Unofficial Portkey Archive

Chapter 3-

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Hermione woke up the next morning determined to talk to Harry. She quickly got dressed

and went down to her kitchen to have a quick breakfast before going to his flat. As she

was sitting down to eat, a large brown owl flew into the window with her Sunday edition

of The Daily Prophet. Hermione grabbed the paper from the owl before it flew out the

window.

She unrolled the paper and gasped. On the front page was a picture of her and Harry just

before he left with Jamie. The title of the picture was ` The Scarlet Woman Strikes

Again' with a caption below reading: Hermione Granger caught in the act! Read more on

pages 5-10.

Hermione tore open the paper to page 5 and saw more picture of her with Harry, even a

few with Jamie. Hermione was furious, she turned each page of the article and became

more and more enraged. Along with picture of yesterday there were also picture of there

years at Hogwarts and a few from the past years out of school. There was also an article.

Hermione scanned it catching parts that claimed she was cheating on Harry with an

unknown mysterious man. It also had quotes from various customers saying they saw the

two together for several hours at the store and that Hermione would only help him.

She was really furious now. She thought she couldn't get any angrier, but she sure was

wrong. By the time she read the last page, she was near exploding.

"HOW DID SHE GET THAT?" she yelled and bolted out of her flat, out of her shop and

ran down the street towards Harry's flat.

Hermione ran all the way to the building where Harry's flat was, she ran up the four

flights of stairs and stopped in front of the door and began pounding on it.

"HARRY! RON! Open this door right now" she yelled and continued pounding on the

door. "I know you two are home! Get out of bed and let me in now before I knock it

down!"

Soon she heard Ron yelling from behind the door. "Hold on, Hermione!"

Hermione stopped banging on the door and stopped back slightly when she heard Ron

fumble with the locks and open the door.

"Hermione, what is so important that you had to bang on our door at 7 am on a Sunday?"

Ron said sounding very annoyed.

"Sorry," she said dismissively. "Is Harry here?"

"He's still sleeping," Ron said sitting down on the couch. "Ever since the nightmares have

gone away he can sleep through anything."

"Right. Well, it's time he gets up. I have to show him something," Hermione said walking

towards the door, but before she did she handed Ron her copy of the Daily Prophet.

She heard Ron gasp as she carefully opened the door to Harry's room and smiled. She

always loved the way he looked when he slept; so innocent and peaceful. She felt her

stomach do several somersaults as she stepped closer to his bed.

"Harry," she whispered

Harry rolled over in his sleep and pulled his sheets tighter around him. Hermione smiled

and stepped closer to his bed.

"Harry," she whispered and gently nudged him.

"Go way, Ron," he mumbled sleepily as he pulled the sheet over his head.

Hermione grabbed the top of the sheet and pulled it down to his waist exposing his bare

chest. Hermione's eyes grew wide as she saw how well-toned Harry was, and thanked

silently all those years of Quidditch.

Harry cringed when he felt the cool air on his chest. He his eyes flickered open and

thought he was still dreaming. Standing in front of him was an angel from his dreams; or

so he thought. He closed his eyes again and slowly opened them to see the angel was still

there, but she looked oddly like Hermione. He grabbed for his glasses on the nightstand

and put them on to see the angle standing over him was indeed Hermione.

Then he remembered what happen the night before and could feel his cheeks flush with

color.

"Hermione, you didn't come to yell at me for last night did you? I really didn't mean to

walk in on you. Honestly I didn't see anything but a bunch of bubbles," he said sitting up

in his bed.

"No. But you better get dressed and come out into the living room. I've got something to

show you," she said and walked out of his room.

Several minutes later Harry walked in to see Ron comforting Hermione on the couch.

"What happened?" he asked walking over and sitting on the other side of Hermione. "Did

somebody hurt you or what?"

Hermione looked up at him with tears in her eyes and handed him the paper.

Harry's eye grew wide, "Not again."

"It's worse. Open to page 5-10 to see the rest," Ron said

Harry turned it open to see the article. He was furious. "I'm sorry Hermione. I shouldn't

have come to see you yesterday. I won't do it again."

"Harry, you have a right to be there. I'm not upset about that. turn to the last page."

Hermione said and began crying again.

Harry did was he was told. He was scared to see what was on the page, it had to be bad

that Hermione was upset about. When Harry saw the pictures on the last page he jumped

up from the couch and began pacing back and forth yelling.

"How did they get these? Don't they have any decency?!" Harry said enraged. "Oh Merlin,

Hermione, I am so sorry," he added in a softer tone and stopped pacing and looked at the

pictures again. He couldn't help but notice how beautiful she looked in the bath. So calm

and relaxed. He quickly shook the thought away and soon the anger washed over him

again.

"I'm going to their office! They can't print this! I'm going to hex Cho and her

photographer in to the next century! They have no right to do this!"

"Harry, mate calm down," Ron said.

"Calm down! How am I suppose to do that? Did you not see there picture Ron? Someone

was in Hermione flat last night and took private pictures of her!"

"Harry, stop," Hermione said. "Your anger isn't helping. I'm the one who should be upset

not you. They took picture of me. What if they have more? What if they got some of me

while I was getting in the tub or taking my clothes off? What if they print those?" she said

and began crying again.

Harry's heart shattered into a million pieces just seeing her cry. "Hermione, I won't let

them. I'm going to their office and put a stop to this once in for all," he said trying to keep

his anger in control, she was right his anger wasn't going to make things better. She needs

someone to comfort her and help her get through this. He was going to be that person, she

was always there for him, now it was his turn to there for her.

"Ron, do you think Luna would be able to help us with this?"

"She's on her way. As soon as I saw the pictures I knew we would need her help."

"Thank you, Ron." Hermione said giving him a hug.

"No Problem. Now, I am going to change before she gets here," he said standing up from

the couch and walking in to his room.

Hermione looked up at Harry with tears streaming down her face. Harry walked over to

her and knelt in front of her and took her hands in his. He could feel the butterflies in his

stomach again. "I'm going to fix this Hermione. I promise."

She looked down at their entwined hands and smiled on the inside. "You don't have to."

she said through the tears.

"I know. But I want to. You have always been there for me Hermione. It's my turn to be

there for you," he said looking into her deep brown eyes. He raised one of his hands and

wiped the tears away with his thumb then placed it back with his other.

"It's going to be okay," He leaned forward slightly and gently pressed his lip on her check.

"I won't let anyone hurt you anymore."

Hermione was shocked that he kissed her, sure it was on the check, but he's never done

that. She's only done it once after fourth year, and that was just a friendly kiss. Almost a

kiss she would give to a brother if she had one, this one felt different. She glanced up and

she was caught in his emerald pools. They looked different. She's never seen that look in

his eyes before, she couldn't tell what it was, but she liked the way it felt.

The two stared intently at each other until they heard and knock at the door and Ron

running out of his room to get the door. He glanced at his two best friends as noticed how

they stared at each other. The same way Luna use to stare at him before they started

dating. That dreamy love-sick kind of way. Ron smiled to himself and opened the door

for Luna.

"Sorry, I didn't get here sooner. I went to talk to my dad first to see what could be done,"

she said and walked quickly over to Hermione and Harry. Harry had gotten up from the

floor and was now sitting next to Hermione with his arm protectively over her shoulder.

"You got here right on time. What did your father say?" Harry asked.

"Well, he's not sure what he can do. It seems the Prophet has the rights to all and any

news that has to do with you Harry, even if it isn't true," she said looking at the two.

"How did they get that right to that?"

"I don't know. My father is going to look into it for us. He knows more about journalistic

rights than I do."

"So, what can we do in the mean time?" Hermione asked

"Not much. He suggested you two stay out of the public eye for awhile," she said looking

at Harry. "I'm really sorry about yesterday, I shouldn't have made you go out. If I wouldn't

have pushed you out the door none of this would of happen."

"Don't blame yourself Luna. It's not your fault. They where bound to put out another

article, " Harry said running his hand in comforting circle over Hermione shoulder and

back.

Hermione could feel the goosebumps on her back and arms where Harry was touching

her. She shivered a little.

"Are you cold?" he asked grabbing a blanket from behind him.

"No, I'm okay. I do have a headache. Do you have any of that potion Madame Pomfrey

used to have?"

"Yeah, it's in the medicine cabinet." Luna said standing up from the couch. "I'll show you

where it is," she said and pulled Hermione up from the couch and ushered her to the

bathroom. She locked the door and put a silencing charm on it.

"What did you do that for?" Hermione asked sitting on the edge of the bathtub.

"I wanted to talk to you without the boys. Are you really okay?"

Hermione sighed and closed her eyes. "No."

Luna pulled the potion out of the cabinet and handed it to Hermione as she sat down next

to her. "I can't imagine what you are going through. Do you want to talk about it?"

"I just feel so violated. Someone is my flat last night and I didn't even know. They have

pictures of me. Pictures no one should have. Luna what am I going to do if they print

more? I have a business to run, how can I do that if I have to stay out of the eye of the

public? What about all the hate mail I will be getting, I already got some from the first

article, but now with me supposedly cheating on Harry. I don't know how I am going to

deal with it," she finished exasperatedly.

"Hermione, it will be okay. I can take some time off from the paper to help Ginny out,

Ron already told me he would help too, he has some vacation time coming up. It will be

okay Hermione," Luna reassured her while putting an arm around her. "So, who was that

guy in the shop yesterday? You two did look like two people in love, they way the two of

you stared at each other."

"It was Harry. He was disguised." Hermione said with a sigh. "Ginny asked the same

thing yesterday, she said that we looked like two love-sick teenagers. Why do people

keep asking that? We are just friends."

Luna smiled. "Ron and I were friends before we started dating. It took him almost two

years to realize it. Maybe the two of you are just now realizing your feelings for each

other," Luna said as she walked over to the door and opened it to leave. "I'll give you a

few minutes to think about that one," she said and closed the door behind her.

Hermione stared blankly at the door. Was there something more between her and Harry?

She was feeling something between them, but it couldn't be that could it? Could she have

feelings for her best friend? Hermione began to think back to the past few months. She

did seam happier when he was around and her stomach was doing that somersault thing

when he was near. She remembered the way her heart pounded earlier this morning when

she was him with no shirt on, and they way she could always tell he was in the room by

the little hairs on her neck standing on their ends. And the kiss, it was so warm and

tneder. She never been kissed like that before. She raised her hand to the stop where he

placed his lips and smiled, it was still warm.

She began thinking back to their years at Hogwarts. She was always with him, no matter

how much danger they were in. She never left his side. She remembered how she would

grab a hold of him when she was scared, she never grabbed for Ron. She remembered

third year when they rode Buckbeak to save Sirius and they way she clung on to him and

knew they would okay because he was there. She remembered how she was so worried

when Harry and Cedric disappeared at the end of the tri wizard tournament and relived

when he returned. Then she remembered fifth year when Harry took interest in Cho, and

how betrayed she felt when he went on a date with her. Then it hit her; she did have

feelings for Harry. She had had them all these years and just now realized them because

of Cho and her articles.

"What am I going to do now?" she thought as she stood up from the tub and walked back

out to her two friends and the man she was in love with.

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