Disclaimer: I don't own anything but the plot. I'm just borrowing JKR's work, but don't worry I'll be careful and return them in one piece.

A/N: Hey, guys!! Here is chapter 2. It's a little longer so I hope you like it! Thank you to all of those who reviewed, and I'm sorry to inform you but my characters are a little OoC. Hope you don't mind. Read up and don't forget to review!!

Chapter 3 – More Visitors

Harry woke up late morning from the best sleep he's had in ages. He had had a nightmare as usual but then he'd had the most wonderful dream ever, he and Hermione were kissing, and it was great. He had never thought of Hermione like that, he always pictured her like a sister, but he highly doubted that he would feel that good after kissing a sister. With a smile on his face he stated to stretch with his eyes still closed but then he realized there was something on his arm, with his other hand he got his glasses from the bedside table and as he looked at his right arm a huge grin appeared on his face. Hermione was still there, lying by his side using his arm as pillow. It hadn't been a dream and Harry couldn't be happier.

He stayed a few minutes just watching her sleeping, she was so beautiful and peaceful. Then she started stirring and opened her eyes, those incredible brown eyes. Harry couldn't help but smile at her and that smile grew even bigger when she smiled back at him.

"Good Morning, Sleeping Beauty" He said after giving her a soft kiss on the lips.

"Good Morning" She smiled at him and gave him another kiss. "Did you sleep well?"

"Yeah, best night in ages. What about you?"

"I slept okay but my pillow is a lot softer than your arm." She replied with a playful smile.

He leaned over and kissed her again. They kept kissing for a while until Hermione pulled back and looked at him with a serious expression on her face.

"We really have to talk about this." She said moving her hands back and forth between them.

"Okay. You go first." He said sitting on the bed and helping Hermione so that she could sit too.

"Right… How do you feel about me?" She asked tentatively.

'Oh, fuck!! I was really hoping she wasn't going to ask me that.' He thought groaning inwardly. The truth was that he had asked himself that very same question as he was watching her earlier and he hadn't come up with an answer. She was his best friend, he liked a lot but he didn't know if he loved her. Well, he did love her but he wasn't in love with her. 'But how am I going to tell her that.' He thought groaning again, but this time, out loud.

"It's okay, Harry. You can be honest with me. I want you to be honest with me." She offered after hearing him groan.

"I like you, Hermione. I like you a lot but it's just that… " he trailed off but she finished his sentence.

"You're not in love with me." She stated looking into his eyes. He averted her gaze and nodded slowly.

"Good." She sighed relived.

"What??" He asked not hiding the surprise in his voice.

"It's just that I'm not in love with you, and it would be really awkward if you were." She explained quickly.

"Oh. So now what? We just forget it happened?" Harry asked in a sad voice. He really had liked kissing Hermione.

"Well, I was hoping not." She said looking down.

"Go on." Harry prompted in a brighter voice.

"See, the thing is… I had a great time last night… and this morning." She said still not looking at him.

"Me too." He replied tilting her face so she was looking at him. They smiled at each other and she continued.

"So, I was thinking that maybe we could have a 'best friends with benefits' kind of relationship. We would still be best friends but we would also snog." She suggested.

"But isn't that what dating is about?" He asked a little confused.

"Yes, but we wouldn't make any serious commitment. No promises of undying love, no jealousy, no public displays of affection and no cover stories in the Daily Prophet. We would have all the good parts but not the bad ones. Nobody would know a thing." And that last statement was what convinced Harry. He was sick of everybody knowing everything about his life, and a secret relationship with Hermione would be just perfect, he wouldn't get all the attention he would get if they went public and she wouldn't be targeted for being his girlfriend.

"You, Ms. Granger, just got yourself a deal." He said in a playful tone before pulling her to him to start enjoying their agreement.

But then, just after their lips parted she jumped out of bed so quickly that one would think it was on fire.

"Oh… Oh, Merlin…" she started saying with a look of pure terror on her face while looking at the window that showed the sun up and bright.

"Hermione? What's wrong?" asked Harry concerned.

"What time is it Harry?" she asked ignoring his question.

"Huh? 9:45" he answered a little confused looking at his watch. And then getting a little scared as he saw all the color in Hermione's face disappear.

"What am I going to do? What am I going to do? I'm dead, that's it, I'm dead. Will you go to my funeral, Harry??" She blabbed, laughing nervously, obviously panicking over something.

That was Harry cue to do something, he wouldn't have her talking about dying even if it was just a joke. So, he walked over to her and hugged her thigh, trying to calm her down.

"You're not going to die, I won't let anything bad happen to you. Now tell me what's wrong."

"My parents always check on me before they go to work, which was 2 hours ago…" She trailed off there, it wasn't really necessary to continue anyway, he got the picture.

"Did they know you were coming here??" she shook her head. "Ok, can't you give them any excuse like, you woke up early and went for a walk or something??" He offered.

"Well…" she said looking at him now. "that's not all bad, it's a long shot 'cause it's not like me to leave the house without letting them know, but it might work" she finished with a smile. "You know, you are getting smarter, Potter." She said playfully but then sighed and continued. "But I have to go now."

"Already?" He asked pouting at her and holding her tighter as she tried to disentangle herself from his embrace. "Can't your walk take a little longer??"

"I'm sorry." And Harry could see in her eyes that she really was. "I wish I could stay here with you, we didn't even had a chance to talk about how are you coping with everything yet, but I really have to go. The more time I take the tougher will be my punishment. I pop back here as soon as I can, ok?"

He sighed "Ok, but don't forget about me. I will get lonely" He said in a dramatic tone.

She smiled cheekily at him and answered after a long passionate kiss. " I wouldn't do that." He smiled back at her and watched as she walked to the corner of the room to apparate away from the window.

Just at this moment Dudley entered the room to tell Harry something but lost the words when he saw Hermione.

"Hey, who are you?" He asked but when he was going to take a step closer to her she gave Harry a small wave and disapparated, leaving a smiling Harry and a shocked Dudley behind.

Harry spent a couple of minutes just laughing at Dudley's face after Hermione disapparated. But as he remembered that Dudley must have had a reason to come to his room, he decided to speak.

"Ok, Dudley, what do you want?" Harry asked still amused at the fact that Dudley didn't seem to be able to talk.

"There are some freaks downstairs to see you, we were shouting for you to come down for 10 minutes but I guess you were busy, huh?" He said winking at Harry after he got over the shock.

Harry wasn't in the mood for this and he didn't want whomever the "freaks" were to know that Hermione had been there so he decided to answer in a way he knew would make Dudley forget about seeing her.

"Look, Dudley, that was just a friend from school, I didn't hear you calling because I put a spell in my room so I wouldn't be disturbed by the noise from outside. And yes, I am allowed to do magic now so if I were you I wouldn't speak about seeing my friend here to anyone. Unless, of course, you'd like to be a fat slug for the rest of your life."

As Dudley ran out of the room holding his behind, Harry, very proud of himself, changed from his pajamas and went downstairs to see who were the freaks Dudley was talking about. Upon getting in the living room, Harry was greeted with the sight of a very worn out ex-professor and a cheerful pink haired auror.

"Remus. Tonks." Said Harry coolly; having all those feelings Hermione had managed to make him forget storming back to him at the sight of his godfather's cousin and best friend.

"How is it going, Harry?" Asked Tonks with a big smile.

"Hello, Harry. How are you?" Asked Remus worriedly.

"I'm fine." He replied dryly.

"Really?" Asked Remus searching his eyes for something.

"So, will anyone tell me what are you two doing here?" Asked Harry eager to change the subject.

"Glad you asked, Harry" Tonks said brightly. "How would you like to learn to apparate?"

Harry smiled a little at this and only now he realized his relatives were also in the room.

"What is that??" Asked Uncle Vernon turning a funny shade of purple. "I won't have any of this nonsense in my house."

"Oh, yes, you will." Replied Tonks fiercely. "Apparating is the faster way a wizards can go from one place to another. We can just disappear from thin air here and reappear somewhere else in the blink of an eye and it's very important that Harry knows how to do it now that we are at war."

Uncle Vernon got a darker shade of purple as Tonks said this but kept his mouth shut, probably afraid of what could happen to him if he dared to disagree. When Harry was about to tell Tonks that he would love to learn how to apparate Dudley cut him off, not realizing that he was thinking out loud.

"Oh, so that's how your girlfriend did it." At hearing this Harry turn his head so fast that he thought he was going to twist his neck. Seeing Harry glaring at him Dudley realized that he had voiced his thoughts so he covered his mouth with both hands and started shacking uncontrollably.

"What girlfriend??" Asked the four adults at the same time.

"I have no idea what he's talking about." Replied Harry nonchalantly.

But Remus seemed really interested in knowing whom Dudley had seen apparating in the house, and didn't drop the matter. "Come now, Dudley. What are you talking about?"

Dudley didn't answer he just shock his head still covering his mouth with both hands.

"Answer the freak, Dudley. What did you see??" Said Uncle Vernon while taking his son's hands down.

"Ca.. Can't tell." Stuttered Dudley, now looking as pale as milk. "He's gonna turn me in to a slug."

"Nobody is going to turn you in to anything. It's against the law." Said Tonks looking intently at Harry.

"Tell us already." Spoke Aunt Petunia for the first time, obviously eager to hear the gossip her son was holding back.

"Ok." Said Dudley, still throwing scared glances at Harry. "When I went upstairs to get Harry, he was in his room with a girl, I asked her who she was but she just waved at him and disappeared. Harry told me she was just a friend and if I ever told anyone that I'd seen her there he would turn me into a slug. But anyone who looked at them could tell that they were more them friends." And then feeling more confident and wanting to get Harry into more trouble he added. "He was in his pajamas and her clothes were really messy. I think she spent the night with him."

Aunt Petunia gasped at hearing this, Uncle Vernon started rambling about how he would not accept this kind of behavior in his house and Tonks kept grinning at him with an unnerving knowing look on her face but Remus just stared at him with a blank expression. So Harry just braced himself and waited for the worse.

Then a smile appeared on Remus's face. "I didn't know you and Hermione were dating." It wasn't a question and it caught Harry totally by surprise.

"What? How? Who?" He rambled.

"It's kind of obvious. Don't you think? She is the only girl of your year that already got her apparation license, she is you best friend and it was obvious that sooner or later you two would wake up and see that you are perfect for each other." Said Tonks in an amused tone while Remus just laughed at the stunned expression on Harry's face.

"Don't worry about it, Harry. That's great news. Hermione is a great girl, and I'm really happy for you." Chocked Remus once his laugher subsided.

Harry had yet to say a word, he was too stunned to think strait. He and Hermione had agreed that no one should know about their relationship, especially because they weren't dating and if he didn't think something up fast the whole Order, and probably Ron and Ginny too, would know about it by the end of the day. He would have to lie. He didn't want anybody to know about it, he wanted this to be their secret, especially because she would be in even more danger if word came out that she was his girlfriend.

"Sorry to kill you fun guys, but Hermione and I aren't dating." He said confidently to show that he wasn't lying. Their faces fell.

"What? But then who was here??" Asked Tonks.

"Oh, no. You were right about that. Hermione came to visit me this morning since I wasn't replying her letters, but she is not my girlfriend. Dudley is just trying to get me in trouble for having a girl in my room." He replied looking them in the eyes. "In fact, I think that might be something going on between Ron and Hermione, so don't mention this little incident to anyone, ok? I don't want Ron to get jealous over nothing." He decided to add as an after thought. He really didn't want Ron to know about this, he suspected Ron fancied Hermione since 4 year and he didn't want to loose his friend again. They would have to tell him by themselves if and when they decided to let him know.

"Ron and Hermione? Really?" Tonks asked obviously surprised. "But I was so sure you two…"

"Anyway, what about the lessons, Harry?" Remus cut her off eager to change the subject after their little "misunderstanding", which Harry was really grateful for, he didn't like lying to them. Not that he really lied so much since he wasn't dating Hermione, she wasn't his girlfriend and Dudley did want to get him into trouble but it still sounded like lying to him.

"That would be great!! When can we start?" Replied Harry eagerly.

"We can start right now if it's ok with you. Tonks and I will take turns coming here to teach you since we have other business to attend to. We'll be working really hard but we hope you'll be good to go in less than a week. The sooner the better."

"Well, I'm ready." Was Harry answer. He was really looking forward to this.

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The last few days had been really tiring for Harry. He would practice apparating the hole day with Tonks or Remus and then would pass out on his bed only to be awoken by another nightmare. But all the hard work had been worth it. He had just come back from the ministry where he had successfully gotten his apparation license.

But now that he had time to think he was starting to get really worried. He hadn't heard from Hermione since that day she woke up in his bed and it just wasn't like her to not write him for such a long time, especially after what had happened.

So he had an idea. He would surprise her like she had done with him. But he wouldn't do it during the night, it was too risky with her parents there and all. He knew her parents worked all day and she was usually alone until dinner time, that would give him plenty of time to know what was going on and he would also take his invisibility cloak in case there was someone there keeping an eye on her or something.

After showering and changing, Harry magically locked his door, put on his cloak and got ready to apparate. He'd decided that he would apparate in his cloak so if there were really someone else at Hermione's they wouldn't see him. Now that he was ready he was really nervous, he kept thinking that Hermione realized that the whole snogging had been a mistake and now was avoiding him. Taking a deep breath he took a last look at his almost bare room before apparating. He still had everything he owned in his trunk, he hadn't bored to unpack as everybody assured him that he wouldn't be left long with his relatives and he really hoped they would be good to their words. With that thought in mind he disapparated with a soft 'pop'.

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