Forbidden Love
Chapter 4
About four days later Harry and Hermione were sitting in the living room. He was watching the tellie and she was curled
up on the couch next to him reading a book. Her feet were stretched out so that they were resting lightly against his
thigh as his hand softly and instinctively stroked her calf in a slow relaxing motion.
Mrs. Granger smiled at the couple before her silently wondering if they even realized that since their trip to the skating rink last week, they had begun touching one another quite frequently. Nothing suggestive, in fact the touches were quite innocent things, like pushing hair out of each other's faces, holding hands, brushing legs as that sat near one another -just smaller stuff like that. Also, Hermione would often lean against Harry, her head resting on his chest or shoulder while they sat or stood in line for things. Or Harry would do things like he's doing now... though it was usually rubbing her back or shoulder, while he focused on another task.
The fact that the contact was nothing overtly sexual and that they seemed to be doing it without conscious knowledge was the only thing that made her stop her husband from saying anything, and allowed her to still be comfortable leaving them alone.
Giving one last small smile Ella Granger made herself known by clearing her throat.
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Hermione was distracted from her book on ancient folklore when she heard a throat clear. Looking up she noticed her mother standing in front of her, a small smile playing on her lips. She retuned the smile with a questioning look.
"You two don't have any plans tonight do you?" her mum asked her eyes aglow with excitement.
Hermione cast a nervous look at Harry. She wasn't sure where this was headed, but she knew that when her mum looked that excited with whatever she had in mind -it was either really good or really bad. Harry, looking just as nervous as she did after having learned her mum's moods over the last several days, locked eyes with her for a moment before giving a shrug and leaving the task of answering up to her.
"Uhhh, well... we were going to do some studying..." she ventured hesitantly.
"Well study tomorrow," her mum stated now grinning "because tonight your mother has gotten tickets for us to see-" she made a drum roll noise "Cats!"
"Cat's? Mum, I've seen that before."
Mrs. Granger rolled her eyes. "I know you've seen it before but Harry hasn't, have you Harry?"
"Uhhh..." he gave her an apprehensive look "er, no..."
"See," her mum beamed.
"Mum, I don't particularly want to see Cats."
"But you loved it last time you saw it," Mrs. Granger replied frowning.
"I was five. I also loved coloring walls."
Her mum waved her off, "Harry wants to see it, don't you?"
Pinned with her mum's hopeful gaze he hesitated for a moment before responding. "Yeah, er, sure... I'm looking forward to it."
"So it's settled," she said clapping her hands together. "Get yourselves dressed up nice and get ready to go, we leave in about," she looked at her watch "two hours."
With that said she turned as practically skipped out of the room. Hermione turned her head giving Harry a cross look, to which he responded with a light shrug.
"She just looked so excited- I couldn't say no, could I?"
She rolled her eyes. "Of course you could, I had just shown you how mere moments before," she responded giving a light sweep of her hand.
"Well, soooorry- somehow I'm not as good as being rude to your mother as you are."
"I was not rude," she huffed standing from the couch and glaring at him "I was truthful, you should try it."
"Well, what was I supposed to say? Unlike you I haven't seen the play before... it is a play right?"
"A musical," she smirked; when he groaned her smile widened.
"Well what is it about?"
Her grin turned down right wicked as she responded. "I'll let you find that out for yourself." Giving him a wink, she turned and skipped out of the room much like her mother had earlier, whistling a happy tune.
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Four and a half hours later they exited the theater, Mr. and Mrs. Granger taking the lead with Harry and Hermione
trailing as they headed to a French restaurant Mrs. Granger had suggested for dinner. Hermione had her head down and
was doing her best to suppress her laughter as the dark haired boy next to her continued to gripe under his breath.
"Why would you call a play `Cats' and have no cats in it?" he asked her quietly, casting an irritated look at a billboard for the show.
"They had cats." Hermione responded just as softly, while keeping an eye on her parents.
"No, they had people dressed up like cats," he replied an annoyed expression crossing his handsome features.
"Well Harry, what did you expect?" she asked giving an exasperated look. "A big chorus of cats meowing for two hours, of course it was people."
He grunted, taking her hand as they crossed the street. "Of course I didn't expect a chorus of cats. But I think that if you have the nerve to call your play `Cats' then there should be at least one bloody cat in the bleedin' play."
She laughed as they entered the restaurant. "Well, I did warn you."
"No you didn't," he scoffed "you refused to tell me anything besides it was a musical. "I'll let you find that out for yourself, Harry" that was what you told me when I asked for more information."
She shrugged casting him an impish smile as they followed her parents through the romantically lit bistro to their table. "Well, you did, didn't you?"
His response was a glare as they reached their seats. When he pulled her chair out for her she suppressed a giggle as he heard him still grumbling under his breath.
"So Harry," said her mum with a wide grin once they were all seated. "What did you think of the play?"
Hermione laughed.
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Wednesday afternoon Harry walked into his room, plopping down heavily on the bed. He looked at the ceiling and took a
deep breath to relax, a small smile on his face as he thought about his day. He and Hermione had just returned from a
muggle miniature golf place called the 'The Mini Golf Grotto', a relatively large put-put golf and gaming area.
The Grotto had twenty-four holes on one side of the park, while the other side had an assortment of rides and
games.
When they arrived they quickly realized that, while Harry wanted to do the rides, Hermione wanted to do nothing but play put-put. In the end they decided on a compromise; to make him happy they would ride at least four of the rides and then once they were done with that, then they would play the extensive put-put course.
Harry's first three choices were two rather large coasters and one huge thing that looked like a giant rocket and flipped you upside down and in complete loops. All of which earned him some very deadly glares from Hermione, who had apprehension with heights and was none to pleased at his selections. The dark haired boy finished off his rides by choosing to race around a medium sized miniature track in little carts painted to look like muggle racing cars. Once he had beaten her soundly on the racetrack, Hermione sent him yet another glower that promised retribution as she stomped off towards the golf course ignoring his laugher
Harry's delight at besting his best mate was quickly diminished as he realized that as bad as she was on the racetrack, was as good as she was on the mini-golf course. After getting through only twelve of the twenty-five holes, Harry was ready to give up on the idiotic game all together. After all, not only was she whipping him thoroughly, but he also couldn't seem to get his bloody little neon yellow ball past that stupid blasted spinning windmill. After the seventh time his ball was knocked back to him he decided to change tactics. Ignoring Hermione's disapproving frown he grabbed his ball, walked up the little hill and waited until the windmill had passed. When he saw his opportunity he bent down and rolled his ball into the little door, casting her a triumphant grin over his shoulder as it came out of the other side.
Rolling her eyes and suppressing a smile Hermione made sure to let him know that he was getting `absolutely no points' for that particular hole. Grinning and shrugging Harry sent her a wink, picked up his putter and finished hitting his ball into the hole. The rest of the game was pretty much played in the same fashion; Harry rolling his ball through particularly hard obstacles with his hand and Hermione frowning and rolling her eyes.
However, around the twentieth hole he was tickled to see a change in his friend. Sending a cheeky grin in his direction and implementing perfect timing, Hermione walked up the small pathway and rolled her ball across the little drawbridge and right into the hole.
Harry chuckled to himself at the memory and sat up on the bed. He couldn't believe that Hermione had willingly broken the rules and had even actually finished the rest of the game using his crazy method. He never realized that she had such a propensity for breaking the rules… no, wait -come to think of it since she met them that was all she seemed to do. Harry scratched the back of his head giving a wry smile.
'Perhaps Ron and I are a bit of a bad influence,' he thought with one last chuckle.
Pausing he bit his lip for a moment and tapped his chin, feeling like he was forgetting something.
"What was it I had wanted to do today?…" he mumbled, as his brows knitted together in concentration. "Oh, yeah!"
Hopping up off of the mattress he walked around to the foot of his bed to his trunk, opening it he pulled out several pieces of parchment and his quick dry ink and quill. Deciding to sit on the floor so he could use his trunk as a desk, Harry began to try to compose the letter he had been meaning to send to Ginny. This summer he had already written her several letters, especially when he was at the Dursley's. However, last night he was startled to realize that he hadn't written her once since arriving to the Grangers house.
'Well, things have been pretty busy around here,' Harry rationalized to himself, chewing on the end of his quill.
Besides he found that it was decidedly uncomfortable to try to put his feelings down for a girl on a piece of parchment that he knew would be flying through the air on the leg of an owl. With the only thing to stop the whole world from finding out said feelings, being a small piece of twine tied to that owl's leg.
Still that didn't explain why he hadn't written her since he got his last letter from her three days ago. She had told him how much she missed him and how she couldn't wait to see him, along with a few other slightly mushy girlfriend/boyfriend things and had also asked how things were going with the Grangers. It was nothing too intimate since she was living in a house full of several brothers and also one really nosey mum. But still, it had been three days since her letter and he normal responded immediately, within a few hours sometimes if he didn't have chores.
'Man,' he thought, grimacing 'she's probably mad by now. -I better write something good before she hexes me,' he finished with a small smile and a slight shudder.
His girlfriend did have a way with her hexes, especially the bat-bogey one. Remembering her use on a particular Slytherin his smile widened for a moment before quickly disappeared as an image formed of her performing it on him. Shaking his head to get rid of the mental picture and dipping his quill into the ink, he began to write:
Ginny,
I got your letter and I'm doing well. How's it going? I was wondering how thi
He bawled up the piece of parchment throwing it on the floor. No- that was way too general, pausing a moment he tried again:
Dearest Ginny,
It seems as though it has been forever since we last held one another, I received your letter and have been counting off the days until we could meet again. I can almost see your bea
He groaned, okay waaaay to mushy. 'Yeah I could just imagine Ron or the twins finding this, I'd never hear the end of it.' Shuddering at the thought, he bawled that one up too, tossing it on the floor next to his last.
Dear Ginny,
I received your letter; it was wonderful to hear from you. I had been wondering how things were going and how long it would take to get an owl from you. I was glad to hear that Fleur and the baby seem to be doing fine and I too was sorry to realize that I couldn't come to the Burrow this summer. You'll never know how much I was looking forward to us spending some time together with no homework, teachers or nosey classmates; just us. To answer your question things here are going great. Hermione and I are having a blast. I'm actually getting to do stuff that I use to only hear about from Dudley and his gang! You know I always knew Hermione was smart, but I never realized how funny she could be (well except for her jokes). She actually has a pretty great sense of humor outside of school and we're having a lot of fun. In fact just the other day we went skating at a muggle rink, it was the first time for either of us really and though I stayed on my feet, Hermione was up and down every few minutes. You should have seen it, it was classic! Oh, and then there was this old woman who said that we made a great couple, I think she called us soul mates. Hermione swears that she was mental. I don't think that she was though, perhaps a bit misguided and mistaken on that. However, I will tell you that for some reason a whole line of people thought we made a cute couple and actually agreed with the older woman. Can you imagine that? Us- a cute couple- we had to laugh. Heck, we aren't even cute… well, I don't think I am- Hermione is incredibly pretty though. Did you ever notice that she has the most startling eyes? At first I had just thought they were brown, but the closer you look into them you notice that they have small golden flecks in them, expec
Harry stopped mid thought; looking down at the letter he had just written he flushed a deep crimson color. What the hell was he doing, telling Ginny how pretty he thought Hermione was? Perhaps he was the mental one. Blinking a few times and shaking his head he re-read the letter; where the hell was all of this coming from… gold flecks? Had he really noticed that about her? He thought back to when she was teasing him in line at the skating rink and was surprised to realize that he was right.
"Hey Harry, what are you doing?" he heard a soft voice ask from his right.
Quickly turning his head he noticed Hermione standing in the doorway leaning against the door jam. When he faced her she gave a small smile as if she were awaiting his attention, and then proceeded to walk fully into the room. Quickly throwing his hand over the letter he had written and thanking Merlin for quick dry ink, he replied.
"Oh, nothing- just writing a letter to Ginny. She wanted to know how things were going and I'm a little overdue responding to the one she sent a couple of days back." He replied, with a tense laugh.
Hermione pause mid-step giving him an inquisitive look, before walking the remainder of the distance up to him. Moving his two previously discarded pieces of parchment over a bit, she took a seat on the floor next to the trunk and peered at the parchment under his hands.
"Really, I was going to write one to Ron too, but I wasn't sure what to put," she frowned a bit. "I knew that you would probably be writing Ginny back, so I wanted to know what you had told her about what we've done. After all we both know that she'll just end up telling him anyway- hey, what do you have so we don't sound repetitive?" She asked reaching for the paper.
Harry swiftly moved the parchment from the top of the trunk to the floor opposite her, crumpling it a bit with his hand.
"Uhh-"
"It can't be that bad," she commented quirking a brow "unless you wrote her a love poem. Is that it?… Harry are you writing Ginny love poems?" She teased, her eyes twinkling merrily as she feigned another reach for the letter.
Quickly bawling the parchment up the rest of the way, Harry shifted a bit and slid it under is leg so that he was now sitting on the discarded letter.
"No, it's not a love poem," he replied giving a glare. "It was just… a crappy letter that's all. I was just trying out ideas, I didn't like them, so now I'm throwing it away." He gave a shrug, grabbing a new piece of parchment from next to him and dipping his quill in ink again.
Hermione smirked "Yeah, okay. Lunch is ready, by the way."
"Fine -look I'm telling her about the skating rink and Cats, you can tell Ron about the stupid put-put." he said.
Giving a small glance at his fresh parchment and rolling her eyes, Hermione stood and walked slowly to the door, casting him one last look over her shoulder.
"I'll leave you to it then… Lockhart," she called out, laughing and running out of the room as he threw his quill at her.
Heaving a heavy sigh, Harry got up and retrieved his quill for the floor by the wall. Looking down at his newly empty parchment, he scratched the back of his head and then giving light shrug he quickly wrote his letter. Waiving the paper once to make sure the ink was fully dry Harry hastily rolled it up. Then, going over to Hedwig's cage, he opened the door and removed her. Securing the letter to her leg with a piece of twine he gave the snow-white owl a treat and a small pet as he headed to and opened up the window. Watching her take flight and until she became a small dot in the sky he scratched the back of his head again, wondering if Ginny would like his letter. Then, deciding there was nothing more he could do about it, Harry closed the window and turned. Heading out of the room and into the hall he walked to the kitchen to join Hermione for lunch.
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Dear Ginny,
I was glad to hear that Fleur and the baby seem to be doing fine and I too was sorry to realize that I couldn't come to the burrow this summer. It's pretty fun here with the Grangers, I'm no longer restricted to the backyard and my room but am able to go places. Hermione and I went to a muggle skating rink, which was a lot of fun, I also got to see a musical play called 'Cats' with her mum and dad which… well that's a different story. Well, anyway I can't wait to see you on the train, even if it only for a moment, we have a lot to catch up on. I'll talk to you on the carriage ride!
Bye,
Harry
A.N. Well that's it for this chapter; the next one will be out soon! Please read and Review. Thanks and Jan e!
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