A/N: This is a slight rewrite of the first chapter I originally posted, you don't have to read it again if you already read it. I plan on continuing this story; it just might take a while. I hope you enjoy!
Disclaimer: I don't own anything
"I wonder if Harry's ever said 'I love you'" Hermione's eyes stopped scanning over the words in her book for a moment as she tried to make sense of his words.
"Excuse me?" She asked resting her head against his chest. She awkwardly positioned her head so she could at least see him a bit.
"I wonder if Harry has ever said 'I love you' to anyone," Ron reiterated. Hermione put her book down and shifted her body so she was sitting and facing him.
"Why do you say that?"
"Well, I mean sure he's dated his share of girls, but do you think he dated any of them long enough to love them?" Ron asked earnestly. Hermione didn't really like to think about Harry dating loads of girls or being in love with any of them.
"I- I don't know I've never thought about it really. Anyway, it's not really any of our business, is it?" She suddenly didn't like the way this conversation was going.
"I guess not, I just was wondering well- do you think he was ever in love with Ginny?" Ron asked thoughtfully. Hermione fought the urge to roll her eyes. She was getting slightly annoyed with this Ron who was suddenly so engrossed in the lives of others.
"I don't know you'd have to ask him that. I wouldn't think so though, he didn't seem too broken up about her after the split." She decided firmly, then added, "The second time." Then she saw the defensive glint in Ron's eyes.
"So, what? Are you saying he was just messing with her?" This time she did roll her eyes.
"Oh please Ron we both know Harry isn't that kind of guy. I don't know how he felt about Ginny okay? Anyway it's in the past. Let bygones be bygones and let sleeping dogs lie." She sighed.
"You muggles and your sayings; they don't make a lick of sense." She quirked her eyebrow at his own terminology before settling back against him and picked up her book. After a few moments of relative silence she stopped again, the conversation bothering her more than she would like to admit.
"Why do you even care?" she asked suddenly as if his motive had unexpectedly come as an afterthought to her.
Ron sighed as if explaining his reasoning to a child. "Think about it, Herms." She inwardly cringed a little. "Harry was too young to talk to his parents, his relatives were pure rubbish to him, and I don't see him getting into a mushy talk about his feelings with Sirius, so really we're looking at someone who has never said 'I love you' to anyone. Possibly. Don't you think that's strange?" Hermione stiffened, allowing herself to realize that Ron had pointed out a fact that she had overlooked. How odd. Then a whole other realization dawned on her, as if coming in delayed waves of comprehension.
~*~*~
Harry had showed up at her apartment, soaked. She nearly chided him about dripping all over her wood floors but then she saw the look on his face. He was holding his side and was nearly on all fours.
"Hermione-"
"Oh my gosh! Harry!" She rushed over to stand next to him, putting his arm around her neck and helping to move him to the nearby couch. "Harry, what happened? You're hurt. We have to go to the hospital!"
"No!" He shouted fervently. "Hermione I'm okay. I knew I shouldn't have come here. I knew you'd worry."
"Of course I'd worry! I'm always worried about you! Look at you! What happened?" she asked all of these questions while pushing him into a resting position on the couch and pulling a blanket around him. She pushed his sloppy, wet hair to the side as she found a bloody cut next to his scar.
"Auror business." She tsked exasperatedly.
"Don't they have special doctors you can see? What are they making you do out there?" she forced his hands away from his sides revealing a bubbling wound. She sharply inhaled at how painful it looked before she pushed his shirt up further to reveal some more cuts and bruises raised against his smooth stomach. "You're lucky I can heal these." She said not quite mustering a harsh tone. She looked up to meet his eyes as they stared intently into hers. She suddenly noticed her hands were resting on his bare chest. She blushed and quickly removed them, quietly casting the charms and watching as his skin slowly healed over.
"You know you really should learn how to heal these kinds of wounds yourself." She said in her best know-it-all voice. Harry laughed momentarily, then he clutched his side, wincing.
"But then when would I ever see you?" he tried his best to smile through the pain.
"That's going to smart for a couple of days," she said knowingly. "I'll try and brew you up something for that." With that she headed for the kitchen but then changed her mind, going to the bedroom and coming out with a pile of his clothes.
"You should probably get out of those wet clothes." She tossed the pile to him.
"So this is where my Cannons shirt went!" He cried out triumphantly.
"Of course it's here, like everything else you leave at my place. Honestly Harry I think you have more clothes here than you do at your own flat." She pointed out as she turned into the kitchen. She emerged a good fifteen minutes later with two cups of tea.
"I put the herbs on to boil, they should be done in about an hour or so. It's a pretty strong ointment so you only need to put it on once a day until the pain goes away." She set the two cups on the coffee table and took a seat next to him on the couch.
"What would I do without you Hermione?" He smiled gratefully.
"Suffer a lot more." She blew on the top of her tea. "So I think I know better than to ask what you were doing." She said referring to his injuries. He nodded in agreement and they slipped back into silence. "The Cannons won the other night. Ron called me completely sloshed. He spent another late night out with his team." She rolled her eyes but watched as Harry sipped his tea indifferently.
"What's new with you Hermione? How have you been?" She set her cup down carefully, trying to fight the excited smile forming on his lips. His face mirrored hers as he saw her reaction. "What?" he asked grinning from ear to ear now.
"Hogwarts just asked me to be the new Charms teacher!" she nearly sung out, so happy to finally share the news with someone. Harry sat dumbfounded for a moment.
"Really? That's-that's, wow, 'Mione that's fantastic!" he said smiled warmly. "Congratulations! I'm assuming you're accepting it, right?" she nodded enthusiastically and he gave her a tight hug. Breathing in her hair he whispered, "That's amazing. I'm so happy for you." She hugged him tighter, his cold hair nearly stinging her warm cheek.
"Thank you, you're the first person I've told." She breathed in his musky, fresh air scent before pulling away to arms length, his goofy smile still plastered on his face. Her smile faltered a bit.
"You think I'll be good at it?" He shook his head and laughed.
"Hermione, I've never seen you be bad at anything. Well, maybe flying." He said, shaking his head and laughing, probably remembering last summer when she had been coerced onto a broom and had fallen off not even two feet from the ground.
"Oh yeah, laugh it up, really mature Harry. You're nearly as bad as Ron!" he settled down and stared at her soberly.
"Really, that's great news Hermione. You're made for that job. We'll definitely have to have a celebration dinner sometime, on me." She snorted.
"Yeah if I can ever find you to take me out. You're never around anymore!" She said fake sniffing.
"Hey, you know I try my best!"
"I know I know," she conceded after seeing the deep hurt in his eyes. "It takes a lot of time saving the Wizarding World." She said smiling and ruffling his hair as she got up. She collected their mugs and went to check on the bubbling, milky ointment.
"Hey I think it's almost done!" she called out to him while stirring the pot. "Harry?" She asked when he didn't reply. She quickly went back into the living room to check on him and found him sleeping on the couch. She smiled inwardly at how peaceful he could look when he was resting. She grabbed the blanket from the back of the couch and covered him with it.
Then she knelt down next to him, took off his glasses and brushed his hair aside, pausing to look at his infamous lightning bolt scar. He nuzzled into her touch and opened his eyes.
"Hermione?" he asked quietly.
"Yeah?" she whispered back.
"I love you." She smiled, the sentiment swelling her heart with emotion.
"I love you too. I don't know what I would do without Ron's or your friendship." She smiled. She saw something in his face change, almost like he stiffened himself; his wounds must be hurting. "I'm going to check on that ointment again; I think it's done." He just looked away as she went to the kitchen. Inhaling deeply, like he had the weight of the world on his shoulders, he rolled over and went to sleep.
~*~*~
"Hermione! Hermione! Honestly what did I say now?" she shook herself out of the reverie and turned her attention to her boyfriend.
"What? Oh sorry, I sort of lost it there for a moment." She said snapping her book shut and sitting up straight.
"What's going on?" He said sitting up straighter.
"Oh I- I just remembered I need to look something up at home." She said collecting her coat by the door.
"But Herms, I thought we were going to go out for drinks later."
"I'll have to take a rain check!" she said apparating away.
"But what does that mean? Dumb muggle saying." Ron grumbled to himself.
~*~*~
Harry heard the crack outside his door and rushed to see who it was. He opened the door surprised to see it was Hermione.
"Hermione," he said breathing a sigh of relief, "You know you can just apparate right in." He stood aside giving her room to step in. She took only a few steps into the apartment before she turned around. She simply looked at him strangely, like she was trying to read him as if he were one of her books.
"Are you okay? You look a little pale." He said taking a few steps towards her. "Did you get hurt?" his question punctuating the silence. She bit her lip and shook her head, a very Hermione-when-she's-perplexed type of thing. Harry noticed this mannerism and recognized it from years of seeing it. "Well, what's wrong then?" She took a deep breath and walked a few steps in. He closed the door and turned to her. She took a deep breath, trying to steady herself.
"Ron- well, you see, Ron and I were sitting down and he asked this question." She started, staring at a spot on the floor halfway between them.
"Did he say something to you?" Her eyes flicked up to meet his and she saw the familiar protective flash in his eyes. She inwardly smiled having seen that face far too many times in the face of danger; however, it struck her as odd that this look was directed towards Ron rather than Voldemort. Her stomach flipped at the beginnings of reasons forming in her head.
"No-no he didn't say anything." She smiled, meeting his eyes and watching relief wash over them. This only made her smile more before she remembered she was dating his best friend.
"So, then what's the matter?" He asked.
"Well, he asked this question, and it's really stupid, I can't even believe I'm here…" she said starting to babble slightly. Usually he thought it was cute but right now it was a bit unnerving.
"What did he ask you?" she heard the apprehension in his voice. Her eyes slowly traveled up the jean-clad legs, the taut, sweater-covered chest, to the handsome face of her longtime best friend. She noticed his stiff stance, as if bracing himself for something big. "Did he ask you to m-"
Immediately she knew what he was thinking and cut him off.
"He asked if you bet on Puddlemere that last game instead of the Cannons." Hermione looked down at the ground, cursing the absence of her Gryffindor courage. She could hear the bafflement and disbelief in his voice.
"Really? That's what Ron asked you." She rolled her eyes at her lame lie but continued to find the patterns on the floor very intriguing.
"Yes?" she said, stated more like a question. She met his eyes and immediately she felt his scrutiny, after all, this was the defeater of the Dark Lord she was lying to. She knew he knew she was lying; she could read it all over his face. He sighed after a moment.
"No, I didn't. He should know I don't favor Puddlemere." He said at last, more out of mercy for her than anything else.
"Oh, well, that's what I tried to tell him." She shuffled awkwardly from one foot to another. He let out a half chuckle at her behavior and she blushed a deep crimson which amused him anymore.
"I was just about to order in some pizza if you wanted. I've got a big night of Butterbeer and paperwork if you'd like to join." He said changing the subject after a moment.
She crinkled her nose. "Butterbeer and paperwork? I don't think they mix very well." He laughed.
"It does when it's pointless busywork." She could nearly feel her ears turn pink under his steady, waiting gaze.
"I don't know, Ron and I were supposed to…" and there, for a flash she saw it. The sagged shoulders, the broken gaze, he was upset about something.
"It's okay, I understand." He said with astonishing believability.
"Well, maybe we can all go out together." He shook his head.
"As useless as this paperwork is, I've got to do it tonight." She tsked playfully at him.
"Of course I should have known Harry Potter to leave all his work until the last minute."
"And I should have known you'd hunt me down and lecture me about it." He laughed. "I'm gonna get a beer, you want anything? I might have some wine if you'd like something classier." He said with a debonair raise of his eyebrow.
"I don't know, I should probably be heading…" just then Hermione's watch chimed. It was a gift from Mrs. Weasley last Christmas; it was a scaled down version of the clock on the wall in her kitchen.
She watched as Ron's arrow moved from "home" to "partying". She rolled her eyes.
"What?"
"Oh you know Ron, probably out with the team, partying again. I guess there go my plans" Harry began to arrange some of his paper work on coffee table in the living room.
"Well, you're more than welcome to stay here. What do you say? Pizza, beer, paperwork, my company…" he said with an air of narcissism. She smiled and rolled her eyes.
"Oh you're such a celebrity!" she said looking around his apartment and realizing that she would very much like to stay for awhile. "Well, seeing that I don't have anything else to do…"
"Oh thanks!" he said defensively, then smiled. "You know, you've got a whole library of books to choose from…" he said tantalizingly, referring to the room he let her keep most of her books in. Her eyes immediately lit up.
"I'll go order that pizza." He said shuffling towards the kitchen. She headed down the hall to the last room on the right and breathed in deeply smelling the wonderful mixed scent of books and Harry. Selecting four books she returned to the living room to find Harry had already set out a Butterbeer for himself and a glass of wine for her. His paperwork was neatly set out with a quill and ink nearby.
"The pizza is on its way, half pepperoni half vegetable." He explained, sitting on the floor behind the coffee table. She took the seat to the side and stared into the fire for a moment.
"Thank you." She said pensively. He took a swig of his butterbeer before opening up the first manila folder and rubbing his hands together.
"No problem 'Mione." She smiled and opened her book, but instead of reading the text, she puzzled over Ron's question again and again. I wonder if Harry's ever said 'I love you'.
She smiled wryly, knowing that she was a little too proud that she knew the answer to that question, and it had nothing to do with being a know-it-all.
A/N: Let's face it, I live for reviews! Please!