Thank you to ALL my reviewers and to ALL my readers!
Disclaimer: Harry Potter and Co. belong to J. K. Rowling. I just bring them out to play every once in a while.
Thank you to Merlin, GoldenSunnyGrl, and Malombra for being such great BETA'S.
AU.
Summary: Will the chance to be who they really are bring everyone together?
ENJOY!
CHAPTER TWO
Harry was sitting on his bed, curtains drawn, sulking when Ron came in. He threw his quill down on the parchment he had been writing on with a groan. He didn't understand why he was so upset but he just could not shake the feeling off. It was just...time wasted and that was something he could never abide by.
The duo had often practiced together, and Harry had been surprised to hear Ron's superb singing voice, and thought it compared favorably with Meatloaf. Ron, on the other hand, had known Harry would be a superb musical talent, just on a hunch.
When he walked into an empty classroom and heard Harry's enchanted bass blasting out Deep Purple songs, he stood, rocked by the quality of the song, and the quality of the amp charm. He had assumed, for quite some time, that it was Hermione's work on the charm, until one time it faded and Harry irritably muttered the charm to make it sound out as if the music was coming through a top quality amp.
Over the last few years, the two had fruitlessly searched for a Gryffindor Drummer and Lead Guitarist, and had realized that not one of their housemates was even slightly musically inclined. They both knew that Hermione played the Cello, but that was an entirely different kettle of fish. Rock was their thing.
Ron drew back Harry's curtains and sat on the bed with him, neither needed to talk; both knew that they were going to have to swallow their pride and ask Hermione two important questions. Firstly, where in the seven hells had Hermione learned to play the electric guitar and secondly, whether she'd be willing to join their budding band.
"We have to ask her, Ron." Harry said.
"Harry," Ron said, looking confused, "do you think we SHOULD?"
"We have to, Ron. Nobody else can play like that, we both know it." Harry wore a morose look on his face as he said this. Total defeat. Why had she not told them?
"Well, lets go to it." Harry said with a sigh.
Both knew that fifth year, and above, boys were not allowed into the girls dorms. An old rule, but a smart one, as Ron knew from his prefect duties. They stared at each other and both yelled.
"CREEVY!". Looking excited, they rocketed to the second year Dorm for Colin Creevey's younger brother. Grabbing Dennis, they told him to go to the sixth year girls dorm, and fetch Hermione from there, to the sixth year boys dorms. They did not explain why.
Shortly after, Dennis appeared, alone. Hermione was not in the dorm. Staring at Harry, Ron knew he had to get rid of Dennis while Harry checked the Marauders map to find Hermione. Harry sighed and got the map from his trunk. They stood there in shock as they saw where she was and who she was with.
With a muffled whimper Ron fell back, fainted dead away, just barely missing hitting his head on the side of Harry's bed. Harry glared at Ron and then left him lying there to go and confront Hermione. He really was not mad at her, he just, well why didn't she tell them? She was always on Harry to tell her everything and here she was keeping this secret from them. Harry had partially guessed who it was she had been seeing but damn it all, this was going to cause some major problems.
Harry sighed as he made his way down to the dungeons to await outside the spell locked door for his best friend to come out after snogging her Slytherin boyfriend. And he had no doubt that she was doing exactly that! Harry shivered, and not from the cold of the dungeons, when he thought of what they were doing on the other side of that door. He had yet to find someone to do that with since Cho dumped him at the end of last year. He pushed the thoughts aside about that two-timing bitch and thought what he was going to say to Hermione. Harry really didn't care who she was with he just wished she had picked someone not...so...big.
Vincent Crabbe had grown over the summer to be one very big boy. Ron had better watch his tongue or he was going to end up in the infirmary before the day was out. Harry straightened as the door to the unused classroom started to open. He managed to clear his face of any expression as they stepped out of the room.
Taking one look at his closed face Hermione turned and walked right back into the room followed by the silent Slytherin. Harry sighed again and followed them into the room. Silencing charms and locking charms were cast as the three stared at each other in silence.
Shaking his head Harry walked up to Hermione, who was standing very close to her boyfriend, and gazed into her eyes. He could see the fear and concern she was trying to hide from him and it broke his heart that here stood his best friend and she could not even tell him that she was in love.
"Do you love him?" Harry asked softly just managing to keep any expression from gracing his face.
Hermione glanced once at Vince before squaring her shoulders and saying firmly, "Yes I do."
Harry let the silence drag on before he turned his expressionless gaze to Vincent. "And you?"
Vince nodded, "with all my heart." He said calmly as he stared at his love.
"Good." Harry said softly turning a bright smile to Hermione. "I would hate to have to kill you if you hurt her, you do understand don't you?" He finished as he cast one final glare at the larger boy.
Vince nodded and gulped, it wouldn't do for the Boy Who Lived, Defeater of Voldemort Twice, to be after him.
"Thank you." Hermione whispered as she hugged Harry tightly.
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For all of you that asked, FFN deleted my story 'I Understand'. The reason given was not one I understood as it made no sense. I do not know if I will repost the story here. I lost almost 1300 reviews, 52 chapters, and three years of my life when they did this.
I got no warning that this was going to happen. I had no chance to fix whatever it was that they considered wrong about the story. Now, I don't know what their criteria is when they delete a story, but I am going to assume it's not a lot.
I am sorry for all of you that were waiting for the last few chapters of that story, honestly, I haven't even felt like finishing it. I had to force myself to get this chapter done and to you so it may not be as good as the previous chapters. I apologize for that.
ENJOY!
LMG
