Disclaimer: Not mine. You know how it would have ended if it was, right?
A/N: My response to the "Kissing Santa" Challenge by leochick, which can be found here: http://talk.portkey.org/index.php?showtopic=26200. Hope you'll enjoy it, and please leave me a comment if you read, so that I know what you think of it.
Kissing The Wrong Santa
Chapter Fourteen: An Epiphany And Consequent Actions
With a faint "Oh" she fell to the ground, feeling darkness envelope her.
Harry rushed to her side immediately.
"Sarah! Sarah!" he called, trying to shake her, but to no avail. The eyes of the girl remained closed. Still, he could feel a pulse.
"We need to go back, immediately!" he ordered. All the Aurors rushed out of the building, running back to the wood where their Portkey was. Hermione watched the scene unfold dazedly. She mechanically followed the others to Auror Quarters, where Harry left them to accompany Sarah at St. Mungo's.
Once there Harry carried Sarah in his arms to the reception. "I need an Healer, now!" he shouted.
"You will have to wait, mister" a receptionist told him.
Harry glared menacingly at him. "I am Harry Bloody Potter, so you will find me an Healer now!" he growled. Luckily, Ron happened to be passing by the reception at the moment.
"Harry! What's happened?" he said, going to see his friend and the girl he had in his arms.
"She was hit by a curse, the light of the spell was black" he told to his redhead friend.
"Come with me" Ron said, "We will put her in a room where she will be able to rest alone."
As time passed and the healers worked on Sarah, Harry couldn't stop pacing.
Finally, Ron came out of the room.
"First the good news. She's not going to die"
Harry released a breath he didn't even know he was holding.
"You're lucky you brought her here so soon, a couple hours and she would have lost all her memories, and she wouldn't even know her own name."
Harry gasped. Ron put an hand on his arm.
"At the moment we are doing our best to make her wake up, however the main effect of the curse is broken so there's no worry for her memories. Still, she is in a lot of pain as we still need to break a secondary effect of the curse, which is to make the person hit relive his, or her in this case, worst memories"
Harry sighed. "Can I see her?"
"Of course" Ron smiled. "Not more than ten minutes, though"
"Thanks, Ron"
"Anything for my best friend" the redhead grinned before going to join his fellow healers.
As Harry entered the room, he could see she was hurting. Her usually peaceful face was distorted in a suffering stance, and she was moving agitatedly in her bed. He sat near her, and placed his hand on her arm.
"Sweetheart, I'm here now. You're going to be fine, I promise" he whispered softly to her. Then, as the ten minutes Ron had conceded him were finished, he thought he should leave to give space to the healers to do their job.
As he exited the room, he was surprised to find Hermione there, sitting in front of the door, her stare fixed on the wall ahead of her.
"Hermione, what are you doing here?" he asked.
"I…I just had to see how she was" she whispered. Harry kneeled down in front of her, and saw tears pooling in her eyes.
Suddenly, she started sobbing. "I'm so sorry, Harry!" she said, wiping away her tears. "It's my fault, if I had seen him sooner…"
"Hermione, it's not your fault" Harry tried reasoning with her but she wouldn't listen.
"I'm so sorry for having failed you, Harry" she sobbed, "you were just starting to be happy, and now…all because of my distraction…"
Harry's heart tore at seeing her this distraught over something she had no control of. If anything, it was him and the other Aurors that were directly in front of the door the dark wizard had come out from who could have noticed him sooner, not her. Still, she blamed herself and now was in so much pain, and if there was something Harry had never been able to stand was to see Hermione hurting.
"Come here" he gently said to her. Then he moved to hug her tightly and held her close to him, letting her stain his shirt with her tears.
After some minutes, once she had calmed a bit, he looked into her eyes, and what he found there broke his heart even more. In those two chocolate orbs he could spot fear, and most of all guilt.
He hugged her tightly again, and whispered, "Oh, Hermione"
And he knew in that moment that as hard he may try to get over her, he would never succeed as he would always be in love with the girl actually in his arms.
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Some days had passed since Sarah had left the hospital, and Harry knew what he needed to do. It was unfair to lead her on when he loved Hermione, and Sarah was an amazing girl who deserved true happiness, something he couldn't give her. He had thought lots about that, but in the end he knew that sooner he did it, the less it would hurt.
They were currently cuddling in front of the television in his flat, as she was still taking some days off to completely regain her strength.
Mustering all his Gryffindor courage, Harry finally spoke.
"Sarah…I think we should talk" he started.
"I know that tone, and this is not going to be good" she commented, turning toward him.
He shook his head, smiling sadly. "No, this won't be good. Not immediately, but I think in the long run it's for the best"
"Are you breaking up with me, Harry?" Sarah bluntly asked. He was caught off guard, and yet her ability to understand things had been one of the features he had most enjoyed of her, as it reminded him of Hermione, in some way.
He nervously nodded. "Sarah…" he started, but she suddenly stood up.
"Sarah, wait!" he said following her but she stopped only on his front door, tears in her eyes. "Good luck to you and Hermione" she said, with a trembling smile.
"How do you know it's Hermione?" Harry asked, bewildered, and at the same time confirming her guess. "Never mind" he said then with a chuckle.
This girl was really amazing and she would make a man really happy some day. Unluckily, that man couldn't be him as his heart already belonged to another amazing witch.
"Can we still be friends?" he asked then, serious.
"Might take some time and a bit of awkwardness" she answered, "but I think eventually we will be"
He nodded, and with that she was gone.
Sighing, Harry retreated into his flat.
"Now, onto part two of solving this mess" he muttered to himself.
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Hermione was enjoying a nice hot relaxing bath in her flat, as it had been some stressing days for her till Sarah left the hospital, as Hermione still blamed herself for it, when suddenly her doorbell rang.
Cursing against the bad timing of whoever was on the other side of her door, she put on a robe and went to open.
Imagine her surprise when she saw Harry in front of her with a single white rose in his hand.
"Harry!" she exclaimed.
"Would you like to go out with me tonight?" he sheepishly asked.
"What about Sarah?" she asked, frowning.
"I've broken up with her. It wasn't fair for me to lead her on when my heart has always belonged to you and always will" he said, shrugging.
Hermione pulled him inside her flat from the collar of his coat, slammed the door shut with a kick, and kissed him fiercely.
That was all the answer he needed, as he kissed her back, the single rose forgotten on the floor, his hands sneaking to her back, pulling her closer, while her right hand nestled into his hair, caressing it. Their tongues were fighting for dominance, and now and then a playful nibble would come from one of the two parties, while Harry gently pushed Hermione back toward the living room.
She moaned softly into his mouth, making Harry growl with desire. His left hand snuck under the robe, caressing her bare back, and then daring to go lower onto her buttocks, which earned him a playful glare from the brown haired witch.
Breaking the kiss for a moment, Harry spoke. "Considering your attire though, a nice night in wouldn't be bad too" he smirked.
She giggled softly before claiming his lips again in an heated kiss.
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