1. Did you ever love somebody?

Did You Ever Love Somebody?

Disclaimer: J.K. Rowling actually gets paid to write this stuff. I don’t, so guess what? I don’t own Harry Potter.

This is one of my first ever fanfics, so please don’t expect to much!

This is dedicated to all those who love someone but never told him/her.

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Sitting on the couch and staring into the fireplace, he couldn’t stop thinking about her. Through his seven years in Hogwarts she had been his only constant thing, her friendship never faltered, it still doesn’t falter. She had been his shoulder to cry on, his one companion that always stood by his side. Not that Ron wasn’t a good friend; in fact he was there for him most of the time, and he had also finally learnt to control his jealousy that threatened their friendship many times. But it was she that was always there for him.

It took him some time to realize that he considered her more than just a friend. He remembered the first time these feelings were clear to him as if it were yesterday. It was the summer after Sirius died, he had already spent his share at the Dursleys and was now at the Black Manor, Sirius’ house.

He was on his own with Lupin in that old house that reminded him too much of Sirius. He passed his time locked up in his room doing nothing but staring at the wall. Then one day Hermione joined them to stay there till the end of the summer. He didn’t go down to meet her, he found out he didn’t have enough energy to do that. But that wasn’t necessary, for a couple of minutes later someone knocked at the door and he knew that it was Hermione who was standing on the other side.

She knocked again, but he still didn’t answer. She knocked the third time and didn’t wait for him to try and answer but just entered to find him still staring at the wall. She silently sat down next to him and put her hand on his giving it a gentle squeeze. That was all that was needed. He had all the intention of closing himself, of not showing any weakness, of pushing everyone away. But with one touch she changed everything. She showed him that she won’t leave him on his own during this time of difficulties. And with that one touch all the walls he had built during the first part of the summer went crumbling down. He turned to her and hugged her as if his life depended on it. He cried; never before in his life had he cried in front of a girl, but here he cried. He could feel her crying too, together they cried about everything. He didn’t know how but they managed to fall asleep in each others arms, and when he woke up he felt like those were the best few hours of sleep he ever had. Hermione was still there in his arms, her face was marked from all the tears she had cried but she seemed so content and peaceful.

That’s when it started; that’s when he started to notice the little things she does. The things that make her so... so Hermione! Those little things that made her beautiful to him. She never said anything about that cry to anyone and he was very grateful to her for that. Anytime one of them just needed to cry, the other was there, then they would continue as if nothing happened. When Harry defeated Voldemort, in the summer before 7^th year, he was afraid that people would start to see him as a murderer. Once again, she had stood by his side telling him that she would stay there no matter what.

Now with Voldemort gone, nothing should be stopping him from telling her, from showing her how much she means to him. But he still was afraid; maybe he was even more afraid than before. Before he had Voldemort as an excuse; he could tell himself he was not going to talk to Hermione because of Voldemort. But now he had no excuse, now nothing was stopping him from talking to her, nothing but his fears. His fear of rejection, his fear of being ridiculed, his fear of being left alone. Loneliness; it’s one of the things he’s most afraid of, it’s the one thing that could destroy a man, and he knew that it was the one thing he could never stand.

He was waked from his reverie by a waving hand in front of his face. It was Ron. When he saw that he had his complete attention he told him: “It’s Hermione isn’t it?”

That question surprised Harry; he didn’t think he was that obvious. “You don’t have to be so surprised mate. Every evening you stay here staring at the fire, then Hermione comes back from the library and stays a bit with us; that’s when you stare at her. When she leaves and goes to sleep, you go back to staring at the fire. It works like this every evening! One must be blind to not see that you have a thing for her mate!”

“Then she must be blind”, this statement surprises Harry too, he couldn’t think he could ever find a fault in Hermione.

“Don’t you worry Harry everything will work out.”

“But if you just said that I’m so obvious it’s a miracle she hasn’t figured it out yet!”

“Those were not my words. Harry believe me nobody is that blind. Just give Hermione some time to recover from her temporary blindness and then everything will work out just fine.”

This didn’t make Harry feel any better and Ron must have noticed this but he remained silent. This lasted a few minutes then while looking at the fire with a serious voice Ron asked him, “What does it feel like Harry?”

“What does what feel like?”

“This. This feeling you have for Hermione. Tell me.”

This was a difficult question; he tried to avoid it but didn’t succeed. He knew what it was that he felt for Hermione, but didn’t know how to put it in words for someone else to understand. Then he suddenly remembered a muggle song whose lyrics could perfectly explain his feelings.

“Did you ever love somebody so much that the earth moves? ... Did you ever love somebody even though it hurts to? ... Did you ever love somebody - nothing else your heart could do? ... Did you ever love somebody who never knew?”

He stopped to take a deep breath, and then continued slowly.

“Did you ever lay your head down on the shoulder of a good friend? And then have to look away somehow? Had to hide the way you felt for them?”

“Have you ever prayed the day would come you’d hear them say they feel it to? Did you ever love somebody who never knew?”

It was Ron’s turn now to look surprised, he knew that his friend had a thing for Hermione, but never thought that that thing was so deep. He knew he had to help him somehow.

“Wow man!! I didn’t know. Really, I didn’t know it was that deep.”

“Yeah, well now you know”

“Hey, you know what? Why don’t you invite her to the spring dance coming up?”

“That dance doesn’t require partners Ron”, he told him with a don’t-you-think-I-already-thought-about-that tone.

“Then ask her to dance with you” he made it sound as if it was the easiest thing in the world.

“Maybe I will Ron.”

“Not maybe. You have to man.”

“OK, I will. There happy now?”

“Yes”

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Days passed and the spring dance was finally here. Harry, Ron and Neville were sitting in the Great Hall waiting. They had decided to share a table with Hermione, Lavender and Ginny and were now waiting for the girls to arrive. Finally they came, they all looked absolutely stunning, and in Harry’s opinion Hermione was simply beautiful.

The night started to pass slowly; after an hour or so, Harry felt something hard hit his foot. He turned to look at what happened and found Ron trying to get his attention. Ron kicked him again in the foot and Harry fought hard with himself so as to not let out a cry of pain.

“What did you do that for? You already had my attention after the first kick!” He talked in a low voice so that the others would not hear him.

“Sorry man. I just wanted to give you a suggestion. Ask her to dance with you.”

“What?”

“Ask Hermione to dance with you. Trust me man, just do it.”

“Ok, I will”

It took him some time to figure out what to say then he thought ‘to hell with everything, all I have to do is ask!’

So he stood up approached Hermione, held out a hand to her and told her: “Dance with me” It was only afterwards that he realized it was more like a demand than a question but anyway, her answer swept his thoughts away.

“Of course Harry.”

‘Well, I have to say that that part was easy. Now let’s see how the rest goes. Hey, why is the music changing? Where did the fast tune go? And why did they put a slow one instead? Wait a second, I know this song. It’s the song I used to describe what I feel towards Hermione.’ He took a look around and saw Ron with the widest grin ever on his face and with his hands in a ‘thumbs up’ position. ‘How could he know about the song?’

Hermione sensed that something was bothering Harry so she asked him if something was wrong. He turned and looked at her, she was the most beautiful girl at the dance and she was going to dance with him with a nice song as a background. What was he waiting for?

“Nothing’s wrong. Let’s just dance.”

So he took her hand and placed his other hand on her waist, he pulled her as close to him as possible. This was a once in a lifetime opportunity, he was dancing with her, who knows when he would dance with her again. So he just made the best out of it, he closed his eyes hold her close to him so that his face was in her hair and his breath and together they swayed to the sift beat of the song.

Did you ever love somebody?
So much that the earth moved
Did you ever love somebody?
Even though it hurt to
Did you ever love somebody?
Nothing else your heart could do
Did you ever love somebody?
Who never knew.

Did you ever lay your head down
On the shoulder of a good friend
And then had to look away somehow
Had to hide the way you felt for them
Have you ever prayed the day would come
You’d hear them say they feel it too
Did you ever love someone?
Who never knew

I do.

And if you did
Well you know I’d understand
I could, I would
More than anybody can

The song was getting to him and he subconsciously started to softly sing the words to Hermione.

When the song finished Hermione looked up at him with tears in her eyes and asked him in a soft voice as if she was afraid her voice would fail her: “Did you mean that?”

He was confused, ‘did you mean that? Did I mean what?’ Questions were running in his head but he didn’t dare to say them out loud with fear that this would upset her. But she saw the confusion in his eyes and cleared things out for him.

“The words of the song. Did you really mean them?”

Then he understood, he must have sung the song out loud for her to hear. ‘No, it can’t be. How could I be so stupid? Now she knows!’ He wanted to tell her no immediately but this was his chance to set the record straight. He wanted to shout out ‘Yes, I love you!’ but he was so afraid of rejection. Then he looked in her eyes, was that hope that he was seeing? Hope that he was feeling that way? Was she feeling that way too? He couldn’t help it. He had to find out.

“Yes. Yes I did”, ‘that’s it; now I said it and there’s no turning back.’

“I love you too,” she muttered in a whisper.

The tears that were gathering in her eyes started to fall and he swept them gently with his thumb. He didn’t know how but he found himself leaning into her, or was it she that started to move? Who knows, maybe they moved together, both knowing that what was going to happen between them was inevitable. After what seemed like a lifetime, their lips met in a sweet embrace. They continued to taste each other softly till the great hall erupted in applause reminding them both where they were.

His face glowing red with embarrassment, he led an equally embarrassed Hermione back to their table. There he found Ron who wore a proud look on his face. Harry lowered his voice so that Hermione would not hear him to ask Ron: “How did you know about the song?”

“Well, don’t be angry with me man, but I told Lavender about our talk and when I repeated the words you used she told me that those were the lyrics of a muggle song. So I just told the band to play it. Please, just don’t be angry”

Generally Harry would be furious with Ron for telling with someone else about something so private. But when he looked beside him he saw the most beautiful woman ever beaming at him. He couldn’t help but smile back at her. There she was, the woman that he loved and she was loving him back. How could he ever be angry with Ron when what he did led to this?

“No Ron. I’m not angry with you.”

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Song: Did You Ever Love Someone by Jessica Simpson

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