Chapter V: The Crime of Love

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“The crime of loving is forgetting.”

-Maurice Chevalier

He stumbled back, falling onto the bed as he gripped his face in shock. “What’s going on, Ron?” he groaned, his voice muffled by the hands covering his face.

Ron fumbled at first, not sure how to respond to that rather loaded question. “I don’t know.”

Harry nodded, releasing a deep and frustrated breath as he tried to recollect himself. “Okay,” he said, his voice hoarse as he spoke. “Okay… do we have anyone tracking her accounts?”

“Um… uh… I don’t think so, actually. Want me to call in and get someone on it?—I’m sure one of the interns can handle that…”

“Okay,” Harry repeated, nodding. “Can you call in now?”

“Sure,” Ron assured him, leaving the room to make the call and give Harry some space to think a bit.

Harry clenched his jaw as he threw his head back, allowing his entire body to fall back with it. “Fuck, Hermione, what the hell did you do?” he muttered to himself as he stared up at the ceiling.

--

“It was a slow process from there on out, and a very awkward one, too,” she admitted. “Falling in love with him was such a drastic turn; the epiphany shocked me to the core, honestly. It scared me, the realization that I really didn’t have any control, that I couldn’t do anything… I’ve always been a rather organized individual so it… it was disconcerting.”

“How so?”

She couldn’t stop the shiver that ran down her spine, no matter how long this ongoing conversation with that disembodied voice lasted it never failed to creep her out. There was something so ominous about it… so finite.

She sighed, licking her lips as she tried to compose herself. “I’m Hermione Granger, the plain bookworm… one of the guys, that’s hardly Harry-Potter-girlfriend material. There were girls out there like Ginny and veelas like Gabrielle that were vying for his attentions, how could I possibly compete with something like that?”

“Well apparently you could,” the voice noted.

She blushed at the reminder. “Yes, how still baffles me, honestly. I mean I’ve always been very secure in myself, but in terms of the physical I could never quite find any confidence. Plus, it didn’t really help that in being Harry’s best mate spiteful girls were always more than willing to point out all of my fallacies; they seemed to find the activity quite joyous, actually.”

“And you believed them?”

“How could I not? They were so beautiful, and I was just the plain girl with the books, hardly anything to write home about… so to speak,” she quickly amended.

“Plain, really?” the voice asked, genuinely intrigued and surprised by the sounds of it.

“Compared to them most are…”

--

half an hour later Ron walked back into the room only to see Harry still lying on the bed, dazedly staring up at what looked to be crown molding. “Mate?” he timidly asked.

Harry blew out a large breath before pulling his body up, sending Ron an expectant look. “Learn anything important?”

“Well apparently all of these purchases were made in Hermione’s name; all paid through her credit card… but there was also something else.”

“What?”

“There’s this company, ‘Spotless Minds, Inc.’, and apparently Hermione charged fifteen-hundred pounds on her AmEx there.”

Harry’s breath stilled for a second, not quite sure how to take that news. “And… um, who are they?”

“No one knows, I have the plebes researching it, but it sounds gloomy, don’t you think?”

“Yeah,” Harry breathed out. “Any idea on when they’ll have some news?”

“as soon as possible, I pulled in some more favors from a few of the blokes at work so I could borrow some more of their interns and trainees, but our initial searches brought up nothing so who knows.”

“Ron, what the hell is going on?” Harry asked, his gaze trained on his hands, which here limply lying in his lap.

“Why don’t you tell me?”

Harry’s head snapped up in surprise at the question and he immediately sent Ron a perplexed look in reply.

Ron blew out a frustrated lungful of air as he plopped down onto the seat next to Harry. “She hasn’t been happy for a long time and neither have you, but what’s happened that she had to take such drastic actions?”

Harry shrugged. “She was just being oversensitive, what with my hours as of late and all…”

Ron shook his head, a doubtful look on his face. “That’s not all; I know Hermione and she’s not the sort to have that be her sole reason, not without fighting first.”

“It’s Melinda, she saw us talking in my office and we hugged, she didn’t take well to it, blew it all out of proportion.”

Ron paused, apprehensively eyeing his best friend. “And that’s all?” he asked, his tone laced with suspicion.

“Honestly, Ron, I’m not lying. She just didn’t take well to my friendship with Melinda and we fought about that and my working a lot, then we went to bed—me in the guestroom and she in ours—and she just wasn’t there in the morning… nor the one after or the one after that…”

“And you’re sure she was blowing it out of proportion?”

“Come on, Ron, you know how she can be at times, always quick to accuse.”

“Yeah, I do,” Ron admitted with a weak smile. “But never really with you…”

--

“When did you two finally get together then?”

“Seventh year, Halloween,” Hermione answered, blushing at the memory.

“Take me back to that moment in time, return to that memory,” he ordered.

“Okay,” Hermione whispered.

“Gopple-googger, Hermione, you look brilliant!” Luna gasped when I came out of me personal bathroom at the Heads” dorm and into my bedroom where I was preparing for the Halloween ball with my recently acquired friend.

I blushed immediately, taking no notice of the odd terminology as I’d gotten used to it ever since we’d started getting closer back in august when we ran into each other at Diagon Alley and finally had a chance to really talk a bit. She was odd, but sweet and genuine, never fake.

“Thank you… but do you really think so, you’re not just being nice?”

“Well it wouldn’t be very nice of me to lie, would it now?” the perfect Tinkerbelle replica replied. “Besides I think you make an awesome Peter Pan to my Tink… I really loved that film when you introduced me to it!” Luna gushed.

I laughed, looking down at myself. “But do you really think it was a good idea to forgo the tights and wear these pumps… they are rather high, after all…”

Luna groaned and sent me a disbelieving look. “Have you any idea how incredibly sexy you look, Hermione? You have legs to die for, flaunt them in that short dress and those heels! You do them justice, I promise!”

I sent her a doubtful look. “Come on, Luna, I’m hardly beautiful.”

Luna laughed, the sound incredulous rather than joyous. “You really don’t get it, do you?”

“Get what?”

“How beautiful you are.”

“Don’t lie,” I weakly mumbled, shifting my gaze downward at those words.

“But I’m not. You’re not the general perception of it, but you’re so much better, in my opinion. Look at yourself, Hermione,” she ordered me, pushing up my chin and forcing me to stare into the mirror before us. “You’ve got this amazing curly, sex-hair-”

“Luna!”

“Oh don’t act like a prude, we both know you’re not a virgin,” she chastised me with a wicked little grin on her face, truly befitting of her character, too. “it’s absolutely ethereal, Hermione, and any bloke that fails to realize that is an idiot who doesn’t deserve you… even if he is the savior of the wizarding world.”

Those words drew a surprised gasp from my mouth. “How… how do you know?”

She tilted her head to the side, a soft smile gracing her lips. “We haven’t been friends long, Hermione, but despite that we’ve spent a lot of time together, gotten rather close, and I’ve learned to read you. Don’t worry, though, Ron and Harry are absolutely clueless like typical blokes.”

“How long have you known?” I quietly asked.

“Not long… only realized about two weeks ago, actually.”

“You could have told me.”

She shrugged. “I was biding my time, waiting for the right moment.”

I nodded, silent. “Well you definitely chose a good one,” I smiled, flushing a bit.

“Glad to hear it… come on, let’s got party-hearty like it’s 1999!”

I laughed loudly. “That’s it, no more muggle movies for you, this is becoming ridiculous!”

--

“I don’t know what to yell you, Ron, it’s the truth… I don’t know what to say to assure you, you can either believe me or not, it’s your choice,” Harry noncommittally shrugged.

“But haven’t you considered that-”

his question, however, was cut off by the distinct shrill of his WiziCell, and he couldn’t help but blow out a frustrated breath as he internally cursed the blasted thing for interrupting such a crucial moment.

“Fucking shite,” he angrily muttered as he flipped it open. “What?!”

“Um… sir, it’s Andrews… from the Auror Department,” a hesitant voice rang through the line and Ron couldn’t help, but roll his eyes at the density of the dolt speaking.

“I realize that, I have caller id,” he sharply reminded “Andrews”.

“Oh, right, sir… my apologies,” the boy muttered and Ron could practically hear the blood rushing to his face as he uttered those words.

“And what is it that you called me about…?” Ron goaded when the kid made no move to speak after that apology.

“Oh… um, right, of course! Well, apparently we got a lead on Spotless Minds.”

“And?”

“Well it’s not anything concrete, most of it is gossip we’ve picked up, there is no real advertisement or anything that we could find, but from what we could gather it appears that the company is for forgetting.”

Two brows drew together too create a unibrow at that point. “Forgetting?”

“Yes, major events and extensive amounts of memories, to be exact.”

Ron stilled, his eyes widening and his breath coming out in shaky pants as the full connotation there hit him. “can-” he stopped as his voice cracked a bit, coughing. “Can you elaborate?” he asked, his tone gruffer that time.

“Well, apparently, it’s most often used for forgetting people… all of the gossip we were able to pick up on revolved around that, at least. It’s a safer version than the regular obliterate as while they do get rid of the memories really important events and lessons are modified to subtract the person meant to be forgotten from the center of the memory and either completely erase them or make them an accessory.”

“And, um… how do you know this if the people you’re talking about went under the procedure and forgot that event…?”

“Like I said, it’s gossip, I didn’t actually ask how they knew this.”

Ron tightly shut his eyes, trying to steady hi temper. “And why didn’t you ask?”

“I didn’t think it relevant…” Andrews sheepishly admitted.

Ron groaned. “Call me if you learn anything else, and give me sources and explanations this time, understand?”

“Yes, sir,” Andrews replied, tone apologetic.

Ron then shut his phone with a slam, slamming his head back against the wall he’d been leaning against. “Fucking hell, Hermione, what have you done?!” he muttered to himself as tried to regain composure.

He cracked his knuckles as he pushed off the hallway wall, heading back to the room Harry was waiting for him in. “mate, you’re not going to like this,” he prepped Harry as he made his way into the bedroom.

--

“May I have this dance?” a voice I knew all too well asked me from behind the second Luna and I walked into the hall that had been converted for the event. I turned around and had to stifle a laugh at the sight of cape, mask, and moustache clad Harry. “Oi, no mocking! I’ve been told I make a rather fetching Zorro,” he immediately defended, reading my thoughts.

“Well your fan club would probably also tell you that you make a sexy ogre.”

“Well I bet I could,” he retorted, looking rather glum.

Luna giggled. “I think what Hermione’s trying to say is yes, she will dance with you, but needs to mock you a bit first. Now that that’s over with though, feel free to take her for a turn on the floor,” Luna pushed Hermione, none too gracefully either, into Harry’s awaiting arms.

“Will do,” he winked at Luna before grinning down at Hermione. “Ready?”

I bit my lip as I looked up at him. “I thought you hated dancing.”

“well the sight of you in that sexy little outfit was incentive enough, I’d hate to see some other bloke groping you on the floor when I could be,” he replied with a cheeky smile as he pulled my body flush against his once we reached the dance floor.

I hushed a gasp for the sake of my ego. “And who says I’d want you to grope me?”

“No one, I’m just praying that you might be okay with it… so okay with it that maybe you’ll even consider reciprocating,” he answered, his eyes twinkling as he entwined my arms around his neck before moving both hands to the small of my back, rubbing soft and seductive circles into it.

I tried desperately to retain a visage of calmness as he did that. “Because it'd be unfair for us to be on unequal footing…” I ventured, flirtatiously, as I took some initiative and toyed with the strands of hair brushing his neck—an act that he appeared the genuinely enjoy as he closed his eyes, releasing a soft hum.

“Of course,” he said, his voice hoarse. It took him a few minutes to recollect himself, but when he finally did the look was back in his eyes and I had to stop myself from melting at the sight of it, it was better than anything I could have dreamed of. The look was caring, gentle, and downright raunchy simultaneously.

God, I was so screwed at that point!

“So what do you say, Hermione?”

“To what?” I asked, moving my head to rest at the crook of his neck, deeply inhaling his scent, yet another element adding to my slow seduction.

“How about a date with a promise of later groping?”

My body stiffened and snapped back as my eyes widened. That was unexpected, to say the least. “A… a date?” I sputtered rather unattractively.

My reaction appeared to illicit a bit of insecurity as I felt his hands clench from behind me, crackling. “Yeah… as in a non-platonic sort of way, of course…”

I nodded numbly. “Wow.”

“A good wow by any chance?”

I paused for a minute, stunned to silence, but when I finally regained control of my boy I sent him a full smile. “A fantastically mind-boggling wow,” I replied before pulling his face to mine and capturing his lips in a soft kiss.

--

author’s note: well I had planned on updating earlier, but before I could I had to finally decide on an ending as I’ve had three options that I’ve been mulling over since the beginning off this story, but I’d never settled on a particular one and that lack of direction was really pestering me. Finally wrote it out though so all was well and I was able to write this.

Hope you enjoyed it and, PLEASE, review!