Chapter 10 - Can't Take my Eyes off you
FRIDAY
I didn't sleep that night. I'm serious. My brain could well have melted from all the thinking I did. And after 7 hours of restless reflection, I still wasn't sure of what to do.
What was going on with me? I was Hermione Granger, I would never, ever, do anything like that in a million years. I always stuck by the rules. But what about that rule that says "all is fair in love and war?" That was something that I could apply to my case. This was about love after all, wasn't it?
That night we had a party. It had been Elizabeth's idea, and Ron and her had rented a great place in London where they had invited all their friends to have a 'Farewell-to-your-freedom' (As the Weasley Twins had named it) party.
Harry had missed training because of his arm, which was completely fixed by the way (I'm a excellent nurse, OK!), but Oliver had forbidden him to even show the tip of his nose in the pitch that day. He couldn't put up with a hurt seeker, he had said. I wanted to go and see him because he had me a little worried. He had being acting strangely this past few days. And it really bugged me how he had left my apartment last night. I knew he was hiding something from me.
I went to his place and knocked three times. I waited for quite a while, but nobody answer. So, of course, I apparated inside. We were so used to just enter into each other's apartment that I knew he wouldn't mind.
It seemed that he had gone out. I inspected the living room and found that day's Daily Prophet in the coffee table. I took it, and, as I had expected, finally the interview had come out.
The first part of the article was nothing but Harry's records. His facings with Voldemort and his role as the Cannon's seeker. Nothing I had never seen in a Harry's article before. The interesting part came later.
"Rumors that the most wanted bachelor in the wizard world finally found his match are becoming bigger and bigger. We asked him about his relationship with his all time friend Hermione Granger. This reporter has received classified information that Harry Potter and Miss Granger are engaged. However, the famous wizard refused to talk about the subject.
We asked the janitor of the building where they both live. "They are always together." the old man says. "Miss Granger spends a lot of time in Mr. Potter's apartment, and sometimes she stays for the night. Mr. Potter has wards all over his place to prevent people for apparating, but Miss Granger is the only exception."
A lot of witnesses assure that Harry Potter announced his engagement to Granger during a party to celebrate his best friend, Ronald Weasley's coming wedding. Weasley refused to make any comments."
The article kept mentioning people that talked about Harry and me, and it surprised me to see how many lies someone can made up just to appear in the newspaper. They had even interviewed Johnny Bell, the Keeper of the Cannons. He said that "Harry always talks about her, it's almost his only subject of conversation. When she comes to visit him to the pitch, he stares at her for hours. If that isn't love, I don't know what it is."
Geez, I wondered what had been Harry's reaction when he saw the article. Probably, now he would have a mob of journalists behind him... And probably I would too. And it was all my fault. My stupid ideas... Seriously, how did I ever became top of my class at Hogwarts?
Well, what's done it's done, isn't it? Everything would be fixed once all the craziness of Ron's wedding ended. I wondered how it was going to end. With Ron getting married with Elizabeth, or with them broken apart and him turning to me?
I went towards Harry's room, just to check if he was there. The bed was made, but his clothes were scattered all around. I picked up his pants from the floor and two things fell from the pocket: a blue, velvet, small box and a bended piece of parchment.
I opened the box and, as I had expected, it contained a ring. It was beautiful. Made of gold, with small diamonds. What was Harry doing with such a thing? He surely wasn't thinking of getting married, was he? The idea made me laugh. I examined the ring and suddenly realize to whom it belonged. On the back, in tiny letters I read "Ronald Weasley ~ Elizabeth Greene." Of course. Harry's was Ron's best man, he was supposed to held the rings.
The sight of that ring did something to me. I wasn't going to let her have a ring with his name on. I just had to stop the wedding. All the hours I had spent thinking about it had come to an end. I had made my decision.
I had almost forgot the piece of parchment, and I was about to read it when I hear the front door, meaning that Harry was back. I didn't want to see him at that moment, because it could made me desist of my resolution. I put the piece of parchment in my pocket without realizing it, left the box back on his pocket and dissaparated.
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Ok, Hermione, you can do this.
You can. You know you can.
Of course. This is for Ron's sake.
I kept repeating to myself those words, but I still felt awful. But the memory of that ring was stronger than my conscience. I stared at the blank parchment in front of me. After an hour, I finally started writing.
"Dear Mr. Adams. . ."
No, that wasn't right. I knew Elizabeth's father and Frank Adams, the owner of Puddlemere United were old friends. You don't call your friend Mr., do you? I imagined myself writing Harry a letter addressing it to Mr. Potter and started laughing.
OK. Frankie, then. Yeah, that sounded familiar enough.
"Dear Frankie,
How have you been? I've been really busy with the arrangements for my daughter's wedding. As you well know, since you're invited to the ceremony, she's marrying a young man named Ronald Weasley, who has recently being transferred from my team to yours. In fact, that's the reason why I'm writing to you in the first place.
My daughter has begged me to ask this from you. The thing is, she wants to live in the United States after the wedding, but Ron feels he has a big commitment to you, so he refuses. If you just cancelled the contract with him, he wouldn't have to be obliged to live in England and he could remain in my team.
I know it's a lot to ask, since he's a really good player, but it's something I have to do for my little Lizzie. Please, don't tell Ron about this, I don't want him to think that we're pressing him.
I trust that you would do the best thing.
Yours faithfully,
Will Greene."
I read through it a couple of times. I had to make sure that it was explicit that this was Elizabeth's idea. I used a special charm that made my calligraphy looked exactly like Mr. Greene's.
I took a deep breath. Now, I just had to make sure that Ron found that letter. I wasn't going to send it to Mr. Adams, I did wanted Ron to play for Puddlemere. He just needed to read it.
The party would be the perfect time for him to see it. I knew Mr. Greene would be there, so I would just have to made it look like this letter had slipped from his pocket or something.
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"Are you ready to go?" asked Harry when I opened the door.
I hadn't seen him since yesterday. He didn't seem upset. In fact, he was as calm and cheerful as usual.
"In a minute," I said, relieved. "By the way, I saw the article today," I commented, looking at myself in the mirror.
"Horrible, isn't it? I have a talk with our dear janitor about discretion," he said, sighing.
"I'm really sorry, Harry. I know I have apologized to you for this a lot of times now, but..." he cut me off with a wave of his hand.
"Then, stop apologizing. I agreed to do this, it's not like you forced me. Besides, it's not that terrible to have the world thinking I have the greatest witch as my fiancee," he said, grinning.
I laughed and gave him a quick hug. Honestly, I don't know what my life would be if I didn't have him as my best friend.
We apparated in the club they had rented. Most of the guests were there already. I spotted a lot of our schoolmates: Dean Thomas, Seamus Finningan, Lavender Brown, Parvati and Padma Patil, Neville Longbottom, Colin Creevey, Lee Jordan, Ernie Macmillan, Justin Finch-Fletchey, Susan Bones. There were a lot of people I didn't know too, and I guessed they were Elizabeth's friends.
"There they are, the happy couple!" yelled Seamus, lifting his glass of butterbeer when he saw us.
"I can't believe you kept this a secret!" exclaimed Parvati, staring at Harry and me. Knowing her, she had certainly devoured the article. She was always up for gossiping.
"Well, Parvati, it's not like it was unexpected," commented Lavender. "We've been watching you two for a long time."
Harry just laughed nervously. I searched for Ron among the crowd and spotted him with Elizabeth talking to Fred and George. The twins had their mischievous grins and I wondered what they were up to this time.
"Hi Hermi!" saluted Elizabeth when she saw me. "I'm glad to see you! I missed you this past two days."
"Yeah, me too," I mumbled, staring at Ron.
"Where's Harry?" he asked.
"He's talking with the guys, why?" I asked.
"Nothing," he said, but his grin told me otherwise.
"Come here, Hermi, I'll introduce you to my friends," said Elizabeth, grabbing my arm. I saw Mr. Greene chatting happily with Mr. Weasley and my stomach made a twitch.
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After a hundred of presentations I was certainly dazed. I felt it was my chance to finish my plan, and I started looking for Ron. We were sitting in one of the circular tables of the club. There was a big stage in the middle. I supposed Ron and Elizabeth had hired a band to play. Harry was sitting beside me. He had gotten awfully quiet for a while.
"Where's Ron?" I asked.
Harry shrugged. But my question was soon answered as Ron stepped on the stage and lifted his hands up to hush the noise in the room. Everyone turned to look at him.
"Hello everyone," he said. "I'm glad you could make it. As you know, today is a very special day for me and Elizabeth, since it's our last day as single people..."
'Not if I can help it'.
"And that's way, I've decided to have a little show here, tonight." Ron's grin grew wider. "Let me introduce you to my brothers, Fred and George!" The twins stepped in the stage.
"I wonder what they're up to," said Harry, smiling. Whatever that had the twins involved in, it had to be fun to watch.
"And I, as well, invite my best friend, Mr. Harry Potter to join us!"
Harry seemed startled. The crowd started applauding and I had to push Harry to make him stand up and go there. He was blushing when he reached the stage. Ron leaned and started whispering something in his ear. I saw Harry's eyes widen in surprise and he stepped back, shaking his head. The twins laughed. Harry looked really scared and nervous, and he kept shaking his head.
I didn't have the time to wonder what was going on.
"Tonight, my friends, you will witness something unique," Ron said, amused. "Harry Potter is going to sing for you. In fact, we are going to play for you. We're the Ridgebacks!"
Now I knew why Harry was acting like that! The Ridgebacks were the name of the musical band that the four of them had formed during one of our summers at the Burrow. It had been just a game, but they made our nights much more amusing. Harry had a great voice, but he wouldn't admit it. He was the leading vocal of the Ridgebacks (as you can guess, the name was Ron's idea, to commemorate Norbert). But I knew he would never dare to sing in public. He did it back then, because it was just us. How could Ron ask him something like that? I laughed as I watched how the three Weasleys tried to convince Harry to do it.
"Harry looks cute when he's nervous," commented Elizabeth, right next to me.
Yes, he did. He looked very cute, actually.
Finally, after the crowd started screaming "Harry!, Harry!" he nodded in resignation. Ron, Fred and George picked their instruments and they discussed for a couple of seconds about the song they were going to play. Finally, Harry stepped in front and conjured a magic microphone. He was still blushing and his gaze dropped in mine. He shrugged and I smiled at him, to reassure him. He smiled back. I'd never realized he had such a charming smile.
"Ok, I'm only doing this for you, Ron," Harry said and the crowd fell into silence.
The Weasleys started to play a song I recognized immediately. It was a classic muggle song.
"You're just too good to be true
Can't take my eyes off you
You'd be like Heaven to touch
I wanna hold you so much"
Elizabeth and I giggled. Harry sang quietly and he still looked embarrassed, but he was loosing up. I knew he loved that song. He was looking straight at me as he kept singing.
"At long last love has arrived
And I thank God I'm alive
You're just too good to be true
Can't take my eyes off you"
If I didn't know better, I could almost say he was singing for me. I supposed he was just acting.
"Pardon the way that I stare
There's nothing else to compare
The sight of you leaves me weak
There are no words left to speak,
But if you feel like I feel,
Please let me know that it's real
You're just too good to be true
Can't take my eyes off you"
They started with the trumpets and the crowd started cheering and applauding. I didn't, though. I was staring at Harry. I felt weird. It wasn't like I'd never heard him sing before... The crowd started to sing along with him.
"I love you, baby,
And if it's quite alright,
I need you, baby,
To warm a lonely night.
I love you, baby
Trust in me when I say:
Oh, pretty baby,
Don't bring me down, I pray.
Oh, pretty baby, now that I found you, stay
And let me love you, baby
Let me love you"
"He's singing to you!" exclaimed Elizabeth, excited.
"I guess he is," I said just to say something. I knew that wasn't the case.
"You're just too good to be true
Can't take my eyes off you
You'd be like Heaven to touch
I wanna hold you so much
At long last love has arrived
And I thank God I'm alive
You're just too good to be true
Can't take my eyes off you"
Harry was totally loosened up. He stepped out of the stage and started walking between the tables, but he was still looking at me.
"I love you, baby,
And if it's quite alright,
I need you, baby,
To warm a lonely night
I love you, baby
Trust in me when I say:
Oh, pretty baby,
Don't bring me down, I pray
Oh, pretty baby, now that I found you, stay
And let me love you, baby.
Let me love you"
The crowd started applauding wildly, with me along. Harry blushed again. The twins patted him in the shoulder. I wanted to go there and congratulate him, but something caught my eye.
Mr. Greene had approached to the stage, and he was talking to Ron.
It was time.
I completely forgot about Harry. I took the letter I had written before, and made it fly towards Mr. Greene and Ron. When the old man left to talk to Harry, I let it drop. Luckily, Ron noticed it right away. He picked it up and unfolded it to see what it was.
I stared at him reading it, feeling incredibly nervous and sick. I watched his features changing drastically. His grin faded and a hurt, angry and surprised look appeared in his eyes.
I walked towards them. Harry was being congratulated by Elizabeth at the time.
"Ron, are you OK?" I asked. How cynic could I get?
Ron didn't even heard me. He walked towards Elizabeth and grabbed her arm. She looked at him puzzled, and he led her to a corner of the place. I stared at them for a while until I realized Harry was looking at me.
"What's going on?" he asked, his head pointing Ron and Elizabeth who were obviously fighting. Nobody else seemed to realized.
"I don't know," I said shrugging. I felt like crying. I felt like screaming. Was I doing the right thing? I looked at Harry again. His green eyes were still fixed on me. "What?"
"Nothing," he said. He looked somehow disappointed. He started leaving.
"Hey!" I stopped him, "You did great up there," I said. He nodded and smiled. It was a weak smile, not his usual grins and it faded right away. "What's wrong?" I asked.
"Nothing," he said, again. He then looked at Ron and Elizabeth. I looked too. Elizabeth was crying and Ron seemed even more angry. "I think I'm gonna go home," I heard Harry saying, "I don't feel very well." He went out of the club.
I was going to follow him, when I saw that Ron was going right the other way. He went out too, through the back exit. I followed him.
"Ron, wait up!" I said. Ron turned around and waited for me. "What's the matter?" I asked, putting my best confused expression.
He gave me the letter.
"Oh my..." I said in a whisper.
"I can't believe it!" Ron said, angrily. He was walking really fast and I had to ran to catch up with him. "All this time... I can't believe that she's doing this to me! I thought I could trust her!"
He kept blurting out his frustration for half an hour, until he sat down on a bench in a small park we had reached. The night was cold and the streets, deserted. Ron put his head on his hands. Now he didn't look angry, he looked sad.
"Ron..." I said putting my hand on his back. But what could I say to him? I was responsible for all this.
"I knew this was crazy. I should have known I didn't know her well enough," he muttered. "I would have never expected she could do something like that to me. I thought she loved me. I thought we were OK."
Now I really felt bad.
"I love her so much and he does this to me! Dammit!!" he yelled. He then turned to me. "I'm sorry, Herm, you don't need to hear this now."
"Don't worry about me, Ron. I'm your friend, I'm always here for you."
"Yeah, I know," he said, grabbing my hand. "I would be lost if it wasn't for you."
I swallowed hard. "What are you going to do?"
He shook his head. "I don't know. She said she never asked her father anything like that. But I know the old man. I know he would never do something like this if his little girl doesn't ask him to."
I nodded slightly.
"I can't marry her. I can't. Not after this. She has betrayed me. She knew that playing for Puddlemere is one of my biggest dreams!"
"Did you tell her that?" I asked quietly.
"Tell her what? About my dreams?"
"That you're not going to marry her," I said. The words sounded so unreal.
"Yes. But she said she can't tell everyone that, now. That I should cool down and that when I can think with my head straight, we would discuss about it. So I guess that leaves tomorrow."
"But Ron, the wedding's tomorrow!"
"I know, but it's tomorrow's night. I have the pre-wedding lunch at the manor. We'll break it off then."
"Are you sure about this?"
"Yeah," he said, although he didn't sound convincing at all.
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When I arrived to my apartment, three hours later, I didn't feel happy, as I thought I would feel after knowing that Ron and Elizabeth were history. Actually, I felt the opposite. I was sad and that made me felt frustrated. I should have been celebrating, drinking champagne or something. But there I was, laid down in my bed, feeling down and depressed.
I had gone over Harry's place before, just to find it empty. Where could he be at this time? He had left the club at the same time I did...
Thinking about Harry wasn't helping me to feel better. I couldn't get the thought out of my head that something was going on, something that I couldn't notice. Maybe my mind was playing tricks on me. I would have time to deal with Harry later, right then I had to fought the guilty feeling that was eating me from inside.
But, somehow, Harry just kept plopping in my head.
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