Author's Note: I hope you guys like this. I enjoyed writing it and I hope you all like this. It's a little bit of a payoff for you my fellow H/Hr-shippers!
Thanks again to all of you for the kind reviews! You guys rock!
Chapter 13
Lunch Time Confessions
Harry and Ron arrived at The Ministry a little after noon. They found Hermione and Sirius deep in conversation when Joyce ushered the two of them inside. Harry noticed Joyce give Ron a wide smile. He wondered quickly what that was all about and then brushed it off as he saw Hermione smile up at the two of them.
"Is it safe to come in here?" Ron asked, looking straight at Hermione.
"Yeah, I guess," Hermione said, a grin coming to her face. "All you have to do is admit what a prat you were last night."
"I was," Ron said. "Guilty as charged. Won't happen again."
Hermione rolled her eyes at Harry. "Yeah, how many times have we heard that? Don't go making promises you know you can't keep, Ron."
"Alright," Ron said, he leaned in to give Hermione a kiss, but Harry noticed that Hermione quickly turned her face so Ron kissed her cheek, and not her lips. He wondered what was going on. He sensed that something wasn't right. Maybe he was just imagining that something wasn't right. For the first time, he noticed his godfather who was just watching the three of them interact.
Sirius had a bright smile on his face as he watched the three of them and he gave Harry a knowing look.
"What are you grinning about?" Harry asked.
"Just seems like old times," Sirius said.
"Yeah," Ron said, smiling. He quickly put an arm around both Hermione and Harry. "Harry's back where he always belonged. Right, Hermione?"
Hermione smiled, nervously. "Of course."
Ron suddenly removed his arm from Harry and hit himself straight on the face. "I can't believe it. Sirius! I'm so out of it. How the hell are you?"
Ron went over to Sirius and shook his hand, eagerly.
"And you, too, are right where you belong," Ron said. "So are you here on a case?"
Hermione and Harry exchanged worried glances.
Sirius noticed this, but just smiled warmly at Ron. "Sort of, just some old loose ends to tie up."
"Well, you're going to stay for the wedding, right?" Ron asked. "I insist on it. And I know once my mum hears that you and Harry are back, she won't let you go back to wherever the two of you have been. So, it's settled."
"I guess it is," Sirius said. "Congratulations, Ron. About you and Hermione."
"Thanks," Ron said, taking Hermione's hand. "Hey, we were just going to go and grab some lunch did you want to join us?"
Sirius chuckled. "No, I was going to check in on some old colleagues here. You three go ahead and enjoy your reunion. Harry, I will see you later, right?"
"Yes," Harry said. "Are you sure you don't want to tag along?"
"Yeah, positive," Sirius said. "Go."
They had decided to go to eat at a small , Muggle diner for lunch. They had decided against lunching at The Leaky Cauldron. They'd known that if any of that lot got wind of Harry's return, he'd spend the entire lunch signing autographs or answering questions. There was also the added notoriety of Ron, as he was now a star Quidditch player; not to mention the number of people wanting to witness "The Dream Team" reunion for themselves.
They had settled in a booth near the back of the diner. After placing their orders, they began to talk. To Harry it seemed like old times, but felt a little off. He couldn't shake the feeling that something just wasn't right. After the waitress had brought back their drinks, a somewhat awkward silence had fallen upon the three of them. Hermione had been unusually quiet on the walk over to the diner and she'd only nodded when asked a question or given a simple yes or no answer to their questions. She looked preoccupied. Harry could understand that. She had a lot on her plate, so to speak. He wanted to tell her how much he admired her for her strength and her strong will. She was holding up quite well despite everything that had happened to her in the past couple of days.
"Oh, Hermione, my mom wants you to come by and discuss something about flowers and the rehearsal dinner," Ron said, taking a quick sip of his drink.
"Oh, okay," she said. "I don't know how my schedule is going to be, but I'll try and owl her about a good time to do that."
"She was thinking of having it at the Burrow, but we haven't really worked out the logistics with your Muggle relatives and friends. They might find The Burrow a little---" Ron's voice trailed off.
"Yeah," Harry said. "It's not everyday you see dishes washing themselves, floors being mopped by unmanned mops. Just your typical, everyday occurrence."
"My Aunt Ida would have a heart attack," Hermione said. "You guys should have seen her that time when I was 9 and I turned her hair blue after she'd said something completely haughty to my mum."
"What did you tell her to explain that?" Harry asked, smiling at her. For the first time, it did seem like old times. It almost seemed as if they were still 11 years old sitting at the Gryffindor table in The Great Hall.
"Well, luckily, it'd been raining that day and my aunt dyed her hair quite frequently. My mum tried to explain it away by saying that the rain must have reacted with the chemicals in the hair dye or something like that," Hermione said, stifling a laugh. "And my mum was just as surprised as I was. But I'd been doing stuff like that for ages, but I didn't know what it was until I got my Hogwarts letter."
"Well, did your aunt buy that excuse? I mean, it sounded like something that could happen," Harry said. "Totally logical explanation."
"Yeah, you would think," Hermione said. "It just mad e things worse. Remember I said my aunt dyed her hair, I didn't say she readily admitted that she did. She got all upset with my mum and claimed that she would never dye her hair and that that was her natural hair color. Trust me, Harry. That color doesn't occur in nature."
"Can't wait to meet her at the wedding," Harry said, laughing heartily.
Ron, too, was laughing, but he'd seemed like he was waiting for the right time to say something. After the laughter began to die down, Ron did say what he'd looked so eager to say.
"So, Hermione," Ron said, grinning. "You aren't going to believe the tasty little nugget of information I got out of Mr. Potter, here, this morning."
Hermione took a sip of her Diet Coke and looked at Harry. "What?"
"Well, our Mr. Potter has been holding out on us," Ron said, smiling at Harry and playfully punching him on the arm. "He's got himself a girlfriend."
Hermione, who had been just taken another sip of her drink, promptly spit out her drink as Ron said this. Harry took the brunt of the soda attack, so to speak, as he was sitting directly across from Hermione.
"Hermione!" Ron asked, looking at her strangely. "What in the world?"
Harry took off his glasses which were now spotted with Diet Coke and wiped them with a napkin. "Thanks, Hermione."
She looked sheepishly at Ron and Harry. She quickly handed Harry some more napkins and took one herself to mop up the table. "I'm sorry. It tasted flat. The soda. It tasted flat."
Ron looked at Harry and shook his head. "No, no. She's just as shocked as I was. I take it he didn't tell you about this girl."
Hermione looked down at the table. "No, he didn't mention that he was seeing someone."
"Well, he's not seeing her now, mind you. The tart went off and got engaged to someone else, can you imagine?" Ron said, winking at Harry.
"She's not a tart, Ron," Harry said, looking straight at Hermione. He quickly looked back down at the table so Ron couldn't figure out whom he was talking about. Harry could see out of the corner of his eye that Hermione, too, had grown totally fascinated with the tabletop.
"You know Harry I'm shocked to not have read about this in The Daily Prophet. You know we'd read about you in there, but they never mentioned any woman. You'd think they'd be on that like gangbusters," Ron said.
"Well, it was kept private. No one knew, really. Except for she and I," Harry said.
Harry wished that Ron hadn't broached this subject. The less said about this, the better, Harry thought. It was Hermione, though, that spoke next.
"Well, what was she like?" Hermione asked, softly.
"How much time do you have?" Harry asked, he laughed uneasily. He knew that he should stop while he was behind, but something made him continue talking. "She was amazing. She still is, amazing. She's beautiful, both on the inside and the outside. She has this way about her that makes you feel as if you can do anything. She's loyal to a fault and has to have the biggest heart of anyone I've ever known. And she never knew this, and I don't think I told her enough, but I always admired her strength and her conviction and her passion. And her smile…There aren't enough words to talk about that smile. It can light up a room. And I've gone on way too much about this, already. Where's our food?" He looked anxiously around the diner.
Hermione was still looking down at the table. Ron was staring at Harry with his mouth slightly open.
"Wow, Harry!" Ron said. "I'm amazed you can still feel like that after what she did."
"It wasn't really her, Ron," Harry said. "It was me. I was the stupid git that let her get away. Anyway, she's probably better off without me."
"I doubt that, Harry," Ron said. "Don't' give up hope though. I'm sure that Hermione and I could play matchmaker for you."
"Ron," Hermione said. "Leave Harry be. If he wants you to fix him up with someone, he'll tell you."
"What about Joyce?" Ron asked.
"Joyce? Joyce is totally wrong for Harry. Not to mention the fact that he's not exactly her type. He's about twenty years too young for Joyce," Hermione said, indignantly.
"Guys, calm down," Harry said. "I'm perfectly fine okay. No need for anyone to go playing matchmaker. Okay."
They didn't talk much after that, as the waitress brought their food. Hermione spent the rest of the meal barely touching her food and Harry and Ron talked about Quidditch.
Following the meal, Hermione, Harry and Ron stood outside of the diner.
"You didn't eat much, Herm," Ron said. "You feeling okay?"
"Yeah," Hermione said. "I had a big breakfast with Sirius."
"Oh, damn," Ron said. "I completely forgot. I was supposed to meet with the Nimbus people today about some promotional stuff they wanted the team to do." He looked down at his watch. "Oh, man. I was supposed to be there over 15 minutes ago. Harry, you want to come with?"
"No, I'm gonna head back to The Ministry with Hermione and catch up with Sirius," Harry said.
"Okay," Ron said. "I'm sorry to eat and run, love." He quickly kissed Hermione and gave a punch in the arm to Harry. Catch you guys later, then."
They watched him take off down the street and for a moment, neither of them said a word.
" What was all that in there, Harry?" Hermione finally asked him.
"What was what?" Harry asked her.
"You know what I mean. What was that you said in the diner about that girl," Hermione said.
"For someone so smart, Hermione, I would have thought you would have figured it out," Harry said.
"I know you were talking about me, but I want to know why you would do that in front of Ron," she said.
"Why did you jump all over him when he suggested setting me up with someone?" Harry asked her, a slight smile playing at his face.
"Because," Hermione said, exasperated. "Trust me Harry, you don't want to go out with Joyce." She took a seat on the bench just outside the diner. He sat down beside her.
"And you really don't want Ron setting you up with anyone, trust me. If you had seen the girls he's dated, well they're not really your type," Hermione said.
"Well, I think I'd agree with you there. I told you that I hadn't dated anyone seriously since I'd been gone. Part of it was because of the job I was doing, but it was also because there was one simple fact that I couldn't get around no matter how hard I tried or how hard I wanted to deny it," Harry said. "Don't get me wrong these were some great girls, but there was one thing that they didn't have."
"What the IQ of a table?" Hermione asked, looking away from him.
Harry put his arm on her shoulder. "They weren't you, Hermione. They could never be you. No one has ever or could ever hold a candle to you in my eyes."
She didn't turn around. Where his hand was on her shoulder, he could feel her tense up.
"What are you saying, Harry?" Hermione asked.
"I still love you, Hermione," Harry said, softly. "I think I love you now more than I ever did before."
"That's crazy, Harry," she said, finally turning around. "You know we're not the same people we were five years ago. We've led completely different lives. We don't even know each other anymore."
"You don't believe that," Harry said, looking at her intently. "Now we may not have seen each other for five years, but that didn't make the feelings go away. If anything, it made them stronger. It did for me, you know. Not a day went by that I didn't think about you and wished that I could see you."
"You have a funny way of showing it," she said. "You never wrote. You never visited. You completely shut me out."
"I know," Harry said. "I know I did, but I'm back now, Hermione. I'm not going anywhere."
"Where have I heard that before?" Hermione asked.
"It's the truth this time. It almost killed me to leave you last time, and I can honestly say that I never want to be away from you ever again," Harry said, taking her hand.
She sighed. "Harry, I can't do this. I'm getting married in less than a month."
"I know I have no right to ask you for anything, but listen to me. Hermione, give me one week. We can get to know each other again and you can decide once and for all, just who it is you want to be with. I think we need to be alone to just be, you know," Harry said. "Come on, Hermione. If you don't do this, we'll wonder all our lives what could have been."
Hermione stood up and ran her fingers through her hair. She could feel the tears welling up in her eyes. "I can't, Harry."
He stood up, as well, and took hold of her shoulders. "Can you honestly tell me that you don't still feel something for me? Come on, just look me in the eyes and tell me that you don't have some feelings for me."
She stood there looking at him. She knew what she should say, but it wasn't what she wanted to say. She was tired. She was tired of thinking about this. She looked deep into those green eyes and she raised her hand up and touched his cheek.
"No, I can't look in those eyes and tell you that," Hermione said. "I can't believe I'm considering this, but okay. Let's do it."
"Really?" Harry asked, reaching up to touch her hand that still caressed his cheek.
"Yeah," she said. "How are we going to do this? What about the investigation? The wedding plans?"
"We can put everything on hold for a week. Sirius will stay behind and continue with the investigation," Harry said.
"What about Ron?" Hermione said, finally releasing her hand from Harry's cheek.
"I don't know," Harry said. "I don't like hurting him anymore than you do, you know. But we need to do this, Hermione. Better to think about it now than five or ten years later after you've married him to suddenly realize that you don't love him the way he deserves to be loved."
She nodded. "You're right."
"We should probably talk to Sirius about this first," Harry said. "Make sure it will be okay."
"Yeah," Hermione said. "So where will we go?"
"I don't know," Harry said, smiling at her. "But we'll be together."