Disclaimer: I don't own any character! all belongs to J.K.Rowling
Authors note: Sorry for taking long to update it and hugs to Mabel who's been so generous and betaing the story, beacause without her I wouldn't be able to update this.
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Chapter 5; caught
Harry woke up next morning and immediately felt better than ever; he felt like he was finally home. Even though Hogwarts had been his real home for years, he somehow felt different. He looked around his room, his parent's room, and saw Hedwig outside the window. Stretching as he walked, he opened the window and retrieved his packages from her.
Setting down the packages once Hedwig gave them up, he walked over to his trunk and picked up the card he had been looking at when he was at the Burrow; Dumbledore's chocolate frog card, but no Dumbledore. The card was blank just as it had been the first time he looked at it.
"Thank you," he whispered to the blank card before putting it on his bed.
He was supposed to have unpacked his belongings the previous day, but couldn't find the strength to do it. He was, after all, in the house where everything had started, where his miserable life had started.
When he looked back down at his trunk, he saw the locket he and Dumbledore had discovered at the end of his sixth year. He picked it up and held it at eye level. He had spent and entire summer wondering who R.A.B. was. Who else could have possibly known about the horcruxes and who could have destroyed one of them? Or was it really destroyed? Maybe it was still somewhere out there, waiting for Harry to destroy it, or perhaps Voldemort had become suspicious and had played a trick on them, placing the wrong locket? No, it couldn't be. Voldemort couldn't possibly know; he had no idea that he, Harry, knew about the horcruxes and was planning to destroy them. Besides, the initials R.A.B. sounded familiar. He had seen those initials before, but couldn't remember where.
Deciding to drop the subject and put those thoughts behind him, he placed the locket back in his trunk. He didn't want to worry about Voldemort; he wanted to see the other rooms of the house he now lived in.
Taking a towel from his trunk, he realized he had no clue where the bathroom was. Creeping out of his bedroom, we went in search for it. He tried not to make any noise, thinking that Hermione was still asleep; it was after all, quite early in the morning. He found a bathroom at the end of the hallway and without knocking, he opened the door to find Hermione in nothing but a towel around her body.
"Hermione…I'm err… sorry. I thought you were sleeping," Harry stammered and blushed. When he realized he was still staring at Hermione, he quickly looked down.
"Oh… Harry, well…umm…it's okay. I couldn't sleep so I thought I'd shower before making breakfast," she replied calmly and as she began to brush her hair. She too was blushing slightly but hid it behind her hair.
"I'll just…I'll just wait outside then," Harry started and stumbled out of the room.
"No, it's okay, I was just about to go into my room. Bathroom's all yours," Hermione hastily replied as she stopped brushing her hair.
"Thanks," Harry managed to say and saw her walking closer to him.
He was staring at her again, but this time, he couldn't make himself look away. He couldn't help but notice how perfectly her wet hair fell down on her shoulders and how much leaner they looked when wet. Then he began to notice how the few drops of water made their way down her chest and he had to tell himself to stop staring; it was Hermione, his best friend. He shouldn't look her like in that way. He shouldn't even notice the soft curves of her body, her slim, long legs. And the falling water drops were driving him insane. His eyes were entranced by the one drop that rolled down from her chest and disappeared under the towel right between her breasts.
"Well, are you going to stand there all day?" Hermione asked as she passed Harry and walked to her room.
Harry shook his head to get his mind to work and entered the bathroom, yet he stole one last glance at Hermione from behind and he felt odd. He had never seen Hermione like that; he had never noticed her in that way.
Half an hour later, Harry and Hermione were sitting in the kitchen drinking coffee and eating breakfast.
"What time are we going to pick Ron up?" Hermione asked when she looked at Harry for a brief moment.
"I'm not coming, you go," Harry said. "I have few things to do here."
"Like unpack your belongings?" Hermione suggested, and Harry nodded. "Why don't I help you unpack and then we can both go?"
"No, we can't waste time for that," Harry replied.
"What's the rush? Last night it seemed you had plenty time," Hermione countered and put her hair behind her ears.
"Yesterday, everything was new," he started and looked at Hermione.
He couldn't get what he had seen that morning out of his head. Hermione with only a towel wrapped around her body, water drops falling down her slim shoulders and rolling down her chest.
"Are you afraid of something? Afraid I might see something in your trunk that I shouldn't see?" Hermione asked, and when she didn't get an immediate response from Harry, she looked at him more closely. "Harry, are you even listening me?"
"Yes, sorry. What were you saying again?" he asked when he was brought back down to reality.
"What's wrong with you? You're acting strange this morning," Hermione asked worriedly. "But whatever you say, I'll leave you here and go after Ron myself. We'll be arriving by floo powder," she said and Harry gave her and inquiring look. "No worries Harry, the Ministry doesn't have contact with this fireplace. They can't track us whenever we use this. Besides, this place shouldn't even exist anymore," she said with a wink and walked up to the window to get the Daily Prophet that a brown owl had just delivered. Noticing Harry's concerned look, she quickly added, "Harry, don't worry." With that, she walked back to the table and started reading the newspaper. That gave Harry time to look her.
"So, how are things between you and Ron?" he asked suddenly. The question made Hermione look up at him.
"Same as always," she replied, shrugging. "I don't understand him and we still keep fighting over nothing."
"Have you… I mean, are you two planning a future together?" Harry asked and looked into his cup.
"I, we…we haven't really thought about it. But honestly, I don't think it will happen," she said.
"Why not?"
"We fight too much, for starters, but who knows. Why do you ask?"
"I just thought it would be better if I knew. You know, in case something happens between the two of you. What about our friendship then? Will you two still be friends afterwards if something happened?" Harry asked
"I don't see why not. This won't affect our friendship, Harry," she replied and put the dishes away. "I'll be right back, it won't take long to bring Ron here," she said and smiled at Harry as she walked away.
"Great," he mumbled to himself and rose from his seat before going back to his room.
An hour later, Harry heard noises coming from downstairs. He knew that Ron and Hermione had arrived and by the time he went down there, he found Ron and Hermione snogging on the couch. He didn't like what he saw; he felt anger and jealousy arising. Of course he knew they snogged from time to time, they were couple after all, but did they have to do it where he would see them? He was about to walk out of the living room and lock himself in his room where he could be alone and try to forget the dreadful moment he just saw, but he stumbled into a plant and when it fell to the floor, Hermione jumped up.
"Sorry, I was just leaving," Harry said through gritted teeth.
"No Harry, wait. I'm sorry, I didn't know that…" Hermione started apologizing while her face went red.
"No need to apologize," Harry interrupted and left the room.
When he reached the stairs, he ran up but he was unable to calm down. He stayed in his room for the rest of the day. Dobby brought him food so he didn't have to go downstairs and face his friends. He couldn't explain why he had acted the way he did. How was he supposed to explain it to them when he didn't even know the answer himself?
Why had he felt so jealous? Why did he feel like they had squeezed his heart out? They were a couple, he knew that; he even wanted them to get together the year before, but now this? He didn't feel the same way he felt when he saw Ginny kissing someone else. He felt like his friends had betrayed him and no matter how much he wanted to deny it, he wanted and wished he was in Ron's shoes. Not because he had girlfriend, but because he had Hermione. He felt like Ron had stolen Hermione away from him even though he knew she was never his. It was stupid, he and Hermione were just friends, but something bugged him.
"Harry, are you okay?" Hermione interrupted as she stood outside his door. "You haven't come out all day, we were…" she said but couldn't finish what she wanted to say because Harry opened the door.
"I'm fine," he said in a cold tone and walked past Hermione, who grabbed his hand and turned him around.
"Look, about what happened this morning, Ron can't find out. He'll be furious if he knew you saw me in the bathroom and would never understand that it was just an accident," Hermione pleaded with Harry.
"I won't tell him," Harry said without looking at her. He went to kitchen and found Ron there. Harry didn't greet him; he didn't even look at Ron. He went straight to refrigerator and took out a bottle of butterbeer. Just when he was about to leave the kitchen, he heard Ron speaking to him.
"Look mate, I'm sorry you saw that this morning. We didn't except you to come down that fast," he said and Harry turned around. He looked coldly at his friend.
"It took me over ten minutes to come downstairs."
"Oh, I see," Ron said lowering his head. "It won't happen again. I know you must miss Ginny and that's why you got so angry. Then you had to see me with Hermione," Ron started and Harry thought about what Ron just said. No, that wasn't it. He hadn't even thought for a second about Ginny when he caught Ron and Hermione snogging, but he couldn't tell his best friend that.
"Yeah, you're right," Harry replied.
"So you're okay then?" Ron asked and Harry nodded. "We're okay too?" he asked again and Harry once again nodded. "Why don't you two get back together?"
At that, Harry quickly looked up. "What?" he asked, and thought he had misheard.
"Get back together with Ginny. She misses you too. She's been quiet and sad all summer, it's quite odd you know," Ron informed him.
"I can't, Ron," Harry responded and looked down. "I just can't. You wouldn't understand," he said
"Of course I won't understand if you don't explain it to me."
"There's nothing to explain, Ron. It's over between Ginny and I. Just accept that," he said in annoyance.
"I still don't see why you two can't be together. She's liked you for years and you just dumped her like that?"
"Forget it Ron," Harry answered angrily. He didn't want to talk about it; he couldn't tell Ron that his relationship with Ginny just didn't feel right. "It's not about me and Ginny anymore, it's about you and Hermione, alright? I just don't want to catch the two of you snogging in front of me again," he said furiously and left the kitchen.
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Author's note-for those who wish this story to move faster
I excpet you waiting that hhr would move faster but only one of you are courage to mention it ;)
well I decided to explane you why I have written this fiction the way I have. why HHr aren't together yet.
But before I do that, I will apologize for the mistakes I make, you see I do not want to bother my beta reader with that, so excuse me and try to understand what I mean.
There are two reasons why I haven't made HHR yet, atleast two reasons I can think now.
1. reason-is beacause I think it's unlikely that they wake up one day and bang-they're in love with one another. Thought I do like reasing fictions like that.. But I don't want my fiction to be this way. I want to show readers how they're love grows and how, why they love one another-especially now when HBP is relised and we all know how the ship goes in book.
and just perhaps if I excplane throug-out the story why I think hhr should happen then someone who has lost hope, will get it back or perhaps some h/g shipepr may read it..
2. As much as I may dislike HBP(not only beacause of the ship, there are other things I don't like in the book) and as much as I may be offended by Rowling and perhaps even lost some intrest with new upcoming book.. no matter what I think or feel for the Harry potter series now haven't taken away one thing-my respect.
I may not like Rowling as much as I did before, but I still respect her. and I respect what she has written in HBP-means: I respect that she put H/G together(thought I don't understand why nor see anything between H/G)
I respect it beacause writing is a hard work and if she wanted things to go this way, then fine. we, as fanfiction writers can change it, can make stories according the ship we're sailing.
Yet again I feel that if I make HHR happen fast and over night, I feel like I am disrespecting rowlings hard work. This is the main reason why I hhr are not together yet.
I do read and love the stories where HHR happens all so suddenly, but me, as an author of this story I think I have the right to write it the way I feel it. and if I feel I can't make HHR happen faster, then I won't. then I'll make it step by step, and I am sorry if you don't like it.
Rella