Chapter 15 - Harry's Gift
Hermione placed Harry's journal back on the coffee table, ran to her room, fell face forward onto her bed and broke down. She had never cried like this in her life. She was getting mixed feelings of guilt, anger, happiness, confusion, stupidity, and joy.
First, she was wrong. For the first time in Hermione Granger's life, she was wrong. She was wrong about Harry, how he didn't cheat, having no intention of cheating on her, and saying no when she had asked him. She had no feeling in her body. Getting yelled at or blamed for something that one didn't do is one thing, but the person who shouts and blames the person takes the hit when they find out that they were wrong in the first place.
Hermione experienced this at full blast. She continued to cry, not thinking about anything except how she couldn't be any more sorry to Harry.
After a very long and good cry, she walked back into the little common room and opened Harry's journal once again, reading the last passage over, just to confirm it in her brain. She noticed something she hadn't the first time: at the bottom-right corner of the page, there was a word written: "Irrisistol" followed by a dash and "Serine's spell". For the first time, Hermione smiled, knowing exactly what that was. Assuming that all in Harry's journal was true, this was the spell that Serine had used on Harry.
"Maybe… this'll be… of good use…" Hermione sniffed, wiping a last tear from her face and walked back into the Prefect common room. Just then, the door to the secret common room disappeared and Harry walked right in, his robes still with a bit of snowflakes on it.
"Oh hello Hermione," said Harry as he tried to dust the snowflakes away. "I didn't see…" but he didn't get a chance to finish his sentence because Hermione had given him a weak smile, put her head in her hands and broke down happily into tears. To Harry at that moment, it didn't sound like she was crying happily.
"Hermione, what's the matter?" exclaimed Harry with concern, running over to her and putting both hands on each of her shoulders. She dropped her hands and looked up at him, the same smile still on her face. But before she could answer, Harry withdrew his hands and took a step back; his concerned face replaced with a "oh… that's right. Why didn't I see it before?" look.
"Don't tell me Hermione," started Harry, his voice suddenly feeling weak. "Tears of happiness huh? Well, I knew that Xavier would've said something sooner or later. So… where you two going on a first date?"
Immediately, Hermione's face went from happiness to confusion. She eyed Harry in shock, having no idea what he was talking about.
"Harry, what on Earth are you going on about now?" she asked. It sounded a bit harsher that she had intended. Harry looked like Hermione had just slapped him in the face.
"You're right Hermione," apologized Harry. "That's none of my business." He walked toward the fireplace and squatted in front of it to try and get warm.
"I guess I'm just… well… a bit surprised that you've moved on quickly and found yourself a nice boyfriend already," continued Harry, with his back still toward Hermione. "Wish I could do that." He gazed into the fire briefly before standing up and looking at Hermione again.
"Hold on Hermione," said Harry holding a hand up to her as she was about to speak, "I want to give you something." Hermione stared at him, not sure if she was excited or scared at what he was planning to give her. Harry walked past her and into his room briefly before coming out again with a black box about the size of a wand in his hand.
That's the same box Harry had a few days ago, thought Hermione. Harry stood in front of her and took a deep breath, finding out exactly what to say.
"Look Hermione," he started nervously, holding the black box out in front of her, "I was supposed to give this to you on your 17th birthday. But, due to unexpected events, I couldn't." She nodded, knowing that the "unexpected event" was when she broke up with him, days before her birthday. Harry nodded back at her as if saying that he knew that she understood before continuing.
"Even though my intent was to give it to you when we were a couple and… since we are no longer, I… still want you to have this," he said as he handed the black box to her.
She took it from him and with very shaky hands, she opened it slowly. Hermione couldn't help but gasp under her breath as she saw its contents. Inside was a thin ruby necklace, with an "H" for a pendant about the size of a half dollar. She took it out of the box and examined it delicately like she was handling glass.
"It's yours," explained Harry, not looking into Hermione's eyes. "If you want it, keep it. If you don't…" Harry didn't finish his sentence; he gave a very depressing shrug instead.
"It's a Binding Love necklace," he explained as Hermione still eyed it, trying not to look at her at all. "They say that if you give it to the one you truly love and that person loves you back, the necklace is supposed to glow." He sadly walked over to one of the couches and sat in it, completely out of sight of Hermione because his eyes were slowly filling tears and he didn't want Hermione to see - see how stupid he was and what a weak person he was. He wiped his face dry quickly, hoping that Hermione didn't notice.
"Why don't you give it to Xavier?" asked Harry, trying not to sound to disappointed. "Maybe you can see what that glow is supposed to look like."
"Harry…" said Hermione softly from behind him.
"No, go ahead and give it to him. Remember, it's not mine anymore so you can do whatever you want with it."
"Harry…" she repeated, a little louder than before. "Look…"
He gave one final wipe to his eyes before taking a deep breath, standing up and turning around.