Meet You There

Chapter Two

It only took Harry about 5 minutes to pack, as he hadn't really unpacked much at all. He heaved his heavy trunk down the stairs and placed it softly on the floor by the front door, tiptoeing back up the stairs to get Hedwig. Once he had everything downstairs, he opened the front door as quietly as possible, and carried his things outside, closing the door soundlessly behind him. Harry had decided not to ask the Dursley's if he could go to Hermione's; he just couldn't be bothered debating with his Aunt and Uncle about why he should be allowed to go or not. He'd left them a short note, and that was it, telling them where he had gone, but not much else.

Harry had been sitting on the door step for about half an hour when a silver car pulled up. His eyes widened as he stood up and Hermione got out of the car, it had only been 2 weeks since school ended but she looked…different already…. She didn't look like she'd tried hard at all, but still managed to look nice. It was so effortless. Her hair of course was still slightly bushy, but there was something different about it, the brown curls shined and bounced as she ran towards him. She couldn't possibly of changed so much in two weeks…

Hermione grinned at Harry, unable to contain her excitement; she practically sprinted up the drive way towards him. "It's so good to see you!" she said happily throwing her arms around him, practically squeezing him to death. Much like she had the first time she'd seen him last summer. He grinned into her hair, extremely pleased to finally see a friendly face after being cooped up with the Dursleys.

"You too" he said meaning it more than she could ever know. She pulled away, her eyes shining and a brilliant smile on her face.

"Was it hard convincing your Aunt and Uncle to let you come over?" Hermione asked.

"Well I didn't really need to convince them" Harry said, trying and failing to look innocent.

"Did you even tell them Harry?" she said exasperatedly.

"Of course I did…I left them a note" Harry said snorting. Hermione looked like she was going to start badgering him so he continued, "Look Hermione if I asked them about it they probably would've said no and you don't want me here all alone, now do you?" he finished with a smirk, knowing he had won.

Hermione shook her head, but she was smiling all the same, "Whatever it's not my fault if they get upset with you Harry, let's just go before they find that note" and with that she walked down the driveway with Hedwig's cage, towards the car, Harry lugging his trunk behind her.

"Thank you for picking me up Mrs. Granger" Harry said, when he'd put his stuff into the car, and slid in next to Hermione.

"No problem Harry" she said friendly, as she started the car. As Harry looked at Mrs. Granger in her mirror, he noticed she hardly looked like Hermione at all; the only thing they seemed to have in common was their slightly crazy hair, but even that was a completely different colour. Her eyes were bright blue, while Hermione's were a chocolaty brown. Her father must be the spitting image of her…that's really the only explanation.

 "Have you been working out Harry?" Hermione said suddenly as they were pulling out of Privet Drive.

"Wha…oh…yeah" he said awkwardly, caught off guard by the strange question, but he ended up laughing at himself anyway. "Aunt Petunia bought Dudley some weights last summer, so I…er, borrowed them…just something to do you know?" Harry finished, and Hermione nodded.

"Not what I would choose to do on my holidays, but I guess guys are different" she said as they laughed together.

"Yeah, you look different too, but I can't think of what it is…" Harry said, looking at her oddly, trying to figure it out.

Hermione shrugged, "Well I haven't done anything, I always look like this…actually I kind of did something to my hair" she said, "Is that it?"

"I don't know…it must be" he said.

"Well muggles have really good hair products, since I don't really know many beauty type spells."

"I should get some muggle stuff, tame my hair a bit" he said laughing.

Hermione grinned at him, "No, it looks good like that, all messy" she said messing it up even more with her hand.

"Hey, it doesn't need to be any messier" he shouted laughing and messing up her hair too.

"Harry!!" she said loudly, hitting him on the arm jokingly, and tousling his hair again as he roared with laughter.

Mrs. Granger smiled knowingly to herself as Harry and Hermione continued to laugh insanely, and mess up each other's hair as if it was the funniest thing in the world. By the time they'd reached Hermione's house, they both looked like they'd been in the middle of a hurricane, but they were both in a better mood for it.

They all piled out of the car, and Harry fetched his trunk as Hermione followed her mum inside carrying Hedwig, who was looking around curiously at her new surroundings. Hermione's house looked a lot like the ones in Privet Drive but a bit bigger, and, at least to Harry, it looked a lot more welcoming.

"I'll just show you the room you're staying in Harry, it's up here" Hermione said, gesturing up the stairs. He followed, but out of nowhere, Crookshanks came bounding up the stairs, Harry swayed but managed to keep his balance, Hermione however, wasn't so lucky, she screamed as she fell backwards, right into Harry, who had flung his trunk back down the stairs, in order to catch her. But she slammed into him so hard; he fell back with the breath knocked out of him, landing on the floor with a thud, narrowly missing his trunk, Hermione on top of him.

"Oh my god Harry" Hermione said breathlessly as she got off of him, and kneeled on the ground. "I'm so sorry, are you all right?!" Harry groaned, his eyes closed in pain. "Say something!" Hermione said frantically, brushing the hair out of his eyes unnecessarily.

Harry opened his eyes, to find her face inches from his, which for some reason didn't shock him in the least, in fact he felt comforted by looking into her eyes. "Ow" he said simply, laughing softly.

Hermione smiled. "Are you okay?" Harry raised him self up on his elbows smiling back at her, "Yeah, I'm fine" he replied, for some reason, not able to look away.

Some one coughed loudly behind them and an amused voice interrupted their little moment, "What's going on here?" It was Mrs. Granger.

"Harry fell." Hermione said stupidly, shaking away the strange feeling she'd been getting looking at Harry. 

"He fell" Mrs. Granger repeated smirking.

Harry started to laugh, sitting up and turning to look at her. "We were walking up the stairs and Crookshanks got in the way" he said chuckling. "Hermione fell down the stairs, and when I tried to catch her, she slammed into me so hard I fell backwards too" he explained.

"And the reason you were staring at each other is..?" Mrs. Granger asked them both.

"Mum!" Hermione shouted exasperatedly, "What's with all the questions, we weren't staring" she said, but a blush was creeping onto her cheeks, and Harry looked slightly awkward.

Mrs. Granger now looked like she was trying not to laugh, "And you just like to blush at everyday comment then, is that it…?" she asked smirking.

Harry snorted as Mrs. Grangers behavior, and Hermione blushed harder. "Honestly mum, you are so embarrassing..." she muttered, standing up and helping Harry off his feet as well.

"You're lucky your fathers away on business Hermione, he would've embarrassed you much more than I have" Mrs. Granger said, and left the room laughing.

Harry was sniggering beside Hermione, who was trying hard to look annoyed, but it wasn't really working. When Harry laughed, it tended to rub off.

She started to laugh quietly, shaking her head at her embarrassing mother. "Let's just go" she said meekly.

Harry picked up his trunk still laughing, "Okay…try not to fall on me this time all right?" Hermione rolled her eyes but walked as quickly as she could up the stairs, just in case.

* * *

The next morning, Harry and Hermione were planning to go to Diagon Alley on the Knight bus.

"Tell me again why we're going to Diagon Alley so early in the holidays?" Harry asked as they shut the front door behind them, and walked down the path.

"I thought it would be fun to go to muggle London, since you've never really been there before" She answered "Well you haven't had a proper look around at least"

Harry looked at her quizzically "And we're going to Diagon Alley first because?"

Hermione rolled her eyes at him "You need money Harry" she said simply, but she looked like she was hiding something.

"What do I need more money for…hang on…we're going shopping aren't we??" Harry asked with a groan.

Hermione smirked "Well done Mr. Potter" she said as she took her wand out of her pocket. "Honestly, Harry, you do need some new clothes, don't you think?" she asked.

"Are you saying I have a bad fashion sense?!" Harry gasped, jokingly.

She laughed lightly, and stuck her wand in the air "Well all the Dursley's ever gave you are Dudley's old clothes, and we all know you're  a hell of a lot better looking than Dudley and.." she cut her self off looking slightly awkward, while Harry laughed.

"I'm good looking am I? Well Hermione I never knew you thought of me that way!"

"Oh shut up Harry, you know what I – AAAAH" Hermione screamed as the Knight Bus screeched to a halt in the exact place she had just been standing. Fortunately, Harry had swept her out of the way just in time.

Hermione was breathing in short gasps, and not even aware Harry was holding her as the door of the bus popped open, "Welcome to the…" the pimply young wizard started, but was quickly interrupted by Harry.

"We know, we know, we need to get to Diagon Alley" he said handing Stan the money.

"Righto, Mr. Potter" Stand said and jumped aside, looking upon the scene curiously as Harry helped a dazed Hermione up the steps. They walked over to two chairs at the back of the bus ignoring Stan's excited whispers, "Ern, it's 'Arry Potter!!"

~Hope you liked that chapter….these first couples of chapters aren't that great but they get better believe me…especially later, these first ones aren't written to well and I know..I'm going to re write them when I have the chance please review!~