Deeds not Words

A/N: Thank you to those who reviewed. Don’t get upset folks - ok they’re with other people just now, but this IS H/Hr so don’t worry!

Underground

Hermione leaned against the stage, reeling from Zacharias’s kiss.

She thought back to the kiss she had shared with Harry six years before (the one that she always compared all others to). For the first time she found it lacking. Harry’s had been the sweet kiss of a boy – and for the first time she felt like she’d been kissed by a man…

‘So,’ he was saying, his intense blue eyes only inches away from her, making her unable to concentrate, ‘…do you have a Floo address? I’d like to take you out for dinner so we can discuss the Elf Rights Bill some more.’

Hermione’s head was in a whirl. This boy had been unbelievably annoying at school. Was it possible he had changed that much?

‘If you don’t want to tell me, that’s alright,’ he smiled, although his gaze became a fraction more predatory. He obviously had no intention of leaving until she did.

‘It’s the Malfoy Manor,’ she managed to say.

‘You’re living in the old Malfoy place? Thereby hangs a tale, no doubt.’

‘Well, not a very interesting one…’

‘Look, I have to go,’ he interrupted, looking anxiously over his shoulder. ‘I’ll be in touch.’

Hermione watched him saunter off, prowling like a cat, before going to look for Ron.

She found him slumped at their table, almost asleep. Everyone else seemed to have left.

‘Ron…’ she shook his shoulder. He opened his bloodshot eyes and focused on her.

‘Finished snogging that bloke now? Can we go?’

‘Where’s Harry?’

‘He left while you were snogging. He went home with Lavender - lucky git.’

Hermione was surprised to feel the familiar kick of despair in her stomach when she heard Harry was with someone else. It was just because they were such good friends, she told herself. She was just worried about him getting hurt. And she didn’t like Lavender much…

‘Why do I always end up on my own?’ Ron was complaining drunkenly. ‘S’not fair, even you pulled tonight!’

Hermione pulled him to his feet. ‘Here we go,’ she thought. ‘The ‘I’m going to die all alone’ speech.’ She knew this off by heart.

‘I’m going to die all alone!’

Because no one will ever go out with me, Hermione added mentally.

‘Because no one will ever go out with me,’ Ron continued.

‘I’ll be a mad old hermit!’

‘And no one will notice when I die…’

‘Until the neighbours notice a funny smell – and they’ll find me lying there dead, half eaten by my dog!’

‘That’s a new addition, the dog bit,’ remarked Hermione, ‘Nice touch. Apart from you don’t like dogs.’

‘Who knows what I’ll have as a pet?’ said Ron huffily. ‘I’ll be completely mental!’

‘Ron!’ Hermione interrupted impatiently. ‘Did you even try to speak to Luna tonight? Or any other girl for that matter?’

‘What’s the point? They don’t want old peg leg do they? They want a hero like Harry or hunks like Mr. Dragon Trousers you were talking to…’

‘Mr Dragon Trousers was Zacharias Smith from school. I wouldn’t say he was a hunk…’

‘What? That idiot from the DA? Are you off your head?’

‘Oh shut up Ron. And if girls are so impressed by heroes, what exactly is that thing pinned to your chest? Seems to me you have to be pretty heroic to get one of those,’ said Hermione, tapping his Order of Merlin with her finger.

‘I just got it ‘cos they felt sorry for me. I didn’t do anything,’ Ron grumbled.

‘Oh and saving Hannah Abbot’s life had nothing to do with it I suppose?’ demanded Hermione, exasperated. ‘And capturing two Death Eaters? And going undercover to rescue Terry Boot and Michael Corner when they got captured? Will I go on?’

A grin crept across Ron’s freckled face. ‘Yeah, keep going, you’re making me sound really cool!’

‘Ron Weasley, you are the biggest pain in the arse I’ve ever met,’ said Hermione, laughing. ‘Come on, let’s go home.’

***************************************************************

Harry awoke to the feeling that a troll had beaten him around the head with its club. Peeling his tongue from the roof of his mouth - which tasted as if he’d eaten a dung-bomb - he tried to wrench his eyelids open.

Water, he needed water. Why oh why had he got so drunk? He willed his arm to move and pick up the glass of water just out of reach on the bedside table.

Wait a minute…that wasn’t his arm. Someone was in bed with him, with their arm wrapped around him. Who was it? Harry racked his brain, panicking, not wanting to move and disturb whoever it was.

Who had been there last night? Harry’s mind lurched from one possibility to the next.

Ron? No – definitely a girl’s arm…

Ginny? No chance…

Luna? No again, Ron would have kicked his arse…

A horrible thought struck him. Please oh please don’t let it be Millicent Bulstrode!

‘Harry?’ a muffled voice said. ‘Are you awake?’

‘Oh Ha-reeee’ the voice cooed.

Lavender Brown. Recollection came limping back to Harry. They had come back to his flat, both completely plastered. He could remember a bit of kissing going on and he could recall drinking more whisky when he had come in… He had a faint memory of taking off his shirt and twirling it around his head like a male stripper before throwing it into the corner of the room, but after that everything was a great big blank.

Why was he always such an unbelievable prat when he was drunk?

‘Morning Lavender,’ he mumbled.

Had they done anything last night? No, they couldn’t have. He could barely stand, never mind anything else. He had been in no fit state…

‘Morning lover,’ said Lavender in a husky voice.

Oh bloody hell.

***********************************************************************

Hermione sat in her office winding a strand of hair round and round her finger as she stared into space and daydreamed.

It was a week since the dance and she had heard nothing from Zacharias. She wasn’t even sure why she was getting so excited about him, but it was so rare for a man to pay any attention to her, and she hadn’t realised at school how passionately he felt about the house elves.

But even as she tried to throw herself into work, her mind kept wandering from writing the Universal Declaration of Elf Rights and coming up with all sorts of improbable fantasies.

Hermione, Zacharius would say. I haven’t been able to stop thinking about you all week. I’m going to come and fight for Elf Rights with you - I’m sure together we can make a difference!

Hermione had just got to the stage in her fantasy where she and Zacharias were chaining themselves to the front of the Ministry of Magic to protest about elf slavery while the Daily Prophet interviewed him about the new love of his life, when a head appeared in a flash of green fire in the fireplace.

‘Hermione!’ yelled Ron, startling her.

‘For goodness sake Ron, you made me jump out of my skin!’ said Hermione grumpily, trying to mop up the ink she’d spilled in her fright.

‘Nice to see you too,’ he said, looking a bit miffed. ‘Harry and me were just wondering if you wanted to come to Diagon Alley for an ice-cream or something? It’s roasting outside – far too hot to work.’

‘Oh, I don’t know Ron, I wanted to finish this Article first: ‘All elves are born free and equal in dignity and rights…’’

‘Ok, ok!’ interrupted Ron before she could get started. ‘I just thought you might want to come…’ He lowered his voice, ‘because Lavender’s going to be there, and I can’t handle her and Harry alone. I know she doesn’t like you much but…go on Hermione, be a sport!’

Hermione looked outside – it was a beautiful day, and an ice-cream would be nice. And far be it from her to pass up a chance to irritate Lavender…she shook herself. There was no need to be bitchy about Harry’s new girlfriend, he obviously liked her.

‘Alright Ron, I’ll see you at Florean’s in a few minutes.’

‘Brilliant!’ said Ron and disappeared.

At the last minute, Hermione checked her appearance in the mirror. Her hair was standing on end as usual, the heat making it bushier than ever. She had on an ink-stained blouse and an old grey skirt with the hem coming down at one side.

‘Mrs Malfoy would never have dreamed of going around looking like that, young lady,’ remarked the mirror.

‘Oh, shut up!’ said Hermione.

She ran upstairs and threw on a pair of Muggle jeans and a T-shirt. Back downstairs she struggled to pull a comb through her hair. Satisfied that she looked half decent, she grabbed a handful of Floo powder and set off.

********************************************************************

Diagon Alley was fairly quiet again, but Florean Fortescue’s Ice Cream Parlour was doing a roaring trade. They had set lots of little tables on the pavement with striped umbrellas above them, so that people could enjoy the summer sun.

Catching sight of Lavender sitting with Harry and Ron, Hermione suddenly wished she’d spent a little bit longer on her hair. Lavender was immaculate in a lilac dress with matching sandals, her blonde hair swept up in a shiny knot and her makeup subtle yet stunning.

‘Ooh Hermione, how lovely!’ she said with an artificial smile. ‘We can have a girly chat now – with these boys it’s nothing but Quidditch, Quidditch, Quidditch!’

Hermione glanced up at Harry, who seemed to find it slightly amusing that anyone would think Hermione was capable of ‘girly chat’.

‘So how are the Chudley Cannons getting on this season?’ she asked innocently. Lavender shot her a filthy look while Ron spluttered into his enormous knickerbocker glory.

‘I’ll er, get you an ice-cream Hermione,’ he said standing up abruptly and running off to chuckle in private.

Lavender wound a proprietary arm through Harry’s and leant her chin on his shoulder. Harry resisted an almost overwhelming urge to pull away from her.

‘So Hermione, have you heard from Zacharias Smith?’ she asked slyly.

‘No,’ said Hermione shortly.

‘It must be awful, sitting there waiting for a man to Floo you. Thank goodness it’s never happened to me, I don’t know how I would bear it!’

Hermione nodded, clenching her fists underneath the table.

‘Perhaps he’s just been busy. But I suppose you always make time for the things you want to do,’ Lavender continued.

‘Never mind Hermione, he wasn’t good enough for you anyway,’ said Harry quickly.

‘Yes,’ agreed Lavender. ‘There are plenty more shrake in the sea! I heard Neville Longbottom’s still single…’

Bitch thought Hermione. She smiled politely and willed Ron to come back quickly. Harry looked nervously from one to the other - he could sense tension but wasn’t sure why. He had thought that Hermione might have been pleased that he was seeing Lavender.

He thought back to the conversation he had had with Ginny earlier that week. She had been in the Ministry collecting her Care of Magical Creatures permission forms from Amos Diggory and she had popped up to the Aurors department to say hello.

‘So,’ she said, smiling cheekily. ‘I heard about you and a certain Miss Brown on Saturday night. How did that go?’

‘Alright,’ he said blushing.

‘And are you seeing her again?’

‘I dunno.’ Lavender was ok, but she could be quite bossy. And she had looked really weird on Sunday morning with no make up on.

‘So another one bites the dust,’ said Ginny. ‘What was wrong this time?’

‘What do you mean? I just don’t want a girlfriend, that’s all.’

‘Yeah right Harry. That’s why every time you’re fed up or drunk or depressed the first thing you do is look for the nearest girl. Look…’ she said gently, seeing his outraged expression, ‘there’s nothing wrong with that. It’s just in your case, you’re not cut out to be a Casanova. You need someone who’s your friend too – you need more than sex.’

‘So you think I should see Lavender again?’

‘Not necessarily. But I think you should go out with someone you can be friends with. Someone you can be really close to. Otherwise you’ll never have a relationship with anyone, the way you’re going.’

‘Thanks for the lecture Ginny,’ Harry had said grumpily.

‘No problem. And don’t sulk!’ she added. ‘Right, I’m off. I left Draco waiting for me in Dad’s office – they’ve probably killed each other by now.’

He had mulled over Ginny’s words for a while afterwards. It was true that he’d never had a girlfriend that had lasted longer than a fortnight. His friends obviously thought that he wasn’t capable of holding on to anyone, and they’d been talking about him behind his back. Well, he’d show them!

Since then he had seen Lavender a couple of times. The relationship thing was proving quite hard work; he was starting to realise just how much he didn’t understand about women. He had thought Cho was hard going! She was nothing compared to Lavender…

‘Ha-reee,’ said Lavender in a baby voice, breaking into his thoughts. ‘Can you get me another ice cream please? I’m so hot. Pretty please?’

Hermione managed to turn a snort into a cough. What on earth did Harry see in that girl? She was awful!

‘What flavour?’

‘Oooh, I don’t know…Why don’t I come with you and we can decide together?’ she said. Tugging Harry by the hand she towed him away from the table.

Ron turned to Hermione.

‘Thank god you came. She’s a bloody nightmare! She won’t stop pawing at Harry, she interrupts every time I try and talk about Quidditch, she hardly lets him speak for himself…all I can say is, she must be brilliant in bed.’

‘Ron!’

‘Well, what else could it be?’

‘Well, she’s not exactly ugly, she’s an old friend from school, she’s got quite an interesting job…’ Hermione ground to a halt.

‘Hermione – she does astrology charts for people! It’s not interesting, it’s a load of rubbish!’

Hermione gave up. ‘I don’t like her any more than you do Ron. But she’s going out with Harry now and we’ll just have to put up with her. What else can we do?’

‘I could think of a few things, but I don’t think they’re legal…’

‘Shhh, they’re coming back…’

The afternoon wore on quite pleasantly, as the sun continued to shine and Diagon Alley remained sleepily quiet. Harry developed a smattering of freckles across his nose, which Hermione found herself inexplicably wanting to touch. Ron popped back to his shop now and again to check on his assistant (a house elf Hermione had placed with him) but the rest of them sat there comfortably. Hermione managed not to giggle as Lavender insisted on spoon feeding Harry most of his ice cream, even though Ron was kicking her under the table.

‘She’ll have him in a nappy next,’ he muttered to her.

‘At least she’s not making aeroplane noises,’ Hermione murmured back, fighting valiantly to keep a straight face.

Just as Lavender was fussing about getting in out of the sun (‘I have such delicate skin, not like you Hermione…’) Hermione spotted him. Striding along the street, still in his battered dragon-hide jeans, was Zacharias. Despite the hot summer they were having his skin was pale and his eyes were heavily shadowed. Noticing Hermione, he came over.

‘Hermione. I’ve been looking for you,’ he said, so severely that he gave the impression he’d been searching to the ends of the earth for her.

Hermione felt a little thrill of attraction. Was it just her, or had Zacharias got an awful lot more serious since school?

‘Well, I’ve been at home all week – this is the first time I’ve been out really,’ she replied.

Zacharias looked momentarily confused. ‘All week? Oh…yes. It’s been a week since the dance – I lost track of time.’ He looked around the table. ‘Sorry, I don’t quite remember…’

‘Lavender Brown,’ Lavender said, standing up and holding her hand out so quickly she knocked over her chair.

Zacharias nodded silently without taking her hand, his eyes intense. Lavender went pink.

‘Harry Potter and Ron Weasley. I remember you two,’ he continued, a slight edge creeping into his voice.

Ron opened his mouth to reply sharply, but catching Hermione’s eye, closed it again.

‘I haven’t seen you in years,’ blurted Harry, after the lengthening silence became uncomfortable.

‘I’ve heard about you though – can’t exactly avoid it. Order of Merlin and all that. Course, the line of work I was in during the war, had to be kept quiet. No medals there. Top secret you know.’

He must have been a spy, thought Hermione. How exciting! She had never seen him in the Department of Mysteries while she had worked there, but then he could have been working overseas…

What a load of rubbish, thought Harry. He’s far too full of himself to do anything undercover. What on earth was Hermione thinking, gazing at him like a hypnotised rabbit?

‘Hermione – we’ve got a lot to talk about. Can we go now?’ asked Zacharias abruptly.

‘Oh yes. I can tell you some more about the Elf Rights Bill I’m working on – I wrote two more Articles today…’

‘Excellent. Let’s go,’ said Zacharias quickly. ‘Interesting seeing you again,’ he said to the others, standing up and pulling Hermione to her feet.

Dickhead thought Harry.

***********************************************************

‘What are you in such a hurry for?’ asked Hermione, slightly breathless from the pace she was being towed along at.

‘We’re late.’

‘Late for what? Where are we going?’

Zacharias paused at the entrance to a dark alley and looked quickly over his shoulder. Seeing no one else around, he pulled Hermione into the alleyway and took out his wand.

‘What’s wrong?’ whispered Hermione, taking out her wand too.

Zacharias tapped his wand against a battered old dustbin. ‘Libertas.’

Immediately the dustbin sank into the ground, revealing a spiral staircase.

‘I’m not going in there until you tell me what’s going on,’ said Hermione firmly. He might be good looking but she wasn’t prepared to climb into a dark hole in the ground unless she had a very good reason.

‘Keep your voice down,’ cautioned Zacharias. Seeing that she wasn’t going to be moved, he gave in. ‘It’s a meeting Hermione – one I think you’ll be interested in. I’m a member of the Elf Liberation Front. The headquarters are down here…’

Hermione felt a squirm of excitement. She had heard rumours of underground groups like this of course, but she’d never met anyone in one before. She followed him down the staircase. The walls they passed as they clambered down were daubed with slogans written in red paint – or what she hoped was red paint. Slightly smugly, she noticed a slogan that she had made up: ‘Think Elf not Self.’

They reached the bottom and faced a brick wall. Using his wand again, Zacharias muttered something under his breath that sent a shimmer of blue light shooting out of his wand. The wall seemed to vibrate slightly and then went transparent. Zacharias stepped through and Hermione followed him; it was like walking through treacle. ‘Someone needs some help with their Charm work,’ Hermione thought to herself.

The room they stepped into was almost pitch dark. It smelled damp and mouldy and there was a sound of dripping water. A heavy red curtain lay along the far wall.

‘Halt! Who goes there?’ demanded a voice. A stumpy figure came out of the gloom brandishing a sword.

‘Give it a rest Brian why don’t you?’ said Zacharias dismissively. Brian’s eyes switched over to Hermione.

‘Who’s that?’ he asked, waggling the tip of the sword under Hermione’s nose. She stepped back quickly.

‘I’ll tell you all in a minute. Where’s everybody else?’

‘Waiting for you,’ a voice purred. As Hermione’s eyes adjusted to the murkiness, she realised that there was a girl sitting there, her long legs elegantly crossed. She unwound her legs and strolled over to them, flicking her long blonde hair back over her shoulder.

‘Always we are waiting for you Zac,’ she said, sending him a smouldering look and putting her hand on her hip. He looked unmoved.

‘Well I’m here now aren’t I? Stop complaining Bianca.’

Bianca - this must be Ginny’s friend from Beauxbatons*, Fleur Delacour’s cousin. Hermione was amazed by Zac’s coolness in the face of her blatant flirting; after all, the girl was part Veela. Ron and Harry would have been gibbering fools by now.

‘Brian – put that bloody thing away,’ Zac snapped at the boy who was now waving the sword around at an imaginary foe, his brown hair flopping in his eyes. He strode over to the heavy curtain and pulled it aside, leaving the three of them to follow him through.

This room was lit by a few candles bobbing half-heartedly a few feet from the ground. Again Hermione wondered who was responsible for the poorly done charm. A group of about fifteen people stared up at her from their various positions on the floor. Hermione stifled a nervous giggle.

‘Who’s that?’ asked a sulky looking boy with a straggly black beard.

‘This is Hermione Granger,’ announced Zac, pausing for a reaction. Everyone looked back blankly. ‘You know…S.P.E.W.!’

A murmur of recognition went around the room.

‘Oh ‘ermione…you are a friend of Ginny, are you not?’ asked Bianca. ‘Tell me, ‘ow is that delicious boyfriend of hers?’

‘Husband,’ corrected Hermione shortly.

‘Married men are so attractive, don’t you think?’ Bianca purred. One of the other wizards hurriedly took his hand out of his pocket so Bianca could see his wedding ring.

‘Right!’ said Zac, raising his voice above Bianca. ‘I’m bringing this meeting to order! We have a lot to discuss. Brian, read the minutes of last week’s meeting please.’

‘In front of her?’ said Brian suspiciously.

‘Brian…’ warned Zac. Looking mutinous, Brain complied.

‘Ahem…right. Attending last week’s meeting were Zacharias Smith, Bianca…’

‘Hang on a minute chaps,’ interrupted the wizard with the beard. ‘I’m sure she’s trustworthy and all that, but I’m dashed if we should just give her a list of our names!’ There were murmurs of agreement from around the room.

‘FINE!’ said Zac, exasperated. ‘Just get on with it, will you.’ Hermione wondered if he remembered how irritating he’d been in the D.A. meetings, now the same thing was happening to him.

‘Ok, well, we discussed the new slogan – ‘Deeds not Words!’ and then Mark and Zac had an argument about it…and then Mark went out for a cigarette…and then…oh…can’t really read the next bit because I caught my sleeve on a candle and the wax went all over the page…so, something, something, something, um, must take action, something, something…think it says sausages?’

A muscle went in Zac’s cheek as he obviously tried to restrain himself from thumping Brian over the head.

‘I think you’ll find it says suffrage, Brian,’ he said through gritted teeth.

‘Ah. Right you are. Yep.’ Hermione suppressed a smile.

‘Deeds not words,’ repeated Zac quietly yet forcefully. ‘This is our new slogan – our new motto if you like. We’ve grown tired of the usual methods of bringing attention to our cause. We’ve sent owls, we’ve made leaflets, posters, and we’ve send petitions to the Ministry. We must now take ACTION!’

‘Hear, hear!’ piped a female voice from the back of the room.

‘I want you all to think of ways to get our cause noticed. Demonstrations, picketing, anything. You have one week. Hermione, are you willing to help?’

Hermione had never heard the cause talked about with such passion. Zac’s eyes burned into hers as he asked for her help.

‘Yes,’ she said. Zac looked triumphant.

‘We’re bound to succeed now,’ he told her. ‘Members of ELF, this meeting is adjourned! We’ll meet back here in one week. And remember that walls have ears…’

********************************************************************

After the meeting, Zac walked her back to Diagon Alley. It was still daylight, and the pubs had opened their doors and windows to welcome the lingering twilight and warm evening air.

Hermione and Zac wandered along the street silently, close to each other but not touching. Hermione’s head was racing with ideas for the meeting next week. As they reached Florean’s, she noticed Harry and Lavender still seated there, although Ron had gone. Hermione bristled slightly to see Lavender laughing at something Harry had said and nuzzling into his shoulder – it was such an intimate gesture. Hermione and Lavender’s eyes locked briefly, and Hermione thought she saw a look of smug satisfaction on the other girl’s face and she smothered Harry with a kiss.

Struggling to free himself tactfully from Lavender’s vacuum cleaner mouth, Harry looked up a moment later, only to see Hermione walking away with Zacharias Smith’s arm around her.

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References/Notes:

Ron’s ‘I’m going to die old and alone’ speech was inspired by Bridget Jones, who has a sneaking suspicion that if you're not married by thirty, you'll die alone and be found three weeks later half-eaten by an Alsatian. This has actually happened to a couple of people – just put ‘Alsatian eats owner’ into Google and see what comes up! Brrrr.

‘All elves are born free and equal in dignity…’ this is a direct adaptation from the Universal Declaration of Human Rights - http://www.un.org/Overview/rights.html

Knickerbocker glory – a really big ice-cream sundae. And knickerbockers are those weird trouser things that Rowan Atkinson wears in Blackadder II.

Fortnight – two weeks

Nappy - diaper

Libertas – ‘Freedom.’

Dustbin – trashcan. I imagine it like Top Cat’s trash can in the cartoon – I’m really showing my age here!

*Bianca Delacour. She makes a wee appearance in Melting the Darkness in the last chapter.

‘Deeds not words’ – the slogan of the British suffragettes led by Emmeline Pankhurst.