"No, that's not what I meant," he said as he ran a hand through his hair the way he did when he was embarrassed. "I meant for not asking you over before I asked her," Harry explained, turning that stomach jelly into pleasantly warm goo. "I just - there didn't seem any way to bring it up besides saying it straight out as soon as I could."
"They do seem rather unpredictable when it comes to conversation," she said with a smile he'd no doubt take to be connected to the Lovegoods. It wasn't. Harry just admitted she was his first priority, at least in that department. "Besides, it's completely understandable why you wouldn't have asked me first," she continued on to say, effectively letting him off the hook, though part of her hoped it wouldn't be a common occurrence. "You would have had to know my dad and I would be leaving soon."
"Right," Harry said, looking like he didn't want her to go any more than she did. She was definitely going to do it now; how could she not?
"I'm just glad he let her come over," Harry continued, though that sparked concern in her mind as to what the night would be like for Mr. Lovegood without his daughter there now that his late wife had been brought to mind. "What'd you say to Dobby though?" he asked.
"Just something for him to say that'd guarantee Mrs. Weasley would say yes," Hermione said with a bit of a sneaky grin.
If Dobby said it the way she had phrased it then her motherly heartstrings would've been pulled and ready to comfort her when she arrived. The instant Luna appeared though she'd realize her mistake and whatever disagreement she may have had with the girl's late mother would disappear and likely see her take to Luna even more because of the loss.
'Or she could react like Mr. Lovegood, ' she thought with a bit of panic.
When the idea had popped into her head to have Dobby blur the identity of who Harry was inviting over, it had been a spur of the moment thing to try to make the Lovegoods feel better; she hadn't thought that it might make Mrs. Weasley feel worse. What if the surprise of Luna showing up and the shock of realizing it was Mrs. Lovegood who had died caused Mrs. Weasley to feel horrible, as if their fight had somehow led to her death?
Instead of a cathartic experience where the Lovegoods and the Weasleys drew together because of a loss, she could be setting Ron's mother up to collapse under the weight of guilt. And what if she didn't react negatively at all? What if she was the kind of person who likes to say 'I told you so.'? Instead of making anything better it could set up a chain reaction to cause an already bad situation go off like a huge emotional bomb! What had she been thinking, doing this when she hadn't met the woman? This was a horrible idea.
"You're not fine," Harry said, catching wind that something could be very wrong.
"No, I'm not," Hermione agreed. "I could've caused something really bad to go wrong."
Once the situation was explained, Harry did his best to be supportive.
"I don't think she'd react like that," he said reassuringly. "She's bound to ask about you when I show up and you don't-"
"Then you can explain the miscommunication, and tell her who's really coming over and see how she responds," she finished for him as she started to breathe again.
"I don't think she'd take back the permission to come over after she'd given it," Harry continued with his brow furrowed in thought. Who would have thought serious critical thinking could make him more attractive? "So I think the worst that could happen is she's unhappy through dinner, but surely she'd see it's better for Ginny to have a friend."
"Of course she would," Hermione said, trying to convince herself and hoping for the best out of a woman she'd only seen once or twice.
Suddenly Harry broke out in a grin.
"What is it?" she asked, eager for a bit of good news.
"I just remembered; there's no way she could be unhappy tonight," he said excitedly. "I told Percy to keep Bill and Charlie a secret. She'll be so happy to see them that she won't care who else is there!"
Hermione heaved a huge sigh of relief.
"Now I wish I could be there just to see her face when they all show up, just to be sure I didn't ruin everything," she said as she shrugged a bit to work out the tension that had entered her shoulders.
"Yeah. Anyway," Harry said in that uncertain way people had when they didn't know what to say, or perhaps had something they didn't want to say.
It was a bit of a shock to realize they were now standing by the fireplace; she hadn't even noticed they had moved. With a lurch in her stomach she knew what that meant: Harry was about to leave.
'This is it, ' she thought, now more numb and nervous than ever.
Hermione flexed her fingers to try to get some feeling back in them. Somehow this felt just like being on a diving board, only the worst thing that could happen there was she drowns. That wasn't like kissing a boy on the lips at all, so why should they feel the same?
'It's now or never, ' she said to herself, trying to will her body into making the leap. She was going to do it…
'On three, ' she thought. 'One, ' she breathed. 'Two… thre- '
'On three, ' she thought. 'One, ' she breathed. 'Two… thre- '
"So we ready to go?" her father's voice cut in happily, bringing everything to a screeching halt.
'Why did he have to be here!' Hermione thought maddeningly, turning to shoot a shocked and scandalized look at the man.
"If we stay any longer, Mister In-Need-Of-Dentures is going to charge us for another day and you have all the Fun Bricks," the cartoonish dentist explained with an odd look, completely missing her look of damnation.
"I'm just saying goodbye to Harry," she said in a 'could you please go somewhere else?' kind of way.
"Oh, okay then," he said with a smile, and then proceeded to stand there holding their things and watching them.
She could sense growing embarrassment coming from Harry and she gave her father her most 'I can't believe you're doing this to me ' look.
"What?" her father asked, with a curious look on his face. "I can't leave. I'd never find this place again, remember?"
Hermione could have screamed or throttled whoever's idea that was. Why couldn't they hide this place with some kind of fake storefront no one would ever need to go into like any sensible person would? At least that way they wouldn't need to hide it from muggles at all. She could have screamed again when a third look the man ignored gave them no increased privacy. He was being such a - such a Dad .
Hermione was not going to let that beat her though; she went right up to Harry and gave him a nice long hug. It might have been kind of awkward and embarrassed, but he did return it.
"I'll see you soon, Harry," she said before she released him, though she knew she'd probably be writing him as soon as she got home.
The embarrassment must've been too much for him to do anything but mumble a response. After he had she turned and stalked to her father, grabbed her things, and left the pub in an outraged huff to wait by the car. How could parents be so dense!
.....
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