A Day in the Life…..continued….

A/N: usual disclaimers – not my characters, this is just for fun….

October 14, 2001, afternoon

"Now that you two have both had the chance to spill your guts, do me and yourselves a big favor please," implored Gunny.

The utter calmness in her tone caught both Harry and Hermione off guard.

"What?" they asked in unison.

"Are you really thicker than my brother Ron, Harry?" she laughed. "And you Hermione, are you not the 'brightest witch of our age'? How can you two be so blind?" Ginny waited for a response and got none.

"Look, I said I am leaving, and I meant it. I'm off to the Burrow. Now. So, like when I turn and leave and floo out of here, just kiss each other and get it over with. And before I do go," she added with a smile. "Thanks Harry, for last night, for everything. I never did deserve you and your kindness. And Hermione, I love you my friend. And I love my brother, but you are SO much better off without him."

Before either one of them could say anything, Ginny turned and walked to the fireplace, tossed some floo powder in and then disappeared.

Harry and Hermione stood in stunned silence for several minutes after they watched their friend leave the flat.

Harry spoke to Hermione who was still facing away form him. "Now what?" he asked quietly.

Hermione did not even turn around. "I have no idea." After a brief pause, she slowly turned to face him. "Well, actually, now that I have had a moment to think about it," she added, "I do have some questions for you, a lot of questions."

Harry was still trying to piece together everything from the conversation he was having with Hermione before they were interrupted by Ginny and sort out what Ginny had implied. "Right," he responded dully, not even looking Hermione in the eyes, "I think we both might have a lot of questions."

"What Ginny said just now," Hermione said softly, "I think she must be assuming too much."

Harry raised his eyes to look Hermione in the face. He tried to discern her thoughts just by looking at her, but he could not. He knew he was never very good at reading people. "Did she?" he asked. "Did she assume too much?" Harry struggled to find the right words for what he wanted to say.

"Let me ask you something then Harry," stated Hermione. Harry noted that her eyes were sparkling like they do when her mind starts processing thoughts and ideas very quickly. "What did you mean when you said that I 'looked beautiful'? Was it a friendly comment like 'gee you sure look nice today' or was it something more, such as 'that's someone whom I'm really attracted too'?"

Before Harry could start to answer, Hermione continued. "And while we're at it, what happened between you and Ginny anyways? I mean we all saw how she behaved at the pub just before your birthday, but what's been going on with you two over the past year? She hasn't spoken to me hardly at all in months and now this."

Hermione stopped her rambling as Harry slowly walked up to her, placed a finger on her lips to quiet her, and slowly leaned forward to kiss her on her lips. Harry started to close his eyes as he softly touched his lips to Hermione's. Suddenly she backed away from him. Harry opened his eyes and stood up straight. "I'm sorry Hermione," he began to say.

She cut him off. "You did that just because she told you to!" Her voice was getting louder and she was clearly emotionally upset.

Harry stepped back due to the sharpness in her tone. "What? No, that is not why…" he started to protest, but Hermione cut him off again.

"Well then, why did you do it?" she demanded.

Harry sighed with his frustration as he sat himself down in a chair in the kitchen, shaking his head but still not taking his eyes off of Hermione. "Maybe because I wanted to," he said timidly. He had not expected such a reaction from Hermione. He leaned forward and placed his head in his hands, resting his elbows on the table.

Hermione stared at him silently. After a short time, Harry rubbed his face with his hands, and looked back at her. "And I thought it was what you wanted, too. I am sorry, I guess I must have been wrong." He dropped his face back into his hands and tried not to let himself cry. "I must be such a fool," he said aloud, immediately regretting what he had done.

She stared at the young man in front of her with his head in his hands. While she may be the brightest witch of their age, she still was not always so good at reading other's emotions. Hermione quickly realized that this must be one of those times when she was missing something. She took a couple of steps forward and placed a hand over Harry's hands.

He did not respond to the gesture.

"You're not the fool here," she said softly. "I am. I'm the foolish one who seems to be messing this whole thing up." She gently pulled his hands away from his face. She tried to smile at him.

"Can we start this whole thing over again?" she asked.

Harry lifted his eyes to look at her as she sat down in the chair next to him at the table.

"From where?" he asked. "From when Ginny left? Or from when you woke up on the sofa? Or should we just go all the way back to first year when we met on the Hogwart's Express?" Harry gave a slight smile with his questions.

Hermione smiled back at him. "I don't know that I would want to go back that far," she said with a slight laugh. "There are way too many things that happened during our time at Hogwarts that I would not want to repeat, that is for certain."

Harry raised an eyebrow to this comment. "Anything that you would want to do differently?"

Hermione thought for a minute about Harry's question as she stared into his green eyes. She noted how they seemed to sparkle more with the wetness from the tears he was trying to hold back. The twinkle caused her to relax a little more as she realized she was holding his hands in hers. "Yes, I can think of a few things I would do differently if I had the chance to, especially with what I know now."

"Such as, Miss Granger?" asked Harry as he tried to lighten the mood with adding a little playfulness to his tone as he spoke.

Hermione averted her gaze from Harry's eyes and started to look at the ceiling. "Just some things in fourth year, and fifth year, and definitely seventh year."

Harry twisted his hands slightly so as to now hold her hands in his. "Care to share the details with me or are you going to keep me wondering?"

Hermione was relieved by the change in Harry's spirits as she could tell from his questions that his subtle mischievousness was returning. She looked back into his eyes as she answered him, "Actually, no, not now. I am not ready to share that with you Harry."

His countenance started to fall again with the frustration of not getting the answers he was hoping for.

Harry started to withdraw his hands and Hermione clasped them again in hers. "What I would like, Harry, is to ask you some questions. There are some things I really would like to know." Hermione paused to collect her thoughts. "The questions I asked you earlier, about you and Ginny. I really need to know what happened."

"I'm not sure there is really that much to tell," sighed Harry. "You've been here all along. You've seen most if it yourself. We had been drifting apart for months and then it all came to a head with the drinking and her behavior at the pub and then at my birthday party you guys had for me. Or tried to have anyways."

"We all partied hard occasionally," reminisced Hermione. "But how did Ginny get so out of control? And when did you stop drinking fire whiskey and switch to water? I haven't seen you drink anything stronger than pumpkin juice or black coffee sine the early summer."

"I think it really started when we went back to Hogwarts for our seventh year," said Harry as he began to think back over the past few years. "The Golden trio returns to Hogwarts was the big news that year. It was almost as big as my defeating Voldemort. There were the articles in the newspapers. There was the parties and recognition form the Ministry of Magic. And Ginny was thrown into all of it right with us. She really didn't like the fame and the notoriety and the gossip columns. I don't know when she started to drink the fire whiskey that much though. The first party I remember when she drank way too much was the first one the Ministry of Magic held after Draco and I joined the Aurors. She still had a hard time dealing with him after the way he had treated us all through school and with what his father did to her back in second year. Gin wasn't there when Draco came up to me during Auror school to apologize for how he had treated us all and to thank me for saving him in the room of requirement."

Hermione interrupted, "Wait a minute. He actually apologized? And he even thanked you? Sincerely?" The shock in her voice was evident.

"He did," laughed Harry as he thought about it some more. "Ron refused to believe me at first. It took my dragging Ron to the Lion's Paw Pub with Draco before he would believe it. I told Draco that he would have to apologize to Ron for everything that had happened."

"Wait," said Hermione, "was that the night Ron came back form the pub with a black eye from Draco?"

Harry laughed again. "Ron didn't appreciate Draco's apology: 'I'm sorry you were such a Weasel that I lost my temper and was rude to you so often.' Not exactly an apology, and things got ugly from there."

"So how did Ron get the black eye?" puzzled Hermione.

"Ron had me swear to secrecy about that, sorry Hermione, " said Harry with a chuckle. "And Draco did eventually apologize to him."

"But back to Ginny," asked Hermione, "what happened there? If she's heading back home to the Burrow I assume she's actually going to work on the drinking thing. Why can't you guys work it out? Or why won't you even try?"

"There's nothing more to work out," said Harry as he thought about their relationship. "We really had nothing left together. By the time we graduated from Hogwarts I think that we were just so comfortable with each other and everyone assumed we would be together. We never did anything more than the occasional snogging. We actually had very little in common. She decided to become a healer and I became an auror. We both gave up playing Quidditch regularly. Actually that last year at Hogwarts became quite difficult the more people asked us about the whole battle and war and all of those events. That was you and I, and sometimes Ron, but Ginny was not there for most of it. Yes, she did do some important things at Hogwarts while we were hunting the Horcruxes, but there was really nothing that she and I had shared after the battle at the DOM."

Hermione was staring into Harry's green eyes again, holding his hands tightly in her own as she could feel the sorrow he was feeling as he shared his thoughts. Harry's gaze was directed at the ceiling at this time.

"That was really a miserable year that we spent hunting the Horcruxes," said Harry. "Ginny was not someone I could really talk to about it at all. And you and Ron had each other."

Hermione squeezed his hands a little tighter at this comment. Harry looked at her again and noted the pain in her eyes. "Right, I guess Ron probably didn't talk about any of that all that much," Harry added softly.

There was a long and awkward silence in the kitchen as Harry finished talking.

The two friends just sat there and stared at each other for several minutes.

Finally Harry spoke up. "So, does that answer your questions?"

Hermione gave a silent nod indicating that it had. Harry kept his eyes on hers and then he spoke again. "As I said before, now what?"

Hermione did not answer. She leaned forward and gently kissed his lips. She leaned back into her chair, keeping her gaze firmly focused on the emerald circles surrounding the blackness of his pupils.

"Now what?" she echoed his words aloud. "Why don't we take a walk? Together. You and I."

Harry nodded in agreement. "Sounds good to me."