Part Three- Hermione and Harry
Things like this were not supposed to happen to girls like her. No, indeed. Girls like Hermione Granger were supposed to spend their school life boyfriend-less, un-kissed, with nothing but a long list of unrequited crushes to show for themselves. Or at least that's what Hermione was telling herself, as she sat under a tree near the lake trying and failing to get to work on her Arithmancy project. Something in her mind had decided that if she focused on how irrational and illogical her current situation was, she'd somehow realize that it wasn't happening at all. But no matter how many times she went over the list of reasons that she was unattractive to boys she still couldn't escape the fact that she was embroiled in a big mess.
She had not just been kissed by one of her best friends, oh no, Hermione Granger never did anything halfway; she had to have been kissed by both of them. Now, the girl with all the answers had absolutely no idea what to do next. She knew how she felt, though she had tried not to, she just had absolutely no idea what to do about it.
She thought back to the previous night and scolded herself internally. She should never have let Harry kiss her. Of course, her logical side had to pipe up then to point out that she had actually kissed him. Either way, it should not have been allowed. It was as if the entire world had slowed down and she could not stop her momentum. It was not until it was over that Hermione had realized that it had actually happened. She had kissed Harry. Not just wondered what it would be like. Not just daydreamed about it during Arithmancy class. She had really, truly kissed him. Really. It had seemed so impossible to her that she had just gotten caught up as though it were a dream. As though there were no consequences.
Now, she was in big trouble. Ron still was not really speaking to her from before and now she had no idea what to say to Harry. Not that she had been able to say much to him since Ron had kissed her. Every word that came out of her mouth wanted to be the story of how that had happened and sent them all down this road to what seemed like the ruination of their friendship. With a sigh, Hermione dropped her quill into her open book, accepting that she was getting nothing done.
Not thirty seconds had passed since she had done this when she saw Harry coming towards her. His hair was more disheveled than usual and his face was mildly flushed. He looked as though he had been running. Hermione looked about, her first instinct to flee as opposed to dealing with the undoubtedly mortifying situation that was about to occur. Unfortunately, they were on level, open ground. Harry ran faster than her. If he wanted to, he would certainly catch her. So, as quickly as it came to her, Hermione abandoned the idea of flight and stayed put. He smiled as he approached her, which she decided might be a good sign. He hesitated a moment before he sat down beside her. He looked at his hands, suddenly nervous, and Hermione braced herself for what she knew was coming. She hoped that she could stop herself from crying.
"I, uh, I wanted to talk to you...about-about last night," he began, his face going slightly pink.
"Yes, I wanted to talk to you too," she said, her voice flat.
He nodded slightly but she could not tell whether he was pleased with that information or not. "You can go first then," he offered. Hermione considered this, but it soon became apparent that she could honestly think of nothing to say, or rather no good way to phrase it. She supposed she could just say exactly what she was thinking, Well, Harry, we're best friends, even though I've fancied you since fourth year, and I know that you could never feel that same way about me and now since I've thrown myself at you like a brazen hussy I think we ought to just forget the whole thing ever happened and go back to like we were before even though there's no way we can be like we were before for many reasons not the least of which is that now every time I see you I want to snog you senseless. On second thought...
"No, you can go first."
He nodded again, took a deep breath, and turned completely to face her.
"Hermione...I know what happened was...well, weird, but I-I don't want it to mess us up. I mean, you're my best friend and I-I, uhm, well, I just want us to stay close."
Hermione made herself nod and clenched her teeth together. She did not know what would come out of her mouth if she did not.
He continued. "I mean, not to say that we won't still be close if you're-you're not my girlfriend, but I just wanted you to know that I, sort of, need you to, at least, be my friend because you've, well, you've helped me a lot over the years and--"
"You-You want me to be your girlfriend?" she asked surprised, cutting him off as he stumbled through his words. Her mind had gotten stuck at the phrase "if you're not my girlfriend," and she really needed to make sure that she was not just hearing things that she wanted to hear. "If you're not my girlfriend" meant that that was an eventuality for which he was not planning. She could scarcely believe it.
Harry's face reddened and he looked mildly confused. "Well, yeah, why wouldn't I? That's what I wanted to talk to you about." He looked stricken all of a sudden. "I mean, if you don't want to--"
Hermione was not sure what made her do what she did next. Perhaps it was pure, unadulterated joy and relief, or maybe it was just a desire that she had sublimated for quite some time. Whichever was the case, it did not really matter to her at that moment.
Without preamble, she fisted a hand in Harry's hair and crushed her lips to his. He froze, shocked for a moment, before he relaxed again. He raised a hand to Hermione face and gently stroked her cheek with his thumb. She giggled against his lips and he sucked on her bottom lip lightly before they parted. She could not imagine how he could have ever thought that he was a bad kisser.
His face was bright red at this point, and she was sure hers was too. She was also sure that the smile he was wearing was mirrored on her own face, as well.
"That was a 'yes,' right?" he asked and Hermione giggled again, absently wondering when she had become the sort of girl to giggle. Harry Potter had always done strange things to her.
She leaned in to kiss him again. This time however, when his hand came up he knocked over the bottle of ink that was perched precariously on her open Arithmancy book. They jumped back and Hermione whispered a quick "Scourgify" and cleaned up the mess.
"You know, we really shouldn't be doing this here," she said, thinking about how it would look for a prefect to be caught snogging with her boyfriend out on the grounds. Her boyfriend. She loved the sound of that. Her boyfriend, Harry. Absurdly, Hermione wished for them to meet some new people so that she could introduce him as such.
"We probably shouldn't," he conceded, but kissed her again anyway. His tongue had just brushed her lips when something came crashing into her head, unexpected and unwanted.
"Ron!" she exclaimed, her voice muffled by Harry's mouth.
Harry pulled away immediately, looking a little hurt and quite put out. Hermione realized what he must think and shook her head emphatically.
"Oh! No, Harry. It's not that," she said, and gave him another quick peck on the lips for emphasis. "If we're going to...It's just...we have to tell him...about this...about us."
Hermione could see the realization dawn on Harry, and he looked guilty.
"Yeah, I suppose so. I've, actually, already sort of talked to him today..."
Hermione's eyes widened. "You have? Oh my, what did you say? Was he angry? Did-did you tell him--"
"I, uh, I didn't really tell him anything..." Harry's face was flushed again. "I was sort of trying to get him to tell me...about you and him."
Hermione took on a thoughtful air as she absently wiped a smudge of her lip gloss from the corner of Harry's mouth with her thumb. "I suppose that's all for the best. I...I think I should be the one to tell him, Harry. Alone."
Harry looked mildly displeased with at this suggestion, but Hermione cut him off before he could protest.
"He's going to be angry, Harry. And after what happened between you two in fourth year, if you're there it'll just make it worse for him. It's not that you can't talk to him about it. I just want to tell him first, to cushion the blow, you understand?"
Harry nodded, though he looked a bit sullen. Hermione was not sure it was because he himself wanted to tell Ron or if he just did not want her to tell Ron. Though, she couldn't imagine why he would object to the latter. It took another moment of studying his expression before it dawned on her that he was jealous. She could not help but smile at the thought.
"What is it?" he asked.
"Nothing," she said as she toned down her smile. "We'd better get going. The sooner we tell Ron the better."
Harry did not respond, but rather began to help her gather up her things where they were spread out on the grass and place them in her bag. When everything was packed up, he stood and helped her to her feet, then, wordlessly, took the heavy bag from her shoulder and put it on his own.
"Where was Ron when you talked to him?" Hermione asked, as they walked back towards the castle.
"He was in the Great Hall, but he was in the library last time I checked." He nodded to his side and she saw the telltale piece of parchment sticking out of his pocket. Hermione removed the Marauder's Map from Harry's pocket and unfolded it enough to see the library. The dot labeled "Ronald Weasley" was static there.
"He's still there," she informed Harry.
"Well," Harry said resignedly, as he looked at the ever-nearing castle. "Here we go."
"Here we go," Hermione agreed.
Author's Notes
I have to apologize to everyone who was following this fic, for this chapter taking so incredibly long. My muse got a little distracted by two entirely different stories (also H/Hr, if you're interested; a one shot and a longer one with plot; the one shot is actually up already) and I was having a terrible time getting this particular chapter out, and the rest of the story planned out.
Obviously, I finally succeeded and I threw in a little tiny extra bit of fluff for your troubles (not that this wasn't mostly fluff anyway).
Contrary to what I previously said back in chapter one about there only being three or four more parts after that, now that I've finished cementing everything that's happening, I can tell you with 99% certainty that there are six more chapters after this. Which brings the projected total to nine. Of course, they're all about this same length so it's really not all that much when you think about it.
Anyway, I'm trying to have the next part (or two) up within the week.
-- Rawles <3