Only the fact that Hermione had never pulled a prank on her parents stopped them from bursting out laughing when being introduced to their fourteen-year-old daughter's future husband, which combined with the seriousness that both were treating the situation, set alarm bells ringing in the minds of the senior Grangers.
Harry kissed the back of Emma Granger's hand before showing her to a seat, shook Dan Granger's hand before kissing Hermione on the cheek and holding the chair for her.
As soon as they were all seated a waiter brought a selection of starters and two bottles of wine that raised Dan's eyebrows all the way to his hairline.
"I apologise for not giving you a choice of menu and wine but the waiter suggested platters of food and wine from my private cellar here, apparently my family were frequent visitors in times past. Please fill your glasses as we have quite a story to tell and you will probably need a drink before we're finished."
Dan filled glasses for himself, Emma and Remus while Harry and Hermione stuck to fruit juice. They were all picking at the starters but new the main course would be the tale they were about to hear.
"You are going to here a story that is hard to believe but never the less true, please can you hold questions until we finish it then we will answer everyone the best we can. Both Hermione and I value truth above all else since we have been lied to for years so I promise we will tell the truth as we know it." Harry stopped and removed a notebook and pen from his robes and gave it to Emma, she just smiled and held the pen poised to take note of her first question.
"Yesterday a sixteen-year-old Hermione Granger followed her boyfriend of about a year, a fifteen-year-old Harry Potter and our two best friends, Neville and Luna, to the ministry of magic and straight into a death eater trap. We were fighting for our lives when Hermione was hit with a curse that ended hers." Hermione held his hand and rested her head on his shoulder.
"When Hermione fell I went crazy, I killed every death eater in the building, and there were about a dozen of them, then I faced Voldemort and defeated him. Unfortunately my magic got away from me and destroyed the ministry building and everyone in it. Hermione and I were dead and got to meet my parents, we were offered the chance to come back and make a difference but I will be honest with you, we nearly chose not to." This brought shocked gasps from the three adults at the table, how could anyone choose not to come back?
"I was with my parents and had the girl I love with me, that fulfilled my greatest wishes until Hermione gave me a reason to come back, our future children. The betrothal rings we wear are special and Hermione now has all my memories and I have hers, we know everything there is to know about each other and still love each other more than life itself. The waiter is hovering so let's get the next course and have some time to digest the information before we answer your questions."
The waiter again brought platters of food for them to chew over while they tried to swallow the story Harry had told. The food was superb, the wine was excellent and the story was unbelievable.
Hermione looked at her mother who was onto her third page of notes and questions, "Ok mum, let's have it."
"What do you intend to change and how will you go about it?" asked Emma.
"We've already made massive changes, in the original timeline my godfather had his soul removed by a dementor while Dumbledore let it happen, we saved him and the headmaster is raging."
Remus was out his seat until Harry's hand on the professor's arm calmed him down slightly, but only slightly.
Hermione carried on the answer, looking straight at Remus. "When you heard he had been kissed, you cursed Dumbledore for allowing it then left the wizarding world for good, we never got to see you again." She glanced towards her mother for the next question.
Emma had the expression of someone who was humouring the deranged, while waiting for the medication kicking in. "If you have lived for two more years then you must know what I was planning to do this summer?"
Hermione's face went bright red while Harry started to chuckle before answering her, "I believe you are referring to giving Hermione the 'birds and bees' talk though I must say the diagrams were very informative. This should save us all the embarrassment of having to go through that again and I now totally understand where Hermione gets her obsession with colour coding everything."
What Harry would never talk about was when Hermione asked her mother how to get a boy; Emma had bared her soul to her daughter about how after she was born Emma had suffered from postnatal depression and couldn't bear to be touched by Dan. This had gradually worn off over a long period of time but neither of them was comfortable making the first move, by this time they were sleeping in single beds and had drifted into the platonic roles of friends, colleagues, business partners and parents.
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