A/N: Thank you to all my reviewers and the positive comments – you guys are great! This story is nearly finishing completion (yay!) Hope everyone likes this chapter, a few things are revealed. Please keep reviewing it would be fantastic to get to 100 reviews!

Chapter 16

An Explanation and A Truth

Hermione stumbled down the steps of Cuppedia, barely seeing where she was going through her tears. It suddenly seemed colder outside and she pulled her cloak around herself as she made her way down the path away from the restaurant. Looking up she scanned the street ahead of her but there was no sign of Gilderoy. Hermione's stomach was a terrible twisted knot and she was having trouble drawing a breath as she kept seeing the look in Gilderoy' eyes after she had reached over and kissed him. That look of complete horror and confusion. How could he have been about to tell her he loved her one minute and then the next tell her it was all a mistake? For he had been about to tell her that, Hermione was sure. That is until you messed things up by stopping him, she thought angrily. Until you started thinking about Harry……

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Gilderoy walked as quickly as he could towards Hogwarts, sometimes breaking into a jog. He had an overwhelming urge to get as far away from Hermione Granger as possible. What on earth had he been thinking having an affair with that girl? She was little more than a child, and anyway she really wasn't his type he thought shaking his head in confusion. When she had kissed him it had been as though he had awoken from some strange trance. He felt a moment of regret when he thought of the hurt in her large brown eyes as he had left their table, but then pushed the feeling aside. Hermione would get over him…they always did. Suddenly Gilderoy stopped walking and clutched at his head, groaning out aloud. The thoughts he was having were like the Gilderoy of old, the conceited, self centered Gilderoy, the one he had worked so hard to dispel. It was a huge mistake having done what he had with a student he knew, and thank goodness he had come to his senses before things got too out of hand. Gilderoy started walking again, feeling a little better when disquietingly he once again saw Hermione's eyes in his mind. They were large and chocolate brown, and for some reason he couldn't shake them from his thoughts.

Dean turned to Susannah with a shocked look on his face as he watched Hermione fly out the door of the restaurant.

"What was that all about?" Susannah asked, her pleasant face now wearing a worried frown.

"No idea, it was really strange, one minute they looked like everything was going fine and the next…well you saw what happened," replied Dean absently running one hand through his hair. He sighed and took Susannah's hand.

"Oh oh," she said pulling her hand away. "I know what this means,".

"Look Suse, Harry's my mate, I've gotta get back and tell him what happened,".

Dean looked at Susannah so earnestly that she couldn't help but smile although she was disappointed their date was going to be cut drastically short.

"They could've at least waited 'till after desert," she grumbled as Dean helped her on with her cloak. "That chocolate Bavarian sounded really good…..".

"You're the best," he said kissing her on the cheek.

Jeffrey watched the young couple leave with a puzzled look on his face. It certainly had been a night of short visits he thought. That last couple had positively flown out the door and before they had even tried their entree….the chef was going to be disappointed.

Harry lay on his bed, his hands resting behind his head as he watched the small clock on his table. It was 9:14pm and he couldn't stop thinking about Hermione, although he desperately wanted to think of anything but her. Of anything but the thought of her and Lockhart together…. The second hand on the clock seemed to be moving at a snails pace, drawing out the awful night so that it felt like it was lasting hours and hours for every minute. If only Lockhart had never shown his stupid conceited face back here at Hogwarts, Harry thought angrily. Then maybe he and Hermione……..Without realizing it Harry found himself thinking of his favourite daydream, the one where he was in the garden and Hermione was walking towards him, smiling, wanting to be with him, Harry, and not with that no good, self satisfied, arrogant…..

"Ahhhgggrrrr," Harry cried out aloud, sitting up and throwing his pillow across the room where it hit his cupboard and bounced onto the floor. It seemed that Lockhart was going to wreck everything tonight, even his daydreams. Harry stood up and pulled his cloak off the end of the bed. There was no way he was ever going to be able to sleep tonight, and lying on his bed thinking about Hermione and Lockhart was making him feel sick. He supposed he could go and talk to Ron, but Harry knew what Ron would say. The things was, he couldn't tell Hermione the truth because he knew what he would see in her eyes, and the last thing he wanted was any more pity. It was bad enough that practically the whole school felt sorry for him because of everything that had happened with his parents and Voldemort…. Opening up his true feelings to Hermione would just be a disaster when it was so obvious she didn't feel the same way.

With his head down, Harry strode quickly out his door and started down the hallway, not really knowing or caring much where he was going.

"Harry! Hey Harry, wait!" yelled a voice from behind him.

Surprised Harry turned to see a rather flustered looking Dean waving at him from the other end of the corridor. For some reason Harry felt a strange sensation in his chest, it was almost….hope. He couldn't explain why seeing Dean should suddenly provoke such a feeling, but suddenly Harry felt he had to know what Dean was going to tell him as quickly as possible. Half at a run Harry made his way up the hall to where Dean stood panting.

"Hey what's going on? Aren't you supposed to be at the restaurant?" Harry asked as Dean tried to get his breath.

"Were they there? Did you see them? What happened?" Harry fired out in one go without allowing Dean a moment to open his mouth. The intensity of the feeling he had had before seemed to have doubled.

"Were they THERE?" Harry yelled loudly grabbing Dean's arm.

"Whoaa….hold on mate," Dean said pulling his arm back and looking at Harry wearily. "Its ok mate, they were there, you won the bet fair and square I can vouch for that".

Harry's feeling of hope suddenly plummeted and a wave of misery stronger than before enveloped him.

"Oh….ok well….I guess that's it then…," Harry said quietly. Then a thought suddenly occurred to him.

"But I thought you were going to have dinner there too? Why are you back so early?"

"Well…'" said Dean sighing, "That's what I came to tell you. You see something strange happened at the restaurant with Hermione and Lockhart".

Harry's heart was hammering in his chest and he didn't feel like he could speak. That feeling of hope was suddenly ignited and burning fiercely.

"What happened?" he asked his voice barely above a whisper. As Dean recalled the strange events at the restaurant Harry's mind was in a whirl.

"And well because I know you're Hermione's friend and all, I just thought you ought to know," Dean finished. "I mean she looked awfully upset and I think it would be a good idea if someone….," But he didn't get to finish his last sentence as Harry had already whirled around and was running off down the corridor.

Dean shook his head in confusion. Everyone was acting so strangely tonight, always leaving in a big hurry….

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Hermione reached the large stone steps leading to the entrance of Hogwarts and slowly climbed them, tears still coursing down her cheeks. Once inside she turned first one way and the other, not really knowing where to go. Walking slowly she found herself suddenly standing outside the library, not even realizing she had been going anywhere concrete. Years spent coming to this room had obviously had an effect and she had made her way here instinctively. The library had always been a place where Hermione had found answers to many things over the years and hoping no one would be around this late she pushed open the heavy oak door and walked inside. Her thoughts had been correct and the library was deserted. Hermione made her way over to a table far from the door and pulled out a chair. Sitting at the table she lowered her hot tear stained cheeks onto the soothing coolness of the polished wooden tabletop and closed her eyes, trying to block out all thought.

Hermione wasn't sure how long she had been sitting there; she may even have dozed off strange as that seemed in her current state, when she became aware of a voice saying

"Hermione!" softly while someone hesitantly touched her arm. The voice sounded slightly familiar and Hermione slowly lifted her head to see a very worried looking Parvati Patel standing there.

"Oh…Parvati….er…what…what are you doing her?" Hermione asked, rubbing at her cheek and hoping desperately that it didn't show that she had been crying.

Parvati let out a deep breath and then started talking very quickly.

"Oh Hermione I heard what happened tonight, I'm really really sorry, I never meant it to happen, oh now you're going to hate me, oh I'm sorry, I'm so sorry…".

"Hang on what are you talking about?" asked Hermione frowning, "What do you mean you heard about tonight? What about it? And what are you sorry for?"

"I heard about what happened with Lockhart at the restaurant," replied Parvati not meeting Hermione's eyes.

Hermione felt a blush fill her cheeks.

"Who?…what?…. ahh how did you find out?"

Parvati pulled a chair out from the table and sat down next to Hermione.

"Oh…jeez…..this is really hard…but I have to tell you everything, please don't hate me,". Parvati said.

"What? Why would I hate you just because someone told you about tonight? I bet it was Dean!" Hermione added angrily.

"No, you don't understand, it's more than that, a whole lot more," Parvati said miserably.

"Ok then, what is it?" Hermione asked. She couldn't imagine what Parvati had to do with all of this, but she was furious that Dean had gone and blabbed to everyone about her and Gilderoy.

"I don't know where to start….I guess it all started with that stupid bet," Parvati said hesitantly. "You see I was so sick and tired of Lavender always getting her own way, always thinking she was better than anyone else. So I decided to make sure that Harry won the bet, that you and Lockhart would end up going out," Parvati explained.

Hermione felt speechless, this wasn't what she had expected at all.

"So I put a spell on him…." Parvati finished miserably.

"You what!..but…but..how…when..I don't understand," Hermione said in a shocked voice.

"Well I knew that you were going to Lockhart's office to see him about being late for class, so before you were supposed to arrive I went to see him, pretending that I needed help with a charm. And well, I put a potion into his cup of tea when he went to get a charms book to show me". Parvati said.

Hermione felt faint. Only an hour ago she had felt like things could not possibly be worse and now here she was feeling like she had entered her own private little version of hell.

"And the potion, what did it do?" Hermione asked weakly.

Parvati gulped and once again avoided Hermione's gaze.

"It..um…well it would make Lockhart fall in love with the next person he laid eyes on," she said quickly, looking close to tears.

"I waited near his office after I left to make sure no one else would go in before you," Parvati added.

Hermione suddenly remembered seeing Parvati down the other end of the corridor the first time she had gone to Lockhart's office. It was all true then. Gilderoy had never loved her, of course he hadn't! She was so stupid to have ever believed anyone would feel anything for her. Fresh tears swelled in her eyes and she suddenly gave way to uncontrollable sobs of anguish.

Parvati started at Hermione in horror. She didn't know what to do. Things had all gone terribly wrong when all she had ever meant was to help, and to give that Lavender a taste of her own medicine. Parvati suddenly reached out and put her arms around Hermione, hugging her tightly. For a few moments the two girls rocked back and forth, Hermione's tears wetting Parvati's clock. Finally Hermione pulled away and her sobs subsided somewhat.

"Oh Hermione, I'm more sorry than you can ever know, I should never have meddled in this".

Hermione sniffled and wiped her nose with one sleeve, not caring how it looked.

"It doesn't matter, it's not your fault, it's mine for being so stupid to have thought he would ever like me," Hermione said rubbing at her eyes with the back of her hand.

"Oh No!….please don't think like that," Parvati said passionately. "You're too good for someone like him".

Hermione smiled weakly.

"Well I guess that's obvious after tonight," she said.

Parvati suddenly looked puzzled.

"Oh my god I almost forgot! Hermione, what happened tonight?".

"I don't want to talk about it," Hermione replied feeling close to tears again.

"Oh I know…it's just that well…. the spell wasn't supposed to end," Paravti said.

"Oh...um well…I guess it did," Hermoine replied miserably.

"No…." said Parvati shaking her head…I researched that potion really carefully, it was hard to make, and there is no way the spell could be broken".

Both girls were silent, looking at each other.

"Unless….," Parvati suddenly said her eyes round "Unless the person who the potion taker is in love with actually loves someone else….".

Hermione's breath stopped in her throat.

"But I was pretty sure you didn't love anyone else," Parvati said "Otherwise I wouldn't have done the spell in the first place 'cause it wouldn't have worked".

Hermione's heart was beating faster…..

"So…the only way is if you suddenly fell in love with someone else…. after you started seeing Lockhart…,"Parvati said slowly. "And you must have realized it at the restaurant".

Hermione was slowly shaking her head as if to clear it, her eyes large and round. She felt a strange well of emotion that was different to before, springing up from deep inside her. Like an explosion one thought flashed in her mind

"Harry!"

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