Disclaimer: JKR owns all things HP and I'm just borrowing her world for the fun of it.
A/N: For all my LJ friends who first read this over at my ficlet journal and encouraged me to continue this. And especially for Connaka- *glomps* I'm always so flattered to be rec-ed by you!
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The Reasons for Dating Chapter 1: Loneliness
Harry Potter had been thinking. And he had decided that Hermione Granger, his best friend, needed a boyfriend.
It had really started two days ago. He, Ron and Hermione had met up for dinner and a drink as was their custom. Ron had been talking about Luna, his girlfriend of a year, and he'd seen something- he didn't quite know what- flicker in Hermione's eyes. It was fleeting and would probably have escaped notice from anyone who didn't know her as well as he did, anyone whose eyes weren't made perceptive from more than a decade of friendship.
It wasn't jealousy. At least, not of Ron, not in that way. He knew that Hermione thought of Ron as the brother she'd never had in many ways. It was something else, something like a combination of wistfulness and a touch of envy that Ron had a girlfriend who made him happy, who suited him. Something almost like loneliness.
Loneliness. Hermione was lonely.
It had never occurred to him before but now that it had, it made sense.
Oh, Hermione had friends, himself and Ron of course, and Ginny and he knew she got along well with her colleagues and coworkers at St. Mungo's. She always seemed busy, self-sufficient and happy to be so.
But she didn't date. He couldn't remember the last time Hermione had been on a date.
Even he, who had become rather accustomed to feeling isolated from others because of who and what he was, went on the occasional date. With the number of women in London who'd probably have paid to go out with him (he wasn't vain but it would have taken someone blind, deaf, or stupid not to notice), the number of dates he'd been on was tiny, comparatively. And most of them never went beyond the first date. Some had, admittedly. (He wasn't promiscuous by any definition but neither was he a saint or a eunuch.) But even then those liaisons never lasted long. Put simply, the witches who spent so much effort in trying to charm him, tired him. None of them really cared about him.
But to return to Hermione, she simply didn't date. She tended to cite work and a lack of time as her excuse, as well as a lack of interest. Her last serious relationship had ended two years ago and since then, there'd been no one.
He didn't for a minute think that it was from a lack of interested men. Hermione was pretty and kind and smart and- Suffice to say, any guy with a right mind would want to go out with her. So it must be something else.
But Hermione was lonely, it seemed. And he knew too well what that felt like. Knew it all too well and also cared for Hermione too much to want her to feel it.
So, Harry had decided to find her a boyfriend. He knew it sounded rather ludicrous but there it was.
And since he was quite sure that facing and defeating Voldemort had been a thousand times easier than his newly self-appointed task of finding Hermione a boyfriend, he was going to have to turn to Ron for help.
~*~
He brought it up the next day when he and Ron were relaxing on the balcony of his flat sipping butterbeers.
"I've been thinking about Hermione," he began somewhat abruptly. Ron only looked at him curiously. "I think she should have a boyfriend," he finished baldly.
Ron choked. "What?" he finally got out between coughs.
"I think she should have a boyfriend," he repeated calmly enough, although there was a glint of amusement in his eyes at Ron's reaction.
"Why?" Ron was looking at Harry as if he'd just announced a plan to live on the moon.
Harry shrugged a little. "I think she might be lonely. You know as well as I do that Hermione doesn't date."
Since he couldn't deny that fact, Ron only nodded. "Yeah, but if Hermione doesn't want to date what can we do about it?"
"Maybe she hasn't met a guy she wants to date," Harry said reasonably. "I think we, as her best friends, should try to introduce her to guys who we think she'd like."
"And guys who we think deserve her," he added after a pause.
Ron shook his head slightly. "I think you've been hit by one too many bludgers, mate."
Harry glared mildly at Ron. "Do you want Hermione to be lonely?"
"Of course not!" Ron protested and then sighed, knowing Harry too well not to realize that he was serious about this, which meant that he may as well save his breath and cooperate. "Any ideas then, matchmaker?" he asked, sarcasm clear in his voice as he said the last word.
Harry thought for a moment before answering. "Well, he'd need to be a good guy obviously. He needs to be someone who'd never hurt Hermione if he could help it. He needs to be able to make her laugh. He needs to be smart enough to appreciate Hermione's brains and to be able to hold his own with her in conversation so he doesn't bore Hermione. He needs to be relatively independent, enough that he won't pester Hermione every minute or smother her. Hermione would hate being with someone she couldn't respect or someone who was helpless. Dependable so Hermione can rely on him when she needs to and strong enough that it won't threaten him since Hermione's the strongest person I know." He stopped, frowning a little, before his expression cleared. "I think that's all I can think of; there might be other things I'm not thinking of."
Ron gave Harry a slightly dubious look. He considered that recitation of qualities to be incomplete? Not that Harry wasn't right; Merlin knew he was, given that he probably knew Hermione better than anyone and understood her too… Ron straightened up in his chair slowly as a thought occurred to him. Something so right he wondered why he'd never thought of it before.
He looked at Harry again, speculatively this time. There was nothing to indicate anything other than a sincere friendly interest in Hermione's well-being, but then he hadn't expected there to be. Then again that was Harry…
He nodded to himself. He would just test the waters a little. "You know, Harry," he said casually, "you've pretty much just described yourself."
This time it was Harry's turn to choke. "What?"
Ron shrugged, affecting a carelessness he didn't feel. "Think about it; it makes sense. You two are such good friends already and both of you are available. You'd rather cut off your arms than hurt Hermione," he continued, ticking off Harry's characteristics on each finger as he mentioned them. "You can make her laugh. You certainly appreciate Hermione's brains, probably know better than anyone just how smart she is. You wouldn't smother her because you know her well enough to know when to leave her alone. And Hermione respects you and relies on you for lots of things already."
Harry was still looking at Ron as if he'd announced an intention of eloping with a Blast-Ended Skrewt. "But- but- she's my friend!"
"So?"
"I never- I've never thought of Hermione that way."
"So?" Ron repeated, reflecting that Harry really could be dense sometimes.
"So… so I wouldn't want to risk ruining our friendship," Harry said finally.
Ron burst out laughing at that. "Ruin your friendship? Ha, as if anything really could! If Hermione's put up with you for this long, I don't think anything like dating would be able to get her to stop caring about you." He sobered, meeting Harry's eyes seriously. "I'm not saying, get married now; I'm just saying, think about it. Maybe you and Hermione were meant to be more than just friends." He leaned back in his chair again, taking another sip of his butterbeer as he looked at Harry over the bottle. "Think about it. You'll never know until you try, right?"
Maybe… Meant to be more than friends… Maybe…
Harry's conversation with Ron hadn't produced any more ideas, only more confusion. He could hardly believe Ron had actually suggested that he and Hermione start dating like that.
Date Hermione? Hermione as a girlfriend?
He felt as if the ground was suddenly tilting beneath his feet, throwing him off-balance. Not surprising, he supposed, considering that Hermione's friendship had pretty much been the only constant in his life since the moment he met her on the Hogwarts Express 13 years ago. It was the one thing he knew he could count on, even in his never-completely-normal life. One of the few things he was completely certain of and had never had a moment's doubt of. The sun rose in the east and set in the west. Snape was a git. He loved to fly. Voldemort had been evil. And Hermione would always be his friend.
Now, suddenly, thanks to Ron, he had to imagine a life with Hermione as more than a friend… Imagine a life without Hermione as his friend, if things went badly…
And he didn't want Hermione as anything other than his best friend. He didn't care about her in that way.
Did he?