Author's Notes!

For xxDustNight88.

Written based on a prompt by xxdustnight88 (you should definitely check her out!)

Prompt: Diamonds. "Here we are again. Just like old times." Lampshade. Guitar.

Rating: T

Warnings?: Suggested sexual actions, Mention of a World Catastrophe

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters! They are the property of Adam, Eddie, and J. K. Rowling. All song references do not belong to me, they belong to the artists who wrote and performed them. All images were found using Google images. The only thing I hold claim to is the plot ideas of this story. I do not write for profit. Thank you to Sam Smith for his wonderful song that makes an appearance in this story.

Pairings: Hermione Granger/Sheriff Graham Humbert

Song Recommendations: Taking Chances - Glee Cast; Pretending - Glee Cast; Stay With Me - Sam Smith

Spotify Playlist: user/babygirl118/playlist/25Mi2iFy9radSKuwjyuKWf

Facebook Page: starrnobellafanfiction/

Tumblr Page: livingdreamsandunspokenthoughts

Twitter: caligirl9392

Walking up to the door of her old college apartment, Hermione was reminded of better times in her life. Like her college days. The day she first met Graham Humbert specifically because this was the apartment that they shared after their junior year of college.

He was a law student studying to go into the police academy and she was studying journalism with a focus on criminal justice and international issues. His scruffy face always made her smile when she saw him walking into their Introduction to Criminal Justice class bright and early on Monday mornings. The class also happened to have a zero tolerance for absences for any reason.

Graham wasn't much of a morning person, Hermione had noticed, so he was always half asleep until about forty five minutes into the hour and a half long class. By the end of class he was tapping her on the shoulder to get a copy of the notes he had missed in his sleepy stupor.

About week before their first exam of the term, he stopped her after class to ask for her help in studying for the exam. She happily obliged because she wanted to spend just a tad more time with him because she found him interesting. She also wanted to get to know him better because she was curious as to why he was always so tired on Monday mornings. [Something that to this day she hadn't figured out.]

From that point on, the pair had a standing study date every Saturday night until the end of the term. One that night they ordered pizza and studied for a while. Some nights Graham would bring his guitar and play for her, too. After that class's final, Graham made sure that he had at least one class in his schedule that matched Hermione's so that they could maintain their special night of the week.

It was the summer before their junior year when Graham finally took the step to move their relationship forward. They had been at a party for the majority of the night hanging out with a few of their friends. Hermione was getting tired and she was ready to head home, so Graham had volunteered to walk her back to her apartment. They talked about the upcoming year as they walked. Hermione talked about her work on the paper and Graham talked about the work he would be doing for the campus police.

As they arrived at her apartment door, Graham turned to Hermione and gently placed his hand on her elbow looking her in the eyes.

"Hermione," he spoke softly, "will you be my girlfriend? I know it sounds silly to ask, but I have felt like you were my girlfriend for a long time now. And well, I just had to make it official and ask you. I've felt like I was falling in love with you for a long time and.."

As Graham rambled on, Hermione's mind was still caught on his statement about falling in love with her. She couldn't deny it. She was feeling the same way, but they had never shared their feelings. Sure they had gone out to dinner a million times and he was always her ride home from the parties that they attended, but they had never kissed or held hands. They came close on some of the evenings that they spent studying until the wee hours of the morning, but nothing ever happened.

"Uhm, Hermione? Are you even listening to me?" Graham said after a few minutes of rambling as he ran his fingers through his hair wracked with nerves in desperate hope that the answer to his question would be yes and that she was falling for him too. He looked into her eyes hoping that they would somehow give him the answer he was so desperately looking for, but was not getting verbally.

Without saying a word, Hermione placed her hand on Graham's cheek and kissed him softly. Once Graham realized what she was doing, he followed suit with his right hand and cupped the back of her head with his left hand. He deepened the kiss by slipping his tongue between her lips when she gasped at his reaction to her simple motion.

Breaking apart to come up for a gasp of air Graham asked, "So that's a yes, right? Because if not then I'm seriously confused."

Hermione just laughed and kissed him again before nodding her head.

"Yes, Graham, I will be your girlfriend. I've been falling in love with you since we first met in Introduction to Criminal Justice," she responded with a smile. Graham pulled her in for a hug and gave her one last kiss before opening the door.

The new couple headed into Hermione's apartment to delve into all sorts of aspects of their new relationship. Both in the bedroom and out. They began taking chances that any new couple was bound to take without the fear of losing a chance at a wonderful friend because they were friends first. They had their fair share of fights too, but everything always works out alright.

Memories of that night played through Hermione's mind as she stood at the door to their old apartment for the first time in five years. Five years ago, she left for a job that she just couldn't pass up. She had been given the chance to follow the 9/11 catastrophe. She knew that she couldn't turn the chance down. It had been difficult for her to ask Graham if it would be okay to leave, but she knew she had to try.

Now five years later, it was time to face him for the first time since she left. Slowly she reached her hand to the door and knocked. She braced herself because she wasn't sure what to expect on the other side of the door. It wasn't like they hadn't spoken in five years. They had emailed and talked on the phone, but she was unsure of how he would react to actually seeing her in person.

The door slowly opened. Graham was standing on the other side. He looked the same as he did five years ago, just with a little more facial hair. Hermione liked him with the beard, she thought it made him look a little more dignified. Still as handsome as ever.

"Hey," Graham heard her say as he stood in the doorway looking her up and down. She hadn't changed much at all. He hair was a little shorter, but he thought that it fit her. It made her look more her age. With her long hair, people always thought she was a fews years younger than what she actually was. She was always the most beautiful woman in the world to him though.

"Hey, Hermione. Please, come in," he responded stepping away from the door so she could come in. It hadn't changed much since the day she left. He had updated the technology in the apartment, but other than that it was like nothing had changed. Her mind drifted back to the night she told him she was leaving.

She had been pacing back and forth in their apartment all afternoon. She wasn't sure how to tell him that she was going to be leaving their Boston apartment for an undefined amount of time. All the editor had told her was that she needed to report to New York City next week if she wanted her career to take off. This series of articles would be the best thing to ever happen to her at such a young age. It was a once in a lifetime opportunity.

Hermione had debated heavily about taking the job because it meant leaving Graham and everything in Boston behind. There was no way she could ask him to come with her and leave everything he had built for himself in Boston. He had a job that he loved and he still had time left in the day for his music which meant the world to him. She couldn't take that all away from him. It wouldn't be fair.

She looked at the lamp shade on the end table in their living room. It had the silhouette of a cityscape all around it. It had always their dream to move to a city with a skyline similar to the lamp shade. It was their reminder of their dream, and Boston filled that dream for several years after they graduated college. However every time Hermione looked at the lamp recently all she saw was New York City. It was time for her to move to a bigger place. Her hope was that maybe he would wait for her or maybe he would offer to come with her. She couldn't get her hopes up though.

When he came home that evening, she was curled up in a ball on the couch watching some show on the television which she wasn't really watching. The city lampshade was the only light on in the room besides the television. She was quiet. He knew that couldn't mean good news. When he came home, she was never quiet. Usually she had music blasting as she danced around the kitchen cooking dinner.

"Hey babe," Graham said as leaned over to kiss her on the head before he took a seat beside her on the couch. She smiled softly watching him take his seat wishing she had better news for him.

"I was offered a job in New York," Hermione spoke hesitantly and quickly as she looked at Graham's face searching for some kind of a response, not sure what she wanted him to say however.

They sat in silence for a long time. Neither one wanting to break the silence because that meant that something was going to happen to their relationship. Good, bad or ugly. It was coming if they spoke. Graham looked at his hands and Hermione played with the blanket that had been covering her legs.

Finally Graham spoke up never lifting his eyes from his hands, "You should go to New York."

His voice caused Hermione to turn her head and look at him.

"What?" she asked quietly.

"You should go to New York," he repeated, "It's always been your dream. You know it, and I know it. We both knew that one day you'd move there. We just never knew when it would happen."

"I know you can't come with me," she said softly looking back down at her hands. "But I wish you could.

"I wish I could, too."

"I don't want to break up though," she added quickly.

"We don't have to," Graham said as he took her hand causing her to look into his eyes as he thought about the diamonds he had hidden in his sock drawer, "I will wait for you to come back. Maybe once the story is over I will be able to take a new job somewhere else and we can go anywhere in the world. Anywhere that you want."

Hermione smiled and moved closer to Graham on the couch. He wrapped his arms around her in a tight hug. They stayed like that until late into the night when they finally decided to head to bed.

Just three days after that conversation, Hermione had left for New York after an extremely heartbreaking goodbye. Now here she was standing in their apartment looking at her city lampshade on the end table and Graham's acoustic guitar on its stand in the corner of the room just like she never left.

"Here we are again. Just like old times," Hermione finally spoke since walking into the room with a hint of glee in her voice. Graham smiled as he walked over to take a seat on the couch closest to his guitar. Watching her for a moment seeing that she wasn't sure what to do, he patted the spot next to her on the couch indicating it was okay for her to sit down and that he wasn't going to bite her or anything.

"Yes here we are once again in the same city and back in our old apartment," Graham stated with a chuckle as she sat down beside him and she played with her fingertips.

"How was New York?" he asked trying to get her to talk more.

Startled out her trance by his voice, Hermione spoke softly at first, "It was good. So full of adventure. I took in a lot of the sites and spent so much time in the libraries. I spent time in Central Park listening to the musicians play. You would have loved it there. I wish you would have came to visit."

"You never asked me to," Graham responded and Hermione looked up at him from her hands, "I figured you didn't want me to come out there since you never asked. It felt like you had moved on with your life and wanted nothing to do with me anymore."

Hermione just stared at Graham as he talked. She was unable to form the words that she wanted to say to him. He was right. She never asked him to come and visit her. It was never the fact that she didn't want him there, but that she was trying to make it on her own. For the first month and half that she was in New York, she spent her nights crying herself to sleep because she missed him. Then one day she met Tink, the woman who would become her first friend in New York. They started going on to dinner or out to coffee. They'd hang out at one of their apartments, and Hermione became less lonely. But he was wrong, too. She only thought about him while she was there. Everyday he was in her thoughts and he was the star of her dreams each night.

"Hermione? Are you gonna say anything?" Graham asked worriedly seeing as she shut down right before his eyes. He knew deep down that he should have just surprised her by showing up. She had mentioned in her emails where she was staying, so he could have just showed up and asked the front desk for her room number, gone to the door, knocked, and kissed her once she opened the door.

"I'm sorry," she stated looking down at her hands, "It was never that I didn't want you there. I always wanted you to come with me, but I knew that you couldn't because of your work that you were doing here. I couldn't ask you to give up everything that you had here to come to a city where everything is unknown for you. I should have told you to come visit, and for the first few months there were many nights you almost got a call begging you to come to New York."

Tears started to slide down her face as she talked. Graham reached his hand over to touch her cheek and brush away the tears. It pained him to see her cry. Especially over something that revolved around him.

"Why didn't you call me?" he asked softly as he moved closer to hold her.

"I don't know. I just couldn't get myself to make the call. I knew you would come, but I couldn't just call you," she said as she leaned her head on his shoulder.

"I missed you while you were gone and I almost just drove to New York to see you, but for some reason I couldn't bring myself to get in the car. I love you, Hermione. You know that right?"

She nodded as she snuggled close to his chest listening to his heart beat.

After a while of cuddling, Hermione decided to get up and get herself some water. She took a sip while she was looking at his guitar in the corner.

"Have you written anything new for the band?" she asked curiously as she sat back down on the couch.

Graham nodded and picked up the guitar, "Do you want to hear it?"

Hermione nodded her head up and down with a big smile on her face ready to hear his soothing voice.

Graham started to play and sing. His voice was always Hermione's favorite sound to listen to when she went to see his band perform.

"Oh, won't you stay with me?

'Cause you're all I need

This ain't love it's clear to see

But darling, stay with me"

Once the song finished, he looked over at Hermione.

"I wrote that the day you left for New York," he admitted softly with a sideways smile on his face.

"I love it and you," she said as she leaned over to kiss him.

Upon breaking the kiss, Graham leaned over to set the guitar back down in its stand and then reached over to kiss her properly for the first time that evening. He wrapped his arms around her waist and kissed her deeply.

"Let's go to bed," she whispered, "we don't have to pretend anymore."

"Just like the good old days," Graham said trying to hold back his laughter.

They both smiled and laughed. Graham picked her up off the couch and carried her into the bedroom where he placed her on the bed. With one quick kiss he walked over to the door to push it shut for the night.

The last thought to enter his mind before joining the love of his life on their bed was that he would give her the diamond ring on another night when the timing was right.

Hope you enjoyed the story! Please let me know what you think!