A/N: Many great thanks to these people for reading and reviewing: pottersgirl91,
nehimasgift, svelte, PapayaCrazy, imakeeper, san01, Emi-Bum, dolphiz87,
shadieladie, dwntwndanbrwn, LillyFan78, longtimefan-firsttimewriter,
vagrantben, Kari-Hermione, RedandBlack12, aznquddtichchich, and Kuroumo.
Thanks also to those silent readers... hope you enjoy this chapter,
only two more after this. So go to my website and vote for the next
story whick will be posted on March 1st!
Chapter 15 – Exclusive Canceled
Hermione stood outside the Daily Prophet building, staring up at the dilapidated gray brick walls and boarded up windows. She looked around the streets of the south end of London and saw that Muggles would strangely cross the street when they got too near this building. 'Muggle repelling charm' she thought to herself as she entered a narrow, dirty walkway beside the building. She climbed some cement stares and knocked on the door. The doorknob key hole began moving much like a mouth as and began to speak to her.
"State your business," an annoying female voice said before the doorknob yawned.
"I'm Hermione Granger," she whispered while looking around and hoping no one could see her. "I'm here for my meeting with the paper administrator. Had Mr. Bonham arrived yet? He'll be able to tell you."
"All righty, dear," the doorknob droned. "Just make a circular motion with your wand and if you're telling the truth, you'll get in."
'If I'm telling the truth, I'll get in? What kind of ignorant bull-'
"C'mon! I haven't got all day, deary," the doorknob hissed rudely.
Hermione pulled out her wand and began drawing a circle in the air. The keyhole on the door went back to normal size and a ghost like key of glittering green emerged from her wand and entered the keyhole. She watched as it turned in there and the lock clicked. She watched the door creak open and she entered into a dingy, damp hallway. It was no more than five foot long and four feet wide with an unsafe looking bar elevator at the end of the hall.
In that elevator was the ghost of a goblin who looked very tired and moody. Hermione walked up cautiously and stepped inside while giving a quick, nervous smile at it. Without so much as a word, the doors of the elevator clinked shut loudly, making her jump a little, and the goblin ghost began to speak.
"What floor?"
"Well, um... I'm not sure. Where's the administrator's office?" she replied.
"Fifth floor," it grumbled before moving a little stick like handle across at numbered dial to the picture of a Roman Numeral five.
Hermione stared around as the elevator began to move upward. As they went up, she caught glimpses of messy, paper covered news rooms and rooms with goblins counting money, as well as rooms with hundreds of owls inside waiting to deliver the papers. She even saw a room where hundreds of papers were magically printing. It was all very interesting, even so much so that she didn't see the elevator stop at the fourth floor instead of the fifth.
The door opened and Hermione was about to step out she someone blocked her way. She looked up and saw none other than the annoying reporter whose fault it was that she was even here. Lawrence R. Bewells.
"Fifth floor," he commanded coolly, not even noticing Hermione.
"You scumbag," she growled in a low way as the doors clinked shut once more. "You dirty... foul... loathsome, no... good son of a bitch!"
Without warning, Hermione lunged at the man just as the doors opened once more. They tumbled out onto the floor and screams issued. Hermione was sitting on Lawrence's back, pounding away at his shoulders with her fists. He was trying his best to shield his head and roll over to get her to stop while yelling for help.
Hermione soon found herself frozen and dropping sideways to the floor. 'Now I'm sorry I ever did that to Neville in our first year at Hogwarts' she thought bitterly while planning to attack Lawrence again as soon as she could stand.
"Ms. Granger!" Mr. Bonham roared. "How dispicable! I expect better from my hospital workers."
Hermione found her limbs movement returned to her and she quickly got up, words flowing from her mouth that no sane witch would ever dare speak even by themselves. Lawrence's eyes went wide and he stood there gaping as she glared daggers at him.
"This is all your fault, you sick bastard!" she finished while huffing.
"Ms. Granger, control yourself!" Bonham bellowed.
Hermione closed her mouth, satisfied that she had got to get that out before Bonham had stopped her. She stood there breathing heavily as Bonham cleared his throat and adjusted his tie.
"The administrator isn't here today... I'm surprised you're even here, Mr. Bewells," Bonham stated regally.
"And why's that?" Lawrence panted while straightening his robes and his hair.
"Well, I figured that you would be at the press conference with the Puddlemere United coach and team," Bonham replied.
"I wasn't allowed to go. Besides... Wood's not there and neither is his sweet little girlfriend," Lawrence shrugged before grinning evilly at Hermione who pursed her lips and crossed her arms while fighting down the urge to tackle him once more. "So, where's your daughter? And when I say your, I of course mean you and Wood's."
"Blow it out your-"
"Ms. Granger," Bonham hissed. "Come along, then. I have no need to be here if our meeting is canceled. We'll take care of this later."
With that, Bonham gestured for Hermione to lead the way to the elevator. Hermione did and she go in with Bonham, the both of them getting off at the fourth floor to use the Floo to get to St. Mungo's.
"Is it true that Oliver Wood was hurt?" bellowed a report of the crowd of other reporters and flashes of cameras.
"Yes, in fact, it i-"
"What a dumb question!" Amy Ashford screamed. "Anyone who saw the match could have told you that Oliver was really hurt and that he's not faking!"
"Miss Ashford! Miss Ashford!"
"It's Mrs. Byington!" Amy growled.
"Did you marry Brian Byington after finding out about Wood and the Healer from St. Mungo's?"
"Are you trying to make him jealous?"
"NO! I'm not!" Amy yelled. "You're all very, very ignorant!"
With that, Amy rose violently from her seat and stormed away. Brian sighed and turned to the reporters to answer then once and for all.
"Amy and I have been in love ever since her first year on the team. She's never been anything more to Oliver than a teammate... at the most like a little sister... ask anyone. Besides, Amy and I are currently expecting a baby," Brian informed before rising and heading out after Amy.
The reporters buzzed for a moment and questions started to fly once more.
"Coach! Coach? What will you do with both Amy and Oliver gone?"
"I'm not going to do anything at the moment. Fate will help the course of things because Oliver is due to return tomorrow to the team. Miss Ashford will just have to stop playing and we'll be using our reserve Seeker or possibly holding try-outs for a new one because we don't foresee her returning after the birth of their baby," the Puddlemere coach replied as the rest of the team, all except Oliver, Brian, and Amy, looked on.
"Will you be replacing Byington, too?" asked a reporter in the front of the crowd room. "Rumor has it that he's retiring... and with a baby on the way, that would make things more reasonable."
"I just might have to," the coach sighed. "That's all for today."
The team and their coach rose and filed out, all with heads hung and turned away from the cameras.
Hermione sat in the potions room watching a potion brew. She felt nervous. What had that conference with Puddlemere been about? Did she and Oliver, or rather Lawrence more than she and Oliver, cause the team trouble?
Hermione sighed and stood up as the potion began changing from a light yellow to a periwinkle blue. She began ladling it out into little bottles, corking each and setting them into a storage container to be refrigerated. She was halfway through the cauldron when someone entered the room.
Hermione looked up to see a smiling Padma enter. She had a brown paper bag in her hand and her purse on her shoulder.
"Ready for lunch?" Padma inquired.
"Just let me finish this," Hermione sighed.
"Here, let me help," Padma offered while sitting her things down on the lab table top and picking up another ladle.
She began helping Hermione and within minutes, they were on their way to lunch.
"So, how did the meeting with Bonham and the paper guy go?" Padma asked as they took a seat in the cafeteria.
"Actually, the administrator for the paper wasn't there," Hermione explained. "He was out at some kind of press conference with the Puddlemere team. I just hope that Oliver and the team aren't in any trouble on my account."
"That's not your fault," Padma pointed out as she pulled a sandwich from the paper began and unwrapped it.
"Yes, but I should have known better and stuck to the rul-"
"Stuck to the rules, yeah, yeah. Don't stick a toe out of line, blah, blah," Padma droned. "Screw the rules... look at all the good things that came to you and Harry and Ron in school when you guys didn't follow the rules."
"Yeah, but that's different," Hermione shrugged as she picked over the salad she had bought for lunch.
"Whatever you say," Padma muttered. "At least now you could maybe see Oliver... he's leaving tomorrow, you know."
"Is he?" Hermione asked quickly as though checking to see if Padma were serious.
"Mmhmm," Padma mumbled through a mouthful of sandwich. "He's... he's just got to take a test and prove that he's capable of magic and such before he'll be released."
"I guess that's the end of that, then," Hermione said in a rather glum way.
"I don't know about that," Padma giggled in an almost inaudible way.
"What?" Hermione asked. "What did you say?"
"Oh, nothing," Padma teased.
"Padma Patil, you tell me what you said right now or else I'll do to you what I did to that Bewells fellow this morning," Hermione threatened.
"I just sai- wait... What did you do?" Padma pressed.
"Well," Hermione uttered with a blush creeping into her cheeks.
She then explained how she had tackled the nasty reporter, and Padma laughed heartily at it. By the time lunch was over, the two of them were smiling and joking as they headed back to work.
"Oh, Hermione, by the way," Padma called as she headed for the stairs. "Come up to the ward after you're done work... I've got something to show you."
"Okay," Hermione responded before entering the potions room to finish off work until nine that night when she would go to visit Padma and see what she wanted.
Nine o'clock rolled around before Hermione knew it. She had just finished clearing away the ingredients for the potions she had been making when Padma poked her head through the door.
"Are you coming or not?" Padma asked impatiently, yet there was a sort of excitement in her voice.
"I'm coming, I'm coming," Hermione half laughed while shaking her head.
She stored the ingredients in the cupboard as Padma walked over and turned off the lights, pulling Hermione out of the room and locking it.
"What's the big hurry?" Hermione questioned.
"Just c'mon," Padma urged.
They made their way up to the Janus Thickey Ward and Hermione noticed that all the lights in the halls were off and the doors to every room but one were shut. Light fall into the hall in a long rectangle on the floor which they neared with every step.
"Just in there," Padma directed with a little shove on Hermione's lower back.
Hermione stepped into the room and Padma shut and locked the door behind her. Hermione stared around, but no one was in there. There was a strangeness there, though. The bed had been removed from the room, and a round table with a red cloth over it had been set in the middle of the room to replace it. There were two candles on the table which was covered in rose petals and two spotless white plates.
Hermione walked into the room further and looked all around. Still no one. The curtains were drawn and two chairs sat empty. Hermione turned to go knock on the door for Padma to let her out when she bumped into Oliver.
"Wood," she gasped in surprise. "Wha-What's all... what's all this?"
"A surprise for you," Oliver replied as he stepped closer to her.
There seemed to be no space between them at all. Hermione went to step backwards, but Oliver's right hand caught the small of her back and she had no choice but to stay put.
"I remember now," he whispered.
"You remember?" Hermione repeated. "Remember what?"
"All of it... Quidditch and Hogwarts and things between us," Oliver explained.
"Us?"
"Yes, us," Wood said while pulling a book from his back jean pocket.
Hermione recognized it in an instant. It was the book she had written. The one about her and Oliver and their summer together which had brought about the conception of their beautiful little daughter, Kirsten.
"What about us?" Hermione laughed nervously, trying to act like she had no idea what he was talking about.
She turned her head away and stared at the table.
"What about us?" Wood repeated skeptically. "Hermione... I'm talking about what we had. The love we shared."
"That was nothing more than ignorance. Look at where it got me! I'm a single parent and we're just friends because you had an accident. Just friends because of an accident," she said loudly as though trying to get it through his head.
She pushed herself away. Why was she fighting this? She didn't even need to really think about that. She knew why; she had read that book he held in his hand too. She just didn't want to go through losing him again. There he was, standing before her, trying to seduce her and make her succumb to him so that they could share one more night and then he would leave tomorrow. He would go back to Quidditch and she would be forgotten as part of the past once more. Nothing more than a forgotten memory.
"Hermione, listen to me," Oliver commanded gently as he grabbed her by the elbows, watching the tears well in her eyes. "I know you think this is wrong because of the trouble it's gotten both us into already, but I'm leaving the hospital tomorrow and we can do this," Wood promised.
"No... no, we can't," Hermione whimpered. "You're going back to Quidditch and it will fill your life and you won't have time for me or Kirsten."
"No, you're wrong," Oliver said forcefully. "I missed five years of her life and I left you by complete mistake. Why hadn't you told me back then that you were expecting her?"
"Because even I didn't know then-"
"Why didn't you tell me when you did find out?"
"Because I didn't want to hear you reject me again," Hermione snapped, tears splashing down her cheeks.
"I wouldn't have rejected you again... I didn't reject you the first time," Oliver pointed out. "I was merely trying to tell you that I didn't think things would work out because of my playing Quidditch-"
"You would choose that over me and that was the thing that drove me to keep everything secret," Hermione cried.
"Will you let me finish?" Wood hissed. "I wanted both things in my life... you and Quidditch."
"Well, you can't have your butterbeer and drink it, too," Hermione sighed heavily.
"Why not?" Wood quizzed. "Would you not accompany me to all those places? Would you not let Kirsten come along and grow up seeing the world?"
"What kind of life is that for a child, Oliver?" Hermione pointed out. "Is that really the way to raise a child? Moving them from one spot to another so that they can't have any real friends or so that they know nothing but moving from one place to another? Is that what you want for her?"
"No, I just-"
"Just can't make this work," Hermione sighed.
She walked past Wood and pulled out her wand, unlocking the door as Oliver crossed the floor to her quickly. He swept her into his arms and hugged her to him as tears filled even his eyes.
"Please... please don't leave like this," Oliver begged. "I love you... I love Kirsten... I love you both."
"We really have no choice," Hermione muttered into his shoulder. "Kirsten can't grow up like that and it's too hard for you to come home after every match and then go back out for practices and appearances... we'd still never seen you."
With that, Hermione parted from Oliver and left the room. Wood stood there for a moment before dropping to his knees and slamming his fists against the floor. He leaned back against the wall and a tear trailed down his cheek. He wished now that he really hadn't remembered, and that he could have stayed on there at the hospital with Hermione.
