Disclaimer: Not mine. You know how it would have ended if it was, right?
A/N: My response to the "Kissing Santa" Challenge by leochick, which can be found here: http://talk.portkey.org/index.php?showtopic=26200. Hope you'll enjoy it, and please leave me a comment if you read, so that I know what you think of it.
Kissing The Wrong Santa
Chapter Nine: Confusion
That morning Hermione felt the unusual need to dress extra nicely.
"Oh, come on. It's just work, why should I dress in a different way?" she reasoned with herself.
Still, the fact that now another girl was working with them made her think she didn't want to look any less than her.
Finally deciding on an outfit, she quickly put it on, applied just a bit of make up like she did everyday, and was on her way to the Ministry.
She guessed Harry had not arrived yet, still she noticed his office was open. Peeking in, she saw Sarah at her desk, scribbling furiously.
"Good Morning" Hermione said. Sarah suddenly looked up and smiled. "Oh, good morning Hermione"
"I didn't think you'd be already here" the brown haired girl said with a smile, entering the room.
"Well, since I went home early yesterday, I didn't want to give Harry, and you of course, the impression I was slacking off"
Hermione nodded. She had noticed how the girl had almost let it slip that she wanted to make a good impression on Harry. Now, this was not strange, after all he was her boss, but Hermione was too, and to want to impress especially Harry, the girl must have had a crush on him.
Hermione, however, couldn't think more about that, as a voice greeted them both.
"Good morning, ladies. How are my girls today?" Harry said entering his office and seeing both of them there.
Both Hermione and Sarah blushed a bit at Harry's greeting, but he didn't notice. He did notice, instead, Hermione's attire. She was wearing a black skirt, much shorter than the ones she usually used for work, and a white top which clung to her body quite well. She was wearing her hair in a ponytail.
"Wow, Mione, having plans with Ron for tonight?" he called out to her making her blush. She shook her head.
"I just felt like dressing nice" she muttered, at which Harry nodded.
"Well, I'm off to have a coffee, anyone wants to come?" he said after having put some papers on his desk.
Both girls followed him, so they chitchatted on their way to the cafeteria and then back to their offices.
Hermione could see Harry and Sarah were getting along quite well, and while she was glad of that as it would make tutoring the girl easier and more pleasurable, she felt a bit left out.
"Oh, come on" she chastised herself. "He's just trying to make her feel at ease working with us"
Still, she felt a pang of what anyone else would call jealousy seeing how her best friend and the new girl were smiling at each other.
Once back to their offices, Hermione left Harry and Sarah alone and went to start some work on her own. Still, she sat at her table for minutes, unable to concentrate. She kept thinking to those two in the corridors, chatting and laughing together. Actually, they had tried to include her in the conversation too, but that detail had gone almost unnoticed by her.
Willing her brain to properly focus, she finally managed to get some work done, filing the papers for some new arrests that had been made in south England. Mostly little robberies and things like that, no big fishes.
Looking at her watch, she saw it was almost lunch time. Standing up, she went to Harry's office to ask him if he wanted to have lunch together.
As she approached the door, she could hear what was being said inside.
"You know, I think that sweater really brings out your eyes" Harry commented, making Sarah blush. He knew it was wrong to compliment a co-worker like that, especially if she was a rookie assigned to him, but she was really pretty. Plus, he had to make his best to forget Hermione, as she wanted to be with Ron, and that girl had been a blessing in that sense. Maybe, if he was lucky, she might help him recover.
"Thanks, Harry" came the embarrassed reply.
Hermione couldn't believe her ears. Was Harry flirting with Sarah?
Clearing her throat, she entered the room.
"Harry, I'm heading to the cafeteria to have lunch, are you coming, or will the two of you go on your own later?" she said with an hint of false sweetness in her voice. Harry knew her too well for him not to notice that, and made a mental note to ask her later.
"Of course we're coming. Right, Sarah?"
The girl nodded, taking her jacket and standing up.
"I'm quite famished, thinking of it" Harry said, walking toward the door. The three of them fell into step together and greeted some colleagues who were going to have lunch too.
As they discussed some things, Sarah took her time to study Harry. He was really handsome and that messy hair…
"Makes you want to run your hand through it, doesn't it?" Hermione said, making her jump. "Harry's hair" she added then, as Sarah was still silent.
"Oh" the younger girl blushed. "Yes, it does"
Hermione didn't know what to think. She liked the girl, but now that Sarah's interest in Harry was starting to show, she wasn't sure of what she thought of her anymore. Sure, she worked hard, and was good at her job, but…
"What are you going to have, Hermione?" Harry asked her, bringing her out of her thoughts again.
"Oh, I'll have chicken salad, thanks" she said. Harry nodded. "What about you, Sarah?"
"I'll have just a couple ham sandwiches" she said, smiling.
"Why don't you girls go fetch us a table, and I'll bring you the food?" he suggested, meeting their approval.
They ate quietly, discussing some matters Harry wanted the three of them to address in the afternoon, but suddenly he interrupted himself, and brushed away a crumb from Sarah's cheek.
"You were a bit dirty there" he explained with a grin. Hermione knew how his grins could be infectious, and the effect they usually had on girls, so she was not surprised to see Sarah embarrassedly stammer her thanks. What surprised her was her own boldness as on their way back she linked her arm with Harry's one, at which he raised his eyebrows.
Hermione just shrugged.
All the afternoon they worked together on a certain project, without time to ponder over the little things happened at lunch. However, once she was alone at home, Hermione prepared herself some hot chocolate, sat on her favourite armchair with a book in her hands, and sighed. As much as she tried to distract herself, she kept remembering the flirting between Harry and Sarah.
She was a bit put out by it, there was no doubt of that.
"But that's what you wanted, right? For him to move on and let you live happily with Ron…" she said to herself.
She tiredly rubbed her eyes.
"I didn't think he would do that so quickly though" she muttered, almost angrily. "He didn't stop twice to think about his so called love for me before flirting with another girl, in front of me nonetheless!"
But a voice that sounded eerily like her mother spoke in her head.
"He's just doing what you wanted him to do. And you know very well that to seek your loved one's happiness before your own means you really love that person, don't you? How many times you've kept your feelings for him hidden, at Hogwarts, because he seemed to like another kind of girl? Isn't this the main reason that lead you to being with Ron, after all?"
Hermione put her face in her hands, sighing, more confused than ever about her own feelings.
-->