The Proposal
The day that Harry asked me to marry him is one that I will never, ever forget. It wasn't like most proposal stories one hears. There was no bright sunshine on a warm spring day accompanied by the enthusiastic chirping of birds. It was not the typical private moment shared between two lovers; it was quite the contrary. It was a wonderful end to a less than wonderful day. When put that way, it sounds as if the proposal was not something I wanted, but that is not true. I, in fact, had been waiting for the "popping of the question" for quite sometime. It was the circumstances that brought about the question that I, at one time, wished had been different. I should have known, however, that my engagement to Harry Potter would be no less than a rather large spectacle, no matter how private he wanted it to be. I find that I am getting ahead of myself, so I shall start at the beginning of that infamous day.
The alarm went off at six a.m. just like every other morning. Harry woke up first and jumped into the shower while I rolled back over and tried to go back to sleep. It seemed like I had just gotten back to sleep when I awoke to a steady drip of water on my face. Harry had turned me onto my back and was positioned over me allowing the water from his soaking head to puddle on my cheeks. I opened my eyes to the sight of him staring at me intensely with his intriguing green eyes. Neither of us said a thing, we only stared at one another in complete silence, and I knew that it was about to be the best start a day could have. I moved my hands onto his back in order to undue the towel that was wrapped firmly around his slender waist. Before I got too far Harry stopped my fingers loosening the knot and flashed his dazzling smile. I could only look at him with what I hoped was an extremely shocked expression. In answer to my shock he smiled even more widely and spoke in a soft whisper.
"Not just now darling. We need to get to the school as quickly as possible and we are going to be late as it is." He kissed my lips quickly and jumped off the bed, dressing hurriedly. I dragged myself out of bed, threw on a turtle necked jumper and a beige tweed skirt, plaited my hair untidily and followed Harry down to the kitchen for a spot of breakfast. Due to my continued state of shock I burnt the toast but Harry ate it anyway and we apparated into Hogsmeade Village. Our journey to Hogwarts Castle was silent but all the while Harry maintained a slight grin. We reached the Entrance Hall and he kissed me chastely as we went our separate ways. I watched him follow the corridors down to his first Defense Against the Dark Arts lesson. When he disappeared around a corner I headed off toward the teacher's lounge. My first Arithmancy lesson was not until ten a.m. so I found a nice chintz armchair and plopped down and closed my eyes. I replayed the events of the morning and found myself in a rather foul mood because for the first time in our three year relationship as lovers, Harry had refused my advances.
The day continued on as did my less than happy mood and I looked to the lunch period as a time to sit and possibly talk to Harry about that morning. However, much to my annoyance, he did not join me at the teacher's table for lunch. The seat that he usually occupied was quickly filled by Minerva McGonagall as she greeted me cheerily and helped herself to some treacle tart. Noticing that I was rather ill and trying to cheer me up, she was soon telling horribly corny jokes and it was only her effort that earned a grin from me in the end. She had apparently noticed Harry's absence as well.
"Where is Harry this afternoon Hermione? I actually have not seen him all day."
I snorted into my spoonful of rice pudding.
"I have absolutely no idea where he is Minerva. I have not seen hide nor hair of him since we arrived this morning. Perhaps he is giving a student remedial lessons." She grinned a little and continued eating.
I was on my way to my last lesson of the day when little Professor Flitwick came running down the corridor and grabbed the sleeve of my robe. He was very out of breath and seemed like he had some urgent message for me. He took a deep breath and I stooped down a little in order to hear him better.
"Good afternoon, Hermione. I have a very important message for you. Harry has asked that you meet him under the tree beside the lake in five minutes time." Flitwick was smiling broadly and looked rather pleased with himself.
"Well that is wonderful of Harry to request a meeting with me but unfortunately I have a lesson in five minutes so I am afraid that I will not be able to make it just now."
"No worry Hermione. Harry has arranged so your class can meet you outside but he was quite adamant about seeing you right now."
I sighed and agreed and soon found myself being lead to the grounds. I was still angry with Harry but I imagined that he must want to apologize for his peculiar actions so I reached the tree beside the lake but Harry was no where to be seen. Upon seeing my distress, Professor Flitwick assured me that Harry was on his way with my class. I waited no more than three minutes when Harry, followed closely by my third year class, came to meet me at the tree. I watched as they assembled themselves into a straight line against the shore of the lake. They all turned to face Harry and me, all of them wearing great big smiles. At this point I was becoming extremely annoyed mostly due to the fact that something was up and I did not know what it was. When I looked back at Harry he was leaning casually against the tree wearing the grin that I had come to associate with some kind of mischief. We stood there staring at each other for a moment and I decided that I'd had enough and spoke first.
"Would you kindly tell me what is going on Harry? Why have you dragged me and my class out here? If I wanted to teach outside I would have chosen a day when it is not about to pour buckets!" As if on cue on my last words rain starting pelting down on all of us. I was beyond annoyed now and Harry continued to lean against that tree looking rather smug. He finally stopped grinning long enough to speak to me for only the second time that day.
"I just wanted to ask you something. See, I have been thinking about this for a while now and I figured now would be as good a time as any to get your opinion on the matter." He moved from the tree to stand in front of me as the rain pelted us. My students were all now casting spells that made fireworks shoot from the tips of their wands and made arches of sparkling color around the two of us. Just as Harry opened his mouth to speak, there was a scream and a loud splash to our left. I turned quickly and saw that one of my students, Alisa McKentyre had fallen into the lake. Without thinking I pushed the rest of the class aside, threw off my robes and jumped into the lake after her. She had hit her head on a rock on the side of the bank and all I could see was her body floating toward the bottom of the lakebed. I swam as fast as I could to catch up with her and finally grabbed her before she went any farther. I took her around the waist and raised her up to the surface to the classmates that were waiting to hoist her out of the water. I was almost at the surface myself when something grabbed my leg and began pulling me down. A Grindylow had me around the ankle and the harder I fought, the harder it pulled. I was losing the air in my lungs and soon I felt the surge of cold water in my mouth as I fought to hang on to those last breaths. Black edged into my vision as a pair of strong arms grabbed me and pulled upward.
When I opened my eyes, I was laying face up on the bank, twenty some odd students looking down at me, and Harry leaning over my chest listening for a heartbeat. I coughed the water out of my lungs and sat up gingerly. Harry helped me to my feet and held me to him, caressing my hair and gently kissing my forehead. He looked down at me, concern and fear all over his face and I suddenly felt ashamed of being so angry with him all day. I smiled weakly and stroked his wet face.
"I believe you had something to ask me?" He laughed nervously and got down on one knee in front of me. The breath caught in my throat as tears welled up into my eyes.
"Hermione Anne Granger, I love you so very much, more than anything in this entire world. I was simply wondering if you wouldn't mind being my wife."
The tears were pouring down my drenched face and all I could see was Harry looking up at me, an open ring box in his hands. I choked a little and broke into the happiest smile of my life.
"I don't think I would mind too much," I said laughing. Harry rose up, put the ring on my finger and kissed me passionately. I was a little embarrassed to be kissing him in front of my class but they didn't seem to mind at all. On the contrary, they stood cheering and applauding and I distinctly remembering one of them yelling "it's about time!"
So that is the story of the day that brought about my engagement to Harry. Needless to say we made furiously passionate love that night. I had to punish him somehow for refusing me. So I made him pay by giving him the singularly most pleasurable experience of his life and reminded him that next time he refused, it would be even more so.
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