"What I've Learned"
Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter.
Summary: The days left of Hogwarts are numbered, and the trio readies to trade in their books and parchment for homes and jobs. But before they leave their beloved Hogwarts, they receive on last assignment to reflect on what they've learned in their time together as friends, lovers, teachers, teammates, and enemies. Along with many realizations, Ron and Hermione will finally see that love was never farther away then a best friend.
Author's Note: Believe it or not, this story was inspired by my going to the dentist! While waiting a ridiculously long time to be told of my dental improvements, I read a poser of one hundred "What I've learned"s, which caused me to daydream about this fanfiction that you're about to read! Please enjoy…which constitutes reviewing afterwards!
Thanks.
Chapter One
"The Stars"
The feeling of joy mixed with sorrow ran over the horizon today for all Hogwarts students as the gleaming sun set. Hermione Granger leaned back into the grass, putting her hands behind her for utmost comfort, and looked on as the blue sky turned particularly beautiful today. It was as if the sky could read her thoughts, and was determined to cheer her up. Today was just like any other day…except for one thing.
Ginny Weasley came out of Hogwarts expecting to find Harry Potter and Ron Weasley on the quidditch field, along with a number of quidditch team members giving it one last week of fun before departure. Of course Gryffindor had finally won the Quidditch Cup again, and it had ended a wonderful year of romance and friendship. But as Ginny thought about these things, she spotted her very best girl-friend, Hermione, and sat down beside her.
Each was too occupied with their own thoughts about graduation, endings, and new beginnings to realize the similarities between them, and found themselves so engrossed in them that it was developing a throbbing head pain. Finally, Ginny spoke.
"Hermione," she said softly. Hermione heads turned to the left, away from her beautiful sunset and mixing of colors.
"Wanna roll down the hill?"
It was such a random thought that it was pure willpower to not make the two begin laughing just that minute. Hermione considered her options: She could remain the same steady-eyed, straightforward Hermione until her last day of Hogwarts, or…she could do those things she had always wanted to do during her seven years, but never gave into temptation. But now, she had no more excuses, and she smiled and said, "I thought you'd never ask."
So, laughing, the pair shed their cloaks and coats, and took off their shoes and socks. The grass felt peculiar between Hermione's toes, and she remarked to Ginny just as it occurred to her. Ginny fell into a fit of giggles, only to cease when the finally positioned themselves.
"This is it Hermione," Ginny said to her friend. "Everything you worked against for seven years-all going to-"
"Just shut up and roll," was Hermione's curt answer. However, it was what Ginny wanted to hear-and, using her left foot to push off, slowly began to roll. Onlookers down at the lake peered up, and some gasped of, "Is that Hermione Granger?" erupted. By this time, the duo was picking up speed-Ginny a few rolls ahead, with Hermione gaining ground. It was hard to say that day who was laughing more, or who thought what whenever it occurred to the girls just what they were headed for: a giant mud puddle from last week's big rain. Ginny quickly stopped, her hands practically pulling grass from the roots to slow herself. Hermione, however, had not spotted the puddle of watery dirt, and was still laughing before Ginny yelled out, "Hermione? Hermione! Wait-there's a-"
Hermione hit it just as Ginny began to utter the words. The mud was still wet from being close to the lake, and was large enough to cake her entire shirt and sections of her face in mud. Ginny ran to her, as Neville and Luna, two onlookers, followed.
Hermione sat up, her frizzy hair with things such as leaves, grasses, and peculiar plants sticking out in odd places. She looked down at herself caked in mud-a walking piece of ground practically-and began to most hysterical laughter she could ever remember coming from her own lips.
Ginny sat down beside her, and, overwhelmed by Hermione, began to laugh equally hard, sometimes saying things such as, "You're shirt…" or, "Look at our hair!" and sometimes not saying anything at all, just laughing the purest laugh they had in ages.
Neville turned to Luna, puzzled, and asked, "What are they laughing about?"
But not even Ginny or Hermione themselves could say, and Luna just shrugged and joined in on the merriment.
Ron and Harry were coming steadily from the quidditch pitch, walking slowly for their aching bones, whenever they say the group down at the bottom of the hill. It was a distant peer to see, but the two could make out an outline of their two girls on the ground.
"What are they doing mate?" asked Ron, caring his broom over his shoulder.
Harry made another earnest look, and remarked, "Either laughing, or crying mate… can't tell." He stopped. "Oi-what is that, there?"
They came to the top of the hill were it met level ground, the perfect place to watch the sunset. There, were folded cloaks and coats, along with the black standard shoes and socks. Ron immediately noticed these as Ginny's and Hermione's. Puzzled, he placed his broom down beside Hermione's clothes, Harry doing the same.
The two exchanged curious glances before gliding down the hill, carefully not to fall for it was steep. As they got closer, they saw Luna, Ginny, and Hermione all on the ground, laughing like a pack of hyenas, and Neville, bewildered. They stopped; they saw the boys approaching.
Hermione instantly noticed the way Ron's hair stuck to his forehead because, of course, he had overworked himself just by practicing. He, too, had taken off all outerwear, for it was nearly summertime now-and he merely wore his white button-up shirt. It was rolled at the sleeves, and was roughed around-a wrinkled, untaught collar, with buttons down. Hermione quickly noted that she looked even worse, but somehow it wore Ron well…she felt her face crept with blush, and her heart give into a repetitive beating. Ron was looking at her with such a look of amazement, confusion, and-what was that? Hermione couldn't tell. But she clandestinely liked it.
"Ginny," said Harry slowly, looking down at his girlfriend, who was on the ground still, "what is-"
Ginny stood as he spoke, and pounced on him with a strong hug. Overtook by it, but still pleased, Harry wrapped his arms around her as her feet took off from the ground.
"Mister Potter," she whispered, "you've been missing out on all the fun!"
When she levitated gracefully back to the ground, he muttered, "I can see that." He was grinning, and Ginny had an impulse to kiss him right where he stood. "What were you two doing anyways?"
She took his hand and said, "I'll show you! C'mon Luna, Neville…join us!"
As they walked forward, back up the hill to begin again, Hermione muttered, "I think I'll go clean my shirt…"
She looked at Ron, and he said soothingly, "I'll go with you."
Hermione's heart again did that strange flutter, as Ron offered her a hand up. She took it, her head noting of his strength and his hands-and when she came back up, she stood very close to him. Ron was taken in by her appearance-the accidental and occasional twig in her hair, the mud on her shirt and her face, the ruffled shirt-that it completely it drove him crazy. This was a new feeling for Ron, as his relationship with Lavender was all dominated by Lavender; he had no chance to feel an attraction…and even if he had the chance, he doubted he would feel it at all…and certainly not how he was feeling it in his body right now for Hermione.
Suddenly overcome with the urge to kiss her, he ignored it and pulled a twig from her hair. He played with it in his hands until Hermione, laughing, tried taking it from him. Instead of removing her hand, however, she kept it there for an extra moment. Face flushed and heart racing, she broke apart from this and walked closer to the lake, Ron following behind her.
As they sat down on the very outskirts of the lake, minds racing, they splashed their hands in the water.
"It's cold!" Ron said immediately after his hand first touched the surface. Hermione smiled. "Imagine…"
"What?" Ron asked, after the pause.
"Imagine skinny-dipping in it!" Hermione said, her face burning brighter by the second. "Ohh! I get cold just thinking of it."
Ron chuckled. "Well, that's what we should do then."
Hermione looked puzzled. "W-what?"
"Not right now, but later."
When Ron said it, it seemed so finally Hermione didn't want to fight it. But the fact that he stated no time or date would've bothered her an hour ago…but now it was exciting.
First, she tried removing the mud from her face without water-but that proved to only smear it worse. So Ron, no longer caring for his uniform, took of his own white shirt, wetted it with lake water, and cleaned it for her. Hermione didn't know what was stranger-the fact that Ron was now in only an undershirt and neither seemed to care, or that this face-washing was the one Hermione imprinted in her brain as the most enjoyable one she'd ever experienced.
They talked as Ron worked-about studies, quidditch, leaving Hogwarts forever-and about the summer. Ron remarked that it was going to be the best the four had ever experienced-a "Farwell to being a teenager", he called it. Hermione wondered what it was going to be like, where they were going to go, what would happen between her and Ron…if anything. It was all too much to take in at one time that Hermione would've loved a time-out like those she experienced in kindergarten. But in fact, there were no time-outs for seventeen year olds…especially when it came to…
(She didn't even want to finish her sentence, for she knew the word "love" might appear, and that was just not acceptable right now).
Fingers stumbling, she hurriedly decided that the most efficient way to clean the muddy shirt was to simply take it off also. She was careful to do so whenever the four hill-rollers were up at the top, Ron and Hermione out of their sight, because she was sure if she had an audience it would've made her change her mind straight away. Of course she had an undershirt also on, but it was thin and white, with thin strips. She knew she was manipulating with Ron whenever she did this…and although she felt as though she'd betrayed her inner self somehow, it only made her heart race faster.
Whenever she actually had it off, however, she realized that now she was completely comfortable. She wanted to sing, to dance-to jump and jump and jump and never stop! She felt like she could sit there forever, transfixed, on this Ron Weasley that had always been there but she had never given a chance. She also felt like an idiot, also, for never letting go-and now it could be too late.
"Hermione?" Ron asked, who clearly had been looking at her though she was incompetent to it. She brought her shirt back from the water, it soaking in her hands. She made a strange face by hunching up the right side of her lips and giving a question glare, and Ron laughed heartily. He took it from her and wrung it over the side of the lake, returning it to Hermione lighter and not dripping, but still damp. She got on her knees, and Ron began to wonder if she was about to kiss him-when she put the shirt over his head and wrung it out even more just over his hair. The water was droplets, but still Ron grabbed Hermione by the waist and put her beside him on the grass. He began to tickle her, laughing as her laughter grew steadier.
"Ron…Ron! Ron…please! Ron…" were Hermione's pleas. The more she said these things, the more Ron tickled her sides even rougher. Soon he was even getting her back and neck, and by this time he was halfway on her legs-and when he finally grew weary, he sat beside her, defeated, and grew silent. She turned to him and said, "You'll pay for that Ron Weasley…just not at the moment. I'm too exhausted."
They laughed, and Hermione instantly took it all in-the smell of the grass against her, the feeling of cold crept onto her shoulder-and Ron, beside her. Unexpectedly, she felt an arm on her shoulder draw her close. She move in next to him, and whispered, "I'm cold."
"I know," he said back. And for some reason, just hearing that made her feel like "jumping and jumping and jumping" yet again-but this time, it was more solemn.
It was well into nighttime now, and Hermione didn't know if the other four were still up at the hill or not. Somehow, she wanted it to stay like this forever…the stars. They were just so beautiful that Hermione could only say, "The stars…they make me smile."
Ron smiled at her, and they shared a glance that was indefinable. "You know what Hermione?" he whispered.
"What Ron?"
"Well…sometimes whenever I see you in class or in the library. You don't seem this way-and well. We never-you know Hermione…the stars have never shined brighter."
Hermione crinkled her brow. "Ron…what are you saying?"
"Well Hermione…the stars. They shine just for you."
Whenever Hermione thought her heart was just able to drive out of her chest, Ron continued, "And you know why that makes me happy Hermione?"
"No Ron, why?"
"Because your smile makes me smile, and the stars make you smile. So you know what Hermione?"
"What?"
"I'm glad the stars are shining bright tonight."
They came in around eleven, a new experience since Hermione had never broken curfew before. Ron told her not to worry, that if they got caught he would take all the blame. Hermione protested, but thankfully they avoided an argument by not getting discovered. Hermione didn't want anything to taint her night-the one that felt so right…but she wondered where to go from here. Are we in a relationship? She wondered. How does he really feel about me? The thoughts coursing through her brain were so constant that even after she turned off the light they were still spinning like a tornado. Thoughts about Ron, and summer, Ginny and Harry, school, love…wait! Love? She wasn't in love…surely not…love?
At some point, Ginny, a bed over, turned to Hermione and asked, "What time is it?"
Hermione answered, "one o'clock," and Ginny groaned and turned back over. Hermione told herself that she had classes tomorrow-but she knew they didn't mean anything anymore. But she was going to McGonagall's, who she determined might have a lesson. Her sensible side finally took over again and she fell into a dazing sleep.
Ron had trouble sleeping all night. He stayed up wondering if they ever had a relationship, would it always be like that: romantic, passionate, and just…perfect. If so, he wanted to be with her forever. But then he thought about all the arguments and disagreements-what about those? It was too much to handle for one night. But he now knew he had someone in Hermione that he'd always known was there, but somehow he was too scared to look. He thought about everything he told her tonight about the stars…and how Fred and George told him once that the best way to get a girl was the give them "the mushy stuff." Ron thought and thought and thought about it (so much he thought if he'd only thought this way about his schoolwork he would've made better grades then Hermione), wondering if what he said to Hermione constituted under that "mushy" category. Honestly, he didn't care-he wasn't trying to make her fall in love with him. He was just saying what was in his heart-and meaning it… Love. Wait…did I just think that? But somehow he realized that he did love her. What does that even mean? He asked himself. Love. It's like…
He sat back down (wondering how he'd even sat up in his bed in the first place), and sighed, thinking, I'll try to think about that tomorrow.
Author's Note: For anyone wondering, the main plot is coming in next chapter. This just had to occur in order for the main events of the plot to unfold correctly. Also, for those who aren't big "fluff" lovers, I don't know what you consider "fluff", but there shouldn't be as much focus on the romance in the story (but it will be there). "Fluff" lovers, well, this chapter was probably a big hit with you! Just know that not ever chapter will be exactly like this. So no matter which one you are, a lover or a hater, reviews are welcome always!
Also, the lines about the stars where told to my friend by her boyfriend-I'm pretty sure that it might be a song lyric somewhere (it's possible, he's in band), so if you are just so cool that you know that line and are like, "HEY! SHE STOLE THAT!" I'm telling you here that it might be a lyric, I don't know for sure (but it wouldn't be very known if it is).
Everything else is one hundred percent my writing here-hope you enjoyed!
33
Rachel.
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