A/N: This is my first attempt at romance, and I've been told it's pretty good (not great, but not mediocre, either :) ), so I hope you all like it. As said in the summary, this story happens about three minutes after Heaven's story "Just Kiss Me". This is one of five stories that make up what happens between "Just Kiss Me" and "Return To Me", which is perhaps the greatest H/Hr romance fic ever written.
And for those of you who are wondering, "Tears In May" is not my title. This series will be named after songs from the album "Mystery" by the group Missing Heart. It's trance music, but the lyrics are so poetic that I just had to name the stories after them. The chapters are the lyrics to the songs, so if you download the songs…just read the chapter titles!
Anyway, here's chapter one. Please enjoy!
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Harry and Hermione walked in nervous silence back to the Gryffindor common room. They both found it difficult to keep from laughing; the spicy smell of pumpkin pie drifted off Hermione's sweater, almost concealing the smell of Hermione's raspberry hair spray-almost, but not completely. Harry snickered, and Hermione slapped him gently on the arm as she sighed.
"What's the password again?" Harry asked Hermione when they reached the portrait of the Fat Lady.
"Honestly, Harry," she said, rolling her eyes. "Prevaricating quibble," Hermione said to the Fat Lady. She stepped aside and the painting swung open to reveal the doorway to the Gryffindor tower.
As soon as they stepped inside, the warmth of the fireplace touched every inch of their bodies. It was quite a warm and welcome change from the dank coolness of the Hogwarts halls. Ron was the only one sitting in the common room, and even he was drifting asleep in a large armchair he'd moved in front of the comfortably blazing fire. He snapped awake as Harry and Hermione slammed the door.
They threw off the cloak, and Harry was finally able to laugh aloud. Hermione glared at him as he fell, rolling with laughter, onto a sofa.
"I can't believe you think it's that funny," she said. "It's your fault, anyway, you know." Harry smiled innocently at her as Ron came walking up.
"Enjoy your dessert?" he asked, a quirky grin coming to his face.
"It was delicious," Hermione said, refusing to give in to what she knew Ron was implying.
"Was it really? I can still smell it," he said, and Harry started laughing all over again. Hermione rolled her eyes and marched off into the girls' dorms. "Was it something I said?" Ron asked Harry as he watched Hermione storm away.
"No," Harry replied through intermittent pulses of laughter that he was attempting to stifle. "It was my fault. I kind of…pushed her onto some pie." Ron's eyes went wide, and Harry shot him a glare that Ron thought he'd only see from Hermione. "Oh, get your head out of the gutter."
Ron only smiled as Harry went to sit in front of the fire. When Hermione came back down a few minutes afterward, she was met by the sight of Ron, in the same large armchair he'd been in earlier, pestering Harry, who sat in another couch before the roaring flames. As she approached, he looked up at her, a slight hint of beckoning in his gaze. He shifted his position on the couch so that he still covered most of its space, but in just such a way that he seemed inviting to anyone who wanted to join him-like Hermione.
She ignored that, though, and walked into an armchair similar to Ron's. It was positioned in front of the fire, but it was closer than Harry's and Ron's so that none of them could see each other. Hermione wasn't really mad at them; not at Harry, especially. She conjured up a steaming cup of cocoa and started sipping it.
"I wonder…" she thought to herself. She'd been doing her usual "light reading" in the libraries, and she'd found many interesting spells that she'd thought might come in handy. She'd made quite a long list, but soon after she'd written it, she'd left it in the common room, never to be seen again. She'd asked around, but nobody knew where it was. Hermione could only remember two or three spells from the list, one of which would turn anything into a reflective surface that only she could see.
She removed her wand silently from her robes and pointed it at the fire. "Reflecto panoptes," she said quietly, and a bolt of dim, golden light shot from her wand into the flames. Almost instantly, she saw the dancing flames shimmer, and the Gryffindor common room behind her came into view. Ron was trying to keep from bursting into a fit of the giggles, but Harry was silent.
As she watched him sitting there, she became entranced by either the flames, dancing in their scarlet glory, or by Harry, his emerald green eyes penetrating even the crimson of the fire. Perhaps it was even a combination of the two, but Hermione only knew that by the time she consciously noticed that she was in a daze, her cocoa was completely cold.
Even then, though, she decided that she didn't care. Seeing Harry's green eyes pouring into hers made her smile inside. The touch of his lips…she wished that for even a moment, she could feel that again. Shifting her gaze, she noticed that Ron had left the room; she and Harry were the only two left in the common room.
Hermione realized that Harry, too, was caught in the dance of the fire. He seemed as lost as she, the only two people together in a secret dream world, brought together by a single enrapturing flame. For a fleeting moment, Hermione wondered if Harry could, in fact, see her as well.
"That's silly," she thought. Breaking her from her trance, though, a quiet voice came from behind her.
"Why is it silly?" She jumped, startled from being shaken from her stupor in such a way. She turned around quickly, only to find Harry looking at her intently.
"Oh, God," she thought, "I'm not going to last long if he keeps looking at me like that." Not voicing her thoughts, she said, "Pardon? I didn't say anything."
"I'm sorry," he said. "I didn't mean to intrude on you like that."
"What are you talking about?" Hermione asked.
"I…I used a mind reading spell." Hermione looked perplexed; the only mind reading spells she knew of were in the restricted section, where she'd gotten permission to go in her free time. That was where she wrote-the parchment!
"You found my parchment!" she said in disbelief.
"Oh, it was yours?" Harry asked. "I'm sorry, I didn't know. You're usually so meticulous about keeping your parchments tidy that it never occurred to me to ask you. Come to think of it, I'd asked almost everyone but you," he said apologetically. Sincere apology showed in his eyes as he sat on the sofa. Hermione stood up and walked over to him with her hands on her hips.
"It's alright, but I'd appreciate it if you'd ask before intruding upon my thoughts."
"I knew what you were thinking anyway," Harry said innocently.
"That's…but you…still…" was all she was able to stammer before sighing and sitting beside him on the sofa. Hermione flung herself back into the cushions and threw her head back as Harry sat up.
"I'm really sorry, 'Mione. I promise, it won't happen again."
"It's okay," she said, smiling at him. "But how could you see me?"
"You said panoptes instead of monoptes," he said. "Everyone could see instead of just you. So really, I wasn't reading your thoughts, since you seemed to be using the mirror for the exact same thing I was," he said. They both blushed, and Harry slowly wrapped his arms around Hermione. She almost pulled away in surprise, but gave in after a moment's hesitation that Harry didn't notice.
Hermione leaned against Harry's chest and thought to herself that there was no other place in the world that she'd rather have been. "If I die right now," she thought to herself, "I'll die perfectly contented." She looked up to see if Harry had kept his promise; indeed he had, for his eyes met hers curiously.
"Are you alright?" he asked.
"I've never been happier," she said. Correcting herself, she added, "Actually, this is the second happiest I've been in my life." She and Harry both smiled, remembering what had happened only a couple of hours before in the kitchens.
"Well, if this isn't the best moment of your life, how about we make it the happiest moment of your life?" Harry asked.
"I'd love that," she said softly. "I think I need some more of that pumpkin pie." She smiled
up at Harry, who began to reach for his invisibility cloak. "That's not necessary,
she said. "I just need a taste."
Taking her hint, Harry brought his lips to hers once again. In only a matter of seconds, their tongues were entwined in a gentle but heated kiss. When they finally pulled apart, Hermione insisted on staying in Harry's arms for only a few minutes. As they sat, though, their contentment made them want to stay together on the sofa, alone in the heat of the fire. The flames' warmth spread from the fireplace long into the night as Hermione fell asleep in Harry's arms.
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So did you all like it? I sure hope so! I like Portkey better than Fanfiction.net…much more reliable. Please, tell me what you think! I'll be posting quite frequently, so check back soon. Thanks, m' dears!