Meet You There
Chapter Three - Enough
"I hate that thing" muttered Hermione as she got off the bus, looking a bit sick. Harry was laughing quietly behind her, but shut up the second Hermione looked at him.
"Sorry" he said trying to keep a straight face.
He wrenched the door of The Leaky Cauldron open for her, but before he could even close the door behind him, there was a bright flash of a camera, and someone yelled, "There he is!!"
Before he knew what was happening, Harry was being pulled into the middle of the bar, people crowded all around him. Many looked just as confused as he was, as others looked excited.
"Erm..." Harry started but the wizard who had yelled before interrupted him.
"The press has got word from an unknown source that the mass murderer Sirius Black was your godfather, could you tell us if this is indeed true?"
Harry was so stunned he was rendered speechless, but there was no need to say anything, the reporters were already asking him more questions.
"If it is true, are you sad about your godfather's death? How do you feel?" Well that was an understatement.
"How did you find out he was dead?" I was lucky enough to see the whole thing, thought Harry bitterly.
"Did you love him?" Harry looked around him trying to ignore that question, of course he loved Sirius, he was the only father figure he'd ever had since his parents had died.
Harry felt like a deer in headlights as the reporters continued to throw ridiculous questions at him, how had they possibly found this out? "Um…I don't…." he muttered, not sure of what to say, where was Hermione?
"Harry!"
'Thank god' he thought, as he saw Hermione pushing her way through the mass of reporters.
There was an angry uproar from the crowd as Hermione grabbed Harry's hand and tried to lead him away to the back door. The flashes from the cameras continued to go off but luckily Tom, the bartender, started to kick people out of his bar for disrupting the peace.
"Are you all right Harry?" she asked, making sure the back door was closed as they walked into the space before the gateway to Diagon Alley.
He looked down at her, "Yeah….yeah I'm fine" he said determined not to show his stupid emotions in front of her. He hated being upset about Sirius.
"Harry…" she started in the same quiet voice, but he couldn't take her sympathy,
"Come on Hermione, lets just go" he said stubbornly.
She nodded with a sad smile on her face, and turned around to tap the bricks of the gate way, but as soon as the wall had moved, all they could see was more reporters. "What's wrong with them, why can't they just leave me alone!?!?" Harry yelled angrily, unfortunately his yell had attracted the attention of the crowd.
"Shit" he muttered, and grabbed Hermione's hand, running full out down the crowded street.
"In here!" Hermione yelled over the noise of the vicious reporters, tearing into Flourish and Blotts, and ducking behind a large pile of books.
Soon enough a large group of reporters had invaded the store, but as they searched the back, Harry and Hermione snuck out the door, running as fast as they could to Gringotts. By the time they were inside the large marble building, Hermione was slightly out of breath and Harry looked positively livid. "What on earth was that all about? How'd they find out?" he asked Hermione, even though he knew she couldn't possibly know the answer.
"I don't know…someone must of tipped them off but I have no idea wh…" she trailed off looking thoughtful. "Maybe…maybe it was Pettigrew" she said, looking at Harry apprehensively.
"But why would he do something stupid like that…it's not like reporters running after me will help Voldemort kill me" Harry said dully, arriving in a line up for changing his money. Hermione shrugged, and they didn't say another thing until he was done.
They walked casually towards the doors, Harry cooling down a bit from before. "At least they didn't find us in here" He said, reaching for the door handle.
But as they walked outside, Harry had to eat his words as they saw a large crowd standing outside.
Every feeling Harry had been bottling up for the past two weeks at the Dursley's seemed to burst out of him, he hadn't yelled or gotten angry at anyone in Privet Drive once, and he was about to make up for it.
"WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU PEOPLE!?" he roared, as they pounced on him, asking him more questions. "My life is none of your business!" The crowd quit asking questions, but they looked insulted... "You're all so wrapped up in getting your damn story you don't care whose life you have to destroy along the way!"
Hermione was trying to stand there as support for Harry, but she couldn't help backing away a bit, he was scary when he got this mad. Neville Longbottom had said when Bellatrix Lestrange had sent Sirius flying through the veil, he'd been more scared of Harry at that moment than he'd ever been of Professor Snape, and that was saying something.
Harry was still yelling at the crowd angrily, which had grown larger, as people on the street had stopped to see what was going on. "Didn't you ruin my life enough last year?! Or are you just going to keep doing this shit until I finally kill me?! Maybe I'll just do you all a big favor and take care of that myself! That seems to be what you all want!" the whole crowd went eerily silent.
Harry shouted into the stunned silence one last time, "And you know what? I bet tomorrow morning, there'll be this huge report on how the 'famous Harry Potter' turned out to be a suicidal nutcase …well go ahead and humiliate me all you want because I just don't give a fuck what anyone thinks of me anymore!" Harry ended his speech with what could've almost been called a sob, and Hermione thought, but couldn't be sure that she saw a frustrated tear fall down his face as he pushed his way roughly through the crowd, which was shockingly devoid of flashes or murmering.
The whole street was standing still, as everyone turned to look at Hermione warily. "You know what I hope you're happy" she said fiercely, "You have no idea what Harry has had to deal with in his life, and it doesn't help that you constantly make him look like some attention seeking prat in your damn newspapers! Harry tries so hard to make everyone happy all the time but none of you even appreciate it." Some people looked guiltily at the ground.
"No one in the world deserves all the horrible stuff that's happened to him." She looked around at the gaping reporters, "I just can't understand how any of you can be so cruel or thoughtless. What has Harry ever done to you? Only save your sorry asses from Voldemort…" Many people gasped as they heard his name, and she shook her head in disgust.
"The whole lot of you are pathetic and I hope you're ashamed of yourselves because you certainly should be!" she finished angrily pushing through the silent crowd to find Harry.
Surprisingly, he wasn't very far away, he was sitting on the steps of the Magical Menagerie which was just a bit beyond the end of the crowd, his head in his hands. Hermione walked over and kneeled in front of him putting her hands on his knees, she could feel him shaking under her touch. "Harry?" she asked softly.
"What" he replied, head still down, and his voice sounding somewhat hoarse from all the shouting.
"Well I'm not going to ask you if you're all right, since I'm pretty sure of what your answer would be"
Harry snorted and lifted his head up to see Hermione smiling a few tears on her face. Harry smiled and wiped the tears away with his thumb. "I heard what you said" he said, his hand still on her cheek, although the tears had gone.
"Well I meant it" she said in her soft voice.
"Thanks" Harry replied quietly and finally took his hand off her cheek.
"Do you want to just go back to my house and play Quidditch or something? Maybe that will make you feel better instead of going shopping" she asked him wincing at the thought of her flying.
Harry laughed, "No, it's okay, let's go, I really do need some new clothes…and I don't think you on a broomstick is exactly a good idea"
* * *
"Hermione! This shirt says fuck on it!" Hermione smiled as she looked through the window of the French Connection store with Harry, who was laughing his head off.
"Harry, it says F-C-U-K, it stands for French Connection United Kingdom." She explained.
"Whatever Hermione, this shirt says fuck on it and I'm buying it!" Hermione laughed to herself as she followed Harry into the store, who was already holding quite a few bags of clothes.
5 minutes later, as Harry was trying on his "fuck" shirt, he came out of the dressing room but didn't see Hermione. He walked out into the main store and saw her looking dreamily at a pretty black satiny strapless dress on a hanger.
"Hermione?" he said walking up behind her, she jumped.
"Oh, Harry…that's cute on you!" she said grinning.
"Thanks, you know, Ron would probably think this shirt is hilarious too, maybe I'll get him one to give him for Christmas" he said, still laughing at it. "…are you trying that dress on?" he asked curiously.
Hermione looked sadly at it, "No, No, I've tried it on loads of times before…it's gorgeous…but it's too expensive" she finished with a sigh.
Harry looked thoughtful for a moment, "Hey, I could…" he started but Hermione interrupted,
"No way Harry, its really expensive, just go try on those other clothes, you still need some new shoes and a swimsuit…well you know, shorts." She added as he raised his eyebrows.
"But Hermione you really want…"
"Go" Hermione said crossing her arms, looking pointedly at the dressing rooms. Harry shrugged and walked away.
A little while later, in yet another store, Harry was trying on a couple of pairs of swim shorts. Hermione was sipping her bottle of water she'd bought when he walked out of the stall wearing nothing but a pair of light blue shorts with a black Hawaiian pattern on them. Hermione choked on her water. How the hell had he gotten so hot?!
Harry walked over to her looking concerned as she coughed and spluttered. "Are you all right Hermione!?" he asked, patting her on the back. A couple of girls nearby weren't paying Hermione the least bit of attention; they were both eyeing Harry with interest and giggling.
When Hermione stopped coughing, she looked up at Harry who now looked like he was trying not to laugh, "What happened there 'Mione?" he said amusedly.
"It's called choking Harry" she said acidly, but Harry just laughed.
"Do you like the…um…the…" she stuttered as she looked at his toned stomach.
"Shorts?" he supplied laughing again.
Hermione blushed, "Right, shorts!" she said laughing nervously.
"Well they certainly seem to" he said, glancing at the two girls who were looking at him, they blushed furiously as Harry grinned at them, and Hermione rolled her eyes.
"Are you buying them then?" she asked impatiently. Harry nodded.
As Harry walked back into the stall, the two giggling girls looked at Hermione and motioned for her to come over. Utterly confused, she walked over to them, and looked at them quizzically. "Is that guy your boyfriend?" one of the girls with short blonde hair asked Hermione eagerly.
She was shocked by this question, but even more so by how she heard her self answering, "Yes, why?" Both girls grins disappeared in an instant.
"Oh…okay never mind" the other girl said, looking sulky.
Hermione turned around and walked away, amazed at what had just happened. Why had she just said that? And how had she pulled it off so smoothly? She was distracted as Harry came out laden with clothes and bags, and soon forgot all about the incident.
* * *
"I'll be right back Hermione, I gotta go to the bathroom" Harry said a while later, as they were eating lunch at an outdoor food court.
"Okay" Hermione answered, taking a bite out of her sandwich.
Harry had no real intention of going to the bathroom at all.
He was actually going to go buy Hermione that dress, he figured he could just get it delivered to Hermione's house and give it to her for Christmas at Hogwarts. He jogged to the French Connection store and walked quickly up to the front desk.
"Hi, do you do deliveries…I mean could you deliver a dress to my friend's house?" Harry asked speaking fast.
"Um…" The man behind the counter knew stores rarely ever did that, but this boy had just bought an awful lot of clothes from them.
"Alright, which dress is it?" Harry looked around, and spotting the dress, he pointed to it,
"That one" he said. "I don't really know what size she is, but she's been in here lots of times trying it on"
The man nodded, "The hot girl with the curly brown hair? Think she said her name was Hermoiney" he asked smirking.
"Hermione" Harry corrected him, feeling a stab of annoyance. Who did this guy think he was calling her hot?
"Right, what's her address?" the man asked. Harry told him Hermione's address, paid him, and left quickly, not wanting to spend any more time with the annoying guy behind the counter.
Harry sat back down at the table across from Hermione and she looked at him strangely. "Harry what took you so long?!" she asked.
"Oh…umm…well the bathroom is pretty far away" he lied.
"Oh, I thought maybe there was a long line or something." She said.
Harry laughed at his own stupidity, "Yes, that would've made more sense" he said without really thinking. Hermione looked skeptical but couldn't think of what else he would be doing, so she shrugged as she took a sip of her coke.
Eventually Harry and Hermione had finished shopping and both were exhausted, "My god Hermione I'll never understand why girls actually enjoy shopping" Harry said as the Knight Bus lurched forward, and all his shopping bags fell over. But Hermione didn't respond, she had fallen backwards out of her chair.
As Harry helped her back up she was muttering darkly to her self, "I hate this thing."
* * *
Hope you liked it, I forgot to say that the song at the beginning of the first chapter is not mine, it's by the band Simple Plan, and its called Meet You There, hope you liked this chapter, please review it seriously make me want to write more!!