Disclaimer: HP's not mine; it's J.K. Rowling's. Happy?

Author's Note: Much, much thanks to Crys, Jennifer and Kalie for not only being supportive, but also for egging me on to post this (especially Kalie). So here's to you three. :)

And this is in Hermione's POV.

I hate this feeling of awkwardness that I have.

It's annoying – it sets me back a step. I hate this feeling of self-consciousness – especially when I have no reason to be feeling that way.

I'm supposed to be confident, self-assured. Not a blibbering, nervous, self-aware mess. I'm Hermione Granger, for Merlin's sake. I'm not the awkward type – I'm just not that. It isn't me.

But that feeling of awkwardness stays with me. It's there 24/7, unrelenting to let me go from its grasp. It wants to plague me with uncertain thoughts that will keep me awake. But I won't let it.

Sure, this neverending awkwardness will always be with me until the day I die – but I wish that it would stop. That it would just stop hitting me with all these doubts and causing all these false thoughts to fill my mind. It's not as if I can't help it – which I can't. It's unfortunately a part of me as much as I'm a part of it.

I can't live with it anymore. It forever tortures me, to the point when I can't stand its invisible but always felt presence. I hate it, I hate it. I can't stand it – I need to stop feeling awkward.

And stop it now, before it gets worse and gets a stronger hold on me than it already has. And before it gets to me any longer.

Before it takes over me . . .

Because this is not me. I'm not used to being awkward – and have never felt that way. It's never been in me to be and feel that way – I'm the confident girl who doesn't give and care a damn about what anyone thinks. I'm the person whom everyone hates yet admires.

I'm not clumsy, someone who has uncontrollable legs and can't keep their balance straight worth a damn euro. I don't trip over my own feet, fall over flat on my face – none of those embarrassing freefall moments. That just isn't me, doesn't define the awkwardness I feel and have.

Thanks to him – that awkwardness is slowly starting to fade away now. Maybe because he feels that way too – uncertain of everything in the world and everyone in it.

Awkwardness has always been my downfall – it has caused me to fall over an obstacle, and caused me too much pain that anyone could ever have in a lifetime. It's always caused me to think negative, to think on the low side of things – it poisons me with thoughts that I do not want to think of.

I think – no, I know – that he's cured that, though. Some way, somehow, he did. I couldn't be more grateful for it – and him, honestly.

He's my savior, just as I am his. He's my savior from the ongoing awkwardness that curses me everyday, and I'm his savior from everything else. And now, I realize, I have no reason to be awkward – and that bloody self-consciousness has left me.

Finally! The bloody feeling left me!

I feel liberated, exhilarated. As if I've been broken free of invisible bonds that shackled me to do their every bidding – and feel their every feeling. Which was what being awkward had done to me. I had hated every single minute of it – but all that was gone now. I owe my life to Harry – but I don't mind it. I would gladly give anything I have – including my love for him – for everything he's done for me. But he doesn't want anything in return, saying only with a bemused smile on his face that he's already gotten everything he's ever wanted.

And it's at this moment, I realize with a jolt, that I'm thankful to that awkwardness.