unleashed

After the kiss Harry gently pulled away looking into Hermione’s eyes. Her dark brown eyes showed Harry the love that he has been looking for all of his life. He knew he loved her, and now, he knew that she loved him. There were so many things that needed to be said. Now, was the perfect time to tell her everything that comes with having the famous Harry Potter as a boyfriend.

“‘Mione, we need to talk before we go any further.” he whispered. Hermione nodded and led him into her bedroom. She locked the door behind her as Harry placed a silencing charm on the room. Harry sat down next to Hermione on the bed and continued. “ Like I said before, I don’t want you to get hurt. Yes, I said this a million times, but I’m saying it again. Tom Riddle will try to kill me as well as try to kill the people that are closest to me. Including you. I can’t take another loved one leaving my life. He took away my mum, dad, Sirius, and strangely enough, the Dursley’s. If word got out about us, you would be next in line. Can you really take that? Can you handle being a marked woman for loving a marked man since birth.”

“Harry,” started Hermione, “have you not been listening to me since I came to your place this summer? I LOVE you. So what if there is a pissed off old bloke that wants you dead. I do not care. No one is going to take me away from you. I thought you would have known that since we went after the Sorcerer’s Stone. I do not give a damn about Voldemort. Harry, you are a great wizard. All I ask is that you do not give up. You do your best to stop that bastard. And don’t worry about me, I can take care of myself, I am the cleverest witch in school.” she smiled and went on, “I am willing to risk my life for you as I know you have done for me all of these years.” She leaned into Harry again sealing her promise with a kiss.
***********

Later that night, Harry sat down to dinner with the Granger’s. Dumbledore gave permission to Harry to stay for one night and then he would have to return to Grimmauld with or without Hermione. To Harry, that meant that Hermione may not want to return to Hogwarts even if she and Harry just confessed their love for another. But Harry knew that she would never be as safe at a different school than she was at Hogwarts. So that night Harry was planning to do anything, including begging, to get Hermione to come back to school with him.

“So Harry, how long have you known Hermione?” asked Mrs. Granger, cutting into Harry’s thoughts.

“Well, I have known ‘Mione here for almost six years.” said Harry looking at Hermione with a smile. “Since the first train ride to school.” said Harry and Hermione and Harry together. They smiled at each other and Hermione blushed. Mr. Granger saw this an cleared his throat, making Harry and Hermione break eye contact.

“Well you seem to be very smitten with my little bunny here.” he said, giving Hermione a weird look.

Hermione groaned, “Dad! I told you not to call me ‘bunny’ anymore.” Mr. Granger frowned.

“Aww, honey, it is such a cute nickname for you.” he protested, “Harry, you should have seen her when she was a little child! Bunny here had buck teeth and very fluffy hair. When I said ‘Come here bunny’ she would giggle loudly and hop to me.” Harry couldn’t contain his laughter at the image of Hermione hopping around like a bunny was hilarious. His laughter was stifled a little as he saw the look on Hermione’s face. She was not happy at all. She stood up and left the table, heading to her room. Harry excused himself from dinner and went upstairs to talk to her.

“Harry knocked on the door. “‘Mione, may I come in?” no answer. Harry took that as a yes and walked into the room. Hermione was crouched down in a corner, very much like how Harry was when he was pining over Hermione back at Grimmauld. Harry walked across the room to her and knelt down. “What’s wrong, ‘Mione?” asked Harry with concern in his voice. She looked up into Harry’s green eyes. Her own honey brown eyes were red rimmed. Her bottom lip was trembling and her voice cracked as she began to talk.

“Harry, I must tell you something about me before we even start to date. And when you find this out about me, you can choose whether or not you want to be with me or even around me.”

“‘Mione, whatever it is I always want you to be by my side. You were the one that made the first move on me, now you are backing out of your promise?!” he asked, his anger was building but he had no idea why. He just knew that whatever she was going to say was going to damage his heart a little more than it was. He just decided to suck up his courage and take whatever she had dealt to him.

“No, Harry, I will never back away from you. It is your choice.” she paused as she put a silencing charm on the door. She continued when she knew she was not going to be overheard. “Harry, the reason why I got so upset at dinner tonight was because something happened to me when I was around that age. It was low, disgusting and, until now, never told anyone about it. I was hoping that one day that I was able to start over and forgive, but the chance never came because it still happens. Professor Dumbledore told me that I could use magic to protect myself if it happened again. And I feel that if you were not here, it would probably happen again tonight.” She stopped and took a deep breath. Harry took this chance to speak.

“Hermione, I don’t get it. Just tell me, I swear it can’t be that bad.” He knew as soon as he said those words, they were the wrong ones. Hermione furrowed her eyebrows and glared at Harry.

“Harry, this IS bad! Just listen and do not say anything until I am finished.” She sighed and went on. “When I was five, I used to think that my family really loved me and that they would never let anything happen to me. I was wrong. I remember one day when I was playing outside my father called me to him, “Come here bunny!” I laughed at the name because it was new to me, but I hopped like a bunny to him but when I got to him he would beat me. I never knew why, but it happened” Hermione stopped as she wiped away tears. “When I was sitting in my room crying trying to understand why this was happening to me, he would come in and beat me until I was unconscious so that he didn’t have to hear me anymore.

“After a while of beating me, my mother tried to say something, but he hit her too. So she stopped saying things to him. He hasn’t hit me in a while, but every time that he called me bunny, he wanted to continue with his actions. So now do you understand why I was so upset about him calling me bunny tonight, Harry? I knew that if you were not here he would have been the one coming through that door to add another night to my nightmares.” She stopped and cried out loud onto Harry’s shoulder.

“‘Mione, if this was going on, why didn’t Dumbledore stop it or take you away from here?” Harry asked once he got over the shock.

“I never told him that it was my father, I just said that it was someone that was close to me. If the professor knew what was going on here, he would have pulled me out of this house and would force me to live with some other muggle family. I can’t do that to my family, he is my father, Harry.”

“Yes, I know that Hermione, but that man down there could have hurt you!” said Harry as his voice was rising again. “All I’m asking is that you leave that awful place and never come back! You can come and live with me at Grimmauld.”

“No, Harry!” I will never leave my family. As much as I do love you, I love them. They raised me. I can never leave my mother behind. I’m sorry, but I am not coming to Grimmauld with you. I wish that you would leave now. Go back home.” she stood up and pushed him away. This was a record, love that ended before it could truly begin. Harry knew that she was not telling him everything, but he was going to respect her wishes and he got up to leave. When he reached the door, Harry stopped and turned around to say his parting words.

“I am sorry to bother you Ms. Granger, but I hope that one day you will see that someone out in the world loves you more than anything. What you have waiting for you downstairs is not true love. Those are not parents because if they did, you would not have to deal with this in your life.” Hermione turned her back on Harry. “ Fine! But remember, you once told a friend that you would never leave his side, no matter what. Then you sealed your promise with a kiss. I am sorry to see that that promise could not be kept.” Harry turned around and left back to his new home.
**********

That night at girl at the age of 15 was asleep in her room. She didn’t know it, but her door was opened slowly. An older man came into the room. He walked over to the bed and looked down at the little girl. He bent over her and whispered, “Wake up, bunny!”
**********

At Grimmauld place, Harry was having a nightmare. He was walking down a dark hallway in a familiar house. ‘Why am I at ‘Mione’s place?’ thought Harry. He walked a little bit further until he reached her room. The door was ajar, so Harry opened it a little more. What he saw was unimaginable....there was blood on her bed covers and a crying girl sat in the corner, bleeding. But Harry didn’t know where the blood was coming from. All he knew was that Hermione was sitting on the floor crying. She stood up and Harry wanted to die. Hermione....she was bleeding from all over.

Harry didn’t have to see anymore, he knew what happened. He looked around with an angry glint in his eyes. He was out for blood. But that was all Harry could see. He felt himself flying back in a dark tunnel.

Harry woke up with a start. He was back at Grimmauld. It was late. Everyone went to bed hours again. He didn’t know who to go to for help. All he knew was that he needed to get back to the Granger residence. Harry stood up and walked out of the door of his room. He walked downstairs and saw Dumbledore sitting in an armchair reading a large book. Albus looked up and saw the frightened look on Harry’s face.

“Harry?” he asked with some confusion to why the young boy was awake and looked as if he was going to faint. ‘Did he have another Voldemort dream?’ he thought. ‘No, when he has those he screams, I didn’t hear anything. Maybe this has something to do with someone else.’

Harry ran to the professor and grabbed the front of his robes. Harry couldn’t speak; he was lost for words. When he was ready to speak, only one word came from his lips, “Hermione!”