Le Lune et La Beau

-Chapter Three-

"So, 'Mione, are we gonna try it or not?" asked Harry.

"Alright. Let's unwrap it," They ripped off the brown paper to reveal the Meteor in all its glory.

"Bright shiny ash wood with beautifully trimmed twigs, faster than 5 cheetahs put together, and its all yours 'Mione, its even got a programme to help you learn the history of broomsticks and flying, while you're riding. It's got many different features too," Ron giggled, he sounded like a brochure on Meteor brooms.

"Man, it's so pretty...." Hermione said in awe.

"Yes, we know," Harry said.

"It's so beautiful; I don't want to hurt it..."

"Uh, 'Mione it's a broomstick, it's meant to be ridden, flown and 'hurt' once in a while that's what makes it such a good broom,"

"But, it's so lovely and polished,"

"Yeah, yeah we know, quit stalling, we know you're scared, and we'll help,"

"Yep, and it's just something else you'll have to learn and master, so get your head around it. Its not too hard you know, flying, I mean, and we'll help as much as we possibly can,"

"Mmm," she said.

"Well, get on 'Mione!" Harry laughed.

"Alright, but Harry, you and Ron are gonna help me aren't you?"

"Sure," they said while rolling their eyes. They had just said exactly that.

"Okay" Hermione placed the broom on the ground on her right side; she put her hand over it and said "UP!"

The broom jumped into her hand instantly. She was sure that it was purring, Hermione thought better of asking the boys, as they'd probably laugh at her.

"Well.... Sit on it..." Harry said impatiently.

Hermione slid her leg over it and sat down cautiously.

"Now hover a tad. Then go for it," Ron instructed.

Hermione's hands were shaking. She told the broom in her head to hover. It did. She said go in a little circle over the boys' heads. It did.

She told it to land. She smiled at the boys as the Meteor did what she asked of it. They clapped and whooped for her.

She then told the broom that they were going for a ride. Hermione and the Meteor edged slowly up towards the sky.

Hermione heard a purring noise in her head and it seemed to say 'Don't look down. Not yet. You're not ready!'

Hermione decided to heed the warning. The Meteor took Hermione on a joyful flight, over the Le Lune Manor, over some luscious pine trees, over the hills and farm animals that all seemed to belong to the manor.

She was having a wonderful time. Hermione heard the little purring voice again, it said 'You can look down now, but don't freak out'. She did as it said and saw that she was very high up. She was about 10 feet higher than the manor.

"Wow this is beautiful!" she exclaimed

'You better go down' someone said but it wasn't the purring voice of the broom.

"Why?" she asked.

'Storm coming,' the voice said.

"Oh ok, Can we go down now?" she asked the broom.

The broom purred, yes.

They went back quite fast and they landed right in front of Harry. Hermione said thanks to the voice and to the broom.

"Harry," she said, "Storms coming. Best put up a bad-weather charm, huh?"

"Oh, yeah, okay. Ready?"

"Yep,"

"On the count of three, ok? One... Two... Three!"

"Reverso Stormiano!" they cried and pointed to the sky.

A bright purple light burst from their wands and surrounded them, the house, and the backyard and even 200 feet high in the air, so that they could still fly. Just a shield, it sheltered them from the storm and the rain couldn't get in.

A few minutes later, thunderclouds and lightning sprang up all around them.

Hermione smiled at Harry.

"Some intuition 'Mione," Harry said.

"Mmm, so where's Ron?" she asked.

"Oh just gone inside. Alex came outside before and glared at Ron until he went in with Alex. Quite strange really, I'm not used to seeing Ron getting hen-pecked by a guy,"

"It must be about how Ron and I went out last year ..." she started. "Oh, I told Alex," she had seen the confused look on Harry's face and had decided to elaborate.

"He didn't know?"

"Apparently he didn't. It seems as if Ron's been keeping more things to himself than he should be,"

"Yeah, it's crazy, aye?"

"Yep. So Harry do you wanna have a go on my broom, my little flying machine?" she giggled.

"Yeah, cool!" and with that she handed it over and Harry was off. He went right up to the roof of the storm shield, and right down to the ground in an instant.

He did a couple of loop the loops and a few more flying tricks, which he had picked up while playing Quidditch over the years.

Harry flew straight back down and stopped abruptly in front of Hermione. His face flushed, pumped with adrenaline, and with a huge grin on his face, he handed it back to her.

"My God, 'Mione, that was great!"

"I know," she returned the happy smile.

"Did you try out any of the special features? It's very fast, you won't want to try that out too soon."

"I liked the purring voice; it even listened to what I wanted to do. Nothing at all like those bumpy school brooms,"

"What do you mean 'purring voice'?" he asked curiously.

"She means the inbuilt owner detection voice, all the new models have it now,"

They both turned around and saw Alex and Ron standing together, not so far away, holding hands.

Ron was scowling in Hermione's general direction, but she didn't see it as she was watching Alex, who somehow reminded her of someone, his bright teeth kept distracting her and they were oddly familiar.

"So, I hear its voice because its mine?" she asked, now out of her daze.

"Yeah, basically and if anyone tries to steal it from you, the broom will come instantly back to you."

"I guess that's good then," she replied.

"Mmm," Alex agreed. He was smiling again, and Hermione found her instant familiarity with him very strange as she had only known him for half a day, even less than that.

"Well I'm gonna go try her out again then," She laughed as she shook her train of thought straight out of her head.

Hermione got back on the broom and launched herself into the air.

She was circling over Harry while he was giving her flying advice.

Alex and Ron had retreated to a white garden table by the rose's filled white trellis. They were talking animatedly now.

She had never felt so exhilarated in her life. Hermione wasn't so scared of flying now and she felt very proud of herself. What with her personal psychic voice in her head, and the brooms' purring voice she could never go wrong.

Without her fear of flying, she had soon realised that she was a pretty good flyer. She even thought that she could definitely improve on this skill.

While listening to her best friends advice on flying, she was thinking of her darling boyfriend.

He was the one, she just knew, and someday she would marry him.

He was the definite one for her.

Yesterday, He had told her He loved her. Hermione loved Him too, but she was so shocked that He had actually said it. They had been going out since the 4^th of June and she still didn't know why He was with her.

But yesterday, when He had said 'I love you', so softly, so quiet, that she nearly didn't hear Him, her heart stopped, then restarted, beating very fast. She hadn't been able to control herself.

She realised then that their love for each other was reciprocated and was shown in full force on both sides. She had even told Him how much she loved Him and how much He meant to her. They had kissed, embraced, laughed and talked for a long time until she had to go home.

Hermione wondered what would happen once they got back to school.

With this being her N.E.W.T year, she was very worried about not passing; in fact she had already started studying. Hermione hoped that she'd have time for Him.

If I don't have time with Him, she thought, then I'll just have to make time. I love Him and I'd do anything to make Him happy.

Hermione shook herself out of her joyful daze and looked down to see that she was about 50 feet in the air.

She suppressed a nervous giggle. She had forgotten what she was doing, so she calmly flew back down with such precision that she was proud of herself and secretly knew that her boyfriend would be too.

She set back down on the soft green grass and walked over on to the courtyard, where they where all sitting on the white garden table and chairs.

"Well done 'Mione!" Ron yelled.

Hermione looked up to see Ron and Harry smiling at her and also saw that Alex was grinning too.

What a nice man Alex is, she thought, I hope that Ron is happy.

She smiled back at them all.

Hermione suddenly felt very guilty as she sat down beside them. Ron and Alex had both told Hermione and Harry something very personal and important, that obviously not many people knew about. However, none of these guys, let alone her parents, knew about her boyfriend or even knew His name.

But, she thought, Ron waited until now to tell us about his boyfriend, so why do I have to tell him about mine?

The voice she had heard earlier while flying, said, But he's your best friend and so is Harry, they've both been through a lot these past couple of years, so you have to tell them, you owe it to both Harry, and Ron.

But, Hermione said, they wouldn't even like Him or approve of Him, and my boyfriend doesn't exactly like them either.

Still, the voice said, no reason to lie to them.

I'm not lying to them, Hermione replied, slightly angry. I'm just not telling them the full truth.

The voice sounded worried, it said: You better tell them soon, before it's too late and before he tells you The Secret. The voice said the secret part in an almost hushed voice.

What do you mean? What Secret? Who's going to tell me?

Nothing you won't know in time, the voice said and didn't say anything else. It seemed to think the matter finished. Hermione didn't, she still had questions.

Hermione suddenly thought she was crazy. To have another voice in her head, that wasn't her own, and also a voice that seemed to have the sight, now sounded a little bit more than strange.

She shook herself again and this time saw that all of the boys had gone inside, maybe to have lunch, she thought. Her hungry stomach grumbled sensing her thoughts. Hermione grabbed her broom and followed them back inside.

*****