Wow! It's been a while! Sorry! After my exams I just couldn't make myself write, and anything I did write was rubbish. Last night I just sat down and was like, "I'm not going to bed until I write something half-decent." This is what I came up with. I hope it is actuallyhalf-decent!
"News travels fast, doesn't it?" Neville said as he flopped down onto the sofa in the staff room next to Hermione, Juliet and Bernard. "This morning, the students were awful and then after lunch they all seemed to know that Harry likes us again and they were much nicer."
"Yeah," Hermione agreed. "Well, most of them were nicer anyway. The Slytherins are still being horrible, but then I suppose a lot of them have been brought up to not care about Harry Potter and what he thinks."
"Yeah, I can tell you've had Slytherins today. You've got some strange slime on your back," Neville said, trying to wipe it off.
"That wasn't them," Hermione laughed drily. "That was the Gryffindors! There are still a couple who don't like me, even though most of them have been much better today. It seems that not of them worship Harry after all, or the Weasleys have some very loyal friends at least."
"Oh, speaking of Harry, did you notice the letter I left on your coffee table this morning?" Neville asked her, giving up on trying to clean off the slime, which seemed to be getting brighter the more he rubbed it.
"No, I ran out in a hurry after you because you forgot your wand, remember?" she reminded him with a smile. "Did you read it?"
"Yeah, it was addressed to both of us. He wants to know if we fancy Hogsmeade tonight."
"It's short notice, isn't it?"
"Yeah, he apologised for that. It's not like we're doing anything though, and he's obviously keen to see us," Neville said. "We should go."
"Ok. Let's just be careful not to give out any detentions today!" she laughed.
"Well, I've only got Ravenclaws, so I think I'll be alright," Neville smiled.
"I've got Gryffindors, but they're the older ones with the parents who worship Harry," she said, nodding. "I think we'll be ok."
"If you need to give anyone detentions, we don't mind supervising them for you," Juliet said, looking up from the papers that covered hers and Bernard's laps. "We're not really doing anything tonight, just working on these."
"Ok, thanks," Hermione smiled. "What are those about? Runes?"
"Yes, we're trying to work out what elements of very early magical languages can be found in runes and if runes are related to any of the languages which appeared afterwards." Bernard explained.
"Sounds fascinating!" Hermione said.
"'Fascinating' isn't quite the word I'd use," Neville laughed, "but then I was hopeless at runes! Dropped the class after three lessons! Anyway," he said, looking at the watch Hermione had bought him for Christmas, "I have a reminder saying I have to pot the Mandrakes in ten minutes so I'd better go. See you lot later!"
"In that case, I'll leave you two to your various languages," Hermione smiled.
"Oh no, you don't have to leave! We're not really working on them now, just having a look at them. We're going to work on them properly in the library tonight," Bernard insisted.
"I've got homework to mark anyway," Hermione said. "I'll see you both at dinner. Actually, Julie, can I talk to you for a minute outside?"
"Um, yeah, ok," Julie replied, sliding the papers off her lap. "I'll be back in a minute Bernard."
Juliet followed Hermione out of the room, feeling confused and slightly dreading what was coming. Hermione had that look in her eye: the one where she was about to meddle.
"Julie," Hermione started, closing the door behind them, "are you sure this is a good idea?"
"What's a good idea? This project?"
"Well, yes. The project's obviously very interesting, but don't you think working on it with Bernard is perhaps a bad idea?"
"I don't see why you think that," Juliet said shortly.
"You two used to be together, and even though you're insisting on this 'being friends' nonsense, which is fine if that's what you want to do, surely you can see it's a bad idea to spend so much time with him. You're going to be alone together in the library tonight," Hermione pointed out to her. "You're either going to get back together or kill each other."
" No, we'll be working, not sitting around chatting or anything. And besides, if we did get back together, would that be such a bad thing?"
Hermione's lips thinned and she stared at Juliet, who stared at the floor.
"Juliet, do you still have feelings for Bernard?"
"No!" she almost shouted. "Well, maybe I still like him a little bit," she mumbled, melting under Hermione's glare.
"Julie, you can't work with him!"
"Why not?" Juliet said, her voice rising with every word. "I'm a grown woman and perfectly capable of keeping my feelings under control. They're not even big feelings anyway, not big enough for me to want to do anything, and besides, I'm aware that our relationship ended for a reason. I'm working with Bernard on this because he's intelligent, enthusiastic about the project and he's a nice man to have around. I know you don't like him, Hermione, but I do, and I think he's the perfect person to work on this with."
"Fine," Hermione sighed. "Calm down, Julie. I'm just worried about you."
"There's no need for you to be," Juliet replied, opening the staff room door to go back in, "It'll be fine. I'll see you later."
"All sorted then?" Bernard asked.
"Yes," she replied, taking the papers and ordering them by slamming them down on the table in front of them.
"Are you alright? I heard shouting. It sounded like you actually, but surely sweet Juliet Taylor doesn't shout."
"Well you know what Hermione's like. She interferes sometimes," Juliet said. "I just got a bit annoyed."
"Well it's about time someone shouted at her. I would, but that's what got me in trouble last time, and I want to get back into her good books. Because she's marrying my best friend, not because I care what she thinks," he said quickly, noticing Juliet's look.
Juliet nodded and stared at the sheet in front of her. Bernard did care what Hermione thought of him; he cared about what everyone thought, but she wasn't about to point that out to him. She didn't want another argument, especially because he'd just reminded her of the time when he'd completely lost it, when he'd admitted he still loved Hermione.
"Are you sure you're alright?" Bernard asked quietly.
"Yes, I'm fine, but I'm not really taking any of this in now," she said. "I think we should leave it until tonight."
"Ok," Bernard agreed. "I think we need a break before we start properly. Now, which of these sheets are yours?"
"These," she said, taking the pages from the bottom of the pile he was holding. Her hand brushed against Bernard's as she did so, and she moved it away quickly.
"Yes, well, I'd better prepare for my next lesson," he said, clutching his sheets to his chest. "See you tonight."
"Ok," Juliet said, blushing. "Is around eight still ok?"
Bernard nodded and left the room quickly.
Juliet sighed and put her sheets in order before leaving the room. She caught sight of herself in the mirror by the door as she left and noticed her pink cheeks.
"What are you blushing for, Julie?" she asked herself sternly. "Get a grip!"
...
Juliet was in the library half an hour before Bernard to sort out the books, and so she could prepare herself. She'd had a silly moment of weakness in the staff room before. It was all Hermione's fault for bringing the idea up to the front of her mind when they'd argued earlier. She didn't really have any feelings for him at all, only a few, and they could quite easily be forgotten, or at least ignored. They were good friends now and they'd found out they had a lot in common. It was only natural for her to remember the good times.
"Hi, Juliet!" Bernard greeted her. "You're very organised! Or am I late?"
"No," she replied calmly. "I thought I'd get some of the relevant books out ready for us to save some time."
"Good idea," he smiled. "What are we doing tonight?"
"I thought we'd study runes themselves first, just to make sure we're completely up to scratch. I don't know about you, but it's been a while since I've studied them for work rather than pleasure. Then, once we feel we're confident, we can start looking at other languages."
"Good idea," Bernard said. "It's been a while since I've properly looked at runes at all to be honest. It'll be good to have a recap."
"I think this book will be the most helpful," Juliet said, sliding it between them. "Madame Pince says it's the most informative she has."
"Great," Bernard smiled.
The pair started to read, sharing the book between them. They both focussed on the work in the front of them and nodded when they were ready to move onto the next page. It was Bernard who broke the silence, about an hour later.
"Shall we take a break?" he asked, taking off his glasses and rubbing his eyes. "The print's very small and I can feel myself going cross-eyed."
Juliet nodded. "I suppose five minutes off would be a good idea. Have you made many notes? I've got quite a lot on the formation of words, but not so much on the grammar side of things."
"I've got a fair bit on the grammar," he said, looking over his notes.
"Oh good," she smiled.
"Are we going to work on this over the summer, by the way?" Bernard asked.
"Maybe," she said. "I don't know how we're going to work it out, but if we can make arrangements, then probably."
"Ok," he smiled. "You know, it's funny. You never mentioned your interest in runes while we were going out. It's the kind of thing you'd think two people like us would discuss!"
"Bernard, I think it'd be better if we didn't talk about the time when we were together for now. As we're friends now, and it's a relatively new thing for us, I think it would complicate things if we talked about our relationship."
"Right," Bernard said, looking slightly confused, "shall we carry on reading then?"
...
"I hope you don't mind being in the back room," Harry said apologetically. "I just thought that if we were out there, we'd get a lot of nosy people."
"Of course we don't mind," Hermione smiled. "What with you being Harry Potter, me being devil-woman and Neville not being Ron, it's probably a good idea!"
Harry laughed. "Yeah. I was surprised to not see anything in the Prophet today about it actually. There are so many Rita Skeeters working for them now!"
"Hermione needs to catch them all and keep them in jars," Neville said, squeezing his fiancée's hand.
"She does!" Harry agreed. "Do you think you can fit that in with your teaching, Hermione, or are there too many mini-Golden Trios running around that you need to keep under control?"
"There are a couple, but if only they were the troublemakers," Hermione sighed. "There are so many little Malfoys and Crabbes and Goyles! One's been suspended for almost burning my hand!"
"Merlin! That sounds worse than Malfoy!" Harry exclaimed. "Actually I saw him the other day! He's not really much of a ferret anymore! More of a hamster with chubby cheeks!"
Neville laughed. "It's all that lying around all day doing nothing except counting his money!"
"Well I'm sure he'll be doing more exercise soon. Astoria's pregnant, so he'll be chasing a kid around in the not-too-distant future."
"Ugh, the thought of Malfoy making a kid isn't a nice one," Neville laughed.
"It's really not!" Hermione agreed. "I can't believe I didn't know that though. We really miss out on the gossip being in Hogwarts and not having any friends outside!" Hermione said.
"I'd probably miss out on it too if I didn't always hear Ginny and Lavender gossiping," Harry laughed. "So much space in my brain has been taken up by who's marrying who and who has what haircut!"
"Yeah, I always used to hear stuff from Lavender and Parvati when I was in school. I know how you feel," Hermione smiled.
"Oh! Parvati has the worst haircut now," Harry said in a high squeaky voice, making them all burst into fits of giggles.
"I'm so glad I'm not a girl!" Neville laughed. "So do you see anyone else from school?"
"Not really. Cho and Ginny play Quidditch together so I see her sometimes and I run into some of them at work, Ernie and Daphne and some others, but they work in different departments. To be honest, I only really see the people who were in the Order. Anyway, enough about me. When's the big day for you two?"
"Oh, we haven't decided yet," Hermione said. "We were thinking of letting everything die down in the press and things first."
"Well, anything I can do to help with that, let me know. I know you don't like people helping you out, Hermione, but I can talk to the papers and stuff and get them to see it your way. And I don't want to sound big-headed, I can probably use my fame to influence a lot of people. Don't let other people dictate when you get married. It's your choice!"
"Thanks, but you're right; I don't like people helping me out, so I'd like to avoid that if we can. Besides, I'm sure there'll be a story about you supporting us in the Prophet tomorrow, so that might sort things anyway. A lot of the kids have been nicer today after finding out, probably through Lavender or Ginny."
"Apart from the ones who put slime down your back," Neville said.
"And the ones who tried to levitate me by the hair!" Hermione added.
"Wow! I know I shouldn't laugh, but that's pretty cool. I mean, imagine if someone had done that to Snape," Harry chuckled. "Yes, I know we misjudged him," he said, when Hermione opened her mouth to protest, "but you have to admit he was horrible when he was teaching."
"Really? He was always one of my favourites!" Neville joked.
Harry smiled. "This is fun, talking to you both again. You two are still the same as before. I mean that in a good way, don't worry!"
"Yeah, so are you," Hermione said. "We have to do this again soon!"
"Oh yes, we simply must," Harry said in his woman voice. "Another drink?"