You and Me - part 1
Harry Potter the boy-who-lived, boy-who-defeated dark lord, best seeker of the century, most handsome Quidditch captain. He had many names, was labelled in various names by his fans and media. For them he was a perfect, flawless person, their hero, their saviour.
However, here we are not talking about Harry Potter the saviour. Here we would be focusing on Harry Potter who has won the heart of many young witches in the country.
Harry had a loveless childhood. He didn't know what love was until he came to Hogwarts. Here he found love of friends in form of his classmates, teachers, and friend's family. Most importantly, he found two best friends he could ever have, Ron and Hermione. They stood with him from the very start to the very end, especially Hermione. She was his safe harbour, his protector, his anchor during those tumultuous and dangerous times.
Harry defeated Lord Voldemort when he was 17. After the war ended, Harry wanted nothing but to live his like a normal teenage boy. Harry, Ron, and Hermione decided to attend Hogwarts for their final year. As during their actual seventh year they were hunting down Horcruxes, they were going to attend their seventh year with those who were earlier in sixth year and were going to start their seventh year. So it meant that they were going to share their classes with Ginny and Luna. Many of Harry's previous classmates also attended Hogwarts including Neville, Dean, Seamus, Lavender, Parvati and others from other houses. But Harry and Hermione were made Head Boy and Head Girl respectively. Harry also became captain of Gryffindor Quidditch team.
After defeating Voldemort, Harry was free of a huge burden. It brought a very positive change in Harry's attitude. He became more outgoing. He didn't feel awkward around girls anymore. He even learned to flirt with them, with the help of Ron of course.
Harry started dating. Almost every girl was trying to get his attention. But he finally asked Sophie, a transfer student from USA. She was a seventh year Ravenclaw and very attractive as well. Every boy was jealous of Harry for going out with most beautiful girl in school.
But after a month Sophie broke up with Harry. She told him that he never really talked to her about anything about his life except what everyone already knew. He never shared anything that only his best friends knew. She was also bugged by the fact that Harry gave more importance to Hermione than his own girlfriend. He would even cancel his date if Hermione needed him.
Harry was a bit upset with the breakup, but soon forgot about it and in a span of two weeks he started dating with Maggie a sixth year Hufflepuff. But she also had the problems similar to what as Sophie had.
With everything that was going on, Harry dated four girls in a span of next two months. But it was the same issue with every girl. They all had the problems with Harry's friendship with Hermione. His last girlfriend even forced him to make a choice between her and Hermione. Well there was no arguing, as everyone knew whom he would choose. Rumours about Harry dating Hermione secretly were also spread among the school by one of Harry's ex-girlfriend.
Breakups never really bothered Harry, and he enjoyed dating. But Harry was worried about Hermione. Daily Prophet was focusing on Harry's love life. Every day there was some or the other thing about his affairs. Most of the articles showed Hermione as a greedy girl who was trying to steal famous Harry Potter from his innocent girlfriend. Many references were given to the stories run by Rita Skeeter during Harry's fourth year.
Harry thought of sending a letter to Minister of Magic, Arthur Weasley, to take some action against The Daily Prophet, which was printing lies about Hermione. But Hermione stopped him from doing so. She told him that it would only confirm everyone's suspicions about the lies The Daily Prophet had printed. She just told him to ignore these lies.
But Harry was getting very angry now. People had started sending hate mails to Hermione. And most of them contained dangerous curses and jinxes. Each day Hermione received many mails. Once or twice Hermione got hurt as well.
Harry finally decided to talk to the Headmaster Dumbledore about it. From then on letters for Hermione were checked for any dangerous item before being delivered to Hermione. Most of the letters were hate mails. Hermione was grateful to Harry for this.
It was Sunday morning. Harry, Ron, and Hermione were sitting in the Great Hall taking their breakfast.
After sometime owls started arriving with the letters or parcels for the students. To Hermione's surprise, she got no mail that day except the newspaper 'The Quibbler' that was run by their friend and Ron's girlfriend's Luna Lovegood's father Xenophilius Lovegood. After the final battle, he had started to run a newspaper as well along with his already existing magazine.
Ron noticed that as well. Nevertheless, as tactless as he was, he opened his mouth,
"What, no hate mails today?" Ron asked Hermione before filling his mouth with toast.
Hermione glared at Ron.
"What you mean? Did I deserve all those letters?" Hermione asked crossly.
"Err… no. I mean, every day you were getting those hate mails but today there are none. So…." Ron trailed off. He looked at Harry for help. Harry just smirked in return.
Hermione calmed down a bit.
"Well yeah, I am surprised as well." She said thoughtfully.
"Do you know anything about it?" Hermione asked Harry.
Harry was drinking his pumpkin juice. He finished his juice and looked at Hermione.
"Umm…yeah. Yesterday I spoke to Dumbledore about checking your letters for jinxes and curses or any other dangerous object. I hope you don't mind that." Harry said looking at Hermione anxiously.
Hermione just smiled at him.
"Thanks a lot Harry. You are really a very great friend." She said softly. Harry looked relieved at this.
"Hey I am also a great friend." Ron said in a whining voice.
Both Harry and Hermione laughed at this.
"Yes you too Ronnikins," Harry said laughing harder at Ron's scowling face.
"So Harry, are you ready to study for Transfiguration project?" Hermione asked.
Prof. McGonagall had given the project work to seventh year students. They had to work in pairs. Harry and Hermione were paired together to work on the project.
"Yeah, I am ready. Today I am all yours, Miss Granger." Harry replied playfully, tickling her on the side.
"Harry, stop it." Hermione said laughing uncontrollably. She finally managed to stop him, grabbing his hands with her own.
"I love it when you laugh." Harry said his eyes gleaming with happiness.
Hermione rolled her eyes. "I was laughing like a banshee, Harry." She replied.
Harry was about to reply but was interrupted.
"Hi Harry," Tracey Jones said. She was Harry's latest girlfriend, a sixth year Gryffindor.
"Oh Hi Tracey," Harry replied.
Tracey's eyes went to Harry and Hermione's joined hands. Hermione quickly pulled away. Tracey gave a hard look to Hermione. Then she looked at Harry.
"Harry, I was just thinking that we should spend the day together. We can take a walk near the lake and can arrange a romantic picnic there. It would just be you and me for the whole day." Tracey said the last part in seductive tone. She bent down and kissed Harry on the lips, giving him a good view of her female assets.
Hermione averted her eyes from them. While Harry dated different girls, he always gave more importance to Hermione. He cared a lot about her. She was the most important girl in his life. And yet it was not enough for Hermione. She just not wanted him to care for her; she wanted him to love her as she loved him. He never realized how much it hurt Hermione whenever she saw him with other girls.
Hermione had been in love with Harry since their fourth year. But she never had courage to tell him. He had crush on Cho Chang that time and then they started dating. How could she have ever competed with her? Cho was beautiful, played Quidditch, had a slender form; everything Hermione was not. She held the hopes in her heart. Then she had given up on him before the final battle had started. She knew he would never feel the same way for her. She was also scared to end their friendship.
She knew he needed a best friend, not a jealous girl with stupid unrequited feelings. So she just locked up all her feelings in her heart and threw away the key. But that didn't mean that didn't hurt her to see him with other girls.
Hermione's eyes met Ron's. He had a knowing look in his eyes. He knew that Hermione had feelings for Harry. She just smiled at him sadly.
Tracey pulled back and smiled at Harry.
"Well sorry, Tracey. But I can't. Hermione and I are going to work on our Transfiguration project today." Harry said.
"So," Tracey said.
"So what?" Harry asked looking confused.
Tracey rolled her eyes. "Cancel your plan with her," Tracey said pointing towards Hermione with her finger. Harry got angry at her attitude.
"I won't." He answered flatly.
Hermione interrupted between them. "It's ok, Harry. We can work on the project some other time. Go and enjoy." Hermione said to Harry with a friendly smile, even if it hurt her to say this.
"No," Harry said plainly.
"Fine. Do whatever you want." Tracey said angrily and sauntered out of the Great Hall.
Ron just shook his head. He looked at Hermione.
"Have you ever seen a boy, as clueless as our dear Mr Potter?" Ron asked in a dramatic fashion.
Harry glared at Ron. Hermione laughed at this. "No, I am afraid, not." She replied laughing harder.
That whole day Harry and Hermione spent together. They made a very good progress on their project. And to Hermione's surprise, Harry dragged her out, for a walk near the lake.
Hermione never felt so happy, but she knew that it was just an illusion and would come to end at the end of the day.
Days passed quickly for Hermione. Most of the time she tried to stay out of Harry's way whenever he was with his girlfriend Tracey. Even though she had given up on Harry, she couldn't erase her feelings for him. And it hurt more and more every day.
Author's note:- Harry is a bit clueless in this fic. What you think about it. Tell me. Its just a two-shot fic. Hope you like it. Read and review.