===June 20 1992===
Hermione glares at her father. "I'll ask again, what did you do?"
"I gave the boy the father of a girl to her boyfriend talk." Richard answers.
"You threatened him didn't you?"
"I suppose you could say that." Richard answers rubbing his neck as he does.
Hermione sighs. "I can't believe you. I TOLD you his relatives were horrible to him. I guess I should have spelled it out to you. Harry was neglected, beaten, underfed and just plain abused!"
"I..I.." Richard stammers.
"I don't have time for this! I need to find him before he does something stupid. Get in the car! You're driving until we find him!" Hermione turns and goes back into her room as she does Richard goes to the car. Hermione comes out of her room holding the marriage contract. "Inveniet!"* The contract glows and she rushes out the door holding the contract. She gets in the car with her dad sitting there quietly. "That way!" She points.
An hour, and a few wrong turns later they pull up near some cliffs. "I think that's him." Hermione says, pointing to a figure sitting on the edge of the cliffs.
"I'll wait here." Richard says meekly.
Hermione nods as she gets out of the car, not trusting herself not to further chew out her father. She walks toward the figure, very relieved that it is Harry. Once she gets close she speaks softly. "Harry?"
Harry looks back at her, his eyes red from crying. "How'd you find me?"
Hermione holds up the marriage contract. "Locator spell built in." Harry nods. "What are you doing here?"
"After I ran out I got lost. I wandered around until I found these cliffs." Harry answers. "Seemed as good a place as any."
"For what?" Hermione asks as she sits beside him.
"Contemplating my next move. Debating my options." Harry says. "I can't go back to my uncle's, I'll jump first."
"I can understand that." Hermione says. "Do you think you could back to my house?"
"I don't know." Harry answers. "I like being around you. I certainly have been enjoying our time together as a couple. The biggest thing stopping me is your dad. He told me he didn't want me there."
Hermione nods. "I don't think he meant you specificallly, I think he meant you in general. Pretend for a second that we do marry and have children. Now our 12 year old daughter wants a boy that we don't really know to stay at our house. How would you react?"
"How much do I know about this boy?" Harry asks. "Did he, I don't know, save our daughter from a troll?"
Hermione laughs. "Let's be honest, she probably saved him."
Harry smiles slightly. "Fair enough."
"In this scenario she's our second daughter, our first is in her third year. Like me our she was born a little late so she turned 12 shortly into her first year. The two of them met on the express, are in the same Hogwarts house. She's been writing about him for months. Then she writes saying he's in a bad home situation and asks if he can stay with us."
"I would trust our daughter's judgment. After all, how couldn't I, with you as her mum?"
Hermione blushes. "Real smooth there."
"After the boy was settled in I'd sit him down with our daughter, and you and we'd have a discussion about expectations and rules."
"You've given this some thought."
"It's more or less what I was expecting." Harry says. "No threats, just civil discussion."
Hermione nods. "That sounds reasonable."
"I thought so." Harry says. "Now I can't get the image of a couple of little girls with your hair but my eyes out of my head."
"What do we name them in your head?"
"Rose Lillian." Harry answers. "Keep to my family tradition of naming after flowers and honor my mum at the same time for the eldest. Then maybe Ivy, or Iris for the next one's first name."
Hermione puts her hand on his. "I'll make you a deal. If you come back and give my dad a second chance. Then if we end up married I'll let you name our daughter whatever you want."
Harry seems to think about it. "I don't know."
"Why?"
"I'm wondering if I should hold out for naming rights on all children we have." Harry smirks.
Hermione laughs. "All?"
"You know we're going to end up with at least two, one for each line." Harry says.
"Three." Hermione says. "In a perfect world I'd like to have two girls so the line of Ravenclaw can fully get reestablished, and a boy for Gryffindor."
"I think that's perfectly reasonable." Harry says as he gets up. "Let's go home. "
Hermione gets up and takes his hand. "Sounds good." They walk to the car and get in. Richard drives them home in silence.
"Mum's home!" Hermione says running inside.
"Harry." Richard starts.
"Can I shower before we have this conversation?" Harry asks. "I really would like to clear my head."
Richard nods. "Of course, whatever you need."
Harry heads in and upstairs. After a few minutes Richard goes inside, only to have his wife Helen Granger immediately confront him. "So our daughter tells me you successfully chased off her boyfriend." Helen says, obviously not pleased.
"She made me help bring him back." Richard says.
"You shouldn't have treated him like you did to begin with." Helen says. "We agreed to the marriage contract, so we knew this was coming."
"I was hoping it wouldn't happen until Harry's fourteenth birthday. That we'd have a few years before our girl was betrothed to him. It would also be nice if he wasn't staying here. It's bad enough knowing they'll be married, I don't want to think about what they'll get up to when we leave them home alone."
"We plan on doing our summer homework and reading for the most part." Hermione says. 'We've discussed exactly what you're thinking about and we really want to make an honest attempt to wait until we're married."
"I didn't know." Richard says.
"You didn't ask." Hermione fires back. "You always said I could talk to you about anything. Well, it works both ways."
Richard nods. "I'll remember that."
"Now, I expect you to treat Harry as if he were our son." Heken says. "After all, we were listed on his parents' will as guardians if the magical ones couldn't do it. We could have raised him."
"That certainly would have made the marriage contract more awkward." Hermione says.
"We would have told the two of you that you weren't siblings." Helen says. "That's also one of the reasons that the contract can be canceled."
"I suppose that makes sense." Hermione says. "Wait, if you knew about this why didn't you warn me?"
"We didn't remember any of it until you opened the marriage contract." Helen says. "I remember now, Lily said she was going to have to lock away the memories for our safety."
Hermione nods. "That makes sense."
"Now we have an issue, your dad was supposed to start dinner." Helen says. "Will you come with me to get something for dinner?"
"Sure." Hermione says. Then she goes off with her mum.
Richard goes upstairs and goes into Harry's room. "Harry, can we talk now?" He looks at the boy having just stepped into the room with a towel wrapped around his waist. The last 9 months at Hogwarts had let him put some meat on his bones, but you could still see his ribs from being nearly starved to death. That was nothing compared to the scars that criss-cross his back. Several of the scars appeared to be from a switch and one is the perfect impression of a belt.
"Please quit staring, it's rude." Harry says as he puts on a shirt.
"What happened to you?"
"You just saw my childhood, or the scars I'll always carry from it." Harry says coldly.
"I'm sorry Harry." Richard says. "I really am, I had no idea."
"Now you know why I ran away." Harry says as he finishes getting dressed.
"I just wanted to make sure you treated Hermione right."
"Don't worry I will." Harry says. "You should apologize to Hermione though. You just told her you don't trust her judgment."
"I never thought of it that way."
Harry nods. "Please don't tell Hermione about my scars, I'll tell her when I'm ready."
"Of course, I understand."
"Was there something else you wanted to talk about?"
"I just wanted to say again how I shouldn't have done what I did earlier. I want to try and be better to you. If you need someone to talk to about anything I want you to be able to come to me."
Harry nods. "I'll think about it."
"Good." Richard turns to leave. "Actually I have an idea that may help you win my daughter over."
"And why would you help me?"
"Part of my penance?"
"I'll hear you out then."
"I think it'd be better if I showed you." Richard says then starts walking.
Harry shrugs and follows him. Richard leads Harry to a small room off of the garage. Inside the room is exercise equipment. "What is all of this?" Harry asks.
"This is how I stay in shape." Mister Granger says. "I want you to feel free to use it as you want."
Harry looks over the equipment. "Will you teach me what I need to do?"
Richard nods. "We'll take you shopping for clothes tomorrow and get you some workout clothes too. After that I'll teach you."
"I'm afraid I don't have any muggle money right now." Harry says.
"We'll take care of that."
"Then let me pay for Hermione's school stuff." Harry insists.
Richard laughs. "You're getting the bad end of that deal."
Harry nods. "I'm not overly worried, I've seen my vault. I'm fairly sure I don't technically need to work if I don't want to."
"Damn." Richard says. "Does Hermione know?"
Harry shakes his head. "Hasn't come up."
"I won't tell her." Richard says.
"Thank you." Harry says. "You think I could get one more small favor from you?"
"Name it."
"Help me get Hermione a birthday present before we go back?"
Richard smiles. "Of course."
"We're home!" Helen yells from the kitchen.
Harry and Richard leave the home gym. Hermione comes up to them. "You two okay?"
"We are going to take it one day at a time." Harry says.
Hermione nods and hugs Harry. "I'm glad. Now I hope you're hungry and like Indian food."
"Don't think I've ever had Indian food, but I'll give it a try." Harry responds.
Hermione nods. "Head to the dining room, I want to talk to my dad for a minute."
"Okay." Harry says and heads to the dining room.
"Thank you Dad." Hermione says. "I'm glad you two are getting along."
"Let's just say he showed me something that I didn't expect." Mister Granger says. "He brought up the point that I should apologize to you. We raised you to be a strong independent young woman that makes good decisions. I completely ignored that when you brought Harry home."
"Thank you Dad." Hermione says as she hugs him. "Now let's eat."