Harry Potter And The Summer Of Surprise-Chapter 10

Shopping Again

Disclaimer: I own nothing of Harry Potter.

Lying on his back, staring at the blurry amber clouds through a pair of non-prescription sunglasses, Harry was mulling over what had happened over the last three days. He had come home from work on Monday and Tuesday and had been grabbed by Natanya both times. They had gone for a walk to a park not far from the house and had sat on a bench and talked.

Well, more like Natanya talked and Harry listened.

He was grateful when he had entered the house this afternoon and found it absolutely silent. He had gone into the kitchen for a Pepsi and saw the note from Natanya that she had gone out with a friend and wouldn't be back until dinner time. Harry went upstairs and changed into his blue swimsuit. He stopped at the top of the stairs on his way back down, turned and went to Hermione's closed bedroom door. He knocked, but there was no answer. He assumed that she had gone to the library or with her cousin.

Now that he was thinking of Hermione, where had she been for the last two days?

Harry rolled over onto his stomach, his arms folded under his chin. Why had she been avoiding him since... He sat up and smacked his forehead. He had forgotten all about his date! He took off the sunglasses and put his glasses on in their place. He stood, gathered his towel and headed into the house.

I don't even know if there's a dress code at this restaurant he thought. I don't think I... Harry noticed that the door next to the table was ajar. He walked over and stuck his head around the door, seeing a large dining room, and at the table, surrounded by parchments, books, quills, and ink, sat Hermione.

"Here you are!" he said, pushing the door open and walking into the room. She looked up.

"Hi, Harry," she said and went back to her work.

"I was looking for you earlier." She pulled one of the open books closer to her and checked a fact before writing it down.

"I've been right here," she answered. Harry stood watching her for a few minutes, wondering why she was acting this way. She looked up to see him still standing there. "Did you need something, Harry?" He nodded, and she lay down her quill, giving him her full attention.

"Um, is there a dress code at this restaurant?" Hermione confirmed that there was, and watched his face fall.

"What?" Harry shifted his weight.

"I don't know if I have anything that would be suitable to wear." Hermione's jaw dropped.

"You have to be joking! After all the clothes we picked out?" She stood and grabbed him by the arm, dragging him up to his room. She released him and strode over to his closet, throwing open the door and rummaging inside. Harry followed, rubbing his arm where she had grabbed him and took hold of an off-white shirt that she had pulled out. He did the same with a pair of his school uniform trousers.

Hermione looked down at the three pairs of shoes lined up at the bottom of the closet. He had his sandals, athletic shoes and his uniform shoes. None of which were suitable for the restaurant.

"You just need a pair of shoes." Harry nodded and handed the hangers back to her. She put them back into the closet and turned to face him. "I could go with you if you want," she said. He looked at her. "To buy the shoes." Harry nodded. Of course that's what she was talking about. He was going with Natanya on Friday, not Hermione. Although, he was starting to wish that it 'was' Hermione that he was taking to dinner, not her cousin.

"I'm just wondering if I have enough to get a pair of shoes and still be able to pay for dinner," he said.

"I'll pay for your shoes, Harry." He turned to see Laura in the doorway. He shook his head.

"I can't let you do that. You've done too much for me as it is." Laura entered the room and handed her niece a credit card.

"Don't worry about it. You just save your money for Friday. You want me to take you?" Harry again shook his head.

"We can take the bus." Laura looked behind him at Hermione, who nodded. The look in her eyes said she wanted to be alone with Harry.

"All right. Just be careful," Laura said. She turned and left the room. Hermione went to the door.

"I'll meet you downstairs, all right?" Harry nodded and she left as well, closing the door. Harry hesitated for a second, then locked the door before heading into his bathroom. He didn't want the chance of a repeat of two nights before. He had just gotten out of the shower and there was a knock at his door. He was barely able to get the towel around his waist before Natanya opened the door and stuck her head around it. She hadn't been apologetic in the least and seemed to only be sorry that she hadn't seen all of him before he had covered up. He had locked the door as soon as she had left, and since then had made sure to lock it whenever he was going to be in any stage of undress.

If it had been Hermione, I wouldn't have minded so much, because she's seen everything I have he thought as he started the water in the shower. That thought caused an immediate reaction from his body.

"You have got to be kidding me!" he said out loud. He looked down and smiled ruefully, then leaned over to turn off the hot tap, forcing his budding erection into retreat. He turned it back on when his teeth started chattering and quickly washed off the sunblock that he had put on when he had gone outside. He washed his hair just as quickly and shut off the water as soon as all the soap had been rinsed off his body.

He heard a knock at his door as he was wrapping a towel around his waist. He groaned inwardly, put his glasses on, and went to unlock it. He opened it just enough to see Hermione on the other side.

"Are you coming? I was starting to think you changed your mind." Harry opened the door far enough to let her in and closed it behind her. She turned slightly pink when she saw what he had on. "You were in the shower," she said, feeling slightly embarrassed about being with him in his room when he was only in a towel even after what she'd done on Sunday. He gave her a sly grin and moved to take it off. She let out a giggled squeal and turned away from him.

"Just kidding, Hermione." He got a light blue t-shirt, black shorts, socks and boxers out of his dresser and headed into the bathroom. "I'll be out in a little bit." He closed the door. He emerged five minutes later, and not seeing Hermione, looked around his room. He found her by his bookcase, running her hand over his Firebolt. He got his shoes out of the closet and leaned up against his dresser to put them on. When they were tied, Harry moved behind Hermione and lay his chin on her shoulder. She jumped in surprise.

"Are you ready to go?" he asked. She nodded and they left his room. Laura called Hermione into the living room when they got to the bottom of the stairs and Harry went outside to wait for her.

She came out a minute later, a big grin on her face. He saw her put some money into her purse along with her aunt's credit card and walk down the steps toward him.

"What?" he asked.

"Aunt Laura just wants me to be sure to feed you while we're out. She thinks you're too skinny and that you still bolt your food because you are thinking that someone is going to take it away from you." Harry frowned slightly.

"I told you about that the other night at dinner. I'm trying not to, but it's hard. Sixteen years of having your family treat you worse than a stray dog. Sixteen years of learned behavior are hard to break." Tears formed in his emerald eyes. he brushed them away angrilly. The grin never left Hermione's face, but she took his hand.

"Harry, she was joking. She's just worried that we may not be home in time for dinner, and gave me some money so we can eat, alright?" He gave her a shaky smile and held her hand all the way to the bus stop. They sat on the bench while they waited and talked about the previous school year, but Harry wouldn't discuss Dumbledore no matter how Hermione tried to bring the topic up. The bus arrived, they got on and paid their fares. Harry went straight to the back of the bus, where he sat and stared out the window. Hermione sat down next to him.

"Please don't take this the wrong way," he said softly to her, "But I am just not ready to talk about him yet. Please let it go." He turned to look at her and she saw he had tears in his eyes again. She nodded and he looked around the bus to see if anyone had seen him in this state. No one had, so he wiped his eyes and smiled wanly to Hermione.

The bus trundled through town, picking up and dropping off people every so often. Hermione looked out the window and reached across Harry to pull the stop cord. The driver stopped in front of a shoe shop and they thanked him as they exited the bus. There was a large book shop next to the shoe shop, and Harry had to promise that they would go in there as soon as he had his shoes. They entered the store and were greeted by a saleswoman.

"What can I do for you?" she asked. Harry told her what he needed and his shoe size while Hermione wandered around the shop. When he had chosen a pair of black patent leather shoes and Hermione had signed the credit card slip, they left the shop with the new purchase.

"Can we go to the book shop now?" she asked eagerly. Harry laughed.

"Yes, we can go to the book shop now." Hermione handed him the card and the money from her purse.

"To keep me from buying out the whole place," she explained as they went inside. Harry laughed again. He stayed at the front of the shop watching her as she wandered the shelves, picking out book after book. He smiled and shook his head, turning around to look out the window. Across the street he saw a haberdashery. He thought of the outfit that Hermione had picked out for him, then of the shoes he had bought. The shirt was fine, but his school trousers would look pretty shabby with them. He dug into his pocket, pulling out change as he looked to see how Hermione was doing. She was sitting in a corner surrounded by stacks of books. Harry smiled and walked out the door. He found a phone and after putting in his change, he dialed Laura's house.

"Laura, it's Harry," he said when she answered. "No. Everything's fine," he quieted her fears that something was wrong. "I just want to ask you a question." He explained what he wanted. "I really don't want to ask you for anything else..." Laura cut him off.

"Don't worry about it, Harry. If you feel uncomfortable about wearing your school clothes on a date, I understand. We should have thought to get you some dress clothes the other day. Now what's the name of the shop?" He told her and she said that she would call them to let them know he had her permission to use her credit card. Harry promised to pay her back every cent of what the bills were for today and hung up the phone before she could argue. He walked across the street when the light changed and entered the store. The salesman was on the phone and looked up as he heard the bell ring. He nodded.

"Yes, he just walked in. Of course, Miss Parker. Thank you." He hung up the phone. "Hello, Mr. Potter, what can I do for you?" Harry explained to the man exactly what he had to Laura. The man helped him pick out a dark green jacket, khaki slacks and a spruce and navy tie. Harry signed the credit slip and the man handed Laura's card and the bag containing his new clothes to him while the reciept printed out. Harry slid his shoe box into the bag on top of the rest of the items and thanked the man as he took the slip and walked back to the book shop.

Hermione was still in the corner, having not even noticed his absence. He wandered around a few minutes and found a book of names. He picked it up and checked Natanya's explanations against the ones in this book. He found that his and Natanya's were right, but he liked the one that this book held for Hermione's name more than the one that her cousin had given. He also looked up Ron's name- it meant 'King's Advisor' or 'Helpful', and Luna Lovegood's- hers meant 'Moonstruck'.

'No wonder people call her Loony Lovegood,' Harry thought, placing the book back on the shelf and heading to Hermione's corner. "Are you ready to go?" he asked. She looked up, nodded and set her book aside as she stood.

"Let's go get you something to eat."

Hermione took a bite of her cheeseburger and looked down at the bag next to Harry's seat. She glanced over her shoulder to see if he was returning from his trip to the restroom, and not seeing him, pulled the bag toward her. She peered into it, and saw only the box containing his new shoes. She heard his voice excusing himself behind her and quickly shoved the bag back to its original position just as Harry reached their table.

He gave her a sly smirk as he sat down across from her.

"What?" Harry grinned.

"If you want to know what's in the bag, all you have to do is ask me." Hermione dropped her eyes to her tray and picked up a chip.

"I don't know what you're talking about." she said a little too quickly, looking back up at him. The smile was still on his face.

"Yes, you do. I saw you from across the restaurant."

Hermione dropped the chip back onto her tray. "All right. What's in the bag?"

Harry looked down and picked up several of his own chips, put them into his mouth and chewed excruciatingly slowly. Hermione glared at him.

"Harry!" she admonished.

He chewed a few more times, swallowed, and replied, "Just trying to slow down my eating, 'Mione."

She started at this shortened form of her name. No one had ever called her that. Not even her parents. In fact, the only time her name had ever been shortened before was by Hagrid's brother, Grawp. And even then, she had been 'Hermy'. Hermione had hated that. She discovered she rather liked this one, though. He looked up at her and grinned again.

"Harry, you keep eating like that, and your chips are going to be stone cold."

He continued to chew as slow as before. When the chips were gone, she added, "Your sandwich probably has freezer burn by now." Harry picked it up and took a bite.

When he had swallowed, he told her, "Nope. It's just an ice cube." He took another bite. Hermione looked at the bag and back at him.

"If you don't want me to know what's in the bag, why did you tell me to ask?" Harry smiled.

"Who says I don't want you to know? I was just following your suggestion to slow down when I eat." Hermione crossed her arms.

"That was not slowing down. That was almost bringing it to a grinding halt!" She watched him finish the sandwich and crumple the wrapper.

"How about you tell me the real reason you did what you did on Sunday?" He pushed his tray aside. "And why have you been avoiding me?" Hermione leaned forward, placing her arms on the table.

"I haven't been avoiding you. You've been avoiding me." Harry looked shocked, but said nothing as she continued. "You go to work, you come back to the house, and you go off somewhere with Natanya. I've been there all this time and haven't seen you for more than three minutes." Harry shook his head.

"The only reason I go off with Natanya is because she grabs me as soon as I walk in the door. And how could you have seen me for three minutes when I haven't seen any sign of you for two days?" Hermione sat back in her chair and studied him.

"I saw you when you went out to the pool, and when you came back in. I do my homework in the dining room lately. It's the only place where I have enough room for 'all' my books and parchments." He frowned.

"So you have been avoiding me?" She shook her head. "Then why didn't you come outside and join me?" She finished her fries and tossed the container onto her tray.

"Because I've been trying to get some of my homework done since Sunday."

Harry held up one finger as he said, "Which comes back to my original question." Hermione stared at him. He put his hand on the table and leaned forward. "Why did you give me a blow job on Sunday?" he asked softly, making sure that no one could hear him. Hermione crinkled her nose in obvious distaste.

"You make it sound so crude. And I told you why."

Harry leaned even closer to her and said, almost in a whisper, "I don't mean to sound crude, but you deep-throated me, you swallowed my cum." She flinched again. "And the only answer you gave me when I asked you then was, and I quote, Because I want to, and because you seem to need it. Unquote." He sat back in his seat, watching her as she turned a firey red at the memory. She opened her mouth, then closed it, and lowered her eyes.

"I thought you liked it," she finally said, dropping her head and sounding as if she were about to cry. Harry reached across and placed his hand over hers.

"Look at me." She raised her head, meeting his eyes. He smiled. "I did like it. That's not the problem. I'm just wondering...why?" She frowned in response.

"Is it so important that you know?" Harry nodded.

"It is when it's my best friend that's the one who..." She waved her hand, cutting him off, and looked at her watch.

"We'd better go if we're going to catch the last bus back to the house." She stood and headed out the door. Harry growled softly to himself, grabbed his bag, and followed her.