A/N- I'm back!!!! And I want to clear some things up with you guys. I kind of made a mistake with the prologue. From the way it sounds, you all probably think H/Hr separated right away… They didn't, and it's my fault for not making it clear. They tried to work it out, but that didn't work, so after about 2 weeks, they separated. Hope you guys can forgive me on the part. And some of you might have been a little lost with the flashback scene. I had it slanted, but when I uploaded it, it wouldn't stay that way. Sorry if it confused any of you. Hope you enjoy the chap!
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"Hermione?"
Him… It was him… Though she was relieved to know that it was only Harry, his voice still made her jump; unfortunately, she didn't have anything near her to knock over.
"Hermione?" he called again.
She found her voice. "I'm here, in the back."
Harry appeared in the doorway.
"You'd better stop right there. I broke a vase."
Harry looked down to see the shatter pieces of the once un-broken vase. He must of thought it looked odd, especially since she made no move to clean it up.
"I have so many things I have to do," she muttered, though she had gotten most of books out and on the shelves, and she knew she must have sounded ridiculous.
As if he knew that she was distressed, he took out his wand, muttered a spell, and the vase was back together.
"There you go," he said quietly, as he sat down next to table.
"Thank you," she managed with a weak smile.
"You heard about Parvati, didn't you?" he asked, looking at her with his beautiful green eyes.
Hermione nodded. "How's Neville doing?"
"Not too well. You're not doing to well either."
Hermione's face flushed as she sat down across from him and started gathering books.
"Well, it's not like one of your friends gets murdered every day."
"I thought you would get a little shaken."
They sat there in silence; Harry looking at Hermione intently, and Hermione suddenly found the brown covering of a book she was holding very interesting.
"I need to talk to you Hermione." Harry finally said.
No, not now, she thought. She didn't want to break down in front of him. But anyways, Hermione slowly looked up to meet his gaze.
"I want to know if you will go to the funeral with me."
Hermione figured she had at least a million different emotions running through her face at that moment. "Why?" was the only thing that came out of her mouth. Why did he want her to go with him.
"Hermione, can't we just do this for Neville? He'll need us to be there… Together."
"Is she gonna be there?" she asked, her voice just a bit cold.
"Who?" he asked, but she knew that he knew all to well on whom she was referring to.
"Cho Chang." she said, rather viciously. It was actually the first time Cho's name was mentioned in one of their conversations since they split up.
"Hermione, the whole community will be there. Does it really matter?"
She didn't really know what to think. Was it going to matter if Cho was there?
Harry just watched her for a moment, then finally said, "Forget it Hermione. I thought we could do this for Neville, but just forget it."
He went for the door, as Hermione figured out what her answer was.
"Harry?"
He turned.
"I'll… I'll go with you."
"Don't just do this because now you feel guilty."
"Look Harry, I said I'd go with you. Are you okay with that or not?" raising her voice a little.
"Of course, that's why I came over here… And to see that you're fine,"
She couldn't hold the tears; the ones she tried to hold back from Harry. She turned around as the tears started to come out.
"Is there any idea, any clue as to who did it?" she asked, trying to keep her voice smooth.
"No… All we can assume is that it was a muggle."
"Harry, why would a muggle want to kill Parvati?"
"Why would anyone want to kill her?"
Hermione sighed.
"Angelina told me you had doubts about it being a muggle."
"Harry, it just doesn't feel right."
"This whole thing doesn't feel right Hermione." he said softly.
She looked at him, wondering if he meant something…Else…
Again, the two just looked at each other, with Harry then saying, "I better get going. I'll let you know when the funeral arrangements are made and everything."
Hermione nodded. "Thank you."
"You're gonna be alright?"
Hermione gave a small laugh. "You know me. I'm always alright."
Harry just looked at her, and then nodded. "Be careful…please." Harry said the last word so quietly that Hermoine did catch it.
Harry turned to walk out the door, looking back one last time, before he closed the door.
Once he was gone, Hermione's placed her face in her hands, as a million thoughts ran through her mind.
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Harry was now at Marty's Place, a wizards pub. If someone ever wanted to get drunk, this was the place to go. Harry started coming here with Blaise Zabani, about a month before the separation. He had been visiting the pub more and more frequently ever since.
"Hey Marty, give me two pints of Old Wonky." Harry said as he sat down.
Marty stared at Harry. "You want the Wonkstone?"
"Uh huh."
"Alright then." was the reply as Marty started to get the drink.
Harry looked over when the door opened, and saw Cho Chang come in. Cho saw him and walked over.
"You're actually in the mood to drink Harry?" she asked as she looked down at the drink Marty just placed in front of Harry.
"If it gets me through the night." he said with a grin.
"Are you okay Harry?"
How does someone think 'that' when I'm grinning? He thought. But he only answered, "Yea, why?"
"Well, it's been a tough day, and… Did you go and see Hermione today?"
Harry pressed his lips together. "Yea."
"Is she alright?"
"I guess." Harry replied, knowing that Cho wasn't really concerned on how Hermione was doing.
"So… You and her are working things out?"
Why is she asking? Again he thought.
"You don't have to answer. I mean, I know it's none of my business."
"Cho, if I had answers, I'd talk."
He didn't look at her. He had been trying to avoid her lately, not wanting to have any interaction with her that would get Hermoine to be even madder at him.
"Are you two going to file for divorce?"
Harry shook his head. "We're not really going for divorce."
"But you're okay with seperation?"
"No not that either. But you don't always have a choice, especially when your wife doesn't think you're honest about anything."
"Honest about what?"
Argh, why does she keep asking me complicated questions like that? He thought in annoyance.
"Harry?"
He looked at her.
"Honest about what?" she asked again.
Harry shrugged, cursing himself that he mentioned 'honesty.'
Cho studied him carefully, and then said, "Harry…Uh… I'm not really sure how to say this… Well, I've run into Hermione a few times, and she's been really… really cold towards me …"
Harry's insides tightened.
"Harry, does your separation have anything to do with our friendship?"
"Are you making a joke?"
"I'm serious Harry." Cho said with a frown.
Harry leaned forward, his voice low and hard. "My wife caught me with my arms around you. She drew a conclusion about us - and it wasn't a bloody good conclusion."
"But you guys didn't separate until a few weeks later, and you told me it had nothing to do with me."
"I lied Cho. Nothing happened, and I didn't want you to feel bad."
Cho sighed, sitting back. "I could talk to her you know. Tell her."
Harry had to laugh on that. "You? Talk to Hermione? Bad idea Cho. You talk to her, and there will be a divorce soon. It'll just make things worse."
"Well, I'd be there to comfort you."
Harry met Cho's eyes, and knew exactly what she meant. Bloody hell, he thought as the door opened and in came more people. He was never happy when there were a lot of people in the pub, but tonight, he was very thankful.
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Pansy Zabani had planned to go out that night, but her friends were too scared about the murder. So now she was waiting in bed for Blaise to come home. She wished he didn't have to work tonight; the two of them could have gone out together.
She sat up as she heard a noise downstairs. "Blaise? Blaise is that you?"
She heard no answer, and a chill went down her back. She saw her gray cat, Merlin, come in. Sighing with relief, she picked up the cat, believing it had made the noise. I could have sworn I left you outside, she thought.
She heard a noise again, and this time, it wasn't the cat.
"Blaise? Blaise this really isn't funny!"
"You're right… It's not funny."
The voice did not belong to Blaise.
Pansy screamed, as a bullet hit her chest, knocking her backwards to the floor on the other side of the bed.
Darkness fell upon her, as she tried to take deep breaths. But she couldn't escape the shadows for long…
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A/N- AHHHHHH!!!! Um, should I say I'm sorry for killing off Pansy? I don't think many of you are terribly disappointed, lol. And sadly, I can't take credit for the Wonkstone, or the line: "give me two pints of Old Wonky." Wonkstone came from Nitya, and the line came from alchemist. Thanks you two (even though you don't read this story, lol). Is this chapter too short? It might be, but I kind of had to end it there, for it was the best place to end it. So, Cho has made another entrance, dun-dun-dun. Sorry that this took a while. I kind of had a little case of a Writer's Block, which is kind of weird since this is based on a book and everything, so… Oh, thanks for the reviews guys!!!!
Façade- Yea, well I'm glad you enjoyed it, even if I didn't, lol. But darlin, I'm coming up with D/K shipping names… I will over run you *evil laughter*
Angel-Wing- Yea, I don't really understand why I had Dan/Sandra. There was just something inside of me telling me to do it. Maybe it was my insanity side creeping up…
Fabiana- I'm glad you found this story and you're enjoying it.
And to all of you who wondered if it was Harry coming to see Hermione… Hopefully you know now, cause that means I explained it well!
And I am confused… You mean none of you like cliffhangers???? *gasp* Wow… But I'm in a cliffhanger mood, and ever since Amynoelle gave readers a very, very, very evil cliffhanger in NPTF, I'm keeping cliffhangers. But, will you guys keep R/R'ing for me? No one reviews over on FFNet (I don't think anybody knows it exists over there,lol), and so I like it when people review over here.
WKris- who finds it very funny that a lot of this chapter is made up of her A/N, hehe.