TEN
Three days went by after Hermione's birthday and Harry was nowhere to be seen. Hermione was starting to get anxious. She had spent the first two days thinking about whether to leave things behind and move on to a happy life with Harry or not.
She couldn't deny to herself she was dying to run to him.
Still, she felt a little sad knowing that Harry had left her without really explaining to her his feeling. It hurt her to see that he hadn't been brave enough to fight for their love. Of course she understood he had been through a terrible ordeal, but she had too. And Harry needed to accept that he hadn't been the only one having to cope with all of it.
She had meant to stay strong and show him she wasn't going to run to him just because he said he loved her. Did he think that she had only been waiting for him all these years? That she'd always wait for him? As if she didn't have any other options? Shouldn't he suffer a little?
But when the third day came along and he still didn't show any sings of life. She couldn't take it anymore. She forgot all about her resolution and decided to go look for him. She apparated outside his house and stood at his front porch for a while, crackling her knuckles.
Remembering he had mentioned his front door was always unlocked, she stepped forward resolutely, after taking a deep breath. She opened the door - which in fact was unlocked - and walked into the house. Hermione stood in the main hallway for a few seconds, trying to figure out whether he was upstairs or not. Just then she heard noises coming form the kitchen. So, she headed in that direction.
However, the figure that welcomed her into the kitchen was not that of Harry's. It was a woman. A gorgeous woman with cinnamon skin and long, silky, black hair was placidly drinking juice in Harry's kitchen, wearing nothing but a white shirt; Harry's shirt perhaps. It obviously wasn't hers. Her voluminous naked body could be seen through the fabric.
Hermione froze in the spot and found that the ability to speak had abandoned her. When the woman noticed Hermione's arrival she placed the glass down and greeted her with a "Hello" said in a strong Spanish accent. Before she could say anything else, Hermione turned around and left the house.
--- * --- * --- * --- * ---
Work had always worked on Hermione as therapy. It helped her forget about how messed up her life was. Hoping it would have the same effect at that moment, Hermione went to her office in the Ministry after disapparating from Harry's house.
It was past four o'clock and most of the Ministry's employees were getting ready to leave for the day. Trying her best to avoid them, even ignoring one or two voices calling her name, she made her way into her office. Thankfully for her, Debbie was already gone. The last thing she needed at that time was Debbie, or anybody else for that matter, questioning her.
She wanted to be alone.
Carelessly, she let her body sink in her chair. She had tried her best not to think much on her way to the Ministry, but now that she was sitting alone in her office everything came back to her.
She could still see the woman in Harry's kitchen. She could remember perfectly well that voluptuous body, those full breasts - whose nipples could be seen through the white shirt. She would have never guessed that Harry liked women like her, with so much…. stuff.
Perhaps all men liked that type of women. Weren't women like her the ones filling up the pages of all the dirty magazines?
She thought about that for a while. Perhaps that was her problem. She didn't have that kind of body. That could have been why Harry rejected her in the first place. "No, that can't be it," she thought. "Oh Merlin! I hope that wasn't it."
What made Hermione upset was not seeing how this woman was the total opposite of her. What really upset her the most was the fact that only a few days ago Harry had told her he loved her and now he seemed to have forgotten all about it. They had even been in bed together. Nothing happened, of course, they only slept together - as in the real meaning of the word - but still they had enjoyed such an intimate moment together. He had kissed her. She had felt so close to him that night.
So, what exactly happened?
Could it be that Harry gave up on her that easily? Could he have forgotten about the love he said he felt in just a couple of days? If so, then what he said he felt for her was not strong enough. Perhaps it wasn't even love. Love doesn't go away that fast. She knew that perfectly well.
If that was the kind of love Harry wanted to offer her then she didn't want it. What for? It wasn't worth the pain. She had waited for him; she had loved him for so long, and all for nothing. For a pity, silly little love that vanished at the first sign of trouble.
But that didn't make any sense. Harry was not like that. Perhaps he did love her and his love for her was really as strong as the one she felt. Perhaps he was only trying to forget about her in that woman's arms. After all, she had pushed him away. He must've felt rejected. She drove him to that woman!
How would she have felt if things were the other way around?
Hang on, things once were the other way around, and she didn't run to another man's arms. "Well," she thought, "I started dating Eric."
"But that was ages after Harry left you," said a voice inside her. "You didn't go looking for a one night stand in a dirty pub."
"And how do you know he picked her up in a dirty pub?" she asked herself.
"Aarrgggghh. I'm going nuts!" Hermione said out loud.
She stood up and started pacing around her office. Trying to clear her head, she walked to a little table in a corner of the room where a jar full of water and a goblet rested. Hermione poured herself some water and drank it slowly.
After so much thinking about it, Hermione realized that it didn't matter to her what reason Harry had to sleep with that woman. It still hurt her. It hurt her a lot. Even though Harry and Hermione didn't have a relationship, she felt betrayed. She had always trusted him and now she wasn't sure if she could ever trust him again.
To her, trust was like a glass vase. Once it breaks, no matter how good of a spell you use to fix it up, a mark would always be there. It can never be the same.
She had gone to Harry's house to tell him she loved him so much she was willing to make everything aside, forget about her resentment. Now she didn't know if she should still tell him that.
"Now what?" She asked herself. "What should I do?"
Would his thing with this woman be just a one night stand, or would he be serious about it? Either way, things would never be the same with Harry. She would always remember the image of another woman in his house, right after she had been in bed with him.
--- * --- * --- * --- * ---
At that time, Harry was driving back home. A half smile was playing in his face. He had gone to town to buy some groceries. His pantry was almost empty and he needed to refill it, especially now that he had guests.
About three years ago, the Ministry of Magic had organized several friendly quidditch matches with teams from other countries to strengthen relations with the Ministries of those nations. The best players had been chosen to form the UK's team to play these games. Harry had been picked out to be the team's seeker.
One of those matches was played with the Mexican Quidditch Team. It had been a tough game. The Mexican team proved to know a lot about quidditch. After almost three hours, the match was finally won after Harry made a terrific catch of the snitch, bringing the final score to 350 UK - 330 MX.
That day, Harry, Ron - who had not been called to play, but still wouldn't miss the match - and a few other quidditch players went to The Leaky Cauldron after the match to celebrate. In there, they found a couple of the Mexican players.
Harry invited the Mexicans to join their table. Harry and Ron really liked those guys. They were quite funny and very honest. Harry especially made a good connection with the Mexican Keeper, Carlos Gutierrez, to the point of offering himself to take Carlos around London - to those places that aren't included in the usual sight seeing tours.
The following day, the two guys along with Carlos' girlfriend, Lola Rodriguez, got together for lunch and spent the rest of the day driving around the city. Lola had accompanied Carlos in his trip and he hadn't felt good about leaving her in the hotel while he'd go out and enjoy London up close and personal.
Since that day, Harry became a good friend of both Carlos and Lola. He offered them his house, so that next time they were in London, they'd come and stay with him. They gladly took his word. , this was the second time they had stayed at Harry's in the last three years.
Harry was putting away the groceries he had just bought when Carlos and Lola walked into the kitchen.
"Hey there!" Harry greeted them. "I brought some goodies. I don't want you guys to go around saying I'm a bad host."
"We would never say that!" said Carlos in perfect English, though with a marked accent. "You've always been the best host there is."
"And why are you so quiet today Lola?" asked Harry. It wasn't usual for her to remain silent for more than five minutes. She always had something to say.
"Well, uh…" she looked at Carlos as if asking for help. Then, she fell silent again.
"There's something we have to tell you," finally said Carlos in a serious tone. He pulled a chair for Lola to sit down, sitting next to her afterward. Harry imitated them.
"You guys look so serious. You didn't break anything, did you?" Harry asked Lola teasingly.
"No," said Lola looking at her nails. "Not yet." The previous time they had stayed over, she had accidentally broken a porcelain tea pot Mrs. Weasley had given Harry as a house-warming present.
"Hang on," said Harry in his most serious tone, but still in a teasing way. "You didn't eat all my chocolate chip cookies now, did you?"
Lola's face turned red.
"Ups! I guess I have to tell you two things, then" she replied.
Harry faked an exasperated sound while shaking his head
"And I think you're not going to like either one of them," added Lola after a few seconds.
"Nothing can be worse than eating all of my favourite cookies," said Harry. He had no idea what he was about to hear. Knowing Lola, he expected this "big" thing to be something silly and not that important. She had made a big thing about breaking that tea pot last time.
Seeing that Lola still didn't seem to have the courage to tell Harry what had happened, Carlos took the lead. "Someone came to see you while you were out." Then looking at Lola, he added, "We think it was your girlfriend."
Harry looked form one to the other with a puzzled expression. "I don't have a girlfriend," he said.
"Well, it was a woman," Carlos continued. "And she saw Lola."
"And…"
"Well, she saw more of Lola than most people usually see, except me of course." Lola seemed to blush even more at that. She lowered her face and didn't raise her eyes at all.
"I don't…"
"Well, you see…" Carlos interrupted. "We were alone in the house. You had gone out and you didn't mention you were expecting anybody. And well… You know how it is… when a man and a woman love each other, and they are alone in a house… things happen."
Harry was beginning to feel frustrated with Carlos. "Will you just tell me where you're going with this?"
"The thing is this girl may have gotten the wrong impression." He looked at Harry thinking that should be clear enough for anybody to understand. Harry, however, was getting more confused by the minute.
"She thought I was in bed with you!" Lola finally said.
Harry looked at her not quite believing his ears. Lola saw the clueless expression in his face and rephrased it for him.
"I was here in the kitchen, wearing nothing but Carlos' shirt and she saw me," said Lola speaking to the floor. "I was just about to tell her that you weren't home when she left. She didn't give me a chance to say anything," she added in a whimper. "I would have explained things to her if she had only given me the chance, but she… I didn't mean to… I'm… really sorry Harry."
"We can talk to her if you want us to," offered Carlos quickly.
"She was a very pretty brunette with curly brown hair…" Lola started saying.
"Yeah, I think I know who she was," interrupted Harry. He knew that woman could only be Hermione. "I'm sure it was Hermione. Oh... and don't worry about it. I'll talk to her."
"You mean Hermione... as in "Your" Hermione?" asked Lola, finally meeting his eyes.
Harry smiled at that and then nodded with his head.
"Oh boy! You sure you don't want me to explain everything to her," asked Lola shyly.
"Don't worry about it. It's okay," said Harry reassuringly, even when he wasn't sure just how okay things were.
"Now… about my cookies…"