A/n- Yeah so loving the feed back! Whooo! Thanks guys. Again this is a sort of filler chapter before we get to the steamy stuff which is the real reason we read M rated ficts! Lol. Anyway this has some fluff and some chemistry between the couple but as I say it won't be till next chapter it really hits off. Enjoy!

Chapter 4

Harry and Hermione did meet up that Monday, and that Wednesday and that Thursday and went for a stroll through Hyde Park on Sunday afternoon. Every free lunch or day they were together just enjoying each others company. For a while they avoided the subject of Ron and Ginny but they eventually after they could no longer dance around the redheads they got more comfortable discussing it. They talked about the fights they had, their worries and their dwindling sex lives – which made Harry blush slightly. After a month or so they knew everything about each other and were closer than they had ever imagined they would be. They had always been close obviously but it was a different kind now, like they had discovered a completely new person within the old image they had had for so many years. Harry now saw the confident charming woman Hermione was, not the brash bushy haired girl he had met on the train. Hermione saw the relaxed and charismatic man Harry had become and no longer thought of him as the young boy she'd bailed out of trouble so many times.

One day they were sitting at a little outdoor café in the West End having lunch. Hermione sat and was reading over some work documents and Harry watched her, taking in every movement she made. He laughed softly and she looked up.

"What?" she asked "Do I have some sauce on my face or something?"

"No." he laughed again "It's just the way you bite your lip when you don't agree with something, it's…"

"Amazing? Beautiful? Captivating? What exactly are you trying to say man?" his mind taunted him.

"It's what?" said Hermione also laughing now.

"Entertaining…" he said "Idiot." His mind replied.

"I'm glad I amuse you so much." She said sarcastically and then sighed dropping the document on the table with a thud.

"What's wrong?" he asked

"Oh this stupid new Broom is being pushed to get approved but I'm afraid I don't understand the schematics well enough to calculate the risk factors…." She explained.

"Wow something Hermione Granger doesn't understand!" Harry teased and she stuck out her tongue "I'm kidding, let me take a look at it I know some stuff about brooms believe it or not."

She nodded and he pulled his chair round next to her. He could smell her strawberry conditioner in her curls and feel her soft skin as it brushed against his arm. Casually he slipped an arm around her waist to get more comfortable. The back of his mind noticed how easy it was, almost too easy.

""It's this part here." She said pointing to a rather long paragraph at the bottom of the page. Adjusting his glasses he began to read.

"Hmmm that is quite complicated. I think it means that the acceleration has been tested and it won't affect the magical charms..." He mused furrowing his brow in concerntration.

"That's what I thought but then it goes into how it affects the rider and it looses me." She said frustrated. He looked at her and smiled and she smiled back.

"We've not done this in years." He said "You know trying to figure something out, reading up on the subject."

"I know I've missed it…" she said softly noticing how close he was.

"Me too." He told her in almost a whisper. There was no space between them now and Harry placed a hand on her face and stroked her cheek with his thumb. He noticed the soft plump pinkness of her lips and the warm chocolate sparkle of her eyes. He wondered what it would be like to kiss Hermione Granger, to taste those lips and lock with her eyes. She was staring at him now with those brown orbs and he felt drawn in, their noses and lips were almost touching. He couldn't escape but he didn't really want to. Their breathing was becoming more and more ragged as Harry leant in to kiss her. Then the alarm bells went off in his head.

"What are you doing mate! She's your best friend!" his mind screamed. He pulled away at the last second and jumped up from the chair.

"I eh, I've got to go. I mean training and stuff…really sorry 'Mione I'll catch you later." He stuttered and grabbed his jacket. A moment later he was gone. Hermione was bewildered. One minute he was leaning in to kiss her the next he was off like a bullet. She didn't want to admit it but it hurt. She hadn't planned this but she couldn't say that over the last month the thought of kissing Harry hadn't occurred to her. Sighing sadly she ate the rest of her salad and wondered if they'd ever meet up alone again.

---

Harry flopped down on the couch yet again. It hadn't been a good day. He had probably messed things up with Hermione irreparably, he then obviously hadn't taken in anything in Auror training and Ginny was two hours late. He felt physically and mentally drained. He had almost drifted off to sleep when the front door gave a soft click.

"Hey honey." Ginny called setting down her bag and her keys on the table.

"Hey…" Harry replied. Ginny walked over to him and gave him a quick peck on the cheek and sat next to him.

"How was your day?" he asked but what he really wanted to know was where she had been.

"It was alright, yours?"

"It was alright." He said flatly. An awkward silence swept over them and Harry's mind drifted into thinking how easy it was talking to Hermione. She always had something interesting to tell him or intelligent to say.

"So I was thinking…" he said breaking the silence "Next Thursday night we should have a night just you and me. What do you say?"

"Next Thursday?" she said quizzically.

"Yeah, our two year anniversary Ginny." He said sternly. How could she have forgotten?

"Oh no!" she squealed in horror but Harry didn't quite feel it was genuine.

"What?"

"It's just I- I've made plans with-"

"Don't!" Harry shouted "Don't even say that you've got plans with Dean Thomas on our anniversary!"

"It's not like I meant it Harry!" Ginny screamed back at him. "It's just the way the training schedules worked out."

"Oh bullshit!" he snapped "I just never thought id see the day when…" he stopped short his voice wracked with emotion "When Ginny Weasley – the woman I love would run so openly to another man on our anniversary."

"Stop being so overdramatic!" she spat coldly at him. Suddenly something deep inside Harry snapped. For a moment he was beyond the hurt, beyond the anger but reached a stage where he just couldn't stand it anymore.

"You know what I'm leaving." He said coolly grabbing his jacket. "This time I'm telling you – don't wait up."

He stormed out the door and slammed it roughly behind him. Irritated he trudged down the three flights of stairs and out of the apartment block. He let out a sigh of frustration and without warning slammed his fist into the wall beside him. Immediately he regretted his decision as his hand started to bleed.

"Fuck!" he cursed shaking his hand furiously. He shook his head and knew there was only one thing he could do. Get sloshed.

---

Hermione sat curled up in front of a roaring fire, glass of Rosie in one hand and a book in the other. However the book she had was not quite one of scholarly interests. She supposed she had her mother to blame. She remembered when she was a child her mother would always be reading some sort of trashy romance novel and would blush furiously whenever Hermione's father asked her why she was smiling when she read them. Now it would seem that she had passed the liking for a steamy read on to her daughter. However this particular night she couldn't really concentrate on the sizzling romance between Greta the Victorian Debutant and Jack the chimney sweep. It was all down to the days events with Harry. Hermione had felt her stomach lurch when Harry had leant in to kiss her, she thought for sure he would but then he had pulled away. She supposed it was best he hadn't, it would have just made things awkward. And yet she couldn't say she hadn't wondered, hadn't wanted it….

Slam! She closed the book with a harrumph and dropped it on to the near by coffee table. Taking another sip of her Rosie wine she tried desperately to get Harry's face out of her mind, tried to expel his intoxicating scent from her memory, tried not to be drawn in by those hypnotic green eyes every time she closed hers, she wanted to get rid of the want to kiss those delicate lips. She jumped slightly at a knock on the door.

"Who the hell can this be?" she muttered getting up and going to the door. She unlocked the dead bolt and she was surprised to see Harry at the other side.

"Harry?" she said quizzically. He looked dishevelled and agitated. His glasses were slightly squint and his hair was more messy than usual. He smiled at her softy and raised his arms revealing two long bottles.

"Tequila?" he said "Or Vodka?"

A/n - So….personally I'm a vodka girl Harry! This is a warning in advance, next chapter is the first of quite a few sex scenes and if you don't like them I'd suggest you either stop reading the fict now or find a way to skip by them!

Thanks for all the lovely reviews, keep them coming as I like to know what you all think!

Performanceaddict

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