"You think I should be worrying that I killed the man?" Harry asked. "Not when it was a Death Eater and definitely not when it was Hermione in danger," Harry said forcefully. He took the two steps back to the sofa and sat back down. Crookshanks, who had been annoyed by the sudden disappearance of his petting servant, started purring again when Harry subconsciously started stroking his fur. The action did not subdue the intensity in Harry's eyes as he looked at Richard Granger. "Sir, your daughter is truly everything to me. I don't have a family except my godfather," Harry explained. "From our first year it's been Hermione who has been there for me. To me she is...is my best friend and...and everything," Harry paused and a couple of seconds before he continued. "I will not let anything happen to her and if that means I kill someone because they were trying to kill her, I won't lose sleep over it."
A silence descended between the two of them for a minute before Harry continued. "Sir, I can't make you like me or even understand me; all I can do is assure you that when it comes to Hermione, I will always be there for her. You might not believe it, but I really do love her," His eyes softened. "I know she loves you and her mother and I don't ever want to make her choose between us, do you?"
Richard could only stare at the young man. He raised his glass for another swallow only to find it empty. He got to his feet and crossed to the small bar area where he filled his glass once more with the light brown liquid. As he lifted the glass to his lips he thought of his daughter. The young girl who'd been bullied most of her youth. The tears she had shed that turned to smiles as she ate her ice cream. He remembered the numerous trips to bookstores and libraries. He thought of the little girl he'd read bedtime stories to. "Well until that night she was six and told me outright that she could read them herself but she'd let me listen if I wanted," He thought with a small smile of pride. Then there was the day she'd disappeared into what looked like a solid wall at Kings Cross station on her way to a magical castle. He remembered the letters that had come after that day. The early ones had been excited as they told of the magic and the school. He and Jean had been so happy she'd found a place where she fit in, but then the old pattern had developed as the excitement left the letters to be replaced by sadness and worse, loneliness. Then there had been a letter that came in the first week of November of that year; a letter that told of her friends Harry Potter and Ron Weasley, boys who had fought a troll to save her. He and her mother always believed she'd exaggerated the tale, enhancing it into a fairy tale like the castle would suggest, but as he looked at the young man he began to wonder. He took another sip of whisky as thoughts whirled in his mind.
"Did you really fight a troll to save my daughter?" Richard asked. "In that first year?"
"Ron Weasley and I did," Harry answered with a shrug.
"How big was it?"
"Ten or twelve feet," Harry replied honestly. "We got lucky."
"Twelve feet?" Richard thought. As he took another swallow of the liquor, he found himself wishing he'd never let that witch into their house all those years ago. It'd all seemed so fascinating; tables into pigs, making things fly around and all sorts of real magic. "But she'd never mentioned trolls or these Death Eater people or all the other dangers that existed on the other side of that wall," He shook his head slightly as he looked at Harry again. "Why?" He asked.
"Why what?"
"Why did you save Hermione then," Richard asked. "I was under the impression you didn't become friends until afterwards."
"I knew her before then but you're right, that's what really started our friendship," He replied. "As for why, well, she didn't know about the troll and we went to tell her," He didn't mention the part about being the one who locked the troll in the bathroom. "When she was being attacked, what else could I do?"
"Run tell a professor? Scream bloody murder? Run away and hide?" Richard thought, but realized if he'd done any of those things his daughter might have been killed. He took another sip of whisky as he contemplated the young man. "What is it about him? Am I jealous?" Richard asked himself. "Jealous that this young man is doing what I should be doing, protecting Hermione? Worried that he is replacing me in her life?" He felt a bit of uneasiness as he stared at Harry; the unease that came when you suddenly realized the truth over what you believed. "That's it isn't it? I'm being, no...I've been replaced. But that's what men do though don't they? Replace fathers?" The glass rose again and another sip of whisky burned its way down toward his stomach. Richard thought of the look in his daughter's eyes the previous day as she threatened to leave. It was then he realized he'd lost this battle long before he knew there was even a fight. He drained his second glass and sat it down.
"There wouldn't be a choice would there?" Richard asked somewhat resigned. "Hermione's already made it clear she'd choose you."
"Sir, I don't ever want her to have to make that choice. Hate me if you need to. I'm used to it, but don't do anything to hurt Hermione."
"Damn the boy hits low," Richard thought as another sigh escaped his lips. He reached over and grabbed the bottle and emptied its contents into his glass. He took a swallow and considered Harry Potter. His name had been prevalent in many of the letters from his daughter in the last few years. As he started thinking of what he'd want for his daughter, he realized the young man met most of those things, not that it would have mattered. He knew he really didn't have a say in this and all he could do was hope his daughter had made the right choice or discovered it was the wrong one on her own. "Understand that if you hurt my daughter or if something happens to her because of you, I will find you."
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