Chapter 7 - Feelings Change
Harry kept running, being fueled by his love for Hermione, his desperate need to find her. He could hear running footsteps in one direction and he knew immediately it was Hermione. He ran after them, following the sounds. After turning the corner, he saw the silhouette of Hermione closing the door behind her, heading outside. He ran as fast as he could down the long corridor to get to her, passing by the entrance to the Great Hall and almost running through Nearly-Headless Nick, the Gryffindor ghost, ("Sorry Sir Nicholas! I'm in a hurry!"). He burst through the main castle doors and he searched for Hermione. He saw her, curled up into a ball, sitting on the edge of the lake, sobbing loudly.
"Hermione!" he yelled. He didn't know if he was heard or if she ignored him. He walked over to her, thinking about what he was going to say this time.
"Hermione," he said again in a coaxing voice as he reached her, standing right at her side. She didn't answer. She was still crying and sobbing loudly, a lot more than he had ever seen her cry. Harry bent down next to her and put and tried to put an arm around her.
"Don't touch me Harry!" she yelled, yanking his arm off of her. She went back to crying. This was not a good sign for Harry.
"I'm sorry Hermione," he said, not knowing what else to say.
"Sorry for what!?" she exclaimed with tears running down her face, suddenly standing up. "Sorry for feeling up some other witch!? Sorry for wanting to cheat on me!? You didn't look so sorry when she was all over you!"
"Hermione let me explain, I -" said Harry, slowly standing up, but Hermione interrupted him.
"I don't want to hear it Harry!" she said, going back to crying a little. "There is nothing that you can explain that'll get you out of this one. I caught you red-handed! As if the first time wasn't enough, I catch you going at it again a second time!"
"I wasn't my fault!" yelled Harry. It was one of the first times that Harry had raised his voice to her. He didn't like it, but felt that that was the only way she was going to listen to him. "She approached me!"
"It wasn't your fault!?" she yelled back between sobs. "Then why didn't you run when she approached you? You didn't seem to give much effort to get away! It was like you didn't want to get away!"
Harry looked down and shook his head angrily. He figured that telling her that for some reason he couldn't get away would make him look stupid in front of her and that she might think that he was making it all up. He decided that he best keep it to himself for now.
"What Harry?" said Hermione, seeing him shake his head. "You accidentally let her smash you against a wall and you accidentally let her rub on you!?"
"Don't be stupid Hermione!" Harry snapped back defensively, so loudly that a few birds that were in the tree that was shading them flew away. "You know that I would never cheat on you!"
"You have a very unique way of showing it!"
"Shut up Hermione! You're really starting to piss me off!"
That was it. After he had said that last sentence, Hermione immediately went back to her sobbing again, throwing her face in her hands. At first, Harry didn't care, but as he continued to watch her, he started to feel sorry for yelling at her. Another thing that Harry had not planned to do: She was crying because of him.
"Hermione I… I'm sorry," he said, starting to feel tears build up in his eyes. He put his hands on her shoulders, thinking that she was going to pull away. She didn't. He took one hand and put it under her chin to make her look at him. There was only one thing he felt like doing, hoping that right after it, everything will be back to normal. He leaned in, ready to kiss her. Hermione stopped him by putting both of her hands on his chest.
"No Harry," she said sniffling, shaking her head. "That's not going to work this time."
"Look at my eyes Hermione!" he said in a last minute way. "I'm sorry!"
She studied his eyes carefully like she had done in the past. Since he had tears in his eyes, it was really hard to read them this time. She searched and searched desperately and hoping that she was going to see what she wanted, like she had seen it before. After studying Harry's eyes like a detective, to her surprise, she didn't find an ounce of truth in there. Her lip trembled and she started to sob again, very saddened that she didn't find what he was looking for. Her head dropped down as she spoke.
"I don't see it Harry…"
Harry felt a shiver run through his body. What was going on? He couldn't have been more truthful about how sorry he was, and at this one damned time, Hermione didn't find the truth in his eyes.
"What!?" he exclaimed in retaliation, gently shaking her. "Look again Hermione!"
She looked up at him again, thinking that maybe she looked to fast and missed it somewhere, only to find the same look in his eyes she had seen before. She shook her head.
"No Hermione! You have to believe me this time!"
"I want to Harry," she sniffled. "But I can't. The bond that we had for trust has been completely broken."
"No Hermione," said Harry, he himself starting to cry. "You have to believe me!" Hermione shook her head again.
"Harry I can't take any more of this. I need to… take a break."
"What are you saying?" he gulped with his eyes widening, taking a step back from her.
"I need to take a break from all this and I need time to think about -"
"What… are you saying… Hermione?" Harry interrupted, a tear running down his face.
"I… I don't think we should… go out anymore," she sobbed. It was a lot harder for her to say than she thought.
"No…" Harry said shaking his head slowly. "No…"
"Think about it Harry. It'll be for the best."
"No it won't! I will never be the same without you!"
"No Harry, I think it'll be the best for the both of us. I mean look at us. Look at what we've become. We were normal teenagers going to school and as soon as we started to go out, we became love-thirsty monsters."
"I like how we were!" Harry retaliated.
"No Harry," she said, her face wet from all her tears. "It's…it's over between us."
That was all that it took for Harry. Tears ran down his face as his worst nightmare had come true: he and Hermione we no longer a couple. He took a moment to examine his surroundings: the lake, the tree shading them, the green patch of grass below their feet. Strangely enough, this was the exact spot that Harry has confessed his love for her exactly two years ago. Ironically, it had ended where it had all began.
"Leave me in peace Harry," she said turning around and putting her back to him.
"Hermione -"
"Just… just go Harry."
There was really nothing he could do to persuade her. No more kisses to give and no more kisses to receive. He turned around slowly and walked back to the front doors, his back hunched over and tears flowing freely down his face.