Chapter 5
When Harry awoke from the first restful sleep in months, he was disappointed when he realized that Hermione wasn't sleeping next to him. Harry quickly put on his boxers and started searching for Hermione. He found her sitting in an armchair, reading a book.
"Good morning," Harry greeted her smiling. Hermione returned Harry's smile brightly and quickly walked up to him, giving him a thorough good morning kiss. Harry pulled Hermione in his arms and returned her kiss gently. "I missed you when I woke up alone this morning," Harry admitted.
Hermione gently caressed Harry's cheek and smiled shyly at him. "You looked so peaceful and I didn't want to wake you up, but when I lay next to you, watching you sleep, the memories of last night came back so vividly and all I wanted to do was kiss and touch you all over again. So I got up, before I couldn't control the temptation any longer," Hermione confessed.
Harry grinned at her admission. It was good to know that Hermione was as crazy about him as he was about her. "You don't have to control the temptation now..."
Hermione smiled and kissed Harry thoroughly, letting her hands explore his naked chest. Harry closed his eyes and returned Hermione's tender kisses and caresses. It didn't take long for their kiss to become more heated. Hermione started to tease Harry's nibbles with her finger tips and Harry reacted by gently kneading Hermione's breasts through her sweater, causing her to moan. Harry wondered if someday, these sounds coming from Hermione would lose their effect on him. Right now, he doubted that. The young man could already feel his body react to these sensual sounds in combination with Hermione's ministrations and the feeling of her soft breasts in his hands.
Hermione broke the kiss and grinned. "Feels like someone is eager to repeat last night's activities."
Harry returned her grin coyly. "I'd love to." Suddenly feeling insecure, Harry added, "If you want to, of course."
Hermione rolled her eyes. "Of course, I want to. I thought that was pretty obvious last night." Harry smiled brightly and pulled Hermione towards him for another long and passionate kiss. This time it was Harry who took Hermione's hand and guided her towards the bedroom. "You're overdressed." Harry stated when they were both lying on the still enlarged bed.
"Then we have to solve the problem, don't we?" Hermione decided and started to undress in front of Harry agonizingly slowly. Hermione stripped down to her underwear and then sat down next to Harry, who was still in his boxers.
"We're even now." Hermione stated with a sly grin. "It's your turn." Before Harry had a chance to respond, Hermione pushed him gently, so that he was lying on his back.
Afterwards, the young woman started kissing a line from Harry's chest down to his belly button. And she didn't stop there. Her kisses wandered lower and lower and eventually, Hermione started to pull down his boxers. Is she really going to do what I think she is going to do? Harry thought astonished. Before he managed to say something, he heard a very familiar voice anticipating his question.
"What the hell are you doing?!" Ron Weasley asked angrily. Harry and Hermione had been so busy with each other that they hadn't heard the third member of the golden trio enter the room.
"Ron!" Hermione quickly grabbed the blanket to cover herself and stared at her friend, not knowing what to say or do. Harry was equally stunned.
Before one of them had recovered enough to say something, Ron spoke again.
"Never mind, don't answer my question. I don't need an answer anyways. The situation is as obvious as it could be. I thought you guys would be happy to see me, but obviously, I'm just the odd one out to you. Haven't I always been? You know what? I'm leaving. I'm sure you don't mind," Ron shouted and left the tent.
"Ron!" Hermione called, but Ron didn't even turn around. Hermione looked at Harry. "I have to go after him. We can't let him leave like this."
Harry nodded. "I'll come with you."
Hermione gave Harry a skeptical look. "Harry, I know Ron is your friend, too and you want to talk to him. But, frankly, you're probably the last person in the world he wants to see right now."
Harry had to admit that Hermione was right, as usual. "Okay, just go and talk to him," he reluctantly agreed.
Hermione got dressed as quickly as possible and hasted out of the tent, hoping that she would manage to catch up with Ron before he walked out of her's and Harry's life for good.
She found herself facing the same Dilemma as Harry had the day before: She had no idea which direction Ron had taken. Hermione called her friend's name as loud as she could, hoping he was still in hearing distance. After a few moments she heard footsteps nearing and walked in the direction of the sound. A moment later, Hermione spotted Ron's bright red hair behind some narrow standing trees.
"Ron! I was afraid you'd already be too far away to hear me. I really need to talk to you. "
"You do?" Ron asked furiously. "I'm surprised. Thought you were to busy with Harry to even give good old Ron a second thought."
"Ronald Bilius Weasley! How can you said that after all we've been through together?! We've been friends for seven years now. Do you really think I would just throw that away? Maybe you're just judging me by your own standards. After all it's been you who just ran away and left your friends," Hermione replied, as angry as Ron.
"I came back! I came back because I realized that I'd been a total git to leave you two like that, okay? I thought you'd miss me! But it didn't look like that!" The redhead shouted back.
"You think we didn't miss you?!" Hermione asked disbelieving. "Damn, Ron, I cried myself to sleep every night after you left! Harry barely slept at all! He lay awake for hours before falling asleep, just to be woken up by a nightmare of You-Know-Who a few hours later!"
"Well, it didn't look like you cried yourself to sleep last night," Ron said, looking accusingly at Hermione, but sounding a little less angry.
"No, I didn't," Hermione admitted, quickly contemplating what she wanted to tell Ron.
"Harry was really down after you left, Ron. He insisted to wear that damned locket every night. He wanted to give me the opportunity to have a restful sleep when I was exhausted after wearing the locket during the day. The locket made his nightmaresmuch worse though. He had these visions of You-Know-Who every night and was too shaken to go back to sleep after these dreams. Yesterday, I tried to help Harry shield his mind from Voldemort by training Occlumency with him. Somehow that ended up with Harry seeing a memory of me that gave away my feelings for him. After that, he finally worked up the courage to tell me that he feels the same. I know what happened between me and Harry was sudden, but none of us knows how much time we've left together. He could die Ron! Or I could. Nobody knows what the future will bring. I just want to give and take as much love as I can today, in case there won't be a tomorrow for Harry and me. I've loved Harry for a long time, Ron. I care a lot for you, but only in a friendly way. I'm sorry that this hurts you, but I can't change the way I feel. Please don't walk away like that, Ron. If you do, this might be the last conversation we ever have."
Ron was stunned for a moment, when he realized that Hermione was right. If he left his friends now, he might never see them again. "That's not what I want, Hermione. I don't want to leave you and Harry to fight on your own. I just… I need some time. I thought we might have a future together, Hermione! Seeing you with Harry, like that, was a shock. You can't expect me to leap for joy!"
Hermione gave her friend an apologetic look. "I don't expect anything like that. I know I hurt you and I'm so sorry. I should have told you long ago, that I love you as a friend and nothing more. I didn't want to hurt you and I thought I might start to like you the way you like me when we start dating. But I didn't and now I just ended up hurting you more than I would have, if I had been honest right away. I just hope this won't destroy our friendship. It would be horrible for me to lose you and I know Harry would be devastated, too."
Ron nodded. "Yeah, I know. Just give me some time alone, okay?"
"It's okay. Take as much time as you need. We will wait for you," Hermione promised.
She watched Ron leave and turned around to go back to Harry.
Meanwhile, Harry had been sitting in an armchair, watching the tent entrance. He was fighting with a bunch of different emotions. On the one hand, he really hoped Hermione could convince Ron to come back. Ron had been his closest friend since he was eleven and it had hurt Harry very much when he had left. It would mean a lot to him to have Ron by his side again. On the other hand, he had enjoyed the newfound togetherness with Hermione and he knew they couldn't act that openly as a couple with Ron being with them anymore. The selfish side of him would miss that. And there was this little part of him, that noticed how eager Hermione had been to follow Ron as quickly as possible. This part noted that Hermione had wanted to speak to Ron in private and that she hadn't taken the time to give Harry a kiss before she left. Stop thinking like that! Harry reprimanded himself. Ron is her friend. Our friend! She just doesn't want to lose him. She loves you, she told you so yesterday. Even though Harry kept telling himself that there was no need to be jealous, he couldn't fight of the jealousy completely.
Given his current state of mind, Harry wasn't sure if he should be relieved when he saw Hermione enter the tent or disappointed that she came alone. Harry carefully studied her face. She looked serious and sad. That was probably a bad sign. But she didn't cry like she had when Ron had left last time. Maybe that was a good sign.
"I guess it didn't go that well?"Harry asked.
Hermione went up to Harry, sat down on his lap and placed her arms around his neck. She needed Harry close to her right now. "Better than I expected, actually. Ron was really angry, but when I told him what we went through without him and that he might never see any of us again, if he leaves us to fight alone, he calmed down. He said he needed time to accept this, though. I promised we would wait for him."
Harry nodded. After a moment of silence, he told Hermione: "I'm sorry."
Hermione looked at Harry confused. "Sorry? What are you sorry for?"
"I'm sorry that you have to live like this because of me. I'm sorry that you had to leave your parents. I'm sorry that you have to live in a freezing tent with too little food, always worrying about the future. And I'm sorry that you've no contact to any of your friends anymore and that you might lose Ron because of me, too. You deserve so much better," Harry explained sadly.
Hermione couldn't believe what she heard. "Harry, would you please stop apologizing all the time? I'm here because there's no place I'd rather be than by your side. I love you more than anything else in the world. I'd be miserable if I were safely at Hogwarts, visiting my parents for Christmas like everything was alright, while you're out here on your own. I'm where I belong."
Harry didn't know what to say, so he just pulled Hermione in a firm hug, holding her as close as possibly.He had no idea what he had done to deserve someone as wonderful as Hermione, but he would forever be grateful to have her by his side.
They didn't know if they sat there for minutes or hours when they heard a sound at the tent entrance. Startled, they both grabbed their wands and pointed them at the door, but lowered them quickly when they heard Ron's voice.
"Guys, it's me. Is it safe to come in? I mean, are you dressed and everything?"
Hermione suppressed a laugh and Harry grinned.
"The coast is clear, mate. You can come in," Harry answered and Hermione quickly stood up. It was clearly better if Ron didn't find her sitting in Harry's lap when he came in.
"Hi," Ron sheepishly greeted his friends.
"Hi," Harry answered, clearly embarrassed when he remembered how Ron had last seen him.
After a moment of awkward silence, Ron spoke again. "Listen, I want to come back. I want to help you both. You are my friends and I don't want to leave you guys alone like this. I'll come to terms with you two being together eventually. I just hope you know a damn good silencing spell, because I'm going to use the second bedroom and I sure as hell don't want to hear what's going on in yours, okay?"
Hermione smiled broadly at Ron. "Don't worry, you won't hear a thing."
"Good," Ron answered. "And Harry: If you hurt her, I'll break your bones, you know that, right?"
Harry grinned. "I know." Looking more severe he added, "You won't have to. I'll do anything in my powers to keep Hermione happy."
Ron nodded and the three of them sat down at the kitchen table, after Hermione had made some tea.
"So, what's for dinner?" Ron asked and Hermione gave him a furious glance. Ron chuckled. "Just kidding."
Harry smiled when he watched the small exchange between his friends. Everything was back to normal and for the first time in ages, Harry had the feeling that things would be alright eventually. He didn't know where to find the remaining Horcruxes or how to destroy them, but he believed that the three of them would find a way. They always had.