Cursed Wolf II

Chapter 9 Invite

Hermione closed the door to the car and kissed her father good-bye. “Bye. Be careful on the slopes Dad,” and as they drove away she yelled, “Stay warm.”

The two girls hauled their bags up the stairs to their dormitory room. There on the door was a letter for Kat. She opened it and read it over and over.

“Terry wants me back,” she announced, plopping on the couch, “ He freaked out when his family expected to meet me as his fiancée. So he broke it off with me and then his family gave him hell for not bringing me to meet them.” Kat looked at Hermione, “I guess he’s talked about me to his Mom and Dad,” she said, smiling.

“That’s a good sign,” Hermione commented.

Hermione tugged her bags in to room and said talking to herself. “I’ve got to figure out my own mystery love life.” She lay down on her bed as a cramp struck her. She went for some aspirin and water thinking to herself ‘ I always seem to have my period around the holidays.’ After taking the pills, Hermione opened her book to start studying for her final.

She went to the shop that evening to see if Sally needed an extra hand with the orders. She ended up working in the afternoon making the soaps, lotions, and bath oils and then assembling the baskets in the evening, getting them ready to be sent out in the morning.

Saturday afternoon Hermione was back in the shop. She heard the door in the shop open and she knew it was Harry. He didn’t have to say anything. She was getting off in just a few minutes and so he waited for her in the shop.

Hermione’s heart was pounding and her stomach had nervous knots in it.. She grabbed her bag and coat and glanced at Sally. “Night, Sally. See you Monday,” Hermione called out.

“See you Tuesday. We’ll be closed Monday,” Sally reminded her.

Harry opened the door for Hermione. She was almost afraid to look at him. She had a feeling this meeting with Harry was going to break her heart.

They walked for a time without saying anything until they came to a wooded area.
“Let’s walk here,” Harry suggested.

As they walked, he began to talk. He told her everything from the time they were children playing in the woods up to how he got into trouble for bringing her into the wizarding world and so her memory was erased. How they met again and he taught her spells. Then he explained that he had chosen her for his mate and she had to run for her freedom. In addition, he told her he cheated and broke the gate to get to her when she was supposed to be safe. After she told her parents she was a witch they were thinking of putting her into a hospital and sedating her to keep her and others safe. So the wolf entered the house looking for her and was going to attack her parents, when she showed herself and ran out of the house to help protect them. Harry told her while he was between wolf and man form he chased and forced himself on her.

“You had no place to go so I asked you again to come with me and you did. We did love each other I know that. I brought you to Godric Hollow. We weren’t there for even two days when Ministry came and sent you back here. Your parents thought I had kidnapped you. And then Marcus showed his ugly head and he bit you that night making you his. I nearly got arrested and ended up in the hospital. Marcus had a power over you and I made you drink my blood to break the bonds between you and him. But that many blood bonds made and broken can really mess up a person. It was like turning back time and making it seem like the last few days didn’t happen in the person’s mind. It was like before I told you to run. So…” Harry paused for a long time.

“I set things right. I brought you back to your parents’ where you wanted to be and I told them not to put you into hospital, that you could control your magic and that you were free. I hoped that one day we would meet again and be friends, and here we are…. friends.”

“But I was happy with you. I know that.” Hermione said softly, although everything was still hazy. She didn’t remember most of it but she knew she had been very happy with Harry when they were together.

“I’m glad you were happy then,” Harry replied, weakly smiling, “ You’re in school now and you’re brilliant as always. You’ve got a job so you have money for now and you can get back into writing for the newspaper once you have something to write about. You’ve had quite a few boyfriends,” he added, looking uncomfortable.

He looked at her and said “ You are doing great. You’re doing what you’ve wanted, and you’re controlling powers.”

“But why did you erase my memory? I was happy with you. Why didn’t you explain it to me right after it happened? We could have been together all this time. Why didn’t you stay? Did my parents tell you to leave? I feel like you shown me a life we could have had and then oops, sorry Hermione, I cheated so we have to start over but then you were too tired to play and so you erased my mind and abandoned me,” she said angrily.

“It wasn’t like that. I corrected my mistake in taking you away from your home, your parents and your future plans. I gave you back your life.” He looked at her, anger and frustration in his face, “ Do you think it was easy for me? Well it wasn’t. It was HARD. DAMN HARD to move on. BUT I DID IT! I moved on,” he said, his voice getting louder and louder.

Harry took a breath in and relaxed and then continued, “I went to school, I have a few jobs and I’ve had girlfriends. Now I’m a teacher like I always planned to be.”

There was a long silence between them.

“Now what do we do?” Hermione asked.

“We do what we’ve been doing …be friends.” Harry replied, “ We both changed over the years but ...”

Tears were rolling down her face and she had a lump in her throat. Her heart was breaking with each word he said. With each breath she exhaled her chest felt tighter and hurt more.

“We get along enough well I think,” Harry added, trying to comfort her.

Hermione nodded in agreement, wiping away her tears.

“Please don’t cry Hermione. You’ve got a great life. You experiencing a normal life just like you wanted,” he said in a slightly bitter tone. She chose to live in the muggle world that night. “Is there anything you haven’t done yet your peers haven’t done… maybe travel a bit more but you’re living a full life.”

Again she nodded, “ Yeah I want to travel.”

“You’ve got so much more to do and see, and you’ll do it,” he said confidently.

Part of Hermione hated him for him saying these things; it was so similar to getting brushed off, dumped and an “it’s not you, it’s me” speech. God, she had heard it all. From getting booted out of a flat after having sex with a guy and him saying,
“Sorry, but you have to go I have friends coming over, ” and having another girl show up as few minutes later, to “ I want to see other people” to “You’re great and you’ll be fine without me. You’re a strong person.”
And,“ It just happened I didn’t plan this” of course; finding someone’s knickers in his bed and him shrugging his shoulders, saying, “They’re not yours?”

“Yeah I will,” she said.

“We’re okay than?” Harry asked.

“Sure! It’s a lot to digest in one lump, but yeah,” Hermione said, hoping to end the conversation.

“I’ll walk you back to your dorm,” Harry said.

They mostly walked in silence. It was dark and the streetlamps were on as they reached her building. Hermione looked around, feeling awkward. It wasn’t a date but two friends discussing their past. For her it was a fresh cut in her heart and for Harry a lesson learned years ago, Hermione thought.

“Well I guess we’ll see each other in class…” Harry started to say.

“Eh... Yeah, in class,” Hermione echoed a response to him as she backed away from him nodding her head, not listening to what else he was saying to her.

She opened the door to her building and slammed the door shut as if to shut out Harry who was repeating whatever it was he had said. She wanted to punch him for what he said. “Bastard,” she whispered as she climbed the stairs towards her dorm room.

Hermione bumped into Mike the beer chugger to his housemates but ghost cameraman to Hermione on the way to her room.

“Hermione? We are having a New Year’s Eve party at my house on campus. Please come, we have like hundred blokes and only twelve girls. Please come.”

“I’ll think about it,” Hermione told him. “Thanks.”

Kat was in her room with her boyfriend making a lot of ‘happy noises’ as Kat called them. Hermione curled up on the couch with a blanket over her. She sunk her face into the cushions as tears soaked the fabric. She fell asleep and woke to Kat gently touching her shoulder.

“What happened?” Kat asked.

“We were in love once and now he just wants to be friends,” Hermione explained.

“He’s kidding.” Kat said seriously, “ The way he looks at you he is fucking deluding himself but I know why.”

“Why?”
“He’s your teacher. He has some control over you so he can’t get involved with you but he’s trying to stay friends with you. I think he’s trying to keep open the possibility of you and him getting together again.”

“The way he was talking I’m not so sure,” Hermione commented, sniffing back tears that were welling in her eyes.

“Well, if you want him, you should start dating again. That should get him jealous,” Kat reasoned.

“He might start dating someone too.” Hermione replied, “I don’t have a very good track record with guys. I tend to attract unfaithful and unavailable men. I should just get through school as fast as I can and get a job. Let them work their tail off trying to impress me, instead of me working and bending to impress them. Accommodate me for once.”

“Yeah, you do have a bad record. You have to stop that Hermione, or they’ll walk all over you,” Kat said. “Well, Mike’s having a party tomorrow night. You can look some of the guys over. From what Mike says there’ll be a hundred guys there and ten girls so you’ll have your pick of potential dates,” Kat assured her.

“Yeah. But will there be just the some old blokes I keep getting or will there be some I can really fall for without them tripping me?” Hermione laughed. She opened her books to start to study but all she could think about was Harry. Had she changed so much in the time they were apart that he didn’t find her attractive anymore?

She had read articles, ‘Don’t bother going back to an old flame, all you get are at best are warm ashes and a disappointed heart.’ Trying to recapture those feelings again rarely worked.

Better not go back, not that she could remember everything clearly, but she wasn’t going back into a relationship a few days ago; she had a friendship with Harry. How did their relationship get so complicated? Or had it always been complicated? If he didn’t want her to remember ‘us’ why did he become friends with her? It would have been easier to just form a more distanced relationship with her as student and teacher. Why did he let her into his class then? Why did he keep talking to her before and after class? Why did he buy her food at he cafeteria and bring her tea?’

Hermione had her face in her hands and her head ached from all the thinking she was doing. She took some aspirin and put a cold cloth over her eyes.

She woke up the next morning on the couch.

~ ~

Kat came in with to the living room and asked, “Have you been there all night?”

“Yes, I fell asleep.” Hermione said, yawning and stretching her arms.

Kat sat down with a box of pastries and offered one to Hermione, who shook her head, saying, “No thanks, I’m not really hungry.”

“When was the last time you ate?”

“Yesterday” she replied as she got up and turned the kettle on for some tea.

After Hermione had drunk her tea, Kat dragged her out to the local second hand shops to find New Year’s Eve party clothes. Hermione was in a daze as Kat made her try on dress after dress, pants and skirts.

Kat kept asking her to pick something to wear for the party.

“I don’t feel like going to a party. I just want to stay in and watch a movie or read, or better yet, study for my final,” Hermione told Kat.

“But it’s New Year’s Hermione. Come on pick something.”

Hermione saw a dark green and black plaid skirt hanging on the rack and grabbed that along with a black sweater vest and a tie to match.

~ ~
Kat smiled in a weird way and said, “Well at least you picked something,” as they ate their hamburgers in the cheap restaurant. Hermione gulped down some of her drink and glanced at the clothes she bought.

“You’re going to have to wear stockings, it’s going to be cold tonight,” Kat warned her.

“The party is at his frat house; it’s a few blocks away. It’s not that far.” Hermione said.

“What shoes are you going to wear?” Kat asked.

“My high heels I guess, why all the questions? You think I’m going there half naked?” Hermione queried.

“No, I just don’t want us looking the same.” Kat sputtered out.

'I’m getting setup,’ Hermione thought and she wondered whom they had in mind for her.

It was seven o’clock when Hermione got into the shower. She washed her hair and shaved her legs, underarms and her bikini area. She moisturized herself all over her body, then put on her knickers and her bra that fastened in front. She hated when boys thought it was funny undoing her bra as they were in back of her.

She picked out a white blouse and slipped on the skirt, the tie and vest. She looked in the mirror and to her surprise the skirt was a midlength mini skirt and with pleats. She thought she would look more like a librarian then a schoolgirl.

Hermione pulled her black thigh-high stockings on and then stepped into her shoes. She looked like a college girl, rather than a librarian.

Kat wore a navy blue suede skirt and a cream silk blouse with thigh-high boots.
Kat put her arm around Hermione, “We are fucking fit.”

Hermione looked at her roommate gave her a hug and kiss.
“Just in case I don’t see you at midnight …Happy New Year.”

Hermione grabbed her brush, make-up, a tampon and a little money in case they needed donations for food or drink, put them in her purse and they were off the party.