Chapter 4 - Beginnings

Harry looked over the yellow flickering candle at his best friend. She was positively beaming at him, being patient while waiting for him to choose from the menu. Hermione had dragged him to a restaurant in a muggle city centre called "Frankie and Benny's". It served all kinds of American and Italian foods, ranging from big, greasy burgers to delicate pasta dishes. The room was dimly lit, and Harry and Hermione were sat in a small leather booth by themselves. After a couple of minutes, Harry set his menu down and had a quick sip of his coke.

"What are you having?" asked Hermione, smiling at him. To her this was the date that she had been dreaming of for months.

"Hmm, I'm going to play it safe and have the pepperoni pizza." Harry replied, putting his coke down and checking his menu for the price again.

"Wuss, that's really boring. Maybe you should try something that you can't have usually." Hermione replied with a playful smirk on her face "I'm going to have the Spinach and Ricotta Cannelloni; I've had it before."

Stubborn as ever, Harry wanted to stick with his order. The waitress came back a couple of minutes earlier to take their orders. She was extremely pretty, with big blue eyes, clear skin, blonde hair and very long legs, attributes that Harry certainly didn't fail to notice. Hermione watched Harry's eye line as he gave the waitress his order, and from judging his expression towards the waitress, Hermione got very jealous. Pursing her lips, Hermione tried not to let on the feelings of the green eyed monster inside her. What was worse was that the waitress obviously liked the look of Harry too, smiling at him much more warmly than when she had taken Hermione's order. She seemed to be trying to make it so that Harry was the one in charge and put it upon herself to make Harry feel important. Obviously, Harry liked this. Hermione, however didn't and quickly started talking about their trip the cinema later. Harry noted that she used the word "darling" while the waitress was there, which he thought was very strange, but ignored it. After all, it made him feel warm inside.

Hermione was relieved that they weren't disturbed at all while they were eating. Harry ravenously ate all of his pizza while listening to Hermione talking about whether they should go back to Hogwarts next year. He gave her his undivided attention when she was talking, looking into her eyes. Hermione however couldn't maintain eye contact for long, as she began to blush and so she looked away.

The conversation soon turned over to Hermione's relationship with Ron.

"So what are you going to do now then?" asked Harry "You know that he's totally head-over-heels for you."

"I just don't know," replied Hermione, running her fingers through her hair in stress. "I really don't want to hurt him, but I like somebody else, though I know that's not going anywhere. He's completely oblivious to the fact that I even like him, even though I thought that I had made it god damn obvious enough. And no before you ask I won't tell you who he is, you don't know him anyway."

"Oh." Harry replied, thinking about this shocking revelation. He was shocked at the sudden sinking feeling that he had in the pit of his stomach, one that he'd only felt once before, but it was way more intense then. He realised he was jealous of Hermione's mystery man.

It wasn't long after this that the bill came, the blonde waitress passing it purposefully over to Harry before winking at him. He realised immediately that a telephone number was written underneath with a name. Kelly. Seeing this, Hermione snatched up the slip of paper from the table and began to rustle in her handbag for her purse. She wanted to get Harry away from "her" as fast as she could, the jealousy bubbling up inside her. Another reason for this behaviour was that she needed to get herself out of there as quick as she could, because she was dying to reach for her wand and hex the girl to oblivion. Harry didn't seem to notice at all as she dragged him forcefully outside by the arm.

Hermione's deep sigh surprised Harry as they pushed through the big glass doors of the restaurant to get out. Harry kept schtum again instead of asking her for the reason. He had a bit of an inkling but he didn't want to say anything in case he made a complete fool of himself. Hermione's high heels clacked against the pavement as they walked under the streetlights to the cinema. After a minute or too, she linked arms with Harry, praying in her mind that it would be alright and that Harry wouldn't think it was weird. "If it will happen, tonight will be the night." Hermione thought as she watched the pavement, the water on the surface of the asphalt making it glitter like hundreds of tiny diamonds. Harry's heart skipped as he felt Hermione's arm around his, and tightened the angle of it in order to pull her closer a bit. Praying that this was a sign, Hermione looked straight ahead into the brightly lit street, butterflies flying around rapidly in her stomach as they proceeded towards to revolving door of the cinemaplex.

Hermione had already booked the film in advance, sliding her credit card into a machine which immediately proceeded to print out the tickets that were needed for entry. When her card popped out again, Hermione passed Harry's ticket over to him. It said that they would be seeing a film called "Titanic" and it would be on screen seven. Harry had no idea what he was in for, so he blindly followed Hermione towards the screens. She had decided on not buying popcorn from the vendors near the entrance, as it was far too expensive, besides she had a number of treats in her handbag for the film.

Half an hour into the movie, Harry became very surprised when he realised Hermione's choice of film genre, having previously no idea of the storyline. She was sat on his right in the darkness of the theatre, her eyes transfixed on Leonardo Di Caprio as he held Kate Winslet to stop her from falling from the ship. Harry also realised that there was a look of longing in her eyes, like this love was missing from her life. Harry prayed that her mystery man was him as he gingerly placed his arm on the armrest, with his palm facing upwards.

Hermione suddenly became very nervous when she saw this reaction out of the corner of her eye. Was he doing this for comfort? Or was this something more? Question after question swam around in her head as she thought, trying desperately to build up the courage to reach out and grab his hand. Slowly, she reached out her hand and placed it gently upon Harry's. Both of their hearts lifted like rockets, and immediate electricity coursing through them as the butterflies in their stomachs suddenly got a hundred times bigger and faster. Harry looked at Hermione, and at the fingers in the palm of his hand. Closing his fingers gently, he used the other arm to lift up the armrest and hold Hermione's hand properly. Still watching the film, Hermione began to cry as they reached towards the end, watching Rose reluctantly let Jack's hypothermic body fall into the water.

As Harry watched the glistening tears fall down Hermione's face, he felt the uncontrollable urge to touch her, to make her happy again. Using his free hand he wiped the tears from Hermione's face. She smiled, making it obvious to Harry that she felt so foolish, that they had been through just as difficult problems together and that she was crying at a film! Harry didn't care. With great hesitation, Harry let go of Hermione's hand and placed on of his fingers under her chin, slowly pulling her face towards his. Knowing what was happening, and with her stomach in her mouth, Hermione closed her eyes and parted her lips slightly. His heart pounding in his chest, Harry pushed his lips against hers in blissful oblivion. While they were kissing they were completely unaware of anything going on around them. They were completely engrossed in each other, as their lips moved and parted to fit with each other's again and again. After about 30 seconds, they came up for air, realising that a number of angry people had gotten to their feet. The screen had stopped working and now was completely snowy, with a static sound blasting from the speakers. Harry and Hermione had completely missed the fact that all the technology had stopped working the moment that their lips had touched.

Harry and Hermione were positively beaming as they stepped out of the revolving doors of the cinemaplex. They walked hand in hand as they meandered along the pavement towards the nearest main road so that they could signal the Knight Bus to take them back to the Burrow. They hardly said any words at all as they walked under the inky sky, still reeling from the fact that they were now together, both feeling the electricity that centred at the clasp between their two hands.

On the Knight Bus, Hermione snuggled up to Harry on a double seat as it set off with a shunt. She thought that she had never remembered feeling happier or more complete as she felt Harry stroke back locks of her hair as they were shoved this way and that by the movement of the Knight Bus. It was about five minutes later that they were back on the nearest main road to the Burrow. Harry noticed that Fawkes was still flying overhead as she had all this time, he had been watching over them all night.

Walking through the darkness, they let go of each other's hands as they saw the lights of the Weasley household fast approaching. They had already agreed that since Ron obviously had feelings for her, it would be a good idea for him not to find out, at least for a while anyway. Nevertheless they couldn't hide the smiles on their faces as they walked into the kitchen to join Fred, Ron, Ginny and Molly at the table, who had been just talking.

"Hi you two! How was your evening?" Molly asked as Harry sat down next to her.

"Really good," Harry replied "Hermione took me to a restaurant and then to see this film called "Titanic" at a muggle cinema. While it was really good, it was a bit sad. All the girls in the room were crying anyway.

"Well bringing out emotion shows a good piece of art" Molly replied as she summoned two cups of tea to the table. "Harry, are you alright?"

Harry was leant forwards on the table in obvious pain. He had a sharp stabbing pain in the stomach, and he started to feel very queasy. He couldn't say anything in reply to Molly to stop himself from whimpering, he also feared that if he opened his mouth he might be sick. He bolted from the table and up the stairs to the nearest toilet. He heard footsteps behind him as he got into the toilet and let loose into the toilet bowl.

"Bloody hell, Hermione," Ron said incredulously "What have you been feeding him?"

Hermione ignored him, and began to rub her new boyfriends back, and held his fair out of his face. While it wasn't in the way, Hermione didn't know what else to do. It was obvious to her that it was just a stomach bug that he must have gotten from the pizza. Harry continued to throw up for at least another ten minutes, Hermione and Ron grimacing as they saw what was coming out of his mouth. Harry really was whimpering now, he felt so weak that he could just collapse at any moment. Soon it began to subside, however and finally Harry sat with his back against the wall.

"Er... I'll go get you some water, alright?" Ron said, leaving the bathroom to run to the kitchen. He absolutely bounded down the stairs and his mother was already waiting at the bottom with the glass in her hand, obviously she was already bringing it up.

"Thanks, Mum." he said as he took the glass, and walked slowly up the stairs back towards the bathroom.

"It's alright baby, I'm here," Hermione said, running her finger down Harry's cheek. "Just take a deep breath." Harry did so, breathing in through his nose and out through his mouth. Ron entered just a second later with the glass of water. His face was white and his eyes wide. Silently, he passed the water to Hermione and left the bathroom quickly. Moments later, Hermione heard a bedroom door slam.