A/N: This hasn't been by any means a fluffy story, but a resolution will be given in the next couple of chapters. While it's a departure from my usual fluffy stories, it had to be written this way for it to work the way I wanted it to. As always, many thanks to those that take the time to read and review. I hope you enjoy this one as well.

GOING AFTER EDEN

Chapter 3: Friends - Deliver Me

All of my life I've been in hiding.
Wishing there was someone just like you.
Now that you're here, now that I've found you,
I know that you're the one to pull me through.

Deliver me, loving and caring.
Deliver me, giving and sharing.
Deliver me, the cross that I'm bearing.

0-0

A knock on the door alerted Harry to his visitors. He had been expecting them for the last little while, ever since he had called an emergency meeting at his flat. He had news he needed to share and he wasn't sure how they would react.

Luna came first, followed closely by Ginny, and then Ron arrived a few minutes later. They all gathered in his living room and the first thing they noticed was the open bottle of Fire Whiskey on the table and the parchments thrown around. There were also pictures. Lots of them.

Luna grabbed one of the moving photos and gasped. "That cheating bastard!"

Ginny leaned closer to her and her eyes widened. "I knew it! I just had this awful feeling he was cheating on her and she didn't tell us."

Ron was the last to look at the photos and Harry waited while he poured himself another shot of the amber liquid. The satisfying burn down his throat eased his anger a fragment, but not enough. He wanted to tear Bill Weasley apart limb by limb.

"Bloody hell, mate! Where did you get these?"

"I've had my suspicions that Bill was being unfaithful for some time. Fleur also made comments here and there that made me think she also knew. So I hired a private investigator and he's been following Bill around for the past three months or so. I have so much evidence against his arse that it would blow your mind."

"What do we do now? Hell, he's our brother, but he's been acting like a wanker," Ginny said.

"I had someone I trust at the ministry do some research for me and with the evidence I have, if Fleur wants to, she can be granted a quick divorce."

"That's brilliant! It would also mean Hermione would come back and they could finally be together," Luna exclaimed.

"That is why I gathered all of you here. I need help putting all of this together so I can give it to Fleur. Armed with the right ammunition, she can make a wise decision. We all know how much they are both suffering. Hell, if Hermione would stop lying in her letters and saying she was fine, I wouldn't be doing this. I know she's miserable and she's not good at hiding it. She's wasting away in that big city, has no close friends, and thinks she's fooling all of us. She must be getting daft if she thinks we're buying any of her reassurances to the contrary."

"I agree with you, Harry, and we should put this together and have Fleur come over tonight. We can all be here to deal with it," Ginny suggested.

"I was actually hoping you and Luna could do it so Ron and I could take a portkey to New York and check on Hermione. I haven't seen her in several months. I want to ask her a few questions before I give any of these documents to Fleur."

"Why is that, mate?"

"I don't want to make a mistake here. If Hermione has moved on, then we'll figure something else out. I don't want to give Fleur false hope, either."

"I think we all know Hermione pretty well and she is still very much in love with Fleur. The fact that she doesn't even mention her at all is proof enough," Luna told them.

"Luna's right, you know," Ginny added. "If Hermione wasn't in love with Fleur, she would mention her at some point but she completely ignores the subject. If any of us makes the mistake of mentioning her, Hermione clams up and changes the subject right away. Talk about denial of one's feelings!"

"And then they wonder why I'm rubbish when it comes to women!" Ron exclaimed while scratching his head. "You are a complicated lot, that's what it is."

After sharing a laugh, Harry and Ron took the portkey to New York and left Ginny and Luna organizing all the information Harry had gathered.

0-0

The knock on the door so late that night surprised Hermione. She had been sitting by the fireplace, reading a book, before going to bed. It was close to eleven at night and no one ever visited her place.

Her eyebrows rose when she looked through the peep hole on the door and saw her two best-friends standing there. She suppressed a laugh when she saw Ron making faces and Harry smacking his arm. She was glad some things would never change.

She opened the door with a small smile on her lovely face. "To what do I owe this surprise?"

"Tell us first if it's a good surprise or a bad one so we know to come in or run for the hills," Ron joked as he moved closer and hugged the lights out of her.

She returned the hug enthusiastically and her smile grew. "It's a very good surprise."

"See, sissy, I told you she wouldn't kill us," Harry smirked and hugged her himself. "How the hell are you, love?"

"I'm doing alright. Just a little tired."

"Tell us something we don't know."

She shrugged her shoulders. "You know how busy work keeps me."

"Yeah, we know how you try to kill yourself with work so you don't have to think about a certain someone back home," Ron stated with a serious face.

Hermione glared at him. "Don't start."

Harry took her hand and led her to the sofa. He sat sideways so he could look at her. He caressed her fingers with his thumb, staring at their hands intently for a moment while he gathered his thoughts.

Ron took the time to sit on her other side and his hand played absently with her curls. Hermione, noticing the way they seemed to be comforting her, panicked. Her free hand came up to clutch at her throat.

"Oh, God, no! Did something bad happen to her?"

"No!" Harry told her quickly and locked eyes with her. "She's physically fine. Well, almost."

"She's lost a lot of weight this past year and has dark circles under her eyes most times, but other than that, she's not sick," Ron added.

"Then what is this about? I know this isn't a regular visit."

"Hermione," Harry started carefully. "I want to ask you something and I want you to be honest with me. It's important, love."

Hermione, seeing his most serious face, simply nodded.

"If there was any chance, any chance at all, that you could be back with Fleur, would you do it? Do you love her enough to try again?"

Hermione just looked at him as her chest tightened and a lump formed in her throat. How was she supposed to deny what her heart desired most? How was she supposed to pretend that she had moved on and forgotten what it was like to love and be loved by Fleur. Her Fleur.

"Hermione, we might have found a way for Fleur to get out of her marriage to my lousy brother. If it works, if we can make it happen, would you come back to us? Would you be willing to come back to her?"

"God, yes," she managed to choke out.

She lost it then.

She was unable to stop the sob that seemed to escape from the deepest corner of her tortured soul. She fell back against her best friends, crying openly in front on them for the first time. Sobs wracked her small body as she cried for all they had lost, for all the time they had been apart, for the pain of losing half of herself. Hermione cried for endless minutes while Harry and Ron held on to her and whispered sweet nothings in her ears. It was impossible not to shed a tear or two when they saw their friend in such pain, so they cried with her. There really was nothing to say, so they just held and comforted her until she was spent.

And when she was done, they simply held her in silence, little tremors still shaking her body every now and then. Harry kissed her forehead and carried her to her room. As they tucked her into bed, she smiled sadly at them and whispered her thanks.

"I will fix this for you," Harry promised as he kissed her cheek one more time.

"Hermione, we're going to come back and get you soon. As soon as this is fixed, we'll bring you back home," Ron promised as well.

She simply nodded and fell asleep while they watched over her.

0-0

"I can't believe this!" Ginny exclaimed in anger. "Fleur could have left Bill a long time ago if she had known this. How sneaky of the ministry to hide such important information from the wizarding world."

"This isn't the first time the ministry acts improperly, so let's not dwell on that too much. I also think we need to go see Fleur ourselves. Harry and Ron have been gone for a couple of hours and something tells me they might not be back for a while longer."

"Yeah, I imagine Hermione probably fell apart at the news. Do we have everything?"

"We do. Let's go see Fleur at her office. I'm sure she's still there."

0-0

"Madame Delacour, you have some visitors," a goblin said from the door.

Fleur looked up from the parchment where she had been scribbling furiously with an impatient sigh. "I'm busy right now, Ellisin. Who is it?"

"Miss Ginny Weasley and Miss Luna Lovegood, Madame."

"Oh, send zem in, but give me a couple of minutes to put my zings away."

"Yes, Madame."

Fleur rolled the parchments back up and put them away. She was just finishing clearing her desk when there was a light rap at the door.

"Come on in," she called out as she walked towards the door. When her friends walked in, she greeted them with kisses on their cheeks. "Zis is an unexpected visit."

"Well, we have something to talk to you about, Fleur, and it's very important," Luna said with a serious face.

Fleur frowned when she saw the look. "Alright. What is it?"

"I think you better sit down, Fleur," Ginny told her.

"Mon Dieu! What is ze matter?"

"It has to do with your marriage to Bill, a way we think we can get it annulled and Hermione," Luna said, direct and to the point.

Fleur's eyes widened in amazement. "Tell me everything at once! If zere is any way I can get my 'Ermione back I want it to know about it."

0-0

When they were done talking to Fleur and giving her the information, they headed back to Harry's place. About an hour later, Harry and Ron came back, looking exhausted and tense.

"What happened?" Ginny asked the minute she spotted them.

"We told her and she fell apart. We waited all this time to make sure she was asleep before we left."

"What do you mean she fell apart?" Luna asked worriedly.

"I just think Hermione finally let go of the pain and sorrow she had been bottling up for the past year. She's cried some, but never let go completely," Harry explained in a sad voice. "I just want her to be happy."

"And she will be, Harry. Luna and I went to see Fleur and she knows everything. We didn't want to wait until you got back to tell her. We gave her everything you had and she is going to go see dad first thing in the morning at the ministry."

"Dad? Why him?"

"Because she wants to tell him before she does anything that could potentially hurt mum. And she wants to go see Bill with him as well, so he doesn't have a chance to try and work his way around it."

"It's going to take about a week to fix this mess, but once she has everything resolved, she told us she's going to go get Hermione back," Luna finished.

"Then I'm glad I hired that detective. Hermione is finally going to be with the one she loves."

"You're a great friend to do this for her, Harry," Luna told him with a smile.

"Well, Luna, Hermione has always taken care of me and Ron. It's about time we did something for her."

"I agree with you, mate. I know Bill is our brother, but he fucked up when he cheated on Fleur and from the looks of those pictures, it's been going on for a while. I swear that woman even looks pregnant!"

"Now that you mention it, Luna and I were talking about it and think the same thing."

"So this will be easier than we all think if that's the case," Harry said with a satisfied smile. "I'm sorry, Ginny and Ron, I know he's your brother, but he's in the way of Hermione's happiness. If he was a good man and loved Fleur truly, I wouldn't have done this, but to me, Hermione comes first."

Ron patted his back. "Don't worry, mate. It's not the first time one of my brothers acts like a prat. I mean, take Percy for instance. What a loser!"

After sharing a laugh, they started making plans for Hermione's homecoming.

0-0