Summary: When Ron asks Hermione whether she notices Harry talking in his sleep her answer is not the one she would like to give.
Word Count: 489
Warnings: language
Ratings: PG-13
Pairings: Harry/Hermione
Author notes: this was written as part of the Potter!wars ficathon in anythingbutgrey's livejournal. The original prompt was the line from the film. Hope you enjoy.
"Have you noticed?"
The question feels like a test, one to show how loyal she is to Ron, and so she gives the only answer she thinks is right. "No of course not." But she wants to shout "Of course I fucking do. I spent months alone with that boy whilst you were gone. I have heard him cry like a baby, talk in Parseltongue like Voldemort and I've heard him cry out for all of us."
But yet again she swallows anger at Ron, she thinks she has become quite good at it, and doesn't say what plays on her mind.
She used to play this game whilst Harry was asleep, one ear listening to him and one ear listening outside, which things he would say the most often. Her name almost always comes in conjunction with "stay" so instead of sitting outside the tent she sits in the entrance. She tries to not feel smug that her name is said more often than Ginny's, or Ron's (don't think about him)for that matter. The game also entailed never reacting to the things he had said during the night the following morning.
Hermione had this theory that dreams are better left to be forgotten through waking, that trying to remember the dreams from the night is too frightening. Then again she proves herself wrong because she remembers them all. But at least for Harry she would give him a few hours without terror.
A few times she had been sat outside the tent; one hand clutching her wand and the flicking through a book, when from inside the tent Harry would be shouting, "Hermione! Hermione! Where are you? I need you!" She'd run into the tent fully expecting him to be standing up and tearing at something. Instead he'd be tangled in his sheets with tears clinging to his lashes and still shouting for her, but asleep nonetheless. "I'm here, Harry. Always was, always will be." She'd whisper this, everytime, over and over till he quietened down his shouting. Then she would untangle him from his sheets and tuck him in again, the same way her mother used to, and then kiss him on his hot forehead and whisper again and again "It's alright, I'm here. I'm staying, it's alright."
I need you. Even now here with Ron, this simple unadorned statement still seems the most important thing she has ever heard. Because that is what she and Harry boil down to. Need for the other; for her to come up with the plans and to keep them safe, for him to keep them going forwards. So that is what she is doing now with Ron, doing what he needs her to do so they might, eventually be safe.
"It's alright" she almost said it often enough to believe it, even though it doesn't end that way. But her staying was always the truest of sentiments and intentions