FicWad

A/N: Beta reader for this chapter is The Brat

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The surprise (continued)

Professor Snape spotted them as Hermione Granger and Harry Potter arrived on the dance floor and began to dance. Interested, he stopped to watch. He did not know how they could know the tango as well as they seemed to. There was something suspicious about this. He was, no doubt, the only person who could dance the tango 'correctly'. Yet what he saw in front of him was astonishing. The couple was dancing perfectly, he had never seen anything like it.

Harry and Hermione were moving over the dance floor as if they were flying. The Professor could hardly discern movement of their feet, but could see the straight back of Harry Potter and the remarkable silhouette of Hermione Granger. They seemed not to move their heads, and when they did it was only for the need of the dance. Their eyes seemed to be locked on one another and they did not seem to be aware of anything else then only each other. A purple mist surrounding the couple's legs became more intense, and Snape could see silver lights and stars appearing now more intense. He could feel the powerful magic surrounding the pair and waves of something akin to wind appeared around them; they were merging!

Professor Snape looked up at Professor Dumbledore, who was watching the couple intently. Severus was promptly aware that his date was pulling on his sleeve. She pointed to the door and saw that more guests had arrived. There was the Weasley clan with all of their red headed children, and quite a few students from Hogwarts arriving at last.

He turned back to greet his guests, and Harry and Hermione continued dancing, not aware of anything around them.

Mr. and Mrs. Granger noticed Harry and Hermione on the dance floor. "Professor Dumbledore, that happened yesterday on the dance floor as well."

Professor Dumbledore had indeed noticed the couple, but he was more concerned with the pale and purple mist around their feet.

Professor McGonagall had noticed the couple as well. She noticed their eyes, locked on one another, not waving for a single moment to either the left or right. The way they danced, reminded her of a fairytale. As they moved with the music, their movements seemed unearthly and surreal. They seemed to move in a natural elegance that appeared effortless. And their eyes; they started to change. Professor McGonagall remembered vividly Harry's intense green eyes, yet this had changed. The color of his eyes had intensified so greatly, they were radiating light! However, the eyes of Hermione had changed dramatically. Hermione had dark-brown eyes, yet McGonagall saw twin green eyes gazing right back at Harry.

Professor McGonagall looked at Professor Dumbledore in question and saw him watching with a light frown.

The strong magic radiating from the two captivated all in attendance. Even more incredible was the fact that the pair's feet were no longer touching the ground! Yet, they continued to dance. The purple mist intensified and began to glow. All stared as white flashes, resembling stars, shone from within the mist. A striking green colored beam had appeared, linking the eyes of Harry and Hermione. They continued to dance, even as they were currently 1 meter above the ground.

Everyone stood like frozen on the floor and their heads were turned to the two of them.

"They are merging their magic!", yelled professor Snape. "How is that possible?!"

"Quiet Severus, we need to intervene before it goes out of hand!" Professor Dumbledore snapped. "Stop the music!" he cried.

The music stopped and the couple slowly returned to the ground, the mist started to disappear. Mr. and Mrs. Granger were looking at Harry and Hermione in astonishment, who were still oblivious to the world around them. As their feet at last returned to the ground, their dancing finally stopped.

Harry and Hermione suddenly snapped out of their dream state and looked around themselves in confusion, "What happened?"

Harry turned to Professor Dumbledore, who had already moved toward the couple. "Do you see what we mean, Professor? I think that we have serious problems, and don't you dare say that everything is alright!"

Professor Dumbledore looked to Harry and Hermione. "Come my children, we need to talk."

The Professor began to move, to the exit of the hall. Hermione took Harry's hand and the pair of them turned to follow the tall wizard. Harry spotted Fred and George from within the mass of people, looking astonished. As Harry and Hermione continued to follow the headmaster, Ron appeared in front of them, blocking their path. His face was deep red, and his features were distorted in anger. Harry frowned wondering what was going on.

"Hermione does not belong to you, she belongs to me!" Ron screamed, and hate streamed from his face, directed at Harry.

"How could you betray me like that?!!! And you call yourself a friend. I love Hermione, and you stole her from me! She belongs to 'me'! You have everything, you have money and fame, and I have nothing. How could you do that to me, Harry! I never want to see you again. You have stolen everything from me!"

With that he turned and disappeared into the crowd. Harry was stunned and looked at Hermione, who was also wearing a shocked expression.

"What does he mean by that? What is wrong with Ron? What happened?"

Hermione looked at Harry, "Harry, I haven't the faintest idea of what happened with Ron and why he is acting like that. I haven't talked to him since we all went home from the station. I received two owls from him and that was the last time. Why does he have to assume that we have something with together? THAT GIT, HOW CAN HE SAY THESE THINGS! When I see him the next time I will hex him until Christmas!"

Now Hermione was becoming angry. Harry could feel the anger radiating from her and spilling over to him! He felt betrayed, confused, and angry. He was suddenly aware that those emotions were not his, but Hermione's! What was going on?!

Harry pulled on Hermione's hand and they quickened their pace to follow Professor Dumbledore. Once outside, Professor Dumbledore waited for them to catch up.

Harry could still feel Hermione fuming over Ron and as a result he was still fuming as well.

"Harry and Hermione, I have a port key here, it will take us straight to my office. We need to talk. Grab this." Professor Dumbledore showed them a stone, which was a port key. Harry and Hermione held the port key and the pulling in his stomach told Harry that they were being transported to the office of Albus Dumbledore.

All three of them appeared in a small hall, in front of the entrance to Professor Dumbledore's office. The Professor immediately entered his office. "Grab a chair. I will be back shortly."

Hermione and Harry stepped into the remarkable office of Professor Dumbledore and took a seat. Harry looked around the office. Everything was the same as usual. He sat next to Hermione, opposite a large office desk, made from wood and something else he could not identify. On the desk, he saw the many silver instruments. Some of them he could recognize. He saw several small mirrors; he saw the pensive he knew, because he had used it once before, with the help of Professor Dumbledore. He also saw several dark-magic detectors, with their green, red, and black orbs encapsulated in brown glass and their mouthpieces.

Next to the table, he saw several swords, each more beautiful then the last. He saw also the sword of Gryffindor, which he used in his second year of school. Above a large bookshelf with large, green books, obvious belonging to a series of books, he saw the sorting hat. The hat looked even more dirty then usual; it seem to cover the second head, which was visible beneath the sorting hat. Harry looked behind him and saw a large corridor, which separated the office room from a larger room, which functioned as a small library. Bookshelves lined the walls, and at the farthest corner of the room, he could see two doors, closed tightly. On his left side, he could see a large fireplace with a small table and three easy chairs sitting in front of it. The fire was blazing, but he could feel no warmth. "Must be a magical fire then" Harry thought.

The Professor suddenly appeared out of thin air right in front of Harry and Hermione with a twinkling eyes. He glanced at them before sitting down in his chair behind his office desk in front of them.

Harry seemed to remember something and searched the room in question before turning to the Headmaster, "Where is Fawkes, Professor?" Harry asked.

"He will return soon, Harry"

The Professor was gazing at Hermione and Harry intently. It was obvious to him now that they were more than a couple. He could see that they thought almost exactly alike and they seemed bound to each other. There also seemed to be a form of non verbal communication between them. The way that Hermione was looking at Harry; made him smile knowingly.

A change had seemed to come over Harry. Harry had grown taller in comparison with the last time the Professor had seen him. Which had been before the summer break. He had grown at least 2-3 cm! And there was more. He seemed not only to grow in length, but he seemed to be in better health. Seemingly not as skinny as he had been before. He also sensed a great amount of power within Harry! The Professor could feel the raw power whirling through Harry in a way, he had only experienced with one person: Tom Riddle!

And he sensed more. That raw magic had joined with Hermione's. The Professor gazed intently at Hermione. She had grown as well. In length and other places. He saw truly how beautiful and attractive she had become. But even more extraordinary was he sensed the same magic in her as he did in Harry! The same magic whirling through Harry also seemed to be buzzing through Hermione.

The professor sat in silence for some moments, considering the issues here.

"Can you two explain to me what happened?"

Hermione spoke. "Well Professor. It started with a dance."

Harry looked at Hermione with a frown, and Hermione who had been looking up at the Professor froze suddenly and turned to Harry. "Are you sure?"

The Professor started to laugh.

"Hermione, this does not make any sense. Did Harry say something to you?"

"Yes of course, Professor Dumbledore. Did you not hear his question?"

"No Hermione, Harry did not say a word."

Hermione looked at the Headmaster in bewilderment and then looked at Harry. "But Professor, I heard Harry's question very clearly."

"What did he say?"

"He told me that he thinks it had happened when he arrived at my home. I am not sure about that, but maybe he has a point, and not only that, if you can and want to help us, you need to have all the information. But I am not sure what Harry means with 'it'"

"I think that you both need to tell me the entire story. Don't leave anything out. Tell me everything and we will see what we can do. But first I would like to tell you what I have observed. Then I would like to hear your story, and then we will see what we have discovered and what we can do about it. Is that acceptable for you both?"

Both nodded.

"Harry and Hermione, what we witnessed on the dance floor is called a Merging of Magic.

This is normally only possible when both of you use a certain spell and only in a horizontal position and in absolute rest." The professor's eyes twinkled madly. "This happens only when a married couple wants to experience deeper feelings during their love making, and there is no other use for merging their magic. This couple will experience mist, sparkles, an out-of-body experience, and the sensual pleasure of the merge. When the spell wears off, then everything returns to normal. The spell last maximum one hour and none of the parties are able to break it within that time."

The Professor waited for a moment and looked at Hermione, who was listening intently.

"Now what I see here in front of me is something far more complex. I will tell you what I saw when I watched you. I saw that you experienced the merging of your magic in a very strange way, and that the merge did not fully break free. You are still partly merged with each other. That explains that strong link between the two of you. I also see that even without the link, you have a very strong bond with each other. In other words, you are in love with each other."

Harry and Hermione smiled at each other with those words and a healthy blush began to spread across their faces.

"So please, tell me your story, from the beginning until you came here to the office."

So Harry and Hermione told the story from the moment that Harry arrived at Hermione's house. It was unsettling the way in which Harry and Hermione could tell the story. Both of them were talking, but never at the same time. One would stop in the middle of a sentence, and the other would finish it. They even appeared to have discussions between themselves as well, and only their eyes showed the evidence.

He could see that neither of them could not stop touching one another. Even when they tried to hide it from him they would link hands under the table.

"I detect Hermione's magical presence in you Harry and Harry's magical presence in you Hermione. It seems that each of you have the magical power of several normal adult wizards."

Harry and Hermione looked astonished by that.

"Do you mean we have become stronger, Professor?"

"Yes Hermione, you have both become incredibly powerful."

"Professor, have you ever encountered such a thing? I mean ..." Harry looked to Hermione. "... What happens to us, professor?"

"It is called Twin Magic or magical twin. It is a rare magical curse. The curse forms a magical partnership between two people or partners. Their magic is almost merged and they are very powerful and very hard to beat in battle or fight. Their intellect will grow as well, as their ability in almost everything. But when they get separated, then they are reduced to a small part of the being they were ever before, and will die very soon. The curse can not be cured."

There is the other disorder, which is called the magical triplet. This is even more rare then the magical twin. Only one time in the last thousand of years has the magical triplet occurred, but for this you need three persons; two women and a man, but that is not applicable here, it seems ...

Everyone was quiet. "Does the magical twin happen a lot?"

Hermione was looking to the professor. "It does not happen often. The last time it happened was in 1906 between two lovers. Before that, there were several documented cases of twin magic, but that was several hundreds years ago. I suggest that we all do some research in this area."

Harry gave a small smile. "Professor, is there no way to remove it? Is there no way to stop the process? I mean Hermione is somebody I have touched, I have felt her being, and she has felt mine ... but to tell us that we do not have any choice isn't fair to either of us."

The Professor nodded. "No Harry, it isn't fair, and I am afraid that there is nothing I can do. In our world, there are many things, which seem very harsh in the eyes of a muggle, born or raised, but they are a fact of life. When someone sets up a magical contract between two people, they will be bound to each other for as long as that contract exists. The same could be said for marriage which will continue until one or both parties die. In your case, it is the same, until your death!

In our world, there are specific curses, which only affect magical people. One of those curses is the Twin Magic curse and you two seem to suffer from it. "

Hermione sighed. "What happens to us now? How can we live from now on? It is impossible to tell my parents what has happened. I am afraid that they will think that they will need to forcibly separate us, and I feel that will be my death. I don't think they will ever understand this; they are muggle born. They have no idea what it is to be a magical person. I will never accept a separation! I will fight them and everyone else who even think about it. The world around us will never accept us! Listening to Ron's screaming today, I can only imagine what others will say! I can not sleep in a separate dorm without Harry around me. Just the thought makes me unwell! What will we do?"

Hermione was becoming very upset and the heat was streaming from her very flushed face, and Harry, being so in tuned with her emotions, began to mimic her anxiety as well. The air seemed to crackle with the amount of magical energy buzzing around the pair.

Professor Dumbledore stood up and gazed at Harry and Hermione strictly. He was very concerned that the pair would do unintentional damage with the power that was sizzling around them.

"Listen to me! I shall talk to your parents, Hermione. You do not have to worry. You will both move out of your dorms immediately, and into the prefect's dorm. There are two sleeping rooms and small living quarters. You are both prefects, by the way, this news will be announced officially on the 9th of August."

"You will both need some additional training to cope with your growing powers, so that you both can become very skilled in magic. We also have the serious problem of Voldemort. When he finds out about the curse, we will need to prepare you for the confrontations with him. Harry has already begun to study occlumency. Now you will both need to strengthen this skill more than ever. You will need to become as adept at occlumency as myself if not more so.

" I will talk to the professors here at Hogwarts and certain people at the ministry, so that you can step up your education starting today. I also want the law for underaged magic to be lifted from both of you. Harry has already been cleared, Hermione you will need to wait until your birthday. I want to have this lifted as quickly as possible."

The Professor was finished his speech and watched them closely to gauge their reactions.

Hermione seemed to be satisfied with his answer and Harry appeared relieved. The magical intensity around the two had indeed decreased considerably.

"Professor, I went to visit the bank, as you have advised me. What I saw there was astonishing. What will I do with all of that money?"

"Well ... Harry ... that is not all. You have also several properties. One of the properties is the Potter castle, and then you have two estates in Scotland, one in Wales, and one near London. Then you have several estates and one castle in south France and one castle in Germany near the river Mosel. If you don't mind, let's talk about this at some other time."

Harry nodded. "Professor, as we can all understand, there is no privacy between Hermione and myself anymore. Therefore, if there is something, that concerns me, it concerns Hermione as well. And maybe I see a future for all that wealth now." Harry smiled to Hermione. The Professor's heart melted when he saw the interaction between the two.

"I will ask Sirius or Professor Lupin to visit the Potter's castle, so you will have a place to stay and to live with Hermione from now on. I think that the need for the Dursley's has passed. The old magic might protect you, but there is now something more powerful in its place. Harry and Hermione please forgive an old man, but I need to go back to Professor Snape's reception. However, before you go, go to the great hall and eat something. Professor McGonagall will arrange you your new quarters. From now on you stay here and your education starts from today. Is that acceptable for you all? "

Harry and Hermione nodded in unison. They stood up and left Professor Dumbledore's office. The Professor took his port key and disappeared, while Harry and Hermione strode to the great hall.

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A/N: Beta reader for this chapter is The Brat