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Chapter 8 – The Breakfast Meeting

After they had both showered and dressed they made their way to the kitchen. Hermione was so cute dressed in one of Harry's new sweatpants and a big T-shirt that he almost convinced her to skip breakfast, well, almost. To tell the truth Harry was a bit nervous about meeting everyone and explaining what the both of them had been doing for the past couple of weeks. They had decided that they shouldn't mention their earlier 'agreement' to anyone and just say they had started dating the day Hermione apparated to his room, which wasn't completely lying, just a mere technicality. But, other than that they would be as honest as possible, as long as nobody asked for specific details of what a hormone-driven teenager boy was doing all alone with a teenager girl in a room with a big bed.

When they reached the kitchen door Harry stopped and looked at Hermione as if to ask if she was ready, only after she nodded and lightly squeezed his hand he led her into the room.

"Good morning." Said Harry politely as they entered the full kitchen. Everybody stopped talking at the sound of his voice and turned to look at the couple that was now making their way to the table. After they sat Harry started pilling food in both their plates; since they hadn't had dinner he was famished and even if Hermione wasn't hungry he would make her eat. And when he finished devouring his meal and saw her still full plate he decided to do just that.

"What's wrong, Mya? You barely touched your food. We have a very busy day today; you will need your strength. You have to eat." Harry said softly but seriously, letting her know that he wouldn't stop nagging her until she ate everything on her plate.

"I know. I just can't eat when people are staring at me." She said in a neutral tone of voice as she looked around the table at the people who had been, indeed, staring at them but now were trying to cover it by looking at everywhere else but them.

"Okay." Said Harry with a sigh. "We all have things to do today other than sit here and stare at each other so if you could just tell us what it is that you want and get it over with, we would really appreciate it."

Hearing this the occupants of the kitchen exchanged glances as if trying to decide who was going to speak first since there were quite a few people present. All Weasleys minus Percy were there and also Remus, Tonks, Moody, and surprisingly Professor McGonagall, who, at last, was the one to address them.

"We know that this must be a terrible time to bring this up, and be assured that if we could postpone talking about this matter we certainly would but unfortunately it is of extreme importance that you both relate to us what exactly happened last night. And also, to help us get a better understanding of the whole scenario, it would be good too if you could explain a few things about your summer." Professor McGonagall said all of this very kindly and everyone could see by her expression that she really cared for Hermione and as Harry thought about it he could really see why she was the one chosen to speak. Of all the people in the room, with exception of himself of course, the professor was the one that Hermione respected and trusted most, therefore making it easier for Hermione to respond to her rather than anyone else.

"That's fine, really. We were expecting something like this." Said Hermione in a business like manner. "I guess it would be more helpful if we started telling you about our summer up until yesterday. What exactly do you want to know?"

People were clearly taken aback by Hermione's cool tone but Harry was not at all surprised. He knew she would keep this as much formal as possible so it would be easier for her to keep her façade and not break down in front of them. Harry also thought they deserved the treatment they were getting and intended on behaving the same way when his time came to speak, if only the Order had been more open with them last year things could have turned out much different.

"Well, …" Started Remus awkwardly. "I talked to your Aunt Catherine, Hermione. I wanted to tell her about what happened so she could help with the necessary arrangements and all. And, well, I asked her a few questions since we didn't know when you two would be up to talking… anyway, she told me about a fight you had with your parents over your muggle boyfriend …" Several gasps were heard at the mention of her boyfriend. Some people were looking incredulously at Hermione as if they didn't believe she could have a secret boyfriend that wasn't Harry or Ron and much less a muggle. "… And that Harry couldn't have been at your house since your were grounded until the end of the summer and was forbidden to have any contact with your friends, be they magical or muggles. So I was wondering…" But what he was wondering Harry didn't find out because Moody chose this moment to interrupt.

"Hey, stop a little there, Lupin. This might be important; this muggle boy might be a spy for the dark side or something. What exactly Granger's aunt told you?" Asked Moody eagerly.

"This is ridiculous! This is private business and does not concern any of you. I've known Jason all my life and he's one hundred percent muggle! And since almost no one in the Wizarding world knew of our relationship then there's no way anyone could use him to get to me." Countered Hermione angrily.

"She's right Moody, the details of her fight with her parents are not of our business and my telling them wouldn't help in anything." Remus said before the old auror could reply. "But I have to know Hermione, who knew about this and if you really trust this boy."

"Ginny knew since last summer and I told Harry a couple of weeks ago. And I do trust him. He's my best friend in the muggle world." Said Hermione coolly, now that she had calmed out again.

Ginny, maybe sensing that now it was ok to speak, turned on Hermione with a curious look on her face. "But I thought you guys had decided to remain just friends and broke up. When did you get back together?"

"We didn't." Said Hermione with a resigned sigh. And Harry knew that now was the time to come clean about their relationship.

"But your aunt told me that you admitted spending the night with this boy. And that there was some… err, evidence of it." Asked Remus confused. And several mores shocked gasps were heard after that little bomb.

"I DID NOT admit 'spending the night' with anyone" Hermione replied outraged. "I told my parents that I left early in the morning to meet Jason…"

"Oh, yeah, I forgot. It's only that your mother didn't notice you were missing in the morning as she told you. She had had a nightmare so she got up around 2 am to check on you only to find your bed empty. As you had changed out of your pajamas she knew that you had sneaked out. The reason why she didn't say anything was that she didn't want your father to find out his little girl had spent the night out with some boy." Corrected Remus.

Hermione was speechless for a minute, as was Harry. The fact that her mother knew she hadn't spent the night home weighing on their consciences. The whole room was now silent again, waiting to hear Hermione's response.

"Fine, I won't try to deny that." Replied Hermione resigned. "This will only help me make my point which is that just because I 'told' my parents something doesn't mean that it's the truth." As Remus was opening his mouth to add something Hermione raised her hand to stop him and continued. "I know there was 'evidence', as you put it, that I was with a boy and I won't deny that either, it just wasn't Jason. I only told my parents that because I thought they would just forbid me from seeing him and forget about it, I had no idea they were going to ground me." Harry was amazed as how calm Hermione was through all of this because he wouldn't be so collected if people were looking at 'him' like that. Ron was so red on the face that he seemed like he was going to explode at any second and kept staring daggers at her. Mrs. Weasley was looking disapproving and was probably thinking Rita Skeater was right at portraying her as some sort of scarlet woman. The twins were looking at her as if for the first time in a mix of shock and admiration, Ginny also looked impressed at her coolness and the rest just looked surprised.

Everybody kept silent for a while, probably waiting to see if Hermione would continue and tell them who this mysterious boyfriend was, when she didn't Remus probed her again. "Well, huh, so are you planning on telling us where you were and with whom? I know you may think it's none of our business but after the attack we have to consider all possibilities."

"Oh, but you know where and with whom I was. Don't you remember? You and Tonks may not have seen me but you knew I had been there." Said Hermione amused, looking at Tonks who were sitting beside her, she must had been wondering, like Harry, how they hadn't piece it all together by now.

After a few seconds of confusion, Tonks jaw dropped. "I knew it! I bloody knew it! Just friends my arse, I told you the little brat was lying." She exclaimed with a big smile on her face shifting her gaze from Remus to Harry and Hermione, then she leaned over to give Hermione a hug and whispered something in her ear that made her giggle. But the smile that the scene brought to Harry's lips was soon wiped off his face as he looked at Remus and the others. The werewolf looked really hurt that Harry had lied to him and the rest still looked confused. They hadn't got it yet and now it was time for Harry to speak.

"We won't apologize for lying." Said Harry in a serious tone, looking at Remus. He liked the man, he really did, but this was not about him. He had to let them know how they felt about the Order, and right now, he wasn't speaking to his last link to his father, he was speaking to an Order member.

"Nobody here is asking for an apology, Harry. We just want to understand. Why did you feel like you had to lie? Don't you trust Tonks and I?" Remus asked, not trying to hide the hurt in his voice and that affected Harry somehow. This was going to be harder than he thought. The people they cared about were hurt, disappointed and downright mad at them right now but they couldn't let this affect them, they had a point to make and they would do it.

"It's not you that we don't trust. We don't trust the Order. It's nothing personal." Harry's cool statement was met by several outraged replies that he couldn't quite make out, as every order member seemed to be speaking at the same time, but he could hear a non-order member shouting at him very clearly.

"What about me, huh? I'm not a bloody member! When were you planning on telling me that you've been going at it with Hermione behind my back?" Harry had never seen Ron this mad, or this red, before. He was standing across the table from Harry and looking down at him with a look on his face that showed that he wanted nothing more than just beat him to a pulp.

"Ron, …" Harry started, standing up himself. He knew that Ron was going to flip over this but he was really not looking forward this conversation, especially in front of all these people.

"Why her, Harry?" Ron asked, pain now mixed with the anger on his face. "You could have any bloody girl you wanted. Damn, you even dated the most popular girl in school last term. Why this now?"

"That's the thing, Ron. Hermione isn't like Cho, or any other girl. She likes me for who I truly am, and not just because I'm famous. She is special and what we have is special. We didn't plan for this to happen and we didn't tell you sooner because we were still sorting out what all of this meant. Also, we wanted to tell you in person, because we knew how upset you would be and the reason you would fell this way." Harry said all of this looking intently into Ron's eyes, trying to convey to him that he really meant all those things he said but at Harry's last statement Ron avoided his eyes so he stopped speaking.

Harry was pleased to see that Ron didn't look angry anymore but at the same time he felt extremely guilty for causing the hurt he was seeing on his best friend's eyes. Ron now was staring with a pained look on his face at Hermione that had been staring and poking at her food since Ron's outburst.

"Does that mean… Harry said 'w-we'… Does that mean you knew? All this time you knew how I felt?" Ron whispered incredulously to Hermione.

"I knew you fancied me, since the Yule Ball." Answered Hermione quietly, still playing with her food. "And the funny thing is that I liked you too. I had a major crush on you for the longest time, but as you never made a move or anything and we kept fighting all the time, I started thinking that maybe you didn't want to fancy me. I know it sounds weird but you were always making fun of me, never supported me on things like SPEW or even prefect duties, so I reached the conclusion that you were ashamed of me; one thing was to be friends but it was another thing completely to date the bossy, plain looking know-it-all. So, at the end of last term, after many nights of crying myself to sleep I decided that I had to get over you, and after everything that happened at the Department of Mysteries I finally did. I got over you." After saying this, she finally looked up at Ron, who had spent the whole time she was speaking frozen in place, with his mouth hanging open. She had tears in her eyes and looked like she was trying very hard to keep herself together. "I'm sorry, but when I woke up on the hospital wing after almost dying I realized that life it's too short to spend waiting for a guy that doesn't seem to want you."

People all around were gaping at her while Ron just kept opening and closing his mouth like a fish but no sound came out. Out of everybody in the room, Harry was the only one not surprised by this revelation. Hermione had told him this on a rainy afternoon last week, he had been extremely jealous at first but after she assured him that she was really over Ron and by no means their relationship was any kind of rebound and that she wasn't with him just because she couldn't be with Ron, he had calmed down.

"I know this will be hard for you to accept, Ron" Hermione continued, realizing that Ron wouldn't be speaking any time soon. "But I think that if you are really honest with yourself you will see that the only reason you are feeling this hurt right now, is because you always considered me your possession even though we were never a couple. I was something that you had and Harry didn't, and now that he took that away from you, you are feeling angry and betrayed." She stood up and leaned over the table so that her face was closer to Ron's. "This isn't about you fancying me or wanting to be with me. Once again this is just about Harry and what Harry has that you don't. I just hope you realize that soon, because Harry and I have already lost too much to loose our best friend over some silly thing as this." When Hermione finished talking her voice was breaking and there were tears running down her face, Ron was looking at her stunned and apparently hadn't found his voice yet.

"Well, I have a lot to do today. Are you going to be escorting me to my house?" She said trying to compose herself while turning to look at Tonks.

"Yeah, sure." Said Tonks getting up fast and knocking down her chair, she seemed quite eager to leave the tension that had created in the room.

"I'll see you later, Ok?" Said Hermione giving Harry a hug.

"Are you sure you'll be ok? I could go meet you after I finished at Gringotts." He said looking at her and pointedly ignoring the looks their were getting from the others in the room.

"No, I'll be fine. Actually, I was hoping you could buy our school things while you are at Diagonal Alley, we might not have time to do it later." She whispered the end giving him a pointed look that showed him that she hadn't changed her mind about their summer plans.

"Ok, I'll see you tonight then." He gave her a kiss on the cheek and she left the room with Tonks.

"Remus, I suppose you'll be the one taking me to Gringotts, right?" Asked Harry moving towards the door, hoping to leave as soon as possible. Remus just nodded; clearly still hurt that Harry lied to him. "Great. I'll just grab a couple of things upstairs and we can go." Said Harry already walking out of the room.

"Wait there, Potter. We are not finished here." Said Moody trying to get him to come back.

"No, as long as I'm concerned, we're finished." Harry said not even turning around before he close the door behind him.

A/N : So this is it! Sorry it took so long but I had a serious pre-HBP block. Thanks for reading and don't forget to review!