Shadow
Disclaimer: I own Alana Jones and Wes Sanders…that's it. Pretty sad, eh?
A/N: Thanks to:
priestess-of-suzaku - Thanks for the long review, and I know what you mean. I really do cherish the reviews I get because they make me happy. Lol. And same with the Harry/Hermione thing, I still have hope for them! Lol.
gu61 - Oh, I'm going to finish this. It'll probably have a really crappy ending, but it's my duty to finish it! Because I don't like it when people just stop writing for their fic.
thesimspokehamtarofan (from chapter 4/5)- I'm going to write it now ;-) And it will be back up when my Internet stops being retarded.
stargoddess127 - Hopefully it will get happier.
autumn-leaVez - I don't like him much either.
FairyWings101 - She'll come around, sooner or later.
JCAL - I am going to continue it, and I will finish it; even if I'm bored as hell with it. :D
Jackie - She'll admit it sooner or later. How I'll get her to, I do not know. I was originally going to have her tell him last chapter, but then I decided I was going to try and stretch this out a bit longer...why I did that, I do not know.
and
Amanda - I will keep it up! Lol.
for reviewing. Wow, new readers! -Does the Happy Dance- I'm so excited! It's given me new inspiration! Lol. So I was able to come up with ideas faster…yay! I would have had this up earlier, like last week, but I've been having computer troubles (I still am, I was just able to get it working for just a bit longer than usual). Anyways, please R and R! Thanks!
-Chapter 6- She Does Love Him (A little bit of a give-away, eh?)
"What do you mean you're not going to their wedding?" asked Ron as he and Harry sat in the Three Broomsticks after Harry told Ron about the events from the night before.
"I mean, I can't go to a wedding where Hermione's getting married to some moronic bloke that isn't me," Harry said, drinking some of his Butterbeer that he had been cradling in his hands.
"Well he can't be that moronic. Hermione is getting married to him, so he must have some intelligence. Plus he is replacing you, so he must be special."
Harry glared at his best mate. "Who's side are you on here?"
"Yours, yours, don't worry," Ron reassured Harry. "But what are you going to do now? We both know that Hermione's still in love with you."
"Nothing," Harry said.
"What do you mean nothing? You're giving up, just like that?"
"Yes, because she obviously doesn't want to be with me. She wants to be with her precious Wes."
"There must be something else you can do."
"Like what Ron? She's probably really pissed off at me right now, and she has a lot of wedding planning to do still, so I doubt she'd really want to see me."
"I don't know what you could do. Have you talked to Alana about this yet?" asked Ron, draining his Butterbeer.
"Not yet, she was already sleeping when I got back to the apartment last night and she had already gone to work by the time I woke up," Harry replied, sighing. "But I'm going to talk to her later. Though I don't think there is anything I could do to get Hermione to admit her feelings for me."
"Alana, there's a lot of restocking that needs to be done," Hermione told Alana as she walked to the register.
"OK, I'll get to it," Alana replied as she sipped her coffee.
"Now Alana," said Hermione.
"Ugh, fine, but what's got your knickers in a twist? Normally I don't stock the shelves until after lunch, and you don't care," remarked Alana, leaning on the counter where the cash register was.
"Oh it's nothing."
"Mhmm, now spill. Does this have to do with last night and Harry?"
Hermione did not answer her as she went to the back room. Sighing, Alana looked around the store and saw that no one was there before putting the 'Closed' sign onto the door, and following Hermione into the room.
"Spill it Hermione."
"You're pushing your luck Alana, I'm really close to firing you," Hermione said.
"Sure you are. Now tell me. I haven't talked to Harry since yesterday, and I doubt I'll be talking to him for a bit because our schedules for the next few days won't be allowing us to see each other," Alana lied. What she really wanted was to hear what Hermione thought of the night before, and she would be talking to Harry about it later that night.
Hermione sighed as she poured herself some coffee. "Well, it was a great night, I won't deny that. But he kept trying to drill into my head that he loved me, which was annoying. I believed him the first time he said that he did. My mistake though was mentioning Wes when I said that he didn't mean that he felt actual love for me. Then when he kissed me…wow, it was amazing. It was just brief and simple, but the way Harry did it, made me feel…"
"Like you loved him?" inputted Alana.
"Yeah, exactly, but I couldn't tell him. I can't tell him. I don't want to get hurt again. I want to get married to Wes because I know he loves me and that he wants to get married too."
"So basically he's your second prize."
Hermione's eyes fell to the ground as she shrugged.
!#&()
"Hey Alana," Harry said when Alana came tumbling out of their fireplace.
"Hey Harry…so how was last night?" replied Alana, briefly hugging Harry after she dusted herself off.
"Dinner was great, but then…" Harry trailed off as he sat down on the couch.
"Then what?" asked Alana, sitting across from Harry on an armchair.
"Well you know how I told you she had a favourite place?"
"Yeah, you were going to take her there after your dinner."
"Yes, well, she was excited about being back there, but then she brought up Wes when I was talking about love. That angered and depressed me, and the next thing I knew, I kissed her," Harry put his head in his hands.
"I take it that that didn't go too well," Alana said, getting up from her seat to be next to Harry so she could try and calm him.
"You could say that," Harry laughed scornfully. "After that, I just took her home and told her to have a nice wedding."
"So you're not going to the wedding?"
"Nope, I mean, there's nothing I can do, and I don't want to go to it because I know I'll just have a horrible time."
"But she is one of your best friends!"
"Don't you think I know that?" he asked, looking at Alana. "But as much as I want her to be happy, I won't be able to go to her wedding and pretend that I'm cheerful for her sake. Besides, she would know that it would fake. Even if we aren't as close as we used to be, she still knows me better then I know myself."
"Harry, you can still go to their wedding!" exclaimed Alana, jumping from the couch after a few minutes of thinking as she thought of something that Harry could do.
"What are you thinking in that head of yours?" asked Harry, not liking the way Alana was acting very much.
"Yes…the wedding will be the perfect place…" Alana said as a mischievous glint danced in her eyes.
"Oh Ginny and Alex, those look lovely!" exclaimed Hermione as her two friends displayed the brides' maid dresses that they had chosen for Hermione and Wes' wedding.
"They are lovely, aren't they? You did choose a lovely design, Hermione," Alex said, looking down.
"Yes, I agree. So you really are going through with this?" asked Ginny, fiddling with the side of her dress.
"What do you mean Ginny?" asked Hermione, quite confused at what Ginny was trying to get at.
"You deciding to go through with this wedding, duh."
"Why wouldn't I go through with it?" asked Hermione, playing oblivious to what her best female friend was trying to get at.
"You know exactly what she means 'Mione," Alex filled in.
Hermione shook her head as she walked away to go look at some of the other dresses that were on display. Her two friends looked at each other before lifting the hems of their dresses off the ground and following her.
"I'm talking about how you're still going through with this even though you know now how Harry really felt," Ginny said.
"Why wouldn't I go through with it? He's not really in love with me," Hermione denied.
"Merlin Hermione, are listening to what you're saying?"
"OK, say he did still love me, what am I going to do about it? I love Wes."
Her friends gave her a pointed look before walking back to the changing area, leaving Hermione confused, something that had been happening to Hogwarts smartest witch a lot lately.
!#&()
Harry grumbled every time he thought of what Alana had told him a few days earlier. He knew it was a good idea, but if it did not go according to plan, then he could end up looking like a fool once again, just like he had when he met Wes for the first time. As much as Harry wanted to go through with it, he did not really want to, just because if his Hermione really did love that Sanders guy, he did not want to ruin her one chance of happiness that he was not able to give her all those years ago when he had planned on asking her to marry him.
Normally he would have forgotten about it, but his time at the Ministry lately had been quite boring because not a lot of evil activities had been going on, so he had a lot of time to think about what he was going to do about Hermione.
Today was one of those days.
Sighing, Harry Disapparated to Ron and Alex's flat after he was done at the Ministry. When he ended up in the youngest Weasley couple's house, he was greeted by Alex sitting on the couch.
"Hi Alex," Harry grinned.
"Hello Harry," Alex replied, smiling politely.
"So how are you?" asked Harry.
"Oh just well; we actually just went to St. Mungo's to get some testing done," Alex remarked. She and Ron had officially announced their pregnancy to the rest of the family, Harry, and Hermione just a few days earlier, and everyone was so excited and happy for the two. "Everything's just fine with it."
"That's wonderful Alex; once again, I'm really happy for the two of you. So where's Ron if you don't mind my asking."
"He's out back, I believe. Something about wanting to fly for a bit," Alex laughed as Harry grinned once more before waving and heading to the back door of their house.
Seeing his best mate flying so carefree out in the sky made Harry remember when he used to love to take his broom out and fly around hours on end, feeling the breeze envelope him. But as the years went on, he just could not find the time to fly.
"Hey mate!" called Harry out to his friend.
Ron waved to Harry and swiftly landed next to his friend. "Hey Harry, what brings you by?"
"Nothing, just got off work and needed to be somewhere other than my place. Because I think if I was alone anywhere, I'd go crazy with this whole Hermione thing," Harry sighed, running a hand through his hair, messing it up even more (which he did not understand how that could be). "I actually haven't talked to her since that night."
"Jeez mate, you need to talk to her! Her wedding is in less then two weeks!"
"I know exactly when she's getting married. I've been counting the days, dreading it."
Ron gave Harry a weird look as they made their way to the shed where Ron kept all of his Quidditch supplies that he owned.
"Look, I really don't want her to marry that man, and I don't know what to do," Harry said.
"You know that she does love you still," Ron replied quietly, just loud enough so Harry could hear, like it was news that was not supposed to be spread.
"Is this from your observations, oh great wise one?"
"Not just from mine, but from Ginny and Alex's as well from when they went bride maid dress shopping with her. And, from what Alex said when she talked to Alana," Ron stopped when Harry looked confused, "Alex went by the store a couple of days ago looking for Hermione, but she wasn't there so Alana and she talked for a bit about Ms Granger. Turns out that after that 'date' that you two had, Hermione was having some mixed feelings after a kiss that you two shared. She apparently mentioned something about loving you still, but she kept stressing that she loved Wes greatly."
"Alana said all of this to Alex?"
"Yeah, apparently it came straight from Hermione's mouth the day after you and her had that little date thing."
"Alana never mentioned this to me, instead she just suggested that I do something else to get Hermione back," Harry said, frustrated at the fact that Alana had missed telling Harry that little bit of information.
"You're just having a lot of trouble with women these days, aren't you?" asked Ron, slapping Harry's back as they entered the house.
A/N: OK, there's another chapter. Let me know what you think.
Next chapter, Hermione's wedding and Harry's (not-so-obvious) plan will take place.
I don't know when I'll get it done, but hopefully it will be soon:D