A Summer Vacation

A/N: I still own nothing really. This is a post book 7 fic. WARNING: Discussed Major Character Death and a touch of secondary character slash... Thanks as usual to Lady Starlight for her work on this fic.
July 31, 1998
Aruba

Harry sighed and frowned slightly as he looked down from the balcony at the three girls talking and laughing loudly, next to a clear blue pool occupied with several laughing children. He took a long pull from the Guinness in his fist and turned his back, just an instant before the girl in the center, a slightly tanned girl with sun-touched chestnut curls, looked up at the balcony and lowered a pair of round, blue lenses to look over them with worried chocolate eyes. She watched as he set the empty bottle next to several others on the balcony table and headed back into the inside of the suite he and the three girls were splitting up. She looked to her right at the tiny form lying on her back, dark lenses shielding her eyes from the tropical sun.

The girl turned her head slightly, adjusting the miniscule bikini that matched her hair, a bright ruby red, "He's doing it, again, isn't he?" she asked softly without preamble.

"Yeah," Hermione muttered sadly. She glanced down at herself, sighing as she adjusted the straps of her emerald suit that otherwise matched her small companion's exactly. "I wish I...we, could do something about it," she whispered plaintively. She glanced up as a child screamed happily as he slid down a slide into the pool, his father, an older wizard in maroon trunks and t-shirt waited for him.

"You know what you could do, Hermione," the third member of the trio replied with an amused tone, looking over at her. Her head was pillowed on her arms, her glossy, blue-black hair tossed forward to clear her neck and the strings of her black top, untied and laying to the side. She squinted blue eyes in the tropical sun, "All you have to is..."

"I can't, Cho," Hermione said sadly, she closed her eyes and dropped her head, "he doesn't like me that way..."

Cho and Ginny looked at her for a long, disbelieving moment, and broke down laughing, Cho almost hard enough to plop her from her chaise and expose herself to the father and daughter looking at them oddly from the pool. "This is from the one, the one who was most successful in the I'm madly in love with Harry Potter club..."

"How was I successful, I practically begged him, Cho, all this last year, and he never looked at me...both of you have at least kissed him," she groused.

"Hermione, sis," Ginny replied between soft titters of laughter, "you dated him for seven years...he was just too daft to see it, and you were too." She looked across at Cho helplessly, Cho shrugged and reached back to tie her top back on quickly before sitting up and facing Hermione, just as Ginny did on the other side.

"He's always loved you...what he felt for Ginny and I, that came later, and went," Cho replied as she hopped over to Hermione's lounge. She reached down and grabbed her reluctant friend's hand and patted it lightly. Cho spun and glared at a Paparazzi from the Prophet at a sudden CLICK, he grinned and turned, then cursed loudly as his film exploded in a puff of smoke. Ginny sent him a not-so-covert rude gesture as she set her wand back down next to her lounge chair.

"He's just afraid, Hermione," Ginny put in softly as she sat on the other side of the chair and looked down at Hermione as well.

"Well I'm bloody terrified," Hermione snapped back softly, looking at each of her friends in turn for support. "I'm nowhere as pretty as either of you, or as funny, I only play pick up Quidditch and that barely, both of you could play pro if you want, as could he..."

"You're brilliant, he trusts you beyond reason, beyond sanity...." Cho said exasperatedly.

Ginny shook her head slightly and grabbed Hermione's hand, "You are bloody gorgeous, Hermione Jane...and he would love you if you had a hippogriff's hindquarters." Ginny snorted softly and looked up towards the balcony, "The only question is; will he have a stroke or an epiphany tonight." She shrugged, "Hermione, he fought Voldemort for you. Yes, Cho and I were there, and yes, we were the ones that along with you had his back while he killed the bastard, and yes we did it because we love Harry, because that is the only reason a sane person would have followed Harry into that Chamber again." Ginny took a deep breath and shivered slightly in the warm sun.

Hermione glanced up at Cho and pulled Ginny down to her, hugging her tightly. Cho started stroking Ginny's hair comfortingly, having seen the horrors as well. On that cold, March night, four months ago, Harry had led the few remnants of the DA and the Order on one last desperate strike to end Voldemort's reign of terror once and for all. In the end, in a cursed chamber deep under the ruins of the half-destroyed school that they had all attended, Harry and the three girls, the last of the DA standing by some odd quirk of fate, had beaten down the last of the Death Eaters shielding their master and had engaged the Dark Lord in a four on one duel. The greatest Dark Lord in a thousand years versus the most powerful Wizard and Witch on the side of light along with two more, highly skilled and powerful witches.

In the end it had almost not been enough. Harry, still emotionally shattered and exhausted from the death of Ronald Weasley earlier in the battle, had almost given in, when Voldemort, in a move that would later prove to be his downfall, had shifted his attack to the hated "Mudblood" with Harry.

Tom Riddle had never even seen what hit him as a pure, primordial force rose within Harry and crushed the Dark Lord's wand with a gesture. Blue fire had lit the dark chamber from Harry's eyes as he strode towards the Dark Lord, the ground shaking slightly with each of his steps as a familiar sword filled Harry's hand. He had raised it above his head and spoke a spell that Harry still did not remember. With that muttered spell, lightning, like the very finger of God, had struck from nowhere and reduced the dark one to an unremarkable pile of ash.

"He lost Ron, Gin," Hermione moaned, "we all lost Ron."

"Hermione," Ginny replied painfully, "I love Ron, even more now than when he was here, but if he were he, he'd say live, have Harry live..."

"I was dating him, Hermione," Cho reminded her, she patted the girl's thigh comfortingly, "I miss Ron too, I would like to think that he and I would have been happy together, but he's not here, luv...The man that you love, that all of us really love, is up in that bloody room, probably getting sotted again to blot out the pain, and I for one think it's about time that we ended that for good. The only difference is that, he loves us like a sister, you...whether he admits it or not, he wants you to have his rugrats."

"You were also sleeping with Ginny," Hermione replied with a raised eyebrow, Cho shrugged, and mouthed, "Not at the same time."

"But yeah, Ginny, Ron probably would have said that, " she added after a moment's reflection and all three girls giggled and then sighed as one. "You're right, Cho," Hermione replied, she reached up and pulled the dark-haired girl down to for a quick hug, "Tonight, that daft little boy won't know what hit him."

**************************Later**************************************

Harry frowned to himself as he sat on the edge of the couch in the common room of the suite that he and the three girls shared. A suite in a hotel that he had found he owned when he had finally had time to go through the papers from the Potter and Black estates. It was Hermione who had suggested the vacation, after the hell of the aftermath of the final battle, of the month in St. Mungo's and then the months of he and the three Furies, the trio of girls who had survived the second Battle of Hogwarts with him, being hounded by the Wizarding Media.

Of course, the fact that two of the three girls came out of the closet, as the Muggles say, and admitted they were...together, that didn't help matters all that much, Harry sighed to himself, and looked longingly towards the door where two of the three of the girls that he had ever loved, slept together. And, by the sounds that escaped in the night after they had retired, did other things together. He felt himself stir at the thought, while he wasn't interested in either of them any longer; he was still very much a teenage male. He looked a bit to his left, at the door to the room where Hermione slept, that connected to the other girls' room by a intervening door, and sighed, And Mione...she's doesn't deserve me, she deserves a little peace in her life...she's already fought and watched her best friend die, she doesn't deserve the heartache that even thinking about me would cause, not that she would be that stupid, or even interested in me...I'm just really good at killing Dark Lords and flying around after a small ball...I'm nowhere near smart nor funny nor....

Harry looked up suddenly as he heard the door slip open and all three girls slide out of the room. All three were dressed similarly with short, felony-inducing khaki skirts barely covering their bums, and belly-revealing loose camisoles, in the same colors that their bikinis had been in earlier, that were obviously the only thing above their waists. Harry looked away quickly, gulping slightly, not catching the small, meaningful look that passed between the three. "Harry," Hermione said kneeling down in front of him and purely by accident gave him a look down her cleavage confirming his earlier guess about what was under the top. "Come on, we're going out." She grabbed his hand and stood up, starting to pull him towards his bedroom, "You need to get dressed."

"You three..." Harry's pause was barely detectable, but the three girls had spent years studying him, they heard it, "go on. I'll just stay in."

"Oh, no, Harry James," Hermione growled and Harry took a breath as she pushed against him and he looked down her top again by accident as he glanced down at her face, "you are getting dressed...now do we have to change you ourselves?"

Harry took a deep, deep breath, trying to keep that image from causing a visible effect. He looked at her, "No, Mione. I'll be good." She watched him as he went to his room and through the open door she could hear him hunting through clothes. She glanced back to see Ginny and Cho sidling over...

"Oh, Merlin," Cho whispered as she caught sight of him in the mirror in the room. She bit her lip slightly, and turned away as she flushed and felt her heart start to race. She looked down and grabbed Ginny's hand, and the pair vanished from the room, retreating back into their bedroom.

"Where did Cho and Ginny go?" Harry asked as he came out from the bedroom in loose linen pants, sandals and a red linen shirt. Hermione was spared trying to answer as a loud moan came from the room.

"I think that they will be busy for a moment," Hermione said wryly and pushed Harry lightly back onto the couch. She settled down next to him, and smiled at him slowly as his eyes locked to the expanse of leg that almost went to her hip, shown by the ridden-up skirt. Harry blushed and started to look away, Hermione glanced back towards the bedroom from which the moans, now from two distinct voices, began to get louder. She looked back at Harry and watched for an instant, the strong beat of his pulse in his neck, It's now or never, "Does that bother you, Harry?" she whispered as she looked down and began to play lightly with the fingers of his hand, "That Ginny and Cho are together?"

"No, Hermione," he replied with a sad smile, taking her hand and running his thumb along the back, desperately trying to ignore the flash of fire racing along his nerves at the contact. "I can sorta tell that they are happy...I can hear them at night, you know. I just wish..."

"What, Harry?"

"Never mind..." Harry muttered and Hermione sat up and looked at him, holding his gaze until he sighed, and dropped his head, "In a way...I just wish it were me in there..." Harry missed the smirk that flitted across her face, as he went on, finally breaking down, "It's not the sex, really, which I'm sure is bloody, fucking amazing," Hermione couldn't restrain a giggle, and Harry gave a brief smile to his best friend, "but I would like, just once to have someone who cared for me, who looked at me, like they look at each other."

"Then look at me," Hermione whispered and slowly, as if he were a wild animal and she was trying not to spook him, slid up onto his lap and straddled him, holding his face in her hands as looks of desperate hope and longing vied with disbelief on his face. "Harry, love," Hermione murmured, almost against his lips, "you really don't think that between Cho, Ginny and I, all of whom are powerful, experienced witches, that we would have forgotten the Silencing Charm, do you?" Hermione rolled her eyes, "Even if those two, had forgot, then why wouldn't I have remembered? Maybe I was a little...lonely too?"

"That hope had crossed my mind," Harry admitted unthinkingly, then froze and gasped almost inaudibly as the true implications took hold... "You..."

Hermione slowly leaned forward and pressed her lips to his. Harry groaned as her tongue lightly caressed his lips, begging entry and receiving it automatically. Hermione moaned into his throat as she started to grind against him, a thin layer of black silk the only thing separating her from the rough linen of his pants. Her eyes slipped half closed as she felt him respond, her nipples jutting almost painfully against the cotton of her top. She broke the kiss, panting, and held his eyes with her own, "Harry...I left it down, and had them leave it down...in the hopes..."

"You've started without us," a soft alto pouted from behind Hermione and Harry looked around her to see Ginny and Cho, flushed and their clothes in disarray standing in the doorway with smug expressions on their faces.

For once in his life, Harry knew the right thing to say, "No, I'd say that you started without Hermione and I," Hermione's eyes widened slightly as she felt his hands start to slowly push up the hem of her top. "Why don't you two go on ahead, we'll catch up...maybe..." Neither of them noticed as Cho gave Ginny a look and the two slipped back into their room and closed the door softly. Hermione moaned, arching back into his hands as she felt fingertips roughened by thousands of hours of sword and wand practice start to gently knead her breasts. She held his eyes as she reached down and grabbed her hem and jerked her top off, leaving her bare to his eyes. They widened some, going even more forest than they had been, as he bent to take a nipple into his mouth. Soft, kittenish sounds started to escape Hermione as she and Harry started to grind their pelvises together, both of them still mostly clothed.

Hermione felt her heat begin to beat out of her chest as she felt herself already cresting, a puddle of liquid fire pooling in her belly. She moved once, twice more.... "OH, GOD, HARRRYYY..." she screamed, bucking against him, only held upright by his supporting hands on her waist. She leaned forward and kissed him hungrily, before looking back at where the girls had been and finding them gone, she smiled, "I think we've caught up, though," she reached down and stroked Harry through the fabric of his pants. He hissed, and she kissed him again, his lip dragging in her bottom lip as she pulled away, "or at least I have." Hermione slowly stood and pulled Harry to his feet. She let go of his hand, and stepped back, reaching behind her and un-tabbing something. Her skirt fell to the floor, leaving her in a tiny, black thong. She took his hand again and pulled him towards his bedroom.

Hermione didn't wait for the door to close behind them, as she snapped her fingers and every button in Harry's shirt undid itself. She slowly pushed the shirt off and to the floor, before she began to kiss along his neck, trailing her lips down along his chest until she flicked his left nipple with her tongue. Harry moaned, "Mione..." and she smiled, reaching down and un-tabbing his pants and sliding them to the floor. He stepped out of them, and felt his head being turned to the left to find soft lips, totally unaccompanied by any tears this time, except perhaps one or two of joy, find his. She slowly ran a finger along the elastic of his boxers, smirked slightly, and they...vanished.

Harry felt himself tumbling backwards in the next instant, his back hitting the soft cotton sheets of his bed. He looked up to find her slipping into bed, crawling toward him on hands and knees. He groaned as Hermione sat on his belly and scooted back until his cock was pressed against her bum. She reached back and patted him possessively, as she met his eyes with brightly glittering cocoa eyes. She started to stroke him, then stopped. Harry hissed and unconsciously pushed into her hand. "No, Harry," she whispered, "I want you in me, when you come." She started to run her thumbs along his stomach, grinning as the muscles jumped at her touch.

Harry opened his mouth, but Hermione beat him to it, "Yes, Harry, I am sure," she paused in their ministrations to nod vigorously, "make love to me, Harry."
Hermione held his eyes, as she balanced herself on his hands and slowly lowered herself onto him. She sighed quietly, her lip in her teeth and her eyes locked to his as she felt herself being stretched. "Oh...Harry," she moaned, basking in feeling him inside her, she looked directly into his eyes, flicked her gaze to the point where they were joined, and back to his eyes, "I'm home..." she whispered wondrously. She started to rock against his hips, feeling him coming up to meet her on every thrust.

"Oh...god...Herrmyynonee," Harry grunted as he fought to stay in control. Hermione smirked slightly and sped up, moving faster and faster, racing her own orgasm as she rapidly climbed the cliff once more. She moved even faster, the wet sounds of their frantic mating, and their labored panting filling the room.

"Ahhh," Hermione whimpered, her stomach muscles began to fire wildly, she took another pant, bounced once more and crashed, her muscles spasming wildly, squeezing and milking Harry. He lasted two more quick thrusts before following her, pulled along by the feeling of her letting go utterly around him. She cooed as she felt the warm spurt into her, extending her orgasm with every pulse. Hermione collapsed to his chest as he finally stopped, still shaking and began to nuzzle his neck absently. "I love you, Harry," she whispered.

Harry reached up and swept utterly soaked bangs from her eyes, "I love you, Mione," he replied softly He distantly heard Hermione whisper something about 'more' as he slipped away to dreams, utterly exhausted by the night's events.

An hour later, Harry woke to find Hermione still lying on top of him like a blanket, though he had slipped out somehow. He began to lightly trace his fingers along her spine, watching as her eyes slowly opened to look into his, close enough that he had no use for his glasses. "Hey," he whispered, watching as she smiled in the moonlight spilling in through the open sliding door to the balcony.

"Hey," she replied, stretching enough to kiss him tenderly. "Sleep well, Harry?" he grinned and nodded, kissing her nose and causing her to laugh softly.

"I decided something," Harry murmured after a moment's consideration.

"Yeah?" Hermione whispered as she kissed him, she slowly pulled away slightly to look at him, knowing somehow that what he was about to say was important. Her eyes twinkled mischievously as she slowly walked two fingers down his side.

"Well, two things actually," Harry explained; then gasped loudly as Hermione giggled, her fingers lightly caressing his balls. He mock glared at her, before kissing her quickly, "First, the instant we get back to London, assuming that we do go back, as I'm rather fond of seeing you in either bikinis or the altogether for the rest of our lives..." Hermione gasped slightly, and Harry nodded, "Yeah, which brings us to the second thing, really, is that I am so moving your stuff into my room as soon as I get back..." She squealed softly, as Harry looked at her nervously, "That's if..."

"Yes, Harry," Hermione whispered throatily, "yes..." She leaned forward and kissed him lazily. "What was the first?" Hermione asked as she reached between them and began to slowly stroke his cock.

Harry's eyes were glazed over for a moment, "That...uh...I...we, uh...should get a bigger bed."

"Oh, I don't know," she muttered as she rolled onto her side and tucked her head into the hollow of his shoulder, "A rather nice twin is all we need, honestly." She kissed his neck and closed her eyes.

"You won't think so the first time one of the nightmares start," Harry whispered darkly and started to stare up at the ceiling bitterly. A soft wind coming through the open glass door to the balcony ruffled the sheets, causing Hermione to shiver slightly. She gestured, causing the sheets to float up to cover her and Harry, before she reached up to gently turn his face to hers.

"Let them come, Harry, I'm here now, and I'm not going anywhere," Hermione murmured, just loudly for him to hear, "I've been there for them before, I'll be there again." She rolled her eyes as a noise came from the direction of the other room, and Harry and her shared a small grin. She settled her head back against his shoulder and sighed, "Let's go back to sleep, Harry."

*******************************Much Later*************************

Harry woke again slowly and looked around the room, finding that sometime during the night, Hedwig had come home and was roosting on her perch. She gave him a soft hoot and looked at him curiously. She looked at the girl curled next him on the bed and back to Harry quizzically. Harry looked to his right slightly and kissed Hermione's forehead where she had fallen asleep on his shoulder. He took a breath and vanished silently, reappearing standing next to the bed. Hermione muttered something in their sleep, and rolled over, searching for the warm spot Harry had made in the sheets.

He looked at her fondly and walked over to pet his Familiar, smiling as Hedwig pressed her head against his palm. He stepped away for a moment, pulling on jeans and a sweatshirt, forgoing shoes and paced back to her. "Hey, girl," he whispered and she hooted almost silently, "can you watch my other girl for a bit?" Hedwig seemed to nod, Harry petted her one last time and vanished.

He reappeared on a white sand beach lit by a low hanging moon, and started to walk along it, his bare feet leaving faint trails behind. He paused, looking down at a small baby kelpie that had washed ashore. Harry eased it back into the surf with his toe, and watched as it swam away, jumping above the waters. He started to idly walk along the beach, amusing himself with creating tiny replicas of Hogwarts in the sand with casual waves of his hand.

He sighed as he felt a presence as familiar as his own come up behind him, "I wasn't running, Mione, I didn't want to wake you." He looked down at his feet with an invisible sheepish smile, "I thought Hedwig was watching you. Are the others still out?" He glanced down at his watch; then at the ocean, over which the horizon was starting to rapidly lighten, "It's almost time for breakfast."

"She was," Hermione muttered as she stopped beside him and slowly wove the fingers of her left hand with his right, she glanced over and slightly up at him, as they began to walk without a shred of conscious communication, "she is a rather good guard owl...Cho was up all night, the night before," she shared a quick grin with Harry, "trust me, I heard. And Ginny, she's a Weasley, they don't wake up for anything...Just like..."

"Yeah," Harry replied thoughtfully and squeezed her hand. She looked down at it and returned the squeeze, before leaning against his shoulder, as they continued to walk along the beach together, finally. "Hermione," he asked after a moment, she nodded against his shoulder, "you don't have to answer, but I have to know...why didn't you ever go out with Ron... Everyone said you had this...tension, I guess, but then, all of a sudden when we started hunting for the Horcruxes, you two were right back to where you were at the start of fifth year, bickering and fighting, but I never saw him look at you like he used to, to sneak peaks before. And he had taken up with first Cho and then...Luna," he broke off suddenly as thoughts of the blonde who had died with Ron at the second Battle of Hogwarts slipped through both of their minds. "And then Cho took up with Ginny..." they both shrugged, not having seen that one coming at all.

Hermione sighed, "We did, Harry," she turned and watched as his eyes widened. She smiled and moved in front of him, and rose on her toes to slowly press her lips to his. She groaned as Harry returned the kiss, and sighed softly as she pulled away. Hermione looked down at the sand and gave an odd little gesture with her hand. A red and gold blanket appeared on the sand and Hermione motioned towards it. She waited until Harry had sat, then sat down between his legs, leaning back into his chest and placing her hands on top of his as he wrapped his arms around her. "It's complicated, Harry."

"What's simple?" he muttered, waiting as she nodded.

"Yeah," she agreed. "Honestly, I have always loved Ron, just like I've always loved you, or at least for so long that it doesn't matter anymore, long before I even had an idea of what to do about it...and that was the problem. It was holding feelings for so long that they started to overlap between you two...and that's not counting the soap opera our love lives were by the time we started fourth year..." Harry and her broke into identical chuckles as they both instantly knew what they were talking about. Hermione giggled for a moment, finally silencing herself by leaning forward and burying her head in her crossed arms. She closed her eyes as she felt Harry's hands slip lower to start to run along her sides under the sweatshirt she had tossed on over a pair of shorts when she came to look for him, "That's no fair, Harry."

"I know," he replied as he nuzzled her neck, she let her head loll, letting him have better access for a moment, before she leaned it back, grinning to herself as she felt Harry's fingertips begin to trace patterns on her skin under her shirt.

"Let me finish, Harry, I want you to know, you deserve to know. We have the rest of our lives for the other," Hermione asked quietly, her heart suddenly in her throat. He nodded silently, but she knew he had somehow, even though she was looking the other way, "Thanks, Harry...I suppose it really started to fall apart fourth year. I was almost fifteen and I knew, then, that it would be either you or Ron. I realized that summer before that I loved both of you, but I didn't know which one of you I loved." She smirked slightly, "For a bit there...I was afraid it was both."

"There were always rumors," Harry mused softly.

"Weren't there," she nodded. "Fourth year...I was trying to get one of you to notice me, and then Ron said that daft thing at the ball, and I damn near killed him, and you were soo sotted with Cho..." she breathed heavily, "By the end of the year, when you appeared, back from that duel, I pretty much knew it was you...even though you didn't notice me at the ball." Harry shook his head, but didn't correct her, yet. "I got dressed up for you and Ron, Harry, I didn't give a damn about Viktor, not really, he snogs alright, but that's it. He and I quit when he started to hint he wanted a touch more, and I know that I wasn't ready for that...with him anyway"

Harry stiffened and Hermione bent her head back, and pulled his head down to her lips. He relaxed abruptly as she kissed him, and she patted his cheek possessively before she looked back to the lightening sky, "That is long over, Harry." He nodded despite himself, and she snorted, "Bloody protective prat," she muttered lovingly.

"For the record, I most certainly did notice you, Hermione, and I've been kicking myself for years about not asking you to that bloody dance," Harry demurred quietly, Hermione smiled and patted his leg.

"Fifth year," she went on, "I knew going into it. I was going to tell you, I tried...but you were still in 'love' with Cho, and then everything happened and we were effectively at war in our own home and there was just never time. I almost said it that day you locked yourself in the attic at Grimmauld, I told myself I was going to the entire ride on the Knight Bus; I think that's the only thing that kept me from getting ill. But when I got there, I chickened out as soon as I saw your face. I didn't want to complicate your life any further."

"And then you almost died," Harry knowing somehow where she was going with this.

"Yeah," Hermione whispered harshly, "Then I almost died...but even that wasn't enough. But you supplied that, Harry."

"That goddamn prophesy that otherwise fucked with the rest of my life," Harry groaned and Hermione nodded.

"I was scared, Harry," she shook slightly in his arms, "I knew that I still cared for you, I don't know that anything could have really changed that, but I was afraid that if I let myself really love you...I let my fucking brain override my heart and I pulled away...I was so afraid that either or both of us wouldn't survive and that would kill us as surely as the Kedavra. So I came up with a plan...since Ron liked me so much, had liked me since he finally figured out I was a girl fourth year, I'd give him a chance. I looked up, around you, and found that he had decided to investigate Lavender's shall we say...dubious charms. I just lost it. I panicked, you were suddenly lusting after Ginny, and I had already decided to hide my feelings for you, and to give you more space and Ron was with that...little bubble-headed bint, I went a little crazy."

She shook her head, "Then he got tired of snogging her, I guess." Hermione pushed his knees down and turned around to straddle his lap so she could rest her had on his shoulder. "Ron got poisoned, and I had already lost you, or so I thought, and was terrified that you would get killed any day, I wasn't about to let myself loose another chance, even if it wasn't my first choice, Merlin forgive me..."

"It's alright, Hermione," Harry breathed in her ear, "I'm sure he's looking down at you right now with a huge smile." He ran his fingers slowly through the fall of her hair down her back, "What happened then...hell when did you even get together, how the bloody hell did I miss that? I know I'm a daft git, but..."

"We hid it from you, Harry," Hermione muttered shamefully, "I was scared of what you would do when you found out, but you were distracted with Ginny anyway, and I wanted to see if what I had with Ron was real, without any interference, intentional or unintentional from you." The sea birds began to sing softly and she reached up to scrub her eyes. She sniffed slightly and buried her face in his shirt, muffling her words somewhat. "You figured out that I wasn't a virgin tonight, didn't you, Harry?" Hermione asked suddenly.

He nodded, puzzled. She continued, "I already knew that you had been with Ginny at least, she bragged a lot...a lot... It was probably a pretty big clue when instead of being happy for you and her, I just felt sick and betrayed." Harry opened his mouth to respond, she looked up and blocked his words with two fingers on his lips, "So instead, I told Ron that we were going to be together. It's not supposed to be great the first time, at least not for girls, but it wasn't even that it wasn't a pleasant bit of alright, physically, but when we were done, I didn't really feel any different towards him. I didn't see anything for us beyond where we were, no visions of the future, no nothing."

She looked up, holding his eyes with hers, "When we were together, before I even got my clothes off all the way, by the way," she giggled softly at the thought, "I saw our lives stretching before me, I could see the faces of our children and what color our bedroom walls were going to be...I never felt more at home than I did in that instant."

"Me too," Harry whispered, kissing her forehead absently. "So what happened to you then? With...Ron, that is," he added almost silently.

"That was about a week before Dumbledore," she swallowed and buried her head back into his shoulder for a moment, "died. The minute I saw you there in the infirmary, I knew just how stupid I had been. I spent that whole week after, thinking, and I realized that no matter what, even if I couldn't be with you, I couldn't be with him, not like that. You and Ginny weren't the only ones who broke up that day, Harry."

"Why did you never tell me all this last year?" Harry asked, his voice even.

She shrugged, nibbling her lip slightly, "I was still ashamed, Harry, I failed you, I let my fears about me, about us, drive us apart." She sighed, "We were always invincible as a Trio, Harry, you, me and Ron, together...and we proved it in the end...even though we had a touch of help, and it cost us too damn much." She swallowed heavily and he slowly ran his hands down her back. "After Ron...moved on, with Cho, and then Luna, I tried to hint to you, you were hurting soo much, and I couldn't stand it. I wanted so much to let you know that someone loved you, but...I just couldn't come out and say it. I tried to hint, I hoped so much that you just figure it out, but you never did."

"I did," Harry muttered as the sun finally crested the horizon bathing them in reds and golds, "I don't know when, exactly I knew, but I did. Or at least I knew that I loved you at least...but I was so determined that you didn't return my feelings," he smirked, "you'd pretty much have to had done what you did last night to get my attention."

"I would have, you know...but I was so convinced that you didn't like me..."

"We are gits, you know," Harry said and Hermione nodded, agreeing. "So, Mione, what do you think-head home to London or..."

Hermione smiled slowly, "I rather like the staying here option," she whispered as she reached down to pull her sweatshirt over her head. She held his eyes as she scooted off his lap and pulled off her shorts, leaving her bare as the day she was born. She stretched like a large cat and laid down on the blanket with her arms extended above her head, "I can't get a proper tan in London, and I have this really rich boyfriend who owns a beach in Aruba." She looked back up at him, squinting slightly against the morning sun, "Join me?" Harry smiled and pulled off his shirt, and slid off his jeans before settling down next to her. Hermione settled on his shoulder and kissed him, smiling as she felt him start to nod off in the warmth. Hermione muttered an anti-Sunburn Charm over them both, to allow them to tan without burning and closed her eyes as well.



There you go, much lighter than the earlier one, but still with a touch of angst. And to go ahead and answer a question that will probably pop up. Hermione is not with Ginny and Cho, she was trying to use the situation to her advantage...has she experimented, who knows, ask her, he he...

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