Chapter 8: Secret Out
BANG!
Harry jumped from the crates where he had been sleeping restfully. He looked up at the trapdoor to see if he could see any sign of what was making the noise. He noticed Hermione twitch behind him as she stumbled to her feet. "W-What's going on?" she asked groggily.
"Keep quiet." Harry whispered. "stay behind me." He put out an arm like a guard for Hermione; his wand gripped tightly in his other hand. There was another huge bang as Harry noticed huge foot break through the wood, streaks of sunlight beaming through. He looked up in surprise when he saw the red-haired boy, Ron Weasley. "Ron! what are you doing here?" Ron stumbled down the ladder and landed next to Harry.
"Well, you didn't expect me to let you do all the work did you? Besides I was worried about you, I wanted to make sure you were both ok, and that you got home safely. We've been searching for you all morning."
Harry eyes Ron suspiciously. "We?"
"Oh yeah, that big foot you saw wasn't mine, it was his." Ron pointed up at the hole where the trapdoor once was. Harry noticed that the half-giant Rubeus Hagrid was beaming at them.
"Alrigh' Harry?"
Harry returned his smile. "We're fine," he said, smiling at a rather red Hermione.
*
Hagrid left the trio once they arrived back at Hogwarts as he continued back to his hut. Harry and Hermione had told Ron the almost whole story of what had happened that night. They somehow missed the part about their kiss.
By the time they arrived back it was lunchtime and the three of them had an hour-long break. They were sitting in the common room; Harry and Ron were playing wizards chess, and Hermione had her head buried in a book as usual. She looked up from her book to see Ron's knight be-head Harry's bishop. "Don't you think you two should be studying as well?" she asked.
"Yeah we should," sighed Ron. "But that doesn't mean that we will. Right Harry?" Ron looked Harry directly in the eyes, as Harry saw Hermione glance up at him. He knew that he should be studying, but didn't want to make it seem too obvious that he was siding with Hermione a lot more these days. After all, if Ron found out about them, Harry didn't know how he would react.
"Um…actually…maybe we should study…McGonagall would go mad if she thought I was slacking off, after all I have to do well if I want to be an auror." Harry thought he had handled the situation rather well. He had done the right thing by choosing to study, and he hadn't made it seem like he was agreeing with Hermione.
"Ok, it's your choice mate, but I'm going to the library." Harry and Hermione looked up in shock. "Oh, no not to study or anything, I want to read about the new version of Wizard's Chess that's coming out this Christmas, bye." With that Ron departed the common room leaving Harry alone with Hermione for the first time since their kiss.
Harry got up slowly and sat down next to Hermione, he still felt rather nervous about the whole boyfriend/girlfriend thing but he plucked up the courage to put his arm around her waist. He felt her tense slightly next to him, but she relaxed and laid her head on his shoulder. "What are you studying?" he asked, knowing full well that Hermione now had her eyes shut and was enjoying his embrace.
"Oh… um…Arithmancy. I won't bore you with the facts though." She pulled one of her arms around Harry's waist as they straightened up slightly, their eyes locked. Harry knew that any normal couple would kiss right now, but he and Hermione were still knew to this thing and he didn't know how far she wanted to go. She was so close now that he could feel her breath. He thought that she would have pulled away by now had she wanted too. He moved his mouth to hers as they shared a light kiss. He slowly pulled away from her as they stared into each other's eyes. They kissed again but this time it was a little bit deeper. Harry felt the sensation running through his body, as he kissed her more passionately.
What the two didn't know was that Ron was in the entrance of the common room, and was watching on with his mouth open in shock. He crawled in from the portrait hole and stepped inside the room. Harry and Hermione continued to kiss, as they didn't even notice him there, until he let out a light cough. They broke apart quickly and stared blankly at Ron.
"Ron!" they both exclaimed at the same time. Ron looked deeply hurt, as he stared a hole at Hermione rather than Harry.
"What's going on?" he asked slowly.
"It's not what it looks like," said Harry, flustered.
"Oh, so snogging your best friend is as common as playing Quidditch is it?" he snapped.
"Ron, we can explain." Hermione pleaded.
Ron took a step closer to Hermione and looked her directly in the eyes. "Go on then, explain!" he snapped back, his voice rising with every word he spoke.
Harry stepped in and grabbed Ron by the shoulders pulling him away from Hermione. "What the hell are you playing at? Just here us out." Harry let out a long sigh before continuing. "You see, last night when I saved Hermione. Um…we…well…we sort of…kissed."
"Well, I must say you looked like it wasn't your first time when I came in!" answered Ron. "I think I've heard enough of this little story. Are you two a…couple…or not?"
Harry and Hermione looked at each other and then slowly returned their eyes to Ron. They both knew that they weren't sure about their relationship but they had to give Ron an answer now that he had found out. One of them finally spoke, but this time it was Hermione. "Yes, we are a couple," she said firmly. "I'm sorry Ron, I know this is hard for you but…you're going to have to try and get used to it, and I know that it's going to take time but…" she was cut off sharply by Ron.
"Oh shut up!" he shouted. "I'm fed up with you saying 'I know this, I know that' every couple of minutes. You have no idea how the hell I am feeling at the moment so don't you even try to understand!" He turned away and stormed out of the common room.
Harry turned to a sobbing Hermione after a couple of minutes of silence. He wanted to throw his arms around her but he had to know why Ron was so upset with her. "Hermione, what's going on?" he asked softly. He looked down at her. She continued to sob as she tried her best to get her words out.
"Ok, you deserve to hear what happened. Earlier this summer Ron sent me an owl, asking me if I wanted to go to the Burrow. He also asked me if I would like to go to the Yule Ball with him this year. Well, I sent a reply saying that I didn't think it would be a good idea to get involved like that with one of my best friends. So he sent me a reply…he was really upset that I had said no to him, and he told me all the feelings he had for me. So the only thing I could do was to tell him how I felt about him."
"And that is?" Harry butted in, a little worriedly.
"I told him I didn't like him the way that he likes me, and we haven't spoken directly since." She broke off her sentence as she continued to cry harder than ever. "And now I've ruined our friendship." Harry pulled his arm around her as she leaned on his shoulder and cried her heart out.
They stayed in the same position for about an hour when Harry finally spoke to her. "Hermione, can I ask you something?" he said in a voice that was barely a whisper. She nodded her head in approval. "If you said that you didn't want to get involved romantically with any of your best friends, then is that why you were reluctant to try anything with me?"
"Of course it is. But things change, and I'm starting to feel, like I want to have a relationship with you Harry. I just feel so guilty about what I said to Ron," she answered.
"I'll talk to Ron, don't you worry anymore," he replied gently.
Hermione looked at him with severe worry on her face. "No! don't you talk to him; I know what you two are like. It will start off with a quiet conversation when hardly anything is said, then one of you will say something wrong, and the next minute punches are thrown. Please Harry, don't try," she pleaded.
"We'll see," he said softly. He then kissed her gently on her forehead.
*
After Hermione's tears had dried up they headed off for their first Divination lesson of the year. Hermione had decided to re-join now that any students from fifth to seventh year will be doing lessons with Firenze the Centaur. Students who were below fifth still had old Trelawney.
They arrived in the dark Divination Room about five minutes early. They saw Ron sitting at a table alone, he appeared to be trying not to look at anyone. Harry and Hermione sat down next to each other, awaiting the arrival of Firenze with anticipation, as did the rest of the class. They all waited for about ten minutes but there was still no sign of Firenze, when Professor McGonagall darted into the room. "Hello students, I am here to tell you that this class is cancelled." There was an array of groans from the class. "Please go directly to your common rooms. The rest of your house will be there already. Please do not ask questions." She turned, and left without another word.
There were a lot of questions being asked around the class, such as 'why' and 'do you think he's ok?' Harry and Hermione had to be in charge for a while and keep all the terrified first years quiet, after all they are prefects. Professor McGonagall stepped back into the room after what seemed like an eternity. She had a sad and distraught look on her face. "Students, we have some terrible news. Firenze the Centaur has been killed," she said in a weak voice. Harry looked down to the ground, not wanting to look anybody in the eye. The students were silent awaiting more news. "He was killed by a Death Eater. You have the rest of the day off, but going outside of the castle is strictly forbidden." She walked briskly over to Harry and Hermione. "You two are still welcome to go outside but be on your guard, it may not be safe."
Harry knew that they were both prefects; therefore they had special permission to do things. But they both decided it was best to stay indoors. They went up to the Prefect Common Room and pulled out their books to do some revision. Neither of them said a word for an hour or so. Infact the whole school was quiet since they had received the news. The silence was broken when there was a knock on the door. Harry and Hermione turned their glances to the door of the common room sharply. Harry slowly stepped up. "Hermione, take out your wand, but stay behind me." She did as he said, but was not about to back down. Harry put his hand on the doorknob, turned it slowly and pulled it open quickly. But they soon lowered their wands when they realised that the person there was no Death Eater, but a Professor.
"Professor Lupin!" Harry exclaimed.
"What are you doing here?" Hermione added.
"Um…I just came to talk to Harry, but I can see it's a bad time, so I'll leave," he said.
"No! It's ok, you come in, I'll just wait outside for a while," said Hermione. She walked out leaving Lupin and Harry alone.
"Harry, I've been meaning to talk to you."
"Ok, Professor but I have to be quick, I'm supposed to be studying." Harry said.
"I know Harry, but this is important. It's about Sirius. You see Harry in his will he left me Grimmauld Place, and well, I wondered if when school is over and all, at the end of next year. You might come and live with me there. How does that sound?"
"You're kidding?" Harry's face lit up, this was too good to be true.
"No, Harry I'm not kidding."
Harry beamed up at him. "This is great, but what about Hermione, she has nowhere to live at the moment?"
"Well, I've got that covered too. It is completely up to her, but at the end of this year, she can come and live with me if she wants too. You can always come and visit at the end of the summer."
"Really? I'll ask her later," answered Harry brightly.
"And Harry there was something else that Sirius left. For you." Lupin pulled a medium sized broach and handed it to Harry.
Harry opened up the broach and couldn't believe what he could see. It was his Mum and Dad. "Sirius wanted to wait for the right time to give you this Harry." Lupin added. "Give that picture of your parents a rub Harry." Harry rubbed the picture as hard as he could with his thumbs, until he noticed the picture moving and talking.
"Hello, Harry we created this for you in case anything happens to us during this war so you always know that you can see us and hear us. We love you Harry."
Is what his parents said. Harry stared blankly at the picture as it faded away. He closed the broach and opened it again and once again the picture was there. He closed it up as a tear rolled down his cheek. "Thank you," he said as he looked up at Lupin.
"It's all yours Harry," said Lupin. "By the way, when we're not in class, you can all me Remus. Now off you go." Once Lupin had left, Harry sat down quietly on the sofa in front of the fire. He opened up the broach and started talking, holding back the tears.
"Hi, Mum...and Dad," Harry swallowed hard as he spoke, fighting his tears. "I hope you can hear me somewhere when I say this. Thank you for leaving me this broach, and I love you too. And I want you to know that I am going to kill Voldemort."
Tears streamed out of Harry's eyes as he was talking, he really had to force out the words. "I'm going to protect this school and my two best friends. Especially Hermione, she's very special too me. Once again I love you, and…goodbye." Harry snapped the broach shut and put it into his pocket. He hadn't noticed that Hermione was standing behind him. He stood up and turned around to see her staring at him, her eyes tear stained. "I didn't know you were here Hermione."
"What were you talking to?" she asked.
"Um, something Lupin gave me. Did you hear what I said?"
She smiled at him. "Yes, Harry I did. It was really sweet." He returned her smile as she walked up to him, kissed him on the lips, and hugged him tightly.