Summer Writing Series Challenge (June 25)
Challenge: A tongue-tied Harry/Hermione finally confesses his/her love. (TABOO: love, crush,
fancy, boyfriend, girlfriend, date, passion, adore, affection.)
Title: Romance Found, Friendship Lost 3
Word Count: 2,000
"I don't believe it!" Ron sputtered angrily at the two of them. "For how long?"
Harry and Hermione continued to stare blankly ahead of them, their dull gazes fixed on some unseen point beyond the horizon. "Since fifth year." ("Since fourth year.") Harry and Hermione said respectively in the exact same, zombie-like tone.
Ron shook his head as his temper continued to rise. "I thought you were talking about me in fourth year, Hermione!" He bellowed. Hermione didn't flinch and continued to stare straight ahead. Ron sat at the table dejectedly and looked straight at her. "Did you ever think of me as more than a friend?" He asked her quietly.
"Yes." She said in a flat, emotionless tone.
"When?" Ron asked with a spark of hope in his eyes.
"In fourth year." She said placidly.
"Why did you choose Harry instead of me?" He asked quietly.
"When Harry tried to save me during the second Tri-Wizard task I realized that I felt the way I did because of who he is." She said without inflection and in one breath. Ron opened his mouth to ask another question but both Harry's and Hermione's heads drooped to the side, both of them finally falling unconscious.
Ron snapped his head to the grandfather clock, upset that he didn't have more time to ask more questions. He pulled the vial from his robes and just as he was about to pour more into their goblets, the portrait hole opened and he quickly secreted the vial away.
He feigned sleep as their housemates entered the common room and grimaced when Dean shook Harry awake.
"What?" Harry said groggily, looking around in surprise. "Dean? What are you doing back already?" Harry said with a stretch.
"Already?" Dean asked confused. "Lunch is over, Harry, you were all asleep at the table when we came in."
"Asleep?" Harry looked around to confirm what his dorm mate had said. He quickly shook Hermione awake. "Hermione ..."
She woke with a start and glanced around nervously. "What?" She said with a bit of a sleepy slur to her voice. "Why is everyone back so soon?"
"Apparently, we fell asleep." Harry explained with a look of confusion. "Ron and Ginny are out as well." Harry gingerly shook Ginny and the young Weasley didn't budge from her unconscious state. He shook her a bit harder. "Ginny, wake up ..."
"She seems really out of it, Harry." Hermione said quietly. "Let's get her to a sofa so she doesn't wakeup sore."
Harry gently lifted his redheaded friend and carried her to the sofa. After covering her with the blanket that was slung over the back he returned to the table. "We missed lunch, why don't we nip off to the kitchens for a bit of something."
"Should ... Should we wake Ron?" She asked hesitantly.
Harry looked at his former best friend and shook his head. "Let him sleep, maybe we can have that talk he asked us about when he's had some rest." Hermione nodded and the two left the common room and a severely frustrated Ron.
Once they were in the hall, Harry looked quizzically to his female best friend. "Do you remember falling asleep?"
Hermione shook her head and Harry noticed that she was wearing her 'deep in thought' face. "I remember eating a cookie or two and drinking some milk, but after that ... nothing."
"I don't remember being that tired." Harry said quietly. The two of them mulled over everything that had happened in the last hour, but, for the life of them, couldn't understand where the time had gone, or how they'd fallen asleep.
"You and Ron didn't fight ..." Hermione said aloud.
"Neither did you." Harry added.
Absently, Harry tickled the pear and the two of them stepped into the kitchens. They took a seat at the table and ate in silence. Harry straightened in his chair as he took a sip of milk.
"What is it, Harry?" Hermione asked concernedly.
"The milk ..." Harry said in a whisper. "Here, take a sip." He handed her his goblet and she did as instructed. Her eyes went wide as the white liquid washed into her mouth.
"It doesn't taste the same." Hermione said with a stunned expression on her face. "What we drank in the common room was ... sweeter?"
Harry nodded his agreement. "Do you think Ron could have laced it with something?"
Hermione shook her head. "I ... I don't know." She said in a whisper of disbelief. "With everything that's gone on since our stay at the Burrow ..."
"I wouldn't put it past him." Harry said as his blood began to boil. "It's time that we sit Ron down for that little chat."
"Harry, calm down, we don't know what he did ..." Hermione said warningly. She gently set her hand on his arm and Harry seemed to calm at the touch.
"Alright, but we're going to find out what happened." Harry said evenly. One way or the other! He added as a note to himself.
Their walk back was interrupted by a running Weasley coming from the direction of the dungeons. They had just set foot on a staircase when he barreled around the corner and knocked Harry into the trick step, catching his hand in the magical quicksand.
"Sorry." He said quickly then stopped cold when he realized who he'd run into.
"Ron, fancy meeting you here." Harry said as Hermione helped him out of the magical trap. "We'd like to have that talk now."
"Fine, Harry." Ron said in a state of panic. "But let's do it somewhere else?"
Harry and Hermione shared a look and nodded. The sound of footsteps from further down the hall spurred them on and they were soon sitting in the Gryffindor common room once again.
"First things first, Ron." Harry said, keeping his temper in check due to Hermione's request. "What did you slip in our milk?"
Ron blanched and looked nervously between the two.
"We could tell the difference in the taste, Ron." Hermione said evenly. "And we couldn't have fallen asleep naturally, not with the tension that was in the air at the time ..."
"W-well ..." Ron stammered as he loosened his tie. "I wanted to know if you intentionally hurt me ..." He said with a nervous smile of reassurance. "And ... and how long you two have been at it behind my back ..."
"You didn't." Hermione said in a harsh whisper. When Ron lost all the coloring in his face Hermione shot to her feet. "How dare you put Veritaserum in our drinks, Ron?!" She spat angrily.
"Veritaserum?!" Harry growled at her declaration.
"If used properly," Hermione hissed, "The person being interrogated would remember everything! If too much is used then they don't recall a word of what was spoken, either asked or answered!" She pulled her wand and had it at Ron's head in an Instant. "WHAT DID YOU ASK US?!" She bellowed angrily at him.
Ron began to stutter even worse and his mouth opened and closed several times before his voice finally came out in a high-pitched squeak. "How you felt about each other and you both told me ..." Ron said, but before he could get another word out, Hermione had surreptitiously transfigured him into a newt.
She stormed over to the shivering amphibian and picked it up by it's tail before it could run off. "Ronald, how would you like to meet Crookshanks now?" She said testily, throwing him back into the chair.
Harry watched the display with awe and fear, making a mental note not to truly make Hermione angry with him. "Hermione ..." He said as he stood and put a hand on her shoulder. "I think he's had enough, change him back."
"After what he did to us?" Hermione said angrily. "You do realize just how much he's ruined our trust, Harry?"
"I know." He said sadly. "But feeding him to your cat isn't going to solve anything." He looked down at the quaking newt with a frown on his face. "As much as I want to kill him myself, I think it would be best if we weren't sent to Azkaban."
Hermione grumbled and with a wave of her wand, a pale-faced Ron was sitting in the chair. He looked as if he wanted to say something but thought better of it with the glares Hermione and Harry shot him.
"So, you learned that what happened just happened and we didn't mean to hurt you." Harry said pointedly as he stalked back to his seat, pulling Hermione with him. "Are you satisfied? Are you happy that you pushed our friendship farther away than your retaliation at your house?"
"I thought you knew how I felt." Ron said quietly after a minute. "I didn't realize ... I mean, after what you both said the last two years, I didn't think that you felt the way you do."
Hermione and Harry looked at each other nervously for a moment then back to Ron. "And how do we feel about each other, Ronald?" Hermione asked sarcastically.
"After what just happened?" Ron said with a slight flinch at the use of his full name. "I think it would be best if you heard it from each other instead of me. Personally, I think I should stay away for a while before I try and make it up to you two ..." He stood hesitantly and when neither of them made a move to stop him, he shot out of the room and up the stairs.
They sat in companionable silence for a few moments, shifting uncomfortably from time to time. They shared glances and blushed when their eyes made contact and as the silence began to become too awkward for them to bear, Harry finally spoke.
"I-I guess it's time to talk about that kiss?" He asked with a nervous chuckle.
Hermione nodded quietly, looking into his eyes for something.
"I-I guess I'll start." Harry said solemnly. "Well, we've been friends for a little more than five years now ..." He gulped as he tried to form the words that were flitting through his mind. "It took something like a Troll to get us started in the first place a-and it took a curse to push me to realize something."
"A curse?" She asked in confusion. Harry turned to her and took her hands in his.
"I was afraid you died at the Department of Mysteries." Harry explained and her confused look changed to a face he'd never seen before.
"I didn't, Harry." She said with a soft smile. "And we both made it through the war." She said in a quiet voice.
"I was trying to say that maybe that was the turning point, the time where I realized that I couldn't live without you in my life." He said shakily. "When we kissed, it felt natural ... wonderful ... It felt like I was flying for the first time, higher than I've ever been." He tried to explain the foreign feeling that was overcoming him. "Hermione, I've never felt this way about anyone. To tell you the truth ..." He sighed and looked to their hands. "I've never felt anything like this before."
"It's ok, Harry." She said softly. She cupped his chin and lifted his face so they were looking in each other's eyes. "I've never felt this way before either." She whispered, her eyes pleading for him to understand that she knew what he was talking about. "What I had with my parents doesn't even compare. When I'm around you, I feel like I'm tipsy with happiness, even when we were surrounded by Death Eaters after Voldemort was destroyed ... When you smiled at me after that idiotic idea of yours."
Harry smiled softly and cupped her cheek in return. "I couldn't lose you, Hermione, if I had, you would have taken my heart with you."
"Harry, you would have taken mine had I lost you." She replied softly followed by a tender kiss.
A/N: Part 3 of that little bit of angst! The Veritaserum challenge was just too short, the Haiku had the same problem ... Now we have the conclusion! WOOT! Hope you liked it ;)