Hermione stood outside Harry's room with bated breath. She had to go in and talk to him but the butterflies in her stomach were making it very difficult to focus. For goodness sake, she scolded herself; you're acting like a silly schoolgirl. She moved forward and went to open the door, surprised to find it locked. 'Alohomora' she thought to herself, and smiled as the door unlocked. She pushed it open to find Harry lying on his bed. She suppressed a little shiver as she noticed he had removed his shirt. He looked up at her and she found herself gazing into his green eyes. 'Get a grip' she thought to herself and moved forward purposefully.
"Harry…" she began, sitting next to him "I'm sorry if I upset you outside"
"No, Hermione. Don't apologise," he replied, "I shouldn't have shouted at you like that. It was well out of order. It's just… I still feel so angry with Snape. I hate him. I've been trying not to think about Dumbledore's death, and when you said those things I just snapped. I'm sorry"
They looked at each other for a moment, and then Hermione leaned forward and hugged him. It was a soft and comforting hug and Harry felt all of his emotions rising to the surface. He swallowed hard and tried to be strong, but thoughts of Dumbledore, Sirius and what he must face filled his mind. Tears began to stream from his eyes, he tried to turn away from Hermione and pull himself together, but she held on tighter to him. He felt his resolve melt and soon he was crying uncontrollably. Naturally Hermione followed suit. Harry didn't know how much time had passed but eventually he looked up at Hermione and wiped her eyes. She smiled at him and wiped his eyes, which struck him as funny for some reason and he started laughing. She looked at him bemused for a moment before laughing with him.
"What must we look like, eh?" he said after his bout of laughter "If you mention one word of this to Ron…"
The door swinging open to admit Ginny interrupted him. Hermione moved away from Harry suddenly, which confused him greatly. Why was she acting like a cat on a hot tin roof? They were best friends and she had been comforting him. He looked over at Hermione and noticed that she looked guilty and wondered why.
"What's going on here then?" said Ginny tightly
"Wh…what do you mean?" said Hermione, trying to recover her composure.
"You seemed very cosy just now, didn't take you long to get over me, eh Harry? But I can definitely see that it's for my best interests…"
Harry looked from Ginny to Hermione and wasn't sure what to say. He wanted to say "Ginny grow up, we're just friends and I was upset" but for some reason his mouth wouldn't open. What happened to the Ginny he had been going out with? All he could see was an angry jealous child. Surely she had never been jealous of Hermione before? It was at that moment that Ron walked in, and looked from Harry, to Hermione and then to Ginny.
"Um…alright everyone?" he said a touch nervously
"Hello Ron" said Hermione "Harry and I were just talking about Dumbledore and Sirius when Ginny decided to join us"
Ginny looked slightly abashed at this information. She came into the room and sat directly between Hermione and Harry.
"Harry," she said "You know you can come to me if you need to talk about these things"
Harry had no idea what to say to this. Surely if they had broken up then he wouldn't be having a heart to heart with her.
"Err, thanks Ginny," mumbled Harry, unsure of what else to say.
Hermione sighed deeply then said -
"Harry, we need to discuss what we were talking about earlier". Harry, thankful for a way out of any more conversation with Ginny, agreed readily. Ron looked at Hermione and got the message… time to usher Ginny out of the room.
"Harry!" she said angrily, her green eyes flashing "Tell him you want me to stay!"
Harry looked at her, a mixture of emotions racing through him. He thought she looked beautiful when she was angry and was remembering the long kisses they had shared. He also remembered the reason he had broke up with her was to protect her and letting her hear their plans wasn't going to achieve that. He also realised that even though he had only been apart from her for five weeks, he had changed drastically. She seemed so young, and really quite childish with the way she was acting towards Hermione. His feelings surprised him. He assumed that he had gotten over Cho so quickly because she was, well, an annoying cry baby. Not to mention extremely jealous of Hermione. Now his feelings were changing towards Ginny… Why were girls jealous of Hermione anyway? She was only Hermione…The same bushy haired bookworm that she was since she was eleven!
"Ginny…you know that you can't be here for some of the things we need to talk about. The reason for this is the same reason I gave you at the end of last term" said Harry finally.
There was silence for a few seconds before Ginny sniffed angrily and stormed out of the room.
"Why's she been so huffy lately?" asked Ron. Hermione looked at Harry and quickly looked away out of the window. Harry didn't notice this and just shrugged at Ron.
"Anyway" said Ron, "So what is it we've got to talk about anyway? I'm guessing it's got something to do with snake face with the way you obviously wanted Ginny out of the room."
Hermione sighed -
"His name is Voldemort, Ron, not snake face, and I didn't want Ginny out of the room as such, I just thought that us three needed privacy considering we need to discuss the imminent future"
Ron shrugged and put a chocolate frog in his mouth. Harry looked around to see where his stash was and saw a large pile by Ron's cloak on the floor. He reached for one and sat himself up more comfortably on the bed, readying himself for a serious conversation. He silently wondered to himself why Hermione seemed to use Voldemort's name with ease all of a sudden, then thrust that thought out of his mind as Ron looked like he was about to speak.
"Mmk" said Ron trying to clear his mouth from chocolate "What's the plan? Are we going to Grimmauld Place or what then?"
Hermione looked at Ron, then looked at Harry with a questioning look on her face.
"Well" said Harry "I think that we should stay somewhere else, at least at first until we can make sure that Snape didn't leak anything to Voldemort"
"Ok" said Hermione "So where do you think we should stay?"
Harry thought about this for a while. He had no idea of a place that would be safe enough for them, but maybe someone else would.
"Well, I was thinking of Owling Lupin and seeing if he had any ideas on where we could stay"
"That sounds like a good idea Harry" said Hermione "I'll go to Knockturn Alley this week sometime. I heard they have a bookshop there that deals with the less pleasant areas of magic. Maybe I'll find something to do with Horcruxes, and maybe even some more advanced spells we can learn. I doubt the spells we know are really going to defeat Voldemort…"
Harry was a little unsure about Hermione going to Knockturn Alley; he knew the kind of shifty people that walked around that area.
"Well we'll come with you" Ron said "That place is really dodgy Hermione, you get right weirdo's down there"
"Ron, I'll be fine. It would be quicker if I went alone anyway, besides I'm sure that there are other more resourceful things you can do with your time" Ron eyed his chess set hopefully but stopped when he saw the look in Hermione's eyes.
"Well, take the invisibility cloak anyway," said Harry, still not happy with the idea "I'd rather that Voldemort and his mates didn't spot you when you're walking around shopping…"
They talked for a while longer, discussing where they would go first and any ideas they had about R.A.B. After talking about everything they could think of, they decided to go to bed. Harry gratefully sank his head onto the pillow, but lied awake staring at the ceiling for a long time after Ron's snores filled the room. He rubbed his hand absently and thought of how strangely Hermione had been acting. She seemed to almost be nervous around him. He tried to think of something that could have happened between her and Ron to make her act that way, but couldn't come up with anything. He wondered if anything had happened between them yet and found that usual uneasy feeling in the pit of his stomach. He thought of all the times they had shared together. She never really seemed too interested in Ron until last year. Ron was always the jealous one… His mind was too muddled to try and think about Ron and Hermione right now. Not to mention that the idea didn't make him that happy…what would happen to their friendship if those two started going out? He rolled over restlessly and hit the pillow, half out of frustration and also to try and make it more comfortable. He closed his eyes and tried to think about something else. He found himself examining his feelings for Ginny too, and was surprised that he was strangely numb. He wondered if these past five weeks had stopped his attraction for Ginny, or if it was something else 'What's wrong with me?' he thought to himself 'Can't even like a girl for more than a couple of months…' He tried to think of what he had liked about her. She was beautiful, she was funny and she could play quidditch. That feeling of nervousness and excitement rolled into one when he thought of her wasn't there anymore. He had been worried that he would have difficulties trying to restrain his feelings around her by coming back here. What was wrong with him? He spent the rest of the night tossing and turning…
In the next room Hermione was also having a restless night, but unlike Harry she knew the reason. Last year she had noticed how grown up Harry was becoming, and had started to notice things about him that maybe best friends shouldn't notice about each other. Like the way his hair was mussed up so cutely in the mornings, how his eyes blazed the deepest green when he was angry. She had thought that these were simply her observations, and indeed they had been at first. When she told Harry that he had never been more fanciable she certainly didn't mean that she fancied him! She had been waiting for Ron to realise that fancying her usually meant that you had to do something about it. Then she went on holiday with her parents to Italy, and the world that she knew collapsed around her.
It had been a beautiful summers evening and she had been thinking about Ron, and questioning if he would ever grow up. She had recently begun wondering if this was all worth it. One minute he seemed interested in her, the next he's snogging Lavender. She didn't know if she could put up with it anymore. Her mind had strayed to Harry and she found herself thinking about every detail of him. She thought of what he had been through and what he had yet to go through. After what seemed like an eternity of thoughts and feelings she realised that she found Harry quite attractive. Of course she had brushed it off at the time, reasoning with herself that she was only feeling this way because she was so very worried about him, and being a teenager it was likely for her to feel momentary attraction for people she was close to. She had resolved not to think about it anymore. However it seemed like once her mind had thought of Harry in those terms, it wouldn't let it go. She found herself walking through the streets of Rome with her mother and thinking about Harry. 'Oh, Harry would look lovely in that jumper,' she might think, or 'I wonder what Harry's doing right this minute'. She started having dreams about him at night and they were so graphic she woke up gasping and really quite embarrassed. What was wrong with her? She had thought it would go away, but now seeing him just made it so much worse. She had tried ignoring these feelings. She had tried thinking about everything she disliked about Harry. She even tried to think of her old fantasy…Her running to Ron after a particularly gruelling quidditch match and there in the middle of the field with the whole school watching he would kiss her. She knew she was in trouble when she felt sick at the thought of Ron kissing her and replaced him with Harry. The thought of Harry kissing her made her far more excited than she had ever felt when she thought of Ron.
After seeing him today she knew it, she felt it deep inside her and she had to try hard to control herself around him and act normally. She wanted to be with him, to hold him and kiss him, and so much more. She blushed in the dark thinking about it, and scolded herself inwardly. Honestly, this was no way to be behaving over a boy who thought he was your best friend! Not to mention he still had strong feelings for Ginny! 'Please don't let him love her' she thought to herself. As if that wasn't bad enough Ron had started to notice that she seemed less interested in getting him to act upon his feelings lately. She turned over and buried her head into the pillow, trying to get him out of her head so that she could get a good night sleep. Her mind strayed to Harry hugging her with no shirt on. She remembered the contours of his chest, the rippling of his tight abdominal muscles…
"Can't sleep, eh?" Ginny interrupted "I know what's going on with you Hermione," Hermione concentrated on steadying her voice before she answered.
"What are you talking about Ginny?" she asked, trying to keep the panic out of her voice.
"I'm not stupid. He's not interested in you. He never has been, and never will be. Once this is all over it's me he's coming back to. It was me he was kissing last year, not you. I suggest you remember that. I don't want to fight with you, we've been friends for a while now and I don't think a bloke should come between friends. But I've liked Harry for a very long time, and I won't let you get in the way of that" said Ginny angrily.
Hermione felt a tear slip down her cheek and felt wretched about her situation, she decided not to answer Ginny for fear that her voice might betray her. She eventually fell asleep, but it was a restless night.