Disclaimer: I don't own these characters…they are not mine. They are JK Rowling's, Scholastic Books, etc….not mine. I am just a Harry/Hermione fan. This is my second fan-fiction and I hope that you all like it. Please read and review.
Backstory: It has been five years since Harry Potter has seen either Ron Weasley or Hermione Granger. He left them behind after graduation to lead a solitary life as an auror. A surprise announcement leads him to return to his friends to hopefully reclaim the one thing that he has always wanted: Hermione's heart, but can time heal all wounds?
Chapter One
Memories
Sydney, Australia
Harry Potter was tired. He hadn't slept in 48 hours. There simply hadn't been time. The surprise raids had taken two days to complete and the next few days would involve intensive interrogations. They had captured a group of Death Eaters who had retreated to Australia following the defeat of Lord Voldemort. The group had been working on a coup of the Ministry of Magic in London. Extensive spying and recognizance had led them to Australia where they had successfully caught all the suspects.
With everyone present and accounted for, Harry had retreated back to his hotel room for some much needed rest. Such was the life on an auror, he thought. He had known what he was getting into when he'd signed up five years ago. Despite all he'd been through, he'd still arrived for that first day on the job as wide-eyed as he'd been when Hagrid had first taken him to Diagon Alley. He had followed his godfather, Sirius Black, into the career field of an auror. Sirius had become one shortly after his name had been cleared. Harry had followed in his godfather's footsteps and for the most part, he was glad to have done it. It gave his life some purpose. Considering what his mother and father had given up for him, he'd felt that he'd owed it to them to do something like this. He'd felt the need to protect those closest to him. But this had come at great consequence. In order to protect them, he'd had to leave them behind.
The hardest thing had been to leave her behind. While it had been five years since he'd last seen her face, since he'd last heard her voice, he could still close his eyes and see her. He could dream about her. That was all that he had left now, memories. He tried to tell himself that it was for the best. She was safe, now. She was a thousand miles away, but she was safe. That was the important thing. He'd hoped she was happy. He had started so many notes to her, but had never sent any of them to her. What good would it do? She wouldn't welcome him back with open arms, especially after what had happened that last night.
He didn't want to think about that, now. He instead remembered that first day he'd met her. It had been on the Hogwarts Express. He had just met Ron, who was about to show him a spell to turn his rat, Scabbers, yellow.
"…the toadless boy was back, but this time he had a girl with him. She was already wearing her new Hogwarts robes. "Has anyone seen a toad? Neville's lost one," she said. She had a bossy sort of voice, lots of bushy brown hair, and rather large front teeth.
"We've already told him we haven't seen it," said Ron, but the girl wasn't listening, she was looking at the wand in his hand.
"Oh, are you doing magic? Let's see it, then?" She sat down. Ron looked taken aback.
"Er----all right."
He cleared his throat.
"Sunshine, daisies, butter mellow, Turn this stupid, fat rat yellow."
He waved his wand, but nothing happened. Scabbers stayed gray and fast asleep.
"Are you sure that's a real spell?" said the girl. "Well, it's not very good, is it? I've tried a few simple spells just for practice and it's all worked for me. Nobody in my family's magic at all, it was ever such a surprise when I got my letter, but I was ever so pleased, of course, I mean, it's the very best school of witchcraft there is, I've heard---I've learned all our course books by heart, of course, I just hope it will be enough----I'm Hermione Granger, by the way, who are you?"
She said all this very fast.
"I'm Ron Weasley," Ron muttered.
"Harry Potter," said Harry.
"Are you really?" said Hermione. "I know all about you of course----I got a few extra books for background reading, and you're in Modern Magical History and The Rise and Fall of the Dark Arts and Great Wizarding Events of the Twentieth Century.
Harry laughed as he remembered Ron commenting how that whatever house he was put in, he'd hoped that she wouldn't be in it. Over the next seven years, both he and Ron came to eat those words, after all the scrapes and adventures Hermione had helped them through. She had changed so much from that bossy, know-it-all girl who'd barged into that train compartment that day. Over the years, she'd become a kind, compassionate, caring girl who still loved to be in charge and still had the same headstrong, competitive nature.
To be honest, he'd never thought of her, consciously anyway, in a romantic sense for a long time. This was due partly due to his suspicion that Ron harbored feelings for Hermione and partly to his own boyish stupidity. He'd been to blind to see that the perfect girl had been right in front of him the entire time. He'd dated other girls while at Hogwarts. None of them could have held a candle to Hermione.
When he realized this, he'd been afraid he'd been too late. Their seventh and final year at Hogwarts was coming to a close. Graduation had been only a few days away. As Head Girl, she was to give a sort of valedictory speech for her classmates. This was quite an honor and Hermione had been very proud of this, as she should have been. Harry knew, though, that Hermione was nervous. She had confided as much to him one night in the Common Room. Ron had dosed off on the couch and Harry and Hermione were sitting in front of the fire.
"I don't know what I'm going to do," she'd said. "Graduation is four days away and I haven't even finished my speech."
"Well, what do you have so far?" Harry asked her.
"Well, I've decided to start with, 'Greetings fellow students, professors, distinguished guests, family and friends'," she said.
"And then what?" Harry said.
"That's pretty much all I've got," Hermione said, sheepishly.
"Oh," Harry said. "Well, it's a start."
"No, it's not," Hermione said. "It's not a start. This is horrible. What am I going to do? What are you laughing at, Harry. This is not funny!"
Harry tried to stifle his laughter. "I'm sorry. I've just never seen you at a loss for words," he said. "Ron will hate that he missed this."
"You're not helping me," she said. "Come on. Give me some idea of what I could say."
"Well, I think you're trying too hard," Harry said. "Don't get too caught up in what you should say or what others think you should say. Just get up there and speak from your heart. You can do it."
"I wish it was that simple," she said.
"It is," Harry said.
"Well, just give me your word that if I get up there and completely make a fool of myself you won't laugh at me," she said. "Promise me."
"Okay," Harry said. "I promise. Besides, I think you won't have a problem thinking of something to say. You'll probably have a problem keeping it short. I mean, I seem to remember someone giving a speech in Professor Binn's class that lasted two hours, forty-five minutes and twenty seconds."
"It wasn't that long," Hermione said, rolling her eyes. "Besides, it was a very interesting subject. And as I recall you stayed awake through the whole thing."
"That's because I was pressing my quill into my leg to keep me awake," Harry said.
"Very funny, Potter," Hermione said, and she took a pillow from the couch and hit him upside the head with it.
"Hey!" Harry said. "You'll pay for that, Granger." Harry also picked up a pillow and began to chase a giggling Hermione around the common room.
"For a seeker, you sure are pretty slow. You can catch a small snitch, but you can't catch a girl!" Hermione yelled as she ran behind the bookshelf. Harry caught her off-guard and they both fell to the floor. They were both breathless and laughing. Harry was on top of Hermione holding her arms down.
"Say uncle," he said.
"Never," she said, breathlessly.
"Come on," he said.
"No!" she said, hiccupping.
All of a sudden, though, Harry stopped laughing. He was looking into her brown eyes. She looked beautiful. She, too, had stopped laughing. Their faces were inches apart. He was just leaning in to kiss her, when a loud, annoyed voice interrupted them.
"For heaven's sake, I'm trying to get some sleep over here," Ron said.
Harry quickly let go of Hermione and stood up to face his friend. "Sorry, mate," Harry said.
"Yeah, I'm sorry, Ron," Hermione said, standing up. "Well, I'm gonna head on up to my room and work on my speech. Good night, guys."
"Good night, Hermione," Ron said.
"Good night, Hermione," Harry said. He smiled uncomfortably at her and she smiled back and quickly headed upstairs.
Something had happened just then that neither of them were ready to deal with yet.
And that was only the beginning.
Looking back on that night, five years later, Harry wished he had kissed her that night. What if Ron hadn't interrupted them? There was a lot of what ifs from that last week, that last year at Hogwarts. Harry didn't want to think about them now. He wanted to sleep and finally sleep did come.