A/N: I'm really sorry once again for the long wait. I've been quite busy and I'm glad that you guys are still with me and being patient. It means so much to me. Thanks for all the reviews you guys. It really means a lot to you. Any feedback is great and I'd love to hear about your ideas about Allie and what should happen. Now the next update won't be til December for sure cause I'm trying this nanowirmo novel in a month thing so I won't have time to update the story. Thanks again and please review.
Disclaimer: I don't own anything. This fic is for entertainment purposes only.
Chapter 17
Rutheford High school looked like any ordinary high school with a pretty large campus and seemed to have quite a bit of money in its budget since the school seemed relatively new. Hermione was quite nervous about her meeting with the principal and she did not know what to expect and hoped that they would not ask her to many questions about why she was interested in Allie.
Hermione took a deep breath and entered through the main entrance where there was a very clear sign indicating where the principal's office was located. She walked up to the front desk and rang the bell.
"Hello, may we help you?" a nice looking woman in your early 30's replied.
"Yes, I have an appointment with the principal," Hermione explained.
"Were you that young lady that called you hear asking about Allie?" She asked.
Hermione nodded and replied, "So you're Carolyn?"
"Yes I am. Then you must be Jane," Carolyn answered with a smile.
"It's nice to meet you," Hermione answered.
"Principal Pierce will be with you shortly," Carolyn answered with a grin and quickly picked up the phone.
"Your next appointment is here," Carolyn said into the phone quickly and then listened and nodded.
"Jane, why don't you have a seat? The principal will be out shortly. Do you mind asking why you're asking about Allie?" Carolyn asked.
"Of course not, I was just doing some research for an article that I'm writing," Hermione answered smoothly.
Just then the phone rang and Carolyn excused herself. Hermione breathed a sigh of relief as she did not want to answer any more questions because she was never someone who liked to lie.
Just then, an older yet distinguished looking man came out and greeted her.
"Thanks so much for taking the time to speak to me," Hermione replied with a grin.
"It's not a problem. Especially since you are friends with an officer, we love to cooperate with the police and we assume then that you can be trusted," Principal Pierce answered.
"I like cooperating with law enforcement myself," Hermione answered with a smile.
"So what would you like to know about Allie Renshaw?" He asked.
"First of all, I'd like to know more about what kind of person she was at school?" Hermione asked.
"Well Allie was sort of a quiet individual who didn't have that many friends but she was extremely gifted. She was really smart and excelled in her studies and she joined a lot of clubs and especially enjoyed helping others. She was always the first to volunteer whenever we start any new projects," Principal Pierce replied.
"She sounds like a wonderful person," Hermione answered slowly.
"I wouldn't say that I knew her personally at all but we did talk a few times," Principal Pierce answered.
"What did you guys talk about?" Hermione asked curiously.
"Is it going to be off the record?" He asked.
"Of course," Hermione answered quickly.
"Well, we really never talked about anything really important but just how she seemed to talk about these big dreams that she had these big dreams of being respected and where she would be remembered and recognized for who she was. I told her that she was a smart girl and that I was sure that she would achieve her dreams. She seemed kind of lonely because her parents were not around much while she was growing up or that is what she told me and I have found no reason to question that," He explained.
"That is quite fascinating. I think that she may be well on her way, she got into a great college," Hermione commented.
"We were very proud of her as well when we heard that," Pierce replied.
"I was wondering if you knew anything about the school she went to before this one?" Hermione asked.
"Actually we didn't know much about the school but from some research we found that it is a well known boarding school and we read such good things about the school. Normally we didn't accept transfer students in their last year of school. So we gave her placement tests to see for ourselves if she was up to our standards. She aced all of the tests that we gave her and due to her great school record we didn't to accept her and we ae glad that we did," He answered.
"Why were you glad that she was accepted?" Hermione asked curiously.
"She has helped gain some attention. She won numerous contests against other schools in the area," Principal Pierce answered.
"That's great. What was the name of the school?" Hermione asked.
"I believe the name of the school was Faerway's Academy for the Gifted," Principal Pierce answered.
"That is a school I haven't heard of but it does sound special," Hermione commented jotting it down.
"Is there anything else you would like to know?" Principal Pierce asked.
"What kind of classes did Allie take?" Hermione asked.
"Let me take a look," Principal Pierce replied grabbing a folder from inside his desk and opening it.
"Here we are. Allie took a wide variety of classes. This included AP chemistry and English, Drama, criminology, psychology, history, art, writing, photography and cooking," Principal Pierce answered.
"I'd say that would be a lot of different classes," Hermione commented.
"We were asking her that at first when she first picked those classes but she told us that she wanted to try out all the different types of classes and that she always took all these different classes at her old school. So we decided to let her do so as long as she managed to do well in her required classes then we will let her do as she pleases," Principal Pierce answered.
"Do you mind if I take a look at that?" Hermione asked.
"I'm sorry but it is still confidential and I can't let you," He replied apologetically.
"I understand," Hermione replied disappointed.
"Do you have any other questions?" Principal Pierce asked.
"Have you heard anything interesting from the rest of the students regarding Allie?" Hermione asked.
"Do you mean if they talked about her? Why do you ask?" Principal Pierce asked.
"I wanted to be thorough and wanted to know how her peers felt about her," Hermione answered smoothly.
"I don't normally know what the other students say unless I hear it in the form of a complaint which I never received," He answered.
"That's okay. Is there anything you remember happening during the year she was here at school?" Hermione asked.
"Alright then, um… well now that you mention it, nothing really unusual but we did seem to have more strange occurrences at the school during her last year here," Principal Pierce replied thoughtfully.
"Could you be more specific?" Hermione prodded.
"Well we have a very low accidents rate at the school but there seemed to be more accidents during that year. Overall it was still a very small number but enough to catch my attention. There was that one particular chemistry accident that occurred early on in her year during her class which was somewhat unusual. We're still not sure what happened but nothing else happened besides that one incident in her class that we kind of forgot all about it at the end of the year," He answered.
"What kind of incident was it?" Hermione asked.
"Actually I hardly remember it at all, I just believe it happened during one of the labs," Principal Pierce replied apologetically.
"No, thank you. You've been very helpful. Is it alright if I spoke to any of the teachers here?" Hermione asked.
"That's no problem at all but none of the teachers that taught Allie still teach at this school," He explained.
"Not even one?" Hermione asked quite shocked.
"A lot of the teachers transferred to another school or moved away," Principal Pierce answered.
"Is that normal?" Hermione asked.
"Teachers transferring schools is definitely something that happens quite a bit but usually such a large number of teachers transferring from one school is not something happens ordinarily," He answered.
"Did they all transfer after that year?" Hermione asked.
"Not all of them, a few each semester until all of them were gone. I was actually quite surprised about a couple of teachers retiring. I had no idea they wanted to retire but of course they had been teaching for quite a long time and deserve the time just to relax and enjoy life," He answered.
"Thanks so much Principal Pierce," Hermione replied.
"You're welcome Jane," He answered.
"I trust that some of the things said will be kept away from the press," Principal Pierce added.
"Don't worry, you won't be reading anything that you wouldn't want printed," Hermione assured him as she turned to walk away.
"Jane, I still happen to have an old year book nearby, would you like to take a look?" Carolyn asked.
"That would be great," Hermione added walking over and saw that Carolyn was flipping through the pages of pictures of their graduates until she found the R's where Allie would be found. Ah there she is and pointed towards a different looking Allie. She had straight brown hair and small rimmed glasses and looked quite young.
"By the end of the year she looked quite different, she sort of reminds me of you. When I first saw you I thought that you looked familiar but I was sure that I never met you before. Now I realize that you reminded me of Allie," Carolyn explained.
"What do you mean when you say that she looked different by the end of the year?" Hermione asked.
Carolyn wa s about the answer but the phone rang again so she said, "Why don't you flip through the book while I get the phone?"
Hermione sat down and flipped through the pages and found that Allie was in a lot of the pictures because of the number of clubs she was in. Allie was always wearing a smile and next to a group of people but there always seemed to be some space between her and the rest of the group members. It was the same for most of the group pictures except for one picture where she seemed to be happier and much more part of the group. That was the picture of the drama club. Then she turned to the grad pictures and saw a much more confident looking Allie with now brown hair that was sort of curly and no more glasses next to the valedictorian picture.
"Doesn't she look great?" Carolyn asked.
"She does and she made valedictorian," Hermione responded with a nod.
"She was quite shocked when Allie came to the school and got higher scores than she did and it was quite obvious that she would be made valedictorian. She didn't have very many female friends," Carolyn answered.
"She seemed to have gained a lot more confidence since the last picture that was took for the yearbook," Hermione commented.
"At the beginning of the year she seemed more down in the dumps about things and didn't really fit in all that much but by the end of the year she seemed to have gained a lot of confidence and managed to make more friends then I thought could happen. She thought of herself as a plain looking girl and not very popular and I guess she got over it with the help of her friends," Carolyn added.
"I'm glad that it worked out for her," Hermione commented.
"I'm glad you did too. You really do remind me of her," Carolyn replied with a nod of her head.
"Do you mind if I take this?" She asked.
"Of course not, I have a couple more copies," Carolyn answered.
Hermione thanked her and headed out the door and looked at her watch and realized she was running a little behind schedule. She would have to hurry back if she didn't want to be missed. She quickly apparated back near the mansion where she knew there wouldn't be any people and walked slowly out to the back door and into the mansion where she noticed that nobody was there.
Breathing a sigh of relief she headed back to her room in order to think. She head learned a lot of things about Allie from the meeting but a lot of those things that she learned would not be too useful to her and would not help her find out more about her secrets. The first thing she needed to do though was find out more about the school that she went to and she needed to go take a look at her records somehow.
She walked over to her desk and opened her laptop and typed in the Faerway School for the gifted. She found that there wasn't much information relevant to what she wanted to know about except this one link that could be useful.
The link opened a page that stated that the school is for special individuals only and that admission was difficult and would required both money and numerous tests before admission would be granted. It had a long history about the founders of the school but no information of the topics the school specialized in or the teachers which she found to be really suspicious.
Just then she heard a knock on the door and she opened it and saw Lisa.
"Hi Lisa," Hermione responded.
"We just received another letter that is addressed to everyone so we all need to head downstairs," Lisa replied.
"I'll be right down," Hermione responded and put away her computer in a safe place, and locked it magically before heading downstairs.
"So what's in the letter?" Hermione asked.
"We were waiting for you to arrive first and now that you're here we can get started," Callie answered.
The letter read as follows:
Dear Lisa, Allie, Callie, Chloe, Christine and Hermione,
I hope that all of you are well and have had a chance to get to know each of you. The eliminations are now down to one by one.
As all of you have may guessed, there have been a lot of changes happening in the bachelor as now there are only 6 ladies left and I'm very happy to have met you all. The rose ceremony is set for later tonight which means the final group date is always for this evening and will be with Lisa and Chloe. I look forward to seeing the two of you tonight and I wish that we had more time to spend together but I'm sure that it will be time well spent.
Love,
Harry.
"The ceremony is tonight? That is quite fast but good," Chloe added.
"That way we won't have to wonder who will get eliminated later on," Callie added.
"Do you guys have any ideas as to who he will eliminate?" Hermione asked wanting to know the other girls thoughts on the subject.
"It would be hard to say right now since he hasn't really spent that much time with any of us especially unless maybe you Hermione but then he didn't pick you for the individual date so I really have no idea," Christine replied.
Lisa and Chloe then excused themselves to go upstairs to get ready for their dates but before Chloe headed upstairs she turned towards Hermione.
"I think that the person most likely to get kicked off would be probably Lisa or Callie because they didn't really seem to do anything to get their attention and Harry didn't seem to into either of them. Allie seems to have captured his attention though. I'd be wary of her," Chloe whispered to her.
"What did Chloe talk to you about?" Allie asked.
"Nothing really important, she just wanted to talk to me about some of the research that I do," Hermione answered sweetly.
"I didn't know she was interested in that kind of stuff," Allie commented.
"Well, I didn't either but it turns out she does want to know," Hermione replied with a shrug.
"Well then sometimes people turn out surprising you. So what are your thoughts on the eliminations?" Allie asked.
"Well since I'm not Harry I wouldn't know," Hermione answered quickly.
"I know that. You are a girl after all and it's impossible to be at two places at one time right?" Allie asked.
"Of course it is," Hermione answered confused.
"I just wanted to know what your thoughts are on the other girls," Allie replied.
"I think that they are all really nice and that they all have an equal chance at getting to stay," Hermione answered.
`I know they all are and it would be really hard to single any one person out but we're friends right?" Allie asked.
"Sure, we'll all friends here," Hermione commented.
"I'm really glad to hear that because I really admire you Hermione and I'm so glad that we are friends because I think of you as one of my good friends and I would be really sad if you were the next one to leave. But judging from the way the two of you interact I think that would be really unlikely," Allie replied.
"I would be sad to see you go as well," Hermione replied through a forced grin.
"Now that I know that we are friends who do you think should go next? I promise that I won't breathe a word to the other ladies," Allie tried once again.
"I really have no idea," Hermione replied nonchalantly.
"Stop being so diplomatic Hermione. I know you don't want to bad mouth anybody but we are in a competition with everyone to get Harry's attention. There must be someone here that you would want to be out so that they won't be competition anymore. You do want to be with Harry don't you?" Allie urged.
"Of course I do. Why else would I be here? Allie, I really don't know because everyone here has such great qualities about them. But I'd have to say that maybe the one that will go I guess will be someone who hasn't been pulling enough weight around here," Hermione replied.
"I feel the same way Hermione. I guess that would mean it would be either Lisa or Chloe then huh?" Allie replied.
"Why them?" Hermione asked.
"Well he didn't pick them for the first group date," Allie replied simply.
"Nice chatting with you Allie but I have some things to finish up upstairs," Hermione replied.
"Still working I see. Don't work too hard," Allie replied with a wave.
Hermione walked upstairs to her room and shook her head.
`Allie is so frustrating. Why does she seem so intent on being my friend and asking me so many questions?' She thought to herself.
*~*~*~
Harry arrived at the mansion to meet Lisa and Chloe for the group date. He rang the doorbell once again hoping the see Hermione.
The door opened and there she stood looking lovely in a sleeveless blouse and mid length skirt.
"Hermione," He said.
"Hi Harry," Hermione replied and started to turn around but he grabbed her wrist.
"We really are okay right?" Harry asked.
"We are. I told you that already," Hermione answered.
"But I feel like you're being distant and I don't want to lose you," Harry replied.
"You're not going to lose me. We really are okay. You're my best friend and always will be," Hermione told him with a smile and squeezed his hand.
"And if you need anything you know that you can tell me right?" Harry added.
"I know," Hermione replied and walked away.
In a couple of minutes, Lisa and Chloe headed down the stairs and greeted him with a smile.
"Hello ladies, ready to go?" Harry asked.
"Absolutely," they said together and headed out the door.
"Where are we going?" Lisa asked.
"Well from what I am told we are going to learn to do something new and it will be hands on," Harry answered.
"Ah… so we're probably making something right?" Chloe asked.
"Yes, we are going to learn how to make pottery," Harry answered.
"I've always wanted to do that," Lisa exclaimed.
"Then it'll be fun," Harry replied.
"It does sound fun," Chloe replied.
"I have actually not done this either so it will be new to me as well," Harry answered.
"A potter not knowing how to make pottery? That is quite shocking," Lisa teased him.
"I'm quite shocked myself but then I'm not that kind of Potter," Harry replied with a grin.
"Leave it to the producers to set you up for that one," Chloe added rolling her eyes.
"It was just so obvious someone had to say it," Lisa replied smiling.
"So how was the rest of your day?" Harry asked.
"It was good, not that much to do since we're on vacation but I did get caught up on some writing," Lisa commented.
"I agree but we are regularly kept busy with a lot of work that needs to be done before the show gets shown on television. What about you? " Chloe replied.
"I have been pretty busy myself but not the same kind of busy that I am used to," Harry replied.
"So tell us more about your life back home," Lisa asked.
"There is a lot of stuff that is classified and I can't tell you but what I can tell you that it requires a lot of hard work, long hours and it also requires a lot of patience but in the end it is really worth it.," Harry answered.
"It must really be rewarding when you catch the criminals and see them brought to justice," Chloe commented.
"It really is rewarding and a great feeling but it is more dangerous that I would like," Harry added.
"Is it something that is really important to you?" Lisa asked.
"I do love my job and I love helping keeping the country safe," Harry answered after a moment.
"So that would mean it would be important for the woman that you spend your life with to understand that it is something that you love to do and support you," Lisa replied.
"So do you guys think you two could?" Harry asked.
"I really think that I would support it because it is important to you and I would want you to be happy even it is dangerous," Chloe answered.
"I feel the same way, yes I'm not saying that it would be easy to do or that in a moment of anger that it won't cause any problems but yes I would be supportive because obviously your job means a lot to you and its an important part of your life. I have the feeling that you wouldn't be you if you weren't this way," Lisa spoke up.
"I give off that kind of air?" Harry asked.
"You do have the whole justice vibe going for you and I think it's a great feeling to accomplish something and to help keep families together would be extremely satisfying," Chloe added.
"That's what one of my best friends always telling me," Harry added with a slight grin.
"You mention this best friend of yours a lot. That person must be really important to you," Lisa commented.
"She is. She's just always been there for me. She's always been supportive of me and my career and I've always been thankful for that," Harry answered with a smile.
Just the driver announced that they had arrived and they got out of the limo and headed inside.
"You must be Mr Potter and they must be Lisa and Chloe. My name is Marilyn," the older woman said.
"It's nice to meet you," Harry replied shaking her hand.
"Has any of you thrown a pot before?" She asked.
Everyone shook their heads.
"Alright then, how about we learn or try to make a bowl or plate and see how that goes and don't worry if it doesn't end up being functional. It takes a lot of practice and hard work to make anything functional," Marilyn told them.
The three of them took their seats and put on the aprons that lay before them and faced the teacher.
"Alright guys, things will get a bit messy so that is why we have the aprons for you so that you don't mess up any of your clothes. What we have here is a pottery wheel and this is the equipment that is used to help you shape your ball of clay into whatever you want it to be. The ones we will be using will be powered by a wheel that you guys will pedal. First take a ball of clay and make sure your hands are a bit moist so that they clay will be damp and make it easier to shape them. Now first we must form the base shape for our object by forming coils like this and fixing this on top of our ball of clay that needs to be in the shape that we want it to be like a ball. We need it to look like what the object we want to look like. Then we place the ball of clay on the disk of plastic called the bat on the turntable," She explained.
Harry thought that didn't sound to hard so he used his hands to form a shape of a bowl and then he made a coil to sit on top of it and found that it wouldn't stick.
"Harry, I think that needs to be attached and what exactly are you making?" Lisa asked curiously.
"I knew that and I'm trying to make a bowl," He answered with pride.
"Okay then," Lisa said with a teasing tone to her voice which cause Harry to look towards her.
He saw Lisa's bowl and found that it seemed to be a good sized bowl which looked fancier than his. In fact it was beginning to look more lopsided to him now.
"I thought you never did this before," Chloe commented to Lisa.
"I haven't but I have always wanted to do it so I have read on it a bit and I'm a fast learner," Lisa answered.
Chloe nodded and continued creating her bowl base which also looked more like a bowl than Harry's did.
"Okay now is everyone ready to try to wheel?" She asked.
They all nodded and gently placed their creation on the bat of the turntable.
Harry took a breath and pressed the pedal a little bit and placed his hands on his bowl as instructed. It felt very wet and slimy. He tried to create a more thin edge but he couldn't seem to get one side to match the other and ended up to be a bit lopsided.
"Good try Mr. Potter. Not bad for a first try," Marilyn told him kindly.
He turned to see Lisa doing a much better job with her hands it really began to look like a bowl. He was very impressed yet embarrassed himself.
"Lisa, this is great work. The dimensions are not quite right but it does look like it will stand on its own. An excellent job," Marilyn told her with a smile.
"That's awesome Lisa," Harry told her.
"Can I let you in on a little secret?" Lisa asked.
"I kind of lied just a little bit. Although I have never actually done this, I have seen my friends do it many times so this is completely new to me," Lisa confessed.
"But just watching them do it and actually doing it are completely different things so you do deserve the credit," Harry told her with a smile.
"That is true but let's just say that my friend didn't have any better luck than you on their first try so you shouldn't feel so bad about it," Lisa answered.
Harry smiled in return, touched by her intent to make him feel better and replied, "Well I'm just like any other average guy then."
"You're a good guy and definitely not average. But there is one area that you definitely do need some help in," Lisa teased him.
"And what is that?" Harry asked.
"You need to learn when to ask for help when you obviously need it and you need to learn to wash your hands before touching your face," Lisa replied giggling.
"What?" Harry asked and went to look in the mirror and saw that he had clay in his hair. He turned and walked back out and said, "You think that's funny?"
"Keep your hands to yourself mister," Lisa replied backing away.
Harry caught up to her easily and placed his hands in her hair.
"That is not fair, you're obviously faster than me," Lisa said facing him before touch her hand on his face and smiled.
"You will pay for that," Harry replied following her into the classroom where they stopped when they saw Chloe.
"How is your pot going Chloe?" Lisa asked stepping farther away from Harry.
"Why don't you take a look?" Chloe answered gesturing towards her bowl.
Chloe's also turned out a little bit flat as her wheel moved a little too quickly causing her to push a little too hard towards her bowl.
"Nice try Chloe. This happens to a lot of beginners," Marilyn replied.
"They do?" Chloe asked slightly embarrassed.
"It does, this is a tough skill and has a really deep learning curve. With practice I'm sure that it will work out great for you," Marilyn answered warmly and turned to Lisa and Harry.
"Why don't I show you where the kiln is," Marilyn told them and lead them over to the kiln where she to put their creations and continued, "This is where the firing stage occurs allows the pots to become impervious to liquid and which allows them to be used as dishes. It takes around 5 hours so you won't be able to take them home today."
"That's totally fine," Lisa told her with a smile as the headed back to their room and saw Chloe working on her piece at the wheel this time having a much better result.
"That looks great," Harry commented to her.
"Thanks, I definitely learned from last time about putting too much pressure on the bowl," Chloe replied with a smile.
"I knew you could do a better job Chloe. I will put in this in the kiln for you while you go wash up. We will send your items back to you tomorrow," Marilyn told them.
Once they washed their hands they said their good byes to her and headed back towards to limo.
"Did the two of you have fun?" Harry asked.
"I did, it was great to actually experience how some of the dinnerware that we use is made," Lisa answered.
"It was pretty cool and it felt great to be able to create something like a bowl with our own hands, I will definitely try this again when I get back home," Chloe replied.
"I know that you had fun," Harry added gesturing to this hair.
"It was not my fault that you didn't remember that you hands were dirty," Lisa replied back.
"That may be true, but you didn't have to put some of it on my face," Harry added.
"You totally started it and now I have some in my hair," Lisa shot back at him.
"Don't tell me it wasn't fun?" Harry replied raising his eyebrows.
"It was fun," Lisa replied with a smile.
"For once I was glad that I wasn't part of that," Chloe spoke up with a grin.
"We don't want to leave you out then," Lisa and Harry exchanged a twisted grin.
"What does that mean?" Chloe replied suspicious and looking at the two of them.
"Why don't you wait and see," Harry said with an evil grin.
They both then took out a bottle of silly string and shook it.
"What do you think you're doing?" Chloe asked.
"We want you to join in on our fun," Lisa commented.
"Don't you guys dare," Chloe warned them and within a second she was covered in silly string.
"That is totally not fair, I am stuck in this car with nothing to arm myself," Chloe commented.
Harry then handed her a bottle, "We got one for you too."
Chloe took the can with a grin and shook it and on the count of three they all sprayed each other and they were all laughing and smiling.
"That was fun. Totally juvenile but fun," Chloe commented.
"I don't think it was juvenile do you?" Lisa asked Harry.
"Nope definitely not," Harry replied with a grin.
"You two," Chloe started and just started to laugh. It was contagious and all three started laughing again.
"We are a mess," Chloe said trying to get out as much of the silly string as possible before entering the mansion.
"I am too, why don't we all go and clean up before the ceremony," Harry suggested.
"That will be a good idea. I had a great time Harry," Lisa told him with a smile.
"I had a great time too," Harry said giving both of them a hug.
"See you inside?" Chloe asked.
"See you then," Harry said giving them a wink and his heart melting grin.
Lisa and Chloe arrived at the mansion with grins on their faces.
"What happened to the two of you?" Christine asked curiously.
"We were just having some fun," Lisa replied as they both headed to their rooms to clean up.
"When is the ceremony?" Callie asked.
"It will be in a little while, we just need to clean up a bit," Chloe told her.
In about 15 minutes, Chloe and Lisa headed back downstairs looking fresh and happy to join the rest of the ladies as they waited for Harry's arrival.
Matthew was already there with the 5 remaining roses.
Hermione waited anxiously for Harry to arrive as she was unsure as to whether or not she would be asked to stay. They had decided that she would leave during this ceremony or the next one. As soon as Harry decided that he didn't need her anymore. At that thought Hermione felt a twinge of sadness.
Harry entered looking fresh and looked at all the wonderful ladies he had gotten to know and his eyes lingered on Hermione. She was probably nervous about his decision today. He always loved seeing her flustered. It was always rare for him to see and she looked very elegant today in her slip dress and her hair up in a loose wave.
"Welcome to tonight's rose ceremony. As you can see there are only 5 roses remaining. I would like to congratulate you all for making it this far. Those of you who do not receiver a rose please make a quick goodbye and head back inside to pack your things," Matthew announced stepping back.
"First of all, I just want to say that every rose ceremony gets harder and harder for me to decide who to eliminate because all of you are incredible women and I have loved getting to know you all. I know that I haven't had a chance to get to know all of you really well but I have enjoyed every moment I have spent with you," Harry began.
Harry took his first rose and called out his first name, "Chloe."
Chloe smiled and stepped forward.
"Will you accept this rose?" Harry asked.
Chloe nodded and gave him a hug and walked back to her space.
Harry took the next rose and called out the next name.
"Christine, will you accept this rose?" Harry asked.
"Of course I will," Christine replied with a smile and kissed him on the cheek.
"Lisa, will you accept this rose?" Harry asked.
Lisa nodded and gave him a hug.
"Hermione, will you accept this rose?" Harry asked with a grin.
"Yes I would love to," Hermione replied with a smile and gave him a hug.
"I still need you," Harry whispered into her ear.
Hermione pulled away and kissed him on the cheek and grinned.
"Allie, will you accept this rose?" Harry asked.
"Of course I will," Allie replied giving him a hug and kiss.
"Callie, you've been really great but I just don't think that we have enough in common to make it work. It was a really tough decision and I want you to know that," Harry told her.
"I understand. I'm saddened by this and I thought that maybe it could work but I wish you all the best of luck," Callie told him and gave him a hug.
After Callie left, the remaining five ladies grabbed a drink and joined Harry.
"I really glad to get to know the rest of you even better," Harry told them as the clinked glasses.
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