Hermione sat in one of the best chairs in the common room with her back to the portrait hole. It was midnight and the common room was deserted but she was wide awake. She was waiting for Harry to come back from his visit to Hagrid's. She breathed in deeply, thinking over what she was going to say. What would she say? How would she say it?

She shut her eyes, she felt like crying out at that very moment when she was alone in the common room. But she didn't. She couldn't.

"You okay, Hermione?" Harry said sitting on a chair facing Hermione. "You look, sort of worried there."

"I'm fine," she said, cursing herself for not noticing Harry coming in through the portrait hole, "Umm…How's Hagrid?"

"He's really great, Buckbeak, I mean Witherwings is going on – Hermione, what's wrong?" Harry asked as tears silently slipped down Hermione's face.

"I – I was told by Ginny to – to tell you – you that she – she," Hermione sobbed…

"What did Ginny say?" Harry said moving next to Hermione and putting an arm around her shoulder, "What did she say?"

"Ginny, Ginny's going out with Dean again!" Hermione burst out, tears streaming down her face. "She – She told me to tell you that this morning at breakfast but – but I – "

"It is okay, Hermione," Harry interrupted, "I knew she'd go some day, ever since I haven't been with her much, I knew this would happen," he added with a smile. Hermione looked down and her feet, not knowing what to say for maybe the first time in her life. She lifted her head and stared silently into Harry's face. She could feel her heart beating loudly and was scared that Harry could her it.

"Look, Hermione," Harry finally said, returning Hermione's thoughts back to the common room, "I don't really care. As a matter of fact, I can't care less so don't cry over it. There's nothing wrong for Ginny to go out with Dean. I really don't care." Hermione just nodded and returned to looking at her feet. Would she say it? Would she say what she had been dying to say? Would she say it now when Ginny had left Harry? Could she say it?

"Hermione? Are you all right?" Harry asked lifting Hermione's face up so that she was looking up at his, "You seem a little, a little quiet today. Seriously, I mean it when I say that I don't care if Ginny is going out – Hermione, seriously!" Harry wrapped his arms around Hermione and hugged her tightly as Hermione cried silently.

"Harry, it's just, it's just that," Hermione started, not knowing whether she should say it or not, "it's just that I've – I've been – "

"You've been having a feeling towards me for the last few weeks." Harry ended her sentence for her. "I've seen you looking at me. In the same way Ginny has been over the last few months. I know that look. Hermione, there's no reason for you to be afraid of what you think. There is no reason to be afraid of what others will say." Harry ended, hugging Hermione even tighter and bending down to her ear he whispered, "Because, I love you too."

Hermione sat really still and ceased crying. She turned around and stared into Harry's face which was centimetres from her own and smiled. Harry leant in and kissed Hermione on the forehead and then standing up, he took her hand and led her back to the head's quarters which they now shared.