Getting Over It
Thanks to –
Get A Room (for chpt. 4)
angryteabag,
queenofdiamonds1,
illyria-light,
baby.rap,
LaLa-the-Panda,
Morena-Forever,
yellowrosesinateacup,
RandomSmirf13
Disclaimer: Stan Shunpike's first speech in this chapter is taken from Harry Potter and The Prisoner of Azkaban page: 31, chapter 3 The Knight Bus. I do not own it.
Chapter 6
Another Time to Party
Hermione, Millie and Sam stood out on their driveway in the semi-darkness shocked looks on all of their faces.
We're homeless, Hermione finally registered as it began to grow colder and darker, and what the hell are we going to do now?
They were stranded; the children were with her so she couldn't apperate to get help, she had no owl or any other means to contact her friends or family, she couldn't even get to a fireplace as the only neighbour she had lived three miles away and they had never actually met.
She took the two suitcases they had in her hands and told her children to follower he closely. They made their way slowly down the deserted road Hermione trying to think of a way to get them out of the mess when there was a loud banging sound and a huge purple bus screeched to a halt next to them.
"Welcome to the Knight Bus, emergency transport for the stranded witch or wizard. Just stick out your wand hand, step on board and we can take you anywhere you want to go. My name is Stan Shunpike, and I will be you conductor this evening." The man said; he looked just a few years older than Hermione.
He leapt down and picked up the suitcases and helped Millie and Sam onto the bus. They ran down the aisle and threw themselves onto a bed each. Hermione joined them a few seconds later after telling Stan where it was they wanted to go.
As soon as she sat down the bus lurched into motion speed faster than Hermione thought was possible, weaving in and out of the traffic. Soon it pulled to a grinding stop causing many of the beds to slide forward and the chandelier to sway violently.
In his cheery voice Stan announced the place where Hermione and her children would be getting off. Home to one of the people that Hermione turned to in times of crisis.
"Grimmauld Place!"
--
After much knocking and ringing of the bell Harry finally opened the door to the three, now freezing figures.
"Hermione! What are you doing here? I thought you were on holiday." Harry exclaimed when he opened the door.
"Oh Harry I'm so sorry to disturb you but I need help! He kicked us out! He sold the house when we were on holiday, we're homeless Harry." She wailed as he ushered her inside.
"That's awful! Are you ok? You must be terribly jet lagged, come in, you can stay her for as long as you need, don't you worry, it's not like I don't have the space right?"
"Thanks Harry." Hermione sniffed.
--
The next Monday Harry accompanied Hermione first to the primary school to drop off Sam and then to Kings Cross to make sure that Millie caught the Hogwarts Express from platform nine and three quarters.
The two friends then returned to Harry's house and he called in sick to work. Hermione had things to do and Harry said that she wasn't allowed to do any of it without his help; she was still broken and fragile.
The first thing that she had to do was confront Mark, the one thing that she was scared of doing. He pushed her into the fireplace and took her to the address that Mark had given her the previous evening when she had owled him, asking to meet with her.
He was alone when they arrived, which Hermione was thankful for, she didn't think she'd be able to cope if his girlfriend had been there.
"Hermione, Harry." Mark greeted them stiffly and the two of them stayed silent. He motioned that they should sit down but they stayed standing, finally with a great sigh he stood up instead.
"You fucking lying bastard!" Hermione screeched as she flung herself across the room and began hitting him.
Harry pulled her off, although didn't hasten to do so.
"Hermione if you came here to make a spectacle of yourself than your wasting my time. I have work I should be doing." Mark snapped impatiently.
"You always have work you should be doing." Hermione retaliated, still being held back by Harry. "You made me homeless, you heartless sod, you kick me and our children out onto the street with nothing."
"Now that's not true!" He argued, "I gave you your furniture just like I said I would, it's all in your bank account along with half of the money for the house."
"Like that's enough! You said you would wait until I found a house to live in!"
"Well you weren't looking so I took action, maybe now you'll learn to be more punctual." He told her, sounding as though he thought he was doing her a favour. "Now unless all you wanted to do was hurl insults at me will you tell me why you're here so you can leave."
"Actually all I came here to say was that I think you're scum." Hermione snapped.
"You better watch that mouth woman, at this rate the kids will be mine before our divorce comes through, not that I actually want them of course!"
This time Harry had to physically place himself between Hermione and Mark to stop her from storming over and battering him within an inch of his life. It took him many soothing words to convince her to disapperate with him.
--
"I am going to KILL that man!" Hermione fumed as soon as they appeared in the Entrance Hall of Grimmauld Place.
"Just calm down a little bit Hermione. You can't go to a careers advisor looking like a homicidal maniac, there aren't many jobs for them these days."
"I know, I know just give me a few minutes to calm down, then we'll go to Gringotts and get the stuff we'll need. Then I'll go to my careers interview." Hermione said decisively and a few minutes later the Floo'd to the Diagon Alley.
--
At four o'clock Hermione had done all the tasks she needed to do that day and went to collect her son from school. Oliver was at the gates.
"Hello Hermione." He said as she walked into the playground and looked around for Sam.
"Hi Oliver how are you?" She asked politely, beckoning Sam over.
"I'm great thanks, you?" He beamed.
"A little tired, I went to see my ex-husband today, to tell him what a jerk I think he is, he kicked us out of the house while we were on holiday. Then I went to Gringotts, that's where he had stored all of my things, I wanted to check that he'd actually left everything. And I've just come back from a careers interview; they want to see what type of job I'd match."
"Sounds hectic, so where are you staying now?" Oliver asked, concerned.
"With Harry, he's been great today, really helped me out." Hermione smiled.
"Always the hero right?" He joked but kindly.
Sam finally broke away from his group of friends and walked over to his mum wordlessly handing her his school bag. It contained many books but no wand; children weren't allowed their own wands in primary school, much to the disappointment of Sam.
He grabbed Hermione's hand and started to pull her away.
"Oh!" Oliver shouted after her, "the twins are throwing my a birthday party next weekend at their place, my sister will be there and most of the Weasleys, you should come along, it'll be fun. Bring Harry too!"
"Sounds good, I'll see if I can make it." Hermione smiled and allowed her son to pull her away.
--
The weekend of the party rolled around and Hermione dropped her children off at Mark's house, he had agreed to look after them for that weekend, as long as she didn't pick them up too late the next day.
At eight Hermione and Harry apperated to Fred and George's flat where the party was underway. Wet-start fireworks were flying around the ceiling and music played from nowhere. There were feathers covering the floor where people had shed them after turning into canaries.
Hermione soon found Ron and Rachel sat in the corner, Rachel not being able to drink and Ron not letting her dance to the fast music as he said she was too far into her pregnancy and didn't want to hurt the baby. Mark never did that for me, in fact he used to offer me drinks all the time, Hermione thought bitterly as she joined them.
She caught up with them for a while before making her excuses and throwing herself into the mass of dancing people. She soon found Alison in the middle of the crowd being danced to death by Fred, who had no better from when Hermione had seen him dance in school at the Yule Ball. When she saw Hermione she broke away and sat down looking relived to have escaped.
They were still sat down near the drinks table when Oliver came over to see them.
"Ally, stop being so boring! Poor Hermione, you must be bored stiff listening to my little sister drone on." He laughed as Alison hit him on the arm.
"She's no boring my Oliver." Hermione said quickly.
"Yeah Ollie, I'm not boring at all!" Alison laughed and stuck out her tongue in a childish manner.
"Well you look bored so I'm here to save you, come and dance with me!" He declared loudly grabbing Hermione's hand and hauling her onto the dance floor before she had a chance to protest and sit down again.
They danced three fast, cheerful songs before the music began to slow down and couples got closer. Awkwardly Oliver put his arms around her waist and Hermione placed hers on his broad shoulders. They swayed slowly and silently, not really knowing what to say.
"Happy Birthday, by the way." Hermione said finally breaking the silence. "How old are you now?"
"Thirty-three, getting old now. My mother's not happy; almost forty and still no grandchild for her, that's all she said to me today." He chuckled.
"Well don't rush to have one; as soon as you do they just nag about the way you bring them up. You really can't win." She laughed.
"I'd much rather have the ready made package. I love kids but I'm better when they're a little older, I was rubbish with Ally's kids until they were about six or seven. If I could meet a woman fall in love and already have kids around that age then life would be complete." He told her, slurring his words slightly as all the drink began to kick in.
"You're about the only man who thinks that, most think it's far too much commitment to be with a woman who already has children." Hermione sighed.
"Well then there just stupid, it's much easier; no broken nights, no potty training, nothing like that." He said nodding decisively.
"You may be drunk but you're very wise." Hermione told him, trying not to laugh at his expression. As the evening progressed Oliver drunk more and more as the danced until he finally slumped against Hermione, not being able to stand up on his own any more.
By this time a large proportion of the crowd had left and many others were leaving so they couldn't get talked into helping clean up. Hermione however was helping to look after Oliver, who was now lay across her on the sofa, stopping her from actually being able to move.
"Hermy!" Fred exclaimed as he jumped over the back of the sofa to sit next to her, seconds later George appeared on her other side, narrowly missing sitting on Oliver's head. "How are you my dear?"
"I'm ok thanks Fred although Oliver does seen to be crush-" Hermione answered by George gave her on time to finish the reply.
"Excellent, excellent, now don't you worry if you want that Mark the Bastard beating up you tell us!" He said you an exaggerated nodded.
"Yeah, and we can find people bigger than him to do it straight away for you!" Fred added joining in the nodding.
Hermione chuckled a little and shook her head. "Thanks guys, but I'm fine I don't want anyone beating up anyone at the moment."
"Oh ok we understand completely!" George said nodding and winking theatrically, obviously not believing the answer that she had given them.
Hermione was about to answer when Oliver grunted, rolled over and fell off the sofa landing smack down on the floor, face first. This jolted him awake and he sat up looking dazed.
"Here, have a coffee, looks like you need it." A woman said as she walking into the living room from the kitchen.
She was tall with long black wavy hair, she had a stunning figure and by the way she walked, swaying her hips and pushing out her chest, she obviously knew it. All the men in the room stopped what they were doing and looked at her; she was just one of those beautiful people.
"Thanks." Oliver finally said as he gawped at her.
"Oh, dear you look positively washed out! You must be exhausted, you poor girl, why don't you get off home and I can look after Oliver from now." She said in a obviously spiteful manner, making sure she emphasised how bad Hermione looked.
With shock Hermione rose from her seat and said goodbye to her friends before leaving.
Why was she so mean? What have I done to her? She asked herself as she returned to her house to sleep off the slightly drunken state she was in, hoping that she wouldn't have a hangover the next morning when she needed to pick up the children.
--
Back in Fred and George's flat the woman was fussing over Oliver and leaving all the cleaning to the twin and the other few people that were left and not asleep. She however was far too interested in getting to know the man she was caring for.
"I'm Natalie." She cooed as she stroked his head as her rested it in her lap. "So birthday boy, I didn't bring you a present, naughty me, how about I make it up to you? But whatever could I do for you now?"
She raised her eyebrow suggestively, gave him a cheeky smile and took his hands. Together they apperated to her bedroom and collapsed down onto the bed, hands exploring each other, lips finally finding each other and interlocking. Clothes were discarded and thrown to the floor and their bodies pressed together.
The next morning Oliver woke up with his arms still around Natalie. She looked up and smiled, kissing him on the lips softly.
"So where do we go from here?" She whispered.
"What do you mean?" He asked, feeling his hammering headache kick in.
"I mean do you want to hook up? Go out or just, you know, say goodbye and leave it as this." She explained with a coy smile moving up to kiss him again.
He smiled as her hand snaked up his leg very slowly. "Oh I think I want to see a lot more of you." He nodded and pulled her onto him, both of them beginning to giggle.