Chapter Ten
POTIONS: The Difference Between Amortentia and the Real Thing
There was the matter of breathing, and it had to be done some time, so I pulled away to do a bit of that wonderful necking, which was really pleasant when you're snogging in one of the many comfy booths of the Happy Gryff, and boy was I a happy Gryff.
She giggled softly and shied away.
What a delightful tease.
I smiled and pulled her closer, pretending to bite her neck.
She giggled a bit louder but she let me put her on my lap, her arms around me.
Very nice. I could take many liberties this way.
I was very well taking advantage of that privilege when she began to speak softly.
"When did you know?" she asked.
My brain was a little muddled, being so engaged, and I wasn't sure I understood what she meant. Was she asking how long I've known I loved her? That's easy.
"Knew it when Ron told me he'd finally asked you out, and that you said yes," I replied, paying close attention to that soft patch of skin beneath her ear.
"What?"
She sounded so confused that I looked up to meet her gaze. She looked as confused as she sounded.
"That I was in love with you," I explained, like it was the most normal thing in the world.
Her cheeks glowed a most lovely shade of rose, and I could have sworn she was in dire danger of melting right there. "That's, no-well, I love you too, Harry. I love you very much. I'm not quite sure for how long, but these last few months felt like I've loved you forever."
It felt fantastic to hear her say that. I grinned and tried to pull her in for another kiss.
"But that wasn't what I was asking," she continued hastily, smirking.
That caught me a bit off guard. "Oh. Well, what-"
"When did you know that Ron could be happy? With her."
Now it becomes clear, and I thought it was funny that we were talking about that. But come to think of it, Hermione would talk about it. She was methodical and precise. There were points of discussion and things to think about even while snogging.
I smirked. "When he talked about sharing an ice cream sundae with her. How she put so much chocolate on it that it could give them tooth decay…"
She stared at me a moment before laughing. "Well, of course. Out with the dentist's daughter and on with the lovely blonde oddball with a sweet tooth."
I smiled affectionately, noting that there was just a hint of offended pride. "Well, I brush my teeth twice a day at least and floss daily. Plus, I think sweets are very much overrated. People should take dental care more seriously."
That earned me a heart-stopping, stroke-inducing kiss.
I gasped like a man drowning when she pulled away. "Three times. I brush three times." The desperation of having more of that kiss was palpable.
She grinned and indulged me a few more of those fantastic kisses before she spoke. "Ron will probably still throw a fit, you know. About us."
Ron wouldn't be Ron if he didn't stir up some kind of drama, but it was only right, wasn't it? If he cared about Hermione in any way, it was almost his obligation to throw a fit. If Ron and mine's roles were reversed, I would do the same thing. However, a most crucial difference between Ron throwing a fit then and now was that this time, I know he won't be hurting, because now he has Luna-because now, he could be happy with someone else. Besides, Luna has that look about her that implied she was capable of telling Ron, "Heel and behave." Ought to make a decent man of him.
Besides all that, the Daily Prophet couldn't twist the story around and say that Harry Potter "stole" Ron Weasley's girlfriend, because thanks to the press, Ron's dating escapades have been well documented, and basically, the gossip would come off as saying Ron dated before Hermione and I did.
I shrugged in response to Hermione's statement. "Yeah, but he has to, doesn't he? If he ever cared for you at all… but at least now we know we aren't breaking his heart… cheesy, but true."
She nodded. "It is. He's… he's our best friend, and he had a lot of reasons to feel left out where the two of us were concerned. I was with him for six months, and a lot of times he didn't even realize that he was telling me that we made him feel that way."
That actually made me feel… bad. But I knew, didn't I? We both knew the fact too well. It was the reason, after all, that we waited-waited so long. We cared for each other so much, but we cared for Ron, too, more than we've ever cared to show him.
"And he really didn't want to begrudge us what we had," she continued. "He tried so hard. And I really think that was the main reason I stayed with him that long. Because he tried. And besides that he was a fantastic friend, but I suppose we were just…"
I raised my eyebrow. "Incompatible?"
"Romantically." She smirked. "Wasn't in the stars."
I laughed. "And we are?"
"Planetary alignments and all? Yes. Definitely."
And I bet we make fantastic potions, too. "Like rosemary and ashwinder."
She blinked a moment. "Are you saying we make Amortentia?"
Count on Hermione to figure that out without need of explanation.
I shrugged. "A spot of it?"
She gave me a smug frown. "Well, I should hope we're more than a bit of Amortentia."
Well, of course. How silly of me. "It's not an infatuation. We're not an infatuation, yeah?"
That seemed to please her and she settled against me. "No. We're definitely not."
What we had before-the feelings we shared and dared not explore for a long time-was too precious to be squandered to the hurtful dramas of broken friendships and deep, scarring wounds. Ron was a part of us, and to say that the two of us wasn't his business would've been a betrayal, not only to Ron, but to the friendship the three of us shared. The three of us-we were real. Our friendship was true. It wasn't fabricated by the press, nor glamoured by a spell, or induced by a potion…
And Hermione and I, we valued this friendship, just as much as we deeply valued one another.
Because indeed, we weren't just an infatuation. We were most assuredly the real thing.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A/N: That's all, my friends! Thanks to Tome Raider for a fantastic beta-ing job!
I hope you liked this simple little romance. It's not much, but I'm always glad to write something worth posting. ^_^ Thanks for reading, all, and until next we read! See you!