A/n: Hey guys so this is something i have been writing for a long time it's all my attempts combined together. I hope you like it. review please. Xx ~Iza
Chapter 1
The wind hollered solemnly looking through the large windows of the castle. The scene that unfolded before its eyes penetrated it. People clustered around what appeared to be dead bodies. A pretty strange group of red heads surrounded the body of a young man with the same hair color, presumably their family member. Amongst the group there was a dark haired boy, man rather, he stood out in the crowd; he was the light at the end of the tunnel. He was known all over the wizarding world since he wan an infant but that night he once again proved how heroic he is…he killed the dark lord who wore the name Voldemort. His real name was Tom Marvolo Riddle. He destined himself to be the ruler of the wizarding world. He hated muggle borns such as the lovely Hermione Granger. She is one of the dark haired boy's best friends. The other was Ron Weasley, one of the ginger haired men. The three of them; Ron, Hermione and the famous Harry Potter, where on the run hunting horcruxes, pieces of Voldemort's soul. On May 3rd 1998 the trio returned to Hogwarts, to find the last horcruxe. Instead Voldemort found out what they where up to and that is how the battle of Hogwarts started. Now amongst the bodies of courageous wizards, such as Remus Lupin, Nemphadora Lupin, Fred Weasley and many, many others lay Tom Riddle and his loyal servants, like Bellatrix Lestrange. She was the one that the trio hated the most. Hermione was tortured by the evil female death eater…and it will never be forgotten…
Tears rolled down her cheeks. This was it, it was over. She turned around to walk up the broken stairs, they where crumbled and had debris fallen on the sides, it was unbearable to look upon. There was something else that bothered her, the kiss. She finally had time to think about it. It all happened in the heat of the moment, in the midst of the battle, maybe she didn't… do something right… maybe he didn't like it, or want it.
"What if he didn't like it?" she asked aloud without realizing it. And as fate had it, Ron was strolling through the same corridor and heard her.
"Who? Hated what?" He asked making Hermione's cheeks turn the sweet color of strawberries.
"Nothing." She said bushing furiously; he knew better, his blue eyes met her brown ones. She tried looking away but couldn't.
"I… I… ummm, was just thinking …" Hermione began, a knot tied in her throat made speaking challenging. "about the umm…"
Ron cut her off by lightly brushing his lips against hers.
"Kiss." he finished for her. She sighed deeply and watched him toy with one of her long brown locks, he brushed them off her shoulder reveling a rather horrifying scar.
"What's that?" he asked quickly. Hermione's hand flew up to her neck covering the scar Bellatrix's blade left.
"It's from Malfloy Manor, from Bellatrix." She answered, Ron grimaced at the name.
"How are you?" she asked changing the topic, it was a stupid question… how could he be?! He lost his brother only a few hours ago!
"I'm fine. But Mum isn't holding up too well, but George seems less devastated then I expected" His eyes where sad and his lips curved into a frown. He reached for Hermione's hand and said
"And how are you?"
"I'm just… glad it's over." Ron nodded in agreement. The dark lord was gone forever, but there where still a few death eaters out there that managed to escape. Ron knew that, Hermione did as well but for now they had enough to worry about and didn't choose to worry about it. A silence swallowed them, both lost in thought. They stayed like that for a while until Hermione broke the silence.
"I need to freshen up. Come with me to the Gryffindor common room?" he asked.
In response Ron smiled, he was still holding her hand sending warm vibrations through her body. The walked to the Gryffindor common room in silence, in a very peaceful silence that muffled the surrounding voices and cries and scream of people seeing the bodies of loved ones. When the finally found the common room and stepped inside they realized it was almost completely vacant. Only Neville and Luna where sitting on one of the scarlet sofas by the fire. Neville's hand was on Luna's knee and she laughed and twirled her platinum hair. Neville spotted Ron and imminently recoiled his hand, Luna who was quite taken aback by the action turned to see what frightened Neville.
"Oh hello Ron, Hermione." Luna greeted sending them one of her radiant smiles.
"Hey!" Neville called from the couch smiling at the pair, Ron and Hermione still had their hands entwined. They sat down on the sofa opposite to Neville and Luna. A weird silence surrounded them, Ron muttered yea a few times and Neville nodded his head. Finally Luna's dreamy voice filled the room.
"I heard Lavender Brown is in the hospital wing. Are you going to see her Ron?" She said blinking lazily her eyes never leaving Ron. He swallowed hard and caught a glimpse of Hermione.
"Why would I want to go see her, she is my ex after all." He said finally.
"They say she looks pretty bad…" Luna began but Neville touched her arm lightly and whispered
"Luna… no" almost inaudibly, but Ron still heard him. He nodded Neville a thank you, in return Neville smiled a weak half smile.
"Greyback almost killed her" Hermione said suddenly.
"But you threw him off." Luna finished.
Both Neville's and Ron's moths fell open in amazement. Hermione and Lavender weren't friends, in fact they where sort of enemies. Lavender used to torture Hermione, describing her long snogs with Ron before going to sleep. Hermione never said anything; she listened to what a wonderful kisser Ron was and wished that it was her who he was kissing. As lavender spoke she tried to picture it… substituting Lavender with herself.
"You saved her life?" Ron repeated.
Hermione only nodded. Neville took in a long and deep breath and then got up.
"Luna what do you say about going to find your father?" he suggested. Luna willingly followed bidding her goodbye and congratulations to the other couple. Ron's eyes followed them out with his eyes.
"I wasn't expecting that one." He said plainly.
Hermione shook her head, a little dazed.
"I was." She said her eye never leavening the place where Luna and Neville left. "They've had crushes on each other since forever!"
Ron looked at her his mouth a little open ands his eyebrows raised. He never talked to his roommates about girls because none of them really started the topic. Most likely because Harry would talk about Ginny and the other boys for most of their school life had no one.
"Remember how Neville went to the Yule ball with Ginny?" Hermione asked
"Ginny! Luna! Wait!' Neville called trying to catch up with the girls. They turned around to see who called them. Luna's eyes lit up but she quickly hid it by looking down and pretending she has no interest in the boys presence. The other one smiled at him.
"Hi Neville! What are you doing here?" Ginny shot Luna a glare, she knew Luna liked Neville but would never admit it to anyone except for Ginny. Ginny rolled her eyes and looked back to Neville. He was obviously really nervous. It must have been something about the Yule ball all boys wore that face before asking a certain girl to go with them.
"What am I doing here?" Neville repeated "I'm errrrrr… going to the… the umm… the library." Ginny nodded her eyes going from Neville to Luna, back and forth back and forth.
"Say Neville, who's Harry going to the Yule ball with?" Ginny asked attempting to steer the topic into the ball.
"No one. Even though he's one of the four contestants he thinks the Yule ball is stupid and no girl would want to go with him. Ron tried asking Hermione and all the other lads have dates already." Neville said giving the Ginny the prefect opportunity to step in.
"And who are you going with?" she asked.
"No one I was actually thinking of asking…" he looked up to find Luna shooting him what appeared to be a disgusted look. "You." He finishd looking at Luna but her eyes wandered outside the window.
"Me?!" Ginny repeated. And Luna huffed.
"Yes you." He finished
"I… er… sure."
Hermione's shook the memory out of her head. She was waiting for Neville to meet her and she saw the whole think from around the cornor.
"He meant to ask Luna… but he awkwardly ended up asking Ginny." She told him. Ron was still in a state of shock he never thought that Neville and Luna.
"How do you suppose that they…?"
"Harry says that Neville ran up to him asking if he knows where Luna is because he needs to tell her he's in love with her." Hermione said without hesitation.
"Something like us." Ron let the word escape his mouth before he realized what he said but then it was too late. His words rang in Hermione's ear, making her heart speed up and her teeth captured her bottom lip, she bit it nervously.
"Us." Hermione said finally. The one word filled the room; it bounced off the walls and echoed. Again silence fell on them until she spoke again. "Who am I to you?"
He sighed deeply at the question, he knew what he wanted to tell her but simply could not bring the words to come out of his mouth.
"You are…. You're the same thing you always were Hermione, my best friend." He began trying to gather the words that followed. The curly haired girl sitting next to him took a deep breath. 'best friend' somehow did not seem an adjacent word to describe what he was to her but if that's the way he wanted it… she slipped her hand out of his and scooted a couple of inches away. He looked at her surprised, tears welled up in her eyes, shook her head and stared at him.
"Hermione… when I was gone, all I ever though about was you. Ever night before I fell asleep I told you goodnight in my head, and during the day I constantly thought about what you where doing, and I couldn't push away the thought that you in fact where better off without me. Because you had Harry and I tried convincing myself that he will take good care of you, that even if you were hurt for a while he made you feel better, made you forget about me"