A/N Hey! Welcome to my first multi-chapter fic, I hope you enjoy. Please Read and Review :)
Disclaimer - I don't own Harry Potter, all of that imagination (and money) belongs to J.K Rowling. And now onto the story, I present to you - A Tangled Web.
"I can't believe you Ronald Weasley" 24 year old Hermione Granger said furiously to the red haired man standing in front of her "Forgive me if I'm wrong, but was it not YOU who left ME? Alone in China if I might add! And now…now you… you… you want us to act as if that never even happened?" she finished, her features fixing into a murderous glare.
"Well, yeah I guess that's pretty much what happened. But we… I… I" Ron stuttered "Bloody Hell, we were 19 years old! We were supposed to be out there having fun and just fooling around, Come on Herms don't you think we deserved it? I mean we…"
"Don't call me Herms!" Hermione cut him off sharply " WE deserved it? What about Harry, Ron? He had it a thousand times worse than we did and you didn't include him in your little plan. He was our best friend, and he needed us but you didn't care about that did you?"
"I didn't hear you complaining when we left him behind"
"Because you told me, he was in France looking at a lead on the Horcruxes and that he'd join us in a few weeks. If I had known you'd never even mentioned that we were leaving, I would never have…"
"Left with me?" Ron interjected, crossing his arms.
Hermione narrowed her eyes at him as she continued "…left without saying goodbye!"
"Oh"
"Yes, Oh! Goodness, he probably thought we hated him Ron" Hermione shook her head " He'll never forgive us for that will he?"
"It's Harry, of course he'll forgive us. He's not the type of guy to hold petty grudges like that"
Hermione smiled slightly, but was not encouraged by Ron's words - it had been 6 years since they'd last seen him, nobody was the same person they were when they were 18 years old, herself included. Harry would not be an exception to that rule, out of everyone he would have changed the most since then, because he had been through the toughest time and besides what was life without a little change.
"We should go see him" Ron continued " I'll bet he's an Auror, so he's probably at the Ministry."
"Do you really think he'll want to see us? We left at the worst possible time, especially after the battle and what happened with Ginny"
"I don't want to talk about my sister right now, let's just go see Harry okay?"
"Sure, let's go see Harry" Hermione answered quietly, already bracing herself for the not so happy reunion that was sure to take place.
Ron smiled, glad that she seemed intent on forgetting the past, he gave her a quick peck on the cheek and took her hand to pull her along the street, knowing she wouldn't have moved otherwise.
As they walked away down the crowded pathway of Diagon Alley they failed to notice two people sitting at a small table outside of Florean Fortescue's. The one with the blue eyes turned to the person next to her, and smiled sympathetically before turning her attention to the dark haired toddler, who was sleeping peacefully in her arms. She glanced back up.
"They won't find you Harry."
No answer.
"Harry? Harry are you even listening to me?"
Harry blinked and grinned sheepishly "Sorry"
"I said if Ron & Hermione came back, they won't know where you are. They won't find you Harry"
"You reckon?" Harry said.
"Of course I do" Luna replied serenely "If they ever come back they'll look in all the places that they think you'll be"
"You're right, they'd probably think I'm an Auror so they would go to the Ministry I assume."
"An Auror? Why would they think that?" Luna asked.
Harry hesitated slightly before answering her question "That was what I wanted to be the last time the three of us spoke about our lives after Hogwarts."
"I don't understand." Luna said, passing the sleeping child to Harry before reaching into her bag "You haven't wanted to be an Auror since you were 17, why wouldn't you have told them that, they were your best friends."
" 'Were' being the operative word there Luna. They haven't been my best friends since I was 17. They left! Without even so much as a goodbye, what kind of a friend does that? They'd been off with me for a while before that anyway." Harry remembered.
"That doesn't mean they weren't your friends anymore Harry, they still cared about you everyone could see that"
Harry just shook his head and proceeded to run a hand through his hair " Can we not talk about them please?"
Luna nodded, and tilted her head up to watch the clouds move slowly through the blue sky. He's avoiding the subject again, pretending he doesn't care about what happened won't make it the truth, she thought .
"Did you give any more thought to what I said before?" Harry said suddenly, making a goofy face at the baby who was now awake staring wide eyed at him.
"Is it really such a good idea? To leave now?"
"Why not? Come on, we haven't been on a holiday in ages" Harry pouted.
Luna looked hesitant, but at the look on his face she had to agree. "You're right. Let's go"
Harry grinned in triumph, he placed the baby back in the buggy and jumped to his feet " We're leaving tonight" he announced.
"Had a feeling I'd agree with you then did you?"
"Course. I know you better than anyone" he said with a wink.
Luna raised an eyebrow at this comment " That's what you think Potter."
Harry pulled a face and Luna laughed as she started to push the buggy in the direction of the Leaky Cauldron, she stopped and turned her head back when she realised he wasn't following her. "Harry you know I'm joking."
"Yeah, Yeah" Harry said as he purposely overtook her, " Don't be such a slowpoke, we're going to be late."
"What if he's not here?" whispered Hermione, as she and Ron made their way to the reception desk at the Ministry of Magic.
"Would you relax! He's going to be here, wasn't Auror Headquarters on the fourth floor?
"No, second floor. But they aren't going to just let us walk in, there's bound to be all sorts of security measures in that department."
They approached the desk, waiting in line behind the two people ahead of them. Ron started to grow quite impatient with the old witch in front of him who seemed intent on engaging the receptionist in conversation.
"and on the WWN this morning. I still can't believe it myself, won't they ever leave that poor boy alone? He…" Ron coughed impatiently startling the old witch.
"Terribly sorry my dear" she apologised "Which floor is the Floo regulation panel?"
"Level 6" the receptionist replied in a bored tone. "Next please"
Hermione opened her mouth to ask where they could find Harry Potter, but Ron beat her to the punch as he recognised the woman seated behind the desk.
"Lavender Brown?"
Lavender looked up in surprise from the magazine she was flicking through and stared at her old housemates. "Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger?
"Now that we've established who everybody is" Hermione interjected sarcastically as Lavender scowled at her. " Can you tell us where we can find Harry?"
"Why would I want to do that?" Lavender replied icily, the scowl not dropping from her face.
"Because we are his best friends, and it's your job to tell us where people are!"
"Actually Granger, that is not my job. I am not authorised to give out such information, there is such a thing as privacy. So if there is anything else I could help you with?"
This time it was Ron who answered "Thanks Lavender, but we're okay. If you see Harry though could you tell him we were looking for him?"
"Good Day Mr Weasley" Lavender answered with a curt nod, leaning back in her chair and resuming her previous actions of flicking through the pages of the magazine.
Ron pulled Hermione away from the desk, and once they were out of earshot she launched into a tirade over Lavenders attitude.
" Can see she hasn't changed much. Sitting there reading stupid magazines and I wouldn't be surprised if she pulls out a mirror and starts fixing her hair! I didn't think it was possible for her to be any more shallow than she was at Hogwarts. And why wouldn't she even tell us where Harry is? Like she has the right to decide who he see's. She won't tell him she saw us, you know. Eurhh, I hate her!" Hermione fumed folding her arms across her chest.
"She wasn't that bad Hermione" Hermione glared at him, and he held up his hands " She wasn't."
"Whatever Ronald. I just need to get out of here before I see her again."
"Okay but can we go to the cafeteria I'm starved."