===September 1 1992===
Ginny Weasley, the last of this year's new students is sorted into Gryffindor and comes and stands beside Ron. "Congratulations Ginny." Harry says.
"Thank you." Ginny says, blushing heavily then quickly walking away.
"She's got it bad for you." Hermione whispers. "Almost makes me think of sharing."
"Almost?" Harry whispers back.
Before Hermione can say anything Dumbledore comes up to the podium. "Welcome to a new year at Hogwarts. Before the feast I have a few announcements to make. First I'd like to remind all students that the Forbidden Forest is just that forbidden. Second, there is a new policy in place. The governors heard rumors of bullying going on here and want to remind everyone this is a place of learning."
"Bullying will not be tolerated at all, if you are being bullied or see someone being bullied you are to either tell a Professor, Madam Pomfrey or one of the castle ghosts. All reports of bullying will be investigated, and confirmed cases will be dealt with as deemed appropriate. If you have any questions, please ask your head of house."
"Thank you all for your attention. Have a wonderful year." Dumbledore claps his hands at the end of his speech and the feast appears.
Everyone digs into the feast, some with more enthusiasm than others. Harry and Hermione both notice an occasional flash from further down the Gryffindor table that is steadily working their way. Not hearing anyone panicking, they're not sure what to make of it.
"Are you Harry Potter?" A young male voice asks from behind them
Harry turns around and sees a first year boy with an old-fashioned muggle camera around his neck. "I am, and you are?"
"Colin Creavy, I'm a first-generation wizard." He holds up his camera. "I'm taking a bunch of pictures so when I go back home I can show them to my mom and brother."
"That's a wonderful idea." Hermione says as she turns around.
"Colin, allow me to introduce you to my girlfriend, and the smartest witch in our year, Hermione Granger." Harry says.
Colin gasps. "You're The-boy-who-lived's girlfriend?"
"I am." Hermione says as she takes Harry's hand.
"I can't believe I'm meeting you two on my first day here." Colin says. "Do you think I could take a picture of you two for when I get home?"
"Actually, could I get you to do me a huge favor?" Harry asks. "I have here my two best friends too. Is there any chance I could get a picture of all four of us?"
Colin nods. "Of course, I'd be happy to do that."
"This is Neville Longbottom." Hermione says as she gently nudges him.
Neville quickly turns and sees Colin. "Pleased to meet you."
Colin shakes Neville's hand. In the meantime Harry is trying to get Ron to stop eating long enough to turn around. Finally Ron turns and introduces himself as they all stand. Harry and Hermione have an arm around each other while Ron and Neville smile looking at the happy couple.
The flash goes off. "I think I got a good one." Colin says. "Thank you so much."
"Just get us a couple copies of that picture." Harry says. "Here, for the pictures." He hands him a couple galleons.
"This is too much." Colin says.
"We'll figure it out later." Harry says. "I'm sure I'll want other pictures later."
Colin nods. "I suppose that's fair." He moves on taking more pictures.
"You know he would have done the pictures for free." Hermione points out.
"All the more reason to pay him." Harry replies.
They are heading for the Common Room, sated and sleepy, as they see McGonagall's stern figure swimming among first years towards them. At once Harry has a bad feeling. Hermione, beside him, is frowning.
"Mister Potter, the headmaster would like a word with you, if you don't mind. He's particularly fond of acid pops."
"I'm not letting him go alone." Hermione states.
"And I'm not going without her." Harry agrees.
Threads of complicity are almost visible between them, a network he can rely on, always. It's comforting. Harry wonders if this is what married life feels like.
McGonagall nods. "I suspected as much."
It's a long way to Dumbledore's office. Ever since his reaction to their engagement Harry's naïve blind trust in the old wizard is gone. Though still willing to trust his wisdom and command in matters related to triumph over darkness, the boy knows his personal happiness is not top priority for the headmaster. And he has a bad feeling.
The griffin moves when they say the password, and Harry goes up the stairs first, Hermione right behind him. As soon as Harry reaches the top of the steps Dumbledore speaks. "Mister Potter, thank you for coming." Harry steps into the room proper and Hermione comes up behind him. "Miss Granger?" Dumbledore asks, surprised. "I don't recall asking you here."
"I want her here, and she wants to be here." Harry states.
"I was hoping to talk to you alone." Dumbledore says, his will behind every word of the apparently innocuous phrase; he's an opponent to fear.
But even that means Harry must not face him alone.
"Whatever you have to say to me you can say to her, otherwise you can talk to yourself." Harry demands, though a second later he would have been horrified of his own boldness
if Hermione hadn't reminded Dumbledore:
"Unless this is directly about Harry's academics he doesn't have to be here."
The old wizard looks at them from over the top of his glasses, his gaze no longer twinkling. Finally, he nods. "Please sit, some of what I have to tell you is shocking." They do as instructed. "Now you are very aware that Voldemort killed your parents on the day he gave you that scar. What you don't know is why."
Harry feels as if a sword had been sheathed in his stomach at the sudden, unexpected mention of his parents and their death. Beside him, Hermione pales, lips tight. He feels her hand encircling his. That's when he knows that this might hurt but he'll survive.
"In the early months of 1980 a prophecy was made regarding the one that would defeat Voldemort. Unfortunately, a spy of Voldemort's overheard much of it and delivered it to Voldemort. This in turn led to Voldemort hunting down the child he thought would be his downfall."
"A prophecy" Hermione repeats, her tone making clear what she thinks of such things.
Harry barely listens. He's trying to absorb what he was just told. A prophecy. About a child. He was the child in that family.
His parents had been killed because of him.
Merlin. He gasps soundly, and Hermione grabs his hand tighter.
It plays in his head in an endless loop. Loving me killed them. I killed them.
His inner eye shows him his mom's letter, the one addressed to Hermione, and his eyes itch, sadness and guilt making his insides hurt. He's about to cry, but if he does he won't be able to stop.
"Do you know the exact wording of this prophecy?" Hermione asks, worried gaze still on her boyfriend.
"Yes," Dumbledore admits. "I was the one the prophecy was spoken to." The old wizard clears his throat.
"The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches... born to those who have thrice defied him, born as the seventh month dies... and the Dark Lord will mark him as his equal, but he will have power the Dark Lord knows not... and either must die at the hand of the other for neither can live while the other survives."
Harry instinctively reaches for his scar with his free hand. "I've come to find out Voldemort didn't hear that part of the prophecy."
"How do you know that?" Hermione asks coldly.
"I'm not at liberty to say." Dumbledore answers.
"NO!" Hermione shouts, "you do not get to hold back information now!"
Dumbledore looks to his desk. "I took an unbreakable vow, I can't reveal anything more."
"Unbreakable vow?" Harry asks quietly.
"A magical vow, breaking it would cost me my magic, and most likely my life." Dumbledore explains. "I promise I'm not holding anything else back."
Hermione nods and looks over to Harry, who seems about to break down. She knows him well enough to know that he won't do it in front of Dumbledore, and he would not like their fellow Gryffindors to see him cry. "We appreciate you being honest with us." Hermione finally says as she gets up and gently pulls on Harry's arm making him stand dazedly.
"This is a lot to process." She conveys, not sure how she's holding herself together.
"Wait, I did foresee this possibility." Dumbledore hurriedly declares. He pulls out a hairbrush. "Tap it with your wand and say portus, it'll take you home. Do the same to return."
#####
Helen was waiting for them when they arrived, she had a waste basket in each hand which was good as they both needed to hurl after their travel. "There was an owl waiting for us when we got back from dropping you off." Helen tells as they recover. "The attached letter asked us to send something from the house then wait for you two to show up and be prepared for you to get sick."
"Thanks, mom." Hermione whispers.
"Is something wrong?" Helen asks. "It's just the first day of term."
"The headmaster told us something that we need to discuss." Hermione utters. "I think this was his way of trying to make us comfortable while we talked."
Not that the old… professor thought of it as he was trying to tell this to Harry alone, Hermione thinks bitterly. Honestly, how did he think this was going to work? Tell Harry then send him alone to my house with people he met barely two months ago? Without me?
Helen looks at Harry, he hasn't said a word and just looks distant. "Let me know if I can help."
Hermione nods, then nudges Harry. "My room." Harry nods and starts up the stairs. Hermione looks at her mom. "We'll be breaking the rules, the door will be closed."
"Of course." Helen says as Hermione follows Harry up. "If I ever meet this Headmaster I'm going to have to give him a piece of my mind."
Hermione closes the door to her room and quickly casts the privacy spell. "Harry," Hermione says, only to have him hug her and start crying quietly, gently at first.
"Thank you," he manages.
His face to her shoulder, arms still holding her as if she could disapparate at any moment now, he feels so needy, so vulnerable. Hermione holds him, caressing his hair, as the crying becomes a true deluge. It's so violent, so heart-wrecking, this despair, that her own chest begins aching and she feels tears threatening to fall from her own eyes.
Not for the first time, she wishes Dumbledore hadn't told him, or at least that he hadn't told him like this. What's the use? The dark wizard's emergence might be nothing but the old man's over caution, and even if he's right, it could take years for darkness to re-emerge strong.
The girl slowly nudges her boyfriend to the bed, never letting go of him as they move there together. It's a distraction, more than anything else. It's not as if lying down he'd be more composed. But he seems to sink into her, and she feels he's, at least, reassured by having her here, between him and the mattress, so intimately close that he can feel her chest raise and fall with each breath, and no way for anyone else to take her from him or even to spell her without killing him as well.
It's still long until his sobs are less violent and he becomes mildly aware that he has drenched her in tears.
"Talk to me, please" the witch asks at last, "let me know what's going through your head."
"You heard the same thing I did" the boy answers and sobs loudly through his nose before adding: "I can't live until I kill him for good."
"Then we train, and fight him together." Hermione answers firmly. "I'm not leaving you." She feels the boy relax in her arms.
"I don't deserve you." Harry utters weakly.
"Maybe, maybe not." The girl jokes. "But you have me anyway."
The mere thought of pushing it, of pushing her away, makes him cringe. He can't. At least not until he can see concrete danger. He defeated Voldemort last year without letting her go. He can do it again. Surely, he can keep her safe. He's not a baby anymore.
Harry nods and lets go of her, wiping his tears with his pull surreptitiously before facing her, and his friend tries not to giggle at his puffed, red eyes and nose. He's adorable. Especially when he looks at her adoringly, like this.
Her boyfriend is, in fact, very much taken by her sight –hair spread over the pillow, brown eyes shining with the barest sheath of tears, and… he's working hard to not look south of her throat. He realizes this is probably how she'll look in their wedding night… better not think of that either.
It's not as if he didn't have more ominous subjects of conversation right now.
"So I truly am the chosen one, aren't I?"
"It looks that way." Hermione says.
"You know this means that eventually his followers are going to try and kill you, right?" Harry asks, his heart fluttering within his chest. He must at least give her the choice. Explicitly.
Hermione nods. "You'll be there to help me like with the troll right?"
Harry smiles slightly. "Yeah, I will."
"Then I'll be fine." The girl states.
"So nothing changes?" the wizard asks hopefully.
"Nothing changes." The witch confirms. "Only difference is we know why your parents… you know."
"They died so I could fulfil the prophecy." Harry valiantly completes.
"We'll find a way to end him." Hermione promises.
Harry nods. "I suppose we'd better head back."
"I'd like to wait until morning." Hermione says. "I'd like to spend the night together, fully clothed, mind you. I think we both could use it."
===September 2 1992===
In the early hours of the morning Harry and Hermione appear in Dumbledore's office. "Ah, I see you two are alright." Dumbledore says.
Hermione is about to snap at him when Harry answers:
"We're better than we were." He says, his voice cold as he thinks, 'no thanks to you.' "I think we'll be alright though."
He's still leaving too much out of it for her taste, but she reluctantly steps back, letting him manage his affairs. She has to remind herself that the headmaster is still very much her professor, summoning to her aid the respect she tended to feel towards superiors and of which he might have proven to be unworthy.
"Good to hear." Dumbledore says simply, eyeing her as he does. "What can I do to help?"
Don't push it, old man, the witch thinks rancorously.
"I need training; I need to be ready." Harry asks.
"That's why I took the effort to recruit Gilderoy Lockheart as your Defense teacher." Dumbledore informs him gleefully. "He must have plenty to teach you."
Harry groans, he doesn't believe that Lockhart will teach him anything this year. Now was not the time to say anything though, so he nods. "We shall see."