Author's Note: I like to pretend that the last chapter of Deathly Hollows never happened. It's my own little fantasy within a fantasy.
Disclaimer: All the characters contained in this story belong to JK Rowling, not me...however much I'd rather it be the other way around.
Resolution
Winning was everything to some people. Generally speaking, he didn't care. That's not to say he didn't like winning or that he didn't try to win. It was just that, it wasn't the end of the world if he lost. Of course, he decided, there were definitely a few times when winning actually was everything. Defeating evil megalomaniacs bent on ruling the world for instance. But besides defeating evil, there was only one occasion that he felt winning was everything and it was this one.
Winning, he knew, was all about overcoming the odds. It was about courage and perseverance and hope. Hope was vital; even if you had courage in spades if you thought you were going to lose, chances were you were going to lose.
He definitely had courage, he wasn't lacking in that department. And he was hopeful. He thought, hoped with every fiber of his being, that he was reading the signs correctly. He wanted so much to be right about this. He was sure he'd never wanted anything so much before. But if he was wrong he could be destroying something precious, something that had been a part of his life for a very long time. And even if he wasn't and even if it turned out well, there was still a small chance that he could still be ruining something that had been such a significant part of his life for so long. The second "ruining" was a chance he was willing to take; it was a necessary risk. The first, if that was ruined he was sure that he might never recover.
Still, it was better to take the risk. Better to place his happiness in his own hands rather than letting it slip through his fingers. He knew, without a doubt, that if he let this go without saying anything he would regret it the rest of his life. He would spend the remainder wondering "what if." What if he'd just said something? What if he'd just admitted what he felt? He already knew how "what if" questions could haunt a person. He still often thought back on one event in his life in particularly and asked what if he'd done something else. So, he knew if he didn't say something now, it would haunt him for the rest of his life. Better to act and know then to wonder forever.
So with that in mind and his resolution firmly in place, Harry did one of the most difficult things he'd ever had to do. He courageously started a conversation with Hermione, one of his best friends; and he hoped with everything he was that it went well.
And it did.