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Harry Potter and the Memories of the Future	By : Christina_Potter_09 Category: Harry Potter > Het - Male/Female > Harry/Hermione Views: 13966 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, nor the characters from it. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.

Chapter List
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Chapter Three – Explanations

‘My sweet boy,’ Margaret whispered in Harry’s ear after the few seconds they held each other in the hug, Harry was still numb at the surprise of seeing the woman’s eyes, so much alike his and his mother’s. He could feel no trance of magic around the couple so he decided to try and act normal around them, his heart feared as the doubts died down and he was about to learn the truth of where they had been.

‘I have questions,’ Harry finally vocalized his thoughts and Margaret framed her grandson’s face with her warm palms.

‘And we have answers, my dear,’ Margaret said as she finally looked next to Harry and smiled brightly as Craig approached Harry. ‘And you must be his wife, welcome here, dear,’ Margaret said to the dumbfounded Hermione who didn’t have the time to answer as the older woman hugged her tightly.

‘My boy,’ Craig said and Harry smiled a bit as the two men hugged each other manly.

‘Uhmm.. I’m not his-‘

‘Come in, come in, we have so many things to talk about, we didn’t expect you so early, or to be honest, we weren’t sure you were the one, we have sent the letter to all the Harry Potters we could find and we never had a response,’ Margaret interrupted Hermione who only looked at Harry who nodded and together, they entered the small villa.

Warm colors, beautiful furniture of crème colors along white, pink and happy warm colors welcomed them in the villa, the smell of jasmine and roses filled their nostrils. They followed the older couple, Hermione still with one hand on her wand and the other taking Harry’s in hers, Harry squeezed her hand as they reached the kitchen and they sat down as they were gestured by Craig who couldn’t take his eyes off Harry, Margaret put the kettle on and moved close to her husband too. Harry didn’t know from where to start.

‘Where have you been all this time?’ he finally asked. ‘How did you find me now? Why not earlier?’ Harry meant to ask only the first thing but the next couple of questions followed without him realizing, Hermione’s squeeze made him pause. Margaret and Craig looked at each other for a moment before they could answer.

‘Harry what do you know about us?’ Margaret finally asked and Harry felt frustrated for getting an answer through a question.

‘That you were dead, I didn’t know a lot of things about you, Petunia told me you were dead years before I or Dudley were born, Dumbledore and the rest never mentioned you but Dumbledore must had believed you were dead too.’ Harry answered, Dumbledore had explained to him why he always sent him to Petunia every summer, but why he never sent him to his grandparents. Margaret sighed and nodded her head.

‘Many people believed that, my sweetheart, but truth is, we were alive, under spells for years, but alive,’ Margaret said and Harry frowned at the answer.

‘Then why you never showed up? What spells? How you know you were bewitched?’ Harry asked again but this time, the answer came from someone else than the Evans.

‘Lily manipulated your memories, didn’t she?’ Hermione answered with another question and Harry’s and the Evans’ heads snapped at her direction, she was waiting for the confirmation that came with the old couple’s nods. Harry felt like a small part of the truth came into light but he needed to know more.

‘Explain from the beginning,’ He finally half-asked, half-demanded and the older couple nodded their heads again and Margaret did the talking once again.

‘The last time we saw her, she was terrified, she had given birth to you, she was so happy yet so worried about something like a prophesy she had told us about. She discussed the whole thing with us, she had said it was for our own safety, she would restore the spells after the war. We agreed, trusting her completely to return for us, when she told Petunia about it, she lost it, she didn’t even want to hear of being changed, and when we told her that we had agreed on being under spells, she decided to estrange herself from us, in one night, we lost both daughters, one by her choice, the other by the spells she used on us.

‘The next thing we knew was the end of the spell, our lives as Dana and Christian Emerson ended in a small period of time during 1998 and we found ourselves here in Italy, trying desperately to contact with Lily, the ministry or even Dumbledore and Petunia and we found none for a long time. We knew how the Wizarding world worked but we certainly knew of a different world from the one we had last heard of in 1980.

‘We achieved on contacting Dudley, Petunia refused to reply our letters, as Dudley explained, she was afraid we weren’t the ones we claimed we were since we were to be dead, or she was just still mad at us for choosing Lily’s method of hiding, but Dudley told us that you had survived the war, that Lily…’ there Margaret paused for the first time, her voice hitching, she took a moment to recover.

‘That Lily and James had been gone and that you were somewhere in the Wizarding world, having visited them only once in 1999 to make sure they were alright, we didn’t know why you hadn’t remained in contact with them, but were thankful you were alive, so we started searching for Harry Potters around Britain. It wasn’t easy, but we had tried to make the letter with a small code you would recognize and only, we knew many would just toss the letter away and wouldn’t bother to come to Italy to meet two old people but we hoped, that if you had inherited your father’s sweet heart and your mother’s love for the family, you would come…. And here you are… with your wife, alive and sound.’ Margaret finally said and patted both Harry and Hermione’s free hands.

Hermione was ready to explain that she wasn’t Harry’s wife again, feeling her cheeks getting hotter for the misunderstanding but Harry asked first.

‘Had mum told you how she decided to keep Dumbledore out of this? I was sent to the Dursleys after their death in 1981 because he believed there was no other relative of mum’s to keep me for certain reasons…’ Harry asked again and Margaret sighed again.

‘When she had told us about the spell she said that everyone would think us dead so the Death Eaters wouldn’t chase us down, she had let only James knowing, even Petunia knew just of a spell to keep us away, Lily would lie to her that the spell went bad and we died as to make sure we and of course Petunia who had refused to be under spells, would be safe, later on, she would restore the spell and tell Petunia of her lie and she had hoped that Petunia would understand…

‘I guess the secret of our fate was taken with James and our poor Lily-bud,’ Margaret said and this time she couldn’t stop the tears as Craig patted her back soothingly.

‘You look so much like James, but your eyes…’ Margaret said with a small, full of tears smile and Harry for the first time, reached with the hand that wasn’t holding Hermione’s, and patted his grandmother’s hand.

‘I know… I have hers, your eyes…’ Harry said and Margaret gave a small smile. Harry’s mind was racing but he could understand what had happened here, a series of misunderstandings, a few stubborn people and a dose of bad luck had been enough for him to be raised in the living Hell of the Dursleys’, now he could see another reason for Petunia disliking him, Lily had prevented Petunia from her parents, the parents that always felt proud of Lily being a witch…

‘Dudley’s letter had been rather short, he only said he was alright, that Petunia didn’t want to reply to the letters because of her lack of knowledge on your news and that she didn’t want to hear more of us, Dudley didn’t even mention Vernon or where they lived, he only said you two were alive and that you had visited the year we had sent the letter, in 1999, ever since, we haven’t heard of his news. How is he and Petunia?’ Craig this time spoke and Harry felt his stomach dropping, his grandparents had no idea about how he had grown up with the Dursleys, they didn’t know of the beating, the cupboard, the fear.

‘I don’t know… we’re not in touch,’ Harry said honestly and felt Hermione’s hand squeezing his in comfort, he glanced at her for a moment and then looked back at their puzzled faces.

‘You… they didn’t take good care of you? I know Petunia didn’t like Lily or Severus very much, and she had her problems with us… but she always wanted children and she got two, her own and you…’ Margaret said and Harry felt like his heart broke a little more, his childhood’s nightmares had been shared with few people, Hermione was actually the only one to have been with him in 1999 when he had visited the Dursleys for the first and last time after the war. That day, she had the time to see the cupboard for good as she hadn’t had the chance in the times she had visited Privet Drive number 4 to take him away with the rest during their Hogwarts time.

‘I… I was raised by them just fine, sometimes Petunia told me about mum’s wrongdoings in her life but in general, she raised me… properly, I just had to go away in case people wanted to hurt them in reprisal for Voldemort’s downfall… and the Wizarding world needed time to adjust, like I did,’ Harry lied efficiently to his grandparents, he couldn’t bear the revelation of the truth, it was instinct, his need for a family, the shame a child carries for his bad first years, maybe all of these things but Harry didn’t want to see Margaret’s eyes filling with tears again at how her older daughter raised him, there was no need for more pain right now. Hermione caressed his hand in affection under the table and Harry glanced at her for a moment, her eyes were full of tears at the sound of his innocent lie.

The sun had almost set outside the villa but the Evans, Harry and Hermione were still on the table, not having realized that afternoon was turning into evening.

‘We were surprised none noticed of the end of the spells or our tries to contact. Where’s Dumbledore and Severus?’ Craig asked and Harry sighed and shook his head.

‘When you attempted to reach the Wizarding world, everyone was trying to get back to normal… the ministry had seen better days than the 90’s…’ Harry said and sighed. ‘Dumbledore died in 1996, Severus died in the spring of 1998,’ he said, avoiding to inform them about Severus killing Albus. The couple nodded with sad faces.

‘The spells started to fail in summer of 1998… that’s why none noticed our tries… what about Sirius, he was your godfather, Lily had informed us about it before the spell, and Remus and Peter? They were good friends of James’ they knew of Lily and us.’ Margaret asked and Harry gritted his teeth, this conversation was so painful.

‘All dead in the war, we had many casualties.’ Harry finally said , not wanting to get into details and memories that would make him hex everything around him, Margaret nodded again and sighed as she looked at Harry’s eyes for a moment.

‘We’re so sorry for not being there, we wished the spells had been broken sooner, we couldn’t do something about it, Lily had planned it all for our safety, maybe she should have planned out things better for her safety too…’ Margaret said and Harry sighed with his turn and nodded as he patted his grandmother’s hand.

She would have been saved if Pettigrew hadn’t betrayed her. ‘We can’t change the past, we can only keep up with the present and the future…’ Harry tried to encourage the older woman who smiled with tears in her eyes and nodded her head as she squeezed Harry’s hand.

‘That means you’ll stay here for a few days? So we can meet you and your- oh dear, we have a granddaughter-in-law and we don’t know her name! I’m so sorry dear! This is so rude of us.’ Margaret said, scandalized and this time Hermione smiled and found the opportunity to finally clear this out, she was starting to feel dangerously comfortable being referred as Harry’s wife.

‘My name is Hermione Granger, I’m not your grandson’s wife, I’m his… best friend,’ Hermione finally said and Margaret looked surprised, just like Craig did, while Harry and Hermione looked uncomfortable and depressed at the revelation.

‘Oh I’m sorry, I thought… you look like a couple, all holding hands and glancing at each other…’ Margaret said and chuckled, making the rest chuckle, awkwardly, ‘Well, our grandson’s friend, is our friend, welcome here dear, we hope you’ll stay with Harry for as long as you want,’ Margaret said and looked hopefully at her grandson who nodded with a small smile.

‘We should show you your room and then make dinner, you must be exhausted from the trip, we can catch up on more during our meal or tomorrow,’ Margaret said in a motherly fashion and Harry smiled and nodded, missing –willingly or not- the bit about their room. They followed her in a corridor that led to a staircase and they moved up to the second floor of the villa, where Margaret opened a door and showed them a comfortable bedroom, in the same happy, crème colors and the double poster bed.

‘We don’t have a second guestroom…I know it’s one bed and you’re just friends but I guess there won’t be a problem right?’ Margaret asked and Harry and Hermione looked at each other, their hearts beating faster. ‘Or you can somehow cut it in two with magic?’ Margaret asked hesitantly as she encountered the silence from the young people, the two snapped from their stupors.

‘Uhm noo it’s ok,’

‘No we shouldn’t mess with your guestroom,’

‘Yeah, it would make too much of a mess over nothing,’

‘Yeah, we’re just fine with the bed,’ their mutual rant ended with exhales of breath and blushed faces while Margaret looked at them surprised, before a smile that reminded to both of Jane Granger appeared on her face.

‘Alright then… you can relax here… I will call you for dinner in about twenty minutes… the tv shows Italian channels but it also shows CNN, MTV and some other channels in English… Craig will go to the cellar for the perfect wine while I’ll make the pasta, if you want you can go and have a walk at the beach… the new moon allows you to see the stars in the dark sky and the lights of Bari don’t reach here to destroy the view…’ Margaret said and the young people nodded, still in the awkward silence that had followed their rant. ‘Enjoy yourselves…’ Margaret added as she closed the door…

Harry and Hermione remained in the bedroom on their own, by each other’s side, with their hands just an inch apart, both their minds were full of thoughts of the day that was close to an end but their hearts were full of confusion and frustration over more personal matters…

‘How are you feeling?’ Hermione finally asked, deciding to push away all her current troubles and not over-think her worries and frustrations about her feelings. She had to be Harry’s rock right now.

‘Confused… happy and sad at the same time, happy for finally finding them, sad for having lost them for so long over misunderstandings, bad luck and awful timing… if they had been close, I wouldn’t have been with the Dursleys…’ Harry said and Hermione sighed sadly and nodded her head as she approached and took his hand in hers, making him almost shudder at the touch.

‘They say things happen for a reason,’ Hermione said quietly and Harry sighed and took his hand away, he was so confused, with his parents, his grandparents, Petunia, Hermione, everyone, he had thought things wouldn’t be more complicated but he had been mistaken.

Hermione knew when to back down and give him some space on his own, she needed the same too, in just a few hours, they had jumped in an airplane and traveled from north Europe to south to an adventure that had only started, and the idea of them spending the night in the same bed made her want to run away.

‘I’ll take that walk your grandmother suggested…’ Hermione finally said and Harry nodded as he looked deep into her eyes, they didn’t need to talk to say that they needed that time both for themselves, just a few minutes, to remain alone with their thoughts, they weren’t blind nor stupid, Margaret had thought them in a relationship, like the rest of the Wizarding world and Hermione’s parents… they needed a small dose of silence for them to think clearly, to push deep inside their hearts their surfaced comfort in each other’s intimate presence.

Joking around as husband and wife was cute, but when others thought them in a relationship, the reality neared, the games ended and the fears of destroying their most solid relation: their friendship, collided with their hearts.

He was left alone in the room, as the door closed softly behind him, this was a beautiful room, crème and white, a bit of lilac, it was bright even if the sun had set and the light was coming from the lamps on the nightstands. Harry looked at the double bed, before, he would try to reason with himself, they had been in the same room before, in beds close to each other, they shouldn’t be awkward… the tent was something more than a long period of time being close every night, but he knew, this was in the past, now he had reasons to be afraid.

He had feelings for Hermione, he knew that but he wasn’t sure what she wanted, she was different, everyone had changed after the war and he knew he shared some of the fears she had, she had failed with Ron, and even if he wasn’t Ron, he was too afraid to risk his only friend, his best friend, he had lost so many, the conversation with his grandparents proved that, he wouldn’t lose Hermione too.

His mind went back to his grandparents, unwillingly, he was already mentally referring to them as his grandparents, they knew Dumbledore and Severus and they had contacted Dudley and Petunia, they couldn’t be thieves or some trouble makers. They seemed good people and Harry didn’t want to believe they were anything less than that, two good people who lost their children and grandchildren in a war that had nothing to do with them… Harry sighed as he thought of his mother, Lily had done her best to keep her parents safe. Like Hermione had, his mind went back to the brunette his heart ached for… He groaned as at the speed his thoughts changed inside his head.

Without having realized it, he had moved close to the window of the room, he moved the curtain to the side and looked outside, the view was amazing, the black sea was reflecting the starry sky, the sandy beach seemed like made of velvet, smooth only with the path of a pair of feet that drew Harry’s attention. At the end of the path, Hermione was standing in the water knee-deep, he could see her silhouette from the little light that fell upon her from the house, his eyes remained on her for awhile, watching as she remained unmoving with her legs in the water, he gulped the moment he realized she was holding her long skirt with her hands to her hips, he could see her creamy legs, her skin glistering slightly as the small waves caressed it.

He wanted to be with her, he wanted to talk to her, he didn’t care about the awkwardness, he had dragged her there within a day, he wanted to know her opinion, her impressions in all this, her thoughts, he wanted Hermione with him.

He moved out of the room, down the stairs and through the corridor, he passed by the kitchen, where his grandparents were talking about something, the paused when Harry showed up, in his hurry, he had only heard something about “she is sad,”. Harry and the Evans remained in silence for a moment before Margaret could speak.

‘Oh Harry… you’re going to the beach?’ she asked and Harry nodded his head. ‘You should, Hermione moved there a few minutes ago and she looked… sad, almost in tears in her way out,’ Margaret said and Harry frowned at this, without a word, he moved out of the house, closed the door behind him and took off his shoes, he left them next to the door, where Hermione had left her own shoes and he moved quietly to the beach and up the path Hermione’s feet had left.

He approached and didn’t care for his trousers getting wet as he got in the water and got closer to Hermione. He also didn’t care of the intimate hug he gave her from behind, making her gasp and cause her hands to let the skirt fall, the fabric got wet and started dancing lazily around her legs in the rhythm of the waves. Of course she had sensed him nearing but she hadn’t expected him to hug her like that, after their tries to play nice, his arms wrapped around her stomach, his chin rested on her shoulder and automatically, her head rested on his own shoulder as her eyes looked up at the sky and her own hands touched his arms as they held her close.

As he held her close to his body, he could feel every sniff and every sob, he remained silent, knowing she would open up on her own. For now, he enjoyed her body against his and the pleasantly refreshing water as they stood in the water together. He gazed at the horizon while she gazed at the stars, their hearts synchronizing their beat even if their minds kept racing on different things respectively.

‘These are tears of relief,’ Hermione finally whispered, close to Harry’s ear as they remained hugged. ‘Your mum used similar spells to mine, if I had died in the war, my parents would have been saved, I know it sounds pointless now, they’re fine, they forgave me for all that I had done, but seeing your grandparents alive is a huge relief for my own choices as well… if I hadn’t made it, my parents would have survived, and when they’d be back to normal, they would be safe, even without me around,’ Hermione whispered again and Harry tightened his arms around his best friend, around the woman his heart belonged to. He knew of her struggle with the choices she had to make during the war, her fear for her parent’s fate had been evident, he still remembered her words in the forest of Dean, right after Godric’s Hollow… he also remembered her suggestion of them just staying there… growing old… he pushed those thoughts away quickly, Hermione was his rock but right now, she needed his support.

‘It’s all over and you’re alive, Hermione, and your parents are just fine…’ Harry tried to calm her down with his words, when she was sad, he always wanted to make her feel better, he never liked her in tears. He felt her nod against him as her head turned slightly and her breath came hot on his neck’s skin. He felt her body relaxing more against him, as relief swept over her entire form.

‘Thank you,’ he whispered as he turned his own head towards her, his lips inches from hers, their eyes locked with each other. ‘For everything, from being in my Quidditch matches even when we were quarrelling, to this, being here, now, in a beach in Italy, letting me in; to see how you felt when you sent your parents away and ran away to a war with me…’ he kept in a slow, smooth voice, Hermione gave a small smile as his hand flew up to her face and took away the tears, her eyes closed at his touch.

‘Don’t thank me… I was always by your side… and I will always be…’ Hermione said in a smooth voice too, keeping her face close to his as she looked up at him from where she rested her head on his shoulder, they needed only to close that little gap between their lips and…

‘GUYS! Dinner’s ready!!!’ Margaret’s voice was heard and the two parted immediately as if electricity had rushed between them. They moved out of the water and Harry waved at the house in response, unable even to croak, let alone speak at the moment.

‘You’re a mean person, Maggie…’ Craig said with a small grin on his face as he and his wife watched their grandson and his… best friend approaching. Margaret grinned too, she knew she had destroyed the moment, she could see clearly that her grandson and Hermione were far away from the best friend lines by now… but she wanted first to get to know the young people and then allow them to make that one, little step towards each other.

‘I don’t need to be magical to see the signs here… but first, I want to make sure they’re right for each other,’ Margaret said and winked at her husband who sighed, Margaret had done similar tests in the past, with another couple he once knew, half of the couple was his daughter, Lily...
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Harry Potter and the Memories of the Future