Disclaimer: The characters (well, most of them…I might have a couple oc's here and there) in the story do not belong to me. All credit goes to the all powerful and talented J.K. Rowling.
Summary: Why is it that tragedy is the one thing that can pull people together? What is there when tragedy strikes that no one can see any other time?
A/N: I am in the process of updating this story, along with editing the previous chapters to make it a little more concrete than before. Please bear with me while I do this. Thank you.
~*~
~Crooked Hearts~
*by: Eowyn Black*
Chapter Three
"Hermione?" I said again. She looked as though she had been crying. A lot.
I led her inside and sat her down at the kitchen table.
"Do you want something to drink? Tea? Or something to eat?" I asked.
Hermione just nodded, wiping the tears from her eyes.
I moved around the kitchen at what seemed like top speed. In moments, I had found some cookies and a couple dozen slices of bread. I put them on the table in front of Hermione, who still had said nothing. I went back to the sink and filled the tea kettle and set it on the stove.
As I moved back to the table and sat down across from Hermione, she finally started to talk.
"Oh, Harry! It was horrible," she said between sobs. I quickly got up from my chair and moved over to the chair next to her to comfort her.
"I was at home when a Ministry of Magic official came to the door with a note from the Department of Mysteries. It said…it said that Ron had…he had…oh, Harry…he walked right into a group of Voldemort's followers and didn't even realize it. The note said that witnesses say he didn't even have a chance to reach for his wand before they killed him." At this point, Hermione couldn't speak anymore because she was crying hysterically.
Over on the stove, the kettle started to whistle. Not wanting to leave Hermione's side, I grabbed my wand from the table and summoned two cups, two packets of herbal tea, and the tea kettle. I poured the hot water into the two cups and set the kettle on the table. Quickly summoning a couple spoons and the sugar, I poured the packets of tea into the cups and stirred, adding a couple spoonfuls of sugar to my one cup.
After a few sips of tea, Hermione seemed to calm down a considerable amount.
"And the worst part…" Hermione said with a shudder in her voice, "…is that when I received the call from the Ministry official, I was planning on telling Ron some important news that night when he got home from work. I was trying to figure out how to tell him."
I obviously had no idea what she was talking about as I hadn't been in contact with her or Ron for quite some time.
I guess she saw the confused look on my face because she started to explain. "I had received an owl from my doctor that I have been seeing recently and I had to read it through a couple of times to make sure I had read it correctly. It said that I'm…" Another sob. "…It said that I'm pregnant."
Pregnant. There's not much anyone can say to that, is there?
"And Ron didn't even have a chance to know. How am I going to live like this the rest of my life, Harry? How?"
After a few minutes of silence, Hermione got up and left the table, walked into the front room to my flat, and collapsed onto the sofa. She put her head into her hands and silently sobbed into them.
~*~
A couple of hours later, Hermione was sound asleep in one of my spare bedrooms. She had cried herself to sleep on the sofa and I had carried her into the bedroom.
I had come back into the kitchen to clean up from before.
Right before I was going to banish the now clean dishes back to their proper places, I heard a voice from the fireplace behind me.
"Potter?"
I turned around to see Oliver Wood's face dancing in the emerald green flames.
It was then that I realized there had been a meeting that the Magpie's coach, Roncola, had called for that afternoon.
"Oliver! I'm sorry I didn't make it to the meeting. I forgot all about it."
"I was just making sure everything was alright with you. I figured that you would've gone to London this morning for the funeral, but there was a rumor going around at the meeting that you didn't show up."
"Please give my apologies to Roncola," I said, changing the subject right away. "Can you also please tell him that I'm going to take a few personal days?"
"Roncola's not going to like this, Harry. You know how he gets."
"Please, Oliver? Just tell him that I have a personal matter to clear up."
"Alright. You better watch out when you get back. Roncola's not going to like the fact that his starting seeker is going to miss some of the biggest matches in the tournament coming up in the next few days."
"I'm sure you won't miss me," I said, almost pleading with Oliver.
"Yeah," Oliver said, shaking his head, and he disappeared with a pop.
I quickly picked up the remaining dishes on the table and counter and put them in their proper place before I sank onto the sofa and propped up my head with my hands to think.
~*~
I must have fallen asleep on the sofa that night because I woke up the next morning to Hermione coming out into the kitchen to make coffee.
When she realized that I was up and saw what she was doing, she looked appalled by it.
"Sorry. I always got up to make coffee in the morning when Ron…"
"It's okay." I walked into the kitchen rubbing my eyes. "Did you sleep okay?"
Hermione nodded before she reluctantly sat down at the table with a cup of steaming coffee in her hands.
Getting a cup of coffee myself, I leaned up against the counter and took a sip. 'Mmmm! Much better than my own!' I thought to myself and immediately felt myself wake up.
"I was wondering," Hermione asked, "if I could stay here for a few days."
"Sure."
"Then, before I forget, do you mind if I borrow Hedwig to write to my mum? The last time I saw here was yesterday morning, but there's not down that she'll start to get worried about me."
"You can borrow Monteal."
"Monteal? What happened to Hedwig?"
"About five months ago, she went out to hunt. She hasn't turned up since. I haven't the slightest clue as to what's happened to her."
Hermione looked taken back. "Oh."
"I got Monteal three and a half months ago. He's in my bedroom when you need him. I'm going to go run some errands. I'll probably be back in a couple of hours."
"Okay. Thanks, Harry."
"Sure thing," I replied and I walked over to the fireplace. I grabbed a handful of floo powder and flooed to Diagon Alley.
~*~
In an hour and a half's time, I returned to my flat and set down all the things I had bought on the table. I had bought some more food, as my cupboards were getting quite bare, and most of it was health food, considering that Hermione would be staying with me for a few days. One of the last times that I had eaten with her, she had scolded me about constantly eating junk food. I also had bought some movies from the video store just outside Diagon Alley. I had picked out a couple titles that I had remembered Hermione talking about when we were still at Hogwarts.
After I put the food in the cupboards, I wandered into the front room where I found Hermione watching the telly.
She looked up when I entered the room. "I use to watch this show with Mum when I was younger." She pointed to the telly and I saw that she was watching the same show that I vaguely remembered my aunt Petunia watching years ago. It was the I Love Lucy show.
"Right. So, I bought some movies I thought you might like," I said, showing her the movies that I had brought into the front room with me.
Just then, I thought I heard a click, like a front door or a window opening, but Hermione didn't seem to notice anything so I just dismissed the idea.
I set the movies down on the sofa next to her and went back into the kitchen to talk to Sirius and apologize for what I said the other day.
I grabbed some powder from the mantle and threw it into the flames. "Black Flat!"
After lots of turning and a large amount of dizziness, I saw the kitchen to Sirius's flat.
"Sirius?" I called.
Silence. Then there was a scuffle of feet on the stairs leading down into the kitchen.
"Harry? Is everything alright?"
"Sirius, I just wanted to apologize for yesterday. It was uncalled for."
"It's alright," Sirius replied. He knelt down to be level with me. "I understand now why you didn't go."
At that moment, I heard a loud crash on the floor, followed by footsteps leading into the kitchen. I turned my head to see what was going on, but all I could see was the inside of the fireplace.
"Harry? What's wrong?" Sirius asked.
"I…" The next moment, I felt a sharp jab at the side of my head. Somewhere in the distance, I heard Sirius calling my name, but then it abruptly stopped as I felt myself being dragged out of the fireplace.
~*~