A/N: I should have done this already. I do not own the characters in the story (real or imagined). No profit is being made. For entertainment purposes only.
"You are brave," Hermione told Harry, stunned, when she learned of the conversation he had had with her father. They had both showered after returning from the concert and were far too wired to go to sleep. The experience had them on a natural high. Since they had not eaten prior to the show (Jane had been far too excited to eat anything), they had bought chips and cookies out of a vending machine and were sharing the junk food as the talked over the events of the day.
"It wasn't too bad." He believed that now, but probably would not have at the time. "I mean, I didn't go into a lot of details. I didn't have to explain everything. I just told him enough to make him sleep easy at night, even when we're sharing hotel rooms."
"You know, if he would have read A History of Wizard Tradition he would not have had to worry," she sighed, exasperated. Sometimes she felt she was the only one she knew who realized the value of a good book. The book had gone into great detail about the value wizards placed on purity, the eternal and unbreakable bonds of wizard marriage, and the customs of betrothed couples.
"I don't know," Harry replied. "Just because it's custom doesn't mean everyone follows it. If the gardens could talk," he thought back to the night of the Yule Ball in their fourth year. "And there's the astronomy tower. I hear it's seen a lot of action."
"And just how do you know so much about the make-out spots at Snogwarts?" She asked with a playful accusation in her voice. "Did Cho show you the sites?"
"Cho?" Harry repeated with a snort. He had not thought of her in ages. "No. Please. I kissed her once and she cried her eyes out. Then she got jealous of you. The whole Cho thing was a disaster from start to finish. You have to remember who I share a dorm with." Dean and Seamus were both known to be the Gryffindor Cassanovas.
"Viktor was jealous of you too," Hermione admitted. He always looked a bit angry when she rattled on about Harry and there was no doubt in his mind that Harry was who she wanted to win the tournament.
"Maybe their suspicions were on target though," Harry offered. "Cho was right. I'd never have put her before you."
Hermione grinned. It did her self-esteem good to know that even when Harry was trying to date the very pretty girl she meant more to him. She had been glad that the little vixen was jealous of her relationship with Harry and she had been glad that it had not worked out between them. "Viktor sort of ceased to exist if you were around," she admitted. She remembered the third task and how terrified she had been of Harry being hurt. She gave little thought to Viktor's injuries because it had taken Harry so long to return. Then, when he had returned more badly hurt than she had imagined...she shuddered at the thought of how close she had come to losing him that night.
"Okay, so maybe everyone else could see what we were too blind to realize," Harry agreed. "Even Rita Skeeter, dung beetle that she was," he laughed. He hesitated a moment before asking his next question, "What about Ron?"
He had thought of Ron a lot recently, even if he had not said so. The last thing he wanted to do was hurt Ron. Make that the second last thing he wanted to do. The last thing he wanted to do was give up Hermione.
"What about him," she asked stiffly. She too had thought about the third member of The Trio. It would be awkward for them to be a Trio when two of them were now the Duo.
"He's never come out and said as much, but I think he has a crush on you. He's probably going to hate me." There was an unspoken law that when two male best friends had a female best friend, said female was off limits for both of them.
Hermione sighed. She supposed that could be a sticky problem. It was hard for her to imagine though that not one but two boys could really be interested in her. She had never thought herself to be the girl in the center of a triangle, even though her best friends were both boys. It was unreal: she was just big haired, big teethed, big brained Hermione. Boys were supposed to go for the little brains with big boobs.
"I don't know, Harry. I mean, I guess maybe he did at one time, but it's hard to tell with Ron. He seemed jealous of Viktor, but I honestly wonder sometimes if he was jealous of me for being friends with the famous Krum more than he was of him dating me. And he tends to treat Ginny the same way when she's dating someone. So, maybe it boils down to him being like a big brother. I don't think I'm really his type. We argue all the time," she shrugged. "Honestly, Harry, I think if it weren't for you, Ron and I would not even be friends. He had to know it was you," she continued. "Fourth year made that clear when he was jealous and accused you of lying. It was you I stood by, Harry. Not him."
"I remember," Harry gave her a quick kiss. Ron's reaction had hurt him badly and he had learned that Hermione was the one person he could trust.
"So, I don't think he could have a real crush on me," she had reasoned herself out of the notion of being in a triangle with her two best friends.
"Maybe," Harry agreed. It would have been a lot easier to tell if he and Ron ever actually discussed girls. How odd was that? They were two teenage boys who spent more time discussing the latest threat to their existence than they did discussing the pursuit of the opposite sex. "We'll work it out, whatever his reaction."
"Do you think we should owl him about it?" Hermione asked. She didn't want Ron to feel like they were keeping it from him.
"I've thought about that," Harry admitted, taking a cookie from their supply. "I think we should tell him in person. If he does have a bad reaction, it would be rather harsh of us to let him read about it without being there to assure him that we'll still be The Trio."
"Maybe we can become a Quartet," Hermione said hopefully. "I think Luna has a crush on Ronald. And she did not hesitate to go to the Ministry with us or get her dad to print the article telling your side of things. She's on our side."
"So you approve of Luna for our Ronniekins?" Harry asked. "There's really more depth to her than people realize," he added. "She could be good for Ron if he would stop calling her Looney," he concluded. For the first time he considered that one day their Trio would have to expand to include significant others. It was a rather powerful dynamic that he had with Hermione and Ron. It would not be easy for anyone to really infiltrate their inner circle--even Ron's siblings had limited access.
"Yes, it would help if he used her proper name," Hermione agreed. She sighed pondering how to go about setting up Ron with Luna. Ginny would have to be involved in that plan.
"I bet Ron would have enjoyed tonight," Harry changed the subject to something lighter since his reaction to their relationship would have to be dealt with, whatever it was, later.
"Oh yes, I think so," she pictured Ron at the concert, ogling all the good looking girls in the audience. "Maybe we can take him to a show one day. Maybe we can take all the Weasleys. Can't you imagine how much Mr. Weasley would enjoy himself?"
Harry laughed and then yawned."How about Mrs. Weasley?" He looked at the time. It was almost 3:00 in the morning.
"Yeah, me too," Hermione said as she also yawned. "Lights out?" she asked.
He nodded and she gathered the food wrappers and bottles of water and placed them on the nightstand next to the lamp that she turned off. They shared a sweet kiss before curling up together and drifting into their thoughts of the concert, thousands of people singing in the rain, Ron, Luna, and the pleasant mix of dreams that incorporated those notions in adventures free from the threat of the evil that lurked, waiting for them.