Love Complications (Part 1)
By Firenze
A/N: This is the follow-up story to "Enchanted" because I kept straying away from the plot of the story as you noticed. Not that this title is any better, so I'll probably change it. (It's also too much like a Hermione and Harry are finally together, but one thing is standing in their way of true happiness: their best friend Ron.
Disclaimer: Anything and everything you recognize from the Harry Potter books is obviously J.K. Rowling's. If you seriously thought I had made these characters up or I am J.K. Rowling, you are on some very strong drugs or you're just totally insane.
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"A Promise and a Vow"
Hermione was absorbed in her studying, as she was at the library as usual. It was lunchtime, but she wasn't really hungry. She seriously needed to study for the steadily nearing O.W.L.s.
"Hey, Hermione," someone said, and took a seat next to her.
"Hello," she muttered, not looking up. But she could tell by his voice, and the way her heart was beating insanely that it was Harry. "What's up?"
"Nothing," he replied, putting his elbows on the tabletop and resting his head on his fists. "I just came to talk."
"About what?" she asked, still not daring to look at him, for fear of blushing and embarrassing herself again.
"Nothing in particular," he said, "I just wanted to – you know, hang out."
"All right," she agreed, closing the cover of the book. "So that means you have something you want to ask me about, right?"
"How can you always read my mind?" Harry wondered in bewilderment.
"I guess best friends have that sort of ESP. Except I don't get it with Ron, because you can never know what insane thing he's thinking, but most of the time it's about girls."
"All guys think about girls most of the time," Harry admitted. "Anyway, maybe you only have ESP with boys that you like." He grinned.
"Oh, shut up!" Hermione said, blushing crimson.
"Why?" he asked, and then added, "The whole school already knows."
"Because you just had to yell it out in the Great Hall," she said dryly.
"Look, I'm sorry about that, but Malfoy wouldn't quit about me being so ugly that no girls would like me—"
"You could have named any of the other thousands of girls who admired you," she said irately. "In fact, you didn't even have to prove it. Everyone knows you're not ugly, and Malfoy is just jealous that he doesn't look as good as you." She looked away again, flushed with embarrassment. "I mean, the only girl who likes him is" – she shuddered – "Pansy Parkinson, but even I can't see why."
"Aw, come on, Hermione. Isn't it easier now that you don't have to hide your feelings for me?"
Hermione had a strong urge to wipe that smug grin off his face with a smack, but she still liked him and how incredibly charming he could be. "It was easier when only us two knew, and people weren't constantly teasing me about being in love with you. But maybe it was better when I hid it."
He looked up. "I don't think you should hide it if you're in love with someone."
"So explain why you haven't asked Cho out yet."
Harry remained perfectly calm. "Maybe it's because I'm not in love with Cho. Maybe it's because…because…"
"…Because?" she asked him.
Harry took a deep breath. "This is hard to say, so I'll just spit it out and get it over with. And don't interrupt me, because I don't want to say this again."
Hermione smiled, knowing exactly what he was planning to say. For once, she tried to catch his eye, but he was staring at the ground, fidgeting.
"You know how at the Valentine's Ball, I said to never give up hope that I could ever like you?" he asked quietly, twiddling his thumbs.
Sure enough, she nodded. How could she ever forget? That was like the highlight of her life; what had brought her spirits up after all that Entrancement Enchantment mess.
"Well, it was a good call for me to say that. I think that back then my subconscious form, which has been trying to escape forever, was trying to tell my brain something that it just wouldn't register. That I've always had a crush on you, but I just couldn't bring myself to admit it to – myself, I guess. Still following?" He realized how ridiculously confusing that sounded.
"Yes, I'm listening, I understand, keep going," she said quickly and eagerly.
He exhaled deeply and took another deep breath. "All right, good. This morning, I was thinking – you know, really thinking about life, and school, and everything – and everyone. I do that sometimes when I feel really overwhelmed.
(A/N: Sorry to interrupt, but when I wrote that, I had forgotten all about "A Twist of Fate." I know now, all right? Anyway, it just strikes me that with everything that goes on in Harry's life, he should think about it a lot, and the subject of love and Hermione has to come up there somewhere, even if it's not connected.)
"And in all of those things, I realized I had always been missing something. In my life, I've always been lacking someone to love me, like a parent or a girlfriend. With school, I didn't have a girlfriend to help me get through the classes and keep my sanity. And everything has been affected by the fact that I have such a huge lack of love."
Hermione sighed. "But everyone loves you, Harry. You're a hero! Girls go crazy for you, all guys want to be like you and have your life, all the adults in the world thank you for saving the world, and those people who are mean to you are just jealous."
Harry breathed heavily and rested his head on the table. "I s'pose you're right as always. Thanks, Hermione."
She gingerly lifted his head up and gave him a small smile. "Harry, you aren't quite done yet talking."
"Oh yeah. Well then, as I was saying, I was thinking of that lack of a love life, and then I realized I'm absolutely mad to believe that. Because the girlfriend I was thinking about, everything that I imagined she'd be like – I realized I was practically describing you."
He smiled briefly at her, and she returned it, though blushing.
"Because you've been everything in my life, Hermione. Without you, I'd have died in my first year when Voldemort was after the Sorcerer's Stone. Even if you don't realize it, you've saved the world more than I have. You've always known everything. And the only reason I refused to admit to myself that I liked you was because of a fear that you wouldn't like me back."
"And what about when you knew I liked you? All that crap about 'maybe with some twist of fate, I'll like you,' huh? 'I know I don't like you either, but we're best friends and that's all that I need.' What exactly were you thinking, then?" Hermione demanded a bit angrily, because he had known full well about the misery she had gone through, wishing that someday he would love her.
"Okay, then I was paranoid. I thought we weren't ready to go out. Even though this shouldn't matter, I thought how much people would tease us, or think we were weird for going out with each other. And since I couldn't even admit to myself that I liked you, I couldn't tell you."
"Good point. So now that you have told me, what next?"
"Well," Harry said, nervously again. "Will you go out with me?"
"No," she said flatly. "You waited too long, Harry. I can't believe it's taken you so long to realize. Now it's too late."
His heart sank. "All right then. Sorry for bothering you." He got up and started to walk away.
"Harry, stop! I was just kidding, kidding!" she said, beaming.
"You fooled me yet again," he laughed.
(A/N: Did I fool you too? Hee, hee! All right, I'll let you read in peace.)
"Boy, for a moment there, I felt ready to jump off a cliff. I also felt that way when you fooled me into thinking that you were actually under an Entrancement Enchantment, but maybe for a different reason."
"Don't worry," she said, giggling. "I'd never let you jump off a cliff. Especially now that we're together."
Harry grinned and gave her a quick kiss on the cheek. "And now nothing will break us apart."
"Promise?" she whispered, as he leaned closer.
"Promise," he breathed back, taking her pinky in his, and kissing her firmly on the lips.
"Ahem!" Madam Pince cleared her throat. "Mr. Potter, Miss Granger, I just can't get it across to you that there is absolutely no making out in the library!"
They both blushed furiously and ran out of the library, every one of the students making fun of them, but neither of them caring anymore.
* * *
"I think it's sweet," Ginny said.
"I think it's sickening," Ron said, in regard to the fact that Hermione and Harry were now going out. "My two best friends—" He shuddered and broke off, horrified at the thought.
"Oh, Ron, you should be happy for them," she insisted.
"Why?" he grumbled. "Because they're now leaving me out of everything? Because Harry got what I wanted, once again…"
"You mean Hermione?"
He nodded sulkily. "And that's not the worst part. She knows I like her too! Why did she want to go with Harry? He always manages to get things that I've always been dreaming about."
"You dream about Hermione?" she asked, amused.
"Shut up!" he laughed. "What I'm trying to say is that I'm going to do what I can to break Hermione and Harry up – no matter what it takes."
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Please, give me your feedback! If you don't like this, I won't waste time posting the next part (even though I'm done writing the whole series), so you have to tell me.