A little bit of badness

Summery: After Harry's fourth year he goes of the rails. Hermione meets him in a jail cell and wonders if she can help her friend cope. Their summer just got interesting.

Chapter one- The Meeting

Hermione and her dad were down the local police station to fill out a witness report on the person who had destroyed their neighbour's car. With her parents being successful dentist with their own practise they lived in an area which generally catered to the richer families like doctors, lawyers and other well done for people. Their neighbours were lawyers who had just finished working on one of the more high security cases and the defence had been declared guilty. Hermione betted that whoever trashed the car was probably a friend to the guy who was just sentenced to jail for two months. Doing this kind of thing wasn't a common occurrence for Hermione so naturally she was curious as to what was happening in the police station. She could see others waiting like they were to fill in a form or another or report stolen property. There were also a few seedy characters separated from the rest of them who seemed agitated and had wrist and ankle restraints on. There was nothing to worry about though as they were behind a glass panel. The police probably had them on show so as to deter anyone who visits from doing any crime and ending up in a similar way. Looking at the people behind the glass she wondered what they did and why. It couldn't be too bad otherwise they wouldn't be kept so close to innocents. The people all looked normal to her, granted quite a few of them had the classic piercings and tattooed look going for them but a few of them looked like any one you'd see on the street.

"I'm telling you, I had nothing to do with It." a voice came from the door to the police station. Hermione turned to look as a youngish boy was dragged in by an officer as his hands and feet were also tied it made his movements seem awkward. Though by the way he wasn't tripping all over himself it seemed like he had been in this situation before.

"Yeah that what they all say, wait until I call your parents in here you little trouble maker" the guards nasally condescending voice grated on Hermione's nerves and he wasn't even talking to her, but the boy probably deserved what he got. They disappeared as they went through the door into the sectioned of part of the room and reappeared on the other side of the glass.

"Yeah well my parents are dead so have fun with that" the guard just huffed and dumped the boy in one of the seats. "I tell you I didn't do anything so you won't pin it on me" she looked at him and the way he was dressed. He certainly seemed like the type to do something against the law. He was wearing dark clothing with large chunky combat boots, maybe he kicked someone with them and that why he's here, and he had chains dangling from his pockets and leather bands around his wrists under the plastic cuffs. His black hoodie was zipped halfway up and had a small worn hole in the cuff. He had his right ear pierced as well as his bottom lip and right eyebrow. Everything about him screamed I'm un-lawful arrest me. The police man sneered and turned around to leave back out the door. Once he left the boy sagged in his seat and turned his head around for the first time so she could see his face properly. When she saw his face she let out a gasp, surly not. Harry was safe at his aunt's house not of gallivanting and getting arrested near her house. They don't even live that much near each other. She must have made some kind of shocked noise as his head looked up at her. It had to be Harry, no one else has that green eyes. She couldn't see his forehead as his hair was in the way but she was sure if she brushed a few of those stands aside she would see where the killing curse failed to kill him when he was a baby.

"Hermione?" well that answered her questions, how likely was it that some random guy that got arrested by the police new her name.

"Harry, what on earth are you doing here?" she all but screeched at him. If there wasn't a glass panel between them she was sure he would have winced at the tempo of her voice.

"Oh you know, chilling" Harry was acting weird, no way would Harry of joked about being arrested while having that cheeky smile on his face at school. It just wasn't how he was and she would know. They've been friends for close to four years.

"Look I'll explain it to you later, they'll be questioning me in a minute and then they'll see I didn't do it and let me go."

"Wow you really know a lot about it don't you Harry, A normal situation find you in isn't it! You will tell me everything; do you know the park around the corner?" Harry nodded in affirmative "good I'll meet you there, my dad's coming and I don't think he'll be happy to see me talking to a fugitive" the dig at Harry seemed to make no affect he just smiled calmly at her.

An hour later

"Hey Hermione, sorry it took longer than I expected because the cop was being an arse" Harry strolled up and sat next to Hermione on the bench she had claimed as her own. She shot him a look because he was so disrespectful to a police officer. But even if she acted like everything was normal and she was just disapproving of him making fun of professor Snape she just couldn't make that leap. Here she was sat on a bench, in her own town, next to her best wizard friend who she's never seen out of the magical world. After meeting him at a police station where he was dragged inside in cuffs dressed like a poster child for teen rebellion. She opened her mouth to start demanding questions but before she could he held up a finger to make her wait and pulled out his vibrating phone. He checked who was calling and rolled his eyes at whoever's name it was.

"Hey man...

Yes I know, you owe me big time...

Don't worry you couldn't afford to be taken in a second time...

Haha just don't forget to repay me come how...

Yeah I'll see you later but I have to go now...

Bye."

He flicked his phone shut and turned back around to see Hermione sat there with an expectant face.

"Sorry, that was my friend, the one who should of been taken in" when Hermione didn't relent her gaze he sighed and ruffled a hand through his moppy hair. A least some habits were still there from her Harry.

"Right so after school ended I went a bit off the rails, which is where this comes from" Harry gestured to his appearance indicating his piercings. "and then I met up with this guy Kyle and he introduced me to his friends, and well I've been hanging out with them this summer instead of being cooped up indoors all day, but see Kyle and the law don't really get along and if he got taken in one more time there would of been nasty repercussions like community service and his mum would've kicked him out that sort of stuff, so I helped him get gone while they took me instead." Well at least that made sense. If Harry had really been the one to break the law then her world would have probably spun sideways. As it was it had only slightly tilted.

"So what are you doing around here" was all Hermione could bring herself to say. The reminder of the end of the school year hit hard as well as the realisation that other things would probably change as well.

"Ah, well you see Kyle's ex girl friend lives around here and he never really got over her, so in his master mind way of his he decided that busting open her bedroom window was an appropriate way to gain her attention, that's when she called the police." When Harry said she kept him from getting into trouble at Hogwarts she never realised exactly how much, if he went along with hair brained schemes like that when she wasn't around she was shocked the boy's dormitory was still standing. Perhaps Neville was the voice of reason there. Hermione went to say more but in the end decided that he didn't need her ripping into him about his choices right now, she would do it later for now she just wanted to sit there with her friend on the hot summer day. She didn't talk too many of her friends in the holidays as she was always away on holiday with her parents and all they used to keep in contact was birds. Maybe now she knew Harry had a mobile phone they could keep in touch that way. After a while of just sitting there together in quiet, Hermione not knowing what to say to him as she was still trying to assimilate the new Harry, Harry seemed to catch on that she wasn't going to shout at him and had kept quite so as not to garner her wrath. But after a bit of time had passed he checked his watch to see that it was getting late.

"It was nice seeing you in the summer Hermione, but I should get back to the Dursley's now before my uncle throws a fit." Harry stood up and stretched causing his limbs to click.

"Same, if you give me your number we don't have to write by owls if we want to talk, it'll be quicker." Hermione said as she reached in her pocket to pull out her phone. After exchanging numbers they bid farewell and went there separate ways.

All the way home Hermione couldn't get over what a weird day it had been. Dumbledore probably wouldn't be happy if he found out Harry had been in a jail cell and gallivanting around England when he could of been harmed. But she wouldn't tell him. Harry would sort himself out eventually and she would help him. By the sounds of it he didn't go around chucking brinks at peoples widows which she supposed showed he wasn't so far gone. And his new clothes were a good sight better than his old ones. She only worried about it seeming to be the way he reacted to Cedric's death. Now she had his number they could talk more often and she would help him any way he needed. Voldemort coming back couldn't have been easy on him. She would arrange to go out some time that week now that she new he hanged around her area any way; he must have gotten a few buses because she knew his house wasn't close. The summer was looking up.