Chapter 4
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter.
Author's Note: Once again, thank you, thank you, thank you for the reviews. Here's the next chapter. I hope you enjoy it. And again, please read and review as I really do take your criticisms and suggestions to heart.
"London. Muggle London." She states matter-of-factly as she looks around us. Everything is illuminated, and people are hustling and bustling, back and forth, against us, pressing us even closer together.
We're in the middle of a giant commotion. Drag queens play the sidewalks. Avant-garde clubbers stalk the streets. Ecstasy ridden partygoers scream in laughter and jest as they bounce around the lines. Homeless men sit in every intersection. Rolls Royce cars carrying middle-aged businessmen in Savile Row suits screech in every street corner. The occasional naked groom-to-be confidently struts his stuff amidst the drunken laughter of his stag party.
And then there's us.
Amidst the chaos - 10:00, Friday night - we hold unto each other, like two teenagers enjoying their first big night together. We're high on adrenaline, and it shows. Her cheeks are flushed, her eyes are glistening, and I feel her heart beating loudly against mine.
And for the first time in quite a while, she's beaming. Really beaming. Her skin is glowing even without the moon. Her smile reaches the corner of her ears and she's alive, really alive.
"What are we doing?" She asks me, a little too giddy. Her excitement is infectious and I feel myself breaking away from all inhibitions. Immediately, I scan the environment around me. There are multitudes upon multitudes of choices and I am at lost. She notices this and she grabs my hand.
She drags me through the streets, bumping and grinding our way, amidst sounds of laughter and anger and electronic music buzzing in and out of our ears like tiny wasps entering our ears, until we reach our final destination.
A karaoke bar.
I look at her with amusement and she laughs. She throws her hands around me and she places a wet kiss on my nose.
"You bring me here with no clear intentions," she whispers to my ear. I'm amazed that I can hear her amidst the noise around us.
"Good point," I reply as she pulls back and drags me towards the bar.
"Let's do anything and everything tonight. Things we don't do, things we can't do." She tells me as we open the door.
I close my eyes for a brief second and take a deep breath. When I open my eyes, a whole new consciousness has enveloped me.
Yesterday did not exist. Today does not exist. Tomorrow will not exist.
There is no yesterday, no today, and no tomorrow.
I follow her into the karaoke bar with that liberating thought in mind.
*******
"At first I was afraid, I was petrified!" She sings in that off-key tone of hers with such emotion and such passion that I try to stop myself from cracking up - to no avail. I burst out laughing as she reaches the chorus, singing it even louder, complete with dangerous body actions. She flaps her arms around, prances around the room, and practices calisthenics on the sofa. And when she finishes, she gives a huge bow and hands me the microphone. I grab it from her and randomly select a song: Bizarre Love Triangle.
The first notes of the song plays, and immediately, I'm sucked into the music. I'm not drunk but I'm swaying along, tapping my foot, and dancing into the beat. She finds this hilarious and she dances along with me.
"Every time I see you falling, I get down on my knees and pray," I sing. Immediately, I jump off the couch and kneel before her, while she collapses on the sofa, in hysterics.
I look back to the screen and sing the next lines and she's bouncing up and down behind me.
"Relax there, you don't want them chastising you for getting their sofa dirty," I say in between lines. She gives another laugh and then jumps on my back. We both get off balance while I still strive to continue with the song.
Eventually, we collapse on the sofa that I'm lying down on her. I continue singing, amidst her sparkling laughter.
"I feel fine and I feel good, I'm feeling like I never should," I sing. And then it hits me. Everything seems to be about us tonight. And she notices this too.
But she's not affected negatively. It doesn't ruin her mood. Instead, she wraps her arms around my shoulders and sings to my ear the next lines,
"I do admit to myself that if I hurt someone else, then I'll never see just what we're meant to be."
I turn my face to her, forgetting the song.
She gives me a smile, a coquettish smile that I see for the first time. She untangles herself from me, and whispers,
"I'm waiting for the final moment, you'll say the words that I can't say."
And with that, she pecks my ear, and then stands up.
She heads to the door, that same coquettish smile plastered on her face, and tells me,
"The night is still young, Harry."
Immediately, I run after her. She gives a little giggle and she increases her pace.
"Catch me if you can," she calls out as we make our way out to the streets. She bumps into people of all sizes, but she doesn't stop to apologize - like she normally does. She just continues laughing, teasing, giggling, like nothing else in the world exists and it's just me chasing after her.
I decide to use my seeker reflexes and in an instant, I'm next to her, grabbing her towards my chest.
"No fair, seeker," she complains, playfully as I squeeze her tight into my arms.
"Hey, I'm not the one who wanted to play tag," I retort. She gives a little giggle as she untangles herself from me and wraps her arms around my neck.
"Ok, then, I'm it. But I got you now Harry Potter," she states in that bossy tone of hers. But I barely hear it. I barely hear it because she's so close to me and I can smell her hair again. And when she says, "I got you now', I come undone. I really come undone.
So I look at her again. And this time, she looks at me with such confusion. Gone is the coquettish girl, gone is the Yule Ball girl. It's just Hermione. All Hermione. Vulnerable, confused, hesitant, and expectant.
And I realize there and then that there is no turning back. Really no turning back. I love her and I can't lose her and all this, all this is just perfect. Finally, I tell her,
"You didn't win. You still don't have me."
By the look on her face, I know that she's itching to retort, but I don't let her.
I don't let her because I immediately press my lips against hers before she can reply.
And we stand there like that.
Amidst all the chaos, the drag queens, the drunken bachelors, the pimps, the beggars, the junkies, the clubbers, the tourists, the hookers, everyone in this whole damned world, we stand there, kissing.
And this, I realize, is the reason why I can never go back.
This is perfection.
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