Chapter 11: The Second Surprise
Hermione came back the next morning from a wonderful holiday with her parents and, of course, Luke. She and Luke had spent as much time together as it was possible. When Luke wasn't at work he would take her out and they would have a romantic lunch or dinner together. Sometimes he would bring her flowers or a small something he found while working that day. Other times Hermione would bring him something from the house that her parents no longer used and put a charm on it, so he could practice different techniques for taking them off. She had fun watching him trying to figure out what charm or how many she had used.
Now that she was back at Hogwarts she already missed him. Walking into her room, the first thing she did was take the framed photo of her and Luke out of her trunk and placed it on her dresser. She didn't notice that each piece of furniture in her room was about a metre left or right from where it had been when she left. She fell back onto the middle of her bed and felt something weird sticking into the middle of her back. She got up and found the not-so-invisible way her bed had been put back together.
"Oh, this is just great! That boy is so gone." Hermione exclaimed and stormed across the common room and up the stairs to Draco's room. She knocked on the door, which opened as she did so. It revealed Draco in his bed, together with Harry having a morning snog. As Hermione leaned into the room, to close the door again, Draco spotted her and pulled away from Harry, startled by her presence.
"Hey, what did you stop for?" cried Harry, as he had clearly been enjoying Malfoy all over his face.
Draco looked back down at Harry and explained, "Because our friend is back from her Christmas break away from Hogwarts and has decided to give us a visit." Harry turned his head towards the door to see Hermione smiling nervously back at him.
"I think I visited long enough and now I think I'll just go and let you to get on with whatever it was you were doing." She started to back out of the room and closed the door as she went.
"No, no, don't be silly," said Harry sitting up in Draco's bed and letting the sheets fall off his naked chest. "What did you want?"
"Yeah, what did you want Hermione?" smirked Draco sitting up as Harry had done, trying to make her feel even more uncomfortable than she clearly was with seeing Harry like that, let alone him as well.
"You know what, never mind," and with that she turned around, closed the door and ran as fast as she could to the Great Hall. All the while shaking her head to rid it of the images that were now floating across her mind. Breakfast looks really good right about now.
When she got down there she found Blaise sitting at the Gryffindor table.
"Hermione!" greeted Ron as he stood up from beside Blaise. "How was your holiday? I must say you look a little overwhelmed to be back…your holiday wasn't that bad without us was it?"
"No, my holiday was great. What I just saw in Draco's room was not."
"What do you mean? What did you see?" Ron asked, intrigued by Hermione's statements. "You didn't see Draco and Harry at it did you?"
"NO! Ron, if I had seen that I would be in the bathroom washing my eyes out or… or… erasing my memory or something more extreme. No, I saw them kissing and that was bad enough!"
"Oh, is that all?" Ron looked a little disappointed at the news. Hermione ignored him and sat down next to her best friend.
"So, I guess Harry sorted things out with Seamus then?" Hermione asked while pouring some milk into her bowl of muesli.
"Yeah, all patched up Christmas night… and they spent most of the holiday together, mostly in their room too." By this point Hermione was blushing. "I can't remember one time seeing them apart after Christmas."
"Neither can I." added Blaise.
"Umm…no offence Blaise, but aren't you supposed to be at the Slytherin table?"
"But aren't inter-house relations encouraged nowadays? To bring the school closer together as a whole?"
"Yeah Hermione, I thought you of all people would have been encourage more people to sit and mingle with other house members." Ron agreed, not wanting his boyfriend to move from his position.
"Fine, whatever." she waved it off and went back to eating her muesli, ignoring the boys imitations of her intruding on Harry and Draco, even though they were pretty accurate. She thought about what they had said about not seeing Harry and Draco apart after Christmas. I wonder if they spent any time in my room. She shuddered at the images that came to her head and from then on just tried to concentrate on eating breakfast.
---
That evening after dinner, Hermione saw Harry guiding a rather larger and battered wardrobe into Draco's room. It was too obscure for her to just think of it as nothing so she went over to investigate.
"Hi." said Hermione startling Harry and making him drop the battered wardrobe so it landed on his right foot. "Need a hand with that?"
"No, but I might need another foot. What did you do that for?"
"What? I only said 'hi'"
"Yeah, and startled me in the process. You knew I had no idea you were there"
"No I didn't," Hermione protested. "I thought you heard me come in and were just ignoring me. I made enough noise."
"Well sorry, I must have been concentrating and didn't hear you come in." explained Harry sarcastically.
"Oh well, that's alright." responded Hermione as if she hadn't noticed Harry's tone and then asked "What are you doing moving that old wardrobe into Draco's room anyway?"
"For your information Hermione," stated Draco coming out to see why the wardrobe wasn't moving and if Harry was all right, "I got some new clothes over the break and need other place to put them because my wardrobe is full." Harry smirked, loving that fact that his boyfriend could lie to anyone on que.
"Yeah, I got this from the Room of Requirement." he added to make Draco's lie seem more believable.
Although, the truth was that he had gotten it from the Room of Requirement. He and Draco couldn't find anything that they didn't need that they could transfigure into a multi-gym, so Harry had suggested something from the room he had hidden his potions book in the year before. It wasn't like people would miss the stuff. Half of it had probably been sitting in there for centuries anyway. Harry had found the closest thing to Hermione's wardrobe and then brought it here during dinner so no one would notice.
He hadn't counted on Hermione coming back to her room for a while after dinner, thinking that she would want to talk to Ginny and the others. "What does it matter what we are doing anyway?"
"It doesn't, I was just curious." She turned to go to her room when she remembered how she had found her bed earlier that day. "Hey Draco" she said while turning back to see Harry continuing to guide the wardrobe into Draco's room.
"Yes Hermione," he replied in an innocent tone.
"You didn't happen go into my room while I was away, did you?" she inquired
The boys just looked at each other as if to say 'what do we do now?'
"No, why do you asked?" Draco said with his eyes still on Harry
"Oh, I went to lay on my bed this morning and found that it had been joined in the middle for some reason. I don't even remember it being split in two…"
"I told you that was a bad idea," Harry mumbled to Draco out of the side of his mouth. "She was bound to noticed your shotty workmanship."
"Yeah, well you didn't hide it that well afterwards did you" Draco whispered back. Meanwhile Hermione had continued to talk about how she could have repaired it herself with only a few waves of her wand and that whoever had done it must be no higher than a third year. They boys had not heard this of course and once she realized they were talking between themselves she raised her voice to interrupt them.
"You haven't been listening to a word I've said, have you?" The boys stopped their little argument and looked at Hermione. "Yeah, of course we have been listening." lied Draco.
"Okay then, what was the last thing I said?"
"Something about repairing it yourself and whoever did it wasn't very skilled." Draco replied with innocent eyes and a cheeky smile.
"Lucky guess." Hermione mumbled to herself
"Bloody good guess." Harry mouthed to Draco with a wink, then asked Hermione "So what are you going to do about it? Who do you think did it?"
"No idea, but it has to be someone we know. Who else would have access to my room?"
"Oh, I don't know Hermione." Harry stuttered nervously "Anyone can come in here really."
"It wasn't you two, was it?" asked Hermione seeing right through Harry.
"Of course it wasn't" said Draco calmly "Would we do something like that to you Hermione?"
"Yes" she stated firmly
"Draco, maybe we should just tell her." suggest Harry
"Tell me what?" Hermione asked but was ignored
"Stop being a baby, she doesn't need to know." Draco replied to Harry
"What don't I need to know?" This time Draco answered her question
"Nothing. There is nothing you need to know" Not happy with this answer, Hermione gave Harry a stern. Harry just looked at Draco with big sad puppy-dog eyes, as if to say 'please just let me tell her', at this Draco's resolve broke.
"Fine!" Draco gave in "Tell her, just stop looking at me like that"
"Well, you see Hermione. We kinda, sorta turned your room in a little gym for the holidays. We thought if we turned it back before you came back then it wouldn't matter if we didn't tell you. But we had a little trouble transfiguring it back to the way it was when we first found it." Harry hung his head in shame, and then turned his trademark sad puppy-dog eyes look on her.
"It's okay Harry, I forgive you, and you know that look doesn't work on me anymore. But you could have told me, I would have been okay with it." Hermione put her hand on Harry's shoulder and killed the 'look'.
"Really?" the boys chorused like disobedient four year olds.
"Yeah really." she laughed. "So what are you actually doing with that wardrobe?"
"We are going to turn it into a multi-gym and keep it in Draco's room for the rest of the year." Harry explained.
"Okay… would you like some help?"
"Sure" exclaimed Harry and they went to work. After it was all set up Hermione sat down with the boys for a nice catch up chat, after all that's what gay best friends are for, right.
---
The rest of the year went by with no real big events. Ron and Blaise were perfectly happy with each other, learning new things about themselves everyday. (BN: cough, cough) Harry and Draco promise never to let anything between then again, having a totally open relationship. Oh, and there was also the new happy couple, Seamus and Ginny. Seamus had asked her out as soon as she got off the train and she had accepted happily.
All was well within the castle, but there was one person who still missed their partner. Hermione had written to Luke every chance she had and he had always replied, but she missed being with him. Spending all night together and cuddling on the couch. Every time she saw her friends with their respective partners it made her miss Luke even more.
About month before their N.E.W.T.s Hermione sent Luke an owl…
To my dear Luke,
I am wishing you were here with me right now. I could use some company at the moment. The boys are out mucking around on their brooms at the Quidditch pitch and Ginny is off with Seamus somewhere. (Probably snogging in the corner of the library.) Anyway, the point is that I miss you terribly and can't wait to see you again, in a month or so. I'm counting down the days until we see each other again.
All my love
Hermione
Once she had given the letter to one of the school owls and it had flown away, she walked back doing to the common room. There, she found a nicely positioned chair in front of the fire and started her study for the day.
The boys came up through the door around 3 o'clock a little muddy. Draco had invited them all up for a few butterbeers. As they walked in they greeted Hermione with the usual silent smiles whenever they saw she was studying or doing homework. Unless she replied vocally, it was left at that. Harry, Ron and Blaise followed Draco into the kitchen. When there was a knock on the common room door.
"I'll get it." Hermione called out while putting her books aside. Who the hell could it be? she asked herself. She turned the handle and pulled it open, only to be stunned at the sight. There, standing in front of her, was Luke. Too surprised the talk Hermione let Luke have the first words.
"Hello stranger," he grinned "surprised?" he had received Hermione's owl a few minutes after finishing work. He had his work robes on and looked very striking in them, even if Hermione's opinion was a bit biased.
"Oh my God, Luke, I cant believe you are actually here!" expressed Hermione.
"Well, you better believe it. Can I come in?"
"Of course." Hermione stepped back from the doorway to let her partner through. Once she had closed the door behind him, he wrapped her up in his arms and gave her a long kiss.
The boys came out of the kitchen to find there faces still stuck together. "Oh, will you two get a room." Harry voiced and Luke finally broke the kiss.
"I'm sure you were just as bad when you and Draco got back together." retorted Hermione.
"We were not," denied Harry
"No, you weren't 'as bad'. You were worse," pronounced Ron.
"Well, is anyone going to introduce us?" asked Draco, not liking being forgotten.
"Oh yeah, sorry. Draco, this is Luke, Hermione's boyfriend. Luke, this is Draco, my boyfriend" introduced Harry.
"Nice to meet you" said Draco while both of them shook hands.
"Nice to meet you too. Hermione has told me a lot about you of course."
"Hope it is all nice things." Draco said looking at Hermione, his expression only slightly scared
"Would I ever say anything bad about you Draco?" Hermione asked innocently.
"Does she really want me to answer that?" Draco whispered to Harry.
"Of course you know Ron and that is Blaise, Ron's partner." Harry interrupted before Draco could say anything else. Luke turned to Blaise and shook his hand, just nodding in acknowledgement this time.
"Well, I think we best be off Hermione." Luke held out his arm for her to take.
"Oh, and where are we off to?" She took his hand in hers.
"You will just have to wait and see," and with that they both said goodbye to all four boys and left the common room.
"I wonder what he has planned," pondered Draco
"Who knows, probably something romantic. Not that you would know what that is, being a Malfoy and all." Retorted Harry.
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"I think we better get outta here," whispered Blaise to Ron. "Before they start fighting again." Neither Harry nor Draco saw them sneak out the door, as they were both pre-occupied with their little play fight.
---
"Okay, so can I at least know what we will be doing at our destination?" asked Hermione once they were out of the common room. She had her arms around his waist and was looking up at him with her gorgeous hazel eyes
"Nope, that would give away the destination to someone as clever as you." Luke said as he looked down at how she had attached herself and smiled. "I'm not stupid, beautiful."
"I know your not. But you know I don't like surprises all that much."
"That is why I am going to keep surprising you," explained Luke. "So that you learn to love 'em as much as I know you love me." He gave her a light kiss.
"Well, we will just have to wait and see. I don't know if I'll be able to love them that much." She gave him a little squeeze around the waist and then leaned her head on his chest letting him guide her to wherever they were going.
He led her to the entrance hall and stopped outside an empty classroom. "Can you wait here a sec, I just need to get a few things I left in here before I came up to get you. Dumbledore thought it would be better if it was just me you saw first."
"Did he see you in and tell you where I was?"
"Yeah, great man isn't he?"
"Brilliant!" she agreed
"Won't be a sec," Luke said as he disappeared through the door. Just then Ginny came through the front doors with Seamus. Ginny spotted Hermione standing alone in the corridor and called out to her. "Hermione, what are you doing down here all alone?"
"Oh, I'm not alone," replied Hermione. "Luke is in that classroom, apparently getting a few things for the surprise he has install for me."
"Really…Luke's here?" asked Ginny not believing Hermione.
"Yeah really!" Just as Hermione said these words the door opened behind her and Luke appeared.
"Did I here my name being called?"
"No, we were just talking about you. Not to you honey," answered Hermione.
Luke recognized Ginny and another boy standing behind his girlfriend. "Oh, hello Ginny. Who is your friend?" he asked politely
"Hi Luke. This is Seamus, my boyfriend." she looked at Seamus as she said it with a bright smile on her face. It feels good to call him that she thought to herself. "Well, we better be going. Don't want to keep you."
"Okay, see ya later guys," called Hermione as Ginny and Seamus headed up the corridor towards Gryffindor Tower. She turned back to Luke, "So where are we going?"
"You don't give up easy, do you hon'? You'll see soon enough." and with that he guided her out the doors Ginny and Seamus had come in.
When they reached the tree by the lake, Luke stopped in front of Hermione, turning to face her. "You know, you get more beautiful every time I see you?"
"And you know, I wish you would just kiss me already."
"Am I that see through?" Luke asked jokingly. He stepped closer and cupped his hand gently under her chin. He slowly descended on her lips. Once he reaching them he ran his tongue lightly over them, savouring the taste. When Hermione couldn't take it anymore, she pushed his head down on hers so their lips came together in a passionate kiss.
When they finally broke apart for air, Luke took Hermione's hand and began to walk with her around the lake. For the first few minutes nothing was said, they just enjoyed each other's company. But when Luke didn't start to talk Hermione started to wonder what he was up to.
"So, was there a reason for bringing me down here?" asked Hermione. "Or are you just fulfilling my wish?"
"Both," replied Luke. "Fulfilling your wish and there is a reason why I am doing it. I was going to wait until after you graduated, but your owl was so convincing I had to come and see you." he said while brushing her hair behind her ear. "You know that you are so beautiful and it was torture being away from you for so long?"
"I know your pain. I felt it every time I saw Harry and Draco together, and Ron and Blaise, and Ginny and Seamus. Each time I tried not the think of you but that only made it worse. I can't wait til these N.E.W.T.s are out of the way and we can be together more often."
"I can't wait either." he gently held her hands and then got down on one knee. He reached into his pocket and search for something. When he didn't find it, he searched the next pocket. Not there either. He let go of Hermione's hands.
"Honey, is there something wrong?" asked Hermione worriedly
"No, nothing's wrong." he answered while still feeling around in his pockets. "In fact almost everything is right. If I could just find… ah huh, there it is." and he pulled a small jewellery box out of his top breast pocket. He returned to his position on the ground, kneeling on one leg, holding Hermione's left hand. With his other hand, he skilfully opened the navy blue box to reveal a ring.
Hermione gasped as her jaw dropped a little and her eyes became wide in surprise. "A…a…Luke" was all she managed in a soft voice.
"Hermione, I have been thinking about this for a few months now and couldn't think of anyone I would rather spend the rest of my life with. Will you do me the honour of becoming my wife?"
A tear of happiness started to run down Hermione's cheek. "Oh Luke, of course I will." Luke got up of his knee and the couple shared their happiness with each other (with hugs and kisses of course). After a minute or so, Luke pulled back and took the ring out of its container. He took Hermione's hand, placing it on her finger and then kissed her hand. Hermione drew her closer to inspect the ring.
It was a brilliant silver and about a centimetre wide. Luke had got it especially made with an inscription and 4 stones. The inscription read: My Past, Present
And Future S2
The stones lay in each 'P' and 'u'. Luke had chosen both of their birthstones, Luke's being aquamarine and Hermione's sapphire. There were two of each. The first aquamarine lay in the first P while the other in the second u. The sapphires lay in the second P and first u.
"It is beautiful. Did you think of it yourself?"
"Yeah, I wasn't sure if you liked silver or gold but the silver went better with the stones and I thought we could always get gold wedding bands." Luke explained.
"Well, I love both silver and gold so it wouldn't much have mattered," she paused and just looked at her husband-to-be. "I love you so much" she said and wrapped her arms around him in a warm embrace.
"I love you too," replied Luke resting his head of her shoulder thinking they could stay like that forever and he would be happy.
Author's Note: Well folks, there is only one more chapter after this and it will be finished (finally). Hope you all enjoyed this second last chapter and will review. Shout out to Emily for helping me with the design of Hermione's ring, thanks heaps. Emma, thanks again, you're the best. I couldn't think of anyone else I would rather have beta my work. And I guess I'll see you guys again before the year is out with the final chapter. Til then, cya.