An Unlikely Love (A Harry Potter Fanfic)

47

"You have got to be kidding me?" Hermione grumbled before taking a seat alongside with Harry, keeping her glare on Rita, who was smirking. 

"Sorry, dearie, but I'm not." Rita stated with a wave of her finger, "You see the Minister may feel slightly remorseful about how your lives turned upside down supposedly due to my articles--" 

"Supposedly?" Harry shot at her, but she ignored him. 

"However, I bring in the people to the program he most adores. So he has asked me to make a compromise with you six so that I'm not crossing any boundaries and he still gets people in the doorway to help those other crazies." Rita explained to them, her quill flying out of the air with the notebook. Hermione shook her head, leaning against the arm of the sofa. 

"So what do you want?" Scabior blurted out before standing up from the table and heading over towards them followed by Barty and Fenrir. 

"Well in exchange of toning down my articles for you, I want photos of the three of you and Hermione being-- intimate." Rita claimed with a serious tone. Hermione shot up into a sitting position. 

"What! You are kidding right? That's not toning it down!" Hermione shot at Rita. 

"I still need good gossip for my readers and to help promote this program of his. So I promise to avoid causing you guys to look bad..." 

"Like you did with Harry and Ron with that supposed fight between us about not supporting our not real relationship." Hermione shot at her. 

"... if you four give me juicy pictures of you guys being..." 

"Intimate," Hermione, Fenrir, Scabior, and Barty said in union. 

"Exactly! Kissing, maybe cuddling a few times... Oh! if you could be extra friendly around Hogwarts as well, that would be great--" 

"Don't push it Rita! You'll make sure we're that your articles don't make us appear bad or get any hate mail and I'll agree to your-- juicy photos. But we're not doing anything too intimate!" Hermione stated the terms of the agreement. Rita smirked as she got up, stretching out her hand for them. 

"Deal," she uttered. Hermione forced herself on her feet as she took hold of Rita's hand and gently shook it. 

"Do we really have to do this? You know it will only encourage people to assume we really do have a relationship with each other," Fenrir asked while Hermione and him were walking down the corridors preparing for the Christmas Holidays. 

"If it can get Rita to at least not get any of us from receiving hate mail, it'll be worth it," Hermione explained to Fenrir. 

"So you're okay... with taking photos... with all three of us.... doing... intimate things." Fenrir asked her, his eyebrows perched in a look of disbelief. Hermione sighed. 

"You have to pick your battles, right? Since we can't really stop Rita without the help of the Minister, we might as well work to at least get rid of the damage part of her articles so we don't have to worry about any hate mail," Hermione explained to him. Fenrir opened his mouth to say something when Rita's voice cut right in. 

"There you two are!" Rita shrieked as she walked from around the corner, cameraman right behind her, "it took you guys long enough to get over here. Thought you might have actually considered cancelling this." 

"No, if you've forgotten, they are back in school again, so they are on a tight schedule." Hermione reminded Rita, her arms crossed over her chest, "So what is it you want Fenrir and myself to do for this first photo?" 

Rita then proceeded to inform Fenrir and Hermione what she wanted from them. She wanted them to go in between a pair of pillars where Fenrir would be kissing Hermione against the pillar. However, Rita was getting after them because they weren't appearing like a couple. Hermione wanted to shoot Rita a few chose words to remind her that Fenrir and Hermione weren't a real couple. 

"Closer-- closer you two--" Rita order. How much closer can I get, Hermione thought to herself as her body was pressed up against Fenrir's body to the point she felt she was going to go flat by the mere pressure of their tightness. 

"Perfect! Now Hermione, put your hand on the back of Fenrir's neck, and have your faces close to each other." Rita ordered. Hermione was about to get fed up with this entire thing before forced herself to gently place her hand on the back of his neck. She moved her face as close as possible with Fenrir's nearly to the point where their breath brushed against their faces. 

"Okay... now if you guys could--" 

"OH! FOR MERLIN'S SAKE!" Fenrir shouted before grabbing her face gently in his hands then slamming his lips against hers. Hermione's eyes widened from the surprise impact before slowly closing and melting into the kiss. She soon jolted from the flash of the camera and Rita's polite clapping as she broke the kiss. 

"Good, very good. This is front page news for sure!" Rita cheered as Fenrir proceeded to walk down the corridor. Hermione turned to headed behind Fenrir when Rita lightly patted against Hermione's shoulder. 

"I say, Miss Granger-- with that kiss, I would have guess you two were a real couple," Rita pointed out, lowering her glasses to wink at her. Hermione felt her cheeks flare up while she fled the scene, trying to ignore what Rita had mentioned.