Harry Potter and the Alucinor Dicio

Disclaimer: Is anyone else sick of these things? I highly doubt anyone is stupid enough to stumble on this and think I'm J.K. Rowling, or worse that J.K. Rowling would stumble on this and feel a burning need to track me down to sue poor little me so she can have even more money!

Chapter 13 - Tell Her

Harry stared at Hermione as Rowen's words swam through his head, being in love with your best friend.. tell her, Harry... she loves you. Hermione, completely oblivious to what had happened, just walked over and jumped up onto her bed, talking about the particular trickiness of one of their Transfiguration essays. Harry's heart felt like it was about to jump out of his chest as he watched her talk , animated. Tell her.. tell her... tell her... Harry opened his mouth several times, but it felt like the words were lodged in his throat, he was choking on them just trying to get some air past them. He noticed that Hermione had stopped speaking and was now looking at him strangely. Still, the words would not come out, no matter how Harry tried to force them. He just sat there, with his mouth open, poised, and emitting nothing but an occassional squeak.

“ Harry? Are you alright? Merlin, what did Rowen say to you?” Hermione asked. Harry sighed audibly in relief as Hermione unwittingly gave him an escape. I'll just tell her about Rowen, you know, to start off. Then I can just segue into discussing my feelings... I will! I swear!

So Harry took a much needed breath and began to relay to Hermione the story Rowen had told him about her and Snape. Hermione listened quietly to the story before sighing. “ Oh Harry! That is so sad! Poor Rowen. Poor Professor Snape! To not only lose the person you love, but one of your best friends as well! It's just.. sad.” Harry took this opening as an opportunity to probe Hermione a bit, completely subtle probing, of course!

“ Yeah, even I feel bad for Snape. Losing her is probably what made him the way he is. You know, though, Rowen said even though it didn't work out, that she didn't regret it. I don't know how she can say that, I mean, if I fell in love with my best friend and screwed it up, I think I would completely regret it. What do you think?” Oh, brilliant Harry! Just smack her with your great big subtle stick why don't you? Harry stared at the wall, studiously ignoring the voice in his head, and trying hard to remember to breath as he awaited Hermione's response.

“ Well, I don't know Harry. Rowen has had almost twenty years to look back and reflect. She may not have been as at peace with it as she is now. That being said, I think , if it were me, the joys of being with someone you truly loved would far outweigh the sorrow at their loss. Besides, who knows? It could work out fine, and just think what you would miss if you never took that risk?” Hermione glanced briefly at Harry as she spoke. Harry almost collapsed with relief when he heard Hermione's answer. That doesn't mean that she loves YOU, you dolt! Harry ignored his inner voice, deciding to proceed with extreme caution.

He turned so that he and Hermione were facing each other. I have no idea how to start! What am I supposed to say? Shouldn't I have prepared this speech before giving it? “ Hermione.. I, uh, I ah- I was wondering... There's this girl see... and I've recently started developing feelings for her, but I don't know how to tell her, or if she feels the same..” Oh yeah, that's just perfect Harry! Go with the old ' I have this friend ' bit! Brilliant! Can't you do anything? As Harry was stating this Hermione's face fell briefly, before she quickly pasted her 'I'm such a supportive friend face' on.

“ Harry! I'm sure she would like you! I mean, you are a very sweet guy, and you're nice, and loyal. You are intelligent and athletic too! Plus you are nice to look at too, I don't know why you'd be so nervous.” Hermione stated all of this in a too bright voice, as Harry blushed.

“ I'm nervous because I don't just like this girl, Mine. I think that I might... hem.. that I could.. gah! I think I might love her!” Harry stared down at his hands, not looking at Hermione and therefor completely missing the look that crossed her face. The one that looked as if Harry had just jumped up and announced that Voldemort was his father and they were set to take over the world.

“ Are you- are you sure Harry? I mean, really you can't have known her that long, or that well.. really I mean if you haven't even been on a date, how could you possibly know you're in love with her?!” Hermione was becoming increasingly agitated as she spoke. Harry shook his head, I thought she would have connected the dots by now.. I guess I'm gonna have to spell it out.

Harry took Hermione's hands in his, touching them softly as Hermione looked on, perplexed. I love her hands.. “ I love your hands.” Wait. What? Hermione looked as though a similar thought was running through her head. “ They're small, and soft.. but they're so strong too, and they calm me down. I dream about them you know.” Now Hermione was staring at Harry as if he had started speaking in Latin. Harry gave a frustrated sigh. “ I know that I'm an idiot, and I did this all wrong. I'm stupid and I say the wrong things at the wrong times, and all I have is your voice in my head to guide me. I know that I'm confusing you, quite frankly, I'm confusing myself. I see you everywhere, I hear you in my head, and I feel you in my dreams. I thought it was, like, a phase, you know? That I could just wait it out and survive it, but I can't! It's not going away, it's like the more I ignore it the stronger it gets! And I know that I'm not making any sense, and I know that I'm looking slightly insane right now, but it's your fault! I can't watch you anymore and not tell you how I feel. I love you, no, more than that, I'm in love with you and I'm sorry if you hate me for saying it but I just couldn't-”

Hermione placed her hand over his mouth to stop the flow of words that just seemed to be pouring out of Harry. Then she laughed. She laughed! “ Oh, Harry!” she said softly looking into his eyes. Harry forgot to breath for a moment, waiting for his world to end. “ Yes, you are an idiot! Almost all of that made no sense whatsoever! The only part that did..” Harry's breath hitched in his throat “ .. was that you love me. Which is good, because I love you too. But don't think that I'm not going to get back at you for- “ Harry could care less what she was going to do to him later as he leaned forward and silenced her with his lips. Wow. Harry felt better than he had when he first learned to fly. It was as if every feeling he was having was amplified by this simple physical contact with Hermione. The awkwardness, even the uncertainty of what he was doing faded as soon as he touched her. This is .. Harry couldn't even find words to describe it. If he tried it would sound completely ineloquent, like fluttery, sweating, heart about to burst out his chest. None of these things could fully describe kissing her. It was as if.. the love he felt was too big to stay just inside him, so it came out an wrapped itself around the both of them. All Harry could do was grin as he pulled away from her.

He laughed, “ You have no idea how hard that was for me to do, Mione! I thought I was going to just screw it up completely! .. Which I did , I guess.” Harry frowned, as Hermione watched him and laughed softly.

“ Not completely Harry. Although I must say, you do better when you're not talking!” she teased him gently. Harry lay down flat on his back, and she lay down beside him. He looked down at her, his breath catching in his chest.

“ I do love you you know.” he stated softly. “ You know how you asked me what the coma was like? All I could feel was you, and this immense love. It's why I didn't want to leave. But then I heard you, and I realized that it wasn't real, and you were waiting.”

Hermione looked up at him, “ Oh, Harry.” She reached up and entwined her hand around his. “ I love you too. And now you don't have to leave that feeling. You brought it with you.” She reached up kissing him softly on the lips. Harry pulled her as close as he could, smiling gently. He buried his face in her hair as they both drifted off to sleep.

* COUGH* COUGH* Harry woke with a start, to find himself being stared at by Ron, who was sporting a huge grin. “ Well, you two seem awfully close this morning.” Ron said in what could only be called a smug tone. Harry felt a sense of relief at this. Not that he expected Ron to be upset about this development, more that he didn't know what to expect. Some of this must have shown on his face, as Ron rolled his eyes. “ For the love of Merlin Harry! It's not as if everyone and their dog didn't see this coming! It's been obvious for months now! You and Hermione, me and Luna, we'll just be a .. quartet now, instead of a trio!” Harry laughed at the thought of Hermione and Luna spending an extensive amount of time together. This should be interesting..

Harry nudged Hermione awake, watching appreciatively as she stretched. “ Morning, Mione. We have a visitor.” He nodded towards Ron, whom Hermione completely ignored for the moment, giving Harry a soft kiss.

“ It is a good morning.” she smiled, finally looking over at Ron who was in the process of rolling his eyes so dramatically that they could get stuck in the back of his head. “ Good morning to you too, Ron, I suppose.” she said in an irritated voice. Ron just stuck his tongue out at her and laughed. Hermione got up to make a quick trip to the loo, as Harry quickly filled Ron in on last night's happenings. When Hermione returned, he started telling Ron about Snape and Rowen. Ron just looked dumbstruck.

“ Man! I just do not like thinking of Snape like that in any way shape or form. She actually loved that, that.. him?!” Ron stuttered incredulously, while shaking his head. Harry, however, had an idea forming in his head, that he felt the need to share with his best friend and his girlfriend. Girlfriend.. Harry smiled widely.

“ Harry what are you thinking? You look positively gleeful!” Hermione was, of course, watching him. Harry grinned at her.

“ I am! I had an idea.” he announced. Both Ron and Hermione stared at him expectantly. “ I want to help them! We should do something to help get them back together. It would make Rowen happy, I know it.” Hermione smiled, absolutely delighted with this idea, but Ron almost fell off his chair he laughed so hard. Both Harry and Hermione turned to stare at him. “ What?!!” Harry asked, irritated.

Ron wiped his eyes, still chortling. “ It's just.. it's just.. whoo! She's your guardian Harry! So if they like, got married, Snape would be.. He'd be...” Ron broke out laughing again. “ Your Step-Daddy!” With this Ron promptly started up again, while Harry looked on in disgust.

“ Honestly Ron! Harry is just trying to do something nice for his Godmother! It's a very sad thing, what happened to them, and it could have been prevented, or at least resolved way before now! Are you going to help or just crack jokes all day?” Hermione was shouting at Ron to be heard over his great guffaws of laughter at his own joke.

“ Sorry, Hermione.” Ron choked back his laughter with difficulty. “ I'll help, truly, I will. Wouldn't want to deprive Harry here of his father figure!” Hermione just shot him a look, as the three of them bent their heads together to discuss a plan.

A/N: SO there! Shippyness! Review and love me! There will be fluff coming up soon, but come one! Review, please? I need the morale boost, lol!