Harry Potter gets smart and takes control - The Goblet

Chapter 49 Hermione in Nocturne

This time, after reading Lily's letter over Harry's shoulder, Hermione burst into tears and threw her arms around Harry, who for once didn't flinch but hugged her back just as tightly.

"Parents are so shit!" She exclaimed through her tears into the top of his head.

He nodded into her shoulder, his throat thick.

"Your's is so nice... and so loving and seems so perfect... and she's dead! This is so unfair! How could she be so perfect and not be here!?" she went on, "and then mine aren't dead but don't have any time for me... aren't interested and just don't bother with anything other than doing it for their image. They haven't even noticed my braces are gone!

Then there's your dad!" She fumed between sobbs, "Your dad should have been the perfect well-liked father! He's a renowned war hero! But really he's just an arsehole! Parents are really crap!" She finished sniffling.

Harry nodded his throat thick.

He suddenly didn't want to learn anything else about Lily Marie Evans-Potter. The more he learnt and got to know her, the more he missed her, the more it hurt. He wished he'd never dug into who she was and read her diary's, as now he had something to miss. Ignorance was sometimes bliss. They had a point when they said, be careful what you wish for.

Why the hell had she married James Potter? Hermione was right. Parents really were shit. Family was just not what it seemed. It seemed like everyone's family had a secret bad side. Neville's parents weren't around, though he didn't know why, he suspected they were dead. And his Gran terrified him.

Mrs Weasley seemed like a perfect mum. Loving and caring. But from the howler, she'd send Fred and George as well as the hints he'd got from Bill and Charlie; she wasn't so perfect.

Maybe he was better off alone...

"Oh Harry," Hermione said, hugging him tighter. He must have said that bit out loud, he thought, strangely okay with her continuing to hug him.

"Family is complicated; like you said. But family is more than blood," she went on. "You're not alone. Just like you said, I'm not. We have each other. You said we're family. That means you're stuck with me, like mouldy cheese!"

Harry snorted, wrinkling his nose, and hugged her back, "Thank's Hermione. Gods I'm tired, I'm not usually this much of a mess.

"It's fine. You've been under a lot of pressure lately and had lots of information thrown at you. You've been up all day, haven't you? If you're on nocturnal time, you stayed up to visit me instead of sleeping."

He nodded, then asked, "did I show you that letter from the WEA? I'm going to take all the OWLs and NEWTs there are!"

"What?" She said, wide-eyed. "There are more!? And they didn't tell us!?" She shrieked, practically snatching the letter out of his hand when he took it from his bag. He grinned as she read it furiously.

"You mean to tell me that there are more options! And they didn't tell me!" She practically screeched.

Harry winced, "Yep. I'm super tempted to try and take all of them, just to thumb my nose at all of them. I really want to, but I'm not sure I'll manage. But wouldn't it be great if we got straight Os in everything! Prove them all wrong, that I'm not stupid and that we're just as good as they are. That we're better."

"That would be good. That would make everyone who ever called me a stupid little know-it-all sorry!" She said with a vicious grin, "oh! I'm so mad they didn't tell us! We'll have so much work to do to catch up, Harry." She said, and Harry liked the way she automatically assumed they'd be in it together.