WITH OR WITHOUT YOU

Thanks to my1-and-only, Princess3, Eliot Z. Wheatherbee (I'm really sorry about the grammar… I know I'm not the best in english… so it would be really interesting if you point my errors next time so then I'll be able to not make them anymore!), dora, Softball-Rocks, Lady-Crymsyn (thank you! You know, I know I'm the worst in using 'in', 'on' and 'at', so I already knew that I would make lots of errors using it… just hope it doesn't make my fic hard to understand…), Cold-eyes-for-you (whoa! You were really busy, huh? I'm really happy that you're back! So welcome!), grimmauld, Stargirl1066lkl (I'm really sorry to know that… I'll try to minimize the bad language, although I think that aren't so many…), PhoenixPlume (thanks! And I promise I'll try to read your story! Geez! I'm really short of time right now…), Chantal J, Evie Malfoy (thanks! And if you nominate me, please, don't forget to tell me, ok?), puderschick, rgFaNaTiC (oops! I took too long again to update… will you forgive me this time too? Please?), jameslily4ever, daniel-radcliffes-girl, rose, scarlet-knight13, Lucharachan, danny (hi! Welcome back!), natty123 (hey! Nice to know that! Bjins!), Anya (thank you so much for understanding me!), allie, xoKaSsIeox, cestmoi-lily and curlyqntx for the reviews!

Sorry again for keeping you waiting! Here's another chapter! Just hope you like it! Cheers!

Chapter XXXVI

"Honey, are you sure you don't want to come with us to Paris?"

Hermione turned to him and smiled. "Yes, dad. You know I love Paris, but this time I want to stay with my friends". Her luggage was already in the middle of the drawing room, over the green carpet, right in front of the fireplace. They were seated on the light brown sofa on the left corner of the room, her father right by her side. "Besides, you will enjoy yourselves better since I will not be around to bother you".

"You know it's not true, Hermione". Her mother sounded a little bit disappointed.

"Oh, mum, you know I was kidding".

"Alright, do as you wish, but don't forget to write to us, ok?" He passed a hand on her face.

She hugged him. "Don't worry, dad".

Suddenly a lot of ashes filled the room, coming from the fireplace. "Sorry about that. It always happens when-OUCH!"

Hermione got up and stood in front of it. "Mr. Weasley, are you ok?"

A man came out from the mess and stopped right in front of her, rubbing his front. "Yeah, I'm fine".

Hermione smiled. "Guess you hit your head at the fireplace, right?"

He smiled back. "Yes. I never thought muggles would do such a short entrance for a fireplace. It's even harder to stand up inside of it".

"Well, mr. Weasley, it's easy to understand. Muggles don't use the fireplace as a way of…"

"Jesus! OUCH!"

They turned to the fireplace. "Oh, yeah, I forgot about Ron". Mr. Weasley said unconcernedly.

The tall red-haired boy appeared in the middle of the ashes, rubbing his head in two different places. "Damn!"

Hermione laughed. "It seems that you also hit your head".

He looked at her, trying to disguise the pain. "Remember me to never use your fireplace to come to your house, please".

"Don't worry, I'll do that".

"I hope you'll take good care of my daughter". Hermione's father stepped in at the conversation.

"Oh, mr. Granger!" Arthur greeted happily. "Long time no see! And, if I'm not wrong, it's the very first time that I come to your house".

He smiled. "Yes, indeed".

Arthur got closer him. "Really! So I was wondering if you, and your lovely wife of course, wouldn't mind to show me how you live, right?"

Ron sighed. "Crap. There he goes. I told mum it was not a good idea to let dad come to pick you up".

Hermione laughed at Ron while her parents were leaving the room with an excited mr. Weasley right behind them.

"Why did you take so long to bring Hermione, huh, Arthur!" Molly was pressing her fingers against her waist, trying to lower her anger, but then she turned to Hermione and smiled. "What a pleasure to see you, Hermione dear", she said softly.

"I-it's a pleasure to see you too, mrs. Weasley". Hermione said, hesitant.

She turned again to her husband. "So!" Her eyes were flashing dangerously.

"M-m-m-molly, dear, I was just… you see, her parents…"

He began but she interrupted him. "Can you imagine how worried we were? And if you were caught by a death eater or V-v-voldemort himself? Don't you have any responsibility?"

"But, sweetheart…"

Molly turned to Hermione again. "You must be starving, right, dear? There are some cake and hot drinks to cheer you up, right at the dinning room. I bet Harry and Ginny must be there waiting for you". She hugged her.

"Thanks, mrs. Weasley".

"Cake, yeah!" Ron was passing by them when someone grabbed him by his neckband.

"And you, mister? Where do you think you're going?"

"C'mon, mum, release me. I have nothing to do with dad's irresponsibility". He imitated her tone.

"Traitor". Arthur hissed.

"You should have called him to his common sense, but you didn't, so you are irresponsible as well. Now, if you want to eat some cake, you'd better take Hermione's belongings to her bedroom before it".

"But, mum…"

"That's ok, mrs. Weasley, I can take them myself, don't worry".

"I know, Hermione dear, but you must be tired and we can't leave your luggage here, can we?" She turned to face Ron. "Right?"

He sighed. "Alright, mum, you won".

She released him. "Fine".

"Go, Hermione. I'll meet you soon".

"I'm-I'm sorry, Ron". She whispered.

He blinked to her. "It's no big deal. Now go".

She smiled and turned, leaving an angry Molly, a scared Arthur and a disappointed Ron behind.

"Ginny, you really are evil". Hermione tried to sound harsh.

Ginny laughed. "Me? I'm not evil, it's dad that's hopeless".

They were going upstairs, towards their bedroom.

"You know, it was getting really bored to sleep alone. There were only boys in this house. It was driving me nuts. Thank God you finally arrived".

Hermione smiled. "I missed you too". She opened the door. The room was exactly like the last time she saw it. There were two wooden beds, a light rose dressing table near the window at the bottom of the bedroom and a wardrobe at the left. Her trunk was in front of the bed nearer the door. "Poor Ron".

Ginny got in. "I don't know why you're concerned about him. It's his job after all". She sat on Hermione's bed.

Hermione got in and closed the door. "That's why I said you are evil". She stepped towards Ginny and seated on the bed, legs crossed over it, right in front of Ginny.

"So, what is that thing you want to show me?"

Hermione grinned. "I'm already warning that your chin will fall".

"Alright, alright, enough with the mistery. Now, show me". Ginny said eagerly.

Hermione caught her purse over the bed and took from it a little white box. "Give me your hand". Ginny stretched her arm towards Hermione and she put the box on Ginny's hand. "Open it".

"What is inside?" She asked curious and worried at the same time.

"You'll only know if you open". Her eyes were shining.

Ginny opened the box and, like Hermione said, her chin fell. "OH MY GOSH!"

"Wonderful, isn't it?" She asked grinning.

Ginny took the ring from the box, placed the box aside and held the ring at the height of her eyes. "You must be kidding me!"

"I knew you would like it but I didn't think that you would get so surprised". Hermione was really enjoying that scene.

Ginny moved her attention from the ring to Hermione's face. "Who gave this to you?"

"You're so excited that you didn't notice the card". She caught the box and took from it the well-known greenish paper. "Think you know now who gave me this".

"Jesus Christ! The guy really loves you!" Her eyes were wide open.

"Like I thought it's really expensive, right? I was wondering how much could that rin…"

"No, it's not that!" Ginny cut her off. "Don't you know this ring? You never saw, in the thousand books that you read every week, the picture of this ring?" She asked surprised.

Hermione blushed slightly. "Well, I don't read books about jewelry so often".

Ginny sighed. "Alright, I'll tell you about it".

Hermione was getting confused. "Is this ring really that special?"

Ginny smiled at her friend's ignorance. "Yes, it is, Hermione. It's part of a well-know irish legend among us".

"'Among us', you mean, wizards… right?" She was getting interested now.

"Yes. I was a kid when I first heard this story". She looked at the ring again. "And I never thought that one day I'll be holding a ring like this".

"You're making me curious now".

She smiled. "Alright. Once upon a time, there was a prince, but he was not an ordinary prince, he was the son of the king of the fairies, the only son".

"Fairies? What kind of…"

"Let me finish, then you ask".

Hermione blushed. "Sorry".

"Ok. The prince was called Réalta Uaine and, since he was born, he was supposed to marry his cousin, the daughter of the king's sister, Oíche Crón. They grew together. Réalta became really beautiful: his eyes were deep green, like emeralds, and his black hair fell from his shoulders to his waist, seeming black silk. He grew strong and tall, inspiring respect and loyalty. But he also was kind and caring and so all the female fairies could just think that Oíche was the luckiest one of them. Réalta, in this case, didn't think like that. It was true that he liked Oíche, that he cared for her, but he didn't love her. 'But it doesn't matter anyway", he was always telling to himself, 'since it's for the sake of kingdom'. And so, he just accepted his fate. Talking about Oíche now, she was also too pretty. Her hair was shining as gold and even the seas couldn't be bluer than her eyes. There was no one that could match her beautiful voice and her elegance to talk, walk… to live, I might say. She always treated everyone kindly but she acted like that cause she always thought of the others as inferiors, since she was the one who will marry the future king of the fairies, who was obviously totally in love with her, and there was no one more beautiful than her. One day, when Réalta and Oíche were walking side by side at the garden of the fairies castle, she decided to give his love a proof. She reminded him that once he said he would do anything to keep her happiness and so she asked him to bring for her a human ring, but it couldn't be just a ring, it had to be the most gorgeous ring in the human world. He was scared, after all, it was forbidden to the fairies to interact with humans, only the jewel makers were allowed to. Oíche started to cry and called him a liar. And that was it, since they were kids, she always got from him what she wanted when she looked at him with eyes full of tears… and this time it wouldn't be different. Defeated, Réalta asked her to meet him at that same place at that same hour on the next day to give her the so wanted human ring. I think it's not needed to say how happy she was. And so, at that very night, Réalta left the fairies land to enter the humans' world. He didn't know where to look for a ring, he noticed it when he got there. He went wandering by the city streets till he found some things that seemed to be jewels. He stretched his hand towards them but it crashed into something invisible, and that something, somehow, hurt him and made a lot of noise. 'Who's there?', he heard somebody asking and he shivered. Suddenly a light came from inside, hurting his eyes. 'Who are you?', a female voice asked. He looked at who was talking and couldn't believe in his eyes. Right in front of him there was the most beautiful female being that he ever saw. Her brown long curly hair was falling on her shoulders like a veil and her hazel eyes were full of goodness and humility. So different from what he always saw in his cousin's eyes. On the other side, she didn't know why but she began to tremble and her heart started beating faster when her eyes met his green ones. Trying to escape from that feeling she lowered her eyes and saw his hand that was bleeding. She took his hand in hers, pulling him inside the store. He followed her and forgot about everything. She treated his wounds and asked what he wanted. That was when he remembered about Oíche and asked if he could see some rings. The girl smiled, caught the rings and placed them in front of him. He took almost all night to choose one. Not cause they were too beautiful but cause he wanted to be with that being as long as it was possible. Finally, when he could no longer lengthen that moment, he chose a silver ring adorned with black star-shaped stones. The girl then explained to him that that ring was not an ordinary ring. It was enchanted and had the power to tell what kind of feeling really was keeping the hearts bound together. 'The inner line' she said 'is the principal feeling. If it turns yellow, then it's a strong friendship. If it turns red, it's only passion. But, if it turns rose, then it's true love. Normally, rose appear followed by yellow at its left and white at its right. White means harmony' and she ended with a smile. Réalta was worried now cause which color it would turn when he places the ring at Oíche's hand? When asked about the money, he just left some precious stones on the balcony and was leaving when he remembered that he didn't know the girl's name. 'I'm Gealach Líon' she said 'And yours?' He smiled and said 'I'm Réalta'. She smiled back and said 'Nice to meet you… and I hope she likes it'. He, a little bit sad, answered 'She will' and went towards the entrance, but then he stopped and asked, without turning to look at her, if he could come again. Her heart pounded once more and she said 'Anytime'. They said nothing more, but they knew that their lives would not be the same again".

"Alright, I already know how it ends. They lived happily ever after, right?" Hermione tried to sound impatient trying to disguise her interest.

Ginny sighed. "Can you, please, let me finish?"

"Ok, I'm sorry!"

"Fine. He gave Oíche the ring late that day. She just loved the ring and kept telling him that at every second. But he was worried cause he knew that ring was capable of telling their feelings, and worried he placed the ring at her finger. The ring shrank to fit on her finger and the stones started changing colors. Réalta was speechless. The inner line turned red, the left turned grey and the right ended black. He didn't know what grey was but it couldn't be nice since that was a black line which definitely wasn't good and the inner line turned to be passion. He said nothing to Oíche and let her think that everything was alright, but, already inside him, it wasn't. He couldn't take off his mind the face of Gealach and now he was sure that marry Oíche was a big mistake, so he didn't know what to do. Anyway, every time that was possible he went to the humans' world to see Gealach and she corresponded to his affection. By this time, Oíche noticed that something was going wrong, really wrong between her and the prince, so she decided to follow him. She got really mad when she saw Réalta and a mere human sitting side by side, holding hand with him. She entered the store and started and argument. Gealach didn't know the he was from the fairies world and that he was engaged, so she started crying. Oíche thought she had won the fight but then Réalta said that he loved Gealach and, if it was necessary, he would leave the fairies land to stay with her. Now her tears were of joy and Oíche really got mad this time. She then cursed Gealach to a living death, I mean, she would keep breathing, her heart would keep beating, but he would never more be able to feel anything again. Réalta became desperate, he told Oíche to change everything again, but she said she wouldn't. So, he had no choice after all, he would have to tell everything to his parents and hope for a miracle. Although they were terrified, the king and queen decided to help him, cause they could see he was too broken-hearted. The queen said 'the key to wake her up and bind you and her together is at the thing that made you found her'. 'The thing that made I found her? What is that supposed to mean?' he asked. His mother smiled and said 'you were looking for something, weren't you?' He then remembered about the ring. And the queen said 'it was because of that ring you met her so it's that ring that must break the curse as long as your feeling for her and her feeling for you are true. But you must have that in mind: if you choose the human girl, you can no longer be one of us'. Réalta went desperate after Oíche cause the ring was still with her. It didn't matter to him if his normal life was about to end, since he would be able to stay with Gealach. He found Oíche closed at her bedroom. She was accused of using a forbidden curse and she couldn't deny it, but, as she was the king's niece, it was accepted that her room should be her enclosure too. He talked to her, begged her, but she didn't listen. 'I want her to die', she said, 'and you as well'. But, suddenly, the ring started to burn her finger and she began to yell. Réalta tried to help but anything was useless. Oíche fell down in front of him, burned. The guards, not knowing what to do, called the majesties. Réalta's mother kneeled in front of the body and said that the ring responded to Oíche's consuming hate and ended up burning her. The queen took the ring from the ashes and gave it to the prince. 'Go meet your love, my son. And be happy', the queen said. Réalta just kissed his mother's face and left in a hurry. He found Gealach on her bed, her parents sitting at her side. He entered the room and said he wanted to marry her. Her parents said that it was impossible since her daughter seemed to be in a living death. Réalta then said that she would awake as soon as he placed the ring at her finger and walked towards her. When he put the ring it began changing colors again. The inner line ended up rose, the left one ended up yellow and the right one was white. He kissed her hand, emotion filling his chest, and then he felt a cold hand touching his face. 'I knew you would save me, my love', a female voice said. He looked up and met that so loved hazel eyes. Gealach sat and they hugged each other… and lived happily ever after". Ginny ended.

"Hum… so it means I might not use it at school. I will be interrogated at every second". Hermione said thoughtfully.

"Hermione, didn't you hear me? It's not the most important thing now. Don't you think this story is quite similar to yours?"

"Similar to mine? What do you mean?" She asked impatiently and confused.

"A guy that by race issues or, why not say this, blood issues can't marry a not-known human? Gealach appearance doesn't ring a bell? And, of course, the color of the star lines. You're in love with the guy who sent you this". Ginny sentenced.

Hermione already knew where Ginny was going but said nothing.

"The only thing that is messing me up is Réalta's appearance, which is more Harry's than Malfoy's, but…"

"What!" Hermione almost yelled.

"But it's obvious!" Ginny smiled. "Malfoy is your secret admirer! I bet he sent you this thinking that you already knew about the legend and that you would clear things up!"

"Hold it right there. I knew you would come with some impossible conclusions".

"And what is impossible in that?" Ginny asked, but she sounded like the winner, which irritated Hermione even more.

"Alright, so let me tell you some things…" and she told her that Malfoy knew about the admirer and always acted like a scoundrel, picking on her, making her feel like an idiot. "It's not Malfoy, Ginny".

Ginny seemed to not be so sure anymore. "But he could be pretending, couldn't he?"

Hermione smirked. "Pretending? So he should win an Oscar for his acting".

"Win what?" Ginny asked confused.

"Nevermind. But the point is that you're absolutely wrong. It's not Malfoy. He might be worried now about his fiancée, and not about me. Anyway, it just seem unbelievable that someone as Malfoy would give a damn about a story like that one you just told me".

Ginny sighed. "But you know, Hermione, there still is the fact that your colors turned to be the same as the story and they mean true love. You're in love with the guy who sent you this, no use denying, and the only one I can think of is Malfoy… or did you hide something from me?" She looked into her eyes.

"No, Ginny, I didn't. Ok, you can think it's Malfoy, I don't mind. But I know it's not him".

"Ginny! Hermione! Dinner is ready!" They heard mrs. Weasley voice calling.

"Alright, Hermione. But, when you solve that mystery I want to be the first to know".

Hermione smiled. "Don't worry".

They left the bedroom and went downstairs. The dinner room was already noisier.

P.S.: hi, there! It's especially for the irish ones… please forgive me if I did anything wrong… I just used an english-irish dictionary online to give the names and I don't know that much about fairies… anyway, I just think that Ireland must be a magical place and I just wanted to place it somewhere in my fic! So, that's it!