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Chapter Text

Eleven year old Harry Potter looked at his mother questioningly as she slapped a cell phone into his hand the day before he was set to go to Hogwarts. 

“Owls and magic mirrors are fine dear but we are not in the dark ages, and muggles do occasionally have good inventions.”

“Honey, I hardly think there are cell phone towers close to Hogwarts.” His father, James Potter, interjected. 

His mother threw a superior look over her shoulder to his father. “I already charmed it to work regardless of signal, and the battery will absorb power from the sun automatically.” 

“Then it’s not really a muggle invention anymore is it then?” 

His mother ignored that and turned back to him to continue. “And look! I added Dudley’s number in there so you can talk to him and I added Draco’s number and I added-”

His father rolled his eyes making disgusted face his mother mentioned his cousins.  Well Dudley was his actual cousin, Draco was … somehow related, even though his mother had explained how before he had quite forgotten. His mother was quite focused on him having relationships with all of his family even though his father was of the opinion some family was better off forgotten. 

“Why would he want to text either of them? One is an imbecile and the other is a blonde imbecile.” 

His father let out a short grunt as his mother elbowed him sharply. “Draco is actually quite smart! Narcissa said that he has done quite well with the tutors they hired for him.” 

“I noticed you didn’t mention Dudley.” His father said in a sotto voice. 

The phone buzzed and Harry looked down as the screen flashed. 

“James! Did you change the contact names in there!” His mother tried to snatch it back out of his hand but Harry moved it too quickly away from his mother's hand. 

“It’s okay mum I got it.”  The idea of his cousins sending messages with these names suddenly struck him as funny, almost as if he was getting owls from them like that.  

His father met his eyes and grinned in shared amusement. “Now remember what I told you about witches, Harry.” 

“Don’t pull their hair.” 

“No the other thing.” His father gave a sidelong glance at his mother. 

“You are not part Veela, James Potter, stop filling your son’s head with nonsense. Males cannot be Veelas.” 

“Evans— how else do you explain those luscious pale locks of the Malfoys. They’re male veelas! Luckily we don’t have it as strong though, we just know. You know?” 

“I’m telling Sirius you said Lucius had luscious pale locks.” 

“Sirius would agree with me! He knows hair maintenance, he spends hours on his stupid hair every morning.” 

Lily smacked her hand to her face. “Okay I give up.”

Chapter Text

Harry turned to his new friend Ronald Weasley he met on the train. “So I’m pretty sure we don’t fight a troll, my mums usually right.” 

He didn’t miss the subtle relaxation of his cousin Draco who was trying to act like he wasn’t paying attention and grinned. “She did say though the sorting hat likes to eat blonde hair.”

Ron’s eyes widened. “Blimey! I never thought I’d be grateful to have red hair.” 

Harry nodded solemnly at him, better to be a ginger than a blonde imbecile any day. 

Chapter Text

“I still don’t understand the point of those things.” Ron said, looking over at the phone Harry was holding. “You can always owl them. Isn’t it annoying to have them always on you? My mum would drive me batty if I had one of those.” 

Harry refrained from saying anything about Mrs. Weasley. She was very nice, but even he admitted she was a bit much sometimes. When had visited over the summer, she had acted each time like his mother starved him and continually gave him sweets, which annoyed his mum. 

He glanced across the carriage and saw his cousin Draco texting as fast as his fingers could move across the keyboard. Slytherins were always a drama level ten no matter what, even on the first day of school. 

“My father’s buying the entire Slytherin Quidditch team new brooms to make sure I get seeker this year.” Draco announced to them without looking up. 

Theodore Nott who was sitting next to Draco started laughing hysterically while Harry and Ron’s mouths dropped open. 

“You damn rich git! That’s hardly fair!” Ron said angrily.

Draco looked up, his eyes a little glazed from the little phone screen. “My father says fair is a place where flobberworms win prizes.” 

The sorting ceremony went about the same as last year, except when Draco managed to fall out of his seat when a witch named Luna Lovegood was sorted into Ravenclaw. After he got up, he resembled one of those crazy muggle serial killers from the shows his dad let him watch when his mother wouldn’t find out (she always found out). Harry edited Draco’s contact name before texting him under the table.

Draco never even blinked his serial killer gaze even though Harry was sure his thigh was probably numb from all the phone buzzing. Prat. 

After the sorting ceremony as they all sat at their tables, Headmaster Dumbledore stood up for a few words. 

“First, I want to start by thanking the Malfoy family, who have generously agreed to buy new brooms for all four house quidditch teams.”

After the ritual of searching for Trevor, Neville Longbottom’s perpetually lost toad, Harry finally settled into bed in the Gryffindor dorms and was about to fall asleep when his phone pinged again.

Chapter Text

“But you said you were sending her to Beauxbatons!” Harry said desperately as he watched his younger sister Zinnia Dorea Potter hum as she packed her up her clothes. “She’s a monster and will make my life miserable!” 

“Harry! That’s no way to talk about your sister! Apologize right now!” Lily admonished. 

Zinnia turned around with her lips the tiniest bit quivering as if she felt the human emotion of hurt, while evil lurked in her green little marble eyes. His mother was blind! Something had obviously switched Zinnia at birth, and she was actually some type of pod person. 

With a put-upon sigh, Harry muttered sorry. 

Zinnia immediately brightened. “Don’t worry Harry, I won’t tell anyone you slept with a stuffed stag until Dad bribed you to leave it behind and not take it to Hogwarts!” 

Harry pointed at Zinnia and looked at his mother. “You see!” 

“Harry honey, she’s just letting you know she won’t talk about you. Now be good and pack up. I expect you to look out for your sister.” 

Zinnia gave him a beatific smile, her wavy black hair sticking out at random directions. His godfather Sirius had told him a lot about his crazy and sometimes evil family the Blacks. Before Harry had been born, Sirius’ cousin Bellatrix Lestrange and her husband had joined a cult and then murdered several muggles until they were caught.  

Harry was sure that Zinnia had inherited the crazy black gene. Although he didn’t think she would join a cult, more than likely she would be the cult leader. And she probably wouldn’t murder anyone. They would just conveniently disappear under strange circumstances. 

Harry turned and walked out to look for his Dad who he found in his study. “Dad-”

“Your sister is not a pod person.” James Potter answered without looking up from his paperwork. 

Harry scowled at him for a minute. “Okay, but she’s supposed to go to France. It’s where she really belongs.”  

His father finally pushed away from his paperwork, pushing up his own glasses before he gestured Harry to come closer. “Harry James, I grew up as an only child, and the first opportunity I had to experience what siblings could be like was when I went to Hogwarts, but you have Zinny. You’re very lucky to have her. We all are.” 

James pulled his son into his embrace, hugging him tight. “I know it’s hard sometimes, but remember, she’s the baby Harry.” 

“Fine.” 

“That’s my boy. I love you Harry.” 

“Love you, Dad.” 

For once Draco wasn’t channeling his inner serial killer and staring without blinking at Luna Lovegood. Both Harry and Draco watched tensely from their respective house tables as Professor McGonagall called out names and one by one and first years went to sit on the stool and placed the sorting hat on their heads. 

“Zinnia Dorea Potter!” McGonagall called out from a long parchment. His sister skipped up to the stool and sat down and placed the sorting hat on her head. 

There was a long pause before the hat yelled out. “Slytherin!” 

His eyes met his cousin’s gray panicked gaze, and Harry laughed. Well, the Slytherins were assured to have a level ten drama for at least the next seven years then. 

Two red heads leaned down on either side of Harry at the Gryffindor table. 

“So.” Said the redhead on the left. 

“Why didn’t you mention you had a sister?” Asked the redhead on the right. 

Harry looked between the two twins, not sure at the moment which one was Fred and which one was George. Harry shrugged. Why would he have brought up his sister to his best mate’s brothers? That’s weird. 

All three looked across to where his sister had squeezed herself between Draco and Theodore Nott.  Theo looked a little dazzled by his sister while Draco was pale and leaning away as she clutched his arm trying to look non threatening. 

“You should tell her Malfoy is bad news.” George(maybe) said.

Fred(maybe) patted his shoulder. “We know how to watch out for younger sisters Harry. We will teach you the ropes.” 

Harry opened his mouth to warn them against trying to watch out for Zinny but they had already moved off. He looked at Ron. “I don’t know if your brothers will survive trying to take care of Zinny.” 

Ron shrugged philosophically. “I have other brothers.” 

Two weeks later…

Chapter Text

“Your sister is amazing.” Cho said a little starry-eyed as she glanced over her shoulder again at where his sister was dancing with both Weasley twins. 

Harry had been absolutely thrilled when Cho had accepted when he asked her out to the Yule ball. He knew that Cedric Diggory—who was the Hogwarts Triwizard Champion— had also asked her out, so he had been feeling pretty good about himself winning out over the Hufflepuff.

Cho was everything he liked in a girl, pretty, athletic, outgoing… and he was absolutely bored with her. He forced a smile. “Yeah, Zinnia is something, that’s for sure.” 

He looked around the ballroom, not paying attention to anything really as he swirled Cho around with practiced ease. His godfather Sirius had stepped in to teach him dancing, because he told Harry his dad was a bollocks dancer. After his dad smacked Sirius in the back of the head in retaliation, he agreed with the assessment and went to sit sheepishly next to Remus, who had been reading in the corner. 

A little alarm went off in his head as they twirled around the dance floor again. Several people were missing from the ballroom, Draco, Luna, Anthony Goldstein, Michael Corner and most concerning Morag MacDougal. 

Morag had slapped Draco last year when he lost his shit over Morag bullying Luna and hiding her shoes. All of them suddenly disappearing from the ballroom could not be a good sign. 

Harry weaved them closer to the edge of the dance floor before breaking free of Cho with a murmured apology, advising he had to find the loo and left her without a backwards glance. If he hadn’t been so focused on finding out what was going on, he might have noticed the observant eyes of his sister following him as he exited the ballroom.

Harry looked down at his phone, waiting, but no reply came. Fuck. Draco would never ignore that message and risk his mother finding out he let Luna spray him with her Narglecide. A bad feeling made his stomach twist as he ran a little faster down the corridor. He should have brought the damn map with him tonight. 

A crash that seemed to come from the abandoned girl's bathroom on the first floor made him change direction and he barreled in to see a disaster of a scene. Four bodies lay on the ground of the bathroom. Draco was passed out in Luna’s lap while across from them lay Morag, Anthony and Michael.  

Luna looked a little dazed as she petted Draco, who must have been hit with a curse because his fingers resembled claws and there was a line of feathers that led down his throat to under his formal robes. She looked up as Harry entered and quietly stated. “He’s a veela.”

Harry froze stunned as he realized the changes in Draco weren't the result of a curse, but veela inheritance.  Someone shoved him from behind and he looked over to see Zinnia, and stepped aside to let her enter. She stepped next to him and put her hands on her hips surveying the same scene before taking out her wand and stunning Moaning Myrtle, who had been flying around cackling with glee.  

For once Zinny didn’t look like she was plotting his downfall or taking over the world. She shot Harry a slightly stunned look. “Mum was wrong.” 

Their dad had given her the veela conspiracy talk too, and she had written it off just as Harry had.  Their father was just crazily in love with their mother and thus believed himself to be a veela. In the scheme of things, it was a harmless crackpot theory… except looking at this… their dad was definitely right about the Malfoys - at least about Draco Malfoy–being a male veela. 

Harry thought of all the discrimination anyone with creature inheritance or instinct faced in wizarding society. If Draco wanted it known that he had veela heritage, it should be up to him to reveal it, not have it forced on him when he was passed out. Harry and Zinnia would have to act fast if they wanted to cover it up what had happened.  

“You get Draco back to the dungeons, and I’ll hit these ones with a confundus and confess to errr…”  Harry looked at them again and blinked. “Burning all their hair off.” 

Luna spoke up distractedly from where she still sat focused on petting a passed out Draco. “They cornered me when I was on my way to the second-floor bathroom and dragged me in here to um, cut off my hair. Draco was quite upset when he found us.” 

“Arseholes.” Zinnia muttered as she levitated Draco’s body and walked out with Luna following. 

Harry cast confundus charms on the three passed out bullies before blasting a row of stalls down to draw a teacher. Then waited braced to take the fall. 

Harry looked at his phone and edited the contact, deleting Blonde Psycho and putting Draco. As he saved the contact update, his phone buzzed and he looked down to see a message from his sister.

Chapter Text

The Hogwarts Express chugged along quickly, taking them back towards King’s Cross and marking the end of Harry’s fifth year. He sat alone—well, not alone exactly; couples surrounded him—but he felt very alone. 

Everyone seemed obsessed with someone else and honestly, he didn’t get what the big deal about it was. He had gone out with Ron’s sister this year (no details; it had been a disaster) and while the snogging had been pleasant; he had let the relationship die after a few dates. 

Ron had told him she then turned to dating Dean Thomas to try to make him jealous, which was a nice ego boost for him, but Harry really didn’t care. Ron was still dating Lavender Brown who although Harry wouldn’t say it out loud, vaguely reminded Harry of Ron’s mother - not in looks or anything (let’s not be creepy) but just the way she was vaguely old-fashioned about some things. Lavender was pretty open about the fact that she wanted to grow up and be a housewife. 

Then there was Draco. It was no surprise he was still with Luna after what Harry and Zinnia had walked into in fourth year. Luna’s calm, airy acceptance of everything took the edge off of Draco’s more annoying personality. 

Lastly, his sister and her strange relationship with the Weasley twins, or as Harry liked to call them, her first cult worshippers. Zinny, along with the twins, had been placing bets and gambling in order to raise funds for a business endeavor the twins would start this year as they had graduated. There was something about the way those three interacted that, when it didn’t annoy Harry, made him the tiniest bit envious. They were a strange unit, but it worked for them. 

He sighed and leaned his head against the window, watching the scenery speed past. He just had this feeling, like he was searching for something that was missing from his life. Something incredibly important.

Zinnia looked at where her brother sat, managing to isolate himself in their crowded carriage, as he leaned against the glass. Harry ignored them all, looking all sad and pathetic as he sighed loudly, leaning against the glass. 

George leaned forward to whisper in her ear. “Want us to do something about that?” 

“It would be hard to mope with pink hair.” Fred followed up whispering in her other ear. 

Zinny gave a tiny smile as she pictured her brother with pink hair, but shook her head firmly at the twins.

Sirius whooped loudly and fell off the couch where he had been leaning back onto Remus’ lap. “Prong's little hellfire spawn has done it!” 

“Zinny did what?” Remus eyed him curiously as Sirius jumped up from the floor and started dashing around, grabbing clothes he had discarded. 

Sirius gave a loud barking laugh as he threw his clothes that he had just gathered back into the air like they were confetti. “She drove Snivellus to quit! James is going to throw a pensieve party.” 

Remus looked contemplatively at his book he had been reading. “I’m actually surprised he managed to last two years with Zinny. Who do you think they will get to replace him?” 

“Oh god you’re going to love it–remember Slughorn?”

Remus didn’t bother to look up. “I was never invited to the little soirees like you guys.” 

Sirius went to him and knelt down before Remus, putting his hands on his knees. “Aww Moony, you know I never went to those either. That was Reggie, Lily and James’ thing.” 

“Yes, I know.” Remus snapped his book closed, brushing off Sirius and stepped over his discarded clothes before walking out of the room. 

Sirius stared after him contemplatively. He was happy with his life with Remus, his best friend and lover. He thought they had the very best life. They borrowed James and Lily's kids and got to indulge them as crazy uncles, then dropped them off as spoiled and high on sugar maniacs to their unsuspecting parents. It scared him that Remus seemed to be growing more and more dissatisfied with their life as the years passed. 

It had gotten particularly noticeable since Zinny had gone off to school two years ago. He needed to figure out how to make Remus happy again. Maybe he would talk to Lily and see what she thought. 

Chapter Text

In the girls' bathroom at Hogwarts, Hermione put her phone in her robe pocket with a sigh, leaning against the sink and staring into her reflection. She had traveled to the school this Saturday the week before starting Hogwarts to get a tour of her new campus. Her parents had decided to open a dental practice and wanted it back in Britain rather than France, where they had been living for the past seven years. 

Hermione flipped her hair back behind her shoulder and checked on her anti frizzing charms. Really, without magic, her hair would probably be an absolute bushy mess. With the aid of magic, it fell in tight dark brown ringlets all the way to the middle of her back. 

The door opened and Hermione glanced over to see a younger witch step into the bathroom; she was wearing a green jumper with the emblem of a snake on the upper right-hand corner and her hair fell in wavy black locks, but what caught Hermione was her bright green eyes. 

“Hullo there.” The younger witch said, giving Hermione a friendly smile. 

“Hi.” 

“So you’re transferring in?” 

Hermione nodded, wondering how the girl knew. “I'll probably start classes next week, just have to finish registration and… pick a house?” She finished tentatively. Her other school had not had some strange sorting system like Hogwarts for its students. 

“Do you know what house you’ll be in?” 

“Professor McGonagall advised me that she would allow me to choose, but I’m really not sure what to pick.” 

The girl cocked her head, looking Hermione up and down. “I think you’re a lion.” 

Hermione remembered the briefing she’d gotten in each school house. “A Gryffindor then? I was thinking Ravenclaw…”  

“Hmm maybe.” The girl said with a smile before walking out. 

When she was alone, Hermione gave a soft laugh at the strangeness of the interaction with the younger witch, shaking her head. A lioness was she? Maybe. 

Straightening her shoulders, she exited the bathroom, going to find Professor McGonagall to make her apologies for the delay. 

Within a few minutes, they were continuing their tour by continuing down a path towards the schools' quidditch stadium where Professor McGonagall advised practice was going on for the Gryffindor quidditch team. 

"So, as you can see, we have excellent facilities. In fact, several of our quidditch players have already been looked at by scouts-" 

Hermione tried to look interested as the professor continued at length about the quidditch prospects of their students, but really it was a game where people chased balls. Her dad's dog did that without a broom. 

As they walked closer, a tall redhead started screaming, and they both looked up to see a bludger collide with a flying black-haired wizard wearing glasses. He tumbled dramatically through the air before landing face down with a loud thump. 

"Potter!" McGonagall yelled and rushed over to the fallen boy while Hermione followed more cautiously, wondering if she should run to get the nurse instead. 

But the dark-haired wizard rolled over on the ground with a laugh, swiping his mouth where a bit of blood had trickled down his chin. "I'm fine!" 

His glasses hung crookedly in two pieces, and Hermione pointed at them with her wand. "Oculus reparo." 

With a small snap, his glasses moved back into position and he blinked familiar bright green eyes at her. "Oh, hullo." 

Hermione gave the boy a small smile. He looked a bit savage with the smeared blood on his chin and pieces of grass in his wild hair, but it seemed not to bother him. The red and gold of his quidditch uniform caught her eye, the flash of the Gryffindor patch on the side of his chest, a lion. 

"Hermione Granger, let me introduce you to our star seeker Harry Potter." McGonagall said, her eyes moving interestedly between the two of them, but neither noticed as they both focused on each other. 

"Harry!" Several of his teammates started yelling, trying to get him to come back to resume the practice. 

Harry turned briefly and roared behind him. "Give me a bloody minute! I'm busy!" Then he turned back to her with a charming smile. "So. You're new? I can show you around anytime." 

Hermione's eyebrows climbed at the confidence of this strange boy. "No, thank you." 

He grinned at her and winked. "Let me know when you change your mind." Then he got up, responding to the yells of his teammates who had started up again. "I was talking to my future wife, you sods! Show some respect!" 

Hermione's wide eyes met McGonagall's amused gaze. "You think that's something? I taught his father too. That apple did not fall far from the tree. But let's move on." 

Hermione followed the professor along the path but couldn't resist glancing back one more time, and found him watching her intently. It took almost falling over an exposed root before she turned around to follow the professor. 

Harry Potter. 

Maybe the younger witch from the bathroom had been right. She was a lion, too. 

Chapter Text

Harry frowned at his phone as he repeatedly hit the refresh button on Instagram when a sinister voice whispered right near his ear. 

“What are you doing…” 

He startled, smacking his sister's head with his own. 

“OW!” They both yelled in unison while the rest of the occupants of the Gryffindor common room broke out in scattered laughs. 

“How did you get in here again, Zinny? We just changed the password.” As Harry spoke, he glanced around until he spotted Neville so he could glare at him. Neville hunched his shoulders sheepishly and looked away.  

“Don’t be mean to my bestie, Nev.” 

“Neville is not friends with you.” 

“He’s better friends with me than you.” 

They both turned towards Neville and Harry demanded. “Neville, who are you better friends with? Me or the slightly evil female version of me?” 

“I am NOT the female version of you! I’m the better and improved version of YOU!” 

Neville gaped at both of them, unable to think of a reply when Theodore Nott strolled into the Gryffindor Common room interjecting unasked. “I prefer the female potter. Sorry Harry.” 

“Merlin’s pants! What is every Slytherin just going to stroll into our common room? We should just go to the dungeon because it should be empty!” Ron said, glaring at Theo. 

As Ron started arguing with Theo, Zinnia sat next to Harry with a satisfied sigh, leaning her head on his shoulder.  

“You’re so bad Zinny.” 

She gave him a small smile. “I know. So what were you doing before you smacked me with your big forehead?” 

“Looking at the new girl's Instagram, I just followed her, but now it looks like her account disappeared.” He glanced over to see his sister looking wide eyed at him. 

“Harry, you met her for five seconds and you’re stalking her socials?” 

“I’m not stalking her socials! I just looked her up and liked her pictures.” 

Harry had rarely managed to completely fluster Zinnia, not surprising, as she was a pod person. So he decided to save this moment and picked up his phone, taking a quick picture of her before she smacked his hand then settled in to wait for her to regain the power of speech. 

“Harry. DON’T TELL ME YOU WENT THROUGH AND LIKED ALL HER PICTURES LIKE A PSYCHO!” She screeched at him finally, making his ears ring. 

“Well yes. But now it looks like her Instagram disappeared.”

“Remember when you were calling Draco a serial killer?” 

“I am not acting like Draco! When I met her, I was very polite. I did fall down, but it was a bludger that hit me, and I didn’t stare at her with a Ted Bundy face!” 

Zinnia picked up a pillow and smashed it over her face muttering something that sounded a lot like “why do you do this to me?” 

Chapter Text

Hermione marked the page on her book on magical theory with her thumb as her phone started to vibrate like crazy, reaching over and pressing her thumb to unlock the screen. The first notice was like a jolt, ‘HJ Potter liked your post.’ 

She barely posted on Instagram, using it mainly to follow some artists she liked, and she had maybe ten followers who were all people she knew in real life. Then her notices updated, and she had dozens of accounts following her and her liking the ten total posts on her profile! Then the DM requests started rolling in and Hermione made the executive decision to delete her Instagram.

Hermione immediately made a dummy account and went back to look at HJ Potter’s profile and there he was, with his family smiling into the camera. Fucking hell, he had over forty thousand followers. 

Harry Potter.

Hermione approached the double doors of Hogwarts on a Sunday afternoon to settle in before her first day, her trunks floating along behind her when two witches about her own age stepped out of the double doors onto the steps blocking her entrance. 

They both looked a little bit unpleasant for a welcoming committee, but Hermione gave them a smile, anyway. “Hello. Are you here to help me settle in, then?” 

“Hardly.” Scoffed the redheaded witch. “We just wanted to see who he picked out for his sixth year.” 

The Asian witch with straight black hair gave a nervous giggle, her eyes going from Hermione to the redhead. 

“Excuse me?” 

The redhead gestured next to her. “This is Cho Chang. Harry dated her in fourth year. I’m Ginny Weasley and Harry dated me last year, and well… I guess from what we’ve heard, he’s picked you for his sixth year.” 

Right . 

Harry Potter. Again. 

Hermione shook her head and ignored them before continuing up the steps until it was obvious they weren’t going to move. She would have to shove past them to get into the school, and she wasn’t quite ready for any type of escalation, especially before she even officially started. 

“Pardon me, but you’re in the way.” 

Completely ignoring her request, Ginny looked her up and down. “You don’t look like a quidditch player…” 

At that moment the doors flew open abruptly with a bang causing all three girls on the steps to jump, Hermione let her spell go and her trunks hit the steps with a clatter, one of them overturning and bursting open causing her clothes to spread on the ground. 

“Oh, no!” Hermione cast a retrieval spell immediately to get her items back into her trunk, but the other two witches started giggling. 

“What the bloody hell is going on here?” A low angry voice cut off the giggles, and they all turned to see Harry Potter standing framed by the doorway. 

Harry looked messy in an intentionally unintentional way, as if he rolled out of bed and smiled and looked perfect already Hermione thought resentfully, just like his Instagram account. He was the reason she no longer had an Instagram account - him and his little groupies. And apparently he was the reason she was now being greeted by the girlfriend squad. 

So while his little girlfriends looked shocked and unable to think of a reply, she gritted out between clenched teeth. “I would like to get to my dorms, please.” 

“I’ll help you.” Harry reached for elbow and Hermione jerked away. 

“You’ve helped enough—your girlfriends—thing one and thing two—seem to think I’m number three—and let me tell you that I AM NOT!” 

“Of course you’re not number three, you’re number one.” Harry assured her, staring earnestly into her eyes and ignoring the gasps of outrage from his little goon squad. 

Hermione paused, waiting to see if her head would explode. She was so annoyed with him and his perfectly messy hair and bright green eyes. “Look, this is my first day here, and someone was supposed to meet me here to help me, the prefect of my house.” 

“Yes, the Gryffindor prefect- that’s me.” 

And right there on his shirt was a shiny gold badge that she had somehow missed before. No. Just no way. 

Hermione pointed right at his handsome face. “I refuse!” And shoved her way through the little crowd to angrily march her way to where she remembered Gryffindor Tower to be from her tour. She would wait there until someone let her in with the password rather than accept his help! 

“What? You can’t refuse! I am helping you!” Harry tried to grab a trunk as it zoomed past him. 

Hermione elevated her trunks even higher and she practically raced down the hallway away from him. "I don't need any help from some wannabe Casanova wizard!" 

"What!" Harry took off after her, ignoring the voices of Ginny and Cho.

With a giggle at her brother being called any type of Casanova Zinnia stepped out of an alcove where she had been listening to block the two witches from following her brother as he chased Hermione down the corridor towards the Gryffindor common room.

Zinnia tapped her wand on her chin as she regarded the two saboteurs of her brothers' happiness. While she enjoyed occasionally (maybe frequently) tormenting her brother, no one else was allowed to do so. 

“What the bloody hell were you two batty bints thinking?” 

Ginny drew herself up to look down her nose at her. “Get out of my way Zinny, you’re too young to understand.” 

Zinnia’s jaw tightened as she stared down the witch with cold eyes. “We’re going to be family one day, Ginevra Molly Weasley, so I’m going to be nice. This once . I understand far more than you, especially when it comes to my brother. You will leave my brother and Hermione alone or the entire school will find out that your eye color isn’t the only thing brown about you but that the carpet doesn’t match the drapes. You get me?” 

While Ginny had turned white and was sputtering, Zinnia turned her attention to Cho in a pitying glance. “Cho, I don’t even know why you’re here. Everyone knows you only went out with my brother to make Cedric jealous. But he wasn’t jealous because you were going with Harry. He was jealous because Harry was going with you. He’s playing for the other team and you got to stop sticking your head in the sand and hanging out with jealous hags.” 

Both girls burst into tears at that and ran away in the other direction, ducking past Draco and Theo. 

“Do I even want to know what you did Zinnia?” Draco shook his head, slightly amused. 

Theo raised his hand, waving it in the air like they were in class. “I want to know!”

Zinnia gave him a sunny smile. “I’ll tell you if you manage to get Draco to unblock my number.” 

“You blocked your cousin's number? How rude, Draco.” Theo turned wide eyes on him. 

“Shut up, Zinnia. I’m not unblocking you.” 

“But why did you block her?” Theo asked. 

“Because he said,” Zinnia cleared her throat dramatically and lowered her voice to impersonate Draco,” Stop sending me that image, Zinnia, Stop! Stop for my sanity! I can’t handle it! I’m blocking you no matter what my mother says!” 

Then she put her hand up to her forehead with a sad sigh. “Poor Cousin Draco just can’t handle the image .” 

Theo’s eyes, at this point, were so wide and shiny he looked like a cartoon character. “What image were you sending him?” 

“Zinnia, don’t you dare.” Draco threatened. 

“Are you going to unblock me?” 

“Fine!” 

“Fine.” 

Then they both stomped off in opposite directions, Zinnia heading up towards the Gryffindor common rooms and Draco towards the dungeons. 

“What no one is going to tell me anything then?” Theo wailed, not sure which one to follow. 

“No!” They both shouted from opposite ends of the corridor.

“Really guys? C’mon.” Theo whined, looking back and forth. 

“Siriusly.” Zinnia called back with a laugh.

“ZINNIA SHUT UP!” Draco yelled as he stomped away. 

Chapter Text

A loud bang echoed through the dungeon common room, and faint sprinkles of dust fell from the ceiling. The Slytherins looked around a bit panicked, but Zinnia kept her attention on her phone as she continued texting as another bang echoed and it seemed as if the very walls shook. 

“Is that an earthquake?” Someone whispered. 

“I thought we had protection charms against that!” 

Finally, with an annoyed headshake, Zinnia stood up, muttering about how dramatic people could be to let her brother in. Without even acknowledging her, Harry stormed in, his robes flaring out behind him with how swiftly he moved. 

Zinnia had only attended Hogwarts the last four years alongside her brother and although she’d obviously seen him angry during that time, she’d never actually seen him lose his temper while at school. Judging from the wide eyes of the Slytherins around them, this was probably the first time that Harry lost his temper at school.

She followed her brother as he went before the fireplace to pace back and forth, his hands running repeatedly through his messy black hair, and plopped down on the couch, going back to texting to wait for the explosion. 

After a few tense moments, everyone had finally gone back to homework when Harry finally exploded almost ten minutes later. “I BLOODY WELL DO NOT HAVE A BLOODY DAMN HAREM FOR BLOODY FUCKIN SAKE!” 

As Harry roared, the Slytherins all ducked as magic rolled in a wave through the room, causing the cracking sounds from the furniture. Even Draco, who was more familiar with Harry’s temper, looked concerned as he ducked slightly when a piece of ceiling hit the floor. Zinnia jumped up on the couch so she could be taller than Harry and shook her finger in his face. “You control your temper or I’m telling Daddy! You're scaring my housemates!” 

“Argh!” Harry sat on the couch, leaning back and covering his face with his forearm. 

Zinnia bit her tongue to keep her face sympathetic just in case Harry looked at her. Had Hermione accused him of having a harem? That was hilarious. Her brother was a romantic, even though he had tried not to believe their father. Zinnia knew Harry had looked for the ‘one’ and had been keen on the idea of having someone you were meant to be with. 

Circumstances had managed to give Hermione a very different idea of who her brother was. First his dumb impulse to immediately announce to his teammates Hermoine was his future wife minutes after meeting her and within her hearing (Ron had given Zinnia all the details). 

Then her brother’s Instagram made him look flashy. He liked taking pictures while riding his broom (which muggles thought were drone images) and had amassed quite a bit of muggles and wizard kind followers. Harry only followed fourteen other people who were real life friends or family. Of course, his followers were going to be interested when he suddenly liked all the pictures of some strange girl and followed her! He unintentionally set his groupies on her. 

Last and most damning—and not at all her brother's fault—the actions of one Ginny Weasley, Cho had just been a prop, so Zinnia didn’t even count her. Zinnia had warned Harry against asking Ginny out—even as a first year, the intensity of the crush Ginny had on Harry had been blatantly obvious to Zinnia.

Her brother was smart, kind, had an absolutely enormous white knight syndrome, and was just really awesome overall (not that Zinnia would admit that out loud to him) but—BUT—he was so absolutely horrid at feelings. 

Draco came and shoved himself onto the couch on the side of Harry. “Your robes make you look fat.” 

Harry moved his arm off his face and came very close to Draco as if inspecting him like a bug. “You still have split ends from the Narglecide.” 

Draco gasped, his hand flying to his hair. “Git!” 

“Prat!” Then both boys settled back on the couch their greeting ritual complete while Zinnia rolled her eyes, this why people thought Draco and Harry hated each other. Having watched her daddy with her uncles, Zinnia understood clearly it was some strange wizarding bonding ritual. 

“So what’s this about you having a harem?” Draco asked. 

“Luna came to talk to me after potions let out to invite me to a Winter Solstice celebration her and her father are going to have next month during break…” 

“Oh, shit.” Draco started laughing.

“What?” Zinnia asked, annoyed that Draco obviously knew something she didn’t. 

 Harry looked at her and rolled his eyes. “Luna was telling me how they were going to hold to the old ways and do the celebration nude, and that I could go nude and it would be perfectly fine because we’re such close friends… and Hermione overheard.” 

Zinnia clapped her hand over her face, falling backward dramatically, muttering to herself. “We’re definitely going to need the contingency plan at this rate.” 

Harry ignored her and continued. “So I tried to catch her and explain that Luna always does nudity at solstice and equinox celebrations–”

“Merlin’s hairy ball-”

“Zinnia!” Draco cut her off. 

She flipped over and grabbed her brother's robes. “Did you have to say it like that?!?!” 

Harry pulled her hands off his robes. “What? She does! Even her first year, she went around inviting people, which is why Draco went into his serial killer era.” 

Draco shrugged, not arguing. It had been difficult even coming from a more traditional family handling Luna inviting everyone to potentially see her naked. However, by now, the entire school was aware of his standing threats should anyone accept. 

“So then after chasing her—I’m always chasing that witch now—she tells me that she refuses to become part of my bloody harem! I haven’t even had girlfriends! Ginny and Cho weren’t my girlfriends! We just went out a couple of times! How does that make them my girlfriends?” 

“Nooooooo!” Zinnia flopped over, letting her body roll off the couch to land at their feet. “You sound like a conceited prick!” 

“Zinnia!” Draco admonished like she was some seventeenth-century witch. “But—uuuh. Yeah, sorry Harry, she’s kind of right.” 

“I’m always right.” Zinnia muttered, still flopped over on the floor. 

Zinnia looked at her phone, thinking about her mothers’ words. 

A hero. 

She would be the first to admit she had more flexible morality than the rest of her family, her mum always joked that she hadn’t intended to give her Dorea as a middle name but that when she opened her mouth to say her name, it had just come out— like magic had willed it. But where she differed from her parents, Harry was eerily similar to their father, like a little replica.

She would just have to show Hermione that her brother was a hero. 

Chapter Text

Hermione had chosen to study in the library after classes to avoid running into Harry in the common room but that plan failed when Mr. Perfect strolled into the library and sat a table away facing her. 

It was like there was some hex on her that made her excruciatingly sensitive to everything he did, every breath he took. The way his glasses slid just a bit down his nose as he read his ancient runes textbook and a lock of his black hair fell forward on his face. 

He was absolutely unbearable. Hermione scoffed to herself and tried to block him out when a low shh came to her from his direction. 

She looked up, and Harry was staring at her with a serious expression and raised his finger to his lips as if emphasizing it. 

“Shhh.” 

Bastard!

Harry bit the side of his cheek to keep from laughing as Hermione turned fantastically red and picked up her book to prop it up like a divider to avoid looking at him. She was so cute. 

Now that she wasn’t pretending not to look at him and actually not looking at him, he stopped pretending to study and stared at her instead. Even in the short week Hermione had been at Hogwarts, it was obvious she was a top student, if not the top. Harry wondered if Theo would whine about losing his spot. 

So far she had declined an imaginary invitation to his imaginary harem, declined an imaginary offer of being his third girlfriend (he still maintained he hadn’t had girlfriends) but interestingly enough she had not brought up that first day when he had loudly told everyone she was his future wife. That was encouraging, he thought. 

He still had three days before he could ask her to marry him, according to his dad, though he was thinking he should wait maybe a month. He understood better why his father couldn’t explain—this feeling was beyond words. Like an instinct had suddenly flared to life in her presence, here it screamed. She’s here! 

It was a greater rush of exhilaration than even going into a deadfall on his broom. Everything was so acute, every emotion magnified, happiness, anger… desire. Her curls were fucking killing him, she tried so hard to keep them tame and they just jumped out at the first opportunity, little curly escape artists that framed her face so beautifully. 

His hand clenched as he pictured pushing her against the stacks and pinning her in place with a handful of curls. Sliding his tongue between those pouty lips.. 

Suddenly Ron’s big freckly face was suddenly a millimeter away from his and Harry startled with a shouted ,”Fuck!” 

He shoved back from the table, lost his balance and fell over backward with a loud thud. Although Harry knew apparation was impossible within Hogwarts, Madam Pince materialized next to him and Ron like a demon avenging her broken silence and pointed wordlessly at the library exit. Shit. 

“Sorry mate.” Ron said sheepishly in a low voice. 

He glanced over at Hermione to find her watching him with a slight smile and immediately gave her a wink. Her expression instantly changed to a scowl, and she ducked back behind her book. 

Yeah, she totally liked him. 

Fingers snapped in front of his face and Harry blinked, smacking Ron’s hand away from his face. “What the hell, mate?” 

“I’ve been trying to get your attention for the past fifteen minutes!” 

“We just got kicked out of the library-– thanks a lot for that. I was trying to study with Hermione.” 

“Oh, from a table away, yeah? And I’m counting the time I was tapping you on your shoulder in the library while you had on your Draco Malfoy face- OW” Ron rubbed the back of his head where Harry had smacked it. 

“I do not have a Draco Malfoy face, that’s just gross.” 

“Right, anyway, the game next week—I was thinking—what if we snuck some fire whiskey in just for our group? We could have an after party—just with a few people?” 

Harry drew himself up, puffing his chest out and said in an offended voice. “You know I’m a prefect, right?” 

Ron looked at him and laughed, and after a few seconds, Harry cracked up with him. “Okay, but just a few people… and Hermione.” 

Ron gave him an incredulous look. “Mate, no offense, but she’s kind of a –” 

“A what?” Harry asked him threateningly. 

“Well, she’s kind of a Mary Sue. She’d probably report us.” 

“Well, I have a week then to make sure she doesn’t?” 

“Fine, whatever.”

They made their way through to the common room and Harry sat on the couch relaxing back and putting his hands behind his head. How to get Hermione to agree to break some rules… 

Before curfew hit, Hermione made her way back to the common room in a much more cheerful mood than she had been earlier. She had managed to get ahead in her reading, had twenty-four inches written for her magical history essay and was still savoring the image of Harry falling backwards on his big dumb head. 

She moved quietly through the common room once she entered. Everyone seemed to have gone to sleep early this Wednesday night, when she spotted a familiar messy head of hair. She walked around the couch, determined to ignore whatever Harry might say to her when she realized he had fallen asleep there. 

His head was resting against the back of the couch, his arms crossed and his legs kicked out. Even asleep and his body relaxed, he seemed to take up so much of the room, like his presence sucked up all the air in the room and made it harder to breath. His lips were slightly parted and the column of his throat was thrown into relief by his posture. How was it possible for a neck to be attractive looking? 

Without realizing it, Hermione had stepped quite close to him as she inspected him while he slept. Her phone seemed to burn a hole in her pocket. She could take a picture of him like this and no one would know. She stood there nibbling on her lip, trying to decide if she should risk it. 

What would it hurt? 

Decision made, she reached into her pocket, swiping up on her phone to bring up the camera. His eyes snapped open just as her phone made a low click as she snapped the picture. Her entire body froze, eyes wide. 

“Hermione.” His voice practically purred. 

Run away, her mind yelled at her and she turned to do exactly that when his hand snapped out and caught her wrist. She thought maybe embarrassment had burned away all her brain cells because she had absolutely no idea what to do when he tugged her wrist to turn her back around and she did so, cringing slightly. 

“I can delete it!” She blurted out in a low, vehement voice. 

He stood up and stepped close to her and she imagined she could feel his body heat even through their damn robes. “Taking pictures of me while I’m sleeping? Shocking.” 

She winced and thought her face must resemble a tomato by now. “I’m sorry, I’m deleting it right now.” 

She tried to tug her hand away so she could delete the photo, but he didn’t let go of her wrist. He shook his head at her, his green eyes dark. “No, I think you need to make it up to me.” 

Could prefects give their own detention? Bizarre images of going to detention while Harry stared at her from a teacher's desk flitted through her mind. “Um detention?” 

A smile spread across his face as if he found her discomfort funny. Jerk. She gritted her teeth, she was in the wrong but–

“I want you to come to a party with me.” 

“What?” 

His damn green eyes were so distracting…she thought he said he wanted to go to a party with her. 

“Come to a party with me.” 

“I am not dating you!” 

“I guess I’ll have to talk to a teacher about your cell phone then…” 

“That’s blackmail!” 

He shrugged, not bothered by her characterization. “Well? Party then?” 

She pointed right in his face. “I don’t care how cute you are, I am not dating you!” 

Her eyes widened while his crinkled at the corners, and she snatched her hand out of his running up the stairs. Damn, damn, damn! 

“We should exchange phone numbers!” He called out to her as she ran away up the stairs to the girls dormitory. 

Chapter Text

Hermione wasn’t quite sure how exactly her housemates had managed to talk her into attending the Quidditch game, considering her derision for the sport, but there she sat with a perfect view of one Harry Potter. 

The git knew she had a perfect view of him too because he looked her way, then let go of his broom letting himself swing downward, holding on to the broom with his legs as he hung upside down. His uniform shirt rode downward and exposing his stomach. 

He put his hands behind his head and did an upside down sit up, his stomach and thighs flexing. 

“You’re drooling.” Observed a Slytherin robed girl next to her, the same one she had seen in the bathroom that first day. 

“I am not! And I remember you.” 

After being in Harry’s presence almost constantly since starting Hogwarts, it was easy to pick out the similarities between him and the girl next to her, especially when she gave that overly confident smile. 

“My name is Zinnia. Zinnia Potter.” 

Hermione gave an internal sigh. She was perpetually surrounded by Potters, the past week it was like Harry was completely stuck on her. She could barely turn around without bumping into the prat, and then the damn poetry… 

“Hermione Granger. It’s nice to meet you… although why are you on this side of the stands? Shouldn’t you be with the Slytherin crowd?” 

 Zinnia leaned forward slightly and a small hufflepuff on the other side of her immediately stuck out his hand in front of her as if she was going to fall off the bench. “Elias!” She said sharply as she pushed his arm away. “I’m hardly likely to fall off the bench while sitting down!” 

“I promised Fred and George to make sure you didn’t fall at all during the game and they're going to let me have whatever I want from their shop.” Elias' skinny little arm remained stubbornly in front of Zinnia like a flimsy guard rail. 

“Anyway.” She gritted between clenched teeth before visibly making herself relax. “I always cheer for the Gryffindor team. Bros before hoes.” 

Hermione choked on a laugh. “So Harry is your brother, then?” 

“I would be offended he hasn’t mentioned me, except I don’t really think he’s thought about anything other than you since he first saw you.” 

Hermione could feel her face heating up and looked away, back towards the game. Draco and Harry shoved each other roughly as they both sped towards the other end of the arena, focused on something she couldn’t see. 

“Your brother is quite annoying.” 

“Yeah. So dumb too, and he’s so whiny. Really unlikeable.” 

Hermione hadn’t expected agreement from Zinnia, much less more insults for her own brother! How could she say that about him? Harry flew by her again, Draco close behind but his eyes still found hers and he winked. 

Why are you always following me!

Because I didn’t realize until I met you that my heart existed outside of my chest. I have a poem about it, want to hear it?

Her mouth opened, and she found herself saying, “He’s not dumb, he’s actually very smart, he would probably have better grades if he put in more effort, he always seems to know the answer and doesn’t even bother raising his hand. And I’ve never seen him whiny, some of the first years made an absolute mess in the common room trying to do a replicating charm and he helped them clean it up and was so nice about it to them…”

She shut her mouth with a click as she glanced over to see Zinnia’s smirk. Ugh Potters. They were all annoying. With a sniff, she angled herself away from Zinnia and her tiny Hufflepuff anti-fall protector. 

Chapter Text

The Gryffindors had won the quidditch match, of course, like anything else could be possible for perfect Harry Potter. Hermione had been interested in how despite fighting pretty heatedly during the quidditch match with the Slytherin seeker, Harry had been comfortable going up to him, bumping his shoulder and giving him a half hug that looked almost affectionate? Boys were weird.  

Much later after the initial celebrations and the younger ones had gone to bed the 'real' party had started. Hermione had been vaguely insulted by the dubious glances given to her by everyone when Harry had announced she was staying for the after party. She could enjoy a party as well as the next teenage witch! Not that she had ever been to a party, she had been too busy studying. 

Hermione also wouldn't have agreed to attend this party if one extremely fit green eyed seeker hadn’t blackmailed her. But she was good at everything, and she would be good at partying too! 

This logic was what had made her down two shots of fire whiskey in quick succession, that's what one did at parties right? Then Harry had taken the third shot away from her with a firm no, settling her beside him on the floor. They were in a medium-sized group, sitting in a circle in the Gryffindor common room everyone red faced and smiling. 

Some faces she recognized, some she didn’t, but it was hard to care. The fire whiskey had given the world a soft glow, and despite the fact that she disliked Harry Potter and his stupidly cute face, she found she enjoyed the way he felt pressed against her side, the warm weight of his arm around her shoulders. Little tingles raced through her scalp as he absently played with her curls while talking to the redhead whose name she had forgotten. 

They were playing a game everyone seemed to know the rules of but her, seven minutes in heaven. It sounded nice, and couples kept disappearing every so often to catcalls and laughter.  

When the bottle spun and then stopped pointing towards her, she stared at it frozen, having quite lost track of what was supposed to happen next.  Next to her Harry stood up and reached for her, though helping her. 

“Come on, Hermione.” She let him pull her up, his hand firm when she wobbled unsteadily. 

He led her to a closet, and she giggled. Why were they going to a closet? It seemed hysterically funny as they stepped into the cramped dark space and he held her as she laughed against him, both of them squished together. 

“How can you be so smashed after only two shots?” His voice was soft and warm with amusement, his hand slowly running up and down her back, petting her like she petted Crookshanks, her half kneazle. 

“I am not a cat.” That hadn’t been what she meant to say and it made her giggle against him again, leaning her head against his chest. This closet was actually a very nice place, she wouldn’t mind playing this game again with him. 

“Errr. Okay?” He said, sounding adorably confused. 

Maybe he was right. She shouldn’t have downed those shots. Drinking that fire whiskey made it harder to stop thinking about him, picturing that moment when he had hung upside down on his broom during the quidditch match, his stomach flexing. “I don’t like drinking, it makes it so much harder not to think about you.” 

“Oh?” 

She leaned up, wanting to make sure he understood. It was hard to know where his face was in the dark and she reached up, framing it with her hands, pulling his face closer to hers. “I hate the way I can’t stop thinking about you.” 

His breath caught. “I love the way I can’t stop thinking of you.” 

Chapter Text

Hermione groaned, the beeping of her phone making it feel like little hammers were beating at her skull. She reached out, keeping her eyes closed, feeling blindly for it along her bed, picking it up and pressing the volume button. 

She buried her face in her pillow when it was quiet again. 

I love the way I can’t stop thinking of you.

The dark closet had prevented her from seeing Harry's face when he said that, but the intensity of his feelings had practically vibrated through her. It was… flattering honestly, but also a little bit unnerving from both having him so intensely focused on her and her own reaction to him. 

Harry Potter was like a storm, and whenever he was close to her, it made everything in her life seem more vivid. As if she had been living in black and white and suddenly Harry tumbled from the sky (literally he had) into her life with a charming smile and brought her color.

Hermione groaned and rolled over, hugging her pillow. She didn't know what to do about him! She always had a plan, always knew what she was going to do, and his presence managed to subtract way too many IQ points from her. 

She picked up her phone, reading through the texts from an unknown number. What the bloody hell was this! 

The kiss she wanted?!

The enchanted lights flashed dimly through the common room in varying colors as music played loudly and privacy charms kept the party noise from disturbing the younger students who had already gone to bed upstairs. Hermione giggled to herself as she grabbed a glass of fire whiskey from a smiling Cormac, sneaking away while Harry was having some boring conversation about the stats of chasers from the Chudley Cannons with Ron.  

Harry had maintained an arm around her since they emerged from the closet and steered her towards pumpkin juice all night. Really, it was none of Harry's business to be telling her could only have two shots! Like she was a first year or some such.  

She held the fire whiskey glass to her lips, a smile on her face as she watched Harry start to look for her in the common room when he realized she wasn't by his side.  His eyes met hers across the darkened room and widened when he saw the glass she held. 

No. He mouthed at her, starting towards her, like he was in charge of her or something. 

"Stop being such a wet blanket Potter. Let the girl drink." Cormac said loudly, with a smirk.

Hermione winced when Harry punched his arm as he walked past him, not responding.  

"That's not very nice." She told him when he was close enough to snatch the empty glass from her hands.  

"Well, I wasn't feeling nice at the time." 

She leaned back against the wall, her hands behind her back. “Do you want me to help you feel nice?” 

His green eyes darkened and leaned closer to her. “How are you going to do that, then?”  

Hermione leaned up, her lips close to his. “With a kiss?” 

It may have been some trick of the light, or it may have been that third glass of fire whiskey she really shouldn't have taken. But his eyes darkened unnaturally, black crawling across the white of his eyes as he leaned close, whispering so low she could barely hear him of the music. “I really, really want to kiss you.” 

That was nice, because she really, really wanted him to. She leaned against him, her hands sliding around his neck. “Me too.” 

“But I can’t.” 

“Why not?” 

“Because you’re definitely sloshed.” 

“I am not!”

“I’ll kiss you tomorrow.” 

“If you don’t kiss me right now, I’m not kissing you tomorrow.” 

His forehead touched hers, his hands finding her hips. “I’ll just have to work extra hard at changing your mind.” 

Hermione put her pillow over her face and gave a small scream. Oh my god, what had she been thinking! Bloody hell! She hadn’t been thinking at all–which honestly was a common occurrence when she was near Harry, but still. 

The curious way his eyes had seemed to turn black niggled at her mind. What had that been? A figment of her imagination or something more? There was something she had read about that, eyes changing… 

She looked at her phone again, naming the contact. How had he gotten her number, anyway? Sneaky git. She needed to do some research in the library, but judging from her texts, Harry would be there and probably completely derail her. 

Hmm. Maybe a trip to the London Wizen Library was in order. She just had to make sure one Harry Potter did not spot her leaving. 

Chapter Text

When her phone rang again, Hermione snatched it up. 

“I am fine!” She whispered furiously. 

“Where are you at?” 

“You are not in-”

“Let me stop you right there. I am the prefect of our house, I am in charge of you, and I should be talking to McGonagall right now because I know for a fact you are not on campus. How quickly can you make it back?” 

Hermione stopped, taken off guard by the completely serious and angry tone from Harry. She hadn’t heard that type of tone from him before. Even when his ex-girlfriends had confronted her in front of the school, he had seemed to be more annoyed than angry. 

She stared down at the textbook in front of her. 

Although rare pairings between wizards with Veelas have resulted in offspring which have inherited Veela traits, notably the unique ability to recognize their destined partners. While very few documented instances of partial Veela inheritance have occurred, all with witches, there appear to be commonalities shared. Three of the couples reported that during times of heightened emotions, the eyes of those with Veela inheritance became completely black, obscuring the whites of their eyes and their natural eye color. 

“Thirty minutes.” 

Even the silence on the other end of the line seemed angry. “I’ll be waiting, Hermione.” 

Click. 

Hermione put down her phone carefully, her eyes going back to that words destined partner . She remembered the way Harry had looked when he rolled over and met her eyes, the sparkle in his eyes, how happy he had seemed.

I was talking to my future wife…

She had thought it was another means of flirting with her, and then his unwavering focus–she had become a challenge for him because she hadn’t fallen for his tricks. But what if it was something else? What if it hadn’t been a trick of the light? If she was his destined partner—was the reverse true? Was he hers?  

Hermione had too many questions and not enough answers, and she had promised she would be back in thirty minutes. She’d rather not piss Harry off further. She quickly returned the book to the stacks and gathered her items before apparating back to the edge of the wards of Hogwarts. 

She hadn’t taken more than a few steps onto the grounds of Hogwarts before she heard the crunch of gravel and Harry Potter strode out to meet her. He didn’t say a word as he came to her side to walk with her towards the castle. 

She eyed him at her side. She hadn’t been sure what to expect when she saw him again, but silence definitely was not it. There was a twisting feeling in her stomach, watching him as he kept his eyes on the path before them. 

Hermione didn’t feel guilty about going off campus. She hadn’t been aware of that rule, and probably would not have broken it if she had known. But she didn’t like the upset look on his face, the distressed vibe she seemed to get from him. 

Harry Potter was happy, charming and annoying. 

Not quiet and upset. She didn’t like it. They had reached the steps, and he was about to open the double doors for her when she stopped him, reaching out to touch his wrist. He stopped looking at her inquiringly, his lips still tight. 

She wanted to rub at his lips. It was actually hard to keep her hands at her sides and she clasped them behind her back, clearing her throat. “Harry?” 

“Yes?” 

“I’m sorry I broke the rules. I won’t do it again.” 

He looked away from her back towards the doors, at his hand still on the handle. “I’m not mad at you for breaking the rules. I’d be a bloody hypocrite if I was. When I realized you were off campus, I was worried about you. Something could have happened to you and I wouldn’t even have had the first idea of where to look.” 

It made her heart beat hard to hear that from him, and she reached out, her hand touching his shoulder. He turned towards her and her hand slid across his chest until it rested on the Gryffindor patch over his heart. 

She stepped closer to him, looking into his eyes, reading the emotions easily. 

Gryffindor… where dwell the brave at heart

I think you’re a lion.

“Harry.” Her other hand came up until they were both resting on his chest.

He leaned forward a little bit, as if unable to help himself. “Yes?” 

“I haven’t drank any fire whiskey at all today.” 

His eyes widened, his lips parting slightly. 

She was a lion, too. 

She stood up on tiptoes, pressing her mouth to his. He made this noise a combination of surprise and pleasure, his hands immediately coming up to lock around her. His tongue came out, sliding against her lips, and she parted them eagerly. 

It was a kiss like she had never experienced, the way he moved his mouth, the way his tongue stroked her. If this was how Harry kissed, Hermione didn’t know if she’d survive going further with him. 

But. 

It was definitely a hypothesis she wanted to test out. 

As if he could hear her thoughts, his hands slid up her body to tangle in her curls, cupping her head to hold her still for him while he kissed her within an inch of her life. Who needed to breathe when you were getting kissed by Harry Potter?

Sudden knocking on the other side of the door coming from inside Hogwarts made them spring apart. 

“You’re not shagging her against the door, are you?” Zinnia’s scandalized voice floated through the closed door. 

They both turned cherry red, and Harry slammed his fist on the closed door. “Zinnia! Not helpful!” 

There was a yelp on the other side of the door and then several grunts. 

“She couldn’t have gone to France, no, of course not.” Harry muttered to himself as he flung open the doors and they saw the pile of bodies. Zinnia, Elias and Theo had all been listening at the door and had fallen over when Harry’s fist to the door had startled them. 

“Really Zinny, you dragged Elias along?” Harry asked, aggravated. 

“We’re friends Mr Seeker, sir.” The first year Hufflepuff offered helpfully. 

Harry facepalmed, talking muffled into his palm. “I told you not to call me that Elias.” 

Theo looked between everyone interestedly. “I am an innocent bystander.” 

“Lies.” Zinnia muttered, using her wand to poke Theo’s cheek. 

Harry dropped his hand from his face, pointing at Theo. “You’re two years older. Stop getting dragged along with her schemes!” 

Zinnia clambered over the two wizards to stand up and gave Harry an innocent look. “I was just worried about you. Have you two talked about if you’re going to use contraceptive potions or charms yet?” 

Hermione’s mouth dropped open and Theo grabbed Elias to drag him farther out of the potential impact zone.

Chapter Text

James Potter sat on the couch of his friend’s townhome, his head in his hands. “And then she asked me what year, month and day it happened!” 

Remus patted him consoling on the shoulder. “At least she uh–er—um knows about practicing safe sex?” 

“Nooooo!” James moaned into his hands with what sounded suspiciously like a sob.

Sirius' eyes practically sparkled and if he had been in his dog form, Remus was fairly certain his tail would be wagging. “She's in third year now, right?” He asked. 

“Fourth, you git.” James muttered, still not looking up.

“Remember what you and Lily were like in fourth year–” Sirius cut off as James leaped for him and they started wrestling, rolling back and forth on the carpeted living room.  

Rolling his eyes, Remus relaxed back on the couch, letting them work out their emotions in their own way, only interfering to kick James once when he looked like James was going to punch Sirius. “Prongs, not his face!”

James' hand wavered and then hit lower, punching Sirius high on his chest. Sirius grunted, shoving him off. “Ow. I think you made me bleed.” 

“What!” 

Sirius was already taking off his shirt and inspecting his nipple barbell. “Nope, nope, it's fine. You still punch like a first year.”  

James moved towards Sirius again, but Remus caught his shirt. “Can we please pretend we’re actually adults for a little bit?” 

“I should have punched his face.” Muttered James, relaxing backward to lean against the couch. 

Sirius grinned at him. “I’d still be hotter than you, even with a black eye.” 

Hermione found herself again bizarrely watching a sport she had no interest in, a book on her lap as she sat next to a very strange witch by the name of Luna Lovegood. She was a very nice witch, although she sometimes managed to react to things before they actually happened. 

Harry and Draco flew by them, both shoving each other as usual when they were playing against each other, and Luna covered her mouth with a gasp. “Oh dear.  We’re going to have to go to Madam Pomfrey for this.”

Hermione gave her a curious glance. “What?” 

At that very moment, a bludger slammed into Draco, knocking him for a spin before he managed to right himself, darting off again towards Harry.  

Hermione’s mouth made a small ‘o’ as she looked at the other witch. “You’re a seer?” 

“Sometimes, in this life probably.” 

Right. Hermione had never been quite that comfortable with this aspect of magic. It made her feel as if someone else was in control of her destiny and she quite hated that idea. She decided to leave that subject alone, asking instead, "So how long have you been with Draco?”

Luna’s tranquil blue eyes looked at her and she ignored her question. “There’s always a voice inside us that tells us what to do. Some call it instinct, or an angel or a devil, but it’s not, you know.” 

Next time, Hermione would remember to bring a buffer along. “Oh?” 

“It’s ourselves, the knowledge and magic that slips between realities to try to help us. You shouldn’t fight too hard against what you feel for Harry. He’s earned his charmed life.” 

 “What’s that supposed to mean?” 

“Joy can only fill you as deeply as sorrow has carved you.” Luna quoted softly. “You and Harry have paid for this life, Hermione.” 

Hermione froze. There was something in the calm blue depths of Luna’s eyes that was a bit frightening. 

“Oi, you loony bint, don’t go frightening off my brother’s crush after all that whining he had to do to get her here.” Zinnia Potter’s cheerful voice broke the moment, and she sat down between the two girls, giving Luna an affectionate hug. 

“Zinny!” Luna said cheerfully, hugging the younger witch. “I was just telling Hermione she should enjoy life!” 

Zinnia shot Hermione a wry smile. “Yeah, was that all?” 

“Yes, I have to be going though, this practice is going to be cut short when Goyle manages to break his pinky toe.” Luna stood up walking away muttering to herself as she made her way slowly down the stands as the practice game continued. 

Zinnia turned and inspected Hermione’s slightly dazed and unnerved face. “Don’t worry too much about it. Whatever she said, Luna’s really nice and means well.” 

“She’s… alot.” Hermione finally settled on Luna’s words still running through her mind. 

“Don’t worry, she likes to tell me she likes the realities where I pop up.” Zinnia laughed. 

“Okay, that is a bit more bizarre and makes me feel a little bit better.” Hermione smiled at her.

 “But how can you know no one will catch us?” Hermione whispered as they left the common room just after midnight. 

Harry grinned back at her, giving her hand a squeeze. “It’s a secret.” 

She narrowed her eyes at him as she followed him down the dark corridor. Their slippers were soundless as they walked quietly up to the empty astronomy tower. 

The top of the tower was an open airy room that looked up to the stars, enchantments keeping the room comfortable despite the crisp November chill. The room was dark and Hermione lifted her hand, muttering an incantation that caused a small blue flame to flicker to life on her palm. 

Harry gave an appreciative hum, his own wand moving to summon a small jar that she carefully placed the flame into as they settled themselves near the ornate railing. Harry pulled out pillows from thin air with a flair.   

“Your pillow, my lady.” He gestured to the large sitting pillow he had placed for her. 

Hermione couldn’t help but giggle at him as she sat down. “We’re here breaking rules, and weren’t you just mad at me for breaking the rules?” 

Harry huffed as he sat next to her, making himself comfortable as he put his head on her lap. “I told you, I’m not a hypocrite. I’d never get mad at you for breaking the rules.” He gestured around them as if saying, just look at us. “I was …” 

Hermione looked at him curiously as he trailed off, her hand coming up hesitantly to stroke through his hair. “You were..?” 

“Mmm. That feels nice.” He reached and took off his glasses, putting them above his head out of the way on the floor near them. “I was scared.” 

He seemed so comfortable admitting his feelings, asking for affection. It made her feel strangely protective of him. He had loving parents (from what she had gathered), a very precocious little sister (from what she had observed), and just a very charmed life. 

“What are you thinking about?” He asked when she remained quiet. 

“Something Luna said to me.” 

“I did not ever get naked at one of Luna’s solstice celebrations–Draco would have tried to murder me and then I would have to explain to my mother why I got him sent to St. Mungos.” 

Hermione laughed at the confidence in his voice. “You’re so sure you would win?” 

“There’s no version of reality where Draco gets the best of me.” 

“You’re so conceited. I’m honestly curious how you manage to fit through doorways with such a big head.” 

“Don’t worry, I’ll fit.” He said playfully, and she yanked his hair in retaliation.

“Watch it, Potter.” 

“My girlfriend shouldn’t call me Potter.” 

“I’ll be sure to let your girlfriend know you said that.” 

“Hermione…” He said coaxingly. “You kissed me.” 

 She petted his hair again, half in apology as he looked up at her in the dim light of the stars and her jarred blue bell flames. “You go around snogging people left and right, from what I’ve heard.” 

“Scandalous lies. First, I’m firmly heterosexual, so it would only be girls, not people. People did gossip when I told Blaise he was very fit and gave him a ride on my broom, but they need to get over it. We’re friends. And secondly, I’ve only kissed two other girls besides you and neither compared.” 

Once again, Hermione stared down at the wizard in her lap with wide eyes. “You’re–you’re just not like anyone I’ve ever met.” 

“Thank you. You’re not like anyone I’ve ever met, either.” 

“Do you…” She trailed off, not quite sure how to ask. 

“Do I what?” 

Hermione bit her lip, thinking. “Do you… why do you like me?” 

“Is that what you really meant to ask?” 

Be brave. 

“Doyouknowyou’reaveela?”

Harry laughed, rolling off her lap, scooting close to her on his knees as he leaned forward in the semi-darkness. “You really are the brightest.” The words were quieter, almost possessive, as he whispered them to her. “But didn’t you know veelas are only witches?”

“That’s what the books say.” She agreed quietly, trying to make out the expression in his eyes. 

“Sometimes books are wrong, though.” 

“Yes.” 

If the dark astronomy tower had been any brighter, Hermione didn’t think she would have seen it. The faint luminesce of his skin as his magic seemed to reach out. The green of his eyes was gone. It would have looked scary if not for the faint tug she could feel toward him, the curl of his magic fanning out. 

“I’m not a full veela, I’m just enough.” 

“Just enough?” 

“Just enough to know that you’re the one.” And he pressed his lips to hers so sweetly, making wordless promises to her as he cupped her head and kissed her passionately. Unseen by either of them, Harry’s magic continued to flare out, flowing around the kissing couple in arches that formed the translucent outline of wings, cradling them both protectively. 

Chapter Text

Harry and Hermione stood facing each other in a wide circle in the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom while students cheered and catcalled as they dueled. Hermione’s weakest subject was DADA, but that didn’t mean much considering her standards far exceeded the norm. 

While she wasn’t as fast or intuitive as Harry, the obscure spells she knew managed to keep him from dispatching her as handily as he did his other opponents. 

Harry grinned at her, his eyes thrilled as he ducked a freezing spell she shot at his wand arm. He transfigured the floor briefly beneath her to ice, causing her to slip and land hard on her bum. 

“Oof!” She waved her wand, batting aside the expelliarmus spell he followed that up with.  She had realized very quickly he really liked casting that one after observing him duel several other students. She honestly thought his attraction to the disarming spell was simply because he liked showing off, catching his opponent's wands as the spell jerked them out of their hands. 

“C’mon mate!” Ron yelled encouragement at Harry, his eyes darting between the two of them, unless the professor stepped in Harry usually had no trouble dispatching his opponent. 

“He’s finally going to go down.” Lavender said with satisfaction. 

Ron looked over at his on and off girlfriend. “Bet you lunch at Hogsmeade that he wins?” 

“You’re on. Get him, Hermione!” 

Harry paused, giving her a wink, purposely not attacking as she scrambled up to her feet. The git, he was playing with her. Hermione puffed her cheeks in aggravation. She’d show him. 

Moving and ducking yet another expelliarmus that came her way as she stood up, she waved her wand. “Aqualigo!” 

A stream of mist swirled around her, spreading, and she could hear Harry giving a whoop of delight. Everyone else in the room gave boos when their view of the duel became obscured by mist. 

Putting her wand against her throat, she whispered,“Voxacio.”

Reaching for a part of herself she kept hidden, Hermione's nostrils flared, and she started to move much more slowly, stalking her dark-haired wizard amongst the mist. 

With a small grin, she whispered soundlessly. “What do I get for winning?” 

Her spell carried her voice around to Harry, making it sound as if she was whispering in his ear behind him and he whirled around. Slowly she stalked forward, watching as he scanned in the wrong direction.

“Expelliarumus!” Hermione cast with no small amount of satisfaction, but her spell splashed harmlessly through the shadow of Harry Potter. 

“You are amaaaazzzzinng.” Harry drew out in a growl suddenly behind her, causing her to squeal as his hands came around her quickly, catching her wrist to prevent her from casting again. “What was that voice spell?” 

“I’m not telling.” Hermione said, disgruntled as she stood in his arms while he nuzzled her like Crookshanks. 

“Mmm. I’m not the only one with secrets.” Harry’s voice dropped a little lower as he pulled her around to face him. 

“Ventus!” An authoritative voice called out, and a strong wind swirled through the classroom pulling at robes and messing up everyone's hair. Several witches and wizards cried out in annoyance, clutching their carefully done hair. 

Hermione’s mist cleared out and revealed the serious face of Professor Landon Zabini, their Defense against the Dark Arts instructor. Hermione and Harry sprang apart, both immediately patting down their own hair, which happened to be a losing fight for both of them. “Very inventive. Who won?” 

“Tie.” 

“Stalemate.” It was hard to keep a grin off her face when they spoke at the same time. 

Professor Zabini stood to his full impressive height, eyeing them both curiously. “ Right .” He said skeptically before turning and addressing the class at large. “Okay, well, we’ve had an excellent demonstration from our top duelers of the year. Let’s break up and do a bit of one-on-one practice with each other with an emphasis on form.” 

Hermione watched the professor stride off to help Neville Longbottom with his form as he paired off with a witch. “No wonder you thought Blaise was fit, if he’s anything like Professor Zabini.” 

“Shush.” Harry gave her a small pinch at her side, pulling her off a little away from everyone else. 

“What was the spell you used to make that shadow?” 

“It's pretty easy, a modified geminio charm.” Harry demonstrated, making a shadowy version of himself. In the clear light it was obviously a stationary replica, but in the heavy mist Hermione had summoned, it hadn’t been as easy to discern that. 

He had moved closer to her as he helped her learn to cast the charm, his warm hands adjusting her elbow. She was always learning new things about him, dueling with him had been an eye-opening experience. His athleticism gave him a huge advantage. He was swift, light on his feet, and his spells were powerful. 

When class was over and everyone practically ran for the Great Hall for lunch, she and Harry were one of the last to leave the class, walking much more slowly and separate from the crowd. When Harry tugged her into one of the alcoves along the corridor, she followed without hesitation and found herself backed up against the wall, Harry’s palms on either side of her face caging her in. 

“So you know being an unregistered animagus is illegal in Britain?” 

“Je ne sais pas ce que tu veux dire.” I don’t know what you mean. 

Harry smirked at her. “I think you do.” 

“Hmph.” He understood French. A little thrill went through her. 

“Ne sois pas timide.” Don’t be shy.  Harry leaned closer, his cheek pressing to hers as he whispered in her ear. “You already know my secret.” 

The feel of his lips so close to her ear made her shiver and her hands came up to hold on to his robe. “I’ll show you. Do you think you could sneak us out of the castle after curfew?” 

He smiled at her.

Chapter Text

They sat facing each other in front of the low burning fire. The common room was almost empty, but they still whispered, the rest of the world fading away. 

“How can you know we won’t get caught?”  

Harry’s eyes were bright, and he propped his fist against his mouth, shrugging. 

‘Is it a spell?” 

His hand moved slightly before coming back against his mouth, and he shrugged again. 

Hermione got a sly look in her eye and she leaned forward slightly, resting her hand on his thigh. “Learning new things makes me… very… happy.” 

Harry’s swallow was audible, and his eyes were wide on hers. “So unfair.” He muttered against his fist. 

Her eyes were fixed on his, the faint glow from the fire making them look more amber than brown. “I’m going to find out.” 

“Probably.” He admitted with a grin, finally dropping his hand. He’d enjoy the attention while she found out. His swotty Hermione. He checked the time, almost time for him to do his rounds, then he’d swing back and get her from the common room so they could head out together. “I’ll text you when to come out, okay?” 

“Okay.” 

He paused, looking at her, not sure how she felt about PDA. He stood up, reaching down to help her up. “Can I kiss you?” 

When she blushed and smiled up at him, he took that as a yes and gave her a very respectable peck on the lips, pulling back only slightly to whisper to her. “I’ll make it quick, okay?” 

She nodded wordlessly, and he gave her a cheeky grin before heading out on swift feet to do his patrols for the night.  

As soon as he was down the corridor, he pulled out and inspected the map, finding that there were five people wandering around Hogwarts because of course everyone couldn’t behave on the one night he wanted to get back early to Hermione.  With a sigh of aggravation as he started walking he pulled out his phone to take care of the easiest two. 

Harry shook his head. Draco was so whipped. Hermione’s intent face popped into his mind and he shifted, feeling warmer suddenly. He was a little nervous about transforming in front of her, he wasn’t exactly a normal animagus. Also, his father had impressed upon him the need to keep his ability a secret. You never knew when a hidden ability would save your life. His phone beeped, and he looked down.  

Hermione
Are there alot of people out wandering?

He grinned as he texted her back. It was reassuring to know that she was just as anxious to get out as he was.  

five. two are draco and luna though so i texted him to get him and his girlfriends arses back to their dorms😒

He checked the map and hurried towards the third floor bathrooms. He ran into Astoria Greengrass, a witch who was in the same grade as his sister. “What are you doing out of your dorms this late, Astoria?”  

She gave him a guilty smile, reminding him vaguely of his little sister. “I lost track of time?” 

“Uh huh.” And exactly because she reminded him of his sister he wasn’t willing to just send her on her way to the dungeons. “Let’s go, and I expect not to find you out after curfew again. Understood?” 

“Fiiinnnneee.” She turned and marched towards the dungeons, muttering about not doing things on his patrol night. 

Hermione
Mmm. Maybe if I manage to make an impression I can make head girl next year and be sure to schedule your patrols when its convenient to me.💅🏻

He tried to keep a straight face as he continued walking alongside Astoria after he glanced at his phone. She would schedule him? He’d see about that. Tantalizing visions of sharing the headgirl and headboy rooms started floating through his mind, and he almost walked past the dungeon entrance. 

He cleared his throat. “Next time I’ll deduct points, Astoria.” 

“Hmph.” She stuck her nose in the air as she walked into the dorms. 

or alternate plan we both make head prefect and 😚😚😚😚😚like mad in our private quarters

He glanced at his map, wondering what the heck the younger wizard in the clock tower was up to. He usually was pretty good about following the rules. He jogged lightly, trying to backtrack quickly towards the clocktower. The stairs had no rails, and it was very narrow, so Harry didn’t bother calling out, not wanting to startle the other wizard. 

As he climbed higher, he heard the faint click and whirr of a wizarding camera. “Colin? What are you doing up here, mate?” 

“Harry! There’s supposed to be shooting stars tonight—wouldn’t they make lovely pictures?” Colin Creevey, a Gryffindor fifth year, responded excitedly. 

Ah, that would have made a lovely date with my Hermione… “I’m sure they would, but you need to remember to cut it short when it's curfew, Colin.”  

“Blast! I’m sorry, Harry. I completely lost track of time taking these pictures. Dennis is totally going to tell Mum on me if he finds out—can we keep this a secret?” 

Harry laughed. “Sounds like baby brothers are a lot like baby sisters, yeah?” 

“Absolute telltales.” Colin responded glumly. 

“Well, he won’t hear it from me as long as you get your arse back to the dorms quickly.” 

“Definitely!” 

They both started climbing down and he waved off Colin, pulling out his map again. 

Hermione
Sounds like someone is making assumptions.

He groaned. He was hoping by the time he got Colin and Astoria the last pain in his arse would have made their own way back to the dorms, but, of course, he couldn’t. He was the furthest out, only a bit further and he would have been completely off the map. Harry had thought he was going for a midnight walk, but it didn’t look like he moved since Harry first glanced at the map. 

no assumptions only wishes and dreams

With a sigh, he started jogging along further out, following the path towards the quidditch field to find Elias sitting in the middle of the path glumly staring out towards the forest. 

“What’s wrong?” 

The little Hufflepuff startled and almost fell over, resembling a little badger as he pawed the air for a second. “Oh, Mr. Seeker. Sir. That is Harry. I was—er—walking.” 

Harry was silent as he watched the first year wizard scramble up, and clasp his hands behind his back as if he was standing in some type of formation. He put his hand on the younger boy’s shoulder, giving him a comforting squeeze. “You know that being a prefect doesn’t just mean I enforce the rules, Elias. It means I’m here to help you if you need it. If you need help, I want to help you, you understand?” 

Elias gulped and nodded, then shook his head, then nodded again. Harry waited for a minute giving the other boy time to speak, then sighed. “Tell me you understand that I’m here to help you.” 

Elias nodded again. “I understand you're here to help me.” 

Harry waited again, but Elias stubbornly remained silent after that statement. He made a mental note to speak to Hannah Abbott and Ernie McMillan about Elias, and make sure to keep an eye on him. Zinnia had gotten quite protective of him, and he didn’t want to deal with her deciding someone needed to be taught a lesson. 

“Let’s get you to your dorms, okay?” 

“Okay.” Elias dragged his feet as Harry reined in his own impatience, not wanting to upset the boy further. 

At the entrance to the Hufflepuff common room, he ruffled the younger kids' hair, giving him a smile and goodnight. He’d follow up tomorrow. He pulled out the map, making sure no one else was out and about, before checking to see where Filch and the rest of the teachers were. 

on my way back

Harry didn’t think he’d ever made the walk so fast, and he met Hermione just outside the Fat Lady’s portrait.  

“I think that was the longest patrol I’ve done all year.” 

“They did it on purpose.” She teased. 

He nodded seriously. “It was definitely a conspiracy against us.” 

They both chuckled softly before he held his hand out to her. She grasped his hand tightly, twining their fingers together as they walked softly through the dark, quiet corridors. 

“Sneaking out is kind of fun.” She admitted to him softly. 

“No, it's not the sneaking out. It's because you’re with me.” 

Hermione clapped her free hand over her mouth to muffle her laughter. “You are way too in love with yourself.” 

“Don’t worry I have enough for you.” 

They were quiet for a few minutes as they exited the castle, the cold crisp breeze ruffling their hair as the grass crunched under their feet. 

“Does it bother you that…” 

“That what?” 

Hermione chewed her lip as the forest came into view. “That the way you feel about me isn’t really your choice? Or under your control?” 

He didn’t stop walking, a thoughtful silence stretching between them until they came upon a small clearing that he led her to the middle of. Just when she thought he was going to ignore the question, he answered. “I’m grateful for it.” 

“What? Why? I mean, I like you, but it’s not the same thing, me liking you and you liking me because you’re part Veela.” 

“If I hadn’t been part Veela, I wouldn’t have known how perfect you are for me. I probably would have tried to stay out of your way.” He reached out, pushing her hair behind her shoulders. “Then I would have noticed how smart you were. I would have noticed how beautiful your hair is and how when you’re really annoyed I can see little snaps of magic on the ends of your curls. I would have dueled you and been so impressed. I would have heard you speak French and wanted to snog you senseless.” 

“Senseless?” Hermione’s face was so red it was noticeable even in the dim light of the moon. 

“Absolutely senseless. And all of that would have taken so much longer for me to realize on my own without my instinct. It led me to my perfect person. How could I not be grateful for that?” 

It took her several tries and clearing her throat to speak. “I am not falling in love with you within two months of meeting you.” 

“Three months then?” 

She paused for a fraught second, then nodded. “Yeah, that’s totally reasonable.” 

They both looked at each other and giggled at their own nonsense. Her eyes sparkled in the moonlight as she looked up at him. “Want to see then?” 

Harry took a step back, and she grinned at him, rocking back a little bit.  “Show me.” 

Magic rushed up, enveloping her and leaving the tiniest, cutest creature Harry had ever seen. He laughed as she approached him, her large ears pointing straight up, and picked her up. If she weighed three pounds, he’d be shocked. She looked vaguely foxish although he had never seen one so small. “What are you?” He murmured, petting her.

She gave a little yip and jumped from his arms, transforming back and smiling at him. “I’m a fox.”

Harry reached out, pulling her closer. Having her pressed against him was the best feeling, and he planned to take advantage of it whenever he could. “What kind though? I’ve never seen a fox like that.” 

She scrunched her nose at him. “A fennec fox, when I first transformed, I made the mistake of going around exploring and someone tried to catch me thinking I was a cat.” 

“You were okay, though?” 

She smiled teasingly. “Yes, I’m pretty quick.” 

“I know.” He muttered, thinking about the couple of times he had chased her in the corridors. She was slippery. “Hmm. My little vixen.” 

She laughed, poking him. “Ew. Don’t call me that.” She opened her hand, laying it on his chest, feeling the beat of his chest. “What about you? I felt… something there… in your magic sometimes, too.” 

Harry shrugged. “I’m not as cute as you transformed.” 

“I want to see.” 

He hesitated. “No one except my close family knows.” 

She felt a little sinking feeling in her stomach, but shrugged it off. “Oh. It’s okay you don’t have to—” 

“What I mean is that you can’t tell anyone.” He cut her off. 

“Of course not!” 

He stepped back from her, clearing his throat, looking nervous. “Don’t get scared, okay? I’m bigger.” 

“I won’t.” She promised, watching him closely.

He nodded, then there was a brief pause before magic rushed over him, expanding higher.  His wings flared out wide and for a second she thought she was staring at a hippogriff, until her mind started cataloging the differences in what she saw.  

A hippogriff had the front legs, wings, and head of a giant eagle but the body, hind legs, and tail of a horse. While Harry had the size of a hippogriff along with the front half, his body was a pale golden fur and his hind legs were large paws that she could almost make out the tips of retracted claws, even in the dark. 

Gryffindor .

“You’re a griffin!” She said low and wonderingly. She had never seen one in real life, only in her textbooks. Harry lowered his head slowly towards her and she reached out, laying her hand softly on his sharp beak. 

He transformed back in a blink, catching her hand before she could snatch it back. “My dad says he was a perfectly respectable stag, so he doesn’t know why this was my animal, that it must have been my mum’s influence.” 

Hermione gave a small smile, still focused on his form. How amazing was that to be a true magical creature?

“You know I wanted to take you flying…” 

“Absolutely not, Harry Potter.” 

“Don’t you trust me?” He cajoled. “I’d let you pet me if you let me pet you.” 

“You’d let me pet you, regardless.” 

He grinned shamelessly, and she could feel herself wavering. She wanted to see his form again. “Okay, just for a little bit though- five minutes!” 

“Five minutes!” He promised, transforming back. His wings flared out again straight up and he knelt forward, holding still to let her climb on. Even though she honestly hated heights, she couldn’t deny the zing of excitement. A griffin, she gave a little huff to herself. He really was too much. 

When he straightened, her legs tightened around his back and her fingers grasped hold tightly the feathers at the base of his neck, before they transitioned to the lion fur of his body. Then his wings flapped once and her hair whipped back. 

She had a brief moment to consider how ill-advised this was and think ‘oh shit’ before he took a running leap forward and they were in the air faster than she would have thought possible. She leaned forward, trying not to get blown off him as wind rushed past her. 

After a minute or two, her heartbeat slowed down enough to let her almost enjoy it. The view was absolutely beautiful, and the stars had never seemed closer. She couldn’t quite quell the voice in the back of her mind, though that was telling her she was going to fall off at any minute. 

She could tell Harry was bringing them lower to land, when suddenly his wings jerked and she shrieked. He climbed higher, before his wings narrowed again as he sped towards something she couldn’t see. 

They were arrowing straight towards a clump of trees and her hands were fisted so tightly her nails were digging into her skin. “Uh Harry?” 

The trees were too close! “Harry!” She shut her eyes, feeling the branches whip past her head, millimeters away. They hit the ground with a loud thump and Harry transformed immediately, grabbing her to steady her before turning and running. 

What the hell? She took off after him, but he stopped after a couple of yards, going to the base of a tree. Kneeling down carefully.

“What were you thinking!” His tone was angry but very worried as he reached out and she peered over his shoulder to see his sister, Zinnia, curled up against the base of the tree. 

She was partially transformed; her legs stuck together, and scales going up her arms. “I can’t apparate you like this. It might make it worse.” 

He pulled out his phone dialing quickly. “Hello mum?”

Chapter Text

Hermione watched as Harry raised his wand to the sky, muttering, “Auxilux.” 

A white light shot straight up into the sky and a second later, four people apparated into the small clearing. One of the men who looked like an older version of Harry gave her a brief glance before running towards the tree next to a woman who had reached Zinnia first. The woman had dark wavy red hair that looked almost black in the moonlight. Hermione recognized them as Harry’s parents from his Instagram account. James and Lily Potter. 

She backed up a bit as his parents began to wave their wands, blue streams of magic wrapping around Zinnia and she made a low pain filled moan. A warm hand grasped hers and she looked over to see Harry give her a reassuring look. “Both my parents have masteries in transfiguration. Everything is going to be fine. Zinnia shouldn’t have been alone. She knows better. ” 

Hermione nodded at Harry, taking reassurance in his confidence, still a little thrown off by how their fun night had changed so quickly. Thank goodness he had spotted Zinnia under the tree. 

Harry pulled Hermione a bit further away to give his parents more room and privacy to help his sister. 

“And who is this?” Asked a smooth voice that caused them both to turn to the other two men in the group that had arrived. 

Harry gave the man a brief smile, introducing him to Hermione. “Hermione, these are my uncles, Sirius Black, and Remus Lupin. Sirius, Remus, this is my girlfriend, Hermione Granger.” 

Sirius Black was a tall man with long, perfectly wavy hair flowing just past his shoulders and gleaming silver eyes that seemed to reflect the moonlight. The man next to him was even taller and seemed to compliment his coloring as if one was night and the other day. Whereas Sirius was dark, Remus Lupin seemed almost golden-toned. He was taller than Sirius, and his hair was a light gilded brown and his eyes were unnaturally bright in the moonlight night, but where Sirius's eyes were a cold silverish color, Remus’s were a warm amber. 

Sirius straightened and reached for her free hand, giving a bow over it, meeting her eyes with a charming smile. “Enchantée mademoiselle.” 

Hermione looked at Harry’s uncle, then over at Harry. “So this is why you act the way you do.” 

Remus gave a small tense chuckle at that, elbowing Sirius out of the way. “While I am normally happy to allow all blame to fall on him, Harry does come by it naturally.” 

Sirius glanced over to where James and Lily were still huddled over Zinnia, before glancing back at the group. “Don’t worry, when I was learning to hold my shape, I accidentally ended up with a tail that took us four very tense hours to straighten out.” 

“You were never straightened out.” Remus muttered. 

The two men shared a glance that made Hermione feel like she was intruding on something private and she glanced over at Harry but he wasn’t even paying attention, his gaze on his parents who looked like they were helping his sister stand shakily. 

He looked at her briefly, giving her hand a squeeze, before letting go to walk over to his sister to give her a hug. He said something too low for Hermione to catch and Zinnia nodded at him. The Potters walked over together to join them. Zinnia was pressed tightly to her mother’s side while Harry walked on the other side of her and his father was on the far end. 

Hermione had known from Harry’s Instagram that the four of them were a very attractive family, but seeing them together in person sparked a strange emotion in her. Her parents loved her very much, and she had a good relationship with them, but there was no denying there was a wall between herself and her parents because of her magical life.  

Seeing fully wizarding families made her the tiniest bit wistful. As they joined, Harry kept moving forward until he slipped back beside her, his arm curving around her waist. “Hermione, these are my parents, James, and Lily Potter. Mum, Dad, this is my girlfriend, Hermione Granger.” 

James Potter grinned at her, and it was the same smile she had seen on his son’s face plenty of times. Professor McGonagall was absolutely right. You could see some characteristics of his mother, but Harry looked very similar to his father. “I’m happy to meet you, Hermione. I’ve heard so much about you.” 

“What exactly–” 

“Dad!” 

Hermione and Harry began talking at the same time and cut off, looking at each other. 

“James, don’t tease.” Lily admonished. “I’m happy to meet you, Hermione.” 

Hermione smiled at Lily. “I’m happy to meet you too.” 

“I know you likely already have plans for the winter holiday, but you are invited to join us if you feel comfortable. We’d love to get to know you better.” Lily said warmly, her arm still firmly around Zinnia, who was uncharacteristically subdued. 

“Viens ma filleule.” Sirius held out his arms to Zinnia quietly, and she walked over to him and he also whispered faint words in French that Hermione couldn’t make out. 

James continued speaking to Hermione, not drawing attention to his daughter, who was obviously feeling fragile. “Yes! We’d love you to come if your parents wouldn’t mind, of course. Harry’s never brought a girl home before, though, so you’ll need to excuse us if we act a bit crazed.” 

Hermione gave a little laugh at that. “Somehow, I find that hard to believe.” 

“Oh, they act crazed all the time,” Remus interjected warmly. 

“I meant the part about him not bringing home girls.” 

“Oi,” Harry said in a mock offended voice. “I told you you’re number one. I meant it.” 

Hermione was facing Harry, but she caught his father mouthing ‘smooth’ before his mother elbowed him in the side and giggled. They were a truly charming bunch. 

Harry’s phone buzzed in his pocket and he pulled it out curiously, his brows raising as he saw the name on the caller ID. “Just a second, mum please don’t let them scare Hermione off?” 

His dad, Remus, and Sirius laughed at that while his mother nodded and he gave a smile to Hermione before walking a few feet away. 

“Hel-”

“Where’s your sister?” Fred Weasley’s voice cut him off. 

Harry’s gaze went briefly to his sister, who was now against his father’s side. “What-”

Fred cut him off again, his voice gaining urgency. “She’s not answering her phone and may have gone into the forest alone–”

“How do you know this?” Even as he asked, Elias’s forlorn face flashed in Harry’s mind. Damnit. He knew something had been wrong with the first year. He was going to have a talk with him about not keeping secrets when this was over. 

“What does it matter? Harry! Your sister may be in trouble-”

“She’s fine. She’s with me.” 

The speaker was covered, but Harry could hear Fred telling someone else—likely his twin that Zinnia was okay. 

“Can we—I speak with her?” Harry glanced up again towards the group and Zinnia had moved again and was standing near Remus, who was rubbing her back in comforting circles. 

“I’ll tell her you want to speak with her and she’ll call you when she can.” Harry’s voice was firm. He knew Zinnia was very close to the twins, but that didn’t mean he was going to pull her away from her family because they wanted to speak with her. 

There was a hitch in Fred’s breath before he spoke again. “She’s okay though?”

“She’s fine.” 

After they had said goodbyes, Harry walked his sister and Hermione into Hogwarts. He wanted to speak to Zinnia alone and gave a wordless glance to Hermione. 

She nodded at him, giving his shoulder a squeeze before walking softly in the direction of the Gryffindor Tower. 

“You don’t have to walk me in.” Zinnia told him as they watched Hermione walk away. 

“Yes, I do.” 

Harry and Zinnia turned in silence towards the dungeons, and Zinnia kept quiet, knowing her brother was putting together his thoughts. 

They were a few feet from the entrance to the dorms when he stopped, turning to face her. “What were you thinking Zinny? Alone? What would have happened if I hadn’t seen you?” 

“I’m sorry.” 

“And you dragged Elias into it?” 

She puffed out her cheeks like a chipmunk before blowing the air slowly out. “No, he spotted me leaving. I told him to go back to his dorms and that I was just going for a walk.” 

Harry shook his head. “I didn’t even check the map for you because I trust you, because you’re smart—or so I thought—too smart to do stupid stuff like this. I just—this isn’t like you—why did you do it?”

“Mum and dad already lectured me and I’m not allowed to go to Hogsmeade at all this year.” She muttered, her voice quavering. 

“I’m not mum and dad. I want to know why you did it.” Harry insisted, staring down, meeting emerald eyes that echoed his own. 

Her lips tightened stubbornly, and her chin lifted. 

“The phone call I got? That was Fred and George Weasley looking for you.” 

Her eyes widened before she controlled it. “Okay.” 

Harry sighed, running a hand roughly through his hair. They were all going to be zombies tomorrow. Thank Merlin, it was Friday. “I love you, Zinny, I just wish you’d stop thinking you always have to handle shit on your own. I’m here, okay?” 

She smiled at him before hugging him, and he gave her a tight squeeze before letting her go and saying goodnight. 

Harry’s feet dragged as he made his way up to Gryffindor tower, entering to find Hermione standing leaning against the back of the couch. As soon as she saw him, she went up and gave him a hug. “Everything okay?” 

He buried his face in the side of her neck, muttering to her. “She’s so fucking stubborn. She never lets me help her.” 

Harry pulled back, meeting Hermione’s eyes. “You can’t do that to me okay?” 

“Do what?” 

“Not let me help you if you need it. I know this is new, I know it’s too soon, too much, I just—” He stopped, his hand cradling the side of her face. 

Harry’s emerald eyes were so intense, it was difficult to keep his gaze. 

“I promise.” She whispered, leaning up to kiss him. 

Chapter Text

Harry marched toward where Hermione sat under a tree reading quietly in the fading afternoon light. He saw her glance at him quickly, then back to her book while a slight smile curved her lips. 

“Hermione.” He drew her name out almost in a whine, dropping down onto the grass to sit next to her and pulling her close to cuddle her. 

“Yes?” she asked, still trying to read while he buried in his nose in the side of her neck. 

“This is our last chance to enjoy the serenity. Pay attention to me.” 

She laughed, finally putting aside her book and pulling back so she could meet his gaze. “Why? What’s going on?” 

“My dad is going to go interrogate Fred and George about why Zinny was in the forest.” 

Her brow creased. “Mmm Ron’s older brothers? The twins?” 

“Also known as Zinny’s slaves.” 

“Ah.” She had heard Draco and Harry refer to the Weasley twins that way. “You know your sister strikes me as someone who makes up her own mind and isn’t easily influenced.” 

“Kind of like you. Wait — did I just compare you to my sister? Gross.” Harry tugged on her book, pulling it out of her hands so she would focus on him. 

“You’re a bit mental today, aren’t you?” 

“Family.” He said succinctly. 

“Your father seemed very nice when I met him the other day. I can’t imagine he would be too extra when he questions Fred.” 

Harry was quiet for a moment, his eyes fixed past her into the distance before he shook his head and he focused on her again. “He is very nice. The best actually, I don’t even want to think of what I might have been like without him.” 

Hermione thought it must be strange for Harry to read about his parents in history books, knowing the risks they took during the war. James Potter wasn’t just a war hero, he was the war hero. “He’s the one who killed Tom Riddle, right?” 

“Yeah.” 

“I read about them in several books.” 

“Not everything that happened is in books.” 

Hermione eyed him skeptically. “Like?” 

Harry gave her a sly smile, letting himself relax back against the trunk of the tree. “I’m just so tense. I don’t know if I have the willpower to talk about it.” 

“You’re such a dork.” She laughed as she got closer, leaning against his chest as he looped his arms around her. 

“You mispronounced awesome.” 

Hermione huffed, leaning closer so her lips were against his neck. Her hand slid down his chest in a petting motion. “Maybe you’d be awesome if you actually asked me to be your girlfriend instead of just telling everyone I was.” 

“Ah, you noticed that?” 

“Yes, I was there when it happened actually.” She said half teasing and half annoyed. 

“Oh.” He paused. “Hermione, will you pretty please with sugar on top be my girlfriend?” 

“What would you do if I said no after you already told everyone?” 

Harry looked up into the branches of the tree, thinking. “Uh, go cry with Moaning Myrtle and continue telling everyone you’re with me, anyway?” 

She paused her petting to give him a small pinch. 

“Ouch. Okay, I would have just tried harder to convince you. I’m very persuasive.” 

Hermione thought about how quickly he had swept her off her feet when she initially had such a bad view of him and nodded. “You definitely are.” She leaned up with the intention to give him a light kiss, but his hand came up to cup her cheek, holding her in place while he deepened the kiss. 

The kiss broke slowly, both their lips redder, and they smiled slowly at each other. Harry stroked her curls back, tucking an errant curl behind her ear, before pulling her close to him as he leaned back against the tree. 

After a minute, Hermione asked, “So what exactly do you know that’s not in the history books about the war?” 

“Hmm. It’s hard to know where to start.” Harry paused, thinking. “It’s all in the books how it started—that part is all correct, but it’s not in the books about my father leaving the Order of the Phoenix.” 

“What? Your father left the Order? But the Order brought down Riddle.” Hermione was shocked. 

“Not exactly. Well–not at all.” 

“Then tell me.” 

“When my mum was pregnant with me, a seer made a prophecy.” 

“Psh.” Hermione rolled her eyes. Divination was such trash imprecise magic. Either it was right and everyone called the person a seer or it was wrong and then, obviously, it was that the witch or wizard was a fake–there was no way to disprove it. 

“Dumbledore believed it - and more importantly, Tom Riddle believed it.” 

“They both knew the prophecy? I don’t remember anything being written about a prophecy in the history books.” 

“A spy was there when the seer gave the prophecy to Dumbledore and he gave the information to Riddle. The prophecy isn't in the history books because well-” Harry shrugged. "It didn't happen." 

“What was the prophecy?” 

Harry told her the prophecy having memorized it as a child, Hermione made a humming sound as she thought it through. “Born as the seventh month dies? That’s so generic. There must have been more than one baby born in late July whose parents fought against Riddle. There was a war going on, after all.” 

“Me and Neville.” 

“Neville?” asked Hermione, thinking of the sweet herbology-fixated Gryffindor. 

“Yes. But Riddle fixated on my family for whatever reason so Dumbledore tried to convince my family to hide. My father agreed that my mother and I should hide, but he wanted to fight and after arguing, he left the order along with several others.” 

“Why do the books still say he was part of the order, then?” 

Harry shrugged. “I asked dad that when I was old enough to read the books and he just told me not to believe everything I read in books.” 

Hermione looked annoyed by that statement. “Well, of course, if it's a fictional book, but there are many reliable treatises—” 

He cut her off with a brief kiss. “Do you want me to finish?” 

“Yes,” she muttered, shutting up. 

“Dad likes to tell me that the hardest part of the war was getting my mum to hide with me. They made a fidelius charm to hide me and my mother in our house in Godric's Hollow, and he was the secret keeper. Then he made an unbreakable vow never to reveal it unless Riddle was dead with Sirius and Remus was the bonder.” 

“So a potion or spell couldn’t force him. Smart.” Hermione murmured while Harry nodded. 

“Then the ones who had left made vows to each other - never to serve Voldemort, and that’s when they found out.” 

Hermione’s eyes were wide. “There was a traitor?” 

“Traitors.” He responded emphasizing the plural. 

“Who?” 

“One of my father’s friends that he grew up with, and another one who had always been their enemy. Both had served Voldemort and taking the oath would have killed them.”

Hermione had straightened, leaning closer to Harry, fully invested in the tale. “What happened to them?”  

“One was the spy who heard the prophecy. He didn’t realize it would make Riddle focus on my family or he probably wouldn't have told—he was in love with my mum, you see.” 

“So I’m guessing that was the one that was always your dad’s enemy?” 

Harry smirked. “How did you guess?” 

She rolled her eyes. “Okay, get on with it! What happened then?” 

“Dumbledore prevented them from acting against the spy — he said he was more valuable as a double agent, but the other wizard—their friend — they imperioused to use to bait a trap for Riddle.” 

He paused again, and Hermione had to rein in her impatience. She could tell he was thinking. 

“And that’s when my father and uncles won the war.” He shrugged. “They don’t talk of that time often. I think my dad only told me everything because he still worries about protecting us.” 

“To have your family targeted by the darkest wizard in recent magical history? Yes, that would make any parent very protective.”

Harry made a hum of agreement, his hand reaching for Hermione’s, twining their fingers together. “He’s right though.” 

“To talk to the Weasleys? Why?” 

Worry made his brow crease as he met her eyes. “Zinnia is a lot of things, but stupidly trying to transform by herself in the dark forest without me or our parents as backup? She’s doing something like that for a reason, and knowing her–” His hand tightened on hers. “Knowing her, I’m bloody worried about what the hell that reason is.” 

Fred Weasley looked up as the door to Weasleys Wizard Wheezes opened and smashed against the wall with the bell clanging harshly. His mouth opened with a smart remark about not abusing his door but shut it abruptly. Three older wizards walked into the shop, their cloaks flaring slightly as if even the wind was helping them make a menacing impression. 

James Potter strode in front flanked by Sirius Black and Remus Lupin, and Fred braced himself for a confrontation he’d been expecting but dreading. He was glad his brother was in the back processing a recent shipment for the shop. James Potter had always seemed nice enough, even though Fred had never interacted with him directly. However, judging from the slight curl of his lip as he approached the counter and the look in his eyes, that wasn’t going to be the case today. 

Today Fred wasn’t facing family friends, he was facing the trio that had brought down one of the most feared dark wizards in recent magical history DESPITE a prophecy claiming it was impossible. 

James Potter stopped when he got to the counter and placed both hands on the edge, leaning forward slightly, his expression relaxed with the same curl at the side of his mouth. Without a word being said, Sirius Black walked a few paces to the left while Remus Lupin went to the right, each leaning against opposite ends of the counter. Their placement cut off Fred’s exits should he want to run. He didn’t, but that didn’t stop him from noticing. 

“Mr. Potter.” Fred paused, then his eyes flicked to the other two before back to James’ unblinking gaze. “Mr. Black and Mr. Lupin.” 

Sirius laughed, his fingers tapping on the counter in a rhythm. While James and Remus had grey hair creeping at the edges of their temples, Sirius' hair remained completely black and fell in waves to shoulders. “Lord Black, actually, now that my father kicked the bucket.” 

“How’re your mum and dad, Fred?” James asked, his gaze fixed on Fred. 

Fred couldn’t control his eyes widening as James addressed him correctly. Even his mother easily confused him and George. The only one who never seemed to–He cut the thought off by clearing his throat. “Very well, Mr. Potter.” 

“That’s good. Nothing is more important than family.” James said with a smile that seemed more like a bearing of teeth. His hazel eyes seemed not to blink as they pinned Fred in place. 

“Familia supra omnia.” Remus murmured where he leaned causally, watching them. 

James looked over at Remus briefly before turning back to Fred. “See! Moony always gets me! Family over everything.” 

“Ah, you’re choking me up, James.” Sirius pretended to wipe away a tear. “You’re brother to me—and Moony—well—he’s just mine.” He winked at Remus who rolled his eyes. 

The door behind the counter opened, and George walked out with a clipboard in hand. “Fred-”

The three men moved faster than the blink of an eye. Remus reached over, grabbed George, and pinned him against the counter with his wand against his neck. Sirius jumped over the counter transforming into a large vicious black dog knocking down Fred, his lips pulled back to reveal sharp fangs. 

James leaped onto the counter, his wand out and gaze fixed on Fred pinned beneath Sirius’ heavy animagus form. 

“What the bloody-” George cut off as Remus squeezed him. 

“Keep quiet lad.” 

James’ attention hadn’t wavered from Fred Weasleys panicked blue eyes. “Do you know?” 

“Know what?” Fred asked, his voice hoarse from the weight on his chest. 

“Good.” James cocked his head as Sirius’ fangs approached Fred’s neck. “Now, Fred, as I rushed over to my baby who was hurt in the middle of a dark forest. I asked myself—why is my little girl doing this? What reason might she have?” 

“I don’t know–” Fred’s choked response cut off as Sirius’ mouth clamped on his neck. 

There was a grunt as George tried to throw off Remus and got his arm twisted harshly behind his back as a result. 

James continued as if nothing had happened. “And then my son gets a call from you—and—-AND—you asked where my daughter is? If she’s okay?”

“He was trying to protect her, you fucking psychos!” George finally managed to yell, ignoring the wand at his neck. 

“Sirius.” James' tone had Sirius releasing slightly, and a small droplet of blood went down Fred’s neck. “You want to protect my daughter?” 

“Yes!”

“That’s good, that’s good. Now see here, my friend Remus is really really good at sniffing out a lie. So you’re going to answer some questions for me truthfully or…” He trailed off as Sirius growled. 

“My brother doesn’t lie–” George began but James cut him off. 

“I’ve heard about both of your Hogwarts exploits. I’m sure you lie quite well.” 

“Not about Zinnia.” Fred shot back. 

There was a pause while James met Fred’s eyes. “Do you know why she went into the forest alone?” 

“No.” 

James looked over at Remus, raising an eyebrow. Remus nodded and James sighed, relaxing a bit. “Now Fred, I’m going to give you another chance. Don’t mess it up and maybe one day we’ll be family.” He laughed, jumping down from the counter and the other two men took their cue from him, coming back around the counter. 

George immediately went to help his brother up, and they stood facing the three men. James looked at the mark on Fred’s neck. “Damn, Padfoot, you could have killed him.” His cold eyes met Fred’s. “I just saved your life. Now, what do you say?” 

Fred’s jaw tightened at the threat. “Thank you.” 

James nodded, relaxing further. “Good. Good! I’m glad we had this talk. Now you be a good friend to my daughter - just not too good of a friend.” 

“Molly,” muttered Remus to James. 

James smiled as he met Fred’s wide gaze. “Oh, don’t tell mummy about this okay? My wife likes her.” 

The three men turned around, making their way back out of the store. Sirius asked,” Is familia supra omnia our new motto? Moony sounded hot as fuck, saying that.” 

“Pervert, it means we’re family.” James shoved him. 

“Incest is like thirty percent of porn.” 

James turned to Remus, pointing his finger in his face as they exited the shop. “I told you not to show him House of the Dragon. That’s all your fault!”

Remus shrugged. “It has dragons. Muggle versions are so weird, I can’t help but watch it.” 

“I can’t get over the white hair thing—- it's like a show about all the Malfoys getting it on.” James shuddered. 

Sirius shrugged. “Eh, live and let live, I only have one OTP.” 

“Sirius–” Remus began. 

“Wolfstar!” 

Remus blushed. 

Astoria Greengrass' hands were clenched at her sides as she faced her friend in the girl's bathroom. “I can’t wait Z, I’ll just —” 

“You’ll wait.” Zinnia cut her off firmly. “If you get caught doing an unforgivable, it would be something your dad can't get you out of–at the very least, you’ll get expelled.”

“My dad isn’t like yours. He’d rather me get expelled and go to Azkaban than those pictures get leaked.”  

“And you’re sure Goldstein took them?” 

“It has to be him, I left my bookbag in the library and he was the one that gave it to me—and the smirk he had when he handed it over — and the anonymous comments on my insta started right after that.” Tears glittered in Astoria’s eyes. “I can’t handle anyone knowing, I’m not ready yet–I can’t—” 

Zinnia pulled her into a tight hug. “I’m going to find the pictures, I promise.”

“Don’t tell anyone, Z.” 

There was a short pause. “I won’t tell anyone.” 

“Okay, I’ll wait a little longer.” Astoria sniffled, pulling back and wiping away tears. “I got to get to class or Professor McGonagall is going to give me detention.” 

“I’ll be right after you okay? I just need a minute.” 

Astoria gave her a shaky smile and then left the bathroom. Zinnia stood still for a minute before speaking. “How much did you hear?” 

Hermione was a little annoyed as she removed her illusion charm, she had never been caught before while using it. “How did you spot me?” 

“I may not be able to fully shift into my animagus form, but I can still make out heat signatures.” 

“Of course, a snake.” 

Zinnia nodded, her face watchful. 

Hermione watched her back just as closely. She didn’t know what exactly those pictures contained, but going by the other witch’s reaction, it had to be extremely personal. “That’s why you didn’t tell your brother.” 

“I promised.” 

“You could have let him help.” 

Zinnia shook her head. “No way, then he’d need to know everything—he’s just like dad–and it’s not my secret to tell.” 

Hermione put her hands on her hips. “I’ve only known your brother a couple of months, but I would bet you anything if you went up to him and told him you needed him—he would help you–no questions asked.” 

“Maybe.” 

Hermione smiled at her. “Bet.”

Chapter Text

The Gryffindor common room hummed with activity on a Friday night, games and laughter echoing through the large open room. Hermione considered Harry sitting across from her. He was reading an obscure text on the Dark Arts. When she questioned him about his reading, he told her the best defense was knowledge. So Harry made it a point to learn as much as possible about both offense and defensive magical combat. Harry’s gaze was intent on the text, his lips occasionally moving as he mouthed the spells carefully, his fingers twitching slightly as if he was holding his wand. 

Hermione understood Zinnia felt torn between keeping her friend’s secrets and helping her. However, Zinnia was making a situation much more complex than it needed to be—Hermione had seen how intensely Harry had wanted to help his sister the night they had found her stuck mid-transformation in the dark forest. 

Time to put her theory to the test. Hermione leaned forward on the loveseat she was sharing with Harry and kissed him softly with a smile, distracting him from his text. “I need a favor.” 

“Anything.” The words left his lips immediately as his eyes met hers, his focus shifting to her instantly. The attentiveness of his gaze let her know without words how important she was to him. Harry watching her like that made her heartbeat quicken. She gave herself a mental shake to focus on why she interrupted his reading. 

“How would I get everyone out of Ravenclaw's common room and dorms if I needed it empty for an hour?” That should be more than enough time to find whatever it was that he was hiding. Especially if Astoria was okay with Hermione knowing what she was trying to find, otherwise two witches searching all his belongings should still be capable. 

A slight frown knit Harry’s forehead. “Why do you need the Ravenclaw rooms empty?” 

 Hermione met his eyes quietly for a moment, reaching for his hand. “Will you help me without knowing the why?” 

“Yes.” His answer came without a pause, but she saw the questions in his eyes. He wanted to know why she needed the Ravenclaw rooms empty, but he was going to help her anyway just as she thought. “How sneaky do we have to be? Because Luna and Goldstein could clear them out if I ask them.” 

“I don’t want anyone to wonder why it’s empty.” 

Harry was quiet for a few moments, his eyes searching hers, trying to figure out a puzzle without enough pieces for the whole picture. 

“Draco and I could have a duel. It pisses him off he can't disarm me. The last time we went up against each other in fifth year,  we blew out a portion of the D.A.D.A classroom wall and had detention for two months because we used unauthorized spells.” 

“You didn’t use any unauthorized spells when we dueled.” Hermione was a bit miffed he hadn’t had to break the rules when fighting her. 

“I only used unauthorized spells after Draco did first because he’s a knob about losing.” 

Hermione snickered, remembering the two of them elbowing each other during the quidditch match. “And you think if you two did a duel, everyone would come to watch?” 

“Oh yeah, probably the teachers too, Dumbledore and McGonagall, try to hide the fact they favor Gryffindor but against Slytherin? It's catnip to both of them.” 

“The house system here is so strange, and on the word of an enchanted hat? So many take it so seriously.” 

Harry shrugged. “Wizarding Britain from what I’ve seen by traveling with my family tends to be more insular and resistant to change than some other countries.” 

“Yes!” Hermione rolled her eyes. “I have never met more witches and wizards completely disconnected from the wider muggle world than here.” 

“My mum says it's gotten better actually, since after the war.  Before that, it wasn’t just ignorance—it was more like hate.” 

Hermione had read the stories from the first war about the ideology of blood purity and superiority to muggles. “It is so mental, to think you’re better than someone just because of who your parents are or your blood status.” 

“Well, it's not like it's just wizards who think that sometimes, it's muggles too.” 

“I know but I just…” 

“Wish people were smarter?” 

Hermione laughed. “Yes.”

“In this case, it will work in our favor, because no one is going to think twice when Draco and I duel.” 

“Are you just going to walk up and ask him to a duel?” 

Harry gave a mischievous smile,” Where would be the fun in that?” 

Hermione stood next to Zinnia and Astoria watching as a crowd formed in the great hall, circling Draco and Harry as they argued loudly. 

“Listen Malfoy if you want pointers on how to actually catch—”

“As if I need pointers from someone who has to cast sticking charms for their bloody glasses—”

“Your mother adores—”

“Don’t bring my mother into this Potter!”

“Or what? You’ll tell your father?” 

Their chests bumped, both of them sneering at each other looking angry.  Hermione looked at Zinnia nervously, but she had a slight smirk on her face as she watched her brother and her cousin. The rest of the crowd was screaming encouragement as everyone picked a side as if they were already dueling. 

“I challenge you to a duel,” Draco said in a threatening voice, his grey eyes flashing. 

Harry laughed in his face, waving his hand in a shooing motion. “I don’t know if I have time to waste on you today.” 

Draco twirled his wand in his hand,” Scared?”

“Only in your most fevered dreams, Malfoy.” Harry scoffed.

“Ah, so you are scared. It is okay to be scared. Just admit it.” 

Harry’s lip curled, his hand tightening on his wand. “I accept.” 

“See, was that so hard?” 

Their wands raised. “Stop right now!” a voice roared from the side, drawing everyone’s startled attention. Landon Zabini stepped into the circle that had been created around Harry and Draco. 

The tall dark-skinned professor glared at the entire crowd. “What exactly is going on here?”

“A duel!” screamed the breathless crowd while Harry and Draco continued to glare at one another.  

“Merlin save me from high-strung teenage wizards,” Landon muttered to himself. “Now boys, you know you are forbidden to duel—” 

“Ah Landon, don’t forget the passion of the young. Perhaps if we allow them to take the duel outside this time?” Albus Dumbledore strolled through the crowd, his twinkling eyes taking in the situation. 

“Headmaster—” 

“It is their actions and choices that will show us who they truly are— and our responsibility as our their teachers to let them make those choices.” 

Landon sighed, muttering to himself. “Outside! Outside for this duel — and no unauthorized spells, Malfoy.” 

“Yes, sir,” Draco answered flippantly, winking at the crowd. 

In less than five minutes, every single person was gone from the room other than Hermione, Astoria, Zinnia — and an interested Luna who was watching them closely. 

Luna smiled and stood up, approaching them, but Zinnia just waved her off, grabbing Astoria's hand to rush out of the Great Hall in the direction of the Ravenclaw common room. 

“Aren’t you going to go watch the duel?” Hermione asked Luna. 

She smiled at her and shook her head. “I was more curious why Draco was pretending so hard. Although he did get annoyed when Harry mentioned his mother. He loves her very much.” 

“Um.”

Luna looked to the side where Zinnia and Astoria had disappeared. “Maybe we should catch up with them?” 

“Yeah okay.” Hermione walked quickly toward the Ravenclaw common room, Luna following behind. 

They heard the riddle spoken by the eagle knocker as they approached, “You will always find me in the past. I can be created in the present. But the future will never taint me.”

Luna laughed and spoke first,” Memories. I like that one.” 

The Ravenclaw door swung open at her answer. 

“I thought it never repeated itself?” Hermione asked her, confused since she had read extensively about the school in Hogwarts A History . 

“It doesn’t.” Luna agreed as they all went into the empty Ravenclaw Common room.  

Astoria and Zinnia ran into the boys' dormitory, misogyny for once working in their favor as there were no protective enchantments preventing girls from entering the boys' dormitories—only for boys entering the girls. 

She started to follow them to help search but Luna caught her arm, “Don’t worry, they’ll have it in a moment.” 

“I don’t know how Draco manages you,” Hermione muttered, staring at Luna. 

Luna giggled at that. “He can’t. That’s why we work.” 

Luna was right, though; not a moment later, Astoria emerged clutching a handful of letters to her chest, crying over them, and muttering,” Thank Merlin.” Over and over to herself while Zinnia rubbed her back comfortingly. 

“Let’s get to the duel before anyone misses us,” Zinnia said, urging them all to rush back downstairs in the direction of the quidditch pitch. 

They were still quite far away when a thunderous boom made them all jump and start running faster. Hermione shoved through the crowd until she saw Harry and Draco in the center of the Quidditch field. The surrounding ground was churned up as if a tornado had blasted through it. The tip of Harry’s robe was smoldering while Draco clutched at his right side.

As if they sensed them, both boys' heads jerked briefly toward the stands.  Harry met Hermione’s eyes and she nodded at him, before searching out his sister seeing her patting Astoria Greengrass while glaring at Anthony Goldstein. His gaze went back to Hermione to find she too had turned to glare at Goldstein. 

Harry didn’t need a Marauders' Map to connect those dots. He glanced back at Draco just in time to see him blow a kiss to Luna. Dumbarse. He shot a quick expelliarmus while Draco was distracted, his spell yanking Draco’s wand from his relaxed grip. 

Draco reacted instantly, his hand reaching for his wand as he plowed into Harry, yelling,” Accio wand!” 

His wandless magic wasn’t good enough to bring his wand to his grasp, but it knocked the wand out of its arc toward Harry’s hand. Harry grunted as Draco’s bony shoulder plowed into his stomach. “Goldstein.” He muttered as he took a dive. 

“What?” Draco asked not hearing him over the screaming crowd. 

Harry spoke up a little louder as they rolled in the dirt, both wrestling for Harry’s wand, Draco’s lying several feet away. “Goldstein, you git!” 

Draco’s eyes widened in comprehension and he nodded as Professor Landon started coming towards them yelling for them to break it up,” This is a magical duel, not a bloody wrestling match! Get your arses up off the ground!” 

Draco rolled off abruptly, grabbing at his wand and leaping to his feet at the same time as Harry. Draco’s eyes darted to Goldstein picking him out in the crowd, and he gave a short nod toward Harry. 

Harry pointed his wand at Draco and Draco leaped for Harry just as he started to speak.  His momentum crashed into Harry's outthrust arm ruining his aim, “Papilo Alteramentum!”

Harry’s spell shot out wildly–straight into the screaming crowd.

Landing ever so accidentally on Anthony Goldstein. 

Lily Potter paced back and forth in front of her husband and his two best friends. “Where would he learn such a spell? A little boy is turning into a human butterfly and St Mungos is scratching their heads!”

Lucius Malfoy worked on keeping his glee contained as he stood by his wife as she sipped her tea, also watching Lily Potter take the heroes of the Wizarding War to task. 

Sirius offered hopefully,” Well, you know in a couple of weeks the chrysalis should hatch–”

“I wonder how large his wings will be,” James said unthinkingly. 

“You!” She shook her finger at her husband. 

James held his hands up, palms out at his wife,” Dear, I’m effective, not imaginative–I don’t know how he got that spell.” 

“You weren’t effective with Fred Weasley.” Narcissa calmly lobbed the bomb at the three sitting on the couch and their mouths dropped open. 

“What is this about Fred Weasley? You know Molly Weasley is a very dear friend of mine.” Lily said dangerously. 

All three paled and began babbling. “Look, I barely chewed on him–” Sirius began. 

Remus wrung his hands. “Well, we needed to know the truth, right?” 

James mutinously stared at her, still convinced he was justified. “He was calling my baby!” 

Lily clapped a hand over her eyes. 

Lucius leaned down to his wife to whisper into her ear, “You know you’re the sexiest Slytherin that has ever lived?” 

Narcissa gave a little smile, sipping her tea. She did so enjoy visiting all her relatives. She winked at Sirius.  

Sirius threw a sign for Weasley’s Wizard Wheezes high into the air, his wand following it to make it dart like a rocket around the corner. Giving a challenging look toward James. 

Tossing his own sign in the air, James shot an exploding hex at it, making it scatter into confetti before using a wind charm to scoop all the pieces back up and casting a reparo as the astonished crowd clapped. 

“Show off,” Sirius grumbled, walking a few paces away, his war medals clinking on his robe. 

“You two are both bloody mental,” Remus muttered, tugging on his formal robes, and holding his sign in a desultory fashion. 

George Weasley had been gaping open mouth at the window of the store since the three older wizards had arrived marching to stand in front of the store with their own signs advertising Weasley’s Wizard Wheezes. Reporters stood by them, still snapping occasional pictures and getting quotes from the crowd.  

The business was teeming as the three war heroes acted as sandwich men for their company. 

“George, come open another till please!” Fred called out, dragging his twins' attention away from the spectacle. 

“But—” 

“Don’t impede the money flow.” 

“Fine.” 

Zinnia sitting on a stool next to Fred’s till giggled to herself. She leaned against the counter, watching everything avidly. 

“Happy with yourself, Z?” Fred asked. 

She shot him a smile, “I just love it when everything works out—thanks to mum of course.” 

“Your mum?” 

“She’s the final boss, just like I’m going to be when I grow up.” 

Hermione walked into the trophy room to see Harry hunched over a large Quidditch Cup award scrubbing at it with a polishing rag. 

“I thought they made students go to the dark forest for detentions.” 

Harry’s mouth kicked up at the corners but he didn’t look up from rubbing at the trophy,” Nah Filch figured out I liked that in fourth year and put a stop to it. It’s always bloody trophy polishing for me now. Merlin, save me from cantankerous janitors.” 

Hermione came up behind him leaning close, her breath caressing his ear pleasurably as she spoke, “How did you know to target Goldstein?” 

“Because I’m not an idiot.” Harry paused. “Malfoy is.” 

Hermione laughed, “You guys are so weird.” 

“Are you finally going to tell me what he did?” He glanced over his shoulder at her, finally meeting her eyes inquiringly. 

Hermione rested her chin on his shoulder, her arms wrapping around him in a hug from behind. “You didn’t know what he did, and you still cast that spell at him? What if he just stepped on my foot or something?” 

Harry gave a small shrug so as not to dislodge her from where she was draped over him. “He managed to step on yours and Zinnia’s foot? Fuck him.” 

Hermione gave a startled giggle at that, her eyes starting to water. 

“Hey,” Harry said, dropping the rag and the trophy to turn to pull her into his lap. “What’s wrong? Are you upset he’s going to be a butterfly? I’m sure they’ll figure it out, eventually.” 

“No, I’m happy he’s going to be a butterfly.” She paused, looking both ways before telling him in a low voice. “Fuck him!” 

Harry grinned seeing the blush spreading across her face at cursing, reaching out to trail his fingers along her cheek. “Then why did you look like you were about to cry?” 

Hermione shrugged, looking down at her hands. Harry cupped her chin, lifting her face to his so they were millimeters apart, their lips almost touching. “What’s wrong, chaton ?”

“Alors, je suis un chaton?” So I am a kitten?

Harry pressed his lips to hers, kissing her sweetly. “You told me I couldn’t call you foxy. I can imagine you with little kitten ears and whiskers, so cute.” 

“Hmph” Hermione scoffed, her lower lip sticking out in a pout. 

He nipped her, making her smile before pressing her again. “Why were you upset?” 

Hermione shifted twisting in his lap until she straddled him, making him swallow hard with the suggestiveness of their position. She looked down at him, cradling his face with both hands. “I–I just–” She stopped swallowing hard. “I just love you so bloody damn much and I don’t even know how this all happened!” She said, bewildered. He fell into her life with his damn broken glasses and annoyingly confident smiles and somehow she was so damn in love with him she couldn't imagine her life without him. 

“Hermione.” He whispered, staring up at her like she was the center of his universe, black crawling across the bright green of his irises. This time she saw it, her eyes wide on him.  Harry’s magic seemed to luminesce under his skin, lighting him incandescently from within. The magic arced out of his back in ripples stretching high, the colors of his magic shaping the individual lines of feathers to form huge eight-foot-tall wings behind his back. 

A tear slipped down her eye and she told him again, “I love you so much, Harry James Potter.” 

“I’ve been waiting all my life to hear those words from you.” He said reverently, his hand coming up to urge her closer to him. “I love you, Hermione Jean …Potter.” He finished with a sly smirk, his black eyes glinting. 

“Crazy.” She whispered against his lips. 

“Always for you.” He replied, kissing her passionately. 

Chapter Text

The hospital waiting room was large, but even so the Potters, Weasleys, Blacks, and lone Granger filled it to capacity. Sirius and Remus stood together, unable to sit down near the door but being careful not to block it. Sirius was elegantly turned out as if he expected to be giving a speech before the Wizengamot, a red velvet cloak with black stitching falling to just above his laced-up black boots. Remus looked as if he was a college student who had been cramming non-stop for days and was on the edge of his seat about passing his finals. His dark brown leather cloak, though, was excellently turned out, probably thanks to Sirius, considering how distracted Remus had been as Nymphadora Tonks, Sirius' cousin, approached her due date. 

Sirius had swept Remus off his feet, first with a proposal followed by large a wedding.  Then proceeding out of order as Sirius was wont to do, an intense six-month seduction combined with courting. When Sirius had topped that off by asking Remus to agree to a surrogacy with his cousin, Remus had practically floated around like a walking featherlight charm. 

Now though, as Nymphadora’s (or Tonks as she liked to be called) due date had arrived, they were both more than a little anxious. James Potter had his hands on the shoulders of both of his best friends, bracing them and talking to them too quietly for anyone else to hear.  

Harry leaned back next to his girlfriend, feeling a little anxious as he kept his eyes on the door too. Hermione and his mother seemed relaxed though, chattering about recent Wizengamot legislation regarding the protection of witches or wizards with creature inheritance. 

“I know I was quite shocked considering some of the sentiments I’ve heard those blaireaus prattle on about.” Hermione quietly told Lily Potter. 

“I’m not surprised at all,” Lily responded with a sly smile. “Especially once it became common knowledge about Draco.” 

“Mhmm,” Hermione said thoughtfully, thinking of Narcissa Malfoy. English wizarding society was interesting in a backward sort of way. Things tended not to progress without the rich and powerful pushing for it. Narcissa Malfoy had been extremely invested in the protections passing since six months ago Draco had spectacularly lost his temper in the middle of Diagon alley when two visiting Wizards from Russia had cast a feather light charm on Luna’s robe. 

Luna had been quite preoccupied with nargles at the time and hadn’t noticed her clothes floating away. However, Luna had been quite in tune with her boyfriend's temper and reacted lightning quick to jump on Draco before he could get himself sentenced to Azkaban at twenty by casting an unforgivable. 

The Ministry had portkeyed the offending wizards within minutes back to Russia to face punishment and avoid an international incident. 

“How are things going in the ministry, then?” Lily asked. 

“Very well, I’m still studying the history of the Wizengamot members—just yesterday I heard one complaining about slight received by his family member in the sixteenth century,” Hermione answered, still preoccupied with thinking about how to use the people she knew to her advantage.  

“Ugh. I don’t know how you can stand working for them.” Lily wrinkled her nose at the thought of the outlandish behaviors of the Wizengamot. 

Harry’s lips quirked, and he leaned forward to look at his mother. “She’s just obsessed with trying to be the boss of me. So she’s determined to take over the government.” 

“You like me bossing you.” Hermione poked Harry. 

Harry cast a wandless muffliato while his mother rolled her eyes and leaned away while he pulled Hermione close. “Don’t say those things that turn me on with so many people here. I can’t do anything about it.” 

“Everything turns you on. I’d have to sit here not speaking under a sack.” 

Harry looked at her, her narrow grey pencil skirt and white button-up blouse. Her long curly brown hair reached almost to her mid-back. Hermione had wanted to cut her hair because of the maintenance involved with it being so long. Harry had been increasingly desperately begging her not to because he loved it. 

It was her fault for being so hot. 

“You’re thinking out loud again,” Hermione said, smirking at him. 

“I still don’t think refraining from sexual activity in any way helps me concentrate,” Harry muttered at her, annoyed. 

“It wasn’t to help you concentrate. It was to give me to time to work on my portfolio of achievements for the deputy position. You’re insatiable.” 

He grinned, annoyance was forgotten quickly. “Don’t worry, I’ll work on your endurance. It's my life goal.” 

Hermione pressed her lips together to stop a completely brainless giggle from escaping. He really was too bloody charming. 

And he was all hers. She leaned forward to give him a peck on the cheek. “Behave.” Waving her hand to release the muffliato. 

At that moment, the door opened and everyone’s eyes darted to the healer that entered with a big smile. “Are you all ready to meet Edward Remus Black?” 

They all crowded after the doctor, Sirius and Remus in the front with James right behind them.  As soon as they stepped into the hospital room, Tonks gave them a big smile. “Here’s your fathers, Teddy.”

As they took their son, tears ran freely down Sirius and Remus’s faces.  A blood adoption would be performed later, even though the boy was already tightly connected to both Sirius and Remus. “Our son,” Sirius whispered in awe. 

Harry held Hermione’s hand tightly as they watched them cradle the teal-haired baby with his eyes tightly closed. 

“He’s so cute,” Hermione whispered softly to Harry, the tips of her fingers tingling strangely. She was trying to resist being intrusive and getting closer when Harry pulled her forward, not letting her stand in the back. 

Lily and James stepped back from where they had stood on each side of Sirius and Remus and Harry quickly stepped close so that he and Hermione took their place, unable to take his eyes off the infant. 

When they were close, little Teddy’s face turned in their direction, his little lips puckering. Sirius looked at Harry, a wet sheen in his eyes. “You feel it?” 

Harry reached out tentatively with the hand not holding onto Hermione. “Did you feel like this with me?” He asked, in awe at the feelings surging through him. 

Sirius looked back at his son, love shining in his silver eyes. “I could barely stand to leave you with your parents, you felt like my own.” 

Remus smiled down at the baby in his arms, stroking a cheek softly. “Meet your godparents, Teddy.” 

From somewhere in the back of the crowded room, Ron Weasley shouted. “Oi! Has she said yes yet? Is this legal?” 

“Fred, control your sibling,” Zinnia said from where she was crammed against the wall in the Weasley area. 

“Oh, I got this, Z,” Fred said, pulling out a tiny box with a red warning label in the shape of a spider. 

Five minutes later.

Draco Malfoy rushed up from the apparition point outside St Mungos hours late because he had managed to lose Luna in the dark forest despite a tracking charm and the fact she was his bloody bonded mate. Luna floated along a bit above him like a balloon admiring the clouds. 

“Can I walk now?” 

“No!” Draco halted when he spotted his cousin Zinnia surrounded by male Weasleys. He would never understand the Potter obsession with Weasleys. “What did everyone leave already?” 

Zinnia didn’t respond or even acknowledge him as she sat on the side of the hospital entrance steps, her green eyes stormy with anger, while Fred Weasley looked to be apologizing abjectly. 

Ron Weasley was collapsed on her other side, his blue eyes staring blankly upwards while his brother Percy appeared to be slapping him with too much glee. 

Charlie Weasley came to stand next to Draco, surveying the same scene with nonchalance. A single earring hung from his left ear, and three scars ran from the edge of the left side of his face before disappearing under his high-collared cloak. 

Luna turned over on her side and gave Charlie a wave and Draco flicked his hand at her, making her float higher into the air as she giggled. 

“Nah, they just temporarily banned Weasleys.” Charlie finally answered him. 

Draco pointed at Zinnia, fuming on the steps. “This is what is called the consequences of your choices.” 

Harry threw his phone to the side table with a laugh after texting his aunt. He turned to Hermione, who was half-dressed on the bed next to him, muttering under her breath as she read through legal texts. “Here’s your phone back.” 

“What did you need it for?” She asked not looking up. 

“To harass Draco.  He blocked you.” 

Hermione paused blinking down at her book before looking up. “You got your cousin to block me?” 

“Don’t worry I'm sure he’ll unblock us all eventually.” 

“Aren’t you two training partners at MLE?” 

“Eh. He can’t block my patronus.  I’ll keep sending it over there with messages until he gives in.” 

“Dumbarses,” Hermione muttered looking down at her book again. 

“What was that?” Harry asked putting his head close to her. 

“Nothing.” 

He slid his hand under her shirt, sliding it up her back and feeling her shiver. “I thought I heard you being mean to me.” 

Hermione pressed her lips together trying not to smile and shook her head holding onto the book tightly. 

“If you were being mean to me you’d have to make it up to me. That’s what a caring girlfriend does.” His other hand slid under the book and between her legs going higher. 

“Harry—” 

His hand grabbed the sensitive skin of her thigh and she squealed. “Oh were you saying you were sorry?” 

The book got thrown to the side as Hermione gave into giggles while Harry pulled her underneath him settling between her legs. “I’m not sorry!” 

“Oh, you’re not?” Harry asked his green eyes light with mischief. “We’ll see about that.” His hands tightened on her legs pushing them upward and out, spreading her before him. 

His head lowered and Hermione’s hands reached for him threading through his hair. “I love you, Harry.” 

Harry paused, his head lifting to meet her eyes, his darkening a bit unnaturally. “Marry me then?” 

Hermione could see the familiar luminescent of Harry’s skin as his emotions surged. Sometimes she still marveled that he was hers. From the first moment she had seen him, it had been a struggle to resist him. Harry leaned closer to her, his magic spreading behind him in waves that crested higher looping to form his wings. “Hermione…” He whispered as his magic wings circled them.

Hermione wiggled a little lower on the bed and Harry released her legs so she could bring her face close to his. When Harry looked at her like that it was like only the two of them existed for each other. A match with perfect synchronicity. Meant to be. 

“I think my whole life was waiting for you to fall at my feet, Harry Potter.” She whispered to him. 

“So that’s a yes then?” 

“Yes,” Hermione said reaching for him. 

“Yes.” Harry surged against her, thrusting inside her as his magic radiated outward, covering her, reaching her. Hermione’s nails dug into his shoulders as pleasure shot through her, her nipples tightening. 

But there was something… 

“But—” 

The magic surging through Harry had lightened his skin, he looked so pale with the lighter magic glowing along his veins to emerge into the wing pattern at his back. The lightened skin only made the contrast with his black hair and eyes even sharper. 

“Yes,” Harry repeated again, thrusting deeper. 

Hermione tried to form words as the intensity built, she could feel Harry, could feel his pleasure as he drove into her making her own surge higher. How was this possible? She tried to form words but the only sounds that came from her mouth were moans and pleas for more as he moved over her. His wings sheltered them from seeing anything but magic and each other. 

“You’re not–” She finally managed clutching at him, her legs wrapped around his hips. 

Harry reached for her legs, pulling them higher on his hips as he made love to her, feeling the bond he had felt since the first moment he saw her finally finally take hold. His perfect half. 

“My wife.” Because she was, even though they still had to do the wedding ceremony. She was his. She had finally said yes. “I told you, I’m just enough.” 

Moony, Padfoot, He Who Was Right

SHE SAID YES
He Who Was Right

Padfoot

Moony
Moony
BLOODY FUCKING HELL!