FicWad

The Magical Twins (continued)

Beta Reader for this chapter: Oli

-----

Harry was busy unpacking his trunk. "Hermione, where is a place for my clothing? Everything is already occupied and full!"

"Harry, stop whining and be a wizard. "

She took her wand, waved it and muttered a spell. The closet suddenly expanded and there was indeed enough places to store ten more trunks.

Harry heard the door from the dorm open. He looked up and saw Sirius and professor Lupin entering their dorm. "Sirius and professor Lupin how are you all?" Harry was so excited to see them."

Sirius sat down on the sofa. "Harry, we need to talk." He looked plainly to Hermione with a blank expression on his face.

"Sorry Sirius, but Hermione stays with the talk. We have a small problem of sharing, or let me rephrase that ... we are forced to share everything, except my underwear. That means if you talk to me, at the same time Hermione will know it as well. Because of that, it is better that she stays with me, and let's not insult her. And there is the other reason, I feel incomplete without Hermione. I am so sorry when I insult you, but that is what the facts are."

Professor Lupin burst out of laughing. "I told you so, Sirius. This is really good, the big Sirius being a smart ass and being outsmarted by his godson. It is getting better and better. Way to go, this is one-zero for Harry!"

Sirius smiled like he swallowed a lemon. "Here you go, Harry. Shut it, Lupin. I'll get you later. "

He looked to Lupin and started to laugh as well. Lupin was hanging in the mean time on one of the chairs, still laughing. Hermione, Harry and Sirius could not do anything else then to join him.

"Hermione, my behavior is truly not acceptable; I hope that you can accept my apologies. It is truly hard getting used to the new situation and this situation is so weird, that I could not predict it even in my weirdest dreams. I am so sorry. "

"That is alright Sirius. We have also problems with coping with our new situation. Apologies accepted."

"There is one thing I need to discuss with you Harry. Or there are several things, but let's start with the hard one. There is the problem of the order and its meeting place. Grimmauld Place is not acceptable anymore, because I am planning to sell it. I feel very uncomfortable about this. "

"You feel uncomfortable about what, Sirius? Is it about selling Grimmauld or about the meeting place of the order?"

"Well Harry. I thought that maybe you can help out. "

"What do you mean? How can I help out? Do you mean the order is able to conference in our dorm?"

Sirius loud laughter was echoing through the dorm. "No Harry, but we are here to pick you up and to show you the Potter's castle. And maybe you would like to consider the possibility of letting the order use that place as well?"

"But Sirius, I never have seen the castle and is there enough space for a meeting place of the order? "

Sirius was looking strangely to Harry. "You never saw the Potter's castle before, Harry?" Sirius was whispering now with an unbelieving expression. "You mean that Dumbledore never showed you the place?"

Harry looked sadly to Sirius. "No Sirius, nobody did and nobody ever bothered to mention it to me either. So in answering your question, I would need to see the place before we can say anything, don't you agree? "

"Let's go to the castle then. Hermione, do you want to come with us as well?"

"Of course Sirius"

Professor Lupin, Sirius, Hermione and Harry walked to the fireplaces in the big hall and floo'd to Potter's castle.

Harry stumbled out of the fireplace. Hermione took his arm and pulled him up. He looked up and did not expect what he saw. They were in a small hall with a lot of paintings on all sides and a fireplace behind him from where they came from. He did not see the roof of the hall, because it was hidden in the shadows. On the left was only one door which was closed. There were four house elves waiting in front of them and who were looking at the company. The older house elf stepped in front of the company. "Welcome to Potter's castle, Sirs and Madame". The old house elf was screeching.

"Who is Harry Potter, Sirs?" the elf asked.

Harry looked at the elf. "I am Harry Potter."

The elf came to him and watched him intently for some moments.

The Potter castle and its estates are ready for Harry Potter, Sir", he screeched. With this he bowed before Harry.

Harry straightened his back and watched the elf. What the hell must he do now? He looked at Hermione. "Harry, introduce us to the house elves, otherwise we will stand here for along time or the house elves will kick us out very soon" she whispered to him.

"What is your name, elf?"

"My name is Batum, Harry Potter Sir."

"Batum, this is Hermione Granger and she is my partner. And this is Sirius Black and Remus Lupin. They are close friends and they may have access to the castle. "

Batum bowed again. "Yes master."

"Batum you address me only as Harry or Harry Potter. Do you understand me?"

"Yes ma ... Harry Potter Sir."

Harry and the rest of the party moved towards the door. "Sirius, did you ever come to the Potter's castle?"

"Yes Harry, but only with Dumbledore, he was the caretaker before you were 17 years old. Now you are of age, you are the rightful owner of the castle and all of its properties. So only you can give permission who can go and come and who not. "

Now he smiled evilly. "You can play god and the almighty here!"

Laughing heartily they went through the door of the entrance hall. "Sirius, how do I know that somebody entered the room via floo or any other means?"

"The house elves know. When somebody is using the floo network via the fireplace, they will be there. They know every person who has permission to come and they will allow the access or not. When they do, they will warn you if you are at home. For the rest it is simply giving them specific instructions and they will be implemented. That door we entered to exit that entrance hall is a special door, charmed in such a way as to not let anything through. Not even a dragon can exit that room."

They arrived at the other hall. On all sides they saw more paintings of a lot of people, mostly grey headed wizards. At the end of the new hall they saw large windows, starting from the bottom of the hall and ending at the top of it. Harry walked towards to windows and looked through it. "Oh my ... what is that?" He saw a beautiful landscape with mountains on the horizon and only green fields and forests between over small hills, and no building in sight. "Yes Harry; that is all yours up to the mountains."

"Sirius, how large is this castle? "

"Well let's see. It is a real castle, so we have exactly 355 sleeping rooms, which 200 of them are complete with toilets and bathroom, showers and Jacuzzi. Then we have one central library filled with thousands of books, waiting for Hermione to be used, and five other more specialized libraries, you have 25 large conference rooms, you have two relaxation rooms with complete gyms, you have three swimming pools inside and two outside, you have large garages with 5 cars, and much more which I forgot. Yes, the castle has 13 floors and six towers. The castle is about the same size as Hogwarts. Do you want to see everything, Harry? It might take you at least several months to see everything, I think. And that is only the inside. Then we have the outside. There you have the stables, we have several wild huts and some houses for personnel. "

"I need a chair to sit, I think. It sounds so unreal to me. And all of this is ours?"

"What 'ours'? No Harry, it is only yours. You are the last one of the Potter's."

Harry smiled at Sirius.

Harry looked at Hermione. "You love it here, don't you?"

Hermione looked happily to Harry. "I adore it. It is a dream comes true, only on a larger scale.

"Let's find a place to sit somewhere, shall we?"

They walked through a large, open door at the end of the hall and arrived at a large and beautiful room with a lot of windows on three sides and nice, cozy burning fireplace and a lot of sofas, chairs and tables. There they sat down and made themselves comfortable.

"Sirius, you know about the situation between Hermione and me, don't you?"

Sirius nodded. "Some might say it is a curse, especially when it goes wrong between us. But when it does not go wrong, it is a paradise, which is continuous, never ending, and a source of pleasure, wisdom, strength and power. Are you with me so far?"

Again Sirius nodded, looking impressed.

"But there is a price to pay. The price is that we sit in each other heads. We are like real twins, not be able to be separated, but it is worse. When one of us feels something, or has a certain emotion, the other has the same emotion as well. There can not be any secrets between us, because the paradise might change into hell. When you try to say something to me in private, Hermione will notice this immediately. Are you still with me? "

Sirius nodded again. "Harry, where is this going to?"

"Patience, Sirius. The thing is that we are forced to share every thing. Above that, we have a feeling of deep love for each other. We are in love up to our ears and beyond that as well. That magic twin thing is forcing us to do much more. We are bound to each other, and that means we are sharing everything what we have. Withholding something from my Hermione is risky and dangerous, and it is betraying her, it can lead to our doom. We both would not survive this!"

"I am thinking about taking my responsibility in this very seriously and I want to do it right. As you might guess, that love thing will lead us to its boundaries; that means sleeping with each other. "

Sirius frowned. "I still do not get your point. If you want, you can choose every room here in this castle to sleep with Hermione, we ... we will sleep in the dungeons for Merlin's sake. That means several hundreds of nights in unique environments and that is kicking, I think."

Professor Lupin interfered. "Sirius, he wants to marry Hermione as soon as possible and wants to know your opinion."

Sirius was shocked. "Marry ... Harry, do you mean ... you want to marry Hermione?"

He now looked confused. "Hold it, say nothing ... let me think. "

Some moments went by. Sirius eyes were as big as sausage plates, his eyebrows went up and down and his mouth went open and close. "With that magic twin thing ... I see your point ... with your age, you need to wait until Hermione is 17 years old ... you are adult according the law ... and you want to do things right ... shit ... you are more responsible than me ... and definitely more then your father was when he was that age ... and the party ... I want to have a huge wedding ... who is your best man?"

Everyone started to laugh. Sirius was totally perplexed. "Oh Harry, this goes so fast. First I hear about the twin thing, then some hours later you want to marry, and what is next? Maybe some baby Potter's under way? "

His eyebrows were flicking up and down.

Harry could not help then to laugh at Sirius. Hermione, is something under its way like small baby Potters? "

Sirius became pale and looked to Hermione. "NO! NO WAY! HERMIONE, I WAS ONLY JOKING. IS IT TRUE, ARE YOU PREGNANT? OH MY GOD, WHAT DID I DO!!! Harry, I know I was a bad godfather, and I had too much work with Dumbledore, so I could never talk to you properly, and I never had the time to spend time with you, but in Merlin's name, Harry, do tell me it is not true! "

"Don't worry Sirius, it is not true. I was only joking. Let's eat something, I am starved. "

Harry was still grinning. "Batum!"

"Yes Harry Potter Sir", sounded next to him.

"I want lunch for all of us in the dining room"

"Yes Harry Potter Sir."

"Can you tell me where the dining room is, Batum? "

"Yes Sir, follow me please"

Batum walked through several corridors until they reached a large hall, which again contained a lot of paintings, a large dining table with a lot of chairs and two fireplaces. The room was lighted with the warm light from candles everywhere in the room. When they reached the room, Batum disappeared.

They sat on the table and continued to laugh about Sirius. "Why are you selling your properties, Sirius? "

Sirius became suddenly quiet and frowned. "I get depressed from those awful places. Still associated with the dark magic and I want nothing to do with the black family. I am the descendant of the Black family, and the only one still alive. I want to get rid of that filth and I can do that only by selling it and give the money to the poor. I also have several castles spread through England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales, and only one place is enough for me. I will keep the castles, because you never know that I might marry and have some children, but I want to get rid of the small properties and everything which is associated with the dark magic stuff."

In the mean time the table was stuffed with food and sandwiches and they started to eat.

"Professor Lupin looked at Harry with a twinkle in his eyes. "Did you ask Hermione already, Harry?"

"No professor, I did not ask her yet. I want to make something spectacular and I need your help in this." Harry was now blushing; Hermione was looking at Harry from the corner of her eyes and was smiling.

Sirius immediately turned towards Harry. "Harry, Lupin and me will help you with the rings and so on, and the rest as well. Tell us what to do and it is already done." Harry smiled happily.

Hermione interrupted the happy club. "Boys, you need to go back to Hogwarts and come back in the weekend to explore this place. In the mean time we have things to do like studies, and work and Merlin's sake much more. "

Back in Hogwarts, Harry and Hermione went straight to professor Dumbledore's office. "Professor, we'd like to offer the use of Potter's castle to the Order."

They sat before the desk of professor Dumbledore and were busily eating the chocolate cookies.

Professor Dumbledore stared at them with his familiar twinkle in his eyes. Harry and Hermione were watching him enthusiastically and waiting for his reaction.

"I see ... I expect that there is more news?"

Harry looked surprised, and then smiled. "Please professor, tell us that you accept! "

"Yes Harry, the order will very happily accept your generous offer. "

"YIPPEE! ... Sorry"

"And now we are going to have even better news, Harry and Hermione?"

"Well Sir, I did not ask her yet. " Hermione was blushing but said nothing.

"Do you need any help with that, Harry? " The professor was looking to Harry with an amused expression in his face.

"No Sir, I hope I can manage myself. "

"But how did you know what we would plan, Sir? " Harry asked.

"Well, that is not so hard to guess, not? I know that you take your responsibilities seriously, Harry, and it was only a matter of time before you came to my office with this announcement. And I am still waiting for that, by the way. "

Hermione shifted in her chair. "When do we get our schedules, Sir? We are anxious to begin. "

Professor Dumbledore took two parchments from his desk. "Here they are, Hermione. Go back to your dorms and study them. Tomorrow we start and I think you both have some preparations to do. "

With that they left the office and went to their dorm.

That evening in the dorm Harry came out of the bathroom and went to Hermione, who was sitting on a sofa to make the study schedule for her and Harry. "Look Harry, this is our schedule so far. I have scheduled time for snuggling and snogging "she said smiling at him.

Harry looked at her and drew a bouquet of flowers from behind his back and offered them to Hermione. Hermione smiled pleased and surprised. "Harry, what is this? "

Harry looked nervous. "Harry is this the moment you are going to ask me? "

Harry's eyes grew wide and his left eyebrow went up. "Do you need any help with that?" Hermione was laughing aloud now. "I am sorry, I am not supposed to tease you so much ... Yes, Harry, and oh my ... I love these flowers ... red roses ... the color of love." Hermione's eyebrows went up and looked at him expectantly. "Well ...? "

Harry did not know what to do next. He did not expect Hermione's reaction like this.

Sirius told him that he needed to start with the flowers, and professor Dumbledore advised him to wait until Hermione was finished with work and try to offer something like wine. He now understood that everything was ill advised, so the only thing that he still could do was ... laugh. And that was what he did. He laughed!

Now Hermione's eyebrows went up and looked surprised. She did not expect that. She half expected a prank or indeed the flowers or maybe a bottle of wine, but she did not expect this. She felt that Harry was not nervous anymore and she looked at him. She felt the love radiating from him, the feeling of belonging, admiration and binding.

He fell on one knee and looked at her. "Hermione, I would like to ask for your hand. Do you want to marry me? "

Even when Hermione expected his marriage proposal, this was indeed a surprise. He surprised her, how is that possible? She decided to give her self some time and to let him sweat. And that was exactly what he was doing; sweating.

"Yes Harry, I accept. "

With that, Harry tried to take something out of his pocket. That took some dragging, more sweating and some mumbled words, but there it was. He held the box between them and opened it. Hermione looked in the box and she was shocked, she saw a ring with three diamonds.

She looked Harry in the eyes. He took the ring out and placed it on her ring finger of her right hand. "This is an engagement ring. One diamond is for friendship, the second one is for promise and the last one is for implementation. I plan to fulfill all of them. "

Hermione could not help it; tears were running over her cheeks, still looking to the amazing ring. She kissed Harry tenderly on his lips. "WE ARE ENGAGED!" Harry screamed happily. We are! He was jumping on their sofa, all books and parchments were falling on the ground.

They were very happy that evening.

-----

Beta Reader for this chapter: Oli