Three Things
By Lolly O'Neill
A/N: This is just a little idea that popped into my head one day when I couldn't seem to find any good fan fictions out there that I wanted to read. Hope you all enjoy!
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or anything affiliated with Harry Potter. I am just a fan who is too impatient to wait for the sixth book and so forced to write my own HP stories. Besides, we all know that Harry and Co belong to The Great JK Rowling.
Chapter One
Three Things that Greatly Irritate me
1) Evil.
2) Evil people who act innocent, even though you know they're not. And they know that you know they're not. And you know that they know that you know they're not. And you can't do anything about it because you don't have any hard evidence to book them with.
3) People who phone in the middle of the night to talk even though you've already explained that you're trying to sleep.
"Hello?" Harry said groggily, picking up the phone next to his bed. He squinted at his alarm clock and managed to make out that the time was 2:30 in the morning.
"Harry? Oh, Harry! I'm s-so sorry for c-calling you this late, but I r-r-really needed someone to talk to." At the sound of the over-emotional voice on the other end of the line, Harry immediately sat up, turned on his lamp and reached for his glasses.
"Hermione? Are you OK? What's the matter?" He asked, becoming more concerned for his friend as heard her start sobbing on the other end. "Hermione? Look, I'm coming over, OK?"
"No! No Harry. Can I come over to your place? Please?"
Not even wondering why she would rather come over to his place instead of him going over to hers, he said, "OK, I'll see you soon."
"OK. Thank you, Harry. I'll be there in a minute. Bye." Hermione replied and rang off.
As soon as he rang off on his end, he threw the covers off himself and dashed over to his closet where he found a pair of sweat pants and a t-shirt and threw them on just in time to hear a popping sound come from his living room. He dashed out of his bedroom and into the living room where he beheld a side of Hermione that he had never seen before.
Hermione looked terrible. Her usual wavy brown hair was a matted mess, her pristine clothing was wrinkled, and her normally soft brown eyes were puffy and red from crying. The moment she saw him enter, she started sobbing again and fell to the floor – her usual confident self deteriorating before his very eyes. He ran to sit beside her and scooped her up into a hug where she sobbed against his chest for several minutes before calming down and Harry was able to speak.
"Do you want to talk about what ever it is that happened?" He asked gently, rubbing slow, soothing circles on her back to calm her.
"Shawn and I broke up." She whispered. "He said that he never loved me and that he wanted to be with someone who wasn't boring. Then the jack ass says that I have three days to move out of the apartment before he changes the lock and gives my stuff to charity." At this, Hermione began sobbing anew, soaking Harry's shirt more and more. "W-where am I going to live? I c-can't f-find a place in th-ree d-days."
Harry sat with her on the floor for ten more minutes silently fuming on his best friend's behalf. It was after those ten minutes had passed that Harry realized that Hermione had fallen asleep against him and that he had made a decision. He picked her up gently so as not to wake her and placed her on the couch where he covered her with a polar fleece blanket that was thrown over the chair to the left of the couch. With one last look, he crept out of the room and into the hallway where he opened the first door on the right instead of the first door on the left (his bedroom), turned on the light, whipped out his wand and settled in for a long night.
It was noon when Harry finally heard Hermione beginning to stir from her sleep. He walked out of the kitchen with two cups of coffee and handed her one as she sat up. He sat on the edge of the chair, watching her nurse the warm mug in her hands and take of sip of the bitter drink allowing it to wake her up a bit more before anything was said.
"Sorry for waking you up so early. I just didn't know who else to call." Hermione said in a slightly hoarse voice.
"Hey, it's no problem. Remember all those times at Grimmauld Place before going to school when I'd wake you up in the middle of the night to talk? What are friends for, eh?" Harry replied.
"I feel so … stupid. Like I should have known he really didn't love me and he thought I was boring." Hermione said dejectedly.
"Shawn is a jerk. And you're not boring and most certainly not stupid. You have to be the least stupid person that I know. I've always said that you're the smarted person that I've ever met. Why do you think I always run to you for advice instead of Ron? If I asked Ron anything his answer would probably be something like, 'maybe you should fix yourself something to eat. I can never think on an empty stomach.'" Harry said in a mock serious tone.
Hermione cracked a smile and gave a short chuckle before saying, "It's funny because it's so true. He really would say that."
"Are you kidding me? He has said that. Like I said, why do you think I always come to you?" Harry laughed. They laughed for several moments about all the goofy things their other best friend Ron Weasley had done in the past before they sobered up and the issue they had previously been discussing came back, although they both found it easier to talk about it than before.
"Come with me." Harry said suddenly when they got onto the issue of Hermione having no place to live now that her ex-boyfriend had kicked her out. He stood up and held out his hand to her to help her up, which she gladly took. She held onto his hand with a bemused expression on her face all the way to the hallway (which wasn't a long walk) and held the expression but released his hand when they stopped at the first door on the right. She gave him a curious look as he grinned and said, "Open it," and put her hand on the brass door knob. When she turned it and swung the door inwards, the sight that greeted her was one that she was not at all expecting.
The room somewhat spacious and had light green (one of her favourite colours) walls. There was a double sized bed in the middle of the room with a white duvet cover over it and two pillows in white shams with two green throw pillows on top. The door to the closet was mirrored, making the room look bigger than it was and there was a light coloured wood chest of drawers on the left wall near the closet. On he right wall was a desk made of the same wood with a chair pushed in. Across from the bed were a vanity and several empty bookshelves that were just begging to be filled. The best part of the room, in Hermione's point of view, was the bay window with a cushioned window seat that was covered in white and light green fabric to match the curtains.
Hermione turned to Harry, mouth opened slightly in surprise before she managed to gather herself and say, "Does this mean … what does this mean?"
"It means you can live with me." Harry said simply.
"But, I couldn't ask you to –"
"You don't have to." Harry shrugged. "Come on. Why don't you go take a shower and freshen up then we'll go over and get your stuff."
Hermione just nodded absently and let herself be led out of the room and towards the bathroom, fresh towel and bar of soap in hand.
A/N: What did you think? Good? Bad? Brilliant? Horrendous? Please, your feedback would be greatly appreciated – especially constructive criticism. A note to anyone who has read my other stories – most notably The Hero Complex – this story, as you may have guessed from lack of updates, is on an indefinite hiatus. All the chapters for that story are stored on a crappy old computer that not only is not hooked up to the internet, is virus infected. So I can't upload. And I'm too busy (ahem-lazy-ahem) to re-write the chapters. Anyway, mates…until next time…
L. O'Neill
