The Space in Between: A Second Chance
The Waiter beckoned her to follow and she did, turning around a corner she saw her mother sat down chatting excitedly with someone familiar. Standing on the spot in amazement for second she knew that she was certainly not going to waste this second chance as she stepped forward staring straight into a pair of beautiful emerald green eyes and breathed "Hello."
Hermione stood still for what seemed like an eternity, her eyes never leaving his. She watched as his own eyes stared at her in amazement before he quickly moved onto what looked like pure happiness, giving her the smile that she had longed for, a smile that was so exclusively Harry, a smile that she decided she would never let go of again…
"Hermione." He whispered as he stood up from his seat.
"Harry." She choked out, tears forming in her eyes a little shocked at how much she had missed him and how relieved she was to have found him again.
The two stood there for a few moments just drinking each other in after such a long time, he hadn't changed much. He was still the same Harry she had lost.
They were both snapped out of their trances by Hermione's mother grumbling "Is anyone going to tell me what exactly is going on!?"
"This is Harry, Harry Potter. Mum, this is the person I told you about, from before." She replied, while smiling at Harry.
"You mean from nine months ago?" she gasped.
Before she could reply Harry replied with a sad "That's me."
Suddenly it felt like an enormous wave of emotion had crashed into them both as they remembered why exactly they had broken up and the resulting aftermath. Their prior happiness at having met each other again after so long evaporating, replaced by an uneasy sense of nervousness.
Seeing the sudden change in the two people in front of her Hermione's mother announced "Well, I imagine you've got a lot to talk about. I'll be off then!" She promptly picked up her bag and walked over to Hermione and whispered into her ear "Second chance, don't let him go again."
"Mother…" Hermione whispered back.
"I know, I know, Good night darling, take care of her for me Harry" she smirked at them both.
Then they were alone.
Neither certain about what how exactly they should be acting, until Harry, remembering himself, pulled out a seat and asked less than gracefully "Uhh, Would you like a seat Hermione?"
She thanked him and sat down, still feeling insurmountably nervous.
Deciding that she was going to assert herself for once she quickly asked him "So how are things?"
"I'm ok, pretty much the same, What about you?" He answered while sitting down across from her and thinking to himself "Utterly miserable without you in my life."
Hermione was a little irritated that he had been fine while she had been an absolute wreck for nearly 9 months, although she would never admit it, so she said a little spitefully "Great, I've been amazing actually!"
She immediately regretted it as she looked up into his beautifully green eyes and saw hurt radiating out of them.
"Really, that's good." He said with a bad attempt at approval, again his thoughts spoke the truth "Amazing? What the hell?! Did it even affect her? Does she have a boyfriend?" his mind going a hundred miles an hour "No she can't, why would she come here if she did, maybe she doesn't want to be here. But she looked so happy earlier?!"
"Yeah..."she replied, beginning to feel really uncomfortable.
"Yeah…" he mimicked sadly, picking up the menu.
Nothing but silence passed between the two as they ordered their food and drinks, both focusing their attention on anything but each other. It wasn't until a smartly dressed young man brought their drinks over that the silence was broken.
Deciding that enough is enough Harry started "Hermione," She looked up and he continued "I know that we left it in a pretty messed up state and we that we never sorted it out or apologized."
At this moment the exact same thing went through both of their minds, although neither voiced it. "It was my fault entirely; I shouldn't have been so proud and just apologized."
Harry decided to follow his own advice about pride and said "So instead, I want to start over, I really missed you."
The last four words he spoke tore at Hermione's heart and tears began to well up in the corner of her eyes as she spoke "I don't know, it was difficult for me Harry, I don't want to experience something like that again." Her mind meanwhile was waging a war with itself, one side wanting nothing but to let him back in and another side, her always logical side trying to think of reasons to keep him away. "Listen to your mother, you even said it yourself, don't waste this second chance!" The logical side quickly fired back with "Don't do it, tell him off and leave, he'll only hurt you again!"
Shaking her thoughts away she looked into his eyes, those wonderful eyes, seeing the desperation for her to agree and try again with him shining back at her.
"But, I missed you too, Harry. So much" she almost whimpered as the tears began to flow.
His eyes widened in shock, before his features swiftly settled on pure bliss. He rushed to his feet, pushing his chair back, creating a dull screech as it ground along the floor. Not caring a single bit as he rushed around the table and embraced Hermione, pulling her to her feet as he did so.
Nearly the entirety of the restaurant were openly staring now, but neither cared as they stood there in each other's embrace, Hermione openly crying in happiness and Harry whispering sweet nothings into her ear as he held back his own tears.
"I missed you so much" she cried into his shoulder.
"I know. I missed you too" he choked out, his barrier breaking, the tears falling.
All over the restaurant people suddenly started clapping, remembering themselves they pulled apart and Hermione laughed; wiping her tears away "I think people think we just got engaged."
Not for the first time that night Harrys eyes widened in shock, before he looked around and chuckled saying "Not quite I'm afraid… Not yet anyway."
Hermione's heart soared as she processed what he just said, her mind immediately envisioning a wonderful future married to Harry.
"Sir, Madam. Your food is ready" the voice of the same young man who had served them drinks said, settling their plates into position.
"Oh right, of course" they both replied, turning to smile at each other as they said the same thing.
Harry moved back across the table and sat down as Hermione took her own seat and the waiter left.
"So I'm serious, I want to start again with you." Harry seriously stated.
"I know, I want to as well." She earnestly replied.
"Well let's start right at the beginning then, let's do this right." He replied much more light-heartedly before continuing with a smirk "Hello, I'm Harry Potter, and who might you be?"
Hermione laughed at him and replied "Hello Harry Potter, I'm Hermione Granger, pleased to meet you!"
Harry shot back quickly with "Likewise Miss Granger, tell me about yourself"
She laughed at him again, knowing full well he already knew almost everything about her and replied in an odd upbeat voice "Well I went to a private school in southern France called Beauxbaton Academy when I was younger, and right now I work as a Doctor in a place called St. Mungo's, but enough about me Mr Potter, what about you!"
Barely able to contain their giggling Harry laughed out in the same odd upbeat tone "Well I too went to a private school, but this one was in Scotland and called Hogwarts, I'm now a specialized kind of detective for the police."
After they calmed down from their laughing fits Hermione remembered the reason why they had broken up in the first place. "Harry, what happened to that job in America you had? Did you go?"
"I did eventually, but I was only there for 2 months, in truth I missed you too much, so I came back, even though I knew we were finished, just being in the same city as you was enough for me."
Hermione's heart soared again at his words knowing that he came back for her.
Harry continued "But then my mum got in contact with me, telling me she had set me up on a blind date with one of her friends' daughters! I couldn't believe it, I was furious I couldn't believe it!"
"The exact same thing happened to me, I couldn't believe the cheek of her!" she chuckled.
Harry grinned happily before speaking again "Well, I WAS furious, I was told to get here and 'the girl's mother will be there to introduce you both to each other, seen as she set it all up' was what she said."
"I'm glad she did." Hermione said smiling brilliantly at him.
They stared into each others eyes for a while, completely content, until Harry finally broke the silence and breathed,
"Yeah, I just remember turning around, hearing your voice, looking into your beautiful eyes and that wonderful smile and thinking to myself, 'there is no way I'm going to waste this second chance.'"
Notes: Hey lookie that they thought the same thing, cute. Haha, Whats up people, Hella love to everybody who read my first foray into the world of Fan Fiction, I appreciate it so much, Those guys who reviewed, Know that you made me incredibly happy by showing such positivity towards my writing, you've no idea how uplifting it is. I wrote this especially for you guys, even though i said i wasn't going to do a follow up for it. It's not as long as the first piece and i don't think its as good, but I'm happy enough with it.
For those wondering, i did get into university with the first piece but i still gotta work hard to get my grades. As a result most of my time is spent studying and working towards my goal, so i only really get weekends to write this stuff. I've been thinking about a story, again involving H/HR, but this time much more magic focused. (You'll notice i tried to inject a little familiarity into this chapter, unlike the first) The basic premise is that after beating Voldemort, Harry vanished, an undecided amount of time later (at least a few years) Harry mysteriously comes back. There isn't any specific details yet, but tell me what you think. (It's been done before i know, but I'll try and make it unique!