Disclaimer: I do not own anything.
A/N: Thank you all for the reviews, especially to Davechaosity319, chickenugets, and the guest Smudgy for writing more! It's always nice to see familiar names on the review list!
Also, I went back and read over my previous chapter… I noticed that there was a ton of mistakes! I'm just glad that you guys still looked over those weird sentences and spellings. Thank you again :)
Here's the fourth chapter!
What Hermione told Percy that morning in front of the bathroom was not short, nor simple. But at the same time, Ronald Weasley, otherwise known as Ron, who lived on the other side of the country, who had just received the Daily Prophet for the day, was also having not so short or simple conversation with his own mind.
He held the paper with both hands, eyes wide open, and wild thoughts screaming inside his head. After the considerably peaceful breakup, Ron bore no harsh feelings toward Hermione. He understood it all, because he noticed how, as genuine as his love for her was, it was not the kind that made him want to sleep with her. For the exactly same reason he had agreed to Hermione's suggestion on breaking up. But Ron still cared about her, of course. The next boyfriend she had had to go through a severe scrutinization by both Ron and Harry. Harry, who believed that Hermione was a grown up woman who could make a decision for herself, was somewhat coerced into making a threatening face at the wizard, but nonetheless.
The second wizard Hermione got herself into was a cold, condescending man. Ron would have welcomed her parting from him any time, but when did she have time to get into another relationship, even before letting him know? And by the looks of the way they held hands and kissed, the two seemed to have been in the relationship for a while. Ron's nostrils flared with an angry passion.
He quickly whipped out a two-way mirror he purchased not too long ago with Harry, and spoke Harry's name to it. Soon enough, Harry's knowing face appeared on the mirror. Ron began first.
"What the bloody hell, Harry? Did you know about this? Of course, you knew about this! Why didn't she tell me? Is it because she doesn't want me to meddle with her business anymore? But by Merlin's sake, did she have to let me know through this?!"
Ron held up the front page at the mirror and shook it. Harry sighed and massaged his temple, and Ginny popped into view.
"Ron, stop being ridiculous! You're hurting Harry!"
Harry smiled.
"I'm fine, love, really." Then he faced Ron. "But to answer your question, Ron, no, I did not know about this until this morning reading that same front page you're holding. As for the rest of then, you should ask Hermione yourself, not me, Ron."
Harry hesitated to tell Ron that it was actually only a one night stand. Harry had been around Ron long enough to know that the moment Ron learns of Hermione's 'drunk' night with the stranger, he would apparate straight to Hermione's place and begin lecturing her about making wrong choices. He would also, most likely, try to kill the said stranger for taking advantage of a drunk woman, who also happened to be his dear dear friend. Yes, it was definitely a bad idea to tell Ron the truth. Harry made a small mental note to tell Hermione about it later. Meanwhile, he had some duty to calm Ron down.
"Besides, Ron, as I've already told you multiple times before, Hermione is a grown up woman. Whatever choice she'd like to make, she can. You know that, right?"
Ron's face faltered in a kind of shame, his head begrudgingly nodding in agreement.
"But, Harry, what if she's making a wrong choice? What if this man is secretly a murderer? What if he hurt her? I'm just worried, that's all."
Harry eyed his friend with weariness. This conversation had happened before, more than a few times.
"Ron. You must remember that as close as a family we can get with Hermione, we aren't actually her blood kins. Merlin, even her actual blood kinds wouldn't bother so much! Of course, if there are suspicious aspects surrounding Hermione's life that are also obvious to everyone, not just you, I would try to intervene and let Hermione know such concerns exist in my mind. But, Ron, here, you're the only one who races up to her door every time she gets a new boyfriend. You aren't her big brother. You're actually her ex-boyfriend, which just makes the situations rather worse than better."
Ron pursed his lips. He almost hated when Harry was so absolutely correct. Harry continued.
"We both know that Hermione is smarter than both of us. That doesn't grant her wisdom in all kinds of circumstances, I know, but we should know better than to judge or doubt her decisions. And so far from what I've observed, Hermione has the tendency to have only temporary relationship. Are you seriously going to scan every boyfriend that will pass through her threshold now?"
Ron sighed.
"I guess you're right. Still, that Skeeter! The nerve of hers to make Hermione's privacy a front page material! That witch's really need go soon."
Harry chuckled.
"See? You knew who to be really angry at."
Ron smiled a little before fidgeting his fingers. Harry noticed the change of expression.
"What's wrong now?"
Ron looked up and smiled sheepishly.
"Can't we check him this one last time?"
Harry shook his head, sighing.
"Ron—"
"I know, I know. I heard you just now! But please, Harry? One last time! Let me know that this one's a good one before I quit worrying too much about her future choices."
Harry saw Ron's pleading eyes, filled with sincerity and almost desperation. Harry sighed.
"Fine. But let me talk to Hermione first, okay?"
"Great."
"—and that's why Ron and I will be visiting you probably tonight. I suggest you start prepping your new man now, rehearse him with what he needs to say to appease Ron and whatever."
"What?"
Hermione yelled at the receiver. Percy, who was lying on the bed, playing with a string that fell out of Hermione's knitted blanket, looked up, alarmed and curious. Hermione offered a half-assuring smile with a wave of hand and returned to her conversation with Harry. She shouted in whispers, furious.
"What the bloody hell, Harry? You didn't tell him the truth?"
Harry sighed behind the receiver.
"I know, I'm sorry. But you know who he's going to react if he knew that it began as a drunk mistake. He'd probably hex your poor, what was it?"
"Percy."
"Yeah, your poor Percy."
Percy looked up again at the mention of his name, and Hermione smiled because in that moment when his head tilted sideways and his eyes lit up with curiosity, Percy looked perhaps the most innocent creature on earth. She wriggled her fingers at him, and Percy chuckled, shaking his head, and returned to his fidgeting with the string. Harry, unaware of this silent interaction, was still speaking.
"Ron's probably going to hex the hell out of your poor Percy. Are you listening, Hermione?"
"Yes, Harry, yes, I am."
"So if you want to tell Ron how it all began, you're free to do so. But personally… I think it'd be safer for both of you to play pretend for a while. Make up a good story about how you guys began seeing each other well before."
"But that's going to look so bad with Snatcher…"
Snatcher was the boyfriend who parted from Hermione without hesitation hours before Hermione met Percy. If it became known that she was seeing Percy before last night, Snatcher will, for sure, think that Hermione was two-timing him.
"Well, it's already happened. Remember the photos for Rita Skeeter's article? I mean, she wrote you down as a romantic who's been in this for a while, but those photos make what she wrote seem so real. You might as well just use that now."
"Agh, I've forgotten about that. I guess you're right. Snatcher most likely had already seen the paper."
Harry chuckled.
"I wonder why you had forgotten about it."
Hermione blushed.
"Shut up, Harry."
He laughed.
"Just make sure he's got the story down too, 'Mione. Ron's dense enough to pass through a bad acting, but you guys need to have a same story."
"Fine. See you later."
"See you later."
Hermione placed the receiver down and turned around to face Percy. He was already looking at her, seemingly have sensed something off about her. She smiled.
Hermione knew exactly why she had forgotten about Rita Skeeter and her abominable photos and article.
When Percy, with wet hair, was waiting across the threshold of the bathroom door for her next words, there were no other words to explain him other than a giant puppy, or maybe a baby seal. From the fidgeting fingers to his wide and twinkling eyes, she could actually see how nervous Percy was, how much he cared. It helped her gather the rest of the courage to say what she meant to say.
"I've concluded that I like you. And I like you very very much. In fact, I like you too much to just call it a rare mistake. My time with you so far has been only good and better throughout, and I… would love to try something more with you."
Percy was frozen and staring at her mouth, so Hermione coughed a bit before continuing.
"I know I've already told you last night about how it had been so far between me and the long-term relationships, but if you're, I mean, if you could have a bit of faith in me, then I'll try to have faith in myself and in this relationship as well—"
Hermione noticed that she was merely speaking gibberish now, but she could not stop before Percy say anything. Why was he so quiet?
"—so I guess, what I'm just trying to say here is that I'd really really like to—"
Then Percy grabbed her face and pulled her forward, gently yet still swiftly. He kissed her, and Hermione could feel his lips spread into a smile while they kissed. She closed her eyes and wrapped her arms around his neck. Soon, Percy, grabbing her waist and thigh, hoisted her up, and Hermione held herself up by grabbing Percy's waist with her legs. Then they spun around a bit, having a brief rest from the kiss and giggling, until they reached the bed and fell onto it. Percy fell on his back with Hermione still on him, and the two just easily immersed into more intense kissing and caressing. It, of course, led naturally to the 'very adult' things.
Hermione pushed the phone away slightly and walked toward Percy, who was still half-nude on her bed, looking her way.
"Is everything okay?" He asked.
Hermione nodded half-heartedly.
"Yes, sort of."
"Something's bothering you. What is it?"
Hermione sighed.
"This is really difficult to say… But do you remember when I talked about how my first boyfriend sort of became my big brother?"
"Yeah…?"
"Well, Harry, that's the friend I just talked to on the phone, and that ex-boyfriend, whose name is Ron, by the way, are coming over to… inspect you."
Percy stared at her wordlessly. Hermione was instantly scared. What if he thought this ridiculous and did not find the relationship worth all the trouble? Perhaps sensing that he was scaring her by his silence, he held up his hand and caressed her cheek.
"Sorry, I was just thinking. And when I think, everything but my brain sort of shuts down for a sec. If I frowned, it didn't mean anything with the context of what we're talking about."
Touched by how sweet Percy consistently had been to her, Hermione leaned down and pressed her lips on his cheek. She smiled as she sat up again.
"You're fine."
Percy smiled softly back to her. Then he tilted his head and asked.
"Is there something more? If two of your friends coming over to see me is all the problem there is, I could try and behave well in front of them. That's not too bad at all."
Hermione bit her lower lip.
"Well… that isn't exactly all of it."
She averted her gaze from Percy's. She needed to stop fearing, but this whole ordeal was quite frightening to confess without any preparation for a harsh reaction.
"Harry knows how we met, but Ron… Harry didn't tell Ron about it, and he thinks I shouldn't as well."
Hermione heard Percy hum in contemplation.
"Ron is sort of an extremely protective brother when it comes to me, which I don't approve, not exactly, but I can't stop him because he is still like a family to me. Rejecting his interference in my life, to him, means cutting him off from my life. But the point here is that if he hears of how we met at the bar and how it was all sort of a one-night-stand, he'll try to kill you for taking advantage of me while I was drunk, though it isn't true at all."
She peeked a glance as him. Percy was staring at the ceiling, seemingly deep in thought. Without looking away from the ceiling, he asked.
"But how did he find out you're seeming me? How did he come to assume that we were seeing each other longer than a night?"
Percy turned his head toward her pointedly. His eyes had the look that said Tell me the truth. But how could she? How could she tell him that she was a witch that became famous after fighting in a magical war and that now paparazzi from a newspaper called the Daily Prophet took moving pictures of the two of them last night? As much as she loved Percy currently, Hermione could not be sure if she could spill her secrets, the secrets about an entirely new world hidden behind his, to him yet. She had to be careful with it because he was a muggle. So Hermione gave a truthful lie.
"Someone that knew me took a picture of us together last night, holding hands and kissing, and shared it online with everybody else that knows me… Both Harry and Ron saw it, and it was actually Harry who messaged me to look at the post myself. Everybody thinks that I've been seeing you secretly for a long time. And I have to admit, whoever took those photos caught really good moments, because even when I looked at them, we looked like we had been lovers for years…"
As soon as she said them, she blushed. She could feel her ears heated. She heard Percy chuckle.
"Well, I mean I was definitely falling for you last night, it must have shown in the photos, but wow, whoever took and posted those photos online is a huge douchebag. So everybody thinks you've in this relationship for a while now, but it's a problem with Ron because he knew about your third boyfriend?"
Hermione nodded.
"Yes. I hadn't really told him about breaking up with Snatcher yesterday, so he's probably already upset as to why I didn't care to tell him I did before I started seeing you. But according to Harry, he said this'll be the last time he'll try to check the legitimacy of my boyfriend, so…"
Percy nodded, understanding apparent in his eyes.
"Okay. So what's the story I have to know before I see him?"
Hermione smiled sheepishly.
"I haven't really thought of one yet. I thought we could perhaps come up with one together?"
Percy grinned.
"Yeah, we can."
Harry stood before Hermione's front door. Ron stood by him, most obviously in a bad mood. He grumbled some inaudible things, but Harry ignored Ron and knocked on the door. There was rushing footsteps from inside, and Hermione's voice called out coming! The door opened, and Hermione's smiling face greeted them.
"Hi! Come in."
She led them into the small dining area where the dark haired man from the photos stood behind one of the chairs, waiting. He had a small nervous smile, but when Harry and Ron came near, he approached them with a hand held out. Harry grabbed it first.
"Hi, I'm Percy. You must be…?"
"Harry. Nice to meet you Percy. This is Ron."
He gestured toward Ron, all the while jabbing Ron subtly on the side. Ron begrudgingly held out his hand as well.
"Ron. Pleased to meet you."
Percy grabbed it, and Harry witnessed how Ron became grumpier as his strong grasp left no impact on Percy, who only smiled unknowingly.
"Likewise, Ron."
Hermione, dreading for any awkward silence to come, hurriedly gestured for all of them to sit.
"We got some wine, and crackers too, if you'd like. We probably have cheese somewhere if you want it with the crackers."
As she went to the freezer and began looking for cheese, Ron just glared down at nothing, mumbling, since when it became 'we'? Hermione returned with a plate with a block of white cheese, presumably cream cheese, and a butter knife. She placed it by the plate with crackers on the table and sat next to Percy.
"So… Percy, there they are! Harry and Ron. They've been friends with me since I was eleven, and they're practically my family now."
Percy grinned and responded.
"That's amazing, friends for more than ten years!"
By the way Percy looked Hermione, Harry could tell this man really genuinely loved her. In fact, Harry was sure that if it weren't for him or Ron, Percy would have probably kissed Hermione just now. Ron, also recognizing the loving moment, interrupted, however.
"Yes, and how long have you been seeing each other?"
Percy's grin became a bit meek, and Hermione looked up at him with a reassuring smile. Percy nodded slightly at her and turned his gaze to Ron.
"We met a while ago. She had just broken up with a guy who had a funny name." Harry let out a small scoff. He began to like the man. "We were both drinking at this pub, seated next to each other. We began talking, and then we decided we should meet again. When we did meet again, we agreed that we could probably be a great couple, and here we are."
Percy glanced down at Hermione again, and she looked up at him with the same lovely glaze he had for her. Ron cleared his throat loudly.
"So when did you guys meet?" He looked at Hermione. "When did you break up with Snatcher?"
Hermione bit her lips.
"Ron, I'm sorry I didn't let you know earlier. It's just, things have been hectic and this," Hermione pointed at Percy and herself, "happened really gradually. There really wasn't a good time to tell you."
Harry nodded. It was very smart of Hermione to evade Ron's questions with ambiguity. Even when Ron found out about the truth later, Hermione could tell him that she hadn't exactly lied about it. They never mentioned a specific date, and what they told Ron were basically just parts of the truth. And Hermione had always been good at evading.
Ron, who received the apology he needed, humphed and relaxed his previously tensed up shoulders. He turned his head to Percy, making his most serious face.
"You, mate, had better be good to her. If I hear of Hermione crying just once because of you, I'm going to chase you down."
Hermione shook her head in disbelief, but Percy took in the threat well enough with a good-natured smile, which actually took Ron by surprise and gave him a slight startle.
"Understood."
After that, things flowed smoothly, with more ease. There were some pleasant exchange of stories, and some dangerous moments were there too, in which Percy and Hermione forgot that they were not supposed to reveal that they had only met 24 hours ago. Thankfully, Harry would cut them off before they revealed too much, and Ron was able to be in an undisturbed peace throughout the night.
By the end of the night, Ron had consumed the most wine, unsurprisingly to Harry, and it became his duty to apparate the very drunk Ron and himself to Ron's newest settlement in Wales. He would have to use the floo powder at Ron's, because he himself had consumed quite amount of alcohol and was not sure if he could handle apparations in a row well enough. After some goodbyes inside, Percy was left to clean the glasses and plates while Hermione accompanied Harry and Ron out to see them off.
She had closed the front door behind her and crossed her arms across her chest as she watched Harry struggled to keep the sluggish body of Ron from falling. Harry looked up, righting the position of his glasses, and asked Hermione with his serious and worried voice (something Hermione always made fun of).
"When are you planning to tell him you're a witch or that we're wizards? You know those mental reporters are going to start appearing in your life whenever you're with him."
Hermione sighed.
"I don't know Harry. I'm telling myself soon, but honestly, we've only just established what we're going to be together. I don't know if we're ready for another emotional incident yet."
Harry nodded understandably.
"Well, you'll have to find the right time and place to do it before a random wizard or witches apparate right in front of him. Who knows, Snatcher, or even Talesob, could come to you and hex your newest boyfriend, especially with the kind of attention he's receiving in the wizarding society right now. You need to let him prepare for those kind of things, you know."
"I know. I just need some time. It's going to happen soon, though. When it does, I'll let you know. I'll probably need you to prove I'm a witch to him anyways, if that time comes."
"You mean, when that time comes."
Hermione chuckled.
"Alright, Harry. Be safe. Be careful not to pinch yourself on the way back."
"'Kay, good night, 'Mione."
And within a second, the two wizards apparated out of sight. And there stood Hermione staring into the dark street, unaware of how soon Percy would be exposed to the magical world, sooner than she had thought.