Chapter Four-

Hermione let out a small gasp and she looked over at Ron to see if he had noticed. Both of their eyes met at the same time with a similar look of confusion.

"What?" Becca asked staring at them, "Did I miss something?"

"I—I change my mind," Hermione said, looking back out the window towards the front room where the man had Apparated. The window shades were now drawn shut, so she couldn't see anything inside. "I like the blue dress better. Go—get ready."

Becca eyed her. "But I still have a day."

Hermione glared at Becca. "There's no time like the present."

Becca stared at Hermione, then Ron, and then looked back at Hermione.

"Are you trying to get rid of me?"

Hermione sighed. "No. But I have to now—Ron and I have a class."

"But it's Saturday!" Becca exclaimed, "You don't have Saturday classes."

"It's an extra-credit course," Hermione said, looking back at the house, "And we'll be late if we don't leave soon."

"Fine," Becca finally agreed, shooting Ron a suspicious look, "But I'll be here early tomorrow—to get ready."

"Okay, great," Hermione said absentmindedly, pulling her hair back. She took Ron's arm and motioned to leave, "See you later, Becca."

"That wasn't too smooth," Ron said, once they were out of hearing distance of Becca. He held open the door and let Hermione walk through it, "If she didn't doubt us before, she will for sure now."

Hermione snorted. "It's Becca, Ron. I could probably levitate a chair in front of her and she still wouldn't notice."

Ron shrugged. "I'm just saying. Some people really aren't as clueless as they make out to be."

They were quiet the rest of the walk to the house, and they walked up towards the front door. It was open, due to the movers moving furniture in and out and they walked in without invitation. They climbed up the stairs, and up to the room in which they had seen the man and Ron sent Hermione a long look before raising his fist and knocking at the door.

"Hold on!" a familiar British voice called out.

Hermione froze. Where had she heard that voice?

The door swung open and Hermione and Ron were face-to-face with the man that had bumped into Hermione at the airport. His face wasn't as pale as it was the first time they had met, but it did significantly reduce in color when he saw them.

"Er, hello?" he asked, eyeing Ron.

"Hi," Ron said, extending a hand, "I'm Ronald Weasley. And this is Hermione Granger."

The man took his hand and shook it. "I'm…James. James Edwards." He avoided their eyes. "How—how did you get in?"

"The door was open," Ron said brightly.

"Oh," James said slowly, "So…that's why…you came?"

"I live across the street," Hermione said briskly, "And we saw you Apparate in."

James finally tore his eyes away from Ron to look at Hermione for the first time. Their eyes met and Hermione felt her stomach do a somersault. Those eyes…they were so familiar…

Either that or she'd been watching too many Muggle romance movies.

James didn't look too surprised at the fact that Hermione was a witch. In fact his face seemed to gain a bit more color.

"Is that so?" he asked, "I didn't know there would be any other magical folk in this neighborhood."

"That still doesn't mean you should Apparate!" Hermione said, her voice rising shrilly. Both James and Ron sent her bewildered glances. "We had a Muggle friend in there too! What if she had seen you Apparate?"

"I—I'm…sorry?" James said after a minute.

Hermione sighed and bit her lip. For some reason, she felt quite angry at this man—though she didn't know why. "You ought to be a bit more careful, honestly. Some people aren't as clueless as the make out to be!"

Ron glared at her. "Don't steal my line of glory! And I wouldn't be talking." He turned to look at James, "You should see how horribly obvious Hermione is. It's a good thing we don't hang out with too many Muggles…"

James smiled at Ron, but his eyes stayed focused on Hermione.

"So," Ron said, "What school did you go to?"

"S-School?" James repeated, looking back at Ron.

"Yes," Ron repeated, "What magical school?"

"Oh," James said, "Er, I went to, Durmstrang."

"Hermione and I went to Hogwarts," Ron said. "Too bad we didn't see you our last year though—were you one of the Durmstrang students that came to our graduation ball."

Hermione felt her face go cold. The graduation ball.

Harry's ball.

James seemed to be uncomfortable. "Er, no, I didn't. I graduated Durmstrang a year before."

"Oh."

There was a brief silence.

"So," James asked slowly, "You two…married?"

Ron burst out laughing. Hermione felt a flush run up her cheeks.

"Married? Me? Hermione?" Ron fell into another peal of giggles. James looked bewildered, but slightly relieved at the same time. He sent Hermione another look which Hermione carefully avoided.

"Would you two like to come in," James asked, once Ron's laughter had died down. "I mean, it's still messy since I've just moved in and all…but I could summon a ch—"

"No magic," Hermione hissed.

James sighed. "I could pull up a chair."

Hermione eyed him. "That's fine," she said in a cold tone, "Ron and I only came over to tell you that. We have to go now."

"To where?" Ron asked, looking at Hermione. She glared at him.

"We have to go to our extra credit class," Hermione said through clenched teeth.

"Extra credit class?" James asked from the doorway, sounding confused, "For what?"

"That's none of your business," Hermione said, turning back to look at him, "And now we'll—"

"Well," Ron said, cutting off Hermione, "Actually when we moved here, we learned that as Muggles we couldn't get a job unless we were properly educated. So Hermione forced us to go to this adult college thing." He sighed and rolled his eyes. "It's quite dull."

"Well," Hermione said, in a mock light tone, "Now that you've revealed our whole life story, do you mind coming?"

"So," James said in a casual tone, eyeing Ron "Is she always like this when she meets new people, or did I just catch you on a bad day?"

"Hermione's paranoid," Ron said back. Hermione sent him a death glare.

"Fine," she said, "Then I'll go!"

She made a motion to begin Apparating but before she could 'pop' away James caught her arm. She felt familiar tingles rush down, but then pushed his arm off, and glared at him.

"No magic," James said, grinning at her.

She let out a loud grunt and then turned on her heel and stormed all the way down the hall.

- - - - -

"And then," Hermione said, her spoonful of mint ice cream stopping halfway through her mouth, "He mocked me again!"

Becca eyed her for a minute and then dug out a spoon of ice cream from the carton in front of them. "So tell me—why did you go without me?"

Hermione grunted. "Becca, is that important? You're lucky you missed meeting this guy—he's a jerk!"

"Actually," Ron's voice came from the foyer, "He's not." He walked into the kitchen and plopped down next to Becca. "He's sweet, funny, entertaining, smart—"

"Ron's in love," Becca said, handing Ron a spoon and grinning at him.

Ron stuck his tongue out at her. "And I've called him for dinner at your restaurant."

"What?" Hermione exclaimed, dropping her spoon, "You what?"

"Well," Ron said sweetly, "It's the neighborly thing to do."

Hermione glared at him. "You—are—not—his—neighbor."

Ron shrugged. "Well it's tomorrow night at eight."

"Y-You can't!" Hermione said, thinking quickly, "Mum…Mum won't let you!"

"I've already asked her."

"But tomorrow night…at eight…that's Becca's date!"

"It's okay," Becca said, "I don't mind. I'd actually like to meet this guy."

Ron grinned at Hermione with a triumphant look, as if prodding her to go on.

"Fine," Hermione grumbled at last, "Fine. But I won't be happy."

And when the next night rolled around, she definitely wasn't.

Um, review? Please?