A/N: This chapter was extremely difficult for me to write. That is the reason it has taken longer than expected. I thought this chapter would be easy, but as I started writing it, my fingers, 'took me in a different direction'.

AUTHOR'S NOTE PLEASE READ!!!!: Okay listen up. This chapter is mainly Harry/Hermione, but NOT ROMANTICALLY they are simply better than best friends. The relationship they have in this story is very rare, even in today's world. That is, a boy and a girl, always together, who enjoy each other's company very much, but are not romantically interested.

Emotionless Chapter 4

Let's Dance

"Harry Potter." Hermione said into the flames as she stepped lightly into the fireplace. Her stomach was doing flips, round offs, if you will. She had not spoken to Harry in about a year and a half. Hermione wasn't really sure why the stopped talking, and remembering that day by the lake, Hermione's heart was breaking.

She tumbled out of the fire to an empty room. She looked around curiously. This was defiantly Harry's room. The question was, was there anyone else? Hermione looked at Harry's bedside table. She gasped when she saw a picture of Harry holding a small bundle of blankets. The blankets seemed to be kicking and screaming, but Harry was positively beaming. Hermione looked around the room for a door and found one. She tiptoed over to it and turned the knob gently.

A faint crying could be heard and it seemed to be coming from downstairs. Hermione found the stairs quickly and walked as quietly as was possible down the them. The crying seemed to be growing louder and Hermione suddenly found herself at a door reading 'Jacey Potter'. Hermione did a double-take at seeing her middle name was the first name of Harry's child. A soft humming was coming from the inside of the room. Hermione found herself staring at the golden plate mounted on the door for quite some time until she finally reached a hand to the door and knocked softly. The doorknob was turning, as was Hermione's stomach. The door opened slowly and the man on the other side looked up.

Hermione smiled a very small smile, while Harry didn't know what to do. "Hermione," he whispered. "Merlin, it's you!" Harry embraced her as well as he could with a baby in his arms. "Oh gods…it's been…years. Come on in, this is Jacey's nursery," the man explained breathlessly. He sat down in a rocker and motioned Hermione to the opposite sofa. She sat down as he moved his chair closer to the sofa she was sitting on. His green eyes sparkled after the initial shock and searched her brown orbs. Hermione silently begged him to say something. "Hermione, it's been a year and a half. Why now?"

Hermione took a deep breath. "Harry, it's so good to see you."

"Of course Hermione, but why tonight? We haven't spoken in ages. Of course I love talking to you, and I've missed you every day-"

Hermione suddenly cut him off. "That's Jacey?" she asked suddenly, indicating the bundle of pink blankets Harry held delicately.

"Er…yes. Jacey Tyler Potter. My little girl. She's about ten months."

"Of course, Tyler…" Hermione said, "Ron's middle name…I should have known." She smiled slightly.

"Why tonight?"

Hermione's smile instantly dropped. "There's no use in putting it off any longer. The thing is, I don't know why I came here, of all places. Merlin knows I should have gone to Ron's, since this concerns him, but I just couldn't bring myself to talk to him. You know, I haven't seen or spoken to him since Draco and I were married," the words poured out of Hermione's mouth like water.

"Whoa, whoa, slow down Hermione. You mean to tell me that you haven't told Ron anything since you've been married? He doesn't know you have two fine children? One graduating from Hogwarts this very month?" Harry tried to keep his voice down, but to no avail. His face fell when he found he had awoken his daughter. Hermione held out her hands and Harry handed Jacey to her. She stopped crying immediately and resorted to whimpering.

Hermione looked at the baby in her arms and smiled a smile she hadn't smiled in a long time. "Jacey, Jacey Tyler." The baby looked up at her questioningly. Hermione rocked her arms gently while whispering soothing sounds. "She's beautiful, Harry," Hermione told her best friend. "She's got your amazing eyes." It was true. Green eyes sparkled brilliantly beneath small eyelids. Traces of brown hair were visible on the girl's head. Hermione arched her eyebrow. "Brown hair…"

Harry's proud smile instantly dropped. "Yes," he said shortly. Hermione's brown eyes urged him on. "Katie committed suicide about two months after Jacey was born."

Hermione's large eyes glazed over with tears of compassion for her best friend. "Oh, Harry…" she breathed. Hermione looked at the baby in her arms and motioned for Harry to sit beside her on the sofa. Harry obliged as Hermione handed Jacey gently to him. She put a comforting arm around him as she saw a tear drop from his eye. Hermione felt her own eyes welling with tears as she wiped Harry's tear from his face. "Do you want to go do something?" Hermione asked suddenly. "Let's go somewhere-like we used to."

Harry looked at her curiously. "Hermione, it's six at night. I can't leave Jacey alone. Hermione, I'm not sixteen anymore, and neither are you."

Hermione eyed Harry. "Come on Harry. I'll…I'll get Seth to come watch her. Oh please Harry. I've got to get out of reality. Let's go dancing." The girl on the sofa pleaded with her large, round, brown orbs. Harry gave in, as he always had when they were younger. They sat, Harry's arm around Hermione in a comforting way, Hermione's head on his shoulder, remembering the night they made it a tradition.

Flashback The Trio's 7th Year

"Hermione, come on! It's past ten-thirty!" Harry told his best friend adamantly. They were the only two left in the common room. Harry had stayed up with Hermione, or rather, Hermione had asked Harry to stay up to help her study for NEWTS.

"Harry, I told you, I'm not going to bed until I finish this bloody potions essay Snape assigned, but by all means, go to bed. Merlin knows it's well past Harry Potter's bedtime." Hermione smiled slyly at him.

Harry eyed her, annoyed. "It's past everyone's curfew, Hermione! Come on."

Hermione didn't answer and the two sat in silence for another half hour or so. Suddenly, Hermione started to sob. Harry rushed from the chair in front of the fireplace to the table at which Hermione was seated. He quickly pulled up a chair and sat beside her. He laid a hand on one of her shoulders and tilted her chin up with the other. "Hermione…you've gotta get out of here. Let's go dancing…"

Hermione's red eyes closed for a moment, apparently thinking. "A-alright," she whispered, barely audible.

"Stay right here. Don't move," Harry darted up to his dormitory to retrieve his invisibility cloak. He was back in the common room within a few seconds. "Let's go." he whispered. He walked over to the fireplace and threw a pinch of floo powder in. The flames turned bright green. He stepped in and helped Hermione in as well. "The Three Broomsticks!" Harry said quietly but precisely, holding Hermione's hand.

Hermione, who had never seen the Three Broomsticks at night, gasped in awe of what it had transformed into. There was a large dance floor because almost all of the booths had magically disappeared. the pub's lights were dimmed, with a few spotlights here and there and a disco ball hanging from the ceiling. A slow song started to play. It was Wake-Up Calls by Kat Kinnovan. Hermione smiled. "I love this song," she murmured to herself, not meaning Harry to hear.

Of course, he did hear her muttering. "May I have this dance, Hermione?"

"Yes, I believe you may, Mr. Potter." Hermione said, smiling at Harry.

It was surreal-if anyone had looked inside the Three Broomsticks at that particular time, they would have seen two sixteen-year-old best friends dancing the night away in jeans and t-shirts amid the formal dresses and tuxes of middle aged women and men.

He was a saving-the-world kinda guy

She was the studious type

His motto was always 'do or die'

She was the kind to play it safe

Hermione smiled as she rested her arms around Harry's neck. His arms held onto her waist, holding him close to her. "Harry?"

"Hmm?"

"Do you ever wonder about the future? You know, what's gonna happen to you, what'll happen to me, Ron, the rest of the people in our year?"

"Sure. I mean, I think about it all the time, if we'll all stay in touch…if the final battle will ever happen…yeah…I guess I think about it all the time. Why do you ask?"

"No reason," Hermione said uncertainly.

Harry could tell she was worried about something. "Hermione, just dance. Forget about everything else. Tonight, we're dancing."

Two completely different lives

Smashed together in the blink of an eye

He was no normal nine-to-five

And she was your typical know it all

Fast friends

Secrets shared

Issues hard to comprehend

They got through it all

Grew stronger as they went

Early morning wake up calls

To help each other vent

There were a couple more verses to the song before it finished. A faster song came on, but being in her best friends arm's made the whole world seem to go away. She never wanted to leave. Harry's arms were safe-she didn't have to worry about Ron, Draco, or anything happening at school. She could forget about grades and NEWTS and everything going on in her life. Her parent's sudden and recent murder had taken her by surprise and turned her already sideways life completely upside down.

"Thank you so much, Harry. I don't know what I would do without you." Harry grinned boyishly. Brown met green as Hermione looked into Harry's eyes.

End Flashback

"Would you change anything?" Hermione suddenly asked.

Harry was taken aback by the question, but a puzzled look was set on his face. "No."

"No? You would change nothing in your entire life?"

"If I could do it over again, I would not change the lift of a finger. If I did something wrong, it had consequences and I learned from my mistake."

Hermione smiled. "I'm glad you're content with your life, Harry."

"What would you change?" Harry asked, getting up and putting a sleeping Jacey in her crib.

"The night I fell in love with Draco." Hermione said defiantly and shortly.

"What? Draco was the best thing that happened to you! You said so yourself. If you had never fallen in love with him, you wouldn't be here now. You would be married to Ron. You wouldn't have Seth and Cassie and you-"

"And I wouldn't have had to deal with him leaving!" Hermione said as loudly as she could without waking Jacey.

"Hermione. Let's go dancing. You can forget everything. Get Seth over here. He has an apparating license, doesn't he?"

"Yes, but Cassie doesn't. I'll head-floo them," Harry nodded and showed her to the nearest fireplace which was upstairs in his room. She took a pinch of powder, threw it in the flames, stuck her head in the fire, and called "Granger House". Immediately she saw Seth and Cassie curled up on the couch, sleeping. She hated to wake them, but it was only seven o' clock. "Seth!" Hermione called. "Seth Granger!" Seth did not respond. "Seth James Granger, if you do not wake up this second-" at that moment, Seth rose groggily and carefully so as not to wake Cassie.

"Mum? Where are you? What are you doing?"

"Seth, I need you to get Cassie awake and come to Harry's house. We're going…out. Can you please watch Jacey?"

"You're at Harry's house? You're going on a date?! NO!" I won't come over."

"First of all, young man, you had better watch that tone of yours. Secondly, we are not going on a date. Harry is my best friend. Get Cassie and floo on over." Hermione blew him a kiss before pulling her head out of the fire.

Within five minutes, two sooty figures appeared in Harry's room. Seth and Cassie Granger stood in font of Harry and Hermione. Hermione beamed. Harry surveyed Seth. "So, how's the seeker position coming along?" he asked.

"Great! Gryffindor-wait…how'd you know I was a seeker. I've never told you. Mom?"

"No, I didn't tell him."

"Wow…okay well anyway, Gryffindor is gonna win the Cup this year for sure! We've got the best beaters since the Weasley Twins, no one could ever be as good as them, granted, the best keeper since Oliver Wood, and he's pretty untouchable as well. Of course, you've got me as seeker and that should be enough to win the season anyway. Just joking. Slytherin's in last place-last place! Angela Flint, their seeker was banned from Quidditch for the rest of her Hogwarts career for too many detentions and she's failing all her classes. McGonagall says they can't replace her either. They've got terrible chasers as well, so that's why they're in last place. Ravenclaw's only a few games, five to be exact, behind us, so we've pulled everyone together for more practicing and the new play we've got! Oh man, it's so good, see-"

"Seth!" Hermione stopped her son. "You can tell Harry later. Alright, Harry, you can show Seth everything while I talk to Cassie."

Seth and Harry left, Seth continuing on his Quidditch rampage and Harry listening intently. Hermione looked at Cassie's quivering lip and motioned for her to sit beside her on the bed. "Cassie, honey, what's wrong?" silence met her ears. "Sweetie? Talk to me."

"I want Daddy to come back. I don't want Harry to be my daddy."

Hermione smiled as she gathered Cassie's small frame in her arms. "Cassie, oh Cassie, baby, I'm not going to marry Harry…what gave you that idea?"

"Well, you're always sad and now you're with him and you were smiling. And Seth said that you were going on a date."

"Cassie, Seth is wrong, okay? Harry and I are not going on a date. See, when he and I were younger…seventeen I think, we decided we could go dancing once every week-just to have fun. We don't like each other. We never did either. He always had a girlfriend and I a boyfriend. We were best friends since we were eleven. Okay, now, you don't listen to anything Seth says," Cassie's face lit up. "When he's talking about that." The small girl's face fell. Hermione smiled.

"Okay mummy. Can I go down and see the baby?"

"Of course honey." Hermione lead Cassie downstairs to find Harry and Seth still talking about Quidditch. Hermione sighed. Harry looked over to her and found her ready and headed towards her. Hermione kissed Seth and Cassie. "Be good, now, both of you. If I come back and find that anything out of the ordinary went on, you will both be in some serious trouble. Alright?" Seth and Cassie nodded their heads obediently. Harry put his arm around Hermione and opened the door for her.

Suddenly, an owl flew towards the girl and dropped a note at her feet. She picked it up and unrolled it. Her heart caught in her throat and she stopped walking. She read the inscription and the handwriting she knew so well.

I'll be there.

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