Bound

About Harry

The door bell rang, saving Hermione from another difficult question. Dave let Dumbledore in while Jean offered him some refreshments, which he accepted thankfully. He sipped his tea and ate his biscuit slowly, before starting to talk.

“I believe you are all waiting for an explanation,” he noted. “Let me start from the beginning of this school year.” He told the Grangers about what happened at Hogwarts up to Hermione’s petrification.

“You should have informed us!” they told him.

“Maybe, but there was nothing you could do for her at the time and I didn’t want you to worry. There was nothing to be done until the mandrake potion was ready.”

They didn’t seem too convinced, but let him continue.

“Harry used to spend many hours at her bed, talking to her, holding her petrified hand or just looking at her. Madam Pomfrey, our healer, had to kick him out more than once, and yet she found him at her side many mornings. It turned out that Hermione had really found out what had caused these events. Harry found a piece of paper clutched in her hand with the details. Then, when looking for me to handle that information, a girl, Ron’s sister, was kidnapped by the same monster. They went to rescue her. A cave-in separated them and Harry went alone. He fought a giant serpent who could kill by looking at you and defeated it, killing it with a sword and rescuing the girl.”

The Grangers were looking at the skinny boy with new respect.

“Hermione was revived a few hours later and came to seek her friends. As she hugged Harry they were suddenly engulfed in a glowing golden haze. I’ve only seen that once before.”

“What does it mean?”

“This is normally the visible manifestation of soul bonding. It’s a rare phenomena where the souls of two people are bound together to become practically one. There’s no known precedent for this happening at such a young age.”

“Is that a problem?”

Dumbledore shook his head. “It’s not really a problem, but I’m not sure you’ll like the implications. When the bond is forged at an older age, it is usually during or after the couple being intimate. That intimacy is needed for the bond to complete. In this case, there has been no prior intimacy of this kind, nor since, as far as I can tell. The bond forces them to be close to each other and to be in physical contact. Separating them for more than a few minutes at this stage may be extremely harmful or even fatal.”

Both Grangers blanched at hearing this.

“You’ll need to let them sleep together, preferably with minimum clothing to maximize the area of contact. This should pose no problem though, as soul bound couples are considered married.”

“What?!” both parent gasped.

Albus sighed internally. This was the part he dreaded most, yet there was nobody who could explain this better. “There are many kinds of magical bonds. Some are natural, like the bond between mother and child; others are created by ceremonies or rituals. The marriage bond is the most evident of these. Yet there are much stronger bonds, created by Magic itself. Soul bonds are the strongest of these. Unlike normal marriages, which can be dissolved by a simple ritual, soul bonds cannot be undone by any known means. We can’t be sure, but many believe these bonds continue even in the afterlife.”

“So, our thirteen years old daughter is married for life and beyond? How could this happen?” Dave didn’t sound very happy, to say the least.

Albus felt a bit better explaining this. “Nobody knows exactly, but love has a major role in it. As I’ve already told you, Harry has been very close to Hermione since last year. His actions when she has been petrified would have been classed as deep love, has he been a bit older. Evidently, Hermione also loves him deeply. Their hug after her revival and his battle seems to have released the magic of the bond.”

The youngsters were already hiding their yawns. Jean thought this was a good time to send them to bed, so they could discuss the situation in terms inappropriate for younger ears.

“Goodnight, professor,” they said before going upstairs to get ready for the night.

Two weeks after they bonded, the evening ritual was already natural for the two. They stripped to their pants, brushed their teeth (Hermione insisted on this from the first night and Harry couldn’t argue her reasoning) and went to bed, hugging each other. Harry couldn’t believe how comforting it was, hugging her peacefully, and how addicted he had become to her, an addiction he never wanted to break. Hermione just snuggled into her mate. She knew they were soon going to be even closer, but right now she was very content with what she had.

The adults waited until they heard the bedroom door close before resuming their conversation. “Do you mean they need to have s*x?” Jean asked Dumbledore.

“Eventually – yes. Just keep in mind that they are a married couple,” he added hurriedly as he saw Dave’s face starting to show anger. “I believe you want to have grandchildren sometime, so s*x is a necessity. I also think that as soon as they complete their bond or ‘consummate their marriage’, as some say, they won’t need to touch each other so much. It should eventually be just like any loving couple – they would still like to be close and physical with each other, but they would easily stand a separation of a few days or even longer.”

“So, you’re basically telling us that in order to be able to separate, they first need to unite physically?”

“Precisely. I was hoping that by finishing this stage before the start of next term, they could avoid media attention. Unfortunately, that can’t be helped now.”

“What do you mean? Why should the media be interested in them?”

Albus sighed. Any wizarding family would have known, but these were muggles. Oh, well...

“Let me tell you a bit about Harry. There was a great war among wizards at the time he was born. A self-proclaimed Dark Lord was rising and nobody seemed to be able to stop him. Very few even tried. Harry’s parents, along with a few others, tried to fight the dark lord and stop him. They survived three confrontations with him. Then at Halloween, he found their hiding place and came to kill them. He tried to kill Harry as well, but something unexplainable happened: the curse bounced back, destroying the dark lord, giving Harry only a scar. He is now famous for defeating the dark lord and for being the only known person to survive the killing curse.”

“Oh, the poor child,” Jean moaned.

“So that made him famous? He was just a baby at the time, wasn’t he?” asked Dave.

“Yes, he was just one year old. With both his parents dead, he was sent to his only known relatives, his mother’s sister and her husband, where he was raised in muggle environment.”

“Well, at least there was somebody to love him,” Jean commented.

“Not really,” Albus admitted. “They considered his magic an abnormality and treated him as a freak. He didn’t have a happy childhood, but he was protected, at least.”

“What do you mean by ‘protected’?” Dave asked.

“Even though the dark lord was defeated, his followers were still free. Some took their revenge on others who fought against them. Some of these even managed to escape trial and are quite influential in the current government.”

“That’s preposterous!”

“I would have used a stronger word, alas, this can’t be helped now. Harry still needs protection, and if he’s going to live with you then I need to put some wards around your house.”

Dave frowned. “What do you mean by ‘wards’?”

“Wards are a kind of magical barriers. They may block everybody from passing them or just some, depending on the exact ward and the way it is set. What I have in mind is some intent-based wards. These would let anybody through as long as they have no ill intentions towards any of the inhabitants. These can stop any normal weapon and most magical curses as well. They would also give you excellent protection from thieves and burglars as side benefits. I’ll cast some wards as soon as we finish here and I’ll be back in a few more days to cast additional, more powerful wards that should be able to withstand almost anything.”

Dave was still contemplating the situation, but Albus was already pushing forward. “There’s another subject – your planned vacation in France.”

“What about it?”

“Harry will have to come along.”

Dave looked surprised, but Jean commented “Of course he will. They still need to be together. Won’t his guardians want to see him, though?”

“I doubt they’ll mind, as long as they don’t need to care for him.”

“We could shoulder the expenses,” commented Dave, “especially since they’re going to share a room.” His expression showed that he didn’t really like the idea.

“I don’t think there should be any problem about it, and then – I’m sure Harry would like to pay his share.”

“How can he pay? He’s just a child, even if he’s married now.”

Dumbledore smiled now. “Harry may only be a child, but he is Lord Potter, the only heir of the Most Ancient and Noble house of Potter. He may still be unaware of it, but he owns a few palaces, some lucrative businesses and shares in many others. He’s probably paying the salary for more magical families than any other and quite many muggle families as well. As his wife, Hermione has access to all of it, and knowing Harry, he probably considers her as owning everything in common.”

The Grangers looked at him with utter surprise. “You mean they are now millionaires?”

“Closer to Billionaires, I believe. I won’t be surprised if he asks your advice on managing his businesses.”

With so much information to digest, the Grangers went silent. They accompanied the old wizard to their backyard and watched him cast some very complex spells, turning their house into a virtual fortress without altering its appearance at all. Soon after, they went to bed, still trying to comprehend the complexities that they were now facing.