Author's note: Something I wrote in honor of the 1 year "aniversary" of the end of Harry Potter. This story is based on something that actually happened to me and my close friend :)
"Harry let go!"
Hermione tried to yank her arm free but failed, and then she tripped over a branch.
"Harry! At least go a bit slower!" She cried.
"I'm sorry Hermione, but you just have to see this!" Harry said and his eyes twinkled.
"Well I'm coming with you, aren't I?" She said.
"Yes but Ron can't come with us so we have to move. Come on." Harry took her hand, this time gently and led her into the woods.
"Remind me again why Ron can't come with us?" She asked him while trying to avoid the branches that were flinging into her face.
"Because he'll spoil it. He.. Well he doesn't understand." Harry said while he took a left turn.
"I still think it's a bit harsh to just take off like this, you know how sensitive he can be, Harry."
"Hermione, if he's actually that stupid he isn't worth you." Harry stopped for a moment to help Hermione climb over a fallen tree. She blushed a bit at his words. Hermione wasn't one to receive that many compliments and never really knew how to handle them. But Harry, ever a gentlemen, just smiled at her and they ran again.
They were both silent for a few minutes until Hermione asked: "How much further, Harry, I'm getting out of breath." Harry slowed down and turned to face her. "It's behind those big rocks. I've been working on it for a while, please don't laugh at me." Hermione nodded. Why would she laugh?
Harry led her around the rocky formation blocking their path and she saw it, though not at first.
Before them lay a gigantic lake, surrounded by high trees and rock formations. The water was crystal clear, she could see fish swimming from all the way where she stood. There were deer, drinking, and on the other side, two grown unicorns with a young. On their left was a river, that led the water in and out of the lake. And before them lay a small boat, with two peddles. She could tell from here that it was created by magic.
"Oh, Harry. It's beautiful.." Hermione whispered. "Ron would have liked this though." She looked at him, confused why Harry would have thought their friend could not have seen the beauty in this picture. "This isn't all of it. Come." Harry said, taking her hand again and leading her down the path to the boat. He stepped inside and helped her in. Hermione was handed a peddle, and because she and her parents used to go camping a lot when she was younger, she knew how to peddle. She always loved going up and down creeks on her own made raft.
"Where to?" She asked Harry.
"Head to the river." He answered and they started peddling.
At first they zig zagged for a while but then they got better at it and had a steady rhythm of going back and forth with the peddles.
It was getting darker and they still had not made it to the river.
"Harry, maybe we should try again tomorrow?" Hermione asked, getting a bit worried because this couldn't have been Harry's plan.
"No, it has to be dark." Harry said.
"But they'll expect us back at the burrow for dinner." Hermione complained. "They'll be worried."
Harry laid down his peddle and took out his wand.
He conjured a patronus and turned it into a messenger.
"Hermione is with me, we will not be back for dinner, don't wait for us. We're fine, just got lost in the woods. Will be back in a few hours."
The patronus darted over the lake, out of sight.
"Come on, we'll eat when we're there, I brought food." Harry gestured at the backpack he was carrying with him.
So they began to peddle again and reached the river. They turned around the corner and started going down the river. This went a bit easier but Hermione's arms started to hurt a bit.
"Hermione..." Harry began.
"Yes?"
"Do you trust me?"
What kind of question was that.. After all these years he asked her if she trusted him?
"Of course." She replied.
"We are heading towards a waterfall, but before it is a pier and we need to reach it before we.. well. Go down." Harry said, not looking at Hermione.
The girl wasn't paying attention to her environment but now she looked up and she could hear it. The sound of water falling down from a great height. They were heading towards it fast.
She wanted to slap Harry in his face and jump out of the boat right now but she managed to stay calm.
"Left or right?" She asked.
"Right." Harry said and looked at her.
He must have seen the anger in her eyes because he added: "It will be worth it. Trust me."
She nodded stiffly and began paddling on her left side so the boat turned right.
The sounds of the waterfall came closer and her fear grew stronger.
"Faster, Hermione." Harry said.
"I'm trying, my arms hurt!" She cried.
"Lumos!" Harry shouted and his wand lit up. He placed it in a wooden holder on the front of the boat, apparently meant for this purpose. Hermione could see the pier. It was not as close to the waterfall as she had thought, which was kind of a relief. But she could also see that if they missed it, they would very well be dead..
They both started peddling on the left side. Hermione was sweating and could feel blisters form on her hands but she kept going. They were so close...
Then the wind came and blew them to the left.
"No!" Hermione screamed but Harry thought quick and threw himself forward. He stuck his peddle between the boards of the pier and kept them in place.
"I can't hold this for very long, get out of the boat, Hermione." He said calmly.
Hermione grabbed the wooden planks and climbed on the pier. She then took Harry's hand and pulled him up too. Their boat was gone in seconds. But Hermione didn't look.
She slapped Harry hard across the cheek.
"You nearly got us killed!" She squealed.
"I'm sorry, I'm sorry!" Harry shouted as he took her hands to prevent her from hitting him again.
"Hermione, turn around." He said.
And at the side of a waterfall, in the dark, Hermione turned around and fell silent.
They looked upon a city.
Hundreds of lights below them, in all sorts of colours. Some moving, obviously vehicles, some still, the lights in houses and other buildings.
Hermione noticed her mouth was open so she closed it quickly.
Harry took her hand and led her to the edge of the cliff. They sat down and stared at the many lights below them.
"It's a muggle thing. Ron wouldn't understand." Harry said.
And that sounded very simple. Ron wouldn't understand.
Even Hermione had trouble understanding the beauty of something so... destructive.
But it was beautiful. So many lights. They were too far away to hear the noises, or smell the exhaust fumes. From here, the city was beautiful, mesmerizing even.
"Some things look better from a distance." Harry said.
"When I was younger I used to walk up the hill near our house and look at the city. I thought it was like magic, all those lights. But when we drove through it, once a year on our way to the zoo, and back.. It lost all it's beauty. Because of the people, and the smells, and the noises.."
Hermione nodded. She understood exactly what Harry meant, but let him finish.
"And that's kind of the thing, isn't it? I wonder sometimes, if Voldemort was right in some ways. That muggle children shouldn't be in the magical world. Because it's not their world. Looking back, I thought it would be better, this world. I thought it would be more beautiful." Hermione looked at him. His eyes glistering in the light from the city.
"But Harry, under different circumstances it would have been more beautiful. It can still be. We still have time.." She said quietly.
"No we don't, Hermione." Harry raised his voice. "The war has destroyed every beauty in the magical world for me. Even my relationship with Ginny.. no surprise there and I know I should just work on that.-" Hermione nodded. "But we really do come from different worlds. And the war has sort of destroyed that bridge between them, you know.." He said that well. Hermione had the same problem with Ron. What first seemed fun, and cute, now became annoying. Ron has lost his patience several times before and Hermione saw a side of him that wasn't there at Hogwarts. And then Harry said the same thing she was thinking.
"At Hogwarts, we all lived in the same world, getting educated. But here.. We're separated."
"That's true.." Hermione admitted.
"Sometimes I think.." Harry began but he lowered his head. "Forget it."
"No, what were you thinking?" Hermione asked, catching his eyes again.
It was quiet for a moment while Harry looked at her, apparently looking for something that he found a few minutes later.
"Sometimes I think it would have been better for us to not be together. And you and Ron.. Sometimes I think I'm not worth Ginny, like we'll never be on the same level. Like I don't deserve her."
Hermione crawled on her knees to him and took his head in her hands.
"Harry James Potter, you are a wonderful and brave man and every girl should be lucky to have you. Don't ever think that you do not deserve someone. You are my best friend, I have seen everything of you, grew up with you. I have hated you and I have loved you. As your closest friend I am telling you, you are amazing... but you should never do something you are not comfortable with. You deserve your happiness now, Harry. After all these years of misery, I want you to have it." Hermione couldn't stop a tear from rolling over her cheek.
But she meant it. Every word of it. She had seen the boy turn into a man, she had seen his darkest, deepest fears and secrets and there was nothing she could do. She felt helpless.
"I want you to be happy.." She whispered.
Harry took her hands from his cheeks and held them tightly before them.
"I am most happy with you, Hermione. You get me. But the happiness that I want, is not always the happiness that is right. I can't have it." He whispered back.
This was it. The conversation they both silently agreed on to never have.
They sat there in silence. Harry had confessed his love for Hermione. And although she suspected it, it was still a shock to her. She had to think fast.
She thought back of when they became friends, Harry was her first friend at Hogwarts. Not Ron, not Ginny.. Harry. They had known each other for so many years now, but always fought for what they thought was right. And not for what they wanted, because it didn't matter.
Now, it mattered.
And in the light from the city, a muggle thing. A few miles away from the Burrow, a magic thing. Hermione took a final look at the green eyes that changed her life, before closing her own, leaning forward and catching the warmth of Harry's lips with hers. They kissed for what seemed hours before finally letting go. Hermione was wrapped safely in the arms of her best friend as he whispered in her ear: "I am happy as long as you're with me, Hermione." To which she replied: "Then I'll never leave."
Author's note: I might update this, telling you how it ended. Or make two seperate chapters with different endings. Leave a review and tell me what you prefer! You can always just guess the ever after ;)