"Ron, how many times do I have to tell you NO?" screamed Hermione as she slammed the door in Ron's face, leaving him outside one of the Burrow's many guest bedrooms. It was the third time this week that the red-haired boy had angered the bushy haired girl. He assumed it was hormones, or the fact that Harry and Draco had come out of the closet and started dating recently.
"Bloody hell, Hermione, it's just a Quidditch match," the boy said in his usual whiny voice. He honestly couldn't figure out what she was making such a big deal about, it really was just a bloody Quidditch match, but he wasn't about to yell that at the top of his lungs, it was bad enough she was mad at him for asking her to come with him in the first place.
But through the door, her voice could be heard shouting, "THEN MAYBE YOU SHOULDN'T MAKE IT SOUND SO MUCH LIKE A DATE!" and something, obviously thrown, made a loud thump as it collided with the oak door. And again, she screamed, "YOU KNOW I STILL LOVE HARRY!"
By this time, Ron was still outside the door, but shocked. He had suspected something between the two of them since 4th year when Rita Skeeter's article debuted, telling why Rita thought Hermione visited Harry before the first task, but he never expected it to go anywhere. Besides, Harry was with Draco, and Ron was kept in the dark about Hermione and Harry's relationship when it was going on throughout the first three weeks of summer. There wasn't a chance, at least not in his mind, that Hermione could still have a crush on him.
He shrugged slightly, he gave up. He walked away from the door, he wasn't going to make it worse. As he walked to his own room, past the guest room in which Harry was staying, he was surprised he didn't hear Draco's silky voice reverberating past the door. He lay down on his own bed and was about to open his comic book when he heard the greasy voice of the Potions master. He quirked an eyebrow, why was the Hogwarts professor at the Burrow? He got on the floor and rested his ear against the rotting wood planks, to hear what was being said better.
"Excuse the interruption, Molly, but I've heard Mister Potter is here and I would like a word with him." Severus' smirk showed through here, Dumbledore planned on bringing back the boy's Occlumency lessons and had of course convinced Severus to give it another shot. With Voldemort's return, Dumbledore apparently thought that it was necessary, as Harry was the wizarding world's last major defense.
Molly Weasley had scurried from where she sat in the living room, working on her knitting, to the door near the kitchen where he stood. She obviously didn't mind that he let himself in, she smiled warmly as she invited him to sit down at the kitchen table. He took a seat, hiding his disgust towards how the lower-class family lived, much like Lucius. She offered him a cup of tea and just as she was about to call for Harry, Hermione came trotting down the stairs into the kitchen.
"Oh, Hermione dear," the woman said brightly. Hermione glanced over in their direction then went for a glass of pumpkin juice. Severus smirked shortly in her direction, he was at least giving the slightest effort towards being polite, if not halfway decent towards the girl.
"Miss Granger, you are ready for N.E.W.T.S., I expect," he said with a slight smirk as he took a small sip of his tea. "Been studying for them all summer, correct?" he rested the cup of tea in his lap instead of on the table, leaning back slightly in the old wooden chair.
Hermione smiled slightly as the professor started talking to her. "Oh yes of course, Professor Snape, I've been studying like mad for them." She set the pitcher down on the counter with a small thud as her anger came through. She turned around to face them and continued, "I guess I'll be seeing you in class, as usual. Until then, excuse me." She strode out of the room, then padded softly up the stairs, still hiding her anger towards Ron's repeated attempts to get her on a date. Everything seemed somewhat peaceful until the sound of a slamming door filled the house.
A few seconds later, Harry could be heard, muffled of course, presumably at her door. "'Mione, open up." She unwillingly unlatched the lock and the door swung open to her on the bed, sobbing slightly, her glass on the nightstand. He walked in and sat down lightly next to her, rubbing her back as she cried into his chest. In a hushed tone, he spoke. "'Mione, what's wrong?" He rested his chin on her head, bringing his other hand up to stroke her hair.
She was trying to talk, but her tears and his gradually wettening shirt muffled her already quiet voice. She pulled away from his arms, a hand still rested on his chest, wiping her tears from her face with the other. When she finally found her voice, her words were broken but when she finished forcing them out, he understood what she was trying to say.
Harry was a tad shocked, Hermione hadn't told him many of these things until shortly before he asked Draco out, so he wasn't sure how to react to what she had just told him. He knew she had feelings for him left over from their brief relationship, and he felt the guilt of leaving her so broken to beginning a new relationship with Draco Malfoy of all people, but he never knew they were this intense. All he could say to all this new information was, "Hermione, I wish you would have told me all this before." He smiled shortly to assure her that he understood, it seemed that was most important to her at the moment.
She took her hand off his chest and tucked her hair behind her ear, only for it to fall back in front of her face when she looked down. He pushed it back so that it was behind her, hanging down her back. She looked up at him and gazed into his warm hazel eyes, bringing her hand to his face, resting it on his cheek. She could no longer hold in this impulse, she leaned up and kissed him short and sweetly on the lips. She pulled away, then looked down once more. She knew he was shocked by the kiss, and she also understood the fact that he didn't know exactly what to say.
He finally, after close to five minutes of sheer silence, managed to string together a few words, thinking each one out as it left his lips. "Hermione," he started, choosing not to use the affectionate pet name he and Ron had come up with, "you know you're my best friend and I care deeply for you but you have to understand, I love Draco." He sighed slightly as he glanced into her eyes, trying to see what she was feeling.
"I know, Harry," she replied in an understanding but shaking tone, "but I wish that I could still call you mine." She smiled slightly, she wanted to be happy for him, and she hugged him tight, him returning the favor. As her head rested on his shoulder, she remembered the short three weeks of summer they had together, before he and Draco became an item. And as he rested his chin on her head, he felt watched so he glanced up to find Draco in the doorway, the usual scowl planted on his face.
"It'd be in your best interest to keep your filthy Mudblood hands off of my boyfriend, Granger," he snarled at her, glaring at Harry and fighting himself back from smacking the girl across the face. Hermione lifted her head from Harry's shoulder and pulled away, getting up, picking up her glass and left without a word. "It seems that Mudbloods like her don't have a thing for clean drinks," he said with a sneer.
Harry glared at him and as he rose from where he sat on the bed, going over to Draco and leaning in until his face was less than an inch away from the blonde's. "You would do well not to go around calling my friends Mudbloods, Draco," he said angrily, pulling away and walking out, he wanted to talk to Ron about something. When he reached his door, he knocked and heard shuffling inside for a few moments. Ron, thinking it was his mother on the other side, leapt up and swung it open, relieved to find it was his raven-haired friend. "Ron, I'd like to talk to you about the Quidditch match."
Ron bit his lip, he didn't exactly want everyone to know he was trying to get Hermione on a date. He blushed deeply, his cheeks turning the color of his blazing red hair, now both his friends, including the object of his affection, knew about his feelings. "So you know, huh?" he said, his voice not so whiny, but his eyes wandering, he was looking at everything but Harry, a sign there was something attached. "She told you?" was the only other thing he could force out at the moment.
Harry nodded slightly and leaned against the doorframe, smiling shortly before continuing, "She told me everything. That's what I want to talk to you about, it's something the both of us regret the most." He crossed his arms over his chest raising an eyebrow, a sign that this particular conversation should be secret. Ron moved aside so that Harry could enter, and then closed the door after he did so.