Chapter 10- a party, Rachael, and a surprise

Hermione stood outside the locker room door pacing back and forth waiting for Harry to emerge from the room. After about 15 minutes of waiting Harry finally came out of the teams locker room with new clothes on and wet hair. Of course he never told Hermione that he would be taking a shower.

"Why didn't you tell me that you were taking a shower. I thought something might have happened. I was just a few short minutes of running in their and finding out what was taking you so long."

"Calm down. I didn't think you would mind. Its not like anything is going to happen to me." Harry told her soothingly.

"Yeah that's what they all say before they keel over and die." Hermione told him matter of factly.

"Well, somebody is a little jumpy."

"Sorry if the guy I love with all my heart almost died."

"Come off it Hermione. I am fine. It should have been worse but I think that charm that you gave me seems to help. You heard Joe, I should had broken some ribs and probably more than that. Plus even the worse that could have happened can easily fixed in a few minutes." Harry told her while staring deeply into her eyes. Hermione was about to speak when she was abruptly stopped when Harry's lips made contact with hers. It was a long kiss that only stopped when they had to come up for air.

Hermione was the first to speak. "You have convinced me Harry."

"That's good," was all his brain could come up with after that kiss.

"Now that we have decided on that what should we do? Do we go to one of those after game parties?"

"If you want to?"

"Well, yes I do."

"Funny, you do not strike me as the partying type." Harry teased.

"I have never been to one before and I kind of want to go to one."

"Ok then, if you want to we can go to one. They are usually fun. There are lots of cool people to hang out with."

"Thank you. I can't wait." Hermione told him as she stood on her tippy toes to give him a quick kiss.

"No problem. We should head home to change into some more party worthy clothes and then we can head to the party. Sound ok with you?" Harry asked.

"Sure, although I do not know if I have any partying clothes."

"Don't worry you'll look great in whatever you wear."

"Aren't you a smart little boyfriend to say that to me."

"You do not need to be smart to know that it is the truth and you are one of the most gorgeous people in the world."

"That's so sweet. I think that deserves a kiss." She told him she looked up to smile at him but instead her mouth was captured with his lips.

Once again the lovebirds were caught up in an earth shattering kiss. It took them a while for them to finally separate and then recompose themselves. They then apparated to the cottage and went their separate ways to change.

When Harry walked into the living room Hermione was surprisingly already standing in the front room. He took one look at her and just could not believe that not only was he able to have the love of his best friend but she was also beautiful. No, beautiful was too weak of a word for her. It was not like she was wearing anything special and even then it was not the clothes that made her so pretty. It was her soul.

Hermione was wearing some black bell bottoms with a diamond belt. She had on a dark blue tank top with sparkles all over it. It was plain yet it worked. She had her hair up on top of her head magically held up as a few curls fell to frame her face. Their were a little hint of make-up on with a small amount of eye shadow and some lip gloss but other than that her face looked totally natural. Her brown eyes looked at Harry expectantly.

"No words can describe how beautiful you are." Harry told her truthfully.

"Come off it, these are just some normal clothes, nothing wonderfully spectacular."

"It's not the clothes darling. It's the soul that makes somebody pretty."

"Well I think that is the sweetest thing in the world. What about you anyway. You look quite handsome yourself and it is not the clothes either although they do not hurt anything." Hermione told him noticing that he was wearing khaki pants with a deep green button up shirt that wasn't tucked in.

Harry walked up to Hermione and took her hand in his. "Are you ready to go?" He asked.

"Yup." She nodded at him enjoying the warmth of his hand over hers. Before she knew what hit her they apparated to the party. The couple was standing in front of a huge mansion that was three stories high. It had stone walls with ivy covering almost every inch of the walls.

Booming sounds of a large sound system drifted out to the streets along with the sound of people talking and laughing. Harry, still holding onto Hermione's hand, headed towards the open doors of the mansion. Hermione took a deep breath and then followed in step next to Harry.

They entered into a living room that seemed to be lighted with disco balls and strobe lights although you could not see the source. Hermione guessed that the lights were magical. Balloons were floating around everywhere making it difficult to move without tripping. The room was tightly packed with hundreds of people so Harry thought it would be best if they found another room to hang out in. Moving along they found their way to the kitchen that had numerous people hanging around trying to find something to drink. The next room however was a sitting room that had tons of people just chilling and socializing with people. It wasn't so high strung in here.

Hermione scanned the room for familiar faces to see that most of the people on Harry's team were here. It made her feel better that their were some people here she probably could talk to her.

Harry also noticing that the other players on the team were here he walked over to talk to them and introduce Hermione to them.. "Hey guys!" Harry called.

"Hey! Its Potter. Great game" One of them called. Then the other five people joined in on compliments and shaking his hand.

After they shouts had died down Harry cleared his voice to show that he had something to say. He pulled Hermione, who had been standing off to the side, up close to him. "Guys, this is Hermione."

"Ahhh the famous Hermione Granger." One of them told her which kind of unnerved Hermione that they already knew about her. "Don't worry, Harry has not told us nothing but great things about you. I am Shawn." He introduced himself. Shawn was a brown haired guy of medium height and build, perfect for a keeper.

The introductions kept up for several minutes until she had met all of the members of the team and a few other friends of Harry's. All of the people seemed especially nice and not fake in any way to Hermione.

Out of no where another woman came into the room and sauntered towards the group. She was tall with long blonde hair that glittered in the light. The woman looked like she could be a model since her figure was perfect in every sense of the word. Her eyes seemed to glint maliciously towards everybody and everything, except Harry. She stepped to Harry's side and linked her arm through his.

"Who is your little friend?" Questioned the woman staring at Hermione and carefully annunciating friend.

Harry rolled his eyes and pulled his arm free of the woman's. "Rachael this is my girlfriend Hermione. Hermione this is Rachael." He introduced them.

Hermione reached out her hand to shake Rachael's but she didn't do the same. She spoke coldly. "Well, nice to meet you. Enjoy yourself tonight." Rachael then turned around and left.

"Wow, she didn't seemed to pleased to meet me." Hermione spoke first.

"Yeah, well don't take it too personally. She is a bitch and has had it out for your man Harry there for quite some time." Shawn responded.

Harry nodded. "I keep telling her to leave me alone but she is persistent as heck. Oh well, lets talk about happier things."

So they did. The group talked for quite awhile getting to know Hermione and how they got together which the two shyly told the story. After some time they all got a little restless and decided to head out to the living room to dance some.

After many quick paced songs a slow song came on. Harry and Hermione danced to the song not noticing that Rachael was off on the side observing them. They were lost in how nice it was to dance with each other and how perfectly the song fit how they felt.

I'll be your dream, I'll be your wish I'll be your fantasy
I'll be your hope, I'll be your love be everything that you need
I love you more with every breath truly madly deeply do

I will be strong I will be faithful 'cause I'm counting on

A new beginning.
A reason for living.
A deeper meaning.

I want to stand with you on a mountain
I want to bathe with you in the sea
I want to lay like this foreveruntil the sky falls down on me

And when the stars are shining brightly in the velvet sky,
I'll make a wish send it to heaven then make you want to cry
The tears of joy for all the pleasure in the certainty
That we're surrounded by the comfort and protection of
The highest powers. In lonely hours. The tears devour you
Oh can't you see it baby?
You don't have to close your eyes
'Cause it's standing right here before you
All that you need will surely come

Soon the dance was over and both were feeling quite thirsty. Harry and Hermione went to sit down for a couple of minutes.

"I will go get us some drinks." Harry told Hermione.

"Come back soon." She called after him as he turned towards the kitchen.

Almost immediately after Harry vacated his chair somebody sat back down in it, Rachael. "Well, hi again Hermione." She said unfriendly

"Hi." Hermione responded. "Is their something that you wanted?"

"Just to meet the girl who thinks that she is worthy to date Harry."

"I don't think I am worthy of him. We love each other. There is 'no one is better than the other' crap going on." Hermione responded cooly, not liking this girl more and more every minute.

"You may love him but he doesn't love you. I mean how could he? You have a horrible figure, your face looks so ugly, and your hair is the color of dirt. Which is what you are compared to me. I am going to have Harry as my own because lets face it, I would look better on him then you."

Hermione could not believe what this woman was saying logically she thought this woman was lying but the insecure side of her told her that maybe that Rachael was right. From all of this thinking she could not respond to the insults.

"You don't even have any money or come from a respectable family or job. You are a muggle teacher for crying out loud. You are just a mudblood." Rachael spat malevolently.

That pushed Hermione to tears at the thought of the horrid word that was spoken to her. She had no idea what to do except that she wanted to go home and curl in a bawl and cry. So she ran out not noticing Harry yell after her and apparated to the cottage. Not even noticing she ran towards Harry's room. It was where she felt most comfortable. She threw herself on the bed and cried.

Harry steadied two drinks in each hand as headed back to where he had left Hermione. He saw her talking to Rachael and then all of the sudden she burst out into tears and ran out of the house. Dropping the drinks he called after her but she did not seem to notice. Stepping in front of Rachael before she could leave the room he asked here what she had said.

Rachael responded cooly. "With the truth Harry. Somebody had to tell her that you deserve so much better than her. Someone more like me perhaps."

"Go to hell you bitch." Was all Harry could think of and he ran out to catch up with Hermione. Harry apparated back to the cottage and followed the sounds of Hermione crying until he reached his own room. His heart felt a violent tug at the site of how much pain his love was in. "Hermione?" He whispered. No answer. "Hermione whatever she said it wasn't true." He told her as he sat down next to her stroking her hair. "What did she say to you?"

Hermione calmed down a little as Harry stroked her hair. Before she knew it she poured out all of the wretched things that were spoken to her.

As Harry heard about all of the things said to Hermione many ways of punishing Rachael passed through his head. He felt horrible for her and when she finished he knew the time had come for him to do something he had been meaning to do. He pulled Hermione up to sit at the edge of the bed with him. Harry picked up his wand and waved it towards the cd player for a song to play. Next he lit about 20 different candles in the room and dimmed the lights. He turned towards her meeting her eyes.

The strands in your eyes that color them wonderful
Stop me and steal my breath
Emeralds from mountains thrust towards the sky
Never revealing their depth
Tell me that we belong together
Dress it up with the trappings of love
I'll be captivated
I'll hang from your lips
Instead of the gallows of heartache that hang from above

"Hermione, for as long as I can remember I have loved you. Love is too weak of a word for how deeply I feel for you. Whenever I am not with you I can only think of you and when I am with you I feel like we are the only two people in the world. You are so beautiful and I know I am the luckiest guy in the world to be with you. It's not just physical beauty either. You are friendly to everybody, smart as heck, and believe the best in everybody even in the worst times. The strength you show is amazing, overcoming every obstacle the is set in front of you. It's amazing."

I'll be your crying shoulder
I'll be love suicide
I'll be better when I'm older
I'll be the greatest fan of your life

"I want to promise you every happiness in the world. I will be with you when you most need me and I know you will be their for me too. When I look at my future I know for sure you will be in it. I would have it no other way. It is a mutual relationship in which we both take care of each other."

I've been dropped out, burned up, fought my way back from the dead
Tuned in, turned on, Remembered the things that you said

"You have saved me numerous times in the past and you brought me back to life after Ron died. I felt to blame and like I didn't even deserve to live. I could not see why it had to be him so young. But, when you came to live with me I felt like I had found a reason to live."

And rain falls angry on the tin roof
As we lie awake in my bed
You're my survival, you're my living proof
My love is alive not dead
Tell me that we belong together
Dress it up with the trappings of love
I'll be captivated I'll hang from your lips
Instead of the gallows of heartache, that hang from above

"All those nights of us staying up and talking only made me believe more and more that we were meant to be together. I felt a spiritual connection that I had never felt before for anybody in my life. I want to know if you feel the same way too and make me the happiest man in the world and marry me?" He asked while getting down on the floor and kneel on his knees. He pulled out a ring box and opened it to reveal a very simple ring that had a thin golden band with a simple diamond placed in the center.

Hermione could barely take it all in. She gasped at how beautiful the ring was and started to cry. "Yes, Of course I will marry you. I love you so much and I feel the same way too."

I'll be your crying shoulder
I'll be love suicide
I'll be better when I'm older
I'll be the greatest fan of your life

The two fell into each other's arms and held one another as they cried. Both could not even begin to describe how happy they were at that moment. After about an hour of crying, kissing, and telling how much they loved each other the two dozed off in each others arms and slept with a content smile on their face.
A/N. Wooohoooo. I finally got that done with. I had a little bit of writers block trying to make it perfect. Plus I wanted a song to play while he was proposing and I couldn't pick between truly madly deeply or I'll be. I finally picked I'll be but the runner up got to be in the chapter anyways. As you probably know the first song was truly madly deeply by savage garden and the second song was I'll be by Edwin Mccain. Both are beautiful song and I love them both to pieces. So thank you to the many people who have read and given me wonderful reviews. I can not thank you enough. I will continue but the I don't know exactly what I want to do with the next chapter so it will take me little longer than the other chapters. If you like this story you will like the ficlett I will be posting soon. It is a short one chapter song fic that I have been meaning to write for some time so that should be up soon. Watch for it. Well, thanks again and r/r and tell me how you liked the chapter. I hope it wasn't to much like a cliche for all of you but that was all I could think of. So r/r and thanks. Oh by the way. They did not have sex in the last chapter. See unlike other authors I can write a good story without having sex in it or tons of bad language. Harry and Hermione are respectable and will wait till they are married. Like me. So just needed to tell you that since somebody was wondering and I understand why. I did write that sentence a little oddly. I don't blame you.