Disclaimer: Nope, I don't own Harry Potter. Otherwise, Harmony would have been victorious…
A/N: Just a little ficlet that popped to my mind, and I had to write it down as it wouldn't let me rest if I didn't, lol. So, basically, I've seen fics regarding the epilogue as Harry's nightmare. What if it was Hermione's nightmare, instead?
Nightmare
"Parked all right, then?" Ron asked Harry. "I did. Hermione didn't believe I could pass a Muggle driving test, did you? She thought I'd have to Confund the examiner"
"No, I didn't" said Hermione. "I had complete faith in you"
…
"If you're not in Gryffindor, we'll disinherit you" said Ron, "but no pressure"
"Ron!"
Lily and Hugo laughed but Albus and Rose looked solemn.
"He doesn't mean it" said Hermione and Ginny, but Ron was no longer paying attention.
…
"Don't forget to give Neville our love!" Ginny told James as she hugged him.
"Mum! I can't give a Professor love!"
…
"He'll be alright" murmured Ginny
As Harry looked at her, he lowered his hand absent-mindedly and touched the lighting scar on his forehead.
"I know he will"
The scar had not pained Harry for nineteen years. All was well.
Hermione Granger trashed in her bed, suddenly waking up. She looked frantically around her, and relaxed seeing she was still in her room. She let out a breath she didn't even know she was holding.
The nightmare she had just had shook her, so the brunette decided to calm down going to the kitchen to get a glass of water. While she did so, someone started banging on her front door.
"Whoever it is, he's lucky I'm already awake, otherwise I'd be pissed off. If it's Ron, I swear…" she thought, but stopped seeing who was on the other side of the door.
"Harry!" she cried, letting him in. He wasn't looking very well, to say the least, and he just nodded his thanks, then headed to her couch, and sat there.
She tentatively moved and sat near him.
"What's wrong, Harry?" she asked softly.
"I proposed to Ginny" he blurted out, and she could smell alcohol from his breath. Hermione felt her chest tighten at the news.
"He must have gone celebrating, this is why he's drunk" she reasoned, and tried with all her might to be happy for him. It was just like in her nightmare, he would marry Ginny, and any little hope she had of getting together with him was going to be squashed.
But after all, if he was happy this way, she would not stop him. He deserved happiness, and she knew that better than anyone else. She had Ron, and the redhead would make a nice husband, although he wasn't Harry.
Hermione Granger wasn't a girl who usually set for second best but there are times in a young woman's life when it had to be done, no matter how much it might hurt you.
So she mustered her best smile, she knew a sober Harry would have called on her game immediately, as it didn't reach her eyes and he more than once had noticed things like that in the past, and spoke.
"Well, that's great! You are going to have a family like you've always dreamt!"
Harry looked at her sceptically. "She refused" he blurted out.
Saying that Hermione was shocked was an understatement. Ginny had fancied Harry since she was a little girl, why would she refuse to marry him?
"Said it wasn't going to work and that I had to open my eyes and see what had been in front of me for so long" he hollowly laughed. "And then I got to the pub, and got pissed to overcome the hurt of being rejected" he told her.
She nodded sympathetically.
"Then, the strangest thing happened. I was walking out of the pub, going home, and I couldn't get the image of you out of my head. I tried to clear my mind, but as I walked I kept recalling all the moments we passed together in our Hogwarts years, saving you from the Troll, you being petrified, working with you on the Accio spell for the tournament, which ended saving my life, seeing you hurt by Dolohov in the Ministry the night Sirius died…hearing your screams in Malfoy Manor…and it was like a veil was lifted from my eyes. I took you for granted for years, Hermione, but Ginny was right. I had been ignoring what was in front of me all this time, and now I know who is the witch I can't live without"
Hermione couldn't believe her ears, but probably was just him blurting out things under the alcohol effect. "You're drunk, Harry, you don't know what you're saying" she stated, matter-of-factly.
He shook his head. "No, Hermione. As they say, "in vino veritas". The alcohol is just letting me say what I want to say. I'm not so drunk, after all, I can still think quite clearly. I know you love Ron, Hermione, I just had to let you know how I feel"
"You think I love Ron?" Hermione asked, bewildered.
"Don't you?" Harry asked, amused. "You two have been an item for two years now, I would think you would have called it off already if you didn't"
Hermione felt herself blush. "The fact is, the one I really love was taken so I had no reason to break up with Ron" she admitted.
"And who would that lucky man be?" he asked, oblivious to her feelings for him. She was honestly frustrated with his blindness, and decided to show him.
As her lips found his own, Harry pulled her on his lap, kissing her back as fiercely, and caressing her sides while she had her hands buried in his unruly black hair.
As they kept kissing, and finding each other after a long time, Hermione couldn't help thinking that her nightmare was just that. A nightmare that would never really happen.
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