A/N: Well, here's the last chapter. I hope you guys enjoy it. I want to say I had a lot of fun writing this story, and I hope you had fun reading it. As usual, I appreciate your comments in the form of reviews. I accept constructive criticism, so when you write down what you want to tell me, think first of the way you'd like people to write to you. I don't think there's anything more to say. Sorry it took me a week longer than usual, but I've been busy with life. Thanks in advance. :)
Disclaimer: Harry Potter and all recognizable characters are the property of J.K. Rowling, Warner Bros, Bloomsbury, Scholastic, etc. I have no intent on making money out of this, just a way of releasing some stress. If someone is interested in posting this in another site, please tell me first.
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The atmosphere was heavy, the air felt electrified, shivers running up and down her spine, and Hermione couldn't control the goose bumps forming on her arms.
"Are you okay?" Harry asked, his piercing green eyes rooting Hermione to the spot. Her eyes widened and she gasped at the intensity of his stare, millions of bolts reaching every single nerve in her body. She had to remember herself to breathe.
"Yeah, I-I'm fine," Hermione said, looking down at her hands.
"No, you're not; something's bothering you," Harry said in a husky whisper, and Hermione noticed how close he'd gotten to her at that moment.
"I..." she trailed, fighting hard to remain controlled.
"What?" Harry murmured, his gaze locked on her lips. Hermione gulped and Harry merely smiled as he put his hands around her waist.
"I..." she repeated, and felt quite stupid for not being able to form a coherent response.
"That's what I thought." Harry grinned as he came closer to her. Hermione's heart beat quickened and she could listen to it beating furiously against her chest.
Pump, pump, pump, pump, pump, pump!
Her eyes snapped open and she stared around, taking in her surroundings.
"Teddy, I told you not to wake her up!" Harry gently scolded his godson, and Teddy merely giggled.
Hermione blinked as she realized it had all been a dream. Of course, she thought bitterly. She had fallen asleep on the couch while reading a fantasy book to Teddy, and the boy appeared not to appreciate it as he softly hit her with his rubber hammer on the chest. Hermione sighed; it had been such a nice dream.
"I'm sorry, I thought he was going to behave," Harry reprimanded the boy, but he just giggled harder, his electric blue hair swirling with different colors, as it often did when he was having fun.
"It's all right, I shouldn't have fallen asleep, I guess," Hermione shrugged. Teddy looked at her with wide eyes and his hair settled to the same brown her hair was.
"What where you dreaming about? You looked very... happy," Harry murmured, looking away.
"Oh, eh... about my teacher telling me I'd gotten the highest score in a test," Hermione easily lied.
"Oh, really? Is that why you were moaning?" Harry asked as he tried to suppress a mischievous smile. Hermione's eyes opened like saucers and she blushed, looking away. Teddy laughed at her sudden embarrassment.
"I am so sorry!" she apologized as she ruffled through Teddy's locks. He gurgled happily.
"Actually, I think it was kind of sexy," Harry said more to himself than to her and immediately froze.
"What?" Hermione asked, flabbergasted.
"Nothing," Harry yelped as he took Teddy in his arms and the two of them made their way to Teddy's room. Hermione thought hard and decided to follow him.
"Are you going to make him take his nap?" Hermione asked, looking at Harry's back as he settled the toddler in his crib.
"Yeah, Andromeda told me it was important to make him sleep at this hour, so he won't wake that much during the night," Harry said as he caressed the little boy's cheek. Teddy laughed and as Hermione got closer, she noticed his hair changing to match Harry's.
"He's so adorable," she said as she tickled him on the stomach. The baby laughed harder and took her finger in his tiny hand. Hermione smiled.
"Yeah, he is," Harry agreed as he stared at the baby.
The two of them stood there, waiting for Teddy to fall asleep, each consumed by their own thoughts. It didn't take long for the baby to blink as his eyelids began to close. They waited until he was completely asleep, and it was like they woke up from another dream. The comfortable silence they'd been in turned into an awkward one as if it'd been turned on by a switch. They turned to look at each other and immediately looked away. Hermione bit on her bottom lip and cleared her throat.
"Well, I'm just going to... study," she lied as she got out of the room as fast as her feet would let her and she sat down in the dining room. She didn't even hear Harry's plans, and from the corner of her eye she saw him walking to the living room and sitting down on the couch with a newspaper in his hands.
Hermione didn't know for how long they pretended to be like that. The atmosphere was so thick that she felt oppression on her chest. She tried to ignore it and she went to sit at the living room on the same couch, but as far away as possible. Harry merely nodded to acknowledge her presence.
She felt guilty, inexplicably guilty. Well, maybe inexplicably didn't qualify for. She knew exactly why she felt this way: she had screwed things up. Harry acted so weird around her, and she acted weird around him too, and now their perfect platonic friendship had forever been ruined by her blatant mistake.
How could she fix things? She didn't know how to approach the matter, and the fact that Harry decided altogether to ignore it wasn't helping either. Teddy had been the perfect excuse for the two of them to ignore it, but now that the baby was asleep, the silence was deafening and very oppressing. A needle falling was all it would take to break the silence, and yet she found none. Instead she tried to focus on her homework, reading the same passage again and again and failing miserably to understand what was written in it. Harry was at the opposite end of the couch pretending to be reading the newspaper, and she knew that because of the way his eyes scanned the same portion over and over again. Defeated, she sighed and put her hands down in a loud manner to get his attention. He flinched but didn't look up.
"Harry..." she started tentatively. He merely nodded as to recognize that he was listening, but still he didn't look up. Hermione pursed her lips and tried again with more force in her voice. "Harry, we need to talk."
Harry's form went rigid, as if knowing what was about to come, and slowly put down the newspaper and stared at his hands.
"Will you even look at me?" Hermione asked annoyed. Harry's heard jerked upwards, clearly surprised by her tone. She refrained from rolling her eyes at him. "Listen, about what happened the other day..." she trailed off, and didn't say anything else because she didn't know what to say.
"Yes?" Harry prompted; clearly interested in knowing how she would approach the subject. But she didn't know how. Her mind stopped working as she recalled the feeling of being pressed against him, his mouth moving against her in such an invigorating way. She blushed as the memories came back to her, and from the corner of her eye she noticed Harry taking in her expression and blushing as well; but he didn't look down, so that was always a good sign.
"I, I know I should say I'm sorry for messing things up between us, but I don't feel sorry at all about what happened," she confessed not only to Harry, but to herself. She bit her lower lip. "I enjoyed it, Harry. I liked it, and I shouldn't have. But the thing is, I did, and now everything's so awkward between us and I don't want to lose you as a friend..." she stopped talking as she didn't know what else to say. She had been fidgeting with the hem of her shirt, not daring to look up at him and melt right in the spot. She sneaked a peek at him and was surprised to see a small smile playing on his lips.
"You liked it?" he asked a little dazed. Hermione rolled her eyes this time; men and their ego.
"Yeah, I did," she responded.
"I liked it too," Harry admitted, and Hermione was surprised.
"You did?" she asked, clearly disconcerted.
"Yeah," Harry answered a little shyly. "I thought it was going to be weird because... well, because it's us, but it didn't feel weird at all. It felt really good. Should I be sorry about that?"
"No!" Hermione almost yelled and chastised herself. "No. I mean, if neither of us feels bad about it, then..."
"Then what?" Harry asked, his eyes suddenly shining in an almost hypnotic way. Hermione was left breathless by the way he was looking at her. She felt her face glow just by being under his intense gaze. How could he make her feel like that now, if never before had he made her feel that way? Well, snogging him did change your perception of things, her mind told her insolently. Hermione sighed.
"I don't know. Honestly, I don't..." she trailed off. To say Harry looked disappointed was an understatement. She shook her head and tried again. "I guess, I guess we could try and see if it happens again. You know, if it feels good again, not just because of the novelty or anything." She shrugged.
"You want us to snog again?" Harry asked, his eyebrows shooting upwards. Hermione simply nodded. "All right," Harry conceded in a too enthusiastic tone and Hermione narrowed her eyes. Had he been waiting for this opportunity once more? She let go of the idea as Harry almost flew the distance that was separating them and sat down next to her, oh so very close that she could smell the coffee he had just had. She gulped.
"Er... how are we supposed to do this?" she asked in a weak voice and cursed inwardly. Good moment to sound so weak. Harry merely smiled a smile that sent her heart one hundred miles per hour and she controlled hard the urge to blush.
"I guess something along this." Harry grinned and closed the distance between them, wrapping his arms around her. Hermione immediately felt light-headed as his lips confidently worked their way on hers.
Putting her arms around his neck, Hermione brought him closer and she almost whimpered at the way he was making her feel. He bit her lower lip softly and she gasped, but the sound was muffled by his mouth as he continued to work his magic on her. Because this felt more like magic than all the spells she'd ever cast in her whole life since getting accepted to Hogwarts. How was it possible to feel like this because of a simple kiss? It was almost sinful the way Harry made her feel as if she were burning to the very core. His hands went to the small of her back and he started to graze his fingertips to her uncovered skin. She moaned against him and heard him groan. Harry took her by the waist and lifted her up so that she was sitting on his lap, and Hermione felt a very happy Harry under her. She moaned again. This felt so good.
Harry's mouth flew to the corner of her mouth and then to her ear, and he sucked on her earlobe, causing Hermione to wail as she gripped his shoulders tightly. His mouth left a trail of moist kisses down her neck and then he started to kiss her collarbone, and Hermione thought she was about to explode. Kisses were definitely overrated, she vaguely thought. His hands positioned themselves on her thighs as he leaned against her and she felt the couch touch her back. This was getting out of control, but for the life of her she couldn't stop it.
"Oh, Harry!" she breathed and heard him groan again. His lips moved upwards and crashed against hers as he idly massaged her sides. She needed oxygen, she needed time to think what this was all about, she needed... she needed Harry to continue what he was doing, her body reasoned. But as much as she was enjoying herself, Hermione found the strength to gently push Harry away as she tried to regain her composure. He looked down at her, desire written all over his face, lust shining in his eyes, and wanton pouring out of his every pore. Hermione shivered and closed her eyes to mantain her own desire at check.
Reluctantly Harry moved away to give her some space, but not far enough for her to still feel the heat radiating off his body. She resisted the urge to shiver again. They stood there in silence for a while, each trying to regain their senses and to let their breathing even. After a while Hermione opened one eye and looked sideways at Harry, whose head was bent down as he too tried to collect himself. She sat down properly on the couch and cleared her throat.
"Are you..."
"Just give me another minute," Harry said in a strangled voice and Hermione noticed how he inadvertently crossed his legs. She blushed furiously at this, but waited patiently for him to speak again. Minutes passed by and still Harry remained with his eyes closed, a look of determination in his face. She wanted to reach out to him, but thought better of it. Maybe her voice and her touch would trigger something in him that he wanted desperately to control. She blushed again.
"Okay," Harry finally said and she looked up at him. He was staring at her, but not precisely at her; his eyes were focused on a point just behind her, and she looked down, feeling at fault.
"I guess we can say that it wasn't because of the novelty," she tried to lighten the mood, but Harry pursed his lips. She mentally smacked herself, "what do you think of it?"
"What do you think of it?" Harry countered her with a question of his own and Hermione was rendered speechless for a few seconds.
"Well, I think that, uh... I-I don't know Harry. What am I supposed to say after this?" she motioned the two of them with her hands. Harry looked hard at her.
"I don't know, maybe that you like it and not just because it's physically pleasant?" he said in a mocking tone. Hermione was surprised by the edge in his voice.
"What are you talking about?" she asked, clearly confused.
"You like the kiss, but tell me, is it because of the kiss or because it came from me?" Harry said and Hermione felt rooted to the spot.
"I don't know, I told Emily..."
"Emily?" Now it was Harry's turn to be confused. "What's Emily got to do with any of this?"
"Well, Emily was the one who gave me the idea. She said that maybe I should try to kiss you and see what would happen if..."
"So you're telling me you did this because someone else told you to do so?"
"No, it's not like that..." Hermione urged to explain as she saw Harry's trail of thinking.
"Then, how is it?" Harry demanded. Hermione bit her lip, now worried. Should she tell him the truth?
"You see, Emily says that you and I are like a couple, only that we don't see each other that way, so she thought that maybe if I tried a different approach with you, like in a kiss, I would see what she says it's always been there."
"And she just suggested that and you accepted," Harry said, clearly skeptical.
"Not like that, she said that I should see it more as in a methodical way, like an experiment, with the variables being..."
"What?!" Harry interrupted her and Hermione knew she had screwed it all. She gulped at the murderous look he was giving her. "An experiment? You considered all of this an experiment?"
"Don't yell," Hermione spat, suddenly feeling angry.
"Well, what am I supposed to do, be thrilled by the idea of you experimenting with me?" Harry asked, clearly annoyed.
"It's not like that!" Hermione defended herself. "Emily just suggested that I should approach it from a logical point of view, and that's what I did!"
"And I have to feel better because of it?" Harry yelled.
"Harry, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to... I just... I wanted to know what it was like to kiss you," Hermione finally admitted. She sighed in relief; it felt really good to get that off her chest.
"What?" Harry asked, astounded.
"I didn't do it just because Emily suggested it. I wanted to do it, and she just gave me the little shove I needed to make my decision. Lately, with all that's been happening, things have changed between us, or so I think. I didn't understand at first, but after I kissed you... it all made sense, Harry. This makes sense, I just didn't want to accept it," Hermione said, feeling defeated. She walked to the fireplace and gazed at the amber flames moving relentlessly, and she sighed. Her voice became barely above a whisper. "I'm sorry, you're not an experiment, it was a stupid idea. I needed a motive to kiss you without feeling dumb."
"Then why didn't you just ask?" Harry's voice came from behind her and she turned around, surprised to find him a step away from her now.
"It's not that simple. Hey, best mate of eight or so years, want to have a snog?" she said in a sardonic tone.
"I would've said yes," Harry replied and gave her a small smile. Hermione looked at him skeptically.
"Would you?"
"You have no idea what I've been feeling lately," Harry commented as he took a hold of her hands, "and quite frankly, neither did I. All I know is that when I found out you were jealous of Ginny, I was thrilled."
"I wasn't jealous," Hermione protested, but Harry made a shooshing sound.
"You mean so much to me, and I love to have you around me. One day I realized it wasn't enough to have you as my friend, but I denied that, claiming I was confusing my sudden attachment to you. And then you kiss me and you open this door full of new possibilities... you confuse the hell out of me, Hermione Granger, and that's why I need you with me, to help me figure it all out."
Hermione gulped, clearly at a loss of what to say. She was moved by his words, but even more by his feelings, which mirrored her own. Could he be more suited for her? She smiled.
"Does that mean you forgive me for the little experiment?" she joked, trying to gain that small smile from him she found out she loved so much.
"I don't know," Harry said pensively, but then his mouth broke into that grin that sent her heart racing, "you'll have to make it up to me."
"Oh, is that so?" Hermione asked, feeling flirtatious, "I think I have something in mind," she said as she came closer to him. She could almost feel his breathing on her nose, when a cry broke them out of their reverie. The two of them looked at the hallway, down to the very door Teddy had been sleeping seconds before.
"Perfect timing," Harry murmured annoyed.
"Maybe later," Hermione said as she pecked Harry on the lips and went to look for the baby, whose screams could wake up the entire block.
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Today, one year ago, Hermione's life had been turned upside down. Looking down at her parents' graves, she thought of the pain it initially brought her when she first found out. Now she was feeling the same kind of pain, only in a more subdued way. She bent down to put one hand in each of their stones, and she silently made a prayer to say goodbye.
"I love you," she murmured as she got up and wiped away the tears that had escaped her eyes. She turned around to find Harry patiently waiting for her.
"Are you ready?" he asked in the gentlest of tones. Hermione nodded and took a hold of his hand. They started to walk around the cemetery, watching the people visiting their departed ones. "You okay?"
"I don't think I'll ever be one hundred percent okay," she trailed off, gripping his hand tighter, "but I'm as good as it can be."
"Is that enough?" Harry asked, looking at her with a worried expression on his features.
Hermione smiled at him. Harry really was a great boyfriend. That year had passed by in a blur, and with Harry next to her, she felt it was all she needed.
It had been strange at first, when they had started to date. Everyone had been quite shocked, and the Weasleys very mad, but eventually they had accepted it. Even Ron had forgiven them, with the promise that they would never even give each other a peck on the lips in front of him. It was a good settlement, at least until he got completely at ease with the fact that his two best friends were dating. The youngest Weasley wasn't so easily convinced, and she said she hated Hermione for taking away her "true love". Now they were civil to each other, but the friendship that once used to bring them together was gone, and Hermione didn't know if it was going to be this way forever; she hoped not, given that she deeply cared for Ginny, even if she was an annoying brat from time to time.
Emily had asked their first child to be named after her, and Hermione could only roll her eyes at her friend's antics. Harry, on the other hand, thought it a good idea. He'd said he quite liked the name Emily, and Hermione was surprised to see him thinking of raising a family with her. She hadn't said anything, because that thought alone frightened her to death, and she preferred to live day by day.
Harry had started the Healer program in January, and it had taken her by surprise. She'd thought he'd get a job playing Quidditch, or being an Auror, but he'd said that he'd taken enough lives as if was (Hermione scolded him for this, claiming that it hadn't been his fault at all), and he wanted to give something back to the community, in the form of saving lives. She was proud of him, even if it wasn't what she'd thought he would do with the rest of his life, but she supported him completely.
As for herself, she was doing quite well in dentistry. She was the number one student, something that she tried hard to keep, since she was used to it. With all the twists and turns her life had gone to, this was the one thing she thought was a constant. But looking at Harry, his small smile adorning his face, she thought otherwise.
"Are you there?" he asked, breaking her from her thoughts.
"Yes, I'm sorry. And to answer your question, it's more than enough," Hermione said, giving him a small kiss on the lips and dragging him all the way out.
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