How in the world did I get here? How did this all start? He thought as he stared at the beautiful brunet. Her dark curls tangles together and frames her face perfectly. As he watched her peaceful face intently as she slept. His arm was probably going to fall asleep but he didn't care. He tucked a loose strand of hair behind her ear and gently ran his finger down her jaw and her neck.. He smiled and wrapped his other arm around her tightly, holding her close to him. He closed his eyes sleepily and thought back to the beginning.
He had first realized he liked her more than just as a friend and sister when she punched Malfoy in the face her third year. He had cornered her when he heard about it and given her a high five and a pumpkin pastie he had nicked from the kitchen. She had blushed and said " I shouldn't have lost my temper. Especially that way." she looked embarrassed and uncomfortable with the praise of her own perceived lack of self control. He had grabbed her shoulders and replied "That is the dumbest thing I have ever heard you say. It was the best way to lose your temper when you are dealing with a prat like Malfoy. I wish I could have seen it! If you ever think you might want to do it again I will Pay you five sickles if you tell me beforehand.." She had laughed and shook her head with a small smile on her face. " It did feel quite good." He had laughed hard for a few moments before hearing his friends calling his name, He had waved to her and still laughing left her to eat the pastie in surprised joy.
It wasn't until a few months later during their time at the World Cup that he realized that she was quite pretty. It had surprised him that he hadn't realized it before. During the match she had hugged him and jumped up and down cheering when Ireland scored. When they got back to heir tent after the game he had been watching her and said to George in an off handed sort of way" Hermione's hair is wild….I quite like it. It makes her look like she just finished a crazy exciting broom race... Don't ya think?" George had looked at Hermione and raised an eyebrow. " Suppose it does mate." George had looked at him curiously and opened his mouth to ask him if he fancied Hermione, but there were screams from outside and bangs, and the conversation was lost in the moment the Death Eaters dropped in for a visit. She had been amazing in the terror and commotion of the attack. Hermione had kept a cool head the entire time, and if any one had more reason to panic it was her, but she hadn't freaked out. She had grabbed Ginny's hand and held on tight so they wouldn't get separated in the chaos that she was pretty sure would follow. Later when they had made it home safely He ran into Hermione coming out of the bathroom and he had grinned her her and said " Thanks for Looking after Ginny. I know that you helped her feel safer. You are a good friend." He had sauntered off to his own room before she had a chance to reply.
During the Triwizard tournament she had been brilliant in the help she had given Harry. When Ron had behaved like an idiot and stopped being Harry's friend for several weeks she had stood by Harry. She had withstood hate mail from strangers who believed all of the vile things that had been said about her. She had figured out how Rita Skeeter had been spying on everyone all year. And in the end she had put a stop to the gosip rag writer that was Rita Skeeter. When she had told all of them on the train back from school he realized she could be ruthless and brilliant, and generous all at the same time. If it had been up to him he would have kept the woman in the unbreakable jar for the rest of her existence. He was far less forgiving than Hermione was. But that was part of what made him realize just how much he had grown to like her over the last year.
It was during one of her thundering scolds that next school year, that she seemed to be giving out wholesale, that he realized that he loved her. "You boys can NOT do this!" She said and waved a flier with the offer to pay people to test their Weasley Wizard Wheezes products. "This is Dangerous and stupid! And breaking about ten laws! You are absolutely not allowed to test your crackpot ideas on unsuspecting students!" He had grinned at her and took the flier out of her hand Sure we can Granger! There are no school rules that say people can't try out new sweets! Besides we have already tested them out on ourselves, we know no one will get hurt. We just want to see how people like them." She snatched the flier back from his and said nearly shouted at him " NO! You are not allowed to test on underage students!" Her fury made her even more attractive to him, and he had an overwhelming desire to grab her and kiss her right there in the common room. But instead he looked down at her and with a softer look in his eye said "Alright Granger. I promise that we will not test anything on under age students." The next day a new flier had replaced the old one it said that only those 17 years old and up could test their products and had to sign a consent form for any hilarity they might experience while testing any of their products. She had been angrier and taken the notice down in a huff. But she hadn't scolded after that, Not really. Then as the year progressed and Umbridge became intolerable he watched her bring together an unlikely group of students to form Dumbledore's Army. In that first meeting he had listened to her speak of war, and of being able to defend yourself. Really defend yourself, not just practicing. He listened to her defend Harry and in that first meeting and convince those that had come to join together and really learn. Over the next months he watched her break rules, and help teach defensive spells. and at that first meeting he thought he had seen her for who she truly was for the first time.
That summer after Sirius had died was hard on everyone. The man was a legend. He spent years in Azkaban for a crime he had not committed only to break out to save Harry's life. Sirius has been a good friend and role model to all of the "kids" and his death sent shock waves through everyone, especially Harry. Hermione spent the whole summer away from her parents, for their protection and also in order to comfort those that were grieving the loss of the Amazing man that was Sirius Black. She had been there for everyone, holding them up, keeping them together. One afternoon a few weeks before school started she found him once sitting with Buckbeak at Grimmauld Place, and she didn't say a word to him. She just sat on the floor next to him, and took his hand. She provided comfort he hadn't known that he needed until she took his hand. They has sat together there in silence for almost an hour. He almost kissed her again then, but Harry started yelling and she left him to go to the boy who she viewed as her brother and best friend.
The year after that was a blur more than anything else. He started writing Hermione letters and then he never gave them to her. In each of these letters, he spilled his heart out explaining to her how much he loved her, and how brilliant she was. He wrote her almost every day that year. Then Dumbledore died in the tower, and Bill was attacked. He felt like his world was fracturing. He put on a brave face, made jokes, but he constantly worried about his family and of course her. The months after Dumbledore's death were horrible for everyone. The Order almost fell apart once or twice without him there to keep them together. The night when they took Harry from his relatives George got hurt and Mad Eye died was just the beginning of a year of hell.
There were of course bright spots in the darkness that followed. Sneaking up to the roof of the of the Burrow and staying up all night on Harry's birthday sipping Firewhisky with and watching for falling stars. Stealing a dance with Hermione at Bill's wedding. The Radio Program. Teddy's birth, seeing Lupin become a proud papa. But each one of those bright spots were Marred by painful memories. The night they snuck out onto the roof over his bedroom she had started crying after her second glass of fire whiskey."Australia" She had said as the tears silently fell down her face. He kept looking at the sky and asked "Australia? What about it?" Her breath had caught in her throat and he glanced at her seeing the streaks her tears left of her face he scooted closer to her and put his arm around her shoulders and held her as she sobbed and told explained "I obliviated my Mum and Dad. I made them believe they had never had a child, and they suddenly had a desire to move to Australia. I had to tell someone. Just in case...Just in case I don't live through this. If I don't...Will you go find them for me? Please? I couldn't stand for them to not know what happened to me if I die." He had nodded his head and let her cry herself out before pouring them another glass of fire whiskey . The next day at Bill and Flure's wedding dance they had shared had been interrupted by Kingsley's patronus with its grim announcement of the death of the minister and the fall of the ministry. The radio was tinged with bitterness at each announcement of a death or a missing person. His family wasn't able to leave the Burrow for fear of being thrown into Azkaban. Going on the run with his twin when the Death Eaters finally came to arrest them for being blood traitors.
Then the battle for Hogwarts. He saw her from across the room of Requirement and she looked beautiful. She was ferocious, determined, bruised and bleeding. He had decided there and then that what ever happened he would tell her how he felt about her. No more hiding it. He was going to kiss her and tell her he loved her, and had loved her for years. Then he almost died. He had been fighting a Death Eater and the wall behind him collapsed on top of him. His head had been struck by debris and both of his legs had been broken in multiple places, his right arm had been crushed and his left shoulder had been dislocated. Not to mention the numerous ribs that had been broken. He had been thoroughly knocked unconscious, and thought to be dead. It wasn't until the next morning that Neville discovered he wasn't dead but severely injured.
Neville had gone around to say his last goodbyes to those that had been lost. He had reached out for a final fist bump and discovered that the body he thought would be stone cold was still warm, and moaned in pain slightly when he touched him. Neville jumped up and shouted "He's Alive! He's Alive! Get a Healer! He's Alive!" Then Neville had sat down on the floor and burst into tears. People rushed over to see what he was so worked up about and very quickly realized that the man they had presumed to be dead was still warm and breathing so shallowly they missed it when they had checked the night before.
When he woke up in St. Mungos two weeks later, she was there sitting reading Hogwarts a History out loud to him as he lay in a coma. She was taking a turn watching over him as the rest of his friends and family members had been doing for those weeks as they desperately hoped and prayed for a miracle, just one miracle. When he opened his eyes he stared at her while she read. After a moment of confusion he said "You are the most beautiful woman I have ever laid eyes on, and I'm mad about you." She had snapped her book shut and discarded it on the chair she had been sitting on. She jumped up and called out for a healer and rushed to his side. "Are you really awake or am I just dreaming?" He raised an eyebrow and coraked out in a voice that was rough and husky from not being used. "Did I misspeak? I don't think I did. Maybe I should say it again. You are the most beautiful woman I have ever seen, and I'm mad about you." She had started to cry and as the healer entered the room left his side and whispered to them that she was afraid his brain had been damaged because of what he said when he had woken up.
The healer came over to him and asked him a few questions and he answered them all accurately. All the while staring at her. After the last question he said "I'm not loony. I am in love with you. I have been since before I left school. You are bloody brilliant, kind and beautiful. I love you Hermione. I swore I would tell you if I lived through the battle. Seems like I am a bit worse for wear, but I'm alive." She had blushed fiery red and stammered that she didn't know what to say. He grinned and answered " Say that you aren't in love with my baby brother, and that you want to kiss me." She laughed at this cheeky speech and shook her head in amazement that he could be a jokester so soon after almost being dead."Tell me that I have a chance 'Mione. Say that I am not too much of an idiot to possible hold a place in your heart like the one you have held in mine since you were fourteen and I was sixteen." she met his eyes and a blush crept up to her cheeks at his sincere declaration of his feelings for her. "I'm not in love with him you know. Ron I mean, I do love him, but I'm not in love with him. We kissed during the battle ya know. After we talked about it. Both of us said it felt like kissing a sibling." He laughed at this and winced in pain.
The healer then informed him that as moving and touching as this sentiment was he had been seriously injured and they were able to mend most of the big and dangerous broken bones, but there had been quite a bit of damage and magic can only do so much. He would be in hospital for several more weeks as they very slowly healed his broken ribs, and his right arm which had been so badly broken that they would have to spend several painful sessions correcting the bones. She had summoned his family and soon everyone was there crying and congratulating him on not being dead after all. She tried to sneak out so his family could have this time with im, but he called her name and made her promise she would come back the next day. She nodded her head before she left the room. She came and held his hand as tears streamed down his cheeks while the healers corrected his arm. She did this everyday for the next two weeks. During each of his healing sessions, and then every day after that Until he was released with a clean bill of health. His Mum insisted that he return home to The Burrow, and He was happy enough to comply as Hermione was staying there with her parents who had just been recovered from Australia.
The next month was spent going from his room to the couch in the sitting room. Everyone fussed over him and his recovery. Any time it got to overwhelming he would claim to have a headache and ask Hermione to come sit with him outside in the garden. He told everyone that she had a calming presence and that they were stressing him to much and if they didn't stop fussing he would leave. They spent hours together sitting in the garden. They talked about anything and everything. Sometimes laughing, sometimes serious. Sometimes one or two others would join them most of the time they sat on the grass under a shade tree alone.
Then just this morning as he napped under the shade of a tree she had come and sat next to him. He could feel here there sitting next to him, her presence was so comfortable. He opened his eyes and stretched, took her hand in his and pulled her down into a hug. He held her tight against his chest and she fell asleep. His arms were asleep but being able to hold her was absolutely worth it. A breeze blew and missed her hair again, he smiled and cupped her cheek with his hand. Leaning in he said softly. "I love you Hermione." She sighed and opened one eye and said "Well I suppose I love you too Fred." He chuckled and kissed her tenderly. She sighed contentedly and kissed him back.
Authors Note: I love Harry Potter and wish I had enough talent to create the bright world that J. K. Rowling had made so magical with her works. I do not own any of the characters just love and adore them.
This is my first ever published Fan fic. I have been reading and writing for several years, but ya know January if the time for resolutions, and I resolved to actually publish this year instead of just hiding all of my stuff in my laptop. I just want to thank you for taking the time to read this, and thank you for any reviews you might like to leave. Much Love! -BadgerAndThe Bee