Disclaimer: I do not own any part of the Harry Potter books or the universe they come from, it all belongs too J. K. Rowling.

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Giving up Magic.

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Harry:-

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Sixteen year old Harry James Potter sat on the old comfy couch in front of the Gryffindor common room fire place. The look on his face as he stared into the flames of the fire was one of someone lost in a very pleasant daydream.

His best mate Ron was out taking part in a practice Quidditch match. Quidditch the most popular wizarding sport being the only thing Ron thought of apart from food and sex. Hermione his other best friend was sitting next to Harry reading over her home work, they had sat quietly like this many times over the five years they had been best friends.

“Harry! What you thinking about?” Hermione asked as she looked up from her transfiguration essay.

“Huh, Oh, sorry… I was just day dreaming,” Harry replied his face taking on a slight blush.

Harry’s answer and his blush intrigued Hermione, wondering which girl he had been thinking about to make him blush really peaked her interest, “So who you daydreaming about?” she asked grinning as the blush in his cheeks got a little deeper.

Harry looked around the room slowly to see if anyone was listening to them, it took a matter of seconds for him to realise they were alone. Turning to Hermione he smiled his lopsided smile and simply answered “You.”

Hermione was completely surprised by his answer, especially as it was accompanied by a rather dreamy look in his amazingly green eyes. “You… were day dreaming about… me?” she said haltingly.

He looked deep into her eyes as he took on that far away look once again “Yes, we were at the Yule ball and you were dancing with me and not Krum. Everyone was congratulating me for having a date with the most beautiful girl in the castle, but it was just annoying me because I had to take my eyes off you to acknowledge them, you noticed and whispered to me that we should take a walk outside in the rose garden. That’s where I got to kiss you for the first time, it’s also where you interrupted one of the best daydreams I ever had.” Harry told her as he smiled again before turning back to look into the fire.

Hermione who had been showing a little romantic interest in their other friend Ron, looked at Harry with shock evident in her face, “I… I… you… kiss… the ball…” she stammered not being able to collect her thoughts and put them into words.

Without taking his eyes off the flames that were dancing around the logs in the fire place Harry spoke again “Yeah, I know you fancy Ron and all that, but that doesn’t stop others from loving you. I know it hasn’t stopped me from being in love with you for a long time; I will probably always be in love with you. I mean you are the most beautiful, loyal, trustworthy, caring, giving person I ever met.”

Hermione felt confused and hadn’t a clue what to say to him, so she closed her book and placed all her things into her book bag then standing she simply said “I have to go to my dorm.” Without another word she turned and walked to the stairs.

“Night Hermione,” Harry called his eyes still fixed on the fire, a feeling of relief filling him. He had told her how he felt about her and he hadn’t felt the slightest bit of guilt that for some reason he had thought he would feel.

He was still jealous that she fancied Ron, but he could cope with jealousy, he had been coping with it his entire life. Every time aunt Petunia went shopping for clothes, every Christmas, and every birthday when his cousin Dudley got gifts and presents, something Harry had never had from his family. Yes he could cope with the jealousy he had learnt how to live with it and never let it show.

It had been two weeks since he had told Hermione how he felt, and he was once again staring into the fire watching the patterns made by the dancing flames. Today though he was feeling a little sorry for him self, he was telling himself that he was not sorry he had told her, even if it had destroyed their friendship. Hermione he knew had been avoiding him, even in classes she no longer sat next to him. Ron was no longer speaking to him because when he had asked why Hermione was sitting with Lavender and Parvati, and not with them, he had told Ron that he had admitted to her that he loved her.

Ron had gotten angry and jealous again, just as he had done in their forth year saying that Harry always took things away from him he wanted, and told Harry to sod off before storming away. And so he was alone as he tried to cope with his deep feelings of hurt, pain, and the overwhelming feeling of loss.

Tonight Hermione had left the common room with Ron, after announcing to Ginny that they were going to do their prefect rounds, “A likely bloody story, don’t get caught snogging.” Ginny had called after them as they left through the portrait hole.

So once again he was sitting alone looking into the fire as life went on around him like nothing was wrong. A sudden surge of anger flowed through him as he thought of how much he missed simply being with her, talking with her, hearing her gentle laugh, and how it was all gone simply because he had been honest. Now she was with Ron.

Snatching up his parchment of unfinished home work he screwed it up and threw it into the fire place, then leaving the rest of his things where they were he stormed out of the common room and out of the castle.

During his walk around the lake, Hedwig his owl joined him, and as he poured out his woes to her he decided that without Hermione in his life to fight for he had no reason to remain in the world that thought him a deranged publicity seeking maniac and the wizarding press were making a fortune out of printing lies about him, telling Hedwig to find him in a few days he stood and watched her fly off into the night.

Harry Potter did not return to Hogwarts castle after his walk around the lake. It was a very worried headmaster that had organised an unsuccessful full scale search for Harry who he believed was the only hope the wizarding world he had helped to form had of surviving the evil of Voldemort that was daily growing stronger.

Hermione:-

Sixteen, almost seventeen year old Hermione Jane Granger walked into her dormitory with her mind in a whirl, her best friend Harry had just told her he was in love with her. It just didn’t seem real some how, she had liked him as more than a friend for the past three years but had convinced her self she would never be the sort of girl he would fall for. She had slowly begun to look at her other best friend as a little more than the argumentative prat that he was, and she had been showing him she was interested in deepening their relationship.

Now she sat on her bed not knowing what to do. She sat for quite some time unable to fully wrap her mind around what Harry had said. By the time she fell asleep she had come to the decision that she needed some time and space to work out her true feelings for the two boys in her life. The only way she could see of doing this was to stay away from them both until she was sure of what she wanted, the direction she wanted her life to go in.

The following two weeks were hard for her as she avoided both Harry and Ron. She found that she missed Harry’s company far more than she missed Ron, in fact she hardly even thought about the red head. She had made her mind up by the end of the first week without them, but she just couldn’t think of a way to bridge the gap that she had put between them. By the end of the second week she had finally decided to put her stupid pride and logic to one side and tell Harry she had chosen him if he still wanted her, which she doubted he would after she had avoided him so obviously.

It had seemed the easiest way to approach the boys and begin to put things how they should be, she had her prefect rounds changed so she would be on with Ron, as they strolled around the castle she had told him she was not interested in a relationship with him.

Returning to the common room after doing her prefect rounds with Ron she found Harry’s things on the couch he always used. She found his partially burned screwed up homework lying in the hearth and a feeling of dread came over her. Harry would never leave his things lying around like this, something was wrong. Having collected his things together she sat on the couch and waited for him to return.

While she waited she pressed out the creases in his discarded home work, noticing the doodles he had been doing on the bottom half of the parchment she began to read them. There were three small hearts drawn, the first two had arrows through them with both his and her initials across the heart, the third heart simply had a large dark x drawn on it.

Just below the hearts a small scroll was drawn, she read the words he had written on the little scroll, ‘Love is a Lie’. Below the scroll he had written ‘there is no love in this world of hate, loneliness is a way of life’. Below that were the words red haired perfect pissing prefects piss me off. The final words he had written right down at the bottom of the page were ‘Without Hermione there is nothing left here for me’.

Tears filled her eyes as she began to realise just how much he had loved her. His words told her his was not a teenage crush, or a juvenile fantasy, but that he actually did love her far more than she had thought. And he had obviously thought the same way as Ginny did, when she had changed things to go on her rounds with Ron tonight.

She fell asleep waiting for him, even in her sleep tears dripped from her eyes, and when he had not come back by morning more tears fell. At breakfast she reported him missing to the head master.

Harry:-

Like most sixteen year olds, when asked Harry added two years to his age as he hitch hiked south toward London. By the time he had reached Shakespeare County, as it was advertised on the huge direction signs along the motorway, he had changed his mind about going to London. It would be one of the first places people from the magical world would look for him and he most definitely did not want to be found. As they turned off the motorway onto the road heading for Stratford on Avon Harry asked to be dropped off. Thanking the young man who had given him a lift from Manchester, Harry decided to head in a different direction. Two days later he managed to find himself a job as a gardener with lodgings, at a fairly large house in Church lane, in a small village near Oxford called Hampton Gay.

It did not take Harry long to settle into his new way of life. He liked his new boss and his wife who were the total opposite to his aunt and uncle. After the first week working for them, both of them insisted he call them by name. Mike and Pauline made sure that Harry was well looked after. Pauline insisted that he have dinner with them at least twice a week so she could see he was well fed, while Mike allowed him to get on with the garden work with very little in the way of interference or supervision.

Harry had two small but comfortable rooms in the garden at the back of the house in what was called the granny cottage. The living room which was twelve foot by fifteen foot, contained a couch that was just big enough for him to stretch out on, an extremely comfortable old arm chair that almost matched the couch, a small mahogany coffee table and a TV, two small book cases fastened to the wall behind the couch completed his living room furnishings. The bedroom which was painted in a warm light coffee colour contained a large old fashioned wardrobe, an old three quarter size bed that was not in the least bit as uncomfortable to sleep in as it looked. a bedside cabinet and a rather solid straight backed chair. His kitchen was a small simple affair that seemed almost like an add on to the house, as it stuck out from the back of the house and had a flat roof. His bathroom was a small one that contained just the essentials of bath, toilet, and wash basin.

After a week in his new lodgings Harry had begun to call the cottage ‘home’, something he had never been able to call his awful room with his relatives. He made the decision that week that he was going to live the rest of his life as a muggle, and as a consequence his wand was stored away in his bedside cabinet.

His first weeks pay was spent buying himself new work clothes and shoes, the first new things to wear he had ever had. He still had his nightmares but now a lot of them were about Hermione turning her back on him and deserting him just as Ron had done. Life outside his dreams as a gardener seemed to suit him, he worked hard and he worked long hours, some evenings his boss Mike would have to tell him to pack up for the night, he enjoyed the work so much he would lose track of the time.

Harry’s coal black hair grew and his sun tanned looks gave him the look of an eighteen year old, his muscles developed and the exercise he did seemed to cause a rather rapid growth surge as after three month’s he needed new clothes. Measured for his new clothes he found he now stood at six foot, his shoulders were broad and his arms and chest muscular, his waist was small and his legs were well developed after all the work he so enjoyed doing.

As the summer holiday period started he was almost happy, there was just the one memory from his old life that he could not seem to leave behind. The girl he still loved even after six months away from her and the rest of his past. She was the only thing he truly missed. Sometimes he found it odd that he did not actually miss magic the way he thought he would. He had thought it was going to be difficult to give it up altogether but after the first couple of weeks he had settled into this new life, and magic was part of the past he wanted to forget.

Several times during the past six months Harry had noticed from his position in the garden that one of the frequent visitors to the main house would give him an odd look occasionally, and more than once he had felt that he had met the man somewhere sometime in the past but he was never certain, and he could never place the man, he eventually put it down to having seen the man while in the local pub or at the post office/shop.

July the third had been quite a good day for Harry, he had spent a quiet morning pruning away dead flower heads and cleaning up the dead and dying leaves of the spring flowering plants. The day had been pleasantly warm and then late in the afternoon it had rained for almost two hours, bringing some much needed moisture and minerals to the garden. That evening at seven he took a stroll around the garden breathing in the scents of the summer blooming flowers he had helped to grow. He was feeling quite proud of what he had achieved as he slowly walked between the various weed free flower beds.

The barley audible whisper of a voice saying his name as a question “Harry?” coming from somewhere to his right made him look up from where he was bent over a bright red poppy. The shock on his face registered with the person standing just a few feet away from him.

“HARRY!!!” The voice screamed as he was bowled off his feet by a young woman with wild bushy brown hair. Before he could get over his shock he found himself being kissed rather passionately by Hermione Granger, the only woman he had loved. There was no way on earth he could have resisted her, his arms wrapped around her and he kissed her back with just as much passion, the fact that he was lying in wet grass not even being registered by his confused brain as he held Hermione in his arms.

Neither of them moved after the kiss ended, their lips parting to take in a breath of needed oxygen. Hermione lay atop of Harry where they had fallen staring into his eyes, the eyes she had missed so much for six long heart breaking months. She was apologising for how she had treated him when her mind registered the hard bulge that was pressing into her from the area between her legs up to her stomach. She squirmed a little trying to get comfortable before she realised exactly what it was digging into her from the low gasp and groan that came from the man under her.

Once they were back on their feet Hermione knew she did not have to worry about whether Harry still fancied her. She could see it quite plainly in the reaction his body was having, he could not hide it from her fixed gaze. She thought it was a stupid question as soon as it came from her mouth “Did I do that?” she asked nodding down at the area she was referring too in his trousers.

Harry glanced down; a slight blush came on his cheeks when he whispered “Yeah, you did.”

After standing just looking at each other for a minute or two Harry cleared his throat before asking “What are you doing here, how did you find me? Did Dumbledore send you?”

Hermione reached out for his hand which he willingly slipped into her hand and twined his fingers around hers “Nobody sent me Harry, no one knows where you are, they searched but they couldn’t find you. I came around with mum and dad to say hi to aunt Pauline and uncle Mike, they aren’t my real aunt and uncle, its just we have lived next door to them forever and we spend a lot of time together, uncle Mike is dad’s best friend and I have always called them...” Hermione went quiet when she realised she had begun to babble a little.

Harry pulled gently on her hand “Come on I need to nip home to change, I seem to have gotten rather wet some how,” Harry said with a small chuckle.

As he led the way to the cottage door Harry suddenly burst out laughing. “Bloody marvellous don’t you think? Only Harry bloody Potter could leave Scotland to get away from his past and end up living next door to the reason he left in the first place, maybe the fates don’t hate me as much as I thought they did.”

Hermione apologised to him once again and explained how she had become confused about how she felt for him and Ron when he told her he loved her; she admitted to him that she had definitely gone about things the wrong way by doing what she did. She also admitted that for those two weeks before he had left she had only missed him, and did not even think of Ron unless he was standing in front of her. When Harry slipped his arm around her waist and pulled her to him, he began to tut asking what had happened to her. She was all skin and bone with hardly any flesh on her at all. She had to admit she had spent a truly miserable six months not knowing where he was, who he was with, whether he was well. She had also blamed her self for his leaving. And she had been neglecting her self as a consequence. She promised it would not happen again.

Harry took Hermione into the cottage and gave her a very quick tour of where he now lived. He then left her in the living room while he went into his bedroom to change into some dry clothes.

“We should go up to the house, I want you to meet my parents, they will be so pleased I found you. I think they were getting really worried about me when I told them I was never going to be happy again because you had left Hogwarts,” Hermione said as she sat in his armchair. She breathed in deep and sighed; the room smelled of Harry and reminded her of the love potion she had smelt in the potions class at the beginning of the year.

Harry quickly changed, slipping into a comfortable pair of tan coloured slacks and a white shirt; he pulled on his brown slip on shoes and gave his hair a rather futile brush with his fingers. Once he was dressed he walked back out into the living room to find Hermione looking at him while licking her lips. Her actions made him think of doing things to her he usually only thought about very late at night or in his dreams.

Hermione led the way holding firmly to Harry’s hand as she dragged him into the main house. She had a huge smile on her face when she pulled Harry into the living room where her mum and dad were chatting to Mike and Pauline.

“Mum, Dad, I found my Harry,” Hermione gushed as she dragged Harry over to her parents. “He was in the garden; I can’t believe I found him living next door.”

Mike looked at Harry wide eyed “You’re Hermione’s Harry, well I’ll be blowed,” he exclaimed as a huge grin spread on his face. “We were just talking about going on a search for you, and you’ve been right under our noses. Well, well.”

Harry looked at Hermione’s father and he knew why he thought he had recognised the man that had looked at him so often. It was Hermione’s father Richard.

Once the introductions were done and Harry had shaken hands with Hermione’s parents Helen and Richard, he mentioned that he had made arrangements to play for the local darts team that evening so he would have to leave them to be at the local pub by eight thirty.

Hermione instantly invited her self along with him and not to long after that everyone else had decided to go along and support him in his first match for the pub. The atmosphere as they walked to the pub, surrounded by all the amazing scents and aromas that fill a country village after a summer rain was comfortable for all of them. Hermione clung to Harry’s arm as if she would lose him if she let go.

Richard bought the first round of drinks, while he waited at the bar for them to be prepared he glanced at his daughter and a small smile filled his eyes, Hermione had looked so sad and dejected when they had picked her up from Kings Cross earlier that day. Now he could see the love she had for the raven haired gardener and her happiness seemed to radiate off her. He walked over and joined the others sitting at a large corner table. They were all discussing the upcoming darts match and Harry told them he had only ever played the game twice but as the locals were short of members to complete their team he had been sort of conscripted by the landlord.

Hermione asked Harry in a whisper if he had been doing any training. She was really surprised when he told her he had given up magic and intended to live the rest of his life as a normal person. He had no intention of ever returning to a world where people were allowed to get away with treating him the way that he had been treated for the past fifteen years.

Harry was called up for his match as he finished telling Hermione there was nothing for him in the magical world, and there was definitely nothing there worth fighting and maybe dying for “Except you and I made the choice of no more magic when you left me,” he added as he got up to play.

As the night was winding down, Harry had managed to win two games too one in his match although over all the final score for the team came out as a draw. Mike and Richard were congratulating him when Hermione made all of them look at her with open mouths.

“Uncle Mike, you won’t mind if I move into the cottage with Harry will you?” Hermione asked receiving stunned silence as her answer.

Harry looked at Richard for help but he just smiled and shrugged “She’s old enough to make her own choices now.” Was all he said.

Mike looked at Helen who gave him the tiniest of nods, indicating she supported Hermione in what she wanted to do. So taking a breath he smiled at her and spoke “It’s ok by me princess.”

Harry walked home from the pub with Hermione on his arm and his mind in a daze, she was going to be moving in with him when they got home. His home that only had one bedroom and one bed, thoughts that ran through his mind when he thought of there only being one bed did things to his body that made him glad that he and Hermione were in front of the others. When the reached home Hermione dragged Harry around to her house where they collected her trunk which she had not even begun to unpack, Harry was given the trunk to carry while Hermione shrank her wardrobe and carried it with all her clothes. It was a really red faced Harry who eventually said good night to Helen and Richard; he was followed from the house by Hermione after she had kissed her parents good night.

As they walked into the cottage Harry couldn’t resist asking “Hermione? what’s going on, I mean there’s only one bed and you know how my body reacts to having you close?”

“Harry love I lost you once by putting some distance between us, that’s a mistake I don’t intend to repeat, and besides just because I don’t have an obvious bulge in my knickers when I’m aroused doesn’t mean I don’t feel exactly the same way or that I don’t want the same thing as you. You love me, I love you, from how your body reacts I know you want to have sex with me just as much as I want to feel you inside me. So which side of the bed do you sleep on?” she said as she walked into the bedroom to put her clothes away.

Harry stood open mouthed without moving ‘God she really is going to have sex with me, I’ll have to tell her I don’t have a bloody clue what I’m supposed to do’ he thought as she vanished into the bedroom. Ten minutes later Harry had made them both a cup of hot drinking chocolate and was just placing it on the coffee table when Hermione came out of the bedroom wearing just a nightdress; she sat down on the sofa and patted the space beside her for him to join her.

Harry sat down a little nervously beside Hermione, his body was already betraying him and he had to shuffle a little to find some comfort. Hermione noticed his nervousness and gave a small chuckle, “Don’t worry love, I’m just as nervous as you,” she said taking hold of his hand and resting both their hands in his lap.

“I… well… er… I… I know the words, sex, shag, all them but Hermione love I don’t have a bloody clue how it all works, I don’t even know where to start,” Harry blurted out when her hand rested on his erection.

“I’ve read all about it, and I had the talk ‘twice’ from my mum, so I think we should be able to get through this, find out what we like and maybe what we don’t like and after a bit of practice I bet we can become quite good at it.” Hermione said her cheeks flushing red.

“Well I’m in your hands so don’t hurt me too much,” Harry said smiling at her.

Fifteen minutes later after drinking the hot chocolate and having a hot and passionate kissing session, Hermione was feeling more than ready. Breaking the rather passionate kiss that had just made her knickers so damp they were becoming uncomfortable she grabbed Harry’s hand and dragged him into the bedroom. As soon as the door shut she pulled the nightdress over her head and pulled her now wet knickers off. “Come on Harry I want you so much,” she said as she lay down on the bed.

Harry his nerves left somewhere on the sofa a while back quickly stripped off and stood looking down at a completely naked Hermione, and more of his precious blood tried to join all the rest of his blood that was engorging his penis to full stretch already.

As he stood admiring her body Hermione stared at his manhood as it stood throbbing right in front of her, she gave a quick gulp before speaking.

“Harry I thought you gave up magic?” she said just above a whisper.

Harry looked at her puzzled “Magic? Yes I gave it up, haven’t done any for months now.”

Hermione stared once again at his erection, “You mean that’s not enlarged with a spell, its all natural.”

“Er… yeah why is something wrong?” Harry asked just getting a tinge of worry enter his slightly cloudy and Hermione filled mind.

“Hell’s bells its got to be more than the size of those in the books I researched, can I.. can I hold it?” she said as she reached forward and wrapped her hand around it as far as it would go.

As they lay in each others arms much later, both of them were feeling tired but completely satisfied Hermione lifted her head off his chest. “You know Harry love, your wand is absolutely bloody magic.” She rested her head back on his chest and as she drifted to sleep she whispered just loud enough for him to hear “That’s one piece of magic I refuse to give up.”