Untitled
Hermione looked at Harry, speechless. What he just said made no sense. No sense at all. Why would he even think of saying it? How was she supposed to answer him?
She looked desperately around the common room, and at all the eyes that were watching them, watching her, waiting for her answer. Clearly, if she left the room now, she would not go unnoticed. So she looked back at Harry, who was staring at her with nothing but seriousness on his face.
'H-Harry,' she began, surprised she still possessed a voice to speak.
A few hours ago, if someone had told her she would be in a situation like this, she would have laughed at their face. Then again, she thought, who would be laughing now?
A few hours earlier...
'Hermione, do you have a lot of homework?' Harry asked her, taking a seat next to her in the Gryffindor table in the Great Hall.
'No, I just have Potions and Arithmancy so far,' she said, helping herself to some chicken.
'Good.'
'Why?' she asked, looking at him.
'Nothing, I want you to be in the common room at 7 later,' he replied, now helping himself, too, with some chicken.
'What for?' Hermione was getting curious now. Why was he being so secretive?
'Nothing you should worry about,' he said, looking around at the Gryffindor table. 'I'll tell you later,' he said in an undertone.
Hermione asked nothing else after that. Her first guess was that it was something about the Order of the Phoenix, but Harry would have just pulled her and Ron from the Great Hall and told them somewhere in the common room while everyone was having lunch, and he wouldn't have assigned a time. Somehow, Hermione had a hunch that however unimportant Harry was trying to make it sound, it was indeed important.
Double Care of Magical Creatures was about as normal as it could get. Finally tired of getting frightened looks from his students, Hagrid had abandoned his efforts to make Gryffindor and Slytherin 7th years take on "harmless" creatures Dugbogs and Occamys. Today the lesson was all about the Jobberknoll.
'Jobberknoll feathers are used fer Truth Serums such as... such as the Veritaserum. I think yeh can asked Professor Snape about 'em,' Hagrid was saying to the class.
Ron laughed behind Hermione, and whispered, 'Fat chance that will happen.' Hermione quietly agreed, but thought she wouldn't mind knowing how to make a Truth Serum as powerful as that. Maybe she can finally find out how Harry fells for her. Oops! Where did that come from?
Double Transfiguration came and went, and by the end of the second lesson, Hermione was the only one who could transfigure a glass plate into a fluffy pillow. Though nobody was really surprised.
'Not much homework for me,' she said happily as she, Harry and Ron headed for the Great Hall for dinner.
'Good for you,' Ron said sarcastically. Hermione ignored him. She looked at Harry instead, who had been rather quiet since lunch.
'What's the matter, mate? You haven't said much since lunch,' Ron asked him, reading Hermione's mind, which, she noted, had to be a first.
'No, nothing's wrong,' he said, all three of them taking their usual seats in the Gryffindor table.
Without even finishing his dinner, Harry left the table minutes later, muttering something about the common room to Ron and Hermione. [Note the author cringed as she wrote that]
'I'm worried about him, Ron,' Hermione said, staring after Harry.
'You worry too much,' he replied, reaching for the mashed potatoes.
Fighting the urge to follow him, or send Ron to follow him, Hermione left the Great Hall with the other Gryffindors after dinner. However, before she could get into the common room, she found herself behind a rather large crowd looking at the armchairs near the fireplace.
'What's going on?' she asked a nearby 2nd year girl. The 2nd year looked at her and blushed. Hermione raised an eyebrow. 'Excuse me,' she said, gently pushing her way through the crowd, expecting some sort of big source of all the commotion. She was utterly surprised, however, to find an elegant-looking candle and a rose on a small table, one of the comfy armchairs covered in a white silk sheet, which had red cushions on it, and Harry, sitting on another sofa, decorated similarly.
Spotting her, he smiled.
'Harry, what's going on?' she asked him, looking around.
'You'll see... why don't you sit down?' he motioned to the other nicely decorated armchair. Several girls in the crowd giggles and whispered to their neighbor. Hermione had a horrible feeling she was the subject of their whisperings.
'I... No, maybe not,' she said, casting a nervous look around the crowd, which she just noticed, mainly consisted of rather giggly girls. She saw Harry give them an evil glare.
'I've been telling them to go away for some time now,' he said, standing up, and she noticed, approaching her.
'Alright, everyone, please go back to whatever it was you were doing. Yes, Lavender, you too,' she added, and Lavender narrowed her eyes at Hermione. As the crowd parted, Harry grabbed Hermione's hand and gently pulled it.
'Really, sit down,' he said.
Hermione stared at him for a couple of second, then did as she was told.
'So, are you going to tell me what this is all about?' she said, looking around again, and finding some faces still directed at them, and was annoyed about it.
'Well,' said Harry, walking to Hermione again, and slowly sitting, no, kneeling on the floor. 'I've been giving this a lot of thought, Hermione... and I think this is the right thing to do.'
Hermione's mind was working furiously, trying to figuring out what Harry was doing and why he was doing it. She kept dismissing 'Proposing', as it kept coming up. When Harry took out a small, navy blue velvet box from his pocket, Hermione had no choice but to consider the thought.
'H-Harry, what are you doing?' she asked, a frantic tone in her voice.
Harry just smiled. He opened the small box, and on top of a very small, navy blue velvet cushion, sat a sparkling diamond ring. He took it and looked into Hermione's eyes.
'Hermione Granger,' he said, unblinkingly. 'will you marry me?'
Hermione looked at Harry, speechless. What he just said made no sense. No sense at all. Why would he even think of saying it? How is she supposed to answer him?
She looked desperately around the common room, and at all the eyes that were watching them, watching her, waiting for her answer. Clearly, if she left the room now, she would not go unnoticed. So she looked back at Harry, who was staring at her with nothing but seriousness on his face.
'H-Harry,' she began, surprised she still possessed a voice to speak. 'Harry, I... I mean, you... I... I'm speechless... Are you really- ?'
Harry grinned, and closed the small box immediately.
'No, I'm not serious. I just thought the shock of me popping the question, would lighten the shock of what I was about to do,' he said.
Hermione didn't have time to feel relieved (and disappointed?) after finding out Harry wasn't really proposing to her, because she had also found out he was going to do something else. She wished the eyes would stare anywhere but at them. She was slightly angry at Harry for doing whatever he was going to do here, in front of all these people.
'Hermione, I ...' he began, then, looking around as well, grabbed her hand and pulled her by it to the boy's dormitory. Not that she was complaining much.
'Hermione,' he began again when they were alone. Ron and Harry's other dormitory mates were either in the common room or else where. 'I...'
She looked quizzically at Harry. What was he trying to say?
'I... I don't know how, or when, but... somehow, you not being in my life makes no sense,' he said finally. 'It makes less sense that I'll never be happy until I can freely hold you in my arms.'
'What are you trying to say, Harry?' Hermione asked him, though she clearly knew what it was, and hoped she was right. She noticed Harry was getting closer. In fact, he was so close now, she could feel his breath on her cheeks. Up close, Harry's eyes seemed more alive with emotion than she had ever seen. His lips looked incredibly tempting up close, too, or any kind of distance. Are they as soft as I've imagined?
'I'm trying to tell you,' he said, locking eyes with her. 'that I love you, Hermione Grange-'
She didn't get to hear him say her last name properly, but this was mainly her fault, for she had pressed her lips with his with such force that Harry wasn't able to finish his sentence. Not that he noticed now, anyway.
She could have easily compared kissing Harry with the adrenaline of finding a highly interesting and accurate paperback book of facts, and just have easily decided kissing Harry was a lot better. It was as soft as she'd imagined, and oh so sweet. Parting their lips did not seem to make sense, and if they did it, horrible things would happen. She could feel Harry's hand on her waist and the other one right below her ear. Hers were pressed against his chest, happy that they were.
But as all good things must come to an end, the two reluctantly pulled apart. Amazingly, nothing horrible happened, as Hermione had thought.
'Does that mean- ?' Harry asked
'It means I love you, too, Harry,' she said, grinning. 'And you've been a fool to have kept me waiting this long.'
He grinned back. She loved that grin. It was such a truthful grin. Harry could never hide what he was feeling even when he grinned.
'But Hermione,' said Harry as he took her hand and lead her to the door. 'good things come to those who wait.'
The two shared yet another moment looking into each other's eyes and smiling. They shared the same thought, too: How long will it be till the question is brought up again?
The End.