The title for this story was inspired by the short film "Strangers, again" by Wong Fu Productions on youtube. I suggest you all go and watch it. =]

CH. 4 Strangers, again

"Wow, I can't remember the last time I've been in here. It looks the same but different somehow," Harry announced as he walked in to my bedroom.

"Little Mermaid is no longer my hero. Her bikini was quite scandalous when you grow up and actually have the mindset to think about it," I replied with a small smile on my face as I pulled out my study table to the middle of the room along with two chairs.

He laughed as he walked up to one of my many bookshelves that covered the walls. I invited Harry over for our English project and I was nervously beginning to wonder if that was such a good idea. I watched as he looked over all of the different books I possessed. Gone were the days of my favourite Disney princess Little Mermaid surrounding the walls. And the girly bright pink colour tones of my room had been replaced with a more subtle soft purple. Ginny said my room screamed librarian. But if having a nice spacious room neatly organised with all of my favorite books made it look like a library, so be it. I loved the library and I did not see what the big deal was anyway…

"This sort of reminds me of a—"

"Let me guess, library?" I offered as I took a seat at my study table.

"Well yeah," Harry responded with a nod as he took a seat across from me.

"Let's just get started okay. Did you bring your ideas for the project?" I said tapping my foot impatiently under the table.

"Uhh yeah its right here," He replied handing a parchment towards me. I scanned the list nodding my head in approval at a few items before setting it down and laying my papers across the table.

"That's an okay start. I've come up with a few ideas as well."

"You call that a few?" He asked in shock looking down at my 10-pages of notes.

"Well excuse me for being prepared."

"There is a difference between being prepared and being borderline barmy and you are about to fall off the deep end."

"Why you arrogant little—"

"Hermione dear, your father and I were going to order take out later tonight. What would you like to—oh Harry, it is such a pleasant surprise to see you!" My mother interrupted as she crossed over to crush Harry in a hug.

"Ah you too Jean. How have you been?" He replied politely before patting her back and pulling away.

"Good, good. My how you have grown! Would you look at that? Quite the handsome young gentleman you are becoming!" My mother embarrassingly squealed in delight.

I always felt a tad bit bad for breaking off my friendship with Harry for what it did to my mother. She always treated him like a surrogate son and she, like Sirius, believed that we would be married one day too. Of course she understood when I broke down about what happened, but I don't think she ever lost hope that we would become friends again.

I never told my father about what happened. All I mentioned was that we would never be friends again. However, that was enough for him. He believed that Harry had to have broken his "princess'" heart, which was unacceptable in his book. I always feared the day when they would cross paths again and I tried to minimise the possibilities of that happening to as few as possible. I had to get mum out of here before dad came in to see what was taking so long.

"Umm mum, take out is fine. How about Chinese? We haven't had that in awhile," I spoke up trying to rush things along.

"Oh yeah that sounds good honey. Harry dear, are you staying for dinner? We should make a night out of it. Maybe call Sirius over—"

Before Harry could answer the question I jumped in. "He can't stay long mum. We just have to get started a bit on the project and then he has to go to football pratise," I said hurriedly.

"This late at night? It's already half past 5. That seems a tad bit unreasonable to me," my mother smartly questioned with a raise of her eyebrow. What was I going to do…?

"What Hermione meant to say was that I had a pick up football match with my teammates later. Otherwise, I would love to stay. Truly I would. Maybe some other time. It is really good to see you again," Harry corrected smoothly.

"Oh, well that is such a shame. You are finally friends again. Do come over with your Uncle soon alright?" My mum asserted a little dejectedly as she walked closer towards the door.

"Uh mom that won't ever be happ—"

"Will do. I will definitely let him know," Harry interrupted me. I turned to glare at him and he gave me a significant look.

"Alright then. See you later. Hermione, don't work too hard," She called over her shoulder as she walked out the door.

Harry sat back down and looked at my pages of notes. I bit my lip impatiently waiting for him to explain himself.

"Look, you and I are clearly not friends and I doubt we ever will be again. I just didn't want to make your mum unhappy. I know how much our friendship meant to her and I can imagine that it really hurt her when it ended. I didn't want to put her down that road again. Can we just get started now?" He spoke up looking in to my eyes.

"Sure," I replied quietly before looking back down at my notes.

His deep green eyes were unnerving me and the sooner we got to work on the project the better. It was weird that he did that for my mum. I never thought that he was completely heartless but it was peculiar to see him acting similarly to how he used to be growing up as a child. I tried not to dwell on it too much as I engrossed myself into our project once more.

An hour and a half later—

We were making a great deal of progress in drawing up plans for the assignment when my mobile started to ring unexpectedly. Picking up the device off my bed, I answered it.

"Hello?" I asked turning away from our project for the time being. A huge smile started to cross my face as I listened to the voice on the other end of the line. "Really? I would love to. Thank you so much sir, I promise not to disappoint," I answered excitedly trying not to jump and down. I turned back towards the study table with the phone pressed to my ear meeting Harry's questioning look. "Thank you so much again. Okay, goodbye."

I sat back down biting my lip to contain my smile and turned back to our notes.

"What was that about?" Harry asked impatiently awaiting my answer.

"Oh. I interviewed for an internship this coming summer at a law firm in New York and I got it!" I exclaimed not really caring at that moment that I was being so happy around a non-friend.

"Brilliant! That's amazing Hermione. Congratulations," Harry said with a genuine smile on his face.

"Umm, thank you," I said in a surprised tone.

"I had no clue that you were thinking of going in to law."

"Yeah, I have for awhile now. I just can't decide if I want to go Uni here or in the States."

"Wow, but if you go to the States, won't you also have to pratise law there?"

"Yes, that is why the decision is so hard. I would have to move there officially."

"That is a big decision. You've changed so much," Harry said looking at me intensely.

I didn't know what to say in that moment. I didn't know what was happening between us. This was the first time I opened up to him about anything in years and it oddly felt good to have his support again. However, the spell was broken with the sound of his mobile ringing.

"Excuse me," He muttered politely before opening the phone.

"Harry! When are you coming over?" the voice on the other end whined loudly.

"Cho, I told you I had to work on the English assignment today. I will be over later," He answered almost impatiently.

"I still don't understand why you have to go to Granger's house. I feel so sorry for you. Hurry up love," Cho replied.

He muttered a quick goodbye and closed the phone. "I should get going. We are good with our progress right?" He asked as he started to pack his book bag.

"Yeah its sufficient for now," I answered softly.

"Okay then. Bye," He called over his shoulder as he started to walk out of my room.

"Bye," I called back with a sigh.

I looked down at our forgotten project with a frown. I can't believe I thought even for a split second that he was the same person I once knew. And just like that, we were strangers, again.

Author's Note: Ah silly Cho had to ruin everything didn't she? Hopefully things get better. Well, you know the drill. Please read and review! Thanks!