You're My Destiny↣ Harmione

Chapter Six

Chapter 6 - A Warm Welcome

Lying in bed, Emma watched from behind her open book as Dan paced up and down their bedroom. She knew he was concerned and tried to ease his fears.

"You were laughing about this whole thing, right up until those rings appeared. This book clearly states it's exactly as Hermione and Harry said. If they decide that being a couple is no longer what they want, all she has to do is take the ring off and hand it back."

Seeing this hadn't settled her husband, Emma tried a different tactic. "I got my first ring from Billy Wright..."

This stopped Dan in his tracks, as she knew it would. "I was six, he was seven and we bought lucky bags from the little corner shop. Remember them, you paid your money and didn't know what you were going to get until you opened the paper bag. I got a black plastic spider along with the usual sweets in mine, Billy got a pink ring with a green stone - all genuine plastic too. We swapped, and didn't say any magical words. If I remember correctly, I woke up the next morning and my finger was a funny colour - mum made me take the ring off and throw it in the bin."

Dan sat on the bed beside his wife, now playing along with her story. "And just what happened to this Billy character?"

"Oh, Billy gave me my spider back..." Her pause saw Dan's eyebrows raised, Emma then delivered the punchline. "He stuck it down the back of my dress, I didn't speak to him again after that."

Seeing Dan's grin started her own. "There's the man I married. Now, tell me what's really worrying you?"

When Dan started voicing his fears, Emma just let him go to get it off his chest. "It's Hermione. We put a young girl onto that train back in September and now find ourselves with a young woman by December. Even her letters changed since that Halloween, ever since she hooked up with her best friend - boyfriend - intended. Hermione has always been mature for her age but she seems to have pushed that concept to new limits - and then there's Harry..."

Pausing for a moment to arrange his thoughts, Dan then continued laying everything out to his wife. "The boy is like no other eleven year old we've ever met. He's polite, courteous, has impeccable manners. Harry's obviously wealthy, that little servant of his mentioned getting those rings out of a vault, and that owl of his is the most gorgeous bird I've ever seen. What eleven year old that you know of would use their money to buy their girlfriend books? We both know that with Hermione, books are better gifts than flowers, chocolates or even jewellery. How does an eleven year old boy figure that out? At eleven, I hadn't even figured out what a girl was, far less the best way to treat them."

"I'm more concerned about this family of his, Dan. Harry is exactly as you describe him, so, apart from him being your daughter's intended, what's not to like about the lad? The whole 'losing memory' thing concerns me too. It just seems too glib an excuse, except their headmaster confirmed every word of it. I remember Hermione mentioning this weird boy-who-lived thing before she left for Hogwarts. She'd worked out they would be in the same year-group and hoped to meet him. It would seem she got her wish..."

"Yeah, I completely forgot about the entire fame thing..."

"Probably because Harry wants nothing to do with it. You forgot to mention something else, those two are totally besotted with each other."

"I may not have mentioned it, I certainly didn't forget about it."

"Dan, they are both here with us for the next two weeks. Let's just see how that goes before worrying ourselves into a couple of ulcers. They're eleven and twelve, we've got at least a couple of years yet before we need to do that."

Slipping into bed beside his wife, he kissed her on the cheek. "I always knew you were the smart one, I'm so glad Hermione takes after you..."

"So, you married me because I was smart?"