Title: The Five Stages of Falling in Love with Your Best Friend

Pairing: Harry x Hermione

Characters: Harry Potter & Hermione Granger

Prompt: Muggle Studies Task #2: Write a 'Five Stages of…'- themed story (preferably one scene per stage). For example: Five Stages of Taking an Exam. Minimum 500 words, maximum 4 000 words.

Warning: May contain slight Dumbledore bashing? To be honest I'm not entirely sure but I think it can be interpreted as such? You can be the judge of that!

AN: I am aware that the movie scene when they're dancing isn't in the book but I decided to use it in this fic.

Word Count: 1, 345

Harry Potter had been oblivious for all of his life. That could quite possibly be the reason that he didn't realise until he was seventeen years old that he had fallen head over heels in love with his best friend. But as they moved from side to side, Hermione going in and out of his arms, it became obvious even to him. Every time she laughed, so did he, and her touches left a certain yearning inside of him. It made Harry want to pull her closer every time she backed but he managed to wait until she leaned into him.

It made him wonder when this had happened. And in the back of his mind he managed to see it for the first time; the five stages of Harry falling in love with his best friend.

First came the realisation that he found some of her habits endearing.

Harry couldn't tell why he looked across the table one morning during breakfast. It was one of those rare moments when Ron had opted for sleeping over coming down to the great hall with him and Hermione for breakfast. They had talked on their way down and Hermione had, with a somewhat disappointed expression said that she didn't have to read her book now. But Harry had with a smile told her not to be silly. If she wanted to read then he wasn't going to stop her. And he was certainly glad that he had said that. Because when Hermione read he saw something that he rarely saw otherwise.

Her dark eyes glimmered and she would pull different faces depending on what she was reading. He pretended not to hear but every now and again she would even squeak as if whatever she had read became all too much to handle. He didn't try to stop himself from smiling as he looked at her from across the table.

"Why are you looking at me like that?" her voice interrupted his thoughts. There was a tint of red on her cheeks and she fidgeted with her book as if she was expecting to hear something she wouldn't like.

Harry shrugged. "I just like watching you read." He admitted and glanced down at his breakfast doing his best to ignore the fact that her cheeks turned into an even darker shade of red after that.

Then he realised that he enjoyed listening to her explain things. It didn't matter what she was explaining as long as she was interested in whatever subject she spoke about.

At the age of fourteen Harry found himself sitting on a chair in the library with his quill untouched and his parchment empty as Hermione, with her nose in a book, explained what she had just read about becoming an animagus. Sadly, that wasn't an option for the first challenge in the tournament.

"You see in order to become an animagus one must…" Hermione gestured wildly as she spoke.

The few times she bumped into something she didn't understand wrinkles would appear on her forehead. But the moment she understood she would lowly murmur aha and then continue explaining.

It could possibly be the cutest thing Harry had ever seen.

The third stage was helping her and in sense becoming more protective of her. Hermione told Harry plenty of times when he was fifteen that she didn't need protection from anybody.

Her brown, curly hair jumped up and down as she angrily stormed down the corridor. The other students must have seen her aggravated expression because most of them, Fred and George the quickest, jumped out of her way to allow her storming out to continue. Harry was just two meters behind her with Ron another two meters behind him.

"Why does she look so angry for?" Harry heard one of the twins ask Ron as he had passed them. Probably Fred.

"Harry got into a fight." Ron said to which both twins loudly exclaiming what. "Well, it wasn't a physical fight but he got angry at something Umbridge said and yelled at her not to be such a grumpy woman and to get that wand out of her… well that place where the sun doesn't shine. That's the child approved version though…"

Harry got a smug smile on his face when he heard the story being retold and didn't notice that Hermione had stopped until he felt a hand on his chest stopping him from walking into her. Her angry expression didn't remove that smile from his face.

"You are so stupid." Hermione scolded him, appearing too distressed to care about the students around them. "I was completely fine. I was handling myself and then you intervened and now you've got two weeks' worth of detention. You do realise what that means do you?"

The last sentence was spoken in a hushed whisper as she stood just in front of him. Harry could feel the scent of old books, ink and a flowery perfume reach his nose and his smile softened.

"Yeah, of course I do." He replied and involuntarily touched his scarred hand. "But I couldn't let her get away with saying those things to you. I protect my friends Hermione and I don't care if that makes you mad because I will continue to do so. She can give me all the detentions she wants but I still won't let her talk to you like that."

"Oh Harry," Hermione stood on her toes and kissed his cheek. She then smiled at him but there was still a hint of anger in her brown eyes. "I'm still angry at you but thank you for being such a good friend."

The fourth step was not being able to stand it when she was angry with him.

"Come on Hermione." The raven-haired boy whined as he followed her into the common room. "Please, don't be angry with me anymore. It was a stupid idea and I didn't think it through. I'm sorry."

Hermione turned around so quickly that he almost walked into her. But in the last moment he managed to stop himself.

"You are damn right it was a bad idea Harry Potter." She chest rose dramatically and it appeared as if her brown eyes were spitting balls of fire straight at him. It made Harry miss the dragon he had fought with in his fourth year. "What were you thinking when you went with him to that place?"

"I was thinking that it was Dumbledore and that he wouldn't have taken me somewhere dangerous?"

Hermione groaned. "You're such a stupid boy sometimes." She whined while eying him up and down from side to side until settling to look into his emerald green eyes. "You can't just trust people like that. Not all people are kind. You can't even trust Dumbledore; Merlin knows he's proved that to you so many times."

With a hurt tone in his voice he responded. "I know that Hermione."

"I'm glad you're okay." A smile appeared on her face as she took a step towards him and pulled Harry into a hug. "What am I going to do with you huh?"

Harry's body shook as he laughed. "Just keep doing what you've always been doing. It's worked great so far."

Then came the final stage. The fifth stage of falling in love with his best friend. Harry realised that he would do anything to make her smile. Even if that meant dancing around in a tent god knows in which part of England.

He was unsure of the idea when he placed her hands around his neck and rested his own against her hips. But the moment she began smiling Harry knew that it had been worth it. He wondered if Hermione felt what he felt. And if she did was she as oblivious to her own emotions as he had been?

Hermione rested her forehead against his. She looked straight into his eyes and then she smiled. When their lips connected, Harry knew that he had been oblivious to the entire thing but Hermione hadn't.

The end