Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter. JK Rowling does, sadly.
A/N: My take on the "Blind Date" Challenge by zemog3782. Hope you will enjoy this, I'll add the requirements here at the beginning. If you read, please leave a review!
Requirements:
Dudley and Harry both get their drivers license.
Uncle Vernon takes Dudley to buy a car and they take Harry along so they can rub it in. Uncle Vernon tosses Harry a 20 pound note(don't know if there is a 20 pound denomination) and tells him to see what kind of car he can buy with that with both Vernon and Dudley laughing at him.
Harry walks off looking at the cars (BMW, Volvo, or whatever you want dealership)
In the mean time, a woman whose husband has left her and moved out of the country with another woman has gone to sell her husband's precious baby "car". He had the nerve to ask her to sell his car and send him the money. She decides to do that and when she sees Harry looking at the cars, she asks him if he is interested in a car. Harry tells her he doesn't have any money but the 20 pound note and she agrees to sell it to him for that.
They talk and she comes to like this young man and she tells him that she has a niece his age that she would like for him to meet and take out.
Harry is hesitant because he has had a crush on Hermione for some time but agrees since she sold him the car. She gives Harry the address and tells him to come by tomorrow (saturday) and she will introduce him.
Of course the lady turns out to be Hermione's Aunt and goes back to tell her niece about the date she set up for her.
Hermione is furious about this because she has also had a crush on Harry and doesn't want to go out with anyone else, but finally agrees because of the break-up that her Aunt is going through and she doesn't want to hurt her feeling.
Harry is not given Hermione's name and all that was gotten at the time was Harry's first name. They are to finish signing the car papers when he goes over to Hermione's home but Harry has never known where Hermione lives so the address isn't familiar.
What a big surprise when Harry shows up and they are introduced by her Aunt.
You can put whatever ending you want from there but as always, it has to end H/HR.
Driving to Your Heart
In his last summer with the Dursleys, Harry Potter had decided since he was going to be on his own for the rest of his life after those weeks, he better make the best of the time spent with his relatives.
Dudley was currently studying for taking the driving license, and since he seemed to not be able to get it, Aunt Petunia had begrudgingly asked him to help his cousin with that.
Not that Dudley was putting much effort in it. Instead of studying he passed his days in front of the Playstation, playing driving games in which you could learn anything but the real way to drive safely on road.
"You're not going to get the license like this, you know, Dudders" Harry teased him.
"Get out of here with the freaks like you!" Dudley replied.
"Now, now. Do you remember that in ten days I'll be of age, and I'll be able to make all kind of "freak" things to you if you're not nice, don't you?" Harry said in a singsong voice. "Let's clarify, passing my days here studying with you is far from my ideal summer holidays, but your parents really want you to learn this, and they are too busy to help you themselves"
So, after some not nice mumbles, Dudley joined him at the table.
This became an habit, and more than once Harry had to restrain himself from turning him in a toad. Luckily, thinking of Hermione always helped him maintain his self control. He had developed a major crush on her, and hoped he could reveal his feelings soon.
Then, after Dudley passed the theory test, and Harry too as he had used some of the gold in his parents' vault to sign himself to the course too, thinking it may come in handy later in his life, it came to learn driving.
Harry and Dudley both got lessons from Vernon, who dedicated to Dudley the whole day, and to Harry merely half an hour. Nonetheless the raven haired wizard passed the driving test brilliantly, far better than his pig cousin.
That night, Petunia threw an impromptu celebration for Dudley.
"And tomorrow we will go to buy you a car" she announced hugging her son. Harry rolled his eyes.
"You will come too, boy" Vernon said.
"Me?" Harry asked.
"Yes, you"
He nodded, then walked up to his room, where he locked himself in, and wrote to Hermione.
"Dearest Hermione,
today that pig of Dudley and me both got
our driving licences. Tomorrow they will
go buy him a car. Figure, he will drain half their
money with it, and they won't protest.
But, I must say this thing kept me occupied for a
Good while this summer, and I can't believe
I'm almost done with being here.
I can't wait to see you again.
Yours, Harry"
As announced, next morning the Dursley household was thoroughly agitated, and when they all exited to go to the car dealer, Harry rolled his eyes. As usual, his cousin had thrown a tantrum, and got what he wanted. They would buy him a BMW.
The ride was quiet, Dudley smugly looking out of the window, Harry mulling over his own thoughts, not caring the less about what they were going to do.
Once there, Vernon took Harry apart.
"Here, boy. This is for you. Let's see what you can buy yourself with it" he said, pushing in Harry's hand a 20 pounds banknote.
He took it, and walked away, stalked by the noise of Dudley and his uncle laughing of him. He didn't care, he had no need for a car right now, so he simply wandered through the cars exposed there.
He noticed some big ones, SUVs they were called. There were two kinds of them, the X5, that was bigger, and the X3, probably more adapt for a city use, although it was quite big all the same. Then there were little ones, like the 1 series, medium like the 3 series or big ones but elegant, like the 5 series or the 7.
Roaming, he came to see another branch of the shop, where MINI were showed. There were MINI Cooper, or Cooper S, or One. There was the MINI Convertible too.
Just out of curiosity, he asked come information to a seller that was there, then returned in the BMW part of the store. There he noticed one car that really caught his eye. It was a rather new BMW Z4, dark blue with leather seats, alloy wheels.
Walking toward it, he noticed a woman, looking bored, sitting on the hood, probably waiting for someone of the sellers to listen to her.
He moved closer, and spoke to her.
"Sorry, are you interested in this one?" he asked.
"What? No, I'm here to sell it" she said, smiling at him, kind of a familiar smile, although right now he couldn't place it.
"Sell?" he asked stupidly.
"Yes. It was my husband's, but we broke up and he left the country with a tramp" she said bitterly, and Harry could see she was till hurting.
"I'm sorry" he said.
"No need to. You've no fault in this. However, he had the courage of asking me to sell his car and then send him the money overseas"
"What a rude thing to do" Harry said, really angry at the man who left this woman.
"Yes, it was not nice at all" she said smiling. "But stop talking about me. What about you? Are you searching for your first car?"
"Actually, I'm here with my relatives, they are buying their son a car, and they mocked me about it giving me twenty pounds and telling me to see what I could buy with it" he said, smiling and rolling his eyes.
"What?" the woman said shocked.
"Well, they don't care so much for me" Harry said, feeling just a bit uncomfortable. He was telling one of the thing he was more ashamed of to a complete stranger.
"Listen, I like you. You're a nice young man, and I don't care much for this car. Let's do it this way, you give me the twenty pounds, and I give you the car"
"What? No, I can't accept, this is worth much more…" Harry said.
"Come on, I already imagine the face of my ex husband seeing the twenty pounds!" the woman said, laughing softly, again something Harry felt familiar but couldn't place with anyone he knew, at the moment.
After a short discussion, he accepted. They signed the contract, filling all the blank spaces, and then the car was his.
"Now that this is settled, as I told you, I think you're a nice guy, and I would like for you to meet my niece. She's more or less your age, and I think it's time she starts dating, or she will lose the best years of her life to do so"
Harry was reluctant, he wanted to go out with Hermione.
"Actually, I already fancy someone else…"
"Is she your girlfriend?"
"No…" Harry admitted.
"So, what bad can this do? I ask you for just a date with her, then if the two of you don't like each other, it's finished"
Out of gratitude for selling him the car at such a low price, Harry ended accepting the blind date with the woman's niece.
"Very well then. I think now you can go to pick her up at her home" she said, winking at him, and motioning toward the car. "Here's the address" she added then, scribbling it on a piece of paper. "Let's make it tomorrow, that is Saturday, so I can be there and introduce the two of you"
Harry agreed, and pocketed the piece of paper.
"Now, go and shock your relatives" she said winking to him once more before going to retrieve her car and let her niece know about the date.
Harry grinned, opened the door and stepped in the car, then started the engine and after a minute or two hearing the deep noise it made, after all it was a powerful car, he moved slowly toward where the Dursleys had left their own.
He managed to hear Vernon cursing because he was not there yet, and Dudley looking behind his father's shoulders at him.
"Dad, look behind you"
Vernon turned, and Harry wished he had a Pensieve to store the memory of his face, seeing him driving the Z4 toward them.
"Where have you got it?" Petunia asked.
"I found a woman who wanted to sell it and she accepted my twenty pounds. She was angry because her husband had left her and this is her way to pay him back, practically gifting away his car" he said, and it was the truth.
Do you think they believed him?
Of course not, but his birthday was already passed, and so he could now do magic on them. So they stayed quiet, although Dudley was thoroughly pissed that Harry had a Z4 and he would have to settle for a 1 series.
In the meantime, at the lady's niece house, a discussion was going on.
"Aunt Rachel, how could you do such a thing? I like someone else from school already, and I don't want to do this!" a brown haired girl said.
"Come on, sweetie. It's just for a day, and he too fancies someone else. But you need to get out of this house now and then, and I'm sure you will pass an enjoyable day with him. If the two of you will like each other in more than friends way I can't tell, but at least you will distract yourself a bit, and you need it"
Remembering that her aunt had recently lost her husband, who had left her for his secretary, the girl sighed, and slumped on the couch in defeat.
"Alright, I'll go out with him, but this is the last time you play matchmaker for me, ok?"
The older woman looked at her innocently, and the girl stomped to her room, where she took a photograph of her beloved one, and caressed it, then sighed.
"Let's hope tomorrow passes quickly" she thought.
Next day, Harry drove to the address on the paper, a part of London he knew not, and finally asking directions to a passing person, he managed to get to the house.
Ringing the bell, he straightened his clothes, trying to look at his best.
"Get a grip, Potter. It's not like you're going to a date with Hermione" he thought. Soon later, the woman from the previous day opened, and smiled at him.
He smiled back nervously.
"Don't worry, you look fine. She will be here in a minute"
And so it was. Soon the girl came down the stairs, and both her and Harry's breaths caught in their throats.
"Harry?" she said, her heart immediately beating faster.
"Hermione?" he said tentatively, hoping his sight wasn't failing him.
"Oh, well, you know each other already. This will make things less awkward then" Rachel said, grinning. "Now, have a nice day, and don't do anything I wouldn't" she said while accompanying the both of them, still looking at each other dazedly, to the door.
"So she's your aunt, uh?"
"Yes. She told me about selling you my uncle's car yesterday for…twenty pounds?"
He chuckled. "Yes, she really seemed in a hurry to get rid of it. Seemed like it was the Hot Potato. And I don't blame her…"
"Well, then, where are you going to take me, Potter?" she teased him seating in the car.
"I thought maybe we could go to see a movie, then we could have dinner"
"Nice plan" she said, looking at him and once again, like often in school, losing herself in admiring his features.
"If you don't want me to get nervous and crash us, you better stop staring at me" he said, and she blushed deep red.
"Sorry" she muttered, while he smiled.
They went for a chick flick, although Harry would have preferred something more adventurous. But you can never win an argument with Hermione Granger, and he had learned it in his Hogwarts days.
While there, he was more interested by her angelic face, and more than once he had to restrain himself from kissing her.
"Probably she doesn't fancy you back, so doing that would be the biggest mistake of your life" he thought to himself, clueless that she had chosen that movie wildly hoping he would kiss her, so she paid not so much attention too, as she kept glancing at him trying to see if he was going to do that or not.
At dinner they ate quietly, he brought her in a nice restaurant near the cinema.
"So, you said in your letter your summer has been quite good with "them"" she said.
"Yes, at least, as good as it could be" he joked. "I really can't wait to go back to Hogwarts though"
"Me too" she said, squeezing his hand. He looked at her, and entwined their fingers. For some time they remained that way, no one of them interrupting the contact.
Hermione was growing more and more frustrated that he didn't get any of her hints, so in their ride back to her house she decided it was time she took things in her own hands.
Once there, he stopped the car, then gentlemanly opened her door and helped her out of it.
"I guess this is it. Goodnight then" he said, fighting back his urge to kiss her.
She however had other plans, and laced her arms around his neck, and pressed her lips on his own, begging for entrance with her tongue.
He immediately opened his mouth, and kissed her back as fiercely as she was kissing him.
Their tongues searched each other in their mouths, battling wildly.
She moaned lightly in the back of her throat, and he kissed her even harder, letting all his love for her be poured in that kiss.
Minutes later they pulled apart.
"Wow" she said, touching her swollen lips.
"Yes, wow" he said, still holding her in his arms. "Hermione, if you regret that kiss…"
She placed one finger on his lips to shut him up.
"I don't, Harry, because I love you"
He grinned. "I love you too, Hermione" he said before kissing her again.
Inside the house, a still young woman retreated from the window grinning to herself.
-->