Disclaimer: I don't own anything, (unfortunately) JKR does.
So, everyone, here is the next chapter. So sorry for the long wait but there were a few complication and I had to rewrite a few parts. I don't think I've ever worked on a chapter this much, always going back and rewritting, but I'm still not completely satisfied, I hope you'll have a different opinion.
Thanks to my ever wonderful beta, x-Xanti-x for her amazing work!
I'd like to say thank you to all of my reviewers. I never recieved so many reviews for one chapter! I'm really grateful to all of you and please keep up with the good habit and review! I really want to know what you think and please tell me if you have a problem anywhere or just tell me where I need to improve!
Now, on with the chapter!
Birthday girl
Hermione didn't have any time register her surroundings or anything else, because as soon as she was in the room she heard the door being shut behind her and she was soon pressed against the door she just 'came' through, a decidedly masculine body pressed to her petite one.
"I've missed you so much," whispered the husky voice of Harry Potter into her right ear, his hot breath tickling her neck. "I swear I felt like shouting at Dumbledore when he announced that this school year would start almost two weeks later than it usually would. And because of some stupid muggles who decided to blow up parts of the railway lines.
"It should have taken mere minutes to construct them again. We are wizards, for God's sake. But no. He said they'd need two weeks. I swear he was teasing me." He said as he trailed open mouthed kisses up on Hermione's neck.
"I think…I think…" shuttered Hermione. She really did hate how Harry could make her speechless and weak in the knees with a few simple touches.
"Yes? What do you think, love?" he whispered, but didn't leave her time to answer, as he captured her lips with his ones, without wasting any time he trust his tongue into her mouth, holding her head in place with his hands while he kissed her senseless.
"I think…I think you're acting like a hormonal teenager right now." Said Hermione as she pushed him away so she could sit down on one of the comfy armchairs.
"No. I'm acting like a man who hasn't seen his girlfriend for three months." Said Harry as he sat down opposite to Hermione. "And I really missed you." He said as an afterthought and he looked at her, waiting for her to say the same thing back to him, but she only stared back, not blinking. Harry simply raised an eyebrow but stayed silent.
After a few minutes of silence he said:
"You know if you keep it up like this, you'll get no birthday present." He knew that he caught her. She loved receiving presents.
"Okay, be it your way. I missed you too. Happy?" she asked, giving up her little game.
"Very." He said with a satisfied smirk and waited. 3…2…1…
"Now, where's my present?"
"That was about…" he looked down at his watch "30 seconds. This is a new record for you, Hermione."
"Whatever. Quit teasing me and give me my present."
"And what do I gain from doing so?" he asked, raising his eyebrow again.
"You're impossible!" she said with a frustrated sigh.
"That I am, dear. But you still love me."
"Yes, yes, I do. Now my present, if you would." She said impatiently.
"You didn't say the magic word." He teased
"You mean Levicorpus?" she asked in a suspiciously sweet voice.
Harry gulped and asked, "You wouldn't…"
"That's the question, isn't it?" She asked with a sweet smile.
"Okay, stay here," he said and got up to retrieve her present from the drawer of his desk.
"Happy birthday." He said as he handed her the long, black box along with a quick peck on the lips. "I hope you'll like it. I didn't really know what to give you." He said as he sat down onto the arm of Hermione's armchair.
"Oh, Harry. A simple book just like the years before would have been enough. You know it." She said but he could see that she wasn't really telling the truth. She would have been happy with a book, that's for sure, but she still is a woman and women like to get more meaningful gifts from their boyfriends, even though they might not admit it sometimes.
Harry liked to think that he knew Hermione better than she knew herself. It always made him smile how sweet the girl was when she was as a mere first year. He remembered his first class with her as if it happened just yesterday.
She was already familiar with him from the opening feast. Of course a lot of students were staring at him and when all of them thought that he didn't notice it, but how could he not? After so many years of being stared at one would think that he eventually got used to all the staring, and in a way he did. Those years back he always felt when someone was staring at him, which was quite annoying considering the fact that almost everyone stared at him and his scar anywhere he went. Not anymore. He simply ignored the staring children and adults alike, but especially the girls who thought themselves so attractive and always tried to show off before him.
That's why that night was so different. As usual, he was in the middle of a very entertaining conversation with Albus Dumbledore, when he felt someone staring at him, which was a really strange thing in itself, as he never felt it if someone was staring at him anymore, so his head quickly snapped up and his eyes met with the ones of a young Gryffindor first year. Hermione Granger, as he later found out.
The next morning found an extremely nervous Harry pacing in his private rooms. He was very anxious because of his very first lesson, which happened to be with first year Gryffindors. After he couldn't stand the silence anymore he left his quarters for the Great Hall to grab some breakfast.
'At least I'll have something in my stomach, so I can throw up any time I feel like it.' He thought half jokingly. 'I can't believe this! I wasn't this nervous when I had to face Voldemort himself! Get a grip, Potter! It's only a bunch of first years!' he scolded himself.
He ate his breakfast in silence, listening to his former professors talking about little things. Even though he was close to all of his professors (except for Severus Snape, but he doubted anyone was close to him), but he still felt a bit left out. Sure, he was a professor now, but he was still many years younger than the other teachers. He was closer in age to the seventh years and he was sure this would cause him some problems with trying to stay as clear of the seventh year girls as possible.
It wasn't like he was afraid of himself getting attracted to any of the girls. He was sure that wouldn't happen. He was afraid of the girls throwing themselves at him. He wasn't an egoistic jerk who thought that he was God's gift to women, but he was an attractive young man (even if he wouldn't admit it) and his fame and money added to this attractiveness.
Of course he didn't know at the time that it wasn't the seventh years he should be worried about, but that little first year girl he saw the night before.
To his relief his very first lesson went as well as it can be expected with all the first years being at awe from the simple magic he showed them and from the Boy-Who-Lived himself. And he was nervous himself, so considering the circumstances the lesson went rather well. He quickly realised that the girl from the night before was the studious one and he instantly liked her, because even though he was sure that she knew of his fame she simply didn't seem to care about that.
After the harsh sound of the bells signalled the end of the lesson the class filled out of the classroom and he was about to collapse into his chair, when he noticed that someone stayed behind. It was that girl again. Hermione. He didn't know why, but he had good feelings abut the girl, which quickly disappeared, when she suddenly hugged him. Was he wrong about her? Maybe she was like the others, admiring him because of his fame? But those thoughts quickly vanished with her explanation and they way her eyes showed him how she was telling the truth.
He had to smile at that memory. Somehow he already knew that something was different about her. But it took him more than five years to realise just what that thing was. He remembered the first time he thought of her as more than a friend clearly.
It was a very tiring day for Harry Potter. He was teaching the third years about the boggarts that day and somehow he didn't think that Remus had had so many problems with his class or that his class was that clumsy when dealing with the creature.
It was well after dinnertime when he was finally alone in his quarters again, getting ready for bed. It was his and Hermione's turn that day to patrol the halls after curfew so the students wouldn't think about staying out of their dorms.
He always loved the nights which he could spend with Hermione just patrolling the halls and talking about anything and everything. Since her first year they became good friends and he felt that he could trust her and he thought that she knew that she could trust him, too.
Sometimes they'd only talk about little everyday happenings, but lately they almost always had some more serious thing to talk about. She told him about her insecurities and fears and in exchange he'd tell her about the nightmares that still plagued some of his nights.
He'd go to sleep every night dreading whose death he would have to live through again that night, but it was different this time.
The dream started out quite nicely, he was on Hogwarts grounds and opposed to the other dreams he was as old as he was in reality. He looked around and saw a lone figure by the lake, sitting on a huge rock, staring into nothingness, seemingly waiting for something or someone.
Harry felt a strange pull towards the person, as if knowing that the figure was waiting for him. As he got closer he could make out a few details of the person, like the bushy brown hair or the way the figure seemed to hold herself. Because he could see clearly now that the person was indeed a girl, who looked very familiar to him, yet he couldn't place her until he got closer. That's when the realisation hit him. It was Hermione. But what was stranger is that he didn't find her appearance in his dream strange or unusual, as if he was expecting her.
And he wasn't surprised either, when she looked up and upon seeing him she jumped up and threw herself at him, hugging him tightly. What surprised him, though, was that he was hugging her back just as tightly, not wanting to let go of her.
When she finally lifted her head from his shoulders where it rested for the past few seconds and looked into his eyes, he found himself drowning in the brown depths and before he knew what was happening he leaned down and placed a soft kiss onto her mouth, deepening the kiss by every passing second.
While he was kissing Hermione passionately, he was having an internal debate, his brain screaming at him to let her go and think of the consequences. She was only 16 for God's sake, and his student at that, but his body just wouldn't listen to his mind and he found himself lowering her body onto the ground, not breaking the kiss.
Soon his hands were under her shirt, caressing the soft, endless skin under it, while trailing kisses down her throat, erecting a moan from her and he started to lose himself in her as he listened to her soft moans.
"Harry, Harry, Harry, Harry…"
He woke up with a start, covered in sweat, panting heavily in an obviously aroused state.
'What the hell are you doing Potter?' He thought to himself. 'You shouldn't be thinking about her that way! She's your student and friend and ten years younger! You shouldn't be thinking about her that way!' he scolded himself.
He collapsed back into his pillows, trying to go back to sleep, but it just wouldn't come, leaving him with his miserable thoughts for hours.
That day was one of the most confusing and strangest days of his life. Anywhere he went he somehow ran into Hermione and when he looked at her he was always reminded of the way she felt under him in his dream. He just couldn't get that dream out of his mind that day. And the day after that. Or after that, but it took him for a while to come to terms with his feeling for Hermione, but while he was dealing with his confused feelings for her he managed to distance himself from her and by the time he realised his feeling for her it was already too late.
He managed to hurt her feelings, because she thought that he didn't want to be her friend anymore and he didn't have the guts to tell her about his real reasons for being so distant with her. That summer and the following two months were the most miserable months of his life.
By the time he had his feelings figured out all the students were leaving the castle to spend their summer holidays at home or wherever they went.
Throughout the summer Harry sent countless letters to Hermione, trying to apologise for his behaviour, but they always came back unopened. After a month he just gave up and decided that he'd talk to her the next year, right after the opening feast.
His plans failed miserably when she wouldn't give him the chance to get even into hearing distance of her. The following few months were spent trying to get Hermione alone for enough time to be able to apologise to her and hopefully make everything between them right without telling her about his feelings.
He tried after lessons, he even gave her detention for a stupid reason that reminded him of the ones Snape used to come up just to deduct point from Gryffindor when Harry was a student himself, but she wouldn't budge. She pretended not to hear him when he tried to talk to her in detention; she even got up and left in the middle of it, knowing that Harry wouldn't do anything about it. They still had to patrol the castle together, but she decided that it'd be better for both of them if they went separate ways, finishing their duty quicker this way.
It was only after Halloween, that Harry could finally corner her, but that time he made her listen to him. By the time he was finished telling her a half-lie about needing to sort out some really personal matters which Hermione couldn't help with, their relationship returned to semi-normal, but still, Harry could feel the tension, the hurt and the unsaid feelings between them and he was afraid that their relationship would never be the same again.
And he was right. Something changed, but not for the worse as Harry first thought, thanks to that spring afternoon…
He was shaken out of his thought by the feel of Hermione's soft hands on his thighs.
"Harry, are you all right? You were out of it for a few minutes." She asked, her concern evident in her voice.
"Yeah, I was just thinking about a few things. Did you ask something?" was his reply.
"I only said that a simple book would have been enough." He smiled at her sweetness and answered:
"I know. But I wanted something more meaningful." He said and instantly saw that it was the good thing to say. Her eyes were practically glinting with happiness. "Come on, open it."
She did as she was told, her hands shaking a bit. When she saw what was in the box a surprised gasp left her mouth and her right hand flew to her mouth, covering it, as she was staring at the beautiful necklace in the box.
There was no diamond or any fancy gems in it. It was a simple white gold necklace with a simple medallion on it, in the form of two intertwined hands. It wasn't something fancy, but she instantly understood the meaning of the two hands and this simple gesture meant more to her than a diamond or anything like that would.
"Turn it around." He said quietly and watched her reaction as she looked down at the three, seemingly random numbers carved onto the back of it. 314.
"314?" she looked up at him, her question evident in her voice and eyes.
He simply smiled and nodded.
"Think about it. You're a clever witch. You'll figure it out." He simply said. Hermione stared at him for a few moments then held out the necklace and said:
"Would you help me to put this on?" she asked, as she turned around in her sitting position, lifting her hair.
Harry took the necklace from her hands and carefully placed it around her neck, his hand brushing the soft skin of the back of her neck which caused a shiver to run down her spine. He gently bent down and kissed her neck from behind.
"Thank you," was all she said, thanking him for both the present and for putting it on for her. Harry only nodded, even though she couldn't see him and asked:
"So, how was that trip around Europe that kept you away from me for that long?"
"Oh, it was really great! I mean we went to places I bet you've never heard about. You know that we've been at almost all of the famous places before and this was so different! You wouldn't believe how many beautiful paces are there that you've never heard about. We went to these really small villages in the mountains and it was breathtaking and so different. The people were really friendly and I've found a few wizarding villages, too.
"It was really strange when I pointed to a village and told my parents to go there and they just looked at me strangely and asked what I was talking about. They couldn't see a thing. And unfortunately there very muggle repelling charms on those places so I had to go there alone, but I obtained some really fascinating books. Did you know that there was this….What?" she suddenly stopped, when she heard his amused chuckles.
"Nothing. It's just…so you. You were talking really quickly, you know. You only do that when you're really excited about something. And it was so like you that I could help myself. You're really cute when you do that."
As he looked down and saw her smiling up at him he bent down and captured her lips in a gentle kiss. They kissed for a while, but stopped, when they heard the chiming of Harry's clock. It was 10 p.m.
"I should get going," said Hermione, breaking away from him, while their foreheads were still touching.
"I don't want you to."
"But you know I have to."
"I hate this."
"I do too. You know I'd love nothing more than to stay here with you, but I can't. My dorm mates may not like me but they'd still notice if I suddenly went missing." She said as she got up from the armchair.
"I'm sure they'd believe you if you told them you feel asleep in the library."
"Maybe they would, but we can't risk it. You know it just as well as I do. And you'll see me tomorrow in class anyway." was her only answer.
"I know. But it's not the same. I'd like to know just for once what it's like to wake up next to you."
"I'd like that too. And there's only a year left of school for me. After that we can be together as much as we want. Just this year and we can stop hiding." He didn't have anything to say to that. He only kissed her deeply once more, and then looked out of the room to the hallway to check if it was clear for her to go outside without being seen. When he saw that all was clear he stepped out of the way and let for go outside without another word.
He shut the door behind her and said to none in particular:
"One year."
She turned back to the closed door and whispered with a sigh:
"One year."
Thanks for reading and please tell me what you think, possibly in the form of a review!
