There was something about the rain that day.
It was the way it made her smile, she concluded. Its minuscule drops reflected the infinitesimal bits of light from outside into her dark flat, somehow illuminating the hands that remained clasped by her lap. They looked like small blemish spots on her skin. She shifted slightly.
She somehow wished that her parents bought her a more comfortable couch.
With a sigh of heavy irritation, she lifted her legs onto the armrest, having her head on the other side. It was only then that she appreciated that single piece of antique furniture. It would make a comfortable bed for the night.
She looked sideways, only to be greeted by stacks of heavy boxes. She rolled her eyes on how lazy she had become, and pondered on when she would actually have the will to unpack. It wasn't very Hermione-like, she thought.
She wriggled her toes in restlessness.
She wondered on how she looked like at that moment. Well whatever it was, she thought, she may have represented everything she hated at that point. But then she partly commended herself on turning from an esteemed, confident young woman, to a depressed, overly emotional slob of a person in a very short period of time.
The rain somehow mocked her.
She took hold of the throw pillow behind her and threw it to the defenseless window, which seemed to have fogged in an hour's time.
"Ruddy prat." She muttered under her breath. By her peripheral vision, she saw the frame glisten by her left. She didn't even bother to look at the picture. Merlin knew how much it angered her when she looked at it.
&
"Oh, come on you two! Just one picture!" Ron held the camera excitedly within his fingertips. Upon his major discovery of its existence, he has been taking pictures of possibly everyone and everything. From trees, to ants, to the four couples snogging in the Potions room, he has taken a picture of it all. Although there was something about this scenery that made Hermione wish it was never captured.
"Ron, lay off the poor camera, will you?" She side glanced him, almost in amusement as he scolded her other mate.
"Harry, you don't get it! This magnificent piece of art is just amazing! The design is just…incomparable!" She was somehow amazed at how much excitement a disposable camera could give. She felt the small nudge he gave her, making her chuckle slightly. She saw the smallest trace of a smile on his lips.
"Ronald, just take the picture already." She saw Ron grin madly. She knew something wasn't right. She felt it.
"I just did."
&
She stared at it intensely. She didn't care if she had made an oath to herself to never look at it again. Hermione particularly hated Ron at that moment for being so devious. She stared at them both, looking so unbelievably comfortable with each other. She half wished he had never nudged her and caused her to smile like that.
Not even the rain made her grin madly as she did in that picture.
With her eyes shut tight, tears leaked sideways onto the couch. Her heart palpitated loudly beneath her chest, and she cursed herself endlessly for letting her emotions get the best of her once again. You see, this is the Hermione she had longed to destroy, together with the untamable bushy hair, which she particularly loathed.
Even in her own clothes, she felt a growing need to drown herself in the thought of stiletto heels and red flowing hair just to get his attention.
It wasn't like her to be insecure. She was always the type of person who would just throw anything on and start a day with a smile. Although now, she does otherwise. Frown included. It came with the package.
"Meet Hermione Granger. Slob, emotionally distressed, and a hopeless romantic. Likes long walks on the beach and roasted chicken. How lovely."
"I didn't know you liked roasted chicken." Her feet fell loudly onto the floor, and she cursed audibly at the sudden pain she felt by the soles of her feet. He laughed behind her.
"Must you always sneak up on me like that?" She said in frustration, although making sure that there was a slight hint of amusement in her tone. He took a seat beside her. Suddenly, she didn't feel so lonely. Maybe it was because the rain suddenly stopped.
"Yes, I must. It's a duty of mine."
"If they ever find me dead due to shock, I will haunt you in the afterlife." She said, tucking her feet beneath her.
"I didn't know you believed in the afterlife?" He questioned her. She glanced at him, a grin playing on her lips.
"After finding out that magic existed, I started believing in lots of different things." He looked skeptically at her. She seemed the least bit amused.
"Oh, really?"
"Yes, really. It's like how I started to believe in narcissism and its existence in particular people with raven black hair." He thought of a witty rebuttal to her words, and somehow, he knew that she had won.
"Brilliant I must say, although I need to insult your efforts at humor. It's pretty poor, 'Mione." He earned himself a playful slap on the arm.
"You're an insensitive git, you know that?" She couldn't care more that he scooted closer to her. The couch couldn't be smaller than it already is.
"Yes, and it's one of the many reasons why you love me." The sudden splatter of the rain on her window startled her. She thought of a smart reply, but was at a lost for words.
"Yes it is." Her lack of eye contact amused him. She really hated being unconfident. Her lack of self-esteem was starting to affect her social life.
Harry tapped his fingers audibly on his knees, instantly gaining Hermione's attention.
"So Harry, you never really told me why you rudely interrupted my peaceful night." She asked. She hated uncomfortable silences. It always seemed to bother her when people have nothing much to say.
"Well, aside from the fact that I love bothering you, I thought you could use some company. Having that this is your first time to actually live alone, I just assumed it would be lonely." Somehow, she loved how he was right. In a crazy state of mind, she would actually think that he was smarter than her. But she wasn't in that state just yet.
"You know me so well." She batted her eyelashes at him. A second after, she stopped. She hated her stupidity as well.
"I'm supposed to know you well. I'm the only best mate you have." She chuckled.
"What about Ronald? Doesn't he count as a best mate?" Somehow, jealousy flashed in his eyes. She concluded, however, that she was just hallucinating.
"Oh, Yeah. There's Ron. But honestly, when was the last time you've heard from him?" Hermione stopped and thought for a while.
"That time Luna gave birth to their first child." He looked at her skeptically.
"He has four kids now. Is that a good enough reason?" She pondered for a bit, fully aware that her face scrunched up into a frown for him to see.
"Harry, a best mate's a best mate. Nothing ever changes."
"Not unless you start falling in love with them. Something's bound to change." Somehow, his words urged
her to look at the photograph. Her body was relaxed, not the least bit pulsed by what he said.
"And that, my dearly beloved Harry James Potter, is why I'm so miserable." She sighed. He didn't seem so pulsed as well.
"Really darling?" He said bemusedly, making his accent rougher than usual. She now shifted her gaze at him.
"Yes, darling. Because you see, it's pretty much a fact that I'm in love with you." It was a huge relief for her to finally get it out. Yet again, she wasn't expecting him to be so comfortable about it. He looked back at her, a small grin playing on his lips.
He nudged her.
And she nudged back.
"You know dear, you should be less obvious about those things." He said. She laughed.
"I know. I'm pretty dimwitted like that." They now sat in silence. It wasn't awkward, and it wasn't comfortable either. It was just the way it should be.
"Does this mean you're shaggable now?" Her lack of eye contact still amuses him up to this point.
"Pretty much, yes." He grinned like a madman. So did she.
"Lovely." She grabbed his collar in an instant. Maybe it was out of emotional distress, she thought. Or maybe it was because she was just so particularly randy at that moment. And so as they devoured each other, all the while leaving each other breathless, Hermione heard the rain mock her again.
It was like a child that sticks his tongue out at you.
It was like a big fat 'I Told You So'.
Just as Harry dipped his face into the pulse point of her neck, the rain pattered by her window loudly. The ripping of her shirt was the last coherent sound she had heard, before being drowned by the sound of heavy rain patting on the sidewalk.
And it remained a big mystery to her when she woke up the next day, bare naked beside Harry's sleeping figure, to find their bodies soaking wet and nothing else. She was quite sure it wasn't perspiration.
&
A/N: Pretty OC HHr, if I must say. The thought of portraying them as witty, mature individuals made me come up with this. The ending is pretty vague-slightly-so it's up to you to imagine what happened in that small love making time span. :3
Good day, loves!