NOTE: Well, here it is. Hope it's not as dreadfully dull as I feel it may be. However, always feel free to review, criticize or scream at me in any way you see fit. Thanks for reading!
Also: I waited a whole five minutes before posting this chapter! Without any reviews…so…yes, I'm dying here people.
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Stupid, stupid Harry! What were you thinking? You practically attacked her in the hallway!
Harry lay on his bed, staring at the ceiling. This is usually how he passed time in the afternoon. But today his thoughts were on Hermione instead of the impending war. He was beginning to think his feelings for her were…well, a bit more than friendly. He had shrugged these feelings off in the past easily; Hermione was the only girl he'd ever really known, of course he had feelings for her. But…he couldn't deny how completely whole he felt lately when she was around; safe. Hermione Granger, with all of her bossy ways and hidden insecurities, was the only person who could make Harry feel safe.
In many ways she was his savior.
He placed his folded hands behind his head and sighed.
Hermione…
His daydream was interrupted by a soft knocking on his dormitory door. "Harry…it's me. Can I come in?"
Hermione? What is she doing here?
"Come in," his voice wavered.
Hermione's mind raced.
What am I doing here? I should be in class.
Another voice in her head rang out, what's the big deal? It's just Harry!
She opened the door and stepped into the semi-darkness. Harry was stretched out on his four-poster with his hands under his head.
Just Harry…
He wasn't exactly acknowledging her presence…he was just staring at the ceiling. She walked toward one of the tall windows and threw the curtains back. Light flooded through the room like a breath of fresh air. She stood at the window for a moment, looking down on the grounds. Then, turning, she stepped closer to Harry's bed.
"Mind if I sit down?"
"Go ahead," he said, shifting over to give her some room but not taking his eyes from the ceiling. Hermione sat on the edge of the bed and kicked her shoes off. Then she rolled over and lay down beside Harry, placing her arm across his chest. It was as if this were the most natural thing in the world, like they had both been doing this forever. But on the inside, both were trembling.
Harry rolled over to face Hermione. "I'm sorry."
"About what, Harry?" she asked, losing herself in those sad emerald eyes.
"Sometimes it just overwhelms me when I least expect it to."
"I know," she whispered, lightly touching his cheek with her hand. She wanted so badly to take away all of his pain. To kiss and love him like nobody else in his life had. Without thinking she rolled up onto her elbow and placed a gentle kiss on Harry's lips. It was nothing special, just a soft, sweet little kiss. When she pulled back, his eyes were still closed and his lips slightly pushed out. Hermione smiled.
"What was that for?" he asked, his eyes halfway open.
"I thought you might need it," she said simply. He propped himself up so that he was facing her and pulled her towards him. "I did." With that, he kissed her again. It was slow at first, but gradually became more desperate with passion. Hermione suddenly found herself straddling Harry's lap with no idea of how she had gotten there. Harry, his back against the wall behind his bed, gripped her tightly to his body as though clinging to her for his life. Perhaps he was. His kisses were hot and fierce. The feeling of his tongue roaming within her mouth and mating with her own tongue sent tingles to places on her body she'd never felt before.
Harry's hands were deep in her curls. She found her own hands pulling his shirt from the waist of his pants. Breaking their kiss for mere milliseconds, she wrenched the shirt over Harry's head and flung it over her shoulder. Her hands were suddenly in their own blissful ecstasy as they found their way across Harry's chest. Even with the weight he was losing, he had still maintained his firm Quidditch muscles. She felt him suck in a breath as her nails flitted lightly across his nipples.
Harry became a man possessed. He was suddenly ripping Hermione's clothes from her body….jumper, gone….tie, gone….buttons, a bit more difficult. Hermione's mouth remained firmly against his as he fidgeted with the buttons of her collared top. Finally stripping her down to a white cotton bra, he rolled her over so that she was beneath him.
Hermione moaned against his lips and pulled away to gasp for air as Harry began tugging her skirt down past her hips. His eyes, sparkling with that old fire, looked questioningly into hers, and she readily kicked the skirt past her feet. Harry struggled to remove his own trousers and became flustered at their resistance to his wrenching. Hermione, placing a hand upon his chest, calmed him with a warm kiss to his lips. Forgetting the pants, Harry placed his hands on either side of her face and deepened the kiss. Hermione pushed the slacks down the rest of the way and pulled Harry to rest once again on top of her slender frame.
She gripped his back tightly as he dipped his kisses lower across her collarbone and groaned slightly as his lips reached the center of her chest between her breasts. She arched her back to allow his hands access to the clasp of her bra. Just when Harry thought it might give him more trouble than the buttons, it sprung free and the garment slacked from around Hermione's shoulders.
Pulling the thin straps down her slim arms, he felt that he had never seen anything more beautiful than Hermione as she appeared to him now. Hermione moaned contentedly as he pulled one of her firm nipples into his hot mouth and caressed the other gently with his fingertips. Switching to her other breast he moved his tongue in lazy circles as his hand wandered to free her from her knickers.
Hermione felt as though she would boil over in ecstasy from the sensations Harry was instilling upon her body. She almost cried out when he paused in his pleasurable torments to rid himself of his own final remaining garment. Her eyes, curios as always, drifted to Harry's engorged erection. They widened in nervous anticipation.
Harry, again, gently lay his body down upon Hermione's and caressed her lips with his own. He wanted to reassure her. Inquisitively, she reached a small hand between them to grasp Harry's member. Strengthening the kiss connecting them, she guided him to her entrance and gasped as he began entering her.
When he reached her hymen, she wrapped her long limbs around his waist, bracing for the pain, yet urging Harry to continue all the same. With a powerful thrust Harry drove through, causing tiny tears to spring forth in Hermione's eyes. Trembling, he placed a delicate kiss upon each of her closed eyelids. After a few long moments of waiting, he felt Hermione begin to rouse beneath him.
In awkward, but fluid, movements he began moving within her. Hermione grasped firmly onto his flexed forearms and began kissing his neck just below his ear. She felt the pain recede as feelings of warmth began emanating from where she was joined with Harry.
Soon, the slow movement became torturous to Harry and he began driving faster into Hermione's heated center. The feeling grew within Hermione as Harry's plunging became rapid. Finally, the eruption built inside of her and boiled over as the walls within her contracted over and over, sending Harry toppling over the edge with her. She moaned his name into the afternoon sunshine and he collapsed onto her, chests heaving.
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It was perhaps hours before Hermione awoke beside Harry. A thin blanket enswathed their midsections and her arm was draped over his chest. The curtains of his bed were drawn and they were both cast into deep shadows. Sitting up, she clutched the blanket to her bare breasts. Closing her eyes, she ran a hand through her unruly curls and heaved a deep sigh. Her mind raced as she trembled inside. A murmur beside her pulled her from her contemplations. Turning, she saw Harry begin to stir with the beginnings of wakefulness.
Finally his eyes opened and immediately rested on her as she sat beside him, holding the blanket to her body. Thoughts raced through his mind. Their love-making had been so abrupt, and yet so long awaited. He knew he should speak, say something, but words eluded him. Finally, she lay her body back down and placed a graceful hand upon his cheek. He turned to face her and they lay for several moments, delicately entwined, staring into one-another's eyes.
There was so much to say. But somehow there were no words. Perhaps they had said it all in their urgency. Harry pulled her to him and held her tightly. How out of character this seemed for the both of them, but oh how right it felt!
Everything that had been welling up in him for so long…all the anger, all of the fear…it had all been safely emptied into Hermione. She had freed him of his self-made chains, those chains which he had fashioned to force himself to do what was right in the face of the upcoming battle. Now, he simply needed to follow his heart and do what he wanted.
And now what he wanted included defeating Voldemort.
Now that he had Hermione.
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The next morning, when they arrived in the Great Hall together for breakfast, Ron showed no surprise. Even when Harry could help himself no longer and kissed Hermione as she was speaking, in mid-sentence. Her eyes darted nervously toward Ron, but he simply sat there. Unshakable.
Reaching across the table, he took Hermione's copy of the Daily Prophet and lifted it to begin reading.
"Ron…" Hermione started, "is this….I mean, well…"
"All I have to say is," he paused dramatically before wiggling his eyebrows up and down and blurting, "it's about time mate!"
Their section of the table erupted with laughter which rang through the hall in joyous tunes. It had been some time since laughter could be heard inside the castle. Soon, most of the Gryffindor table was caught up in a fit of laughter, most of them not knowing why they were laughing in the first place.
It was a brilliant beam of goodness in the midst of a dark war.
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They sat out beside the lake, Hermione wrapped in Harry's arms, simply content that they existed together at the same time.
"Haven't seen you with a book lately, Miss Granger."
"I know."
"Why not?"
"I found it."
"Found what?"
"The answer I was looking for."
"Oh. I didn't know you were looking for something specific." He seemed slightly confused, and Hermione let him go on wondering, satisfied that she was being perfectly vague. She now knew that all of the books, all of the spells and charms and potions, would never be able to help him as much as the real answer.
We're the answer, she thought. Relaxed in each other's arms, they waited. Content with their love, they waited.
Knowing the evil that waited just out of sight…they waited, together.
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