Chapter 4 – Say Cheese
Two months later Hermione had finally finished her book. On returning from France she had gone back to the estate agents and had found a house she had fallen in love with. It was huge. Four floors, ten bedrooms, seven bathrooms, four sitting rooms, three dinning rooms, an astronomy tower, a library that went up to the next floor, two studies, a beautiful rose garden, a swimming pool and a grass area the size of a Quidditch pitch. The vantage point of having a house that size was that partied could quite easily be thrown there, such as Hermione's nineteenth the month before.
Hermione was quite aware she would never need all the space but she didn't care. She loved the thrill of being able to splurge on such a grand level and not really have to worry about where the money would come from. The millions in her Gringotts vault were still their and the sales of the second book would be added to that shortly.
In just two weeks her book was due to be released, the there would be a frenzy of activity as she did many interviews, book signings and the like. Before, probably about a month later it would all calm down and she could take some time off before starting on her third book.
The weeks leading up to the release, although nervous, were quite boring. She didn't have the energy to start a new book but she wanted something to do. Ginny, after getting tired of Hermione moping around had said that she was going to set her up on a blind date.
Hermione, not having the brain power to argue had given in, just this once.
--
At first Ginny had been planning on setting Hermione up with the first nice lad she could think of and hope for the best, but she couldn't envision that one working very well. So instead she thought it through logically. So instead she sent out many letters to just the one person that she prayed would capture Hermione's heart. So instead she called in Oliver Wood.
At first he had been against the idea, it wasn't fair on either of them to be thrown together so many times, and would be even more so if Hermione didn't even have a say in it. But Ginny was persistent in the matter; not giving up until he finally gave in a few days after she first contacted him.
--
The next Friday night Hermione spent the evening getting ready, she didn't know exactly where they were going but Ginny said it was already all paid for and that she should be fancy.
Hermione chose she long white skirt that billowed out from the knees with a red material belt tied around the waist, a red halter top and heels in the same colour. She tamed her curls into bouncy ringlets and placed silver hoops through her ears.
At seven thirty Ginny knocked on her door and walked in.
"Hermione you look stunning!" She gasped as she set eyes on her friend. "Now come on your transport is here."
Hermione got up and followed Ginny down the stairs to the entrance hall. The front door was open and on the long gravelled drive she saw a stretched limo driving towards her. As it pulled to a stop the driver got out and opened the door for Hermione to get in.
"Have fun!" Ginny said as she hugged her friend. "I'll wait up and kill you if you get back at a reasonable hour!"
Hermione laughed and walked down the three stone steps that led up to the house and climbed into the back of the black shiny limo. As the door was shut she look inside and realised she was not alone. Opposite her sat none other than Oliver Wood.
"Hello there," He said with a smile, "I'm your blind date surprise!"
"The thing with blind dates is they're meant to be with people you know nothing about and will never have to see again so you don't feel half as bad when the date goes horribly." Hermione said with a groan.
"Well it bound to if you have that attitude." Oliver laughed and grabbed the bottle of champagne that was sat in an ice bucket. He poured the chilled liquid into a glass and handed it to her before pouring himself one also.
"So your new book is hitting the shops next week, are you excited?"
"Yes very," Hermione nodded "as well as gut wrenchingly nervous."
"What have you got to be nervous about?" Oliver said disbelievingly.
"The book being a complete failure, everyone hating it, getting dropped by my publishing company, every laughing at me, loosing my income having to sell my beautiful new house and going back to having very little money." Hermione said blankly.
"Well if you put it like that you should kill yourself right now." Oliver said taking a huge gulp of his drink.
Hermione smiled weakly "So where is it we're going? Ginny wouldn't tell me, which was horrible as I had no idea what to wear."
"Well you look gorgeous anyway so it doesn't really matter where we go. But I do believe she has made reservations for us at a place called the Chambers, it's new and very hard to get into apparently, but not for celebrities like ourselves I should imagine." He says with a smile. Hermione looked at him as he smiled and notice the way his eyes crinkled ever so slightly in the corner when he did so.
The limo soon pulled to a stop and the door was opened for them once more by the driver. Oliver held out him hand as Hermione climbed out of the car and aided her. He didn't let go, she noticed, until they were sat at their table.
For the next two and a half hours the couple ate, drank and didn't stop talking the whole time. When they looked at the clock upon leaving they were shocked to see that it was already ten.
"So where are we going next?" Hermione asked as the limo whisked them off to somewhere new.
"We are going to a little place called Ruby's for some drinks."
It was a small club lit entirely by candles with small tables that seat two. Hermione went to get them some seats while Oliver got the drinks.
Four drinks later the conversation was still raging, although the topics had become a little more open. Hermione was telling Oliver all about her second book and Oliver had been sharing all the gossip about his team with her.
They were so wrapped up in the funny stories that they were being told they didn't notice the flash of the bulb as a camera was being used.
It was quarter to one when Oliver and Hermione, tipsily staggered into Hermione's house. They silently, well almost silently, made it into Hermione's room on the first floor.
--
The next morning Hermione woke with a yawn and stretched out, her feet came into contact with bare flesh and she jumped. Looking over she saw that Oliver was sleeping peacefully beside her. She looked at the clock and saw it read ten o'clock. She groaned and shook him shoulder until her was awake.
"Oliver it's Saturday and you're going to miss training." She said as he stirred.
He instantly sat up and looked around.
"What time is it?" He asked her.
"Ten. You have half an hour 'til it starts, you told me last night." Hermione replied.
"Oh shit!" He said as he got out of bed. "Hermione I'm really sorry to have to do this to you but I can't miss practise."
"I know, don't worry about it. Work is important to us we know how we both feel about it." Hermione said with a smile, honestly meaning what she was saying.
--
Ginny was making her way down to the kitchen to get some breakfast when she bumped into Oliver in the hall.
"Good night I see?" she said to him with a smile.
"It was an excellent night thank you so much for arranging it all." Oliver replied as he started walking down the stairs and to the door.
"You're leaving?"
"Yes I have practise."
"But you're with Hermione." Ginny said dumbly.
"That's why I'm leaving so I can get there."
"And Hermione's ok with this?"
"Yes. She's the one that woke me up to get me to go."
"You two are the strangest couple I have ever seen, you'd rather work than be together." Ginny said shaking her head.
"That's why we're not a couple." Oliver called back to her as he walked out the door and shut it behind him.
"Yet." Ginny muttered. "You're not a couple yet."
--
The next morning Hermione was walking around Hogsmade with an odd feeling. Where ever she went she felt people were looking at her, not that that was unusual, she was a celebrity and most people did look at her. But this felt different to her but she couldn't put her finger on it.
She looked down and checked that she wasn't missing any clothing or anything like that for the millionth time that day. But there was nothing wrong, that she could tell.
Finally when the annoyance got to much, while she was sat in a café drinking a cup of coffee and trying to get some work done, she got up and marched over to a couple of witches sat nearby who kept on glancing over.
"I'm sorry," She said as pleasantly as she could manage "but could you please tell me just why you keep on looking over to me?"
"Well we were just wondering about you and young Oliver Wood." One said to her.
"I'm sorry but what has he got to do with anything?" Hermione said irritably.
"Well from that article in Witches Weekly you two looked very close." The other said to her with a grin.
Hermione turned and walked from the coffee shop ignoring the call of "So can you get his autograph for me love?"
She marched straight into the newsagents and purchased a copy of Witch Weekly and on the cover there was a picture of her and Oliver sat in the small club looking very close. She turned to the page it told her had an article about it and began to read.
It looks like one of Britain's most popular bachelors is no longer eligible for the taking. It seems that Oliver Wood the keeper of the Montrose Magpies and Hermione Granger million selling author have been spending a lot of time together recently. Reports say that they have been seen together quite a lot recently. First in a muggle club a few weeks earlier (see picture bottom left) and it has been said that Hermione had travelled to France with Oliver where he was recently playing a game of Quidditch.
Friday night the couple were seen together in a small club called Ruby's where they seemed very close and to be getting on fine. Later that night they were seen entering Hermione's new house in Wizarding London. Oliver was seen leaving the house early the next morning.
Will this happy new couple last? Only time will tell, keep reading for all the news regarding Hermione and Oliver's relationship.
At the bottom of the page there were various photographs of Hermione and Oliver with small captions underneath.
Hermione closed the magazine in fury and stomped out of the news agents. She was fuming as she walked back to her house.
"Have you seen it?" She demanded as she walked into the kitchen where Ginny was sat, "Have you bloody well seen what they've done now?"
"Seen what?" Ginny asked looking bewildered and slightly scared.
"This bloody magazine, it's the bane of my life I tell you!" Hermione said throwing it down onto the table.
The room was silent for a short while, while Ginny read the article.
"Well what are you going to do?" Ginny asked.
"Not much I can do really, if I kick up a fuss they'll just say I'm covering it up."
"Has Oliver seen it?" Ginny asked "You should see what he thinks."
A/N – Shout outs to –
FlairVerona – I hadn't really thought much of the comedy aspect when writing this fic as most of it is already written by now, I may go over it and see if I can put a little more in though, not promising anything but I'll see what I can do.
BrennaM,
Fuzzypuff
D-daygirl