A/N: You guys are amazing! I cannot believe all the love this story is getting! I mean that whole chapter I just put up was written in a day, I was just so inspired! You guys I promise there will be plenty of Dramione in future chapters and not as many cliffhangers. Again thank you so much for all of your reviews!

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters, places, or names in this story they are all property of J.K. Rowling our Queen

Chapter 3 – The Phoenix Hears

Knocking. Incessant knocking on his front door was all he was aware of at the moment. Who would be knocking on his door at this hour? He looked at the clock by his bed and saw that it was currently three in the afternoon. Had he really slept so late today? He quickly jumped out of his bed and pulled on a shirt in the same moment as he headed for the front door. He made a half-hearted attempt at fixing his sleep mussed hair and quickly gave up on it. His hair had always been untidy and nothing had ever changed that, in fact he remember Hagrid suggesting he comb his hair once in 4th year. He looked through the small little peephole in his door and saw bushy, brown hair. He unlocked his door and his emerald green eyes widened when his best friend Hermione Granger practically launched herself into his arms with enough force to almost knock them both over. Spluttering and spitting out her curly hair he attempted to disentangle himself from his over-enthusiastic friend. "'er-ermiome, can'f breave.", he mumbled between spitting chunks of her hair out of his mouth. "Oh goodness Harry I-I am so- so s-s-soo-rry!" She extricated herself from him and started to hiccough and sob as she did so.

Now he was worried. Hermione rarely cried, and even more rarely did she sob. "Hermione, what's wrong? What happened? Here let's go sit in the living space. I'll have Gin make you some tea." Harry brushed her hair out of her face in a friendly and loving gesture before leading her towards the living room of the Godric's Hollow house he shared with his wife, Ginny Weasley. He quickly sent a patronus to his wife asking her if she could put some tea on to boil for three. "Alright, Hermione, what's wrong?" he asked her once they had sat down. Hermione immediately jumped up from the couch she had just sat on and proceeded to pace around the room agitatedly. She was getting red in the face, she no longer looked sad but angry. Harry was concerned for whomever had pissed her off. He knew just how scary she could get when she was angry, he remembered back in 6th year when Ron had flaunted his relationship with Lavender Brown in front of Hermione all year and that just did not go well, for anyone involved.

"It's Ron." She stated simply, looking too angry to say much more than that. Harry sighed quietly under his breath, what had the idiot done this time to piss her off? "Would you care to elaborate on that?" he asked as politely as possible, best not to piss her off more, lest her anger be directed towards him instead. "Well, I came home early today from work, as I had some wonderful news to tell him. I have been nominated for both the Chief Executive Minister and the Minister of Magic positions, and I was hoping to celebrate with him. But when I came home I couldn't find him, so I went upstairs figured I'd slip into something er- something silk. I was going to give it to him, finally. I know he's been bugging me about how we never have sex. But I kept telling him it was important I get where I was going in my career first. Anyway, well I walked up the stairs to our bedroom and well….hewasinbedwithpansyparkinson." She finished quickly, twisting her hands, and pacing the room. "I- I'm sorry. Hermione did you say 'he was in bed with Pansy Parkinson'?" Harry asked incredulously. That couldn't be right, I mean they all couldn't stand that girl, and how anybody could be sexually attracted to her was more than a mystery to Harry, it was an impossibility.

"Yes Harry, he was in BED with Pansy-motherfreaking-Parkinson, that whore!" She said through clenched teeth. Harry rarely heard Hermione cuss either, it was just so unlike her. "Wait a minute, you were going to finally give it to him? Hermione, really? Your virginity?" Harry was amazed, Hermione was 23 now and she had finally decided to give Ron her virginity, well, only to find him in bed with another witch. A witch that was Pansy Parkinson, no less, but still, Harry just couldn't believe Ron would be so stupid as to cheat on Hermione. "Yes! Harry, I just, I can't go back there right now. Would it be alright with you and Ginny if I just spent a few nights here? I'm looking for an apartment right now but I just need a few nights to clear my head. I'll be out of here before you know it." Hermione was close to tears again, thinking about what Ron had done to her, to her heart, to their relationship. "Mione, you know you can always stay here. I'm sure Gin will be more than happy you're staying to be honest, I know she's been wanting to talk to you for a while. I've no idea why, she just keeps asking about you at every opportunity. I know I married her, but sometimes I just have no idea what is going on in that flaming head of hers." Harry threw his hands up in the air in an expression of the exasperation he felt at his wife's actions.

"Oh Harry thank you so much! Thank you, thank you, thank you!" she stopped her pacing to hug her best friend for being so kind and generous to her. At that moment Ginny came into the living room carrying a tray with tea on it. "Mione! Harry didn't say who had come over, just that we needed tea for three people instead of just the two of us. I'm so happy you're here!" She set the tea tray down on a table and squealed a little as she ran towards her closest female friend, arms outstretched for a hug. The two girls hugged for a long time before breaking apart with very large grins on their faces. "You!" Ginny pointed to her husband with what looked like an expression of anger on her face. "Out, she and I have to talk about girly stuff." Ginny smiled a little, hoping her husband wouldn't catch it. Harry held his hands up in a symbol of surrender and backed out a little with a sheepish grin on his face, "As you wish milady, just don't chat 'Mione's ears off. We do have a reservation for dinner tonight at seven, you have two hours and then you better start getting ready. I know you take a long time to get ready when we go out like this." Ginny humphed at her husband's teasing and made a shooing gesture at him indicating he really needed to leave. "Gin, calm down. We have two hours to talk, it's alright. Besides I'll be spending a few nights here so it's not like we won't be seeing each other any time soon." Hermione pulled the flame-haired girl with her onto a loveseat nearby and faced her with a large smile. "Alright what is it you wanted to talk to me about? Harry says you've been asking about me a lot lately."

"I'm pregnant." "What? Are you really? Oh Gin! Harry has got to be ecstatic! I wonder why he hadn't already told me." Hermione mused a little, then it dawned on her, she obviously hadn't told him yet. "Gin! You've haven't even told him have you? No, I know you haven't because Harry wouldn't have been able to keep it a secret, he'd be telling everybody!" Hermione scowled at the girl next to her in mock indignation. "Mione!" she whined a little, "I haven't told him because I just found out two days ago, that's why we're going out tonight, I wanted to tell him someplace special. I was going to make a nice dinner for him but when I suggested that he just said he would make some reservations and you know Harry, once he makes up his mind, it's made up. He won't listen to reason. He only ever listens to Sirius and he's been in Egypt for the last three weeks." Ginny tried to placate Hermione, any girl could understand wanting to make this kind of announcement special. "Alright, Gin. I just couldn't seem to understand why he wouldn't have known already. I get it now though, alright, you have to give me a complete story of his reaction. I can't wait to hear all about it!" Hermione said thoughtfully. "Mione, telling you I was pregnant wasn't the only reason I wanted to tell you about it in the first place. I wanted to ask you something very important. Will you be the godmother?" Hermione gasped, Ginny wanted her to be the godmother of her child? She was so touched by the thought, she hadn't really thought about it, ever. "Oh, Gin…." She said her voice quavering and her eyes sparkling with unshed tears. "Is that a yes?" Ginny asked uncertainly. "Of course it is!" The two girls squealed at each other with unbridled joy and hugged tightly.

"Careful Gin, that's my god baby in there!" Hermione lightly scolded the younger girl then giggled a little about it all. This was just amazing. She couldn't believe how this day was going. It was as though the universe was hell bent upon cheering her up today. First, an amazing lunch with Draco and now this? Finding out her best girlfriend was pregnant with her best friend's baby? It was just a wonderful day. Suddenly she was thrown back to her lunch with Draco today. She remembered how they had seemed as though they were going to kiss. Then she had removed herself from the situation as quickly as she could. Although it wouldn't have been the first kiss she had shared with Draco Malfoy.

Knock, knock, knock. Knock, knock, knock. Where the hell was everybody? She hadn't been gone that long. She told them all she was going to get a Christmas tree for the house, somebody should have been inside to let her in. She started to knock again when the door swung open mid-knock. She couldn't see whom it was due to the tree blocking their face from her view but she assumed it was Harry. "Hey, help me lift this thing in? I would levitate it but I can't reach my wand right now." The person on the other side said, "Sure thing." And grabbed once side and helped her lift the large tree inside. Once they were inside the door with it the other person stopped walking. "Hey! Why did you stop?" Hermione asked a little confusedly. They had to get this thing into the library, which was a whole hallway away from where they had stopped. "I can't move further. I'm stuck." "What? What do you mean you're stuck?" Hermione asked, the confusion coloring her voice unmistakable now. "Merlin! Sirius Black, you bastard!" Hermione yelled, hoping he was in the house. If he knew how mad she was now he would be apparating out of there as fast as possible. "Why are you cussing about that mangy cur Granger?" "Malfoy? I thought you were Harry! Nevermind that now, I'm mad at Sirius because he said he was going to put up magical mistletoe, I thought he was joking but he obviously wasn't." Hermione explained patiently.

"Alright Granger, well what's magical mistletoe have to do with the fact that I can't move?" Draco asked, impatience coloring his voice. "Magical mistletoe will activate when two people not of blood relation meet up under it, it doesn't allow them to leave until a kiss has been shared between the two." Hermione explained in her textbook voice. "Well, I'm not kissing you Granger." "And I'm not kissing you either Malfoy!" Hermione retorted, a little of the hurt she felt at his comment seeping into her voice without her permission. "Well we can't just stand here all day, we're impeding foot traffic in the house! Isn't there some sort of spell or something you can do to get us out of here?" Draco whined impatiently. "No there isn't Malfoy, it's a naturally occurring phenomenon that for whatever reason no one has come up with a spell to get out of the situation. The only way we are getting out of here is by kissing." Hermione explained angrily. Draco slumped onto the floor on the other side of the tree and humphed, he didn't want to kiss Granger. Although, he thought to himself, would it really be all that bad? I mean it was just one kiss. He could imagine it was somebody else. Who would it hurt? "Alright Granger, I have decided, I shall grant you one kiss from my wonderful lips. This will be for the sole purpose of getting us out of here, I will not be kissing you because I like you, know that." Draco said in his most snooty voice. Hermione made a snorting sound that she tried her best to stifle before she moved closer to him and around the tree that was between them. "Fine Malfoy, but I hope you know I want to kiss you even less than you want to kiss me. Let's just get this over with alright, and quickly so that nobody sees us." She reached out towards him to grab his shirt and pull him towards her. He wrapped his arms around her, and she retaliated by wrapping her arms around his neck. They leaned their faces towards each other. Time seemed to slow down, further and further until it was just them. Their faces inching towards each other, their breath began to mingle. Hermione's eyes started to close of their own volition, Draco watched with half-lidded eyes and then they were kissing. It started out awkward, neither one wanting to properly kiss the other. It then turned into a full-force kiss, neither one willing to break apart. Until the front door opening behind them alerted them to the fact that they were in the Order Headquarters house. People were always coming and going. They quickly sprung apart from each other. "That was awful Granger, I pity whoever else kisses you." Draco said with as much venom as he could force into his voice. "I have to say, that rumour about 'Sex God of Slytherin' can't be true if that's how you kiss Malfoy!" Hermione retorted, wiping her mouth for added drama. But it wasn't true, they both had felt something. Something they wouldn't admit to even themselves for years to come.

"Mione!" Ginny practically screeched. "Huh? What were you saying Gin?" Hermione asked somewhat dreamily, not realizing she had been totally out of it for the last few minutes. "I was asking you what was the reason for why you would be staying here for a few nights, but now I want to know what caused that stupid grin to come across your face a few seconds ago." She said with a sort of evil little grin on her face, Hermione could imagine Ginny rubbing her hands together like a classic evil villain and twirling a mustache evilly. "No-nothing. What grin? I have no idea what you're talking about Gin." Hermione said nervously, she was fairly certain that the only people who knew about that kiss between her and Draco were well, herself and Draco. No way was she going to tell Ginny Weasley, gossip extraordinaire about it. If she did she would never hear the end of it, especially considering it had happened back in 5th year and eight years had passed since then without her having told the other girl about it. "Hermione Granger! You have gossip, and juicy gossip too! I can smell it on you! Tell me! Either tell me or I will find out somehow and from what I can see you probably don't want me prying around everywhere to find out the hard way!" Ginny shouted, practically bouncing up and down. Hermione chewed her lip nervously. Should she tell Ginny? She really didn't want her to go prying, because when Ginny went prying she found out everything about you that you didn't really want somebody to know about.

"Alright Gin! Fine I'll tell you. Alright but one second." Hermione waved her hands in a gesture that suggested she was going to placate the fiery redhead. She quickly walked over to the door and placed a quick locking charm on the door. "Alright Gin, I ran into Draco Malfoy today at Gringott's-" "Well that's not very juicy!" she complained, interrupting Hermione's story. "Well let me finish first! Alright I ran into Draco today, and he invited me out to lunch. We had a really nice lunch and then, I almost kissed him-" "You almost kissed him?!" Ginny practically screeched in surprise, once again interrupting Hermione's story. "Ginny!" Hermione shouted in exasperation. How am I ever supposed to get through a story if she keeps interrupting me! Hermione thought to herself exasperatedly. "Sorry, sorry. I'll be quiet I promise. Just finish quickly alright!" "Alright, so I almost kissed him, but I left before I could and the stupid grin was because if I had kissed him today it wouldn't have been the first time. There was this time back in 5th year, magical mistletoe, and yeah." Hermione finished kind of lamely, figuring the redheaded girl would interrupt again if she went into any more detail than that. Ginny just whistled in surprise, she was so speechless by her best friend's revelation about Draco Malfoy. Unbeknownst to the two chattering girls a raven-haired man stood just outside the door having caught the tail end of their conversation.