Chapter 12
Two Conversations About One Thing
After another restless night, Hermione arose from her bed at around 7:00 a.m. She sat on the edge of her bed for a couple of minutes yawning and stretching. She had slept, but not much. Her mind had been, and still was, racing with thoughts of last night's events.
Harry had come into her bedroom late last night and had watched her as she "slept". Thinking that she was asleep, he had gently kissed her forehead and confessed that he still loved her. Then, he had quietly walked back out of the room totally unaware that Hermione had been very much awake and had heard every single word he had said. The words echoed in her mind. He loved her.
She wasn't really surprised. She'd seen the way that he'd looked at her yesterday at the bridal shop. When they'd both been poring over the employee registers in her apartment, she'd seen him sneak looks at her when he thought she wasn't looking. Of course, she reminded herself, she knew this because she, too, had been sneaking glances at him as well. And more importantly, there had been the two near kisses---once in her kitchen and the other before Ron had interrupted them with his unexpected arrival. She wondered what would have happened if Ron hadn't shown up.
"Ughhhhhhhh," she moaned as she finally rose from the bed. She wasn't supposed to think about this. She was getting married soon. She shouldn't even be thinking about this at all. There were more important things at hand----like finding out who was behind the plot to kidnap her and steal her research. This was to be her first day back at work. She would be entering the Ministry with Harry by her side.
Harry, Hermione thought. What am I going to do when I see him? What will I say when I see him? These questions kept going through her mind. She had no answer. She very well couldn't tell him that she'd heard what he said, could she? That would be opening up a can of worms she wasn't sure she was ready to open yet.
She quickly threw her robe on and took a quick glimpse of herself in the mirror. Smoothing back her hair, she took a deep breath and opened her bedroom door. The apartment was quiet. She hoped that maybe Harry hadn't woken up yet. She tiptoed into the living room and saw that the room was empty. Harry's blanket and pillow were neatly placed beside the couch.
"Good morning," came a voice behind her.
She jumped, startled. She turned around and found Sirius Black smiling broadly at her, holding a mug of coffee.
"Sorry to startle to you," he said.
"It's okay," Hermione said, taking a deep breath. "I think I'm awake now."
She and Sirius exchanged amused glances. "What are you doing here?" Hermione asked him. "Where's Harry?" she glanced expectantly around the apartment.
Sirius sat down on the couch. "Well, something came up, unexpectedly. He asked me to fill in for him until
lunchtime. He should be back by then."
"Oh," Hermione said, both relieved and worried at the same time. "Is everything okay? Nothing's
wrong is it?"
"Of course," Sirius said, giving her a reassuring smile. "Everything's fine. Nothing to worry about."
Hermione didn't know whether to believe him or not. His tone implied that he was hiding something. She decided not to push the issue.
"Okay," she said. "I guess I'll go and get ready for work, then."
"Sounds like a plan," Sirius said, picking up yesterday's issue of The Daily Prophet.
"Help yourself to anything in the kitchen," Hermione said, giving him a faint smile. "I'll try not to be too long."
"Take your time, Hermione," Sirius said. "No rush necessary on my part."
Hermione and Sirius arrived at The Ministry a little after 9 a.m. They hadn't spoken much on the way to her office, which left Hermione alone with her thoughts.
She couldn't stop thinking about Harry and what he'd said. She wanted so much to talk about this with someone. But who? She couldn't very well talk about it with Ginny. She was Ron's sister. She certainly couldn't talk about it with Mrs. Weasley---she was Ron's mother. She wanted to talk to her mother, but she wouldn't be able to do that with Sirius or Harry around all the time. If she was going to figure this out, she thought, she would do it on her own.
As she and Sirius walked down the hallway to her office, she couldn't help but relish the idea of getting back to work. The best way to forget your problems, she had always found, was to throw yourself into your work. She prayed that that would do the trick this time, as well.
"Here we are," she said. "After you."
Sirius shook his head. "Ladies first."
"Age before beauty," Hermione said, trying to crack a joke.
"You got me there," Sirius said. He walked into the office and Hermione followed suit.
The office was small, but very comfortable. The room was decorated in Hermione's favorite color of blue. She'd bewitched the ceiling to look like a beautiful night sky filled with stars. Hermione had always been fascinated by astronomy and she'd always loved looking up at the stars and the moon and reflecting on the beauty of it all. There were two desks---one for Hermione and one for her assistant, Joyce. Joyce had graduated from Hogwarts two years after Hermione. She was a short, petite witch with short brown hair. She had proved to be an invaluable assistant to Hermione in the past couple of years.
When she and Sirius walked into the office, Joyce gave them both a warm smile. "Hermione, welcome back."
"Thanks," Hermione said. "I hope you weren't too bogged down with work."
"Same old, same old," Joyce said, smiling. "I held the fort down for you, so to speak."
Joyce looked expectantly at Hermione. It then dawned on Hermione that Joyce was looking at Sirus awaiting an introduction.
"Hi," Joyce said, smiling warmly at Sirius.
"I'm so sorry," Hermione said. "Joyce Wallace. This is Sirius Black. Sirius, this is my assistant, Joyce."
Joyce smiled brightly. "Sirius Black? The Sirius Black. The Auror? The Sirius Black."
Sirius chuckled. "Well, I usually like to just go by Sirius Black.."
Joyce laughed nervously. "I'm sorry. It's just that I've heard so many great things about you."
"Only about a quarter of them are true, my dear," Sirius said. "It's a pleasure to meet you."
"Likewise," Joyce said.
Hermione watched as Joyce grinned like a hyena at Sirius. Good grief, Hermione thought. If there had been a bad side to Joyce, Hermione would say it would be her overly flirtatious nature, especially when it came to older men. Ron liked to joke that it was her "daddy complex". She could see that Sirius was handling it all in a good-natured way, but she could also see he was somewhat embarrassed by the attention.
"Joyce," Hermione said. "Could you go down to Rachel's office and see if they have those reports yet?"
"Sure," Joyce said, finally breaking away from her obvious flirtation with Sirius. "I, um, left your messages for you. And you received some flowers this morning."
It was then that Hermione noticed the beautiful bouquet of daisies that sat in a vase atop her desk. There wasn't any need to read the card. She knew they were from Ron. No doubt he had sent them to apologize for his behavior the previous night.
"Thanks, Joyce," Hermione said. She watched as Joyce smiled again at Sirius and then left the office. Hermione stood and looked at the flowers for a moment before finally sitting at her desk. She quickly began skimming through her messages.
"You're not going to read the card?" Sirius asked. He had taken a seat across from her desk.
"Of course," Hermione said, sheepishly. "Of course."
She picked up the card and hesitated only a moment before reading the script inside.
The card read simply:
Herm:
Sorry for acting like a total prat. Can you find it in your heart to forgive me? I promise I'll make it up to you.
Love, Ron
She smiled at Sirius as she quickly put the card back in the envelope and placed it back on the desk. She went back to reading her messages and tried to not let Sirius know she could sense him watching her.
"Beautiful flowers, aren't they?" he asked her.
"Yes," she said. "They are very beautiful."
"Daisies," Sirius was saying. "I always thought you liked pink roses."
"How did you know that?" Hermione asked him, a look of amazement on her face.
"Well, when you spend the past five years of your life hearing someone talk about someone else, you kind of remember these things."
"You mean Harry?" Hermione asked.
"Yes," Sirius said.
Hermione wanted so much to know what Harry had told Sirius about her, but she didn't feel like she could just come out and ask him. She sat there, looking absentmindedly at her desk as Sirius looked at her intently.
"You want to know what else he said, don't you?" Sirius asked, a devilish grin on his face.
"No," Hermione said. "It's not really my business or my concern, you know."
"Well of course it is," Sirius said. "It was about you."
"I really don't think we should be talking about this," Hermione said. "We should be talking about the research or something else, just not this, okay?"
"Why not?" Sirius asked her.
"Because this is a can of worms I'm not prepared to open up, okay?" she said.
"This can of worms is already open," Sirius said. "It was opened on the Hogwarts Express when a girl barged into a train compartment looking for a classmate's toad, I believe. Trevor, the toad, wasn't it? Merlin bless Neville Longbottom and his poor lost toad."
"Sirius," Hermione said. She could feel a lump rising in her throat. "Does Harry still love me? I mean, did he ever love me?"
Sirius sighed. "Yes. He loves you. I don't think a day went by since he left that he didn't think of you or want to be with you. It nearly killed him to leave you."
"But he did, Sirius. He did leave me," Hermione said.
"I know," Sirius said. "And he's paid for that mistake every day since he's left. He still loves you, Hermione. I can see it and I think you can see it, too. The question, though, my dear, is whether or not you still love him."
"I'm marrying Ron," Hermione said, simply.
"You didn't answer the question, Hermione," Sirius said. She looked back at him, but didn't say a word. "Okay. Here's another question, do you love Ron?"
"That's a stupid question," Hermione said, rolling her eyes. "I'm marrying him, aren't I?" She held up her left hand and pointed to her engagement ring.
"Do you know that in all the years that I've been on this earth, I've never seen two people more in love or too people more pigheaded and stubborn than you and Harry. Look at all the time that you've wasted."
"That wasn't my fault," Hermione said, quietly. "That was his doing."
"Yeah," Sirius said. "It was. But he's back now."
"For how long?" Hermione asked. "How do I know he's not going to take off once this crisis is averted? How do I know that he's even going to come back today?"
"You don't know that," Sirius said. "But that's what love is---taking chances. Wouldn't you like to find out?"
Hermione sighed. "What I want," she began.
"Yes?" Sirius asked, leaning forward in his chair.
"What I want is to get back to work. To get as close to normal as it was before this whole thing started. So let's get started, okay? We can start in the labs, okay?" Hermione asked.
"Okay," Sirius said.
"Let's go," Hermione said. "We've got work to do."
Boy, do we ever, Sirius thought as he followed her out the door.
While Hermione and Sirius were at work in the labs, Harry was knocking on Ron's door. Harry heard the muffled sound of footsteps and a loud yell as Ron apparently had bumped into something.
"Bloody hell!" Harry heard Ron scream at the top of his lungs. "Hold on."
The sight that greeted him when Ron opened the door was not a pretty one. Ron's red hair was all disheveled and he was pale. He was gingerly rubbing his knee and grimacing in pain.
"Harry," Ron said, out of breath. "What are you doing here so damn early in the morning."
"It's not that early, mate," Harry said. "It's nearly 11. What's up with you? Rough night?"
"How could you tell?" Ron asked, he ushered Harry inside the apartment. "I feel like my head is going to explode. I've spent the last hour praying to the porcelain gods, as you can imagine. Okay? And then, to top off the best morning in the world, I banged the crap out of my knee on the coffee table in my rush to open the door."
"You make a lousy drunk, Ron," Harry said, laughing. "You always have."
"Yeah, well, I figure if you're going to be good at something why not that?" Ron asked. "Seriously, mate. What are you doing here? Let me guess, Hermione sent you, didn't she?"
"She actually has no idea that I'm here," Harry said. "She's at work."
"I sent her flowers, you know? As soon as I came home last night, I made sure they'd be there when she got to work. And then, I proceeded to drink just about everything I had in this house," Ron said.
"Um, Ron?" Harry asked, a worried expression on his face. "You're turning green."
"Oh," Ron said, turning greener in the face by the minute. "I'll be right back."
With that, he grabbed hold of his stomach and made a mad dash for the bathroom.
Harry chuckled to himself. As he waited for Ron to finish in the bathroom, Harry walked around and gave a look around the apartment. It was the typical bachelor pad. Everything was brown and blue and sparsely decorated. A few Quidditch posters were posted on the wall. On his fireplace, there were a couple of pictures of his family, a couple of pictures of little children who Harry assumed were Ron's nephews and nieces, and pictures of Hermione. Her smiling face beamed back at him and waved enthusiastically. He flashed back to what he'd done last night. He thanked God she'd been asleep last night and had been oblivious to what he'd done and to what he'd said.
He saw another picture of him, Ron and Hermione from their school days. Harry reckoned the picture had been taken sometime after their third year. Hermione was in the middle of the two of them and they were all smiling and waving at him. The young Hermione in the picture had her arm around the picture Harry. She was gazing at him adoringly. She leaned over and rustled his hair and he in turn poked her in the side and she began to dissolve in a fit of giggles. Ron just stood there beaming back at him, oblivious to what his two best friends were doing. He wished he could turn back time. Things were so much more simpler then, weren't they. Or were they? He didn't know anymore.
Oh for Merlin sake, I sound like Cher.
"Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhh," came voice from behind him.
"There he is," Harry said. "Every woman's dream."
"Yeah, that's me," Ron said, smiling. "That's it. I'm never drinking anything again. From now on, it's just water and juice. Nothing else."
"I've heard that one before," Harry said. "Every morning after you'd wake up from another evening's drunken debauchery."
"Yeah, well I mean it this time," Ron groaned. "I mean it. No more for me. Besides, I'm going to be a full-fledged married man soon. Can't be doing this all the time."
Harry said. "No, I can't imagine Hermione would like that too much."
"No," Ron said. "She hates it when I get like this. Always has. You remember how she was back in school. Those lectures?"
"She just cared about you, that's all," Harry said.
"Yeah, I know," Ron said. "So how bad did I sound last night?"
"Pretty bad. She was really pissed at you," Harry said.
"Did you see her this morning? You think she'll forgive me?" Ron asked, a worried expression on his face.
"I didn't see her this morning. I slipped out before she got up, actually. I had a lot of thinking to do," Harry said. He immediately regretted saying that. He knew Ron would ask what he'd have to think about. And he wasn't wrong.
"What did you have to think about?" Ron asked.
"Just things, you know," Harry said, trying to avoid Ron's question.
"A girl, huh?" Ron asked. "Don't tell me Witch Weekly's Bachelor of the Yearhas a girlfriend? You never mentioned anyone. And I would have been sure the papers wouldn't have left that one alone. So, who is she?"
Harry didn't know what to say. He didn't want to lie to Ron. He remembered something Sirius had always taught him, when in doubt, offer the non-denial denial approach.
"She's an old friend, actually," Harry said.
"Someone from school?" Ron asked, intrigued.
"Yeah, kind of," Harry said, looking nervously around the apartment. He'd been taught how to survive tough interrogations, but all that training went out the window when his friend---his best friend---started questioning him. Some auror I am, he thought.
"Do I know her?" Ron asked. "Was she in our year?"
"It doesn't really matter, Ron," Harry said. "Besides, she's getting married. So, I'm out of luck. Too late."
"That's too bad, mate," Ron said, sincerely. "Hey, you know. She's not married, yet, though?"
"No, she's not," Harry said.
"So, you might still have a chance, right? Work some of that old Potter magic?" Ron asked.
"No, I'm afraid not," Harry said. "That ship has sailed, so to speak."
"Well, her loss, mate," Ron said. "You, um, want to wait around here for a bit until I get fixed up and
we could have some breakfast or lunch?"
"Why don't we go down to The Ministry and have lunch with Hermione?" Harry asked.
"That sounds good," Ron said. "Let's just make sure it's in a public place with lots of witnesses."
"Okay," Harry said, laughing. "Go take a shower. You really look awful."
"Thanks," Ron said, laughing. "You really know how to flatter someone. Maybe that girl knew what she was doing when she turned you down."
"Yeah, maybe," Harry said, the smile fading from his face.
This wasn't going to be easy, he thought. Not in the slightest.