"FEELINGS FINALLY REALIZED"
A/N: FIRST, I OWN NONE OF THESE CHARACTERS. JKR DOES. NEXT, I'VE DECIDED TO POST THE LAST TWO STORIES, BACK TO BACK, SO I CAN FINISH UP A 19 CHAPTER STORY I'M WORKING ON. HOPEFULLY, I CAN START POSTING THAT ONE SOON. ANYWAY, I HOPE YOU ENJOY THESE OFFERINGS. AS USUAL, LET ME KNOW WHAT YOU THINK.
CHAPTER 1 - MALFOY GOES MENTAL
It was a beautiful spring Sunday at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Probably one of the best ones they had had in a very long time.
Since the demise of Lord Voldemort and his supporters, it has been as if a terrible weight had been lifted from the entire Wizarding world. Many students were enjoying the magnificently landscaped grounds, catching up on their studies, or just getting together with their friends. One would think there couldn't be anyone who could find fault with how good life was now since Voldemort had been destroyed. However, there was one individual who found nothing good with life in the Wizarding world at all.
Draco Malfoy had seen no reason to be happy in quite awhile, and this day was no exception. As a matter of fact, because everyone else was walking around in such a good mood, he was enraged even more. Just a few short months ago everything looked as if it were going his way. His dream of a Mudblood-free world was going to be realized.
However, during that final fateful battle, his whole world crumbled down around him. Lord Voldemort was destroyed, his parents were killed battling Potter and his friends, and his dream of all Mudbloods being exterminated had been dashed forever.
Ever since that day, a rage had been building inside of Malfoy. A rage so strong he could hardly contain it. He would lapse into periods of such violent ranting and raving, that his fellow Slytherins had distanced themselves from him for fear he was going mad. This just contributed even more to his rage, for now he felt completely and utterly abandoned. With all these events weighing heavily on Malfoy, his rage finally reached the breaking point. He knew what he had to do.
Malfoy decided he would avenge his parents' death. He had to show the Mudblood scum that they couldn't get away with murdering his parents and destroying the future he had longed for all of his life. He would kill them all and make them pay for what they had done to him.
As he made his plans for punishing the Mudbloods, an evil grin came across his face. He would start with that filthy little know-it-all Mudblood Granger. He would finally pay her back for all the abuse he had received from her these last seven years. Yes, he would enjoy this. He would kill her first, and on a beautiful day like today he had a good idea exactly where she would be.
Harry Potter was bounding up the stairway to Gryffindor Tower two steps at a time. There was good reason for his haste. His Quidditch teammates had called an informal practice to enjoy the beautiful weather they were experiencing, so Harry wasn't wasting any time. Heran to his roomto retrieve his trusty Firebolt.
Approaching the portrait of the "Fat Lady," he gave the password.
"Balderdash."
The portrait swung open to allow him entry. He made his way through the Common room to the stairs leading to the boys' dorm and hurried up. Once there, he grabbed his Firebolt from its resting place, and turned to leave. However, something out of the corner of his eye grabbed his attention, making him stop.
Someone had placed an envelope on the pillow of his four poster bed.Harry walked to his bed and looked at the envelope. It was simply addressed,
"Harry."
He immediately recognized the handwriting, and why wouldn't he? He'd seen it so many times in his seven years at Hogwarts. It belonged to his best friend Hermione Granger.
With curiosity he opened the envelope and read the note inside:
Harry,
With this being our final year at Hogwarts, I have something very important I need to talk to you about. Please meet me at our usual place by the lake at 4:00 p.m.
Love,
Hermione
Harry was a little concerned with the serious tone of the note. He could have sworn there were dried tears on the note, some of the letters were smeared. He wondered what she wanted to talk about. Come to think about it, he hadn't seen Hermione all day. He hoped he hadn't done anything to upset her. He had a bad habit of doing just that, and sometimes not even knowing he had. He didn't like to upset his best friend.
Best friend.
He mulled over the term in his head. That's the way his feelings had started out when they had first met at Hogwarts, but recently he'd noticed that his feelings for Hermione had grown much deeper. They were threatening to step over the boundary of "best friends."
Harry had known that as long as Voldemort was alive he could never show his true feelings. He feared the Dark Lord would kill anyone that was close to him. Now, however, with Voldemort destroyed, and all the stress and worry lifted off of him, he didn't have to distance himself from her anymore.
Hmmmm, Harry thought with a grin on his face, maybe he would have some things to discuss with Hermione, also.
Harry realized he'd taken loads more time than he'd planned after being distracted by Hermione's note. His teammates would be wondering where he was. He hurried down the steps, through the Common room, and out the portrait hole on his way to the Quidditch pitch. He made a mental note, though, to make sure he kept track of time so he wouldn't be late meeting Hermione. The last thing he wanted was an upset Hermione Granger on his hands.
Hermione Granger sat in the grass by the lake as she had done so many other times during her seven years at Hogwarts. She would come here to read, to study, to think, and to comfort Harry during the bad times he'd gone through before the destruction of Voldemort.
Now she was sitting there waiting for Harry so she could tell him how she really felt about him. She tried to be calm about it, but her insides were squirming. She felt like she'd swallowed a hundred flobberworms. She had brought a book on Ancient Runes to read while she waited for Harry. But try as she did, she just couldn't concentrate on reading. Her thoughts would instantly fly back to her feelings about Harry. The feelings that had developed into something more than those normally shared by "best friends."
She tried and tried to ignore those feelings, but she just couldn't. She had finally accepted the fact that she, Hermione Granger, had actually fallen in love with Harry Potter. Her problem now was how does she go about telling him? Also, when she does tell him, will he feel the same way about her? Will this revelation scare him away?
He probably doesn't feel the same way about me, she thought.
She had to find out for herself, one way or the other.
With this being their final year at Hogwarts, she couldn't live the rest of her life without telling him how she felt and whether he felt the same about her. She hoped, even if he didn't feel the same about her, that they could still be friends.
As Hermione thought back to the night before when she was just beside herself on what to do, she felt like she was going to explode. She needed to talk to someone, someone who could give her advice on what to do. She had never been in a situation like this.
So much for being the brightest witch of the age. I haven't got any idea on what to do.
Then it came to her. She would talk to Ginny Weasley.
She could confide in Ginny how she felt about Harry. She noticed that Ginny was always going out with some boy, not necessarily the same boy every time, but she ought to be able to give Hermione some kind of advice. With her mind made up she went in search of Ginny.
Hermione finally found Ginny up in the Gryffindor girls' dorm, reading a copy of the Daily Prophet. She approached Ginny and asked if she could discuss something with her.
"Of course you can Hermione, what seems to be the problem?" Ginny asked. She noticed that Hermione was in quite a hyper state.
"I need to tell someone something, but I'm not sure how to go about doing it," said Hermione.
Ginny looked puzzled.
"First you need to tell me exactly what you are talking about. To whom do you need to tell something?" Ginny inquired.
Finally Hermione's emotions got the better of her and she broke down crying. She told Ginny everything that was going through her mind about Harry. That her feelings had changed, that she was in love with him, but didn't know how to tell him.
"What should I do? How should I go about telling him? What if he doesn't feel the same way?" Hermione asked in rapid succession.
"Whoa girl, one question at a time," said Ginny. "The first thing you need to do is calm down. Sit down and take a deep breath."
Hermione took a seat across from Ginny, took in a deep breath and let it out slowly.
"Ok now?" Ginny asked.
Hermione nodded.
"Alright then, when did you realize your feelings for Harry had, uh, changed?" Ginny inquired with a little smile on her face.
"It was after the final battle when Voldemort and his supporters were destroyed. It was then, I knew I could never be used against Harry. That he didn't have to worry about my safety anymore. I could feel myself growing closer to him. When he's near me I have these urges I've never experienced before. When we're talking, I find myself staring into his beautiful green eyes and these urges get stronger and stronger."
"Oh, what kind of urges," prodded Ginny.
Hermione blushed slightly. She continued.
"I'll be working on my homework by the fire in the Common room. Harry and Ron will be playing wizards chess, and my attention will always go to Harry. I'll sit there and stare at him wondering what it would be like to stroke his cheek or what it would be like to run my hands through his hair. The strongest urge is wondering what it would be like to..."
Hermione hesitated.
"Go on," said Ginny sitting on the edge of her seat, eyes glued on Hermione.
"I wonder what it would be like to kiss him," Hermione said going absolutely crimson.
Ginny looked at Hermione and rolled her eyes. "Hermione, there's nothing you need to be embarrassed about. These are normal feelings one gets when one is falling in love, and from what you have told me, you are well on your way to being in love."
Hermione looked at Ginny and smiled. However, she noticed that Ginny's demeanor had taken a more serious appearance.
Ginny looked Hermione square in the eyes and said, "To know for sure if you are in love with Harry, you must ask yourself a very important question."
Hermione looked puzzled.
"You must ask yourself," Ginny continued, "can you live your life without Harry Potter? Can you be happy the rest of your life without Harry? The answer to this question will tell you how you really feel."
Hermione thought very hard about what Ginny had said. She sat quietly for several minutes pondering the question. When she finally realized the answer, she smiled and a lone tear slid down her cheek.
Ginny looked concerned about her friend. "Are you all right?"
Hermione got up, walked over to Ginny and hugged her.
"I am now, thank you Ginny." She knew now what she had to do. She just hoped she had the courage to do it.
Hermione was so engrossed in her thoughts she hadn't noticed the sound of someone rapidly approaching behind her. She finally snapped back to reality at hearing the sound. She quickly glanced at her watch, which displayed 4:10 p.m. A fleeting smile crossed her lips as she started to get up.
"Harry Potter, you're late!" she started to say.But then realized the person behind her wasn't Harry.
Standing not ten feet away, with his wand extended and a murderous look in his eyes, was Draco Malfoy. At seeing Malfoy, the color drained from her face. She glanced around for anybody, anyone that could help her. No one was around. Then she thought, could she get to her wand?
As if reading her mind, Malfoy screamed, "Expelliarmus!"
Her wand flew out of her robes and sailed several feet back behind Malfoy.
Her mind was racing now. What could she do? She was utterly helpless, completely at Malfoy's mercy. She tried to calm herself and think. Maybe reasoning would help.
"Malfoy, what are you doing? You are going to be in serious trouble if you keep this up. They could expel you."
She hoped the threat of expulsion would calm his agitated state.
"Do you think I care anything about that, you filthy Mudblood scum?" he screamed at Hermione.
Tears started flowing down her cheeks and she started to tremble.
"Oh, are we afraid Mudblood? Are we scared? Your brave little St. Potter not here to protect his little Mudblood tramp?" Malfoy asked mockingly. "You and your friends have completely destroyed all that I had been looking forward to my whole life. A pureblood world without a trace of your low life, Muggle born, Mudblood scum in existence. If it hadn't been for you, Potter, and those fools in the Order of the Phoenix I would still have parents. You murdered my parents, and now I'm completely alone in this world, but you are going to pay for what you have done to me. I personally am going to kill every one of you and avenge my parents' death. No filthy Mudblood scum is going to get away with what you have done."
With that last statement, Malfoy backhanded Hermione hard across the face, catching her by surprise. The blow spun her around, but she remained standing. Pain surged through her entire face and blood began to flow from her injured lip.
Although she was in great pain and utterly helpless, something caused a complete change in Hermione's attitude. Something welled up inside her that only served to steel her resolve.
She thought to herself, I belong to Gryffindor. I'm not going to take this. I will not give him the satisfaction. I will not let him win, even if he kills me.
Hermione Granger, now filled with a burning determination, suppressed all signs of fear, and stood up straight and proud. She looked Malfoy straight in the eye and screamed.
"You bloody bastard! You're awfully brave against an unarmed girl. Yeah, that's something to be really proud of. You are nothing but a low life bloody coward, always hiding behind Crabbe and Goyle. What happened to them? They won't even help you anymore."
Malfoy was momentarily stunned by Hermione's outburst, but he recovered quickly.
"Oooohh, feeling a little bit of courage, are we? Well, it won't do you any good. I'm going to kill you, and then I'm going to kill the rest of your friends."
Realizing her time was getting short, she performed one more act of defiance.
Again, looking Malfoy right in the eyes she very calmly said, "Malfoy, you may kill me, but Harry Potter will utterly destroy you just like he destroyed your parents."
With her last statement, she brought her arm behind her, and with all her might brought her open hand across Malfoy's pale face. The slap sounded like a shot. On the side of Malfoy's face was the full imprint of her hand, glowing red.
Malfoy was livid with rage. He couldn't think straight. He even backed up a few steps.
Hermione knew what was coming and there wasn't anything she could do to stop it. Tears began pouring down her cheeks but they were not for herself. She was crying for Harry, the love of her life, because he would never know how she felt about him.
"You filthy Mudblood bitch!" Malfoy screamed."You will pay for that!"
Malfoy raised his wand.
Hermione, defiant to the end, stared Malfoy right in his eyes.
As Malfoy uttered, "Avada," the first word of the Killing Curse, Hermione whispered to herself,
"I love you, Harry."
While waiting for the final word to come and her life to end, something miraculous occurred. Malfoy was suddenly hit by a huge burst of intense purple light. The impact knocked Hermione hard to the ground. Fighting to stay conscious, she looked at Malfoy encased in a purple ball of light.
For a moment their eyes locked and she could see the look of utter terror on his face. Then the ball of light containing Malfoy exploded, blasting him into dust.
Hermione fell into darkness.