Chapter 16: The Little Green Monster
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Life is a road
And I want to keep going
Love is a river
I wanna keep flowing
Life is a road
Now and forever
Wonderful journey
I'll be there when the world stops turning
I'll be there when the storm is through
In the end I wanna be standing
At the beginning with you
- `At the Beginning' by Richard Marx and Donna Lewis from the movie Anastasia
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A/n: Well m'dears, here's chapter 16, sorry it took so long to get out. Life's been busy busy busy all the time. Had a BLAST in Europe, I so want to go back some day! And with getting back into the swing of things, it makes it hard to sit down to write, and then when I do write there's those pesky blocks which make it really hard to write!! But anyways, hope you enjoy it!!
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"Hermione, you know what we should do sometime? This weekend even?"
Hermione tiredly turned toward Harry and said, "What's that?"
"How about if I take you out for dinner or something on Saturday night?"We can go celebrate."
"Shouldn't it be the other way around, you're the one with something to celebrate, and I should take you out."
"Yeah, but I owe you, remember?" Harry said with a grin.
Hermione smiled and yawned.
"Sounds good, Harry. But as for right now, I think I'm going to go to bed, I need to get up and get going back to school in the morning, and I need to be there early enough to get things ready for classes,"
she said, standing up and stretching. "That is, if it's alright with you if I stay here tonight."
"It's your house too, stay however long you like."
"No, it's not my house, remember? I still have my flat."
"Oh," Harry said, slightly taken aback at Hermione's statement. "That's right."
Hermione smiled and said, "Good night, Harry." She headed for the stairs but was stopped by the ringing of the doorbell. Harry and Hermione gave each other confused looks, wondering who was there, and why they decided that 2 a.m. was the best time to come visit.
Hermione said, "Who in the world comes by this time of night?" She opened the door, and was surprised to find Barrett Smyth standing on the doorstep.
"Barrett. What are you doing here?"
"I'm sorry it's so late, but I wanted to give you something. I went back up to the school and they said you'd be here. I wanted to give you this." He held a newspaper out to her. "It's tomorrow's newspaper, they just printed it, and I wanted to give it to you right away. Oh, hello, Mr. Potter," Barrett said when Harry came to stand next to Hermione in the doorway, a look that could've been construed as anger on his face.
"Who're you?"
"My name's Barrett Smyth, Mr. Potter. I'm the one reporting the story about Miss Weasley's interrogation." He held his hand out to shake, which Harry just glanced at and didn't take. He figured kindness and courtesy stopped at midnight, and him stopping by at two in the morning was enough to push Harry's temper a little bit, and give him a bad impression.
Harry's dislike for Barrett increased when he said next to Hermione, "I was also wondering if maybe you'd like to have dinner sometime. I know this isn't really the best time for it, but I wasn't for sure when I'd see you next."
"Oh! Um, I don't know, when?"
"This weekend work?"
"Oh, well this weekend Harry and I are going out to celebrate. But that's Saturday, so I'd only be free Friday night." Hermione kept looking out of the corner of her eye at Harry, who didn't seem too pleased at what was happening in front of him.
"Friday night's great. I can pick you up at the school."
"No, how about here, it's easier. What time?"
"Is seven ok?"
"Seven is fine. I'll see you then."
"Yeah, see you Friday." Barrett was about to say goodnight, but Harry ended up shutting the door in his face. Hermione gave him a scolding look in response.
"That was rude, Harry."
"It's two in the morning. Who the hell comes over at two in the morning to ask someone out on a date?"
"It was late because they just finished printing the paper for tomorrow morning. He just wanted to bring it over to us so we could see the article."
"He's probably just as bad as Rita Skeeter, I wouldn't trust him if I were you."
"How about you read his article first before you start judging him? And he isn't anything like Rita Skeeter."
"How do you know?"
"Because I've talked with him and he just doesn't seem to have that same underhandedness that Rita does."
"It could be an act."
"Just stop it, Harry. I can take care of myself. I am able to assess peoples' characters. You don't have to look after me, Harry. You don't need to try to protect me anymore." Harry didn't answer her, he just watched her turn from the door and walk up the stairs and go to her bedroom.
She was right, now Voldemort was gone, and the threat of Dark wizards was over, he didn't need to try to protect her anymore. Harry sighed and started climbing the stairs to head to bed. Once he got there and was lying in bed trying to fall asleep, all the thoughts running through his head kept him from getting to sleep right away. And what he should've been thinking about was the fact that he was going to be able to teach again, and soon he'd have Teddy back. But the only thing that was going through his mind was Hermione and that reporter she'd be going out with on Friday.
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The next morning, Barrett's article came out in the Daily Prophet. And though Harry wouldn't admit it to Hermione, it wasn't as bad as he was thinking it would be. There was nothing in it about heralding Harry as the great Harry Potter famous Boy Who Lived or Man Who Conquered. All it mentioned was the outcome of the interrogation, and a little back story on the situation. All in all, it wasn't really that impressive of an article for going out in the middle of the night to bring it to someone so they could read it. Hermione didn't say much to him that morning. She was in a hurry though; she rushed through breakfast and sped out the door to apparate to the school. Harry wasn't concerned about it too much; his mind was on other things. He received a letter from McGonagall saying he could come back to work next Monday, and a letter from Amelia Lynch requesting that he come speak with her that afternoon concerning Teddy. The day showed promise, and he didn't want to ruin it with thoughts of that wanker that was trying to date Hermione.
That afternoon, Harry found himself in Ms. Lynch's office. He was so relieved to get Teddy back it was all he could think of.
"How are you this afternoon Mr. Potter?"
"Excited." Amelia smiled.
"Well, the Fischer's are very glad that this situation turned out as well as it did, from what they've told me, they've had some problems with Teddy."
"What kind of problems?"
"He's been crying constantly, angry all the time, and his hair has been consistently fire engine red the whole time. They believe it's because he missed you and didn't know where you were, and it made him angry and scared because he couldn't find you."
"Well that's what happens when you take a child from its home and place him with complete strangers just like that," Harry said somewhat coldly.
"Mr. Potter, you have to understand our position. We had to do something; people were demanding he be removed from your care until this whole mess was sorted out. It was all out of the best interest for Teddy."
"I don't think he benefited much from it."
"Well, either way, this is all over and you can have him back now."
"Where is he?"
"My assistant is bringing him." A few minutes later, Amelia's assistant came in with Teddy in her arms. His hair was gray and his expression was gloomy. But when he saw Harry, he perked up and grinned, his hair turning orange. He said, "Dad!" and squirmed to get away from the assistant and to Harry. The woman handed Teddy over to Harry, who held him close.
"I missed you, squirt. I'll never lose you again."
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"She's dating?"
"Yeah, first date's this Friday." Ron looked surprised, the news that Harry gave him wasn't really anything he expected. After picking up Teddy, Harry had gone to Diagon Alley to the Weasley shop to see Ron. Ron had asked about Hermione, and the topic of her date on Friday was the first thing that came up.
Ron gave a short laugh. "Wow. So who is he? Anybody we know?"
"You know the article this morning in the paper talking about the interrogation?"
"Yeah?"
"It's that guy. Barrett Smyth. He came over at two in the morning last night to give her the article and ask her out."
Ron laughed again. "I'm surprised she didn't throw him out for coming over that late."
"No, but I wanted to. The guy's a tool, I have no idea why she'd even consider going out with him."
"Hmm," Ron said, grinning. "Sounds like someone's been bitten by the little green monster of jealousy."
"I'm not jealous." Ron laughed and gave Harry a look that said he didn't believe him. Harry said defensively, "I'm not."
"Hmm, I kind of want to meet this Smyth character. Friday you say is the date?"
"Yep. Seven o'clock."
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There was a knock at the door at five minutes to seven Friday evening. Hermione rushed down the stairs to make sure and get the door before Harry did. Both she and Harry got there at the same time.
"Don't you have something you want to do tonight, Harry? Why don't you take Teddy somewhere tonight?"
Harry shook his head and said in what was supposed to be a nonchalant tone, "No, we're fine." Hermione nervously sighed. Harry nodded toward the door and said, "Are you going to let him in?"
"Are you going to leave?"
"No. It's my house." Hermione opened the door a crack and peeked through it. She sighed a frustrated sigh and opened it all the way when she saw who it was.
"What are you doing here?"
Ron grinned. "I heard you have a date tonight."
Hermione glared at Harry and then said, "So what if I do?"
"Well, Harry was telling me about him, and I want to meet him."
"No you don't."
"Yeah I do. Have to make sure he's worthy enough for our best friend."
"Yeah right. You're going to try and scare him away."
"Well, if he scares easily then you know he's not the one for you." Hermione rolled her eyes and was about to reply, but was stopped by a knock on the door.
"If that's another person you've invited to be here, I'll have to hurt you, Harry."
"Don't worry, I only invited Ron. It's not that bad."
"Ron's bad enough," Hermione muttered as she went to go answer the door. Barrett was standing on the doorstep, nervously shifting his weight from foot to foot. He had a bouquet of flowers in his hand, and he smiled and stopped moving when Hermione opened the door.
"Hey."
"Hello, Barrett."
"How're you tonight, Hermione?"
"I'm fine and you?"
"Good. Oh, here, these are for you," Barrett said, handing Hermione the flowers.
"Thanks."
Barrett smiled weakly, his glance flickering back and forth from Hermione to the two men standing behind her, watching his every move. "Um, are you ready to go?"
"Yeah, let's go."
Ron cleared his throat pointedly and said, "Um, Hermione, aren't you going to introduce us?"
"No, I'm not."
"Oh come on, Hermione, we want to meet this guy." Hermione sighed.
"Alright, Barrett, these are my friends. You already met Harry, and this here is Ron Weasley. Ron, this is Barrett Smyth." Ron reached forward and offered his hand to shake Barrett's. Barrett, still nervous, shook Ron's hand weakly. He was going to shake Harry's hand too, but after seeing the look Harry was giving him he was a little scared to.
"Well, Barrett, we should get going before it gets too late. `Night boys," Hermione said over her shoulder as she and Barrett headed for the door. Barrett seemed all too glad to get out of that house.
Ron grinned and said, "Have fun you two, don't have her out too late, Smyth!" Hermione whipped around and glared at Ron. She mouthed, "Shut up!" to him, causing him to laugh. The door closed behind them and Ron said, "Nervous little bloke, isn't he? But I agree with you, he is a tool."
"Yeah, I don't know what she sees in him. Why would she go out with a guy like that?"
"Probably because he asked, someone else didn't." Ron looked at Harry pointedly.
"I don't like Hermione that way, Ron."
"Whatever you say, Harry. But how's that muggle phrase go? Ah yes, `denial isn't just a river in Egypt." Harry rolled his eyes in response. Ron changed the subject saying, "But anyways, I have to go, Mum invited me for dinner tonight, so I should get going. I told her I'd be by after stopping by here first. You and Teddy can join us if you like. It'll be a Ginny free evening since she's still at school. No one will probably bring up last week at all. It'd be better than sitting around here all night waiting for Hermione to come home."
Harry nodded in agreement. "Sounds like a good idea. Let me just go get Teddy."
A/n: I have a feeling if I don't say something about this I'm going to get some reviews mentioning this…I already received some regarding the situation with Harry getting accused of a relationship with a student. I just have to say to those people, this is fiction. And also, I might try something next chapter dealing with how all of what has happened gets blown over and forgotten. Some of that magic stuff that would make life so much easier. :) So yeah, not sure if that all made sense or not, but if you don't like how everyone bounced back from the situation, just bear with me, I'll do a little more explaining next chapter. Till then…
Husker_fan_2006
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