Sometimes you just need to talk about something. Not to get sympathy or help, but just to kill its power by allowing the truth of things to hit the air.
Karen Salmansohn
Harry was already asleep when she made it back up to her apartment, she smiled to herself while she tossed the thing's she would need into a small over night bag. Leaving a note for Harry in case he woke "I'll see you in the morning. I trust you can find your way to Woolworth building. H"
Finn was still waiting down stair for her when she got back to the entrance of the building. She gave him a smile before taking his hand and allowing him to lead the way.
They had kept each other up for hours, making up for the time they had lost over the weekend. The following morning after only a few hours of sleep Finn pulled himself from her warm embrace, he had an early meeting at the office. Not wanting to disturb, her he made his way as quietly as possible around the room to get ready for the day ahead. Before leaving he gave her sleeping form one final longing look before he was gone with a soft pop.
Hermione awoke to her phone buzzing, she registered she was alone in bed before she rolled over to look at the messages on phone. One from Harry, who said he would see her soon, and two from Draco who wanted to know if she had time for coffee this morning before heading into the office. She looked over at the time to see it was only six thirty before sending a reply to him. She got up quickly and was able to shower and get dressed within thirty minutes. At seven she was out the door of Finn's apartment; she muttered a locking charm on the door before she headed for the lift. His building wasn't far from her own, and somewhere in between her place and congress. Once she was outside in the early morning sunlight, she ducked down a small alley a few doors down where she turned on the spot.
It was seven fifteen when she made her way into the small coffee shop that she now referred to as theirs. He was already sitting at a table near the back with two mugs for steaming liquid in front of him.
"You went behind my back to Kingsley." He said in angry tone when she sat down at the table and took one of the two mugs. In a clenched fist he had what she knew to be an official Ministry of Magic letter.
"Yes." She was calm, calmer than she felt under his angry glare.
"Why?" his anger was slowly ebbing away, but she could still the see the lines around his eyes.
"Because, I think that the service your company provides would be beneficial to Britain." She wouldn't apologize for this. She was pretty sure that in the long run he would even thank her for it.
"I told you why I didn't want to do it." He was defiantly losing his steam, but she knew he was still mad, the set of his jaw told her as much. "You know what most people still think of me back home."
"Which will never change if you don't do something about it." She was going to be her stubborn self on this one. "Look Draco, I know that you aren't that person anymore. I can see the way you have changed and all the good you are doing. Why can't you let everyone else see that?"
"Maybe because I deserve it." She wanted to roll her eyes at this comment but reframed, decided instead to move on.
"What did the letter say?"
"He wants me to come to England to discuss what I might be able to do for the English community." She could hear the uncertainty in his tone.
"Well are you going to go?"
"Emily thinks I should." This wasn't an answer and he knew it when she narrowed her eyes at him. "I don't know, a part of me wants to."
"Then schedule a meeting and go. You don't have to agree to anything, its just a meeting." From the corner of her eyes she could see a head of black unruly hair heading their way. Her heart sank, how could she possibly forget Harry couldn't go without his morning fix of coffee and that they were right around the corner from her building and on the way to the subway.
"Hermione." Draco's head shot up at the sound of Harry's voice. It seemed that she had been the only one to see Harry before his approach.
"Potter." Draco said in what Hermione could tell was an attempt at being polite though he didn't really pull it off. Old habits die hard she thought.
"What are you doing here." Harry asked, he ignored Malfoy altogether and was looking at Hermione as if she had grown a second head.
"I have better go." Draco said getting to his feet, taking his coffee with him. "I'll see you around Granger." He slipped past Harry who didn't seem to care.
Harry took the seat that Draco had just left. "Why were you having coffee with Draco Malfoy of all people this early in the morning?"
"We are friends."
"And you didn't think to mention that yesterday when you were giving me the third degree about not telling you that I knew he lived in the states."
"It's new Harry, what can I say." she didn't like the way he was looking at her, as if he was able to see right through her. "He is a different person than he was back then."
"I know that, I just don't understand why you thought you needed to keep it from me."
"I wasn't keeping it from you on purpose, I just hadn't gotten around to mentioning it." He didn't really seem like he believed her, but he would allow the subject to drop for the time being.
"It is too early in the morning, I need coffee." He said standing and making his way over to the counter.
Now that she thought about it, she wasn't sure why she hadn't told him yesterday about Draco. She had been the one to bring the subject up in the first place. Now that things were different why couldn't she tell Harry that they had developed a friendship.
'Because he is your secret.' Her mind whispered to herself. He was her secret; she didn't want anyone to know the truth. Even though things were now different and they both clearly stood on their own, she still wanted to keep him to herself. She supposed that was why she hadn't told Finn about him either. In all honest why would Finn even care if they were friends, he himself was friends with Draco and had been for a few years now. Finn knew that they had gone to school together, it wouldn't be weird if now they had developed a friendship. There was nothing weird about it all, she was the one that was making things weird. She was afraid that people would suspect more, which was silly because no one knew about the curse or what linked them together.
Harry came back to the table with a cup of coffee in hand and set back down. "So, tell me why you were meeting with Draco Malfoy of all people this early in the morning."
"You probably know about his potions business, right?" when he nodded his head to say yes, she went on "He had thought about expanding, but he was unsure of how well it would go over back home. So, I gave him a little push and sent Kingsley a message."
"Let me guess, he wasn't happy about being Grangered."
"What?"
"Being Grangered, it is what me and Ron call it when you step in even though no one asked you too." He laughed at the look on her face. "Oh, come on don't look at me that way. You know you do it all the time."
"I do not." She said in her stubborn tone.
"Hermione, please yes you do. Whenever someone has a problem, you are usually the one who steps in to fix said problem weather they have asked you to or not. Its your thing, we all love you for it."
"I did not Granger him."
"Yes, you did. He'll probably even thank you for it later. Look it getting close to eight and we better get our behinds to work before they send out a search party."
"They don't care about you that much." Hermione said with a laugh.
"No one wants the Great Harry Potter to go missing on their watch. Imagine the international incident that would cause." She knew he was only joking but she still punched his arm when he offered it to her.
Thursday morning Emily Chamberlin had cornered Hermione and Harry in her office to ask them to lunch. She had been held up in negotiations all week with the Canadian government and hadn't had a chance to get to know Harry. She thought she might be able to remedy this by taking them to lunch. Not taking no for an answer the two of them found themselves sitting across from Emily and Draco at one pm. Finn had been able to worm his way out of this was claiming he had an important meeting; which Hermione knew to be untrue. He would pay for that later; she would make sure of it.
"So, Harry, Draco here tells me that the two of you didn't really see eye to eye with one another back at Hogwarts." Emily said after the waiter had brought their drinks and taken their order. Hermione could tell that Draco was still mad her for interference with Kingsley and was not all pleased at being roped into lunch. It seemed as if Emily was ignorant to this or didn't really care.
Harry laughed nervously. "Yeah you could say that."
"Emily, I don't think any of us want to relive our school days simply for your amusement." Draco said before taking a sip of his drink. He looked over at Hermione for just a little to long and had caught Harry's attention.
"Fine, I won't ask about school. Tell me what its like being an Auror in England."
"Not nearly as exciting as it was back in the day." Harry said with a grin. "Not that we don't still have our hands full. The department still monitors most of the old wizarding families who had a hard time adjusting to the new way of life." Hermione knew this was a dig at Draco and kicked him under the table. "All in all, though it's a pretty awesome job."
"You are married, aren't you?" Emily asked truly oblivious to what was going on around her.
"Yes."
"Hogwarts sweetheart, ah Potter." Draco pipped up.
"Yes, I believe you probably remember her Malfoy. Ginny Weasley, well its Potter now."
"Isn't that sweet." Emily said. "So lucky to have found one's true love at such a young age."
"You act as if you much older than us." Hermione said with a laugh "Just a few years, not by much."
"I have been out of school for ten years now." Emily said with a grin. "I still can't believe it has been that long."
When their food had come, they fell into what could only be described as an awkward silence as they ate. Emily tried to carry the conversation, but even she was starting to feel just how truly awkward this lunch had become. Too often Hermione could feel Draco's eyes linger on her, and she knew Harry could see it. She wished that he would stop. He was drawing the attention of the last person Hermione wanted sniffing around what it could possibly mean.
When the check came Draco insisted on paying knowing that Harry would hate it. Emily and Draco didn't linger too long once the bill was paid, they had an afternoon appointment for a possible venue for the wedding. Once they we gone Harry turned to Hermione with a questioning look.
"I feel like there is something you aren't telling me about Malfoy." There was a look of betrayal in his eyes.
"Don't be silly." Hermione said trying to play it off.
"Do you and Malfoy have something going on? The way he looked at you."
"Don't read to much into anything Harry. He and I are just friends."
"He looked at you as if he was looking at a lover Hermione."
"Harry…." The moment she had feared for the last seven years was finally here and there was no stopping it. She had been able to hide the truth from Harry. She wouldn't be able to lie to him though. "I want to show you something." She said finally.
Thirty minutes later they found themselves sitting in front of the portrait of Helena and for the first time she was telling someone else about Helena and Henry. How they had met in 1719 on a mid-spring morning. How Helena had fallen in love with him, everything that had happened between two lovers over the last four hundred years. How she had chosen to stick by Harry's side in the war, she had chosen friendship and family over love. He had been silent through it all, not stopping her to ask questions, that she probably didn't have the answers too. He listened while she told him about running into Draco here, how he had shown her the way to turn off the connection between them. Their friendship, and how she had been unable to tell Finn. She bared her soul to her best friend while they stared at a woman who had been long dead, but still lived on in her.
"Why didn't you ever tell me?" He asked when she was done with her story.
"I don't know what good it would have done. It wouldn't change anything. I, Hermione made a choice a long time ago."
"But you did it for me." He said.
"I did it for a lot of reasons Harry not just for you. More importantly I did it for myself."
"What about Finn?"
"I really like him Harry." She said with a sad smile.
"But…"
"There is no buts. I really like him, and I want to see where this thing with him goes. Me and Draco, its never going to happen. I promised myself."
"He looks at you as if you are the purest form of magic Hermione. I don't see how you don't see that." He sounded sad for her.
"Do you believe in soulmates Harry." She asked turning to look at her oldest friend.
"I think Ginny is my soulmate."
"I think Draco thinks we are soulmates." She mused, turning back to the portrait.
"Yet he is marrying the most powerful witch in America." Harry shook his head.
"It's complicated."
"It doesn't have to be. Love conquers all."
"I don't believe that anymore Harry. I wish I did, but I don't."
"So, you will settle?" the question was harsh, and he meant it to be. "I have never known Hermione Granger to settle for anything."
"I am not settling Harry." The idea of settling made her heart hurt in a way that it hadn't in years. "I think I could really see myself with Finn, he makes me happy."
"Does he complete you?" he of course would throw this out there.
"I can complete myself all on my own Harry. I don't need a man to do it for me."
"I know that Hermione, I think everyone knows that about you. My point is does he make everything better?"
"Yes…" she hesitated a little to long. "Please don't tell Ginny about this."
"Why not?"
"She won't understand my choice." She said sadly.
"Your secret is safe with me." Harry said putting an arm around her, she leaned into him and placed her head on his shoulder. It felt nice to have someone else finally know, but she wasn't ready for everyone else in her life to know. How could they ever understand.
Author's Note: Finally someone else knows. Tell me what you think, if you haven't already hit the follow button to keep track of this ride till the end. Till next week.
