Ultimate

padfoot_puppyeyes

Rating: G
Genres: Romance
Relationships: Harry & Hermione
Book: Harry & Hermione, Books 1 - 5
Published: 28/12/2003
Last Updated: 28/12/2003
Status: completed

After her break-up with Ron, Hermione is crushed. Feeling sorry for herself, she runs into Harry late one night in the common room, and finds something that's been there all along. one-shot, please r/r. based on the song "Ultimate."

Chapters

1. Ultimate

1. Ultimate

A.N.- this is a random one-shot song fic. Thank you to that one reviewer on Christmas Eve, you have no idea how you created inspiration in me. It felt wonderful to know someone read and enjoyed my fanfics, and you're right, I'll get more reviews with time. I don't know if that anonymous reviewer is reading this, but I dedicate a good potion of Depression to you! Anyways, I'll update that fic soon, but for now I hope everyone enjoys the song-fic I took off of Freaky Friday, (yes, most of my one-shots are based along the lines of that movie, but this one happens to be one of it's songs, Ultimate.)

Disclaimer- I don't own anything except the plot, and I'm barely aloud to say I own that. Don't sue me!

I couldn't believe it. I was in pure shock, still, even a week after it happened.

I'm sorry, that was rather rude of me. Let me start over. I'm Hermoine Granger, and a week ago, at the Christmas Ball of all places, Ronald Weasley, my boyfriend of three months and my best friend of six years, broke up with me. He just ended it, right there, and not very romantically at that. I know it never would've worked. We fought too much, and agreed on things too little. But he was my first real boyfriend, and the first boy who'd openly admitted he'd taken an interest in me for my personality, not my looks. I know that sounds insulting, but at the time it only seemed romantic! It was these thoughts that filled my head as I sat in the Gryffindor common room, staring teary-eyed at a piece of parchment, trying to finish homework not due for another week. It had been my excuse for not going to the dormitory with the rest of the Gryffindor sixth-year girls, and I was now regretting it. But Ron had announced to the whole common room just hours ago that he and Luna Lovegood, of all people, where dating, and I had quietly started crying all over again.

Thus, I couldn't sleep, and sat on a couch in the common room, crying softly to myself. It seemed someone else had the same problem. About sleeping, that is. Harry Potter, my other best friend, came slinking down to the common room as I cried, looking groggy and sad. I watched as his look of exhaustion soon changed to surprise as he noticed me, staring at him all red-eyed.

“Hermoine?” He asked, sitting next to me on my couch. I made room for him, even as I held beck the tears gathering behind my eyes. He didn't seem as surprised anymore, only concerned, as he continued with, “This is about Ron, isn't it?” I could only nod, and bite my lip hard, as I swore to myself that I would never, for my life, go crying to poor Harry. He had enough to be worried about, without me crying all over him.

Somehow, though, his next words turned on the water-works all over again. “Bloody git, I told him not to date you. I said it would ruin our friendship, didn't I?” I expected him to start yelling, or even storm out of the common room, which would've been too brash, but wouldn't have surprised me for a moment. Harry had been really on edge all year. Although I couldn't say I blamed him, it was enough to make anyone watching annoyed.

But I hadn't expected him to comfortingly put his arm around me, and somehow that only made me cry into his shirt harder. He just rocked me back and forth, and let me cry, for what seemed, I'm sure, like forever.

You're the kind of friend that always bends, when I'm broken,

Like remember when, you took my heart and put it back together again.

Harry let me cry into his shoulder like that, soaking the shoulder of his p.j.'s, for a good fifteen minutes. When I finally pulled back, my face was flushed with not only tears, but also embarrassment. Harry, not seeming to notice this, said non-chantingly,

“How've you been holding up? Ron's been walking on egg shells for days, and I know you always do such things for me, but I'm rather impatient. How much longer will you two be expecting me to be reserved?” I stared at Harry in wonder, for I'd never heard him talk like this before. There was a bittersweet look in his eyes, and I had to remind myself that he had the weight of the world on his shoulders and he didn't need a girl's troubles.

“Really, I'm fine.” I replied, instead, which I obviously wasn't, seeing as I had just finished soaking his pajamas shoulder through. He handed me the tissue and continued, for all the world as calm as could be.

“ No, you didn't do anything wrong, and there was nothing you could've done to save the relationship. I was bound to end sometime soon.”

I smiled at him. “You seem to have grown used to girls crying hysterically on your shoulder.” He only smiled in reply, but I felt the weight of what I'd just said settle in as I realized suddenly what his words had just sounded like. They had sounded like something you would say to someone who had just lost that special someone they loved, and I don't mean a casual break-up. Then memory dawned on me, and remembered Dumbledore saying something along the lines of, “Harry, you have a guest” after every one of Harry's daring rescues against You-Know-Who. But I also knew Harry wasn't god, and despite what some thought, he couldn't save all.

“Yes.” He said sadly, pulling me from my thoughts. “It's too bad not all of the times I've said those words were for such a simple reason. Ron doesn't even know your this upset, he's upstairs snoring.”

“I suppose that makes him a bloody clueless git.” I commented, but there was mirth in my voice, and my heart, which I that believed to have shriveled up and died sometime last week, suddenly seemed to spring to life again, despite my warnings not to.

I've been wasting time with clueless guys, but now it's over,

Let me tell you why I'm through. Cause I've met someone else, whose just like you.

I don't know what made the lines run through my head, but it was a new muggle song I'd heard over vacation on the radio, one I was sure I couldn't remember. So you can understand why I was surprised to be thinking of it now. Suddenly it occurred to me that I wasn't the only one lacking sleep in the common room. Harry looked tired, but I thought suddenly, wouldn't have been able to sleep if he'd tried.

I was quiet before voicing what I was afraid of hearing the answer to. Ron accused me of worrying more over Harry than him, and it was probably true, seeing as there was more reason to worry. Now I wondered why he was down here instead of asleep.

“ Nightmares?” I asked, waiting for him to explain his current situation, and wondering if I'd have to beg for him to tell me of his latest night terror. He really needed somebody to tell these things to, and you could tell he was getting tired of holding all of his emotions in.

“No, I come down every night after you everyone's asleep. It's the only way to keep the peace. If I yell or twitch in my sleep, they all wake up, and I don't want to hear their complaints. Besides, who am I to deprive them of their sleep?” He joked, trying to lighten the mood. Because that was Harry, trying to avoid the subject.

“So you sleep down here every night?” I asked. I looked around the common room, and instantly feel guilty, and wonder what I have to feel guilty for. For not being there for him, I guess. “This doesn't look very comfortable!” he was sprawled on the couch now, and although the common room was welcoming, it wasn't equipped for sleeping.

“It isn't.” He replied bitterly, and I laughed nervously. There as an awkward silence between us, and for a moment I remembered the next lines of that same bloody song.

You're it, you the ultimate.

It's automatic, I'm sure of it.

No lie, so don't even try.

To tell me that your not the guy.

Cause I've been waiting all my life, for someone just like you.

Your it, you're the ultimate, you.

At the time I had heard the song, it was just after Ron had sent me an owl asking me out, and just after I had said yes. I had heard it, and thought how perfectly it fit Ron and me. I had thought the song was meant for Ron and I. But now I was beginning to wonder. I remembered how Ron had admitted that if he hadn't known the real me as a friend, he would've still thought I was stuck-up, and wouldn't have even considered asking me out. And the only people who had ever been there for me where those who truly knew me, and knew the real me, not the act I put on in front of most of the people I meet. And there was the way Harry had been so comforting, when he had so many things to worry about. And I realized that I had barely had the time for Harry all year, with the exception of the fights with Ron in which Harry would comfort me much as he was doing now. For upon thinking about all of those many thoughts, I had felt extremely guilty about ignoring Harry, and asked, “Hey, I haven't talked to you in a while. What's new?”

“Nothing.” Came the quiet reply. Liar.

“So when were you going to tell me and Ron about the Prophecy?” I asked expectantly. I didn't know what the prophecy contained, only that it had to do with Harry's future, and that Dumbledore had told Ron and I that he would discuss it with us when the time came.

“Not till you and Ron would both be there to listen, and we could sit down and have a nice long talk.” He replied stiffly. I knew right then that he had been waiting to tell us, only we hadn't been there to tell.

So it was this that inspired me to say, “You can tell Ron later, I'm all ears now.”

And from that moment on it was like the dam holding it all in was broken, and the prophecy came flooding out. I sat there stunned worse than before, and somehow started crying on poor Harry's shoulder again. He had to be comparing me to Cho Chang right about now, and I couldn't blame him. But somehow, the thought of Harry dying worried me more than before. Bloody song. And then Harry held my hand and stroked my hair as I sobbing onto him, and my crying decreased to the rare shudder and hiccup.

You're the kind of guy whose hand in mine sends shivers, up and down my spine.

You took my heart and put it back together again.

And right then, I realized things were going to work out, and the song was true. Only it was about Harry and I, not Ron, and I wasn't crying for Ron anymore. I was crying for Harry. So, to comfort both him and myself, I gave him a gentle kiss on the cheek, like I had in forth year, like I should have after his loss of Sirius.

You the kind of guy who blows my mind, but now it's my turn.

You've been right in front of me, everything I need, why didn't I see?

And to both my surprise and his, he kissed me back. On the lips.

You're it, you're the ultimate.

It's automatic I'm sure of it.

No lies, so don't even try,

To tell me that your not the guy.

Cause I've been waiting all my life, for someone just like you.

You're it, you're the ultimate, you.

Ron, smiling and watching the new couple from under the invisibility cloak, thought about disturbing them. Deciding against it, he crept up the stairs and into bed. Hermione had told him that if he was going to break up with her, he should at least have a reason. But he had seen the longing and secret in his friend's eyes. Ron though he had had a pretty good one.

A.N.- Please, if you've read this, I really appreciate reviews. I know it's a pain, but it takes only a few seconds! Thank you. -Your resident Marauder,

padfoot_puppyeyes