It was still dark when Hermione woke up, she looked around the room and she wondered at first what it was that had disturbed her, and then she heard the quiet sobs coming from the other bed. Sitting up she called over to Harry in just barely above a whisper. She heard the intake of breath and she knew he was suppressing his tears just as he had always done in the life before.
"Harry why don't you come over here for a while?" she whispered.
She could hear him getting out of the bed before she could make out his shape in the dark. Once he reached her bed she held back the cover and asked him to lie down with her, he seemed to hesitate for a few seconds before he climbed into the bed with her.
Hermione hugged him tight and tried to comfort him, she asked what had woken him. Harry held firmly in this girls arms, this strangers arms, felt more relaxed and safe than he could ever remember being before. He had no idea why he trusted her so much but he did.
"I… it's just… I was wondering why nobody loves me," Harry admitted rather quietly, tears still escaping even though he was trying to stop them.
Hermione was shocked, she had never once given any thought about how the young Harry had actually felt, growing up with his family always telling him he was unloved and unwanted, and those were just the polite things they said to him. It wasn't till right there with him revealing his feelings to her that she gave it any real thought. Before she had simply thought oh how awful, but now she actually thought about it.
Holding him tighter she said "Oh Harry you are loved and you are wanted, I love you, and I know my dads going to love you." She thought how sad he must get when he saw other children being hugged by loving parents, how hurt when his cousin sat opening Christmas or birthday presents, and all the other things he had never had.
Harry hadn't a clue why but he believed her when she said she loved him. Even if he did only have a vague idea what she meant. He wasn't even sure what love was. He just wanted someone to hold him when he was hurt, to cuddle him when he got lonely; he simply wanted someone to look after him, someone to be nice to him.
"What does it feel like?" he asked in his quiet voice.
"What do you mean Harry?" Hermione whispered back scared that if she spoke to loud he would stop this unique revelation of his feelings, something he had never done before.
"What's love like?" he whispered back.
"Wow Harry that is almost impossible to answer, people have been trying to write or say what love is for hundreds maybe even thousands of years. All I can tell you is, love is a feeling like no other, it comes in many forms, love is wanting someone to be happy even at the expense of your own happiness.
It's wanting to be with that one someone all the time, its being unable to live without that certain person in your life.
It's something I think we all have to feel and then we know what it is like." Hermione answered, totally unsure how to tell a 10 year old what love is like. She decided she would leave out the feelings of desire and need and all that, he would never understand that, not yet. As she felt him eventually fall asleep in her arms she cursed the Dursleys for the way they had treated him.
Hermione was woken up at ten o clock the next morning when her mother came into the room with two cups of tea. Hermione could not remember ever having slept so soundly or so late before.
Helen Granger looked at her daughter lying in bed with her arms still wrapped around a sleeping Harry with a look of contentment on her face.
As her mother went to wake him, Hermione shook her head then placed a finger to her lips to indicate she did not want him woken up yet. Gently she pulled her arms from around him and rolled off the bed. Catching hold of her mother's hand Hermione pulled Helen out of the room and they walked down to the kitchen.
"Hermione Jane Granger that boy was in your bed!" Helen said stating the blindingly obvious.
"Mum it was absolutely awful, I woke up when I heard him sobbing in the middle of the night. Do you know what he asked me? He asked me why does nobody love him. He didn't even know what love is like. I tried to explain but I don't think I did a very good job of it," Hermione said as she fought back her tears.
"Why would he ask such a question?" Helen asked already having a good idea why.
"Mum that's the kind of people he was living with. They have never once shown him even a tiny little kindness. They taunted him with things like nobody loves you, or you're just a waste of food. A freak who doesn't deserve to live," Hermione said hoping to get through to her mother.
After Hermione had fetched Harry down for breakfast Helen decided to take him shopping for some new clothes. If he was going to be staying with them while she and Richard humoured their daughter at least he should look decent.
Hermione was left at home with her father while Harry went with her mother; Helen had said she did not want him to be embarrassed by having a girl around while buying his under wear. Then with Harry's hand held firmly in her own they left the house.
Hermione spent the next three hours talking to her father, and thinking about the life Harry had had to live for nine, what must have been very long and lonely years. She told Richard what Harry had asked her in the middle of the night. To her surprise she saw a tear slip from his eye and roll down his cheek. She was about to say something about it but changed her mind at the very last second. Her dad wouldn't want to look like a weak cry baby in front of his daughter. Instead she asked him what she should do, what she should tell Harry.
"You don't need to tell him anything sweetie, all you need to do is show the poor boy some love. I know you told your mum you intend to marry him some day, so until that day comes you just give him all the love you can," Richard said as he patted her hand.
Hermione gave her dad a hug and as she did so she realised she had never seen this gentle deep loving side of him before. She had known he loved her as much as a father can love his only child, but she had only ever seen the strong side of him. The side of him that had always been there for her, willing to protect her with his very life if he had too.
When her mother returned with Harry there was something different about the Helen Granger that walked into the kitchen, her arm held gently across Harry's shoulder. She bent over and gave him a kiss on his cheek and told him to go and help himself to a slice of cake. Dropping the shopping on the counter top Helen sat down and tears began to fall silently down her cheeks. She watched Harry with what Hermione thought was a look of joy in her eyes.
An hour later after Helen and Hermione had added a new desk and a cupboard to Hermione's room for Harry. Hermione asked what had happened while they were out shopping. What ever it had been caused Helen to once again shed some tears.
Helen hesitated before she spoke and Hermione got the feeling her mother was not going to tell her.
"His back is what happened," Helen said as she finished putting Harry's new clothes in the drawer.
"His back? What do you mean mum?" Hermione asked worried in case the healers had missed something.
"You haven't seen it yet then?" Helen whispered "and he's such a lovely child, so thoughtful and kind and polite and truthful."
The next few minutes had Hermione speechless, as she was about to speak again to her mum Harry came into the room.
"Er Mu… Mrs Granger, am I allowed to use some warm water when I have my shower?" Harry asked as he stood in the door way.
Helen stepped up to him and dropped to her knees bringing Harry into a hug, "Harry darling you can use anything you like," she told him as she kissed his cheek. Standing up and ruffling his untidy hair "off you go and be careful you don't burn your self with the hot water."
Helen was sniffling as she stepped back to close the drawer she had placed Harry's new shirts in. she looked at her daughter and then grabbed Hermione into a tight hug, "I love you so much Hermione Jane," she said before she left the room, leaving Hermione wondering what had happened.
Hermione laid out some of the new clothes on his bed for Harry to wear after he finished in the shower. Ten minutes later he walked back into the bedroom.
"I had an ice cream," he said smiling like he had just been awarded a prize.
"Here you go Harry, I've put some clothes out for you," Hermione said as she began to clear her bed space, while thinking how strange it sounded for a ten year old to say he had had an ice cream like it was a special event.
Hermione got to see Harry's back as he began to put his new shirt on. "Harry! Oh god!" she said as she looked at the scars across his little back, he looked like he had been whipped, and not so long ago.
"Don't put that shirt on yet," she said as she pulled her potions kit from her trunk. She was so glad that her mum had insisted on buying all her school stuff while they had been out buying a wand. Twenty minutes later Hermione was rubbing some scar removing potion into Harry's back,
"That will begin to remove some of those scars" she said as she helped him put his shirt on.
She had made enough potion for a weeks supply, and she hoped that would be enough to remove the majority of the scars. That night just before they went to bed, Hermione gave Harry his dose of the potion supplied by the healer at St Mungo's, it was a small ritual they did every night until all the potions were finished and Harry had grown to be what would have been his true size had his aunt fed him properly.