Chapter 7 - Trouble in paradise?
TUESDAY
I had just spent an hour working on my desk - I swear, one day off work and the world falls down - when my secretary, Hannah Abbot (yeah, the Hufflepuff girl) entered in my office.
I was very concentrated writing a report about a Death Eater that had tried to escape from Azkaban. I don't enjoy interruptions when I'm working, so I didn't lift my head when Hanna came in.
"Hermione, someone's here to see you," she said, leaving some papers on my desk.
"Who is it?" I asked, still writing on the parchment. "Oh, don't tell me, I bet is Harry trying to force me to eat something."
"No. Actually is a woman. Elizabeth, she said."
I snapped my head up. Elizabeth? What was she doing there?
"Do I tell her to come in?" Hannah asked when I didn't respond.
"Uhm... Yeah, OK," I said. Even though I didn't want to see her, I was curious.
Elizabeth came in five seconds later, with her flashing smile. She was wearing a lovely pink dress and looked more stunning that she usually did.
"Hi Hermi," she said "Sorry if I'm disturbing you."
In fact she was, but I wasn't going to tell her that... yet.
"Hello, Elizabeth, how can I help you?" I said, leaving my quill on the desk.
"Well, since you are my Maid of Honor, I was wondering if you could go with me to pick up my wedding dress."
She had to be kidding me.
"Oh... I would love to, but as you can see, I'm working, and Mr. Weasley will cut my head off if I don't give him these reports," I said with my best smile.
As on cue, my boss came in the office.
"Oh hi Elizabeth! Hannah told me you were here," he said waving happily to her.
"Yes, Mr. Weasley, I came here to invite Hermi to come with me and pick up my wedding dress, but she's working," Elizabeth said, sadly.
Mr. Weasley looked at me with an understanding smile.
"Dear child, please go with my future daughter in law. You work too much, you need to have fun," he said.
"Oh, no, it's OK, Mr. Weasley," I said, panicking. "I really have to finish these reports and..."
"Nonsense," he said, dismissing my excuse. "Come on, I know how you girls love shopping. Besides, that reports aren't that urgent." I was going to protest, but Mr. Weasley cut me off. "In fact, Hermione, I'm going to give you this week off. In that way, you'll be able to help Elizabeth, like I know you want."
Perfect, just what I needed. I couldn't believe Mr. Weasley was doing something like that to me, but, on the other hand, I know he really believed I wanted to help Elizabeth with the wedding arrangements. I had no other choice but to accept.
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"Isn't this great? We'll have all these days to become best friends!" was saying Elizabeth. She was in the fitting room, and I was waiting outside.
"Sure," I groaned.
"I know that you don't feel very comfortable with having girl friends, but I'm sure you and I will get along fine," she said next.
"What?" I snapped. "What gives you the idea that I don't feel comfortable having girl friends?"
"Well, you don't have any, do you? Back at school you were always with Harry and Ron, and now you're still with them," her voice came.
Who the hell did she think she was? She didn't know me at all. She didn't have the right to come and analyze my friendships... However, I had to admit she was right. I didn't have any girl friends, just Harry and Ron.
"It seems that Ron told you a lot of things about me," I commented.
"Sure, all he did was talk about you and Harry," she said, giggling.
"Really? What did he tell you, exactly?" I asked, curious. I wished I could looked at her face right now, but the dressmaker hadn't let me in.
"Well, he said you were a little bossy and some sort of a know-it-all." Typical from Ron to say something like that about me. "But he also said you were really smart, caring, brave and loyal. He told me you were like a mother to Harry and him when you were at school. You love books above anything else, you're a workaholic, you hate cooking and girlish stuff. You are really scared of heights, so you never even step on a broom. You are really stubborn, and God help us when you set your mind on something, because you don't give up until you achieve it and you can be really dangerous when someone upsets you..."
Geez that girl knew me better than I knew myself. That didn't give me any comfort and I mentally thought I was going to have a talk with Ron about his impressions of me.
"Well, what do you think?" I heard her asking. I hadn't realized she was standing in front of me.
She looked amazing. Her wedding dress was absolutely marvelous and it fitted her like a glove. I couldn't help but thinking that maybe I would never use a dress like that. Some of my anguish must have reflected in my face.
"You don't like it?" Elizabeth said, looking at herself with a sad expression. "I knew it was too much, I should have chosen something more discreet."
"Oh no," I said quickly "It's beautiful."
Her face lit up. "Do you think Ron will like it?"
"How could he not?" I asked, amazed with my kind words.
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"I have a confession," she said.
We were on a small café in London's downtown. Elizabeth had been staring at me for a while before she said that.
"Shoot," I said, carefully.
"I was afraid of meeting you."
Wow, I wasn't expecting that. "Why?" I asked.
"Because... Oh, you'll probably laugh at this... I had the feeling that I would have to compete with you," she said looking at her cup of coffee.
"I'm sorry, you lost me," I said, blinking.
"Ron told me all about you and your incredible friendship, and somehow I thought that he would always compare me with you. I came here with the feeling that I would had to fight with you for Ron... It's crazy I know! I mean, I totally changed my mind when I met you and Harry, because it's so obvious you two are madly in love. And I know you were a little cold to me in the beginning because you were afraid I might hurt Ron or something."
I was trying hard to took in all the things she was saying. I looked into her blue eyes, trying to see a glimpse of cynicism, but I realized she was being totally honest.
"And I swear, for my life, that I could never hurt Ron," she kept saying. "I truly love him. If I didn't love him the way I do, I would've never accepted..." she trailed off.
I stopped thinking about what she had said earlier and caught the last words. I became really interested in this conversation.
"Accepted what?" I asked, casually. She hesitated and I gave her a reassuring smile "Come on, you can tell me. We are friends now, aren't we?"
She smiled and leaned on the table, speaking in a low voice.
"Well, it's not such a big deal... It's just that it took me a lot of effort to accept to come and live here, in England." I nodded, inviting her to continue. "When Ron asked me to marry him, he started talking about the offer of Puddlemere and how he wanted to came back to England. He seemed so excited... To tell you the truth, I don't like England very much. I'm so used to live in California, I'm used to the weather and to the people there. Here, I feel out of place."
I cleared my throat. "Have you spoken with Ron about how you feel?"
She shook her head, sadly. "No. I know he doesn't want to live in the US. He wants to live here."
Now this was something. These couple had a huge problem in their hands and I just couldn't believe they hadn't realized about it yet.
"I haven't ask you before," I said, "What do you do for living?" I had the idea that being the rich girl she was, maybe she didn't do anything.
"I'm a teacher," she said. "I worked in a Wizard School in the States, I was the History of Magic professor. That's another thing," she added, her face serious all of the sudden. "Here in Europe, all wizarding schools are boarding schools. I know Ron would die if I went all the year away! I love my job and I hate to leave it."
This was my chance. Elizabeth had given me the perfect tool to stop this nonsense. OK, I admit I felt a rush of sympathy for her and her big sacrifice for Ron, but let's face it, either way, one of them would be unhappy. I just had to make them realize it.
"Elizabeth," I said, in a solemn tone. "I think you have to tell Ron how you feel." She shook her head again. "Yes, you have," I insisted. "The most important thing in a healthy relationship is honesty and communication. If you don't work this thing out now, you'll have troubles later."
She seemed to consider my advise. "Are you sure? I mean, you probably know Ron better than me. Are you sure he won't be mad if I tell him I don't want to live here?"
"I don't think he would be mad. But you have to find a solution to this," I said, matter-of-factly.
"You're totally right, Hermi. I have to talk to Ronnie. We'll figure this out somehow, won't we? We love each other and that's all that matters!" she said, smiling. I smiled too, knowingly. Ron wasn't going to like this at all.
We finished our coffees and she asked me to go with her to the flower shop.
"I'm so glad Mr. Weasley gave you the week off," she said, picking a bunch of red roses.
"Yeah, so am I," I lied.
"Now you'll be able to help me, because there's so much left to do!" she said, happily. "What do you think about this flowers for the reception?" she said pointing the red roses.
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I hate to admit this, but I was actually having fun with the little princess. She invited me for lunch and I couldn't refuse. Besides it would give me the chance to get more information out of her.
We talked for a while about Ron, and I didn't miss the opportunity to point out some of his defects - casually, of course. That didn't turn out very well, she seemed delighted with his flaws. "If you love someone, you love him entirely," she said. She then changed the subject to one I didn't want to discuss: Harry and me.
Why I didn't want to discuss it, you ask? Well I don't enjoy lying, I'm not that bad, you know? I just invented that whole Harry thing to make Ron jealous. But Elizabeth though that the fact that we were a couple was the best thing in the world. I had the suspicion she felt safer like that: I was taken and I wouldn't try to steal Ron from her. Wasn't she naïve?
"When Ron used to talk about Harry and you, he never mentioned anything involving you romantically," Elizabeth said, eating her salad.
"I guess he never expected that we would end up together," I said, shrugging.
"I can't understand how he didn't. When I met you, I realized in that very second you two were meant for each other."
"Really?" I asked, not very interested.
"Of course. Anyone with two eyes would realized that Harry adores you! The way he looks at you, the way he speaks to you, everything. If Ron wasn't so dense, he would have noticed."
I almost laughed. The girl was so desperate to see me away from Ron that now she was making up all that stuff about Harry's behavior towards me. Like I wasn't there too.
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"You look tired."
"You too."
"Well, I have been training all day, so it's no surprise I'm tired," Harry reasoned. "But you had been shopping all day, so I don't really understand why do you have that look in your face."
Harry had spent the last half hour laughing at me for the `week off' thing and the fact I would have to spent these days helping Elizabeth with the wedding.
"I would be less tired if I had been working in something I actually like," I said, sighing. I was sitting in his favorite sofa and he was in a chair in front of me. "You can't imagine how tiring is to hear a person like her talk for an hour without breathing."
Harry just smiled.
"But it wasn't a useless day," I added, thinking about the plan that was building in my head.
"What do you mean?" he asked, looking at me suspiciously.
"Oh, nothing," I said. I wasn't going to tell him anything. I knew he could get angry and I didn't want to fight with him again. "You know what that girl said?" I asked, laughing. "She said that it was pretty obvious from the start that you and I were totally in love."
"Did she?" asked Harry, standing up from his chair and walking towards the kitchen.
"Yes. She said she noticed right away that you adored me. Isn't it funny?" I asked still laughing. Harry was still in the kitchen when he answered.
"Very funny, indeed," he said, but somehow it didn't sound like he was laughing.
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