A/N: Thanks so much for all the reviews. I really appreciate it and as you can see you have motivated me to post earlier! I hope you enjoy this chapter and continue to review and let me know what you think. I have fixed the typo in Chapter 2 as well. There is a authors note at the end of the chapter that I think you should all read.
Disclaimer: I don't own anything.
Chapter 4:
Once Harry had made his decision, he walked over to her, tapped her on the shoulder slightly and asked, "I was wondering if I could have a moment of your time?"
She smiled and nodded. Then he led her outside towards the porch. Before he closed the door, he shot a look back at Hermione and at that moment he noticed a hint of sadness in her eyes. He shook it off and headed out the door but made a promise to explain it to her later.
"Why do you think he wanted to talk to her?" Chloe asked Hermione.
"I don't know." Hermione answered with a weak smile even though inside she was feeling a twinge of jealousy and sadness. 'He must be handing out the first impression rose. Why am I feeling this way? I wasn't expecting to get it. This is ridiculous! I have no right to be jealous. After all, we are just friends. He doesn't even think of me like that.' She thought to herself.
*~*~*~
"So I guess you're wondering what I wanted to talk to you about." Harry asked nervously.
"The thought has crossed my mind." Allie replied with a smile.
"I was asked to hand out the first impression rose to the woman that I believed gave me the best first impression and after some thought I decided that it was you. There was something special about how you presented yourself and it just caught my attention." He continued.
"Really? Wow. Thank you." Allie answered with a giant smile as she accepted the rose.
"Yes. This is the first rose and that means that you automatically get to stay if you want to." Harry added hastily noticing the questioning look in her eyes.
"Of course. I would love to stay here and get to know you." Allie spoke softly and kissed him on the cheek.
"I guess we better get back. I'm sure every other woman in there is wondering what is happening right now." He answered with a grin and held out his arm to show her the way back.
Allie just nodded and smiled and headed back inside.
Matthew had just entered and spoke, " Good evening. It is now time for the first rose ceremony and as you can see there are 14 roses laid out on the table. The first rose has already been given out. Mr. Potter will be picking 15 ladies out of the 25 of you that are all here. Good luck."
The women had all lined up and were anxiously waiting to see if their name would be called. Hermione however was not nervous because she knew that her name would be called since it was all part of their plan.
Harry looked around at all the women and caught Hermione's eye and smiled. He took a deep breath took the first rose and called out his first name and asked, "Hermione, will you accept this rose?" as she approached.
"Yes." Hermione answered with a smile and kissed his cheek and before she could pull away she heard Harry whisper, "Meet me after the ceremony, we need to talk."
Hermione was curious as to why he would want to talk but she gave him a look that he knew meant that she would come.
Harry smiled as he realized that he needed to explain to her why he didn't give her the first rose. He knew that he didn't have to but he wanted to.
He then continued calling out the rest of the names in similar fashion. As he got down to the last rose, he closed his eyes for a moment and asked, "Chloe, would you accept this rose?"
"Yes. I will thank you." Chloe answered with a smile and a kiss on the cheek.
"That was the final rose. All of you who have received a rose, I congratulate you. All of you who didn't receive a rose take a moment to say your good-byes." Matthew announced and left the room.
After a few minutes all the women who didn't get a rose left, leaving Hermione, Allie, Chloe, Stephanie, Isabelle, Christine, Lisa, Sue, Debbie, Jennifer, Callie, Karen, Carole, Lucy and Katie.
"Cheers." Harry said and they all joined their glasses together to celebrate the end of the first night.
After Harry had left the room, the remaining women chatted happily and Chloe said, "I'm so happy that I've made it this far and isn't Harry to die for? He's very mysterious and not to mention gorgeous."
"He definitely is gorgeous." Jennifer answered and the rest of the women nodded.
The started heading upstairs to their shared rooms and Hermione made up an excuse for staying behind by saying she lost her bracelet and needed to look for it.
"How about I help you?" Jennifer asked.
"Oh no, I'll be fine. It's hard to describe so it'll be easier to look for it myself." Hermione answered waving her upstairs.
"Okay, see you in a bit?" Chloe asked.
"Yeah." Hermione nodded and as soon as they were out of side she headed outside to find Harry.
She was walking around and whispered, "Harry where are you?"
All of a sudden she felt a hand clamp over her mouth. She felt a tremor of fear across her body and tried to escape. A few seconds later, she felt herself being whirled around and she gasped in relief as she took in a familiar pair of green eyes.
Harry removed his had with a grin.
Hermione kicked him hard and said angrily, "Don't you ever scare me like that again."
"I'm sorry but I saw you there and I couldn't resist. You have one nasty kick. Forgive me?" Harry pleaded while rubbing his leg.
Hermione gave him a stern look and said, "I don't know."
"Come on, you already kicked me hard. Consider that a punishment. It really does hurt." Harry said and pulled a sad puppy face.
Hermione laughed and said, "Fine, If you're going to be such a baby about it."
"Great." He answered with a grin.
"So what do you want to talk to me about?" Hermione said rubbing her arms.
"You cold?" He asked.
"A little. I just felt a breeze." She answered with a faint smile.
Harry took off is jacket and wrapped it around her.
"Thanks, but aren't you cold?" Hermione asked.
Harry shook his head and replied, "I wanted to talk to you about why I didn't give you the first impression rose."
"Look Harry, you don't have to explain anything. I wasn't expecting to receive it. After all I'm not a 'real' competitor." She answered quickly.
"But I want to. It's important to me that you understand why." He continued.
"Understand what?" Hermione asked softly.
"I really did want to give you the first rose. When I first saw you tonight, you just took my breath away. You really gave me a great first impression. But that wouldn't be true. We've been best friends since we were 11 and I know that this isn't what you're about. It just felt wrong to give you a rose because of how beautiful you looked tonight when you're even more beautiful on the inside where it counts. You have the most amazing heart I have ever know. I'm so blessed that you have always been there for me and you still are. It wouldn't feel right lumping you together will all those other women when you mean so much more to me then any of them ever could." He added.
"You really mean that?" She asked softly.
"Of course I do. I wanted to give you something much more meaningful than that rose. You're one of the most important people in my life and I just wanted you to know that I love ya." Harry answered giving her a hug.
"I love ya too." Hermione whispered hugging him tighter while thinking, 'I love you too Harry but not in the way that you do.'
"So are we okay?" He asked anxiously.
"We already were you know. I have no idea why you just told me that." She answered with a shrug and a slight cunning grin.
"Well… I just wanted to. Well um… good night." Harry answered with a slight grin. He was happy because he knew that he had somehow made her feel better. He couldn't help watching her as she headed in and noticed how even more beautiful she looked with the moonlight shining on her.
Hermione was smiling to herself as she walked upstairs. She was thinking about what Harry said and it made her feel happy. It wasn't just what he said but the fact that he made sure that she heard him. He seemed to know that she needed him to tell her that and after all these years of knowing Harry she knew that he meant it. She walked over to the window near the stairs and smiled as she saw Harry's shadow walking away from the mansion.
*~*~*~*
The next day:
"So Hermione, did you find your bracelet?" Jennifer asked at breakfast.
"What? Oh my bracelet, yeah I did." Hermione answered after some thought. She felt guilty about lying to her when she honestly seemed concerned about it but it was something that she had to do.
"Sorry we missed you last night but we were tired and went to bed early." Chloe apologized.
"Don't worry about it." Hermione assured her with a smile.
"What do you think we're doing today?" Callie asked around the table as she reached for a croissant.
"Who knows?" Lisa replied with a smile.
Just then Isabelle came in with a box and said, "I found this outside and is addressed to Lisa, Chloe, Callie, Debbie, me, Katie and Christine.
"Dear ladies,
I hope you have all slept well. Please accept my invitation to join me on a group date tonight to a surprise location. Remember to dress warm and casual. Have a great day and I'll be here at 8pm sharp.
Harry."
"Do you guys have any ideas about where we're going tonight?" Debbie asked excitedly.
"I have no idea but I do know one thing. We're going to have a lot of fun." Lisa exclaimed.
"I don't know about you guys but I would have liked to be given more of a hint about the location. Can you imagine what it would be like if I dressed inappropriately." Isabelle replied while flipped her hair.
"I'm sure that if we dressed warm and casually like the note said we'll be fine." Katie added looking directly at Isabelle.
Hermione turned to Chloe and said, "I hope you have fun tonight."
"I wished you guys were going. It's not going to be fun with Isabelle there." Chloe replied.
"Don't let her ruin the evening. Just enjoy yourself." Jennifer added.
"Don't worry I wouldn't." Chloe replied.
*~*~*~*~
Harry stood anxiously at the door to the mansion. He really wanted to make sure that they all had a good time and that he could spend some time to get to know each of them separately. He knocked on the door and a few seconds later the door opened and he saw Hermione there with a smile.
"Hi. How are you?" Hermione asked.
"Good. How about you?" Harry asked.
"Great. It's been fun." Hermione said giving him a hug and whispered, "Some of these girls were driving me nuts while they were getting ready."
Harry just laughed with a twinkle in his eye and asked, "Are they ready yet?"
"They're be down in a minute." She replied with a grin and started to leave.
He stopped her and whispered, "How are you holding up?"
"Okay. Not too bad right now but I felt bad about last night." She admitted.
"Just remember its just part of the game and has nothing to do with who you are." He reminded her.
"Yeah I know." Hermione answered and said with a smile, "oh, have fun on your date."
Harry turned around as the first woman arrived. Lisa had come down wearing a light blue dress that went down to her ankles and a matching blue sweater with her hair down and flowing straight down. She was a picture of loveliness. Next Isabelle came down. Her red hair was pulled up in a loose bun and was wearing a red off the shoulder sweater and a long gray skirt. She looked beautiful. Chloe came down next and she looked stunning in her white angora sweater, white cloak and black skirt and brown hair in ringlets. Debbie was next and she looked really nice in her green long jacket and white pants. Callie looked really cute with her brown hair up in a ponytail wearing a gray petticoat and a wool skirt. Katie was wearing a brown fur jacket and a brown skirt and black pants. Christine came down last wearing a one-piece black halter top and pants. Over top she was wearing a red jacket with her hair curled. She once again looked angelic.
Harry smiled and said, "Good evening ladies. I hope that you will all enjoy yourselves tonight." He then led them to the limousine that would carry all of them to their location.
"So where are we going?" Isabelle asked.
"We're having dinner at an outdoor seafood restaurant and then go on a hay ride." Harry answered.
"That sounds fun." Callie answered with a grin.
"I've never been on a hayride before so it should be interesting." Isabelle added.
"I think it'd be wonderful way to look out at the stars tonight." Christine commented.
"I'm glad you guys think so." He answered with his trademark grin.
"So Harry, what is the most interesting thing you have ever done in life?" Chloe asked.
"Signing up for this show." Harry answered and the girls laughed.
"No. I mean it is interesting but I would have to say getting into intelligence work." Harry answered.
"I heard that it would be very interesting but it could also be dangerous. It takes a lot of hard work and courage to do what you do." Callie replied.
"Thanks. It is hard sometimes but most of the time the payoff of seeing the bad guys end up in jail and helping others makes it all worth while." He replied smiling at her.
"Maybe you could tell me more about it sometime?" Debbie asked.
"I would love to. Speaking of dinner we're here." Harry replied.
They got out of the limousine and were lead to a roped off private area with a beautifully set table.
"This place is beautiful." Lisa commented.
"I definitely agree. It reminded me of this place back home. It's just as beautiful but there was also a view of the ocean." Katie added.
"This place really is gorgeous. It reminds me of this concert I played in after I was on vacation in Africa. We were playing outside and it was just as beautiful outside as it is now. We were trying to raise some money for the kids and parents that lived there who didn't have much money for food and school. They just didn't have the means to. So we did this charity concert where all the proceeds goes towards helping them. We actually sponsor events like this once every few months." Chloe commented.
"It does sound like a fun thing to do and a wonderful project to be part of." Harry replied with a grin while he was admiring her drive to help others.
They sat down and ordered some food. After a few minutes steaming plates of food had arrived. At first they sat and ate quietly and then after a while Harry asked, "So I want to know what is the most interesting thing you guys have ever done. Isabelle let's start out with you."
"Me? Well I would have to say white water rafting with some of my friends. It was really fun but required a lot of practice before they would let us actually go out into the river because things could get dangerous." Isabelle answered.
"That does sound fun. So how did it go when you actually went out to the river?" He asked with a smile.
"At first, really badly because the current was pretty strong but we eventually got the hang of it but we still got soaking wet. We were also exhausted but it was worth it and I learned many survival skills as well." Isabelle answered with a smile.
"It's always good to learn more survival skills. I had a similar experience that was a bit more horrifying but still rewarding in the end. I was taking my sister and her friends out on a camping trip and we had signed up to go white water rafting because we had done it before. However, on the day we decided to go out on the boat, there was this really rough current that ended up carrying our boat out hundreds of meters really quickly. The scary part was that we couldn't control it. We ended up getting washed out on shore somewhere and we didn't know where we were. So we had to walk around until we found a landmark. When we found a landmark, we called for help but they told us that they couldn't come out to get us until tomorrow. So we had to spend the night in the woods. Which in a way was fine because that was the purpose of the entire trip in the first place. But what we didn't know was that there were bears out there." Katie paused for a moment.
"Well then what happened?" Debbie asked.
"As we were cooking some food over a fire, a bear must have smelled the food and came on over behind one of my sister's friends. They were really scared but luckily I remembered what to do from some training I had received a few months ago. We were supposed to scare the bear away with some loud sounds. So that is what I did and the bear left and nobody was hurt. The whole trip taught me the importance of survival training. So I now volunteer to take those girl troops on their survival training trips. I really wanted to make sure that at least one person knew what to do if they encountered trouble like I did." Katie continued.
"Show off." Isabelle muttered under her breath.
"Excuse me? I didn't get that." Katie asked sweetly.
"I was just saying that it was wonderful that you are sharing your experiences with others." Isabelle replied with a bright smile.
"Thank you. I'm sure that you would have done the same thing." Katie answered with a very fake smile.
"That's great. How about you Christine?" Harry prompted.
"I think that the most interesting experiences that I had occurred when I went on tour with my family and we got to tour some of the old villages in Egypt and Europe. I learned a lot about how they live and what they go through each and every day." Christine replied after some thought.
"I would love to go to Europe one they. There seems to be a lot of history there that you can learn from." Debbie replied.
"I'm sure that you will be able to go sometime soon. So what is the most interesting thing that you have ever done?" Harry asked.
"Nothing like Katie or Isabelle. But I would have to say volunteer with Habitat for Humanity and helping people who don't have a place to live build a home. I have learned so much from them about life and how we should really appreciate what we already have in our lives. They really are some amazing people out there." Debbie answered smiling.
"That sounds great, so what do you actually help with?" Harry asked curiously.
"We help with the carpentry, hammering, designing. Whatever needs to be done." Debbie answered.
"I have heard about the project and I always found that it was fascinating and a wonderful thing to do. I always wanted to help out but I never found the time to." Lisa added.
"Well I actually did help out once or twice with the project." Isabelle chimed in.
Harry smiled at Isabelle and then turned to Lisa and asked, "So what about you?" Harry inquired.
"One of the most interesting and worthwhile experiences I have had was while volunteering at the children's hospital and hanging out with the long-term patients. Those kids there with terminal illnesses are some of the strongest people that I know. They always have hope and whenever I see them they are smiling and are happy to see me. They have taught me a lot about life and it amazes me how much they have gone through and yet still have hope." Lisa replied with tears in her eyes.
"That's a wonderful thing to do Lisa. How long have you been volunteering there?" He asked with a grin.
"I try to go at least once a week and I also try to help them be able to achieve some of their dreams by arranging for visits in the studio with some of their favorite artists." Lisa explained.
"I'm sure that you have made some of them really happy." Harry commented with a smile.
Lisa just nodded and began to speak but was interrupted by Katie.
"I just love kids as well and I try to help them out as much as I can too." Katie added.
"Katie, will you just stop butting into conversations. Not everyone has been given a chance to answer or even speak." Isabelle responded angrily annoyed by Katie's constant interruption.
"Isabelle. Thanks but its okay." Lisa replied.
"Maybe it is for you but I'm just tired of it." Isabelle replied back.
"I thought that this was about me interrupting Lisa but as always it's about you isn't it?" Katie shot back.
"Maybe the others feel the same way that I do but are afraid to speak up because they know you're just interrupt them again." Isabelle fired back.
Harry looked back and forth between them and was just surprised to see them arguing but he wasn't really even sure why they were doing it. He felt a tap on his shoulder and he turned around and saw Callie.
"Don't worry about it. They'll die down. They're always like this." Callie told Harry.
"They're like that in the mansion?" He asked curiously.
"Only sometimes. They're usually at least polite to each other. But it seems like Katie is the one who starts it." Callie commented.
Harry nodded and asked, "So I'm going to ask you the same question as everyone else."
"For me it was when I was working on a case with the FBI. It was really hard work and really stressful but when I saw the victim reunited with their family, it made me feel great and reminded me that all the work I did really was worthwhile. That was when I knew that I wanted to work in the bureau." Callie answered.
"That is one of the most rewarding things about the job that I do as well." Harry replied with a grin.
"I think that it really does take someone special to do what you do and I'm very happy to have a chance to get to know you." Callie added softly.
Harry opened his mouth to speak but heard Katie ask, "What are you guys talking about? I hope that this is not a private conversation."
"Yeah, we want to know what the two of you are talking about." Isabelle added.
"Of course not." Harry answered with a smile and flashed a grin and a knowing look at Callie.
"I was just telling Harry about the experience I had that made me want to be an FBI agent." Callie explained.
"So Carole, what is the most interesting thing that you have ever done?" Harry asked.
"Well there was this one time when I went to this ranch that my friends owned and had to help save a fire. I was scared but I knew that I had to help if I could because of my friends and because I was a vet. We managed to save most of the buildings and got all the horses out." Carole answered.
"That was really courageous of you." Harry replied with admiration.
'Thanks but I'm sure that it was something that everyone here would have done if they could." Carole replied modestly.
After the dinner they went over to where the hayride would take place.
The night sky was beautiful and filled with stars. The weather was perfect for a hayride. The hayride was much less eventful because everyone was just in awe of the beautiful sight in front of them. Every once in a while Christine would tap his shoulder and point out the constellations she could see.
Harry was surprised at her knowledge and asked her, "How do you know all of this?"
"Ever since I was little, my dad and I always liked to watch the stars at night and he would always point out the constellations to me. He also taught me how to find them." Christine answered smiling wistfully.
"It must be wonderful to have such a close relationship with your father." Harry replied with a smile.
"We were close. He got sick a few years ago and he doesn't really remember much anymore." Christine answered sadly.
"I'm sorry." Harry responded quickly.
"It's okay. You didn't know." Christine assured him with a smile.
After a moment, Harry felt a tap on his shoulder and he turned around and saw Chloe.
"I'm sorry if I'm interrupting but I didn't want you guys to miss out on the seeing this." Chloe apologized as she pointed out the beautiful sunset.
"No problem. I would have been mad if you didn't tell us." Christine answered with a smile.
The night ended with them joining in and singing songs on the ride back.
When they reached the mansion Harry said goodbye by giving each girl a hug and kiss on the cheek. His lips lingered longer on two girls in particular. As he got back in the car he couldn't help but be happy with how the night turned out. He had a great time that night and he especially enjoyed his time with Christine and Chloe. He was really excited about the group date that was set for tomorrow. He was especially excited to spend some time with Hermione for more reasons than he wanted to admit.
A/N: So I hope you guys liked the way I wrote this chapter. I know that many of you wanted Hermione to get the rose but as you can see that I thought that it was too soon for this to occur in the story and I hoped you liked the way I explained why in the story. I hope you guys will review and let me know what you think. I also wanted to have your input on who you want kicked off the show. Due to plot reasons I will give you the options. Who do you want kicked off? Callie, Carole, Debbie, Katie or Lisa?