Disclamer: I own nothing but the plot!!
A/N: Thanks to all of you who reviewed last chapter, you guy are the best!! Here it is chapter 4. So sorry that it took me so long to post it but I had to buy a new HD for my computer so it took a while. I promise I won't take this long again. With that said… Enjoy!
Chapter 4 - A Long Hard Day
It was still early in the morning, the sun was barely up, but Harry was already awake in his bed thinking about everything that happened the last couple of weeks. He was, in fact, searching his mind to find a time when he was this happy but was failing miserably. Exactly two weeks ago Hermione had apparated in his room to see how he was doing and now thanks to her, he was having the best summer ever.
Ever since he got his apparation license he's been apparating every day to Hermione's house in the morning and only leaving at night when her parents got home. They were having a wonderful time just spending time together; as the days went by they got more and more comfortable around each other and now he was sure he could talk about virtually everything with her and he thought it was the same with her too. She was slowly opening up to him and he was getting to know the real Hermione, not the bossy know-it-all that walks around Hogwarts but the shy, insecure little girl that hides behind that confident mask and the more he found out about her the more he liked. And he was also starting to realize that `like' was maybe not the right word…
His musings were interrupted by a large black owl flying through the window, it wasn't any owl he knew or a school owl so he got up quickly and unattached the letter from the owl's leg and saw that it was from Gringotts.
"Why would Gringotts send me a letter?" Wondered Harry while opening it.
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Dear Mr. Potter,
We are sending you this letter in order to inform you that the reading of the Will of one Sirus Black is taking place tomorrow at noon at Gringotts Bank, Solicitors Office. Your presence is required for the reading to begin.
Regards,
P. Tekgui
Gringotts Solicitor
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Harry read the letter five times until the words finally sank in. They were going to read Sirius Will. He didn't know why this was affecting him so much but all those feelings he had during the first week of holidays were coming back to him, but this time he wasn't going to sulk around in his room. He knew what he had to do so he changed, grabbed his wand and invisibility cloak and apparated to Hermione's room.
Once he got there he saw that she was still sleeping and only now he realized that as it was still early her parents were still at home. But he didn't leave, he needed her now, he couldn't handle it by himself and although he didn't want to get her in more trouble he couldn't bring himself to apparate back home, not now when she was so close.
He quietly took off the cloak, cast a quick "Coloportus" at the door so her parents couldn't come in and went to the bed to lie beside her. He carefully got under the covers and hugged her from behind, she looked so peaceful sleeping that he didn't have the heart to wake her up. Just being here with her was enough, she made him feel safe, like he was not alone and as they had slept like this before more than once when they were watching movies or listening to music he knew she wouldn't mind. Still sleeping she snuggled closer to him and he found himself drifting off to the smell of apples and honey.
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"Hermione, wake up and open this door!" Harry heard a woman say followed by heavy knocking on the door. For a moment Harry opened his eyes and wondered where he was but as soon as he saw the shock on the beautiful brunette next to him he remembered quickly and jumped off the bed and under his cloak. After making sure that her mother could not see Harry, Hermione opened the door forcing an innocent look on her face.
"Good morning, mother. Do you want something?" She said with a fake smile.
"I just wanted to check up on you. Why was the door locked? You never locked your door before." Asked Mrs. Granger looking around the room.
"Well, since I can't leave the house I thought that I deserved at least some privacy in my own room." She replied coldly.
"Oh, honey. You know I don't like this punishment better that you do." Hermione snorted at that. "But you know how your father is…" Said Mrs. Granger pleadingly.
"Whatever. Look, it's early and I want to go back to bed so now that you saw that I'm still here… goodbye." And she closed the door on her mother locking it again. After casting a silencing spell on the room she sat on her bed and looked expectantly at Harry, who was taking off his cloak again, obviously waiting for an explanation.
"I'm so sorry, Mya." After Harry insisted for 4 days Hermione agreed in choosing a nickname for herself, and although she hated most of the ones Harry had came up with, she thought Mya was rather cute and now Harry rarely called her Hermione anymore. "It's just that I didn't want to be alone." He said in a small voice as he handed her the letter.
As she read it, understanding downed her face and she waked over to him and gave him a tight hug. "It's ok, Harry. I wouldn't want to be by myself either. Now, come here." She said sweetly as she took his hand and walked over to the bed. "I'm still tired from researching all night. Let's try to sleep a little more then we can talk about this and about what I found out." She said pulling him to bed with her.
"So that means you finished you research?" Asked Harry excitedly while making himself comfortable. She had told him that she would only tell him about her research once she was finished.
"Yes! But I'll tell you about it later. Now, sleep!" She said closing his eyes with her hand and giving him a quick peck on the lips before drifting back to sleep.
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Harry woke up to the sensation of caring fingers running through his hair. With his eyes still closed he hugged Hermione closer to him and started wondering when he had become so dependent on her. He always kept his feelings to himself and only talked when probed but now he had completely opened up to her and just being near her like this made him feel better, just felling her fingers in his hair made him forget about everything and everybody else in the world and he could help but smile.
"You can open you eyes. I know you are awake." Whispered Hermione in his ear, making shivers run down his spine.
"Morning." He said sleepily as he opened his eyes and took his glasses from her hand.
"Morning." She smiled up at him. "Are you feeling better?" He just nodded. "Do you want to talk about it?" She asked running her hands up and down his arm.
"Yeah… but can we do it over breakfast? I'm hungry." He replied sheepishly.
"Ok. Why don't you go make ourselves some breakfast while I wash up? I reckon that you're already pretty familiar with the kitchen." She said winking at him and standing up.
"Deal! I meet you downstairs." He said standing up himself. Truth was he knew his way around her kitchen pretty well since he'd been having all of his meals there for over a week, in fact, he only went back home to shower and sleep, even dinner he ate there before Hermione's parents got home. `The Order is really reliable, huh? I spend my whole day away and nobody notices I'm missing. And that's because I'm the only possible savior of the world…' Thought Harry chuckling to himself as he made his way to the kitchen.
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Harry had already breakfast on the table by the time Hermione came down. She complimented him on the food but other than that they ate in silence. When Harry started to stand up to clean the table Hermione held him in place and taking a good hold of his hand she gazed into his eyes.
"You told me you wanted to talk." She said softly. "Talk to me, Harry."
"It's just…" He sighed and rested his head on her shoulder. "I know that he is gone and I know that he won't come back but I guess some part of me still had a little bit of hope that he would just come see me and tell me it was all a big joke, since there was no body and all… But now with this Will thing… it just makes things official, you know? He is really not coming back." He finished in a whisper.
"It's ok, Harry." She said running a hand up and down his back. "I understand. But it's a good thing that you don't have any hope anymore. Now tomorrow you can get some closure and then you can fully heal." She kissed his temple and held him tight and he was really grateful for that. She was right he needed closure but he didn't know if he would be able to keep his emotions in check tomorrow.
"I wish you could be there with me." He said shyly.
"Oh, Harry. I wish I could go too, but you know that my parents would never let me." She said sadly but then added little brighter. "You know, you could come here in the morning and I could cheer you up until you had to leave and then when it was over you could come back here and you could tell me all about it. What do you think?"
"Thanks, it would be perfect." He replied kissing her cheek and standing up. After helping her up and putting an arm around her shoulders, he led her back upstairs to her room.
"Now, I guess it would be your turn to talk, wouldn't it?" Harry asked as they got to her room.
"What? Oh, yeah, my research!" She said excited once she remembered what he was talking about.
"Yeah, come on. Tell me already!" Said Harry eager to hear what she had found out.
"Well, do you remember how we studied Ghost Warriors in history of magic? It was in our OWLs?" Harry had no idea what she was taking about, he always slept through that class and actually slept through the test too. She must have seen the confusion on his face because she continued. "Never mind… They are warriors that come to the aid of the light side whenever there's a war. They don't respect laws or follow any government but they are said to be the most powerful warriors on earth, they have this ritual that nobody really know about that supposedly enhance your most important qualities and a training program for young witches and wizards that's supposed to be the best that is." She took a big breath and was about to continue when Harry spoke up.
"It seems great, but didn't you say something about muggles and a myth?" Asked Harry confused.
"Yes, if you just let me finish!" She replied in mock annoyance. "There is a problem in all this; you can't volunteer to this training program, you have to be invited and only then they will tell you how to get to wherever they hide. They are very secretive about this, nobody that isn't a ghost warrior know how to get there." Harry's face fell, he knew it was too good to be true, but Hermione seemed happy about it somehow and kept talking.
"So that's why I was researching muggles. You know, it was really because of muggles that they have this name. They helped in muggle wars too and as they appeared and disappeared out of nowhere, used weird clothes and killed with what, to muggles were jets of light, the muggle soldiers thought they were ghosts of ancient warriors coming to help them. Obviously nobody believed this stories and it became a myth. I started searching trying to find any report written by muggles about this subject and see if it could help us in anyway and the good news is… I found one yesterday! That's why I didn't sleep much, I wanted to finish putting the pieces together before you got here." She was clearly excited about her discoveries and Harry was starting to get his hopes up again.
"Well, apparently one night one of the warriors decided to enjoy himself a little in a muggle… er… `night club', but he got drunk and talked a little too much. He told the soldiers that all the warriors came from a island in the pacific where the time run faster than normal and that his kind had been there since all of it's native people died after a volcano eruption in the 18th century. Of course the fact that the time run faster is because of a temporal spell that is said to have being placed in the warriors `Boot Camp' so they can fully train their new warriors without too much time passing in the `real world', there they can train for what would be months while here passed only weeks. Anyway, with the information about the island he gave, I narrowed down the option for two possible islands, but when checking a wizarding map I discovered that only one of this islands is present there, so obviously the one we want is the other one." She then stopped for a moment and looked at Harry. "Are you following me? I know I can be a little confusing when I'm excited and…" As Harry saw she was starting to ramble again he cut her off.
"I am! Just give me a moment to process all this information." He said quickly so she wouldn't start again. It seemed like a very good opportunity if they really got the chance to be trained by these people but Harry still had some doubts.
"Ok, let me see if I got every thing right." Harry said after a couple of minutes. "They are the best shot we've got to get training properly, they have this time spell on their island so we could get a good amount of training and still be able to come in time for school and you figured out where they hide, right?"
"Right." Answered Hermione nodding.
"But don't we still have a problem? Didn't you say that you have to be invited by them to get into their training program?" It didn't matter if they knew every bloody thing about these warriors if they refused to train them.
"People have to be invited because they don't know where they hide so they can't get there on their own, but since we know their exact location we can just go there and show them that we could make very good warriors and if that doesn't work there's always Plan B…" Replied Hermione in her most confident tone.
"Right, and what would be this Plan B?" asked Harry curious.
"Beg." Answered Hermione cheekily.
Harry had to smile at that. He knew Hermione wasn't sure about this either but it was their best shot, their only shot, and if Hermione had hope it could work then he was all for it. "Ok! Count me in."
"Great!" She said hugging him. "I was thinking that maybe we could leave after your birthday. That would give us a whole month and you could still spend your birthday here."
"Yeah, we can do that." He answered happily, then took her face in his hands and kissed her slowly, just enjoying the feeling of her lips on his. "Thank you." He said resting his forehead on hers, as they broke apart.
"For what?" She asked a little breathless.
"For everything. For being here for me. For helping me. For being you." Having said that he kissed her again, more passionate this time, conveying all his feelings for her through that kiss.
"You're welcome." Was all Hermione said when they parted before pulling him to her again and grabbing his mouth on hers.
Harry was ecstatic; he should really start thanking her more often for Hermione was all over him. He didn't even notice when it happened but they were now lying on her bed, with him on top, and her hands were everywhere, well, everywhere above the waist that is. They were kissing like their lives depended on it and Harry decided to do a little exploring of his own. He started by putting his hands under her shirt and caressing her flat belly. `When did she get a piercing? How did I not notice this before?' Thought Harry playing with the little ring in her belly, but then all coherent thought left his mind when her lips left his mouth and she started nibbling his earlobe, as if acting on instinct his hand started going up until he reached the soft fabric of her bra, he stopped there. But instead of slapping his hand away as Harry was sure she would do, Hermione just looked deep in his eyes for a second, as if to show him she was okay with it, and started kissing him again. Now more confident since he had permission he started caressing her breast and he felt Hermione press harder against his hand while moaning in his mouth. He couldn't take it much longer, the thought of her breast on his hand and her moaning was almost enough to take him over the edge, he was in pain now, physical pain, he's never been so hard in all his life and under this conditions, it wasn't a pleasant feeling. They had not talked about it yet, he wasn't sure how far Hermione was willing to go but he had to something, he couldn't keep this torture much longer.
"Mya… we have to stop." He said breathlessly moving away from her. If she wanted to continue she would say so.
"I know." She said kissing him again.
"I mean it." He said looking at her and then at where he was pressing against his leg. "I'm in serious pain here."
"Oh." She said finally understanding what he meant. "Do you need to… uh… relive yourself?" She said nodding in the direction of the bathroom.
His eyes grew wide at her question. `Why is she asking me that?' He asked himself blushing. But he knew he really did need to so there was no point in denying. "Yeah… I do." He said not looking at her.
"Do you need a hand?" She asked playfully waving her right hand in front of him.
His head snapped up so fast he thought he would twist his neck. `Was she just teasing or did she mean it?' He didn't know for sure but he was definitely going to find out. "What?" He asked looking at her face. But she didn't answer him, she just grabbed his shirt with her left hand to pull him to her while her right hand went to try and undo the fly of his jeans.
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Harry just couldn't stop grinning. He and Hermione had fooled around all day, with brief pauses to eat and rest, and although they hadn't gone `all the way' yet they did a lot of stuff and now he just couldn't stop thinking about her. Her beautiful eyes, her perfect body, her incredible smile, the things she did to him, and more importantly, the way she made him feel like he was the luckiest guy on earth just by smiling at him. And after this thoughts ran through his mind he finally realized why he was feeling this way. `Oh, Merlin… I'm in love with her.'
He was lying on her bed waiting for her to come out of the bathroom. She had decided to wash up before her parents got home. Somehow she got the impression that they wouldn't believe her if she told them that she had gotten that messy while studying. At first he was anxious for her to get out, he couldn't stand to be apart from her for too long any more but now he was thankful that she wasn't there when he had his sudden revelation because he might had blurt it out to her the second it happened and he didn't think that is the right way to go about this. As he was carefully stating the pros and cons of telling her how he felt he heard the familiar sound of her parents' car on the driveway.
"Mya, your parents are here. I'm going home, ok?" He yelled at her trough the bathroom door.
"Wait a sec! I'm done." She replied and a minute later she was back in the room. She was wearing a white tank top that hung thigh to her curves and denim miniskirt, her hair was dump from the shower and she was barefoot. She wasn't wearing anything fancy but to Harry she was drop dead sexy and he just the sight of her made him forget that her parents were home.
"Do you like it?" Hermione asked with a wicked smile after seeing the look on his face.
`That wicked wicked witch!! She knew I was going to react like this, that's why she asked me to wait.' Harry thought while walking over to her and kissing her passionately. He couldn't get enough of her, she was the most important person in his life right now and he didn't know how to show that to her. "I love it." He answered her after they broke the kiss and then after making up his mind he continued looking deep in her eyes. "And I love you."
Hermione just stared at him for a while searching his eyes as if to see if he really meant it and just as she opened her mouth to say something they were jolted apart by a high pitched scream from downstairs.
Without thinking they both grabbed their wands and stormed out of the room to see what was going on. As they reached the living room Harry's fears were confirmed, there, looking over the bodies of Hermione's parents were three Death Eaters and although he knew he should do something he just stood there paralyzed by the scene in front of him. He barely heard someone shouting "Stupefy" before everything went dark.
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He woke up in what he quickly recognized as the stone floor of Headquarters' kitchen. Molly Weasley and Remus were fussing over him and asking several questions at once, he could also hear several other people in the room talking worriedly but he was still too dazed to acknowledge any of this until he heard the angry voice of his best mate.
"Have you totally lost it?? Why didn't you enervate him before coming here?? You could have splinched yourself trying to apparate with somebody else!!"
"Well, I obviously wasn't thinking…" Mumbled Hermione and Harry could tell that she was trying very hard to keep her emotions in check. And that's when it all came back to him, the Death Eaters, Hermione's parents… `Oh, Merlin, Hermione!!' Harry thought when he started to think about what must be going through her mind right now but Ron brought him back from his thoughts again.
"Well, everybody hear this." Yelled Ron. "Little Miss Perfect wasn't thinking. Isn't that…" But whatever Ron was going to say next nobody heard because Harry was already on his feet glaring at Ron.
"You better shut your big mouth right now before I decide to shut it for you." He said in cold whisper but as he heard several gasps in the room he was sure that every body heard him. He averted his gaze from Ron and looked over at Hermione, she had her back against the wall and a single tear was dropping from her closed eyes. He couldn't bear to see her in so much pain but at the same time he didn't know what to do to make her feel better so he decided to do the only thing he could and in a feel seconds he was tightly holding a sobbing Hermione against his chest.
"I'm so sorry, Mya." He said while moving them over to a chair so he could sit her on his lap. "I'm just… I'm just so sorry." He kept saying while soothingly rubbing her back
After she calmed down Harry became painfully aware that every single person in the room was looking at them. By the way Ron was talking to Hermione it was only safe to guess that she hadn't yet told them what happened at her house and everybody was waiting for an explanation. And just as to confirm his thoughts, Ginny decided to voice the question.
"Err… Guys? I'm sorry to interrupt this little moment of yours but can somebody explain what the hell is going on??" She said exasperated and Harry could notice that she was a little angry too; he would have to ask later what the hell was the problem with these Weasleys today and as he was opening his mouth to tell them what happened Hermione stood up and started talking.
"Oh, no. I'm the one who is sorry." She started sarcastically. "I'm sorry that I couldn't think straight." She said looking at Ron. "And I am so very sorry that I got a little emotional over the death of my parents." She said looking at Ginny and the whole room gasped at that. "But don't worry." She continued walking towards the door. "I'll try and be a cold hearted bitch next time someone I love is murdered by Death Eaters just because they had the audacity to have anything to do with a dirty little mudblood." And with that she stormed out of the kitchen leaving behind some very shocked people.
Harry was beyond shocked by Hermione's words. She couldn't really be thinking this was her fault, if there was someone to blame in all of this it was him.
"Harry, what happened?" Remus asked worriedly breaking Harry from his thoughts.
"Death Eaters attacked her house, killed her parents and stunned me. What happened afterwards I don't know." Harry answered quickly wanting to go after Hermione but knowing that he had to give some kind of explanation.
"And what were you doing there anyway? You didn't answer any of all owls all summer and the last owl we got from Hermione was over two weeks ago. We you guys too busy shagging your brains out to send us a bloody note?" Asked Ron angrily. From the corner of his eyes Harry could see Remus, Tonks, Bill and Charlie disapparating, probably to Hermione's house but the remaining people in the kitchen seemed eager to hear his response, so much so that Mrs. Weasley didn't even scold Ron for using such words. So Harry took a deep breath to try and put his anger under control and started responding.
"First of all never talk about Hermione like that ever again if you want to keep all your teeth. Secondly, what the hell is wrong with you? Hermione just lost her parents and you find this the best time to act on your jealousy? Well, save it for someone who gives a fuck because I'm going to find my best friend." Harry said all of on more or less an even voice but didn't manage to hide completely his anger and frustration from his expression. As nobody seemed to want to voice anything else he left the kitchen to look for Hermione.
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Harry had looked all over Grimmald Place but hadn't found Hermione anywhere; he was about to give up when he came across a room he hadn't checked yet. Sirius room.
On a normal situation he would be an emotional mess after having walked all over his late godfather's house and now being about to enter his old room, but under the current state of things he just couldn't react like that. He had to be strong for Hermione. So gathering all his strength he opened the door and walked into the room. And once again today he was shocked out of his senses.
The room was just amazing, nothing like the shabby room Sirius used to have. The walls were a deep red and in the center of the room there was a king sized four-poster bed with golden curtains and comforter decorated with the Griffindor lion, there was a desk and some shelves full of books in a corner of the room, two closed doors on the right wall and a couch and some comfy chairs facing a fireplace on the left. And there, sitting on the couch was the reason he got into this room in the first place. He silently walked to the couch and sat beside her, taking her hand in his and looking straight into the fire, but from the corner of his eye he could see that she was crying silently. He felt her rest her head on his shoulder but neither of them said a word; they just sat there in a comfortable silence just staring at the fire.
"How are you feeling?" Harry asked after he noticed she had stopped crying. He knew it was a stupid question but he just wanted to get her talking.
"Like hell." She answered honestly. "But I'm strong, I'm going to be ok. How are you feeling?" She turned around so that she could see his face but he kept his gaze on the fire.
"Better than I thought I would. I guess you managed to successfully get me through all of this without any of us going crazy." He replied with a tiny smile, and finally turning around to face her. "And now I intent on doing the same thing for you." He said lightly squeezing her hand.
"You know, I never got the change to tell you." She said with a watery smile as a tear dropped from her eye.
"Tell me what?" Harry asked whipping her tear with his free hand.
"That I love you too." She answered starting to cry again but somehow sill holding up a tiny smile.
Harry didn't know what to say, he just couldn't convey into words how that statement made him feel, it was like his heart was going to burst with pure joy. He decided then that actions speak louder than words and kissed her with all his might, trying to show her all his love in that kiss.
"I guess this is the official end of our agreement." Said Hermione breathlessly after the broke apart.
"Yeah, I guess it is. Does this mean that you are my girlfriend now?" Asked Harry with a huge smile on his face.
"You bet." She replied smiling and kissing him again. "What are we going to tell everybody? They might be a little suspicious after today. Do you still want to keep it a secret?"
"Yeah, Ron was making some insinuations after you left the kitchen and everybody seemed eager to know what I was doing at your place." Harry said sighing.
"If you want to keep it secret it's ok with me. Ron is not going to take this well, he'll probably stop taking with us for a while and I know how much you missed him in 4 year… And there's also Ginny, she is definitely going to stop talking with me, you know she fancies you since ever, right?" Said Hermione biting her lower lip.
"How do you know Ron won't take it well? And what is this about Ginny? I thought she was over me." Asked Harry confused.
"Honestly, Harry! Every single person in school knows Ron fancies me, and I know you do too. And I never said Ginny was over you, I said she had given up on you, which is very different and it wasn't totally true either. She was just going out with those guys to make you jealous. In other words we betrayed them by getting together." Replied Hermione exasperated.
"Well, I just don't care. They were both huge prats today and I think that after everything we went through we deserve to be a little selfish if that is what it takes for us to be happy." He said grumpily and then added teasingly. "And you, young lady, had better get used to the idea of having me as your boyfriend because now that I have I'm not letting you go." And with that he picked her up in his arms and took her to the bed.
"Harry!" She shrieked as he dropped her in the bed.
"What? It's late and I think we should get some sleep. Tomorrow is going to be a big day." He said getting on the bed himself.
"You're right." She said with a tiny voice and a sad expression. Then she grabbed her wand from her pocket and murmured some kind of spell at the door before putting her wand on the bedside table and lying down next to Harry.
"What was that? I don't know this spell…" He asked and the quickly added "Oh, do you know where my wand is? I must have dropped when I was stunned."
"Well, that was a locking charm much more complex than `coloportus', casting an `alomohora' will do you no good with this spell. And about your wand, I got it. It's on the coffee table in front of the couch, I thought you had seen it." She replied from the place in his chest she had buried her face in.
Harry could tell from the tone of her voice that she was trying very hard not to cry and he knew his comment about tomorrow had affected her but he wouldn't push her into talking. He knew from his own experience that the way she was hiding her feelings and pretending nothing happened would only make things worse but he would wait until she was ready to open up. So with a kiss on the top of head and murmured Good Night's they fell to sleep.
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A/N: So that was it… How did you like it??? Well, you can tell me that in your review!!
Ps: Before you guys starting commenting on Hermione's behavior after her parents death I would just like to say that everybody reacts differently on this situations, and the way she reacts in the same way I reacted when I lost my father so don't come complaining about that.
PS2: Some people mentioned spelling mistakes on the story and I'm so sorry about that guys but I'm from Brazil and we don't speak English here. :P I try to check the story more than once before I post it but sometimes I just miss some things. Anyway, anyone up for a Beta job?? If you are just send me an email. (Some one with good English, please!!)
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