O.O.S: First off, sorry I fell off the face of the earth for a few months. I am not sure what happened… Second, thank you for hanging in there readers, your reviews and devotion are inspirational and a slight boost on the ego factor. ;) Juuust kidding. But, I went over the top today, and I finished the story! YAY! So two chapters will be going up, but I will wait a day or maybe a few hours before I post the end. Want you to digest this one first. ;) Well, thank you SOOO much once again.

:D

(Oh quick note, there was a typo in the last chapter. Harry's section takes place 2 weeks before the 1st chapter and I accidentally put later. Hope that didn't completely throw you all off.)

B.I.S:

Disclaimer: J.K. Rowling created Harry Potter and his world, in case you didn't know. If you didn't, then I am not sure where you have been hiding for the last decade.

Rating: T-M. You know the drill.

Stolen

Chapter 16:

Lie

Harry's P.O.V:

One day before the first chapter…

For the past week I had lived as if I were nothing.

Without her in my life, I was nothing.

It was almost like I had rewound my life to when I was 15, a time when I was angry, lonely, scared, dark, cold, nothing...

When I saw Ginny the next day, at Platform 9 ¾ I felt nothing. I had forced myself to show no emotions to successfully lie to her, and it still had not worn off. Possibly this was a defense mechanism I had formed so I would not have to feel the betrayal I had committed to myself or, most of all, her. She held up a patch of mistletoe and smiled brightly.

Amazing, it was Christmas and I hadn't even noticed…

Ginny's kiss on my lips felt vile in this nothingness.

After spending the holiday at the Burrow, we returned to my flat where I was given my 'present'. Making love to her that night I felt angry and shameful.

Every call she made of my name in pleasure was a stab of guilt; a reminder of my wrong doing. I felt embarrassed that she had been so vulnerable with me and still felt safe to do so, thinking I had not heard sighs and moans like this for months. I don't know why it had been so hard to lie to… her, for it seemed I had no trouble lying to anyone else.

That is what I was, a lie.

One big, huge, fucking lie.

Though, this lie had seemed to take things back six months, back to the beginning of the summer. Everything was as it should have been…

Tony had gone back to New York.

She was with Ron.

I was with Ginny.

It was almost like nothing had ever happened, at least to everyone else but her and me. We knew the truth, more like, I knew the truth.

She was still being tricked by the lie. It had been a surprise to me that she had even believed me in the first place. Didn't she know I loved her? That the only person I could ever feel anything as great as this was her?

These questions were left unanswered and they never would be.

The lie was far too great.

"Harry?"

I wanted to remain in the sleep I was in. A coma would have been better than my present real life.

"Harry!" Ginny shouted.

"Yes?" I groaned, still not opening my eyes.

"Wake up will you, you have a phone call." A laugh coated her voice.

"Who is it?" I sighed, reluctantly rubbing my eyes before opening them and sitting up. Seeing Ginny before me, I noticed she was wearing one of my button up shirts. The dark green color enhanced the rice color of her red hair and hazel eyes. Features I would have been dazzled by had I not had the image of the person who had worn it last engrained into my mind.

"It's Ron." she offered my mobile to me with a soft smile on his lips. "He says he has some good news."

Taking it from her, I lifted the device to my ear.

"'Ello?"

"Harry!" Ron exclaimed into the phone, causing me to retract it from my ear in surprise.

"Blimey Ron, what is it? Nearly tore my ear off…"

"Hermione and I are engaged!"

That moment the world stopped.

Engaged…

I had seen it coming, but now that it had happened… It was almost too much to cope with. Then there was the mention of her name. I had prohibited it from my thoughts until then when I could not stop it. She was now all I could think of.

"Harry?" Ron questioned.

"Erm… Yeah. Sorry. Congratulations. That's great Ron." I was certain my tone was far from excited or anything in that nature but Ron didn't seem to notice. Neither did Ginny who had proceeded to leave the room to call her on the home phone.

"Thanks mate. Well, you know who's going to be the 'Best Man' now, right?"

I was his 'Best Man'.

I was the Best Man to the bloke marrying the girl I was in love with.

The lie had not made anything easier. It had simply made things harder.

Hermione's P.O.V:

The day of the first chapter…

"He's just doing this for Ron. You know it, I know it."

The words were left ringing in my ears as I searched for any hint of a lie in Tony Puccini's eyes. As he continued on, I couldn't form words in my mouth.

"You can't honestly believe he doesn't love you."

"Why are you telling me this Tony? Why are you here?" I murmured, looking away from his eyes. "I thought you went back to New York last week…"

"I did… But I came back here because I need to be. No one else knows about this except for me Hermione. It's my fucking job to make sure you two end up together. It's fate."

"Fate?" I scoffed, looking at him with angry eyes. "You honestly think I believe in those ridiculous ideals?"

"I think you used to."

"You know nothing about me Tony." Rising to my feet, I crossed to my kitchen and began searching through my cupboards.

"Really? Then how do I know you are searching for a bottle of Firewiskey at the moment?"

My hand froze before the bottle in the cabinet. Caught in mid reach of the Firewiskey bottle, it had guilty written all over it. Retracting my hand, I slammed the cupboard shut and glared at Tony.

"Would you mind getting to your point please?" I demanded.

"You can't marry Ron, Hermione." he began rising to his feet and crossing to the counter.

I had opened my mouth in protest, but he continued and cut me off.

"You may think you are doing the right thing, but you're not. You are only making it worse. You are lying to him. You don't love him the way you should love someone you are going to marry."

My stubborn nature could not deny the correct-ness of his words.

"You love Harry."

It stung to hear his name.

I turned away from him and looked at my left hand on the counter. On my ring finger was placed a small gold ring with a single diamond. It was quaint, but beautiful as it sparkled in the soft light. That ring represented true love and devotion. Two things I no longer felt for Ron Weasley.

"That doesn't mean anything to him Tony…"

"It does."

"How do you know that? You weren't there! You didn't see how he looked at me…" my voice cracked as his face filled my thoughts.

"I just do." Tony said softly.

"That's not a good enough answer!" I shouted at him, clenching my fist, turning to him with my eyes narrowed. "I am not going to throw my life away just because you claim to know something that is far from true."

"Hermione-…"

"Stop it Tony! I don't want to hear another word." I walked towards the door to my apartment and whipped it open. "I think it is about time you leave."

Tony gave me a look of disappointment before he crossed the living room and grabbed his coat. He stopped at the door and starred into my eyes.

"He loves you Hermione… He does. I know it."

With that, he walked out the door and left me stranded in the doorway with nothing but his words repeating in my brain.

Suddenly then, I began to feel a warm feeling in my stomach…. Hope.

Tony's words had caused me to doubt his.

There was only one way to know for sure.

Taking out my mobile, my hands shook as I found his number.

It rang once before her answered.

"Hermione." he breathed my name into the receiver, causing me to melt down onto my sofa.

"Harry." I replied. The familiarity of this was too great. I instantly felt my ice cold heart begin to defrost.

"I'll be there in 5."

The next five minutes, felt like centuries. I found myself frozen on my sofa, watching the door. When finally, a knock on the door shattered my still-life position. Crossing to the door, I felt like I was in a dream as I reached for the handle and opened it.

Looking up before me I found myself eye to eye with a pair of entrancing green eyes. He was as flawless as I remembered. Like in all of my dreams, though my dreams did not nearly do him justice. As he stepped into my apartment, he closed the door behind himself and never stopped looking at me. We did not speak for a very long time, as if we were both trying to think of what to say.

"Hermione..." He said, breaking also the silence of my life. He looked a little frantic as he brought one of his hands to my face.

"You do love me." I finished for him grabbing onto his waist, not intending on letting go.

"Yes." he nodded vigorously. "Yes, yes I do."

Looking up at him, I felt my heart overflowing with joy, but my mind was still filled with doubt. There was something off. This did not seem like a happy meeting.

"What does this mean?"

This I could see was the problem. His face contorted and he looked away from me.

"Nothing…" I murmured, resting my head on his shoulder.

"This wasn't supposed to happen." he whispered in my ear.

"How do you know?" I snapped pulling my head away.

He didn't answer, his simply seemed confused.

"You don't Harry. You don't know that."

"I know what is right and wrong Hermione." he said, looking into my eyes. "I just wanted you to know the truth, you deserve at least that… I'm sorry." Placing a kiss on my forehead, he turned away from my grasp and walked towards the door.

"Please don't leave." I said.

I watched as his hand hesitated at the door knob.

Perhaps I still had a chance…

"Harry…" I stepped closer to him and reached my hand towards his. I attempted to take it into my own trembling grasp, but he pulled away at the last minute. The rejection that soared through my being knocked the wind out of me.

"I have to." he said. "This isn't right. You know it isn't right."

"Yes. I know." I admitted.

"Then you know why I have to leave." he grabbed the door knob, but still did not open it.

This action frustrated me. He was almost taunting me with his presence. Anger consumed me as I reached for him.

"Harry, we don't always have to do the right thing!" I grabbed onto his arm and pulled him around to look me in the eyes. I felt tears stain my face as I looked at his broken expression. The love that was being contained from me. This was probably the only time I had ever seen exactly what Harry was thinking of, and at that very moment, it was how much he loved me.

"What is the use in lying to Ginny? Why try to love someone when you love someone else? We've always done the right thing for others! Why can't we be the ones who get what we want for once?" I demanded, fighting back the sobs that threatened to emerge.

"I want you." I let down my guard. I was bare before him. I had nothing left to hide.

"I'm sorry Hermione. We can't, I…can't."

Breaking eye contact with me, he yanked the door open and left me standing alone once again.

I stood there in my loneliness feeling utterly empty. Harry has hollowed me out and left me with nothing. He had everything I could have ever given to anyone. Tony had been right, though I hardly wanted to admit it. Even if I couldn't have Harry, I couldn't marry Ron. It wasn't fair to him.

That night, I cut it off with Ron. When I gave him back the ring, tears were unavoidable. He had been upset at first, but he did understand. Things had changed, we had changed. He knew it wasn't right. As I fell asleep, I found myself in tears. Ron had been a large part of my life… He had been most of my life but as life goes on, sometimes things change for a reason. He helped me grow up, but now that I had, the love I had felt for him was a juvenile memory of my life. Ron would always be the first person I loved, but not the greatest one.

I was tired of living in a lie.

Harry's P.O.V:

When I arrived home, I found Tony Puccini at my door step.

"Tony? What are you doing here?" I didn't think I was in much of a condition to talk to him... Or anyone for that matter.

"I need to be here man... For you." His eyes were full of sincerity.

"I don't think I deserve that."

"Harry," he rose to his feet. "You deserve a lot more than you think."

"No. I don't."

I pushed past him into my flat and walked through the front door. He followed me in, but remained in the living room as I climbed the stairs. By the time I made it to my bed I felt as if I had crumbled to pieces, but I still needed to be strong, there was still something I needed to do. Taking my mobile into my hands, I dialed the number I knew so well and let it ring.

I had fixed one lie, I still had to fix another.

Once it was over and done with, I buried my face into a pillow and sighed. Tony came into my room and sat at the edge of my bed.

"You've done one very good thing and one very bad thing." he said. "Katie invited me to a New Year's party at her house... There is an invitation for you as well. Are you interested?"

I didn't reply, I simply lay there barely letting air in and out of my lungs.

"I guess I'll see you in the morning then. Happy New Year Harry."

Once again, I was left alone.

Tony was wrong, this is what I deserved.

O.O.S: Hope you liked it! Please review!