Bound

First Week

Harry was sitting on the bed in their Hogwarts apartment, waiting for Hermione to finish her nightly ritual. Ever since the visit to the cosmetic shops in Paris she became aware of the need to care for her skin. She still didn’t use makeup, although most of the girls her age did, but she was now addicted to the cleansing ritual each evening.

He was contemplating the events of the day, still not fully understanding. Their train ride started normally. They were joined by Ron, Ginny and Neville in their compartment and chatted happily most of the way, until the train stopped suddenly and they were feeling cold. Harry couldn’t remember well what had happened next. Something caused him to faint, after making him hear his mother crying, trying to save him from Voldemort. He then awakened to see a very worried Hermione and an adult stranger standing behind her, looking just as worried.

“This is Professor Lupin,” Hermione made the introductions after he was sitting back in his place and they were all eating large pieces of chocolate, courtesy of the stranger. “There were dementors on the train, causing the chill and making you faint, and he used a Patronus charm to make them flee.”

“Dementors? Here?” He had read about them, or was it Hermione? Anyway, he knew these foul creatures were only allowed in Azkaban, to guard the most evil wizards, but nowhere else.

“They seem to be looking for an escaped murderer,” Lupin told him, “Peter Pettigrew. He escaped last night and the ministry is adamant at finding him.” The disgust in Lupin’s voice was clear.

Once he made sure that Harry was fine, Lupin returned to his compartment, leaving them alone, yet Harry had another surprise as soon as he arrived at Hogwarts. “Lord Potter, Lady Potter – I want to see you both!” Professor McGonagall said.

They followed her to her office. “I’ve managed to secure this for you,” she told Hermione, “but I’ll be much happier if you don’t use it, Lady Potter.”

Hermione looked at Harry, who didn’t seem to have a clue. “I thank you, professor, and I believe we may manage without the use of a time-turner. You see, Harry has agreed to change his electives, so that we shall be able to squeeze in most of the lessons without using a time-turner. We may need to drop Care for Magical Creatures, though.”

“Hagrid may be offended,” Harry noted.

She turned her gaze back to him. “Haven’t we discussed this already?”

He just shrugged.

“Well, I’ll take Arithmancy, while Harry will take Ancient Runes,” Hermione said, checking the schedules on her parchment as they rearranged themselves. “I’ll drop Divination, though, and... I’ll hate to do it, but I may have to drop Muggle Studies as well, although I still intend to go to as many of the lessons as I can, and then Harry can keep Care for Magical Creatures, but I’ll have to drop it.”

She checked the parchment once again, finding no more clashing lessons.

“I think we will not need it after all. With our bond, whatever one studies is good for the other as well. It’s a pity we still need to practice independently.”

The professor looked at Harry questioningly. “Do you agree to these changes?”

“Sure! We have discussed things over and agreed of these changes before we boarded the train. I was just worried about Hagrid being offended...”

“Very well then. Now, let’s join the feast, if you don’t mind.”

They had another talk with the professor as soon as the feast was over. “I need to show you to your new apartment,” McGonagall told them. She led them to the Gryffindor common room and stopped in front of a large statue which stood between the stairs to the girls’ dormitories and the ones to the boys’. “The password is ‘soul bond’,” she told them, as the statue turned to reveal another staircase, this one going down. “You should change it from within later, yet the Headmaster and his Deputy can always come and check on you, just to make sure everything is in order.”

Once they reached their apartment, she showed them everything and then bid them goodnight. This was not the same apartment they had first used, but being part of the Gryffindor tower it allowed them to stay close to their friends. They could even invite anybody they wanted into their apartment, as explained.

Hermione was finally out of the bathroom, her face sparkling clean. “Harry, I think we should learn the patronus charm. As the ministry seems to want the dementors here until they catch Pettigrew, we should better be able to protect ourselves against them.”

“Are you sure? This is only taught at fifth or sixth year, as younger students are not supposed to be able to perform it,” Harry asked. He had this knowledge from her, actually.

She looked amused. “Well, we’ve mastered wandless and silent casting, which many adults don’t. Why should this be any different?”

Harry shrugged. He knew better than to argue with Hermione, especially since he could now sense all her thoughts, making arguing unnecessary. Even talking was mostly redundant, but they kept talking out of habit and not wanting their classmates to look weirdly at them.

“So, how do you suggest we learn it?”

“We may ask Professor Lupin or the Headmaster, and if we find nobody to help us, I’m sure there’s a book in the library...”

Harry chuckled. It was purely Hermione, looking for answers in the library, although he had to admit she had a point there. More than a point, really. Since being together, he had found how much knowledge could be gained from books, even ones not intended for school. He wouldn’t admit it, but he was now a book worm almost as much as Hermione.

Hermione’s thoughts were drifting already in a different direction. “I think we need to christen this room. Don’t you agree, my dear husband?”

Her tone left no doubts about her intentions, even had he been unable to sense her thoughts. He grinned as she let her towel fall, baring herself for him, and then they held hands and walked to their new bed.

It was early the next morning. The sun had barely risen when the sound was heard.

“Wake up, sleepy head!”

“Mmmm...” responded Harry.

“Wake up! Time for our daily exercise,” Hermione insisted.

Harry only put the pillow over his head, trying to get a bit more sleep.

“You have sixty seconds to get out of bed, or else... you’ll regret it.”

Hermione started counting the seconds sternly. Harry knew better than to check her threat. At fifty-five he was already sitting, and four seconds later he was standing beside the bed, not really awake yet, but not sleeping anymore.

“I’ll let it pass this time. You’ll only have thirty seconds tomorrow,” Hermione informed him in a commanding tone.

“Can you remind me why we have to wake up at such ungodly hour?” he moaned.

“I just happen to love the way you look now, after starting exercising, and I don’t like the idea of letting you change back to how you looked before. So, hurry up, we still need to shower after our exercise, before going for breakfast.”

The cold morning air removed the remaining sleepiness from Harry. Wearing training suits, they first did some stretching and warming exercises and then ran three laps around the lake. Once done they did a few relaxation and cool-down exercises, before jogging at a comfortable pace back to the Gryffindor tower.

As they entered the common room they noticed Neville lying on the couch. He seemed surprised to see them coming in this early in the morning.

“Why were you outside?” he asked.

“Just doing our new daily routine: some physical exercise to help build our body before we feed our minds,” Hermione explained.

“Do you mind if I join you? I think it can do me some good,” Neville asked, looking down his chubby form.

“We’d love it. You can join us, starting tomorrow morning at half past six,” Hermione said.

“Thanks. I’ll make sure to be ready. Actually, I find it quite difficult to sleep in our dorm lately. Once Ron starts snoring, I lose any hope for a peaceful night.

Hermione looked at Harry, conversing silently. “You may stay with us at such times. There’s a spare room you can use.”

“Are you sure?... I mean, thank you! You’re great friends!”

The first day of term went quite nicely. Harry took Divination, which he soon found out to be practically a fraud. Hermione’s silent laughter, which he could sense in his mind, just helped him realize this sooner, but even Ron arrived at the same conclusion. It just took him much longer.

Hermione found her Arithmancy lesson extremely interesting, though. It included a lot of math and logic, at which she excelled, combined with some fundamentals of magic. Harry could follow most of the lesson through her, but he couldn’t really understand anything at first, yet relying on Hermione’s knowledge he eventually started understanding and even finding it interesting, although he would have never tried to study it on his own.

Hermione was also monitoring Harry’s Divination lesson in the background and what she saw didn’t help in raising her appreciation for the school.

They both found that Divination didn’t give their minds any real occupation, enabling them to concentrate on Arithmancy. Harry was quite sure that had he been in Transfiguration or Charms he would have been unable to divide his attention without incurring unpleasant consequences. He knew they would have to discus it further and find a way to block their impressions from flowing to their mates, or risk losing their concentration when they needed it most.

Neville joined them the next morning. They also tried to make Ron join, but he wouldn’t hear of getting out of bed before seven thirty. Neville had no problem with the warming exercises, but once they started jogging it became very clear that he was a few levels below the couple. They slowed down to a pace that was hardly faster than walking, yet Neville was exhausted by the time they finished one round, plopping down on the grass, trying to give his muscles a rest.

“Neville, if you stay that way you’ll suffer cramps throughout the whole day. You must do some cooling down exercises. Just walk slowly around this boulder, while we do two more laps, and then we shall all do the other exercises together,” Hermione told him.

“Two... More?...” Neville sounded incredulous.

“We’ll see you in a few minutes,” Harry told him, before they sprinted away. Neville had hardly caught his breath when they finished the second round.

“How can you look so fresh after three rounds of the lake?” he asked.

“I’m sure you’ll do just as well in a few weeks. I’m not sure that I could do as much as you’ve just done when we started the summer vacation,” Harry told him.

The next Muggle Studies lesson didn’t clash with any other lesson. Hermione took it, but didn’t really enjoy it. She found it almost a century behind its time. It was still dealing with steam powered trains and gas lighting with radio transmission being the latest innovation mentioned. Not a word was said about electronics, airplanes, private cars and certainly none about computers and Internet. It was a complete fiasco, as far as she could judge it.

Defense lessons proved to be a major improvement. Professor Lupin knew his stuff well and was very good at teaching and making the students pay attention. The first lesson was actually an eye-opener for Harry and Hermione, being able to learn something for a change.

Harry wasn’t surprised when Professor Lupin asked him to stay after the lesson. Hermione stayed as well. The Professor raised a brow but said nothing about it.

“Mr. Potter, I’ve seen your reaction to the presence of dementors and I would like to help you with that. Considering your past, it is quite understandable why your reaction was so strong.”

Harry wasn’t sure he understood. Professor Lupin saw his confusion and explained. “Dementors are the foulest creatures I know of. They strive on people’s happiness, sucking it all out, letting their victims relive the worst memories of their lives. Do you mind telling me what you saw or heard before fainting?”

It was clear that the Professor only wanted to help, yet Harry was still a bit reluctant.

“I’m not aware of your life after the end of that war, but I suspect that your worst memory would be that Halloween night...” the Professor said encouragingly.

“Well, I heard a woman’s voice saying ‘not the child’ and pleading for her baby to be spared and then there was a green flash. Could that be my mother?”

Lupin’s face was showing his concern. “Yes, Harry, that was Lilly, your mother, and the green flash was the killing curse...”

Lupin’s eyes were suddenly wet, and Harry could feel Hermione hugging him and whispering in his mind ‘I’m here for you. You’ll never be alone again.’

“There’s only one spell to get rid of dementors,” Lupin continued after wiping his eyes. “It is the Patronus charm and it’s quite difficult. I’m willing to teach you, but I’m not sure you can master it, as even many adult wizards find it too difficult.”

“Thank you, Professor. I appreciate your concern,” Harry replied.

“That’s the least I can do for my best-friends’ child.”

“You knew my parent?” Harry was surprised and elated. He could now learn some more about his parents.

“I knew them very well, and I also knew you when you were just a baby. I was a very good friend with your father first, and when your parents began dating, your mother joined our small group and became just as good a friend. We called ourselves ‘The Marauders’ and enjoyed doing many things together.”

“Who were the other members of the group?” Harry asked. He thought that he already knew, but he wanted to make sure.

“Well, there was James, of course – your father; then there was Sirius who was like James’ brother in anything but blood, and Peter...” His face was showing his pain at recalling the memory.

“I don’t think Sirius ever talked about you, sir. I would have remembered.”

Remus smiled. “We didn’t usually use our real names. Your Dad was ‘Prongs’, Sirius was ‘Padfoot’, Peter was ‘Wormtail’ and they called me ‘Moony’. We never got to name your mother differently, though.”

“Yes, Sirius told us a lot about Moony. So – that’s you? How come you didn’t visit him since he was released?”

“I’ve been out of the country most of the time since that fateful night. I only came back in time for the start of term.”

“We should tell Sirius, I think.”

Remus looked at him questioningly. “Why are you talking about ‘we’ and ‘us’? Do you have any connection with Miss Granger here?”

Harry took her hand proudly. “We are soul-bound, which make us married. She is now Lady Potter.”

It was a very happy Harry who left the class a few minutes later. He was happy to have such a good teacher, happy to find another friend of his parents and happy to start learning the patronus charm

His happiness held till after lunch, when they went to the History of Magic lesson. Despite Hermione’s nagging, he couldn’t keep his eyes open more than five minutes into the lesson. Even Hermione, as determined as she was, had to fight to keep her eyes open, only slipping into short dozing once or twice during the lecture. “These lessons are useless,” she told Harry as they left class an hour later. “Nobody can really learn with this teacher, and most don’t even try, yet it is very important to know what happened in the past to avoid repeating mistakes.”

“Yea, we should only make new mistakes,” Harry replied, gaining him a slap on his arm.