Three Hallows' Eve || Harmione & Jily

Chapter 15.3

Harry's vision dimmed slightly, and the two threads that he'd become very accustomed to over the course of his life slowly came into view. That familiar pure white thread led off to a destination unknown as it always had, connecting him with somebody important, though he still didn't know who. The other thread though - for the first time in his life he could see the end of it, see who it connected him to. He'd always suspected that it was attached to the Raven's daughter because it had only appeared after he'd first dreamt about her, but here was the proof.

The first time he had seen the thread, it had been so very thin and a glittering silver colour. Now, it was strong and the silver had completely given way to the most beautiful shade of gold. And it traced directly to Hermione - the girl that Mum had known for years - the girl he knew he'd fall in love with and marry. And wasn't that an overwhelming thought?

Harry became suddenly very lightheaded, swaying on the spot and then stumbling as his sense of balance abandoned him. Between his limited vision and racing mind, the world felt like it was fading away around him. He was vaguely aware of Thea getting Mum's attention, physically pulling her away from her conversation by the hand. It must have worked as a moment later, a pair of hands landed on his shoulder, holding him steady in a gentle grip.

'Hey, breathe,' Mum instructed softly. 'Deep breaths in and out, come on.'

Doing as she said, he soon regained his balance and the world around him started to come into a much clearer view around him. Mum was regarding him with that look of concerned care that only a Mum could manage.

'What happened?' she asked when he'd calmed down a little. 'You've never reacted like that to an episode.'

Harry looked over her shoulder to the rest of the assembled group. Thea and Hermione seemed very engaged in a discussion of some sorts, while Dad was speaking to the girl's parents. Thankfully none of them were looking his way.

'Harry?'

He returned his focus to Mum and worried at his lip. 'You know how you've always said that you didn't like Dad from the moment you met him on the train?'

Mum looked at him, confused at the non sequitur. 'Yeah?'

'How do I not do that?' he asked shyly, glancing at Hermione once more.

Mum turned her head to follow his gaze, looking back with a knowing grin and a nod. 'Oh, now I see. That's her? The Raven girl?'

'The Raven's daughter,' he corrected sharply.

'Sorry,' she apologised, though she didn't sound very sorry at all. 'Okay, so the reason I didn't like Dad was because he was rude, mean, and full of himself.'

Harry looked at her disbelievingly. 'He still is all of those things.'

'A good point, well made,' she allowed with a laugh and Harry grinned, 'but now he knows the difference between when it's funny and when it's hurtful. He also decided, right there on the train, that he was going to marry me and didn't care that I wasn't interested.'

He bit his lip again at that revelation and despairingly asked, 'But what if I know I'm going to marry her?'

'Try not to think about that - you're much too young for all of that girlfriend business, anyway, let alone marriage.' They both scrunched their noses up at the same time, then laughed at each other's reaction. Mum's expression turned more serious quickly though. 'Between you and me, I think more than anything in the world, that girl needs a friend. So be her friend, Harry. Don't lie to her, obviously, but I don't think that she needs to know that you've been having dreams about her just yet. We can deal with that when you're both older, I reckon.'

Harry's face took on a troubled expression as he mulled that thought over. Truth be told, ignoring what he knew sounded much easier said than done. Plus, if he was going to try to be Hermione's friend, keeping a secret from her - especially one that involved her - seemed like a lousy way to go about it. But Mum did have a point. Even he knew that eleven years old was too young to be thinking about girlfriends and marriages and all of that stuff.

Come to think of it, he didn't really have the first clue as to what the difference between friend and boyfriend even was. Mum and Dad were married, so he figured that that was a bit different. Padfoot and Auntie Aspen had been boyfriend and girlfriend for a while, and Harry didn't really think he'd ever want to do as much kissing and flirting with anybody. Then again, last month Padfoot had asked Auntie Aspen to become his fiancée (or his finance as Thea had called it, much to everybody else's hilarity), so maybe those sorts of things just came before something more serious.

Thinking about all of this was making Harry's mind spin again, so he firmly shelved the prospect of figuring all of this out until he was older. Obviously Mum was right, as usual, but even on the off chance that she wasn't, this all sounded like a future Harry problem.

He nodded slowly. 'I can do that - be her friend,' he said, more to himself than to Mum. 'I can do that.'

'Good,' Mum replied with a soft smile. 'So, do you want me to introduce you?'

Harry's eyes went wide as saucers and before he could even begin to hesitate, Mum was on her feet and walking back towards the group. All he could do now was follow.

'Hermione, this is my son, Harry Potter. It's his first year at Hogwarts this year too.' Mum leaned toward Hermione and pretended to whisper, though she was still clearly audible, even over the noise of the platform. 'He's a little nervous about making new friends.'

He almost spoke up to argue with that - he wasn't really nervous about that at all - but then as Hermione stood up a little straighter and looked in his direction, he realised what Mum was doing: she was giving the girl a mission, and more importantly, a reason to stick with him. Clever.

Mum turned to him, then. A slightly mischievous smirk had found its way onto her face, though anybody outside of the family probably wouldn't recognise it for what it was. 'Harry, this is Hermione Granger. We've been exchanging letters for a couple of years.'

'Yeah, I remember you talking about her occasionally,' he replied without thinking, and honestly he needed to stop doing that so much. In an instant, both Mum and Hermione took oddly similar curious looks.

'You do?' Mum asked him.

And Hermione asked Mum, 'You did?' at the same time.