A/N: Hi guys, thanks for stopping by to read another chapter of Love, Lies and Jealousy. This one has taken a bit longer than I thought but its finally up. Unfortunately, I go back to school next week so I'm not sure when I will get the chance to write again. I don't think it will be too long though. Sorry if there are mistakes in this, I wrote it late at night so there could be. I want to thank all of you who have reviewed.
Chapter 3
Harry and Hermione were of course seated at the best table in the fanciest restaurant that Hermione had ever been to, with the head chef dedicating himself to cook them the best meal that they had ever eaten.
Harry lent over the table to talk to Hermione while the chef went to personally select the best wine in the house for them.
"I really wish that they wouldn't go to so much trouble." Harry said.
"Harry, you knew they would. That's why you booked the table under my name remember?"
"Yeah, but still… I really wish that they wouldn't make such a fuss." Harry said, looking down and staring at his plate.
Hermione reached over and grabbed his hand. "Would you like to go somewhere else?"
"No, no its fine Hermione. Just remind me that when we go out to dinner next, that we are going to a muggle restaurant."
"Deal." Hermione said, smiling that he had said that there would be a next time after not doing this in a long time. Oh sure, Harry and Hermione would often get together with their respective Weasley's, but they never had the chance to have some time with just the two of them.
"Harry, you must have brought Ginny here at least once?" Hermione asked. "Surely it was the same those times?"
Harry's face darkened at the mention of his girlfriends… no, ex-girlfriends name.
Harry answered her without looking up from the table that he had decided was oh so interesting.
"Sure, but she loved the attention. Once, when I told her that I hated all the attention we got when we came here, she almost had a fit" Harry sighed. "I also suggested that we go to a muggle restaurant so that we could have a more romantic, and more private dinner without all the fuss. She almost fainted at the suggestion. She told me that she would not lower her standards to eating at a dirty muggle place which she was sure they never cleaned and where they cooked without the assistance of magic." Harry paused. "It was almost like a death eater talking really."
I suppose that was Draco's influence on her Harry thought, mentally shuddering as the familiar sight of Draco and Ginny together came back and projected itself onto the plate he was staring at like some sick movie. He quickly turned away.
"Anyway, I don't really want to talk about Ginny, Hermione."
"Well that's okay Harry." Hermione said in a supporting tone. "But you know that I'm always here to talk if you want."
Harry nodded, grateful that she would always be there, even if he didn't want to share what had happened with her.
They both stopped talking as the chef approached with what Harry assumed was the best and most expensive wine that the restaurant had.
He poured them both a glass and took their orders before bowing and again exclaiming that he would make them the best meal that they had both ever eaten.
Harry sighed and tried to take his mind off all the fuss that his fame was yet again bringing him. Its what he did with Ginny, he either snogged her senseless (which almost always made things worse as they always accumulated spectators that Ginny would try her hardest to entertain) or he would try and strike up an interesting and intelligent conversation with her (which was usually about her).
Since he damn well couldn't snog Hermione (no matter how sexy that red dress made her look) he went for the second option.
"So Hermione… Did Ron ever bring you here?" Harry said, inwardly cringing at his subject choice. He knew that she was still hurt from her break up with Ron and was going to let her bring it up.
But instead of looking hurt, Hermione looked surprised that he had brought Ron into the conversation.
"No, Ron never brought me here. He's more the pub type guy. I'm sure I've been to almost every pub in London though." Hermione said, attempting at a joke to lighten the atmosphere.
Harry grinned his trademark grin. And for not the first time in her life, Hermione found herself thinking that her best friend was very…. well… sexy.
Hermione grinned before returning to the conversation. "No, we both know that Ron has the emotional range of a teaspoon." Harry smiled at this. "And this would be much to much emotion and romance for him to handle." Hermione said, sighing.
"But didn't you ever want to go somewhere romantic with him… just you and him? Instead of the club and pub scene with all his mates?" Harry said, looking at her face for the answer.
Hermione sipped her wine before replying. "Sure Harry. I even tried once. It was a disaster. Want to hear the story?"
Harry nodded.
"Well it was a few months ago." Hermione began. "I made a reservation at that nice place in Hogsmede called 'The Violin' that has just opened up. You heard of it?"
Harry nodded, replying quietly. "I took Ginny there a few weeks ago."
Hermione gave him a look of sympathy before continuing. "Well I told Ron where we were going and he chucked up a stink when I told him. But with a little convincing, he cancelled his plans at the pub and actually got dressed up and everything. I was so excited, I was finally going to get a romantic night out with my boyfriend."
Hermione sighed as she took another big sip from her wine. "Of course it ended in disaster. I should have known it would… with how much Ron didn't want to go."
"We had the biggest fight that I think we have ever had. I can't even really remember what it was about. It might have been that he thought my blue dress was too low cut and that the waiters were all seeing my 'goodies' that he said belonged to him." Both Harry and Hermione blushed at this.
"There were lots of fights about this you see Harry. He was very protective and jealous. I told him that I belonged to nobody and this seemed to anger him even more. He made a scene in front of all the couples in the restaurant and stormed out of there. I was so ashamed." Hermione said, looking down at her fidgeting hands.
Harry reached over and grabbed them, to encourage her to keep going and to tell her that he was listening and feeling her pain. She smiled at him gratefully.
"I suppose that night is when I realised that Ron wasn't really the guy for me, no matter how much I loved him. I was so convinced that all the fights we had were sexual tension, like everybody had been telling us. I had been convincing myself that the many people who said we were made for each other couldn't have all been wrong."
"But then, a few months after that, Ron proposed to me. He said that he couldn't live without me and that he would never be whole without me. This was the most romantic thing he had ever said to me, and I of course said yes, thinking that things were better and Ron could really be the guy that I wanted."
Hermione paused her story while their dinner arrived. The chef tried to talk to them some more but Harry tucked a few pound notes into his apron pocket to leave them alone so that Hermione could continue talking.
Hermione picked up her spoon and started to poke the noodles that were floating on top of her soup before trying to explain her situation to Harry so that he could help her make a decision. He was always good at helping her when there was a decision to be made and one this important, definitely needed Harry's help.
"So what happened?" Harry looked at her expectantly, urging her to continue. Harry really didn't enjoy hearing about his two best friends relationship together but Hermione had asked him for his help so he was going to give it.
Hermione smiled gratefully at Harry, he had given her a place to resume her story. "A couple of days ago, Ron and I had another fight. In the last week we had been fighting more than we had made…" Hermione blushed, she had almost revealed too much.
Harry doesn't need to know about Ron and my… activities. He just needs to help me make a decision. No more sex talk. Hermione scolded herself.
Harry realised what she was going to say and blushed as well.
"Umm, yes, well, anyway we had been fighting even more than normal. This fight was the last straw. We were fighting about our wedding. Finally, I asked Ron if he even wanted to get married. He basically told me no Harry…" Hermione said with tears streaming down her face by this stage. Harry reached over to attempt to wipe her tears away.
"No Harry, please I want to finish." Hemione said and Harry drew his hand away.
"I told him that we had to have a break. I… told him that he… that he can experiment with other… girls. That he could do… do whatever he wanted with them." Hermione said, sobbing.
"I just keep wondering if he'll find someone better than me. What if he doesn't want me anymore? Do I even want him anymore? I'm just so… scared Harry."
Harry finally stood and went to her side of the table to wrap his arms around her, trying not to think of how good she felt in his arms.
Harry's shoulder was soon very wet with her tears and he tried to comfort her by stroking her long curly hair.
"Shh Hermione, its all right." Harry muttered into her ear.
"Is it Harry?" Hermione said, lifting her head to look into his eyes. "Is it really?"
"Well Hermione, this is the way I see it." Harry began, logically. "You give him a week, but more importantly you give yourself a week. A week to decide if it's Ron that you want to spend the rest of your life with. If you decide that you still want Ron, he's still going to be there at the end of the week."
"You're right Harry." Hermione said into his shoulder. "I have a week, just like him."
"And just think, you can experiment with guys too." Harry said, nudging and winking at her.
"Harry!" Hermione cried with a smile on her face.
"Hey, innocent enough comment." Harry said, extracting himself from their embrace and going back to his side of the table.
"Hmm my soup's cold" Hermione noticed.
"Mine too. What's say we get out of here and go back to the Leaky and watch a movie together?" Harry suggested.
Hermione nodded. "I'd love that Harry."
Harry paid their bill, brought and extra bottle of wine to go with the one that they half drank and apparated himself and Hermione out of the place.
~*~*~*~*~*~*
They appeared at the bottom of the stairs at the busy Leaky Cauldron.
"Have you got any movies Harry?" Hermione asked. "Wait, the rooms don't even have TVs!"
Harry grinned at her and said. "Ill take care of it, you go up to my room, ill be there soon."
Harry handed Hermione the key to his room and ducked out towards the entrance to Diagon Alley.
Hermione almost laughed at the thought of Harry going to get a TV and videos. It seemed like such a ridiculous waste of money.
She climbed the stairs and thought about her night with Harry. She was pretty sure that her dinner with Harry had been the most romantic date she had ever been on, and it wasn't even a date.
Too bad, if it was a date Hermione could kiss….
Where did that come from? I'm with Ron! Hermione thought. But I'm not really am I?
Hermione sighed as she felt her old feelings for Harry resurface. She had tied everything to try and get them to go away and for a while, when she was with Ron they did go away… for a couple of months anyway. She knew that Harry could never like her like that.
Her feelings were another reason that her and Harry hadn't kept in touch properly. Sure there were hundreds of times when Harry had offered to take her somewhere but she had declined, in case she did something stupid, like kiss him.
Hermione opened the door and flopped onto Harry's bed and sighed. It would be so much easier if Harry returned her feelings.
Hermione almost jumbled as Harry came in with a giant TV in his arms and a pile of DVDs hovering behind him.
Harry smiled at her as he put the TV on the chest of draws. "Brought this in Diagon. Specially designed to work in magical places. Neat huh?"
"Didn't even know such a thing existed…" Hermione began. "But hey! Harry! What a waste of money, you don't even need a new TV."
"Ahh Hermione, but I do." Harry said grimly. "Ginny's going to want the apartment that she paid half for. Not that I'd want to live there anyway after seeing them…" Harry stoped himself before he told her about Ginny and Draco. He was never going to tell her about that.
"Seeing what Harry?" Hermione said softly.
"It doesn't matter, Hermione." Harry said. "Anyway I want to start these movies on this extremely large TV and I want to get extremely dunk on this extremely expensive wine. What do you say?"
"I say cheers to good company." Hermione said, clinking her glass with Harry, accepting that he didn't want to talk about what happened between him and Ginny, yet anyway.
~*~*~*~*~*~*
A/N: Wow, the longest chapter yet, hope you liked this one. The next chap will be out soon and will be about the morning after, you might, just might get to see some Hr/H fluff and see what Ron has been doing with his break. Please Review, Reviews are greatly appreciated by me and I want to thank all those who have reviewed my story so far, it gives me the confidence to keep writing and also helps me write faster (if that's an incentive for any of you out there.)