Harry PotterYou are my Cosmic Connection.

Chapter : 3

Hermione now had tears gently running down her cheeks as she recounted the moment that changed both their lives. "You lost your temper at the trial. Told the government they were a bunch of cowardly bastards who could all go and fuck themselves..."

Harry was mesmerised by Hermione's touch, she could have told him the moon was made of cheese and he wouldn't have disagreed. "That sounds like something I would do and say..."

This drew a giggle out of Hermione, and allowed her to use the hand not currently stroking Harry's cheek to wipe the tears off her own. "They used that as an excuse to kick you out. Your memory was wiped, they would have to wipe the Dursleys' too, and they bound your magic. Yes, Harry, magic. You're a wizard, Harry, and a very powerful one. Your mother and father were magical too, as am I."

He lifted both his hands and clasped Hermione's that was now stroking his cheek. "I don't want you to stop doing that, ever, but I can't think straight while you're actually doing it. Magic, Hermione, really? That makes you what, a witch?"

"Yes, Harry, I'm a witch. My mother and father aren't magical though, they had this same conversation when I turned eleven and qualified for magical school. Professor McGonagall used her wand to turn mum's coffee table into a pig. After witnessing that, they believed in magic."

It was now Harry's turn to raise a questioning eyebrow, and Hermione knew exactly what he wanted. Unfortunately she couldn't oblige. "The evil wizard who killed your parents has since taken over the magical government. They have sensors covering the country that would know if I performed magic here, and there would be a snatch squad dispatched to capture us within moments. I can't even say this evil wizard's name. Rumour has it saying that name out loud will bring those same snatch squads, that's not a rumour I want to test. I think I may be able to convince you though, hungry?"

Harry still held her hand in both of his, he teasingly squeezed it. "Hermione, calling room service is hardly magic. It's also expensive..." From her smile, he could see she was up to something.

Harry didn't know if Dobby was a spell or a person, the results though were irrefutable. Hermione was not a woman who wore much make-up, she didn't need to. This meant the room's dresser had been clear but no longer. A feast just appeared out of thin air, and this was no take away. Here was all sorts of delicious looking foods, presented on what appeared to Harry like golden plates.

"Dobby is a very good friend, and he has kept me in touch with what's been happening to you for the last three and a half years. He won't appear. While he understands what the ministry did to you, you seeing him and not knowing who he is would break his little heart. He's devoted to the person who freed him from the hell his former life was, that person is you."

As Harry began to nibble at this feast, one question was screaming in his mind. "I'm not saying I believe you, but I have a question. Why now? After three and a half years, why are you here talking to me?"

"As I said, the evil wizard now controls magical Britain. There is some resistance though, and that resistance holds you as their figurehead. They claim that while Harry Potter lives, the evil wizard hasn't really conquered Britain. Yes they are clutching at straws but this wizard wants to take even that away from them. His minions began seriously hunting you at the start of December. You don't know who these people are, and have no way to defend against them. I really had to come back."

For the first time, Harry sensed Hermione might have put herself in danger over this. "Are you being hunted too?" Her nod led logically to his next question. "What would happen if they found you?"

"I'd be dragged up in front of the Muggle-Born Registration Commission, where I'd be sentenced to Azkaban for stealing my magic from some pureblood. Someone would be sure to remember though I was your best friend, and start interrogating me about why I was back in the country. I think I'd rather die than be captured..."

Harry was moving before even realising what he was doing. He was sitting on the bed beside Hermione and his arms were around her. She meanwhile was clinging to him, her head buried in Harry's chest and crying hard enough to wet his shirt.

After a few minutes Hermione got herself back under control, she didn't move though. "Harry, you can't have any idea how bad things are. People we both knew, raped or murdered - slaughtered for amusement in some cases. They are practicing genocide against people who don't fit a very specific profile. A profile neither you nor I match. Please say you believe me? I would hate for you to think of me as some crying nutter."

Harry held this strange yet familiar girl. He had loved the name Hermione since finding it in A Winter's Tale, now here was a reason for that. Her scent as he held her was intoxicating. Not because of any brand of perfume she wore, more like a scent he associated with being home - being safe. Her arms around him felt very familiar too, almost like reawakening a muscle memory. Hermione was waiting on an answer, Harry gave her one.

"I'm trying to look at this situation logically, except their is no logic to this. That you believe every word you've told me to be the truth is a given, and a point in favour of magic. Our delicious food just appearing out of thin air, another point for magic existing. At the moment all I've got against is how ludicrous the whole thing sounds. While I can't categorically say I don't believe you, I can't say I do either - much as I'd like to."

He felt some of the tension leave Hermione's body at that. Harry tried a different question this time, one a lot more personal. "Can I ask you something else. In this other life, other time, were we a couple?"

Harry instantly felt Hermione's tension return but again he could detect no dishonesty in her answer. "I last saw you the night before your trial, that was the eleventh of August, ninety five. I kissed you on the cheek for luck, and that was the very last time I saw you before tonight. You were my best friend and I was certainly ready to see if we could be more. Boys mature later than girls, they took you away before any of that more had time to happen..."

"I must have been an idiot, back then. This is another big plus for your story being true. I wasn't joking when I said earlier I have no lines or moves, yet holding you in my arms just feels so right - almost like you belong there. I'm rubbish with girls, so bad that there's even rumours going around the accommodation I'm gay. Yet with you - everything feels so natural, so perfect. Things like instant attraction and love at first sight don't happen, at least not to me. In a weird sort of way us being best friends since the age of eleven actually makes much more sense to me."

Hermione lifted her head and again Harry acted without thinking. He gently kissed her tear streaked cheeks, slowly making his way toward her lips. Hermione was ready for him by the time he got there, holding Harry tight and putting all the emotion she had into their shared kiss.

It was some minutes later before Hermione could speak again. "Harry, you have some world class moves."

Harry felt the emotion flowing from Hermione when she kissed him, adding more weight to the 'she's telling the truth' argument. He needed to know what was going to happen next, before they went any further and he didn't care about what was going to happen next. "Can I assume, now that you've found me, there is a plan of what to do next?"