This is my submission for the Valentines Day competition. I hope that you'll like it….

-Kiki aka lovely773

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Title: We all want to be rescued

Summary: On Valentines Day, just one sentence that Harry says makes all the difference to Hermione.

Rating: G/PG

Words: 733

A/N: I do hope that you can still consider this for the competition….I know my entry is late but I thought, with the podcast coming out later, the due date would be later to….prays

The whole castle had been decorated for Valentines Day. Pink, heart-shaped notes with tiny wings were fluttering through the corridors, bearing messages for the lucky (or not so lucky) recepient. Since they didn't sing or read their content aloud, most of the studens agreed on them being better than Lockhart's method of spreading the Valentine's cheer a couple of years back. The celing of the Great Hall had been bewitched to appear a light shade of pink and at night, the stars seemed to be in a heart-shape. Once in a while, pink and red confetti would fall from it, making the unfortunate ones who got covered in it yell angrily while trying to retrieve confetti out of their pumpkin juice. Every corridor, every class room and every common room was decorated and two Ravenclaw students had sworn that they had seen Proffessor Flitwick hurrying into the dungeons with a large box containing something pink and fluffy.

Hermione Granger climbed down the stairs of the girl's dormitry, observing the decorations of the Gryffindor common room with a disapproving look on her face. She had never really liked Valentines Day for she never had had anyone to celebrate it with – she was, after all, the bookworm with bushy hair.

Hermione saw Harry sitting in one of the armchairs near the fire and hurried over to him and sat down.

"Hey Harry." she said. Harry looked up from the front page of the Prophet, which he was reading: "Hey". "Anything new in there?", Hermione asked, pointing at the newspaper. "No…nothing", he replied, yet he kept reading. Hermione didn't want to disturb him, so she didn't say anything more. But she studied him, looking at him intensly…and, as always, she was surprised to see him act so…normal. She thought of the destiny he had, and he had to face it sooner or later, no matter what…she glanced at his dark-green eyes, careful not to get lost in them again, as she did so often. This was the boy who had to kill the most powerful dark wizard someday, and he was just sitting here, next to her, reading the paper…

And then the question that she had wanted to ask him ever since he had told her about the prophecy burst from her mouth and she was unable to stop it: "You know, sometimes I wonder how you can cope. The prophecy…you have to kill him at some point, you have this destiny that no one would like to have…but you're not breaking down and you're not scared….and I just can not possibly imagine how you do it."

Harry looked up and put the Prophet away. To her surprise, he was smiling. "Do you want to know the truth? The honest truth why I haven't run from it already?" Hermione nodded slowly.

"I do it for you, Hermione".

All of the air seemed to have vanished from the room, for Hermione felt quite breathless. She looked at him and noticed that he was looking at her, too…and she could not remember anyone else ever looking at her like that….looking into her eyes and seeing more than just the bushy haired bookworm…seeing a girl, a woman even, who had waited, waited for her hero to come and rescue her…(because, after all, we all want to be rescued at some point.)

It was as though he saw a woman who was ready to fight…to fight next to him until the very end when all hope was lost…and even then she would try to defend herself, even if no defense was possible…

This startled Hermione as much as it amazed her. And without thinking, she leaned forwards and pressed her lips against his. She felt him respond and kissed him harder, half-rising from her seat, enjoying the feeling to its fullest…and as she kissed him, she noticed just how right it felt…as though a missing piece of a puzzle was finally being put into its place. A piece that had been there all along, right in the pile of pieces that still had to be fit into the puzzle, but it had been overseen…and now it had finally found its way to the surface.

Because, after all, we all want to be rescued at some point.