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Adjacent To The Fray by SilverMuse
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Adjacent To The Fray

SilverMuse

Rating: PG

Disclaimer: I do not own any of this whatsoever.

Spoilers: Books 1-4.

Pairing (if any): H/Hr, D/G

Author's Notes: Now this is a story all about how my life got flipped turned upside and I'd like to take a minute, just sit right there, I'll tell you how he became a guy…called…Harry…Black. Doesn't really rhyme does it? Anyway, I'm so sorry for the delay in this chapter but my computer, poor soul, had been hit with the MS Blaster virus. Little bugger made me wipe my C drive. It's good all my stuffs in D, isn't it? I've tried to get this chapter up for ages but my Internet connection was down. Stupid broadband. So, here it is.

Summary: We see the first glimpse of D/G interaction and Hermione's reaction to a stranger. Read and fine out.

Glimpse Of A Stranger

Hermione sighed as she clicked open her front door, dropping her bag instantly onto the carpet and removing her shoes. The front door clicked shut and Hermione slumped onto the large sofa, feet up and lying still.

"Busy day?" Draco asked, walking in from the kitchen. He had a huge grin on his face. He still looked more or less the same he did at Hogwarts, just taller with broader shoulders. He was drying a mug with a tea towel.

Hermione nodded and made a grunting noise. Draco took that as a 'Yes, make me a cup of tea.' He chuckled before retreating back into the kitchen; the kitchen was safe.

The front door clicked again. "I'm home!"

It was Ginny. She shut the door and dropped her bag next to Hermione's. The first thing she saw in the front room was Hermione on the sofa then Draco walking into the front room carrying a cup of tea. Ginny walked into the front room; pecked Draco then slumped down into the big comfy chair.

"Busy day, Herm?" Ginny asked, sipping Hermione's tea.

"Yep," Hermione said in a whisper almost as she sat up, and took the tea from Ginny. "Hectic."

Hermione coughed for a second. "We must've had at least several hundred witches in today for the new Zelsky Benevar cook book, which I did get a copy of for you so don't worry."

Ginny sighed in relief. "Thank Merlin. I thought I was going to have to queue in that disaster. I saw the line from my office window."

"Long?" Draco asked, entering the front room again with two cups of tea for himself and Ginny.

"I'll say," Hermione replied. "I've been run off my feet all morning. I'll be getting triple time today. Nina and Greg were on the sick again."

"Bastards," Ginny said. "The worst day of the year and they have to owl in sick. Typical for those two."

Nina and Greg were a couple who worked together with Hermione at Flourish and Blotts in Diagon Alley. They were well known for taking multiple sick days but no one could fire them because Nina's father owned the company…Nina Flourish.

Ginny and Draco had met Greg and Nina at F&B's Christmas party the year before. Ginny had disliked them instantly but Draco had tried to maintain a pleasant conversation, however hard that might have been. Hermione had eventually told him to just give up, to submit to the inevitable that those two were just awful people.

"Alright," Draco said after a minute. He checked his watch then headed for the cloak rack and donned his cloak. "Dinner's in the oven, tea's in the kettle, coffee's in the pot and the cat's in the furnace. See you tonight."

He kissed Ginny again before leaving for work. He worked at the Ministry of Magic and because of his full time shift, he had to pull one late night a week, five to twelve. Tonight, he'd be stopping at his friend's for a drink. The late nights didn't bother him in the least. A suitable bedtime for himself and Ginny would be four in the morning. They were night owls.

"Wanna go out for a drink?" Ginny asked, slipping her shoes on. "Lavender and Parvati are going down tonight."

"Haven't we got any butterbeer left in the fridge?" Hermione asked standing up.

Ginny shook her head. "Ran out last night."

Hermione already had her cloak on and shoes, keys in hand and wand in pocket before Ginny could finish her sentence.

"Move yourself woman!" Hermione commanded, ushering Ginny out of the door.

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"Congratulations Harry!" Draco grinned widely as he stepped through Harry's doorway. Harry shook hands with his old friend and hugged what could only be described as a 'manly' hug.

"Cheers Draco," Harry smiled taking Draco's coat and hanging it on the coat rack. "We picked a right night to have the party, didn't we?"

Draco raised an eyebrow. "You couldn't mean the absolutely boiling temperatures outside of this homestead could you?"

Harry laughed as they walked into the living room. "Something like that. There's about thirty fans on the go in the house."

The guests inside the Black residence greeted Draco as he entered, receiving him warmly. Within moments, Draco had a bottle in hand and had made his way back into Harry's company.

"How's everything with Ginny?" Harry asked, gulping from his bottle of CherryGloss.

"Great," Draco replied, taking the cap off the bottle. "She's being as much of a female Weasley as possible lately. She's got the PMT hands down."

Sirius laughed. "That's not the Weasley gene. That's a Puddlethwayt for you."

"Puddlethwayt?" Draco asked, cocking his eyebrow. "What in the world's one of them?"

"Molly Weasley's wonderful family," Sirius grinned and then sighed, lost in memory. "Ah, the days when my mother used to curse the lot of them for their fiery tempers during the 'women's monthly curse'."

They all laughed heartily, finding something new about their friends and family every day.

"So, any closer to tying the knot with Ginny?" Harry asked, taking a swig from his bottle then placing it on the coffee table.

Draco shook his head disdainfully. "It's not for lack of trying. I've asked and asked and asked…and each time she keeps saying no. I don't know what she's waiting for."

"Well," Sirius began, cleaning out his left ear with his pinkie finger. "Molly was pregnant with Bill when she got married to Arthur. Molly's mum, Bertha was pregnant with Peter, Molly's eldest brother, when she married Zachary. Maybe…"

Draco's eyes went wide in horror. "She's not waiting for a baby is she?"

"Could be," Harry shrugged. "How often do you…you know?"

"We're at it like hormonally imbalanced bunnies, " he replied, running a hand through his slick blond hair, making it stand on end at the front. "I can't have a kid right now."

"Why not?" Sirius smiled happily at the prospect. "You've got a booming business and a loving home life. What's there to lose?"

Sirius dispersed into the crowd as Draco sighed. "Some sanity perhaps."

Harry laughed and pushed his glasses back up his nose. "She's probably just waiting for the right time, or mood, or present. She'll accept eventually."

A moment of silence followed the comment. Not a really awkward silence but a knowing one at least. Before Harry could say a word, Draco had turned back to him and asked the question he was expecting but not longing for.

"When are you going to remove the charm?"

Harry sighed exasperated. "I don't know."

"Don't you think you should?" He asked, standing up a little more and brushing some grit of his shoulder. "You're both wasting away without each other."

By both, he meant Harry and Hermione. Ever since the memory charm was cast, Harry had been wasting away to nothing. His life was barely active anymore and when it was, it was consumed by work and work alone. He spent long nights in his office at the Ministry filing paperwork and whatever else needed doing. He'd become like a permanent fixture in the Ministry's sleeping quarters. The House Elves had found out that by cleaning around him, they could get all the work done without having to face Harry's Potter's wrath.

"She misses you, you know," Draco said, drinking down the rest of his drink and putting the empty bottle on the carpet. "You can see it, she knows something's missing even though she can't put her finger on it. She's a clever witch, the cleverest the both of us know."

Harry remembered bumping into Hermione on the London underground a few weeks ago. They said pardon to each other, even exchanged flirtatious glances as they tried to manoeuvre around each other in the funny way they do in the movies. She moved to the right, so did he…etc. He'd seen it then, her change in the way she walked, the way she carried herself…like the world was weighing her down and she had no support anymore.

"One day she'll figure it out," Draco stated. "And then…"

Snap.

He clicked his fingers in front of Harry's face, awakening him back to loud reality from his quiet little world.

"Everything will come spilling out," he ended. "You're better off getting it over and done with now."

Harry waved his hand dismissing the conversation he'd just had with the young Malfoy. "It won't happen, but I'll think about it.

"It must be nice to live in your world, Harry," Draco laughed standing fully and walking towards the beer fridge on the other side of the room.

Maybe Draco was right, Harry thought. Maybe it was time it all ended. The charade has gone on long enough. It was time to reveal the truth to the world. But what if they didn't accept him? What if they no longer wanted anything to do with him?

"Oh, Harry's back," they would say. "Did you go somewhere? No matter, go and hide in a corner or something."

Harry Potter was an insecurity and a ticking emotional bomb waiting to explode.

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Draco turned up on his home doorstep in a drunken stupor. He managed to fit the right key inside the lock and push the door open. Unable to take the alcohol and fishes swimming on the inside of his eyeballs, he crashed down onto the carpet of the entrance hall, his tongue lolling out of his mouth stupidly.

The girls turned up about five minutes later. By now, they were used to Draco turning up home drunk. They managed to get him through to his bedroom and Ginny undressed him while Hermione brewed up a nice cup of tea for the lot of them.

Kicking her shoes off her feet, Hermione lay back on the couch, letting her legs flatten out against the soft cushions of the green couch. For a moment, she was able to just breathe, letting her mind relax from the night of drinking with her old school friends. It was then that she noticed the colour of the couch. Green. She always had an affinity for the colour green. Forest green was her lustful side, but usually she stuck with emerald green.

The green reminded her of a pair of eyes she only ever saw in her dreams. They weren't real; they didn't belong to anyone in particular. A pair of green eyes staring at her through black bangs and slightly rectangular glasses. It was odd that she had the vision of the eyes, because she'd never known anyone with those colour eyes or anyone with black hair who wore glasses except for Rod Thompson…and nobody wanted to hear that name again.

Slowly, Hermione closed her eyes and let herself drift off quietly in the living room, her mug of tea slowly going cold on the coffee table.

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"Has there been any morning orders?" Maria asked, holding the quill between her forefinger and thumb, twirling it around the inkpot.

Hermione shook her head. "No, but there has been a few for this afternoon. The list should be…"

She reached down under the counter and retrieved a small slip of parchment. Hermione slid the parchment across the counter to Maria, who smiled in thanks then proceeded to write down the orders on the parchment.

The bookshop had been bustling with the Hogwarts students arriving for their supplies. Hermione remembered her first trip to Diagon Alley all them years ago, how excited she'd been just walking into Flourish & Blotts to collect her books. One day, she thought, she'd be taking her child to Diagon Alley to buy their Hogwarts supplies for their first year at the castle, hopefully under the tutelage of Professor Dumbledore.

But there would be no chance in the world that any child of Hermione Granger's would take Divination. It was the most imprecise branch of magic, so said Professor McGonagall.

Hermione smiled at the thought just as the bell above the doorway rang, alerting the staff to a customer's presence within the bookstore.

"Hello, how may I help you?" Maria's voice sounded from the other side of the shop.

"Hi, I was just looking for any books you have on Beauxbatons," a familiar voice said.

"The school in France?" Maria asked. Then there was the unmistakable sound of the catalogue being dropped onto the desk and the flicking of pages as Maria searched through the index.

Hermione walked around the front of Flourish & Blotts. The sight before her nearly knocked her for six.

Stood at the counter with Maria was the dark haired, green-eyed guy she'd dreamed about. The same nose, the same glasses, the same jaw…it was him all over. The way his shoulders were firm not slouched, his posture was an exact match…but there was no way a guy out her dreams could be at all real. No chance in the world.

"I'm sorry," Maria said flicking through the index again. "We don't have any in stock right now but I could put an order down for one if you want."

The man smiled and Hermione's knees buckled.

"Yeah, that'd be great," he replied, placing a hand down on the counter casually. On his middle finger was a golden lion's head, it's mane encrusted with diamonds. She recognised the ring, how could she forget that ring? Yet another thing that belonged to her dream guy.

Maria brought out a quill and paper. "Can I have your name and owling address?"

"Harry Black," the man said.

Finally! She had a name for him. Harry…Harry Black…Harry suited him, but not Black. Black seemed…tagged onto his name somehow, like it didn't really belong there.

"44 Lloyds, Diagon Alley," Harry stated, fiddling with the ring on his finger, twisting it around with his thumb. "Could you send me anything on the schooling there? Subjects and maybe a course list?""

Maria chuckled. "Bit old to enrol aren't you?"

Harry laughed a little before replying, "It's for a friend of mine actually. He's been offered a job there."

"I'd heard they were taking on new staff," Maria said, closing the index catalogue and putting it under the counter. "Well, Mr Black, we'll owl post you as soon as any new books come through."

Harry smiled warmly, "Thank you," he said before leaving through the front door, making the bell above the door ring.

Hermione nearly ran to the closed door and watched Harry cross the street, nod at a few pedestrians and walk into the Quidditch Supply shop across the road. She turned away from the door and walked back to the shop counter, letting her eyes linger over the register.

'Harry Black, 44 Lloyds, Diagon Alley,' Maria had written down under a 'Mr T. Shurkot, 12 Burker, BrookHolme.'

Hermione returned to her book categorising as Maria passed carrying a stack of the new cookbook. She placed them down on the nearest shelf and pulled out her wand, making the books stand up and dazzle.

"So," Maria started. "That Harry was a bit of alright, wasn't he?"

Hermione shrugged. "Seen it all before."

Maria made a small laugh. "No tall, dark, handsome strangers in your near future?"

"None that I'm aware of," Hermione smiled.

Maria put her wand back in her uniform robe pocket and leaned on the counter, watching Hermione write down the book names in the catalogue ticking them off one by one. "Didn't you take the fortune-teller quiz at Nina's hen bash?"

"Oh please," Hermione scoffed. "Divination is the most imprecise branch of magic on the planet. Did you get any dark, handsome strangers?"

"No," Maria replied, shaking her head. "I got a small balding man who owns a dog called Puffy. Which, is strange, because my neighbour owns a dog called Puffy but she's an old lady who's balding."

Hermione rolled her eyes, stacking some more new books together. The History of Snitches book kept trying to fly off the top so Hermione put the Angles of Anvils book on top of it. "It's Follicle regression."

"And denial's a river in Egypt," the older blond laughed, walking into the back of the shop.

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