Written for the iPod Challenge.
Day Ten.
If I could, I'd only wanna' make you smile.
If you wanna' stay with me a while.
Make You Smile
(Plus 44)
She's never seen a boy cry before, and when it's her very best friend that's breaking down in front her, she hasn't got a clue what to do. It's weird, because she's known him for more than a few years and she knows better than anyone that he, of all people, has plenty to cry about. He never had though. At least, not in front of her he hadn't.
None of her books have taught her what to do now. She's meant to know this stuff – she's meant to have some sort of crazy instinct that will make her do that one thing that makes everything better. So why's she calling a blank, now, of all times? She's meant to be the smart one, not the clueless one. Yet, at this moment in time, clueless is the only word in the world she can think of to describe herself.
Oh, Harry, it will okay. Everything's fine. You'll be okay. You'll be fine.
Whispering empty promises into his ear feels so wrong, and she's sure that it's not the right thing to do. But what else there to do, tell him the truth, and say that everyone is frightened out of their minds and risking their lives for one night that could end in disaster?
He curls into a tight ball, and she breaks a little bit. Maybe she should have been there before, and then she'd know what to do. But she'd hid her face at the TriWizard Tournament, and her own tears stopped her from seeing his at Dumbledore's funeral. She's selfish. After seven years of claiming to be completely devoted to someone, and after all the times she knows he must have cried… she's never seen it before, and even now, when she is, she doesn't know what to do. She's meant to know to do, she knows that much.
Smile for me, Harry. I like you better when you smile. You're scaring me. Tell me everything will okay. I need you now.
She's being selfish again, but she can't help it. She needs the reassurance that only he can give her, and even though he clearly needs it more than she does, she's just not the person to give it to him.
She can whisper sweet nothings, wipe away his tears, and beg on her knees so that he'll raise his head to look her in eye.
But all she wants is a smile.
a.n; Yikes. I actually had a lot of fun writing this, and even though I fairly certain that Hermione's seen Harry cry loads before the Battle, it just seemed to fit. ^_^ ...