Hermione had asked him to meet her at her house today. Today, as always, they would go to Longbottom Manor in the afternoon but this morning she invited him for a date she had planned for them. Harry was curious to see what his girfriend wanted to do today.
She had been planning for it since she told him she would plan the next one for the both them. Harry was curious to see what she had thought up for them to do but first she wanted to spent some time with her parents and him. While Harry still wasn't very comfortable around adults, he did like Hermione's parents. Arriving at the house he rang the bell.
Hermione opened the door and kissed him quickly before pulling him inside to the living room where her parents were playing a card game.
"Hi Mr. and Mrs. Granger, how are you?" Harry asked Hermione's parents as they looked up.
"Hello dear, we are fine, thank you for asking." Mrs Granger said while standing up. She put the cards down and asked if they wanted something to drink as she shot a look and a nod towards her husband.
Mr Granger nodded back and turned to the teenagers, "Hermione, Harry we need to have a chat about something. Come sit and we will talk."
A talk? Harry felt a short moment of actual panic. That sounded serious. Shooting a look towards Hermione it was clear she felt the same. What was going on? Had they done something wrong? There was never a good conversation when it started with 'we need to have a talk' and this wasn't even coming from his girlfriend! Though that sentence coming from his girlfriends father wasn't much better.
Hermione grabbed his hand and together they went to sit at the dining table, where Mrs. Granger already had made drinks for all of them and after putting all the glasses in front of them she went to sit next to her husband.
"Hermione, your dad and I have something for you, if you wish to accept it." She looked worried but yet so calm that Harry wondered what was going on.
"Mum?" Hermione sounded worried. This was clearly out of the ordinary and yet so little has actually happened.
Mr. Granger took the hand of his wife and looked straight into the eyes of his daugther while he started explaining,"I am so proud of you, and you too Harry, for training so hard just so you could defend yourself and others if necessary in that magical world of yours, love. But as you know your mum and I worry about you."
"I know, dad. I know you and mum worry about me but I can't just do nothing!" Hermione exclaimed loudly.
Hermione's father snorted, "Calm, Hermione. We had this talk already remember? We know you won't stop. We won't ask you to stop. But your mum and I want to help."
"Help us?" Even Hermione sounded surprised so Harry tried not to feel too bad about his own reaction.
Harry too was wondering what two muggles could do to help. He didn't mean it in an offensive way because he knew Hermione's parents were as smart as their daughter but they were still muggles. What could they possibly do against magic?
Hermione's mum smiled thinly as if she could read their thoughts of their faces. It was a smile that told both teenagers that they were wrong for assuming they could do nothing as muggles. Mr. and Mrs. Granger had a plan.
"While your father and I haven't exacly been keeping up to standards, we are still in very good shape and know how to use that to our advantage. So, I will teach you kids how to defend yourself from an attacker and how to escape multiple things that could hold you and Wendell will teach you how to shoot a gun."
What?
"What?" Hermione asked, shocked. Apparently this wasn't normal for Hermione's parents. That was kinda a relief. Though if they could help them with this whole situation, well that would be brilliant. This was just not something he had sought after the two middle aged dentists.
Hermione's father had been in the military some time ago and that had left its traces yet it still came to a surprise that the man was willing to teach them how to shoot a gun, and if he read the room right, actually give them a gun.
Was that even legal? Where would he get the gun? Harry was pretty sure that guns were illegal in Great-Brittain.
Still, it would give them one perhaps two more things to defend themselves with against the adults that wished them harm.
"I've taught Hermione already a few things over the years in case someone bothers her so she will start learning how to shoot from Wendell. Harry, you and I will start here for some self-defence lessons."
Mr. Granger nodded in agreement and continued after his wife, "I will teach you gun safety and how to actually hit what you are aiming for. After that I will teach you kids how to escape different kinds of bonds, ropes and things."
Well, this day was going different than he had expected, different than Hermione had expected from the look on her face. Hopefully she wouldn't mind postponing their date.
Shooting a look at his girlfriend they seemed to agree. They will take the offered help.
A little while later found Harry standing in the Grangers garden with Hermione's mother. She was telling him about the weak points on a humans body, eyes, nose, balls and stomach. Those kind of things. She showed him on a dummy how to use those weak spots for his advantage. Harry wondered how they would like a magical dummy which could actually react back.
Still, it was an interesting lesson. Why wasn't this taught to everybody? Knowing how to escape somebody's hold would have been handy to know when Dudley and his gang were chasing him all through his childhood. He would have been able to escape when they had been holding him down to beat him up.
He wondered how his cousin was doing. Had they listened to him and moved away already? Harry hoped so, because while he might have hated his aunt and uncle, he'd wanted to give Dudley a chance. A chance to become more than his parents son. A chance to perhaps become someone good.
Harry was pretty sure that he never wanted to see any of them again but that didn't mean he wanted them dead. Voldemort was gone, yes, but there were still Death Eaters out there. Bellatrix would probably love to get her hands on his blood relatives.
But back to the lessons. It was quite interesting and Hermione's mum was a good teacher if a bit overly technical. Like mother like daughter, he supposed.
After a hour of training and talking Harry was able to shake off any attempt of an attack Mrs. Granger made. Which wasn't as easy as that sounded. She was very good at this.
Hermione and her father joined them soon after and thus Harry had some more people to practise with. Hermione already knew most of what her mother had been teaching him this last hour. It was nice to do this with Hermione. Even if he had to pretend to attack her, he still got to hold her.
She was good though. Hermione knew where to hit and what to do when someone was holding her against her will. Harry had some lovely flashbacks to the time when Hermione punched Malfoy straight on the nose. Thinking back, that have been the moment his crush on Hermione began.
Soon after it was time to switch and it was Hermione's turn to play attacker. Harry had a bit more difficulty with that. He didn't want to hit her, even if it was a soft hit like she had done to him, and she was also surprisingly strong.
Still, after a while he started to get it. Then the difficulty got turned up and he had to try it with Hermione's dad. When even that was getting better they declared it time for something else. A chair got dragged outside together with some ropes with different materials and some other things to bind another person to a chair.
They got taught how to escape the different kinds of bindings like ropes and other things. It was difficult to move when so tightly bound but Mr. Granger told them all the tricks for it. He also gave them a small Swiss Army knife for them to hide on their person. Since it didn't look like a knife when folded in, they were pretty sure that anyone Magical wouldn't recognise it as a knife.
Then Mrs. Granger asked a question that made them think, "Hermione told us about you kids trying to turn into an animal, Animagus she called it? Is it possible for you to partly transform into your animal? Like only the claws or whatever your animal has."
"I'm a wolf."
Hermione said thinking out loud, "I don't know what I am, the potion that will show me my inner animal isn't ready yet. But you're right, mum. It could be very helpful if we could partly transform. Harry, how far have you gotten with trying to become your wolf?"
Harry rubbed the back of his neck when the three Grangers turned their attention on him, "Only some fur, Mione. And some nails that aren't quite human anymore but not something that could aid us escaping. I will keep practising."
Hermione nodded, "I can't wait to meet my animal. Hopefully it will be something as practical and beautiful as yours."
Harry blushed. She thought his wolf was beautiful?
Then it was his turn to sit bound to a chair. While he struggled to get free again Hermione told him how it had gone on the shooting range. It was a powerful feeling, she told him but not really something she was comfortable with. It was scary to hold something so dangerous on her. With a wand at least one had to make the decision to cast a spell before anything happened. She wasn't so sure about the safety of a gun.
Yet, Hermione was clearly proud of her ability to shoot one. Harry was happy for her.
"It's your turn now Harry. After this I will decide which or if one of you is gonna be capable to handle a gun. So lets go, kid." Mr. Granger seemed to be having fun. Though he was still very serious about it all as he explained more about guns while they were in the car. This whole thing was for their own safety and they shouldn't forget it.
An hour later and Harry knew for sure that guns were not his thing. He know knew how to load and unload, how to assemble and disamble, how to aim and how to shoot a gun. But actually hitting the target?
Nope.
Guns were clearly not his thing. He was grateful that Hermione's dad was able to keep a straight face while teaching him, because he couldn't have. Shooting sucked. It was almost as if the bullets went te opposite way he was aiming. It was really weird and embarrassing. Was he cursed or something?
He never had this problem when using a wand. Harry was proud of his ability to hit almost every dummy even when they were moving in the hardest level.
But anyway, that meant that Hermione was going to carry a gun from now on while at Hogwarts. She was kinda terrified about that until Harry asked if it was possible to charm the gun. She immediately perked up and started thinking.
September the 1st was fast approaching and Dumbledore was still the Headmaster of Hogwarts somehow. Harry didn't know how that was still possible with all he now knew. Though nobody out of his small circle of friends, family and allies knew about all that happened this summer. That's why they needed Rita Skeeter.
Though it did feel a bit safer now that they had the three Heads on their side while they were at Hogwarts. They wouldn't be on their own now which was a big difference form usual.
Hermione was already busy with planning on how to charm the gun. Last he heard she was planning something with disappearing bullets. She mumbled something about a bullet hitting the target but then disappearing. Something like that. Hermione was sometimes a bit hard to understand while she was in research mode.
This hadn't been the date Hermione had planned for them but Harry didn't mind. It had been nice to spent time with his girlfriend and her parents. He liked them. They were kind and smart and Harry was so glad for Hermione that she had gotten closer to her parents again.
But now it was getting late and it was time to go back to Longbottom Manor for some more planning and training. Harry was a bit tired already but he had a plan for when they were going to duel. HE had read something interesting in one of his Grimoires that he wanted to try out. He also hoped that Skeeter had some news for them althought that would be fast work even for her. But she did tell them that she had already been working on it before they contacted her.
Seeing them walking into the training room hand in hand Neville greeted them with, "Hey mate, how was the date?"
Explaining took some time but soon everyone was up to date on the newest happenings. Amelia knew about guns but had never used one before. She was facinated and was clearly planning on getting one of her own after a demonstration from Hermione.
Hermione still didn't like them but after charming it she was a bit calmer about the idea. The gun would never run out of bullets now and never go of accidently. She also made sure that no one could use it but her. It was as safe as it could be, she supposed.
They decided to go for an all out duel today. Susan, Hannah, Neville, Hermione, Harry against Augusta and Amelia.
Gran and Amelia won, barely.
They clearly knew more than the five teenagers together but it took a lot out of them. It almost ended with the teens winning but then the two adults did something, cast some spell together that made the dummies come alive and fight against the five teenagers that ended the duel. Amelia told them to keep practising and soon they would be able to take the both of them and win.
Then it was time for dueling in pairs. Harry paired up with Hermione and they went against the other three. Not quite fair Harry thought but he also knew that he and Hermione were a force to be reckoned when fighting together.
Then it was time for him and Neville to pair up against the girls. That sucked. While he and Nev worked well together, the girls were vicious opponents who were out to embarrass you as much as possible.
Well, that was Susan mostly. She too had discovered a love for prank spells and it showed in her dueling style. Hermione meanwhile was less focussed on causing embarrassment and more on trying out new spells. Which could have some surprising results.
Hannah was still catching up to the rest of them but even she was no slouch. Hannah was getting very handy with her Stupify and Incarcerous. Her Father would be surprised when she had to show him. Harry and the others were sure she was good enough now and would be allowed to go back to Hogwarts with them in a few days.
Which was brillant because otherwise they would have to deal with a moping Neville.
Harry'd decided to focus more on elemental spells today. In particulair the different applications for Argumenti and Incendio. There were so many different ways to shape those two spells. Harry was now trying to make wolves of fire and water to attack on his command. He had read about this spell in the Potter Grimoire and it sounded awesome.
It was very difficult to shape an element like that but there was progress after a while. Harry was surprised to note that he was good at this. The wolves were looking more and more like actual wolves.
Amelia too, still had a lot of tips and tricks for them on how to improve for all of them.
It was an exhausting day with all the magic he cast so Harry was very glad when Amelia called for a break. The five teenager decided to call for some cool drinks to take with them on their usual walk around the grounds of Longbottom Manor.
Arm in arm with Hermione he walked on the sunny grounds. The cool breeze felt delicious on their heated skin. Perhaps it would be better to work on his fire wolves in the winter or something. Ah well, what's done is done. Next time he would cast some cooling charms first.
"So Harry, how did you get the idea of those lovely elemental wolves?" Susan asked.
"I found a mention of elemental shaping in the Potter Grimoire," Harry shrugged, "It sounded cool so I decided to try it out."
Hannah looked back at the couple walking behind her and Neville, "Very cool indeed! Do you think we could try it too? Just maybe some smaller animals. Those wolves looked hard!"
Harr nodded thoughtfully. He would have to explain some things from his family grimoire but he didn't mind that. Harry liked teaching his friends things.
Hermione at his side perked up, "Oh that would be brilliant! What would be good animals to make? Does it have to be wolves? I would like birds I think or perhaps some kind of feline? So much possibilities! Do you think that spell can be adapted for other elements Harry?
"Sure, Mione. If anyone could do it it's you." Hermione blushed, looking pleased.
From the cornor of his eye he could see Neville make a mocking gesture. Without looking away from Hermione he sent a light stinging spell toward his best friend.
Neville jumped, "Ouch!"
The other four laughed at Neville's misfortune.
Harry then asked his friends, "How is it going with your Mandrake leaves? And your transformation, Neville?"
Hannah shrugged, "As you know I've had mine only for a short while now so that's gonna take some time."
"Susan and I got ours around the same time. I think it will only be a few days now before the Mandrake leaf will fall down. Don't you think, Susan?" Hermione asked the girl walking next to her.
Nodding Susan answered, "Yes, I think so too. Do you boys have the potion ready for us? I'm not sure we can make it while we are at Hogwarts without anyone knowing about it."
Harry had a plan for that and said, "Actually, I've asked Winky, a House-Elf we know, to transfer the potion I made for you guys into the Room of Requirement. She agreed to keep an eye on it, so it will be ready for you when we get to Hogwarts. We will just have to sneak to the Room without anyone knowing."
"How is Winky doing?" Hermione asked. She knew how bad it was when Winky's former master gave her clothes. So Harry told his friends about Winky and what he had asked of her. She was still sober according to his other Elves and very much looking forward to bonding with Harry and his family.
Then an Elf popped up in front of them, "Little Master, there be important letter for you and honored guests."
Neville nodded, "Thank you, Alphy. We will be coming back immediately."
The Elf bowed and popped away again. The five went for the track back to the Manor. Hopefully this 'important letter' meant that Rita Skeeter had found out something interesting. Harry wasn't expecting anything else that could be of interest to all of them.
Soon after they gathered in the sun room. Amelia and Gran had joined them as apparently the Elf had told them about the letter too. Harry picked it up and started reading. It was soon clear how important this letter exactly was.
Rita had sent them her findings.