Chapter One
By: A. Madalong
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"And with a sparkle in his eyes, he gently pressed his soft finger against her lips, and said, 'I can not stand here and honestly tell you that I am in love. For you have enchanted me, and I feel an emotion much more powerful and mystical than love."
"How sweet," Hermione Granger sighed, as she closed the novel.
It was a wonderful, summer day- so wonderful in fact, that Hermione almost couldn't believe she was working. She took a moment to relax, leaning against the blossomed cherry tree in the London Square Park. The book 'Witch Woman' lied in her lap, reminding her of its romantic words. As a freelance book reviewer for the London Times, Hermione Granger often spent time under the very same cherry tree, reading the latest Best Sellers. After finishing a great romance novel, she loved to sit back and observe all the happy couples walking hand-in-hand across the burgundy brick walkway.
Love had not been so kind to Hermione. She was a rather attractive 17 year-old, with perfect teeth (courtesy of her dentist parents) and thick brown hair. Though, as a student and a book reviewer, she too busy to waste her time dating. After reading a romance novel, however, she always felt differently- almost hoping love would fall in her lap.
Hermione's eyes were now fixed on a cute looking couple, leaning next to each other on a near-by park bench. Perhaps it was the lilac trees surrounding the bench, or merely the way the sun fall on their skin that made this couple so intriguing to Hermione. Some way or another they conveyed a certain interest to Hermione, and she wanted to know more about them...
The girl- apart from being exceptionally gorgeous- was not particularly unique. She had red, model like hair which fell perfectly around her even-more-so model like face. After staring at her for a while, Hermione realized that it was not her that made the couple so interesting...It's the boy...
Hermione shook her head, wondering why she'd just referred to a man (probably around her age) as a boy. Though her attention again focussed on him. He looks so familiar...Maybe he's famous. He's certainly good-looking enough to so. The man had jet-black hair, and green eyes- which Hermione could make note of from where she was sitting. He wore round glasses that didn't quite fit with the rest of his athletic attire. Who is he?
"Heaaaad's Uuup!" a voice from a distance shouted.
Suddenly, Hermione felt her book fly off of her lap, and something heavy run across her legs. It was a dog...Hermione blinked her eyes, as the hairy beast came up to her and licked her face. The dog's tongue was wet and rough, and left an uncomfortable slobber along the side of her cheek. She immediately jumped up from her resting place, squealed an 'eww!' and tried to shoo the ambitious dog away.
"Get, get, get!" Hermione cried, as she backed up against the tree.
The dog didn't listen to Hermione, his paws bounced on and off of her pant legs, as it excitedly 'greeted' her. Hermione continued crying, and moaned at the sight of her book being trampled under the dog's feet. "Just leave me alone!" she shouted. "Don't you have some irresponsible, immature owner to pester?"
"That irresponsible, immature owner would be me," the voice again said. "Here boy!"
The owner patted his legs, and the dogs diligently returned to the owner. Then, the owner quickly snapped a leash to the dog's collar. Hermione gave a sigh of relief, dusted herself off, and sharply picked up her book.
"Sorry about that," the man apologized, as he settled his dog down by petting him gently. "This is Rufus, and he's a bit of a flirt."
Hermione turned to give the dog owner a sharp glare, but was rather surprised to see how attractive the man was. Even kneeling by his dog he appeared tall. He had a degree of messiness of his red hair, and had a great, playful smile. Oh well, Hermione thought, He may be good-looking, but his dog ruined my book.
"Well, I do hope you are aware there is a fine for letting dogs loose in this park," Hermione remarked coldly.
"Yes, I am aware, but please be soft on ol'Rufus here," the man then lowered his voice to a whisper. "His babe Fluffy moved away and he's sorta unemployed."
Hermione's face remained annoyed, as did her tone of voice. She sarcastically remarked, "What a touching story, really."
"Yeah, poor thing here," the man continued, referring to his dog, "Since he has no more Fluffy to chase around, he's got to resort to looking for poodles while I walk to my chess games, here at the park."
Hermione held her tattered, dogpaw-printed book firmly to her chest. For some reason she was feeling 'poodle' was a metaphor for single girls, felt a tad offended by this remark, and responded angrily, "Oh, might as well tell Rufus to turn his little doggy tail around. After all, your chances of meeting a worthy poodle reading in the park are virtually nonexistent."
"Virtually, yes," the man said, now standing up from the grass. "But not nonexistent."
For a moment, Hermione was caught in his gaze. Until, that is, he forced forward his palm and introduced himself. "The name's Ron Sneezles."
Hermione quickly regained her composure, and tried to control her blush as she shook his hand and said, "I'm Hermione...Hermione Granger."
Then, the two broke hand contact. Hermione forcefully smiled, "So...You're a chess player, are you?"
"Only by day," he laughed. "Yeah, I play chess in the park every now and then- when I'm not busy with school or doing my policing internship."
Hermione felt that Ron was trying to impress her. She decided to compete with him. "Oh yes, I know how busy it can get," she giggled. "After all, I'm a student too, and I work at the London Times."
"The London Times?" Ron repeated.
"Yes, I'm the book reviewer," Hermione stated proudly. "You may have read my column, no? It's entitled 'Boastful Books'."
Ron pointed to the dirtied book Hermione was caring, and asked, "Is the latest book you're reviewing?" He couldn't help but snicker at the title "Witch Woman".
"Why, yes...It's an impeccable piece of romantic literature," Hermione defended.
"Yeah?" Ron asked, with a moderate interest. "What's it about?"
Hermione was rather surprised and embarrassed by the question. She didn't want to come off as some love-obsessed dreamer. "Well...It's about this young woman- who happens to be a witch...And she falls in love with a mortal man...and-...well, it's a really good story. It has delightful prose and-"
"Do you really give into all that witch rubbish?" Ron laughed.
"Rubbish?"
Ron snickered again. "Oh, don't tell me you believe in fairies and magic and all the stuff, do you?"
Hermione joined in with Ron's snicker.
"Of course I don't believe in magic."
"Isn't nice to get away from it all?"
Virginia leaned her head against Harry's shoulder. It was nice to get it away from it all. Harry was simply relaxing that day- Virginia had forced him to do so. For the past three months, his priority had been solely to football. His commitment had obviously paid off, as his team would be competing in the Intermediate World Football Championship, held in London in only two weeks. In his spare time, he squeezed in homework- so, needless to say, Harry's girlfriend Virginia was hardly receiving the attention she deserved.
However, that day, as the two sat on the park bench, Harry could tell Virginia was happy. From the scent of windblown lilacs, to the shade of the perky green grass, to the way Virginia held Harry's hand with just the right amount of grip- everything was perfect.
"It's wonderful," Harry smiled. He raised Virginia's hand, and gently kissed it.
Virginia giggled and then remarked, "Well, it seems you aren't completely free from all your groupies."
Virginia moved her head, motioning towards a girl, sitting under a cherry tree, opposite of where they were relaxing. This wasn't just a case of girlfriend jealousy, this girl was obviously starring at Harry- even he could clearly tell.
The girl appeared quite familiar looking to Harry. Maybe he met her once, or perhaps it was just the plainess about her that he recognized. Of course, many girls did look like her- she was medium stature, and had the average brown hair.
"Hmm, that's funny," Harry mumbled. "I think I recognize her from somewhere."
"Not a secret girlfriend, is she?" Virginia joked.
Of course, there was no girl other than Virginia in his life. He had met Virginia three years ago, when he was 14 years-old and competing for the Junior Football Cup in Egypt. She was apparently visiting family there. He was immediately attracted to her strawberry red hair and by her little knowledge of the game of football. Later, back in England, Harry reported back to his foster parents, and Virginia left for Boarding School. However, Virginia came to visit Harry (with her protective mother) for at least three weeks each summer- even though Harry was usually quite busy and the two never really spent any 'quality' time together.
"Harry...There's another reason why I wanted a day alone with you," Virginia said, quietly, in a concerned voice.
Harry's attention was still fixed on the girl by the tree, but he nodded and said, "What that's?"
"Well...There's something I've been meaning to tell you, Harry..." Virginia explained. "As you know...I'm entering my last year at school come September and then-"
"You're going to University with me, right love?" Harry asked, squeezing his arm around Virginia's shoulder.
"Well...That's the thing..." she mumbled. "Harry...This may be hard for you to hear...But I'm- I'm a-... HARRY! Are you even paying attention to me?"
Harry was not. He was now sitting at the edge of the park bench, free from Virginia's grasp. He seemed to be deeply enthralled in whatever the girl under the cherry tree was doing.
"There's a boy there now too!" he said in an excited whisper. "The boy- look at him, Virginia! He looks familiar too!"
Virginia let out of small sigh, and too sat on the edge of the park bench. She squinted her eyes, trying to focus of the two figures across the park...
"Oh my!" gasped Virginia. She almost jumped and then froze. "Harry...Who is that?...I swear...He's so familiar."
"Well, he's got crazy red hair like you," Harry laughed. "Maybe he's a relative. Let's go take a look shall, we?"
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A/N: Thanks for reading! Please review! Thanks to attackofthejello for reviewing the last chapter!