A/N: Hey, I've decided to start my first multi-chapter story here on Portkey! Originally, I was going to first turn my one-shot, "Out of the Rain" into a chaptered fanfic, but I'm stuck at the moment on doing so. Besides, it'll be turning to AU soon, once Saturday comes, but at least it'll already be started, as will this one!
I'm going to try my hardest to get most of this out by Saturday, before it turns AU. I hope you enjoy it!
Disclaimer: I do not, in anyway, own anything related to Harry Potter. The brilliant J.K. Rowling does. I do, though, own Ashley Dubayer.
Well, here's the first chapter! Enjoy!
*~*
Sixth year student, Hermione Granger, sat up against a tree, staring idly at the various people playing in the late January snow. Bundled up in a cloak, complete with a hat, scarf, and mittens, the young witch was prepared to stay for hours outside.
Her eyes wandered over random groups of people creating snowmen, making snow angels, engaging in snowball fights, and overall just having fun. Her eyes stopped moving abruptly when they landed on a young couple sitting on a nearby bench, just talking. She immediately recognized who the two people were.
One of them was none other than her best friend, Harry Potter, and the other was his new friend, Ashley Dubayer. Ashley was a fifth year Ravenclaw student with long, flowing, golden hair and stunning sapphire blue eyes. She was tall, graceful, skinny: everything the stereotype for a beautiful person was.
Harry and Ashley were starting to spend more and more time together as the year went on. The two had met accidentally in September when Harry had been keeping Hermione company. Hermione had kindly asked her best friend to get her a book for her History of Magic essay, which was on the other side of the library. Harry had went to go get it, but on the way, ran into Ashley which resulted in her getting knocked down to the ground with an armful of books scattering everywhere. Harry, being the hero that he was, immediately helped her get up and gathered her books for her. Ashley noticed right away that her helper was the famous Boy-Who-Lived, and at the same time Harry noticed her beauty. The two had started talking, and after discovering some similarities between the two of them, a friendship was born.
Watching the whole scenario play out had been Hermione, who quickly realized that Harry had totally forgotten about the book. A mix of frustration, anger, sadness, and even a twinge of jealousy, in her veins, she had walked over in search of her tome. On the way back to her table, she noticed both Harry and Ashley had taken a seat on a coach, and were still talking.
At the time, Hermione didn't think their friendship would last, being as they were both in different years and houses. She was wrong though, as gradually, it seemed as if the two were always together. At meals, Harry would go over to the Ravenclaw table to eat with Ashley, or she would come over to the Gryffindor one. When the two of them had free time, they would meet up in the library, outside, or anywhere where they felt they could be.
It wasn't a sudden thing, though. No, at first they only met once a week or something. Harry still spent loads of time with Hermione, and Ron Weasley, of course. The time spent with his best friends decreased when the Quidditch season started, because it turned out that Ashley was the brand new seeker for the Ravenclaw team after Cho Chang had quit last year. (Harry got his ban from Quidditch lifted, too.) So of course, it only seemed right for the two seekers to spend time together before and after their respectful practices.
Now, at the end of January, Hermione rarely saw her best friend. One would say that Harry wasn't even considered a best friend anymore to Hermione since, as mentioned, they scarcely saw each other. It seemed as if the role of Harry's best female friend was now taken over by Ashley Dubayer.
Hermione realized something important though in the time she spent apart with Harry: she liked Harry in a more deeper way than in as a friend, even a best friend. She didn't know why she never knew that before. It probably had something to do with the fact that she was always with Harry, so she never took the time they spent together for granted. Now that she was never with him, she grew aware that she really, really missed him; she missed him in a way that suggested she loved him.
At night, tears welled up in her eyes, willing to fall down her face, as she thought about the raven-haired orphan. Why wasn't he here with her right now? Why wasn't he sitting beside her as she magically knitted her house-elf hats? Why wasn't he wrapping an arm around her shoulder, as he had started to do in the beginning of the year (before he met Ashley, of course) while she intently read her books? And why the hell wasn't he even talking to her?
Where was her Harry?
***
"Hermione, hey Hermione!" a familiar voice called to her as she sat in the Great Hall sipping her morning coffee.
"Hey Ron," Hermione greeted with a hint of boredom in her voice.
She had realized something else, too, in the time she spent away from Harry: Ron really, really fancied her in a way that rivaled the way she fancied Harry. Ron had never voiced his opinions, though, so Hermione didn't have to ever break the news to him that she just didn't feel the same way about him.
"Think you could read through my Potions essay for me," Ron looked up at her with a slightly pleading expression. "You know, before our Double Potions class with those Slytherin gits."
Hermione let a small, weary, smile onto her features as she held out her hand, signaling for Ron to hand his roll of parchment over.
"Thanks, Hermione, really," Ron said with a sigh of relief.
As Hermione was reading, and correcting, Ron's somewhat satisfactory paper, she heard a shriek of laughter coming from the other end of the Gryffindor table. Hermione immediately whipped her head around to find Ashley and Harry sitting next to each other. Ashley was laughing extremely hard with her eyes closed and arms around her stomach, while Harry sat next to her, a vague smile on his face, and processing eyes that were oddly not focused on the beauty next to him.
Hermione, finding this strange, frowned as she and Ron kept on looking at the couple. As Ron looked down at his food though, Harry's emerald orbs suddenly started looking around, finally locking with Hermione's cinnamon eyes. She could have even sworn she saw him wink slightly at her and grin, but she knew she must have imagined it. Following Ron, she sadly looked down at her mug and friend's paper.
Five minutes later, Hermione handed Ron back his essay. "It seems to be okay now. I made some corrections that are sure to make your statements more accurate."
"Thanks, Hermione, you're the best!" Ron smiled shyly as he bent down to quickly kiss her cheek. As soon as he did so, he pulled his head away, blushing furiously at his daring move.
Deciding to pretend it didn't happen, Hermione decided to have a word with Ron before they had to head off to their first class. "Ron, what do you think of Harry and Ashley?"
Still in the process of getting over his moment of bravery, Ron looked at Hermione and said dumbly, "What?"
"What do you think about Harry and Ashley's friendship?" Hermione patiently asked.
"Well, I think it's great and everything that Harry's finally found a girlfriend…" Ron started, but was cut off by Hermione.
"Ron, don't say the word girlfriend!" Hermione hissed. "That vulgar word seems to make everything so final!"
Staring at Hermione oddly, Ron continued, "Anyways, I'm happy for them, I really am, but I really get the feeling that he's cutting off our friendships so he can be with her."
"I get that too," Hermione said, tears starting to glimmer in her eyes. "But, they're just friends, right?"
"I dunno," Ron said.
"I mean, we haven't heard anything about them being an official couple!" Hermione continued. "We definitely would have heard something by now if they were!" she exclaimed, referring to the members of Hogwarts that were always up-to-date on all the latest gossip, rumors, and love lives.
"I suppose," Ron nodded.
Feeling slightly reassured by herself, Hermione gave a genuine smile to Ron and jumped up, decided to make a quick trip to the library before the school day started.
Little did she know that everything was quickly about to change, and fast.
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A/N: End of Chapter 1! Like I said, I'm really going to try to get almost the whole story finished and posted by the time Half-Blood Prince comes out, but I'm starting to doubt that since I haven't even started to write the second chapter. Anyways, please review so I know this story is at least somewhat satisfactory. And, as I always, I'd appreciate it if you'd take the time to check out my other stories and review them!
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