A Dark Surprise

               Ginny peeked her head around the curtain to see that Ron and Harry were now joking and throwing chocolate frogs at each other. She un-did the silence charm on the curtain, and then pulled it back all the way.

               She motioned for Ron to come over to her.

                “So? What did he say?” she whispered, once she had dragged him over to the corner of the room.

               “He loves her,” he said with a shrug, as if he said it every day.

               Ginny clasped her hands together in excitement, and an ear-to-ear smile grew on her face.

                “Is he going to tell her?”

                “This is Harry, not Prince Charming, of course he’s not going to tell her,” he answered.

               Hermione looked over to see Ginny talking animatedly, and by the smile on her face, she had a good feeling as to what Harry had said. She turned her head slightly to look at Harry, but she caught him watching her as well. They both whipped their heads back so that they were looking the other way.

               Harry saw Ginny hit Ron hard in the shoulder, and Ron massaged his shoulder while giving his sister an annoyed look, before following her over to their friend’s beds.

               “Ginny thinks- I mean, I think that we should go back to the dormitory... stop it Ginny! What did I do now?” said Ron, staring down at his sister, who mouthed something back at him.

             “Oh. Yeah, and I also think that you too should stay here for awhile because... why do I think they should stay here?”

             Ginny threw up her hands in frustration and said, “Oh, forget it. You too need to talk, obviously.”

             Hermione shot her a pleading look, she didn’t want any more awkward moments. Ginny raised her eyebrows at her, she was as stubborn as her mother.

             Harry gave Ron a vicious stare, but Ron just shrugged and pulled a face, he definitely didn’t want to stand up to Ginny.

              Ginny headed towards the doors of the hospital wing, and pulled one open with the large handle. She turned around to see that Ron was still standing by Harry.

              “Ron!” said Ginny, and Ron turned to look at her, he hadn’t noticed she’d left his side.

               With a sigh, he followed her out of the room. Ginny smiled back at Hermione and Harry, gave them a slight wave and winked at Hermione, before leaving the hospital wing.

              Hermione brought her knees up to her chin and wrapped her arms around her shins, staring out into space. Harry pretended to be looking somewhere else, but his eyes kept falling back onto her.

               “This is weird,” he said finally, breaking the ice.

               “It is,” answered Hermione, “it’s very weird.”

               Harry turned his head to face her straight on, and she did the same.

               “I’m sorry about the things I said... you know, about you not coming to meet Sirius... I shouldn’t have -” said Harry, but he was interrupted by Hermione.

               “No, it’s my fault. This, all of this, is my fault,” she said, and her eyes began to water.

               “How could this be your fault? Did you ask Malfoy to come and attack you in the library? Did you ask him to send me a letter, pretending to be Snuffles? Did you ask him to create a clone of you to lure me into the Shrieking Shack?” said Harry, and he got up from his bed and sat beside Hermione on her mattress.

               She looked up at him, and he could see tiny tears beginning to flow down her cheeks. He lifted his thumb and wiped them away from under her eyes.

               “But if it wasn’t for me, he couldn’t have known what you were doing all the time, and he couldn’t have gotten you into the Shrieking Shack...” she said between quiet sobs.

               Harry put his arm around her shoulders, and said, “No Hermione, for once, you’re wrong. He would have just used someone else, like Ron... he just got lucky I guess.”

               “What do you mean?” asked Hermione.

               “Well... I don’t think I would have gone after anyone but you,” gulped Harry, and he felt his cheeks getting warmer and warmer.

                Hermione blinked, and then lifted her head up slightly, and Harry felt her lips touch his. He was too shocked to react as he had hoped, and he was almost thrown off of the bed. Hermione pulled back from him, obviously embarrassed.

               “S-sorry, I just...” she stammered, and her face turned bright red again.

               Harry regained his composure, and sat up again. He turned her face back to face him, then pressed his lips against hers. The feeling that came over him was the happiest he’d ever been in his lifetime. It was better than drinking Butterbeer in Hogsmeade, better than feeling the wind blowing through his hair while flying on his broomstick, better than boarding the train to Hogwarts at the end of summer... it was pure bliss.

                As they continued to kiss, Harry felt Hermione pressing her hands against his chest, and soon he was lying on her bed, with her on top of him. He wished it would never stop, that he could just lie there with her forever, but they both were interrupted by the sounds of someone clearing their throat across the room.

                Hermione lifted herself off of Harry and turned around to see Madam Pomfrey standing in the doorway of her office. She seemed to be amused at the situation, instead of angry that there were two students kissing in her hospital wing.

                “Back to your dormitories, you too,” she said sternly, but Harry could see a soft twinkle in her eye that he’d never seen before.

                Hermione smiled and held out her hand to Harry. He took it, and they both stood up off of the bed, and walked out of the hospital wing, hand-in-hand.  

            THE END.

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