Unofficial Portkey Archive

AN: This story is apart of the aptly named "1001 Hogwarts Nights" cookie collection. Suggested by many others I have gathered all my cookies from the FA cookie jar and will post them here. My nasty little habit of always ending on cliffhangers earned me the nickname "Sharazad" from thephotoman, because I left everyone frustrated, thus spawning the title which was suggested by romulus_lupin. These stories are dedicated to all who sail H/Hr and to gal_texter especially- who never gave up.

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Harry, Ron and Hermione sat in the Gryffindor common room pouring over some homework. Ron rubbed the back of his neck and craned his head over to see Hermione's homework. She instinctively leaned forward more and moved her arm closer to her parchment to block his view.

"Oh come off it Hermione, I just need five more lines."

"Nope," she replied.

"Harry, what do you say?"

Harry was about to push his essay towards him when Hermione slammed her hand down on his homework so fast that they jumped.

"Ron why don't you finish this homework on your own?" she said with her eyes fixed on her own parchment.

There was no contest. Harry raised and lowered his eye brows at Ron and continued with his own. After a few seconds of sulking Ron picked up his quill and began to write.

" Finished," said Hermione standing up from the table and stretching, if you two don't mind I'm off to- don't even think about it Ron!" She had caught Ron lifting up a sheet of her parchment to catch a glimpse of a few of her sentences.

Harry looked at Ron and Hermione and smiled.

"You know you'd think after being best friends with you for five years you'd give us a hand," said Ron slumping back in his chair.

"Well fine if you're so desperate- here," she said shoving a piece of her homework in his face.

"No, I don't want your stinking homework I'll do it on my own," he said pushing her homework away.

"Fine," she said calmly and picked up her books, " Good night Harry," she said smiling.

"Night," he said returning the smile. He leaned his elbow on the table and rested his head in his hand as he watched her go up the stairs.

"Damn!"

Harry snapped his face toward Ron's clueless expression.

"She did it again," said Ron slapping his quill on the table

"Did what?" Harry asked

"Reverse psychology, every single time, I hate it when she does that."

After a few minutes of quill scratching and the odd joke Harry looked up at Ron.

"Ron, er-, can I ask you something?"

"Shoot."

"Is it alright to have feelings for your best-friend?"

Ron stopped writing and looked up at him. "Er- Harry, I'm not-"

Harry stared at him. "I wasn't talking about you Ron."

"Oh," there was a brief pause and suddenly Ron's eyes went a little wider, "oh," wider still, "OH" and then the sudden dawn of realization, "OH MY GOD- you- Hermione?" he said through an excited whisper.

"Shhh!" said Harry.

"How long?" asked Ron, leaning forward.

"I don't know, but it didn't really hit me until last year."

"What, the kiss?"

Harry shook his head but then nodded with a smile. Ron then proceeded to shift in his chair twice. There was an uncomfortable silence that followed until Harry started tapping his quill nervously against the table.

"You going to tell her?"

"You think that's a good idea?"

"I think it's suicidal, but that's just me."

Harry glanced up towards the girl's dormitory, tapping his quill even harder.

TAP-TAP-TAP-TAP-TAP-TAP

SLAM!

"That's driving me nuts," said Ron pinning Harry's hand and quill to the table.

"Sorry," said Harry withdrawing his quill from Ron's grasp.

"So are you going to tell her?"

"I don't know," said Harry before sinking his head into his arms,

"What if she doesn't feel the same way back?"

"Harry, this is Hermione we're talking about, don't you ever see the way she looks at you?"

Harry tilted his head up.

"Just give it a chance you never now what's going to happen, being friends with you for five years certainly proves that."

Harry groaned in his arm and pounded the table once with his fist.

"If you don't ask her now Krum might."

Harry sat up in his chair," That's not funny."

"You're right...I don't know what came over me....if you ask me I think she only has one Quidditch player in mind."

After a pause Harry began to gather up his books.

"Okay, I'll tell her tomorrow."

"You'll tell her now," said Ron mimicking his actions.

"I tell her now I'll get sick and it'll be twice as embarrassing if I throw up everywhere," Harry suddenly had this glazed over look in his eye, "....I may never recover."

As the two laughed their way up the stairs to their room a girl with red hair poked her head up from behind the chair and was grinning broadly.

***

"You are going to tell her right?" said Ron pulling on his robe.

"Yes, will you stop?" said Harry who was getting just a little annoyed with Ron's pushing.

When they made their way to the common room that morning to wait for Hermione like they always did, they saw Ginny sitting in a chair in front of the fire place wearing the same grin she wore the night before.

"Why are you so happy?" asked Ron sitting on the arm rest.

"Hermione wants me to tell you that she's running a little late this morning and wants you to go to breakfast with out her. She said she'll meet you in the hall."

Ginny got up and smiled very broadly at Harry and left.

Harry felt his stomach drop about four feet. He had a haunting suspicion that she knew something....

Ron and Harry sat across from each other at the Gryffindor table eating breakfast when Hermione suddenly appeared through the doors....and she was wearing a grin quite similar to Ginny's.

"You going to tell her?" whispered Ron.

Harry gave him the answer by kicking him in the shins, Ron jumped in his seat and shot him a nasty look.

Hermione sat down (evidently) by Harry who looked straight at his plate.

"Good Morning," she said pouring herself some juice. Ron said hello through a mouthful of porridge and Harry muttered some thing that sounded like ' G'Morring'.
The conversations that were held between the three of them where brief and whatever answer Harry gave was two words or less. Ron didn't help either; he kept mouthing the words 'Tell her' behind his goblet before taking a sip. Harry responded to this by glaring at him.

It was like this for most of the morning until Ron had some how 'forgotten' his potions notebook in his room and left the two of them alone in the common room.
Every time Harry looked at her she was wearing the same stupid grin. Harry cracked five of his fingers before finally speaking up.

"So...how was Arithmancy?" Yup…he was nervous.

"Good...and Divination?"

"Stimulating," Harry whipped his head towards the window, to hide his face which was turning a little pink. He hoped she didn't take that the wrong way, but Hermione raised one of her brows and looked down, her smile a little bit wider that before. Where was Ron with that book?

"I'm running a little low on ink so I'm going to just run up stairs and grab another bottle," said Harry pointing up to his room.

With a nod from Hermione he dashed up stairs to his room and closed the door behind him. He stood there leaning against it, covering his face with his hand. When he looked up he saw Ron staring at him clutching his potions notebook in his hands looking very hopeful.

"What?" Harry asked.

"Well?"

"Well what?"

"Did you tell her?" Ron watched Harry's face wince, " You didn't tell her," said Ron dropping the book to his side, " You promised you would."

"Yeah, well the day's not over yet is it?" said Harry walking over to his night table and grabbing a bottle of ink.

At the end of the day Harry was a wreck. He seemed stressed a bit more than usual, owing to the fact that trying to tell a girl that he likes her is HARD. Especially when this girl was his best friend. Ginny was no help, every time she saw Harry and Hermione walking together she had a huge smile on her face. This just increased his suspicion about her knowing that he likes Hermione. But how could she have known? Unless...

"Ginny where you in the common room last night?" Harry asked, casting a shadow over her.

"Harry, everyone was in the common room last night," she replied looking at him over the rim of her book wearing that same silly grin, the wind occasionally lifting her hair off her shoulders.

"I meant when Ron and I were finishing our homework."

"Er- maybe."

"Maybe?"

"Maybe."

Harry knew he wasn't going to get anywhere with this, but he had to know, "Alright Ginny," said Harry taking a seat next to her on a bench, "how much do you know?"

Ginny leaned in close, "I know that you fancy Hermione a little more than you did last year.....no, sorry, a lot more."

Harry swallowed hard, "Did you tell Hermione?"

Ginny leaned back in the bench and looked at him, "Harry," she began "I've known you and Hermione for quite sometime, what do you think?"

A small smile tugged at the corner of Harry's mouth.

"Thanks Ginny," he said suddenly feeling a little more comfortable. As Harry walked away Ginny hid her face behind her book hiding the laughter that was trying to break through. A few minutes later Harry and Ron were walking towards the library, sniffing occasionally from the outside chill

"Now, are you sure you're going to do it?" asked Ron

"Yeah, I feel a little more confident," said Harry straightening out his scarf.

"By the way what were you and Ginny talking about?"

"Oh I just wanted to know how much she heard when we were talking in the common room last night."

"She was in the common room?"

"Yeah," said Harry sniffing.

Ron stopped and stared at him.

"How much does she know?"

"Everything, but she said she never told Hermione so-"

"Wait, wait a minute, did she actually say that or-"

"Er-no, she said something about knowing us for a few years, and-What?"

Ron was staring at Harry, "You're right," said Ron with a straight face "she didn't tell her."

Harry furrowed his eyebrows at Ron and kept walking. Ron shook his head and rolled his eyes, "She told her," he said and walked a little faster to catch up with Harry. When they had finally reached the entrance to the library they saw Hermione sitting at one of the tables writing furiously, pausing every now and then to flip a page or two in the book next to her.

"It's amazing she never gets writers cramp," Ron said quietly, "Well don't just stand there, go on," and he began to shove Harry along.

Harry stood there receiving odd looks from Madame Pince, he cracked his fingers again, exhaled deeply and began to walk towards Hermione. But just as he was doing so she brushed her hair back with her hand revealing her neck, and he did an about turn and began to walk in the other direction. If you were in the library that day you would have seen a pair of hands push Harry back into the library. Harry's breathing was starting to become irregular as he straightened out his scarf and tried to make the same journey. Harry had finally reached the table and sat down across from her.

Hermione's face lit up. "Hi Harry," she said cheerfully

"Hi," he said, his voice one octave up, he cleared his throat. "Hey Hermione."