Disclaimer: I don't own HP or any of these characters. That belongs to JKR, Scholastic Books, Warner Brothers, etc. This is just something to pass the time while waiting for the next book.
Part V : An Unwanted Storm
Hermione usually didn't wake up with a smile on her face on Mondays. Certainly she could not remember the last time she had greeted the start of the workweek with a large goofy grin covering her face.
Of course there was never a time when she had woken up to the knowledge that Harry loved her before. That could account for the difference in how she felt.
The rest of the day Sunday had been wonderful. Hermione had been able to put her fears aside for the present. She wouldn't be able to find out one way or the other for a couple weeks and there was nothing that she wanted to do about it right now. It was best to take advantage of the rest of the time that she and Harry had alone for the weekend, as they didn't know how much time they would be able to spend together during the week. She might have to work late hours at her job and Harry was never sure what sort of Quidditch practice schedule Wood would concoct. All they knew for sure was their weekends would be booked for the foreseeable future—they would be together then at least.
Harry and Hermione had gone shopping for groceries soon after their talk. It was the most fun Hermione had ever had while doing such a mundane task. There was just something about being together with Harry. Hermione relished just being with him—being able to holds with him as a lover instead of only a friend was a joy she never expected to treasure. She loved being with him. She loved holding his hand and she most definitely loved their more intimate moments as well.
The worst part of the day was when she had to leave. While Hermione would have liked to spend the night at his place yet again, it just wasn't practical. She had to get to work on time and that would be impractical. Even if Harry did not distract her from leaving in a timely manner, she would have had to stop by her place to change. There was no hope for it but to say good-bye for the night. She had promised before she left that she would stop by the next night. That would have to be enough to get them through the day alone.
That thought had started off her day with a smile. Unfortunately, by ten o'clock that smile had long been a memory for Mondays meant paperwork.
After graduating from Hogwarts, Hermione had quickly found a job in charms research. That was no surprise. She had gotten outstanding scores in Charms throughout her school career. She was just fascinated with the idea of taking the theories behind old charms to make something new. So when she was offered a research position, she had snapped it up.
However, the good always came with the bad and the job came with paperwork. You had to keep track of every single change you made during a project, even if it was something as minor as shortening or lengthening a single syllable in the incantation. Hermione thought this made sense as the slightest difference in a spell could drastically change the results.
What didn't make sense were all the records you had to keep. Every single change in your research had to be appropriately documented—from the background research stating the expected results to the formal approval of the substitution to the experimental results to the write-up at the end comparing the experimental results to the predicted ones along with a theoretical explanation for any difference between the two. Writing all of that down was exhausting but it wasn't the end. One also had to fill out all of the Ministry of Magic forms that were required, in triplicate no less. Each form had to be filled out and filed at the appropriate time. If she missed a filing period, the Committee on Experimental Charms would fine both her and her employer.
At least Hermione worked in the section on Protective Charms rather than Medical Charms. She had heard horror story after horror story about the hoops they had to jump through to get even preliminary approval of an experiment. The Medical Charm Section was open in its hostility towards the Committee—dartboards featuring the more obnoxious Committee members were commonplace.
So it was despite the lovely dream of a weekend that she had spent with Harry, Hermione had developed a rather painful headache by mid-morning.
Unfortunately for her, her day would only get worse. Lunch would not be the reprieve she expected it to be.
Hermione felt every eye upon her as she entered the employee cafeteria. It was unnerving, like being in the eye of a storm. You could feel the storm surrounding you but you didn't know when it would hit.
She didn't have long to wait at all. As soon as she sat down with her salad, Isabella Steele made her presence known.
"Hello Hermione." Isabella's casual greeting didn't not fool Hermione for a second. She knew that Isabella had something up her sleeve—she was a scheming social climber if Hermione had ever heard one.
It wasn't an excuse for being rude though. "Good afternoon, Isabella. How was your weekend?"
"It was fine, I suppose. Though not as good as yours was, I hear."
Hermione almost choked. That was the last thing she had expected to hear. She didn't frequent the same places as Isabella. Her co-worker preferred to go to the most popular clubs in London, either Wizarding or Muggle. Hermione liked spending time with friends in less crowded places. There was no way that Isabella could have seen her and Harry together. How could she know?
Hermione wasn't going to give Isabella the pleasure of hearing such a question. "I wasn't aware that you were so interested in my social life."
"Of course not," Isabella smirked. "Who would be? I'm not very interested in either your non-existent social life or love life—except your love life isn't so non-existent anymore, now is it?"
Hermione glared. "I have no concept about what you are saying."
"That would make for a rather boring relationship, wouldn't it? Do me a favor, dear, and introduce me before he dumps you out of sheer boredom." With that, Isabella left but not without leaving Hermione a little present.
It was a copy of today's Daily Prophet. With the front page being covered with the delicious snog she had given Harry in the Muggle bar that they had been in.
All of a sudden, Hermione wanted the day to be over right now. She didn't want to handle this alone. She had to talk to Harry.
*****
Mondays were always tiring. After a weekend spent relaxing, Harry felt a bit out of shape when facing a Wood practice for the first time of the week. He was so glad to finally be home after a day spent being smashed about by bludgers left and right. Practice had been exhausting as usual. Wood was fanatical about Quidditch—his practices were already infamous in the league for being horribly long and notoriously secret.
The fact that Hermione was coming over to see him just made it even better.
That had been his mantra to get through the day. He would see her again tonight. Everything would be perfect again with her tonight. Harry marveled how so much had changed in the space of a single weekend. Last week, he had been trying to ignore the pain that came with thinking that she would never love him the way he wanted her to. Today he hardly kept himself from singing with joy that she loved him.
He couldn't wait until she got home.
He knew that technically his apartment wasn't her home yet. Harry didn't think that either one of them were ready to move in with the other. Still when he thought of her coming to his place, he thought of it as her coming home—because their home was so clearly with each other. Even if they were not about to make that step yet, their hearts were always together.
The knocking at the door roused Harry from his reverie. Harry stood up and made his way to open the door. He had to get her a key. There was no reason not to give her one as he completely trusted her. Besides she wouldn't have to wait for him to open the door and by the sounds of the knocking growing more insistent, she had been waiting for quite some time.
He opened the door and there she was.
When Hermione saw him, she immediately leapt into his arms, hugging him tight. It was just the greeting he had hoped for but something was not right. Something was on her mind.
"Bad day at work?" he asked.
"Oh Harry, it was so awful!"
"It was?"
"It was dreadful. I didn't find out till lunchtime but once I had heard, I just wanted to come to you. I wished I could have gotten here sooner."
Harry was officially confused. What had she heard? Seeing no reason not to ask her that question, he did so.
"What exactly did you hear?"
Startled at that response, she looked up at him. "You don't know."
"I don't have a clue, love. Care to enlighten me?"
She sighed. "I hate to be the one to tell you. I don't want you to think that I'm upset at you or that I regret anything we did. I love you. Always believe that."
"I always will." Harry pulled her into a deep, delicious kiss, their first of the day. It had been too long since they last shared the same air. They broke apart only at the sound of loud coughing behind them. Thinking it was a neighbor who just happened to be walking by, Harry looked up to apologize.
Ron Weasley stood at the door, with his face redder than his hair and
steam literally rising from his head.
Author's note—Not much really happened in this chapter but there'll be more next time I promise. I might actually put this chapter through another edit after I'm finish with finals. So please—let me know any comments you have about this one. I'd really appreciate it if you could leave a review.
Thank you to everyone who left a review for the last chapter.
Just a comment on a few of them—
Jade—So nice to see you here. I'm glad you left me a review,
regardless of whether it was your first one or not.
Celeste—If by birth control, you meant contraception spells,
well I thought I made it clear that they were going to do that. If
you meant something like a morning after pill, I didn't put that in because
from what I understand about how it works (and I've had to get this explained
to me by one of my friends with a bio degree), I don't think Hermione would
go for something like that.
Nappa—I knew about the author's alert but just looking at probability,
it seems pretty amazing that you're usually one of the first reviewers
for anything I put up. Are you online all hours of the day or what?
scout17—Of course Hermione was going to be worried about pregnancy.
It's what any smart girl would do and I think she's rather intelligent
myself. I just didn't put it in there right away since I thought
her first reaction would be, "I slept with my best friend?" rather than
" I might be pregnant!?!" Of course this is much better than sleeping
with someone you don't know where you have to worry about the "WTF! Does
he have an STD/VD?" as well. On that note, there is no way I'm
writing a conversation about the two on STDs—I'm going to assume that Hermione
trusts Harry to be careful about that or that it occurs off-screen, so
to speak.
Animagus-Steph—Nope, it's not the end. I don't have a
set end for this fic—it'll end whenever I get tired of writing it.
It's just something to do during finals instead of the obsessive cleaning
that usually occurs.
ChrisMiss—Finals are awful. Good luck on yours!
Thanks also to Seiryuu, AmyDaFrEaK,
Arwen Potter, Yzoh Esereth, HarryNZ,
makulit, leogrl, AznGolDragonGod,
Heaven, Eric, KMH, aaliyah-potter,
HarryandGinny4eva and Emili Potter for their reviews!
I really do like to hear what you think of this fic!