A/N: Midterms blow. Keep me happy with reviews! Hope you like this part!
*
"Ron, are you scared?" Hermione asked him.
Ron gulped not knowing how to answer that question. Instead he said, "Well, Hermione, are you scared?"
She looked away from him, staying silent.
"Me too," Ron said.
*
By the time they Apparated back to Grimmauld Place it was past midnight. Hermione went up to bed yawning widely, bidding Harry and Ron goodnight. The two watched her go.
"Well, I don't blame her. She was up early today doing research," Ron said, kicking his shoes off.
Harry grunted in reply, hanging up his coat. He hadn't said much to the two of them the rest of the evening ever since they returned to the living room from the balcony back at Fred and George's.
Ron noted Harry's strange demeanor but ignored it. "Do you think we'll be able to find out what the next Horcrux is?"
"I don't know, Ron," Harry answered tiredly. He didn't feel like talking to Ron tonight. He just wanted to go right to bed like Hermione.
Ron shrugged. "Well, I guess if anyone is going to find out it'll be Hermione," he said.
"Of course," Harry said stiffly.
Ron slammed the closet door a little harder than necessary. "What's your problem, Harry?" he asked.
"Wouldn't you like to know?" Harry snarled. He didn't care whether or not it was Ron's birthday. Technically, it wasn't since it was past midnight. He was tired and annoyed over...
"Hermione," Ron said simply.
Harry whipped around. "What?"
Ron was staring at him seriously, arms crossed as he leaned against the staircase railing. "Your problem. Hermione."
"Why would it...?" Harry turned around shaking his head. "It's not Hermione."
"Oh, so is it Ginny then?"
"No!" Harry snapped.
"Then it has to be Hermione."
"Well, right now it's you if you don't quit it."
Ron laughed lightly. "Look, Harry, we could dance around this all night but to be frank, I know you too well."
Harry had a hard time believing this. Ron wasn't the most perceptive bloke on the planet and after seven years of knowing him, this was really the first time he ever confronted Harry about this type of issue. Harry scoffed.
"Think what you want," Ron said, still in that annoyingly cool tone of his. "Being around Hermione a lot has rubbed off on me."
"Oh, I can see that," Harry blurted out. Ron visibly stiffened.
"What do you mean by that?" he asked, his eyes narrowing.
"I don't think I need to explain what I mean by that," Harry replied coldly. "You know very well what I mean."
"Are you jealous?" Ron asked incredulously, his eyes widening.
"I'm tired. I'm going to bed." Harry started up the staircase.
"You're bloody jealous!" Ron said, following him up the stairs. Harry ignored him. "Why are you jealous? You have nothing to be jealous about!"
Harry huffed and stopped in his tracks. "Nothing to be jealous about? I'm sorry, Ron, but you guys are my two best friends and with the way the two of you have been running off together to be alone, well..."
"You notice us running off? Now?"
"Of course I notice you running off! And what do you mean by now?"
Harry clenched his fists. Ron wore an expression of mirth that he really wanted to punch.
"Mate, Hermione and me aren't together! Not now anyway."
Harry blinked. "What do you mean by now?" he repeated.
The tips of Ron's ears turned slightly red. "I-I don't know if I should be the one telling you this."
"Well, who then?" Harry asked, crossing his arms.
"Okay, Harry, look. Don't be mad, all right? Hermione and I... we went out." Ron stared apprehensively into Harry's face. "We dated... for a little bit."
Harry remained quiet. The inside of his head was screaming, however.
"We didn't tell anyone. You weren't the only one we kept quiet around. No one knew. But, well, it just didn't work out." Ron shrugged, his voice faltering.
"Why are you telling me this?"
"Well," Ron said, "you mentioned on how you noticed us `running off together'." He quoted with his fingers. "I just find it funny how you never noticed it when we did it before. Only... now."
Harry turned away from him and began marching up the stairs again.
"Harry, do you fancy her?" Ron called after him. He didn't answer. "I think you should talk to her!" Ron called again. His only response was the sound of a door slamming.
*
Harry didn't rest easily that night. His dreams, for once not plagued by Voldemort, were instead full of dreams involving Ron and Hermione.
Harry, do you fancy her?
Ron's question echoed in his head even in the morning.
Yes, I fancy her.
But Harry couldn't help but question his own feelings. Did he really? Or was he simply jealous that his two "best" friends shared something that he hadn't been a part of?
Nights full of coldness and warm arms encircling each other filled his mind, and a moment where a heated kiss was shared hummed throughout his entire body.
He needed to talk to her. For real.
He found her in one of Grimmauld Place's drawing rooms. Ripped and worn tapestries hung on the walls, each one depicting a different kind of Dark creature. Harry couldn't understand how Hermione was able to work in here. She was hunched over a molding desk, books and parchment scattered all around her. Her hair was haphazardly clipped back, her fingertips were stained with ink and her mouth was absently muttering things as a quill and parchment floated in front of her, scribbling frantically.
"Hermione?" Harry called from the doorway.
Hermione looked up, startled, the quill and parchment dropping from its floating state.
"Oh! Harry, it's just you," she said. A small smile lit up her face and for once it almost seemed like things were back to how it used to be. But upon seeing the serious expression on Harry's face, the smile immediately disappeared. "Wh-what is it?"
Harry took a step into the room. He had no idea how to start. He figured the best way was to sort of ease the topic in, but things between him and Hermione had been so distant as of late that he couldn't even conjure up small talk. He cleared his throat, shoving his hands into the pocket of his jeans.
"Er..." he began. He looked down at his feet. For a moment, he thought he saw Hermione make a move as if she were going to step closer to him from the other side of the desk, but when he looked back up she was still in the same spot. "I-I was wondering if you wanted to practise some dueling," he finished lamely.
"Dueling?" Hermione asked, blinking.
"Y-yeah," Harry said, shrugging. "Remember what Kingsley said. We need to practise as much as we can and... we haven't done so in a while. I'm always dueling with Ron and I'm starting to know how he moves." At least that much was true.
"Oh, sure," Hermione said, beginning to gather up her stuff on the desk. "Just give me a minute to get ready. I'll meet you upstairs?"
"Yeah. Upstairs." Harry turned on his heel and proceeded to the large, empty room where they practised dueling, wondering if he'll ever be able to talk to Hermione about... this.
*
"Harry? You in here?"
Harry immediately stood up from his sitting position on the mats on the floor. "Y-yeah! I'm here."
Hermione walked over to the middle of the room. "Okay. Let's do this."
"Right." Harry walked to stand across from her, telling himself to slip into dueling mode. He trained hard to put outside feelings away when it came time to duel.
Suddenly, without warning, Harry felt a weight slam into him and his wand leapt out of his grasp. Luckily he was able to grab onto the wand and hold it before it went any farther. He looked up. Hermione stared at him with her eyebrows raised. Harry wasn't fighting like normal. It seemed like his mind was elsewhere... no niceties were exchanged during these duels because it was more than likely that a Death Eater was not going to show you some. Usually he was on the alert, putting up a Protego Charm in a flash.
Just then a jet of red light came flashing toward her and she ducked just in time, rolling over and getting onto her feet as fast as possible. It was like a switch had been turned on. Harry was sending hex after hex and Hermione barely had anytime to put up shields and throw in a few curses herself.
"You're being too defensive," Harry said to her as she erected yet another shield, causing the jet of red light to bounce off of it. "You have to be on the offense, too!" He threw another curse and yet again, Hermione threw up a shield.
She gritted her teeth. It was all well and good for Harry to say all that, but he wasn't giving her a chance!
Death Eaters aren't going to give you any chances, either.
Hermione took a deep breath and finally launched a spell at him.
Expelliarmus!
But Harry was able to put up a shield just as fast as she was. He threw another one at her and this time, a Stinging Hex grazed her shoulder. She didn't dwell on it too long. She, Harry and Ron got these all the time during their duels with one another. They were easy to heal.
"Offense!" Harry yelled, annoying Hermione.
"Quit telling me what to do and just duel!" she yelled back, sending a jet of red light streaking toward him. He ducked out of the way.
"I'm just trying to help!" he said, as another jet of red light just missed his right ear.
"Well, don't! Death Eaters aren't going to be helping me, are they?" She threw up another shield, but still managed to slide a few feet backwards with the force of the curse Harry sent.
"Fine!" Harry sent another curse, not realising how much force he was putting into them. Hermione bit her lip as the curse bounced off her shield but still sent her sliding back. She Apparated to a different part of the room, throwing Harry off but he was back in the game quickly.
He was doing it again. She couldn't get any curses in. Harry was just too fast. A part of her was proud with his quickness with the wand, but another part of her was getting aggravated.
EXPELLIARMUS!
Her mind screamed and sure enough, the curse flew at Harry at an alarming speed. He tried to throw up a shield but this time, he wasn't fast enough and the curse was particularly strong this time. He had the wind knocked out of him and he felt his wand fly from his grip. Breathing hard, he watched as his wand flew into Hermione's outstretched arm. He desperately thought "Accio!" to get it back although he knew it wasn't going to work.
But then, before Hermione could grab the wand it began to float back toward him. Hermione's eyes widened in disbelief. Harry couldn't believe what was happening. His concentration on his wand broke and it clattered to the floor. The two of them stared at it, breathing hard from exertion. Hermione looked up at him.
"Harry... did you just do wandless magic?"
Harry shook his head. "I-I don't know!"
Hermione bent down and picked up his wand. Walking over and handing it to him, she stared levelly into his eyes. "Do you have any idea what his means?" she asked him.
Harry cradled his wand as if it were made of glass. "No..." He looked at her, slightly surprised to see that she was smiling.
"Harry! This means that... well... you're powerful!" She took a hold of his wand again to examine it, Harry noticing how her hands held his for a moment. "Bloody powerful, is how Ron would put it," she said with a smile, staring at his wand. "Of course we knew that you were powerful, what with conjuring a Patronus at thirteen, but this just strengthens that fact!" She babbled on excitedly. "You have to practise this! We should let Remus know, he'll know what to do. Or maybe even McGonagall. I'm pretty sure Dumbledore said something in his journals... those could help. This could be an advantage! Wandless magic is very difficult. Voldemort can probably do it, but now that you can do it, too, with practise of course, it's putting you two on a level playing field for once. Oh, Harry!" She threw her arms around him as he listened to her rapid talking in shock.
Hermione pulled back from him, her arms still wrapped around his neck. "I always knew you were above the rest," she whispered happily. Harry looked at her, her hair in disarray from dueling, wearing a simple white tank top and black sweat pants, but with her face smiling because she was proud of him. Her breath came out in short gasps from talking so fast.
"You did? You do?" Harry asked.
Hermione beamed. "Of course! Why do you think I always push you so hard?" She laughed and it seemed as if all the awkwardness between them for the past few weeks evaporated into thin air. At least for this moment.
Harry suddenly realized the position they were in. His arms rested on her waist and hers were wrapped around his neck. They were so close...
The air in the room had suddenly changed. Hermione pulled back farther, forcing Harry to let her go. "We should let Remus know now," she said. "Then you can start practising it as soon as possible." She bent down to pick up her wand from when she had dropped it in excitement. "Good practise, Harry," she said before turning around and heading toward the door.
Harry watched her go for a good five steps before calling out, "Hermione, wait!"
She turned around and with quick strides, Harry walked up to her, standing very close, face to face. "You... you really think I can do this? I can master all this and... and..."
Hermione reached up to stroke his cheek. "Harry," she whispered. "You're a great wizard, you know."
"Not as good as you," he quickly said, the words sounding familiar.
Hermione scoffed. "Me-"
Harry cut her off. "Yes... you." And he leaned in and kissed her.
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