Title: Significant Other (2/3)
Author name: Kaori Lily Marie Otome XIV
Author e-mail: kaori@suite101.com
Category: Astronomy Tower
Keywords: H/Hr, Fluff, AU
Rating: PG
Spoilers: It's good to be familiar with all the books but there aren't really any spoilers
Summary: H/Hr AU. In what seemed to be a perfect world, would these two, Harry and Hermione, find each other and fall in love? Like the way it was meant to be? Or was it really all changed and nothing would be the same? Maybe.
Disclaimer: This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by JK Rowling, various publishers including but not limited to Bloomsbury Books, Scholastic Books and Raincoast Books, and Warner Bros., Inc. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended.
Author's Notes: This was first posted in HMS Pumpkin Pie, and as usual, dedicated to them. Sorry it took long for only a three part story. I was so busy in RL. ::sighs:: the world is very complicated sometimes. Heh… now only if I could finish the other ficlet!
--Significant Other--
By Kaori Lily Marie Otome XIV
Dedicated to follower_of_voldemort and to Mimi S. Wood, who's recently a new HP fan.
Part Two: Fate
Some things don't change.
More than half of her life was completely changed. She still had the same ten years of her life then... she didn't get a Hogwarts letter. She had received another letter first. For Madam Michelle's Witchcraft Academy. Hermione accepted, not knowing she'd get another letter later. She had to turn down Hogwarts, though she wanted to go after she'd gotten the letter. She couldn't though. It was just too late. She did not meet Harry Potter.
Yet she still graduated the top of her class. She had a perfect record, since Harry and Ron never had put her into trouble. She did feel a longing for friends. She was lonely. She had no friends in that school. In the way Harry's life changed for the better, hers was the antonym. Only she couldn't know how her life was worse.
Though things that were meant to be will happen. Mostly. It would just figure that Hermione would run into Harry Potter in her new career. Coincidence? Perhaps... or maybe fate?
***
Hermione Granger sighed as her stomach grumbled. She hadn't eaten breakfast yet. She held her report tightly. It was her first day of the job and she was quite nervous if her work was good enough or not. She touched her stomach with her other hand. She felt so starved. 'I knew I should've just taken something' she scolded herself.
The first day! She didn't think she could be anymore nervous. She was much calmer at her graduation than now. Then she had to actually recite her speech but now all she had to do was hand the report to the editor. Hermione didn't get it. Why did everything have to be so complicated? Most girls she knew from school knew her as the busy-haired know-it-all that didn't need to ask questions. That wasn't true though. She did ask questions. Deep questions. She didn't ask it to anyone aloud.
She sat on a bench inside the Daily Prophet office. This was odd for her but she found that, during that past decade of this life, that things are not normal. Of course, that all depends on one's definition of normal. Okay, ordinary suited it more. Yes, things weren't ordinary.
She glanced at her passage and groaned in frustration. A mistake! Oh this wasn't fair! It was the third time she had to correct something. She got up fast. Her head swirled because it was just a tad to fast. She shook her head to stop the dizziness.
Rushing to go out again, she realized that the office was extremely crowded. The only she'd get there in time was if she ran. So she did.
She saw blurs of color passing by but she was careful not to bump into anyone or anything. That was until she did. Her hold on the pages loosened and the papers flew off. The force of the collision caused her to fall to the floor and so did the person she bumped into. Hermione gasped realizing that her hours of organizing were ruined. "Oh no!" She gasped. To her surprised the other said it at the same time.
She sat there waiting till the last of the papers flew down to the mess of papers. Hermione's eyes stared at it as it fell and when it reached the ground her eyes met two bright green ones. Her knees felt weak. Those eyes. She knew those eyes. But where?
Then a realization dawned on her! Her papers! And probably the man's too for there were more pages on the ground than she had. Oh no! How could she be so clumsy?
"Oh! I'm so, so, so sorry!" Hermione looked terrified. Messing up so much on the first day! What else could go wrong?
The man got up by himself and uncomfortably held out a hand to her. "It's all right," he said. Hermione took his hand and he helped her bring herself up. Hermione still kept apologizing though. "It's okay... really it is!"
"Are you sure? I mean like-"
"No, it's okay."
"Are you sure?" Hermione asked again.
He nodded carefully. "Yeah, it's all right." His voice was kind and sincere and Hermione felt like she could trust him right away. He bent down and started gathering his own papers. "Harry Potter by the way," He told her. Hermione suppose he was saying his name.
"Hermione Granger," Hermione responded. 'Wait, Harry Potter?' "Oh! You're Harry Potter? I like your news articles! Though you do need to work on your grammar a little." She was still like that. Always wanting to correct people. Was it her fault that she could notice mistakes?
Harry frowned, a little disappointed with her statement. He seemed more uncomfortable than ever. "Er... right. Do I know you? Maybe from Hogwarts?"
Hermione shook her head. She wished! Only if... "You can't have. I didn't go to Hogwarts." Oh but how she wished she did! It was the best wizarding school she knew... oh why did she have to apply for Madam Michelle's Witchcraft Academy? Why didn't she wait for Hogwarts? Regrets often flooded her and she braved through it still. She gathered up the remaining pages on the ground.
"Oh," Harry said. More disappointment. Why on earth was he giving her that odd look like she was lying? She wasn't! She never set foot upon that wizarding school! "Are you new here?" Hermione was thankful that he didn't interrogate her. She relaxed and remembers that Harry wasn't in charge of the place and couldn't fire her. "An intern you could say," she told him. "I'll see you again?" 'Huh?' she thought, 'Where did THAT come from?' she barely knew the man for longer than two minutes!
"Er okay," he said. He noticed one last page on the floor. It wasn't Hermione's so he picked it up. "Well, I'll see you around then." He walked off. What was with him?
Hermione blushed when she reached her home in Muggle London. She lived in a flat all to herself, proving that she was quite alone. She quickly wand, which she left accidentally, and fixed her mistakes once and for all. She kept forgetting her wand lately. She didn't know why. She wasn't usually so clumsy or forgetful... what was happening to her? It was like her life was split in two. Oh how weird!
It wasn't fair. It wasn't her fault this was all happening. The world, no matter how different, was still cruel.
'Evil! Evil world!' Hermione scorned before running back to Diagon Alley.
As she entered the office panting heavily, Hermione glanced at her wrist-watch. Almost her deadline. Oh great! She rushed to the Editor's office, apologizing to people she ran into and saying 'excuse me's repeatedly. She entered the Editor's office shaky and nervous.
"Relax miss Granger," The Editor said at his desk. "Your article?"
"Oh yeah!" Hermione handed him the papers. "Sorry if there's mistakes... I was sort of rushing."
"That's all right Miss Granger. Your spelling seems perfect enough."
"Oh," Hermione blushed.
The door opened and in came Harry Potter. Hermione's heart seemed to flutter. Oh no... this couldn't be happening to her, could it? She couldn't be! She wasn't... in love. Was she?
He seemed to notice her immediately. "Oh Miss Granger, you're submitting your article too?"
"Yep," Hermione said. "I hope it's good enough."
Harry gave her a grin that made her want to melt. "I'm sure it is..."
Hermione nodded appreciatively.
As it was meant to be... the two met. The only thing that was missing was...
End Part Two...