Chapter 11 – Rejection

Hermione realised, as she awoke from a dream containing her and Oliver for the fourth night in a row, that perhaps she hadn't been completely honest with herself. Or with Oliver. All the things she had said to him about work being more important than relationships and her not wanting to be committed weren't entirely true.

She was scared, that was all it was, scared of letting down her barriers and letting someone in, because then they'd be able to hurt her. But in this warped type of protection she was only hurting herself.

With a huge sigh she threw herself back against her soft pillows and lay staring up at the ceiling, deep in thought. She had always knows that she had had feelings for Oliver, there had always been an attraction but that's all she thought it had been. Attraction, nothing more. But now she realised that it might be a little more than that, a lot more even.

With all these thoughts whirring around in her mind she didn't know how she managed to fall back to sleep that night. But she did, and when she awoke in the morning she lay in blissful ignorance for a few seconds before she remembered all about her dream and her feelings.

--

It seemed the world was set on making her think about Oliver, everywhere she went there was some mention to him, on she sports channel, and the news he was being interviewed as he team had won again the night before. There was a fact file on him in the magazine that was lain out on the table and it was the topic of conversation Ginny started on when she joined her for breakfast. And all Hermione wanted to do was forget about him for a few hours before she decided what to do about her situation.

She wondered how he'd react if she went and told him that she liked him, told him that she wanted to get involved. Probably, she thought sadly, just how she had reacted when he had told her.

But this was different this was just because she had nothing better to do, because she still had her work and her friends to involve herself in. this was true real feelings that she had.

She shook her head as though to shake these thoughts out of it and started to concentrate on what Ginny was saying to her instead. But no matter how hard she focused on her friend she just couldn't get her mind to stick.

"I'm sorry Ginny." She interrupted, "But I have to go and tell Oliver how much I like him."

Hermione quickly walked from the room leaving Ginny in a stunned silence. She quickly dressed and apperated to outside the training ground of the Montrose Magpies.

"Can I help you miss?" the guard asked her.

"Yes I would like to see Oliver Wood please; I'm Hermione Granger, a friend of his."

The guard walked away to find Oliver to see if Hermione was telling the truth or was just some crazed fan eager to see the famous Quidditch player. But a few moments later the guard returned with Oliver in toe and Hermione gave a small nervous gasp.

"Hermione what are you doing here?" He asked her looking slightly confused.

"Oliver I need to talk to you. I need to tell you something, something important. Can we go somewhere a little more private do you think?"

Oliver nodded and took her hand, leading her into the changing rooms. She quickly sat down on one of the benches and he sat opposite.

"What's this about? I'm supposed to be in practise."

"I know that this sounds stupid and that you'll probably be mad at me but I like you Oliver, I really, really like you a lot. When you said this to me I was scared to make a commitment. I didn't want to get hurt like the way I've seen my friends get hurt be relationships. So when you admitted your feelings I ran, but I'm here to say I fell the same and was wondering if you'd be willing to give it a shot. I know I said I had an issue about you travelling but all I do for work is write. I can write anywhere so I could come with you." Hermione said hurriedly, once she started speaking she didn't want to have to stop until she had it all out so she left no gaps where she could be interrupted.

After finishing her little speech there was a long drawn out silence where Oliver sat looking at the ground between his feet.

"Well?" Hermione prompted. "Please Oliver say something."

"I don't know exactly what to say." He whispered. "Hermione when I said that to you, you ran left me alone feeling stupid, I bared my true feelings; or what I thought were, and you shot them down. I said I loved you and you just passed it off as boredom and you know what? You were right. I don't love you, I may have feelings for you but it's not love. I said my bit and gave us the chance to be together but you made it very clear that you were in no way interested in me like that. For the next two weeks you ignored and avoided me at all costs. How do you think that made me feel? I'm sorry Hermione but I don't want to be with you, you hurt me really bad and I don' think I can just let that go right now."

Hermione slowly got up from where she was sat, brushed the hot tears from her cheeks and ran from the locker room. She ran as far away from the place as she could before collapsing to the ground in a fit of sobs.

--

When she finally apperated home three hours later Ginny was pacing the kitchen in a state of worry. With one look at Hermione's puffy eyes and drooped shoulders she could guess what had happened. Wordlessly she crossed the room and hugged her devastated friend.

"No just said no." Hermione choked out. "I told him how I felt and he said I had hurt him too badly for us to be together."

"Well then he's an idiot." Ginny soothed.

"He said he didn't love me, he just said it like he didn't care about me at all. Why? Why would he do that to me?"

"He just wanted to hurt you. He didn't mean it, not really." She reassured Hermione who was sobbing quietly into her shoulder.

"But he didn't deny that he liked me." Hermione whispered hopefully. "So maybe there's a chance that he could forgive me."

"Of course there is." Ginny agreed, but didn't really believe.

It was shocking to see Hermione like this, efficient, hard working, always sure of herself Hermione. Whenever Ginny was going through a break up it would be Hermione to help her out. It had always been that way. Whenever Hermione broke up with someone she didn't care about them deeply enough to be very upset by it. There was maybe a day of quiet moping before she would get on with her life. Ginny had never experienced the sobs, tears and pain coming for Hermione before. She wasn't really sure what to do. She thought back to what had happened last time she had broken up with a guy and the roles were reversed.

Quickly she went over to the cupboard and pulled out three bars of Honeydukes chocolate. She then boiled the kettle and made them both a mug of hot chocolate.

"We don't need men." Ginny said firmly as she unwrapped the first bar and gave a chunk to Hermione. "Not when we have chocolate."

This earned her a small laugh from her friend.

--

The next hour was spent analysing what had been said in the short conversation that Hermione and Oliver had shared. It was decided that Oliver felt the same way about Hermione as she did about him, but because she had rejected him he felt hurt so it would take him a while to get over it.

Until then all Hermione could do was wait and hope that he didn't decided to hate her forever. This didn't give her much to be happy about but it was better than the bleak thoughts she had had before talking to her friend.

Hermione was truly thankful that Ginny was there for her, she wouldn't have been able to deal with what had gone on half as well as she did if she had been on her own. This was the first time she had ever really been hurt by a male and it was a shock to her that she could feel so strongly about it.

--

The next day was a Saturday, which meant that she was expected at the Burrow that evening for dinner. Hermione really didn't feel up to going as Mrs Weasley, as usual, would ask about her love life. She didn't want to have to explain about what had happened between her and Oliver just yet.

So instead she sent an owl saying that she was very behind on her work and wouldn't be able to make it, as she had to do a lot to catch up. Mrs Weasley wasn't to know that with the amount of work Hermione had been doing she could afford to take a few months off and still be on schedule for the third book to be out in the next year.

She was glad that her publicist hadn't owled her in the past few days as she didn't think she could bear to do any interviews in the near future.

--

Unfortunately this didn't last for long as just two days later she got an owl saying that she had an interview lined up three days from then.

At first she completely rejected the idea that she would be able to do it. She didn't want to have to talk to people about her personal life but Ginny came in just as she was about reply to the letter.

"What's this?" She asked as she picked up the letter. "Another interview! Great you haven't had one in a while!"

"Actually I wasn't going to do it." Hermione said with a sigh.

"What! Why not?" Ginny demanded.

"I don't know, I guess I just don't feel much like talking about my life right now."

"Then just talk about your book, if they ask about Oliver just say you don't want to discuss your personal life, you did that before." Ginny suggested. "Go on it will do you good, and there's always a rise in sales once you've done a interview, that means that you'll get even more obscene amounts of money to spend."

"Yeah I guess you're right." Hermione sighed. She grabbed a new piece of parchment and wrote a different letter, this time accepting the interview.

She asked her publicist to remind the interviewer that her personal life was personal and she would like to keep it that way so would they be able to refrain from asking questions of a personal matter. Her publicist wrote back to reassure her that the questions would be checked before hand.

--

Oliver sat in the bar surrounded by his teammates. He had just shared with them what had happened with Hermione. All of it, starting from when they had met in Hogwarts. There was a mixed reaction between the group, almost completely half and half. Some said that he had done the right thing completely, that why should he take her just because she wanted it now too even though she had rejected him so meanly just weeks before.

Yet others in his team said that he was being unfairly harsh, just because his pride had taken a little bruising he was taking it out on her. It was so obvious, they said, that the two of them cared for each other. Why didn't he just get over it and make up?

Oliver himself was torn, he wanted to make up with Hermione he really did but he didn't want to be the one to make the first move again. He had last time and it hadn't even been his fault, all he had done was tell Hermione how he felt. So if there were going to be and reconciliation this time it would be she to make the first move.

There had been an odd sense of victory when he had been able to turn her down, to make her feel as bad as he had done. But guilt went with it. He didn't want to hurt her really; he just wanted everything to go back to normal. Back to the way it was before he had bumped into Hermione all those months ago. If he had been looking where he was going he wouldn't have fallen over one of her many bags, then he wouldn't have been reminded of how much he had cared for her when they had been together. He would have got on with his life and continued to play Quidditch happily.

But if he hadn't bumped into her then he may have never fallen for someone. Because that's what had happened, he had fallen for her. Again. Just like he had back at Hogwarts.

So now there was the problem of keeping his pride in tact or getting the girl that was causing him such great confusion. He downed his glass of fire whiskey and left, the fact that everyone was voicing their ridiculous ideas didn't really seem to be helping. He, instead, took a walk he needed to clear his head and work out what he really wanted.

A/N – as always thank you to –

Fuzzypuff
GrissomCainefan
Angryteabag
Chris
GalPower
kole17