Friday 17th July

The next morning Hermione awoke early and snuggled under her covers loving the fact that breakfast would wait for her and she didn't have to get up at any specific time. After perhaps 10 minutes she relinquished her covers and headed for her bathroom. After a long hot shower (something she missed at Hogwarts) she pulled out her jeans and a green sweater and laid them on the bed, but something in the back of the cupboard caught her eye. One of the tops she's bought the day before.. the purple one that Jen had said made her look "So much older". Making a split second decision, Hermione threw her faded green sweater back in the cupboard and pulled out the purple one. Pulling it on, Hermione felt Cooler automatically. She spent ten minutes in front of the mirror trying unsuccessfully to pull her hair into that sophisticated knot at the back of her head that Jen normally wore. After several attempts however, she was no closer to success and ended up just tying her hair up in a ponytail.

She reached into the drawer where she had stashed all of the cosmetics her mum had bought her and found that lipgloss that she had liked. It had made her lips feel nice and it smelled like fresh strawberries. With only a slight hesitation she applied it to her lips. Suddenly her lips were pinker and shiny and she felt wonderful!

Looking at her only slightly altered, but according to her, much cooler reflection, she bounced out of the room with a great boost in self confidence.

At the morning breakfast table, Her father lowered his paper and peered over the top at her with curiosity.

"Something about you is different today" he said gazing at her for a few minutes

"It's a new top.. do you like it?" Hermione asked self consciously.

"That must be it! Its wonderful! Did you mum help you choose it?" he asked.

"Umm. No actually, Sandy and Jen convinced me to buy it yesterday" she said

"You look good in it, It was a good choice" he said before he went back to the paper.

Minutes passed as Hermione buttered a piece of toast and loaded some fresh fruit onto her plate. Then Gorgina Hermione's Mother entered the room.

"Oh Hermione! Don't you look fantastic?" She asked in surprise.

"Its just a new top mum" said Hermione self consciously.

"Did you buy that with Jen and Sandy?" asked her mum taking in the top

"Yeah" she said

"Good! They are a good influence on you Hermione. Feel free to go shopping with them whenever you want!" said her mother gaily.

"Uh Ok" She said self consciously taking a strawberry and biting it.

"Oh and your wearing your lipgloss as well! Do you like it?" her mum asked.

"Yes Mum. Its great" she said rolling her eyes. Finally her mum settled down at the table and called for the maid to bring her coffee.

A few more minutes passed in silence as her mum read the society pages of the paper, her dad read the headlines and she gazed out the window at the garden. Perhaps today she would get a chance to go and sit under a tree with her book? It had been a few days now.

"Oh My goodness" said Gorgina, breaking Hermione out of her staring contest with the tree outside the window. She looked around and her eyes came to rest on leigh who had just walked into the room. His ripped jeans were gone, as was the screaming jets t-shirt. His hair was combed neatly and he was wearing khaki canvas pants and blue v-neck top. Hermione felt her breath catch in her throat. There was definitely no comparison between Ron and Leigh now.

"You like?" he asked settling down to the table.

"Oh you look magnificent" she said excitedly.

"Thanks. Hermione loaned me the money to go Shopping, I hope you don't mind" he said glancing at her self consciously.

"Of course not! How thoughtless of me, I should have given you some money. How much do we owe you Hermione?"

"I gave him 100 quid" she said croakily, however her eyes were still fixed on Leigh. He was Gorgeous. She frantically tried to recall her scattered wits. Ron. That's a good topic. She liked Ron.

"OK Sure Honey, Get the money off your father after Breakfast" said her mum.

"Ok" said Hermione. She was still unfortunately staring at Leigh. She had however only just noticed that he was staring at her as well. At the same moment they both snapped their eyes down to their plates.

Hermione chanced a glance up to her mum and noticed the look on her face. She sighed, it meant that there would be an interrogation as soon as Hermione could be cornered alone.

"So what do you have organised for today Hermione?" asked her dad completely oblivious.

"Uhh, I was just going to read outside I guess" said Hermione gazing out at her favourite tree.

"Leigh?" he asked moving the corner of his paper to look in Leigh's direction.

"uhh same.. although I was planning to read inside.. Outside does sound appealing however" he finished.

"Very good" Hermione's dad said before he went back to his paper. Hermione sighed. Now all she had to do was finish her fruit and escape from this situation.

Half an hour later Hermione was situated under her favourite tree with her chemistry book open in front of her and her novel face down beside her. She was switching between the two as each took her fancy. She had just hit a rather difficult problem with her chemistry and was debating going back to her book when she heard the rustle of footsteps in the grass that alerted her to someone coming.

"Mind if I join you?" asked leigh settling down cross-legged beside her.

"No, Go ahead" responded Hermione focusing on her book in an effort to ignore the butterflies that had started again. She didn't like Leigh. She was sure of it, He was just VERY attractive.. that was all. But She LIKED Ron, and it wasn't only because she thought he was attractive, it was his personality as well. She barely knew leigh!

"You look nice today" said Leigh opening his book to a page about a third of the way through.

"You read fast" said Hermione in response when she looked over at him and noticed his place in the book.

"That I do" he said.

"Thankyou" she responded absently.

"Your welcome" he said also absently"

"So do you" She said suddenly, her face flaming red as soon as the words left her lips.

"Huh?" he responded obviously absorbed within his book.

"You look nice too" she said.

"Thankyou" he smiled as he said it and she felt her heart skip a beat.

They both returned to their books for a few minutes before a frustrated sound from Hermione bought Leigh's head up. He looked at her quizzically.

"I'm stuck. I just can't do this equation" she said pointing at her book.

"What subject?" he asked from where he sat.

"Chemistry. Not my Forte. I thought I'd try it before I signed up for it next year" she said hoping he believed her fabrication.

"Good idea, Hard subject though. I did it last year" he said.

"But you haven't finished school!" she exclaimed in surprise "That would mean you were doing 7th year subjects in 6th year?" she asked.

"Yeah. Chemistry and Maths" he shrugged "I'm not much good at the business subjects or English, but maths and sciences come easy"

"But you read everything!" she exclaimed.

"Yeah, I love to read, but not so great at writing" he said.

"Well if you could have a look at this?" she asked bringing his attention back to the chemistry in front of her.

"Ahh yeah of course", he said laying down beside her. She felt her heart jump slightly as he did this. Then he took her pen from her hand and began to work the equation through slowly. She was amazed, he was a very good teacher, that is, when she wasn't being distracted by how close he was.

Three hours later they had been laying side by side for hours. Initially doing Hermione's "Homework" and then reading for awhile. Now they were just talking. Hermione found it fascinating to talk to Leigh. She'd found out so much about him, about his world. She was amazed.

He was one of three children in his family. His Oldest sister was 20 with three kids. She was a single mum and refused to talk to the family any more. Leigh was a bit dubious about her line of work and he expressed his opinion of her lifestyle fairly vehemently. Then there was his 18 year old brother who was doing time on the mainland. Supposedly he was in jail for fraud. He'd been in and out of the "Lockup" since he was 13. Leigh didn't seem particularly fond of him either.

The only time he seemed at all emotional had been when he'd described his mum. His mum was an alcoholic, and according to leigh she was trying to stay sober, however it was a new battle every day, and from his commentary it appeared the his mother won and lost the daily battle in about even quantities.

This was what had led him to his trouble with the law. He'd "Borrowed" a car to get his mum to hospital after one of her binges.. Unfortunately the owner of the car had taken exception to the Borrowing and had filed charges. Leigh had been remanded in Custody until his pre-trial hearing where he'd been represented by David, Hermione's dad. During the trial, he;d been deemed a low flight risk and been granted Bail, however being a minor he could only be released into the care of a parent or guardian… That's Where Hermione's dad had stepped in.

"So when is your trial?" asked Hermione in interest, having never actually experienced the Court system in action before.

"August 10th" he responded

"Do you think you'll get off?" she asked

"Possibly, It WAS an emergency after all.. the Doctor said my mum would've died if I hadn't have gotten her there" he responded "But the prosecution is saying that I could've called an ambulance".

"I suppose you could have" responded Hermione.

"It was just so hard, I saw her lying on the floor, there was blood from her wrist everywhere and broken glass and she wasn't responding. I just needed to get her to some help"

"I'll go with you to the trial if you want" said Hermione suddenly making a decision. It did seem as if Leigh had done what he thought was best, however wrong the law would find it.

"Thanks. I'd appreciate that" he said rolling his head to look at her. Hermione had suddenly felt nervous, here was Leigh, the boy she thought was gorgeous, laying with his face mere centimetres from hers. She licked her lips nervously and was racking her brain for an excuse to move away from him, when she heard Sofia calling them for lunch from the house.

With a grateful sigh, Hermione rolled to a sitting position and gathered her belongings.

"Thanks for your help" she said as she closed the chemistry book on the finished equations.

"No Worries. I hope it helped. If you need any help at any time, you know where to find me" he joked.

Together they stood and walked back towards the house. Hermione couldn't believe how much her life had changed in the past three days. First the St. James decision, then Leigh coming into her life and her reconnecting with Jen and Sandy. She was tempted to believe that this was something in her life that was supposed to happen. Perhaps she was supposed to go back to being a normal every day teenager.

After lunch Hermione felt like she wanted to swim, so she went to her room and found her favourite purple swimming costume. Wrapping herself in her towel she wandered downstairs passed her Fathers study. She was surprised to hear voices coming from within the dimly lit room. It was the middle of a Friday afternoon, Her father was generally in court or at meetings on a Friday.

She paused for a few minutes to see what was going on, not eavesdropping as such.. just .. information gathering.

She was surprised when she heard Leigh's voice responding to her fathers. She was even more surprised when she felt her heart leap when she heard it.

From their conversation they were obviously discussing Leigh's Case.

"You have Judge Turnbull. Tough but fair. I think we have a good chance" said Hermione's dad

"Have you managed to track down the doctor?" asked Leigh

"Yes, He has agreed to testify"

"Tell me Mr. Granger, whats the worst that can happen?" asked Leigh, he sounded worried and Hermione very much wanted her dad to say that he had nothing to worry about.

"Look leigh, I'll be honest, I don't know what could happen. This could go either way. Absolute worst case would be juvenile detention for 2 years until you turn 18 and then a number of years in Prison after your 18th birthday" he said "But that's absolute worst case. I would imagine that if it goes against you, it will just be a community service bond".

"That's not so bad" said Leigh

"That's true" Hermione's dad responded. Hermione breathed a sigh of relief. It wasn't such a big deal then.

"Leigh, I want to talk to you about something" said David suddenly very serious.

"Yes?" he asked obviously surprised.

"I've seen you with Hermione quite a lot this week. I want to warn you, that you do not want to do anything that will jeapardize my position as your legal counsel. That includes but is not limited to anything remotely romantic, sexual or anything beyond Friendship, do I make myself clear?"

"Yes sir" said Leigh in surprise.

"Thankyou. I'll need to speak to you again next Friday to go over your testimony again. Meet me in here after lunch" said David. Hermione took that as her queue to leave, in quite a hurry actually.

As she rounded the last corner before the pool she was surprised to see her mother reclining on one of the sunlounges outside. Her mother never visited the pool as far as Hermione could remember. It made Hermione worry that the interrogation she had managed to evade all morning, was finally here.

"Hermione, Dear! I was looking for you. Sofia said she saw you dressed for a swim, so I headed out here" she said "however, you weren't here! Where have you been?"

"umm. Had to get a towel" said Hermione making up a lie on the spot. She couldn't say she'd been listening in on her dad's confidential conversation. She'd been warned about that when she was younger.

"Very well. Come and sit' she said indicating the seat next to her. Hermione sat next to her mother and nodded to Sofia who handed her a cool drink.

"I just wanted to have a chat to you about something" Continued her mum.

"Yes?" responded Hermione.

"I don't know what is going on with you and Leigh, Hermione, but I want to warn you that now is not a good time to get involved with any boys, let alone Leigh"

"Mum!" Hermione exclaimed almost choking on her drink "We're just friends!".

"Yes, well be that as it may, I've seen the way you look at him, Even I can't deny that as far as attraction goes, he is a very attractive young man, but you need to keep your head.. You can't just fall for the first young man who shows some interest in you. This year is a big year for you, and the last thing you need is a distraction". Hermione sighed, so this was how it was going to be, Her dad warning Leigh and her Mum warning her. Honestly, couldn't they tell that nothing was going to happen?

"I know mum. Leigh and I are just friends. He was helping me with my Chemistry" she said. Hermione felt a slight bit of satisfaction as Her mothers eyebrows rose in surprise.

"He helped you with Chemistry?" queried her mum.

"Yes, he was fantastic. He did it last year at school! He was in 7th year classes when he was only in sixth year! He is very clever" said Hermione quickly.

"Clever? Leigh?" asked her mum in surprise.

"Yes, he's read Shakespeare and he's reading A Tolstoy book which I have been wanting to read for ages"

"I would never have guessed" responded Gorgina.

"he's pretty normal in the way he speaks and things, but he has an amazing mind" she continued.

"Even so Hermione, I don't want anything happening between you and Leigh" said her mum.

"Is it to do with the court case?" asked Hermione suddenly, obviously surprising her mother.

"Well.. Yes, in a way" said her mum "You dad may be asked to relinquish the case if you two became romantically involved".

"Its alright mum, nothing's going to happen".

"Thankyou dear. But its unfortunate isn't it, he is a bit of a hunk!"

"Mum!" responded Hermione.

"Yes well, Its true Hermione, and I can tell by your red face that you agree with me!"

"Mum!" said Hermione again "This conversation is over. And for the record I like Ron" and with that Hermione got up and dived into the pool. Partially to end the conversation, and partially to cool her flaming face.

As she stroked up and down the pool, Hermione chanted "Ron, Ron, Ron, Ron, Ron" in her head. She was surprised at her Mum's conversation and she couldn't deny that she had been feeling .. SOMETHING.. with regard to Leigh. The butterflies were an obvious sign of course, but she was sure it didn't go beyond a superficial attraction. She thought about Ron as she swam, his smile, the way he loved chess and stood by her everytime Malfoy called her names. It made her feel all warm and fuzzy, and she realised at once that the feeling was markedly different from what she felt for Leigh.

But then she started to think of Leigh, of how when he laid down next to her, she couldn't concentrate on her chemistry, on how her foot had tingled when his had been resting on hers at Breakfast, and of how he had come to her rescue when Sarah and Jessica were picking on her on the bus.

She was confused. Her mother had told her nothing was to happen with Leigh, so why did the thought that now nothing could happen make he want to cry? She only wanted to be his friend. She did like spending time with him and he obviously liked spending time with her, but they were only friends right?

They were constantly together wherever they were and she had been surprised at how easily they had fallen into a routine together. They liked the same types of books and he was very intelligent which Hermione greatly admired, but they were just different enough that it wouldn't seem as if she had nothing of her own.

Reaching the end of the pool she decided that she'd had enough of swimming and exited the pool. She collapsed on a sunlounge to dry out.

Minutes later Leigh came out of the house and sat next to her in Silence. Hermione struggled and struggled to find something to say, but she came up blank, so they just sat and stared at the pool in silence.

Authors Note: Just a short chapter this time, I hope you still like it! Please Review.. Mel.