Walking With Hermione by MischiefManaged Rating: G Genres: Romance Relationships: Harry & Hermione Book: Harry & Hermione, Books 1 - 6 Published: 03/09/2005 Last Updated: 03/09/2005 Status: Completed Walking with Hermione is one of Harry’s favorite things to do. This is a simple love story. 1. Walking With Hermione ------------------------ Walking with Hermione **Summary**: Walking with Hermione is one of Harry's favorite things to do. This is a simple love story. **Disclaimer**: I'm not JK Rowling because I am delusional…yadda yadda yadda. **A/N**: This is my third attempt at fanfiction. This story just sort of came to me. I like the simplicity of it. Let me know what you guys think! Harry stood nervously waiting for Hermione. He knew she would show up, but each minute he waited seemed like hours. They had taken many walks together over the last decade, but this one would be different. They would be traveling down a new path today. He couldn't wait to see her beautiful face and to take her hand. As he stood waiting, Harry began reminiscing about the past and trying to figure out how they had gotten to this point. Just a few short years ago Harry had been ecstatic when he started dating Ginny. Ron & Hermione had seemed pretty happy as well, but then again were they? The war against Voldemort was long & brutal, and while in the end they defeated him, it wasn't without a price. After having found out about the prophecy, Neville became more confident, more driven, and more purposeful. His heroics helped defeat Voldemort, but not without it costing him his life. Other friends and members of the Order had perished as well, but those that remained wanted to enjoy the freedoms that the others had all fought for them to have. Ron began pursuing a career with Puddlemere United and Ginny followed suit. While Harry loved Quidditch, he felt he ought be doing more important work with his life and so he had become an Unspeakable. Even though Voldemort was gone, there were plenty of Death Eaters still around. There had been dark wizards before Voldemort, so of course there would remain some after him as well. Hermione had decided to become an Unspeakable as well. She, too, felt the need to do important work and in her usual over-achieving manner she also tutored house-elves in her spare time. It was their work as Unspeakables that pulled them apart from their previous pairings and brought them together. Ron & Ginny were always traveling, and Harry & Hermione spent many late nights discussing their work, which they weren't allow to discuss with anyone else, including Ron & Ginny. Their favorite way to discuss work was over long walks, just like the ones they had taken at Hogwarts. They would walk at lunch time, after work, and especially on weekends when Ron & Ginny were away. It was at some point during these walks when Harry began to notice how her eyes sparkled in the sun, or how her hair caressed her face when the wind blew. He also began to realize how she was the only one who truly understood him. They had both been raised by Muggles and never knew of the wizarding world until they were eleven. And while they both enjoyed having the Weasley's as a surrogate family, the Weasley's could never understand what it was like to be alone and to have true hardships. Their happiness was intoxicating, but happiness can only take you so far under the surface. Their walks became more frequent and their discussions began to drift from work to other things. Healing from the war seemed to only come through talking with Hermione about the pain. She also began to discuss her unhappiness with Ron. Then one day, she told Harry that she and Ron had decided to call it off. Ron wanted freedom since he had newfound fame with Puddlemere United and Hermione didn't really enjoy being the girlfriend of a professional Quidditch player. Harry decided at that time to finally confess to her that Ginny had sent him a similar Dear John letter by owl post a few months earlier. Weeks passed and soon they began to talk more and more about what went wrong with their past relationships. Hermione revealed that her moodiness in their sixth year at Hogwarts wasn't because of Ron. She had actually been pining for Harry, but was too afraid to let him know. Then, once he became involved with Ginny she decided to leave him alone and to date Ron as not to disrupt their nice little trio. While this came as quite a shock to Harry, it was a very pleasant surprise. From then on their walks became entire evenings spent together, as well as nights. Harry would never forget the look on Hermione's face when he told her he loved her for the first time. Suddenly, Harry felt Ron elbow him in the rib. “It's time,” Ron whispered. Harry brought himself back to present day. He stood up straight and looked over the congregation to the end of the aisle. There stood Hermione in a gorgeous white dress on the arm of her father. As she began taking steps toward him, Harry thought, “Yes, this walk will definitely take us down a different path. When we are finished with the ceremony we will finally take our first walk together as husband & wife - the first of many.” **Plea****se review if you have a minute.** -->