For Love or Money

For Love or Money

A/N: I was bored so I decided to put up the next chapter. The next one won't be out for another couple of days.

Thanks for the reviews! I was surprised at how quickly the first couple of reviews came in. I'm flattered. And to clear things up, this is sort of like the movie Pride and Prejudice. I took some things from the movie/book and put it into my plot since you gotta love P&P! I first started writing this a year ago when my mom took me to see the movie and I decided to write a H/Hr fanfic about it. But due to copy right laws, and people wanting to bite my head off, I can't have the fanfic named Pride and Prejudice. ….

Chapter Two

Hermione and Harry walked along the forest path, laughing and joking. They had become quite good friends since Harry had arrived, which made the other girls -except Ginny- absolutely furious. She loved the look on Lavender and Cho's faces when he asked her to go for walks with him after lunch. Mrs. Weasley also let the girls take some time off from the lessons. She had a feeling that Mrs. Weasley was doing that because she and Harry were spending so much time together. Hermione sighed and rolled her eyes, they were just friends.

“How long do you have to go to this finishing school?” Harry asked.

Hermione shrugged, “I guess until I find a husband or something.” She replied. “So never.”

He laughed, “You don't want to get married?”

“Nope. Well, not any time soon.”

“Do you mind if I ask why?”

“I just don't want to get married to some rich man who doesn't love me.” Hermione murmured. “I know what I want only exists in fairy tales, but I want a man who will marry me because he loves me for who I am. Not for what I look like, or to get some kind of inheritance if he marries a girl as soon as possible.”

Harry stopped and stared at her. She felt the weird feeling in her stomach erupt again, every time he stared at her like that she felt weak in the knees. She chose to ignore the feeling. “It's not as rare as you think.” He said softly, “My parents married out of love, and that's why I am not married yet. Mother and Father believe that I should marry someone I truly love, not the betrothed shit most people go through.”

“I wish I had that choice,” She said scowling.

“You do, everyone does.”

“You obviously don't know my family…or Mrs. Weasley for that matter.” Hermione added.

Harry laughed, “I do actually. She's extremely kind and has the best cooking but she can be a little scary when she wants to be.”

“Oh yeah,”

“I guess we should be heading back now,” he said suddenly, “I feel bad for not spending a lot of my time with Ron.”

“I bet he doesn't mind.” She said, “He seems to be content with looking at the girls while they lounge around outside.” Harry smirked. Together they began to walk back to the Weasley's estate.

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“You have to tell me everything you and Harry did.” Lavender demanded. Hermione sighed, she hadn't even taken walked two steps inside her bedroom and Lavender was already in her face interrogating her. What was she doing in her room in the first place anyway?

“We just walked around in the forest and talked, Lavender.” She replied, stepping around the girl.

She snorted, “And you think I believe that?”

“Think whatever you want, it's the truth.” Hermione grabbed her brush and began to comb her hair. “For the last time Lavender, there is nothing going on between Harry and I. We are just friends.”

“Oh please. I've seen the way he looks at you.”

“Hermione, you have to tell me what you did with Harry!” Hermione groaned as her door banged open and Cho barged into her room.

“Oh for the love of - nothing!” She cried, “Nothing happened. Harry and I just walked around in the forest talking. That's it. End of story. Fin.”

“Something happened.” Cho said coming closer to her. “I can see it on your face Hermione. Something happened between you and him and you don't want to share it with your friends.”

“Nothing happened!” Hermione cried exasperated. “Drop it okay? Now, if you will excuse me, and even if you won't, I have to go help Mrs. Weasley in the kitchen now. It's my turn to help with supper.”

Hermione pushed past the two girls and left her room. She couldn't believe how rude they were. Why couldn't Lavender and Cho believe that she and Harry were friends? Nothing more, nothing less.

“There you are Hermione,” Mrs. Weasley said as she walked into the kitchen. “what took you so long?”

“Sorry Mrs. Weasley, Lavender and Cho were talking to me.” Hermione mumbled, grabbing an apron on a hook behind the door.

“Those girls, I don't know what I am going to do with them.” Mrs. Weasley sighed, “They are too caught up in other people's business that their grades have begun to slip.” Hermione stared at Mrs. Weasley, her mouth slightly open. Lavender and Cho always had the highest grades, aside from her of course, “Do not say anything to the other girls, I should not have even said that.” She said quickly.

“I promise I won't, Mrs. Weasley.” Hermione said. Mrs. Weasley smiled and turned back to the potatoes she was peeling. She smirked, Lavender and Cho's grades probably began to go down when Harry and Mr. and Mrs. Potter arrived. No mystery there as to why they started to slip.

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“You will never believe what my mother just told me.” Hermione looked up from her book as Ginny walked briskly into their room.

“What?”

“We got invited to the Malfoy's ball this weekend.”

“The Malfoy's?” Hermione raised her eyebrows and put down her book, “Why on earth would the Malfoy's invite us?”

Ginny ran a hand through her red hair, “Well, they didn't technically invite us. They invited the Potter's who are asking us to go with them.”

Hermione laughed hollowly, “The Malfoy's are going to love that.” She got up and put her book away on the bookshelf, “I take it Mrs. Weasley agreed right away when they asked then?”

“You know my mother. She'll jump at a chance to get one of us girls married, even if it means we have to deal with the Malfoy's.”

“What about their son, Draco?” Hermione noticed Ginny's cheeks began to turn a light shade of pink, “Do you think Mrs. Weasley is hoping one of you girls will catch his eye?”

“I doubt it,” Ginny said, her voice sounded a little hoarse, “Do you really think the Malfoy's would let their precious son marry us `poor' folk?” She gave a slight smile, looking a little uncomfortable and excused herself from the room.

“What the…” Hermione said out loud, staring at the closed door. She shook her head and grabbed another book from the bookshelf and walked out of the room.

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When Hermione returned later that evening, Ginny wasn't in the room. Hermione shrugged it off and grabbed one of her books off the bookshelf and lay down on her bed. It wasn't that late in the evening so she wasn't really worried about where Ginny was.

About two hours later, Hermione was halfway through the book and Ginny still hadn't returned. Now, she was getting a little concerned. It was nearly light's out and Mrs. Weasley had no tolerance for ladies sneaking after hours.

Suddenly, the door opened and Ginny ran into the room, shutting the door quickly.

“Where have you been?” Hermione asked, noticing Ginny's flushed cheeks and tousled hair.

“I was out for a walk by the pond and lost track of how late it is,” She said quickly. Hermione watched warily as Ginny stripped out of her dress and into her sleeping gown. Ginny crawled into her bed and smiled at Hermione, “Good night.”

“Good night.” Hermione put her book back onto the bookshelf and crawled into bed. She took one last look at Ginny before leaning over and blowing out the candle.

A/N: Sorry for it being so short. I'm trying to get to the main plot of the story quickly since I do seem to stall and draw things out. Don't want you guys to lose interest!