Rating:
PG
House:
Astronomy Tower
Characters:
Harry Potter Hermione Granger
Genres:
Romance Drama
Era:
Multiple Eras
Spoilers:
Philosopher's Stone Chamber of Secrets Prizoner of Azkaban Goblet of Fire Order of the Phoenix
Stats:
Published: 05/08/2004
Updated: 05/08/2004
Words: 5,429
Chapters: 1
Hits: 809

Cream Eggs

PeterMurray

Story Summary:
Remus makes an announcement, Tonks gets upset, Easter eggs are given, and a visit to the Grangers. Sequel to \\\'Craziness and Comforting\\\'. H/Hr post-Hogwarts

Posted:
05/08/2004
Hits:
809
Author's Note:
Thanks once more to Anne for beta-reading this story.

Cream Eggs


It was now April the second, Good Friday. Harry and Hermione had both been having nightmares about Death Eaters killing each other, and had started sharing his bed each night for their mutual reassurance, but not for sex. Despite brewing and sometimes using a potion to bring dreamless sleep, they'd decided to continue sharing his bed, as the ingredients were in so much demand, they weren't sure how much of the potion they could brew. They'd expanded the bed to a double bed to make it more comfortable.


'I suppose if we stopped saying we're not sleeping together, people would stop suggesting I move out,' said Hermione at breakfast. She gave Ginny's letter back to Harry -- it had been addressed to both of them. As the Ministry observed the Easter bank holidays, she had the day off work, and was having a leisurely breakfast for a change. Their owls had just arrived with the post. She took a package from Artemis, her owl.

'I don't like the idea of letting people think we're making love, when we're not,' said Harry. He opened the other letter Hedwig had brought.

'They're convinced we are anyway,' Hermione said. She checked the label on the package, smiled, and put it aside without opening it.

Harry read his letter. 'It's from Remus. He's asked if it's OK for him to visit us tomorrow, with Tonks.' He looked up from the letter at Hermione. 'Is that OK with you?'

'Yes. I don't have anything planned for tomorrow, but don't forget we're going to my parents' on Sunday.' She opened the package that Hermes had brought, and smiled at the large eggs inside, which Mrs Weasley had sent them.

Harry nodded, and wrote back to say they'd be glad to see them both.

*

'How are your lessons going?' Harry asked Remus as they went into the lounge from the hall, where the four friends had greeted each other. There were some Muggle biscuits, which both Harry and Hermione liked, and the hosts offered their guests drinks too.

'Oh, they're going really well. It's odd -- the first- and second-years I taught before are now studying for NEWTs, because of the gap. They're quite keen; I think they're glad they don't have whoever's available teaching them like in the autumn term. Oh, I'm expecting your friend Ginny to get an "O" in her NEWT.' Remus had returned to his former job teaching Defence Against the Dark Arts at Hogwarts.

'I'm glad McGonagall managed to get round the anti-werewolf legislation,' Hermione told him.

'Those laws still cause problems, though,' said Tonks unhappily. 'We're being forced to ignore them.' She looked at Remus.

'Yes, we've got some news.'

Harry asked, 'You aren't going to lose your job again, are you, Remus?'

Remus shook his head. 'I hope not. That's not the problem this time. Now it's Tonks that has the problem, because Aurors aren't really supposed to associate with werewolves, even if they are teaching the next lot of Aurors at Hogwarts.'

Hermione looked suspiciously at the two visitors. 'What sort of "associating"? I've noticed that most times we've seen Remus recently, you've been around too, Tonks.'

'You said you were spending Christmas with someone, too,' Harry suddenly realised. 'We weren't sure if you'd just said it to make us feel better.'

'No, you're right,' said Tonks. 'He came to my flat for Christmas Day.'

'We've decided that we ought to stop being quite so secretive,' said Remus. 'We know you two aren't going to give us away.'

'No, of course not,' said Harry. 'Are we the first people you've told?'

'Yes, apart from my parents,' said Tonks. 'Though Remus wants to tell McGonagall when we get back to Hogwarts.' McGonagall had become Headmistress when Dumbledore decided to return to teaching.

'She did a lot to get me this job, and I don't want to keep this secret from her any more,' Remus explained, sipping his Firewhisky.

'It's not too bad, since I have been officially asked to check on the new Dark Arts teacher,' said Tonks.

'Who told you to do that?' Harry asked, concerned.

'Kingsley did,' Tonks grinned. 'Although the Order's not really still going, he wants to keep everyone in touch.'

'I'm getting quite a reputation as a playboy,' said Remus with a grin. 'I've been seen around Hogsmeade with a few different women. It's particularly good for annoying Severus.'

'It helps that people don't think he's got a steady girlfriend,' said Tonks, 'because if anyone recognises me with him, they hopefully won't think I'm more than one of these women. There's no reason that he shouldn't talk to an Auror as part of his job, either.'

'Yes, I've got to keep up with the latest news. The kissing's a bonus,' said Remus.

'And I stay with him when he transforms, to keep him company. It's safe enough, with Wolfsbane potion. Somehow, I hadn't quite realised he turned into a real wolf -- I was expecting a half-and-half transformation, like in Muggle werewolf films.' Tonks smiled. 'Remus and I have been watching some of those old films.'

'The Muggle versions are more amusing than the true stories, because they're so messed-up I don't take them personally,' Remus explained. 'Tonks has a Muggle flat, with all the stuff Muggles expect, so she rents films for us to watch.'

'My dad didn't want me to be as ignorant about Muggle stuff as Mum had been, you see.'

'Or as I still am,' said Remus. 'I didn't realise Muggles had to pay for electricity -- and I'm not even pure-blooded. I just never took any interest in my Muggle side.'

'Sirius mentioned your dad was Muggle-born, Tonks, which was why you and he weren't on the tapestry,' said Harry. 'I've been using Reparo on it to see who was missing, but I haven't added you, because I don't know how.'

'I looked at that the summer we were cleaning the house up,' said Hermione. 'Sirius didn't like it much, did he? I didn't want to ask him about all the burnt-off names, though I heard him tell you where his was.'

'That tapestry was too much of a reminder of the background he hated. The burns were where his mother got rid of him and so many others she didn't approve of,' said Remus. 'It doesn't have those memories for Harry, though.'

'I've repaired some of the burnt-off names,' said Harry. 'I think it's very interesting.'

'I wouldn't mind seeing the repaired version,' said Tonks. 'Is that OK?'

'Of course.'

'I've looked at it a couple of times,' said Hermione as they all went upstairs to the drawing room. 'I wasn't sure if it was still there because you wanted it, or if it's too hard to remove. Otherwise, I'd have asked you about it.'

'I want it. Even though we're not on it.' Harry pointed out the name of Andromeda Black Tonks, Sirius's cousin, to Hermione. 'That's Tonks' mother.'

Hermione looked at the area around Andromeda's name. 'Oh! So you're Draco Malfoy's cousin, like Sirius?'

'Yes, unfortunately,' said Tonks. She traced the lines with her finger, brushing across the names of her mother, her two aunts and her aunts' husbands. 'In the immediate family, we managed three Death Eaters, one probable Death Eater, Aunt Narcissa, who supported You-Know-Who but wasn't actually a Death Eater, and my mother, who had the sense to get away from the rest.' She added wryly, 'And me, the Auror and shame of the family.'

Remus stroked her cheek. 'Not here. Everyone here thinks you're the hero of the family.'

'Of course we do,' said Harry, adding.

Remus outlined a circle around the various people surnamed Black. 'Sirius was the only one in the Black family who wasn't sorted into Slytherin; he was in Gryffindor, if you hadn't guessed.'

'I don't think he ever said, I just assumed he was,' said Harry. 'I know you and Dad were, so it made sense he was too. I suppose that means Wormtail was, as well -- is he the only Gryffindor Death Eater?'

'He might be. He was in Gryffindor, you're right.'

'Then your mother was in Slytherin too?' Hermione asked Tonks.

'Yes. But she married Dad, and he'd been in Gryffindor.'

'So at least one was disappointed when you were sorted?' asked Remus. 'You've never said which house you were in.'

'No,' said Tonks quietly. 'I suppose I haven't. I'd left Hogwarts before I met any of you, so I didn't think houses mattered any more.'

'Hagrid gave me a bad impression of Slytherin as soon as I found out about the houses. Malfoy helped with that impression too, but I've never met anyone nice who was in Slytherin,' Harry commented.

'How do you know? You don't ask everyone as soon as you meet them what house they used to be in.'

'No, but I think I can tell. The Sorting Hat might talk about ambition and pure blood, but Voldemort got into Slytherin, and he was a half-blood ...'

'He was?' Tonks said, surprised. 'I always assumed he was a pure-blood. Half-bloods in Slytherin get taunted a lot for not living up to the house ideals -- as if parentage is something anyone can control. It's stupid.'

'Oh, I see,' said Hermione quietly.

'I suppose they would. We never cared about blood -- I suppose you know that Ron's pure-blood, I'm a half-blood and Hermione's Muggle-born. What does it matter?'

'It matters a lot to some people -- and, if it doesn't matter to you, why did you just tell me that list?'

Hermione said quietly, 'You were in Slytherin, weren't you? Five of the Slytherins in our year were the children of Death Eaters -- that didn't help the impression we got.'

Harry had never even considered that Tonks might be a Slytherin, but now it seemed so obvious he was too embarrassed to say anything.

'I suppose it wouldn't,' Tonks admitted.

Remus embraced Tonks. 'I'm sorry. Severus never gave me a good impression of Slytherins, but I did know a few nicer ones, some of Sirius' relatives. That's how I first met Andromeda, though I hadn't thought about what house she was in until you just said.' Tonks smiled at him. He added, 'They kept in touch because, well, they were both outcasts from their family.'

'We should have kept talking about old films,' said Hermione, 'and forgotten about this tapestry completely. I'm sorry, Tonks. I didn't realise. Most of the Slytherins in our year were hardly the type to become Aurors.'

'Did you say there were five children of Death Eaters?' Remus asked. 'I can remember Malfoy, Crabbe and Goyle -- they were a pain to teach. Who else was there?'

Harry replied, 'Nott and Rookwood. Though Rookwood didn't seem to spend much time with the other four, and I didn't think she was as likely to become a Death Eater, until Aurors arrested her and Nott.'

'She was released again; it was just an excess of caution on our part. We didn't have any evidence that she'd done anything, but her father and uncle were both Death Eaters. We didn't want to take a chance that she would become one,' said Tonks. 'The three Remus mentioned all went into hiding just before Douglas's death.' Douglas Thomson, an Auror, had died when the Death Eaters 'announced' that they were still a threat.

'Do you want to repair the rest of this?' Hermione asked. 'There are still some burnt names.'

'I burnt some names off after repairing them. There were some people on here who don't want to be associated with their families any more, like Tonks doesn't. I'd rather have their names here than the Death Eaters, but I decided to do it that way.'

'Oh, fair enough.' Hermione smiled. 'I ought to make up a tapestry with my family on it.'

'Good idea,' said Remus. 'Nice worthy Muggles, with no shame in their family. At least, I hope not.'

'There's none that I know of, anyway.'

Harry grinned, glad that they'd got away from the awkward topic of the tapestry and Slytherins.

*

'I hope it works out for them,' said Harry after the visitors had left. He and Hermione were relaxing on the lounge sofa, his arm around her.

'Yes. Remus in particular deserves to have something go right in his life, for a change.'

'I was wondering about that thing Tonks said. Do you think I'm bothered about wizard blood?'

'No, I don't,' said Hermione. 'You've never seemed to care, except when it means people are rude to me.'

'Yes. I just wondered if I was acting like that because I'm prejudiced on the inside.'

'I remember you telling a Muggle-born girl that you thought you loved her, and being happy that I loved you back.' She smiled at him. 'No, you're not prejudiced, Harry. I've known you more than seven years now, and I think I'd have noticed by now.'

'Good.'

'You might be prejudiced against pure-bloods, though,' she said with a smile.

'Like Ron's family, and Sirius, and my dad? I know what you mean, though.'

'You're so nice, that you'll even worry you aren't that nice.' She bit her lip. 'I only saw your aunt and uncle a couple of times, but you obviously didn't learn anything from them. I still think it's incredible that you spent all those years with them, and you're so well-adjusted, and so nice, and ... so willing to help people, like when Voldemort captured Ginny those times, or any of the other times you felt you had to help someone.' She grinned. 'Even if I did call that your saving-people thing.'

'I couldn't leave her! I couldn't just abandon you or the others, either.'

'I know you couldn't. That's the way you are, and it's all your doing, nothing to do with the people who brought you up.'

'I don't mind you denying them any credit,' he said, smiling at her.

'It's true, though. I suppose you saw the only example you had of how people were, and decided, even back then, that you weren't going to be like that.'

'Well ... I haven't really thought about it.'

'I'm not surprised. I don't think you rejected them when you left Hogwarts; I think you unconsciously rejected them when you were a child, before you even knew you were a wizard. Also, although you don't like Malfoy, I think if you saw him being threatened by a Death Eater, you'd do something to save even him.'

Harry laughed. 'Save Malfoy? No chance. Have you been working in that room with the brains again?'

Hermione giggled. 'Yes, but they don't attack me. I'm serious, Harry. You are that nice.'

He thought about it. 'It would be a great way to annoy him, wouldn't it? It'd be like my dad and Snape.'

*

After breakfast on Sunday, Harry and Hermione went into the lounge together to relax. Harry took a box from a cupboard, about the size of a carton of six eggs, and handed it to Hermione. 'I know we haven't ever done anything at Easter before, but I thought it would be nice to,' he explained, turning slightly red. He sat beside her on the sofa, though not so close that they were touching.

Hermione opened the box and saw that there were six chocolate eggs inside. 'Thanks, Harry! No, we never did bother about it at school, did we? Accio package!'

After a brief wait, a small package flew through the air into Hermione's hand and she handed it to him. Harry grinned as he looked at it. 'Thank you. This is the package Artemis brought on Friday, isn't it?'

'Yes.'

He unwrapped it, and found inside a box, about the size of a carton of six eggs ... 'We've been thinking alike again, haven't we?' he said with a grin.

'I think we must have been.'

He looked at the eggs inside. 'So we both included a "basilisk egg" in the order? I wasn't sure if that was quite tasteful, but if you did the same ...'

'No, it's OK. You killed it almost six years ago, after all.' She took out the 'basilisk egg', which had green swirls in its shell, and tapped it, so that it split down the middle to reveal the filling.

Harry looked at the others. If he was remembering the Honeydukes brochure correctly, then the red swirls indicated a 'dragon egg', containing a small toffee dragon. He split it, and found a light filling inside. Nibbling away at one half of it, he found that the filling was strawberry flavoured, with a space to hold the dragon in place in the centre of the egg. 'These really are nice. Does the basilisk have a strawberry filling, too?'

'No, it's lemon,' she said, holding up the filling with the toffee basilisk imbedded in it. 'Is that what the basilisk looked like?'

'No, not really. I forgot; you never saw it, did you? Only Ginny and I ever did.'

'I don't think I'm disappointed about that. I did see it briefly in Penny's mirror, but all I remember are its large yellow eyes.'

Harry shuddered, and put the rest of his egg back in its space in the box. 'That was so close. There were so many times when ...' He couldn't quite make himself say it, so just said, 'We could so easily have never known all this.'

'Yes, I know. I think that's partly why I have those nightmares; there were so many times at Hogwarts when I could have died, that I can't quite accept the fact that I'm safer now.'

Harry wished she could feel safe, not just safer. He said, 'If we hadn't upset you in Charms all those years ago, you wouldn't have been in any danger from the troll, and you wouldn't ever have been in the wrong place all those other times. Though then we wouldn't be living here together.'

'I suppose that's true. But we are here, and we are friends, and neither of us died. I hope we've got years like this ahead of us.'

Harry nodded. 'I hope so. How do you think Remus and Tonks will do?'

'If the Ministry finds out, I think they'll both be in real trouble. It's a real compliment that they trusted us enough to tell us. They're risking both their jobs, and possibly a lot more.'

'What do you think the Ministry would actually do? Do they object to me?'

Hermione said quietly, 'You're not the same at all. When I started in the Department, I was given a list of what the Ministry calls "unacceptable behaviour". It absolutely forbids "fraternising" or "associating" with certain kinds of people. It includes werewolves.' She added sarcastically, 'Actually, I'm surprised it doesn't include Muggle-borns. I suppose I should have told the Ministry that Remus was living here then, but he moved out shortly after, and I don't have to worry about that now.'

'No, you're just fraternising with me. Is the Ministry happy about that?' Harry asked, smiling.

'After you killed Voldemort? That'd probably make up for a lot of sins on my part.' She moved over and hugged him.

Harry grinned at her. 'I didn't know you'd committed any sins, let alone a lot of them.'

Hermione pulled a face at him. 'I don't! I meant that the Ministry has no objection to you -- how could they? Without everything you've done to stop Voldemort taking over, there wouldn't even be a Ministry now; at least, not one that wasn't merely Voldemort's puppet.'

'You're exaggerating.'

'You're too modest. You know perfectly well that I'm not exaggerating.' She tried to recover her train of thought. 'That was the list I got when I started. I expect that Aurors have to obey even stricter rules. We could ask Ron when we see him. Tonks really is risking her career.'

'I think I'm even happier now that I chose Quidditch over being an Auror. The Falcons don't have any rules like that -- just ones about team romances and people from other teams. I just wish I could stop hiding from the Death Eaters and actually play again. It's still too dangerous, though.' He picked up the part-eaten egg again, and picked out the little toffee dragon, biting its head off. 'I'll try not to eat them all at once,' he said, closing the box with the other five in.

'No, we ought to make them last. They're very tempting though.'

'Yes. Hermione, you haven't said anything to your parents about the nightmares, have you?'

'No. Neither that I'm having nightmares because of magic, nor that we're sharing your bed now. I'm not sure I could convince them that we're not doing more than just that, if they knew that much.'

'Good. I know you're close to them, and I didn't know if you'd mentioned it to them in your letters.'

'You can relax. Your lunch won't be poisoned,' she told him, smiling.

*

Harry and Hermione Apparated into her parents' back garden, appearing just outside the French windows as usual.

'Don't look like that,' said Hermione, grinning at him. 'I told you, it won't be poisoned.'

'I know, but I can't help feeling guilty that we've been literally sleeping together.'

They went indoors and greeted her parents. 'Don't look too shocked,' Mr Granger told Harry, 'but we did actually get you some Easter eggs.'

'I told him you didn't always insist on sugar-free snacks,' Hermione said. 'I don't think he believed me, though.'

'Of course I did,' protested Harry. 'Otherwise, I wouldn't have brought chocolate eggs, would I?' The four of them sat round the kitchen table and talked while waiting for lunch to finish cooking.

'Are you two still getting on all right?' Mrs Granger asked.

'Yes, why?' Hermione asked.

'You've been going out since, when was it, July? That's three-quarters of a year, but you don't really give me the impression that you're a couple.'

Hermione and Harry exchanged glances. Harry said, 'I don't really know what sort of impression we give.'

'OK, I was just wondering.'

While they were eating, Mrs Granger brought up the subject of Harry being a target for the Death Eaters. 'You are safe where you live, aren't you?' she asked, clearly worried.

Hermione replied, 'Yes. The house has so much protection on it, even some of our friends have trouble getting in.'

'That doesn't sound too practical,' said her father, grinning.

'The protection spells are a bit out of date,' said Harry. 'They're probably too restrictive, but that's reassuring at the moment.'

'I suppose so. There are a lot of things that never occurred to us when Hermione got that first letter. We thought it was so odd, having an owl deliver post, and now we're quite used to Artemis turning up with her letters.'

Harry nodded. 'I thought it was wonderful, being told I was a wizard and that there was an explanation for all the strange things I'd done without knowing why. I had no idea that the wizard who killed my parents would keep trying to kill me. I never even imagined that one day I'd finally kill him, avenge their deaths, and get a medal for doing it.'

'Hermione's told us about some of that,' said Mrs Granger. 'I can't help feeling that she left a lot out, though.'

'We never did hear the details of why she couldn't write to us the second time she was in that hospital wing,' agreed her husband. 'We just had a letter from Professor McGonagall to say that she was ill, but recovering, and wouldn't be able to write for a while.'

Harry and Hermione exchanged glances. 'I suppose, now that I'm an adult, and you know I'm all right, I could explain that,' Hermione said. 'But I think we should finish eating first, in case it upsets you.'

'It upset me at the time,' confirmed Harry, slicing a roast potato into more manageable pieces.

'How do you make the parsnips taste so good?' Hermione asked.

Mrs Granger shook her head. 'I'm not going to tell you that until we know what happened to you.'

'Is that blackmail?' Harry asked.

'I suppose so. I've haven't had much practice at blackmail.'

'There's the photo albums,' Mr Granger suggested with a grin.

'No! All right, I'll tell you about the Basilisk after lunch!' said Hermione.

'Basilisk?' her parents chorused, staring at her.

Harry was puzzled; if she hadn't told them what had happened, how did they know about Basilisks? Perhaps Muggles made films about them, just as they did about werewolves and dragons.

After lunch, Harry and Hermione helped each other explain the events of their second year at Hogwarts. Her parents listened in shocked silence. When the story ended, her father said, 'The troll was bad enough ... if we'd known what was happening at the school that year ...'

'Why didn't you ever tell us?' her mother asked.

'I didn't want to make it sound as if we were in constant danger.'

'But you were!'

'It sounds worse in summary,' said Harry. 'When it was all happening, it ... well, I suppose it slowly built up. It took us ten months to live through what we just told you in ten minutes.'

'So, the Basilisk was like the legendary one?' Mr Granger asked. 'When we discovered that witches were real, and Hermione was one of them, it didn't occur to us that all that legendary stuff was true.'

'Did she tell you that one of our teachers was a centaur?' Harry asked, trying to steer the conversation away from monsters.

'No. She told us about your werewolf friend. If centaurs are anything like the legendary ones, they were renowned teachers and sages. Hermione, you could have told us about that one without worrying us!'

'I'd dropped Divination before then, so Firenze never taught me,' she explained.

'We also know that you, Harry, were in a competition where you had to face dragons, merpeople and a sphinx,' said her mother.

'Only one dragon,' he said, smiling. 'Ron's brother, and some other expert dragon-handlers he works with, were always there in case anything went wrong, too.' He wondered if Hermione had told them she was tied up underwater for the second task.

Mr Granger said, 'I'm surprised ... you grew up like Hermione, not knowing that any of these things were real. I'm surprised that you can both accept all this so readily.'

His daughter pointed out, 'We learnt about these things gradually, not all at once. We met Firenze, the centaur, in our first year, for instance. Ron told us his brother worked with dragons, so we knew they were real in our first year.'

Harry thought wryly that Norbert had also helped convince them that dragons were real, but guessed that Hermione didn't want to mention the illegal dragon, even to her parents.

*

After a long talk, a parsnip recipe, and a light evening meal, they Apparated back to the hall of Grimmauld Place. 'I'm glad they didn't ask if we were sleeping together,' said Harry. 'That's literally true, after all.'

'I know, but we could still have said we aren't having sex to answer that question.'

'That's true.'

They went up to the drawing room, and put the Easter eggs with the ones they'd given each other, and the ones they'd received from the Weasleys. They sat together on the sofa to talk.

'So you'd told them about the troll?' he asked.

'Well, yes -- I told them that I'd been attacked by a troll, and two boys from my year had knocked it out.' She smiled. 'Later I told them you'd become my friends. I didn't tell them how unlikely it was, or how surprised McGonagall was that you'd managed to defeat it.'

'Unlikely we'd become your friends, or that we managed to defeat it?' Harry teased. More seriously, he asked 'Do you think they'd have taken you out of Hogwarts, if they'd known all the details? They couldn't really have transferred you to a Muggle school, could they? We hadn't learnt any of their subjects.'

'I think they would, yes. Remember, it was only two months into our first year. I wouldn't have missed that much; they could probably have just said that they were transferring me because I'd been at an experimental school and hadn't learnt anything.'

'Oh. We'd hardly have become friends. That would be horrible -- it's not just that we wouldn't be together now, but what about Ginny and so on?'

Hermione frowned. 'Ginny would have made other friends. I wasn't her only friend.'

'No, I don't mean that. We might have found the entrance to the Chamber without you, but we wouldn't have known it was a Basilisk in there. You told us that.'

'Oh. She'd have died. You might have died, not knowing that you couldn't meet its eyes.'

Harry nodded. 'But Voldemort would probably be alive. Even if I'd survived the Basilisk, I wouldn't have had enough anger to make the Killing Curse work against him, without seeing you in danger like that.'

'That troll was doing the world a favour, then. I wonder if we can get the Minister to write it a thank-you letter?'

*

That night, Harry had a different nightmare. Once again, he was in the Department of Mysteries, and once again Antonin Dolohov was confronting Hermione. This time, however, he called to a caged serpent, and the Basilisk, obeying the Parselmouth, lunged at Hermione, killing her with its gaze. Harry shouted at it, commanding it to turn on Dolohov. It did so, killing Dolohov too, and then leaving somehow. Harry ran to Hermione, but she really was dead this time, not just Petrified. He cradled her body in his arms, embracing her for one last time, having finally failed to save her.

'Harry? Harry, it's all right.' She stroked his head.

'I'm sorry,' he sobbed, hugging her to him, 'I'm sorry, I'm sorry, Hermione.'

'You're awake now. It's all right. It was just a dream. Lumos.'

Hermione's wand lit the room, and he blinked. He was in bed, in his own room, in his house. He kept his arms around Hermione, but relaxed his grip. 'Thank you,' he said. 'I dreamt about the Basilisk, and this time it killed you.'

'I shouldn't have got you that egg. It's my fault.'

'No. No, I got you one of those, so I'd have remembered anyway, even if your parents hadn't brought it up. So I'd still have had the nightmare. There was a Basilisk in a cage where you work, live and not blindfolded. That's silly. I don't suppose Dolohov's really a Parselmouth, either.' By talking like this, he was trying to rationalise away the nightmare, which was still far too vivid in his mind.

She hugged him. 'It's just as well we started this reassurance. Do you want some of the potion?' They were making the potion last longer by relying on each other's reassurance, and keeping the potion by the bed in case it was needed for bad dreams.

'I'd better have some. I like being together like this, too. Do you think we'll ... one day, do you think we'll be together like this not because we're scared, but because of love?' He wondered the next morning if he'd have asked his question if he was completely awake.

'I don't know,' she said gently, 'but I don't think it'll be a nightmare if we do.' She passed him the vial.

'No, I'm sure it won't.' He drank the potion, and then said, 'I'm sorry I woke you.'

'I've woken you enough times. We're probably even.'

'We could count who's woken who instead of counting sheep,' Harry suggested. After that nightmare, he couldn't face going back to sleep straight away, so he preferred to just talk until the potion forced him to sleep. 'Did I hurt you, hugging you that hard?'

'No, you just woke me.'

Harry hugged her again, though not as hard, then remembered something. 'What's wrong with those photo albums?'

'Don't you hate to see photos of yourself as a small child?'

'There aren't any.'

'Oh. Sorry.' She hugged him.

After a short while, both fell asleep again.


Coming next: Harry finds something he can do which might really make a difference to the wizarding world. (Which was originally in this one, but Anne made me move it.)