Chapter 5: Misunderstandings
Harry went through the rest of the day. He had Quidditch practice, and soon after, Hermione met him in the stadium and they went for a stroll around the Hogwarts grounds.
The leaves had already had fallen off of the trees. Harry snuck up behind Hermione and dropped a pile of leaves on her head. She chased him around the grassy clearing, in which they resided in at that moment, Harry well ahead of her.
He then slowed down slightly. But obviously too much, for she sped up and gained on him, taking one big running jump, and leaping onto his back. She brought him down to the ground and he laid there in the leaves, as she was sitting on top of him, giggling uncontrollably.
"What was that for!?" Harry said laughing with her, slightly winded.
"Hey! You started it Mister! You threw leaves at me!" She stuck her tongue out at him, as if she was a little five year old, it felt good to act like a kid again.
"Aww, c'mon! Get up! Herm, I can't move!" He said, seeing the mischievous grin now spreading across her face.
"Precisely!" She said through more giggles.
"So what am I supposed to do? I know..." Harry said, putting a finger to his chin, now imitating one of Hermione's thinking poses. "I'll do... THIS!" Harry added, suddenly lifting his hands up and tickling her around the middle. She gasped in surprise, and began laughing loudly.
"Stop - it - Harry!!" She managed to say through all of the giggles.
"Get up then, and I'll stop!" Harry said, tickling her faster. He was going to get her off of him no matter what.
"No! Harry... HARRY!" She wailed, giggling even louder, but noone could hear, they were too far away from the castle. She tried to catch his hands with her's but was having trouble, for he was using those great reflexes of his. Suddenly he grabbed her and lifted her up, he then rolled over and sat back down this time on top of her, not putting all of his weight on her.
"Aha!" This time he was the one to stick his tongue out at her.
"Not fair! Hmph!" Hermione tried to put on a pouty face, but Harry looked at her smilingly, and she quickly smiled back not being able to help it. "Damn it! His smile is contagious!" Hermione thought, half cursing the idea, half loving it.
Harry, without warning, leaned in towards her face and kissed her softly. He blushed but continued to kiss her, feeling like he was now glued to her lips. She kissed him back, again not being able to help herself. But when he was off of his gaurd she quickly rolled over just as he did and sat back on top of him.
"Okay, okay! You win!" Harry sighed. She got up off of him raising her fist up in triumph.
"Yay! I beat Harry Po -." she yelled, she was about to finished her sentence, but Harry had leaned in and kissed her again. She kissed back, wrapping her arms around him. They broke away and she smiled broadly up at him.
Her mind suddenly went into deep thought, as she stared up into his beautiful green eyes. "Say it, Hermione, say it! You know it's true, and what's the worst that could happen?"
Harry stared down at Hermione longingly, thinking deeply about what he was going to do. "C'mon! Say what your feeling, it's true, and girls love it when you confess your feelings!" His head said, in a persuading voice.
"Hermione, I --"
"Harry, I --"
"No, you first, Herm,"
"No, you first..."
"I -- I love you," they both stuttered at the same time, both blushing a deep red, and both trying to hide their face from view.
"What did you say?" Harry asked intently, not quite hearing her over himself.
"I love you, Harry," Hermione smiled, saying this in no more then a whisper. Her face was very close to his, her warm breath grazed his neck softly.
"Really? That's what I said! Well, minus the 'Harry'." He chuckled nervously, trying to hide the feeling he felt. He just wanted to grab her and taste her lips once more, for she was much too close now and her warm breath on his neck, was teasing him.
Hermione grinned. Without thinking, she grabbed the back of his neck, pushing his lips into hers. They kissed passionately, first it was polite, and soft. Then it became deeper, much deeper. Harry had trouble pulling away this time, for he was egged on by the hunger he now felt, wanting desperately to continue tasting her lips which tasted like honey.
"Hermione, I love you." He said for a second time, pleased with the way it sounded.
Hermione just smiled, loving how his lips formed the words. Something inside of her knew that he was the only person on this earth that she wanted to hear this from. He was the only person she was supposed to hear it from, it just sounded so right issuing from his lips, and his lips alone. "I love you, too, Harry."
* * *
Harry went to bed after dinner, tired because he stayed up so late the night before. He dozed off into a deep sleep and didn't wake until 9 o'clock the next morning, which was late for him because he usually woke up when it was still dark.
He got out of bed, got dressed and went to go wait in the common room for Hermione. He was hoping that she would be her punctual self and wake up early, but after all, today was Sunday.
As he came down the stairs he saw Parvati Patil, on the couch on the other side of the room. He sat down by the dead fire in an armchair and gave a nod of recognition to Parvati across the room. He hadn't really ever talked to her over the years and felt no need to break the ice now. Of course Harry and her would exchange a casual 'Hi,' in the corridors but that was it.
Parvati's heart began to race, "God, he's gorgeous," she thought, gazing at him lovingly. Something of what she was thinking must have shown on her face because, Harry was now giving her a rather odd stare. "Oh great you big dope! He thinks your a weirdo! You were too enthusiastic!" A voice in her head said. "I've got to get closer!" She thought. She slowly got up and moved in Harry's direction, scanning the floor closely, pretending to have lost something important.
"Okay, she's scaring me... Better ask what she wants, she's coming this way," Harry thought, not taking his gaze off of her. "Parvati, are you okay?" He said very slowly, with a hint of kindness, incase maybe she had lost her mind - probably not, but he wanted some explaination for her strange behavior, and this is the only one that fit -.
"Ohhh," she answered stupidly, looking up at Harry, comfirming his thoughts. "I'm looking for my quill," she straightened up, getting a hold of herself, "I can't see it anywhere." She added in somewhat of a 'damsel in destress' tone.
"Oh, I see... Let me help, what does it look like? It must be under the furniture because it would be too big to miss on the floor." Harry said matter-of-factly. He winced slightly, knowing he must have sounded stupid.
"It's a white one." She said softly, getting down on her knees to look under the armchair Harry was sitting on.
Harry got down on the floor and began to help Parvati look for the supposed 'lost' quill.
Ginny came quietly down the stairs, in fear of waking someone up that might have been sleeping in the common room from the night before. But a sight met her eyes and she stopped dead in her tracks.
Harry and Parvati were on their hands and knees on the floor, looking around for something. Ginny decided to shrink in the shadows, un-noticed and watch how this would turn out.
"I don't see it anywhere." Harry said in a defeated tone, getting ready to get back up, but he saw the look on Parvati's face and stayed where he was.
"That was my favorite quill!" She sighed frustratedly. She trailed off, looking over at him and into his eyes. "Harry, we're friends right?"
"Yeah, I guess we are friends," Harry replied awkwardly, not knowing exactly what to tell Parvati. He sighed, but then realised she was much too close and he backed away slowly, putting a further distance between them.
"Harry... Have you ever loved someone you never thought you would?" She inched closer, leaning towards him.
"Yeah, sure... I used to like Cho Chang, but she seems all wrong for me, now that I think about it." Harry said, giving his comment some real thought.
"Yeah well, I'm in that sort of a situation right now, as we speak..." She trailed off yet again, and leaning in, she kissed Harry, taking him by surprise, for he was deep in thought when she leaned in and couldn't have possibly dodged her.
Automatically he started to back away, trying to pull her off of him. "Gerrrofff!" His voice was muffled and couldn't be heard. Suddenly a quivering voice spoke.
"H-H-H-arry?" Hermione was at the bottom of the girl's staircase, and let a single teardrop escape from her now pain-filled eyes. She ran off, weaving through all of the chairs and couches and out of the portrait hole.
"HERMIONE!" Harry yelled after her when he managed to break away from Parvati. But it was too late...
Noone still yet realised Ginny was there. That may have been the case, but she didn't bother making her presence known, for she was frozen to the spot, drowning in devistation, just as Harry and Parvati were.
"WHAT WERE YOU PLAYING AT?!" Harry yelled, suddenly enraged. He stared at Parvati, anger boiling inside of him, he clenched his fists but knew he would never touch her. "HERMIONE IS MY GIRLFRIEND! AND RON IS YOUR BOYFRIEND! I CAN'T BELIEVE YOU! JUST... STAY AWAY!" And with that he stormed off, in search of Hermione. He threw Parvati a backwards glance, as she was still rooted to the spot. And with that, Harry crawled out of the portrait hole in search for Hermione.
* * *
Harry ran around the castle looking for Hermione.
On the way, he trod on someone's foot, ran through Nearly headless Nick and just missed one of Peeves's water balloons, but he didn't care, he had to find Hermione.
He finally spotted her on the edge of the lake, after looking for about twently minutes around the grounds. He walked over to her and immediately tried to explain.
"Hermione I'm sor-" Harry paused as Hermione held up a hand to silence him.
"Harry - I - don't - want - to - hear - it..." She managed to say through surpressed sobs.
"Hermione! Hear me out, please!" Harry said desperately.
"You know what Harry?" Hermione got up, her face was blotchy from tear stains but she stared him straight in the eye. "If your going to tell me only what I want to hear... Then I don't want to hear one word from you at all..." She walked off, letting the coldness of her words hit him like indiviual frozen snowflakes in a blizzard.
As she walked away, she began to sob silently, for those words took her all the strength she could muster to be said. She never wanted to hurt Harry, but she was too angry and upset to care too much about it.
She began to drag her feet back up to Gryffindor tower, upon reaching the portrait hole, she said the password and went in. She plunked down on a couch, grabbing a cushion and squeezing it tight, wishing it was Harry instead.
She stayed like that for as long as she could, she didn't know how much time had passed by, but she just stayed there as if glued to the very spot. She stared absentmindly at the place in which she saw Harry and Parvati, as if not being able to fully take in what had happened there moments before.
* * *
The next morning was unbearable. Harry felt so guilty, he knew he should've caught on to what Parvati was doing from the start when she was too close to him. But of course, being the easy going, laid back, clueless guy that he was, he hadn't given a single thought to what Parvati was really trying to do.
Then there was that lingering question that constantly stayed in his mind... Where was Ron? No word had come that he was missing, so maybe he was back a the borrow because of a family emergency perhaps. Harry pushed the worried thought into the back of his mind, but with great difficulty...
Hermione sat in Charms that afternoon, drowning in saddness. She hadn't even taken any notes in that class and almost didn't answer Professer Flitwick when he asked her a question.
The bell had finally rang and everyone got up to leave, all except Hermione who had seemed to be in a world of her own. She just sat there at the desk staring in Professer Flitwick's direction but not actually seeing him. He waved his tiny hand in front of her face and called her name several times before she actually noticed that the class was empty.
She absentmindedly picked up her books and put them in her bag, she then slung her bag over her shoulder and was about to leave when Flitwick, perched on his pile of books, called her name, again.
"Miss Granger, are you okay dear?" He said loud and clear, knowing that she wouldn't have heard him otherwise.
"Oh yes... Fine." She trailed off, knowing that this was the farthest from the truth. She felt miserable. Unwanted, unloved, and miserable. As if in a trance, she left the classroom by herself.
Several days of this went on, and soon a handful of her teachers began to seriously worry about her. But it was like she had no idea that anyone else was there but her, she was quiet and shy, she lacked her normal bossy, miss-know-it-all air.
* * *
One day in the common room, Hermione was bent over a book, reading what she had missed in class.
She sat there, doing her homework in the corner of the common room, when Ginny came over to her looking concerned.
"Herm," she said quietly and kindly. "Are you okay? I have to tell you something important." she added in somewhat of an undertone, sitting down beside her.
"I'm kind of busy Ginny." She said in meek tone, as if the volume in her voicebox was being turned down slowly.
"Hermione, it's about Harry!" She said urgently. "Please Herm, just listen to me!" Her voice got slightly higher in pitch, as she spoke, desperation oozing out of every word. Hermione's head snapped up and she stared at Ginny intently.
"Fine! What is so important, hmm?" She snapped, coldly, a little bit too cold she thought, but she no longer seemed to care anymore.
"Hermione! I don't usually like to get in the middle of things like these." Ginny said, shrugging slightly. "But, damnit! Harry was framed! Parvati was the one who kissed him... I was there! I saw the whole thing! She gave him some stupid story about losing her quill, so he got down and helped her. Then BAM! She kissed him!" Ginny clenched her fist and punched it into her other hand when she said 'bam', looking fierce and angry.
"Are you serious?" Hermione felt better and stupid at the same time. "Oh no..." She sighed, more to herself then to Ginny. "I got really mad at him Ginny! What if he doesn't want to talk to me anymore!?" She looked worried, putting her head into her hands.
"Oh please!" She said, as if this was unheard of, "Harry has been acting the same way you have, ever since you guys broke it off. He is just in peices!" She took Hermione's hand into hers and squeezed it reassuringly.
"I really did make him feel bad, didn't I?" Hermione looked up at Ginny, biting her lip, she squeezed her hand back. "God, I feel awful!" Hermione's eyes became blurry with unfallen tears, she wrapped her arms around Ginny and gave her a friendly hug, crying into her shoulder. All of the tears that were supposed to be cried over the last few days finally came out, unexpectedly.
"Come on Hermione, cheer up! Please, your making me want to cry." Ginny swallowed hard, pushing the lump in her throat. "I'm not going to cry!" She told herself in her head. She truly felt bad for Hermione, she knew the last few days were rough on her. Then she thought of all of the moping Harry had done, on the corridors, around the Hogwarts grounds. She thought that the least she could do would be to get them to sit down and talk about it the next day. So she formulated a plan in her head as Hermione continued to cry on her shoulder.
* * *
Harry walked down the sloping lawns on the Hogwarts grounds once again, feeling nowhere bound, heading in the direction of the lake, absentmindedly. On the way to the lake he walked through the clearing where Hermione and himself had the leaf fight only a few days ago and he sighed sadly. He remembered that day perfectly. He remember exactly how Hermione looked as if she was etched in time, he remembered everything she had said and did, as if he was replying a movie in his mind. Memories began flooding through his head and weakening his once cheerful mood even more.
Meanwhile in the common room...
"Hermione? C'mon, calm down..." Ginny said to Hermione, she needed to find a way to get her to stop crying. "Hey, Hermione? Do you want to go for a walk? We can go by the lake or something," Ginny looked down at Hermione to see if she would respond.
"Okay, I need some fresh air anyway." Hermione said, wiping her now puffy red eyes and lifting her head up off of Ginny's shoulder.
They got up and began to walk toward the portrait hole, when Neville came through looking pleased to see them.
"Hermione! Just the person I was looking for! Dumbledore wants to talk to you in his office." Neville pointed behind him towards the portrait hole.
Hermione looked beside her, at Ginny. She gave her an apologetic look. Ginny nodded and gestured for Hermione to go. "We'll talk later!" She called, waving to Hermione.
Hermione left the portrait hole and began to head to Dumbledore's office. She came down the last flight of stairs onto the floor in which his office was on, she spotted Harry walking in the opposite direction. She looked down at her feet, not quite being able to look him in the eye after what she had said.
Harry's heart stopped and then skipped a beat. He looked at Hermione as if he had never seen her before and immediately his feelings for her swelled like a balloon and burst in his gut, all in one second.
They both turned and faced the stone gargoyles that gaurded the headmaster's office and Hermione began guessing at the password.
"Fizzing Whizzbees? Ummm...." She paused, briefly looking at Harry for help. As if turning a switch on he snapped out of his trance and began guessing as well.
"Chocolate Frog? Pepper Imps? Uhhh, Bertie Botts Every Flavoured Beans?" At his last guess the gargoyles sprang to life immediately, making Hermione jump and back into Harry. Her hair brushed across his cheek and her elbow grazed his side.
Harry felt a warm tingly feeling when she brushed across him.
"Sorry Harry..." She muttered awkwardly. She stepped up onto the spiral staircase and felt a small thud as Harry had joined her.
"What am I going to do!? I'm going to be with Hermione, I want to apologize, but she'll get angry at me again!" Harry thought to himself. But little did he know, much worse could happen all in one day.
They stepped inside of Dumbledore's office and sat down in the chairs that he pointed to. Albus gave them one of his very rare grave stares. They knew that anything he had to say after that was going to be bad. He took a breath and planned out what he was going to tell the teenagers.
"Miss Granger, Mr. Potter... I have just gotten some news from the Order." Dumbledore sighed, trying to break this to them gently.
"Yes sir?" Harry said, while Hermione urged him to continue with her stares.
"Well, what have you heard about Mr. Weasley's absence?" Dumbledore decided to phrase it a different way.
"Well, I thought that maybe he had a family emergency or something... I've given it a lot of thought though." Harry sighed as well, his heart sinking even lower then before.
"The thing is... His family is fine, it is quite frankly him that is not. We have gotten word this morning that he has been taken by Voldemort... But we don't know exactly where he is at this point and time." He paused, taking a breath, knowing that this was going to take a while.
"He's... He's..." Hermione choked, she swallowed back the lump in her throat to stop herself from bursting into tears. "He's been taken?! Harry what are we going to do?!" She looked at Harry as if he had the answer in his eyes.
Harry swallowed hard as well. He looked longingly at Hermione. He wanted everything to be alright with them, and then they could just go and rescue Ron and everything would be fine. But he knew things had changed and that the chances of this happening were slim-to-none.
His head began to spin as the realization of Ron missing finally hit him, smack dab in the face. He began to get pale and looked at Hermione still, her returned gaze was the only thing keeping him from collapsing into a world of unconsciousness.
* * *
A/N: Hey people! Sorry this took so long to put up! I know what you're all thinking, it's a really crappy, and rushed chapter. But honestly, I had to do it. Anyway. So, now they both know the truth! The next chapter's better, because it just... Is! Lol
Anyway, I hope you guys atleast enjoyed this chapter SOMEWHAT! *laughs* Well, anyway, please review! Remember, the quicker you review, the quicker I update! *grins* Anyway, thank you to all the people who reviewed!
P.S. I would like to dedicate this chapter to my motivation: Amy (Aka Emma Riddle)... She motivated me to get this chapter up as soon as I did! AND she replied to all four of my chapters.. So cheers for that, Amy!