Authors Note: I do not own Harry Potter. All characters (minus the occasional OC that may arise) belong to JK Rowling. This is merely one of my many interpretations of how I would have liked the story to go.
Please R&R :) I will be forever grateful!
It was the morning after Harry's 24th birthday. Hermione had just awoken to the pale June sunlight streaming through the curtained windows of Grimmauld place. Ginny lay next to her still quietly snoring. She sat and reflected on the events of the night before, unsure if everything had just changed or if she was just overthinking it all.
The night before had been nothing short of pure madness. Ron had decided that Harry needed a grand party to celebrate despite Harry's insistence that it was unnecessary. This resulted in Grimmauld place being flooded with every former classmate, coworker, and friend that the trio had ever known showing up at Harry's door. People were mostly tame (minus Seamus accidentally lighting the living room rug on fire when playing a riveting game of wizard's chess with a very drunk Dean Thomas). People were all in good spirits and all three of the members of the Golden trio indulged in far more firewhiskey than usual. It was all normal as ever, that is, until the party started to dwindle down.
Near the end of the night, the party got significantly smaller with only former classmates staying to drink and talk about Hogwarts and how greatly their lives had changed. Seamus and Dean were drunk in the corner trying to determine which of them should hit on Patel twins first (both of which were sitting in a corner drinking wine and critiquing some muggle television shown with Lavendar Brown). Luna, Neville, and Ron were in the kitchen discussing some theory Luna had about how the Chudley Cannons couldn't win because they were 'overcome by nargles' (Ron was practically screaming about their 'accuracy percentage' from the kitchen). Ginny was kissing Oliver Wood on the couch making everyone else thoroughly uncomfortable and causing George to throw his newest water pellets in their direction whenever they got too heated.
After the war, everyone had hoped that Ginny and Harry would get back together and live happily ever after. They tried to make it work but they just never seemed to fit the way everyone had hoped. Ginny was far too much of a free spirit and Harry just wanted to settle down. Ginny got offered a contract with the English National Quidditch team and she jumped at the opportunity. Her and Harry broke up shortly after she left. They were amicable though, so when she brought Oliver Wood home to Christmas a few months later, Harry was happy she found someone who made her happy.
Hermione decided to move away from the two lovers (who looked dangerously like they were melding their faces together) and went to go sit in the library where she could get some quiet time alone. She had never been one for parties and after the amount of wine and firewhiskey in her system, some quiet would be nice. As she entered the library, she could hear Ron yelling about how "quaffles could not have been tampered with by nargles you nitwit!" and she laughed internally to herself. She could hardly believe that they were once an item.
They had gotten together right after the war like everyone wanted but it was useless. They fought constantly and couldn't agree on even the smallest of things. After a month, they both agreed to call it quits so they could save the friendship. While it was hard seeing Ron jump from slag to slag right after they broke up, Hermione was well over it now and they were back to being the Golden trio as usual.
Hermione grabbed a Hogwarts: A History from the nearest shelf and went to sit on the couch in front of the fire. She looked down to see Harry sitting in front of the couch with a tortured expression on his face and a glass of firewhiskey in his hand.
"Harry? What's wrong? Are you okay? What happen-?" Hermione said quickly, sitting down next to him.
"I'm fine really… I just. I guess I thought by now I would have my life together. I would be married and maybe have a kid on the way. I just… here I am, 24 and alone… and it just bloody sucks!" Harry said staring into his glass of firewhiskey.
"Do you mean to tell me you're having a quarter-life crisis?" Hermione said in amusement as she took the glass of firewhiskey from his hand. "Did it ever occur to you that NONE of us have our lives in order yet? That maybe you're just completely normal? I promise you, when you meet the right girl, it'll all work out. You'll get all that and so much more" she said to him seriously.
Harry laughed and a drunken smile came to his face "Fair enough… at least I'm not sleeping with every tart this side of the channel like Ron, right?" Hermione broke out into laughter and nodded her head. "You have a far better chance of finding your perfect girl by not doing that, I assure you" Hermione reassured him. Harry leaned his head against Hermione's shoulder and sighed. "How will I know when I've found her though Hermione? Is she just gonna show up with some big sign that says 'Harry Potter I am your soulmate' and I'll whisk her away and make babies for the rest of my days? How the hell am I supposed to know? I mean, these are the things you ask your Dad but I don't have one. I'm kinda shooting in the dark here" Harry said exasperated.
Hermione took a deep breath and paused, trying to figure out how he'd know, how anyone was supposed to know. She had no experience in this. The farthest she had ever been with a guy was Ron and that was merely a snog. And she certainly couldn't say she had ever found 'The One' in her 24 years on Earth. She hardly knew how she'd know either. She had always figured it was just something you knew but as she grew older, she realized how silly that notion actually was.
"Harry… I can't say that I really know much about love or anything like that. I mean, if this was something practical, I could talk your ear off I assure you, but this has never really been my strong suit. I suppose though, you know it's the one when you can't imagine your life without them. When you meet that person that you could spend every minute of every day with and still be incandescently happy. When they mean the world to you and you'd do anything for them. When without them, your world seems incomplete" Hermione said dreamily staring at the fire.
Harry turned to look at her and smiled. He started to quietly chuckle to himself. "Hermione, if that's what love is, than I've been in love with you and Ron for ages!" Hermione turned and looked at him shaking her head. "No! Merlin's beard! What I mean is the person that is the right one for you should be someone who makes your entire world complete. Who you can tell anything to and who you want to share everything with. Someone who's happiness you'd be willing to sacrifice your own for. Someone who makes your heart burst just by being in the same room" Harry nodded understandingly.
"Have you ever felt that way about anyone?" Harry asked Hermione. Hermione closed her eyes and thought about all the long lost loves she'd had (which weren't many seeing as she wasn't one to date around). She knew that she never felt that way for Victor. And while she did love Ron, she never wanted to spend every day with him nor was he easy for her to talk to. The only person Hermione could even think of remotely fitting that description sat right in front of her. Harry had been her rock when she had to send her parents away. He had been her confidant since the moment he and Ron saved her from that troll first year. And had he allowed her to, she would have followed him to Voldemort, just to make sure he didn't die alone.
Hermione looked at Harry, with the realization dawning upon her and then looked away quickly "I don't know Harry. I just… don't know. I've never felt loved by someone in a romantic sense. So I guess not. No."
"I never felt that way for Ginny. Sure I wanted to protect her but she was never the one person I could talk to. Hell, the only person I've ever wanted to talk to is…" Harry said hesitantly pausing. Hermione looked at him, waiting for him to finish. "Who?" Hermione asked him quietly.
Before Harry could answer, Ron came stumbling into the room with Neville and Luna on his heels, complaining about how no one agreed with him that the Chudley Cannons weren't the worse team in the league. The moment between them was lost and Hermione hurriedly ran up to the guest room and went to bed.
Now that it was morning and she had the opportunity to both sober up and think, Hermione realized she was in far too deep. She was in love with Harry. At least by her own definition of love she was. He was her best friend, her everything, and it took her 13 years to even consider the prospect that maybe there was more to her feelings than just a platonic friendship. But it was Harry. And Harry would never feel that way about her or at least that's what she told herself. She pushed it out of her mind and resigned herself to go downstairs and act as if nothing happened. Little did she know, Harry was having a similar crisis about her and nothing would ever be quite the same again.
