A/N: I know many of you are expecting Harry to magic himself out of that difficult situation, but he's surrounded by muggles. So, he'll have to deal with it the muggle way - you'll see! Besides, the storyline I'm following requires for things to happen this way.
Also, I know you feel I'm dragging things way too much. I needed you all to see how they get closer to each other and how their relationship evolves. This chapter Harry begins to put two and two together and from them on, things will begin to happen.
I hope you'll enjoy it!
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8. A Room for the Night
"Okay, Parker! Get your arse up," Kath said firmly to her partner, while consulting her wristwatch.
They had been taking a well-deserved break. Maurice had spotted a small, quiet park while they stopped to get some food. Wanting to stretch his tired body in the grass, he had convinced Kath to rest there for a few hours. Maurice had been so tired that he'd fallen asleep in no time.
"We're never going to find Hermione if we remain here," she added as Maurice rubbed his eyes to rid them of sleep.
Lazily, Maurice stood up and stretched. "Well…" he finally spoke. "At least I got some sleep. I needed that!"
"I'm glad," said Kath in a not very convincing tone. "Now, let's get going!"
"Damn, lady!" Maurice said. "You sure are stressing about this, aren't you? I thought you trusted this Potter bloke?"
"It doesn't matter whether I trust him or not," she replied, walking towards the place where their car was parked. "It's our responsibility to make sure Hermione is safe and sound, remember? The sooner we find them, the sooner we'll head home."
"Home?" repeated Maurice, running to get in the car just as Kath was starting the engine. "Personally, I rather like our little American adventure. I've never been this side of the ocean, and I'm quite enjoying it."
"Mmph!" was Kath's only reply. "I'll enjoy it when we get this over with."
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Feeling uneasy about the situation, Hermione did what Harry suggested. As innocently as possible, she had exited the restaurant and was now waiting for him around the corner, shooting looks at the restaurant's entrance, waiting for Harry to come out. She was straining her ears just in case she'd heard people shouting.
About five minutes later, Hermione's fear became truth as she clearly heard a man's angry voice coming from the restaurant. Right after that, Harry appeared before Hermione. As soon as he saw her, Harry grabbed her hand and pulled her firmly to make her run along with him.
Apparently, Harry had not been as successful as Hermione at exiting the restaurant unnoticed. The waiter had eyed him as he was leaving, and he had quickly run after him calling out for the police. He was now chasing them, hot on their heels. In Harry and Hermione's favor, people walking in the streets moved aside as they ran by instead of stopping them, as the waiter urgently asked people to do.
But, to their dismay, a police officer did hear the waiter's cry for help; minutes later, he was running after Harry and Hermione as well.
Harry made a sudden turn and pulled Hermione across the street. A car passing by was barely able to stop in time to avoid running them over. Harry and Hermione kept on running without looking back.
If they had looked back, they would've noticed that the people in the car that almost run them over were Kath and Maurice. Kath's well-trained eyes recognized the pair. "There!" she yelled.
"Look!" said Maurice, pointing at the police officer and the waiter chasing Harry and Hermione. "They're chasing them."
"C'mon!" replied Kath as she started to run in the same direction.
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Hermione's heart was beating faster than her feet were running. She couldn't believe that she was being chased by a police officer for the second time in just a couple of days. Sure, it was a bit funny. But it also felt kind of uncomfortable.
"Maybe we should just stop and explain everything to the officer," she thought, throwing a quick look at Harry. But she pushed that thought rapidly away. "That wouldn't keep us from getting in trouble after all the mayhem we've caused. And my father… if he were to know about this."
Still she wished the men following them would just give up because she wouldn't be able to continue running much longer. She turned to look at them. Neither of them appeared to be as tired as she was. "Oh no! They're going to catch up with us."
Once again, Harry guided them across a street. This time, however, there was no danger of getting run over since there was little traffic on the street. Just then, Hermione's eye caught sight of a big delivery truck parked half a block away from them. She couldn't help to think how lucky it'd be if that truck would suddenly get in the way of the police officer.
She hadn't even finished that thought, when the delivery truck began moving as if its brakes had suddenly given way. Seconds later, the driver and three men who had been unloading the truck realized what was happening and started running after it.
Harry turned just in time to see the men running after a truck that was gaining speed down the street. Amazed by the incident, he stopped running and turned to see Hermione. Her expression did not show surprise or shock. There was a wide grin on her face.
Wondering what she could be so happy about, he tried to spot the police officer and the waiter on the other side of the street. It seemed that Hermione's wishes had come true. The truck - along with the people chasing the truck - had forced them to stop.
To take advantage of the confusion, Harry grabbed Hermione's arm and pulled her inside the nearest building.
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Maurice and Kath stopped running as they approached a chaotic street where a delivery truck had gotten loose and turned over a couple of magazine stands. The driver had been able to get inside the truck and stop it before any more damage could be done. Fortunately, nobody was hurt.
Maurice overheard one of the men talking about how weird the incident was since the truck's brakes were totally fine. Just then, Kath elbowed him to make him turn his attention to a spot were the same police officer they had been following was now talking to the owner of one of the destroyed magazine stands.
"C'mon," she said, pulling his sleeve. "I've got to find out why they were chasing Hermione."
As soon as the upset man turned away from the police officer, Kath stepped forward. "Excuse me," she said to the officer. "I saw you chasing a couple down the street, and I wanted to know why."
The policeman shot her a curious look. "Why do you ask?"
"Well…" stuttered Kath, not sure how much to tell the officer. But Maurice quickly came to the rescue.
"You see, officer," he said while gently squeezing Kath's arm to give her the hint to follow along. "She's our daughter… and she run away… with her boyfriend. We're just trying to bring her back home."
The waiter that had alerted the officer walked up to them just in time to hear Maurice. "You want to know what your daughter has been up to?" he quickly spat at them. "Your daughter and the guy she was with left the restaurant without paying!"
"Did she?" Maurice said, faking anger while in reality he was trying to hold back his laughter. Turning to face Kath, he said, "You see what your daughter's been up to?"
Kath, however, threw him a killer look.
Regaining control of himself, Maurice pulled out his wallet and spoke to the waiter. "How much they owe you?"
"Thirty-five dollars," the waiter replied.
"Okay," said Maurice pulling two twenty-dollar bills and handing them to the waiter. "Would that do it?"
Without hesitation, the man took the bills and pocketed them quickly. "You should teach your daughter some decency," the waiter spat at him. But before Kath or Maurice had a chance to reply, he was gone.
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"Hello!" said a friendly voice from behind Harry and Hermione. Startled, they turned around to find a plump, short man smiling widely at them. "Do you two need a room?"
"A room?" thought Harry in surprise. After a quick look around Harry realized they had were in the tiny lobby of a hotel.
From the outside, it had looked like a plain two-story building. There was nothing at all that could tell people it was a hotel: no neon letters, no name anywhere to be seen, no sign that could attract anyone's attention.
For that reason, it didn't surprised Harry to see that the lobby was deserted, except for the two of them and the man who observed them curiously.
Before Harry's mouth could even open, Hermione replied to the man inquiry, "Yes… we actually do."
Harry shot her a questioning look. What was she thinking? They had no money. How were they going to pay for a hotel room? They had just walked out of a restaurant without paying. They had been chased by a police officer, for Merlin's sake! What was that girl thinking?
After hearing Hermione's response, the little man's face illuminated with a smile. "Oh! How wonderful, my first guests!" he said, clapping his hands together and raising his head to the sky. "I knew it! Someday, I said to myself, someday they'll come, my first guests. And here you are! Oh, my momma's going to be so happy!"
Harry turned to look at Hermione, a 'now-what' look on his handsome face. Hermione smiled painfully as she bit her lip.
"Uh…" she started trying to interrupt the man's monolog. Once she had his attention, she spoke. "We… there's just a little problem." The man looked expectantly at her.
Hermione looked imploringly at Harry, hoping he'd take the initiative of talking to the man. But Harry did not fancy being the one to burst the man's happy bubble. He simply crossed his arms over his chest and looked at her with the same expectant expression, waiting to see how she was going to get herself out of that hole.
Realizing she was not getting any help from Harry, Hermione sighed. "We have no money," she said in a whisper, talking to her shoes.
The man's mouth opened, but no sound came out. He looked from Harry to Hermione, half expecting them to say it was just a joke. But their expressions told him they were not kidding. "You… you have no money?" he repeated.
Hermione shook her head.
The man seemed to give it some thought. He scratched his balding head to then crackle his fingers. "I'm sorry," he said after a while. "No money, no room."
"Please, sir," Hermione quickly replied, taking a step forward. "We have nowhere to go. We don't even know the city. We're on our way to Chicago, but the train doesn't leave until tomorrow morning. Besides…" she said, placing a hand in the man's arm. "We were robbed on the train! I don't even know how we're going to make it to Chicago…"
The man's expression began to soften as he listened to Hermione's tale. "If you let us stay just this night," she continued. "We could… we could help out, do some work around for you."
She cast a look at Harry, who smiled approvingly at her. Once again, the man scratched his head. Hermione hoped he wouldn't do that so much or else he was going to pull out the little hair he had left.
"Only for one night?" the man finally asked.
"Yes," Hermione quickly replied. "We'd be out of here in the morning."
After a little more scratching, the man replied, "Alright! But you'd be cleaning the kitchen."
"No problem," Hermione answered, giving him a warm smile.
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"We're back to zero," Maurice said to Kath after the waiter left. "They could be anywhere by now."
"I can't believe Potter was so irresponsible to put Hermione in such a dangerous situation," Kath said angrily. "Running through the streets like that! We almost run them over with the car!"
Maurice smiled. "So, I reckon you're not that impressed by him anymore, are you?" But his smile faded once Kath threw him a menacing look. Placing an arm over Kath's shoulders, Maurice pulled her forward so they could walk back to where they had parked the car. "Don't worry. I'm sure they'll be fine."
"Fine? Maurice, we've lost them again!"
"Yeah," he replied. "But we know they'll be at the train station tomorrow morning, don't we? We'll just make sure to get there with plenty of time to make sure we catch them this time, okay?"
Kath simply shook her head.
Just then, Maurice's mobile phone rang. "Parker here," he said as he answered the phone, knowing perfectly well who was calling. "No, sir, we haven't found her, yet. Of course, we're doing everything in our hands…"
Kath made an effort to take the phone from Maurice, but he stopped her. "We have a pretty good idea where to find her, sir. It just may not happen until tomorrow. No… of course we don't think she's in any danger. Potter is… No, sir. We haven't been able to get a hold of him; seems like there may be a problem with his phone. Yes, sir. We'll keep on trying," he added, throwing Kath an annoyed look. "We'll let you now as soon as we get her."
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About an hour later, Harry and Hermione were busy working to pay for their room. Ernie, the hotel's owner, had asked them to clean the kitchen. The truth was that Ernie didn't have much for them to do.
It seemed that he had opened the hotel not that long ago. Business was not going that great. The place would be totally deserted if it weren't for Ernie and his mother. Harry and Hermione were the first ones to occupy a room.
Ernie had offered them some dinner, but since they had eaten not that long ago, they immediately got to work. Now, Harry was washing the dishes, and Hermione was drying them with a towel.
"I must say, Hermione," Harry said with a warm smile on his face as he handed her a plate. "I'm impressed." After seeing Hermione's expression, he added, "You got us a place for the night!"
A wide grin appeared on her face. "You see, I'm not that useless."
"I never said you were," he added quickly.
"I would like my father to see me now. Although, if he did see me, he'd probably take me back home in an instant," she said with a chuckle. "I don't think he'd be that amused."
"Yeah," Harry agreed. "And I'd be in so much trouble…"
"Why would you?" Hermione asked nonchalantly. "It's not as if it were your responsibility to look after me. On the contrary, I'm the one who got you in this mess. If I hadn't dragged you with me, you wouldn't be here washing dishes."
Somehow, Harry felt he'd rather be there washing dishes while chatting with her than anywhere else. He opened his mouth to voice his feelings, but Ernie's arrival interrupted him.
"You're done?" he asked them, looking from one to the other. "Why don't you two follow me so I can show you your room."
"Our room?" thought Hermione as she threw Harry a concerned look. His expression indicated he was wondering the same thing.
They followed Ernie out of the kitchen, back into the tiny lobby and up a set of stairs. Ernie led them to the second door in the hallway and opened it for them. "Here you go," he said while turning the light on. "There're clean towels in the bathroom."
Just before leaving the room, Ernie turned around and looked at Hermione. "If you want my momma to wash your clothes, she always does a load of laundry before bedtime."
"Thanks," replied Hermione with a nod, as she cast a look over her dirty pants.
Harry, however, was not listening to them. Since the moment he had stepped into the room, he hadn't been able to stop staring at the one bed in the room. Sure, it was big enough for two people, but to him it seemed way too small. With a final smile and a brief 'good night' Ernie exited the room, closing the door behind him.
"I'm going to take a shower," Hermione announced without even noticing Harry's look of concern. She went into the bathroom and closed the door behind her. Minutes later, she opened the door just enough to peek her head out.
"Harry…" she called out to him. "Hello?" she said in a sarcastic way after getting no response from him.
"Sorry," he quickly said, shaking his head. "You need something?"
"Here," she said, stretching her hand out the door and handing him her clothes. "Give this to Ernie. And… you may want to do the same," she added, raising her brows and shooting a critical look at his equally dirty clothes.
"I'm fine," he replied rather quickly.
Hermione simply shrugged her shoulders and closed the bathroom door again.
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Sooner than Harry expected, the bathroom door opened once again. Perfectly covered by a white towel, Hermione walked barefoot into the room. A scent of soap immediately invaded the room. Instinctively, Harry's eyes admired the view: her wet hair cascading down her back and the pink flush the hot water had left on her skin.
Unconsciously, he began to wonder what it'd feel like to touch her, to trace the water drops running down her bare arms with his fingers. Without him realizing what he was doing, he took a step forward. His green eyes centered on her brown ones.
Suddenly, they heard a loud thump from downstairs followed by Ernie complaining about a broken lamp.
It was all it took for Harry to regain control of himself. He turned around, trying to hide his agony from her. "You can take the bed," he said in, amazingly enough, his calmest voice. "I'll just…" He turned around, holding a pillow in his hand and found her staring at him. Was that disappointment in her eyes? "… sleep in the floor."
But he wasn't able to guess as Hermione quickly looked away. She walked to the other side of the bed and pulled the blankets away. "You don't have to do that," she said not looking at him. "The bed is big enough for both of us."
She sat down on the bed. Then, holding her towel in place with one hand, she lay down and pulled the covers over herself. With a half smile, she patted the empty side of the bed and said teasingly, "I don't bite."
Not knowing what strange reason was pulling him towards her, Harry sat tentatively at the edge of the bed and smiled nervously at her. "There," he thought. "I can do this. I mean, we're two reasonable adults, right?"
Hermione smiled mischievously as he turned off the lamp on the night table. She felt how the mattress sunk under Harry's weight as he lay at the edge of the bed. Hermione shook her head as she realized Harry was as far away from her as the bed allowed him. Was she that disgusting that he didn't even want to be close to her?
She had never being in a situation like this before: in bed, wearing only a towel, with a handsome man. Hermione wasn't sure if she'd be able to sleep knowing he was right next to her. "Is he going to sleep?" she wondered. "What if I just…" She turned on her side and slowly moved a hand towards him. "Harry," she whispered.
But as soon as Harry felt her hand on his arm, he quickly jumped out of the bed. "I… uh," he stuttered in the dark. "I'd better… sleep in the floor."
Hermione sighed. "Okay," she managed to say, turning her back towards him. "Yes," she thought. "I disgust him. He can't even stand me touching him." Making an effort to swallow the lump in her throat as noiselessly as she could, Hermione shut her eyes and prayed for this night to end as soon as possible.
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Neither Harry nor Hermione was able to sleep much that night. Hermione was convinced that Harry found her undesirable while Harry was aching to touch her.
She had looked so amazingly gorgeous when she stepped out of the bathroom, barely covered by a towel. It had been a miracle that had kept him from scooping her up in his arms and kissing every bit of skin on her delicious body.
"If Ernie hadn't brought me back to reality, Merlin knows I wouldn't have been able to stop. But I can't do this. I can't think about her like this. This is just an assignment. She is my assignment. I'm supposed to be taking care of her, not fantasizing about her. I can't let things get out of my hands."
But there was one more thing that kept appearing in his mind, one image he could not ignore: the triumphant grin on Hermione's face after the run-away truck got in the way of the men following them.
"Could she have caused that? But how? It's not like she has magical skills or something…" But just then, another memory came to him. When he and Hermione were speeding away on the 'borrowed' motorcycle, several trashcans had gotten in the way of the agents chasing them. And when they were at Tony's, Hermione had somehow reached her purse, which he could've sworn was far from her reach.
"Could she be a witch?" he wondered, throwing a look in her direction. His green eyes, now accustomed to the dark, distinguished her sleeping form on the bed. "No. That can't be. We would know if she were a witch, right? I mean, she would've attended a magical school for starters. And being a public figure, it'd be well known within the wizarding community if the Muggle Minister's daughter was a witch, right?"
There had to be another explanation, but no matter how hard he banged his head, he couldn't come up with a reasonable explanation for all the weird incidents. He was sure of one thing, though. It was just too much for it to be mere coincidence. There had to be more to it.