Notes:
One guess what my favourite trope is lmao
You've seen the tags, you've seen the title. You know where this is going, let's get this party started for real! This chapter be pure fluff. Slightly longer chapter than previous chapters, lots to do! Shouldn't have any more significant mention of abuse, but just in case, there might be some residual elements in future chapters, so I'll keep the TW. TW for child abuse, should only be mentioned past this point.
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
"Harry, lunchtime!" came the familiar voice calling from down the hall, cutting through the seventh song on the album . It had been about three weeks since he'd been rescued from the Dursleys, and it was starting to sink in that he'd never have to go back there. Unfamiliarity had opened into warmth and plentiful food. The house which had previously been intimidatingly spacious was now welcoming, his bed soft and his guardian gentle.
Rosemary was a kind old woman who'd been running emergency foster jobs for a few decades now - she'd seen her fair share of hurt kids, but Harry was her first blind one. Because the house had few colours, if any, he hadn't seen fit to mention that sense.
"Coming, Rosey!" Harry called back cheerfully, feeling for and pausing the CD player and picking up his cane. The doctor had ordered it the night he was taken here, but it hadn't arrived until a few days later. He was supposed to use it to sweep the space in front of him for anything he might walk into, and while he wasn't used to the device yet it had been useful. It was nice to not have to rely on memory and the occasional errant colour. Oddly enough, since he'd arrived there'd been a bit more colour in the room. Did they come from him, he wondered?
Gently sweeping the cane in front of him, he made his way down the hall to the dining room, the smell of roast tomato and bacon filling his nose. He knew there wasn't anything in the way, or at least there probably wasn't, but he thought it best to get into the practice of using the probing cane. On the occasions when they'd gone to the park - not the same park as before, but similar - it had been instrumental in preventing further grazes and collisions. Low hanging branches were their own problem to solve though.
"Hey there, kiddo. Enjoying those CDs are ya?" Harry nodded eagerly with a squeak of agreement - upon discovering that Harry had neither a favourite musician nor known of any, Rosemary had dug a small CD player out of the garage and put it in his room, leaving him a number of CDs of hers to play. After teaching him how to use the device and making folded patterns out of tape that she stuck to the covers so Harry could tell which one was which, she had left him to figure out what he enjoyed. The louder, more heavy stuff he found unpleasant, but the gentler music was good. Some of the early work of a musician Rosemary said was called David Bowie was good - like the song he'd been listening to when she had called him, but there were a few songs on the album he skipped. The second was his favourite, the nonsensical lyrics made him giggle, closely followed by the gentle third song.
"There you go, get that down ya," Rosemary said, putting a plate in front of him. "I know you liked bacon last time, so maybe you'll like that - bacon and roast tomato sandwich. Plenty of butter and a bit of pepper on the tomato. There's enough for seconds if you're still hungry, or for a snack later."
"Thanks Rosey!" It didn't take long for Harry to gulp down the sandwich - he'd had so many new flavours these past few weeks. He felt like he was living like a king! Nobody shouted at him, he got fed several times a day and it was good food too! The bed was softer than perhaps even Dudley's had been.
The phone rang, pulling Harry out of his gleeful contemplation as he jumped in fright.
"Be right back, dear, if you're still hungry I've put seconds on the plate." Rosemary left to the living room and picked up the phone. It was quiet for a bit, as murmuring echoed from the telephone and Harry eagerly chewed on more sandwich.
"Oh that'd be great! I've heard good things about little Hermione, I'm sure he'd love to see them. Well, not so much see, but you know what I mean. It's a bit short notice, but hey, short notice is what I do," Rosemary chuckled. Cogs churned in Harry's head - was Hermione coming to see him? Another pause.
"2:30 it is! I'll let Harry know, thanks for that Terry," she said, before putting the phone back. "Harry! We're having visitors in a couple of hours, the Grangers want to come say hi!" At this confirmation, what was a hesitant smile became resolute on Harry's face. "Apparently they've wanted to come over for a little while now but they got caught up with work." Ever since Rosemary had told him how it had been the Grangers who had gotten child protective services involved and were why he'd been rescued from the Dursleys that day he'd been immensely grateful to them. On one hand, had he not sneezed he would have been in for the worst beating of his life once Terry had left, but on the other it had swiftly removed him from what promised to be an utterly miserable life.
"I get to see Harmony?" he quickly asked. He'd been getting the name wrong consistently, but Rosemary hadn't the heart to correct him.
"Yup! Mrs. Granger also says they have something to offer you, but I'll let that be a surprise. Oop- you've got some sauce on your shirt, better go change out of that." Harry immediately tried to figure out where it was, quickly getting more tomato sauce stuck to his hand.
He licked it off. Oh how livid Petunia would have been, he realized with continuing glee.
"Off ya pop, silly bub," Rosemary tapped him on the shoulder gently as he giggled and started making his way back to his room. As he got down the hall he heard her get out the vacuum cleaner and start it. He closed the door and felt for the handles of the chest of drawers. Brushing his fingers through the appropriate drawer, he picked one whose texture he liked - he didn't remember how Rosemary had described it visually, but it felt nice. Nowadays, Harry's clothes fitted him, instead of being at least three sizes too large, and he had far more to choose from. He vaguely recalled Rosemary teasingly pointing out that some of the shirts he had chosen from what she had for the children who came and went from her care had been girls' shirts, but he didn't care - they were comfortable and warm, and to him that was all that mattered. He pulled the stained shirt off, carefully making sure it made its way into the washing basket before replacing it.
--
Harry sat on the sofa, tapping his right hand against his left knuckle. The clock on the wall had chimed twice since they'd finished lunch, so if Rosey had been right about how soon the Grangers would arrive, their arrival was imminent. She'd mentioned 2:30, but unfortunately, the clock only chimed on the hour. He'd tried counting seconds, but he'd lost count immediately. He listened intently to the sound of cars outside, disappointed with each one as it failed to turn into the driveway and reveal the visitors. Every now and then he swore he could hear one slowing down, but those hadn't been it either.
Another one took on the characteristic whine of slowing down, a bit stronger this time.
Gravel crunched beneath wheels and Harry froze. A car was in the driveway.
Harry straightened in his seat as Rosemary put her knitting aside.
Knock knock knock . Rosey got up and quickly went over, as Harry floundered trying to find his cane as quickly as possible without losing it and immediately losing it on the floor somewhere. As he heard the door open, he made a decision. Screw the cane . He knew approximately where the hall was, he'd navigated the house okay before it had arrived, and that was before it had become a tiny bit more colourful.
"Hey there guys, come in, come in! Hey Hermione, how ya doing?" Harry swung himself out of the living room, hanging outward into the hallway and was greeted by, among the three grey figures, the smaller familiar oscillating blues and reds of Hermione Granger, golden rivers swirling through her.
"Harmony!" he exclaimed, at which Hermione - whose name was not Harmony - burst into giggles.
"Harry, lad! I don't think we got the opportunity to properly introduce ourselves last time we met. I'm Dennis, and this is Valerie, we're Hermione's parents. I hear you've been doing well here?" Dennis said, extending a hand. It took a second, but Harry did hear it, and eventually found his hand as well as Valerie's.
"Yes, sir. It's nice here, I've been le-le-lear-learning a lot," Harry replied. "Never had ice-cream before, it's nice." Dennis chuckled.
"I'll be sure to remember that. Hermione's been ever so worried, haven't you dear?"
"Yeah! I wanted them to go get you away from those people but then I thought what if you weren't home and they hurt you after they left, or if they weren't able to get you away or what if there was a fight or what if the people scared you or-" Hermione was cut off as Harry homed in on her vibrant colours and pulled her into a hug.
"Thank you," was all he said, muttered into her shoulder before the shocked girl relaxed into it.
"Oh - uh - you're welcome. Also, it's Hermione, not Harmony. Can see why you got them mixed up though, it's not a common name," Hermione said, quietly.
"Sorry Harm- Hermione." He was still pronouncing it wrong, putting too much emphasis on the O, but it was better than nothing.
"I see your clothes fit you a lot better than they used to, no more rolled up baggy jeans. Comfy?" Valerie asked, kneeling down and - as far as Harry could tell - looking at his face. "Teeth could do with some work, but I'm sure you'll come right in no time. Aunt and Uncle never took you to a dentist, I'm guessing. Dennis and I are dentists, we work with peoples' teeth, make them better."
"It's fascinating!" Hermione said, "There's so much more to know about teeth than I realized!"
"I'm sure it is. Harry dear, why don't I go get your cane and you can show Hermione around, while I talk with Mr. and Mrs. Granger for a bit?" Rosemary said, moving into the living room and passing Harry his cane.
"Okay! This here's the-the living room, but I guess Rosey wants it so we'll come back later or something. Down here's the bathroom, and over here's my room. Rosey's room's down the hall, but I don't-I don't-I don't think she'd like us going in there. Harry led Hermione to his room, where he sat down on the bed.
"Can I open the curtains?" Hermione asked.
"Oh, uh, sure," Harry replied, remembering suddenly that Hermione wasn't blind - he'd just left the curtains closed since he'd arrived unless Rosemary had opened them at some point. Hermione pulled the curtains open, and sat down on the bed as well.
"Oh, um. I don't want to be mean, but it's Herm-I-one, not Herm-iO-ne."
"Hermione?"
"Yeah, you got it!" Hermione clapped.
--
"So you never got to learn anything?? Not even math?" Hermione was horrified.
"No, no-nothing. Dudley went-we-went to school though, I heard stuff from him. He said it was boring," Harry said, eliciting a huff from Hermione.
"He's clearly not paying enough attention. From what you've told me about him, he doesn't sound very nice anyway, who cares what he thinks. You'll get to go to school too now! You'll have to catch up but you'll love it. It's all so interesting!" Hermione paused for a bit. "Maybe we could go to school together, if you wanted. I could help you catch up." Harry frowned and turned to her, as there was a knock on the doorframe and he jumped a bit.
"Hey Harry, Hermione, can we come in? Mr. and Mrs. Granger have something to ask you," Rosemary said. Harry nodded, still confused by what Hermione had said as Dennis and Valerie came in and sat on the floor in front of the two.
"Hey there Harry. Sorry if we're interrupting, but we'll let you two get back to catching up once we're done," Valerie said. "You know how this place is a temporary shelter, yeah? And do you know what that means?" Harry nodded, at least to the first.
"Not per-ma-nent? Don't know what that means either, sorry."
"Okay, so that basically means you're not going to be staying here forever." Harry stiffened up. "No no, don't worry, you'll never have to go back to the bad place either. This is what's called an 'emergency foster home,' basically Rosemary takes care of kids who were in real bad situations and had to be taken away on short notice. This is where you're taken care of before somewhere else is sorted out, does that make sense?"
"Yes, Mrs. Granger. Valerie," Harry said, remembering the name.
"So, keeping that in mind, we came to ask if-" Valerie was cut off as Hermione piped up.
"If you wanted to come live with us!" Hermione exclaimed. "You'd be like my brother!" Valerie and Dennis laughed slightly.
"Yes, if you wanted us to be your family. Hermione would be your sister, and we'd be your new mum and dad. Don't have to decide now, but we thought we'd make the offer," Valerie clarified.
Harry thought. If he couldn't stay here forever, and he had to go somewhere else, he at least liked Hermione. He hadn't talked with Valerie and Dennis much, but they seemed nice, and they'd said they took care of people's teeth. Good people took care of people, so then they must be good people. Hermione was intense, but she was very friendly to him - Harry had never had a friend like that. Harry had never had a sister.
"We could go to school together," he mumbled, mulling it over.
"We'd have to make sure you're not going to the same school as that godawful Dudley I've heard about, but Hermione's said she doesn't know of a Dudley at her school so it should be fine," Valerie said.
"So I could… I could come live with you? And go to school with Hermione? Per-man-ent? Ly? Permanently?" he asked, hesitantly figuring out the word.
"Yeah, permanently. Does it sound good to you?" Dennis asked, as Hermione bounced a bit in excitement beside Harry.
"Yes. Yes, that sounds good!"
--
The Grangers came to visit a few more times that week, during which Rosemary and Terry promised they were just figuring out paperwork. Often the parents would drop Hermione off, or Hermione would come over after school and tell Harry about the work she'd been doing. This time, Terry had accompanied them, and Hermione was sitting bobbing her feet at the end of the bed as Harry fiddled with the CD rack as the adults had some lunch, finding some he hadn't listened to yet.
"What's your favourite one? You never said," Hermione asked.
"Oh, um. One sec," Harry said, moving his hands back to the top of the stack, where he thought the correct album was. Tracing the tape on its surface confirmed it, and he passed the CD over to the girl. "It's on there, the second one. The third one's good too though." Hermione erupted into giggles as she took it, flipping it over. "What?"
"Was that deliberate?!" Hermione asked, struggling for breath as she laughed.
"Was what deliberate?" Hermione stopped, quiet for a moment.
"Wait wait, didn't Miss Rosemary tell you the names?"
"No, why?"
"The first three songs on this album are Space Oddity , which is the name of the album, Unwashed and Somewhat Slightly Dazed , and then, the third is called Letter to Hermione !" Hermione once again erupted into giggles, this time joined by the young boy, neither hearing the footsteps coming down the hall.
"Hey guys," Terry popped in, as Harry damn near jumped out of his skin, "could you two come over to the living room please? Finally figured out your paperwork!" The two hurried over, pausing only for Harry to grab his cane and navigate around a number of bags Terry had brought for his use - bags now full of what clothes Harry had chosen, and a number of his toys and things.
"There we are!" Terry said, as the two entered the room and sat down on the couch. "Was a bloody hassle to find your birth certificate, young Harry, but we eventually found it with some private hospital called Saint Mungo's, but we got it. Here we are." He pulled a piece of paper out. "Harry James Potter, born to James Potter and Lily Potter on the 31st of July, 1990."
"Hah, you're gonna be my little brother!" Hermione taunted, possibly poking her tongue out at him. "Should be in the same year at school though."
"Quite right, Hermione. Looks like the Dursleys never even had legal guardianship of you, interesting. We might want to look into that," Terry said, curious.
"Uncle Vernon said I was left on the doorstep after my parents died in a car crash,"
"Not exactly the proper channels. Anyway, circumstances aside, all the paperwork's been signed but we need your signature, Harry."
"My signature? But I can't see?" Harry said, confused.
"It's okay, we can use a thumbprint in this case. Basically I'll have you press your thumb in some ink and then you'll press it in the signature field, I just need to sign as well to confirm I witnessed it."
"Oh, okay." It took a bit as Terry read what Harry was signing to him, making sure he understood it and what it entailed - Harry would be adopted by the Grangers, and legally be considered their child. Rosemary helped guide Harry's hand to the little ink pad, and then onto the paper. He heard Terry sign as well, and the Grangers applauded this newest addition to their family.
It didn't take long for them to finish packing Harry's things after he'd washed his hands - while he'd gained a number of belongings, toys and clothes mostly, it wasn't much. He left the house with neither the oversized hand-me-down clothes from Dudley nor the rough makeshift blanket he'd arrived with - in their place were his new clothes, and a soft throw blanket Rosemary had bought him. She'd let him keep some of the CDs, just his favourites though. Harry climbed into the back seat of the car after Hermione, stowing the bag in the footwell and resting his feet on it. The car was bigger than the one Terry and Watkins had taken him to Rosemary with, had plentiful flecks of colour adorning its interior (mostly on the right side) and smelled of what he thought must be mint - or at least, Rosemary's toothpaste had apparently been mint and it smelled similar.
"All buckled in back there?" Valerie asked, from the driver's seat.
"Yes Mrs. Granger," Harry replied. "Mum," he corrected himself, a smile growing on his face as the car left Rosemary's house - as he left it as Harry James Granger.
--
Gently hanging his head out of the window, Harry was amazed by the seeming frequency of his colours as they drove. They clung to paths, fences, hedges and even bathed some houses in such concentration he could see the different panes in windows.
"Do you like the wind?" Hermione asked.
"Yeah, it's nice. There's a lot of colours too, I can't sense them when the window's closed," Harry replied idly.
"Colours? I thought you were blind?" Hermione sounded more than a little confused by that.
"I can't see them, it's not my eyes. I dunno, it's hard to explain. It's like… in my mind. I can kinda sense that house over there, and that one. You've got colours too, I saw them when we first met. Not everyone does."
"Ooooo… What colour am I?" Hermione was eager to learn more, Harry guessed.
"You're kinda blue and purple with yellow squiggles. They're not as colourful, but they've got little bits of yellow in them. Most people don't have any," he replied, nodding toward Dennis and Valerie.
"Wait so can you see me doing this?" Harry heard movement, but couldn't see whatever it was.
"No, it's not quite the same - it's like a blob in the middle of you. Actually, the inside of the car has them too, I think people with colours kinda leave them all over the place."
"Oh. That's cool though, can you use them to get around? Do you have your own?" Harry looked down at himself, looking at his own 'core.'
"Yeah, I'm kinda like purple and red with green swirly bits." He didn't really know how to explain the bits that, had he seen a television properly before going blind, would have looked like static.
"Here we are, Harry. Home sweet home," Dennis said, as Valerie turned the car into a concrete driveway and Harry looked in amazement out of the window. The Granger house was bathed in psychedelic purple, blue and gold, flecks of all colours wafting about as the car slowed to a stop. It was three floors, pretty small with the top floor probably partially attic, and separated from the houses on either side, with hedges absorbing some of the walls. A chimney struck out of the steep roof, and the smell of flowers on the hedges wafted through the air. Harry opened the door and hopped down, only relying very slightly on his cane to tell where he was going. He plucked his bag out of the car and closed the car door again, hoisting it onto his shoulder and following behind Mr. Granger as he went over to open the door. His dad, he reminded himself. The man opened the door and ushered Harry inside, who was greeted with just as many - if not more - vibrant reds, blues and golds. Definitely Hermione's colours, he realized it had mostly been his own colours at the Dursleys, so he considered his theory on them being 'shed' by people with colours to be true.
"Right then. Lotta stairs unfortunately but we've made sure you won't have to use 'em too much. Your bedroom's down here, used to be Hermione's. Got the bathroom on your right, toilet beside it." Harry poked his head in and probed around with his cane to be sure. The colours were really coming in handy. "Hers is the second floor landing, and there's a second bathroom there too. Mine and mum's room is up on the third floor, but you don't need to go up there, 'kay?" Dennis said, guiding Harry around. "Through here's the living room."
Valerie and Hermione finished the tour, ending by bringing Harry to his new room. While it was about the same size as the room at Rosemary's place, it was downright cavernous by Harry's standards. He had his own, big room, and it was permanent.
A new house to live in, where he didn't have to hide in a cupboard all day.
A new family, who loved him and would treat him well.
A new life to enjoy for Harry Granger.
Notes:
The song he's listening to at the start is Wild Eyed Boy from Freecloud. I hadn't actually remembered Letter to Hermione was in there, but as soon as I saw it I knew I had to include it. Don't think he knows what it's about though.
Hoo boy this chapter got long - almost as long as both Chapters 1 and 2 combined!
Disclaimer: I live in New Zealand and don't know shit about the English school system. Given I read that the term at Hogwarts starts in September and both Hermione and canon!Harry were in the same year, I'm assuming that tracks. Ours starts in February because our summer is between December and February, so yeah.
A reminder that these are based on the films, not the books - the movies take place in the 2000s.
And yes, we're gonna get to the trans part soon! Hold on in there folks, she's coming. Next chapter, I promise.