"HARRY!"
It was too late, much too late, as Harry fell into the veil, and left his two best friends in darkness. Hermione didn't believe it for a second. This was just a mirage anyway. She ran in front of her with one last try, reaching out towards the veil.
"HARRY!"
Her scream was extinguished as everything around them started to fuzz. Their time and travel spell was over, and they were going back. Hermione watched the veil disappear, tears swelling into her eyes.
Hermione and Ron closed their eyes from the dizziness as the swirling of the world around them disappeared. The vision of the hideous room in the Ministry of Magic was replaced by a clear spot in the grounds of Hogwarts were once a teacher had transformed into a werewolf. Hermione blinked, and called out once more.
"Harry!" She stopped, realizing it was all over. Harry had lost in trying to save Sirius. Their whole plan was wasted. Tears streamed down her cheeks, until she felt someone awkwardly pat her on the shoulder. "Ron..." she turned around, facing her other seventeen year old friend, who tried to smile comfortingly at her, but only made a grimace.
"Oh Ron! How could this have happened? Our plan was all worked out! Nothing should have gone wrong!" Hermione looked sorrowfully the young wizard, who was looking at the ground, frowning. He had his wand in his hand, clenched tightly. Hermione's spirits sunk lower when she realized Ron had never been able to use his wand. He had wanted so much to be a hero during that fight. She knew because Ron was so easy to read for her.
Then, after seven years, Hermione finally snapped. She fell to her knees, weeping in her hands and onto the green grass. Ron had not yet said a word, so she used that advantage to scream out what she was thinking.
"Why did we have to be this way?" she bellowed. "Why did this all have to happen to us? Why did he have to feel all this pain? And to think, it was even worse for Harry!" She slurred her words as she kept weeping, then she could no longer speak. Coughing, she kept low to the ground.
In between her cries, she heard Ron walk closer to her, with a thoughtful and serious look on his face. Then, holding up his wand and looking at it, he said, "Are you saying you wish you never became friends with Harry? If you didn't, none of the things you just said would have happened to you."
Shocked at the words Ron said, for they were very out of character, she stopped crying and gaped up at him. Ron had never said anything like that before, especially to her. Sudden anger burned through her, and she stood up, glaring her friend straight in the face.
"That is not what I'm saying. That is NOT what I said."
The two friends stood there a few moments, glaring at each other. Finally, Ron started to nod, looking troubled again. "I know." He said hoarsely.
The wizard turned around, kicking sticks around miserable, as Hermione stood there, tucking her wand into her back pocket. She wiped her eyes, sniffed, and tried not to weep again and she walked around the clearing near her best friend.
"Did you..." Ron started to say, pausing as he tried to make out the right words. "Did you love... love him? Harry, I mean." He didn't look her in the eye, but instead focused on a bunch of dead leaves.
"Of course I did!" Hermione said, throwing Ron a disgusted look, but then she understood what he meant when she looked at his miserable face. "But... like a brother- he was like a brother to me."
"Oh." was Ron's only response. They walked around the clearing again, on opposite sides, waiting for the other to say something. That least, that was what Hermione was doing.
"If he was like a brother to you," Ron said, speaking slowly again. "What am I to... you."
This time Ron looked up, and Hermione couldn't help but smile even though she had just experienced a horrible death of a close friend- or brother. Hermione ran across the clearing, and leapt on top of Ron, who managed to keep his balance. Her arms wrapped around his neck and he leapt back in surprise. This Weasley boy was the one who always loved his friend as more than a friend, but he was not exactly figuring it out until just now.
"Ron, I don't think you need to worry about that, because you should know by now." Hermione sniffed again, and she couldn't hold it any longer. Her tears of seven years and her best friend's death burst out of her again, drenching Ron's robes. He nervously patted her on the back again, being the same old Ron; being uncomfortable with being so close to his female friend, but today, he realized, it felt so good, and helped him through his sorrow.
"Ron, you don't need to be afraid to cry." Hermione said from Ron's shoulder. "No one is here but me, and I won't care." Hermione sniffed again, a tear missing his robes and falling to the ground.
Ron held the silence as long as he could, but then he lost it. He threw his own arms around Hermione's back, and whispered, "I know." She heard him sniff, then he let him own tears drench the clever witch's robed.
Ron finally held her as close as he could get her to him, and wept on her own shoulder. To Hermione's surprise, however, it broke her heart. She couldn't stand to see Ron break down like this. The sound of his crying made every passing memory of her seven years pass by her.
The witch tore away, sobbing so bad she fell to her knees once more. "Ron!" she pleaded. "Please don't cry Ron. At least not in my presence." She gulped, leaning down towards the ground as if Ron was a king and she was bowing to him as he walked down the streets.
Ron gulped to, wondering what he did wrong. Hermione rose, wiping her eyes, which were already as red as tomatoes. When she saw Ron had stopped crying, she hugged Ron again, not realizing her own tears had stopped running.
"I can't believe Harry is gone." She said, her voice hoarse from so much crying.
"I can't believe it either." Ron whispered, his mouth right next to her ear. "I always knew V...Voldemort was after him, but I never realized he actually might..." he gulped.
"It's all right. You don't have to say it." Hermione said, squeezing Ron tighter.
After a moment of silence, Ron said, "I guess I'll have to be like your brother, now that... that Harry is gone."
Hermione frowned. Did Ron still not understand? She loved him- not as a brother, but as- a husband, in family terms.
"No. I don't think you will have to do that." Hermione said, resting her head on his chest.
"Why not?" he whispered.
"Because I have loved you as more than a friend but- not as a brother for a very long time."
Ron stepped back in confusion and surprise, causing Hermione to end her hug. In the process of stepping back, he tripped over a tree root and was sent crashing to the ground.
"Ron!" Hermione ran to his side, but he sat up, glaring at her.
"If you loved me, why didn't you tell me before?" he seemed really made, but Hermione laughed in a nervous way. Not because she was nervous that Ron was made at her, but nervous because of such a bad time they had just come out of. She should not have been laughing.
"I DID!"
"No you didn't!" Ron tried to stand up, but Hermione kept him down.
"I have done millions of things that should have told you the truth." Hermione bellowed at him, starting to get mad as well.
"Well, you should have just smacked me across the face and said, 'Ron, I love you.'"
"FINE!" Hermione looked at him fiercely as she yelled. Then, pulling her hand up as she had done to Draco Malfoy in third year, she smacked him clear across the face. "Ron, I love you!" Hermione had shouted as if she was furious at Ron for some reason, but she smiled shortly after her outburst. Ron lay on the ground, touching his cheek (which was the same one Hermione had kissed in fifth year), looking flabbergasted.
"You... you do?" he finally said weakly. Hermione nodded solemnly. "Why?"
Hermione's eyes bulged out at him.
"WHY?" she yelled out at him. "I just smacked you across the face and told you I loved you and you ask me WHY? Why did you'd you just do this?"
Ron flinched as she lunged towards him, but she didn't smack him, or do anything physically hurtful to him. Instead, she lunged across to him, and pressed her lips against his.
Ron fell back in surprise as she kept her lips on him, putting her hand down on the ground around his arm for balance. She pushed his head into the dirt as they kissed, never wanting her first kiss to end.
Ron, who was frightened as he tried to support Hermione's weight on his body, opened his eyes. He could not believe Hermione was kissing him at that moment. Everything that had made him so miserable moments before left his mind, and he forgot to feel guilty that he was kissing a girl when Harry Potter, once the boy who lived, died.
Ron closed his eyes again, and not feeling comfortable with laying flat as a board on the ground, lifted his arms up to Hermione's arms, but he was clumsily confused and didn't know what to do. He was not a very good romantic lead, and he and certainly not kissed a girl before. Hermione was doing all the action in his mouth and outside her body (for she was trying to keep herself up), leaving Ron clueless and dazed.
Finally Hermione lifted herself away from Ron's face, and she started to giggle. "Am I a good kisser?" The dazed look on Ron's face made her suspect it was a yes. When he finally nodded, she pulled him up by his Hogwarts tie so they were both sitting up straight.
"I kissed you, now I want you to kiss me." she smiled as Ron looked at her frightfully.
"What!?!" he protested, but she wouldn't have it.
"I know you love me Ron. I have been able to tell for a long time." She paused and Ron looked surprised again. "I love you so much Ron, and I showed you in my kiss. Don't leave me hanging here."
Ron stared at her for a long while, and he wasn't sure what made him do it, but it must have been the fact that Hermione was being so patient with him. From being so nervous and still dazed, her quickly grabbed Hermione, and he pressed his lips against hers, as she had done to him.
They toppled over on the ground, but neither seemed to notice. Ron pulled Hermione as close as he could against, as he wasn't on his back anymore. From toppling over, each of the two lovers were now laying on their sides, Ron's hands behind Hermione's head and back, while Hermione squeezed her arms around Ron's back. Ron continued his liplock until he realized that he should stop, and ask for Hermione's thoughts as she asked for his.
She looked at him hysterically and grabbed his face in her hands. "You are a fantastic kisser." She said, laughing.
"Not as good as you." Ron said, finally relaxing, and he was able to smile.
Hermione rolled her eyes. "I'm not better than you at everything."
"Yes you are." Hermione's mouth dropped open as she stared at him. "What about quidditch? I could never be as good as you!" Ron's ears turned red. "And you were so brave back there, helping Harry and I! Sure, I'm good at school and grade and remembering spells, but you are good at so much more! I... I remember saying this to Harry in first year. There are more important things, Ron. Friendship-" she grinned at Ron. "Bravery... Things like that." She kissed him again. "Love."
Ron looked away, and she could tell he agreed. But then his expression changed, and he frowned.
"What is it?" she asked nervously.
"Well, it's just... why are we sitting here, enjoying ourselves when our best friend in the whole world has... died?"
Hermione's smile disappeared, but a voice tiredly interrupted Ron's question.
"I'm not dead."
It was too late, much too late, as Harry fell into the veil, and left his two best friends in darkness. Hermione didn't believe it for a second. This was just a mirage anyway. She ran in front of her with one last try, reaching out towards the veil.
"HARRY!"
Her scream was extinguished as everything around them started to fuzz. Their time and travel spell was over, and they were going back. Hermione watched the veil disappear, tears swelling into her eyes.
Hermione and Ron closed their eyes from the dizziness as the swirling of the world around them disappeared. The vision of the hideous room in the Ministry of Magic was replaced by a clear spot in the grounds of Hogwarts were once a teacher had transformed into a werewolf. Hermione blinked, and called out once more.
"Harry!" She stopped, realizing it was all over. Harry had lost in trying to save Sirius. Their whole plan was wasted. Tears streamed down her cheeks, until she felt someone awkwardly pat her on the shoulder. "Ron..." she turned around, facing her other seventeen year old friend, who tried to smile comfortingly at her, but only made a grimace.
"Oh Ron! How could this have happened? Our plan was all worked out! Nothing should have gone wrong!" Hermione looked sorrowfully the young wizard, who was looking at the ground, frowning. He had his wand in his hand, clenched tightly. Hermione's spirits sunk lower when she realized Ron had never been able to use his wand. He had wanted so much to be a hero during that fight. She knew because Ron was so easy to read for her.
Then, after seven years, Hermione finally snapped. She fell to her knees, weeping in her hands and onto the green grass. Ron had not yet said a word, so she used that advantage to scream out what she was thinking.
"Why did we have to be this way?" she bellowed. "Why did this all have to happen to us? Why did he have to feel all this pain? And to think, it was even worse for Harry!" She slurred her words as she kept weeping, then she could no longer speak. Coughing, she kept low to the ground.
In between her cries, she heard Ron walk closer to her, with a thoughtful and serious look on his face. Then, holding up his wand and looking at it, he said, "Are you saying you wish you never became friends with Harry? If you didn't, none of the things you just said would have happened to you."
Shocked at the words Ron said, for they were very out of character, she stopped crying and gaped up at him. Ron had never said anything like that before, especially to her. Sudden anger burned through her, and she stood up, glaring her friend straight in the face.
"That is not what I'm saying. That is NOT what I said."
The two friends stood there a few moments, glaring at each other. Finally, Ron started to nod, looking troubled again. "I know." He said hoarsely.
The wizard turned around, kicking sticks around miserable, as Hermione stood there, tucking her wand into her back pocket. She wiped her eyes, sniffed, and tried not to weep again and she walked around the clearing near her best friend.
"Did you..." Ron started to say, pausing as he tried to make out the right words. "Did you love... love him? Harry, I mean." He didn't look her in the eye, but instead focused on a bunch of dead leaves.
"Of course I did!" Hermione said, throwing Ron a disgusted look, but then she understood what he meant when she looked at his miserable face. "But... like a brother- he was like a brother to me."
"Oh." was Ron's only response. They walked around the clearing again, on opposite sides, waiting for the other to say something. That least, that was what Hermione was doing.
"If he was like a brother to you," Ron said, speaking slowly again. "What am I to... you."
This time Ron looked up, and Hermione couldn't help but smile even though she had just experienced a horrible death of a close friend- or brother. Hermione ran across the clearing, and leapt on top of Ron, who managed to keep his balance. Her arms wrapped around his neck and he leapt back in surprise. This Weasley boy was the one who always loved his friend as more than a friend, but he was not exactly figuring it out until just now.
"Ron, I don't think you need to worry about that, because you should know by now." Hermione sniffed again, and she couldn't hold it any longer. Her tears of seven years and her best friend's death burst out of her again, drenching Ron's robes. He nervously patted her on the back again, being the same old Ron; being uncomfortable with being so close to his female friend, but today, he realized, it felt so good, and helped him through his sorrow.
"Ron, you don't need to be afraid to cry." Hermione said from Ron's shoulder. "No one is here but me, and I won't care." Hermione sniffed again, a tear missing his robes and falling to the ground.
Ron held the silence as long as he could, but then he lost it. He threw his own arms around Hermione's back, and whispered, "I know." She heard him sniff, then he let him own tears drench the clever witch's robed.
Ron finally held her as close as he could get her to him, and wept on her own shoulder. To Hermione's surprise, however, it broke her heart. She couldn't stand to see Ron break down like this. The sound of his crying made every passing memory of her seven years pass by her.
The witch tore away, sobbing so bad she fell to her knees once more. "Ron!" she pleaded. "Please don't cry Ron. At least not in my presence." She gulped, leaning down towards the ground as if Ron was a king and she was bowing to him as he walked down the streets.
Ron gulped to, wondering what he did wrong. Hermione rose, wiping her eyes, which were already as red as tomatoes. When she saw Ron had stopped crying, she hugged Ron again, not realizing her own tears had stopped running.
"I can't believe Harry is gone." She said, her voice hoarse from so much crying.
"I can't believe it either." Ron whispered, his mouth right next to her ear. "I always knew V...Voldemort was after him, but I never realized he actually might..." he gulped.
"It's all right. You don't have to say it." Hermione said, squeezing Ron tighter.
After a moment of silence, Ron said, "I guess I'll have to be like your brother, now that... that Harry is gone."
Hermione frowned. Did Ron still not understand? She loved him- not as a brother, but as- a husband, in family terms.
"No. I don't think you will have to do that." Hermione said, resting her head on his chest.
"Why not?" he whispered.
"Because I have loved you as more than a friend but- not as a brother for a very long time."
Ron stepped back in confusion and surprise, causing Hermione to end her hug. In the process of stepping back, he tripped over a tree root and was sent crashing to the ground.
"Ron!" Hermione ran to his side, but he sat up, glaring at her.
"If you loved me, why didn't you tell me before?" he seemed really made, but Hermione laughed in a nervous way. Not because she was nervous that Ron was made at her, but nervous because of such a bad time they had just come out of. She should not have been laughing.
"I DID!"
"No you didn't!" Ron tried to stand up, but Hermione kept him down.
"I have done millions of things that should have told you the truth." Hermione bellowed at him, starting to get mad as well.
"Well, you should have just smacked me across the face and said, 'Ron, I love you.'"
"FINE!" Hermione looked at him fiercely as she yelled. Then, pulling her hand up as she had done to Draco Malfoy in third year, she smacked him clear across the face. "Ron, I love you!" Hermione had shouted as if she was furious at Ron for some reason, but she smiled shortly after her outburst. Ron lay on the ground, touching his cheek (which was the same one Hermione had kissed in fifth year), looking flabbergasted.
"You... you do?" he finally said weakly. Hermione nodded solemnly. "Why?"
Hermione's eyes bulged out at him.
"WHY?" she yelled out at him. "I just smacked you across the face and told you I loved you and you ask me WHY? Why did you'd you just do this?"
Ron flinched as she lunged towards him, but she didn't smack him, or do anything physically hurtful to him. Instead, she lunged across to him, and pressed her lips against his.
Ron fell back in surprise as she kept her lips on him, putting her hand down on the ground around his arm for balance. She pushed his head into the dirt as they kissed, never wanting her first kiss to end.
Ron, who was frightened as he tried to support Hermione's weight on his body, opened his eyes. He could not believe Hermione was kissing him at that moment. Everything that had made him so miserable moments before left his mind, and he forgot to feel guilty that he was kissing a girl when Harry Potter, once the boy who lived, died.
Ron closed his eyes again, and not feeling comfortable with laying flat as a board on the ground, lifted his arms up to Hermione's arms, but he was clumsily confused and didn't know what to do. He was not a very good romantic lead, and he and certainly not kissed a girl before. Hermione was doing all the action in his mouth and outside her body (for she was trying to keep herself up), leaving Ron clueless and dazed.
Finally Hermione lifted herself away from Ron's face, and she started to giggle. "Am I a good kisser?" The dazed look on Ron's face made her suspect it was a yes. When he finally nodded, she pulled him up by his Hogwarts tie so they were both sitting up straight.
"I kissed you, now I want you to kiss me." she smiled as Ron looked at her frightfully.
"What!?!" he protested, but she wouldn't have it.
"I know you love me Ron. I have been able to tell for a long time." She paused and Ron looked surprised again. "I love you so much Ron, and I showed you in my kiss. Don't leave me hanging here."
Ron stared at her for a long while, and he wasn't sure what made him do it, but it must have been the fact that Hermione was being so patient with him. From being so nervous and still dazed, her quickly grabbed Hermione, and he pressed his lips against hers, as she had done to him.
They toppled over on the ground, but neither seemed to notice. Ron pulled Hermione as close as he could against, as he wasn't on his back anymore. From toppling over, each of the two lovers were now laying on their sides, Ron's hands behind Hermione's head and back, while Hermione squeezed her arms around Ron's back. Ron continued his liplock until he realized that he should stop, and ask for Hermione's thoughts as she asked for his.
She looked at him hysterically and grabbed his face in her hands. "You are a fantastic kisser." She said, laughing.
"Not as good as you." Ron said, finally relaxing, and he was able to smile.
Hermione rolled her eyes. "I'm not better than you at everything."
"Yes you are." Hermione's mouth dropped open as she stared at him. "What about quidditch? I could never be as good as you!" Ron's ears turned red. "And you were so brave back there, helping Harry and I! Sure, I'm good at school and grade and remembering spells, but you are good at so much more! I... I remember saying this to Harry in first year. There are more important things, Ron. Friendship-" she grinned at Ron. "Bravery... Things like that." She kissed him again. "Love."
Ron looked away, and she could tell he agreed. But then his expression changed, and he frowned.
"What is it?" she asked nervously.
"Well, it's just... why are we sitting here, enjoying ourselves when our best friend in the whole world has... died?"
Hermione's smile disappeared, but a voice tiredly interrupted Ron's question.
"I'm not dead."