Thanks to C Lewis1220, peaceful, kw702955, iloveluckyseamus, laila, Draco's Gurl (yup, those are my lyrics...), Calvin Potterson, PilarMagic, the real HOPE, Falling, KypDurron, kensit, Eleanna, Vicarious Leigh, Roxy, laurie, and all you anonymous reviewers for your supporting comments!
*Takes a deep breath* Well, this is the end. I'm well aware that this story has been told countless times...but I've always read fanfics about this plotline and just wanted to write one of my own. Thanks for everyone who took the time to read this, all feedback has been deeply appreciated. This is my first finished fic on portkey-aah this is so exciting! Well, get on with it, read and critisize!
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Isn't Enough
Chapter Four: Isn't Enough
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(Ron)
"It's okay, you know, if we just...drop out..." Harry grunted. I sighed.
After the interlude with "Hermione" I had found Harry on Broadway, standing in front of a deserted "Cats" poster.
"Really, it's fine," I tried again.
"You can just get another singer," he muttered. I knew we could do no such thing.
"You know if you drop out, we all drop out," I replied, leaning my back against a wall. Harry remained silent, his eyes following the bustle of people rushing past us.
"I just want to get out of here," he whispered. "Just...forget it. All of it."
"I know, mate," I said, trying to reassure him that it would all be okay. Harry remained silent, his arms crossed as he frowned at me. "So yeah, Ginny might be a little upset, she wanted to win this more than any of us, but-"
"We're not backing out of this," he said.
"What?"
"I can't just...run from it, Ron." Harry's eyes rested on the brick wall to the left of my neck. "You wouldn't understand. I have to finish this to the end...prove to myself. Finish what I started." A small smile unfurled on his lips. "Besides...you guys need me. And I'm no wuss."
I glanced at Harry, trying to read his eyes but he turned his head away from me, shuffling his feet. After a few moments I said, "All right." He flashed me a smile, but I could tell it was forced.
Maybe it was better if we just didn't go at all.
~-~-~-~-~-~
(Hermione)
"Wish me luck, love," George said as we parted from our kiss.
I smiled at him, brushing his hair affectionately and whispered, "Good luck." Nodding at me he left, walking back stage where I could see the rest of his band mates.
A shiver ran down my spine as I looked around, a feeling of premonition washing over me.
"You're never going to see them again," a voice muttered in my head. "Erase them, Hermione. Forget them." I couldn't help but link that voice to George's.
"Don't," another argued, this one sounding incredibly like Harry. "You know there's something there. Don't."
Blocking both voices out I walked out, ready to seat myself in the audience and bathe myself in music.
My eyes were suddenly drawn to a group of three red-haired people walking past me, headed backstage. Twins and a girl. They looked painfully familiar...
"You sure it's all right to drag Harry back here?" the girl asked, her brown eyes full of concern. "I'm worried about him."
"He's a grown bloke, Gin," one of the twins said. "It's time he forced himself to get over Hermione."
I knew my face paled. My blood chilled, and I grasped the program in my clenched fist desperately.
"What a way to wake up, though," the other twin replied, shaking his head. "'Lucy Crimson.' What a joke," he snarled. "She knows who she is, she's just being a-"
"Stop it," the girl snapped, threatening the twin with her drumsticks. "Just stop it." The three of them finally made it inside the doors and vanished from my sight.
The lights dimmed and the announcer walked on stage. As I saw George wave to me from behind the curtain and the mobs of people pushed me from both sides, only one thought coherently formed in my mind.
They're here.
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(Ron)
"Are you guys ready?" Fred asked, strumming his guitar nervously.
"Would you guys mind..." Harry began, biting his lip, "if we didn't play that song?"
"Harry," Ginny said, "you are aware that we're going to play in five minutes, aren't you?"
"Yeah," he muttered, his eyes glancing to the stage. I could see that he was staring at the bass player, a brown haired tall fellow. "But I mean...what if we played the song we played at Graduation?"
"That song?" George asked, startled. His eyes caught mine, and I knew what he was thinking. Harry had written it for Hermione.
"Yeah," Harry muttered, his eyes still trained on the bass player.
Everyone had thought that the song had been written about how we all had survived Voldemort, about everything we had done to fight him and here we are, or were.
But we knew better.
"I dunno, mate," Fred answered, his thoughts trained on the same brain wave. "Don't you think-"
"I think we should play that song," Harry reiterated with a little more force. "Please," he said after a moment of silence.
Ginny hesitated before setting her hand on Harry's arm, giving him a comforting smile while saying, "Of course, Harry."
Oh, bugger.
"Harry," I said urgently as Ginny, Fred and George walked over to the edge of the stage. "You're sure what you're doing? You-"
"She's here. I can feel it," he said in a hollow tone. "That's George."
"What do you mean that's George? George is over there with Fred and Ginny, Harry..."
"That's George, Hermione's fiancé," he said in the same hollow tone.
"Harry..."
"I just want to sing that god damn song, okay?"
It felt as if this was his last, desperate attempt to get him back. But as I looked at him, I saw he had already given up. Maybe he had to do this for closure...
Well, whatever the reason, I was behind Harry.
"Okay."
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(Hermione)
George's band just finished, everyone around me clapping. His eyes found me in the crowd and he gave me a wave, blowing me a kiss.
It all felt wrong.
My breathing hitched as I thought about Harry. His eyes, his smile...
...his tears...
"Hi." Oh bloody hell, I was hearing him in my head too! "We're 'Phoenix,' hope you enjoy."
Wait. That wasn't just in my head...
"1 2 3 4!" a woman shouted, clapping her drumsticks together. Immediately the band fell into rhythm, a fast beat full of energy.
No sodding way...
"I remember seeing you out there," Harry sang. My head snapped up and there he was, on the stage, his eyes closed. No fucking sodding way... "I remember feeling that the calm crisp air...was feeling rather different...I should have taken that big hint..."
There he was, right there. Singing that song. The song that wasn't supposed to be real. It couldn't be real. Just couldn't. But here he was, singing it to me.
"To realizing where we would be...when all this was a memory!"
A guitar solo started and my eyes glanced to Harry's left to see Ron blazing away onto his guitar, a grimace of happiness on his face as his body turned rigid with the music. When I looked back to Harry I saw his eyes wide with disbelief, his mouth slightly open. He was staring right at me. As Ron's solo came to a close Harry shook his head, closing his eyes again.
"We'd be standing right where we are now! And looking back I wonder how..."
I looked around at the rest of the band, and somehow I knew all of their names. That was Ginny playing the drums. Yes, Ginny Weasley...Ron's younger sister...
"Oh, Hermione, I've always wanted a big sister," she sighed happily...
"We could have let ourselves allow...to forget."
And Fred...and George...Fred was the one with the birthmark on his left ear...yes, that was him, on the other guitar...George on the bass...
"You're a regular Percy, you."
"At least we can count on you to keep these two blokes on their leashes. I swear, Hermione, you're the one who wears the pants in this sodding three-people-relationship that you people call the Dream Team."
"The obstacles that we ran over. The hands that we did clasp together."
Harry. Harry Potter. My best friend. Sweet, handsome, loving Harry. Ron Weasley, caring, obsessive, overprotective adorable Ron...
"I mean just look at us now! Look at us now!"
And I was Hermione Jane Granger.
"Standing here...where we are now..."
Hermione Jane Granger. Not Lucy Crimson. Not a cello soloist. I was a witch. I was Hermione.
"How could we have let us allow...to imagine us anywhere else..."
Hermione Granger...I remembered. My head throbbed, pulsed angrily, but everything rushed back, every memory breathing once more.
"Than here..."
I could barely feel the tears streaming down my cheeks as I closed my eyes, holding my head gently. Oh my bloody fucking Merlin.
"Because we should have known from the beginning. Where we would be now..."
Hogwarts. That's where I was. Battle with Voldemort...I was running from Lucius Malfoy when I tripped, began to fall...
Another guitar solo erupted, but this time from Fred, I could tell. Ron was more aggressive, and he loved intricate fingerings. Fred...had another vibe...
I opened my eyes, my gaze trained on Ron. He saw me, and his reaction was similar to Harry's. His eyes were wide, his mouth slightly open. He swallowed visibly, quickly glancing to Harry and then back to me.
Harry was staring at me again, but this time, I could see tears gathering in his eyes. They began to fall down his cheeks, and I saw his lower lip shaking slightly. Ron, from the corner of my eye, made a circle motion to Fred. Fred glanced at Harry's back, and nodding, lengthened his solo a bit.
"I-" I murmured, my eyes still on Harry. He looked so lost. "I love you," I breathed, tear stains drying up my cheeks.
"We'd be right here," Harry croaked, swallowing, "grinning and cheering."
"I love you," I said a little louder, my mouth suddenly dry. All I knew in that moment of time was that I was on the brink of losing what was most dear to me, and I had to do anything, everything, to get it back.
"Where else could we possibly..." Tears overwhelmed Harry then, his body shaking, trembling. I could see his hands curled into fists, could see he was trying to hold it in, push it back. To finish the song. "...be..."
The audience burst into applause, but I took no notice. The sound was in the background, and all I could see was Harry. My Harry.
"I love you!" I screamed, trying to push through the crowd. "Harry! Harry! I love you!"
He closed his eyes, gritting his teeth. Ron slung his guitar so that it rested against his back and walked briskly towards Harry. Grabbing his shoulders Ron walked him off the stage, the Weasleys following suit.
"Harry! Goddamnit, HARRY!"
The crowd pushed around me, pushed me away from Harry, suffocating me. Before I knew what I was doing, I was climbing onto that stage, chasing the man I finally realized I had loved all along, chasing the future .
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(Harry)
"I love you!" I heard her yell, but I knew it was all in my head. Hermione didn't exist to me, anymore. She couldn't.
I felt Ron steer me away from the stage and behind the curtain.
"Good job, mate," he said, clapping me on the back.
"Harry?" Ginny asked tentatively, her thumbs brushing away my tears.
"I'm o-okay," I choked out, trying to smile. "I'm fine."
"Harry!" we heard from somewhere behind the curtain, on the stage.
"R-really, Gin, I'm...good..." I took a deep, rattling breath in. I was going to be okay. This would be the last time I ever cried over Hermione Granger.
"She's out there, Harry," Ginny murmured, her hands cradling my face as I cried. "I saw the way she looked at you. You-"
"She doesn't fucking remember!" I exploded. Bloody Merlin, I couldn't do this. Why did I think I could do this?! "She doesn't! That hurts even more than if she was really dead, she just...we weren't important..." Sod it all, sod everything! "She doesn't love me," I finally whispered. "Never will. Maybe..."
"Don't say it," Ron warned me, his voice hard and full of emotion. He sounded as if he was on the brink of crying. "Don't."
"Maybe she never did," I whispered, closing my eyes.
"That's not true." I started laughing; there she was, in my head again. They were going to send me off to Mungo's; hearing voices wasn't good, even in the wizarding world... "Harry."
Opening my eyes I was startled to find her standing in front of me. Her eyes were blotchy, tear stains crisscrossed her cheeks, but she looked beautiful, untouched, perfect.
"Harry," she repeated, her eyes gazing into mine.
"Get away from him," I heard Ron mutter, his hand grab Hermione's arm harshly. She tugged it back, glaring at him.
"Ron," Ginny mumbled warningly, grabbing Ron's hand and pulling him away from us.
"Harry," Hermione tried again, taking in a deep breath.
"What do you want," I whispered, swallowing.
"I.." she began, her eyes darting between mine. "I don't know," she finally finished.
"Go back to George," I spat. "I saw him. That's the only reason you're here, right? Just go back. Get away from me." I began to walk past her when she grabbed my hand, hugging me desperately. "What're you-"
"Your name's Harry Potter," she said, her voice muffled against my shirt. "You love midnight walks, riding on that god-forsaken broomstick and bathing in sunlight."
My breathing hitched-this couldn't be for real. My eyes went up and I saw Ron staring at Hermione, tears streaming down his cheeks.
"That song was written for me. I remember-remember when you did it. We were sitting in the common room, the fireplace blazing in front of us. It was well past midnight-empty, Ron had just gone up."
"Y-you leaned into me," I couldn't help but say. "Rested your head against my shoulder, your fingers tracing rune patterns into the palm of my hand." She nodded against my chest.
"I told you that you would beat him. That it'd be okay...and you, you said-"
"I said that sometimes I wished that I had died in first year, or second year, or third year, or fourth year..." She remembered. She remembered.
"And I asked you whether you'd really give up everything that had happened...everything we survived. Everything that we...we progressed to..."
"And then we kissed," I whispered, smiling slightly.
Hermione pulled away from me, gazing up at me before whispering, "And then after we broke apart, I told you I loved you."
"You remember," I murmured, not daring to believe it.
"I remember," she replied, smiling up at me. The face I had dreamed about for the last four years. The woman I cried about nearly every night.
"Time to announce the winners!" a voice yelled from the stage. "Get ready, folks! The winner of the 'Battle of the Bands' and this $1000 check..."
She was right here, in my arms.
"The winner is..." the voice yelled... "'Phoenix!'"
"You guys won!" a backstage crew member said, pumping Ron in the shoulder. We all grinned at each other. Fred and George whooped, running to get our huge check.
"My name's Hermione Jane Granger," Hermione whispered, cradling my face in her hands. "I was born September 19. I'm a Gryffindor, I went to the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry for seven years, I'm your best friend. My favorite color is blue, and I love reading a big, dusty book by the fireplace with a cup of chocolate cocoa with three marshmallows and Crookshanks at my feet," she murmured gently, repeating the very things I had said to her when I met her in front of the concert hall two days ago.
"Does that mean you're coming back to us?" I asked after a moment of hesitation.
"Harry," she said gently, brushing tendrils away from my face. "Nothing here...My life here...it isn't enough to keep me away."
And suddenly, we were both 17, sitting in front of a blazing fireplace and leaning in for our first kiss all over again.
The end.
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My first finished fic! Ah! This is so exciting! Hope you guys liked! Endings were always my weakest part...*sigh* tell me just how bad it was!
I soo could have dried that story with every cliche twist, hm? I dunno, I hate it when stories get unnaturally long just so the story gets long...you know what I mean? Although I think I might have rushed this one. Let me know!