Thank you for the reviews! Love them all so much!! I am looking for a new beta. If there is anyone willing to be one for me let me know. I won't be putting out any new chapter on 'true idenity' until I have a new one. Sorry guys! Enjoy the chapter!!
I feel so foolish, i never noticed
You'd act so nervous, could you be falling for me?
It took a rumor to make me wonder
Now i'm convinced i'm going under
Thinking 'bout you every day
Dreaming 'bout you every night
Hoping that you feel the same way
Now that we know it, let's really show it, darlin'
Hermione awoke the next morning determined to talk to Harry. She quickly got dressed and went in to her kitchen to have a quick breakfast before going to his and Ron's flat. As she was sitting down to eat a large brown owl flew into the window with her Sunday edition of The Daily Prophet. Hermione grabbed the paper from the owl before it flew back out the window.
She unrolled the paper and gasped. On the front page was a picture of her and Harry just before he left with Jamie. The title of the picture was ' The Scarlet Woman Strikes Again' with a caption below reading: Hermione Granger caught in the act! Read more on pages 5-10.
Hermione torn the paper open to page 5 and saw more picture of her with Harry, even a few with Jamie. Hermione was furious, she turned each page of the article and became more and more enraged. Along with picture of yesterday there were also picture of there years at Hogwarts and a few from the past years out of school. There was also an article. Hermione scanned it catching parts that claimed she was cheating on Harry with an unknown mysterious man. It also had quotes from various customers saying they saw the two together for several hours at the store and that Hermione would only help him.
Hermione was furious by the time she got to the last page she didn't think she could get any angrier, she was wrong.
" HOW DID SHE GET THAT?" she yelled and bolted out of her flat, out of her shop and ran down the street towards Harry's flat.
Hermione ran all the way to the building where Harry's flat was, she ran up the four flights of stairs and stopped in front of the door and began pounding on it.
"HARRY! RON! Open this door right now!" she yelled and continued pounding on the door. "I know you two are home! Get out of bed and let me in now before I knock it down!"
Soon she heard Ron yelling from behind the door. " Hold on Hermione!"
Hermione stopped banging on the door and stopped back slightly when she heard Ron fumble with the locks and open the door. " Hermione what is so important that you had to bang on our door at 7 am on a Sunday?" Ron said sounding very annoyed.
" Sorry. Is Harry here?"
" He is still sleeping, ever sience the night mares have gone away he can sleep through anything." Ron said sitting down on the couch.
" Right. Well its time he gets up I have to show him something." Hermione said walking towards the door, but before she did she handed Ron her copy oh the Daily Prophet.
She heard Ron gasp as she carefully opened the door to Harry's room and smiled. She always loved the way he looked when he slept; so innocent and peaceful. She felt her stomach do several somersaults as she stepped closer to his bed.
"Harry" she whispered
Harry rolled over in his sleep and pulled his sheets tighter around him. Hermione smiled and stepped closer to his bed.
"Harry" she whispered and gently shock him
"Go way Ron." He mumbled the pulled the sheet over his head.
Hermione grabbed the top of the sheet and pulled it down to his waist exposing his bare chest. Hermione's eyes grew wide as she saw how well toned Harry was and she silently thank all those years of Quidditch.
Harry cringed when he felt the cool air on his chest. He flickers his eyes open and though he was still dreaming. Standing in front of him was an angel from his dreams; or so he though. He closed his eyes again and slowly opened them to see the angel was still there, but she look oddly like Hermione. He grabbed for his glasses on the night stand and put them on to see the angle standing over him was Hermione. Then he remember what happen the night before and could feel his cheeks flush with color.
"Hermione you didn't come to yell at me for last night did you? I really didn't mean to walk in on you. Honestly I didn't see anything but a bunch of bubbles." he said sitting up in his bed.
"No. Get dressed and come out into the living room. I've got something to show you." She said and walked out of his room.
Several minutes later Harry walked in to see Ron comforting Hermione on the couch.
"What happen?" he said walking over and sitting on the other side of Hermione. "Did someone hurt you?"
Hermione looked up at him with tears in her eyes and handed him the paper.
Harry's eye grew wide. "Not again."
"Its worse. Open to page 5-10 to see the rest." Ron said
Harry turned it open to see the article. He was furious. "I'm sorry Hermione. I shouldn't of came to see you yesterday. I won't do it again."
"Harry you have a right to be there. I'm not upset about that. turn to the last page." Hermione said and began crying again.
Harry did was he was told. He was scared to see what was on the page, it had to be bad that Hermione was upset about. When Harry saw the pictures on the last page he jumped up from the couch and began pacing back and forth yelling.
"How did they get these? Don't they have any decency? Oh Merlin Hermione I am so sorry." he said and stop pacing and looked at the pictures again. He couldn't help but notice how beautiful she looked in the bath. So calm and relaxed. He quickly shock the though away and soon the anger washed over him again.
"I'm going to their office! They can't print this! I'm going to hex Cho and her photographer in to the next century! They have no right to do this!"
"Harry mate calm down." Ron said.
"Calm down! How am I suppose to do that? Did you not see there picture Ron? Someone was in Hermione flat last night and took private picture of her!"
"Harry stop." Hermione said "Your anger isn't helping. I'm the one who should be upset not you. They took picture of me. What if they have more? What if they got some of me while I was getting in the tub or taking my clothes off? What if they print those?" she said and began crying again.
Harry's heart shattered into a million pieces just seeing her cry. "Hermione I won't let them. I'm going to there office and putting a stop to this once in for all." he said trying to keep him anger in tact, she was right his anger wasn't going to make things better. She needs some one to comfort her and help her get through this. He was going to be that person, she was always there for him, it was his turn to there for her.
"Ron do you think Luna would be able to help us with this?"
"Shes on her way. As soon as I saw the pictures I knew we would need her help."
"Thank you Ron." Hermione said giving him a hug.
"No Problem. Now I am going to change before she gets here." He said standing up from the couch and walking in to his room.
Hermione looked up at Harry with tears streaming down her face. Harry walked over to her and knelt in front of her and took her hands in his. He could feel the butterflies in his stomach again. "I'm going to fix this Hermione."
She looked down at there entwined hands and smiled on the inside. "You don't have to." she said through the tears.
"I know. But I want to. You have always been there for me Hermione. Its my turn to be there for you." he said looking in to deep brown eyes. He raise on of his hands and wipped the tears away with his thumb then placed it back with his other. "Its going to be okay." He leaned forward slightly and gently pressed his lip on her check. "I won't let anyone hurt you anymore."
Hermione was shocked that he kissed her, sure it was on the check, but hes never done that. Shes only done it once after fourth year and that was just a friendly kiss. Almost a kiss she would give to a brother if she had one, this one felt different. She glanced up and she was caught in his emerald pools. They looked different, shes never seen that look in his eyes before, she couldn't tell what it was, but she liked the way it felt.
The two stared intently at each other until they heard and knock at the door and Ron running out of his room to get the door. He glanced at his two best friends as noticed how they stared at each other, the same way Luna use to stare at him before they dated. That dreamy love-sick kind of way. Ron smiled to himself and opened the door for Luna.
"Sorry I didn't get here sooner. I went to talk to my dad first to see what could be done." She said and walked quickly over to Hermione and Harry. Harry had gotten up from the floor and was no sitting next to Hermione with his arm protectively over her shoulder.
"You got here right on time. What did your father say?" Harry asked.
"Well hes not sure what he can do. Its seams the Prophet has the rights to all and any news that has to do with you Harry, even if it isn't true." she said looking at the two.
"How did they get that right to that?"
"I don't know. My father is going to look into it for us. He knows more about journalistic rights than I do."
"So what can we do in the mean time?" Hermione asked
" Not much. He suggested you two stay out of the public for awhile." she said looking at Harry. "I am really sorry about yesterday, I shouldn't of made you go out. If I wouldn't have pushed you out the door none of this would of happen."
"Don't blame your self Luna. Its not your fault. They where bound to put out another article." Harry said running his hand in comforting circle over Hermione shoulder and back.
Hermione could feel the goose bumps on her back and arms where Harry was touching her. She shivered a little.
"Are you cold?" he asked grabbing a blanket from behind him.
"No I'm okay. I do have a head ache. Do you have any of that potion Madame Pomfrey use to have?"
"Yeah its in the medicine cabinet." Luna said standing up from the couch. "I'll show you where it is." she said and pulled Hermione up from the couch and ushered her to the bathroom. She locked the door and put a silencing charm on it.
"What did you do that for?" Hermione asked sitting on the edge of the bath tub.
"I wanted to talk to you with the boys. Are you really okay?"
Hermione sighed and closed her eyes. "No."
Luna pulled the potion out of the cabinet and handed it to Hermione as she sat down next to her. "I can't imagine what you are going through but do you want to talk about it?"
"I just feel so violated. Someone is my flat last night and I didn't even know. They have picture of me pictures no one should have. Luna what am I going to do if they print more? I have a business to run, how can I do that if I have to stay out of the eye of the public? What about all the hate mail I will be getting, I already got some from the first article, but now with me supposedly cheating on Harry. I don't know how I am going to deal with it."
"Hermione it will be okay. I can take some time off from the paper to help Ginny out, Ron already told me he would help too, he has some vacation time coming up. It will be okay Hermione." Luna said putting an arm around her. " So who was that guy in the shop yesterday? You two did look like two people in love, they way the two of you stared at each other."
"It was Harry. He disguised." Hermione said with a sigh. "Ginny asked the same thing yesterday, she said that we looked like two love-sick teenagers. Why do people keep asking that? We are just friends."
Luna smiled. "Ron and I were friends before we started dating. It took him almost two years to realize it. Maybe the two of you are just now realizing your feelings for each other." Luna said as she walked over to the door and opened it to leave. "I'll give you a few minutes to think about that one." she said and closed the door behind her.
Hermione stared blankly at the door. Was there something more between her and Harry? She was feeling something between them, but it couldn't be that could it? Could she have feelings for her best friend? Hermione began to think back to the past few months. She did seam happier when he was around and her stomach was doing that somersault thing when he was near. She remembered the way her heart pounded earlier this morning when she was him with no shirt on, and they way she could always tell he was in the room by the little hairs on her neck standing on their ends. And the kiss, it was so warm and tneder. She never been kissed like that before. She raised her hand to the stop where he placed his lips and smiled, it was still warm.
She began thinking back to their years at Hogwarts. She was always with him, no matter how much danger they were in. She never left his side. She remember how she would grab a hold of him when she was scared, she never grabbed for Ron. She remembered third year when they rode Buckbead to save Sirius and they way she clung on to him and knew they would okay because he was there. She remembered how she was so worried when Harry and Cedric disappeared at the end of the tri wizard tournament and relived when he returned. Then she remember fifth year when Harry took interest in Cho she remember how betrayed she felt when he went on a date with her. Then it hit her, she did have feelings for Harry. Shes has them all these years and just now realized them because of Cho and her articles.
"What am I going to do now?" she thought as she stood up from the tub and walked back out to her two friends and the man she was in love with.
I feel so foolish, i never noticed
You'd act so nervous, could you be falling for me?
It took a rumor to make me wonder
Now i'm convinced i'm going under
Thinking 'bout you every day
Dreaming 'bout you every night
Hoping that you feel the same way
Now that we know it, let's really show it, darlin'
Hermione awoke the next morning determined to talk to Harry. She quickly got dressed and went in to her kitchen to have a quick breakfast before going to his and Ron's flat. As she was sitting down to eat a large brown owl flew into the window with her Sunday edition of The Daily Prophet. Hermione grabbed the paper from the owl before it flew back out the window.
She unrolled the paper and gasped. On the front page was a picture of her and Harry just before he left with Jamie. The title of the picture was ' The Scarlet Woman Strikes Again' with a caption below reading: Hermione Granger caught in the act! Read more on pages 5-10.
Hermione torn the paper open to page 5 and saw more picture of her with Harry, even a few with Jamie. Hermione was furious, she turned each page of the article and became more and more enraged. Along with picture of yesterday there were also picture of there years at Hogwarts and a few from the past years out of school. There was also an article. Hermione scanned it catching parts that claimed she was cheating on Harry with an unknown mysterious man. It also had quotes from various customers saying they saw the two together for several hours at the store and that Hermione would only help him.
Hermione was furious by the time she got to the last page she didn't think she could get any angrier, she was wrong.
" HOW DID SHE GET THAT?" she yelled and bolted out of her flat, out of her shop and ran down the street towards Harry's flat.
Hermione ran all the way to the building where Harry's flat was, she ran up the four flights of stairs and stopped in front of the door and began pounding on it.
"HARRY! RON! Open this door right now!" she yelled and continued pounding on the door. "I know you two are home! Get out of bed and let me in now before I knock it down!"
Soon she heard Ron yelling from behind the door. " Hold on Hermione!"
Hermione stopped banging on the door and stopped back slightly when she heard Ron fumble with the locks and open the door. " Hermione what is so important that you had to bang on our door at 7 am on a Sunday?" Ron said sounding very annoyed.
" Sorry. Is Harry here?"
" He is still sleeping, ever sience the night mares have gone away he can sleep through anything." Ron said sitting down on the couch.
" Right. Well its time he gets up I have to show him something." Hermione said walking towards the door, but before she did she handed Ron her copy oh the Daily Prophet.
She heard Ron gasp as she carefully opened the door to Harry's room and smiled. She always loved the way he looked when he slept; so innocent and peaceful. She felt her stomach do several somersaults as she stepped closer to his bed.
"Harry" she whispered
Harry rolled over in his sleep and pulled his sheets tighter around him. Hermione smiled and stepped closer to his bed.
"Harry" she whispered and gently shock him
"Go way Ron." He mumbled the pulled the sheet over his head.
Hermione grabbed the top of the sheet and pulled it down to his waist exposing his bare chest. Hermione's eyes grew wide as she saw how well toned Harry was and she silently thank all those years of Quidditch.
Harry cringed when he felt the cool air on his chest. He flickers his eyes open and though he was still dreaming. Standing in front of him was an angel from his dreams; or so he though. He closed his eyes again and slowly opened them to see the angel was still there, but she look oddly like Hermione. He grabbed for his glasses on the night stand and put them on to see the angle standing over him was Hermione. Then he remember what happen the night before and could feel his cheeks flush with color.
"Hermione you didn't come to yell at me for last night did you? I really didn't mean to walk in on you. Honestly I didn't see anything but a bunch of bubbles." he said sitting up in his bed.
"No. Get dressed and come out into the living room. I've got something to show you." She said and walked out of his room.
Several minutes later Harry walked in to see Ron comforting Hermione on the couch.
"What happen?" he said walking over and sitting on the other side of Hermione. "Did someone hurt you?"
Hermione looked up at him with tears in her eyes and handed him the paper.
Harry's eye grew wide. "Not again."
"Its worse. Open to page 5-10 to see the rest." Ron said
Harry turned it open to see the article. He was furious. "I'm sorry Hermione. I shouldn't of came to see you yesterday. I won't do it again."
"Harry you have a right to be there. I'm not upset about that. turn to the last page." Hermione said and began crying again.
Harry did was he was told. He was scared to see what was on the page, it had to be bad that Hermione was upset about. When Harry saw the pictures on the last page he jumped up from the couch and began pacing back and forth yelling.
"How did they get these? Don't they have any decency? Oh Merlin Hermione I am so sorry." he said and stop pacing and looked at the pictures again. He couldn't help but notice how beautiful she looked in the bath. So calm and relaxed. He quickly shock the though away and soon the anger washed over him again.
"I'm going to their office! They can't print this! I'm going to hex Cho and her photographer in to the next century! They have no right to do this!"
"Harry mate calm down." Ron said.
"Calm down! How am I suppose to do that? Did you not see there picture Ron? Someone was in Hermione flat last night and took private picture of her!"
"Harry stop." Hermione said "Your anger isn't helping. I'm the one who should be upset not you. They took picture of me. What if they have more? What if they got some of me while I was getting in the tub or taking my clothes off? What if they print those?" she said and began crying again.
Harry's heart shattered into a million pieces just seeing her cry. "Hermione I won't let them. I'm going to there office and putting a stop to this once in for all." he said trying to keep him anger in tact, she was right his anger wasn't going to make things better. She needs some one to comfort her and help her get through this. He was going to be that person, she was always there for him, it was his turn to there for her.
"Ron do you think Luna would be able to help us with this?"
"Shes on her way. As soon as I saw the pictures I knew we would need her help."
"Thank you Ron." Hermione said giving him a hug.
"No Problem. Now I am going to change before she gets here." He said standing up from the couch and walking in to his room.
Hermione looked up at Harry with tears streaming down her face. Harry walked over to her and knelt in front of her and took her hands in his. He could feel the butterflies in his stomach again. "I'm going to fix this Hermione."
She looked down at there entwined hands and smiled on the inside. "You don't have to." she said through the tears.
"I know. But I want to. You have always been there for me Hermione. Its my turn to be there for you." he said looking in to deep brown eyes. He raise on of his hands and wipped the tears away with his thumb then placed it back with his other. "Its going to be okay." He leaned forward slightly and gently pressed his lip on her check. "I won't let anyone hurt you anymore."
Hermione was shocked that he kissed her, sure it was on the check, but hes never done that. Shes only done it once after fourth year and that was just a friendly kiss. Almost a kiss she would give to a brother if she had one, this one felt different. She glanced up and she was caught in his emerald pools. They looked different, shes never seen that look in his eyes before, she couldn't tell what it was, but she liked the way it felt.
The two stared intently at each other until they heard and knock at the door and Ron running out of his room to get the door. He glanced at his two best friends as noticed how they stared at each other, the same way Luna use to stare at him before they dated. That dreamy love-sick kind of way. Ron smiled to himself and opened the door for Luna.
"Sorry I didn't get here sooner. I went to talk to my dad first to see what could be done." She said and walked quickly over to Hermione and Harry. Harry had gotten up from the floor and was no sitting next to Hermione with his arm protectively over her shoulder.
"You got here right on time. What did your father say?" Harry asked.
"Well hes not sure what he can do. Its seams the Prophet has the rights to all and any news that has to do with you Harry, even if it isn't true." she said looking at the two.
"How did they get that right to that?"
"I don't know. My father is going to look into it for us. He knows more about journalistic rights than I do."
"So what can we do in the mean time?" Hermione asked
" Not much. He suggested you two stay out of the public for awhile." she said looking at Harry. "I am really sorry about yesterday, I shouldn't of made you go out. If I wouldn't have pushed you out the door none of this would of happen."
"Don't blame your self Luna. Its not your fault. They where bound to put out another article." Harry said running his hand in comforting circle over Hermione shoulder and back.
Hermione could feel the goose bumps on her back and arms where Harry was touching her. She shivered a little.
"Are you cold?" he asked grabbing a blanket from behind him.
"No I'm okay. I do have a head ache. Do you have any of that potion Madame Pomfrey use to have?"
"Yeah its in the medicine cabinet." Luna said standing up from the couch. "I'll show you where it is." she said and pulled Hermione up from the couch and ushered her to the bathroom. She locked the door and put a silencing charm on it.
"What did you do that for?" Hermione asked sitting on the edge of the bath tub.
"I wanted to talk to you with the boys. Are you really okay?"
Hermione sighed and closed her eyes. "No."
Luna pulled the potion out of the cabinet and handed it to Hermione as she sat down next to her. "I can't imagine what you are going through but do you want to talk about it?"
"I just feel so violated. Someone is my flat last night and I didn't even know. They have picture of me pictures no one should have. Luna what am I going to do if they print more? I have a business to run, how can I do that if I have to stay out of the eye of the public? What about all the hate mail I will be getting, I already got some from the first article, but now with me supposedly cheating on Harry. I don't know how I am going to deal with it."
"Hermione it will be okay. I can take some time off from the paper to help Ginny out, Ron already told me he would help too, he has some vacation time coming up. It will be okay Hermione." Luna said putting an arm around her. " So who was that guy in the shop yesterday? You two did look like two people in love, they way the two of you stared at each other."
"It was Harry. He disguised." Hermione said with a sigh. "Ginny asked the same thing yesterday, she said that we looked like two love-sick teenagers. Why do people keep asking that? We are just friends."
Luna smiled. "Ron and I were friends before we started dating. It took him almost two years to realize it. Maybe the two of you are just now realizing your feelings for each other." Luna said as she walked over to the door and opened it to leave. "I'll give you a few minutes to think about that one." she said and closed the door behind her.
Hermione stared blankly at the door. Was there something more between her and Harry? She was feeling something between them, but it couldn't be that could it? Could she have feelings for her best friend? Hermione began to think back to the past few months. She did seam happier when he was around and her stomach was doing that somersault thing when he was near. She remembered the way her heart pounded earlier this morning when she was him with no shirt on, and they way she could always tell he was in the room by the little hairs on her neck standing on their ends. And the kiss, it was so warm and tneder. She never been kissed like that before. She raised her hand to the stop where he placed his lips and smiled, it was still warm.
She began thinking back to their years at Hogwarts. She was always with him, no matter how much danger they were in. She never left his side. She remember how she would grab a hold of him when she was scared, she never grabbed for Ron. She remembered third year when they rode Buckbead to save Sirius and they way she clung on to him and knew they would okay because he was there. She remembered how she was so worried when Harry and Cedric disappeared at the end of the tri wizard tournament and relived when he returned. Then she remember fifth year when Harry took interest in Cho she remember how betrayed she felt when he went on a date with her. Then it hit her, she did have feelings for Harry. Shes has them all these years and just now realized them because of Cho and her articles.
"What am I going to do now?" she thought as she stood up from the tub and walked back out to her two friends and the man she was in love with.