Hello guys. Missed me? Thanks alot to: slytherinqueen, Amb3r, coolchick,etc. I would say this chapter is funnier than the first two. haha You´ll see. :) Enjoy it.
Chapter 3:
The Good Times
In the afternoon, Harry, Hermione and Ron met at the Leaky Cauldron. This time, Hermione was the one who arrived the latest of all because her boss didn´t allow her to sneak a little bit earlier from work.
"I never thought I´d see the day when Hermione would get late to a meeting," Ron said as Hermione sat next to Harry,"specially when it´s about something important."
Hermione wasn´t in a mood to listen at Ron´s jokes, she had a headache, mountains of work to do, and besides her boss scolded her because she hadn´t been working as he expected her to. "Shut up Ron," she hissed.
"Sorry to bug you," said Ron sarcastically.
Hermione narrowed her sparkling cinamon eyes at Ron, and he stuck his tongue out at her in response.
Harry tapped his fingers impatiently; he was sitting between Ron and Hermione; and it was not very pleasant to hear them whispering nicknames at each other. A few moments later, Harry said," Oh knock it off, children!"
"She started," exclaimed Ron pointing in Hermione´s direction. Hermione rolled her eyes and muttered," Grow up."
The waiter placed 3 butterbeers in front of each of them, and then, he said stammering," I believe that... that... well, ...last time you...you three came here... and ... and...and... you forgot to pay."
The three of them turned red from her cheeks to their ears. Hermione covered her face, she felt so ashamed, she felt as her whole reputation was ruined just because that stupid quarrell Malfoy had started. Harry dove his hand inside his pant´s pockets and handed a couple of sickles to the waiter, "There you go, help yourself and you can charge us today´s butterbeers."
Hermione spoke up to apologize for that little incident with the butterbeers, "I´m really, really, sorry for the other day, we never do that, but we had to leave because this guy was..."
Ron cut her off," Oh shut up." He placed his hand on Hermione´s mouth, shook his head at the waiter and rolled his index finger around his ear to say Hermione was kinda crazy. The waiter turned and left.
"The man saw everything, you don´t have to tell him the whole story, " Ron started," Besides you look worse if you do that."
Harry sighed and took a sip of his butterbeer.
"At least I have some manners to apologize," Hermione replied irritated.
They both were getting on Harry´s nerves." What´s wrong with you two," he demmanded," You´ve been fighting since the moment Hermione walked in."
"She started everything,"
"I did not! You were the one who started to bug me because I got late here."
"Yeah, but you were the one who got late."
"So?"
"If you had come earlier like we agreed, we wouldn´t have started this little fight."
"What the hell does that have to do?" asked Harry.
Hermione and Ron finally stopped arguing, but Hermione shoot a face of satisfaction at Ron and he immediately frowned back. Just because Harry kinda defended Hermione´s point of view, she thought he was on her side, but honestly, he wasn´t on anyone´s side.
"Anyway, we came here for a purpose," said Harry.
Hermione pursed her lips and drank from her warm butterbeer.
They both started to feel goosebumps all over their bodies as soon as they heard the word Voldermort.
"Well, an auror said that Voldermort attacked a muggle school in London," anounced Harry. They knew they needed to make something as fast as they could.
"And... do you know the location of that school?" asked Hermione
"If I´m not mistaken, that´s the school were I used to go before Hogwarts."
Ron was drinking his butterbeer, and he choked for a moment. Then he started to cough hard.
Hermione´s eyes got wattery. "Harry, he´s... he´s after you," she muttered softly.
Harry took another sip of his butterbeer and said," I´ll be fine, but I need to know if you two are helping me to solve this out, I know there must be some way to get rid of him forever." He made a weak smile to comfort his friends.
"You know you can count on me always, man," said Ron.
"Me too," said Hermione.
The three friends hugged each other.
"We can start by making research on the Dark Arts," said Hermione.
"You mean, we´re using Dark Arts to kill Voldermort?"asked Ron.
"Of course not, Ron, but there has to be something that we can get from the Dark Arts´ books to figure out a way to kill him using normal magic," explained Harry.
"Oh, that makes more sense," said Ron.
"Duh," snapped Hermione.
Ron narrowed his beautiful blue eyes at Hermione and when he was about to say something , but Harry cut him. "Look guys, if we want to do this, we have to stick together and stop fighting, ok?"
"She ... Hermione started again," said Ron.
"Oh, gosh Ron, would you stop blaming me for heaven´s sake!"
"Guys please this is serious."
In fact, it was something serious, Harry was begging them for their help because he knew he couldn´t get through this all by himself. Harry usually would laug about Hermione and Ron fighting, but he was so damn scared to death. Voldermort had gained more powers, even more than years ago, before he killed Harry´s parents.
"Anyway, next week, I´m going to Hogwarts to watch a quidditch game. Dumbledore invited me, perhaps you two can come," said Ron.
"That´s great, we could go to the library to the restricted section," suggested Hermione.
Ron started to complain about reading boring books when he was going to Hogwarts to watch a fun quidditch game. He just hated to read, and specially when someone forced him to. Ron shut his mouth for a moment and started to think he was being selfish; he knew Harry´s and probably his life were in danger while he was only thinking of having fun watching a quidditch game and resting from work. " Never mind... I´ll do it."
"Thanks Ron, well, at the ministry they say that I must do some research too, so I´ll go with you."
Ron turned at Hermione and asked," So, are you coming too? You know we´ll read and read if that makes you happy."
Hermione twisted her mouth and replied," I´m not very sure about that but if I can find a good excuse at work, there´s no doubt that I´m going with you guys." She made a beautiful reassuring smile.
The three of them finished drinking their delicious butterbeers and started to joke for a while, completely forgetting about the Dark Lord and his nasty plans. Ron was reminding them about a day they visited Fred and George´s joke shop, and afterwards they had gone to a restaurant to eat and Hermionen had this big plastic rat on her plate, which Ron placed when she had gone to wash her hands. Hermione had gotten furious that day at Ron, but still, they were best friends.
Suddenly, a tall, nice looking, young man approached to the table they were sitting. He kissed Hermione on her cheek gently. "Hello Hermione."
Ron scowled , and Harry stared at him puzzled. Hermione had never mentioned anything about Brian but she introduced him to her friends.
"Harry, Ron this is Brian Thompson. Brian this is Harry Potter and Ron Weasley."
Brian shook hands with Ron first and said," Nice to meet you."
"Yeah, whatever," said Ron.
Then, Brian walked towards Harry, shook hands with him too and said," It is the greatest honor to finally meet you, Harry Potter... I was waiting for this moment since I was a child, this is so...how should I describe it?.. hum great I guess. I´m speechless. I admire you so much."
Harry looked at him puzzled, he certainly sounded worse than Colin Creevey and his little brother Denis. Harry hated when people treated him as if he were some kind of god or something; he considered himself completely normal just like any other witch or wizard. Although he had survived all those fights with against the Dark Lord.... Harry was such a modest guy indeed.
"It´s ...huh... erm...a pleasure to meet you too," replied Harry.
After that, Brian was still shaking Harry´s hand, which was not very pleasant for him, because Brian´s hand was sweating like crazy. Harry pulled his hand away and noticed Ron was giggling.
"What brings you here?"asked Hermione.
"Well, I..." Brian didn´t know what to say. Actually he had gone there because he wanted to be with Hermione, he was starting to like her to the point at which he thought about her 24 hours a day. " I ... wanted to.. Mr. Anderson told me to help you with your investigation."
Hermione started to turn pink, she knew Ron was going to tease her as soon as Brian left and of course he was going to ask for Brian´s biography.
"Ok, we can talk about that later, but... I... would you like to join us?"
" Well, if it isn´t much of a request, " said Brian looking straight at Ron and Harry. Harry nodded but Ron just turned his eyes in another direction, avoiding Brian´s gaze. Some seconds later Ron surveyed the stranger he just met from head to toes. Ron suspected there was something rather unusual about Brian. Maybe he liked Hermione. Ron narrowed his eyes at Brian, he didn´t like him at all. Besides, Ron was kinda matching Harry and Hermione since the day Harry broke up with Cho Chang; Hermione had been trying to cheer him up, and they understood each other very well. That´s how Ron realized his two best friends were a heaven sent match.
Brian was interviewing Harry. He asked really stupid questions like why did he got his name into the goblet of fire .
"Oh Harry could you give me your autograph, I´ve been looking foward for it since you won the Triwizard Tounament," said Brian.
Ron rolled his eyes and started to open and close his hand as if it were a duck blabbing, until Hermione kicked his leg under the table.
"Sure," said Harry. He reached for a napkin on the table and for a pen he had inside his robes. Harry was getting tired of him too, but he pretended he wasn´t and signed the napkin.
"Geez, thanks, I´ll frame it and put it on my bedroom´s wall," said Brian.
Harry nodded, making the the fakest smile he´d ever done.
Ron could hardly keep his eyes from shutting, no one seemed to want to talk to him, and he was so bored of hearing Brian worshiping his best friend. He stood up and said," I have to go now." He said goodbye to Harry and Hermione; completely ignoring that Brian was there," See you on Friday."
When he reached the door, he waved at his friends; Brian waved back at him, but Ron simply rolled his eyes and turned his back on him.
While Harry and Brian kept talking and talking, It was taking them forever to talk about quidditch. Brian used to be a keeper at his school, he said he was a good one but I guess we can only know until we watch him play. Hermione wanted to talk to Harry in private about Voldermort´s attack, but she couldn´t find a polite way to ask Brian to leave them alone.
Hermione wrote a little note on a napkin for Harry, then she handed it to him under the table.
Harry took it, and bent his head to read it, in a secretive way so Brian wouldn´t notice. The note said,"If there´s anything else you want to tell me in private, you can go to my house later. I want to talk to you about it ."
Brian noticed Harry wasn´t paying very much attention to what was he saying, so he asked,"Are you looking for something?"
Harry sat straight again, patted Hermione´s lap and winked an eye at her.
Deep inside her most secret affairs, Hermione loved the way Harry used to wink his sparkling green eyes.
Brian certainly was puzzled, and kept looking from Harry to Hermione. He wondered if there was a strong relationship between them, and why hadn´t Hermione said something about it.
"Oh it was just that my feet got this little cramp, no big deal," Harry said smiling. Yes, but that didn´t explain why did he patted Hermione´s lap.
Hermione looked at her watch and announced as she stood up,"I must leave now. I have work to do." She walked towards Brian and kissed him on the left cheek. Her cheeks started to burn, because it was very rare to see her kissing guys on their cheeks. It simply wasn´t her at all. Then she turned to Harry and hugged him (something even more unusual from part of her.) Harry was shocked for a moment, until Hermione whispered softly into his hear,"I´ll be waiting for you." She pulled away and kissed his cheek. Harry turned red, and she blushed more this time. "See you, guys," said Hermione as she walked out the door and waved her hands at them.
Brian ran after her . He was panting a little and asked," Do you want me to help you?"
"Oh, it´s not necesary, but thank you. I´m almost done with my work."
Brian sat back with Harry and started to talk to him again. Harry wanted to leave now, he definately didn´t like Brian at all. Brian was pompous because he gave the impression that he wanted to brag about his first class education at Beauxbatons, just like Fleur the veela girl, and he was being really nosy about Harry´s personal life. Besides, Harry wanted to talk to Hermione, they hadn´t actually talked much about the subject, especially when Brian arrived. He knew Hermione was waiting for him. It was taking him long to cut Brian off, he just kept talking and talking. Brian was really passionate about his old school, and Harry didn´t give a damn about his fancy school, no matter how many luxuries you could find at Beauxbatons, Harry thought Hogwarts was the best school of witchcraft and wizardy.
Harry lost his patience when Brian asked him if there was something going on between him and Hermione. Why would he care? He just met him a few hours ago.
Harry counted to ten, then, he took a deep breath, and he replied," I ... Hermione and I are just best friends... really good friends."
Harry tapped his fingers over the table impatiently while Brian was telling him how did he meet Hermione. Harry couldn´t get Hermione out of his mind at the moment, thinking of her waiting for him.
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Meanwhile, Hermione was lying on her comfy scarlet sofa watching T.V.; some muggle movie in a muggle channel. Well, actually, Hermione´s apartment was in the muggle world, so she tried to look as "normal" as any other muggle that lived nearby. She had to use a portkey to get to work every single day, and yes, being very careful that her nosy neighbors wouldn´t discover she was a witch. The movie was not very interesting, it was called "What Women Want," it had a lot of talk and very little action. Besides, Hermione was looking over and over at the clock on the wall which seemed to be running pretty fast and Harry hadn´t arrived yet. "What´s taking him so long?" she wondered. Hermione was getting worried now.
Her tummy was groaning, so she decided to go to the kitchen and look for something to eat.
Hermione wished she´d never got inside the kitchen. It was a complete mess, it looked like city dump or something of the sort; cereal scattered all over the floor and dirty dishes in the sink. She could blame Crookshanks for the cereal, that messy cat didn´t help at all, of course he had his own excuse, when he gets mad at Hermione when she forgets to feed him, Crookshanks has his particular way to say he´s there. The dishes from a week ago were simply her fault, for one thing or another she kept postponing to wash them. Hermione hated to clean the house, and then, all the work just kept adding and adding.
Hermione looked in the refigerator to find something eatable, but everything in it was rotten or spoiled. Then, she stood on her tip-toes to open the drawer above the sink. She only found a bag of potato chips, then again, she was starving.
Before she left the kitchen, Hermione performed a charm to clean the kitchen. It looked nice and clean. Hermione thanked herself she did that, before Harry would´ve notice the junk that was in her kitchen. Well, that is , if he came.
Hermione sat on the couch, reached for the remote control and started to look for something cool to watch on T.V. Honestly, Hermione didn´t like much to watch a box with moving images, she´d rather read on the books, but she had finished reading all the books she bought over the summer, a month after she bought them. She kept changing the channels, and the only things that were on, were T.V. advertisements that lasted two hours each.
Hermione glanced one more time at the funny clock on the wall. It was 11:00 P.M., and she had to go to work early the next day. She turned off the T.V., and headed to her room upstairs. Maybe Harry wasn´t coming at all.
Her room looked a little more cleaner than the kitchen before she cleaned it. Hermione´s eyes were so close to shutting as she walked in her room that she stepped on Crookshanks´s tail. The cat groaned."Sorry I didn´t see you."
Hermione brushed her teeth and her face in the bathroom, then she headed to her bedroom.
She started to take off her robes and shoes. Then, her socks, her skirt, and her shirt.
Suddenly, she heard a noise. It was only Harry Potter apparating inside of her bedroom!
(DON´T WORRY NOTHING IS GOING TO HAPPEN! MIND OUT OF THE GUTTER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
"What are you doing here?" Hermione asked almost yelling at him.
Harry took a good look at her from head to toes. She looked quite sexy with her black underwear.
"What are you looking at?" she asked, reaching for the quilt on her bed to cover herself.
"I´m sorry... I just thought... I thought you were wearing something descent...erm," replied Harry nervously. He couldn´t get the image of his sexy best friend, oh he had never seen her perfect little legs, and those curves on her waist. She looked like a muggle Barbie doll.
"You could´ve just used the door like everyone else!"
Harry was all stressed out, the image kept drifting inside his mind. "How was I to know you were going to be like this...and besides, I realized it was too late to be knocking on your door... who knows how dirty your neighbors´ mind can be... what would they think it they saw me knocking on your door at ...what time is it?"
"erm... eleven something, what took you so long?"
"That friend of yours, he kept interviewing me ..."
"Oh, don´t tell me you didn´t like him."
"No ofense, he sounds worse than Colin Creevey." Harry´s voice was a little shaky still, well maybe because he was looking at Hermione´s bare shoulders. He was red like a cherry. " You know I hate it when people ask me to sign stuff of to think I´m some kind of hero..."
"Harry," said Hermione in a tender and soft voice," that is because you really are a hero."
He found the tune in her voice kinda sensual, but to his back luck, it was just an allucination.
"Anyway...let me get something descent to wear."
Harry nodded, but he was still motionless. It had been a shocking experience to him. Hermione never wore sexy stuff, well if she did, her robes always covered it, giving Harry no chance to see how sexy his friend could be. Not that he cared much of physical appearances.
"Hey move on," said Hermione.
He looked at her, from head to toes one last time and teased her," See you later goddess."
Hermione reached for a pillow and threw it at Harry´s face,"Shut up and get out of here!"
Harry opened the door and walked out of Hermione´s room. He walked down the stairs, thinking only about Hermione. He had special feelings for her, and wondered if they could be something more than best friends. It was not because Harry had just realized how sexy his best friend could be, Hermione had been very understanding with him and she had been by his side since his first year at Hogwarts. She could admit she caused trouble just to cover Ron´s and Harry´s back, just like when the troll appeared in the girls´bathroom that Halloween feast on their first year at Hogwarts. Hermione was pretty, intelligent, witty and lately she had adquired a very good sense of humor; honestly, physical appearances didn´t matter that much to Harry since he broke up with Cho Chang; although he couldn´t deny that Hermione was in perfect shape, those curves and those sexy short legs. Harry slapped his head to forget about the image. He loved her so much as a friend, that he never asked before to be his girlfriend because he didn´t want to ruin their friendship just because some darn ol´couple fight. Anyway, he cared too much about her. Harry´s feelings for Hermione got stronger and stronger each day. He often wondered how could he been so blind before.
Harry sat on the couch and turned the T.V. on while Hermione put her pijamas on; by the way, it was taking her forever to get dressed. Harry was watching a T.V. advertisement about dog food, he remembered Sirius that very instant, he realized he needed his help too.
Sirius was living in the muggle world now that he got married with a nice muggle lady a few years ago. He had two children, a boy and a gir, their names were Lily and James Black, in honor to Harry´s parents.
Harry turned the T. V. off when he heard Hermione´s footsteps approaching to him.
Hermione was wearing descent pijamas now, they had yellow little chickens stamped on them. She looked rather sweet indeed. Hermione sat next to Harry on the couch, trying to act as if the little incident a few minutes ago, never happened, although her cheeks were still pink and hot.
"What are you planning to do?"asked Hermione breaking the silence between them.
Harry quietly bent and stayed thoughtful for a moment. Hermione placed her cold hand on Harry´s back and said," It´ll be all right, Harry."
"How can you be so certain?" replied Harry.
Hermione sighed, and assured,"Because Ron and I will always be by your side no matter what."
"Oh sages" thought Harrry; he loved the way Hermione tried to sooth him eventhough it was almost impossible to cheer him up.
"Brian can help us too," added Hermione.
Harry twisted his thin lips; it was more than enough with Ron and Hermione ´s help, he didn´t want some jerk he just met a few hours ago to help him when he had two wonderful best friends. " Don´t get him involved in this , Hermione," said Harry in a pleading tune.
"Maybe he knows something that can help us, he has helped me alot at work," said Hermione.
Harry was feeling jelous, why hadn´t Hermione asked him for help instead, he surely would´ve helped her.
"I can´t trust him that much now, and you know this is top secret stuff," said Harry patiently even if he was a little jelous by the fact Hermione had new friends besides him and Ron.
Hermione nodded quietly. They stayed silent for a moment, none of them knew what to say. Harry didn´t want to criticize Hermione´s friend, ´cause she´d probably get angry at him, and Hermione didn´t want to force Harry to do something he didn´t want to, because she cared about him.
"I think I´ll ask for Sirius´s help," said Harry breaking the silence between them.
"Yeah, he could help," Hermione went on,"But still, it´s too risky."
"What do you mean with risky?" asked Harry.
"Well he has two little kids and what if I don´t know...he could die in the mission," said Hermione softly.
"It´s all up to him,"Harry said," If he doesn´t want to well he´s not going to do it."
"I know, but how can he say no to you when you are his godson?"
"Well his children are more important to him now, and besides I´m not under his custody anymore."
Hermione rested her head on Harry´s shoulder for a moment. She never thought she could actually dare to do it, but there she was ... flirting perhaps. Hermione had secretly loved Harry since the first time she met him at the Hogwarts express; she just loved he was so brave and physically she loved his shinning bright green eyes. Hermione often told herself that a hero like Harry would never think about her as anything more than a friend, that killed her inside but she didn´t know that Harry was not at all like her low self-esteem told her he was. Hermione looked at the clock on the wall, it was 12:30 A.M. now, and Harry was still in her department. Of course, he was not there for no such mind in the gutter stuff, but Hermione allowed her imagination wonder for a bit, then she stopped herself from thinking such nonsenses, Harry was only there to talk to her, but he didn´t leave anyway.
"Are you planning to be absent at work tomorrow?" asked Hermione.
"Probably," replied Harry.
"Well then, but you know my boss will not even allow me to get a second late to work, so I have to go to bed now," announced Hermione standing from the couch.
"Allright, I know you´re kicking me out of here," said Harry trying to act hurt. He stood up of the cough and walked to the door.
"I never said I wanted you to leave, you can stay if you want, but I must go to bed now," said Hermione yawning.
"Oh heavens, I don´t know what to say are you Hermione Granger asking me that kind of invitation?" asked Harry joking. He just knew the point at which she could get annoyed and he liked to bug her just like Ron, only not as much as Ron usually did.
"You know I´m not!"exclaimed Hermione. Oh Harry could say such jokes so ...so...dirty is the word. " I was just saying if your house is way too far and you ...oh forget it."
"Ok, if you want me to stay I´ll stay, just not the way you want me to stay." Harry started to laugh wildly, he´s mind was surely in the gutter, but it only was a joke.OK?????
Hermione slapped him on his head, not very hard, even if it was just so damn tempting to do so. "I´m not thinking about the same filthy thoughts you are."
"Bla, bla,bla...hahaha, " Harry got breathless for a while all because of the laughter he couldn´t control anymore.
Finally he got a little serious and said,"Well, I´ve gotta go now, ok see you." Harry walked towards the door .
"What do you think you´re doing?" demmanded Hermione.
"Well, you said you don´t like apparitions so I´ll just use the door like everyone else," declared Harry.
Hermione shook her head and asked," Why are you so contradictory?" She was laughing a little bit too, it was great to know that. " My neighbors are..."
"Allright allright whatever you say mademoiselle," said Harry cutting her off. He went back to the couch and lied there. "You know, I´m tired to leave now, so I´ll stay here, but could you borrow me a blanket?"
Hermione didn´t reply and went upstairs to get him a blanket. She was thinking that it had been a long time since the last time Harry told many jokes at the time and started to burst into wild laughter. It was fine with her even if he told annoying jokes at least he forgot about his problems.
"Thanks," said Harry sarcastically. He turned the T. V. on and started to change channels.
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Hermione was looking for a blanket in her room, she couldn´t find anything in her messy closet, her clothes and shoes were all mixed up in there. She really had to clean all that mess pretty soon.
After digging in the mountains of clothes and shoes in her closet she found a yellow and warm blanket.
Then, she walked down the stairs and caught Harry watching Cartoon Network. He was laughing like crazy. Hermione approached to him as quietly as she could, she didn´t want him to notice she was coming because if he did, he would change the channel and pretend he was searching for something good to see. Harry was now a young man, but still he had so much of a child in him at times, and Hermione loved that about him. He just looked so adorable watching cartoons.
Hermione threw the blanket at Harry. As she guessed, as soon as he felt her pressence there, Harry started to change channels again.
"Don´t worry I´m not telling Ron about it," said Hermione gigling. Harry reacted weirdly sometimes.
"Ok," said Harry covering his body with the blanket. A few seconds later he changed the channels to Cartoon Network.
"I´m leaving now, goodnight Harry." said Hermione.
"Goodnight goddess," he teased her.
"You know how much I hate that word!" Hermione replied," If you say it again I will turn off your cartoons."
"Ok sorry," Harry said," Then goodnight Miss Universe."
Hermione ingnored his teasing and headed to her room. She knew she was going to have trouble to wake up in the morning.
When she was lying on her bed she could only think about how cute did Harry look watching cartoons. Harry was her strongest weakness, but she had learned to hide it all these years. Why was it? Well, she didn´t want to mess up their friendship either but she couldn´t stop loving him the way he was. Besides, she thought she was not pretty enough to catch anyone´s eye, and Harry was probably very popular since he was brave and handsome; Hermione thought he would always see her as his best friend, kinda like never noticing she was a girl. Harry was her hero, indeed, but she didn´t worship him like Colin Creevey, Hermione just kept her feelings to herself and she planned to stay that way forever.
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Hermione half-opened her cinamon eyes and saw the surroundings in her little room, her vision was a little unclear sice her eyes were a bit sticky. She wished she could keep dreaming, last night she took long to fall asleep as her thoughts drifted to Harry and his problems. The fact that Voldemort was after Harry was making her scared, she knew Harry was brave but also, she knew Voldemort was powerful.
Hermione kicked the thick blankets and sat on her comfy bed; she truned around to look at the alarm clock on her bureau; it was 9:30. She was supposed to be at work an hour and a half ago, now she had to find some good excuse to explain her lateness that day. Hermione picked the first skirt and blouse she saw, then, grabbed a towel and ran into the bathroom to take a shower. She shut the door.
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Harry was deeply asleep dreaming pleasant stuff, until a heavy ball of fur jumped on his stomach, that grumpy old cat. Harry reached for his glasses on the floor and put them on. He looked at the clock and sighed, he was still tired, he had spent all night watching cartoons, ´til he finally fell asleep. All those worries in mind never escaped from his mind, not even for just a quick second. Harrry guessed Hermione must have gone to work some long time ago. His stomach groaned loudly so he headed to the kitchen.
To his surprise, the kitchen was perfectly clean...that is if you don´t count the little mess Crookshanks made while eating. Harry opened the refrigerator but it was completely empty.
Just then, Hermione appeared wearing a yellow blouse with sleeves down to her elbows, and a skirt that went down her knees(which needed immediate ironing...anyway she could cover it with her robes.)
" Hermione, are you eating lately?" asked Harry.
"Yeah, at work, but I need to go to the supermarket."
"You surely have."
"There´s a little grocery store in the corner," Hermione said," I´m must leave now."
Hermione gathered her bag and started to walk. Harry went after her and made her stop.
"Well, now that you are late why don´t you stay here and have breakfast with me?" Harry suggested in a rather pleading voice,"You could just say you got sick and we can go together to visit Sirius."
Harry´s idea wasn´t bad at all; she could taker a little break from her exhausting job and enjoy a whole day with Harry, instead of listening to her grumpy boss complaining all day long. There was still a small detail, she was going to miss looking into Brian´s sky blue crystal eyes, but anyway, it was going to be fun. Even if it meant breaking the rules at work. Hermione stayed thoughful for a moment, she knew lying brought not very pleasant concequences; but who was going to know anyway?
"So, what do you say,"asked Harry impatiently.
"I don´t know," replied Hermione unsure.
Harry made this begging face that could make you feel pity for him, he looked so inocent and besides so irresistable.
Hermione sighed and said,"Ok, only for this once."
It didn´t took them long to almost ran out of Hermione´s department and head to the supermarket two blocks away from Hermione´s department.
When they got to the store, Harry walked to get the kart. The store was not very crowded since it was only Wednesday; most people were probably working and their children were at school.
Everyone kept staring at them, yes they were laughing way too much and Harry would just throw not very useful things into the kart like toys or gerber bottles. Hermione was laughing wildly and Harry just kept doing funny things to maker her laugh more and more.
"Look Hermione!" Harry screamed.
"What?" she replied pulling the kart foward.
Harry picked a cereal box from a counter and said," I want this... I love how it tastes... Captain Crunch is definately my favorite and Look! it contains a gift inside!"
"Alright, put it in the kart but stop yelling," Hermione hissed. Harry looked like a little child on the supermarket showing off in front of people, but she didn´t care what people thought about their immature attitudes, they were having the time of their lives and besides, Harry looked just too sweet for Hermione to stop him from acting as a kid, the little boy that lived inside of him just went out.
When they got back to Hermione´s house, Harry helped Hermione to put everything they bought in order. Later on, they started to eat a bowl of cereal, and Harry was not exactly using the spoon to eat and he got milk around his mouth. Hermione was eating properly as her mother had taught her to, but she spilled some milk as she saw the wild way Harry ate his breakfast.
After having breakfast, Harry and Hermione took a bus to go to Sirus´s house. Harry didn´t know exactly where his godfather lived that´s why they got lost for a while but later on, they found his house. It´s front yard was as big as the Gryffindor Common Room, and it had all kinds of toys on the grass that belonged to little Lily and James Black.
Harry knocked on the door. A few moments later a 4 year old girl opened the door and screamed," Daddy, Harry´s here!" She had her mother´s blonde hair and her father´s dark brown eyes.
"Hello, Janie," said Harry.
"Hi," said Hermione.
Lily Jane didn´t reply, instead she screamed," Harry´s girlfriend is here too," Harry shook his head smiling and Hermione started to blush,"Kids and their crazy conclusions," thought Hermione to herself.
Just then, came Sirius carrying his 3 year old boy, Taylor James. The little boy rubbed his eyes as if he had just woke up from his nap. He had his mother´s eyes and his dad´s black hair, but curly like his mommy.
"Why didn´t you ask them to come in Jannie?"asked Sirius patting Jane´s head.
Harry and Hermione walked inside and Sirius invited them to sit on the sofas in the living room. Harry sat next to Hermione and then, Jannie sat on Harry´s lap. Jane traced Harry´s mouth with her little fingers and she started to giggle.
"Clairie is coming in a few minutes, she went to visit her grandmother, but you know we can´t take these little devils there, they´ll just break everything," explained Sirius.
Harry nodded.
"Harry, did you bring us something?" asked Jane. Harry smiled at the little girl that looked so inocent at times.
"Jannie you are not supposed to ask that kind of questions," said Sirius.
Harry reached for some chocolates he had in his pocket. He gave one to Jane, and he stood up to give the other one to little Taylor, who was still quietly and peacefully sitting on his father´s lap.
"Oh, Harry you shouldn´t have," Sirius went on," These kids have side effects caused by chocolate."
Unfortunately, it was too late now because both kids had finished eating their chocolates and the two of them ran to their rooms. Hermione was surprised that Sirius was just sitting there on the couch comfortably, when his kids were going to get sick or something. Besides, the Jane and Taylor were enjoying their chocolates like every normal child would. "What kind of side effects?" she asked concerned.
"Don´t worry, they just get a LITTLE hyperactive that´s all," replied Sirius
"Hum...er...Sirius, do you know anything about the school you-know-who destroyed? asked Harry nervously now that the kids had gone somewhere.
"Yes, Harry,"answered Sirius.
After a few moments of cold silence, Hermione spoke up," We need your support...well, that is if it isn´t much of a request."
Sirius stood up and walked towards Harry, then he scrambled Harry´s messy black hair," If I have to die protecting you my son, it would be my pleasure."
Harry got to his feet and hugged his godfather," Dying won´t be necessary."
Just then, Jane and Taylor came running into the living room. Jane was carrying her Barbie dolls and Taylor brought his little cars.
"Hermione is going to play barbies with me daddy, right Hermione?" Jane was pulling Hermione´s hand.
"Right," replied Hermione as she got to her feet and followed Jane into the toy room carrying all of Jane´s dolls.
Harry watched Hermione leave the living room with Jane, it reminded him about one day during their first year at Hogwarts in which Ron was teasing Hermione that she spent her whole christmas vacation playing barbies, of course Hermione denied it. Harry gigled, and Sirius and Taylor just looked at him puzzled.
"Daddy, can Harry play with me?"
Siruis let out a laugh and said," Sure as long as Harry wants to.
"We´ll talk later," Harry said, "I´ll play with Taylor."
Taylor grinned exitedly and said," We´re going to play with my Hot wheels carwash."
Harry went with little Taylor to his toyroom.
When they reached the toyroom, they saw Hermione and Jane sitting on a colorful carpet playing barbies. Taylor walked towards a big box with thousands of toys in it and looked for his carwash.
"Taylor, why don´t you go play somewhere else?"asked Jane dropping the doll she was holding.
Taylor scowled at his big sister and replied," Because my toys are here too." He stuck his tongue at Jane and she did the same to him. Harry and Hermione found that funny and they giggled covering their mouths so the kids wouldn´t see they were laughing at them.
Jane continued playing with Hermione . Then, Taylor threw one of his little cars to the doll house in which Hermione and his sister were playing.
Jane stood up quietly and walked towards Taylor. Harry didn´t even notice the little girl approaching with revenge intentions on mind because he was concentrated in the game. She hit her little brother with a doll and he threw another car at her.
Hermione ran to separate them. Both children started to cry.
Harry tried to sooth Taylor by making funny faces at him. He put on his glasses backward; that made Taylor laugh and to start saying," Let me your glasses, please, please, please."
"But you´ll break them," replied Harry.
"Please?"
"Ok, just ten seconds."
Taylor put Harry´s glasses on his blue eyes and he started to say," Are you blind Harry?"
Harry was having a hard time to see too. "Ok, that´s enough." By now, Jane was wearing the glasses and running around the room. Hermione ran after her, and the girl found it funny. To Harry´s bad luck, Jane tripped with one of Taylor´s little cars and Harry´s glasses broke.
"Ooopsie," muttered Jane with a smile that reached her ears.
Hermione picked the broken glasses and muttered some charm she learned to fix glasses.
"Lend them to me," said Taylor jumping.
Hermione shook her head. She handed the glasses to his owner and Harry immediately put them on." Thanks ´Mione."
After Sirius and Clairie finally sent their little destroyers to bed, Harry and Hermione sat with them in the kitchen and started to talk.
Clairie prepared some warm chocolare for the four of them, since the weather had been rather cold that day.
"There was this interview on T. V.,...erm... the day before yesterday," Sirius went on," A young lady at a hospital. She survived the attack at the muggle school." Sirius took a sip of his chocolate his wife prepared, oh he loved the way she cooked." The poor thing was scared to death," he added.
Harry swallowed hard his chocolate and Hermione was nervously curling her bushy hair with her fingers.
"I think we must talk to her," Harry spoke up clearing his throat.
"Yeah, but I suggest we should look for her after she leaves the hospital," said Hermione.
Chapter 3:
The Good Times
In the afternoon, Harry, Hermione and Ron met at the Leaky Cauldron. This time, Hermione was the one who arrived the latest of all because her boss didn´t allow her to sneak a little bit earlier from work.
"I never thought I´d see the day when Hermione would get late to a meeting," Ron said as Hermione sat next to Harry,"specially when it´s about something important."
Hermione wasn´t in a mood to listen at Ron´s jokes, she had a headache, mountains of work to do, and besides her boss scolded her because she hadn´t been working as he expected her to. "Shut up Ron," she hissed.
"Sorry to bug you," said Ron sarcastically.
Hermione narrowed her sparkling cinamon eyes at Ron, and he stuck his tongue out at her in response.
Harry tapped his fingers impatiently; he was sitting between Ron and Hermione; and it was not very pleasant to hear them whispering nicknames at each other. A few moments later, Harry said," Oh knock it off, children!"
"She started," exclaimed Ron pointing in Hermione´s direction. Hermione rolled her eyes and muttered," Grow up."
The waiter placed 3 butterbeers in front of each of them, and then, he said stammering," I believe that... that... well, ...last time you...you three came here... and ... and...and... you forgot to pay."
The three of them turned red from her cheeks to their ears. Hermione covered her face, she felt so ashamed, she felt as her whole reputation was ruined just because that stupid quarrell Malfoy had started. Harry dove his hand inside his pant´s pockets and handed a couple of sickles to the waiter, "There you go, help yourself and you can charge us today´s butterbeers."
Hermione spoke up to apologize for that little incident with the butterbeers, "I´m really, really, sorry for the other day, we never do that, but we had to leave because this guy was..."
Ron cut her off," Oh shut up." He placed his hand on Hermione´s mouth, shook his head at the waiter and rolled his index finger around his ear to say Hermione was kinda crazy. The waiter turned and left.
"The man saw everything, you don´t have to tell him the whole story, " Ron started," Besides you look worse if you do that."
Harry sighed and took a sip of his butterbeer.
"At least I have some manners to apologize," Hermione replied irritated.
They both were getting on Harry´s nerves." What´s wrong with you two," he demmanded," You´ve been fighting since the moment Hermione walked in."
"She started everything,"
"I did not! You were the one who started to bug me because I got late here."
"Yeah, but you were the one who got late."
"So?"
"If you had come earlier like we agreed, we wouldn´t have started this little fight."
"What the hell does that have to do?" asked Harry.
Hermione and Ron finally stopped arguing, but Hermione shoot a face of satisfaction at Ron and he immediately frowned back. Just because Harry kinda defended Hermione´s point of view, she thought he was on her side, but honestly, he wasn´t on anyone´s side.
"Anyway, we came here for a purpose," said Harry.
Hermione pursed her lips and drank from her warm butterbeer.
They both started to feel goosebumps all over their bodies as soon as they heard the word Voldermort.
"Well, an auror said that Voldermort attacked a muggle school in London," anounced Harry. They knew they needed to make something as fast as they could.
"And... do you know the location of that school?" asked Hermione
"If I´m not mistaken, that´s the school were I used to go before Hogwarts."
Ron was drinking his butterbeer, and he choked for a moment. Then he started to cough hard.
Hermione´s eyes got wattery. "Harry, he´s... he´s after you," she muttered softly.
Harry took another sip of his butterbeer and said," I´ll be fine, but I need to know if you two are helping me to solve this out, I know there must be some way to get rid of him forever." He made a weak smile to comfort his friends.
"You know you can count on me always, man," said Ron.
"Me too," said Hermione.
The three friends hugged each other.
"We can start by making research on the Dark Arts," said Hermione.
"You mean, we´re using Dark Arts to kill Voldermort?"asked Ron.
"Of course not, Ron, but there has to be something that we can get from the Dark Arts´ books to figure out a way to kill him using normal magic," explained Harry.
"Oh, that makes more sense," said Ron.
"Duh," snapped Hermione.
Ron narrowed his beautiful blue eyes at Hermione and when he was about to say something , but Harry cut him. "Look guys, if we want to do this, we have to stick together and stop fighting, ok?"
"She ... Hermione started again," said Ron.
"Oh, gosh Ron, would you stop blaming me for heaven´s sake!"
"Guys please this is serious."
In fact, it was something serious, Harry was begging them for their help because he knew he couldn´t get through this all by himself. Harry usually would laug about Hermione and Ron fighting, but he was so damn scared to death. Voldermort had gained more powers, even more than years ago, before he killed Harry´s parents.
"Anyway, next week, I´m going to Hogwarts to watch a quidditch game. Dumbledore invited me, perhaps you two can come," said Ron.
"That´s great, we could go to the library to the restricted section," suggested Hermione.
Ron started to complain about reading boring books when he was going to Hogwarts to watch a fun quidditch game. He just hated to read, and specially when someone forced him to. Ron shut his mouth for a moment and started to think he was being selfish; he knew Harry´s and probably his life were in danger while he was only thinking of having fun watching a quidditch game and resting from work. " Never mind... I´ll do it."
"Thanks Ron, well, at the ministry they say that I must do some research too, so I´ll go with you."
Ron turned at Hermione and asked," So, are you coming too? You know we´ll read and read if that makes you happy."
Hermione twisted her mouth and replied," I´m not very sure about that but if I can find a good excuse at work, there´s no doubt that I´m going with you guys." She made a beautiful reassuring smile.
The three of them finished drinking their delicious butterbeers and started to joke for a while, completely forgetting about the Dark Lord and his nasty plans. Ron was reminding them about a day they visited Fred and George´s joke shop, and afterwards they had gone to a restaurant to eat and Hermionen had this big plastic rat on her plate, which Ron placed when she had gone to wash her hands. Hermione had gotten furious that day at Ron, but still, they were best friends.
Suddenly, a tall, nice looking, young man approached to the table they were sitting. He kissed Hermione on her cheek gently. "Hello Hermione."
Ron scowled , and Harry stared at him puzzled. Hermione had never mentioned anything about Brian but she introduced him to her friends.
"Harry, Ron this is Brian Thompson. Brian this is Harry Potter and Ron Weasley."
Brian shook hands with Ron first and said," Nice to meet you."
"Yeah, whatever," said Ron.
Then, Brian walked towards Harry, shook hands with him too and said," It is the greatest honor to finally meet you, Harry Potter... I was waiting for this moment since I was a child, this is so...how should I describe it?.. hum great I guess. I´m speechless. I admire you so much."
Harry looked at him puzzled, he certainly sounded worse than Colin Creevey and his little brother Denis. Harry hated when people treated him as if he were some kind of god or something; he considered himself completely normal just like any other witch or wizard. Although he had survived all those fights with against the Dark Lord.... Harry was such a modest guy indeed.
"It´s ...huh... erm...a pleasure to meet you too," replied Harry.
After that, Brian was still shaking Harry´s hand, which was not very pleasant for him, because Brian´s hand was sweating like crazy. Harry pulled his hand away and noticed Ron was giggling.
"What brings you here?"asked Hermione.
"Well, I..." Brian didn´t know what to say. Actually he had gone there because he wanted to be with Hermione, he was starting to like her to the point at which he thought about her 24 hours a day. " I ... wanted to.. Mr. Anderson told me to help you with your investigation."
Hermione started to turn pink, she knew Ron was going to tease her as soon as Brian left and of course he was going to ask for Brian´s biography.
"Ok, we can talk about that later, but... I... would you like to join us?"
" Well, if it isn´t much of a request, " said Brian looking straight at Ron and Harry. Harry nodded but Ron just turned his eyes in another direction, avoiding Brian´s gaze. Some seconds later Ron surveyed the stranger he just met from head to toes. Ron suspected there was something rather unusual about Brian. Maybe he liked Hermione. Ron narrowed his eyes at Brian, he didn´t like him at all. Besides, Ron was kinda matching Harry and Hermione since the day Harry broke up with Cho Chang; Hermione had been trying to cheer him up, and they understood each other very well. That´s how Ron realized his two best friends were a heaven sent match.
Brian was interviewing Harry. He asked really stupid questions like why did he got his name into the goblet of fire .
"Oh Harry could you give me your autograph, I´ve been looking foward for it since you won the Triwizard Tounament," said Brian.
Ron rolled his eyes and started to open and close his hand as if it were a duck blabbing, until Hermione kicked his leg under the table.
"Sure," said Harry. He reached for a napkin on the table and for a pen he had inside his robes. Harry was getting tired of him too, but he pretended he wasn´t and signed the napkin.
"Geez, thanks, I´ll frame it and put it on my bedroom´s wall," said Brian.
Harry nodded, making the the fakest smile he´d ever done.
Ron could hardly keep his eyes from shutting, no one seemed to want to talk to him, and he was so bored of hearing Brian worshiping his best friend. He stood up and said," I have to go now." He said goodbye to Harry and Hermione; completely ignoring that Brian was there," See you on Friday."
When he reached the door, he waved at his friends; Brian waved back at him, but Ron simply rolled his eyes and turned his back on him.
While Harry and Brian kept talking and talking, It was taking them forever to talk about quidditch. Brian used to be a keeper at his school, he said he was a good one but I guess we can only know until we watch him play. Hermione wanted to talk to Harry in private about Voldermort´s attack, but she couldn´t find a polite way to ask Brian to leave them alone.
Hermione wrote a little note on a napkin for Harry, then she handed it to him under the table.
Harry took it, and bent his head to read it, in a secretive way so Brian wouldn´t notice. The note said,"If there´s anything else you want to tell me in private, you can go to my house later. I want to talk to you about it ."
Brian noticed Harry wasn´t paying very much attention to what was he saying, so he asked,"Are you looking for something?"
Harry sat straight again, patted Hermione´s lap and winked an eye at her.
Deep inside her most secret affairs, Hermione loved the way Harry used to wink his sparkling green eyes.
Brian certainly was puzzled, and kept looking from Harry to Hermione. He wondered if there was a strong relationship between them, and why hadn´t Hermione said something about it.
"Oh it was just that my feet got this little cramp, no big deal," Harry said smiling. Yes, but that didn´t explain why did he patted Hermione´s lap.
Hermione looked at her watch and announced as she stood up,"I must leave now. I have work to do." She walked towards Brian and kissed him on the left cheek. Her cheeks started to burn, because it was very rare to see her kissing guys on their cheeks. It simply wasn´t her at all. Then she turned to Harry and hugged him (something even more unusual from part of her.) Harry was shocked for a moment, until Hermione whispered softly into his hear,"I´ll be waiting for you." She pulled away and kissed his cheek. Harry turned red, and she blushed more this time. "See you, guys," said Hermione as she walked out the door and waved her hands at them.
Brian ran after her . He was panting a little and asked," Do you want me to help you?"
"Oh, it´s not necesary, but thank you. I´m almost done with my work."
Brian sat back with Harry and started to talk to him again. Harry wanted to leave now, he definately didn´t like Brian at all. Brian was pompous because he gave the impression that he wanted to brag about his first class education at Beauxbatons, just like Fleur the veela girl, and he was being really nosy about Harry´s personal life. Besides, Harry wanted to talk to Hermione, they hadn´t actually talked much about the subject, especially when Brian arrived. He knew Hermione was waiting for him. It was taking him long to cut Brian off, he just kept talking and talking. Brian was really passionate about his old school, and Harry didn´t give a damn about his fancy school, no matter how many luxuries you could find at Beauxbatons, Harry thought Hogwarts was the best school of witchcraft and wizardy.
Harry lost his patience when Brian asked him if there was something going on between him and Hermione. Why would he care? He just met him a few hours ago.
Harry counted to ten, then, he took a deep breath, and he replied," I ... Hermione and I are just best friends... really good friends."
Harry tapped his fingers over the table impatiently while Brian was telling him how did he meet Hermione. Harry couldn´t get Hermione out of his mind at the moment, thinking of her waiting for him.
***********************************************************************
Meanwhile, Hermione was lying on her comfy scarlet sofa watching T.V.; some muggle movie in a muggle channel. Well, actually, Hermione´s apartment was in the muggle world, so she tried to look as "normal" as any other muggle that lived nearby. She had to use a portkey to get to work every single day, and yes, being very careful that her nosy neighbors wouldn´t discover she was a witch. The movie was not very interesting, it was called "What Women Want," it had a lot of talk and very little action. Besides, Hermione was looking over and over at the clock on the wall which seemed to be running pretty fast and Harry hadn´t arrived yet. "What´s taking him so long?" she wondered. Hermione was getting worried now.
Her tummy was groaning, so she decided to go to the kitchen and look for something to eat.
Hermione wished she´d never got inside the kitchen. It was a complete mess, it looked like city dump or something of the sort; cereal scattered all over the floor and dirty dishes in the sink. She could blame Crookshanks for the cereal, that messy cat didn´t help at all, of course he had his own excuse, when he gets mad at Hermione when she forgets to feed him, Crookshanks has his particular way to say he´s there. The dishes from a week ago were simply her fault, for one thing or another she kept postponing to wash them. Hermione hated to clean the house, and then, all the work just kept adding and adding.
Hermione looked in the refigerator to find something eatable, but everything in it was rotten or spoiled. Then, she stood on her tip-toes to open the drawer above the sink. She only found a bag of potato chips, then again, she was starving.
Before she left the kitchen, Hermione performed a charm to clean the kitchen. It looked nice and clean. Hermione thanked herself she did that, before Harry would´ve notice the junk that was in her kitchen. Well, that is , if he came.
Hermione sat on the couch, reached for the remote control and started to look for something cool to watch on T.V. Honestly, Hermione didn´t like much to watch a box with moving images, she´d rather read on the books, but she had finished reading all the books she bought over the summer, a month after she bought them. She kept changing the channels, and the only things that were on, were T.V. advertisements that lasted two hours each.
Hermione glanced one more time at the funny clock on the wall. It was 11:00 P.M., and she had to go to work early the next day. She turned off the T.V., and headed to her room upstairs. Maybe Harry wasn´t coming at all.
Her room looked a little more cleaner than the kitchen before she cleaned it. Hermione´s eyes were so close to shutting as she walked in her room that she stepped on Crookshanks´s tail. The cat groaned."Sorry I didn´t see you."
Hermione brushed her teeth and her face in the bathroom, then she headed to her bedroom.
She started to take off her robes and shoes. Then, her socks, her skirt, and her shirt.
Suddenly, she heard a noise. It was only Harry Potter apparating inside of her bedroom!
(DON´T WORRY NOTHING IS GOING TO HAPPEN! MIND OUT OF THE GUTTER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
"What are you doing here?" Hermione asked almost yelling at him.
Harry took a good look at her from head to toes. She looked quite sexy with her black underwear.
"What are you looking at?" she asked, reaching for the quilt on her bed to cover herself.
"I´m sorry... I just thought... I thought you were wearing something descent...erm," replied Harry nervously. He couldn´t get the image of his sexy best friend, oh he had never seen her perfect little legs, and those curves on her waist. She looked like a muggle Barbie doll.
"You could´ve just used the door like everyone else!"
Harry was all stressed out, the image kept drifting inside his mind. "How was I to know you were going to be like this...and besides, I realized it was too late to be knocking on your door... who knows how dirty your neighbors´ mind can be... what would they think it they saw me knocking on your door at ...what time is it?"
"erm... eleven something, what took you so long?"
"That friend of yours, he kept interviewing me ..."
"Oh, don´t tell me you didn´t like him."
"No ofense, he sounds worse than Colin Creevey." Harry´s voice was a little shaky still, well maybe because he was looking at Hermione´s bare shoulders. He was red like a cherry. " You know I hate it when people ask me to sign stuff of to think I´m some kind of hero..."
"Harry," said Hermione in a tender and soft voice," that is because you really are a hero."
He found the tune in her voice kinda sensual, but to his back luck, it was just an allucination.
"Anyway...let me get something descent to wear."
Harry nodded, but he was still motionless. It had been a shocking experience to him. Hermione never wore sexy stuff, well if she did, her robes always covered it, giving Harry no chance to see how sexy his friend could be. Not that he cared much of physical appearances.
"Hey move on," said Hermione.
He looked at her, from head to toes one last time and teased her," See you later goddess."
Hermione reached for a pillow and threw it at Harry´s face,"Shut up and get out of here!"
Harry opened the door and walked out of Hermione´s room. He walked down the stairs, thinking only about Hermione. He had special feelings for her, and wondered if they could be something more than best friends. It was not because Harry had just realized how sexy his best friend could be, Hermione had been very understanding with him and she had been by his side since his first year at Hogwarts. She could admit she caused trouble just to cover Ron´s and Harry´s back, just like when the troll appeared in the girls´bathroom that Halloween feast on their first year at Hogwarts. Hermione was pretty, intelligent, witty and lately she had adquired a very good sense of humor; honestly, physical appearances didn´t matter that much to Harry since he broke up with Cho Chang; although he couldn´t deny that Hermione was in perfect shape, those curves and those sexy short legs. Harry slapped his head to forget about the image. He loved her so much as a friend, that he never asked before to be his girlfriend because he didn´t want to ruin their friendship just because some darn ol´couple fight. Anyway, he cared too much about her. Harry´s feelings for Hermione got stronger and stronger each day. He often wondered how could he been so blind before.
Harry sat on the couch and turned the T.V. on while Hermione put her pijamas on; by the way, it was taking her forever to get dressed. Harry was watching a T.V. advertisement about dog food, he remembered Sirius that very instant, he realized he needed his help too.
Sirius was living in the muggle world now that he got married with a nice muggle lady a few years ago. He had two children, a boy and a gir, their names were Lily and James Black, in honor to Harry´s parents.
Harry turned the T. V. off when he heard Hermione´s footsteps approaching to him.
Hermione was wearing descent pijamas now, they had yellow little chickens stamped on them. She looked rather sweet indeed. Hermione sat next to Harry on the couch, trying to act as if the little incident a few minutes ago, never happened, although her cheeks were still pink and hot.
"What are you planning to do?"asked Hermione breaking the silence between them.
Harry quietly bent and stayed thoughtful for a moment. Hermione placed her cold hand on Harry´s back and said," It´ll be all right, Harry."
"How can you be so certain?" replied Harry.
Hermione sighed, and assured,"Because Ron and I will always be by your side no matter what."
"Oh sages" thought Harrry; he loved the way Hermione tried to sooth him eventhough it was almost impossible to cheer him up.
"Brian can help us too," added Hermione.
Harry twisted his thin lips; it was more than enough with Ron and Hermione ´s help, he didn´t want some jerk he just met a few hours ago to help him when he had two wonderful best friends. " Don´t get him involved in this , Hermione," said Harry in a pleading tune.
"Maybe he knows something that can help us, he has helped me alot at work," said Hermione.
Harry was feeling jelous, why hadn´t Hermione asked him for help instead, he surely would´ve helped her.
"I can´t trust him that much now, and you know this is top secret stuff," said Harry patiently even if he was a little jelous by the fact Hermione had new friends besides him and Ron.
Hermione nodded quietly. They stayed silent for a moment, none of them knew what to say. Harry didn´t want to criticize Hermione´s friend, ´cause she´d probably get angry at him, and Hermione didn´t want to force Harry to do something he didn´t want to, because she cared about him.
"I think I´ll ask for Sirius´s help," said Harry breaking the silence between them.
"Yeah, he could help," Hermione went on,"But still, it´s too risky."
"What do you mean with risky?" asked Harry.
"Well he has two little kids and what if I don´t know...he could die in the mission," said Hermione softly.
"It´s all up to him,"Harry said," If he doesn´t want to well he´s not going to do it."
"I know, but how can he say no to you when you are his godson?"
"Well his children are more important to him now, and besides I´m not under his custody anymore."
Hermione rested her head on Harry´s shoulder for a moment. She never thought she could actually dare to do it, but there she was ... flirting perhaps. Hermione had secretly loved Harry since the first time she met him at the Hogwarts express; she just loved he was so brave and physically she loved his shinning bright green eyes. Hermione often told herself that a hero like Harry would never think about her as anything more than a friend, that killed her inside but she didn´t know that Harry was not at all like her low self-esteem told her he was. Hermione looked at the clock on the wall, it was 12:30 A.M. now, and Harry was still in her department. Of course, he was not there for no such mind in the gutter stuff, but Hermione allowed her imagination wonder for a bit, then she stopped herself from thinking such nonsenses, Harry was only there to talk to her, but he didn´t leave anyway.
"Are you planning to be absent at work tomorrow?" asked Hermione.
"Probably," replied Harry.
"Well then, but you know my boss will not even allow me to get a second late to work, so I have to go to bed now," announced Hermione standing from the couch.
"Allright, I know you´re kicking me out of here," said Harry trying to act hurt. He stood up of the cough and walked to the door.
"I never said I wanted you to leave, you can stay if you want, but I must go to bed now," said Hermione yawning.
"Oh heavens, I don´t know what to say are you Hermione Granger asking me that kind of invitation?" asked Harry joking. He just knew the point at which she could get annoyed and he liked to bug her just like Ron, only not as much as Ron usually did.
"You know I´m not!"exclaimed Hermione. Oh Harry could say such jokes so ...so...dirty is the word. " I was just saying if your house is way too far and you ...oh forget it."
"Ok, if you want me to stay I´ll stay, just not the way you want me to stay." Harry started to laugh wildly, he´s mind was surely in the gutter, but it only was a joke.OK?????
Hermione slapped him on his head, not very hard, even if it was just so damn tempting to do so. "I´m not thinking about the same filthy thoughts you are."
"Bla, bla,bla...hahaha, " Harry got breathless for a while all because of the laughter he couldn´t control anymore.
Finally he got a little serious and said,"Well, I´ve gotta go now, ok see you." Harry walked towards the door .
"What do you think you´re doing?" demmanded Hermione.
"Well, you said you don´t like apparitions so I´ll just use the door like everyone else," declared Harry.
Hermione shook her head and asked," Why are you so contradictory?" She was laughing a little bit too, it was great to know that. " My neighbors are..."
"Allright allright whatever you say mademoiselle," said Harry cutting her off. He went back to the couch and lied there. "You know, I´m tired to leave now, so I´ll stay here, but could you borrow me a blanket?"
Hermione didn´t reply and went upstairs to get him a blanket. She was thinking that it had been a long time since the last time Harry told many jokes at the time and started to burst into wild laughter. It was fine with her even if he told annoying jokes at least he forgot about his problems.
"Thanks," said Harry sarcastically. He turned the T. V. on and started to change channels.
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Hermione was looking for a blanket in her room, she couldn´t find anything in her messy closet, her clothes and shoes were all mixed up in there. She really had to clean all that mess pretty soon.
After digging in the mountains of clothes and shoes in her closet she found a yellow and warm blanket.
Then, she walked down the stairs and caught Harry watching Cartoon Network. He was laughing like crazy. Hermione approached to him as quietly as she could, she didn´t want him to notice she was coming because if he did, he would change the channel and pretend he was searching for something good to see. Harry was now a young man, but still he had so much of a child in him at times, and Hermione loved that about him. He just looked so adorable watching cartoons.
Hermione threw the blanket at Harry. As she guessed, as soon as he felt her pressence there, Harry started to change channels again.
"Don´t worry I´m not telling Ron about it," said Hermione gigling. Harry reacted weirdly sometimes.
"Ok," said Harry covering his body with the blanket. A few seconds later he changed the channels to Cartoon Network.
"I´m leaving now, goodnight Harry." said Hermione.
"Goodnight goddess," he teased her.
"You know how much I hate that word!" Hermione replied," If you say it again I will turn off your cartoons."
"Ok sorry," Harry said," Then goodnight Miss Universe."
Hermione ingnored his teasing and headed to her room. She knew she was going to have trouble to wake up in the morning.
When she was lying on her bed she could only think about how cute did Harry look watching cartoons. Harry was her strongest weakness, but she had learned to hide it all these years. Why was it? Well, she didn´t want to mess up their friendship either but she couldn´t stop loving him the way he was. Besides, she thought she was not pretty enough to catch anyone´s eye, and Harry was probably very popular since he was brave and handsome; Hermione thought he would always see her as his best friend, kinda like never noticing she was a girl. Harry was her hero, indeed, but she didn´t worship him like Colin Creevey, Hermione just kept her feelings to herself and she planned to stay that way forever.
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Hermione half-opened her cinamon eyes and saw the surroundings in her little room, her vision was a little unclear sice her eyes were a bit sticky. She wished she could keep dreaming, last night she took long to fall asleep as her thoughts drifted to Harry and his problems. The fact that Voldemort was after Harry was making her scared, she knew Harry was brave but also, she knew Voldemort was powerful.
Hermione kicked the thick blankets and sat on her comfy bed; she truned around to look at the alarm clock on her bureau; it was 9:30. She was supposed to be at work an hour and a half ago, now she had to find some good excuse to explain her lateness that day. Hermione picked the first skirt and blouse she saw, then, grabbed a towel and ran into the bathroom to take a shower. She shut the door.
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Harry was deeply asleep dreaming pleasant stuff, until a heavy ball of fur jumped on his stomach, that grumpy old cat. Harry reached for his glasses on the floor and put them on. He looked at the clock and sighed, he was still tired, he had spent all night watching cartoons, ´til he finally fell asleep. All those worries in mind never escaped from his mind, not even for just a quick second. Harrry guessed Hermione must have gone to work some long time ago. His stomach groaned loudly so he headed to the kitchen.
To his surprise, the kitchen was perfectly clean...that is if you don´t count the little mess Crookshanks made while eating. Harry opened the refrigerator but it was completely empty.
Just then, Hermione appeared wearing a yellow blouse with sleeves down to her elbows, and a skirt that went down her knees(which needed immediate ironing...anyway she could cover it with her robes.)
" Hermione, are you eating lately?" asked Harry.
"Yeah, at work, but I need to go to the supermarket."
"You surely have."
"There´s a little grocery store in the corner," Hermione said," I´m must leave now."
Hermione gathered her bag and started to walk. Harry went after her and made her stop.
"Well, now that you are late why don´t you stay here and have breakfast with me?" Harry suggested in a rather pleading voice,"You could just say you got sick and we can go together to visit Sirius."
Harry´s idea wasn´t bad at all; she could taker a little break from her exhausting job and enjoy a whole day with Harry, instead of listening to her grumpy boss complaining all day long. There was still a small detail, she was going to miss looking into Brian´s sky blue crystal eyes, but anyway, it was going to be fun. Even if it meant breaking the rules at work. Hermione stayed thoughful for a moment, she knew lying brought not very pleasant concequences; but who was going to know anyway?
"So, what do you say,"asked Harry impatiently.
"I don´t know," replied Hermione unsure.
Harry made this begging face that could make you feel pity for him, he looked so inocent and besides so irresistable.
Hermione sighed and said,"Ok, only for this once."
It didn´t took them long to almost ran out of Hermione´s department and head to the supermarket two blocks away from Hermione´s department.
When they got to the store, Harry walked to get the kart. The store was not very crowded since it was only Wednesday; most people were probably working and their children were at school.
Everyone kept staring at them, yes they were laughing way too much and Harry would just throw not very useful things into the kart like toys or gerber bottles. Hermione was laughing wildly and Harry just kept doing funny things to maker her laugh more and more.
"Look Hermione!" Harry screamed.
"What?" she replied pulling the kart foward.
Harry picked a cereal box from a counter and said," I want this... I love how it tastes... Captain Crunch is definately my favorite and Look! it contains a gift inside!"
"Alright, put it in the kart but stop yelling," Hermione hissed. Harry looked like a little child on the supermarket showing off in front of people, but she didn´t care what people thought about their immature attitudes, they were having the time of their lives and besides, Harry looked just too sweet for Hermione to stop him from acting as a kid, the little boy that lived inside of him just went out.
When they got back to Hermione´s house, Harry helped Hermione to put everything they bought in order. Later on, they started to eat a bowl of cereal, and Harry was not exactly using the spoon to eat and he got milk around his mouth. Hermione was eating properly as her mother had taught her to, but she spilled some milk as she saw the wild way Harry ate his breakfast.
After having breakfast, Harry and Hermione took a bus to go to Sirus´s house. Harry didn´t know exactly where his godfather lived that´s why they got lost for a while but later on, they found his house. It´s front yard was as big as the Gryffindor Common Room, and it had all kinds of toys on the grass that belonged to little Lily and James Black.
Harry knocked on the door. A few moments later a 4 year old girl opened the door and screamed," Daddy, Harry´s here!" She had her mother´s blonde hair and her father´s dark brown eyes.
"Hello, Janie," said Harry.
"Hi," said Hermione.
Lily Jane didn´t reply, instead she screamed," Harry´s girlfriend is here too," Harry shook his head smiling and Hermione started to blush,"Kids and their crazy conclusions," thought Hermione to herself.
Just then, came Sirius carrying his 3 year old boy, Taylor James. The little boy rubbed his eyes as if he had just woke up from his nap. He had his mother´s eyes and his dad´s black hair, but curly like his mommy.
"Why didn´t you ask them to come in Jannie?"asked Sirius patting Jane´s head.
Harry and Hermione walked inside and Sirius invited them to sit on the sofas in the living room. Harry sat next to Hermione and then, Jannie sat on Harry´s lap. Jane traced Harry´s mouth with her little fingers and she started to giggle.
"Clairie is coming in a few minutes, she went to visit her grandmother, but you know we can´t take these little devils there, they´ll just break everything," explained Sirius.
Harry nodded.
"Harry, did you bring us something?" asked Jane. Harry smiled at the little girl that looked so inocent at times.
"Jannie you are not supposed to ask that kind of questions," said Sirius.
Harry reached for some chocolates he had in his pocket. He gave one to Jane, and he stood up to give the other one to little Taylor, who was still quietly and peacefully sitting on his father´s lap.
"Oh, Harry you shouldn´t have," Sirius went on," These kids have side effects caused by chocolate."
Unfortunately, it was too late now because both kids had finished eating their chocolates and the two of them ran to their rooms. Hermione was surprised that Sirius was just sitting there on the couch comfortably, when his kids were going to get sick or something. Besides, the Jane and Taylor were enjoying their chocolates like every normal child would. "What kind of side effects?" she asked concerned.
"Don´t worry, they just get a LITTLE hyperactive that´s all," replied Sirius
"Hum...er...Sirius, do you know anything about the school you-know-who destroyed? asked Harry nervously now that the kids had gone somewhere.
"Yes, Harry,"answered Sirius.
After a few moments of cold silence, Hermione spoke up," We need your support...well, that is if it isn´t much of a request."
Sirius stood up and walked towards Harry, then he scrambled Harry´s messy black hair," If I have to die protecting you my son, it would be my pleasure."
Harry got to his feet and hugged his godfather," Dying won´t be necessary."
Just then, Jane and Taylor came running into the living room. Jane was carrying her Barbie dolls and Taylor brought his little cars.
"Hermione is going to play barbies with me daddy, right Hermione?" Jane was pulling Hermione´s hand.
"Right," replied Hermione as she got to her feet and followed Jane into the toy room carrying all of Jane´s dolls.
Harry watched Hermione leave the living room with Jane, it reminded him about one day during their first year at Hogwarts in which Ron was teasing Hermione that she spent her whole christmas vacation playing barbies, of course Hermione denied it. Harry gigled, and Sirius and Taylor just looked at him puzzled.
"Daddy, can Harry play with me?"
Siruis let out a laugh and said," Sure as long as Harry wants to.
"We´ll talk later," Harry said, "I´ll play with Taylor."
Taylor grinned exitedly and said," We´re going to play with my Hot wheels carwash."
Harry went with little Taylor to his toyroom.
When they reached the toyroom, they saw Hermione and Jane sitting on a colorful carpet playing barbies. Taylor walked towards a big box with thousands of toys in it and looked for his carwash.
"Taylor, why don´t you go play somewhere else?"asked Jane dropping the doll she was holding.
Taylor scowled at his big sister and replied," Because my toys are here too." He stuck his tongue at Jane and she did the same to him. Harry and Hermione found that funny and they giggled covering their mouths so the kids wouldn´t see they were laughing at them.
Jane continued playing with Hermione . Then, Taylor threw one of his little cars to the doll house in which Hermione and his sister were playing.
Jane stood up quietly and walked towards Taylor. Harry didn´t even notice the little girl approaching with revenge intentions on mind because he was concentrated in the game. She hit her little brother with a doll and he threw another car at her.
Hermione ran to separate them. Both children started to cry.
Harry tried to sooth Taylor by making funny faces at him. He put on his glasses backward; that made Taylor laugh and to start saying," Let me your glasses, please, please, please."
"But you´ll break them," replied Harry.
"Please?"
"Ok, just ten seconds."
Taylor put Harry´s glasses on his blue eyes and he started to say," Are you blind Harry?"
Harry was having a hard time to see too. "Ok, that´s enough." By now, Jane was wearing the glasses and running around the room. Hermione ran after her, and the girl found it funny. To Harry´s bad luck, Jane tripped with one of Taylor´s little cars and Harry´s glasses broke.
"Ooopsie," muttered Jane with a smile that reached her ears.
Hermione picked the broken glasses and muttered some charm she learned to fix glasses.
"Lend them to me," said Taylor jumping.
Hermione shook her head. She handed the glasses to his owner and Harry immediately put them on." Thanks ´Mione."
After Sirius and Clairie finally sent their little destroyers to bed, Harry and Hermione sat with them in the kitchen and started to talk.
Clairie prepared some warm chocolare for the four of them, since the weather had been rather cold that day.
"There was this interview on T. V.,...erm... the day before yesterday," Sirius went on," A young lady at a hospital. She survived the attack at the muggle school." Sirius took a sip of his chocolate his wife prepared, oh he loved the way she cooked." The poor thing was scared to death," he added.
Harry swallowed hard his chocolate and Hermione was nervously curling her bushy hair with her fingers.
"I think we must talk to her," Harry spoke up clearing his throat.
"Yeah, but I suggest we should look for her after she leaves the hospital," said Hermione.