I don't own Harry Potter. All I have for myself is my original plot. Well, I hope it's one of a kind….
Chapter 2: The Train Ride
After stuffing all his things in the car. Harry waited for his uncle he started thinking about how his last year at Hogwarts be like? What would he and his friends face this year? Will he finally be able to ask Hermione out? Actually he was kind of hoping that he could have her as a steady girlfriend. The Idea made him smile. His Uncle Vernon who disgustingly cleared his throat and spitted interrupted his reverie.
"Get in the car, Boy!" Uncle Vernon grunted.
Harry hurriedly went in the seat beside his uncle. The ride from number 4 privet drive to kings cross went smoothly. Harry didn't even bother to talk to his uncle along the way. The less he talked the safer his journey would be to the train station.
When he got there and after he got all his things in the trolley his uncle sped off without even seeing him safely on the platform. Well, Harry felt relieved with getting rid of his sorry-excuse- for-an-uncle. On his way to the platform he saw Ron, Ginny and Mrs. Weasley.
"Ron!" he called on his friend.
"Hiyaa, Harry!" Ron answered back as Harry went to meet his friend.
"Say, Ron…" Harry was about to say but Ron interrupted him.
"Hermione told you didn't she?" Harry only nodded. "It's for the best, Harry. I don't want to tie her down on a relationship that she really doesn't want to be in."
"But…" Harry tried to say.
"Trust me on this one, Harry. It was the most difficult decision I've made and it's killing me inside but trust me it's the best for all of us. For once I don't want to be selfish."
Harry didn't say anymore. He in one way figured out what Ron was saying. `But if Hermione really doesn't want to be with their best friend who does she want to be with?' the questioned caught his attention for a while.
"Harry, please take care of her," Ron started, "I know she doesn't want to talk to me now. But I just hope she'll understand me and my reasons for breaking up with her," he continued.
`Why does it feel like he's handing down Hermione to me,' he thought. `Does he know about my feelings for her?' he pondered.
Ron and Harry dropped the subject knowing that what they should be talking about was their plan for their last year in Hogwarts.
"Ron, I forgot to tell you" he exclaimed, "I was made head boy!"
"Congratulations mate!" his friend congratulated him. "Well, you deserve it. After saving everyone's arse last year that's the least they could do. Just imagine the privileges you'll have. Care to share it with me?" Ron joked.
Mrs. Weasley and Ginny heard the conversation and went to where the boys were talking.
"Congratulations Harry," the mother and daughter said in unison.
Harry couldn't help but blush. Mrs. Weasley always treated him like her own son. Ginny on the other hand at first had a mad crush on him. He even had her as his date in their Winter Ball last year but they knew pretty well that things wouldn't work out since Harry's heart belonged to someone else. Ginny surprisingly didn't take it as he thought she would. He didn't blame her though, because she had grown to be very lovely and now she had a set of fans herself. She was an exceptional Chaser. There were no awkward moments between them. He guessed that Ginny being the girl that she was must have figured out his true feelings and whose it for.
"Come along children you should get to the train it would leave in five minutes," Mrs. Weasley instructed.
Harry and Ron went running past through the wall between platforms 9 and 10. Ginny and Mrs. Weasley came through next.
Harry hadn't seen Hermione yet. It made him grew weary. He was looking around the platform trying to find a glimpse of her. `She was always on time,' he thought. `It's not like her to show up late.' Then he realized that she must have gotten in the train car early since she wanted to avoid Ron that day.
"Ron, Ginny, Mrs. Weasley, I have to go and put my things in the Head boy train car and maybe look for Hermione. I haven't seen her yet," he told them as he went of to the front area of the train.
"Have fun all of you and Harry be careful and you two also. Don't get in any trouble," Mrs. Weasley reminded her kids before they themselves went to a train car.
Ron and Ginny shared a compartment with Lavender, Parvati and Dean. It wasn't the first time that he didn't stay with his friends in the train. Since fifth year when Hermione and Harry were made prefects they had to stay in a different compartment with other prefects. But during those years Harry and Hermione would stop by to see how he was so it wasn't that lonely.
Harry was right in thinking that Hermione was there early. After putting all his stuff in the compartment he hurriedly went to Hermione who was busy reading a copy of `Hogwarts, A History (revised edition)'. It was his gift to her last Christmas. He remembered the happiness in her face and the brilliant twinkle of her eyes when she opened the present. She almost forgot that Ron actually gave her a bracelet, which he bought from his hard earned money for assisting in the 3W that his twin brothers Fred and George put up.
Harry smiled as he approached her.
"Hi, Harry," she said as she looked up to him.
"Hermione, I knew you were here already," he said jokingly to her as he sat across from where she was seated.
"Have you spoken to Ron?" she asked, her face hidden in the big book that she was reading.
"You can't ignore him for a year. You have to talk to him eventually. He was one of your best friends after all," Harry tried to convince her.
"Look at me Hermione," he said as he pulled the book from her face and he took hold of both of her hands. "Ron, had his reasons why he did it and trust me when I say it's a very hard decision for him as well."
Harry's green eyes were staring down into Hermione's brown ones. Tears were rolling down her cheeks. "Harry, I know and I understand him. I only feel guilty about not loving him as much as he loved me." Hermione's words seemed to shed some light unto him but the unclear thing was, if she didn't love Ron as much as their friend did then whom does she want to be with.
The only thing that Harry could do was to hold her tight. He didn't know why he did it but it felt so right at that very moment. "Go and find him you need to talk to him and say what you have to say to him," he said as he held her even tighter.
"I don't know what would be of me if I didn't have you", Hermione said as she placed a kiss on his cheeks. She got up from her sit and went looking for Ron.
Harry was left in the head boy and head girl compartment. He was smiling. Hermione's last words made his heart leap into a summersault. Then he heard someone smirking that sounded awfully familiar.
"I see the head boy and head girl are getting along pretty well. Is it true that the weasel had broken up with the mudblood? Hmm…. Finally the boy have learned something," Draco said as he stood by the compartment door.
"I see you haven't changed a bit," Harry retorted. "It's too bad you didn't get the Head boy position. What is it that they should call you? Ahhh… is it deputy?" Harry felt a lot better after his conversation with Hermione that he felt strong enough to take down Draco single handedly.
Draco's expression changed from arrogance to displeasure. He didn't have his bodyguards Crabbe and Goyle around to do his biding since Prefects had to stay on a different compartment.
" I assure you Potter they may soon need my services," Draco said as he regained his composure.
"Is that a threat?" Harry asked. "I better be careful if I were you Draco. I wouldn't want to get my name associated with He-who-must-not-be-named. Surely he's the only wizard whom I can think of that wants me dead."
Draco had lost on this one again and he couldn't say any more but kept his arrogant smile on his face as if it implied that the battle may be over but the war had just began.
"Well, I better be going. I have to see Hermione and Ron and probably get everyone ready we will soon reach Hogsmeade and if I were you, I would do my duties before anyone take the prefect position away from you because you were busy doing something else," and with that Harry left.
Draco had no choice but to call the attention of the other Slytherins to prepare. He hated being told what to do specially if the orders came from Potter. It had been like that all his life. His father always had the last word. He, Draco Malfoy must uphold the family name and thus meant following all of his fathers demands. His mother was put to the same unlikely position. They were to act sternly and with superiority when in the midst of other wizards so as to uphold the righteousness of their family name.
Hermione finally found the compartment that Ron was staying in. He was with Ginny, Lavender, Parvati and Dean. She knocked before pushing the door of the compartment open. "Ron, can I talk to you for a sec?" she asked as she peered in the compartment.
Ron was startled he didn't expect her to want to talk to him after the break up. `Harry must have talked to her already. She always had that soft side for Harry,' he told himself. He didn't say anything he just stood up and went out of the compartment to talk to her.
They went to an empty compartment just across the one Ron shared with Ginny and the others. They sat facing each other.
"I'm sorry," They both said at the same time.
"Okay you first," said Hermione.
"I'm sorry I had to break up with you in the worst kind of way," he started, "I should have asked to see you and say it in person but I was such a coward that I resorted into just writing you a letter." He didn't want to look at her because he couldn't bear to see the look on her face.
"I should be the one to apologize to you," she said, "You had all the reasons to break up with me. I was your girl friend but I wouldn't even let you kiss me. I made our relationship too complicated for the both of us."
"Hermione, it took me a while but I figured it out," he whispered, "You love him don't you?"
She didn't have to say anything they both knew what he was talking about. She just nodded. Ron held her hand and said, " It's alright, you deserve to be happy and Harry of all people is entitled to have a person as special as you."
"Thank you," was the only thing she could say. And she hugged her the first time since they had broken up.
"Friends?" Ron asked as he held out his hand.
"Best friends," Hermione shook his hands.
Harry saw his two best friends in the compartment and a smile showed in his face as he saw them shook hands. He knocked at the door and went in.
"Now this is a pretty sight," he joked as he sat beside Hermione.
Ron and Hermione both thanked Harry for persuading them to talk. Harry told them that they were to arrive at Hogsmeade pretty soon so they had to get ready. Ron went into his compartment and told Ginny and the others to prepare. Hermione and Harry walked hand in hand and peered into the compartments and told the other students to prepare for their arrival.
Hermione couldn't be anymore thankful for her luck that day. She was thinking of how she would talk to Ron but as it ended out their friendship meant more than anything and all the pain was all washed away. She was even luckier to have Harry by her side. She was so worried about him. Maybe that was the reason why Ron had figured everything out. She was with him but all she had been talking about was Harry. She loved him since their fourth year but she knew that Harry liked someone else. Now she was to spend more time with him and even stay in their very own common room. The future looked brighter for her. Still, fear crept into her thoughts. Its their last year at Hogwarts, what will Voldemort do next? She was scared of the possible things that might happen to Harry but all that mattered that time was that he was holding her hand and it felt like no dreadful thought can put her down.
After getting everyone ready Harry and Hermione went to their Compartment and got ready themselves. `Holding her hand makes me feel stronger it's like I can face Voldemort and crush him to the ground,' he thought.
There were no agreements no discussions Harry and Hermione just understood each other. Harry couldn't figure out what was happening but he knew for certain that he loves her so much and this year he would finally tell her and not even Voldemort can stop him.
To be continued….
[n/a]: hope you like this one as much as the one before it. Hope to get more review and well, thanks for the people who have read my stuff……enjoy…. Sorry it took me a while to write this one I simply got caught up with schoolwork.