Meet You There
Chapter 5 – Awkward Silence
Hermione woke up the next day still in her skirt and halter top feeling very uncomfortable and very cold as she looked out the window to see rain thundering down to the ground. She hadn't told Harry or her parents the night before but she couldn't exactly get changed by herself. Unfortunately when she looked at the clock on her bedside table, and saw that it was nearly 11, she flung herself out of bed, landing hard on her feet.
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Harry was awoken that morning by a rather loud but slightly muffled scream of pain and a thud. He shot up in bed, recognizing the scream as Hermione's, and bolted out the door, forgetting that he was hardly wearing anything. He opened Hermione's door to find her still in her dance clothes, sitting on the floor holding her ankle, muttering "Ow, Ow, Ow, Ow" repeatedly under her breath.
Harry walked over and knelt down beside her, "What happened Hermione?" he asked, concerned.
"It's nearly 11 and I didn't want you to wake up before I did so I jumped out of bed to get ready…" she took in a deep breath, "…of course being the idiot I am , I forgot about my ankle." Hermione looked extremely annoyed with herself as she let go of her ankle and rubbed her wrist.
Harry laughed, "You're not an idiot Hermione" he said picking her up and putting her back on the bed, "But do you think we should go to St. Mungo's and see if you've broke your ankle, or your wrist for sure?" he asked.
Hermione nodded, "I guess so…it'll take a lot of convincing though" she said.
"How come?" Harry asked.
"My dad thinks we should heal the 'normal' way" she said rolling her eyes.
"But St. Mungo's could fix you up in less than an hour; the muggle way could take a month, or maybe even longer!" he said incredulously.
Hermione sighed, "I know, we'll try to convince him though, he'll probably say yes eventually." She said, playing with the strings on her belt.
"How come you're still in your clothes?" Harry asked suddenly, and Hermione surprisingly looked embarrassed.
"What?" he asked confused.
"It's hard to get dressed by myself because of this" she said gesturing to her wrist.
"Oh…" Harry said not catching on.
"Well your mum…or your dad…could…" he started, but Hermione interrupted.
"Mum left for work at nine…and dad usually gets really embarrassed about this type of thing" she said blushing.
"Erm…" Harry seemed to have figured it out "I guess…I could, you know, help you if you need me to" he said awkwardly.
Hermione looked up at him, "Well you have seen be in a bikini, that's kind of the same thing…and I think I'll manage to put my own underwear on" she said laughing but going flaming red.
"Right...bikini…yeah, okay" Harry replied, stumbling on his words, knowing it wouldn't be the same.
Hermione stood up carefully and looked at Harry expectantly, who awkwardly walked closer to her, "Wait, can you lock the door, my dad doesn't work on weekends" she said quickly. Harry, understanding perfectly, went to quickly close the door and lock it. As he came back he started with her pink belt, throwing it on the bed when it came loose.
As he undid the only button on her skirt, Hermione let out a quickly stifled giggle. "What the hell is funny about this?" Harry said but he had a grin on his face.
Hermione burst out laughing and Harry joined her, both of them red in the face about the predicament they were in. "Wow this isn't weird" she said between laughs.
"Oh not at all" he replied sarcastically.
When their laughs had subsided Harry resumed his position, "All right, let's try again" he said trying to keep his face his normal colour as he pulled down the zipper. Hermione blushed as he slide the skirt down her legs, but found that she had kind of enjoyed the feeling of his roughened from Quidditch hands running down her thighs.
Harry just couldn't help himself from touching her legs, he knew he shouldn't since she was his best friend but he was a guy for god's sake and it didn't look like Hermione had minded at all.
"Put your arms up over your head" Harry told her, clearing his throat as it squeaked slightly making him feel even more awkward. Hermione once again shivered as Harry's hands skimmed over the smooth skin of her stomach. He threw her shirt on the bed along with her other clothes and glanced at her, trying not to look for too long. She was absolutely gorgeous…he couldn't believe he hadn't noticed it last year.
Hermione looked at the floor, embarrassed; as she realized both of them were half naked in her bedroom…all she was wearing now was her pink underwear and bra, and Harry only had on a pair of black boxers he'd been sleeping in. "Um…" Harry tried to speak but found he couldn't.
Hermione looked back up at him, "I still have to change my…" she said not finishing her sentence, and limped awkwardly over to a set of drawers.
"Right…" Harry said.
"Could you just turn around for a sec?" she asked him, looking over her shoulder.
Harry nodded and turned his back to her, trying to figure out why he was feeling like this, it wasn't that he was embarrassed…that was normal, he should be embarrassed. But he felt something else…almost like he just wanted to throw Hermione on the bed and kiss the living daylights out of her. What the hell?! She was his best friend…why would he even think that?
"Harry?" He jumped as he heard Hermione say his name; he was a bit more reluctant to look at her now, afraid at what he might do. But he had to help her, so he turned around, trying to concentrate on her face. "You don't mind if we stay in today do you? Well besides perhaps going to Saint Mungos" she asked.
"No, of course not, it's really rainy today anyway" he said, finding it extremely hard to only look at her face.
"I'm just going to wear this then" she said gesturing to the comfy looking fitted white sweat suit.
"Okay sure" Harry said, walking over to her, "You might want to sit on the bed, so I can put these on without hurting your ankle" he added as she handed him her sweatpants.
Hermione plopped down on the bed and Harry knelt in front of her, gently guiding her feet into each pant leg.
"All right, stand up" he said, as he pulled the pants up her legs. His hands had touched her skin again and as he reached behind her to get the white zip up, Hermione scolded her self for thinking Harry was touching her on purpose. Why the hell did she enjoy that so much, it's Harry!! One of her best friends! What's wrong with me? She thought.
"Done" he said smiling at her as he finished helping her put her arms through the sleeves of her white zip up.
"Thanks Harry" she said.
"No problem"
Hermione smiled, "I guess you don't need help getting changed, right?"
Harry laughed, "If you want to…" he said, raising his eye brows jokingly, making her laugh, but she surprised him
"Okay let's go" she said and looped her arms through his, walking through the door together.
As they walked into the hall, they heard someone walking up the stairs; Harry swept Hermione from her feet and tore into his room, which was luckily right next to hers. As he put her down on the carpet she was looking at him strangely, "What did you that for?" she asked curiously.
" I didn't want your dad to say anything, like 'why was Harry half naked in your room with you Hermione?'" he said, imitating Mr. Granger.
Hermione laughed as Harry pulled a pair of pants from the closet, "I don't think he'd…" she said but Harry cut her off with a disbelieving snort
"Oh yes he would, I think he thinks I'm your boyfriend" Hermione stared at him, as he pulled on his pants.
"Why would he think that?" she asked.
"I don't know but last night he thanked me for being so helpful and I said, well yeah what are friends for or something…" he said, reaching for a light blue sweatshirt, "…and he was like, 'friends…right' like he didn't believe me" he finished, pulling the sweatshirt over his head.
"Really? He said that….that's kinda rude" she said, frowning.
Harry shrugged, "No it's okay, I just don't know why he'd think that" he said, looking slightly puzzled.
Hermione looked like she'd figured it out, "Maybe it was because you held my hand before, I mean I know that's a stupid reason but I guess that could've been why…" she trailed off, frowning again.
"I was holding your hand because you were in pain, what am I not allowed to comfort my best friend?" Harry asked.
"Of course you are, he shouldn't jump to conclusions like that" she said.
"Why don't you just tell him I'm not?"
"Sure, I will after breakfast" she said
"Or maybe lunch" Harry added laughing as he looked at his watch, and opened the door for Hermione.
As Harry was walking down the stairs, with Hermione on his back (he'd insisted he give her a piggy back ride) Mr. Granger appeared in front of the stairs.
"Hermione? Mum asked me to give you these" he said holding up what looked like a photo album.
"Are those my baby pictures?!" she asked excitedly as Harry put her down gently.
"Uh yes I think so…most of them" he said, looking nervous about something, but only Harry noticed, Hermione was already taking the album and going to sit on the couch. Harry followed, looking oddly at Mr. Granger before sitting down besides Hermione on the couch.
She flipped the book open, and started to look at her baby pictures….Harry couldn't help but notice that there were a lot with her mum in them, but not a single one with her dad… "Oh here's the Cheerios thing I was telling you about!" Hermione said abruptly, pointing to a photo of Hermione next to a Cheerio box with the little o's all around her.
"But…there's no pictures of the little boy I had over, he was my best friend too, that's so weird there aren't any pictures of him." she said looking disappointed.
"Maybe he just hated having his picture taken?" Harry suggested meekly.
Hermione shook her head, "I don't think so" she said sadly, "We were only friends for about a year too, I don't remember what happened, he moved away like a day after Halloween"
Harry looked at her curiously, "Halloween?" he asked.
"Yeah…" she said looking gloomy as she looked through a few more pictures.
"What was this boy's name?" he asked persistently.
Hermione looked thoughtful, "I can't even remember…I can't believe it, he was my best friend since I was born practically, I think our parents were best friends or something…" she said looking annoyed with herself.
"I'll ask my dad, maybe he remembers, DAD!!??" she shouted, and Mr. Granger appeared as quick as a flash, as though he'd been waiting for it.
"Yes, sweetheart?" he said.
"Remember the little boy I always had over when I was really little?" she asked.
"Erm…oh yes…right…what about him?" he replied, looking like he didn't have the foggiest idea who this boy was.
"What was his name?" she asked, and Mr. Granger suddenly looked rather uncomfortable.
"Um…I'm not sure honey, sorry." He said looking around the room, as if he wanted to escape.
"But weren't you best friends with his mum and dad?" she asked surprised.
"Well, yes…yes but I'm very sorry dear I can't remember" he said turning to leave.
"Wait!"
Mr. Granger stiffened and was starting to look quite annoyed. "What?" he said impatiently.
"How come there aren't any pictures of you in here?" Hermione asked, looking at the book, then back up at her father.
His lip twitched and he looked like he'd been dreading this question, "I'm not sure, maybe I just took all of the pictures…silly of me really." He answered laughing nervously, but Hermione looked skeptical,
"But…" she started stubbornly
"HERMIONE!" he yelled irritably, and she jumped, looking a bit scared. "I'M VERY BUSY ALL RIGHT, STOP ASKING ME ALL THESE RIDICULOUS QUESTIONS!"
Harry looked at him angrily, and was about to say something when Hermione put her hand over his mouth as her dad stormed out of the room. "Don't" she said shakily. He looked at her, her eyes glistening and nodded as she took her hand away.
"I'm sorry Hermione, are you all right?" he asked, bringing her into his arms for a hug.
She nodded as she pulled away, but Harry didn't notice, he was staring at a photo of her mum, a very young Hermione, about two months old, and another pretty woman, with his mouth half open. "Hermione…there's something funny going on here" he said not looking away from the photo.
"What do you mean?" she asked following his gaze.
"First of all…it looks like your mum has a wand in her shirt pocket…" he said and Hermione gasped.
"What the…"
"And look at this" he said pointing to a small group of laughing people in the far right end of the photo.
Hermione's jaw dropped, "Harry…that's…it's…is it?" she gasped out, unable to form a proper sentence.
Harry nodded, "I don't understand this…you're mum mustn't be a muggle Hermione…she's a witch"
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Sorry for the tiny cliffhanger… you probably don't know who the people are but if you do you're really smart!! You'll find out next chapter if you don't…okay so hope you liked it , please review