Adult-FanFiction.org : Harry Potter

Returning to Hogwarts	By : TheSlytherinPhoenix Category: Harry Potter > Het - Male/Female > Harry/Hermione Views: 56088 -:- Recommendations : 1 -:- Currently Reading : 4
Disclaimer: I DO NOT OWN HARRY POTTER OR ANY OF THE CHARACTERS AND DO NOT MAKE ANY MONEY OFF OF THE STORIES. I SIMPLY LOVE TO WRITE FANFICS IN THE POTTERVERSE CAUSE THEY ARE FUN AND ENJOYABLE TO ME. THIS IS SIMPLY FOR JOY AND PEOPLE TO READ FOR FUN.

Chapter List
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- 5
A/N: Thank you to all my readers who have been patiently waiting for the next chapter. With the pandemic my relaxing time (when I write) has been shortened. BUT NEVER FEAR. I will continue to update and add chapters- might just take a smidge longer. I HAVE LOVED YOUR REVIEWS AND THEY ENCOURAGE ME SO MUCH I CANNOT EVEN TELL YOU! THANK YOU!! As a future note if there comes a time where I wont be finishing the story I will tell you all in another A/N and either finish it out in a post or put it on hold until I have time for it. BUT THAT ISNT NOW! I hope you enjoy the this chapter because I have already started on Chapter 5. And a special thanks to Handaxe for your review, it was quite literally the nudge I needed to finish the last few paragraps to post this up, knowng you were hoping for more. Your words surely boosted that muse of mine into cloud nine.
-Rina
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She had to give it to Harry, he had been true to his word. Over the weekend he had spent the the early morning hours talking to her when they could not sleep, though instead of normal conversation he began to tell her tiny tales about the places within flying distance that she was missing out on. She had tried to argue that she could simply go there by other means but he would then counter- as if he had been waiting for it each time- that the spots he was referring to were only able to be seen properly by flying.
In fact, Harry and Hermione had a silent routine that began almost nightly in the pre-dawn hours of the morning. Sometimes Harry showed up first, while other times it was Hermione, but never the less both would find themselves in the halls wandering their way slowly towards the kitchen and once the other would join them at whatever point they were at in the journey they would talk until the house elves began preparing breakfast for the students then part ways to begin their day.
The only time this did not happen was on the rare occasions they would be hidden away in her room far to late reliving memories and accidentally fall asleep- though each time she woke the following morning Harry was gone. Those were the only nights neither of them dreamed at all but they were also the ones that left her mind scrambled for days. She had told herself over and over that it was because it was highly indecent and accidental and that of course he was gone before dawn as that was the proper way to correct the situation- but still it left a tinge of sadness in her.
She had made a point to attend lunch every day simply because she would not have Harry rushing around to deliver her food and risk being late for his students. She had been successful for three weeks but this particular Friday had been so busy that she found herself literally running into Harry as she hurried through a archway. The stack of books she had been balancing in one hand while biting onto a quill with an opened parchment in her free hand all fell to the floor, even though the pair tried to fumble and grab everything. She had been mumbling apologies without looking to see who she was talking to when his hand pressed to her shoulder. “I thought you were done with O.W.L.S. long ago. Why the mountain of books?”
She looked up at Harry with wide eyes. “Harry?” then she looked around and realized there were no students around and the light was dimming outside the castle. “What time is it?” She had begun to start to stack the books once more then paused, pulled out her wand and with a flick everything she had been carrying began floating in a neat stack. “Guess I missed lunch.”
“And dinner. Were have you been all day?” She actually slumped her shoulders and sighed.
“I had to fill in for care of magical creatures today.” Before Harry could ask she continued, “Hagrid was taking care of a thestral birthing and could not attend his classes.”
“What was the class on?” but that one simple question brought out a side of Hermione he had absolutely never seen before. She burst into a grin so big he bet her cheeks hurt and everything about her seemed to brighten up.
“Nifflers!” she exclaimed. “I had only ever read about them! But Hagrid has three baby nifflers AND a mated pair now. He has said I may have one!” that was when he took notice that some of the books were about care of magical creatures and one very small book was labeled only ‘NIFFLER’ by N.S. “The little silver female has taken quite the liking to me, and if the mother accepts the pairing she is mine!” she was practically bouncing now as she spoke, “I haven’t named her yet, of course. One musn’t count their chickens before they hatch.”
“Nifflers?” his face must have shown his confusion because she smiled even bigger, if possible, before flicking her wand to send her things off down the hallway to her room, grabbing his hand she spun around quickly with what Harry would have said was a giggle from the grown woman and began to pull him towards Hagrid’s hut as if he had not been there a hundred times in the past.
He should have been listening to her as she spoke, but all he could focus on was that she had not let go of his hand in her excitement as he walked quickly behind her. She was so animated with her other hand, trying to tell him about how they baby nifflers had been playing around Hagrid’s hut and how the students kept having to check their pockets for the trinkets they had been told to keep away from the babies; none had been successful. She kept glancing back at him with a look of pure joy on her face and he realized in a flash that the reason he was so awestruck by her in the moment was because he had not seen her this happy and carefree since before Voldemort’s return in their fourth year.
For just a moment in time she was unaffected by the scars of their past and it made her all the more radiant in her excitement. They were outside now and she was trying to find a way to describe them but the best she could come up with as they made their way down the small hill was a platypus with a kangaroo pouch that was more like an undetectable extension charm but with the tendencies of a bird to steal every shiny thing it could see. He was about to make some sort of joke about how the most rule abiding person he knew was about to get a pet known for its thievery when Hagrid came out of his hut holding what looked like a hand full of fur balls.
Hermione squealed just a little and dropped his hand- he felt his heart lurch into his chest in pain he disguised with a look of dumbfounded curiosity, “Can’t keep away can’ya? Cute lil’ devils, they are!” he held out his over sized palms and Harry noticed the little balls of fur were moving around in his hand with little duck like bills nosing about with their little hands similar to moles reaching. Hermione was holding out her own hands and as soon as she was close enough to them, the silver ball leapt at her and scrambled from her palms up her arm to nuzzle in around her neck and shoulder.
Harry had never realized that Hermione was ticklish until she tried to stifle giggles and shivers while lightly gripping the baby niffler to hold it against her chest. For a brief flash he saw something shiny in its tiny little hands and was gently taking it away, a small pearl earring was between his fingers and it made Hermione gasp and laugh. “You sneaky little thing! That is my earring!”
Hagrid was busy trying to keep the two remaining babies from pilfering through his many pockets while Harry fastened her earring back to her ear, making her skin flush a brilliant shade of red. “I think she chose her name.” He had only thought to put her earring back on, but before he could stop it his body had moved on it’s own to do just that so he tried to distract her, he was mentally panicking as he willed his hands to not shake as the backs of his fingers brushed over the line of her neck while straightening the dangling pearl. “There ya go, ‘Mione. Now you have both of your Pearls.”
Hagrid had managed to wrangle the misbehaving babies after a minute or two and was now focused on the pair of them again. “Seems you needed more time wi’ em didn’ ya?” He was setting the other two into what looked like an owls hole in a floating tree trunk just inside his hut as he invited the pair in for tea.
After an hour or so they made their way back up to the castle, with much persuasion from Harry and promises that Pearl would be there tomorrow. “She is just such a darling!” she had cooed as they walked away from the hut, though half way Hermione noticed her actual Pearl was missing once again. She was in such a good mood that she had forgotten she had missed dinner, until her stomach let out a rather unladylike rumble and stained her cheeks as they entered the castle.
“I had planned to take you to the kitchens before you drug me all the way to Hagrid’s,” Harry teased her playfully as they walked, “so now it’s my turn.” He took her hand, just has she had done with his earlier, and in the most Hermione like impression he could muster began to ramble on about the different kinds of food they could get in the kitchen.
By the time they were stepping into the room Hermione was laughing in protest as she defended her honor. “Now Harry! You very well know that I would never flip my hair about like you just did to the imaginary locks you were taming.” She had been trying to not focus on the warmth of his hand around her own, on the way that their hands fit together in a way that hers and Ron’s never had. She was trying to not let that one thing be burned into her memory but she failed because the moment he let her go she could feel the warmth being sucked away; she had not realized she was cold, or perhaps it was more than that- though she did not want to analyze that thought at all.
Hermione paused for a moment to think about what food to get and when she couldn’t decide she spoke two words very clearly. “Surprise me.” The kitchen came to life around them in an instant, making Harry jump as everything turned on and off, smells from every cuisine imaginable rolled into the air while steams and whistling pots sounded off from shelves and atop the stove. After about thirty seconds of this everything stopped when the oven bell dinged into the air.
“What just happened?” He asked as she cracked the oven to look inside.
“I am not exactly sure how it works, I just know that every time I ask it that I get something I have been craving even though I don’t realize it.” The smells of Italy and pasta billowed out of the oven as Hermione flicked her wand. “The kitchen has decided we are eating lasagna.” When he asked her what that was she went off into an explanation of the best Italian pasta dish, in her opinion, that she had ever had and when he took a bite he had to admit that cheese to meat and mushroom ration was perfect, but the tangy red sauce that made him brave enough to cut a second piece.
“I have something to show you tomorrow.” Harry causally said between bites of food, gaining her attention.
“What is it?” She was washing her plate off in the sink as she spoke, glancing back at him only to realize how domestic this whole scene seemed.
“A secret.” The look in his eyes was mischievous, something that belonged on a Weasley twin instead of Harry.
“And here I thought I knew all your secrets, Harry.” She teased him with a smile that he returned.
“Not quite.” The soft tone of his voice made her stop and bite her lip, something about the way he said it seemed to imply she had missed something but he didn’t linger on it. He merely washed his plate off after, and smiled at her, “I will see you in the morning.” And then he was gone.
Her walk back to the library was full of questions, but most of them had to do with what secret he could have kept from her. The painted version of herself swung open to let her walk through, though she paused to tell her that in the morning if Harry showed up to let him in, no matter the hour he chose. “Quite the scandal.” She heard herself mutter and shook her head; she did not have to explain herself to herself, especially when the other her was merely painted!
She tried to fall asleep quickly, but instead it was trial and error. First the pillow wasn’t fluffy enough, then it was too hot, then her blankets were twisted around her and the crackling of the fire was too loud, it was simply one thing after another until she finally fell into a fitful sleep full of the usual; night terrors.
But as her screams filled the dream world Hermione felt something new, something different. There was a heavy pressure on her shoulders, she was being squeezed tightly and panic set in, she wasn’t dreaming! Bellatrix was pressing her down, carving into her again, torturing her!
Harry had been let through the portrait just before dawn, he was excited to be sharing this with her- no one knew this one thing in his life and he wanted her to be the one he got to share this with. His excitement, however, stalled when he heard her scream, his blood chilled; the scream was heart-wrenching and had him nearly flying up the stairs to reach her. What if something was happening? What if someone was in there? What if- he burst through the door and froze. Hermione was crying in her sleep, whimpering and jerking in her sheets. It was a nightmare.
Her next scream made him move without thought, he rushed to her bedside and, without hesitation, grabbed her shoulders. He had to wake her up, now that he was closer he could see that she had dug her nails into her palms and was bleeding as she tried to get away from him. “Hermione!” He could feel every muscle she had going rigid beneath his hands while what seemed like a new wave of panic hit her. He called her name again and tried to shake her awake more vigorously, starting to feel the edges of panic himself. He knew she had been having nightmares, but he had not realized they were this bad.
Hermione was struggling against Bellatrix now, screaming and trying to get away. Nothing was working and this was when she usually would wake up- when pain would sear through her from a Cruciatus curse her eyes would snap open, but this time she was stuck in the pain, stuck in the hell of her own worst fears. She was being tormented all over again and the more she struggled the more she felt like she was being forced into a corner by the pressure building against her. She was buckling against the unmovable force that was keeping her pinned to the floor and in desperation she screamed the only name she could think of, Harry.
The woman in his grasp almost rolled herself out of bed and onto the floor, she would have surely hit the bedside table had he not been using all his strength to keep her from attacking him like some cornered cat. No matter what he did she was stuck in her night terror and it wasn’t until he had his own name screamed into his face in desperation that he did the one thing he did not want to. Harry let her go of her. He was afraid now, she had screamed for him… or at him in her dream but before he could focus on it she was launching herself forward from the sudden release of pressure that had been keeping her in bed.
Hermione gasped awake as the wind was knocked out of her, her eyes wide and frantic as she fought to take in full breaths. When her room came into focus and not Malfoy Mano a moment later she froze, though she had thrown herself out of bed it seemed she had also gotten tangled up with Harry. She could feel the tear trails on her cheeks, feel the sting in her palms, her throat hurt and her body ached as it always did when she was stuck in her own personal hell. “H-Harry.” Her voice was small and strained, disbelieving at first since she had been calling for him in her nightmare.
The relief on her best friends face was confirmation to her rapid deductive reasoning. The reason she had felt so trapped in her dream was because Harry had been trying to shake her awake not knowing she had been stuck in a memory where the monsters were the ones touching her. “You were screaming.” He breathed out, only then did she take in his appearance and the position they were in. She was tangled in a sheet but she was also pinned beneath him at their hips with her forearms being held with a slowly decreasing grip that let Harry lower himself slightly without hurting her once he began to relax the tension in his shoulders.
His glasses were crooked, his hair was rather messy even for him, the shirt that had been pure white was now smeared with blood, and he was breathing rather harshly though it was quiet long breaths. The look in his eyes was fleeting, the fear in them and the worry, the care. She couldn’t truly decipher it all because her vision blurred as a new wave of tears began to creep out, “I’m so sorry, Harry.” she whispered as she began to cry silently beneath him.
He didn’t understand why she was apologizing at first, not until she took a second look at his disheveled appearance and it hit him. She was under the impression she had hurt him. Had it been anyone else she might have, but Harry was fast and stronger than he looked so he refused to let her think otherwise. “It’s not my blood ‘Mione, it’s yours.” She was trying to blink away tears now so he released her arms and put his own down beside hers, watching her begin to wipe tears away and sniffle. “You didn’t hurt me.”
Through a few sniffles, “You’re on top of me.” came out as a question that would have normally made her blush ten shades of red and purple, but somehow her body was to overwhelmed to realize just what she had said yet.
Harry was suddenly reminded of Newton’s Law of Motion from his muggle school days. Now that his brain was done speeding down the worry train path it had enough time to evaluate just how this would look if someone else walked in, how it would be so very different if she was his and they were tangled up in sheets on the floor of her room for another reason. Now he was the falling apple and the whole situation was suddenly shifting. “Well,” he glanced away as she wiped a stray tear, “When I let go of you, you were fighting so hard that you slammed into me.” He looked back in time to see her face go from calming to mortified so he hurried his next words. “But Seeker reflexes and all- I spun you on the fall so I would be on top.” Then he realized how he had phrased that stopped talking before he dug himself a deeper pit to drown in.
Hermione had been about to start apologizing all over again when he spoke so quickly she almost didn’t hear him but when the words caught up she did turn a soft shade of pink. “Oh.” She heard her voice, but didn’t recognize it. For the first time in the history of her nightmares she found something that could distract her after that didn’t involve work, walking the halls, or staring into a fire with tea as it lingered till dawn. Hermione suddenly felt shy around the one person she had known the longest in the wizarding world, she felt like a girl and sounded like one!
“You didn’t tell me they were this bad, ‘Mione.” His voice was gentle, but still tinged with worry.
Hermione didn’t want to focus on her nightmares now, so she tried for a bit of light humor. “Guess I have a few secrets of my own then.” She said softly with a hint of a smile. Something in Harry changed in a blink above her, she felt his muscles twitch and his eyes seemed to darken in the briefest of flashes before he closed them tightly, took a breath, and then slowly began to pick himself up off the floor and offered her a hand.
“Speaking of secrets.” He smiled, knowing that if he did not distract his train of thought that he would risk ruining his friendship. The way she looked beneath him was a view he thought he would only ever imagine, but seeing her with that soft smile on her lips as she spoke just then was a moment that a braver man would have used to kiss her, was a moment he wanted to use to kiss her but feared so much. She had been beautiful beneath him, to the point where he had to move off of her or else she would feel the beginning of what she could do to his body without his permission, before he risked losing the one person he needed in his life. “It is time to get ready to go see mine.”
When she winced from the pressure on her palms Harry’s smile vanished, he went from helping her to stand to guiding her to sit back on her bed. His eyes had instantly gone to her palms, his brow furrowed just slightly before he pulled his wand out and glided it over her palms so the small bleeding cuts healed themselves. He smiled once more, watching her rub her palms gently to inspect them, her eyes lifted to his and she smiled at him as she spoke “Thank you.”
Harry couldn’t stay this close to her anymore, not then. He had to walk away from her or he would steal a moment and ruin everything. “Of course. I will be downstairs, so you can get dressed.” He looked away as he mentioned her changing and made his way to the door with a quick glance and smile. “Dress warmly.”
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Returning to Hogwarts