Hermione wondered who…
She was deep in thought when another owl came banging into her closed window.
This owl's letter was written in the same elegant handwriting and it said:
Tomorrow. Olive Garden Restaurant. 6pm. Wear the necklace.
Hermione's eyes widened. This was the guy who had sent her the necklace on her birthday! She had been itching to find out who it was and now she was being given a chance.
There was no way in hell she was going to miss this date.
…
She decided to invite Ginny over to help her get ready for her big date. Ron had been pissed off when he heard Hermione was going on a date but he could do nothing to stop her. They had broken up quite a while ago and were just friends now.
Ginny was a genius when it came to fashion and style. Before Hermione knew what was going on, she was dressed, made up, and ready to head out to her mystery date.
"Oh. You look absolutely stunning. I hope you have the best date ever," Ginny exclaimed.
Hermione looked down at herself and saw that she was wearing the light pink dress the bear and her had picked out and she was also wearing a white cardigan over the dress. She was wearing silver heels and her heart necklace. Without further ado she thanked Ginny, gave a wave, and left the apartment.
Not in the mood to walk two miles in heels, she instead chose to apparate to an alley beside Olive Garden Restaurant.
Suddenly very anxious of what was to come, Hermione took a few deep breathes to calm herself. 'I can do this. I can do this."
She slowly walked into the restaurant and was surprised to see nobody there at all, not one customer.
She was about to turn around and leave when a waitress came by and said, "Ms. Granger?"
"Yes. That's me."
"Your partner is waiting for you at table 7." The waitress gestured towards the back of the restaurant where a man was sitting with his back to them.
Hermione made her way over to the man cautiously. As she neared him he stood up to pull her chair back for her and Hermione gasped.
"Viktor?"
"It's been a long time Hermione. Much too long." Viktor replied back.
"Yes it has. What have you been up to?"
"Just lots of quidditch. My country needs me. How about you Hermione? How do you do?"
Hermione decided to stay quiet about her parents and decided to go with a mysterious shrug.
"Nothing much. Just the usuals."
The waitress came by and took their orders. Both decided to have a classic spaghetti and salad.
"I've missed you Hermione. Very much." Viktor looked very lonely as he said this and Hermione couldn't help but take his hands and give them a light squeeze.
"I've missed you too. It's such a pity we didn't keep in touch after you returned to Durmstrang."
"Well, I have decided to stay in London for a while. At least until I acquire something extremely important."
Hermione quirked an eyebrow but did not comment.
"Are you seeing anyone right now Hermione?"
'Way to cut to the point,' thought Hermione.
"No, I don't believe so."
"Will you return to my side?"
A bear claw dropped a plate of spaghetti in front of Viktor. "Your food is ready," growled a familiar voice.
"Here. Allow me to add the chili sauce for you." With that said, about a quarter of the bottle was poured onto Viktor's plate.
The bear then handed Hermione her plate of spaghetti and left.
Hermione was stunned. Why was bear everywhere and what was he pmsing about?
"I'm sorry. What did you say Viktor?"
"It's nothing. Let us eat for now," said Viktor as he dug into his extremely spicy spaghetti without another word.
"Mk."
With that, dinner passed by rather quickly and soon they were outside of the restaurant. Viktor offered Hermione a ride home but she politely declined, saying she had some business to take care of around the area.
…
"Psst."
"Psst! Bear."
Hermione had sneaked back into the restaurant and was poking her head into the kitchen looking for bear when a waitress came by and told her Bear had left about two minutes ago.
With a brief thanks Hermione dashed out the door and looked around the streets for bear.
A couple minutes of wandering later she saw the fuzzy thing about fifty yards ahead of her.
"BEAR!"
The bear looked behind him and then turned and ran the opposite direction. He thought Hermione was going to murder him for the chili sauce stunt he pulled. It was kind of hard to run in a ten pound costume though and Hermione eventually caught up with him.
"Why did you run?" Hermione asked. "It's not like I'm going to hunt you down and yank off her wanker for what you did to Viktor…"
The bear looked scared for a second.
"Just tell me, why are you everywhere? Why work so many jobs anyways."
The bear rolled his eyes but Hermione didn't see because of the costume he was wearing.
"Well, can't bloody use galleons here in London now can we?"
Hermione looked up. "You're a wizard? Why didn't you say so?"
"Gee. I tell every other person on the street that I'm a wizard. Blimey. Use your head Granger."
'That sounds so familiar. This taunting voice… I know I've heard it somewhere before,' Hermione thought.
"… you tell him?"
"What did you say?" Hermione snapped out of her thoughts.
"I said, what did you tell him?"
"I told him a lot of things. What are you asking bear?"
"Gosh darnit. Are you going out with Krum now?"
Realization finally dawned on Hermione. "No, I didn't give him a reply yet."
The bear seemed visibly less tense and replied, "Good. Don't go out with that douche."
"What? Don't tell me you're jealous bear."
"You're funny."
"Why thank you. I appreciate every bit of your sarcasm."
"You're welcome. I do try."
They continued to bicker and before they knew it they had arrived at Hermione's apartment.
"Not going to invite me in for tea I suppose?"
"Can you even drink tea with that big bear head of yours?"
"Of course I can. There's a flap for the mouth smart one," and with that he showed Hermione the little flap in his giant bear head.
"I suppose you can come in for tea if you really want. I mean, I have pepper spray if I should need it."
"Pepper spray. What's that?" bear asked.
"Oh never you mind. It's a muggle thing."
"Ah. Well, lead the way."
…..
Two hours of tea and chatting later, they were slumped on the couch watching some T.V.
'Mm. It feels nice to have a friend who's not obsessed with Quidditch and Wizard's chess. Bear almost feels like a gal-pal in a way. Can't let him know and bruise his ego though.' Hermione gave a small laugh.
This caught the bear's attention and he lazily drawed out, "What's so funny? We're watching a horror movie you know?"
Deciding to just follow along Hermione said in a serious tone, "The head exploding makes me laugh every time."
"Gross Granger! You're worse than Crabbe!"
"Crabbe? You know Crabbe?"
"Uh. I said 'You're worse than crap.' What's wrong with your hearing Granger?"
"Who compares people to crap? That's god awful!" Hermione said though inside she swore she had heard him say "Crabbe."
"Just watch the movie Granger." With that, they turned their attention back to the screen.
…..
Sometime during the night they both fell asleep on the couch. It was a funny sight, seeing Hermione's feet about two inches from the bear's nose. Eventually Hermione got up first and began to prepare breakfast.
"Bear, wake up. Eat and then you have to go. Your parents will worry about you."
"Ughgh. Gimme thirty more minutes of sleep. It's only six."
"It's twelve Bear and if you keep sleeping with your arm twisted that way it might become permanent."
With that the bear sprung up and wolfed down six pancakes before leaving out the door. "Good pancakes. Cya."
"Wait bear. The price for those pancakes is telling me your name. Now do tell." Hermione said smugly.
"This again. Why won't you give it up? I'm not telling you my name. You wouldn't want to know anyways."
"Why is that? Do you have a really hideous name? Is it Fagahoe? Pisonface? Shagacup?
The bear stood there dumbstruck. "I assure you my name has nothing to do with shagging cups. I have a perfectly wonderful name. You just can't know it. Good bye."
"Oh come on. What's so bad about letting an innocent girl like me know your name? I'm not going to go stalk your bear highness. Jeez." Hermione made a move to close the door on him but before it was fully closed, he said,
"Fine. I'll tell you my name."
…..
Author's Note: Read and Review3 I wonder who the bear is! & Will Hermione find her parents anytime soon? To be continued…
