unleashed

Hermione sat in her room at Grimmauld Place on her bed. She never realized how much pain she was actually in until she calmed down. Now, the pain was excruciating and hard to live with. Being cooped up in her room wasn’t any better for her either. ‘I can’t be with Harry now.’ she thought, ‘he wants a family....he NEEDS a family. I cannot provide that for him. What will he think of me now? I feel so incomplete.’ Hermione stood up from her bed and walked to the desk in the corner of the room. She needed to write. But before she could even dip her quill into the ink pot, Hedwig was at her window tapping, wanting entry. Hermione got up again, feeling the pain in her back, to let Harry’s owl in.

“Hey girl, why is Harry writing to me?” the owl hooted as if telling her to open the note and find out. Hermione sensed that and opened the letter. As she read the poem, Hermione felt the warm tears rolling down her cheeks. “Oh Harry, “she whispered aloud, “if only it were true....more like a fallen angel.” Hermione wiped away her tears and started to write a letter to Harry. ‘Wait!\' she thought, ‘this is dumb! I’m just going to go down there and talk to him. Professor Dumbledore did say that it was up to me to talk to people.’ Hermione stood up, but realized that she was in an enormous amount of pain. She sat back down and wrote to Harry where she was and to have him come up to her room since she couldn’t really walk. She tied the letter the Hedwig’s leg and the owl took off. Two minutes later Harry was knocking on Hermione’s door.

“Come in.” called Hermione. Harry opened the door and ran straight to his love and picked her up. He carried her to the bed and sat her down.

“How does that feel?” he asked with a little concern in his voice. She noddedto indicate that she was alright. “‘Mione, I am so happy to see that you are more or less alright. I should not have left you alone. And because I did, you got hurt by that asshole of a father.” Hermione stopped him before he finished his rant.

“Harry before you go any further than that, I have to tell you that it was not my father who did this to me.” Harry was a little confused. He was sure that her father did this to her. Hermione continued, “it was Dolohov. For some reason Voldemort knows my deepest fears. Dolohov crept into my bedroom, put a silencing charm on the door and attacked me. No one heard my cry, no one heard my screams. Apparently, Voldemort sent Dolohov to my house to trap you. But seeing as you were not there he decided to leave a gift for you. I fought as hard as I could, but what made him leave was the Dark Mark that was on his arm. It was red, then it turned black. He jumped off of me so fast, like it burned him and he left. I got out of bed, but I couldn’t walk. I crawled as far as I could to the farthest part of my room and cried. That’s when Dumbledore arrived.” She started to cry again.

Harry couldn’t believe what he was hearing. A Death Eater in Hermione’s house! ‘Why me?’ he thought, ‘why does everything always come back to me. My parents died because of a prophecy made about me, Cedric died because I told him to take the trophy with me, all of my friend were hurt at the ministry because they listened to me, Sirius died because I wouldn’t listen, the Dursley’s and now Hermione! I wish it will all go away!’

“Harry, all that stuff was not your fault. It happened because Voldemort and his Death Eaters are heartless. They will kill anyone for the entertainment. And it will only go away when you kill that bastard that started all of it.” Harry stood up. How did she know that was what he was thinking? Maybe he should try something else. ‘ `Mione?’ he thought.

“Yes, Harry?” she asked as if Harry had spoken aloud.

“Hermione! How can you hear what I am thinking?” asked Harry with amazement.

“I beg your pardon? I heard you loud and clear. You started talking about how this was all your fault then you wanted to know when it would end. I may have been the one who got beaten, but are you sure that you don’t need to lay down?”

“No, ‘Mione, I’m fine. But I am sure that I was thinking of all of those people killed and hurt in my mind. Let’s try it again.” Harry sat down next to Hermione on the bed and closed his eyes. “Just repeat whatever I say and we will see what will happen.”

“Alright Harry.”

‘Hogwarts’ thought Harry.

“Hogwarts” repeated Hermione aloud.

‘Padfoot’ thought Harry thinking of something harder

“Padfoot” said Hermione out loud.

Harry looked over at Hermione. She still had her eyes closed. Harry smiled slyly and went on. ‘I think Harry Potter is sexy!’

“I think.....Hey! Very funny Harry.” Hermione slapped Harry on the arm.

“You see, well 2 out of 3 is not bad. But I think you can read my mind. And I am certain that if you can read what I think then I can read what you think.”

‘Bullocks!’ thought Hermione.

“I heard that, ‘Mione!” said Harry laughing out loud.
*********

The next morning Harry woke up with the sun shining in his face. He felt so refreshed. He had not had a whole nights sleep since he slept with Hermione at the Dursley’s. As he was laying in bed soaking up the sun he felt movement next to him in the bed. He looked down and saw Hermione fast asleep with her hair over her face. She looked so peaceful sleeping that he didn’t want to wake her. Too late. Hermione raised her head and brushed her hair away from her eyes.

“Morning ‘Mione.” said Harry, kissing the top of her head.

“Harry?” she asked groggily. “We must have fallen asleep while we were talking last night.”

“It looks that way. Why don’t we go get some breakfast. Can you walk or do you need me to carry you?” Harry asked getting up from the bed.

“I’ll try walking, but if I get too weak will you carry me the rest of the way?” she asked.

“Sure, ‘Mione” said Harry.

Hermione made it down to the kitchen without the help of Harry, but it was still noticeable by all that when she sat down, Hermione was completely exhausted. Harry sat down next to her and grabbed her hand under the table. Hermione felt this and let it go. Harry looked at Hermione from the corner of his eyes and, with his mind, asked Hermione what was wrong.

‘Nothing, Harry. I just don’t feel comfortable with you right now to display affections with you. You were right, I just want us to be friends for now.’ she thought with a hint of desperation in her thoughts.

‘Fine, ‘Mione. I won’t push you, like you did to me not so long ago. I just wanted you to know that I love you. I never regretted anything that has happened between us, well maybe for the fact that we spent time apart and you got hurt in the process.’ Harry couldn’t continue his thoughts because he was cut off from Hermione. Hermione on the other hand, was crying in her seat. From the outsiders, they had no idea what was going on with her, but they didn’t push her to talk. Hermione rose from her chair and left the kitchen.

Harry waited a few moments to let her calm down before he went to go looking for her. Mrs. Weasley asked Harry what was going on, but Harry just told the adults at the table that he didn’t know what was wrong but he would do everything in his power to find out. He stood up and left the kitchen, the adults still sitting gave each other worried looks and decided that they would just let Harry handle it. When Harry reached the living room, he noticed that Hermione was sitting on the bottom-most stair breathing heavily.

“Why are you sitting on the stairs?” Harry asked coldly. This woman declared her love for him and now she was taking it back. Hermione raised her head when she sensed the coldness.

“I can’t make it up the stairs. It not only kills me to hurt this much, but I have to depend on other people.” she answered with tears brimming her eyes. Harry felt like shit. It wasn’t until just now did he notice that he was being selfish with his emotions. This woman has been hurt not more than three days ago by a Death Eater and he was asking her to love him after all of that just happened. Harry’s anger left him as fast as it had entered him. He gave a small smile and walked over to Hermione. He wrapped her arms around his neck, placed one hand behind her back and the other one under Hermione’s knees. He lifted her up without a problem, seeing as she had a very small frame and was practically tiny compared to Harry. Little did they know that Remus Lupin was looking in on the scene from the kitchen door. He smiled and turned away letting the two have their privacy. ‘They remind me so much of Lily and James.” he thought.
**********

When Harry and Hermione reached the room, they were very surprised to see their headmaster sitting at the desk waiting for them to return. He smiled inwardly at the sight of Harry carrying Hermione into te room. ‘He really does care for her, more so than he ever really thought.’ Dumbledore stood and helped Harry carry Hermione to the bed. Once she was comfortable, Dumbledore looked into her eyes and began to question everything that happened that night in her room. Luckily for Hermione, Harry spoke first.

“Sir, I was wrong. It was not her father that did this to her. It was Dolohov. He was sent by Tom to get me, but I was not there so he attacked Hermione to send me a message.” said Harry looking down at the bed spread.

“I assumed as much Harry. All I ask is why did you say that Mr. Granger did this to Hermione?”

‘Harry, did you really say that it was my father?’ ask Hermione in his mind.

‘Yes, but only because I went with my gut feeling that he was the one behind it. I mean he has done it before. What was going to stop him now?’ he thought back to her.

Hermione spoke up, “Sir, Harry had a hunch that it might have been my father because he was the one that had attacked me before. When you told me that I was allowed to use magic to protect myself.” As she finished, Dumbledore was shocked, but that passed very quickly.

“I see. Well, Hermione, the choice is yours. You can either stay at Hogwarts and come here for the holidays or you can continue your residence at your home where we would have Order members watching your residence so that Death Eaters can no longer attack you.” said the headmaster.

“Well, if it is alright for Harry, I would rather stay here, but only under the condition that my family is brought here so that they can be protected.” said Hermione looking at Harry to see what his reaction would be.

‘Hermione, if I see that man, I will hurt him for ever laying a finger on you. Even if he didn’t do this to you this time, that doesn’t mean that he won’t do it again. I cannot risk that.’ Harry thought to Hermione.

“Harry, I know that you are upset, but that is my family. Don’t you see that he didn’t do it. I have to trust that he wouldn’t do it again. But if he does, then yes, I will understand if you hurt him. But if they can’t come here then I will go there.” she said with anger.

“Sorry, to interrupt, but how long were you two able to read each other’s minds?” asked Dumbledore. The two forgot that their headmaster was there watching the entire echange between them. Dumbledore noticed that Hermione said something to Harry that was obviously in his mind. The two teenagers looked at the professor then looked at each other.

‘We should tell him Harry, he will know how this happened.’ thought Hermione.

‘Yes, but how do we know that? This man has been keeping things from me all of my life. Have you forgotten what happened the last time that happened, Sirius died. I can’t take that risk anymore.’ thought Harry. He had tears in his eyes with the mention of Sirius.

‘But Harry, this could be that ‘power the Dark Lord knows not’, if it can help, then maybe we should tell him just in case.’ Hermione shot back.

‘Fine, you tell him.’ thought Harry.

Hermione cleared her throat. “Sir, we have been able to do this since last night. We are not sure how it happened, but it did. And if I am not mistaken, I think that when I was in trouble, I was able to channel Harry to let him know that I needed him. I did think of him after I was attacked.”

Albus was quiet for a few minutes then he answered. “Very good observation, Hermione. I will have to look into it. But before I do I need to know Harry, have you been having dreams of Tom’s plans or anything?” Harry looked up at the headmaster.

“No, sir. The only dreams I have were of Sirius falling through the veil. All of he other times that I didn’t dream I was with Her.....Hermione.” said Harry looking at Hermione.

“I see. Well it seems as if Hermione might be able to help you more than you think, Harry. My hypothesis is that Hermione’s your calming mechanism. During the next few weeks, Hermione, I need you to monitor Harry’s sleep. Meaning that he will have to sleep on the floor in this room. If he shows any signs of struggling in his sleep, try to go into his mind and find out what it is. If I am right, then it seems that with Harry alone, he is not able to block his mind against the power of Tom, but with the both of your amazing powers, you will be able to block him out completely. Also, starting next week, I want to start you both on Occlumency and Legilimency. I will be teaching you since Professor Snape cannot overcome a schoolboy rivalry. Until work hard, Harry in clearing your mind. I will be here tomorrow to get your final word about Hermione’s parent’s, Harry. Have a good day.” And with that said, the headmaster got up and left the room.

“Harry, I know that you have lost all trust for my father, but I don’t know what I would do if he died. Please, let them come here to stay. It’s not like we are alone. We have Order members here and you will be here.” Hermione pleaded with Harry.

“Fine, they can come, but if he puts a hand on you, Hermione, so help me Merlin, I will kill that man.” said Harry defiantly.