Chapter Seventeen

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Go With It

Indicating the Honeydukes storefront, Harry said, "Just what the doctor ordered." He started for the door.

Hermione hesitated. "I didn't bring any money."

"I'll loan you some," Harry offered.

"I don't like borrowing."

"So I'll treat."

Still, Hermione hung back. "Everyone's probably in there," she said. She was in no mood to be caught in the flirting frenzy that was undoubtedly in progress just behind the door.

Harry peered inside. "The coast is clear," he assured her as he opened the door to let her enter.

She stepped past him with apprehension. It had been just over two weeks since she'd been there, but it seemed much longer. So much else had changed, she expected this place, too, would be different. She was relieved to find her fears unfounded. Everything from the wineberry-and-rose quartz colour scheme to the casual warmth of the place was just as it had always been.

"I'll have three Pumpkin Pasties and a Licorice Wand, please," she told the girl behind the counter.

"You always have that," Harry said. "Why don't you try something different?"

"I like it," she explained simply. Today, especially, with everything else in turmoil, she needed the reassurance of being able to do things as she had always done them.

"I'll have Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Beans," said Harry.

Hermione made a face. She couldn't imagine a worse choice. The last time she had tried one, she landed a snot flavoured bean. "Just what the doctor ordered," she joked.

They ambled back toward the train station, enjoying the sweetness of their lilies and the comfort of each other's company. The small, cosy homes along the way glowed in the day's last golden sunrays, and the maple trees dabbed the tidy, fading lawns with dropped spots of riotous colour.

Hermione felt fortunate to live in such a beautiful place and to have Harry for her best friend.

"I've been thinking," she said. "What if you hadn't come to Hogwarts? We wouldn't even know each other. Isn't that an awful thought?"

"Don't think it," Harry replied.

She sighed. Without their classmates there jabbering boy-girl talk, she could almost make herself believe that nothing had changed. She cocked her head to look at him. "I'm so glad we didn't run into any of the other kids."

Harry met her eyes. He smiled. "Me, too," he said.

o-o-o-o-o

When Hermione got back, the first thing she had to do was find Ginny to apologize. It would be difficult and she might not forgive herm but she had to do it just the same.

Luckily, Ginny was sitting in the common room just as Hermione walked in. Her stomach tightened as Ginny turned and looked at her. Each heartbeat seemed to reverberate through her, jangling her nerves. When Ginny spoke, Hermione was as breathless as she would have been if she'd just run a mile.

"Hi, Ginny." She paused to take a couple of deep breaths.

"Hermione! Hi!" Ginny sounded happy to see her. "I was just going to go and find you."

"You were?"

"I'll bet that's why you found me – cause you knew."

There she goes again, Hermione thought, assuming I know things I couldn't possibly know. "I didn't know," she said. "How would I know?"

"Your feelings," Ginny said, surprise in her voice.

"Oh, I can't read minds," Hermione said.

"I'll bet you could if you tried," Ginny responded.

"Why were you coming to find me?" Hermione asked, deliberately changing the subject.

"Because you're mad at me and I just wanted to say I'm sorry."

Hermione couldn't believe what she heard. It was as if someone had switched scripts and Ginny was reading the wrong lines. "You didn't do anything, Ginny," she said. "I'm the one. I was awful to you. I wouldn't blame you if you never forgave me."

Ginny laughed. "That'd be pretty stupid. We're friends, aren't we? Besides, I don't believe in staying mad at anybody. It wears a person out."

Hermione agreed with that. She had been angry with nearly everyone in the third year. It hadn't done her a bit of good. Certainly, she couldn't change things back to the way they were. And being upset about it had interfered with her schoolwork and her usual sense of well being.

What she had to do was just go with it. Ginny knew that, and she hadn't even had a calming spell.

o-o-o-o-o

Hermione was so excited about her decision that she didn't notice the chill in the air the next morning.

"Harry, I thought about what you said the other day," she told her friend when they met, "and I think you're right."

His hands buried in his cloak pockets, Harry looked at her warily. "About what?"

"I think you should be my boyfriend."

Harry's expression transformed to one of delighted surprise. "Well, all right!" he said.

"We'll only be pretending, but - "

Harry nodded. "Pretending. Right."

" – no one else'll know that," Hermione concluded. "I think it'll work just like you said, Harry. If you're my boyfriend, then Nevile Longbottom will leave me alone. The girls will stop pestering you, too. Besides that, we'll fit in better."

"Right," Harry said.

Hermione smiled triumphantly. "Of course we don't have to be as sappy as everyone else – drawing hearts all over everything like they do – but I suppose we do have to… act a little different."

Harry grinned at her. "Sometimes you sound just like Aunt Petunia," he said.

Hermione gave him an impatient swat. "This is serious, Harry," she admonished him. "We have to get it all worked out before we get to class. We have to decide how you should act, because boyfriends don't act like ordinary friends."

"Neither do girlfriends," Harry put in.

"That's the problem," Hermione said, looking to him for a solution.

He shrugged. "So, you tell me, what should we do?"

"I guess we should talk to one another a lot," Hermione offered.

"And I should walk you to class," Harry suggested.

"And smile a lot – we should smile when we see one another."

"And when we think of each other – we should smile then, too."

"And tell one another things we've never told anybody."

After a brief pause, they turned to look at one another. "We do all those things now," they said simultaneously.

"So how's anybody gonna know things've changed?" Harry asked.

Hermione sighed. "I guess we'll just have to… tell them."

A/N: That was a bit shorter than usual, but it wasn't too bad. Did that answer everybody's questions about the plot? I hope so, but if not, I'll update tomorrow. Hopefully, twice. That's right, next it'll be a… dun dun duuun… DOUBLE UPDATE!