"Mione!" Ron rushed over to give her a hug, though she continued to watch Harry over his shoulder. "You should have told us you were coming back, we'd have had a party or something. Do you want something to eat? Come on I'll take you down to the kitchen and you can get your coat off. Just leave your bag there, we'll move it later."
Hermione glanced back at Harry as she followed him out of the living room and frowned when she saw he wasn't going with them. He just stood there for a moment, watching her. "Harry?"
"You two go on," he replied woodenly, "I'll just clean up this mess first."
Hermione frowned again, but - for once - did as she was told. Once she was gone Harry sent a random scourgify charm into all four corners of the room, but he wasn't really paying that much attention to what he was doing.
He had waited so long for Hermione to come back, but now that she had he didn't know what to do. He had missed her incredibly, although that didn't make up for the fact that she had hardly written - he conveniently ignored the fact that he had hardly been a consistent letter writer over the years. And where did Joey stand in all this? Had she even come back for good?
Taking a deep breath he walked out of the room and along the hall towards the kitchen. Suddenly he caught sight of himself in the large mirror they had replaced Mrs Black with; flecks of paint spattered one side of his face and a large gob of it clung to his hair - he looked like such a catch. Using his wand he managed to remove most of the green from his hair then - what was he thinking? This was Hermione, she had seen him half drowned, singed beyond recognition and in his pyjamas when he'd just woken up. Was she really going to care what he looked like? Still it didn't stop him trying to scrub his face with his sleeve as he entered the kitchen.
Ron had enlisted Kreacher's help in getting something for Hermione to eat, Harry glanced across at her as she sat at the table to see what she thought of this and… "Wow." He managed to stutter. She'd… her - well she didn't look bookish anymore that was for sure. Her hair had been cut short, about an inch below her ears, accentuating her jaw line, and having been relieved of all that extra weight it had developed into loose curls rather than just a bushy mass. He hadn't noticed it earlier because the collar of her coat had concealed the end of her hair. Add that to the fact that she had gained a golden tan from her time down-under and she was, well…
Harry cleared his throat and looked away with an effort. Erm… well… wow! It was just as well that Ron started asking her about Australia because Harry's thought process was incoherent enough, never mind trying to verbalise something. At first he wasn't paying that much attention to what Ron was saying, he kept trying to sneak a covert glance at Hermione without looking as though he was staring. However when his friend asked if she was back to stay, Harry focused all of his attention on her answer.
"Yes, I should think so. Mum and Dad sold their surgery in Perth, and they've bought a new house nearer to London so that they can see me more often. I thought I'd look into a Healership training scheme at St Mungo's or something. I'm not sure yet."
She was staying! His heart performed an odd skipping motion in his ribcage before it settled with a thud as he realised something. "What about Joey?"
Hermione looked across at him as a peculiar expression flitted across her face, but it was gone so quickly that he wasn't sure if he'd imagined it. "Joey?" she glanced briefly across at Ron, "staying in Perth. Why?"
"No reason." He quickly changed the subject and for the next few moments they spoke about fairly innocuous things such as the redecorating and Hermione's parents.
"What did they say when you gave them their memories back?" Ron asked curiously.
Hermione laughed, but Harry could see she was blushing slightly. "Well at first they couldn't remember anything that had happened for the last year, and they were a bit angry when I explained - I hadn't told them before hand you see. But after a while they understood why I did it, and then bits and pieces of the last year started coming back to them. On the whole they took it quite well, I was surprised how well they coped actually, especially Dad. He usually tends to get quite worked up about things. But I'll tell you about hat later, how is everyone? Has George gone back to his shop yet?"
"Yeah, although he said it feels really weird without Fred being there. I think he's getting used to it though. Perce got a new job; he's working for the company that published all Lockhart's books." Ron grinned wickedly at her. She was saved from further comment however because Teddy chose just that moment to alert everyone to the fact that he had woken up.
Sighing, Harry got up from the table, but Ron beat him to it. "It's fine Harry, I'll go."
Smiling at his friend, he nodded and went over to the pantry to get himself something to eat. As he was rummaging around, trying to find some of the pastries Mrs Weasley had made for them, he heard Hermione come up behind him and stand in the doorway. Feeling distinctly uncomfortable at being so close to her, he pretended not to notice and continued foraging. Finally, after what seemed like an age, she spoke.
"Harry, can we talk?"
Straightening up he composed his features into a carefully bland expression and turned around. "What about?" he asked innocently.
Walking back across to her chair she retrieved a newspaper from the pocket of her coat and dropped it onto the table. "That."
When no further explanation was forthcoming, he followed her across the room and picked it up with a sinking feeling. It was a copy of last week's Wizards in Oz containing a special article written by none other than Rita Skeeter. Harry resisted the urge to chuck the paper into the fire and have done with it.
"Well is it true?" She demanded.
Startled he looked up at her. "Mione, I have no idea what it says, but Rita Skeeter wrote it. Surely that should tell you something?"
She flushed scarlet but said nothing. Thoroughly confused, Harry unfolded the paper and scanned the article in question. It ran along a similar vein to the others: how Harry was a philandering, no good, waste of space, it quoted Ginny a number of times and -
"You mean the bit where it says that I admitted to loving you?" He made an effort not to blush as he said it.
"Yes. Is that true?"
"NO!" His response was so abrupt that he practically shouted it at her. "No," he repeated.
A funny, closed expression crossed he face and she glanced away from him before saying, "good, because I wouldn't want anything to be… you know - awkward."
The silence in the room was so complete that Harry felt it was a wonder that she couldn't hear his heart breaking. So that was it then, she had as good as admitted that she didn't return the sentiment.
Suddenly the door crashed open and Ron walked in, took one look at his friends' miserable faces and walked back out again.
"Hermione," Harry began. "All this stuff in the papers recently is just Ginny getting back at me for dumping her. You know she was always jealous of us being friends."
"Yes," she replied, "friends."
The two of them stood staring at the table for a while before finally Harry sat down. Hermione glanced up at him and smiled slightly before taking the seat opposite him. After a moment Harry realised that he was staring at her and looked away. He just couldn't get over how different she looked with her hair short. Just as the silence was becoming awkward he asked, "what made you think it was true anyway? You never usually believe Rita's rubbish."
"Well I didn't at first, but from things I'd said Joey thought that it might be true, so - so I came back to check."
"Get jealous did he?" Harry snapped.
"Harry what are you -" she looked puzzled but he cut her off, his temper getting the better of him.
"Well obviously it must be true if the wonderful Joey said it. Don't try to deny anything, Ron told me you were going out with him even if you didn't see fit to. I thought we were friends Mione? But no you go waltzing off to Australia - I know I told you to go," he added as she looked about to protest, "you never wrote to me and now you trust the word of some guy you've only just met more than mine." Every hurt, resentful thought he'd had in the last few months spilled out. Even as he said them he regretted it, but he refused to take it back or apologise; he'd meant every word he said.
Hermione, on the other hand, didn't react at all in the way he expected. Eyes flashing dangerously she laid her palms on the table and stood very slowly. "Ron said that did he? Well we'll just see about that." And with her cropped hair swinging behind her she marched out of the room leaving Harry thoroughly perplexed.
What had he said? Which part of what Ron had told him did she object to? Had he not been meant to tell him about Joey? If so, what did that mean? Why on earth would Hermione not want Harry to know that she was going out with someone - unless… But she couldn't could she? She'd have never gone out with someone else if she liked him like that, would she? He was so confused!
As he sat mulling over what had just happened and its possible significance he heard several doors slamming on the landing followed by two familiar raised voices. He groaned as he stood up, it was just like being back at school again, but they were going to wake Teddy up again if they weren't careful. After sitting drumming his fingers for what felt like ages but was probably only a few seconds he got up and moved to the kitchen door. Gently easing it open he slipped out into the hall to hear the argument better, but found that due to the vastness of the house he still couldn't make out what his friends were arguing about. Although he must be the only person in the street who couldn't - even if the house was magically shielded - they were really quite loud. Both of them seemed to be yelling at each other, but every so often Ron would go quiet and Hermione would continue to rant at him. What on earth had he said? Should he go up and try to make the peace? As far as he could see Ron hadn't done anything and really didn't deserve to get yelled at - at least not this time anyway.
He had just made his way towards the stairs when another door was nearly slammed off its hinges and someone came running back down the stairs. Before they reached the last flight he quickly dived back into the kitchen and sat down at the table again trying to look nonchalant. He listened as whoever it was paused outside the door before slowly entering.
It was Hermione, looking very flushed about the face and trying to control her breathing. Calmly she walked back to her seat opposite him and sat down, patting her shorn hair nervously. She bit her lip, fiddled nervously with the end of her sleeve and darted her eyes around the room.
Finally, when he couldn't take the silence any longer Harry opened his mouth to speak. But she beat him to it. "Oh for goodness sake this is ridiculous. Look Harry, Ron's an idiot, he got his wires crossed and blew the whole thing out of proportion and…" She leaned towards him slightly, looking directly into his eyes. "What I'm trying to say is Joey's not… we're not… Joey's a girl Harry. Ron just jumped to conclusions."
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