Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter. J. K. Rowling does, and is making quite a bit of money. I only seek reviews.

Just Friends

The Saturday morning sunlight sprayed across Hermione's face like yellow paint that had been knocked over and spilled everywhere. She was half-sitting, half-lying against a bookshelf in one of the rows that were further back in the library, still asleep where she had been up researching late the night before.

It was past breakfast time, and when she hadn't shown up in the Great Hall, Harry had been the one to come look for her, and had found her this way. Ron had shoved the job on him, but Harry didn't mind. He had guessed that he might find her like this, and liked it better that way. Hermione looked so peaceful and relaxed on times like this. The overworked look didn't suit her, but when she finally got some rest, it did wonders. They both had their challenges, but if anyone needed a break, it was Hermione.

Gently, Harry eased the book that Hermione had clutched loosely in her hands away from her and smoothed her hair out of her face. Was she really seventeen already? Was he really sixteen? It was amazing how time seemed to be flying by now. Harry could remember the time when he had first met Ron and Hermione. They had all been eleven year olds full of crazy ideas and high hopes for the future. With age, these seemed to disappear under the burdens of adulthood, the burdens that Harry felt his friends shouldn't have to shoulder. He did. After all, it was kill or be killed at this point. Him or Voldemort. But his friends didn't deserve to be part of that.

"Harry?" asked a sleepy voice. Hermione stirred, sitting up and blinking, letting the arm that Harry hadn't realized he'd put around her slip off, though not intentionally. She rubbed her eyes and then smiled at him before looking around her, confused.

"Where am I? The library! It's morning…Oh no! I fell asleep while studying!" she panicked. Even with her wrinkled robes and messy hair, Hermione's presence was very strong here. Her forceful personality seemed to seep into the stone flooring and travel like and electric current through the wooden bookshelves, tremoring through the slim pages of each book and bouncing off the walls. Could anyone like Hermione command the atmosphere so? Harry wasn't sure.

"It's alright, Hermione, it's the weekend now! You should take a break from studying. It'll do you good," offered Harry; feeling ridiculously like this was exactly what Ron would say. Ron. Now that was a subject he didn't want to think about this morning.

"Oh, and good morning, I think," he added hesitantly. Hermione raised an eyebrow and then burst into giggles, giving Harry a quick squeeze before hopping to her feet.

"Oh Harry, procrastination will be the death of you!" she laughed, bending down to grab her book back from him, "And Ron too…" But the second line seemed more of an afterthought. Harry slowly stood up, his legs protesting slightly. So, he wasn't fully awake either.

"I forgot to ask…" Harry said slowly, looking at Hermione with a thoughtful expression, "How'd your trip to Hogsmeade with Ron go? I ended up staying at the castle, working on Snape's stupid Potions essay, though it was raining and I doubt the rain would have done anything to help this cold." He sneezed to emphasize his point. Hermione's grin faded by a fraction.

"We went into the Three Broomsticks for some Butterbeer to warm us up. It was nice…a bit crowded, but we were able to find a table," she said, if not a bit shortly. Harry studied her, searching her eyes to see if maybe she wasn't telling all.

"Hermione…I've known you too long for you to lie to me easily. Now, you don't have to tell me what you left out, but if something is bothering you, I'm here to listen…" he trailed off slightly at the look in her eyes.

"Well," Hermione began, wringing her fingers nervously, "Remember back in our forth year? During the triwizard tournament? Well, more specifically, the article that…that Skeeter woman wrote…" Harry raised an eyebrow, but Hermione shot him a look to keep quiet until she was done.

"Well, it was like that," she said obscurely, refusing to meet his gaze. Harry did not understand at all. He did not speak, but put on his best-puzzled expression, which was rather easy to do whenever dealing with females, though, Hermione wasn't quite as confusing as the rest of the female gender. Now, Cho…no. He wouldn't think about her. Not…right now. Hermione sighed, not feeling like elaborating, especially to Harry, but it was Harry, and so she had to elaborate.

"Dean and…um…Seamus…made…er…some comments…" she mumbled, "About Ron and I…um…being together. Alone..." Harry was still looking confused.

"…without you?" Hermione finished, looking at him hopefully, but he still didn't understand. Suppressing a noise of exasperation, and at the same time not knowing if she really wanted Harry to understand, Hermione blurted it out.

"They thought we were on a date!" she squeaked, trying to look as small as possible. Harry's eyes cleared.

"Oh, I see," he exclaimed, then shifted awkwardly, "Umm…were you?" She seemed bothered by it, but Harry couldn't quite grasp why. He was too busy wrapping his brain around the idea of Hermione. And Ron. Together.

"No!" Hermione cried suddenly, suddenly having the urge to punch something. Hard. She began pacing furiously, and then stopped, looking almost plaintively at Harry.

"At least," the next part came out in a rush, "That's what I thought at first. But Ron…he just narrowed his eyes at them and said, 'So what if we are?', as if challenging them to mock us like that. I thought that it was just friendly protectiveness, but I can't be sure anymore. Ron's been acting…weird…"

Harry privately agreed. He had noticed Ron's behavior recently, but hadn't analyzed it until Hermione brought it up. She was looking rather distraught, and Harry felt awkward. He wasn't the most capable guy for helping girl's dealing with their relationship problems. Especially girls who were his best friends who were questioning their relationship with guys who were his best friends.

"Hermione…" Harry started, "Are you sure you want to talk to me about this? How about Lavender or Parvati or Ginny or someone? I think they'd be better for girl talk and stuff…" Hermione narrowed his eyes at him and he stopped abruptly.

"Harry, you may be clueless, but it's easiest to talk to you! Not that'd you'd understand anyway," she said, slightly louder than she intended and then grabbed her book bag and stormed out of the library in frustration, leaving a bemused young wizard behind.

"So…where'd you find Hermione?" asked Ron. The two were lying out on the lawn, having just finished lunch. Hermione had not showed up to the meal, and seemed to be avoiding them, which confused Ron, but Harry would not answer his questions, being too deep in thought himself.

"Oh…er…in the library," Harry muttered distractedly. Ron glanced over at his friend out of the corner of his eye.

"What's bothering you, mate?" he asked helpfully. Harry stared up at the clouds, not responding at first.

"Girls." Harry felt that one word seemed to sum it up. He didn't dare say 'Hermione'. Harry wasn't ready to talk to Ron about that yet. He wasn't ready to face his two best friends developing a more-than-friends relationship and then forever closing him out of their lives.

"I know how you feel," Ron muttered, running one hand through his hair, "They're too bloody complicated. At Hogsmeade, Hermione was really fidgety and kept jumping. She asked every five minutes whether I thought you might dodge in late under the cloak, having finished your essay, and wasn't keeping up with the conversation much."

Harry swallowed, "Was she really?" Ron nodded.

"I need to talk to her. Some of the boys said some stuff that seemed to bother her. I'd better go find her…" the redhead muttered.

"She's visiting Hagrid," Harry said automatically, not realizing what he had said until the words were out of his mouth. He couldn't recall how he knew where Hermione was, but supposed he must have seen her go there and simply not thought about it at the time. Ron gave Harry a hard look, then smiled.

"Thanks, Harry," he said before striding off towards Hagrid's cabin. Harry watched him go, and then went back to staring at the clouds. It was so warm and quiet out here…he could just fall...asleep…

"No! I don't want to talk about this! Just drop it!" Hermione. Harry jerked awake, the sound of yelling filling his existence. Hermione was walking briskly away from the castle, Ron in her wake.

"Hermione, we need to talk about this!" Ron yelled back, sprinting across the lawn after her. Hermione spun around, red in the face.

"Talk about what exactly? You told them that I was your girlfriend without even asking me about it? It takes two people to make a relationship the last time I checked, Ron!" she exclaimed furiously.

"But I thought…" protested Ron; cut off by the resounding slap that Hermione dealt him.

"I don't care what you thought! I have never been so embarrassed! Everyone in the whole hall was congratulating us and slapping me on the back and catcalling…and here this was the first time I'd heard that we were…together!" she shrieked. Ron cowered slightly. Hermione continued to storm off until she reached the lake. Ron hesitated, and then decided not to go after her. Slowly, he walked back to the castle entrance, casting one last look back at the angry figure by the water.

Harry watched Hermione for a few more moments, then stood up and walked across the darkening grounds to where she crouched, chuckling pebbles into the lake, as if to somehow release her fury. Deciding that she might fall into the lake, with the vigorous, rather heedless way Hermione was going about things; Harry caught her wrist in mid swing.

"Careful there, wouldn't want to fall in!" he exclaimed trying to smile. Hermione looked up at him, her face tear stained and definitely not smiling. Harry's smile vanished rather quickly as she looked into his eyes for a long moment, then collapsed into his arms, catching him in surprise as she started to sob rather violently into his shirt.

Harry hadn't heard all of his best friend's argument, but he knew that Hermione was very upset, and though he wasn't the best comforter, he had to try. For her. Hugging her back, Harry stood in one place for a long time, rocking Hermione as she cried herself into silence. Finally, she spoke.

"Sorry about that, Harry. Guess I went a little overboard…" she murmured, pulling out of the hug. Harry felt a sudden, vague sense off loss that he couldn't quite describe. It had felt good, just standing there, holding her. In a way, it almost felt like she was comforting him, instead of the other way around.

"Hermione," Harry said softly, grasping her shoulders; making her look up at him, "You don't have to apologize because you're upset about something. It's ok to cry sometimes." Hermione shook her head.

"I came to you to seek comfort because of a fight between Ron and I. For one selfish moment, I didn't care whether I was causing you any problems or if I was getting in the way of your friendship with Ron, I just wanted someone to comfort me." She apologized.

"Part of being best friends is that it's ok to rely on each other," Harry said, "At least, that's what I think." Hermione gave him a small smile.

"Well, thanks for letting me rely on you, Mr. Potter," she said, the usual sparkle returning to her eyes. Harry smiled back and her and reached out, fumblingly, to touch her cheek and rub away the trails that her tears had made.

"Any time, Miss Granger. As long as you'll allow me to rely on you?" he asked, half teasingly. Hermione looked surprised at the touch, but laughed.

"Honestly, Harry, if you opened up to me more I'd be delighted. You've been so…closed up lately. We've all noticed, you know…" she replied quietly. Harry nodded.

"You're the only one that's commented to me, though," he stated stuffing his hands in his pockets and looking around at the evening. When had it gotten so dark? Hermione began to walk towards the castle, and he followed slowly.

"Well, I think they're all afraid of you," she said, laughing. The corners of Harry's mouth twitched again.

"True, true. I'm really grateful to have someone who is frank with me, in the least, though. Thank you for that," he said, taking longer strides until they were walking side by side. Hermione caught his hand in hers and squeezed it. They held hands for the rest of the walk up the hill, to the doors.

"Thank you for…for…being you," she said, looking much better, which relieved Harry immensely. Then, Hermione, looking slightly apprehensive, gave him a quick kiss before darting in through the doors, not waiting to see his reaction. Harry didn't quite understand it, but when Neville asked him what was going on with Hermione later, Harry responded,

"We're just friends."

He never thought of Hermione like he did Cho Chang. He'd never had a crush on his best friend, oh no. But, Harry liked having her around. And it didn't matter what they were –friends, or otherwise, just being with Hermione made everything feel a great deal better. And that was all he needed.

End