Unofficial Portkey Archive

A/N: This is the first fic I've ever written; please tell me what you think.

Harry arrived home, it was 9pm by the time he put his key in the font door 'late' he grumbled. Sometimes being the head of one of the leading electronics research companies in the country wasn't all it was cracked up to be. At least he was going home to his Hermione. 'His' Hermione, he smiled at the though.

He stepped quickly through the door to escape the biting winter cold. Almost instantly he could tell something was wrong; no light, no smell of coffee, no sound of the television in the other room and most importantly, no Hermione.

Before Harry could investigate further the telephone began to ring, which quite surprised Harry as they'd only had it installed a few weeks before. He could still remember the argument he had with Hermione about it 'A telephone? What do we need one of them for? We have owl post' he had insisted' It had taken Hermione all of her feminine charm to convince him otherwise, but eventually she wore him down and he agreed. Somehow she always managed to get him to agree to almost anything she wanted; he often wondered how she did that. He smiled again before picking up the receiver.

He almost jumped in shock when he heard who's voice it was "Cho, it's not a good idea to ring me here, you know that, what if this was Hermione? What if she found out?"

'Click'

"Did you hear that?" he whispered

"Oh, don't worry Harry, it's not as if we're doing anything wrong, is it?" came her calm reply.

"I don't know, but believe me she would most likely transfigure me in to something ghastly if she found out" Harry's voice carried a hint of panic, he'd been talking far to long, if Hermione was in, she would no doubt come to investigate who had rung.

'Click'

"Listen! There is was again"

"Come on Harry, it's only her mothers watch you broke and besides I'm getting it fixed for you" She knew Harry was worried what Hermione would do if she found out that he had accidentally put the watch that her mother had left her in the washing machine, but it couldn't be that bad, Could it?

"Cho, I don't think she'd see it that way, look I'd better go, ill see you tomorrow"

With that Harry placed the receiver back on the telephone and set off to find Hermione.

~~~~~~~~~~~

I couldn't believe what was happening my worst fears and nightmares coming true. My stumbling across his unspoken meeting with her aroused my suspicions, but now everything was confirmed, everything he had just said to her pointed to only one thing. Harry was cheating on me, and with Cho Chang of all people. Harry, the last person on earth I'd image would cheat on anyone was doing just that. Could some school fling possibly mean more to him than the five years we've had together? I started to cry, evidently it meant much more.

I wanted to stop crying, I *had* to stop crying, after all he was cheating on me, I wasn't about to give him the satisfaction of see me cry about it, but It was too late, he was standing at the bottom of the stairs looking up at me.

"Hermione?" he called my name uncertainly "W-what's wrong?"

Regaining my composure "I think you already know Harry" I said shortly. How dare he feign ignorance with me, you'd think he would have know by now that I'd heard his entire telephone conversation.

"No, I don't'" I frowned, If Harry was anything, he was a poor liar and he was not going to talk his way out of this. His continued lying only angered me further.

"I'm sure you don't" I retorted "Enjoy your meeting with Cho, did you? Why didn't you tell me? Wait; of course you wouldn't, afraid I would transfigure you in to something ghastly were you?" I'm sure any passers by would be quite shocked to hear what the street had dubbed 'the perfect couple' shouting each other so loudly.

He paled, my plan had worked, and he now knew I'd heard every word he's said. But now nothing was said, in fact an eerie silence enveloped the stair case, for what seemed like hours he just stood there looking wide eyed at me, he knew he'd been caught, and there was nothing he could do about it.

He shifted his weigh to his other leg and twisted his hand nervously "What are you suggesting" his voice coming out in barely a whisper, but loud enough for me to hear.

"Isn't it obvious? You and Cho is what I'm suggesting"

"Y-you think I'm cheating on you?"

"Yes" was all I could manage, my voice chocked with emotion. Talking to him was becoming increasing difficult, why couldn't he just admit what he'd been doing and get it over with before I was unable to restrain myself from crying any longer?

I was brought back to my senses by a dull thud. I looked up to see Harry stumbling back in to the wall; he was now in sliding down to his knees.

His actions surprised me; certainly he knew this was coming. The only possible way he could be this shocked was it he was telling the truth, but everything pointed in the other direction.

I looked at him expectantly, willing him to say something, to do something other than just sit with his head in his hands. At length his response came.

"Do you honestly think I'd d this to you?" The hurt in his words were all to clear to see as if it took everything he had to say them, I could feel a sense of dread slowly creeping up on me, maybe was telling the truth, maybe I was wrong. My thoughts were again interrupted by the sounds of Harry's raised voice.

"Do you really, honestly think I'd be that stupid? Stupid enough to throw away five blissful years of my life with you?" he paused, his voice now almost inaudible "Don't you trust me?"

Without thinking I replied "No, I don't, not at this moment"

I should have though.

He came close, so that he was standing next to me.

He spoke softly; his voice was cold and hard, yet as quiet as a whisper.

"If we don't have trust, then we have nothing"

With that, he turned walked purposefully down the stairs and through the back door.

I was numb; I'd ruined everything on a misunderstanding. I knew I was wrong even before I'd said it, but my pride stopped from admitting it to him. Damn my pride. I'd rather have Harry sitting next to me than that.

Was everything lost? Or could something, anything be salvaged, cold he possibly forgive me?

My tears would not hold back any longer, my eyes welled and a single tear ran down my cheek. Now here I am sitting on the stairs of the house we had bought together, the house we had intended to live in together forever, the house we had promised to share out lives in forever.

My dream, but now that dream was slowly slipping away.

~~~~~~~~

Harry sat on small wooded bench at the far end of his garden, head in hands still trying to comprehend what had just taken place. He leaned back so that he could see the stars shining in the night sky, so many times had been here, just looking up at the sky, wondering what the future might hold. He sighed; they had been under happier times.

Across the other side of garden a small hedgehog slowly, but happily went about its nightly routine, its small nose shifting in different directions in search of food. Harry watched it intently; 'If only I could be so lucky' he though. As if reading his thoughts the hedgehog stopped abruptly and turned to look at him, almost as if an understanding had been reached. Harry gazed at the tiny creature, his mind began to wander 'If I were a hedgehog'; the small animal took a few cautious steps towards him 'I wouldn't be out here worrying'. 'Worrying' the word echoed around his head before he suddenly remembered why he was here, startled; he stood up abruptly, sending the hedgehog scurrying in to the bushes.

Unfortunately for Harry, the situation seemed all to clear for him, how could he stay? How could he stay if it meant living in a climate of mistrust where one partner could not trust the other? He thought of his words to Hermione 'If we don't have trust then we have nothing'. Had it come to this?

He stared back at the house in which he had lived in for the past five years. He remembered how he thought all his dreams had come true the day the moved in. He remembered the joyous look on Hermione's face as he carried her over the threshold bridal style. Not for one moment would he have believed that five short years later he would be leaving, especially like this.

Harry was pulled from his reverie by the feeling of cold rain running down his face. He chuckled at the way the weather was beginning to reflect his mood, but this was no time to be philosophical about things, he wanted to get this over as quickly as possible, and he didn't want his pain to last any longer than it had to.

So, picking himself up from the now rain soaked bench he trudged up to the back door of his house. What exactly what he was going to do or say he did not know yet, but he knew one thing for sure, he had to leave and he had to leave tonight.

He sighed 'this is going to be tough' he thought as he took one last look around the garden, then clasped his hand around the metal door handle and began to turn it.

The dream had truly ended.

!!