Chapter 7.

The next morning, Harry woke with Hermione in his arms, once more. He looked at her sleeping face, she was smiling, and their legs were intertwined.

"How could I ever do anything to hurt her?" He thought. "I love her so, so much...and look at me...sleeping with someone else behind her back...not only someone else...Ginny. I don't want to loose her..." He began. "Yeah right." His concience kicked in. "This will ruin her if she finds out. You don't deserve her."

Harry watched her sleeping peacefully. Last night had been...well...different, from Ginny. With Ginny it was rushed, and more lust-driven. He was in love with Hermione, and it was much more meaningful...he contemplated that for a few moments, when Hermione stirred. As usual, she hugged her arm around his stomach and kissed his bare chest. He cringed inwardly at the thought of Ginny doing the same yesterday. He lightly rolled her over as he got up.

"Hey, where are you going?" Hermione drawled sleepily.

"I have to go out." He said, grabbing his jacket and shoving on his shoes. "Be back later." He said, kissing her forehead and making for the door.

Hermione just groaned, rolled over, and fell back asleep.

Harry ran to the living room and reached for the floo powder...but he changed his mind, he'd rather not turn up in the middle of the kitchen to loads of questions from the Weasleys...and apparating wouldn't do much use either. He'd need an excuse or something...but he had to see Ginny. He had to act now, so he apparated to the Burrow's garden. Taking a deep breath he knocked the back door twice and slowley opened the door to the kitchen.

Ginny was tidying up in the kitchen, alone.

"Harry!?" She said, startled.

"Look Ginny, I---" He started, before Arthur walked in.

"Well Hello there, Harry! What brings you here? Ron's out somewhere with Neville..."

"Hi, Arthur. Well...It's not Ron I came to see...I have to speak to Ginny...you see, Hermione...umm...it's a question about the wedding...a dress thing Hermione want's to ask...to ask Ginny." He stammered, hating using Hermione as an excuse.

"Alright!" Arthur said. "Sorry I asked." He muttered, before walking towards the cupboard for some food.

"Ginny?" Harry asked, motioning outside.

Ginny smiled and followed him into the garden.

"Here...round this corner." He said, and led her to a quiet corner of the garden, unseen from the house.

"What brings you here, Harry?" Ginny asked, stroking his chest.

"I..I have to talk to you." He tried to say, firmly, as she advanced on him,

"Oh." Ginny said, pressing her lips to his.

"NO!" He shouted and pushed he off him. "Ginny...this has to stop...now. I love Hermione, and we can't do this."

"But she doesn't know..." Ginny said, leaning in again, but Harry leapt out of the way.

"Look, I know I've been a complete idiot..." He started, ignoring the changing expressions on Ginny's face. "But I want to make things right again. I don't know why I...we...did, what we did, but I know that I regret it. I know that I would never have dreampt of hurting Hermione, and I know that this probably will, if the guilt doesn't drive me insane before she finds out...." He spat out, taking a deep breath. It looked as if all this information had suddenly hit him, and he sank back against the wall, falling to the ground, tears welling in his eyes.

"Hey..." Ginny said, crouching down beside him, unsure what to say.

"I mean...now because of this...this...stupid thing, I may have ruined everything. I've never felt like this about anyone before. Sure, I had girlfriends in Hogwarts, but now I realise I didn't love any of them. I love Hermione..." He said, tears streaming down his face. "And...and we've got to end this, so that I can at least have another chance at it. I hate keeping secrets from her, and one as big as this is killing me...but I'd rather it kills me than it kills her, and she will find out..." He gasped for breath. "I love her so much..." He sobbed into his knees.

Ginny looked at the sobbing Harry before her. Sure, the jealousy for Hermione had always been there, ever since she had joined first year and realised just how close friends she was with him...but she couldn't help but pity him...and a small bubbling of guilt began to simmer in her own stomach, for the first time. Sure, she'd always wanted Harry, but she never wanted to see him upset, let alone be the cause of it...She didn't know how to handle this...she awkwardly tried to give Harry a friendly hug, but he just batted her away from him, telling her to get off, so she stood up.

"I...I'm sorry Harry." She said quietly and turned on her heel and headed back to the house.

Harry sat blubbing in the corner for a while longer. Taking a deep breath, he wiped his eyes and nose on his sleeve. He hadn't cried like that in...well, ever. It had startled him. All the crying had made him feel shaken up and weak. Steadying himself, he apparated home, simply because it was the only place he could go...despite the fact that he didn't really want to. Hermione was in the kitchen making some toast.

"Hey!" She smiled brightly as he came in. "Toast?"

"Nah..I'm ok." He said, walking over to her, and embracing her with a tight hug.

"I missed you too!" She laughed, kissing him briefly on the cheek.

Harry smiled as he parted from her. That was it, Ginny was out of his life. Although he still had to see her occasionally, because of his ties to Ron and the rest of the Weasleys, she was gone. He could re-build his relationship with Hermione. He planned to tell her about the affair...not that it was with Ginny...but to tell her sometime in the near future, when it's confirmed as being over...and hopefully she'll respect his honesty. If she chose to finish it, it wouldn't be any more than he deserved, he thought. Although he didn't really know what he'd do without her.

"Hey" She said suddenly. "I was thinking..."

"Oh-oh, I don't like that tone!" He laughed.

"Well...we've been together...like, forever, right?" She said, a twinkle in her eye."Yeah..." He said, worried where this was going.

"Can we get a puppy?!" She burst out, child-like.

Harry sighed in relief. "A puppy? You, Hermione Granger, evil-cat lover of the Centuary...want a dog?"

"He's not evil Harry...he started liking you towards the end of school, remember?"

"All the same." He muttered.

"Well...because Crookshanks is living at my parent's house now...I kinda miss having something about...and when I was out getting a newspaper the other day, I saw the cutest little thing!"

"It made you broody. For a puppy."

"Well..." She giggled.

"Sure. As long as it's nothing in relation to Crookshanks, and as long as it is not a strange cross-breed...and as long as it likes me too, okay?" He smiled, kissing her.

"Yay!" She squealed. "Can we go today, there's some really cute ones at the adoption shelter down town..."

"So you were looking without me?" He said, in mock-annoyance.

"Come on, Harry!" She said, playfully tugging at his sleeve. "Can we, can we?"

"Okay." He said.

"I'll get my coat."

"I thought you wanted toast?!" He asked, watching her fling on her jacket and shoes.

"Well, now I want a puppy. Come on!" She said, waiting at the door.

Sighing, followed her, since he still had his jacket and shoes on from earlier.

Not long later, they were browsing in the shelter.

"Awww, look at that one!" Hermione pointed. "OH, how adorable, look at his eyes! Aaawww!" "Oooh, this one's so soft!" "Aww, look, Harry! He wants to say hello!"

"Hello." Harry said, as the thin puppy licked his hand.

"Aww...oooh...aaah...hehe...hewwo cutie!...whoseagoodboy...oh look at you!...Oooh I justwanttotakeyouhomeandeatyouallup! YesIdo! YesIdo!"

Harry stared at Hermione. Since when had she been so loved-up on things like puppies? Suddenly, she squealed and ran to a cage at the end.

"This is him! He's the one! Look at him climbing up to see me! Aww, his eyes...they're just saying 'Take Me Home', aren't they?" She mused, grinning at the puppy.

"Yeah." He said, stroking the small puppy. "So cute!" Harry was still awkward in this kind of situation...this was never a guy's place.

"So, this one?" She said, although there was no question, it was not open for debate. Harry saw it in her eyes: She was taking this puppy home.

"Yeah!" He said, but she was already shouting on the attendant.

About half an hour of paperwork later, and a stop at the pet shop for supplies, they were taking the puppy home. It was a small, grey toy poodle, with little curls coming from the bottom of his ears.

"What shall we call him?" She said, as she put 'him' on the floor of the appartment and watched him scamper off, exploring.

"Well, what do you like?" He asked, deciding all name-decisions were best left with her.

"Um...I like...I don't know." He was still a bit pre-occupied with trying to push Ginny to the back of his head to care, but, of course, he hadn't shown Hermione.

Harry thought. "How about naming him after someone or something?" He laughed as he imagined her thoughts 'Well one of my favourite books at school was 'Magical Theory' and that was written by Adalbert Waffling....how about Waffle, Harry?"

"I've got it!" She squealed, grabbing the puppy in her arms. "Harry, say hello to Toby."

"Toby?! Where'd that come from?"

"I don't know...he just looks like a Toby, doesn't he? Now...say Hello!" She asked, impatiently.

"Hello!" He said, patting the puppy's head as it licked his hand. Hermione held one of his paws and made him wave at Harry.

"Isn't he so cute!" She said, hugging the struggling, yelping pup.

Harry laughed to himself. Crookshanks: The Second Generation. He watched Hermione and a sudden sorrow filled him. She's So happy. And she doesn't know. She's laughing and smiling...and she doesn't know...He sighed, before donning the false-smile once more.