Part One- Harry and Hermione
His best friends were hiding something from him. Harry couldn't understand why he hadn't seen it before.
It was ironic, he thought, that Snape of all people would be the one who helped him see it. As he had ripped through Harry's mind, scanned his memories in their Occlumency lesson, Harry had been able to look at his friends' behavior over the past few weeks in a different light. It seemed so obvious now; the shifty glances and uncomfortable silences, neither of them meeting his eyes. They had a secret that Harry wasn't in on. He surprised himself with how upset it was making him. He had kept secrets from them before. He had lied to them. They still didn't know the truth about the prophecy. Weren't they entitled to keep things from Harry too? Did he think he was special? He had dearly wished that shameful part of him that thought things like that had been buried last year. Now he wasn't so sure.
Harry was so lost in his thoughts that when he first entered the common room he thought it was empty. He was halfway to the stairs when he realized he was wrong. He heard a sniffle from near the fireplace. It was Hermione.
She was sitting in her normal chair, and one of her large Arithmancy books was in her lap. Instead of reading it, she stared morosely into the fire, tears glistening on her cheeks. Harry hurried over to her, his thoughts about secrets and lies temporarily forgotten. She seemed to have heard his quickening footsteps because she hurriedly began to wipe the wetness from her face. She gave him a wan smile as he faced her.
"Harry! I thought you'd already come back from your Occlumency lesson. How was it?" she said quickly.
"The same as always," he said. She gave a slight nod before turning her eyes to her book. An uncomfortable silence stretched out before them until Harry could stand it no longer.
"Hermione, what's wrong?" he asked.
"N-nothing. What makes you think there's something wrong?" she said, not looking at him.
Harry felt his anger returning. Hermione was lying to him. She and Ron were keeping secrets. And Hermione was lying to him.
"Maybe the fact that you and Ron won't talk to me! Or look at me! Or maybe the fact that you're obviously keeping something from me and you just lied to my face about it!"
He had moved to stand in front of her chair, staring down at her. Tears were leaking from her eyes again and Harry felt a pang of remorse for yelling at her. But he still wanted answers.
"Well, are you going to tell me?"
"Oh Harry--" she began, her voice hitching. "Everything's all confused-- it just happened and-- Ron-- He--"
"What is it?" Harry asked, anxious for her to reveal what exactly she was talking about.
"He thought-- I guess he thought that I-- Ron well--" She was looking every which way except at Harry as she attempted to stammer out an explanation.
"Hermione…"
"Ron k-kissed me!" she finally managed.
Harry felt as though a block of lead had been dropped on his insides. He'd had a feeling that Ron fancied Hermione. His mind ran through all of the reasons that he should be happy. None of them seemed very convincing for some reason. There were few times in his life when he felt less like being happy.
"Why didn't you tell me earlier?" Harry asked quietly.
Hermione was looking at him strangely. "I-I suppose he was embarrassed..." She tried to meet his eyes finally, but Harry turned away, staring at the fireplace.
"Not making a very good boyfriend if he's ashamed of you, is he?"
It took a moment before Harry realized that it was he who had said those words. Harry had no idea why he said it. He was just angry. Angry like he had been last summer. He needed to lash out...and Hermione was there. She was always there. He waited for her angry words, or sobs, or perhaps even a slap. He wanted a reaction so he could react; so that he could feel something. His anger was subsiding as quickly as it had come and a cold numbness was spreading through his body.
At first, Hermione didn't make a sound. When he looked back at her she stared at him with her eyes slightly wide. After a moment, she looked down at her hands, fiddling with the sleeve of her robes.
"Ron and I aren't dating," she said quietly.
"Oh," was all Harry could manage.
"I love Ron...I just don't love Ron." Harry was searching for something else to say but Hermione continued. "I told him I fancied someone else."
"Oh," Harry said again. Now it made sense. "Krum." Harry suddenly remembered that he had never liked Victor Krum. Not at all. He began to turn away, but Hermione grabbed his arm.
"No, Harry. It's not...it's not Victor." Then again, Krum seemed like a nice enough chap.
"Then who..." Harry trailed off because he was suddenly acutely aware of the way that Hermione was looking into his eyes and the soft pressure of her hand on his forearm.
Harry wasn't sure which one of them moved first. Time seemed to slow and his face was getting closer and closer to Hermione's. Their lips touched softly and Harry felt something flutter in his stomach. He felt lightheaded and dizzy and he knew that there was nothing else he would rather feel. He felt like flying and never coming down again. All too soon Hermione withdrew. Harry opened his eyes--he had not realized he had closed them--to find Hermione staring hard at him. Her mouth was opening and closing but no sound issued from it.
Harry raised a hand to touch her face, part of him wishing to coax the words out of her, the other part just wanting to kiss her again. Before he could do either, Hermione let out a high-pitched, little squeak and fled the common room. Harry couldn't quite form any thoughts as he was left alone in the dark, with his hand reaching towards where she had been.
Author's Notes
Just to explain a bit this is not honestly a entire cohesive story, more like a series of cookies.
This is because I've wanted to write a sixth year HP fic for a long time. Not just a fic but a novel-length one. A full on fanfic Book Six. The problem, of course, is just that. I want to write a Harry Potter novel fic not Harry Potter and Hermione Granger.
While, of course, I fully intended to put them together I wanted it to follow what I feel is Jo's plot style and that style does not include 85% of the books being romance. So, I needed a plot. A big plot, a good plot that made sense and was a logical continuation of the series so far. I'm still working on that. But, since it's taking me a while my H/Hr!Muse got restless so it kept urging me to write out the Trio relationship progression that I worked out in my head. I cannot deny my H/Hr!Muse for long.
Thus comes this series of what would be actual scenes...if only there was a fic to which they were attached. There'll probably be three or four more following this one.
-- Rawles <3