Ace of Hearts
Chapter 7
It had been about a week and a half since that wonderfully fun and peaceful day at the lake. Yep, a whole week and a half...
"...of pure hell," Hermione finished aloud while rubbing her temples.
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It all started on Sunday evening, when she and Ron were walking back from a lovely quiet dinner at The Blue Mermaid. They were heading down the street holding hands and quietly chatting about Bill and Fleur's daughter Abigail when she saw them through a window.
Harry and Aurora were sitting in The Dragon's Lair, a small romantic restaurant with dim lighting and a distinctly intimate feel. Though the couple wasn't sitting side by side, but across from each other, their hands were intertwined over the table and Harry was lightly stroking the side of Aurora's hand with his thumb. It looked as though they were done eating because the plates in front of them sat untouched, and they were leaning forward having what seemed to be a titillating conversation.
"Well, I'll be…" she looked at Ron who had a huge smile on his face, also noticing the couple through the window. He then turned and gave her a triumphant look. "What did I tell you huh? He's crazy about the beautiful lady bird and it's about time too," he looked back at the couple. "I was just beginning to worry about him."
"Well I still do." she retorted in a disapproving tone "I mean look at her -there's something about her I just don't trust, and that's not to mention the fact that she's totally not Harry's type."
"Are you mental?!" He exclaimed looking at her as though she were. "She's perfect for him. She's smart, funny, laidback, they work together so she understands his job and what he goes through, she's bloody hot and on top of that she's not at all impressed with his celebrity status."
"Really Ronald and how do you know? Do you really think she would walk up to you or Harry and go -Hi I'm Aurora and I've always wanted to be with the famous Harry Potter, fancy a date?" She rolled her eyes "Of course she wouldn't, she's too smart to be that stupid. Besides, if you think she's so hot then why don't you date her?!"
Ron gave her a strange look "If I dated her, then who would Harry date?"
Hermione gaped at him, she hadn't thought of it like that. "I...I don't kno-"
"What do you care anyway? And why are you acting so jealous?!" He looked angry now.
"I'm not acting jealous... if it were you I'd feel that same way! Like I said I'm not opposed to him dating, there's just something about her that doesn't seem right -that's all."
Ron gave her a skeptical look and then glancing back towards the window he gave a short nod and turned continuing the walk towards Hermione's flat. Still shaken up by his question, and feeling a little more than guilty from her hearts answer, Hermione followed him in silence.
Five minutes later they reached her flat and one minute after that Ron gave a stiff kiss on the cheek and Apparated home. Hermione sighed and ran a hand through her hair, she was just about to go into the kitchen and make some tea when she received an urgent floo from Margery Dingille, the young witch who was interning in her department. Margery had been given the task of keeping a regular watch over the Lilith Harth on weekends, since the animal was in such a delicate condition. After seeing the worry etched on the girls face Hermione knew something was seriously wrong.
"What is it?" she asked urgently.
"I can't wake it up!"
"What?"
"The Lilith, I can't wake it up. I went into the stall to feed it dinner but when I patted it on the back of the neck it didn't wake up like it normally does. Then I tried shaking it... and nothing -I don't know what to do..." she looked near tears.
"Okay, I'm on my way over," Hermione went over to the closet by her front door and grabbed her Ministry cloak, gripping her wand she Apparated to the alley way right next to the Ministry and hurried inside.
After that, things just went from bad to worse. Upon arriving in the Magical Creature Law and Medicine Department she was instantly met by Margery and Eliza, who had arrived a few moment earlier and the three of them then rushed into the Lilith's stall and immediately began to work. After seven straight hours of nonstop spell casting and potion making the animal had finally regained and maintained consciousness. Hermione was barely able to Apparate herself home and catch about four hours sleep, before returning to work later that morning.
On late Thursday evening she had just sat down, after sending an owl to Ron, whom she hadn't talked to since Sunday night. She was gripping a steaming mug of tea when she noticed the lease renewal packet that she had received a couple of weeks ago sitting on her counter. Standing up slightly, Hermione reached over to grab it and taking a big gulp of warm tea, she proceeded to open the packet... and then began to choke.
"What?!" she exclaimed aloud, while hurriedly flipping through the pages of the lease. "She's raising my rent..." then focusing on the first page that listed the new price she became enraged. "Ha! Raising the cost? That's the understatement of the year... gouging is more like it!"
Once she had taken a few deep breaths to calm down, Hermione picked up the phone and dialed her muggle landlady. After five rings the answering machine picked up.
"Hello, you've reached Agnes Weatherby. I am not in right now so therefore I am unable to take your call, please leave your name, number and a brief message and I will get back to you as soon as possible. Thank you and have a nice day," Beep.
"A nice day indeed," Hermione grumbled before talking louder to leave her message. "Hello Ms. Weatherby, this is Hermione Granger in flat 9C, I was wondering if it was possible for us to meet to talk about the new lease?... You can phone me back at the number on file or I'll call you back later today. Thanks for you time."
She slammed the phone down and stormed to the living room, throwing herself on the couch Hermione used her wand to turn off the lights... she could feel a headache coming on...
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It was now Wednesday and she still had that blasted headache.
"Uhhh, Hermione," Eliza said looking nervous as Hermione lifted her head to stare at her. "Mrs. Pundance would like to see you in her office..."
She looked at Eliza for a minute longer before pushing up from her desk and trudging to her boss's office.
'This cannot be good,' she thought... and it wasn't.
Two hours later a very tired and emotionally drained Hermione Granger Apparated into her flat, wanting noting more than to have some tea, go to bed and curl up in a ball and cry until she passed out. She trudged into the kitchen and put some water in the kettle, using her wand to heat it. The kettle had just begun to whistle when she heard the doorbell.
"What now," Hermione mumbled making her way to the door. She opened it to find her landlady Ms. Weatherby giving her a wary look.
"Hello," she said, looking cautiously around. "I was waiting for you Ms. Granger," she pointed to the spot she was standing on "I was waiting right here... I didn't see you come in, but when I heard the tea kettle I thought that you may have been in there, so I rang... Ummm, how did you get in there?"
Hermione gave a nervous laugh. "Well... you see I needed some fresh air so -so I took the fire escape."
The woman gave her a dubious look "Really?"
"Yeah, it's something I've been doing since I was little... my brother taught me," more nervous laugher.
"I thought that you were an only child?" the older woman quizzed frowning.
"Who me?... No, no, I have brothers -looots of brothers, loads of them! They taught me how to scale trees, roofs... and of course fire escapes, we...uhh, would you like to come in?" she finished awkwardly.
Still looking a bit unconvinced the older woman nodded and Hermione stepped back to allow her entrance, closing the door softly behind her.
"So what can I do for you?"
"I thought that it was time that we stopped playing phone tag and talked in person about your lease." Ms. Weatherby responded, admiring a painting Hermione had on the wall and never noticing as she used her wand to store her cloak and open the window.
"I agree," Hermione responded smiling and motioning towards the couch. "Would you like to have a seat?"
"Yes, thank you," the older woman answered sitting on the plush sofa.
"How about some tea? I just finished a pot... though I'm sure you knew that."
The woman smiled and shook her head no. "Actually Ms. Granger I would prefer to get down to the issue at hand."
"Okay," Hermione sat on the love seat adjacent to the couch. "I noticed upon opening up my new lease packet there was an... significant increase in rent."
Ms. Weatherby nodded.
"I was just wondering… doesn't that seem a bit much? I mean it's almost twice as much as what I'm paying now."
"I am aware of that however, unfortunately that is the way it needs to be..."
"What is that supposed to mean?" Hermione asked trying to sound calm, though her right hand had the couch in a death grip.
"Look Ms. Granger, I have been very generous in allowing you to maintain the price on this flat for so long. However real estate is going up and so are taxes and value, the fact is that flats like yours are renting for triple the price that you're paying. I'm not going to raise the cost for you that much, but I think the new price is more than reasonable."
"You can't just spring something like this on someone! There has to be laws against this type of thing... I mean you can't just decide one day to double the rent and if the person can't pay their out!" Hermione said loudly, starting to loose her cool.
The woman gave her a cold smile. "Well actually I didn't spring this on you. I gave you the new lease paper weeks ago and therefore gave you plenty of notice."
Hermione sighed running a frustrated hand through her hair, yeah she had gotten the papers weeks ago, but between her hectic work schedule and fighting with Ron she hadn't had time to read it.
"As for laws on raising rent, they do exist, however it is only illegal to raise the rent during the lifespan of a lease agreement -it is not illegal to raise it on a new lease."
She was quiet for a moment, watching as Hermione got up and walked over to stare out of the window.
"Look, Ms. Granger, you've been a good tenant and I'll be sorry to loose you if that's what it comes to, but the fact remains that if you do not sign the new agreement and stipulate to the afore mentioned rent you will have to find a new place to live... I'll give you a while to think about it, but I do need either your signed lease or your notice by the end of the week. Goodnight Ms. Granger."
She stood and left, softly closing the door behind her, never seeing the tears that coursed down Hermione's face and not hearing the loud 'pop' as the younger woman disappeared from sight.
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Harry's heart almost stopped when Hermione just appeared in the middle of the living room where he and Ron were watching T.V. and it did stop for and instant when she collapsed to the floor in tears.
He rushed over and gathered her into his arms, holding her as she sobbed he looked over her head at a bewildered Ron who seemed to be glued to the couch. After shaking his head, seemingly to clear his thoughts Ron jumped up from the couch and joined them on the ground where he stroked her hair.
"Mione... are you alright?" he asked hesitantly.
The girl in Harry's arm hiccupped and shook her head `no' as Harry leaned back into a sitting position, pulling her up against him.
"What happened?" Harry asked quietly, "Is there someone that we need to kill?"
Instead of laughing like he hoped she would she just continued to sob and once again shook her head `no'.
"Mione," tried Ron looking extremely worried "we can't help if you won't tell us what's wrong... talk to us."
After sniffling a few more times Hermione turned her head facing Harry's neck. Feeling her snuggle into him a bit Harry tightened his arms around her to hold her as close as possible. He couldn't see her face, but he could feel wetness on his shirt from where her tears fell. Ron was sitting on his hunches with his hands on his thighs and biting his bottom lip, his gaze was fixated on his girlfriend.
"Hermione...talk to us... You know that you can..." Harry tried again. "What happened? Come on you're scaring the crap out of us here..." he finished in a light tone.
This time he heard a small chuckle from the woman in his arms that caused both he and Ron to relax a bit, he stroked her arm.
"Well... what's up?"
She was quiet for a moment before answering.
"Lilith...kill...rent...homeless..." was all he was able to make out as she had begun to cry again. Harry looked to Ron for help but all he did was shrug and shake his head.
"I think I'll go make her some tea." Ron said after a minute of her crying; sounding quite uncomfortable with seeing Hermione lose it like this. Harry, knowing how much he hated crying women, took pity on him and nodded in agreement. The other man hopped up and quickly disappeared into the kitchen.
Sitting there alone with her, holding her as she cried, he felt worry course through him and in an attempt to calm his own frazzled nerves Harry placed a light kiss on Hermione's forehead, followed by a light kiss on her cheek. He felt her shift in his arms and then felt a soft brush on his neck as her lips lightly grazed him. Pulling back at the same time as she did, he looked into her eyes and was surprised to see an expression of wanting reflected in them. Without really thinking Harry lent forward and placed a light kiss upon her lips, pulling back slightly he could feel her soft breath against his mouth for a second before she tilted her head up, this time kissing him. They pulled away and stared into each others eyes, only breaking contact when they heard Ron call from the kitchen.
"Harry! Did you want some tea too, while I'm in here making it?!"
"Yeah!" Harry called back, noticing that his voice sounded a little rough he cleared his throat. He tried to look at Hermione again, but she had gone back to laying her head in the crook of his neck.
Harry could feel her running her fingers lightly over his back and her warm breath on his neck. He had just begun to caress her arm when Ron returned carrying a small tray with three steaming tea cups.
"So Mione," he asked cautiously "are you ready to talk about it now?"
She nodded and pulled away from Harry, who found that he immediately missed the feel of her in his arms. Sitting up on her own she wiped her eyes, and with trembling hands accepted the cup of tea from Ron, giving him a shaky smile in return. Taking a deep breath and not looking up from her cup she told them what had her so upset.
"Oh, Harry..." she started, gripping her teacup tightly. "I tried -I tried everything but I just couldn't save it."
"What happened?" "Save what?" Harry and Ron asked simultaneously.
"The Lilith Hearth..." before Ron could ask Harry shook his head `no' and mouthed that he would tell him later, Ron nodded in agreement.
"It was sick, but it had been doing well for about two weeks. We were even considering releasing it back into the wild."
She took a small sip of tea before continuing "Then out of the blue it just started vomiting and passing out. We contacted any and everyone that we could think of to help but it was useless. The Lilith was loosing weight and it was loosing spirit... then today, today that old battle axe Priscilla Pundance, the head of my department called me into her office. She said that we could 'no longer deplete the Ministry's resources on one animal' and that the funding for a cure had been cut off. Cut off!! How could she! It may have been one animal but it deserved a shot didn't it?!"
Harry and Ron remained quiet; deciding the best course of action was just to listen.
"Once she told me that, I asked her what we were supposed to do then, and do you know what she told me?! Do you?!" silence. "She told me there were only two options, we could either let the animal die naturally or we could take the more merciful course and kill it." she began to sob in earnest.
Harry and Ron wide eyed looked at each other before Harry reached out to lightly rub dark haired woman on the shoulder.
Hermione looked up at him with tear-filled eyes "I didn't have a choice..." she whispered "it was my responsibility. It was my job to look after it... it was my job...t-to-to...kill it," Harry hugged her again and Ron came over and rubbed her back.
"I couldn't just allow it to suffer, slowly starving to death because it couldn't keep food down, could I?" she asked with a note of urgency.
"No," they replied in unison.
"Of course not," Ron added.
"You did the right thing Hermione," joined Harry, they both felt her relax.
"Oh and it gets better," she continued pulling back a cynical smile on her face.
"Really? Gets, better you say?" Ron quizzed with an anxious look on his face.
"And just...how does it get better?" Harry inquired, sharing the look with Ron.
"Well," she breathed sounding depressed "in less than a month I'll be officially homeless."
They looked at her in surprise. "What?!"
Hermione then told them about her landlady raising the rent, and just how much she was raising it to.
"She can't do that can she?" Harry asked surprised, looking even more so when Hermione nodded that she could.
"Why that miserable old bat!" Ron exclaimed furiously. "She can't just treat you like that! I ought to go over there and make her eat slugs."
Hermione laughed while Harry gave him a skeptical look.
"I appreciate your concern Ron, but I think it's better for everyone if you stay away from slug spewing spells," she finished smiling. "And as sweet as it is, it doesn't change the fact that I'm going to be homeless... I don't know," she continued sighing, "maybe I can go and stay with my parents."
"OR," Ron said with a huge grin "you can stay here!"
Harry and Hermione shared a quick look before turning back to Ron.
"I don't think…"
"Maybe we should..."
Ron interrupted them, still smiling like a loon. "Come on you guys this'll be great! Remember in Hogwarts we use to talk about being roomies all the time -well now we can! It used to be our dream. I don't know why you guys wouldn't want to try it?"
"Well..." Hermione said "I need my own space. Ron you know I love you, but the two of us sharing a room... come on, we'd drive each other completely mental within a week."
Harry nodded in agreement.
"We don't have to share a room," the redhead stated rolling his eyes. "You can have the spare room that Harry and I've set aside as an office. Heck, we never use it anyway."
"I don't know, are you sure about this?" Harry posed still looking skeptical.
"It's perfect. We can put the stuff you don't need in storage and you can bring your bedroom set and the things you do need here. We can put the desk and Harry's computer out here against the window -we do our owl posts there anyway. Crookshanks is used to Pig and Hedwick so there shouldn't be any problem there, and best of all we can split rent three ways which will mean a little more pocket money for us all."
Seeing no flaw in his logic short of telling his best friend, 'Hey I totally fancy your girlfriend and can't stop thinking about shagging her!' Harry had no choice but to agree. Looking at Hermione he saw her hesitate for a moment before she too nodded in consent.
Ron smiled and sipped his tea, leaning back on the couch he flipped on the television.
"This is going to be great," he said to himself, totally oblivious to the guilty looks on the faces of both his girlfriend and his best friend.
AN: Uh, oh... Hermione's moving in, now what? Will her and Harry be able to keep their hands off each other? Will Ron notice the tension? And what will the ever perceptive Aurora think of this new development? Stay tuned to find out! *LOL* (Sorry, I've been watching episodes of The Tick.) Please Review!
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