A/N: Hello again my faithful readers! Welcome to chapter 6, I'm posting a little earlier than I had planned - yay - I had a sudden burst of inspiration, another little twist.

Thank you, once again, for all the wonderful reviews you are giving me, I'm really glad you're still enjoying the work, I hope you enjoy the next chapter just as much :)

xBx

DISCLAIMER: I own nothing but the plot :)

~ Chapter 6: One Month Later ~

A month had passed since Harry had Kissed Hermione, though she remembered it as if it was only yesterday. Four long weeks and Hermione hadn't seen, or heard from him since then…

[one month earlier...]

After what felt like a blissful forever – or maybe just the best 30 seconds of her life – Hermione pulled away, slightly breathless she managed to say, "I'm sorry, Harry, I can't -"

"No" He cut her off, pulling back, "I'm sorry, I wasn't thinking…" Harry trailed off, not knowing what to say next, afraid of slipping into awkwardness,

Hermione gave a small smile, "It's ok. I just, can't right now." She said, apologetically, "I don't know what's going on in my head right now. Everything's happening too quick, just give me time" she finished quietly, the words had tumbled out, and she was only vaguely aware of saying half of it. Before Harry could respond, or even think of what to say in response, they were both startled by a loud crack, as Kreacher appeared before them –

"Kreacher!" Harry stated in alarm, "I though I told you not to apparate here - " he started, glancing apologetically at Hermione, he had been so careful to not use any signs of magic around her...and he was pretty convinced she still held firm to her beliefs concerning elf-rights,

"I'm terribly sorry, Master Harry," Kreacher stated in a rush, "Please forgive me, but this has just arrived for you, from the ministry. It requires an immediate response. Otherwise I wouldn't have come, sir" Kreacher held out an official looking letter, in a violet envelope, as he spoke. Harry took it, and tore it open immediately, quickly scanning the few lines that had been written in obvious haste – Hermione noted his expression darken with each line, and it filled her with a deep sense of unease…she had no idea what had been going on in the wizarding world these past ten years, she had no idea about the danger to which Harry had been undoubtedly called,

"What is it?" she asked quietly,

"A man we've been searching for, for nearly two years now. We've found him, well we have positive traces of him now, anyway. I have to leave, we'll be heading out to Russia as soon as possible, I imagine"

"Russia?" Hermione breathed, her alarm rising,

"Yeah, We've thought, well we pretty much knew he was there for a while now. But without a solid piece of evidence to base our theories on, the Ministry has been reluctant to send out a manhunt." Harry explained quickly, "Gotta love the red tape policies" he muttered as an aside, he then noticed the look on Hermione's face, and smiled, "Don't worry," he reassured her, "We've, both of us, have been up against worse than him. Trust me. He's nothing compared to Voldemort" Hermione blanched at the sound of a name she hadn't even thought of in ten years, and images of the friends they had lost in the war against him came quickly to her mind.

"I'll see you soon, I promise" Harry said hurriedly, and without thinking he kissed her quickly, as if it was a automated response, and disapparated. Kreacher followed him, lingering only a moment to offer a further apology to Hermione, for intruding into her home. With another crack, Hermione was left alone again, to try and make some sense of the confusion that had gone on around her in the space of five minutes: all of a sudden, she was much more immersed back in the Wizarding world than she had bargained for…

Hermione sighed, she had only seen Harry once since then, and it had been the morning after: just as she was coming down to breakfast, he had appeared, giving her a hurried message that he would be leaving for Russia with a selection of Aurors, in a matter of hours. "I don't know how long it will take, but don't worry I'll be fine. I don't know if I'll be able to contact you or not, but if you'll let me, I'll call in on you the moment I get back to England?"

"Of course," Hermione agreed breathlessly, trying to take in all the hurried information, "Be safe" she managed to say before he disapparated, before quietly adding "I'll miss you".

...

Hermione waited for news, waited for four long weeks, but nothing came. She didn't even know where to begin to look for news of him, on some evenings she went so far as to even consider calling Kreacher, though as she was not his master, she doubted he would hear her. She had no idea how else she would receive news, other than from Harry himself; having been out of the Magical world for so long, she felt at a slight loss as to how to start to immerse herself back into it. So Hermione waited, for what felt like an eternity. As the weeks went by, she found herself staring absentmindedly at her mirror, gazing as if she could see beyond it, as if willing herself to go beyond it, but never moving towards it.

Not a day had gone by without Hermione thinking of the kiss, and trying to evaluate everything that was now going on inside her head: She could not help but start to wonder just how awkward her next meeting with Harry was going to be – the longer they were apart, the more awkward they would become; his brief return the morning after had been so rushed, and the necessary communications left little time for any sense of awkwardness to develop. But now that Hermione had had time to really think about it, it was clear to her that they had crossed the line between friendship and something more. It was possible, or so Hermione thought, that this line could be re-crossed – the kiss could be written off as a mistake, too much wine perhaps – they could go back to before it happened, as if they had never kissed in the first place, things could go back to normal, just being the best of friends. But, if Hermione was being honest with herself, there was a part of her that didn't think they could do that, and the more she thought about it, the more she came to realise that she didn't want to do that…

…"Jenni…Jennifer?" Her most constant regular brought Hermione back to her present, how long she had been talking to her, Hermione had no idea.

"hmm? Sorry Betsy, I was in a world of my own" Hermione sighed,

"I can see that m'dear" Betsy answered with a smile, "you've been wiping over that same spot for the past fifteen minutes. Is everything alright" she asked, clearly concerned. Hermione flashed her well-rehearsed smile, "of course, why wouldn't I be?" she asked, earning a raised eyebrow from Betsy, Hermione sighed "I'm just finding I have plenty of time for my mind to wander, now that business is slowing down again." Then added as an afterthought, "I find I now have more time on my hands than I know what to do with, at the moment. Especially with the weather being as it is," she gestured outside to the steady rain that had continued over the past five days.

"Come and sit down, dear," said Betsy, suddenly "you deserve a break, you can stop polishing the gleaming counter before it no longer exists"

Hermione laughed, "oh alright," she conceded, "I suppose I can spare ten minutes"

"There's no one else here, and it's after four, you can spend a lot longer than ten-minutes" said Betsy as she went back to her table, followed by Hermione, who carried a fresh pot of tea to share, readying herself for an hour or so of small town gossip.

" Now," started Betsy, "What's on your mind this time?"

"It's nothing, really," replied Hermione, not really wanting to pour out her heart to someone who new nothing of her hidden past.

"It's Harry isn't it?" Betsy asked, without pause for thought, Hermione glanced at Betsy, looking away almost immediately, not wanting to answer, so Betsy pushed on, letting Hermione know she'd seen more than Hermione had realised, "you miss him don't you? I can see it in your eyes, every time someone walks through the door; you turn with an expectant look on your face. Then when you see it isn't him you fall into disappointment, then shake your head, and carry on as if nothing happened. Am I right?"

Hermione stared, surprised at how much Betsy had notice, but still didn't say anything, not knowing what to say. And if she was to say anything, not knowing how much to divulge. When Hermione didn't respond Betsy decided to take drastic action to shock her into talking, and throwing all caution to the wind she sighed, and stated, "That Harry Potter, he may have been the chosen one, but I always knew he went for the wrong girl. Why did he chose Ginny Weasley, when it was always obvious he was destined for you, Hermione Granger."

A/N: well, there it is, my beautiful readers. A little shorter than the previous ones, but I really wanted to end it at this point. Chapter 7 will most definitely be longer, and I'm working on it right now, so I hopefully won't keep you waiting too long for the next update

Please review, and I will update ASAP

xBx