The next morning, Hermione woke with a bit of a headache. She looked at her watch and saw that is was 10 a.m. She stood up out of bed and found she had slept in her clothes last night. She walked over to her suitcase and opened it up. She had brought her suitcase to the headquarters because sometimes she needed a place to stay for the night. The thought of sleeping alone in her apartment was sometimes unbearable.
Throwing on a fresh pair of jeans and black tank top and her favorite grey zipper hoodie, she proceeded down the stairs. On her way down, she overheard Harry's voice coming out of his bedroom with her name coming out of his lips.
"Hermione and I are over for good. She knows how I feel about everything and I wouldn't want to be with her after you are her had a little night of fun. I still love her and always will but things just changed. So stop trying to fix what's already done."
"But you can't just give up on her. I know we did some wrong things but if you just got over that..."
"How could I ever get over you two being together! My best friend and my girlfriend doing thing that I don't even want to know about... and you both have betrayed me. You should have been happy for me. You know what! Forget it. We already argued about this over and over. I'm going down to breakfast." And he headed out of the room.
Hermione heard him coming out of the room so she quickly walked down the steps toward the kitchen and ran into Ginny.
"Good morning, Hermione." Ginny greeted her. She had bags under her eyes. You could tell she hadn't slept very well last night.
Hermione made herself some toast and grabbed a glass of pumpkin juice. She sat down at the table and ate.
"Had a rough night Ginny?"
"Yah a bit. Didn't sleep very well. Can't after that kind of news."
"Yah I guess you wouldn't. I better be off to work, I heard there is a new mission that the minister is recruiting for and if I can help I will."
"Okay, are you going to be back here for dinner? Or are you going home tonight?" asked Ginny, while Hermione took her plate to the sink.
"I think I might just go home tonight. Need some alone time. Or would you like me to come back here? Cause its not a problem if you want me to."
"I think that would be nice if you did." Ginny looked as if she needed to have a relaxing night. So Hermione decided to come back to the headquarters after her work was done.
"Okay, see you then!" she replied and she headed out the door and into the sunlight. Today was a much more beautiful day. Puddles everywhere, but at least the birds were singing. If only she didn't have so much on her mind.
Hearing the conversation between Ron and Harry made her start thinking again. She knew Harry wouldn't want her back. But the thought of Harry still loving her brought up some old feelings. She didn't know if she still loved him. There had been so many mixed feelings between Ron and Harry what she didn't know what to think at the time. They were both her friends and she didn't want to stir anything up anymore. Lost in thought while gliding down the sidewalk, she heard someone behind her calling her name.
"Hermione! Wait up!"
She turned around saw Harry running up after her. She had been so lost in thought about the conversation that she didn't even think to wait for him to walk to work. She usually apparated but walking gave her so much more time to fthink. And she didn't have to be there till noon. That's when the meeting started.
"How come you left so early? We usually walk together."
"Sorry, Harry. Guess my mind has been so caught up in everything that I just sort of walked out of the door out of habit!" she replied, trying to sound like that was the truth. She actually didn't want to be near him. It just made her think more about his brilliant green eyes and tall muscular body.
"Yah I know what you mean. So many things to think about..."
They walked in silence for awhile. Both of them in deep thought. They soon got to the ministry and went to the meeting room. Sitting down in their usual chairs, they waited for the minister to come in and greet them. The room was filled with some aurors, along with curse-breakers and potions experts. All of these people were needed today to help whatever it was Cornelius Fudge wanted them to do.
Fudge then walked into the room and announced that the meeting started.
"Hello again everyone, lets start the meeting shall we? This morning I will need a curse-breaker to volunteer to head to northern London. It seems there has been a curse put on a building there that could possibly be Crabbe has been hiding out there for the time being and we need to get in there as soon as possible.
A woman raised her hand and volunteered for the job. She got up and walked out of the room.
"Now then, we need two aurors as well. They will be needed to find and follow Draco Malfoy. He has been accused of torturing muggles much like his father. We all know here there is no evidence to these accusations but we must go after him and find out whether these are true."
Hermione raised her hand, as did Harry. They both knew that if they got Malfoy, it would be the last time they would have to put up with him. Especially Hermione. She was tired of him coming out of nowhere and trying to be a nuisance to her. She couldn't get rid of him without Fudge's orders before. But now she could. She could catch him and make him pay for all he has done.
They then walked out of the room and needed to start thinking of a way to find him and then follow him without being noticed. It was easy for them to not be noticed. They could easily use an invisibility cloak or use polyjuice potion. But how would they find him?
After an afternoon of brainstorming in Hermione's office, Harry decided it would be better if they took a break and went to the local coffee shop. It would stop them both from getting brain cramps from thinking so hard.
Hermione walked up to the server and ordered her usual, a double cappuccino. It would keep her awake for the time being and her headache was finally gone. Harry still had a raging headache and just had a cup of coffee. The hangover was not a good thing to have when you are an auror.
"Hermione, I need to talk to you about something important."
"What's that?"
"Umm... Just forget it."
"No, please tell me?" Hermione grabbed his hand. He looked a little taken aback. She just did it out of pure attraction to him. She didn't know why, but her body just seemed like a magnet that wanted to slam into him right away. Maybe it was all the caffeine in her body; otherwise she didn't know what was happening to her. She normally wasn't this impulsive, at least not lately. Thankfully he didn't pull away.
"I still have feelings for you. I wanted to tell you that. I couldn't keep it bottled up any longer otherwise I would just burst!" His grip tightened on her hand.
"Harry, I don't think we should talk about this. It will make things just more awkward between us and I don't think I could handle it.!" She knew her mind could handle it. But her body was completely oblivious to her mind. As for her heart, she wasn't sure she wanted to handle that mess right now. She might start to fall in love again with Harry and that would be even more tragic.
"Aren't things already awkward between us? We don't talk anymore Hermione. I miss that. I miss you."
Hermione blushed and Harry could tell. "I miss you too." She replied. More silence passed. "Would you like to come back to my apartment with me? We could maybe talk some more there about this?"
"Okay, I suppose so."
Hermione led the way out of the coffee shop and toward her apartment with Harry at her side. She felt like it was in the old day. Wondering if that would ever happen again.
She took out her key and opened the door. Harry followed her into the living room and sat down on the couch. She sat beside him. It was getting darker outside. The street lamps slowly came on and the stars came into sight.
"Hermione, I miss you." Harry said in a quiet, almost seductive voice.
"I know that. I miss you too."
Harry grabbed her shoulder and pulled her closer towards him. He laid his hand on her thigh. She was urging for his touch. All she think about was him. In the back of her mind she knew what was going to happen tonight. It had happened before. She remembered everything she had felt; confusion. But what the heck right? She was already confused enough.
She laid her hand on his neck. Her breathing increasing rapidly and Harry's heart was pounding madly. He needed her tonight. He needed her to fulfill him and to fill the loneliness and take away the anger. He wanted her.
He then picked her up and carried her over to the bedroom and onto the bed. He quickly tore off his shirt, and revealed his gorgeous body. Enveloped in muscles, she couldn't take her eyes off of him. Harry reached down and ripped off her sweater and pulled off her top. She knew she wasn't getting rid of him tonight. Their bodies were on fire. She was helpless to prevent it and he wasn't going to let her. The rest of the night, they were both wrapped up in each others arms, and caught up in the sheets of ecstasy.