Hi! This is the SECOND TO LAST chapter of "I'm Not Neurotic!" Please note that after this chapter THERE WILL BE AN EPILOGUE! This is NOT THE LAST CHAPTER. Oh, how I adore caps…
Just a note…after reading this chapter, if you have any questions about anything that happened, or anything at all really that pertains to this story, please feel free to ask them in a review. At the end of the next chapter (THE EPILOGUE), I will try to answer each and every question.
Thanks so much for all of the support! I can't believe that this story is coming to an end…it's been an amazing few months (well, more than few…lol).
Now, on to Part II of The Ball…
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I followed Harry, playing nervously with the hem of my sleeve. I felt a gust of wind as we finally walked onto the snow-covered grounds, and it occurred to me that I was planning on taking a walk in the middle of November in a dress robe.
However, all of this flew out of my mind as I tripped over a branch that I hadn't noticed and fell down. Due to my close proximity to him, Harry toppled down with me, landing strategically on top of me.
My first instinct was to complain about the pain in my back due to the fact that I had landed on what I could only presume was a rock, but suddenly I realized the whole situation and began to laugh. Harry, who was still on top of me, began laughing as well, as the snow fell on top of us.
After our laughter subsided Harry stared at me. He pushed hair that had escaped from my bun out of my eyes and then brushed snow off my face. His fingers landed on my nose, and I couldn't help but smile as I felt a warm glow fill my body. Slowly his hand moved to my cheek and before I knew what was happening he was kissing me.
Harry James Potter was kissing me, Hermione Jane Granger.
The romantic part of my brain melted as his other hand wrapped itself around my back (rather a hard feat considering I was pushed up against the ground), but before I could let my own hands reach for his hair my logical side kicked in.
He can't possibly feel this way about you.
I quickly pushed Harry away, gasping for breath. Harry stared at me.
"What's wrong?" he asked, clearly wondering if he had gone too far and if our friendship was ruined.
"It's…it's nothing!" I exclaimed, jumping up and brushing off my robes. "I just…I need to go inside and…and get a drink. Or something." I turned around and began head inside, leaving a very disappointed Harry in the snow.
After walking five feet I stopped. What was I doing? Was I really going to walk away from the man of my dreams simply because the logical part of my brain was telling me that someone like Harry could never like me?
You've known him for seven years, my heart reminded me. You two know everything there is to know about one another. Isn't it just possible that maybe, just maybe, he's fallen for you as much as you have for him?
Come off it! my brain laughed at me. Why would the Harry Potter fall in love with a bushy-haired bookworm who rants about house elves?
Because he's not shallow. Who are you going to believe Hermione? Your heart, or the thing that turned you into a walking textbook? my heart demanded of me.
I might have turned you into a walking textbook, but when have I ever let you down? the logical voice asked me.
"About two minutes ago," I hissed to myself, and it was then that I came to my decision.
Don't you dare do this! my brain instructed me.
"Oh sod off!" I cried out, and before anyone, most particularly the voice inside my head could stop me, I turned back around and launched myself on Harry, forcing him down on to the ground.
"Hermione!" he exclaimed as my hands finally reached his hair. "What are you doing?"
"What I should have done two months ago!" I told him. Before I could return to what I hoped would become a snogging session, Harry interjected, "So…so you do feel the same way?"
"Of course I do!" I cried out. "Why else have I been writing insane diary entries in an attempt to keep myself from, as Ginny so eloquently put it, jumping you? I love you!"
Harry's face fell. "Oh, I thought we could just be friends with benefits."
I felt my face heat up at what he said. "You what?" I cried, frozen in place on top of him.
"Just kidding," Harry replied, as his face broke out into a grin. "I love you, too."
Had this been a normal conversation I would have lightly hit Harry for tricking me, but this most definitely wasn't your run-of-the-mill situation. Instead I squealed as I bent down again, only to be stopped by Harry's hand.
"What is it this time?" I growled, beginning to get upset that I wasn't getting to kiss him after all of these months.
"Don't you want to talk about this first?" he asked me, always the gentleman.
"If I wanted to talk, do you honestly think that I would have thrown myself on top of you, outside, in the middle of November, while it was snowing, in a dress?"
"Good point," Harry replied, and he quickly placed his hand behind my head as we finally finished what we had started.
Several hours later (okay, fifteen minutes later), our snogging session was interrupted by none other than Ron and Ginny, who made themselves present by loudly cheering. The sound of them had startled me, causing me to roll off Harry and land back first in the snow. My back was drenched once again (not to mention cold) in minutes.
"What the Hell do you think you're doing?" I demanded of them crossly. Honestly, if I could shoot first out of my eyes…well, not only would they be burnt to a crisp but I also doubt that there would be much snow left. I probably would have been considerably warmer, too.
"Cheering you and congratulating ourselves for our triumph," Ron grinned, high-fiving his sister.
"Your triumph?" I guffawed. "Excuse me, but Harry and I got together on our own accord. Notice that no one was out here when we- "
"Jumped each other like sex-deprived rabbits?" Ginny smirked.
"I was going to opt for something more elegant," I replied, deeply troubled by my friend's highly perverted mind, "but yes. That gets the point across."
"And let's see, why exactly did you come out here?" Ginny asked, putting on a mock curious look.
"We came out here to talk about my reaction to you coming with Harry," I informed her.
"So basically, had Harry not come with me, you never would've had that wonderful little outburst of yours, and you wouldn't have needed to have your so-called conversation," Ginny smirked once again. "So therefore, you have me to thank."
"I helped too!" Ron protested. Ginny raised an eyebrow at him. "Well, a bit."
"Fine, so technically you did get us together," I admitted reluctantly.
"Actually," Harry interrupted, "I helped get us together, too."
I swivelled around on the spot. "What?"
"Well, I mean, I knew that you liked me," Harry explained. "So I worked together with Ron and Ginny to get this to happen."
"What do you mean you knew?" I demanded.
"Remember that other day when you came back from shopping and you saw me talking to Ginny?" Harry asked.
"Yes…" I replied uncertainly, not really sure where this was leading.
"Well, she told me how you felt about me, and I told her that I felt the same way."
"Let me get this straight," I exclaimed in disbelief, holding up a hand. "You knew that I had feelings for you, which you returned, and you asked Ginny to this bloody ball?" I was trying to hold in my anger as best as I could, but considering the torture I had put myself under because Harry had rejected me for the ball…
"Well, Ginny told me that if I asked you that you would say no," Harry shrugged, "so we cooked up this plan. I would go with her and Ron would be the guy Ginny set you up with so that neither of us could really get taken by someone else."
I turned around to face Ginny and stalked towards her. "You told Harry that if he were to ask me to the ball I would say no?" I questioned her. Ginny nodded yes. "After I told you to get him to ask me?" Another thought dawned on me. "I asked you to the ball and you still said no! What was that all about?" I demanded of Harry.
"Well, Ginny said that you would think I'd only say yes because I wanted to go as a friend. She said that if you were to ask I was to say no."
I turned on Ginny, glaring at her.
"Calm down," Ginny barked. "It was the only way that we could both get what we wanted."
"Get what we wanted?" I exclaimed. "What on earth are you talking about?"
"Yeah, what are you talking about?" Harry joined in, clearly annoyed after witnessing this change of events.
The-boy-who-lived and the smartest girl at Hogwarts would have intimidated anyone else, but trust Ginny to be that exception.
"Well it's simple," Ginny explained. "I obviously wanted to get you with Harry. At first it was a game - how quickly could I get Hermione with Harry? But then you said that if I got you two together and you ever had kids that you'd name your first daughter after me."
"You what?" Harry whispered urgently into my ear.
"Hush," I instructed him, listening intently to Ginny's story.
"Suddenly the game became a mission," Ginny told us, her eyes lighting up, "except now it was slightly more complicated. I needed to get two of you together, but do so in a way that would obviously be thanks to me. So I came up with this whole plan and now here we are."
My jaw dropped in surprise and I stared at her, unable to muster a sound.
"What about Neville?" I finally sputtered. "I mean, how'd he feel when he found out that you weren't going with him?"
"I told him the whole plan, and he agreed to it," Ginny shrugged. "He ended up getting sick anyway. He's in his dormitory right now, sleeping."
"You mean the four of you were in on this, yet I knew absolutely nothing?" I asked, slightly enraged.
"Actually," piped up Ron, "five of us."
"Five? Who was the fifth one?" I demanded.
"Luna!" Ron exclaimed.
"But her aunt- "
"Oh, she did die," Ron reassured me, "but she said it was all right if I went with you so that you and Harry could get together."
I stood there again, unable to word how angry, yet how grateful, I was at all of them.
"How about we go inside and have that talk now?" Harry asked me with a smile. "In our common room…I bet the fire will make it wonderfully cozy."
I sighed and deciding that yelling at my friends wasn't worth my time. After all, I was with Harry now wasn't I? And, technically, their efforts had gotten us together. Sure, in a very run-of-the-mill sort of way, but they were successful.
"All right," I smiled at him. "But can we get some hot chocolate from the Hall first? I'm freezing…not to mentioned soaked."
Harry grinned. "Of course."
And together we headed back inside to the sounds of Ginny yelling after us happily, "Oh, and I decided that you should just name her Ginny! There's no need to torture her with Ginevra as well."
Harry and I exchanged looks.
"We'll deal with that later," I reassured him.
"Wait, so we will deal with it?" he asked me.
My eyes grew wide as I stopped in my tracks. "Well, er, what I meant to say was…" Flabbergasted I told him, "We'll talk about this when we have our talk."
Harry grinned at me as we walked to our common room to have our talk, and maybe even do a little more.
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November 22,
So everything worked out fine. Wonderfully in fact. Sure, Ginny was a complete prat to put me through all of this, but you know what? It was absolutely worth it. The insanity, the worrying, the realizing, the denial, the waiting… I would redo all of it just to be where I am now.
Harry and I did end up having that long talk in our common room. It was rather romantic, what with the snow falling gently outside the window, a waltz from downstairs floating through our room, and the fire blazing. We decided that we'd go through with it, that we'd be a couple. We both agreed that it was about time. Then, of course, we had to talk about the whole Ginny thing…
Well, I'll put it this way, there's a possibility it might happen. No, he didn't propose. That'd be preposterous considering we just started going out, but we agreed that, seeing how long we'd known each other, there was a definite chance that we'd end up together…many years from now mind you.
Harry adamantly said no to the idea of naming our first girl Ginny. I told him he better hope that, assuming we married, we'd have all boys, because otherwise Ginny would find one way or another to make it so.
Afterwards we simply sat on the couch, my head on Harry's shoulder and his arm around my waist, holding me close to him. It was so comfortable and it felt so right. I thought we were going to end up sleeping on the couch, but a few hours later Ron and Ginny burst in on us. We ended up playing a long game of Chess, with Ron and Ginny versus Harry and myself.
Needless to say, Harry and I lost.
Which just goes to prove that nothing's changed. That's why, if you're going to choose one man to fall in love with, you should always choose your best friend - because everything will stay exactly the same. Harry and I are still horrible at Wizard's Chess, Ron's still an idiot when it comes to girls (although Luna's slowly fixing that little problem), Harry and Ron still hate studying (Harry finally put the books away after admitting that he had only studied to get my attention, which I think was rather sweet), and I'm still trying to study for NEWTs amidst all the craziness.
Which reminds me: my list! Which I've added to since I last wrote it in here…
Free the house-elves
Convince Neville that the heliopaths Luna told him about in fifth year do not exist, and that it is indeed safe to go in for a career at the ministry if he chooses to
Convince Ginny, Lavender, and Parvati that I do not need a boyfriend
While I'm at it, convince the three mentioned above that I am not neurotic
Convince Harry that sneaking into my room and creeping into my bathroom while I'm in the shower is not a good idea of a joke, is an abuse of his power as Head Boy and having a room next to mine, and an absolutely perverted thing for him to do, especially as my best friend
Break Ron's heart without actually breaking it
Somehow break up with Terry
Stop Ginny from nagging me
Get together with Harry
I think that's rather impressive, don't you? Five out of nine…and it's only November! I'll definitely continue my work on S.P.E.W. (and now that Harry and I are dating, maybe I can guilt him into helping me…). I'll work on the heliopaths thing…but now that Luna is going to hang out more closely with us that might prove a little difficult. Ginny will never stop nagging me, and I might as well just accept it.
Considering that I now have a boyfriend I doubt I need to convince the giggly girls club that I don't need one, and I no longer need to worry about Harry sneaking into my bathroom. Apparently, earlier this year, he wasn't sure how to act around me, and asked for advice from, of all the guys, Seamus, who instructed Harry on how to "properly" flirt with me. Of course, this was Seamus, who knows absolutely nothing about relationships, which led Harry to ask slightly insane (slightly being the understatement of the century). Anyway, I expect that a few years (possibly even months) from now, I won't mind him bursting in on me mid shower…but that's not for a while. In terms of number nine…I'll assume that I definitely accomplished that.
Number four…that may just be the hardest. For some reason, no one will accept that I'm not neurotic. I don't understand why they insist upon it. Oh well. But I'm telling you, until my dying day I will swear that I'm not neurotic, because really, I'm not.
Merlin! I just looked at the time and realized how much time I've wasted. I should really get working on that essay for Professor Sprout…it's due in a week, and I only have two feet of parchment done!
I just noticed that there's only one last page left in this diary. Amazing how much a girl can write in two months. Harry offered to charm more pages on, but I think I'll just wait for Christmas, so that Harry can buy me a new diary. It'll be like a nice little collection.
Well, I must get to work on that essay. Until the next diary…
Hermione Jane Granger
November 22, 1997
Year Seven at Hogwarts, School of Witchcraft and Wizardry
Age 17
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A/N: Please remember that there is one more chapter…an epilogue! Again, if you have any questions about this story whatsoever, feel free to ask in your reviews. I will post the answers at the end of the epilogue. Thank you everyone for your support so far!
See you at the epilogue!
~Hermione_Crookshanks
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