Disclaimer: JKR owns; FOX owns.
Mr. & Mrs. Evans
Chapter 3: Thoughts on an Affair
[A/N]: A few quick words before you start. I noticed some mistakes in the previous chapter that I had to correct. First one was Draco being mentioned in the prologue. That was wrong and it should've been Sirius. Second thing was I forgot to mention the code name Hermione was going under in chapter one which is Hermione Jane Troy. (Troy? Conceited? I think not!). It's very important to remember that Harry met her under the pretences that she was Hermione Troy and he was Harry Evans. Oh, and if I haven't made it clear already (its late here so I'm not going to check), the agency Harry works for is called the Order of the Phoenix. Someone slap me for being unoriginal.
Okay I think that's it. I'm so sorry I slipped up on that *smacks self over the head repeatedly*
Please, enjoy.
…
Overall, you could say Harry and Hermione Evans led a pretty happy, calm, muggle existence. In a pretty happy, calm, muggle neighbourhood. Harry would go out in the morning clad in his forest green bath robe to pick up the muggle paper while Hermione was in the kitchen preparing them a cup of coffee and healthy breakfast while listening to the telly report the morning news. They would shower separately, dress for work, and brush their teeth all the while not having any sort of conversation that a normal husband and wife would share during their morning rituals. Maybe a casual "Hmm, the underground has a new ticket taking system." and as a response, "Oh, that sounds nice."
They would both walk down the stairs at the same time; reach for their respective car keys on their respective hangers at the same time... Sometimes if things got interesting they would have to weave in between each other to get to their briefcases or coats. But that was only on rare occasions.
Marriage counselling was supposed to fix all this.
...
"Mr. Evans, it's good of you to come back. I want to assure you that you're getting quality care for your money," said the kind voice of Dr. Kindleman as he sat down in the chair in front of Harry.
Harry wanted to roll his eyes at the bloke, but let himself nod curtly instead.
"If I may ask Mr. Evans, where is that charming wife of yours?"
Harry looked up sharply, "Work. I wanted to come alone this time."
"Are there things you want to tell me without divulging them to your wife?" he asked, raising his eyebrows and steepling his fingers in front of him.
Harry looked taken aback, "No. I just thought I'd come and get some personal advice-"
"What type of personal advice, Mr. Evans?"
"I- I just... look, I love my wife. And I want her to be happy because she deserves that-"
"Mr. Evans are you honest with your wife?"
Harry looked at him sceptically. He was beginning to think it was a mistake coming here, "Pretty honest. I mean, everyone deserves to keep some things private-"
"Now, Mr. Evans do you think your wife is honest with you?"
Harry furrowed his eyebrows, "What do you mean? Why wouldn't she be?"
"Harry- can I call you Harry?" asked Dr. Kindleman not bothering to look up from his clip board for a response, "Harry from evaluating your marriage life for these past two sessions I can honestly guarantee that you are not doing anything wrong here." he finished with what was supposed to be a comforting smile.
Harry leaned back in his chair, clearly confused.
"Let me make this clear Harry," he said throwing aside his clip board and moving to sit on the edge of his seat so he could look into Harry's eyes better and started slowly, "Woman only act this way when they're feeling an emotion caused by unsatisfied needs from their husband." He finished gesturing his hands at him.
"What are you talking about? I'm sure-"
"Who's the guy she's boning?" asked Dr. Kindleman quickly.
"What?! She's not boning-"
"I can guarantee it to you Mr. Evans... the signs are clear. You're wife is having an affair-"
"The signs are clear? You've only met my wife once!"
"Please Mr. Evans, Harry, I am not the one you should be taking your anger out on. Your wife-"
"My wife is NOT having an affair!"
"Are you sure about that."
"YES." Harry said confidently, his arms crossing over his chest in his seat.
"How sure?"
"Is this another one-to-ten scenario-"
"Look you probably think you're the only couple going through this but I'll tell you... there are millions..."
"Uh-huh." sounded Harry clicking his tongue impatiently. 'This bloke is a total waste of time. What was Hermione thinking?'
"Harry if you're feeling this upset about it I can provide a variety of services to you. Such as more counselling, uh perhaps a grieving session, if you find out where the bloke she's banging lives I have a crew that'll go and beat the bloody hell out of him with a crow bar and if not then-"
"Look, my wife's not having an affair. And I don't think either of us will be needing your services again." said Harry standing up and grabbing for his coat.
Dr. Kindleman stood and placed a hand on his shoulder, "I understand this is hard Harry. My ex-wife... she was the bloody whore of Babylon but that didn't stop me from trying to see some good in her and I only got hurt. I think, in your case, divorce is inevitable." Harry's eyes were fixed on Dr. Kindleman's in a blank furry, "And um, when you do divorce Hermione, do you think you can give her my number?"
That was it, Harry turned and punched Dr. Kindleman straight in the nose, sending him reeling across the room. Harry took a few calming breaths while staring at the man on the floor holding his now bleeding nose.
"Thank you for your time, Doc." he finished leaving through the door as his secretary came running in.
...
"Where've you been?" asked Hermione as Harry walked in the door soaking wet from the rain.
"What's that love?" he asked slipping his coat off and hanging it on the rack. He grabbed the pile of post on the counter and walked into the kitchen where Hermione was waiting holding a glass of wine.
"It's 7:30, dinner's at 7. You're late where have you been?" She took a sip from her glass as Harry eyed her.
"I'm sorry, I didn't know I was running late." he told her switching a few letters back and forth.
Hermione narrowed her eyes as she seen Harry's right hand, "Harry why are your knuckles swollen?"
"Huh?" he asked looking up at her.
"Your hand," she said pointing towards his bruised fist with her glass.
"Oh, it's nothing, love." He made a mental note to soak his hand in essence of murtlap later.
"Harry-"
"I'm starving, I could really do with some of your cooking right now." he said throwing the post down on a spot on the counter and coming over to kiss her on the cheek.
"It's still warm," she said. Harry didn't have to know that she placed a re-heating charm on it.
"Yeah looks great," he said giving her a smile from the table.
...
"Hermione, will you come in here darling?" shouted Harry from the bedroom.
"What?" asked Hermione coming in with two large leather bound books, her reading glasses placed neatly on her nose.
"What happened to the bed comforter?" asked Harry.
Hermione beamed at him, "You noticed! I just had them put on before you got home. I seen it at the department store and I just had to buy them, it's a lovely colour, don't you think?"
Harry pursed his lips and looked at her trying not to show emotion to Hermione's happy face, "What was wrong with the old one?"
"It's spring Harry, the dark blue was out of season." she said obviously.
"But I liked it."
"And you don't like this?" asked Hermione, her face falling.
"Well," Harry started about to tell her exactly what he thought of the light sea foam colour up until he seen her crest fallen expression, "Oh no, this is nice too."
She smiled again at him.
Glad that he was back on her well wishes he continued, "But, uh, we'll have to re-paint the walls, get new lampshades, maybe a new rug. I know how you like to remodel."
"Excellent. We can do it together next weekend maybe?" she asked coming up to him to kiss him on the cheek.
"Yeah, sure-" he was interrupted by the sudden ringing coming from Hermione's office.
"Ooh, I have to get that," she said dropping the books on the vomit green comforter and sprinting from the room into her downstairs office.
Harry came downstairs a few minutes later and seen Hermione through her glass office still talking on the phone. She paused for a moment, listening to the other line, and then started laughing. Harry felt his stomach drop. God, how he loved her laugh, and whoever was on the opposite line was obviously doing a fine job of it. 'Could Kindleman be right? Could Hermione be seeing another bloke?'
He shook his head disgusted for even thinking so 'No... Not my Hermione... she doesn't have the heart to do that to someone she loves.' He felt his stomach drop again, 'Does she even love me anymore?'
"Harry, are you alright?" asked Hermione gently, putting a hand on his shoulder.
"Hmm?"
"You're looking a little pale, maybe you should go take a kip." she said feeling his forehead and looking at him with concerned eyes.
"Um, no, we promised the Finkle's tonight, remember?" said Harry.
"I remember." she said as she turned around and grabbed a long black coat from the hall closet.
"Are you going somewhere?"
"Sienna's having bloke troubles again. Looks like I'm going to have to go over there and knock some sense into her to pull her out of her silly depression," she finished walking over to Harry and grabbing her car keys that were on the counter next to him.
"What's the blokes name this time? Brandon?" Harry asked half amusedly.
"Michael. I guess he wanted to get serious so she broke it off and now she's regretting it."
"Will you be back in time?" Harry asked over his shoulder as she started off for the back door.
"Yeah, this shouldn't take long. It's just a quickie." She turned to leave again when Harry called out her name and walked up to her.
He pressed his lips firmly against hers lingering a while before pulling away, "I love you."
She smiled timidly, "Love you too."
He closed the door behind her and watched her climb into her black car and pull out of the driveway through the curtained window. He sighed, resting his head on the door for a few moments before figuring now was as good a time as ever to dash over to Grimmauld Place for the debriefing Sirius said he had to give.
He grabbed his own heavy black coat, pulling the top over his head to keep from getting wet, and walked out the back door, not bothering to lock it behind him. He walked through the back garden until he reached the shed. Once he was inside the shed he closed his eyes and focused on number 12 Grimmauld Place. After being squeezed through what's like a butterbeer bottle Harry appeared out front of his Godfather's house and headquarters with a soft crack.
He hurried up the steps wanting to get inside as soon as possible to dry off. "Sirius, you here?" he yelled from the entrance hall.
"Harry?" Sirius popped his head out through the kitchen doors, "I'm glad you're here, we're one man short for a mission tonight."
Harry looked down at the watch Hermione gave him last Christmas, "I have to be back for a dinner party in like an hour..."
"Alright then, we'll hurry," he said leading him back to the kitchen where Ron Weasley and Draco Malfoy were sitting in the kitchen.
"Hey mate," Harry said shaking both their hands and sitting down next to Ron.
"How's the-" Ron asked taking a sip of Butterbeer.
"Good," Harry said instantly. He knew Ron was referring to Hermione since he was one of three who knew he had a wife. Ron, Sirius, and Remus all knew about his alter ego- all being present at his wedding and Ron being his best man. Hermione found all of them quite charming but she was quite fond of Sirius in particular. Harry's Godfather always knew the right things to say to his wife.
Draco on the other hand was one of the members of the Order that had been left out of secret. During the war, Draco had proved to which side his loyalties truly lay, and was a great contributor to ultimate demise of Voldemort. Whether he came to the light to spite his father or because he truly believed in their cause remains a mystery. Harry considered him a good friend- but there were differences between friends you consider your brothers and friends who you get along with you and have a good time with.
And one thing was for sure, Draco Malfoy could never be Harry Potter's (much less Evans' ) brother.
"Alright boys, let's get to business. Tonight, we're gonna keep it quick and simple. As you all know, Paul Reeves is in town tonight, visiting his five star hotel to make sure everything's living up to standards. We've received information that he'll be taking a trip down into his security vault to get a white laptop computer-
"What's so important about a muggle computer?" asked Draco, in a bored voice.
"We don't know, and it's not our job to find out. All we do is get in there- take it- get out. This is a mission given to his by our friends at SOCA-"
Ron laughed, "Those bloody idiots can't solve anything for themselves..."
Sirius smirked along with Harry and Draco, "Like I was saying, all we're doing is getting the computer and turning it in to them. And as reward we're getting a handsome prize."
Draco, Ron, and Harry's grins grew larger as Sirius revealed to them their salary for the job.
"Okay, this will be a two man mission, with the other and I sitting in a cafe across the street for back up and the get away. We have no knowledge of Reeves being in any contact of wizards or witches so let's keep the magic to a minimum. First, Reeves likes to eat dinner at the hotel restaurant and will then have a cigar out on the terrace with a few of his close associates. From there..."
Harry continued to nod his head absently at what Sirius was saying. He made a grab for Reeves file and started thumbing through pictures of him, his cronies, his muggle bank records... and anything else you could possibly imagine that the Order had dug up on him. He sighed, not wanting to think about power hungry wizards and what kind of havoc they were creating with their stupid computers.
Instead his mind wandered back to Hermione and what she was doing right now. Was she really at Sienna's flat, trying to fix her friend's abysmal love life? Or was she somewhere else... with someone else?
...
Thank you all for the supportive reviews!
I think I'm getting into a nice habit of updating something every Tuesday.
Here's a few important things:
- When I'm switching Hermione and Harry back between their home lives and their work lives their last name will change. Harry is still Harry Potter to Sirius, Ron, and the rest of the order and Hermione is still Hermione Granger to all her friends from her agency. Only a few close people know that either of them are married.
-SOCA is an agency in England similar to the FBI or CIA or whatever the big intelligence agency is in the states.
Things definitely start to heat up after this chapter, and a more exciting bit is that it gets ORIGINAL!!!
Please, if you have any doubts about me going at it straight from the movie- just keep reading; it'll get more interesting I promise, and it won't be a carbon copy from the film. I do have a few more tricks up my sleeve ;]
Oh, and another thing… REVIEW!