NOVEL NEXT Chapter 17: Family Matters
The laughter at the table was interrupted by Dan Granger, "sorry if I'm raining on anyone's parade here, but don't we get a say in this marriage? Hermione is after all only fourteen and still our daughter, we could simply remove her from Hogwarts."
Hermione jumped in before Harry could say anything, "when you signed the form that allowed me to attend Hogwarts it wasn't just a contract with a school, it basically stated your daughter was a witch and would be joining the magical world. For me to be removed from this world would need the agreement of my magical guardian, my parents and myself."
"When I entered the magical world Albus Dumbledore was my magical guardian, that was totally unacceptable and my betrothal to Lord Potter here remedied that situation. So now Harry is my betrothed and magical guardian and if you think there is any way either of us would agree to your suggestion then your not as smart as I always thought you were."
"Mr Granger," Harry continued, "what you have to understand is I'm not some hormonal teenager after your daughters body."
"Your not?" cried Hermione, feigning shock "Oh Harry darling, I'm going to be so disappointed."
"Not helping dear." Harry cautioned.
"Sorry, just couldn't help myself"
"As I was saying before being rudely interrupted." Hermione stuck her tongue out at him, "I intend to be with your daughter for the rest of our lives, I watched her die in front of my eyes and that will not happen again." The passion in his voice combined with the fire contained in his eyes gave credence to the fact that this was no normal almost fourteen-year-old boy.
"We know how precious life is and having been given a second chance at life we intend to live it to the fullest. We will truthfully say that our wedding on the 31st July will be our first time together but we have no intentions of being parted until then. I make no apologies but we will not sneak about as if we're doing something wrong." Harry felt Hermione's arms go around him as her head rested on his shoulder.
Harry continued, "what I will apologise for is pulling you both into a war that you had no knowledge of and I'm afraid what we tell you is going to be based on your relationship with us."
Dan was starting to lose his temper at being dictated to by this young lad but Emma put her hand on his leg; the shock of this unaccustomed contact was enough to keep him in check for the moment. "Could you explain that last comment please Harry," asked Emma.
Remus was about to leave when Hermione asked him to stay, "Remus, we hope you and Sirius will stay with us, we would like to consider you both family. If things had turned out different you know that you would have been part of Harry's life all these years and there's a lot of catching up to do. We will explain what we can later."
Harry turned to the Grangers,
"I have all Hermione's memories so as an outsider looking in I know what the family relationship is, I also know why thanks to two years of memories that you don't have. Mr Granger today in the bank you were in way over your head yet you stood there, sword in hand, ready to kill for your wife and daughter. There was never any doubt in my mind that you love both dearly and I know how Hermione feels about her dad, if I may say so Mrs Granger's feelings were also glaringly obvious." Dan looked at his wife and did something he hadn't done in years; he leaned over and kissed her on the cheek. They were both blushing like teenagers.
"The point I'm trying to make here is that it's not just Hermione and I who have been given a second chance, we all have. As to the relationship with us, we hope it can be a close one where we can come for advice, a much-needed hug or even a kick up the arse if we need it. If you wish to keep it polite, Christmas and Birthdays we will understand but you must also understand that we would have to be careful what we say. I am not being dramatic here as today's events proved, people are either trying to kill or control us and I'm afraid you are both going to get sucked into that."
"After what happened today I don't think there's any way we could doubt you about a war going on but I feel we are being asked to make decisions here by a boy we just met today without most of the facts. I hope you understand where my frustration and even anger is coming from, my family is in great danger and I don't have a clue what's going on." Dan was as usual trying to be reasonable but it was getting harder with each passing moment.
Emma had seen the effect that Hermione's hug had on Harry when he was getting upset so she emulated her daughter and hugged her husband, resting her head on his shoulder. She could feel the tension leaving his body and the contact felt so nice she was almost crying at the thought of what she had denied herself for so many years, she agreed with Harry this was a second chance for them as well.
"We will try and explain it as best we can, there are five factions in this battle, the goblins, Voldemort and his death eaters, Fudge with his ministry lackeys, Dumbledore and his worshipers – especially the Weasleys, with of course Hermione and I slap bang in the middle of it. After today we're pretty sure the goblins are now on our side, this is a massive boost as the other three have been courting them and with Dumbledore now persona non grata we're already well ahead of the game." Harry explained.
Hermione knew what was bothering her dad and tried to explain, "When Harry killed Voldemort in the ministry it was for the forth time," Hermione started counting them off on her fingers to her astonished parents and Remus,
"As a fifteen month old baby, earning him a scar and a nick-name, as an eleven year old when he possessed our defence teacher, as a twelve year old with the complication of having to kill the Basilisk that petrified me and again at the ministry when he had his twelve best death eaters with him and still got his arse whipped. That's why we're in the middle; no one else has even hit him with a spell. Harry is like the super weapon that two factions want to control while the third wants it eliminated."
'Do you know why Voldemort wants to kill you and, perhaps more important, why he wont stay dead?" asked a bewildered Remus.
"Yes to both questions Remus, the first will have to stay a secret as only three people know it, the other one being Dumbledore. Had we known the secret there's a very good chance we wouldn't have been anywhere near the ministry that night. The other question we will answer after Monday is over lets just say we know how to end it now and will need your help with a few things first."
"Mr & Mrs Granger I know that I'm putting Hermione in danger but she informed me as soon as we became a couple that we were in this together, she doesn't do 'little wife waiting on her big strong man to come home' was how she put it though I'll spare her blushes on the exact language. When the Weasleys tried to dose us with love potions…"
The Grangers were only a split second behind Remus in registering their outrage loudly. Dan Granger was livid, the thought that someone would try and slip his daughter drugs for that! His mind was torn between thinking Hermione had made the right choice with this boy in front of him and having visions of how good it would feel to use a certain redheaded boy's face as a punchbag.
Once they had calmed down Harry told them what had happened in the future,
"we caught Ron and Ginny red handed in the great hall but Dumbledore refused to expel them, shit he was probably at least aware of it, so we demanded to be resorted out of Gryffindor and entered Hufflepuff with Neville. Luna's dad owns a newspaper and the whole incident made the front page, Dumbledore got fired, all four Weasleys got expelled and we kept our heads down and trained like mad for most of the year, you saw some of the results today in the bank."
"Why didn't you use stunners? The way you were casting those spells you could have picked which eyeball to hit, and all wandless to!" Remus couldn't quite hide his admiration.
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