Author notes: Disclaimer can be found at the first chapter.
This is an edited and reposted chapter.
Title : Interludes
Chapter 3 - Innuendo
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It was Hogsmeade day, being the Head Boy and Girl, Harry and Hermione helped round up the students to check who got permission to go out of the school grounds. When everyone had gone on to their trek towards the wizarding town, Ron, Hermione and Harry followed.
"What do you want to visit first?" Ron asked. He was looking at his watch and was walking faster than the other two.
"Ron, if you need to be at some place else, you can go ahead and leave us," retorted Hermione. "I believe Harry and I can manage without you." She looked at Harry waiting for his support.
"Yeah go, Ron" Harry said. "We'd rather not have you around than you spending time with us sulking," he added. Not before long Ron left and walked towards the Three Broomsticks.
Harry turned to Hermione, "So where do you want to go?"
"Do you need to meet someone too?" Hermione asked. One can clearly see her brows burrowed.
"No," he answered swiftly to appease her, "there isn't any other place I'd rather be than here with you." He took her hand and led her towards Dervish and Banges.
A little later he dragged Hermione to Madam Puddifoot's for some tea; he wanted a little time away from the crowded Three Broomsticks.
"Harry, this place is for dating people," Hermione said through gritted teeth. She looked around and fairly enough most of the tables are occupied by couples. She's been here twice, for her first date with Ron and the last one was the weekend before they broke up.
Harry paused and stared at her trying to catch her gaze, but her eyes seemed to be a bit shifty. He grabbed Hermione to keep her still. "So what if we're not dating?" he asked her. Would it be much better if we were? "We're still a couple; we wouldn't feel out of place. It would have been pathetic if you come here alone." He almost had to push her to sit down by the table near the window.
"Tongues are going to wag about this," Hermione said looking around and saw that all eyes were on them. She crossed her arms across her chest and glared back at the other students.
Harry laughed at seeing Hermione being so annoyed. "Come on, aren't you already used to us being on the news?"
Madam Puddifoot made her way towards their table, "What would you like to have my dears?"
They gave their orders and as Madam Puddifoot backed away, he looked at Hermione and saw that she's still pouting. "Where do you think this news will appear this time? Daily Prophet's front page, or the Witch Weekly?" he said trying to make Hermione feel at ease.
"Or maybe both," she retorted, but a smile had already began to form on her face which she had been trying to harden. "Okay, you're right. It'll be a laugh. Don't you think us being together is old news?" she asked. "I mean, those Rita Skeeter articles came out three years ago."
Harry thanked Madam Puddifoot when she placed their tea. "But those were just lame speculations. Now they actually saw us together… alone and at this cozy little teashop to boot." He didn't take his eyes off her as his sipped his tea.
"Oh ho ho! I never thought that one day, Harry Potter would be looking for some publicity. Not that you don't get it very often. You huff and it's there front page!" Hermione said over her steaming cup.
"I was just wondering," he looked outside and watched the people passing by while gathering his thoughts, "if ever you dated some famous bloke and news of you two keeps popping up in the news. What would you do?"
He saw Hermione's mouth gaped open and closed, no words coming out. "Well, you went out with Krum, and he's a very famous Quidditch player. That was news alright, but still it was in reference to me. You were cheating on me." Harry smiled at her widely.
Hermione took a deep breath, stared at Harry and finally exhaled. She saw that Harry was just trying to irk her and she's working so hard not to fall for it. Having a great time Mr. Potter, aren't you?
"Well, my old friend, I'll just stick to the adage of ignoring them," she replied regally tilting up her nose.
"But if they are all true? Last time they were all a bunch of rubbish. You can deny them 'til eternity and not flinch a bit," he challenged her.
"Then why bother? Just try not to do something that you'll regret later," she flipped the wisps of hair that had been getting on her face and looked again at the small crowd inside the teashop. "You can find ways not to be seen by prying eyes."
"What are you doing?" Harry asked when he noticed that Hermione lingered on each of the Hogwarts student's faces. "Trying to get to know them better?"
"If anyone of these kids is going to give an interview, I'll dock fifty points from their houses," she replied softly so that only Harry could hear her. Harry laughed and Hermione followed suit.
They ordered another round of tea and enjoyed the afternoon banter. They only left when other couples started trickling out of the shop.
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Harry, feeling so frustrated, took the Marauder's map from his trunk. Where in hell could she be? Not in the library, and I've looked possibly everywhere. Then he finally found her small dot moving around in an obscure room at the fourth floor. Archives? What the hell does she need in there?
He berated himself under his breath for not going to that section when he began looking for her. Oh Hermione, what are you up to this time?
Hermione jumped in surprise when she heard the door opened so loudly. Old parchments, which she had been carefully scanning, dropped from her hands. "What the bloody hell!" she cried. "Oh! It's just you. Harry, don't you dare do that to me again, ever!"
"Why? Were you doing something illegal?" he asked.
"No," she studied him for awhile. "It's just that people rarely come here." She crossed the room and returned the parchments she had been reading and took another set. "Why are you here anyway? Aren't you supposed to be having lessons with the Head Master? I know those lessons are hard, but Professor Dumbledore is not Snape, so you can't give me some ridiculous reason why you're skipping class."
"I -" he was quite taken aback that Hermione beat him by doing the tongue-lashing first. "Professor Dumbledore went to London, he got a message from Lupin. Since I'm free I went looking for you, thought we could do our rounds together."
Hermione tried to waive off the dust in front of her, "Oh, this is so dusty."
"What do you expect? These things look like they haven't been touched for at least thirty years," Harry pried some the books with his wand. "What are you looking for anyway?"
"Do you think the old bat who owns that teashop at Hogsmeade ever went to Hogwarts?" she asked never taking her eyes off the parchments sprawled in front of her.
Harry didn't get why she would be interested to know that kind of information. But suddenly he saw a copy of the Daily Prophet peaking under the parchments Hermione are checking. Out of the blue something struck him. "Hermione, what is this all about?" he asked tiredly.
She took the daily paper and shoved it to him and started ranting, "You're right. Our little camping trip to that cozy little teashop made the front page. It's not the headline though; bless me, but still its there! Lucky us, no one was brave enough to bring out their cameras or I would be seeing myself drinking tea over and over again."
Harry read the short article at the bottom of the page.
The Boy-Who-Lived Went Back to His Old Love
Three years ago this same paper reported that our well-loved boy wonder Harry James Potter fell in love with his lady friend Hermione Jane Granger. We were all very happy then that finally the little boy lost has found love. But later on we also learned that Ms. Granger had been cheating on him with an equally famous international Quidditch player Viktor Krum.
Though they have been vehemently trying to deny the rumours that they are dating, no one was dissuaded to believe that the rumours were in fact true. When Mr. Potter started dating an older Hogwarts student, the very pretty Cho Chang, only then did we start to believe that his relationship with Ms. Granger was indeed over.
The buzz of them being back together started to sprout again when they were seen cozying it up at Madam Puddifoot's teashop in Hogsmeade. The current Head Boy and Girl of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry surprised the patrons when they walked in for a few cups of tea last weekend. The owner, who even served the couple, was quoted saying, "They look cute together. I can fairly see that they are truly in love. I've seen Mr. Potter with other girls before, but he doesn't look as happy as when he was with Ms. Granger."
"Well?" Hermione asked with her hand on her hips looking at him inquisitively. When Harry didn't even flinch, she went on, "Haven't you got anything to say?"
"Huh? I, er - I don't know what you're driving at," he saw Hermione's brows furrowed, "but, are you really serious about that thing on docking points?" He's trying so hard to suppress his mirth because of the hilarity of the situation.
"Harry, this is not a laughing matter!" she exclaimed, though she too was fighting back the urge to laugh.
"Yes, it is," he said. "Look at you all covered in muck, rummaging through all these," he pointed around the room. "Come on, this is totally pointless. You can't dock points from a past student, if she really did go here. I'll help you clean this mess, we'll have dinner, and then we can do the rounds."
Harry picked up some of records and helped Hermione put them back where they belong. "I thought you were just going to ignore this kind of news?" Harry raised his eyebrows to Hermione.
She finally shut the last drawer and cleaned herself with a spell. "Well, - " she waited outside the hall as Harry locked the room, "everything written in there were all falsehood." I wouldn't be ranting if they were true, you know. "I mean, before we're just fourteen year-olds, we didn't care too much about dating. But now - it's just different."
"How different?" he asked.
Hermione did not say a word and simply raised her eyebrows, like exasperated of explaining to someone so obtuse.
"Oh, this will ruin your singleness! You won't get dates now, will you?" he asked half-teasing.
"I'm not concerned about getting dates," she snapped. "Nobody has asked me out before this article came about. Maybe it's you who's worried with such things."
They'd been marching towards the Great Hall, speaking louder that they normally do and weaving around other students who had taken their dinner. "I've got other things to think of, more important than my stupid love life," Harry retorted.
"And so do I."
Harry stopped by the entrance to the Great Hall and said, "They why are you so all worked up with that stupid article from the Daily Prophet?"
Hermione stopped too on his side and turned, catching her breath. "Because they are all untrue and not saying anything about it, is tantamount to - to just condoning it. As the Head Boy and Girl, we wouldn't be setting a good example now, would we?" She sensed that most of the younger students had stopped eating and were eyeing their little banter.
He simply shrugged and hurried along towards their table. Harry smiled and winked to Hermione and said, "Maybe we can remedy that little mistake, huh?"
"What?" Hermione was totally confused with his answer. What is he driving at? She finally conceded and ate her dinner silently.
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A/N: Again, please leave a review, if you haven't done so.
Thanks to Raven for the help in proofreading.