Opened Eyes

Opened Eyes

Rating: PG-13

Pairing: Harry/Hermione

Summary: Harry's POV. In which he reminisces about his past and thinks about his present, and how Hermione has always been his one constant. All it took was for him to open his eyes.

Authors Notes: I enjoyed writing this and hope that the person it was written for enjoys it as much. I would also like to thank my betas, who will know who they are.

~~~

It had always been the same routine. He would get up, go to work, come home, have dinner, and sit down with his wife to talk, watch the telly, or just enjoy each other's company.

His wife.

He couldn't help but reminisce about how he had finally opened his eyes to what many other people, including Ron and Ginny, had seen and supported for the longest time. They had always been perfect for one another, and it had taken her open hands and his open eyes to receive the love that had been borne not of jealousy and ill-will, but of the loyalty, friendship, and bravery that had bolstered their friendship for seven years.

�There are more important things.�

He would never forget those words that she had spoken to him on that day when he was eleven and she twelve, on their first major mission to save the world. His ears had always been open to receive her words, whether he wanted to hear them or not, whether he wanted to believe them or not.

She had always been his irrevocable, undeniable voice of reason. Every time he did something, he could not help but hear what she would say to him...only he heard it even when she wasn't around, which just went to show how dense he had been to not see how much he always needed her—how much he'd felt he still needed her, even after having been together in that way for eight years, and friends for almost twice that. He knew he would probably never stop needing her.

Every day, he would come home from his job as Assistant Head of the Ministry's Department of Magical Games and Sports, he would find her curled up in her favorite chair with a book, waiting for him. It had only been a few days since she'd given him the news that they were expecting an addition to the family, something that had prompted more of what caused it to come about in the first place.

He would never forget the first time they fully explored each other's bodies, or the way he had felt with her surrounding him. The feel of her skin against his, her lips against his, the way she would breathe his name as if she couldn't believe that this was actually happening, and her reaction when he would breathe her name back to her in exactly the same way. Just thinking about it made him want her even more every day, more than he could have ever wanted anyone else.

Hermione.

It was because of her that he had accumulated a large number of happy memories with which to fuel his patronus. By far his favorite, of course, had always been the day that they had stood with each other and pledged to love each other forever—not that they hadn't already, it was just that this had been the one and only time they would ever do it in front of friends and family...and the image of her in that elegant white gown and veil, with their hands, eyes, and hearts open, taking each other forever in that most intimate of ways...he would always cherish that moment because it truly meant that they were forever.

It had gone without saying that their first time as husband and wife would by far outstrip anything they had experienced before. Going without for the entire week leading up to the wedding had been pure torture for both of them, and the pent up energy that both of them had from the lack of contact had kept them up all night that first night of their honeymoon.

He would always maintain that she had the most perfect body he had ever seen, and he had worshiped it in the most thorough way he knew how. She had always said he was biased, which he would never deny, because he knew it to be true. He also enjoyed her ministrations on his own body, and that she had gained pleasure from giving it to him only intensified the experience.

Just thinking about it had always brought the vivid memories of how she looked when doing that to him. Before he had gotten to know her like this, he would have never thought her eyes could darken that much, or that those lips could be like that. He could tell that she enjoyed driving him to that brink, and it pleased him even more to know that she thoroughly enjoyed what he called returning the favor.

On his way home the day after she had told him about their little miracle, he had happened upon a shop in Muggle London, and had found the softest, most adorable stuffed lion cub. He had promptly bought it and took it home to her, and the look on her face when he handed it to her was enough to tempt him into doing that same thing once a week, but when he suggested the idea to her, she had told him that once was enough, and that she would like to go back to that store with him.

They joked about how their little one would be the smartest witch or wizard in their year at Hogwarts, and how they'd probably also inherit their dad's Quidditch skills. They both worried about the media and then decided that it wasn't really that important, that no matter what the media said or did, the important thing was that they would always know the truth and their close friends would, too.

She always said that as long as they had their eyes opened, they could get through anything together. He could never not believe her, since if it hadn't been for her, he would have never survived first year, let alone defeated Lord Voldemort, and then he would have never fallen in love with her and married her. And then, he would think, she wouldn't be having their child.

If the press had ever asked Harry Potter what the best thing that had ever happened to him was, he would have said that the day his eyes finally opened and saw how much Hermione Granger loved him had been the best thing that ever happened to him. And then he would say that it tied with both the day she had agreed to become Hermione Granger Potter, and that most recent event of finding out that soon there would be a little Potter running around.

Yes, Harry Potter was surely glad that his eyes had opened up to how much Hermione Granger Potter meant to him.

Fin.