FicWad

A/N: Beta tester is Red

-----

Training

It was Friday morning, 5 o'clock in the morning. He smelt lavender, the natural smell of Hermione, the most beautiful girl lying next to him in their bed. He felt that Hermione was dreaming about something like flowers and fields, forests and roses and something about smells and something alive and fluffy. With his nose in her hair he continued to take Hermione's smell and was aware of the rest of her body. The warmth was radiating through his body. This is the best moment of every day, to wake up next to Hermione, the girl he loved as nothing else before. All worries, pain, regrets and guilt totally gone from his mind and he was feeling complete.

He felt Hermione waking up. "Harry ..." she whispered. She turned and faced him now. "When do you think we will have our wedding? "

"I think that we should have our wedding not too soon and not too early. I think around Christmas would be a nice date, don't you think? "

"Harry, I want to have our wedding one day before Christmas. So that means the 23rd of December. "

"Do you want to have a big wedding, or a small and private one? "

"I want to have a huge wedding. I want the completely wide world to know that we are married. I want every girl to know that you are taken and I want to have everything on it, all traditions and everything classic style. And I want to have kilts for the men, I want to have a lot of bridesmaids and I want to amuse my mother and give her the only chance she has for her only daughter. I also want my father to have the chance to give his daughter away in a grand style. Then we will go on honeymoon at the second Christmas day and go to mysterious places and be back in the New Year, but as a married couple."

Hermione was looking straight to the roof with a dreamy expression. She turned to Harry and her eyes became big. "What do you think? "

"I agree and I would love such a wedding with you. This will be an enormous job and a lot of work; we will involve hundreds of people. Shall we use Potter's castle as the place for the wedding?"

Hermione smiled and kissed him on the lips. "Do you want to go first to the shower or do you think that we can go together?"

Harry looked at her hungrily. "I think I'll take my breakfast in bed. " Hermione screamed and ran to the shower.

Together they went to the great hall for breakfast. Professor Dumbledore was present as well. When Harry entered the hall, he saw the professor looking at him expectantly with his left eyebrow up. Harry smiled and nodded to him. Professor Dumbledore stood up. "I think that we have a happy announcement to make this morning. "

All the professors looked at Professor Dumbledore, who was smiling to Harry and Hermione. Then all the eyes went to Harry and Hermione, who were sitting alone at the Gryffindor table, as they were the only students in the castle at the moment. Harry stood up, and bowed to the professors. "I have asked Hermione to marry me and she has accepted. We are officially engaged."

A needle could have been heard dropping in the silence that greeted this announcement. It could have been expected but it still came as a surprise to many of the professors. Then congratulations came from the table with the professors. Professor Lupin was grinning widely, and Sirius was giving a wide beaming grin.

Sirius left the tables and went to Harry and Hermione. "And, it all went well without any help? " He was winking repetitively to Harry with a big grin on his face. "Do you have already a wedding date? Do you know where you want to marry and by whom? What about the best man for the wedding? And how about groomsmen and bridesmaids? And also I want to have a nice evening with only the men before the big day. And I want to have everything in tradition. "

Sirius was jumping of happiness and excitement.

"Sirius! It looks like you are the one getting married!" said Professor Dumbledore, standing behind Sirius.

Harry stood up and turned to professor Dumbledore. "Professor Dumbledore, would you do us the honor of marrying us on the 23rd of December at Potter's castle? "

Professor Dumbledore started to blush and looked very happy. He was beaming! "Thank you, both of you. That would be the biggest honor you could give an old man like me. I would love to marry the two of you. "

Harry and Hermione were blushing as well, and happily they turned back to Sirius and Professor Lupin. "Sirius, would you do me the favor and honor to give me away? " Harry asked.

"Yes I will and yes, I want. " Sirius was now even more enthusiastic then before. Professor Snape was sneering.

"Professor Lupin, do you want to be my best man at the wedding? "

Professor Lupin looked very touched. "Yes Harry, I'd love to. "

The professors went back to their table and finished their breakfast. After the breakfast Harry and Hermione went to their first lesson of the day with professor McGonagall. They were transfiguring a table into a cow and back, which went much easier than ever before. Professor McGonagall was very pleased with Harry. "But Harry, I see the influence of Hermione already. This goes indeed very well and you are progressing very fast. "

"Professor, I use Hermione's magic to complete this charm. "

"Yes, I see that the power in Hermione's spells is now much more than it ever was. I am impressed. Let's see how the self-transfigurations are working with both of you. Hermione, I want you to transfigure Harry into a pig. "

Within seconds a pig was walking around the class room, making desperate sounds. Hermione ended the spell and Harry appeared with his hands and feet on the ground. Harry grinned evilly and turned Hermione into a flamingo. He waited some seconds to end the spell and Harry turned into a nice, fluffy dog.

"Professor, is the lesson over now?" asked Hermione while she held the fluffy dog in her arms.

"Yes Hermione, the lesson is over. You can go to your next lesson. Don't spoil him too much, put him on a diet and ask the elves for a dog-basket." With this Hermione left the classroom with her fluffy dog in her arms and went to professor Dumbledore's office for her next lesson. Arriving in his office, Hermione released the dog, which was jumping and barking near her feet.

"I see that you took a pet, Hermione. What is his name? "

"Good morning, professor Dumbledore. His name is Fluffy, but he is very naughty. "

"Maybe you need to leash your dog. Does it have fleas? "

Hermione took Fluffy and started to inspect his fur.

"I don't see any fleas yet, Professor". With this she released Harry and broke the spell. Harry stood up and sat on his chair. "What a naughty girl, that Hermione. But she truly smells good. "

With this they focused on Professor Dumbledore.

"Today in this lesson we are going to focus on occlumency. I would like you to sit on your chairs comfortably and try to empty your minds. Then I will try to enter your mind and you need to try to stop me. Is that understood? "

"Professor, that might be a serious problem, because I feel everything that Hermione feels. And above that, there is the feminine influence of Hermione, which stops me from concentrating in this way. "

"I will give you five minutes to prepare yourself Harry. Then I am coming in with brute force. "

Professor Dumbledore was smiling now openly.

Harry in the meantime closed his eyes. He could feel every emotion from Hermione very clearly, more clearly then his own emotions. That was very strange. He tried to empty his mind, but still her emotions came through. "Maybe it is wrong to make my mind empty. Maybe I need to fill it with noise. That would be fun when the professor enters my mind," he thought to himself. He was thinking about his exercises, which he had learned from Sirius in the end of the previous school year and concentrated himself on counting sheep.

Professor Dumbledore sat relaxed on his chair and entered the mind of Hermione. That was easy and there was no resistance. Then he entered the mind of Harry and he also did not find any resistance, and that he did not expect. At least he expected some resistance, even when it was weaker then before. But what did he see? Did he see sheep? What were sheep doing in Harry's mind? The professor tried to go behind those sheep, but they kept following him in Harry's mind. He broke the connection and looked to Harry.

"Harry, what are those sheep doing there in your mind? "

Hermione turned her head questionable to Harry. Harry smiled. "It was a trick, being used to hypnotize muggles or to use it when you want to put yourself under hypnosis or a technique to put yourself to sleep. "

Professor Dumbledore and Hermione started to laugh. "Oh Harry, I have never encountered such a technique before. But how did you manage to get those sheep follow me in your mind?"

"Well, I felt you entering my mind. I made a suggestion in my mind that the sheep were following you everywhere. I suggested that you were in my mind in the form of a person with a long, white beard and I envisioned that the man with the white beard was surrounded with sheep and obviously it worked. "

"That was an excellent piece of work, Harry. I could not read anything. Now I have some homework for both of you. Hermione, you need to learn the basic occlumency from Harry. Harry, I have an extra task for you. You need to learn an additional technique. " He waited for a confirmation of Harry and Hermione.

"You used the verb 'envision'. That is the key of everything. The most important thing to learn is to detect a strange mind entering yours. When you have detected that, you need to envision defenses against the mind. When you manage that, then you are finished with occlumency and the rest is self-discipline. The next occlumency lesson is Monday evening at 5 pm. Now go and have a good lunch and up to the next lesson."

After the lunch they went to professor Lupin for wandless magic.

"Harry and Hermione, keep your wands in your bags, because this is supposed to be wandless magic." Harry and Hermione were smiling and put their wands in their holders.

"Wandless magic is nothing special. You use your wands to focus your magic. Your wands are the exit point of the magic and that is all. When you use wandless magic, you need to tell your magic what the exit point is. In other words, you need to focus on the spell and concentrate on an exit point in your body. A logical exit point can be your finger or your elbow or even your knee. The exit point must be an ending point in your body, like fingers, toes, elbows or knees, but it is also possible to use your head or even your whole body as such a point. When you use the last choice, you need to use a lot of magic in order to accomplish that. Any questions Hermione? "

"No questions."

"There is also another technique in performing wandless magic. You envision the magic you want to perform, and it is performed. Harry, you go first. Try to use the second method first and see what the results are. Use the CANTO spell on Hermione to get her to sing. "

Harry closed his eyes and envisioned a singing Hermione. He put his total will behind the thought. Nothing happened, he heard nobody singing. Now he cast the spell in his mind, thinking about Hermione and put his will behind it: "CANTO!"

Still nothing was happening. Now he focused totally on the spell and Hermione, and he heard her shrill voice singing. He opened his eyes and saw Hermione very unhappy singing, with her eyes as big as tea cups. He focused on Finite Incantatem and she stopped singing.

Professor Lupin looked impressed. "How did you do that, Harry?

"I focused on Hermione and then put my will behind the name of the spell. That worked very well. "

"Now try to use the CONTEGO spell around yourself and see what happens. " Harry focused on himself and put his will behind CONTEGO. A bright green light surrounded Harry and Hermione. Professor Lupin looked astonished. He touched the shield, but was not able to penetrate it with his hands. He threw a chair against the shield and the shield was holding. Then he cast a CONSURGO spell to break rooms or shields, and also this did not penetrate. The spell flew back to the professor, who barely managed to duck at the last moment. Then the professor fired ADURO CONTENDO spell at Harry's shield, which shot fireballs. The fireball bounced from his shield.

"Why is Hermione covered under the shield? "

"I have no idea, Professor. I concentrated only on myself and CONTEGO, and the shield appeared nicely around Hermione as well."

Harry broke the shield and Hermione walked to the other end of the classroom. He repeated the shield spell in his mind, and he opened his eyes. He was covered under the shield, but so was Hermione and professor Lupin! Then Hermione started to walk towards Harry and the shield shrunk. Hermione touched Harry and kissed him on his lips. The shield only covered Harry and Hermione. The color of the shield changed into red and became opaque; Professor Lupin could not see them through the shield.

Now it was Hermione's turn. Hermione tried to focus her will and it took her one hour of heavy work and concentration before she managed a small lumos spell.

In the meantime Harry was busy with his next set of spells without a wand. He was busy transforming the table into a pig, which worked wonderfully. He was looking to Hermione with a big grin.

Twenty minutes before the end of the lesson Harry suggested a small experiment. "Hermione, I have an idea. We know that we have a connection between each other. Why don't we try something, so that you can tap into my magic via our link? When that is possible and we can manage, I don't need to learn all the magical languages and you are finished with wandless magic and occlumency. What do you say? "

Harry and Hermione sat closely together and Hermione was thinking intently about Harry. She tried to place her will towards Harry, but that did not work out. So she was trying to visualize Harry and focused on his head. Also that did not work. Then she visualized their link as something like a rope. She followed the rope and she was in his mind. Well, she expected to link to his magic then in his mind, but this was something she could use the next time. And yes, there were the sheep, which were noticed by Professor Dumbledore earlier. Harry had noticed her. She broke the contact and tried to concentrate on the need of magic and on Harry and tried to perform the lumos spell. A flash of very bright light appeared on her hand. This was it! Now she concentrated on the CANTO spell and tried to repeat it. Professor Lupin started to sing.

Hermione broke the spell for Professor Lupin and looked in triumph to both of them. "Now it is your turn, Harry!"

"No Hermione, we need to stop because your lesson is over for today. I think you have potions, don't you?" Both of them looked at their watches and exclaimed, "We need to go to Snape!"

They packed their bags and hurried through the corridors to the dungeons. Hermione whispered. "Ten minutes too late!"

When they entered the class room, they took a seat and sat down.

"10 points from Gryffindor", a sneering voice announced from the corner.

Harry gasped. "You can not do that, Professor. The school year has not officially started."

"Then I will wait until the school officially starts, and when that happens I will take the points from Gryffindor. "

Professor Snape came into view with a sneer on his face. His eyes were in two slits and the detestation was clearly visible.

"You can get an additional pause of 10 minutes for 60 points from Gryffindor, if that is what you want. What do you say, is that not a good idea? You nauseating lovebirds, have you lost your tongues? "

Harry and Hermione said nothing but were staring at the professor, with a neutral expression on their faces.

Professor Snape swirled around his own axis, and pointed to the black board in front of the dungeon. Harry saw text appearing on the black board.

"That is the recipe for wolfsbane potion. Our werewolf needs to swallow that every month and you two are going to learn how to brew it. If you do it wrong, you will poison him, otherwise he will be lucky again. Start your work, because you have one hour and 50 minutes to finish it. "

With that, he went into his personal quarters and disappeared.

Hermione turned to Harry. "Harry, we need to be very accurate with this potion. I know that you and Ron never took potions too seriously, but we need to succeed also here. So we need to work in a scientific way and do everything slowly, but sure. And we do the potion together."

They both took all their ingredients and started to work, totally focused on the potions. They did not notice Professor Snape coming into the dungeon and did not even notice when he checked their progress. Harry was busily cutting several ingredients and was cooking three other ingredients on different burners, all with their own timers. Hermione was busy with three mixtures at the same time and was making notes in their diagram of wolfbane portion. "Harry, now it is time for the beetle wings. You need to cut them very fine and in vertical direction first. Is that clear? "

Harry only nodded and took the beetle wings and started to cut the wings in vertical direction first. This was again very concentrated work, because if he cut the wings wrong, he would have to start the process again on new wings, otherwise the potion would not work.

After one and a half hours of work, the potion was ready. Hermione placed the potion on the professor's table. "According to the book and the ingredients of Professor Snape, this potion is done and it will work."

"Only time will tell if this potion will work or not." The sneering voice appeared from behind them. "Well, don't hang around here, take the potion to Lupin and let him drink it. Stay with him and wait until he finishes the full potion and see if he drops dead. When he does, come back and I'll give you 100 points for Gryffindor."

Hermione took the potion and Harry took their bags and they raced out of the dungeons to search for Professor Lupin. They found him in his room and gave him the potion to drink. Professor Lupin looked at him and smiled. "So Snape wants me to drink it and report any problems to him?"

"Yes Professor, if the potion goes wrong, Professor Snape will give Gryffindor 100 points," Hermione said.

The professor's eyebrows went up, but he started to drink the portion. He finished it with a disgusted face and sat down. "Tell him that he can drop dead, and then I will give you both 500 points each for Gryffindor! "

"That is the spirit", Harry proclaimed.

All of them laughed.

"What you have demonstrated today was very impressive. You have already adapted to each others magic, the power of your magic has also increased by several factors and you were able to tap into Harry's magic. Now Harry needs to learn how to tap into your magic. I would like to propose an experiment for tomorrow. I would like to test that shield of yours. I understand that the shield is not from Harry anymore, but it is yours now. I also expect that both of you are going to develop new magic, which will only work with the two of you. We will handle that subject later this year. But now back to your shield, I would like to know how strong it is and when you have a breaking point of the shield. Then I want to repeat this experiment multiple times over the year and see if the shield becomes stronger or weaker."

They left the professor's rooms and went to the great hall for dinner. They passed the cat Mrs. Norris and heard Mr. Filch, the caretaker, appearing. "What are you doing here in the corridors at this time of day?" Mr. Filch's voice seemed to have cracked from previous confrontations between him and Harry and the hate in his eyes was clearly visible and not concealed at all. Harry and Hermione decided not to react at all. "I am watching you two, and when you both even set one foot on the corridors during curfew, then you are mine to play with."

They both hurried up to their dinner and his screeching voice echoed for a long time in the empty corridors of the castle.

When they arrived in the great hall, Professor Dumbledore was waiting for them. "Please children, I would like to invite you to our table", he said.

With that, Harry and Hermione moved to the teacher's table, and both sat between professors Dumbledore and McGonagall.

"How did your lessons go, Harry? Did you do well in potions?" Professor Dumbledore was looking at Harry and Hermione with the familiar twinkle in his eyes, looking over his spectacles.

"We made wolfsbane potion for Professor Lupin today. This went well, because I see Professor Lupin still sitting here."

Professor Dumbledore was laughing. Professor Snape did not say anything, but he looked at the couple with disgust on his face. "

"When I look to you both, I am disgusted. It is so unhealthy how you act like an old married couple. By Merlin, you are only little children, and should never have been allowed to come within a 100 miles of each other."

"Severus, I think that the youth must deserve a change. And those two are the victims and they can not help it. It is fate that brings this to them. "

"Albus, with all due respect but everything happens with that Potter, and I think that we pay too much attention to such a spoiled brat."

Harry was amazed! Normally he would jump out of his skin, but now he did not feel angry at all! He turned his head to Hermione, who was sadly smiling to him. Then he turned to professor Snape. "Professor Snape, do you have any problem with me, my existence or your own?"

Snape snapped his head towards Harry and Hermione. "I think that you two brats are very unhealthy, and it is only out of respect for the headmaster that I endure you on this table, but now you did it again Potter, you spoiled my dinner. " With this he stood up and left the table and disappeared to his dungeons.

"Harry, I see that you are not so hot tempered any more, since your joining. I also heard that your lessons went extraordinarily well. If this continues, then we will need to change the schedule."

Harry and Hermione were nodding. "Yes professor, the lessons went extraordinarily well. We plan to study tonight to get our magical connection to work better and more smoothly, and I expect that we will not have any more problems. I have also noticed that our ability to memorize information is now much better then ever before. We need to read a list of words only once and we both have them memorized. Last night Harry and I were studying ancient runes, and he has learned all the basic runes already. If we continue at this pace, Harry will be ready for the first lesson of ancient runes by Sunday."

"And how is arithmancy going, Harry? "

"That is harder, professor. It has not got much to do with memorizing anything, but only understanding. I was never very good at math at elementary school, and I expect that this will take a lot of work."

"I understand that you succeeded to link into the magic of Hermione, not? I also understand that Hermione came into your mind? "

Harry was perplexed. How did he know? He looked at Hermione, who only shuddered. "Professor, how do you know that? "

Professor Dumbledore shuddered as well and only smiled.

"Yes professor, we were able to. But what has that to do with arithmancy? "

"Think Harry. Hermione can link into your magic and use your power and abilities. Maybe you can do the same with her gift in arithmancy. "

Harry was considering that. "I think that is an excellent idea, professor. "

Later that evening, Hermione sat in front of the fire. "It is becoming colder now, Harry. "

Harry took the chair next to her. "I can warm you, Hermione. Come and sit together on the sofa and we can talk for a bit. "

Both of them moved to the sofa and sat cozily together, warming each other. Harry was massaging her feet and Hermione sat lazily watching the flames. "Harry, try our link to see of you can tap the arithmancy knowledge. If you are able to do that, you are finished with arithmancy, runes, history, astronomy and muggle Studies."

Harry started to focus on their link and try to enter her mind. That was not working in this way. "How were you able to access my mind, Hermione?"

"Harry, when you let me in, I will tell you how I did it."

"Come to me, my darling. You will always be welcome to my mind."

"How is it that when I entered your mind in the afternoon, the only thing I saw were sheep? "

"Well, you surprised me and what is wrong with sheep? "

Hermione punched Harry on his arm. She concentrated and entered Harry's mind. She gasped and her eyes became large and her eyebrows went up. "Harry, you have a dirty mind. That is truly disgusting what you want to do with me. "

But she was smiling with shining eyes. "I would never have thought about that. How did you find out about these things ... I see, dirty books ... and Ron!! How did he know such things?"

"He knows it because he has so many older brothers. So Hermione, how did you link into my mind?"

Hermione was staring straight to the wall. Her face was strained because of her concentration. "Hmm? What Harry? I did not know that boys did that? "

Harry went red. "Boys are doing what? " He stammered.

"You know ... never mind. "

"Do you understand it now how I went into your mind?"

Harry smiled. "Yes I know now." He looked at her and his eyes became large as well. "Oh my ..."

They were looking to each other with large eyes and they became even larger.

After a while Hermione relaxed. "This means that you are finished with runes and languages, history, astronomy, arithmancy and muggle studies. I am finished with defense and divination. I think we can go to bed. Tomorrow it is Saturday and my parents are coming at 11 o'clock in the morning. Harry, I want you to be on my side at all times. Don't leave me alone, what ever happens. "

"What happens when school starts, and you want to speak with the girls? You understand that I will understand everything what is being said and will know everything, even when I will not listen and even when I don't want."

"But Harry, we sit in the same boat. When you talk to the boys, I will know as well. "

"Hermione, I don't know if you realize it, but we are physically changing, I think "

Hermione looked at him. Harry continued. "We are eating much more then ever before. I always am hungry, and I have those urges of eating red meat. I saw that you do the same. When I look at you, you have changed physically. I think you grew, and your skin color is changed a bit. The color of your hair is now a deeper brown. Have I changed as well? "

"Now you mentioned it, yes indeed you have changed. Your skin tint is more golden than it was before. You grew indeed, and you hips became tighter and shoulders wider, and your bum is now more attractive! Maybe you should wear a cute little Scottish kilt?"

Harry punched her softly on her arm. "Professor Dumbledore mentioned that this was due to happen, only I did not expect it to happen so fast! "

Both of them sat quiet on the sofa in their own thoughts. "I love you!" both said in unison and started to laugh. "

"This is indeed unhealthy, professor Snake was right "Hermione proclaimed.

"I want to create a prank, which will involve our dear professor Snake?"

"I am not sure yet, but I am thinking about a nice one. Maybe I need to talk with Sirius."

"Harry, we need to hire a marriage consultant. Because it is impossible to organize the marriage and to hold the tempo for our lessons and I also don't want to let my mother organize everything, neither do I want to give Sirius this honor, thinking about his pranks."

"Do you know anyone who could function as a marriage consultant?" Harry looked at her.

"No not yet, but I will find one. "

-----

A/N: Beta tester is Red