Hermione left the Room of Requirement, her mantra consisted of `Tell Harry you love him, tell him tell him tell him tell him….'
She was so caught up in that she didn't notice that Lavender Brown was calling her name.
After their "talk" about what had happened with Ron, they hadn't spoken much.
"Hermione! wait! This is important!" Lavender called after her, but it would take more than that to get her attention.
Lavender walked quickly after Hermione, who was headed to the Gryffindor Tower, but that wasn't fast enough soon she was racing after her "Hermione wait!" Lavender said as she grabbed on to the brown haired girl's arm.
"What!?" Hermione snapped, and then realizing her tone was rude, "Oh I'm sorry, what is it?"
"He's looking for you…" Lavender panted a little, "He looked angry…"
"Who did? Harry? Why was Harry angry with me? I didn't even see him yet." Hermione rapidly asked her questions not waiting for answers.
"Slow down, not Harry… Malfoy was looking for you," Lavender paled a bit when she mentioned Draco's name.
Hermione paled herself, but then remembered her mission, "Thanks Lavender, but I need to find Harry," and she continued walking.
././././.
Draco walked briskly towards the direction of the Gryffindor Tower, the blonde who'd been seen with Weasly lately hadn't given out the password, but knowing the location was better than nothing.
He didn't have to say much either, just "I need to talk to Hermione, where do you Gryffindor's stay?" and just pull himself up to his full height and glare.
The blonde had tried to be cool and calm, but he knew a faker anywhere, after stepping closer to her, just enough to make her uncomfortable, she caved.
`Works like a charm,' Draco thought smugly.
He arrived at the portrait of the Fat Lady, leaned against the wall and waited.
././././.
Harry leaned back against the tree, before realizing where he was, "Of all the places! I had to pick here!"
`This is stupid sitting here,' he thought to himself, `what does this accomplish?'
`I know how I feel, I don't know what could happen to me tomorrow, or what could happen to her, I have to tell her,' with this determination, Harry got up from under the tree that he hoped to one day called his and Hermione's "place".
`Sitting down won't get anything done'
`You have to tell her, she deserves to know, even if she doesn't feel the same way she deserves to know'
"Alright!" Harry cried out loud, `I'll tell her right now.'
././././.
`Remember Draco, although women should and will flock to you, the exchanging of her affection for flowers is the proper thing to do' Draco's father had once told him, when Draco was to take Pansy to the Yule Ball.
Draco also remembered how his father would order fresh flowers be placed in Narcissa's room every day.
`Well it's painfully obvious what I have to do,' Draco thought as he picked up a pebble and charmed it into a dozen red roses, that when you moved them in the light they seemed to shimmer a purplely red colour.
Draco waited a little more for Hermione, and then wondered if she was headed this way at all.
He heard someone storming around the corner, ducking to the side in the shadows in case it wasn't Hermione he waited to see who it was.
././././.
Harry was walking quickly towards the Gryffindor Tower, hopefully Hermione would be there.
`She better be there, if she isn't I'm never telling her how I feel,' Harry made a deal with himself before saying the password and going through the portrait hole.
././././.
`Damn it's only Potter! Stupid useless…hang on…stupid but useful Potter,' Draco thought smugly when he heard Harry speaking the password.
`He really should learn to keep his voice down'
`Should I go in now? Or wait a little more?' Draco wondered but before he could decide he saw the girl he'd been waiting for.
././././.
"He'd better be in there, and not running around the whole bloody castle," Hermione muttered to herself as she rounded the corner as a fast walk, she'd been walking at a normal pace at first but as she got closer she'd broken into a trot and now she was running, called out the password and running inside.
././././.
`She isn't here, that is I'm leaving,' Harry thought to himself after asking one of her dorm mates if she was in her room, and obviously seeing that she wasn't in the common room.
But before he could leave something held Harry back a question that had bothered him the whole time he was debating if he should tell her or not.
`Why do you want to avoid telling her so much?'
People often ask questions into open air, but very few times do answers seem to come back to us.
Harry often wished there was an omnipresent voice of wisdom for him in open air, today it almost seemed like there was one.
`I'm scared. I'm scared more then I've been in my whole life. I don't care if she loves someone else at this point I'm afraid that one day someone will come and take her away from me and hurt her in ways I could never imagine, that would be the worse thing ever to happen. I'll want to die that day.'
`That would be awful, but you don't know what the future holds'
`What if she doesn't get taken away? What if she gets married and has a child, and one day there's a knock on the door and they're both dead and the baby is all alone?'
`If that's to be the future then so it is in your mind, but why do you let doubts keep you from being happy?'
Harry felt so drained and weak; he sat down on a stool in front of a slowly dying fire. As he watched the embers fade in and out, he realized to himself that he was basing most of his decisions on fears that might not even happen. By doing this he could be missing out on some of the most important and happiest times, which he could ever imagine.
`I'll wait for her; I'll wait for her forever. I love her more then I could ever imagine loving someone,' Harry resolved before resting his elbows on his knees and leaning his head into his hands.
././././.
Draco hadn't expected that, so he walked out from the shadows and said the password, at first the portrait tried to argue he couldn't go in but he did have the correct password.
Which may or may not have been a good thing for Draco.
././././.
"Harry!" Hermione called out before noticing that he was sitting on a stool in front of the dead fireplace.
"Hermione, I'm here," Harry said as he slowly got up.
"Harry I have to talk to you it's about something important," Hermione started to say, but Harry motioned for her to stop talking.
"Hermione I know what you're going to say and before you do I want you to know whatever you choose as long as you're happy then that's all I could ever want for you," Harry tried to sound strong as his heart was slowly breaking.
Hermione didn't understand what he was talking about, `He knows that I love him? How? The Room of Requirement!' her temper flared up momentarily, then subsided as she saw Harry's green eyes misting over, almost like he was trying to keep from crying.
././././.
Draco was going to grab Hermione's arm and tell her how he felt but before he could he heard her calling out for Harry.
`Stupid Potter, now what does she want from him?'
Hermione walked further into the common room, not noticing Draco in the darkened doorway of the portrait hole.
`Should I go after her now? Or wait?' Draco wondered.
But before he could make up his decision, he saw that Hermione had found Harry and they were talking together by the fireplace.
`Maybe I'll wait a bit, hopefully Potter will upset her, then I can console her with my declaration and flowers,' Draco mused, and he listened in on the conversation.
././././.
"Hermione," Harry continued, drawing in a shaky breath trying to control himself, "I don't know how to say this, but I don't think I can say it enough what I'm trying to tell you is…"
But Hermione cut him off, "Harry Potter if you don't come out with it, I'll have to tell you just what I think of you,"
"Hermione, I know you're my best friend," Harry said looking down at his feet, "but I love you."
Harry waited for a blow, a gasp, a cry of anguish, anything, but nothing came.
`Maybe she didn't hear?'
././././.
Hermione definitely heard.
`He loves me?'
`He loves me…'
`Oh my God he loves me!'
`My best friend Harry loves me!'
Harry shuffled a bit, "I don't know if you heard what I said…"
"Oh Harry!" cried Hermione, as she lifted up his chin so he was looking into her eyes and not down at the floor, "do you really love me?"
"Hermione how can you even ask that, you're my first thought every morning and the last before I go to sleep, you've captivated me for so long."
At first Hermione shyly tilted her head upwards towards Harry, he immediately caught her face in his hands, when his lips were just inches away after she'd closed her eyes, she heard him murmur.
"I love you even if you love him"
Before she could wrench away and demand what that was suppose to mean, he'd captured her lips in a searing kiss.
././././.
Harry slid his hands from her face into her hair, he welcomed the feeling of the silky curls entwined around his hands, he worshiped the taste of her, and relished in the soft moans she made and answered them back with his own.
././././.
Hermione had at first kept her hands at her sides, but the next thing she knew they were resting against the small of Harry's back urging him closer, she licked his lips and he responded with a muffled groan before opening her mouth to him.
His hands warmed their way from her face, to her hair, finally resting on her back. She then reached up and did what she wanted to do for so long, she ran her fingers through that messy black hair, before fisting it gently in her hands and pulling him closer to her.
././././.
`I don't care if she loves him, I'll never let him have her', Harry thought as a kissed her with renewed ferocity.
././././.
Hermione was about to full lose herself in the feeling but she moved her hands down to his shoulders and pushed him away from her.
Harry looked at her in shock.
He was a sight. Glasses were askew and a little foggy, his hair was worse then she could imagine, his top shirt buttons had come undone and his lips were too pink.
Hermione thought he never looked better, but what he said was bugging her.
"Harry you'd better explain what I love you even if you love him, means? Who do I apparently love?"
././././.
Harry swallowed trying to catch his breath, and not to look too much at how Hermione looked, he decided to focus on her face. Her face that was flushed, with stray locks of hair in front of it, with reddened lips…
`Oh God I knew this would happen,' Harry thought in defeat as he walked backwards until the backs of his knees hit the stool, and he sat down hard.
"Hermione I know that he's changed, I'm sure he's a really nice guy, but how can you kiss me like that if you love someone else?"
Hermione was growing very frustrated with Harry, "Harry for the last time who do you think I love?"
"Draco Malfoy," Harry said bitterly looking up at her.
To say that Hermione was surprised would be an understatement. She was completely and utterly blown out of the water.
././././.
`Draco Malfoy?! Where would he get a crazy idea like that?' she thought amazed.
Hermione knelt down in front of the sitting Harry so they were eye to eye, "Harry where did you get that ridiculous idea?"
Hermione listened as Harry told about his observations between the two, from the looks, to the jokes, to all the "project time", to planning to meet in the Astronomy Tower, up to her private confession in the Room of Requirement.
"Honestly Hermione I wasn't spying on you I wanted to get away for a bit, I saw you in there, I didn't want to disturb you and then when I heard you say that you love him, I couldn't take it and I left," Harry said feeling very vulnerable.
Hermione had been gently shaking her head in amazement the whole time.
"Harry I don't know if I should slap you upside the head or just laugh. but I have to admit that the way you observed me is more then I could have ever expected, I'm actually flattered," Hermione said as she blushed, "what I wanted to tell you when I first came in this room, is I love you too."
././././.
A tidal wave of relief washed over Harry, and before he could stop himself he'd pulled her towards him by her forearms and began to kiss her again and again.
`She loves me, she loves me, she really loves me,' Harry thought over and over again.
He gently broke away from her, stood up and pulled her to her feet, before pulling her close again and kissing her with more vigor than before.
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