Reality

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter and If I did, then the story would have been quite different.

Author's note: Hi everyone! it's been a while since I wrote. I hope you all enjoy it!

It was a horrible day for Hermione Granger. Firstly, she was not on the best of terms with her best friend Harry Potter. The reason being a stupid diary that Harry had been using in his potions class. She knew that she was being silly and they were just hand written by an old student.

But she was worried. Worried that the book might contain some dangerous spells. After all that has happened with Harry, it's always better to stay cautious. The second reason for Hermione's horrible day was none other than her other friend , Ronald Weasley.

She knew that the boy had the emotional range of a teaspoon but was it not that obvious to him that she had feelings for him? ?Yes. She, Hermione Granger, the bookworm had feelings for a boy.

She recently had begun to notice Ron a lot. His antics, his childish behaviour. She liked it. Unfortunately , after today's match of Quiddich, Hermione had been awestruck. Today had been the semi finals match and the red Lions had made it to the finals. After winning the Quiddich match and , the Gryffindor team had gone to celebrate their victory in the house common room.

People were rejoicing over the victory and Hermione was applauding the team with the crowd. Truly, Harry and his team had performed brilliantly. Suddenly, Ron who was in the team, got hold of fellow Gryffindor Lavender Brown and had initiated a fierce snogging session which caused the onlookers to hoot and wolfwhistle.

It had been truly a glorious day for one Harry Potter. He had caught the snitch in the end. Causing the Gryffindor team their victory. They would be the champions now,when they would win the finals. After the adrenaline rush filled game, Harry went to the common room with his team and now just one more match to go and it would be his Euphoria.

Harry went to the common room with his team in high spirits to celebrate all night long. He saw Hermione applauding for them and as soon as their eyes made contact, his lips curved upwards in a smile.

However, when he saw Ron engage Lavender in that extremely vulgar snogging session, he was disgusted. He turned around to face Hermione to show his displeasure, but she wasn't there.

He scanned the crowd for his best friend and then he saw a flash of bushy brown hair scurrying away from the crowd. "Oh god. Hermione." he thought. Ronald Weasley was really a fool. Didn't he see the way Hermione was behaving in front of him these days.

Even a blind man could see that Hermione was tying her best to make Ron notice her. But no, the red-headed friend of his really had an emotional range of a teaspoon. He was too dense to note anything. Atleast he could've tried not to hurt her Harry expected nothing mature from Ron.

Harry quickly ran after Hermione but as he went in the corridors, he had no idea where she had went. Instantly, he summoned the marauder's map and looked for his best friend. He looked at her name and found her heading towards the astronomy tower.

He made his way to the tower and as soon as he reached the top stair, he saw her. She had her back towards him and she was leaning against the railing looking down at the castle with her back to him. Her hair was all messed up and as always,

Her shoulders were shaking which meant that she was crying. "I'm just practicing something." she said. Harry stood there surprised that she had known that he was there and he hadn't even moved from the spot.

She turned towards him and faced him. Her eyes were red and puffy. He saw that she had actually been doing something. She had somehow transfigured paper into a flock of canaries. To be at such a distraught mood and then do magic like this was indeed admirable, Harry pondered.

For a while he just stood there looking at her, then as he started to make his way towards her, he saw her lips trembling and her eyes began to shine with tears. He stopped in front of her and offered his arms to her.

Immediately, Harry was engulfed in a mass of bushy hair. He wrapped his arms around her and held her . Hermione clung to Harry like he was her lifeline. " Let it out Hermione." Harry whispered to her.

She was sobbing profusely and soon Harry's shirt was soaked in the river of tears. All the emotions she was going through were let out in her tears. As she was crying her eyes out in Harry's arms, she thought a lot about her feelings for Ron. How he had hurt her and how he usually treated her.

"How does it feel Harry?" Seeing someone you have a crush on going out with another person." she asked. Harry paused for a bit then said, "I don't know Hermione because I don't have time for these things right now, with Voldemort on the loose and all I don't need to be thinking about such trivial matters. I might not even make it alive." he laughed hoarsely.

"But what about Ginny? I have seen the way you looked at h_" Hermione was interrupted by Harry. "You might have looked at me at that time but I realised after that that I don't even know her, and again, I don't have time for this." he spoke in a harsh tone.

Hermione's thoughts on Ron were soon replaced with a pang of guilt. Harry. Realization dawned upon her and a new flood of tears broke out. She had been a horrible friend to him. After what he had told her about the prophecy, she didn't help and support him at all.

He had a disaster coming ahead of him and what was she thnking about. The most evil and powerful dark wizard was after Harry's life and instead of helping Harry as much as she could, all she was thinking about was her crush on Ron! She felt so mad at herself.

"I'm so sorry for everything Harry."she said. Harry was about to interrupt her but then realized that she had to let her feelings out, so he let her speak.

"I've been such a horrible friend to you. With V-v-voldemort on loose and when he's doing all his best to kill you. Instead of helping you, I was just chasing after a silly little crush."she said.

Harry held her tightly and then spoke in her ear." You don't have to apologise for anything Hermione." I've been trying to act normally this year too but I also have realized that pretending won't solve anything."

" I have to prepare myself. The reality is that I have to face him in the end. I just hope that I get strong enough to take him down with me when it happens."Harry finished.

"But Harry I've been really horrible too-" She was interrupted by Harry who released her of the embrace, grabbed her chin and forced her to look in his eyes. "Hermione, I said before that you don't need to apologise. It's my own fault too. I also could've understood your reasoning for using the half blood prince book."

"I for the first time had become brilliant in potions but had failed to notice that I was still not studying seriously and I had thought that you were just jealous that I had become better than you." he said.

"It didn't occour to me at that time that you were worried that the book might cause danger to me given my... History. So, I'm sorry too." Harry said looking in her eyes.

"I won't say that I wasn't a bit jealous about you being better than me at potions but that aside, I'm really feeling better now that I have you by my side again Harry." said Hermione with a spark in her eyes.

Harry smiled at her and wiped the remaining tears on her face with his thumbs. Hermione stared into the emerald eyes and spoke fierclly. "I won't let him get to you Harry. I'll do my best to help you and I am sure that Professor Dumbledore will not let him take you that easily and he will definitely teach you to protect yourself."

His eyes widened at the intensity and the determination in that glance. It dawned upon him now on how important she was to him. He vowed to never leave her side again and to support her when Ron would do something that would hurt her.

" I'm so proud and glad to have you by my side and supporting me all these years." Emerald bore into the brown eyes. Harry initiated the hug this time and poured out all of his feelings in that hug.

Their moment however was interrupted by none other than Lavender Brown and Ron Weasley. "Oops! This room is already taken! Let's go somewhere else won-won." said Lavender. Ron whispered in her ear to go downstairs and he would join her soon.

The redhead as oblivious as ever, said. "So, what's going on Harry?" Hermione then remembered the reason for her foul mood and was about to move for her wand when Harry, who still had hold of her ,released her. He grabbed her hand and sent her a look that said "I'll handle this."

Harry made his way towards Ron slowly and the Weasley soon realised that something was wrong here. Harry was not happy at all. He looked like he might punch Ron. Now that he thought about it, the majority of the times Hermione cried, Ron was the cause of those tears.

"And what do you think you're doing here Ron?" asked Harry. "Why don't you go outside and go with her." "She's waiting for you." "Harry I-" Ron tried to speak but was cut off by Harry.

"Shut up!"he yelled. "Don't go pretending you don't know whats going on here." "You knew that Hermione had feelings for you and even if you didn't like her you could've at the very least respected the fact and had done the disgusting lustful activities at a private place."

"But you don't care do you?" "You are just a sick, selfish, prick. I don't know what Hermione ever saw in you. I remember that during the Yule Ball you had become so mad at the fact that Hermione didn't go to that ball with you but did you ever realise that it was you who never had the balls to ask her!"

Ron was so dumbstruck right now that he wasn't even looking at his best friend when he spoke. To be honest, right now he was scared shitless because all that Harry was saying was indeed the truth.

"I feel so disgusted at you right now that I don't want to see your face. Hermione's your friend Ron. The least you could've done was to respect her feelings." And with that Harry who was enraged right now conjured a spell that hit Ron in the face.

Soon, purple boils began to form in his face and now it was time for Ron to scarper off. He scurried away to his partner who was waiting for him. Hermione, who was watching the situation the whole time was quite surprised and amused too when Harry cast that spell on Ron.

Harry was breathing heavily and his wand was held loosely in his hand. He let the wand slip to the floor. He was about to turn towards Hermione when he felt her arms slip around his neck from behind.

"That was so reckless and yet so brilliant Harry. Thank you. That made me feel much better." she whispered in his ear. Harry smiled and said, "Anything for you Hermione."

He let her hands slide down from his neck and then turned over to look in her eyes. He was happy to see her beaming at him, her brown eyes sparkling with Happiness. "Now that's the Hermione that I wanted to see." he said.

Hermione's face then took on a serious expression and she spoke. "Harry you need to do everything you can to stand up to v-v-Voldemort." "I'll start looking for books in the library. We'll be needing books on runes and potions and ..."

Harry smiled as he listened to her little rant and thanked the Lord for giving him such an important person in his life. He vowed to protect her even if it cost him his life. He had lost so many people and he was definitely not losing her.

He had previously thought on going to the task he had to do alone but he knew she would follow him to the ends of the world. So that is why he was going to get strong enough to protect her and to get rid of that murderer Voldemort.

Harry then interrupted Hermione and said, "Thank you for being in my life Hermione. I don't know what I'd do without you." He then took hold of her hand and squeezed it lightly to show her his gratitude.

Hermione simply smiled brightly and told him, " I also don't know what I'd do without you Harry." Harry was about to say that he promised that he would never leave her side but then as his eyes made contact with hers, he had her answer. She knew.

She now knew that it was no time for going after silly crushes but to focus on Harry's future. There would be a lot of time to think about that later. But she already knew the answer to that. She already knew who she'd want to spend the rest of her life with.

" Let's go downstairs Hermione. Its almost time for dinner." He took hold of her hand and they began to walk downstairs in a happy mood. While they were on their way towards the great hall, they found their path blocked by none other than Albus Dumbledore.

"Ah! Harry! And Miss Granger! Lovely night isn't it?spoke Dumbledore. Seeing them exchange worried glances, he said, "Nothing to worry about. I just wanted to inform you Harry that I would like you to come at 10 pm at my office tonight for the lesson."

" Now, Off you go.!" Dumbledore dismissed them. The headmaster smiled at his students when he noticed that both were holding hands. He had a knowing look on his face.

"It's a good thing for the lad that he has such a strong bond with Miss Granger. It's this bond that will help him till the very end." he said to himself.

The End

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