DISCLAIMER: I don't own Harry Potter, J.K. does, and she has every right to do whatever she thinks is best for Harry Potter. I just love writing. So sue me. Wait, seriously… don't.
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A/N:
Aw, guys! I really appreciate your comments. So much that I got hyped into typing this chapter the moment I checked my email. Thank you so much for every single word written. THANK YOU!
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Barely finished with the dessert she no longer found enticing, Hermione excused herself from the party and headed out for privacy, barely noticing the looks that the other guests had given her.
"So much for secrets…" She muttered as she walked away from the dining hall.
The hollow sounds of her footsteps gave Hermione the feeling she was by herself, but it was not enough to calm her nerves.
She wanted to be in a place where she could really be alone; somewhere no one would think of going even after dinner was over.
If she found one now, she would still have time to think things over before she retire with the other women to the drawing room while the men begin their gambling.
Her chamber was too far to give her the privacy she craved so greatly.
But the ballroom had been empty when she passed by.
And so there she was now…
Standing in the middle of the dance floor with nothing to illuminate her but the moon's light shining through the open doors of the balcony.
Wracked with frustration, Hermione clutched her skirts and sat down, breathing hard - fighting to let her unshed tears remain as they were.
She didn't know for how long she sat there, but by the time her rationale returned, the moon had lost most of its light, the only part left falling on her.
"Do you not find it odd, my lady, that we meet again under similar circumstances? One would think that we are being played at."
Hermione didn't need to see to be able to hear and recognize who spoke.
She'd heard him speak so much tonight that she doubted whether she'll ever forget that voice.
"The only person playing right now is you, Your Grace." Hermione said, standing up.
Although she couldn't see him, she knew he was near. Very near.
"And you don't believe fate led me here?" Harry asked.
"No." She shook her head even as she stepped back. "If it was fate that caused this, I'd rather have death take me now than abide having such a brilliant entity lose its touch."
"Those were harsh words, Lady Hermione." Harry said. "I, for one, wonder whether you say it in the company of others, or just in mine."
"If you are worried about my upbringing, you need not be any longer. I assure you, I would never speak such words in public." Hermione whispered heatedly.
"Ah…so then, this brings us to the topic that I really have in mind." Harry chuckled, moving closer to her. "But, perhaps later."
"What are you doing?" Hermione cried out indignantly as she felt him step closer that she could actually feel his breath.
"I thought it would have been obvious by now that I am not a person to retreat even when told to do so."
"W-what?"
"I still have that dance to claim, you know." He grinned mischievously and Hermione lost a bit of her bravado.
Of all the harebrained things he could have asked from her, this one topped it off.
"What makes you think I'll agree to dance with you when I certainly do not even desire your company?" Hermione inquired.
"You were perfectly willing to be in my company three months ago, my lady."
Hermione saw no point making an effort to lie to him about her identity three months ago. He already knew. But she saw no reason not to reject him either.
"That was because I didn't know you then."
"Then, why don't you just pretend you still don't." Harry said softly as he finally closed the distance between them and took him in his arms. When she tried to struggle out of his embrace, he whispered in her ear. "Please don't refuse me. I will expire with despair if you do."
Panic rose in her as her chest pressed onto his.
"But, but…there's no music." She protested lamely.
Above her, he heard his throaty chuckle. "Do you really think I care?"
With that, he pressed her closer and swayed her to the beat of a music that she couldn't hear but could suddenly and miraculously feel the moment his arms closed around hers with a stunning force that took her breath away.
What am I doing? Hermione asked herself as Harry moved her around the dance floor.
This was wrong.
But when she felt his arms tighten around her waist, the extraordinary pleasure of his embrace her robbed her of speech and thought.
She forgot all about the empty ballroom, her refusal to dance with him, and the reason that she was there.
She didn't even think that she was dancing with the man she hated, nor the fact that this tryst would be no more than mere memory by the end of the night.
All that mattered was that the empty ballroom they were in seemed so much more than just the bare room that it really was. It had changed into an intimate and special place, one that wove a world of fantasy around them.
As Harry's body matched hers in perfect rhythm, Hermione began to have the strangest feeling that it did not only feel good to be so close to him like this…
It also felt…
She shuddered…
Right.
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"Hermione?" Harry asked a little while later, when they were both standing apart from each other.
The dance they had shared had ended before either of them realized it had, but the feeling that it gave him still lingered.
It was the last thing he expected that would make him feel something other than victorious of having her finally dance with him.
He never thought it would make him…well…pleased and satisfied.
He wasn't certain whether she felt the same, though.
Judging by the way she remained immobile, he would wager that she was either trying to forget the dance happened or thinking of a way to murder him.
"Can we talk?" He asked when she remained silent.
When she nodded, he let out his breath in relief, not knowing that he had been holding his breath all that time.
"I assume you want us to talk about what you found out during dinner." Hermione said softly.
"The Weasleys weren't really that subtle, if it is any consolation." Harry offered good-naturedly.
"It isn't. But then, it was not really their fault. I know you would have found out eventually." She said.
"Is it really so bad for me to know?" Harry asked her.
"Yes…no."
"Which is it?"
"I'm not certain how to answer that question." Hermione admitted, surprising him and herself as well with the truth.
But then, that was the reason she didn't want him to know in the first place, wasn't it? She didn't want him asking questions that might reveal something far better left unsaid.
"I'll ask a different one, then." Harry seemed to have accepted her answer without reluctance. "Why is it that every time you and I are together, you seem to make it a necessity to depart as fast as you can."
"I…I feel very uncomfortable with you, Your Grace." Hermione muttered.
"Even now?" Harry frowned.
"Yes." Hermione said. Then she surprised him again when she let out a small laugh. "You haven't noticed? I wasn't being very undemonstrative about it."
"Even if I have, I wouldn't be so bothered to let you leave. I still need answers, mind you." Harry matched her tone, finding her quite frustrating.
Mysteries often made him feel that way.
And this woman was one hell of a puzzle.
"In that case, I need to know what questions I must answer so that I can find peace elsewhere." Hermione grumbled impolitely.
"Was that what you were trying to look for when you came here?" Harry asked in a mocking tone. "I would have thought a clever lady like you would choose her own chambers."
"You're right, Your Grace. I am not an idiot. I did consider my chambers, but I thought it had been too early to retire." Hermione spitefully explained.
"And so you go into a deserted room where you could have been found by an unscrupulous gentleman who would have taken advantage of your solitude." He mused aloud. Then, he sighed. "Be glad, my lady, that it was I who had happened upon you. I wasn't anything but a gentleman."
"Were you?" Hermione asked, raising one eyebrow at him.
"What do you mean by that?" He frowned.
"You know exactly what I mean, Your Grace." She declared heatedly. "You come in here, arrogantly proclaiming that fate decided that it was a stipulation for us to meet."
"I didn't know I'd find you here."
"And then you whisk me for a dance, a dance I refused to give you, because you very well knew that I couldn't do anything as we were isolated from the group. Isn't that considered taking advantage?" Hermione finished, ignoring what he said.
"You could have stopped me had you the will to do so." Harry stated arrogantly.
"Are you saying that I desired to dance with you?" Hermione cried out, outraged.
"Not the words I would have used, but yes. I believe that is what I intended to say." Harry smiled at her, in spite of himself.
"Then you must be more of a fool than I for believing so. Had I wanted to dance with you, I would have done so earlier."
"Why didn't you?"
"Because I didn't want to!"
"You've made it extremely clear that you didn't want to dance with me earlier, my lady. But it doesn't exactly take away the possibility that you might have wanted to dance with me when I found you here."
"Of all the preposterous conclusions you have made, I believe this one is the most dim-witted." Hermione said. "My opinion about you shall never change and neither shall my desire to be in your company."
"So we're back to that again, are we?" He uttered, quite annoyed that the conversation returned to the question that he knew she was quite adamant to never answer.
"Unless you have something else to ask."
"Actually, I do."
"Dare I find out what it is?" Hermione muttered.
"Do you not like me?"
"No, I don't." She said, looking directly into his eyes.
"Why?"
"Because you're Harry Potter." Hermione said matter-of-factly, as if the answer had been obvious all along.
"And so I am. I can't do anything about it!" Harry practically shouted. "But that doesn't really tell me why you don't like me."
"It is now I with a question for you." Hermione declared.
Harry could only look at her out of curiosity and impatience.
"Why does it bother you so much that I do not like you?" She asked.
"What?" Harry uttered, clearly taken aback.
"Please do not take this the wrong way, Your Grace, but it is a little hard for me to believe everybody approves of what you do or who you are." Hermione said. "Does it matter that I belong to those who do not?"
"It was very astute of you to say that. But however right you are, those people who do not like me…are not here." Harry shoved his hands into the pocket of his robes. "But you are."
"And that matters because?"
"Since you don't like me, you can tell me the reason."
"What if I don't have a good one to tell you?"
"Then you are lying."
"Lying about what?"
"About not liking me."
"Oh for goodness' sake!" Hermione exclaimed, stepping up to him and jabbing his chest with her finger. "I don't like you because you are arrogant, you are persistent and you are a rake."
Harry looked at her in surprise. "Are those really the reasons you don't like me?" He asked quietly, rubbing the part of his chest, which she had prodded several times.
"Yes." She said through gritted teeth.
"How can they be? You and I have not met before, not until that night at the ball."
"I don't have to know you well to see the kind of person you are, Harry Potter."
"And just what kind do you believe I am?" he asked venomously, hating the fact that she had judged him quite so hastily.
"The kind who does what others do not want him to, and then refuses the ones they want him to do."
For someone whom he'd just met, she'd just hit a spot. "What makes you think so?"
"Don't act ignorant, Your Grace. You and I know you haven't done a thing I asked ever since we met." Hermione stated.
"Based on that, you have concluded my character?"
"From what I see, I don't need anything to convince me otherwise."
"I do not want to be as hasty to judge, my lady. But I believe that however true it is that you do not like me, your reasons are not what they really are."
"If you only refuse the answer I tell you, do not ask." Hermione stubbornly replied.
"How can I not refuse them when they are clearly lies?" Harry said, unable to keep calm even after hearing footsteps in the hallway just outside the ballroom.
Hermione looked at him with weary eyes and sighed. "We have been going at this verbal battle since we met, Your Grace. From what I can see; you are prepared to let this spar continue all night. But for both our sakes, I sincerely do not want to stay just to find out who would win."
Stepping back even before he could say anything else, she then said, "If you'll excuse me, have a good night."
Regardless of how hypocritical it would have seemed, Hermione curtsied before him, before finally dashing out of the room, leaving Harry for the second time that evening, and for the third time in his life.
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"Hermione?" Sirius clutched her shoulders to steady her from their collision.
"Sirius." Hermione breathed in relief, all color had drained from her face.
Noticing her breathless pallor, Sirius asked. "What's wrong?"
Eyes wide with dread, Hermione shook her head "N-nothing."
"Are you sure? You look pale." Sirius told her wearily.
Hermione nodded a few times. "I'm certain, Sirius. Thank you for your concern, but I have to go."
Without letting him say another word, she disentangled herself from his hold and rushed away from him.
Puzzled, Sirius turned away from Hermione's retreating form and faced the deserted ballroom from where she had come.
Frowning in dismay of what might have happened to cause her such distress; Sirius pushed the chamber's doors and looked inside.
It was dark, but there was somebody standing in the middle of the dance floor.
It was only his silhouette that he could see, but there was no mistaking that stance.
"What did you do, Harry?"
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The instant he heard his godfather's voice, Harry inwardly groaned.
It was not because of what Sirius must be making out of what he witnessed, but the potential sermon that Harry was to have from him.
If he were given a choice between a night-long dispute with Hermione or an endless lecture from Sirius, he would choose the former.
"You know me better than to think that I would seduce a lady right under my best friend's manor, don't you?" He muttered.
"Oh, I know you didn't seduce Hermione. I would be much more pleasant with you had you done that. You didn't seduce her, yes, but you hurt the woman beyond imagination." Sirius' voice echoed all over the empty room.
"I hurt her?" Harry said incredulously. "I didn't say anything, Sirius! In fact, I should be the one who's hurt because of what she said to me!"
Sirius must have heard something funny behind his words because the man gave a sharp bark of laughter.
When Harry frowned at him, Sirius waved a hand to dismiss him. "Come now, son. Don't sound as if you are truly affected. We both know that there is nothing anyone can say that could get through you easily."
Harry grumbled as he acknowledged Sirius' reply with irritated affirmation. "But it still doesn't change the fact that she has judged me all too hastily. We've only met twice."
"Twice? You mean tonight was not the first?"
Cursing himself for his impulsiveness, Harry shrugged.
"If you listened carefully to the conversation during dinner, you'd not need any explanation now." Harry muttered.
"What I noticed during dinner was your inability to keep your eyes off Hermione." Sirius pointed out sternly. "You weren't very discreet about it, you know."
"I wasn't trying to be." Harry said plainly. "I wanted her to know."
"Why in Merlin's name did you want to do that?" Sirius asked.
With great reluctance, Harry narrated to his godfather what happened between him and Hermione at the ball earlier that evening.
Sirius looked ready to laugh when he saw Harry's murderous glare and managed to control himself. "So, you decided to get her to talk by causing her discomfort?"
"It worked, didn't it?"
"You have such strange ways with woman, my boy." Sirius told him.
"Why do you sound so pleased. And why does it not surprise me?" Harry said, noticing for the first time the tone in his godfather's voice.
"It's nothing. Just nothing." Sirius shook his head several times.
"The hell it is." Harry grumbled.
"So what did the conversation have to do with you meeting her twice?"
Not really all too happy that his godfather changed topics, Harry muttered with great disregard. "Do you remember the Weasleys' Masquerade Ball three months ago?"
"Yes."
"I met her there." Harry pronounced.
"And so, what of it?"
"I didn't know it was her tonight."
"Why not?"
"Because I never found out whom she was back then…" Harry explained, and then proceeded to tell his godfather the first time he and Hermione met.
"And you wanted to know whether she was the same person? That's why you were intimidating her a while ago?"
"I wasn't intimidating her!" Harry groaned out. "I didn't even know she'd be the same woman. What I did was for the sole purpose of finding out why she had given me the cut."
"But when you sought her out after dinner, you also had the night of the ball in your mind, correct?"
"I didn't seek her out. I just happened upon her." Harry exasperated, emphasizing every word. And then he threw his hand in the air in defeat. "But yes, I had the ball in mind when I found her here."
He started to pace. "You have to admit, Sirius. It was a bit strange that this woman has rejected me twice. And with no good reasons at all!"
"I take it that was what hastily judging you meant, right?"
"Right."
"What did she say?" He asked emphatically.
Never in his entire lifetime had he acted quite as childish as Harry reluctantly gave out the reasons, during at which's end, Sirius could no longer contain within him his humor.
"Let me get this clear. She said you were…" He paused, raising his hand to count with his fingers. "Arrogant…persistent…and a rake? You must have done something to give her a hell of an impression, Harry."
"I haven't done anything." He bent his head, rubbing the back of his neck. "As I said, we've only met twice. I can't have given her a reason to hate me."
"But she obviously does." Sirius thought out loud. "That does seem a bit worthy of thought."
"I'm done thinking." Harry said, letting out a breath of frustration. "I refuse to be bothered by it any longer."
Behind him, he heard Sirius chuckle.
"What?"
"Don't you know?" Sirius asked innocently, and then grinned. "It would seem that the lady has gotten to you."
"And you're blood happy about that because?"
"Someone finally got through that damn wall of yours!" Sirius muttered throwing his hand in the air.
"What wall?"
"That wall you've had ever since I found you." Sirius said somberly. "You've never let your guard down with anybody, not even with me. I used to think you were incapable of feeling something else other than regret and fury, but I was mistaken. And I'm glad I was."
Harry simply stared at him.
"Don't act as if you don't know what I'm talking about, boy." Sirius said gravely.
"As a matter of fact, I don't." Harry crossed his arms. "Would you care to enlighten me?"
"Your life has always been a mystery to me. For 5 years, I've asked, but I have yet to hear an answer." Sirius began. "Yes, you told me all about your youth, but I've always known there's a missing part in your story."
"Maybe those parts don't really matter." Harry suggested a little too forcefully.
"Perhaps." Sirius nodded somberly. "But I don't hold it against you. How can I? When I haven't also been completely honest."
Harry's head lifted slowly, as if still registering what Sirius said. "What?"
Sirius looked at him for a very long time before rubbing his forehead in fatigue.
"I reckon, Harry, it's about time you and I have a real talk."
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A/N:
Here goes another chapter. Hope you found it good. I really did this with haste so you would have another chapter to read. Thanks for the reviews, once again.
Please do say your thoughts….
Thanks!
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