Author's Note: I'm in a downride spiral of mess with my mental health lately, I hope this is acceptable. This one is written for, The Houses Competition, Year 4, Round 7.

House: Slytherin.

Year: Year 7

Category: Drabble

Prompt: [Song] I can't help falling in love with you by Elvis

Word Count: 732 (Without the A/N)

xoxoxoxox

Dear Hermione,

First of all, I love you.

How could I not love you? From the moment we've met, all you did was fix everything for me. From my glasses to my grades and to my life – You are my constant fixer of everything and my only vice, again, how could I not love you?

"Here's your coffee, Harry," he heard his best friend say and added with a scoff, "I swear, you're losing your British-ness with all this coffee."

"British-ness, Hermione? Is that a word now or do I need a new vocabulary too?" he teased her as he sipped the black potion of life. "Because last I checked, the magical dictionary in the Potter Manor's library updates by itself," he continued, despite noticing Hermione's cheeks reddening with anger.

"Harry James Potter!" he heard her yell as he smiled into his cup. He loves riling her up, only because he knows that only he could get away with it.

He watched her mouth open and absently listened to her rant. At this point, he has her rant memorized by heart – yet he listened anyway. It was her voice, there is no world in which he, Harry James Potter, would not take an opportunity to listen to her voice.

He sipped his coffee - it's perfect, as usual.

It didn't start with the troll, but I'm glad we had that. I was really scared for you when the basilisk attacked in Second year, thought you should know. Third year with Padfoot; Fourth year with the dragons, the mermaids and the maze; Fifth year at the Department of Mysteries; Sixth year with Snape and Dumbledore – you believed me, year after year, you believed me – you never left, even at the horcrux hunt, you never left.

You stayed.

You believed me.

And I don't know how to repay that – you told me I didn't have to.

Now tell me, how do I stop loving you?

"Harry Potter are you listening to me?" he heard her asked, making him snap back to reality and out of his reverie.

"Of course, Hermione," he replied immediately. "And you know I believe every single word you said. Our vocabulary is ever-changing, is all I'm saying, I might not be up to date." He ended with a soft smile, one he knew would make her forgive him.

She always forgive him.

I didn't know where or when it started – when I loved you. It was slow, that's for sure. All I remember was waking up, months after the final battle, feeling empty and looking for you and comparing everyone I dated to the time I spent with you.

"Oh, Harry, would you stay?" he heard her ask after a while, "I baked treacle tarts because you told me you'd stop by and I made a batch too many so you could take some to-go for the other Aurors in your Department."

He just stared at her for a second before he gave her a warm smile and a nod. She was always like this.

Thoughtful and caring, as always.

I confided to you one night remember? We were both drunk from George's party and I told you that I might be in love with you and you told me that it's just probably a phase – that I feel like I love you because I missed you. Later, when you fell asleep in my arms in that old rotten couch at Grimmauld, I told you you were wrong, that I love you because everything – every single signal pointed to a direction that says, I love you – am in love with you, but you didn't hear. In the morning, you forgot, and you -

"Draco will be here any minute. He told me he'd be late for dinner because of that meeting with Robards and the others," he heard Hermione say, "Honestly! I used to worry for only two of my best friends when they go to missions but now I worry for you, Ronald and Draco – my bloody fiancée who thinks he needs to atone for every single decision he made as a child!" he heard her end her rant.

Her and Draco – it's been a year since that happened, he should be happy for her – and somehow he is, but he couldn't be entirely happy.

Not when he felt like this.

You moved on.

How do I stop loving you now?