As they walked between the cages of the animal exhibits at the London Zoo, Harry still felt vaguely shell-shocked from his conversation with Hermione's father. He still couldn't really believe he'd said most of the things he did. They'd been talking about Dudley and the escaped python a lifetime ago, and then suddenly it became a conversation about family… and Harry confessing his fears, fears he'd not even permitted himself to fully dissect, to the older man. Harry couldn't rightly say how it had happened, but there was no denying the things he'd said. It was like he'd been slipped veritaserum and all these things just came out. Things he'd never even told Hermione.

His heart had been hammering the entire time, but it had been easier to talk to Jake about those forbidden thoughts than Harry would have suspected. And some of the things Jake said… they actually made Harry feel better.

Truthfully, he hadn't expected the acceptance he found in Jake when they started talking. It was a pretty sensitive subject, after all, and doubly so to have it be Jake the one with whom it was taken up.

It felt as though a burden Harry hadn't known he was carrying had been lifted when Jake hugged him like Miranda did. It was a little awkward maybe, but the only other people who'd ever hugged him were Hermione and Miranda. In that company, hugs held special meaning for Harry. Only people who really cared bothered to hug the likes of Harry Potter. To believe for even a moment that Jake might care a fraction of the same amount that Hermione and Miranda did… it made him feel strange things. But good strange.

And nothing catastrophic had happened when he gave voice to those frightening thoughts that had been plaguing him ever since that day in Divination. The first seed in his thoughts to plant to notion of fatherhood in his head, the baby from his vision. In a way, he'd told Jake. Not specifically, but in all manner that it mattered. And Jake hadn't hated him on the spot for it. At the time, Harry had felt it one of the more terrifying things he'd ever done to say those things to Jake, but it had turned out much better than he'd thought.

Crazy as it sounded for a powerful wizard like Harry Potter, he'd been rather scared of Jake Granger for reasons that continually mystified Harry. But now it seemed that had been supremely silly. Jake wasn't mean or dangerous. Actually, he was a very nice guy.

Harry was feeling pretty good, though admittedly a bit lost in his own head, when Jake touched his shoulder. He didn't even tense at the man's touch as much as he used to. "Here we are."

Harry blinked and looked up to see they were in front of the lion exhibit.

Harry and Jake stepped up to the railing and looked in past the crisscrossed wire walls at the animals within. The habitat was set up with a stone wall with a cave-like entrance at the back, a rock 'patio' of sorts laid out before the cave opening (in which the watering pool was situated), and elsewhere in the enclosure grass and a few scattered trees.

There were two lionesses lying about outside on the stone ground. One was sprawled entirely on her side, sound asleep. The second, a few feet away from the first, was perched up on her elbows and would have seemed more alert than her companion, but her head was drooping and her eyes were shut. That didn't mean they were unimpressive to look upon, even dozing. They were sleek and tawny, packed with potential brawn and power even at rest, with stout necks bare of manes. Harry looked closely at them through the fencing. They were nice enough, but Harry thought Hermione was far prettier.

"Oh, damn," Jake commented as he stood at the rail next to Harry. "Just figures the male wouldn't be out. Probably inside sacked on the couch watching the telly. The boy lions are the really interesting ones to look at, don't you think?"

Harry shrugged. "I like the lionesses better."

"Huh… well, your lucky day more so than mine, it would seem."

Harry stared intently at the lionesses. It was the first real lion he'd ever seen; one that wasn't a transformed figure of his girlfriend. He wondered how much these creatures were like Hermione when she was in her lioness form. Were they just as playful? Affectionate with each other? Tactile? Intense? Formidable? As he studied the cats, he thought of Hermione when she looked very much the same as the lionesses before him. At some point, he stopped blinking in his concentration. He thought about the way Hermione's tail twitched and her brown eyes shone brightly with playfulness when they were romping in the forest. From the position of her body and the look in her eyes he could tell when she was thinking of pouncing on him. He thought of the way her muscles moved, graceful and strong, her body a regal, incredible weapon, from her fangs to her back claws. And yet even with that deadly capacity, he was reminded of the way she could be so gentle when she rubbed up against him, raked her head against his shoulder or along the underside of his throat. He thought of the roughness of her tongue when she licked his face, and how his whiskers would fairly hum like a struck tuning fork with the merest touch of her. He remembered her scent when she was the cat, as vividly as if she were standing next to him, and it was much sweeter and more pleasing than the scent of the lionesses before him. He could smell them well enough to know the difference in these lionesses and his lioness.

As though startled by the same unheard sound, both lionesses woke. The one dozing abruptly opened her golden eyes, perked up her ears, and turned her head. The lioness on her side rose up to mirror her sister's posture, her own head turning at once. Shortly, Harry had both cats staring directly at him with amber gazes. It might have been a discomfiting experience to be on the receiving end of such steady big cat stares, but Harry was used to having a lioness focused solely on him. And he had a powerful cat of his own to meet the intensity of the plains hunters.

One lioness rose and took a few steps toward him and stopped, her stare never once breaking from his. Harry noticed every detail, every measured move and every deliberate tick of the lioness's body. Even in body language, the tiniest details separated Harry's lioness from these two. It was as glaring as meeting a stranger on the street and knowing them from a friend. The shape and manner and shade might be very much the same, but like night and day all the same in all the innumerable differences.

The lioness standing and facing him lowered her head fractionally, and it leveled an even more pointed stare on Harry. It was a measuring look, fit for a sudden interloper.

Harry's eyes snapped away from the lioness to the back of the enclosure when a shadow emerged from the cave opening. A big male lion with a full apricot mane stepped purposefully toward his females. Near the lioness still lying on the stone, the male lion stopped in his tracks. His head and eyes turned to Harry and the two locked gazes.

This was different. Harry might know lionesses, but he'd not met a lion before. His senses jumped to a new level of alertness… and a strange thread of tense readiness set him just barely on edge.

The male lion paced toward the boundary of the cage, came boldly closer than the lioness had without so much as a second's hesitation, and stopped just shy of the fence. He was standing directly in front of Harry. It was close enough for Harry to be inundated with the male's smell. It was coarser to the nose, muskier and thicker, and not nearly so sun-kissed pleasant as the females'. His advantage of raw physical power over the females was not lost on Harry. The golden eyes were challenging where the females' had been curious and wary. It made the hair on the back of Harry's neck bristle.

'But these lionesses are not my lioness,' he thought in a remarkably clear, logical voice. Hermione would have been quite proud of that calm sensibility, in fact. The two lionesses were strangers with strangers' faces and strangers' smells. Really, this male lion had no cause or need to think Harry any manner of challenge to him.

As though the lion could sense that in the same moment Harry did, the male's stare tempered. His look turned curious, as though only just realizing that this entire time he'd been staring at a human boy. The standing lioness, as though taking some kind of cue from the change in her mate's stance, came closer to stand at his shoulder and take a closer look at Harry.

Harry couldn't say how long he may have stood there watching the lions with singular intensity were it not for a tugging at his pant leg. Harry's gaze broke entirely from the lion and lioness as he glanced down at the tugging.

And the jaguar backed off, curiosity satisfied.

As Harry looked down at Kimmy, his pant leg in her teeth as she yanked for his attention, it was the first time he realized that he'd touched the jaguar at all. It took him off guard. He'd not consciously sought the cat inside him, but it had come forward and lent its abilities to him while he'd not been paying attention. He was looking down at Kimmy, but his mind was still boggling over how the jaguar had just crept into him without him knowing it was waking.

"Whoa."

Harry turned at the sound of Jake's voice. The man was watching the animals in the cage. Harry glanced at the cats as well. The lioness had turned and walked back to where her sister was lying. When the bolder of the two lionesses reached the lioness that had remained behind during the near-incident, they rubbed their heads together in greeting. The standing lioness flopped down next to the other, their bodies in close contact. She looked over her shoulder at the male, who was still near the fence watching Harry. When the boy returned his eyes to the large cat, the male studied Harry a moment, his whiskers twitched as he sniffed the air, then he dropped his eyes in end to their stand-off and turned back to rejoin his lionesses.

"Harry…"

Harry looked back toward Jake, filled with trepidation to discover how Hermione's father was going to react to what had just happened. Jake turned from watching the cats to looking around at the other zoo visitors to see if any of them had noticed anything unordinary. When he seemed assured they hadn't, he looked down at Harry and leaned closer so he could lower his voice. "Do you talk to lions, too?"

Harry shook his head and searched for something to say to try and explain what Jake had seen. "Uh… maybe they can sense magic."

That made Jake's face screw. "Oh… strange, it's never happened with Hermione. But then, she does have regular parents, so maybe… well, do you think we ought to get out of here before anything… 'conspicuous' happens?"

"No, I… it'll be all right. I'll keep a tighter rein on it," 'and keep a closer watch over the jaguar around the big cat exhibits,' Harry added internally.

From the expression that was still fixed upon on his face, Jake looked a bit concerned about the wisdom of sticking around the zoo after the lions, but in the end he trusted Harry's assessment of his own magic. "All right, then, we'll stay. But if you think it's about to become a problem you let me know and we'll kip out of here right quick. We can wait for the girls outside, maybe even have a walk around London until it's time to meet them for lunch."

Harry nodded and glanced down at Kimmy. She was looking back up at him, understanding in her green eyes. She'd be on the look-out for any slips, too, just as she'd saved him from this one. But hopefully, now that Harry knew the jaguar could stalk up on him, he'd see it coming.

"Come on." Jake motioned for Harry to follow him and the two men, plus dog, left the lion exhibit behind. "Since we're staying I want to stop over and look in on the primates. There's a chimp that's become something of a mate to me over the years."

❾¾ ❾¾❾¾❾¾ ❾¾❾¾❾¾ ❾¾❾¾

Miranda did hope that things were going well with Jake and Harry. While she and Hermione were out and about so Hermione could do her Christmas shopping, the younger of the two Granger women had spoken of nothing else. Harry this, Harry that. And she'd been smiling radiantly the entire time.

Really, it wasn't so different from when Hermione had been eleven years old and home for the holiday. She'd taken an early liking to Harry Potter that had only intensified through the years. Miranda was thrilled to see her daughter so alive, so vibrant and excited about something with emotional substance. School had always been her passion, but it was safe. Because it was safe, it could only provide Hermione's spirit with so much enrichment and growth. This relationship with Harry… it offered more than academia ever could. The proof of that was in Hermione's eyes and her smile.

But Miranda hoped things went well with Jake and Harry. Jake had thought that being cordial with the boy was enough, and for any other boy it may have been. But not Harry. Miranda had figured out that if there was any ambiguity in a relationship, Harry was prone to assume the worst. So long as Jake was only maintaining friendly terms with Harry, the young man would think Jake disliked him. Miranda knew her husband; he wasn't the disliking sort. She knew he'd come around to the idea of having Harry in Hermione's life… now Harry needed to learn that.

When Miranda and Hermione returned to the London Zoo to meet up with the boys, the sight from down the street looked promising. Jake and Harry were sitting on the jutting lower portion of the stone façade of the zoo's brick exterior fencing. Kimmy was napping, or to outward appearances seemed to be napping, at Harry's feet while the two men carried on. They were chatting and just as the girls came within hearing range Jake laughed. Miranda couldn't help but smile hopefully.

As they drew closer Hermione could no longer contain herself and broke into an eager jog that set her wild hair to flying in the winter air.

"Hey, Dad, hey, Harry! What's so funny?" Hermione shoved down next to Harry on the stone, their slim bodies sharing what might have served as space for one. Kimmy looked up and gave a merry bark at Hermione's arrival. Jake was still chuckling and Harry turned a terribly luminous smile on Hermione. "Hey, Mione."

Miranda caught up with her family and stood quietly to hear just what had been so amusing.

"I was just telling Jake about that time you and Ron were out by the Shrieking Shack and I terrorized Draco, Crabbe, and Goyle."

Miranda's eyebrows rose. He'd been telling 'Jake', had he?

Hermione laughed. "Their faces were priceless. But they were asking for it, those bloody gits."

"Never imagined my daughter to take up with such a pack of rebels," Jake remarked with a chuckle.

"Misfits," Harry and Hermione corrected in unison.

Jake guffawed and looked up at Miranda. "You hear these two?"

"Yes, I hear them," Miranda said kindly, "did you boys have fun at the zoo?"

"We did."

Hermione turned to address Harry. "Dad dragged you to see the monkeys, didn't he?"

While Harry smiled, Jake quipped, "As long as old Rupert's still throwing fruit and pissing off trees I'll keep visiting the chimpanzee exhibit. That old ape's a right good laugh."

"For those who are easily amused," Miranda parried with a sweet smile.

Jake touched his chest, as though mortally wounded.

"Aside from that foul old chimp, what else did you two do today?"

Harry and Jake exchanged a look, then Jake answered, "Talked sports. Right, Harry?"

"Right, Jake."

"Uh huh…" Miranda hadn't been married to Jake for roughly twenty years without being able to tell when he was lying. But if the two of them were smiling and conspiring together like mates, then she'd not take exception to their little intrigue. Most likely it had been some unflattering man-conversation about women. While the cat's away, as the old saying went.

"Well, I don't know about you three, but I'm famished. Let's go grab some lunch."

"Yet another brilliant idea, Miri, I could have eaten some of that rubbish Rupert was hurling at his admirers, I'm so hungry." The three of them stood up and Jake led the way toward the car. Hermione had wasted no time in taking Harry's free hand, and the two of them were walking side by side, but Miranda caught Harry by the elbow as she took up alongside him, Kimmy trotting along between them. "Harry? May I speak with you?"

Hermione gave Harry a smile, let go of his hand, and hurried ahead to walk beside her father. Kimmy hurried over to the side of Harry that Hermione had vacated, giving Miranda room to walk less careful of her feet. Harry turned his eyes to Miranda questioningly, and he looked really, honestly comfortable with her.

"I noticed you calling Jake by his name instead of 'Mister Granger' just now. How did that come about?"

"Umm… he asked me to?"

Miranda, privately, was very pleased. Outwardly, she pursed her lips. "Well, that just won't do."

A flicker of doubt and worry clouded Harry's eyes and lined his expression.

"I'll not be 'Missus Granger' while Jake gets to go by his given name. You will call me Miranda, won't you, dear?"

Harry gave a relieved smile. "Yes, of course… uh, Miranda."

Miranda smiled. "There's a good boy. Now, tell me about this Shrieking Shack business."