Le Lune et La Beau

-Chapter Two-

"Ce Que?! You haven't told them Ron?" Alex jumped to his feet.

"What hasn't he told us? And who's this guy?" Harry demanded, putting his hands on his hips. With his green jumper and black pants, Hermione thought he looked like Peter Pan.

"Um, Harry this is Alex," Hermione said calmly, starting to realise what was going on.

"Oh hi Alex, I'm Harry Potter..."

"Oui, oui," he said irritably. "I know. Ron, you really haven't told them?"

Ron was staring at his feet.

"Uh no, I was waiting for the right, um, moment..." Ron muttered.

"Pour l'amour de dieu!" Alex cried. Harry looked at Hermione, but since she was looking up at the roof she didn't notice him.

"Uh Mione, wish to bloody translate? Dumb bloody French FUCKERS! They come to England and they speak a fucking different fucking language. They're stupid bastards!" Harry yelled.

"Harry!" she exclaimed. "My god, he only said 'for goodness sakes'".

By now most of the patrons outside were looking in and Harry's outburst had frightened the other Q.Q.S customers right out of the shop.

"Oh all right then, thanks," Harry snapped, still angry.

"I was going to tell them today, actually, after she bought her broom-," Ron started saying.

"Well, it's a bit BLOODY LATE!" Alex said angrily.

"WHAT ARE YOU FUCKING YELLING FOR! IT'S MY FUCKING BIRTHDAY!" Harry yelled to Alex.

"BECAUSE, IM FRENCH!" Alex yelled back.

"Well, there you go," Harry said, his voice soft and gentle.

"Ron, if I think this is what it is, the broom can wait-" Hermione said very calmly, so as not to get Harry started again.

"Oh fine then, get me in on my BLOODY day off! Ron, tell them!" Alex demanded.

"Oh. Alright then, I'm going out with him," Ron said, very fast.

"WHAT THE FUCK!" Harry swore yet again. "But, but you're CHEATING ON YOUR GIRLFRIEND! ...Who funnily enough is called Alex also..." He shrugged his shoulders and bent down and started undoing his shoe laces. He slowly took off his sneakers and started stabbing Ron with them.

"How dare you cheat on your girlfriend, you FUCKING ASSHOLE!"

"Hey, hey.... HARRY STOP IT!" Ron yelled.

"HARRY! This is Alex." Hermione tried to explain. She pointed to the handsome man who was now standing behind the counter getting away from Harry.

"What? I don't bloody understand," Harry said, taking the shoes away from Ron.

"Of course you don't," Hermione rolled her eyes.

"HARRY! Do I really have to spell it out? I'm gay, G-A-Y! OK! There is no girl!"

"Oh," Harry bent down and put his shoes back on.

"So... you're not too angry?" Ron asked carefully.

"Well, yes we are obviously," Hermione replied, rolling her eyes, thinking how stupid her two best friends were right now. "But mostly because you lied to us... If you had just come out with it we wouldn't have had Harry going all crazy on us again, and on his birthday too... all that Pot really went to his head. Stuffed up his brain it did," She said, in disgust.

"Oh ok, I'm sorry...but technically Hermione, I didn't actually say that Alex was a girl, you two just assumed that and also, the pot didn't screw Harry, Voldiewarts did. So..." Ron sighed. "Can I introduce you all properly now?"

They all nodded.

"Alright," he started, "this is my boyfriend Alex Le Lune. Alex, meet my two best friends, Hermione Granger and Harry Potter."

They all shook hands in a very proper manner, Harry looking down at his feet, red in the face suddenly realising what he had just said, and knowing he had made the customers run out of the shop.

"So..." Alex said slowly.

"Well, not to be rude guys, but can I buy my broom now?"

"What!" Harry asked. "Our 'Mione, buying a broom?" he laughed.

"Yes, Harry. The new one over there, in the window," she said impatiently. She pointed across the room, and he went over to look at it, closely followed by Ron.

"So...Alex" she grinned, "How do we go about this?" They both retreated back to their purple couches.

"Go about what? The fact, that my boyfriend won't tell his parents about us? The fact that he only just told his two best friends, that we've been going out for nearly 5 months? Or, that he's gay?"

"Well.... um, I was actually talking about the broom.... but, if you want to talk, I'm all ears..."

*****

"So..." Ron said.

"Yeah, well... Ron. I can't believe you never told me," Harry said quietly.

"Well, I used to see the way you looked at Dean and Seamus when they were together."

"Yeah, well," he said, staring at the Meteor, with a knowing smile playing at his lips. "I dunno. I just thought you would have told me. What would've happened if I was looking for Ginny in your house and just happened to stumble in on you and Alex, thinking that Alex was a girl? Wouldn't I go more crazy than usual if I were to walk in on you being with a man?"

"Yeah ok, I get your point and I already said I'm sorry".

"I know. Let's just drop it, huh?" Harry asked, feeling already sick of the conversation.

"Thanks. Happy Birthday, by the way ..." Ron sighed, and looked up at Harry with a sympathetic expression on his freckled face. "You know, we will someday find a cure for that curse of yours. You should see all the old spell books Hermione bought today.... But in the meantime," Ron laughed. His sympathetic face gone to the winds, "I'm gonna have fun watching you make a fool of yourself while under the curse..."

"Huh, which curse," Harry whispered, "the one where I stab my friends with shoes and swear continuously, or the one where I'm in love with one of my god damn enemies?"

"What did you say, Harry?"

"Nothing, Ron. Nothing at all..."

*****

After Hermione had bought the Meteor from Alex, they all decided to go to Alex and Ron's house, via floo, for a late lunch.

Alex stepped up to the fireplace behind the counter in Q.Q.S and gave the container of floo powder to Ron. Alex grabbed some floo powder out of the container threw it onto the fire he had just made in the grate and said, "Le Lune Manor."

The bright green flames engulfed him once he stepped in, holding Hermione's books. The floo took him to the manor.

Hermione turned to Ron and asked for the 10^th time whether travelling via floo would be ok for her broom, which had been wrapped in brown paper.

"Yes Hermione, it'll be fine, just make sure you keep it close, ok, and even if it does get 'hurt' as you said, the broom's got insurance, doesn't it?"

"Yeah, but still..." Harry poked her in the back.

With a sigh, she stepped up to the grate and took a handful of powder from Ron. She chucked it onto the roaring fire and said, "Le Lune Manor."

The green flames engulfed her and her broom and whisked her away to the manor, all the while she held her broom very close to her.

She passed many different grates, but was soon pushed out. She stumbled into a bright living room.

She stood up and had a look. It was painted in a beautiful crème with blue curtains and a sky blue lounge suite.

Hermione hadn't seen anything like it; it seemed almost royal-like. With a television, stereo and blue beanbags scattered around, it looked like one of her Muggle friends' apartments.

She turned back towards the grate, and saw Alex standing there watching her every move, looking as clean as when she first saw him. Not even a speck of dust or soot.

She smiled and said, "It's lovely... How did a young guy like you get a beautiful place like this?"

Alex chuckled, and said simply, "This is my Grandparents manor, but they're living back in France now and they gave it to me. I've owned it ever since I graduated."

"Oh, really? From what school?"

"Beauxbatons..."

"I know a guy who used to go there, his names David White; he's 25 now, I think."

"Yeah I knew him...We had a sort of thing...back at school," Alex said.

"So did I..." she laughed. "I'm seriously thinking that I'm turning all these guys gay. First Victor... then David and now Ron," she laughed. "I hope Vee doesn't," she added as an after thought, quietly.

"Really? Ron never told me about you two," Alex said curiously, with a cute furrow in his brow.

"Mhmm, yep. At the start of our 6^th year," Hermione said, telling herself off inwardly for mentioning Him, her current boyfriend.

"Serious relationship?" he asked.

"No," she laughed. "Why, are you jealous?"

"Nah, just curious as to what else he hasn't told me, has a habit of that....not telling things, especially important things like this."

"Oh don't worry, it wasn't anything important, it's all in the past now," she said as she looked around the room and all of the paintings.

"Hmm..." Alex agreed reluctantly.

At that moment, the two boys came bustling through the fire place.

"Oh, sorry guys, we had a bit of a problem with a reporter..." Ron started.

"Yeah!" said Harry, "going on about that damned secret prophecy again. As if Harry Potter hasn't got enough to bloody worry about without thinking about bloody old Voldie coming to get him and rip his bloody head off!"

"Harry, are you ok?" Hermione enquired.

"Yeah, yeah, nothing anyone else can help me with... So! 'Mione lets go test this baby of yours out, huh?"

"Sure... Guys, can we go outside?"

"Yeah, ok." Ron said. "Just follow me."

"I'll go make some lunch," said Alex, looking frostily in Ron's direction.

They all went their separate ways.

Ron led them through the living room and into a white corridor with blue carpet.

Hermione noted the family portraits on the wall. She stopped to look at a group photo. Two middle aged parents with curly black hair, waving and smiling, their arms around each other; a brown haired witch, with the same blue penetrating eyes as Alex who looked oddly familiar; and a younger teenage Alex, standing in the front by his elder sister. The family all smiled at her as she passed. The teenage girl looking at her in a weird, "I've seen you somewhere look" plastered on her face.

Hermione also saw framed certificates, some said 'Best Beauxbatons Chaser Ever!', 'Congratulations, Alex Le Lune, on completing 7 years of magical study at Beauxbatons Academy' and so on.

It was a long corridor. Once Ron led them through the door to the back yard it was very clear to Hermione why it was such a long corridor. It was a HUGE house.

At least 3 stories high and 2 stories wide in fact, Hermione had only been in one other house that was this big. Her Great Aunt Agatha's beautiful home which was now her own. Her Aunts house was painted purple, bright purple, it even had a wicket fence that was painted the same colour.

However, this house was sky blue, even its roof. Its window sills were painted white and it had beautiful gardens surrounding the whole house. There were all different coloured roses, some blue, pink, green, red, orange, yellow, purple, white, and so on.

She absolutely loved the gardens here and started thinking about doing the same thing to her Aunts house in France.

"Ron, where's Ginny?" Harry asked.

"Oh, she went and saw Luna Lovegood for a couple of days."

"That sounds nice... I haven't talked to Luna for a long time, what's she been up to?" Hermione said sweetly, looking at the ground, remembering suddenly how much she loved being on it.

"Dunno," Ron said blandly.

"Nice house, huh Harry?" she asked.

"Yeah."

"I mean the blue contrasts nicely with the white doesn't it?"

"Hermione, quit stalling..." Ron said.

"I am NOT stalling, don't be so stupid."

"Hmm, whatever..." Ron said.

*****