(A/N): My Beloved Readers,

No, Harry and Hermione did not fight in the cabbage aisle of the grocery store. I like to think they are more refined than that. They are more likely to throw potatoes at each other. Anyway, there really isn't much of a grocery scene but I don't think you'll be disappointed by this chapter. I like to think that I can handle some pretty serious issues in this story. Hopefully, I succeeded this chapter.

Do You Love Me - Chapter 9

Everything was so awkward between them. For one glorious moment when they had kissed, it had seemed as if every would be fine again. They would really start over. How foolish! How silly!

Grocery-shopping was some sad pretense. Hermione wished there was a guide book on how to deal with life. They had even avoided touching each other. They wordlessly handed each other items from the shelves of the Muggle grocery store. It was literally just too dangerous for either of them to casually walk into Diagon Alley. They would be easily mobbed.

Harry hated his impulsiveness. Perhaps it was better to keep that trait of his personality out of this relationship business.

Not to mention that she was wearing that silly periwinkle dress from last night. She needed to clear her head and change her clothes… So the moment Harry had paid the grocery bill, Hermione turned towards him, gave him a weak pat on the shoulder and told him she was going home. He nodded.

Soon, Hermione apparated home to her parents. She found her mother in the living room and sat down next to her mother. Her mother was reading a novel.

When Mrs. Granger saw her daughter, she carefully marked the page she was reading and took off her reading classes. This did not look good.

“Hermione, what happened?”

As if waiting for a cue, Hermione moved and rested her head on her mother's lap.

“Mum.”

“Hmmm…”

“We kissed.”

Mrs. Granger shifted uncomfortably.

“And?”

“We couldn't even look at each other afterwards.”

Mrs. Granger sighed.

“Did you talk?”

“Before the kiss. We were going to work things out but he said it would be hard to forgive me after what happened. Then there was another warp episode last night. And he kissed me in the morning.”

Mrs. Granger stroked her daughter's hair. Hermione never really told her much of what occurred in the Wizarding World. It was always like the witch Hermione was a completely different person from her daughter. When it came to magical happenings, Mrs. Granger would never have known anything had it not been for the Daily Prophet. She regularly subscribed to it. This is how she discovered Hermione's role in the War. Although the Daily Prophet's reporting of the War was largely erroneous, there was always a fabric of truth that tuned her into her daughter's world.

Eventually, Mrs. Granger had become an expert at piecing her daughter's life from the fragments of information she received. The only time Hermione had been completely honest to her mother was when she had arrived one night near the War at her parents' house.

Someone had been incessantly knocking on the door. Mrs. Granger hurried to open it. Her husband followed in her footsteps.

Mrs. Granger gasped when she saw her daughter seemingly accompanied by a tall stranger.

“Hermione, you're supposed to be at school.”

Hermione grasped her mother's hands. A sense of urgency accompanied her touch.

“Mum, we don't have much time. You need to bundle up a few essentials and get ready in an hour to go to a safe house with a few friends of Harry and mine, ok?” Hermione said finally acknowledging the man - the once young boy - behind her.

Fear suddenly gripped Mrs. Granger. Mr. Granger stood behind his wife laying a comforting hand on his wife's shoulder.

“Hermione, what's going on? Is it that Voldemort chap again?” he authoritatively asked.

Mr. Granger was a medium-sized man with a moustache and graying hair. He was thin and slightly taller than his wife. He had a cheery disposition but right now his face was marred with a frown. He was too Muggle. Hermione admired her father's easiness in saying Voldemort's name. To them, Voldemort was a petty criminal not a sorcerer capable of shifting the balance of the Earth.

Hermione panicked. They didn't have time. How long could it possibly take for the Death Eaters to locate her parents? A day? Half a day? Three hours? The Order only had one tactical advantage. The Death Eaters were all too pureblood to figure out that all they had to do was look in a telephone directory to figure out where Mr. and Mrs. Granger lived. But how long would it take for them to get the information through other means? Thank god Tonks had alerted them to the possibility that Voldemort was planning on some attack on Hermione. Hermione's thoughts had immediately gone to her parents. They needed to be safe.

“I don't know how to explain this…We should be moving… Oh my god, they could be here any second.”

“Hermione, we are not moving until we have an explanation, young lady,” Mr. Granger said.

Harry who had stayed mostly in the shadows listening to Hermione explain the situation to her parents finally decided to intervene. Hermione was his stronghold. She was never this frazzled.

Intuitively squeezing Hermione's shoulder, Harry moved forward.

“Mr. and Mrs. Granger. I don't know if you remember me but I'm Harry. Hermione is my best friend and I don't know how much she has told you about Voldemort but I have been trying to fight him this whole year. The whole Wizarding World is in the process of kil- destroy, no - elimina - yes, eliminating him. There's no other way to put it. But some of our intelligence has just informed us that you could potentially be at risk from Voldemort's henchmen. We need to ensure your safety.”

Mrs. Granger stood still as she heard Harry's explanation. Her worst fears had been realized. She was not under the same impressions like her husband. She understood who Voldemort was. How could she have read the Daily Prophet without figuring it out? This man - this creature - was so terrible, so evil that even his own people feared calling him. You-Know-Who. She understood and she feared for her daughter's safety.

Mr. Granger was a man of few words. He nodded accepting Harry's explanation. His daughter's world was still strange and new to him even after seven years. But it existed. It undeniably existed. As a man of science, he could not deny what he saw.

“Jane, come on. Move. Pack. Go with Hermione,” Mr. Granger said nudging his wife. Quickly, Hermione grabbed her mother's hand.

As they ran up the stairs to the bedroom upstairs, Mrs. Granger noticed subtle changes in her daughter. Hermione wore her hair differently. She had become more womanly and curvy. And in her daughter's expression, amid the panic and the fear, she could see the need for fulfillment. Her daughter had become a woman.

Hermione barreled into her parent's bedroom, opened the cupboards and began sorting through the clothes. Mrs. Granger stopped her daughter's frantic actions and looked into her daughter's pooling eyes.

Throughout the ordeal, Hermione had not let herself breakdown for Harry's sake but in front of her mother, it didn't matter. She stood in her mother's embrace and cried.

“Duck, it's going to be okay… it's going to be okay… You're going to survive this… We're going to survive this…” Mrs. Granger said using her daughter's pet name.

They stood like this for what seemed like an eternity. Finally, Hermione voiced something that had plagued her conscious.

“What about Harry?” Hermione sobbed.

“He's going to survive this too.”

Hermione took a deep breath and started to search for a duffel bag in her parents' belongings.

“Voldemort separated his soul into pieces, Mum. We've found almost all of them but it's taking its toll on everyone. Charlie and Mr. Weasley are dead,” Hermione numbly said as she found the duffle bag and dumped every single item she could get her hands on.

“And Harry's been amazing through this, Mum. He has bore this burden…It's got to be either him or Voldemort. Do you understand that? Do you understand it?” Hermione said fiercely gripping her mother's hand.

Mrs. Granger did not know how to respond. After grapping some toiletries, Hermione zipped the bag up and sat on the bed.

“I don't. Mum… I think I'm in - in - love with him ” Hermione said hesitatingly grapping bunches of her hair in her hands.

Slowly, Mrs. Granger pried her daughter's hands out of her hair and shushed her.

“Hermione, look at me. Look at me.” Mrs. Granger said severely.

Hermione stared at her mother.

“Don't ever feel ashamed of what you're feeling. He is going to get through this… And you're going to be there.”

“Mum, I want to pick him up each time he falls. I can't bear when he's hurt. If something happens to him, I don't know what I will do…”

“Believe in him. I could choose no man worthier of my daughter. Come on, we have to go downstairs.”

And with that, the temporary sense of complacency was replaced once more by urgency.

When the two women went back downstairs, they found Mr. Granger shaking Harry's hand. Tonks and Remus had arrived to take Hermione's parents to a safe house. Hermione hugged her mother and father one last time long and hard. Mrs. Granger sent up a silent prayer that she would be able to see her daughter again.

“Mum?”

“Hmmm…”

“Are you okay?”

“Duck, sit up a bit,” Mrs. Granger said sitting upright herself and gently pushing Hermione into a sitting position.

“Do you remember the time we had to go to the safe house during the War?”

Hermione nodded solemnly.

“And you survived. Harry survived. I think the last six months have been utter folly on your and Harry's part. You need to swallow your pride and fight for this relationship.”

“It just seems so impossible though. How do we move on? We've hurt each other so many times…”

“Which relationship doesn't have its ups and downs? Which couple doesn't fight? He's so hurt but he took the first step. He kissed you. The ball's in your court. You just have to make it up to him. It's the little things that count.”

Hermione laughed and hugged her mother.

“Thanks for the advice, mum. You're the best,” Hermione said.

Mrs. Granger stood up.

“I'm going to make some sugar-free cookies. Want some?”

“Yeah. I'm going to go and change in a second. I just want to see what you're reading,” Hermione said picking up the book had left on the side.

“And Hermione?”

“Yes, mum.”

Hermione looked at her mother expectantly.

“Don't screw up,” Mrs. Granger said tapping her daughter on the head gently cautioning her.

Hermione smiled.

After showering and eating some of her mother's cookies, Hermione decided to try and tuck in early. Unwittingly, her mother had made her remember a whole pandora of memories she had tried to suppress since the War. She recalled that particular night. The thought that Voldemort could reach her parents - the only sense of normalcy left in her life - had scared her beyond belief.

She let her mind drift. Slowly, she remembered an incident a few nights after her parents had been taken to a safe house.

Hermione knew that Harry and Ron were exchanging worried glances from where they were sitting. She was reading a few remnants of letters that Dumbledore had sent to Professor McGonagall after he had defeated the Dark Wizard Grindelwald in 1945. Professor McGonagall had similarly passed on many of Dumbledore's belongings in hopes that the Trio would be able to find clues as to where the Horcruxes were hidden.

It was indeed a strange change in the dynamic of the Trio. Usually, Harry would stay brooding as Ron and Hermione wondered how they could best console him. They must be really worried about her.

Ron coughed. Hermione looked up. Harry cleared his throat. Before he could say anything, Ron stood up.

“Right. I'm off to bed. Cheerio!”

Ron could not have exited the cozy living room in the abandoned hut they had secured for the Horcrux Hunt fast enough.

“Cheerio?” Hermione said laughing.

“Cheerio!” Harry said mimicking Ron.

Hermione sighed rubbing the sides of her face restlessly.

“Hermione, do you want to talk about it?”

“Not really,” she said giving him a halfhearted smile.

Harry understood her reluctance to talk.

A few minutes passed in silence.

Hermione moved from across the room and sat next to Harry. She had finished the last of the letters. She placed her head on Harry's shoulder as they both gazed into the fireplace. Harry placed his arm around Hermione as she leaned into him.

“I found something really interesting,” she said.

“What's that?”

“Harry, did you ever think of what would happen after the War?”

Harry bitterly laughed.

Hermione hit him roughly across the chest. Harry just tended to be cynical despite Hermione's many admonitions.

“No, I haven't.”

She turned to him rifling through Dumbledore's letters.

“There aren't any clues in these letters. But Dumbledore took some time off after defeating Grindelwald. He was emotionally unbalanced and he experienced this strange phenomenon,” Hermione said pinpointing certain sections of the various letters.

Harry read the information Hermione offered him.

“Body-soul separation? Isn't that like a Horcrux?”

“Actually no. Horcruxes deal with soul splitting. What Dumbledore suffered was much different. Didn't you ever wonder how Dumbledore always seemed so calm?”

Harry nodded.

“Well, it's these relaxation techniques that Dumbledore used. Right after the defeat in 1945, magical warps occurred that threatened certain limits of time and space. This was attributed to the downfall of Grindelwald who was one of the most powerful wizards in magical history. Somehow during the final battle between Grindelwald and Dumbledore, their magic became attached. When Dumbledore experienced any desperate emotions such as sadness, sorrow, fear or terror, warps began. In order to stop the warps and the body-soul separation, Dumbledore had to learn how to control all these emotions raging through his body.”

“Warps? What are they?”

“Well, actually, warps are basically a product of magical imbalances. Wizards and witches cannot apparate or use a lot of magic during a warp because it might result in body-soul separation. Dumbledore, however, who was deeply connected with the magical equilibrium having defeated Grindelwald did not have to go apparate to go through body-soul separation.”

“Really? I mean then all these magical warps were all just a result of how Dumbledore was feeling?” Harry said propping his shoulder on the sofa rest.

“See, that's when this all gets a bit too muddy. You can't just attribute warps to Dumbledore's emotions. According to Dumbledore, it's sort of his imbalance of emotions is like the last straw. Let me draw this analogy. The wood and petroleum are already there. It just takes a lit match to start the fire. The conditions for a warp exist. Dumbledore's extreme emotions just bring the warp to fruition. Plus there were random incidences of warps that occurred even after Dumbledore had mastered those relaxation techniques. So it's not all about Dumbledore's emotions even though that's a factor.”

“This seems a bit surreal. I could not imagine just one individual's emotions putting so many people at risk,” Harry said quirking his eyebrows.

“But warps aren't dangerous. They really aren't. Temporarily not using magic is an inconvenience. It just makes the Wizarding community actually use manual labor.”

Harry laughed.

“Wait… so what does this have to do with anything?” Harry asked the longwinded Hermione.

“If I'm not completely off my rocker, you might go through a similar situation after you defeat Voldemort.”

“Fat chance of that…” Harry said finally his curiosity satiated.

“STOP IT!” Hermione shouted standing up and facing Harry. The letters that had been on Hermione's lap fell on the floor in a flurry of paper.

“Hermione…” Harry said shocked at her reaction.

“Don't be so casual about it. Don't just brush it off. You are going to survive this. You are going to do this. I will not let you give up after coming so far,” Hermione said fiercely staring at Harry.

Harry stood up watching her.

“I swear Harry James Potter that if you abandon us and you die, I will never forgive you,” Hermione continued in a low whisper.

Harry stretched his arms inviting Hermione in for a hug. She came to him.

“I would rather not die than risk the wrath of a madwoman like you, Hermes,” Harry whispered eliciting a sharp slap from Hermione to his side.

Hermione found herself chuckling into her bedcovers despite the serious content of the memory. Tears had already made their way down her cheeks.

And so, Hermione entered a night of fitful sleep.

In the morning, Hermione woke up early and stuffed some of her mother's sugar free cookies into a confetti bag. Apparating into Godric's Hollow, Hermione left the cookies with the following note:

“My mum's cookies. I know how much you love them. She made the batch last night. By the way, I'm guessing that you have Quidditch practice with Ron and the team the whole of this month in preparation for the Ministry's Annual Quidditch games but I was still wondering if you wanted to come and see a play with me at West End next Saturday? Love, Hermione.”

It's the small things that count.

The next moment Hermione was striding through the halls of St. Mungo's on the way to the Chief of Spell Damage's office. Unexpectedly, Hermione found Angela Millstone waiting there. Curtly nodding to the woman, Hermione smiled when the Chief motioned for both of them to enter. However, Hermione's good mood did not last very long though. Unfortunately, she and Angela were going to be working on a tough case together.

(A/N): A lot of very significant things happen in this chapter. I tie up a bunch of loose ends. I have a splitting headache but I think this chapter was absolutely worth it. Any comments, questions, and ofcourse complaints? Please review, pretty please with a cherry on the top? For your dear author whose head is bursting into two… Now I realize how Harry felt after that terrible warp…

And mike, I know you hate my story. I get it. But I am trying my best and I hope the rest of you see that.

Much thanks to all my anonymous reviewers, tiger111991, kasmira36, Dylan, mike, alakazam, NicholePotter86, mushypeas, roadkill2105, timeturner02, margie19142, Julesy, gattaca, Sara, Bra4goten, CrimsonTemplar, gingercat, MarenKPotter, harry_mione_love, toga party, missmonet, MyUsedRomance, Kiera and Jane99. <333