burrow, and what spells they had used. They revealed how they had apparated as a group to a safe spot behind the shed, then split up and launched their counterattack, catching the Death Eaters in a crossfire.
“As for spells,” Hermione stated crisply, “we used appropriate shielding and blocking spells for the curses being fired at us. Offensive spells we used were Reducto, Diffractum, and Projectilius, both the normal version and a silver version, when the werewolves attacked.”
“Why not stunners?” challenged Dawlish.
“We were outnumbered more than four to one,” Harry answered coldly. “The first spells they shot at us were Avada Kedavra. We couldn’t afford to mess around. The last time Hermione and I fought Death Eaters we used stunners and they kept reviving each other. Hermione was almost killed by a Disruptium curse from Dolohov. I wasn’t about to let that happen this time.” The pair’s hands subconsciously found each other and clasped, each giving the other a little squeeze for comfort.
Dawlish scowled, but couldn’t say anything. If pressed, he would have to admit that these two students had fought and captured more Death Eaters than he had, in fact than the entire current Auror contingent had in the past year. Shacklebolt then commented that their statement was consistent with the other evidence they had, and asked Dawlish if he had any other questions.
“What were you wearing during the fight?” he inquired. “Several of the prisoners stated that you weren’t wearing robes, but some kind of magical coating. Have you been performing any dark rituals?” Harry glared and pulled off his robes to reveal his tee shirt and bare arms, which although well muscled were perfectly normal. Hermione did him one better by removing her robes to expose a tank top that revealed a considerable amount of bare skin. Dawlish turned bright red and looked away in embarrassment. Hermione smirked at Harry as she replaced her robes and it took quite a bit of effort for him to hold back his laughter.
“We dressed in dragonhide vests and leggings before we went to the Burrow,” Harry then explained. Kingsley’s eyes widened in envy. Hermione recalled Moody wishing that the Aurors had such protective armor, and saw Harry’s eyes light up as the same idea occurred to him as had just occurred to her.
The questioning finished, Shacklebolt thanked them for their cooperation and Moody escorted them back to the atrium. Harry asked if it was possible to use the Ministry floos to get to Hogwarts, and Moody informed them that the Hogwarts floos were set up for communication only, not transportation. They would have to floo to Hogsmeade and walk from there. In a matter of minutes they found themselves in the Three Broomsticks.
In short order they were back in the Hogwarts Headmistress’s office. “Good morning, Mr. Potter, Miss Granger,” McGonagall greeted them. “I see from your appearance that you made good use of your time turner.” It was hard to miss the physical changes that had taken place in the pair, not the least of which was their deep tans.
“Yes, thank you,” Hermione responded. “We repeated two weeks twenty-five times each. From our perspective it’s been more than a year since we were last here.”
“My word, that’s incredible!” the headmistress gasped, before bringing herself back under control. “Was it profitable?”
“Very!” said Hermione, with a gleam in her eye as she glanced at Harry. McGonagall eyed them closely, noticing now that more appeared to have changed with the pair than just their physical or magical prowess. “We were told by Gringotts that Professor Dumbledore left something for me in his will and it’s being held for me here,” Harry said politely, turning to the reason they had come today.
McGonagall disappeared for a few minutes into the room behind the headmaster’s desk and returned floating several crates. She also handed Harry a letter from Dumbledore.
“Most of what is in these crates are books and pensieve memories,” she announced briskly. “Albus left me instructions to see that you received his pensieve if anything happened to him, along with this collection. He said that you knew how to use it.” Harry nodded and Hermione struggled to control her excitement. She had heard so much from Harry about the things he had seen, and now she would get to see them with him. “I assume that at least some of this is related to the project the two of you were working on?” she asked, peering at him over her glasses.
“I expect so,” Harry answered, clearly not wanting to say anything more. McGonagall looked over her shoulder at the sleeping portrait of the former headmaster.
“Albus’s portrait has awakened for short periods. He asked me to tell you that he would like to speak with you regarding your project once you have finished reviewing these materials. As I mentioned during your last visit, I have some things I wish to discuss with you as well. Would sometime next week or the week after be convenient for you?” Hermione checked her calendar and they tentatively set a date for the following week.
“Oh, and Mr. Potter?” McGonagall added as they got up to leave. “Congratulations on making such an excellent decision regarding your future.” She gestured to Hermione’s engagement ring and big smiles appeared on the faces of the two students as they thanked her for her kind words.
What the two students didn’t hear was the conversation that took place in the office after they left.
‘Albus, are you sure of this?’
‘Trust me, Minerva, they are doing even better than I had dared to hope. Have you ever seen Mr. Potter so confident, or Miss Granger so happy? And you heard what Alistor said about the power and skill they displayed the other night.’
‘I still don’t think you should have put so much pressure on two students, even ones as remarkable as those two.’
‘I believe they will succeed, Minerva. They simply must.’
After leaving McGonagall’s office the pair stopped in an unoccupied classroom so that Harry could look at the note from Dumbledore. Hermione watched anxiously as Harry read the note and got a far-away look in his eyes for a moment before shaking himself and handing it to her to read.
“He says that Sirius had been collecting memories of my parents and had been intending to present them to me for my birthday,” he explained, while wiping at his eyes. “After Sirius died Dumbledore continued with it. They’re all here.” Hermione found her own eyes tearing up too and she put her arms around Harry in an understanding hug. The note she had just finished reading continued to say that all of the memories that Dumbledore had collected dealing with Tom Riddle and the Horcruxes were also included, including some that Harry hadn’t seen yet. Besides some spell books, which were a top priority in Hermione’s opinion, there were also two detection instruments in the crates.
“What do you want to start looking at first?” she asked gently. While she hoped he would include her, she didn’t want to presume anything.
“Do you think we could see some of my parents before we started the others?” Harry suggested hesitantly. Hermione’s heart nearly broke as she heard the yearning in his voice. He was so desperate to know more about the parents who had died for him when he was only a year old, of whom the only memories he had were unpleasant ones. She nodded, unable to speak, and hugged him once more, much harder this time, her tears now flowing freely. She could feel him shaking with emotion against her, and she held on tight for a long time, thinking once more how unfair her best friend’s life was.
Once they had composed themselves, Hermione suggested that they look at some of the pleasant memories each of the next few evenings and save the Riddle and Horcrux memories for later, once their schedule eased up. After shrinking down the crates again, Harry thought of Winky. “Dobby?” he called out tentatively. A second later the eager little house elf appeared before him with a pop.
“Harry Potter sir called for Dobby? Dobby did not even know that Harry Potter was being at Hogwarts today. Can Dobby be getting something for Harry Potter?”
Harry eventually calmed Dobby down and asked him how Winky was doing. Dobby immediately began apologizing for not coming to the Burrow sooner so that he could have helped out, but Harry quickly assured him that he had done just fine in arriving when he did, and rescuing Winky. Finally he got the house elf settled down enough to tell them about Winky. Dobby informed them proudly that he was taking good care of Winky, and that his friend would be able to go back to work for the Weasleys soon. Hermione interrupted quickly to make it clear that they were not asking after Winky for that reason, only that they were concerned about her. This caused Dobby to burst into tears, going on and on about how wonderful Harry Potter and his Miss Grangy were to house elves. Harry left him with strict instructions that Winky was to stay at Hogwarts being cared for by her good friend Dobby for as long as it took to get her health and magic back completely.
This time Harry managed to get Hermione out of the castle without a visit to the library and they began the long walk back to Hogsmeade to apparate back to the Granger residence. “You know,” Harry commented while the two walked hand in hand along the path, levitating the trunks before them. “This would be a lot easier if we could fly.”
“Well, why don’t you buy me a broom then?” Hermione suggested with a grin that turned into a giggle at his gobsmacked expression. “What, don’t you think I can fly well enough?” she teased. “I am an owl now, you know.”
Harry’s look of surprise turned into a grin that threatened to split his face. “No, that’s a brilliant idea, Hermione,” he answered enthusiastically. “Add that to the list!” Hermione laughed and couldn’t help hugging him with such a boyishly eager expression on his face. With their arms laced around each other’s waists they joked and teased each other the rest of the way to Hogsmeade.
-ooOoo-
They weren’t sure what to make of the invitation from Bill and Fleur to visit, but since it was a beach house they dressed in tank tops and shorts under their robes. They later learned that Ron had received a separate note from Bill explaining why only Harry and Hermione had been invited – that he was often ‘distracted’ around Fleur and she was even more distracting than usual that week. Harry put his arm around Hermione’s waist to side-along her and an instant later they were standing at the entrance of a lovely cottage.
It was really too large to be called a cottage, and it looked nothing like something the Black family would own, based on the appearance of Grimmauld Place. Hermione guessed that it was probably an investment property, and none of the Blacks had ever even been there. The furnishings were relatively modern, and the color schemes were bright and cheerful, just like one would expect in a beach house. The property sloped down toward the beach, so the main floor was elevated at the back of the house. All along the back was a porch that turned out to be a large, private sundeck overlooking the beach, with access off the kitchen, the dining area, and the master bedroom. The lower floor had two additional bedrooms, which opened out to ground level porches, leading to a wooden walkway to the beach. Fleur immediately pulled Hermione aside while Bill took Harry out back to the sundeck, which was equipped with several sun loungers and a wet bar.
While Bill was handing Harry a butterbeer, Fleur excitedly informed Hermione about the ‘emergency’ that had required her presence. It seemed that she and Bill had been out walking on the beach the day before, and had wandered all the way to a muggle section. They were amazed to see that the muggle women were wearing swim costumes that looked like underwear. “And Bill was quite interested,” Fleur finished. “Is zis what ze muggle women normally wear when sweemming?”
Hermione laughed. “Well, yes. It’s rather amusing. Muggle women would be extremely embarassed to be seen in their underwear, but they wear swim suits that actually cover up less than most bras and knickers do. I have several suits like that myself, and trust me, Harry loves them. They’re called bikinis.”
“Zen you must ’elp me. I theenk zat Bill weell like eet very much eef I wear such a bikini. We can go to one of ze shops in town and buy some, no?”
After calling out to the men that they were going shopping for a bit, Fleur and Hermione headed for the shopping district nearby. On the way Hermione listened with rapt attention as Fleur fervently described how wonderfully her and Bill’s bonding was going. Soon Hermione found a promising little boutique specializing in resort wear.
One of the problems of helping Fleur pick out a bikini, Hermione quickly discovered, was that she looked good in everything! Hermione was sure that every suit she came out of the dressing room in would have Harry drooling. And she seemed to favor the tinier ones, saying those were the ones that tended to catch Bill’s eye. Finally she picked up a suit from a different rack that Hermione had been too shy to suggest.
“Um, Fleur, I’m not sure about that one,” Hermione stammered. “It’s called a thong and, well there isn’t much to the bottom.”
“Eet appears to be designed to emphasize ze derrière,” Fleur surmised.
“Well, yes, emphasize is pretty accurate, I guess,” Hermione agreed with a blush.
“Bill seemed particularly eenterested in ze women who were wearing zese,” she announced, and insisted on trying it on. Of course, Fleur looked even more incredible in this suit, and she decided to buy one. Then she insisted that Hermione get one as well. Hermione resisted at first, but Fleur’s enthusiasm eventually wore her down. Besides, she reasoned, if Fleur was wearing one too then neither of the men would notice her anyway. Fleur, of course, disagreed, reminding Hermione of the similar situation with the negligées. Hermione found herself hoping that the French woman was right, because she was getting excited at the idea of Harry seeing her in the brief suit. In the end, Fleur picked out a dazzling sapphire blue thong with string tie sides and Hermione chose one in a pink print with high cut half inch sides
When they returned, they found Harry and Bill lying on two of the lounge chairs, catching some sun. When Hermione asked later, Harry informed her that they had discussed the attack, and that Bill and Fleur had visited his brother and parents in the hospital that morning. Harry had removed his tank top and was wearing only his shorts, which were slightly loose and went about halfway down to his knees. He had transfigured Bill’s trousers to a pair of shorts as well.
“Success!” Fleur announced cheerfully as the women came out onto the porch. “You two men weell wait ’ere while ’Ermione and I put on our new bikinis.” She turned and took Hermione’s hand, dragging the reluctant younger witch into the bedroom to change. Just before they disappeared through the sliding glass door into the bedroom Hermione heard the following exchange from the men.
Bill – “What’s a bikini?”
Harry – “Trust me, you’ll like it.”
Soon the women emerged, with Fleur in the lead. The exuberant part Veela could have been a model, because she instinctively knew all the moves. She posed with her hands on her hips, then swept them up in her hair, turning first one way then the other. Finally she turned around and faced away from them, putting one hand on her waist and cocking her hip while looking over her shoulder with an impish smile on her face.
Hermione giggled at the initial reaction of the two males, who stood there gaping in astonishment. Suddenly Bill let out a sound that could only be described as an animalistic growl, and rushed forward. As soon as he reached Fleur he picked her up and carried her off, with her squealing and giggling all the way as he hauled her through the sliding glass door into the bedroom.
Harry came up and stood beside Hermione and they both just stared, amazed at what had just happened. Hermione turned to Harry with a grin. “I think she achieved the effect she was looking for.”
They heard another growl from Bill, and Fleur’s squeal turned to a gasp. “Oh! Bill!”
“They seem to have forgotten a silencing charm,” Harry said with a smirk, and with a small shake of his head he moved toward the house and gave a short wave of his hand, cutting off the sounds of the amorous activity. As he turned to come back to where Hermione was waiting by the lounge chairs he was muttering something about oversexed werewolves when he came to an abrupt halt. “Sweet Merlin!”
There, before him, Hermione was bending over a lounge chair, spreading out a towel. When she heard him she looked back over her shoulder and gave him a seductive smile, then slowly knelt down on the lounge, maximizing his view, and finally stretched out and lay down on her stomach. Harry could only stammer and stutter incoherently while he watched her untie the strings of her bikini top.
She turned back to smile at him again and motioned to the sunscreen she had set down next to her lounger. “Aren’t you forgetting something?” Harry finally got his legs working again and hurried over to kneel down beside her, eagerly picking up the bottle of lotion. Hermione was enjoying this immensely, and couldn’t resist another tease. “There’s another place that needs it today.”
Harry managed a very short response. “Oh yeah!” Hermione noticed that he spent quite a bit more time than absolutely necessary applying the sunscreen to the newly uncovered part of her anatomy. She also found that she minded it not one bit.
With two healthy young teens in minimal clothing, one thing led to another and the situation escalated to a full blown snogging session. Harry soon joined her on the lounge and eventually they were both lying on their sides facing each other, his hands roaming up and down her bare back and bum.
“Glad to see you two weren’t bored.” Startled out of their activity by Bill’s amused voice, the two separated and leapt to their feet as the older couple rejoined them. Unfortunately, the strings to Hermione’s bikini top were still untied, and the young couple’s exuberant activity had separated the triangles in front from their customary position. The top was now hanging loose down her front, exposing her breasts.
Hermione shrieked and quickly folded her arms across her chest and began to turn away, but paused. She had just recalled Bill’s reaction to seeing Fleur’s thong clad bum.
Laughing merrily, Fleur rushed forward to help the younger witch out of her dilemma, while Bill looked on appreciatively. Grinning, he turned to nod at Harry, communicating in silent male speak, ‘that’s a very fine looking lady you have there, but don’t worry about me, I’m satisfied with my own.’
Turning his attention back to Hermione, who had now gotten things back where they belonged he smirked and commented, “Nice tan!”
Fleur, having finished helping Hermione, now returned to Bill and gave him a sultry look, then slowly let her eyes drop to her own chest. “Hmm, per’aps you would like eet eef I ’ad a tan like zat?” She hooked her finger in the top of her bikini and pulled it down a bit, then slid the finger along the edge of the triangle to the middle of her chest, then back up the triangle covering the other breast. She raised her eyes back to his and cocked her head in a challenge.
Bill rose to the challenge. “I must say that I would very much enjoy watching you get such a tan.”
“Well, zen,” she responded in a low voice. “Per’aps ’Ermione and I should work on zem togezzer.” Both of the males on the sundeck got dazed looks on their faces as they imagined the scene Fleur had just suggested, and Hermione giggled while Fleur reached up and kissed Bill on the nose. Harry could normally resist Fleur, Hermione knew, but she could see that he could not handle the thought of her and Hermione both stretched out before him wearing nothing but thong bikini bottoms.
Not quite ready for the conversation to move any further along those lines (at least not today) Hermione decided to change the subject. She noticed that Fleur was literally glowing right now, and had been ever since returning from her little ‘session’ with Bill. “Fleur,” she interjected, “you should try to conjure a Patronus with feelings like you’re having right now. You seem so happy I bet it would explode out of your wand.”
Fleur’s head whipped around to Hermione. “You really theenk so?” she asked excitedly. “I could never get more zan smoke, never a solid form.” She hurried inside and fetched her wand. When she returned, she closed her eyes briefly and the others saw her face glow with a brilliant smile. Then she raised her wand. “Expecto Patronum!” Immediately a dazzlingly bright silver wolf sprang out of her wand. The beautiful French witch clapped her hands excitedly, then ran over and threw her arms around Bill’s neck kissing him repeatedly.
While Bill struggled to maintain any semblance of coherent thought under her assault, Harry and Hermione shared a glance. It was surely no coincidence that Fleur’s patronus was a wolf. They recalled that Tonks’s patronus had turned into a wolf when she had fallen for Remus. Hermione could tell that she and Harry were both wondering the same thing. Summoning their wands with but a gesture, each one concentrated on their feelings for the other and they cried out in unison, “Expecto Patronum!” To their amazement, a lion and a lioness, both of them enormous, emerged from their wands. After some later discussion they would eventually come to realize that both of their patroni had changed to reflect how each saw the other.
“Too bad,” Harry said, grinning in an attempt dispel the too serious silence that had fallen upon them as they considered the implications of what they had just done. “I was rather fond of your otter.” Hermione smiled at him warmly and gave him a hug. They were interrupted by Bill and looked up to see that the silvery lion and lioness were nuzzling each other.
“I think you better get rid of those things before they start mating with each other,” Bill teased. He was rewarded by Hermione turning bright red with embarrassment. Once she recovered and they had dispelled the pair of feline protectors, Hermione had another idea. Focusing on a happy memory that did not involve Harry, she tried again and was rewarded as her original otter flew from her wand. Once she explained to Harry what she had done, he tried the same. A quidditch memory did the trick and Prongs once more galloped across the deck. After some discussion, the two decided to use their original patroni for messenger spells, and their newer, and clearly more powerful, patroni for repelling dementor attacks.
They had a wonderful time for the rest of the afternoon. Eventually the males calmed down enough to be able to talk to the women even while they were sunning their backsides, but not before another episode of Bill being overcome by lust. It happened when Harry informed him that it was the man’s duty to rub sunscreen over all of the exposed skin of his beloved. The little moaning noises Fleur made when he reached her thong clad posterior combined with the feeling of her delightfully firm, round bum in his hands to push him over the edge again. Harry and Hermione laughed so much that tears came to their eyes as Bill once more hauled a giggling, squealing Fleur inside. “I wonder if Mrs. Weasley realized exactly what it meant when Remus said Bill would have some ‘wolfish’ tendencies,” Harry gasped out, generating a fresh round of giggles.
Then Hermione got a gleam in her eye. “You know, having you rub sunscreen on my bum got me pretty excited too.”
“Me too,” Harry admitted in a husky voice. Soon they were repeating the procedure, but without any sunscreen. Fortunately, they made sure they were both decent this time when the happy couple returned to the sundeck.
Dinner came and went all too soon. The four had begun the kind of relationship where each one found every one of the others fascinating. Harry and Hermione could sit and listen for hours to Bill’s tales of cursebreaking, or Fleur’s description of her heritage and how different her life had been growing up than theirs. For their part, the pair of Hogwarts students had led rather eventful lives as well, and older couple sat riveted by their stories. Even though Ron had been involved in most of them, Bill had not really spent any significant amount of time with his younger brother since the summer after his second year, and was only vaguely aware of their adventures.
As their time drew to an end, Bill and Fleur tried to persuade Harry and Hermione to stay for a few days. They immediately declined, since the older couple was on their honeymoon after all, but they were insistent. They eventually compromised after a private conversation and agreed to come over each afternoon that week and stay for dinner. During this separate discussion Harry and Hermione considered all the things they still had to do that week. The also realized that even though they were so busy, indeed because they were so busy, they needed to take some time off to keep from being overwhelmed. Hermione summed up their decision succinctly – “We’ll just have to make time.”
They would accomplish this by repeating each day with the time turner. On the days when they would visit Bill and Fleur, they decided to stay at one of Harry’s flats in Cambridge at night and in the morning. While there they would establish an identity as muggle college students in case they ever needed it, and work their way through Dumbledore’s pensieve memories. On their other days they would stay with the Grangers and attend to the normal demands on their time.
It would turn out to be a rather momentous week.
-xox-XOX-XOX-xox-
Author Notes:
A/N Just to clarify, Harry’s new patronus is the lioness and Hermione’s is the lion. It appears that when a patronus changes, it takes on characteristics of the one you love, or feel protected by. It seems rather sexist to me to only have a female character’s patronus change.