AN- Hey guys, I promise to make this short and sweet, just like this one-shot. I DID NOT GIVE UP MY CHAPTER-STORIES, I could never abandon them…I've just been a bit busy. I'll try and update soon, but no promises, okay? I'm sorry for the long wait. Anyways, I'll let you read this one, and I'll try to update within the next week. I'm going to ask that you review, but I won't demand it, and I apologize for any spelling spoofs-I've looked through it several times to iron the worst of it out, but if there are accidents then I can't do anything about them now. Sorry
Disclaimer- If Harry Potter was mine to claim,
I'd have good looks, money, talent and fame,
As it is I'm just a fan
But I try to write the best I can ;)
The Next Adventure;
"Harry?" Ron croaked out, turning in his bed to face his friend's bed on the other side of the room, and leaning on his elbow to support himself. "'You asleep?"
"If I was before, I'm not now." Harry replied good-naturedly, turning himself to face Ron. Ron, who knew his friend too well, said,
"We both know you don't go back to sleep after a nightmare, and I've already woken you up from one tonight, so don't try to worm out of this one. This talk's been coming for a long time, let's just get it out of the way, alright?"
Alarm rose up in Harry at Ron's words, but he managed to simply nod, then cleared the lump from his throat to say "All right, then, what is it you wanted us to talk about?" He knew things had been a little awkward lately between the three of them, but eventually Harry had planned to tell them about the prophecy. The right time just hadn't come yet. Was that was this conversation was about? Or was it about what had happened at the Department of Mysteries two months ago? Or-
"Hermione." Ron replied evenly, and Harry almost laughed at how off-topic he'd been. "I want to talk, just between you and me, about Hermione."
"What about her?"
Ron hesitated before saying, "Not strictly about her…more like our relationship with her. I know right now it's probably the last thing on your mind, what with the war and all" you have no idea "but I really need to get this out of the way. I need to know where I stand with her and you. Because I like Hermione."
Even as Ron let out a breath he seemed to have been holding in after saying that, Harry laughed quietly before relying, "Of course you like Hermione, Ron. I like her too. She's kind, smart, brave, thoughtful, reliable-"
"But, see, that's what I mean!"
"What do you mean that's what you mean?"
"I mean I don't just like Hermione as a friend. I like her as more, and the feelings aren't exactly of the brotherly sort." Ron answered, irritated.
"Well…alright, why don't you just ask her out to Hogsmeade or something then. I can get a date once and disappear for a while, and the two of you could have some time alone to-"
"Harry." Turning towards Ron's sharp tone, Harry realized that there was more to it than that. "I can't do that, because she'd be all upset that you'd left. She'd worry, and complain, and just wouldn't be any fun to be around because you weren't there. That's how she acts whenever you aren't nearby. So I like who she is around you. But not who she is without you."
"What?"
"Yeah. She acts different around you."
"Why?" Harry asked, confused.
"Because she likes you." Ron stated softly, a note of unusual sadness entering his voice.
"Well, of course she likes me, Ron, she is my best friend…" He studied Ron's face for a moment before saying, "But I guess you don't mean it like that, do you?"
There was silence for a while, and then Ron asked "Well? Do you like her too?"
"Ron, I-"
"Do you, Harry? Like her like that, I mean…" Harry paused for a moment to think before replying. He thought in that moment about how upset he'd felt to see Hermione upset throughout the year. He thought about the relief he felt when she made it with them through another adventure, and about the concern he felt whenever she was unhappy. He remembered all the times Ron had made fun of Hermione when she had been angry or hurt, making it worse while he had tried to comfort her.
"Yeah, I think I do."
Ron sighed, and turned away from him, and Harry felt like a wall had been put up between them, even as Ron quietly said, "I thought so."
"Ron…Ron?" His friend grunted in reply, but when Harry didn't continue, he turned around and was met with Harry's frightened face. "You aren't too mad at me, are you?"
"No." Ron sighed, but his voice was tired in a way no amount of sleep could ever cure. "No, I'm not angry. Just a little hurt that she doesn't feel for me the way she does about you. I'll get over it…Harry? What's wrong?"
"Nothing." Quickly he tore his eyes away from Ron's concerned face and looked at the wall.
"Don't. You've said that all summer, and I don't think anyone's buying it. That, and I'm getting pretty sick of pretending to believe it. So just tell me whatever it is you're hiding while I'm up."
"You don't understand-"
"And I never will, why you act like you have to do all of this alone. If you don't tell me, at least tell Hermione. She's been driving me batty with her worrying, and I think I'm starting to worry about you myself. That, and she deserves to know. She's been through everything with you, and she'd follow you to death. So would I. We're already involved, and there's no keeping us out of it, so at least let us in all the way."
Harry couldn't keep it in anymore. He told Ron all of it. He told Ron about how he missed Sirius, and felt guilty, and finally about the prophecy that would change his life and friendships forever. At least, that was what he thought. Ron, however, looked unimpressed when Harry repeated the words Trelawney had spoken just sixteen years ago.
"Is that it?"
"Is that is? I have to kill or be killed! I don't want to die yet, and I don't want to kill, I don't even want to be involved!"
"But you are." Ron pointed out in a rare moment of logic. "and complaining won't change it."
"How can you be so calm about this?" Harry demanded, sitting up and starting to get a little upset.
"Well, what does it change? I mean, I might not have heard it in words before like that, but didn't we always know that it had to be you?"
* * *
"It has to be you, Harry! Not me, not Hermione, you!"
* * *
Harry sat in shock for a few moments, the familiar words running through his head and thoughts. When he finally managed to breathe again, he simply stated, "You always knew."
"Yep." Ron replied easily.
"Ron…I could die in this." Harry said uncertainly, remembering what Ron had said earlier about following him to the death.
"Right. But not without me. We always go on adventures together, remember? And death is but the next great adventure."
"To the well organized mind." Harry pointed out. "We are hardly organized." But already he felt a calm running through him that had been missing for months, the comfort and warmth of friendship.
"Well, that's what we have Hermione for." Ron replied casually, turning in bed. "If that's all, I think I'd like to get some sleep before I have to get up. `Night Harry."
"'Night Ron." Harry replied, smiling and burrowing into his blankets.
For the first time in a while, he fell back to sleep after a nightmare without seeing Sirius fall through the veil. Instead, he had some very interesting dreams of a pair or bright, dark, brown eyes…
-->