Never let go

Chapter 3

Revelations

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Harry had watched several muggle movies in his life. In nearly all of them, whenever something life changing happens to the main character, it always ends up as a dream. So that´s how we find Harry, the morning after his supposed dream, lying in bed and combating in his mind whether the entire thing was a dream or reality. He, of course, wanted it to be reality, but he was waiting for the loud screechy yelling of his aunt calling him down to make breakfast.

When the call never came, Harry cautiously and slowly started opening his left eye. He didn´t want to go so fast as to be disappointed to see his old room on Privet Drive, but not so slow that the agony got to him. When his eye was just a sliver open and the first beams of light reached his cornea, he was instantly immersed in a mirage of blue. Navy blue to be exact, and it hung from the windows, was plastered on the walls, and highlighted the carpet flooring under his bed.

Excitedly, Harry opened his right eyelid and a gigantic grin appeared on his face, a grin that could have lit up the entire room had the sun not been shining and lighting up the room already. He was in his room, in god knows where, and he could not have been happier in his entire life. This was a world where he had parents, a brother and a sister. Also, as if things where not enough, Harry suddenly remembered that that day was his birthday and a party was to be held in his honor.

He hurriedly scrambled out of bed and into the closet to grab a clean pair of clothes and a towel. Scuttling to the door, he wrenched it open and rushed to the door of the bathroom, ready to start this joyous of days with a nice clean shower. However, to his dismay, the bathroom was bolted shut and horrible singing could be heard from the crack on the bottom of the door. Harry really couldn´t make out what the person was singing, but he did know one thing, and that was that it was torture standing out there in front of the door.

Nonetheless, he stood outside the bathroom door, waiting and listening for another five minutes and when the horrible noise still did not stop and the occupant still did not cease his or her shower, Harry lost his patience and rammed his fist into the door repeatedly. The singing stopped instantly and he could hear the shower stop. He heard the curtain slide back and wet feet padding on the tile flooring. He saw the doorknob start to move and then the door opened slowly and the face of Holly Potter appeared in its vacancy, a towel wrapped around her head and one around her body.

"You needed something? I'm trying to take a shower for crying out loud," she said with obvious annoyance in her quiet voice.

"Well I could use a shower, and...seeing as it is my birthday, maybe you should hurry up, before I lose my temper," Harry blurted out without really thinking. His thoughts had rather been on how such awful singing could be coming from such a pretty looking girl. The strangeness however, struck in his choice of words. He had never had siblings before and he rather doubted he could have ever known how to act around them. Although he suspected that perhaps living with Dudley for so long and the constant grumbling that went on between the two, could possibly have somewhat prepared him for this. "Er.... sorry, what I meant to say was, could you please let me take a shower? I´ve been waiting for a while here."

Holly only nodded and replied with a, "Sure, just let me get my clothes."

"Thanks," said Harry.

He watched as Holly went into the bathroom and grabbed a pair of jeans and a shirt that hung on the clothes hanger on the bathroom door. Then she hurried past Harry and into the room across the hall from his, and closed the door.

Harry turned around and walked into the bathroom. Instantly, his glasses fogged up and he took them off to see clearly. He also noticed that, although it was extremely steamy inside the bathroom, the mirror was as if there was no steam and was perfectly clear. It reminded him of the mirrors in the bathrooms at Hogwarts and how they never fogged up no matter how steamy the room got. He suspected there must have been some charm at work there, and it was also in play in his home´s bathroom.

Not bothering to think about that anymore, he stripped down and climbed into the shower stall and turned the water as hot as he could handle and took a relaxing shower.

***

James and Lily Potter had been up nearly all night contemplating and talking about their son´s strange acting. Even though they had asked him if everything was all right, and he had answered positively, they couldn´t shake off the feeling that something was wrong with their son.

"Maybe he will be better today. Perhaps it was just pre-birthday jitters or something of that sort," Lily said at the breakfast table to her husband of eighteen years.

"Lils, honey, we can´t worry about that right now, we´ve got people coming to a party today, not to mention your sister. Her husband and children are all right. But she doesn´t even like our kind, why do we invite her anyway?" James asked.

"It´s out of respect you dolt, you can´t just go having parties without any sort of family about."

"Well what about Sirius and Remus, I should say they´re family, I grew up with those two for crying out loud."

"Ugh...they´re coming James and you can´t do anything about it, so hah," she said with a tone of finality, sticking her nose up and turning her head.

Grinning, James walked up to his wife and wrapped his arms around her waist. He gave her a small peck on the cheek. "You know," he said slyly. "I´ve always loved it when you get that tone in your voice..."

Lily, having heard his tone, turned to her husband and peered into his eyes. She instantly saw the look she always craved; the look of desire and it warmed her to the core.

"Oh really?" she said, adopting a nonchalant tone, while making her two fingers walk up his chest towards his lips.

"Well I guess we´re going to have to do something about that aren´t we mister Potter? In fact, I have the perfect idea. I happen to know of an empty bed..."

"Hi mum, hi dad," said a sweaty and winded Zachary Potter. The embracing couple instantly jumped away and looked at their son´s beet red face. "What´s wrong?" Zack asked, apparently oblivious to what was going on, or what would have gone on, had he not interrupted.

"Nothing Zack," James said quickly.

"Have a good run?" he added, careful to make his voice return back to normal.

"Oh, yeah. I ran all the way to town and back without stopping. That´s like seven miles. I really do think if I keep this up, we´re gonna do really well on the team this year," he said smiling up at his father.

"Well keep up the good work son, you´ll see that pretty soon they´re going to start begging you to be the captain," James said.

"Thanks dad, I'm going to head up and take a shower now. See you later," he said while starting to walk towards the stairs.

"Hold it Zack," Lily said while looking at a list. "Who is this Rose Cotter you´re inviting to the party and why aren´t Jake and Thomas coming to the party?"

At this, Zack turned, the same beet red that his parents had been only moments before. "Oh she...sh-she´s just a friend, and um...Jake and Thomas said they couldn´t come because...uhh...because Jakes mum didn´t want to bring them all the way out here, yeah that´s it, mm - hmm," he said with a nod of his head.

He quickly turned and ran up the stairs to the hallway, where a wet haired and fully dressed Harry emerged from the bathroom. The hallway was quickly being immersed in a thick fog of steam emanating for the bathroom.

"Jeez Harry, take a hot enough shower?" Zack said, looking up at his brother.

Had Harry not already been somewhat pink in color from the shower, he would have appeared so at that comment. "Oh sorry, just wanted to relax a bit."

At this, Zack broke out into a huge grin and said while winking, "Oh, I get it, you were `relaxing´ eh?" he said as he made quotation marks in the air when he said the word relaxing.

Harry now felt the heat increasing in his ears and neck and replied with a choked, "No, not that kind of relaxing."

"Sure Harry, you don´t have to worry, I wont tell anybody."

"Ugh, I give up. Hurry up and take a shower, you stink."

"Thanks dear brother, always wanted to hear you say that....oh wait..." Zack said slowly with a mischievous expression on his face. "I knew there was something I forgot. I was going to wish you a happy birthday," and with all his sweating glory, he hugged his brother, making sure to get as much sweat as he possibly could on him.

"Happy birthday mate," he said, and before his brother could do anything, he dove into the bathroom and locked the door.

"You bastard, I just took a shower...goddamn," Harry said while walking to his bedroom.

"What´s with all the noise?" Holly said emerging from her room fully dressed and hair dried.

"You two at it again? Honestly Harry, when will you grow up? He´s younger than you, you should know better," she said with obvious annoyance in her voice.

Amazed at how much Holly sounded like Hermione when she would break up Ron and his own little squabbles. He retorted with the same type of witty remark that Ron usually made, "Who died and made you mum?"

"Ugh, you´re supposed to set an example for me, instead you act intolerable. I'm going downstairs," she said exasperatedly.

Chuckling under his breath, Harry went back into his bedroom and greeted Cody, "Mornin´ Cody, how are yah?"

"I'm doing fine Harry," Cody replied. "How are you on this festive of days, I dare say you must be excited?"

"Well, I´ve actually never had a birthday party, so I really don´t know what to expect. I guess I'm excited, although I don´t know what I'm going to do with all of those people I don´t know. I mean what if they know things about me I don´t?"

"You know Harry, I've always found that if I did not know what to say, that I would relax and just let my instincts handle the thinking. Perhaps that could help you as well?"

"Ok, I´ll try it, but I sure hope I don´t make a giant prat of myself. That´s all I need, more attention."

Cody gave him a quizzical look and said, "Attention from who Harry?"

"Everybody! My loyal and adoring fans, you know, because I'm the boy who lived...brought down Voldemort when I was a year old?" he said insalubriously. Then brought him back when I was fourteen, he added to himself.

"Killed Voldemort when you were one? How? I have never heard of anybody killing Voldemort. Nor have I ever heard someone speak his name openly. He still strikes fear in the hearts of every person in this country. His loyal death eaters grow in numbers daily and they have been running rampant in the country for years now," Cody said with a dejected tone.

"What? But that cant be, I killed him...unless maybe he didn´t..." Harry said while rubbing his chin. "This world is so damn confusing, I can barely get my head straight before something else is thrown at me," he started pacing the floor with Cody just looking at him curiously, when he heard a yell from downstairs.

"Harry! Hermione and her parents are here!" shouted, what he assumed was Holly because it sounded too feminine to be his dad, yet lacked the authoritative tone his mother used. His brother was in the shower so it couldn´t possibly have been him.

"Coming right down," Harry said with excitement. He would finally be seeing someone whom he had met before, or rather met where he came from. Bouncing down the stairs two at a time, he saw Hermione standing there with her two parents, who, strangely seemed perfectly at ease being in a wizarding home.

"Harry dear, happy birthday! Hermione here has been waiting to come to your house all summer," said Hermione´s mother.

Just then Lily walked in and said, "Helen, Mel, how good it is to see you both. It´s good to see you too, Hermione."

"Thanks, Lily, its great to see you too," said Hermione. It struck Harry as odd that Hermione would be referring to his mum in first name basis but, before he could divulge in his thoughts any further, Hermione was ushering him up the stairs and yelling over her shoulder, "I'm going up to Harry´s room, he was going to show me a new book he got!"

Well, at least she is still the same, thought Harry. I don´t think I could handle it if she were different.

Hurriedly she opened the door and walked inside as Harry followed, though at a more leisurely pace. When he was inside, he turned around and shut the door and then turned around again. Not a second later he felt arms snake up his shoulders and he was staring into the very brown, very deep, very beautiful eyes of one Hermione Granger.

"I´ve missed you Harry. It´s always so hard to wait till your birthday to see you again."

With the last word said, she tilted her head and brought her lips up to Harry´s. A wave of emotions hit Harry all at once and he felt as if his knees were going to buckle and his head was going to explode. A million thoughts were going through his head but the strongest and loudest one was, kiss her back, and so he did, and he didn´t feel any morose about it.

It was so liberating having her soft lips up against his and the feel of her hands running through his soft, tousled raven locks. That was enough to get the blood pumping quickly in his veins and just let instinct take over. Shocking himself with his boldness, he ran his tongue against her bottom lip and she opened her mouth immediately, granting him entrance to a new unexplored area. His tongue ran along the outline of her lips before finally finding her tongue. The two tongues dueled with one another swirling in the ever-encompassing right of a passage of two lovers.

Although the kissing was new and exciting, not to mention emotional and passionate, Harry found that the longer this went on, the more he needed air. So with great reluctance, he broke the kiss and while still resting his forehead on hers, started to take great welcoming breaths of air. He noticed that she too was trying to get her breath back and that her cheeks were tinged pink as he was sure his own were.

"Wow, Potter. You´ve never kissed me like that before. I can´t say that I didn´t like it though," she said as she pulled back to look at her boyfriend. She beamed up at him and took in his face, but suddenly her smile faltered and concern lit up her face.

"Harry? Where did you get that scar on your forehead?" she said, reaching a finger up to touch the jagged outline of it making him shiver slightly. It was electrifying having her trace his scar like that, but he couldn´t figure out why.

"Oh that? Um... well I fell asleep at my desk a couple weeks ago and my head hit the uh, the edge and it cut me open. Erm...pretty cool looking scar isn´t it?" Harry stammered out, doing his best not to look her in the eyes.

Whatever she was thinking in her head, she didn´t voice it as she continued to look up, trying to catch his eyesight with her own. Harry, of course, didn´t want to look at her for fear of giving away his lie. He had always found that the "real" Hermione had always been able to tell if he was lying or not, by simply just looking into his eyes, and if this Hermione was anything like the old one, he assumed that she would be able to do the same.

"Alright Harry, well then I guess we should head out back and see how many people are here now," she said uncertainly.

"Yeah, that sounds like a good idea. Um...lets go." He turned away and headed to the door. Opening it, he let Hermione walk in front of him and she ambled towards the stairs. At the landing she turned around and grasped Harry´s hand. She then continued to lead him down the stairs.

When they reached the kitchen, he noticed a door that he really hadn´t paid any attention to before. It had a window for the top half of it, covered only by curtains that hung from either side of it. Outside, the window was the same green landscape he had spotted when he had first arrived there.

Hermione opened the door and, still dragging Harry, walked outside. What Harry saw when he finally stepped out the door, astonished him. The backyard was immaculate, to say the least. Rows of flowers and rose bushes lined the inside of a fence that stood high, all the way down to a building on the far-right corner of the yard. Although the building wasn´t huge, it could easily be used as a classroom of some sort. In the center of the yard sat a fountain gleaming white in the sunlight and spraying an arc of water high into the sky. Four long tables were situated around the centerpiece and they all had chairs around them, with balloons floating above every other chair in different colors.

Some seats where filled, while the majority where still empty. Harry looked around at all the people, and could not recognize a single one of the occupants except for one. A dark robed man sat in a chair on the table that sat farthest away from the house. His hair was slicked back with what was most likely gel or something of that sort. His eyes were dark and his face was pale. He looked up as Harry saw him and instantly broke into a wide grin.

"Harry!" he announced to everyone. Instantly the groups at the tables stood up and walked over to him and he felt Hermione let go of his hand. He looked over to see her face to see if anything was wrong, but she just nodded her head to the crowd.

A group of four severe looking people came over to him first. They wore robes that looked quite formal and that were colored a dark navy blue. Harry imagined that if wizards had some kind of defense force of some sort, this is what their robes would look like. They walked stiffly up to him and shook his hand.

"Happy fifteenth birthday Harry," one of them congratulated him, clapping him on the back.

"Pretty soon, you can join your dad as an auror, eh Harry? Well then, better let the others a turn," he frowned. He turned and walked back to his seat with the three other members following closely behind.

My dad´s an auror? Harry thought to himself, how long has he been an auror? Who was that guy? This world is getting so confusing. I´ll have to ask Cody later.

The line of people started to greet Harry and congratulate him on his birthday, while Harry tried his hardest not to look as if he didn´t know a single one of the people coming up to him.

Finally the person whom Harry had been most astonished to see sitting at the table in this party, much less smile at him, came up to him and shook his hand softly before enveloping him in a friendly hug.

"Professor Snape?" Harry whispered, astonished.

"Me? A professor? Harry, where in the world did you get that from?" a confused Snape called out while letting go of Harry.

"Not a professor..." Harry whispered to himself, "oh I just...confused, yeah, just woke up, you know the deal," he replied trying more to convince himself than Snape.

"Oh, ok. So Harry, have you been keeping up with your practice?" Snape asked nonchalantly, while looking down at his nails.

Harry had no clue what practice Snape was going on about, but he desperately wanted to get out of there and back to Hermione who was sitting with her parents on the table closest to the house. "Oh my practice, yeah I´ve been keeping up. Why do you ask?"

"No reason, just wanted to know if you had been keeping up. Are you gonna treat us to a wonderful concerto my dear partner in music?" Snape said with a slight ring to his voice.

"What!" he shouted before he could stop himself. Snape looked up him strangely and Harry felt disappointed in himself that he had let himself off like that. He had never even held an instrument in his life. How could he possibly play in front of a huge group of people? Never the less, he felt a strong sense of compassion for the man standing in front of him that he had never felt when he went to Hogwarts. Maybe it had to do with the fact that this man wasn´t hostile, as he was in school. He was astonishingly friendly, and so Harry answered, "Um...I mean I´ll think about it, sorry."

"No worries Harry," Snape smiled, "I don´t want to pressure you into doing anything you aren´t ready to do, but by all means you have an extraordinary amount of talent, I'm sure you could blow this crowd apart with it."

"Thanks, um..," Harry choked out, not really sure what to call him. "Yeah, thanks," he added.

"Not a problem Harry, not a problem at all. Well I´d best let you go about. I'm sure you want to talk to Hermione don´t you?" he said with a knowing glance before walking away.

`Does Snape know that Hermione and I are going out? Hopefully not, that wouldn´t be a good thing in case he decided to tell everyone.´ Harry´s inner monologue chugged out.

Calmly, Harry walked back over to where Hermione was sitting and took the seat next to hers. She calmly grasped his hand under the table and gave it a gentle squeeze, not turning around to look at him, as she was talking to her parents.

"So mum, what do you say? Do you think we can take Harry with us?" Hermione pleaded with her mother.

"I don´t know Hermione, what if Zack and Holly want to go?" She replied.

"Well, we could...we could take them too... we´ll take Harry´s whole family, it will be like a family trip. Oh, that would be so much fun," Hermione exclaimed getting excited that she had figured out the problem.

"That does seem like a good idea dear, maybe we can run it by Lily and James," Hermione´s dad said.

"Oh alright, but I'm not making any promises you hear? Come on Mel lets go find them," she said testily.

"What were you talking about Hermione?" Harry asked.

"Oh, Harry we are going to have so much fun. This year for our vacation my parents wanted to go to France and well...I didn´t want to go without you," she said sheepishly. "But no worry´s if your parents agree, maybe we can all go together. It´s going to be so much fun!"

"France? Haven´t you already...I mean yeah, that will be fine," Harry said. If he remembered right, Hermione had gone to France in the summer before her third year, but then again, this wasn´t the same Hermione. He definitely would not mind taking a vacation, as he had never had one before and he had always heard good things about France.

"Harry!" sang two voices from the back door to the house. He looked up to see a sandy haired boy that looked around seven, run down the steps towards him. The boy was followed by another boy who was slightly older, perhaps around nine with the same sandy hair as the previous boy. They both ran towards Harry, and even before he could try to stand up, knocked him over into a bear hug on the ground. "Happy birthday Harry," they said in unison

Hermione started laughing and her high-pitched laughing was joined by another high-pitched laugh and a low-pitched laugh. He looked up from the two boys to see none other than his third year DADA teacher, Remus Lupin, dressed in clean robes of a dark purple. He had his arm around a woman that appeared to be the same age as Remus and had blonde hair, as opposed to the dark brown that Remus had, and wore light green robes that outlined her hair.

The two boys climbed off of Harry and he was able to stand up before he was enveloped in yet another hug by Remus and the woman that was with him.

"Yes dear, happy birthday," said the blonde lady revealing her Irish decent with her accent.

"Like they said Harry, Happy birthday," Remus spoke up.

"Erm...Thanks, um...Remus?" he said uncertainly not wanting to make the same mistake with him as he did with Snape by calling him a professor.

"Yeah Harry? What´s wrong?" Remus replied.

Harry was very feeling very strange seeing all of these people that he knew, and didn´t know. He obviously couldn´t let this show. He might not be the boy who lived in this world, but he was the birthday boy, and that at least drew some attention; attention that he didn´t want.

"Nothing Remus, I'm just gonna go walk around for a little while ok?" Harry said, still getting used to calling him that.

"Sure Harry," the woman next to Remus said. It was when she held up her hand to wave to someone across the yard that he noticed the ring on her finger. Obviously whoever this was, she was married to Remus, and from the looks of the boys that had tackled him earlier, they had children.

"Where is Uncle Siri daddy?" the younger of the two children complained.

"Oh, you know Sirius, always the last one to arrive, says he needs to make an entrance...the man will never grow up," said Remus wistfully.

"Come on Harry, lets go see what your mum said about going, ok?" Hermione spoke up.

"Ok, that sounds like a good idea." He nodded as they started to walk back towards the kitchen door.

Inside the kitchen they found both of their parents talking to each other. Harry´s mum was nodding her head and his dad had a dreamy sort of look in his eyes. Upon their entrance, Mel looked over at his daughter and gave her a thumbs up. Hermione jumped up with glee and gave Harry a giant hug.

"You can come! Oh, I can´t wait, its going to be so much fun," Hermione said.

"You said that already Hermione," Harry laughed out with a giant grin on his face. He couldn´t help but also feel happy that they were going. It would definitely be a good chance to get to know his family, Hermione and her family.

"Son, can you tell your brother and sister of our plans? I think Holly is up in her room with her friends and your brother is with that girl that came," James told his son.

"Sure, Dad," he breathed, the word dad still sounding foreign on his tongue.

"Thanks," James replied.

"Come on, Hermione, let´s go find them," he said walking out of the kitchen. He started marching up the stairs with Hermione right behind him. Quickly reaching the landing, he walked straight to the second door on the left. He gave the door a couple of knocks and he opened it when he heard a, "Come in.", to see his sister and four other girls sitting there with her.

"Hi Harry!" one of the girls blurted out quickly blushing red as soon as she said it.

"Oh shut up Mary," Holly jabbed at the girl. She turned to her brother and said, "What is it Harry? What do you want?"

"Mum and dad wanted me to tell you that we´re going to go to France with the Grangers some time this summer. So, get ready or something..." he finished lamely.

"Are you serious? Wow that´s great. Whose idea was it Harry?" Holly replied almost disbelievingly.

"Well, it was just going to be my parents and I, but I convinced Harry to come along with us, and my mum had the idea that maybe all of you would want to come," Hermione spoke up.

"Yeah, and where is Zack anyway? I need to tell him too," Harry said before Holly could continue talking to Hermione.

Holly´s face turned slightly crimson at the mention of her brother, but soon turned into an expression of impish glee. "He is in his room, you shouldn´t knock though, just barge right in. I'm sure he wont mind," she smirked.

"Ok, thanks," he said as he turned to walk out the door Hermione behind him. As she was closing the door he heard all of the girls exclaim in joy. He thought he distinctively heard one of them say, `Oh my god, your going to France, your so damn lucky!´ as he walked out the door.

Chuckling to himself at how excited the girls were, he walked to the next door on that side of the hall and stood in front of it. He wondered if he should do as Holly had said and just open the door, or to knock.

"Should I knock?" he said turning to Hermione, who was standing beside him.

"Didn´t Holly say just to walk right in?" she replied.

"Ok, fine," he conceded.

Quickly building up courage, he put his hand on the doorknob and gave it a sharp turn. The door opened quietly and it revealed his brother and some girl lying on Zack´s bed. Zack was on top of the girl, running a hand up her shirt, while she moaned out her approval.

Harry stood there in shock at the sight. He had never gone as far as that, and it was slightly unnerving to see his brother who was younger than him going as far, even though Harry was still learning to cope with the fact that he even had a brother.

Hermione turned to him and calmly put a hand on his mouth so that he wouldn´t say anything and dragged him out the door. Slowly and quietly she closed the door and turned to look at Harry, his mouth hanging and a look of shock on his face.

"I guess we should have knocked, eh?" she said bemusedly a small smile playing at her lips.

Harry´s stance relaxed at her words and his facial muscles loosened. "Yeah, I guess we´ll just tell him later. Although, maybe I should stop him from doing anything rash?"

"I think we should just head down, I'm sure your brother has some sense left in that head of his. Don´t worry," Hermione responded knowingly. "Besides, you wouldn´t want him to interrupt if say, we were doing that. Would you?" she ended surreptitiously.

Harry felt his ears and neck start to burn and he inwardly cursed his pale skin, as he was sure he was showing some sort of outward sign from her comment. He shook his head quickly looking down at the ground, subconsciously bringing a hand to the back of his neck to rub.

"Didn´t think so," she grinned. "Now come on lets go downstairs before Remus´ kids start tearing up all of your presents."

Harry just nodded and turned down the stairs swinging his arms back and forth. On the fourth swing he felt Hermione catch his hand and he stopped to look back at her and looked into her eyes. The Hermione from where he came from wasn´t the only one that could read minds by looking into someone´s eyes. Harry always prided himself in being able to dig out information from Hermione by just the simple look in her eyes. This time, however, he was shocked to see something he had never seen before in her eyes. Admiration, and not the kind that you give to a friend who did a good job, but the kind that you give a girlfriend or boyfriend when they are just themselves.

Slowly, he turned around to face her and dove deeper into the sparkling cinnamon orbs that he felt so dear to him now. They were the last thing he had in this world, or whatever it was. He felt so totally lost in a world where there was nothing but love for him. Still, it was very unnerving to have so many people know you, when frankly; you had never seen them in your entire life. Hermione though, she was the constant in both his worlds and yet, in this world he felt much more of a connection towards her. He felt no shame from having given her that kiss earlier and only wished he had more of a chance to continue on with such activities. Now was his chance.

Slowly, he started leaning in towards her face still staring into her eyes, so filled with joy and happiness. He caught her lips gently and applied more pressure as he felt his eyes flutter shut. The waves of emotion caught him like before and he felt like coming home all over again. Her lips were as smooth as silk and he felt his tongue lash out to touch them as he had done to her earlier. Gladly she obliged and opened her mouth to another world that Harry felt he would never get tired of exploring. She tasted of strawberries and cream and he found his tongue dancing around in her mouth, constantly meeting her own very curious tongue.

"Oh my god!" voice rang out from the hall. "Harry? Hermione?"

Instantly, they broke apart to find Holly staring at them intently. Flushes rose up in the their faces instantly and Hermione looked down at the ground while Harry looked up to his sister pleadingly.

"Since when? How did it happen? Why?" Holly sputtered out.

"Why are you out here and not with your friends?" Harry shot out trying to find some way of stalling.

"I went outside to go to the bathroom, my friends are in my room. But that´s not important, I want you to answer my questions," she answered forcefully.

"Ok, but not here. Harry? Can we go in your room?" Hermione finally said after a short silence.

He turned to look into her eyes before turning back to his sister and quickly nodded his head up and down. Holly opened the door to his bedroom and Hermione followed her in, with Harry in tow. He shut the door and locked it, making sure nobody was out in the hall before doing so.

"Ok, we´re in here now, so answer my question. How long has this been going on?" Holly asked staking on the third degree.

Harry stared up into her sapphire eyes, having no idea what to say. The feelings of shame and impishness started to swarm into him. He felt bad for taking advantage of Hermione like that. Even though she wasn´t the Hermione from where he was from, she seemed so much like her. The fact that she wasn´t the same one though, couldn´t quash the feeling of dread that surrounded the idea of Harry kissing his very own best friend. He doubted he would ever feel the same towards Hermione if he ever got back to his world.

"Well, you see it´s like this..." Harry started lamely.

"Since the Yule ball. Your brother asked me out and I said yes. We didn´t go to the ball though; we went to the library and studied instead. That night he asked me to be his girlfriend and I said yes. We have been going out ever since, but we didn´t want to tell anyone. I guess we didn´t want everyone to make a big fuss. We have known each other forever. I guess it was inevitable that we started liking each other. Sorry if I offended you Holly, I was going to tell you, but I never found the right time. You´re not mad at me are you?" Hermione finished feebly, looking down at the ground.

"Mad? How can I be mad?" Holly nearly shouted. "I've been waiting for you two to come to your senses forever. I knew Harry liked you for a long time and the same for you Hermi. You both don´t know how frustrating it was waiting for something to happen, mind you. But, well, I'm just so happy you guys!" she said running to envelope them in a gigantic hug. "Can I be the Maiden of honor at your wedding?"

Harry blushed at this statement and Hermione patted Holly´s back not looking at Harry but leaning up to Holly´s ear. Harry could have sworn he heard a mumbled `sure´.

"I'm sorry, I guess I´ll just go back to my friends now," Holly said awkwardly. She started heading towards the door but when her hand touched the doorknob she turned around, grinning devilishly and said, "And don´t do anything I wouldn´t do, you two love birds." Her face turned solemn though when she said, "Although, I'm afraid it´s a little to late to tell our dear brother the same, right Harry?"

Blushing furtively at both comments, all the while cursing himself for blushing so many times in one day, he responded with a shaky, "Right," and watched as Holly turned the lock on the knob and opened the door, and walked out closing it behind her.

Still with a slight tinge in his cheeks, Harry turned back to Hermione, seeing her with the same blushing tint in her cheeks. `Amazing how we both think so alike´ Harry thought. Pushing all other thoughts away, he placed an arm around her shoulder and slowly walked her out of the room relishing in the feel of her warmth next to him. "Guess our secrets finally out?" Harry probed unsure if what he was saying was supposed to be talked about.

"Yeah, although I'm glad we told only her. I know your sister won´t tell," she accepted.

"You´re probably right. Lets head downstairs, I'm sure there is something to do down there."

"I kinda wanted to stay in here with you," she said mischievously.

`Damn this infernal blush´ Harry cursed inwardly as he felt the blush return, `How does she keep doing this to me? The Hermione I knew never made me blush this much. He couldn´t help but feel that perhaps he was taking advantage of Hermione by kissing her. But he felt like doing nothing more than laying her down on his bed and attacking her pretty lips with his own. None the less, he wisely backed down as he knew that kisses would lead to much more, and knowing how guilty the kisses made him feel, he couldn´t imagine how he would feel if more happened. "We´d better not, love, don´t want more visitors to come barging in find out about are secret do we?" Harry asked.

"I guess not," Hermione, said, her smile dropping as she said it. "Lets go see if everyone´s here yet so we can open presents," her grin returning.

"You do mean, Me,opening presents don´t you Hermione?" Harry asked uncertainly

"What? Oh, yeah right, you opening presents." She said again with the mischievous smile playing at her rosy lips again. "Come on I´ll race yah down!"

With that, she turned and ran to the door, ripped it open and slammed it shut behind her. Harry tore after her, but was slowed by the door slamming in his face. He opened it again and ran out catching just the last glance of her flowing brown hair. Quickly he ran after her slowing his pace when he got to the steps so as not to fall down. Soon enough though, he reached the bottom of the stairs to find no sight of Hermione.

"She must´ve gone outside," he said aloud. He started walking towards the kitchen when he heard a knock at the door. Seeing as everybody was outside he walked to the door and opened it to reveal a face he had not wanted to see ever again, nor had he ever expected to see it ever again.

"What´s the matter, Harry?" Vernon Dursley asked his nephew bemusedly. "You act as if you´ve never seen your uncle before," he grinned. His grin, however, did not hold the same malice that Harry had seen so often throughout the summer. Instead it was warmer, gentler, something you got from someone who cared about you. This smile seemed to clash very badly with Vernon´s face however and Harry couldn´t help but feel scared at the thought of it.

Without a second thought, Harry turned and ran towards the kitchen, through the back door, and out to the backyard where all of the people were.

Quickly he was able to lose himself in the crowd and found himself being drawn to where Remus, his wife and kids were talking to the man that had congratulated Harry before.

"Well, I know it´s a little hard, but I must ask you to get started on it tomorrow. Sirius will be there to help, so you needn´t worry about the full moon when it rolls around. Expect to be gone about five months at the least, so I would get a replacement for your position as the DADA teacher for the start of the year," the strict general type man said.

"Alright, thanks commander Davis, I´ll get to it right now. Oh, and speak of the devil, there is Sirius right there. Oi! Sirius, over here!" Remus shouted to the man at the kitchen door.

Harry followed his gaze to see the Sirius that he hadn´t seen but a little over a month ago. Yet this Sirius looked so much different than the one he was used to. This Sirius was well fed and very well nourished from the looks of it. His hair held not a single white hair, where in contrast, Remus´ head held many white hairs. Sirius´ eyes did not look sunken in and instead conveyed a warm brown, homey look about them.

"Uncle Siri!" the younger of Remus´ two kids shot out like a bullet and tackled Harry´s godfather.

"Cormac William Lupin, unhand your Uncle immediately!" the woman screeched out to the young boy. Oh, so that´s his name, thought Harry.

"Nonsense Maria, its ok if the little bugger gets excited, I don´t mind," Sirius said returning the hug that Cormac had so graciously given him.

"Come on Uncle Siri, lets go play!" Cormac yelled with glee.

"Onward, my captain!" Sirius said.

"Sirius, I´ve news to tell you when you get back ok?" Remus said. Sirius turned and nodded his approval as he was walking away.

"Dad, how come he always gets to get away with everything?" the boy standing next to Remus said.

"Oh, Jacob, you should have seen how much trouble you got away with when you were his age. A right little devil you were. So I don´t see why you are complaining," said Remus forcefully.

Not wanting to intrude on a family conversation, Harry turned around and looked through the crowd. He found Hermione talking to some kids that looked about their age. He walked up and stood right next to her as she continued talking animatedly with a boy with messy blond hair.

"So, as I was saying, its really very hard to do. You have to really concentrate on the animal you want to become and then you just become it. But keep in mind, this only happens after about two years of training. I´ve also heard it hurts really bad," Hermione explained to the boy.

"How the hell do you know that much Hermione? I mean we aren´t studying animagi till this summer," the boy asked.

"Just books. They are helpful to read sometimes you know," she answered plainly.

"Giving an early lecture Hermione?" Harry inquired jokingly.

"John just wanted to know if I knew anything about turning into a animagi. I can´t wait till we learn how to do it this year. I just wish it didn´t take so long to accomplish. I heard you have to be very gifted in wandless magic to pull it off quickly," she breathed.

"I see," Harry said. The talk of animagi started to make him think of his dad. He saw him across the yard leaning on the building he saw in the far right corner of the yard, talking to none other than Snape. It made him feel weird seeing his dad and Snape conversing freely, but then again, this world was weird. Seeing that Hermione was having fun lecturing all of these people he should probably know, but didn´t, he started walking to where his dad and Snape where talking.

"Hey Harry, how are you now? Feeling better?" asked James.

"Sure, I didn´t know I was feeling badly," Harry said bewildered.

"Well its just because you were acting sort of strange yesterday. Now come on Harry, lets show all these people how well you can play the piano," he said before Harry could protest though, he started to call to everyone. "Everyone head into the garage, Harry is gonna play the piano!"

Slowly, the mass of people that were outside slowly started heading to the left side of the house. Harry then noticed that it led outside to the front by means of a gate, but where everyone was heading was the door on the side of the house. He found his feet rooted to the ground nice and far away from the room where obviously he would have to play the piano in front of a bunch of people he didn´t know. Unfortunately for him, he was being pushed towards the people congregating at the door waiting to get in, by none other than his dad. He caught a glimpse of Hermione as she was walking in the door. She turned her head and winked at him before walking in.

Finally he reached the door and walked inside to what he expected would be a tiny, dimly lit garage. Instead what beheld him was a large room. It had plenty of room for people to stand and talk while still paying attention to the main attraction in the room, the midnight black baby grand piano that stood in the middle.

"Come on Harry, I want to hear you play," cried one of Remus´ kids from right next to him. A chorus of "yeas" and nods of approval followed the remark and Harry found several hands pushing him towards the piano. Soon enough, he was standing next to the bench that was the same midnight black the piano was. Had Harry not been as nervous as if he were about to die, he would have taken glee at the first piano he had ever seen. He had always liked the piano, but the Dursleys´ general vendetta against Harry having anything fun to do, didn´t allow that to happen. However, as he sat down on the bench, he could feel a calmness sweeping through his veins. He was still nervous, but the feeling of being on this piano sort of brought him to a bit of ease.

Remembering Cody´s words, `relax and just let my instincts handle the thinking,´ Harry placed his hands on the piano and took a deep breath. Instantly, his fingers kicked to life filling the room with a beautiful sound. He remembered hearing this song once, loving every minute of it, but had no idea how he could possibly have learned it. Opening his eyes, he forced himself to remain calm, this was however, made much easier as the music helped him do that.

He watched as his fingers played the crescendos masterfully. Starting off slowly, somberly, and delicately, the level of playing intensity increased until he was booming, hearing the sounds of his playing reverberating off the walls of the room filling his very soul with its richness and lavishing the feel of accomplishing something he had always dreamed of doing. Soon though, the song started spiraling downwards and eventually ended leaving behind a speechless room.

Harry sat there on the bench for what seemed like hours while everyone seemed to just stare down on him. He saw Snape´s face fixed in an expression illustrating both astonishment and esteem. His mother´s held only satisfaction and his father´s just about the same. Hermione´s held complete disbelief, along with all of the other inhabitants of the room. But she was the first to clap starting off slowly, but gaining speed and strength when she found she wasn´t the only one to be clapping. Immediately the whole room filled with thunderous clapping and congratulations. Harry felt himself wanting to hide in a hole. He had hoped that this wouldn´t happen to him anymore, but obviously this wasn´t the case. The center of attention he was destined to be, but he wouldn´t let it get to his head.

"Thanks everyone, umm...let´s go eat shall we?" Harry said, digging up as much modesty as humanly possible while having a whole room clapping at something you never knew you could even do. Mostly everyone obliged, and the room soon started emptying, with Harry staying by the piano looking down at the black and white keys that he had played precisely.

"Been doing a little of practice alone haven´t you Harry?" Snape asked him quietly.

"Huh?" Harry answered stupidly. He was still getting used to Snape answering him warmly, it was a little unsettling to say the least.

"I meant, that I didn´t teach you that song. I was just wondering where you got it from," Snape asked sheepishly.

"Oh, erm...well...I guess I just picked it up. No biggie," Harry said shyly.

"No biggie? Harry, you don´t just pick Fantasia in D minor as if it were nothing. That song takes an immense load of practice and skill to be able to play as crisply as you did. You didn´t even mess up once, and the level you played the keys were perfect. Harry, it takes a musical genius to play something that well. I...I had no idea you could play at such a level. Guess where gonna have to step the program up a notch eh?" Snape added with a wry sense of humor.

"Yeah...sorry, umm...why don´t we just go get some food? Ok?" Harry said awkwardly.

"Sounds very good, especially with your mum´s cooking."

Through all of Harry´s peculiar feelings, he couldn´t help but notice the dreamy sort of look Snape seem to get when he mentioned Harry´s mum.

"Come `ere, my favorite apprentice," he said, placing an arm around Harry´s shoulders. This was very weird.

***

The evening rolled around finely and Harry had lots of fun. The food that his mum prepared was delicious and nearly everyone lapped up as much as they could eat. The leftovers where divided up in doggy bags that ironically, Sirius had gotten the most of.

Harry met most of the new people, well new to him that is, and learned their names. Holly´s friends were: Mary Vega, the one that blushed when she spoke up. Mary had chestnut brown hair that hung down to her shoulders, and perfectly straight. Her skin had a tan complexion, hinting that she was of some Mediterranean decent. Melissa Anderson and Sophia Brown, were the other two girls that accompanied Holly in her room. Both the girls were very lively and had black curly hair. Both where of some African decent and could very well pose as sisters, even though they both shot down any inquiry to that account.

Rose Cotter, who was the girl Harry and Hermione found placed precariously under Zack´s body in his bedroom, was actually his girlfriend. Harry found this out only after quite a long drawn out array of questions that Hermione and he shot towards the helpless boy. She was however, a very charming and vivacious girl and the red of her hair somewhat reminded Harry of his mum´s.

Presents, Harry got a lot of those. So many that he lost count of all of the trinkets and books that he got. Most everyone got him books, the trinkets, those were from the people who knew him better, or rather the Harry they knew. Through all of the gifts he got though, he couldn´t help but notice that Hermione hadn´t given him anything. Of course he knew that since she was his girlfriend that she might want to better give him his present when they were more alone.

So that´s how we find him, in his bedroom waiting for Hermione to come back. She had said that she was just going to go down to the living room and grab the present, but that had been five minutes ago and Harry was starting to grow anxious.

Twiddling his thumbs in boredom, Harry started to look through all of the books. He saw most of the titles matched the ones that he had on his schoolbook list, except for one. That Defense of Against the Dark Arts book that was on the list. But before he could dwell anymore on that subject, the door opened revealing Hermione with one hand behind her back.

"Close your eyes," She breathed. Obliging, he closed his eyes and felt something fall into his lap. "Ok, open them now and take a look." When he opened his eyes, he saw a familiar sight. It was a book, obviously, wrapped. He had received so many of these as presents he was starting to get tired of them, but since this was his best friend and "girlfriend", he would try to act happy as he ripped open the paper.

What tumbled out of the paper wrappings though, was not what he expected. Instead, a leather bound book fell out into his hand. The title read, Harry Potter: A Saga, and there was a pen attached to the side where the lock was. Looking up at Hermione and into her eyes he conveyed an expression of bewilderment.

"It´s a diary. Muggle though. I noticed that torn up book you used for a diary during the school year and I thought it would be perfect for you to have a nice new one. I had your mum charm the title right now, that´s what took me so long. I thought it would be kind-" she started but was interrupted when Harry jumped up and gave her a strong hug.

"Nobody has ever given me something so thoughtful. Thanks, Hermione," he said through bleary eyes. In reality, nobody ever had given him something so thoughtful. In his other world, he had kept a journal in his days before Hogwarts, but resorted to using scratch paper of any sort because the Dursleys wouldn´t give him a notebook. It was wonderful to have a nice thick book to be able to write all his thoughts down, and was deeply moved by the fact that Hermione had given it to him.

"What did she give you, Harry?" Cody spoke up.

Before he could even stop himself, letting instinct take over, Harry replied, "She gave me a journal." But he said this in parseltongue, not English. He immediately let go of Hermione when he felt her tense up, and looked her in the eye. Her eyes kept turning from Harry, to Cody, and then back to Harry with a sense of bewilderment. But then, it clicked; her face turned into dread and she stared Harry down before saying.

"Who the hell are you, and what have you done to my Harry?"