CHAPTER TEN

'Men are more interesting in books than they are in real life.'
~Mary Ann Shaffer, The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society~

Ron and Harry showed up at her job the next day. "I know you usually spend your break with my less than charming brother," Ron announced, grabbing her purse, "but today you're spending lunch with your two best friends in the whole universe, one of them being your loving boyfriend."

"Ron," She said, walking behind them, "give me my bag back." She was trying to act like she wasn't amused, but it wasn't working. "Ronald!"

The last thing she wanted to do was make a scene at her job, so she stayed quiet as Ron laughed and weaved in and out of the aisles with her purse. He was taking the long way out on purpose, she knew, and she could practically see Harry's cheeky smile from the back of his head. She rolled her eyes, but felt giddy. They were breaking her out! For an hour, but better late than never. It felt like they hadn't spent much time together the three of them for awhile. Harry and Ron were busy with auror training and she had her job. And then both she and Ron had to devote time to filming this show.

Once they were outside, the sun beat down on them. She jumped up on her boyfriend's back as punishment for stealing her bag. Ron caught her easily, his hands under her thighs. She wrapped her arms across his chest and planted a kiss near his ear. Judging by his smile, it didn't seem like it was effective punishment, but she didn't mind so much. It was impossible to describe how light she was feeling, even if she doubted Ron would agree. There was just something about being with the man you love and your best friend.

Whoa. Did she just say... love? She loved Ron? How did she even know what love was? She loved being around him, but was it love?

"You okay?" Ron asked, like he sensed her change.

Was that love? Being able to tell when the other person starts feeling something else? She needed to calm down, if she subconsciously considered the man she loved, than it must have been true. You don't just think that unless you mean it. Either way, now was not the time to dwell on it, especially since it was supposed to be friendship time after weeks of being apart. She couldn't ruin it now with her own mixed up feelings. Or maybe it wasn't so mixed up. Maybe she really did love Ron and her mind was just screwing it up.

"Mione, you look sick," Harry observed from her side.

Ron set her down gently, like he was worried she'd fall apart. He turned to look at her and touched her cheek. "You do seem pale. Is it the heat, Mione?"

"Yeah... yeah, the heat," She lied, it would be easier than explaining what was really going on. "Lets um... where were you taking me?"

Ron looked at Harry. "You didn't have anywhere in mind, did you? And why aren't you at training?" She questioned.

"We were let out early," Ron shrugged, "And we did have a plan!" At the look she sent him, Ron sighed and muttered, "Fine. We don't know where we're going,"

"We just need to get you out of the heat," Harry said, "Are you feeling okay? Do you need water?"

"Right, the heat." Hermione blushed, "Um... ice cream?"

It proved to be the right suggestion, since there was nothing really to do at Diagon Alley besides shop. They got a table inside, since the boys were still worried she'd get heat stroke. "How was dinner with the Malfoys?" Ron asked, through a mouthful of ice cream.

She cringed, "Can you please swallow your ice cream first?" Ron rolled his eyes and she went on, "It was fine until Lucius called us mudbloods. I kicked them out." There was no point in mentioning Draco calling her ugly for the millionth time. Also, they had fallen into a pattern of not talking about Draco, so there was no reason for her to break it now.

Ron's whole face turned red. "He did what?"

Harry was beaming at her, "Go, Mione! You really kicked them out?"

"Hell yeah," She grinned, "You should have seen Lucius. He looked ready to Avada someone. But I kicked them out. We haven't spoken since. Ronald," She added, seeing her boyfriend looked furious, "It's fine, I took care of it. You don't need to be mad- it's not like this is the first time this has happened."

"Why didn't you call me?" He asked.

"Huh?" She said, stupidly. "I mean," she corrected herself, "Excuse me?"

"Why didn't you call? After it happened?" Ron questioned.

Hermione looked at him, at a loss for words. She didn't know why she hadn't called him. It hadn't seemed like a big deal. She'd handled it and calling Ron had never once popped into her mind. Did that make her a bad girlfriend? Was she supposed to want to call him after something happened? But she didn't need him. She'd been fine. It wasn't anything important like her mom got hit by a car.

"I don't know." She told him, "And you were out with Harry and Jenna go-carting. I didn't want to ruin your fun." This was untrue, but she didn't want to hurt his feelings by saying he never crossed her mind all night. "And you don't even have a phone. Nor can you use one properly"

"Mione, you can call me whenever." He said, reaching across the table to take her hand, like she hadn't even brought up a very important fact. He didn't have a phone. She'd have had to call Harry and asked to speak to Ron, who would then spend nearly a whole minute trying to hold it properly.

She wanted to pull away but thought that would send the wrong message. Especially since she hadn't called him and he clearly wanted her to have. His hand felt warm and she tried to smile. She glanced at Harry, finding him staring at her. It was like he was trying to read her mind. It was the look he got when he thought she wasn't being truthful about her feelings. He'd given it to her the night at the burger joint before she blew up.

"I wish you would have," His thumb drew circles into her hand.

"Ron," She protested, "I was fine, really. Nothing happened."

"Yeah, mate," Harry cut in, "She's fine. She handled it."

Hermione smiled gratefully at him and then looked back at Ron- who was looking at her as if she was a broken puppy. "I really am fine," She said, starting to get irritated. She wasn't a little girl that needed saving or whatever it was Ron was trying to do.

"But when you do, I'll be there for you." Ron grinned, "I am an auror, after all."

Whoa. Whoa, whoa, whoa. Where was this coming from? Hermione thought. She wanted to say something snarky back like, "Yeah, in training!" or, "I can take of myself." What was up with Ron? Did he suddenly think the world revolved around him? There were hundreds of aurors and most of them got killed. And Ron hadn't even been that good at spells in school.

What was she doing? Thinking all these mean things about her boyfriend? That wasn't right. How could she claim to love him when here he was offering to be her knight in shining armour and it was just annoying her to no end? And why did she always end up feeling like this? This couldn't be what love was? Then why did her bloody subconscious bring it up to begin with?

She had no idea why she said it. She remembered the day Narcissa told her about it and how she'd blurted out the thing about university. She still hadn't told anyone about it. She had spent a huge portion of dinner praying Narcissa wouldn't bring it up. It had been a relief when that part of her life had managed to stay secret.

Either way, the familiar sense of competition welled inside of her. And she had no idea why. There was no reason for her to have said it. Especially because she wasn't interested and there was no way he ever would be. The words came tumbling out of her mouth and she wanted to take them back as they were spinning out because she knew she was just saying them to hurt him. She had wanted to bring him down a peg, but this was just cruel.

"Draco is going to work with dragons." She felt like slapping herself. It was so hurtful and underhanded and totally uncalled for. And made no sense since why would Draco ever be her knight in shining armour? Never, that's when. Or her boyfriend, since knight in shining armour wasn't really what she was looking for. Draco couldn't even take care of himself- she thought of Puffy, the way he used magic to get everything (especially books), and the way he had double crossed them after Harry saved him in the burning Room of Requirement.

Harry's mouth fell. He glared. Harry, who had always been on her side. Had always looked at her when he knew she was twisting the truth. He could read her so well. She wished he could see it now. But he didn't get it this time. Harry loved Ron- for real, not like whatever she was doing. Everything was telling Harry to protect his best friend from her crazy, lunatic-like behaviour.

Ron flinched- it was like she had slapped him. "What," he began slowly, his voice low and deep, "the bloody hell does Malfoy have to do with this?"

It was worse than screaming at her. She felt vile and shrivelled up. Why couldn't she just let Ron have his moment? He'd never really been confident about anything before. Why had she tried to take that away? Was it so hard for her to just let Ron have the spotlight sometimes? He'd lived in brothers' shadows his whole life and then he became best friends with the most famous wizard ever. Ron had never really had attention on him- good attention, anyway. And she was an only child. All her accomplishments had been made a bigger deal than they actually were. She didn't have a right to tell Ron that auror training shouldn't make him feel stronger or just generally better.

She didn't know what to say to him. His glare matched Harry's, maybe even bested him. She wished a fairy would just land on her shoulder and tell her how to fix it. What to say, what would make it right. There had to be a way, right? She couldn't have just messed it up in a sentence. Or maybe she had done more than that. Maybe she hadn't called and she got mad about Paris. And he didn't know her enough to realise she'd have hated Paris for a dinner trip and that she didn't want saving. The last time he'd tried to save her when a Malfoy called her a mudblood was second year and that hadn't really worked out for him too well.

Okay- that wasn't the last time he tried to save her, probably. But it was jumping out at her, demanding to be noticed. To be remembered. But there was no way she could remind him of that moment. Besides the fact it was highly disturbing and gross- puking slugs, ugh- it also would do nothing to help the situation and be as cruel as the last thing she said.

Ron was waiting for an answer. She felt the cameras following them. This was probably gold for them. Besides the fact they were fighting, she had also brought up another man. This was like heaven for them.

"It doesn't mean anything," She admitted, "It was stupid, I don't know why I brought it up." It was a lame answer- she heard the words in her head, making her want to strangle herself. She expected Ron to start yelling bloody murder, but he stood, his chair flying back without the use of any magic. He simply strode out, the door rattling shut behind him.

They had a problem of getting into fights at places of dining.

She didn't know what hurt more. The look he sent her or the way the door slamming reverberated in her heart. She had to force herself to look at Harry. She expected him to still be mad, but he looked concerned.

"Mione, tell me what's going on? Why would- just." He paused, then looked annoyed as he added, "What?"

"Nothing! It didn't mean anything. Draco and I aren't a thing or anything. We're not even friends, not really. I don't know why I said that, it was so stupid and I wish I still had my time turner. I was just annoyed and he was being so conceited." She needed Harry to understand, because if he understood than she wasn't crazy and there was a chance Ron would understand too. "And I was getting so frustrated with the way he was acting about what happened at dinner. I don't want a knight in shining armour or whatever he wants to be. I just want... I don't know what I want, but its not whatever Ron was trying to be just now."

Harry looked at her like she was a foreign species. "Girls," He muttered.

"I am a woman," Hermione shot back, hoping he'd take it light heartedly.

"Even worse," He joked.

She threw her plastic spoon at him. "Really, Harry, I'm not cheating on Ron or anything. I don't want you to think that. And please tell Ron that when you see him."

He nodded, "Okay, but I don't think he thinks that. I mean, Malfoy is a prat and we've never liked him, right?"

She wasn't sure what that mean. We never liked him, like she wasn't allowed to. Not that she did, but some of their recent conversations had been nice enough. She smiled in a straight line and took another spoonful of ice cream.

Marty had good news. Wilson Betemit had taken to having the boy follow Lucius Malfoy around to make sure he played nice and gave them material for the show. After all, Lucius was the most well-known pure-blood. They needed him to accept the Granger girl or else they had no hope of changing the way people thought and acted.

And finally after weeks of pointless film, Marty had returned to say that the Granger girl was more complex than anyone imagined. That wasn't exactly good news to anyone, especially any man, but Marty made Wilson sit at his desk. He pulled out a muggle laptop he'd used to compile all the footage and played him a scene in an ice cream shop.

Wilson watched as she dug the Malfoy block into her boyfriend's side. What did that mean? Was there a... thing there? "Show me the two of them together," Wilson said, the gears turning in his head. What did this mean? And were they supposed to sit on it? Or could this be used to lure Lucius out of whatever hole he'd made for himself?

It was obvious as they played back the footage from days before. How had anyone missed it? It was painted all over his face. The way Draco stared at her when she wasn't looking. How tense he'd get when she'd walk by. The way his eyes followed her out of a room. It was clear as day to anyone that cared to look. Only a blind person would have missed it. And Granger. And probably Draco Malfoy himself.

But Wilson Betemit and Marty weren't any of those people. They had noticed. Now it was a matter of what they were going to do with it.

It was interesting to see how Marty had changed since the inception of this show. Wilson studied him, leaning back in his chair. He didn't mumble as much and he wore better clothes- although if that was the show or a girl was anyone's guess. Maybe it was just because he had to follow Lucius Malfoy around all day. That wasn't for the faint of heart. And Marty had risen to the challenge. Wilson hadn't exactly been the kindest boss either- with all his threats and forcing Marty into situations he probably hadn't wanted to be bothered with.

"Is everything okay?" Marty asked, pushing his glasses up his nose.

He grinned, "Everything is superb."

"So, umm," Marty teetered, "what are we going to do?"

"About Malfoy and the Granger girl? It would make a good story, wouldn't it? Forbidden love, overcoming personal prejudice as well as society's expectations. And he certainly already feels that way and who knows how she feels, but she doesn't need to love him for us to spin it however we want." Wilson said, playing it over in his head. It was a good story. It might even make a good play. Someone should write something like it. Wilson grinned, star-crossed. That was a good word. Maybe he should write it.

"Well, sir," Marty started, "there is something else you should know." He directed his attention back to the laptop and hit play. There was Granger again in an aisle talking to another red headed Weasley. They hugged goodbye. The footage cut to them having a passionate debate over ice cream. Good grief, the woman moved fast. She was like a slithering temptress.

"A three way! We'll have a love triangle!" Wilson cried, "It's like Christmas came early,"

Marty seemed nervous, some of his old self shining through. Wilson hadn't meant to turn him into a snake, but that was what happened when you got involved in other people's lives. "Are you sure this is the right thing to-"

"Of course it is," Wilson snapped, "Get Ransom in here,"

Jake Ransom was one of the editors working on piecing all the footage together for the final show. They needed to alert him to the new drama that was unfolding right before their eyes. And they weren't doing anything wrong, per se. The feelings were there, everyone was just too dumb to see it or act on it. Wilson Betemit would remedy that for them.

"But-"

"Now!"

A/N Sorry! How did 10 days just go by? I guess I've been more busy than I thought. I hope you're all enjoying and thanks so much. Cheers! Special thanks to: CrescentMoon12, ILoveSiriusBlack4, FuryPossessed, Loveable Leo, and LadyBookworm80.