Behind Those Soulless Eyes
Chapter 2
I spent a week with Ron at the Weasley's warm, welcoming house. We had so much fun together. We played Quidditch in his large backyard with the twins and sometimes even Ginny would join us for a game. I let all of them try out my Firebolt but kept my new broom tucked away in case someone had put in a harmful spell.
It was soon time to go to Hermione's. We had planned that she would come to the Weasley's house by apparation and she would describe her house to me and we would apparate back together.
For some reason I was nervous about my trip to Hermione's house. Not about getting there, but staying in her house. Especially without Ron around, it just didn't seem right. But, she wanted me to spend time with her too so for her, I would be happy to go.
Hermione arrived at the Weasley's house around ten o'clock AM. I had been up and packed since nine, so I was ready right away. I said my goodbyes to the Weasley's and made plans to meet in Diagon Alley in two days. Once Hermione described her house, we both pictured it and with a loud pop, we were there.
Hermione had a lovely two-level house with white stucco and dark gray stone. It had a double door entrance into a lovely foyer with hardwood floors. She smiled at me as she held one of the doors opened and offered to take one of my bags. I smiled back and told her I could handle it.
She showed me to my room, right across the hall from hers. It was a nice guest room and it looked like she had tried to make it home for me. Hedwig was already there, hooting happily in her newly cleaned cage. Hermione had put several pictures on the night stand of us from our years through Hogwarts.
"Thanks Hermione, this is a wonderful room, and a wonderful house!" I told her setting my trunk and duffel bag on the ground.
"How nice of you Harry, here I'll help you put your things away." With a swish of her wand, all of my clothes filed out of my trunk and into the drawers of the dresser. My trunk laid itself neatly in the closet and the door closed.
"Typical Hermione," I laughed "so clever!"
She laughed along and blushed slightly.
"Would you like to come downstairs for some brunch? My mom just fixed up a little meal for you," She asked.
I happily agreed and followed her down the long winding staircase and into the beautiful tiled kitchen with white cabinets and black granite counter tops. I looked around at all the food displayed before me.
"A little meal?" I smirked and sat down at the long kitchen table.
"Mr. and Mrs. Granger, I don't know how to thank you enough for letting me stay here this week. I sincerely appreciate it." I thanked them.
Mrs. Granger blushed slightly and Mr. Granger nodded.
"Of course Harry, we're happy to have Hermione's friends, and we did not want you to stay with your family for the rest of the summer. Hermione told us about them and they didn't sound exactly…pleasant." Mr. Granger replied.
"They have been alright this year, but in the past that was true." I told them.
After we were done with brunch, Hermione's parents left for work.
"Tonight we would like to take you out for dinner in celebration of you staying here." Mr. Granger said before shutting the door.
I turned to Hermione, "Your parents are too nice."
"Yeah, they truly are the best."
I nodded sadly. I never had parents like this. I never got to experience what it is like to have friends over and have your mom make them brunch and cookies.
Hermione changed the subject, "Harry, today I want to take you shopping."
"But we're going with the Weasley's on Wednesday!" I exclaimed.
"Not for school things, for clothes that fit you properly." She told me.
"There is no need, once school starts, I will just be wearing my robes, plus I don't mind baggy clothes even if they are eight sizes to big."
"Too bad we're going to the mall." With that she grabbed her purse and car keys and dragged me towards the door.
"At least let me get my wallet." I argued.
"I want to treat you!" She cried.
"No way jose" I laughed, "I'm not letting you do that."
Luckily, before the school year ended, I thought to change some of my wizarding money over to muggle money so I could buy things over the summer.
I quickly ran up the stairs (much to Hermione's dismay) to my room and grabbed my wallet. I then ran back downstairs and followed Hermione outside. She stepped into a brand-new looking silver sports car.
"You know how to drive?" I asked her, kind of surprised because most wizards did not bother using most means of muggle transportation.
"Yes, I figured it would look weird to my neighbors if I just kind of disappeared and reappeared places." She explained. I guess she had a point. The people on privet drive did think I was some kind of freak for all of the wizard-like things I had done while I lived there.
We made our way to the mall quickly. Hermione was a very safe driver, as I had expected her to be. She took me into all the "cool" muggle clothes stores. I tried on tons of clothes and Hermione picked out a lot. Turns out I am a large in shirts not a quadruple extra large, so when I tried on shirts they fit like a glove. Once I was done trying on and buying tons of clothes, Hermione and I went to the food court, where I treated her to lunch.
"Thanks for lunch Harry," she smiled appreciatively.
"Thanks for taking me shopping and helping me pick out all these wonderful clothes," I gestured towards the several shopping bags.
We sat there for a few minutes just staring at each other and smiling. God she's beautiful, I thought to myself. A crying child directly to our right broke our stare.
"Harry I need to tell you something," Hermione said suddenly.
"What is it?" I asked.
She slowly reached out and took my hand in hers. But before she spoke she dropped it.
"Never mind, I'll just tell you later." She shrugged it off.
"Hermione, you know you can tell me anything, you're my best friend." I smiled at her and she gave me a half smile back.
"Maybe later" She stood up and took some of my bags. "I think I'm ready to go home."
The car ride home was silent. I kept thinking about what she was going to tell me. Was something wrong between her and Ron? Did she possibly like me? I pushed those thoughts out of my head because I knew they would never be true.
We arrived back at her house around three o' clock. Her parents were due home around five so we decided to work on some of our homework.
"What do you have left Harry?" She asked. We were up in 'my room' pulling my books out of my trunk. I had actually been good about my homework this summer. The only thing I had left to do was a little Charms which was one of Hermione's best subjects.
"Just some charms, could you help?" I asked.
We worked for the next hour on various charms then I helped her with Defense against the Dark Arts.
"You know what Harry? Snape's gone; we still don't have a long term-defense teacher. Who do you think it will be this year?" Hermione asked.
"Well Dumbledore told me last year that ever since Voldemort applied for the job and didn't get it, no one has been able to keep the position for more then a year." I told her.
At the mention of Dumbledore we both got serious.
"Oh Harry, poor Dumbledore." Hermione said quietly. She then moved her chair closer to mine, put her arms around my shoulders and her head into my neck. It was like the hug she gave me at my birthday party, but not for a good reason. This time I put my arms around her and squeezed her close to me and rested my head on top of hers.
"It's alright Hermione. Hogwarts will be different without him but for some reason, I don't believe in my heart that he is truly dead." I told her running my fingers through her hair gently.
"What do you mean?" She asked looking up.
"Well, you know how deep down in your heart you can tell if something happens to a person you love?" I asked. She nodded slowly never unlocking our gaze. "Well, I just don't feel that with Dumbledore. I just don't believe he's dead."
It was something I had kept in the back of my mind all summer and I had wanted to share it with someone.
"I don't know Harry. Nobody survives an unforgivable curse, not even Dumbledore. I'm not trying to make you feel bad but…" she still had tears in her eyes.
"I understand, maybe I just don't want to believe it." I told her.
At that point the front door opened loudly. Hermione gasped and jumped into my arms.
"Kids-We're home!" Mr. Granger's cheerful voice echoed through the large house.
"Oh my gosh that scared me!" Hermione said getting up and laughing.
Hermione and I put our books away and went downstairs to greet her parents. They said we could leave soon to dinner and we departed to get dressed.
I decided to wear the shirt Hermione got me for my birthday along with new khaki pants and new black dress shoes. I tried to comb down my hair as best as I could and then sprayed on some cologne. I took one last look in the mirror and headed down stairs.
Mr. and Mrs. Granger were waiting by the door but Hermione was still in her room.
"Don't you look nice Harry," Mrs. Granger complimented.
"Thanks Mrs. Granger," I smiled at her, "You look very lovely yourself."
I turned towards the stairs and watched for Hermione. In a few minutes she arrived at the top. She was wearing a deep brown sun dress that hugged her curves and barely reached her knees. She also had on a light tan short sleeved shrug with gold silk running through it in the pattern of flowers. She looked stunning. I could see she got a nice tan this summer. Her hair was down for the first time I had seen her since school ended and it went just past her shoulders in ringlets. Hermione was quite a beauty.
"Hermione you look," I gulped, "Beautiful."
"Thanks Harry." She blushed.
What was I thinking, this was Ron's girl. I quickly turned my head towards Mr. Granger who was opening the door for us. We walked out to the car and rode to the restaurant.
We all had a very nice time at dinner and the Granger's shared stories of the various trips they went on and Hermione's childhood. After dinner we walked around the town where the restaurant was located. There was a movie theater so we decided to go see a movie.
We got home around eleven and Hermione's parents decided to go straight to bed. Hermione and I stayed up a little long talking about the upcoming school year, dodging around the subjects of Dumbledore and Ron.
Finally, we decided to go to bed ourselves. I went into my room and changed into a pair of pajamas that I had purchased at the mall with Hermione. Just as I was getting into bed I heard a knock on my door.
I walked to the door and opened it. Standing in my doorway was Hermione with tears in her eyes.
"Hermione, what's wrong?" I asked.
She walked into my room and sat down on my bed. I walked over and stood next to where she was sitting.
"Harry I really need to tell you this before it gets to be too late." She sniffled and I handed her a tissue and sat down next to her.
"Hermione, what is it?" I asked worried.
"Harry, earlier this summer," She took a deep breath. "I was diagnosed with Leukemia."
"What?" I asked. This couldn't be happening; Hermione couldn't be sick.
"Leukemia is cancer Harry, a cancer of the blood."
A/N: Please read and Review if you like it. I need to know if I should keep going or forget about the story. If no one reviews I won't add any more chapters. Sorry again if it was short or boring just let me know!