Ok well this is my first author note so bear with me. This is my first fanfiction story and i'm a little nervous, so reviews are very, VERY welcome! I was actually going to scrap this story and give up because i wasn't getting any reads on the other site, Wattpad, that I originally inteded this story to be on. I decided to post it on here and see if anyone would enjoy it, and people actually were! Your reviews motivated me, so I am going to press onward.

This chapter was initially just going to be Hermione's thoughts, but I found it too short so I just decided to throw Harry in their too so both their revelations end up in one chapter. I wrote most of this yesterday and this morning, and I've got an idea of what I want to happen in the story, but you never know, Harry and Hermione have a mind of their own...So without furthur adieu, i bring you "Late Night/Early Morning Revelations"

' 'Love?' ' He called me ' 'love' ', Hermione comprehended. 'Oh, Granger you must have misheard him, that's not possible...it can't be.' Her heart was thudding against her chest, her body shaking. 'He said love, what else could it have been?' She slowly slid down her door until she was sitting on the floor with her back against it. She bent her legs and wrapped her arms around them for warmth, her mind still reeling from what she had heard.

It's not possible; Harry deserves more and wants more. 'He doesn't want his plain, boring bookworm of a friend as a girlfriend, he doesn't love me. He doesn't love me the way I love him; Harry Potter's not in love with me. He wants someone who's beautiful and can make him happy and please him...in THAT way. I can't do any of those things,' she thought miserably and sighed. 'I must have misheard him."

Hermione hadn't been much of the dating type. Her last relationship, if you could call it that, was with Ron after the war was over. It hadn't lasted for more than a month, two at the most, and they did nothing more than fight, snog, and hold hands. But it was mostly fight. Hermione was still a virgin, which was why she was constantly teased, playfully mind you, from Luna and Ginny. Being the only virgin in her small group of girlfriends was something she didn't regret, but felt she was missing. But Hermione Granger knew she wasn't going to give her body away to just anyone, she would know when it was time for...that. She had never wanted Krum or Ron in that way, the only person she ever fantasized about being with sexually was...Harry.

Her eyes grew wide and her hand covered her mouth. 'Oh god, I want Harry'. She knew she had fantasized and dreamed about him, on a rather large amount of occasions, but to actually admit that she wanted him seemed to make her feelings all the more real.

She shivered, realizing just how cold it was sitting on the floor, and decided it was time to get into bed. Hermione slowly stood up, trying to remember how to properly walk again, and somehow made it to her queen-sized mattress. She climbed in and buried herself under the mass of blankets and comforters, wishing all of her revelations and discoveries would fade away as though they never happened.

She had to admit that over the years Harry had become quite a good-looking man. His eyes were dazzling green that shone when he smiled, and his years of Quidditch served his body well. It was rare for him to walk around the flat shirtless, but every time he did Hermione couldn't tear her eyes away from him. His chiseled chest and defined abs made her insides squirm and her very core tremble. It affected her so that Harry would come hold her, worrying that she was becoming sick due to her flushed face and lack of breath. The feeling of his incredible body pressed against hers didn't help her convince him she was feeling fine; to the contrary, it seemed that her symptoms only worsened. But according to Hermione, the sexiest feature about Harry was his jet black hair. The untamable nature of it did something to her that she couldn't describe. She longed to run her fingers through it and pull on it while he thrust into her, making her scream out and…'God I want him,' she groaned and buried her face in her pillow. 'I want him so bad it hurts'.

Hermione knew it was more than that though; she knew it was more than just lust for Harry.

Knowing someone for nine years, united through the most unimaginable, grim events possible creates a bond few can break. And when you include being together through some of the most joyous, exuberant times in one's life, it forms a bond nothing can destroy.

She realized she was in love with Harry after she started dating Ron. When they had first kissed, it was what Hermione hoped would be the start of falling in love with someone; that it would be like nothing she had ever felt. But soon after breaking apart from his lips, she realized that kissing Ron didn't give her the butterflies in her stomach she had wanted, the sense of fulfillment she so dreamed of. To the contrary, it made her feel emptier inside, which was likely the cause of their numerous fights. Hermione had her suspicions that Ron took the break up so well because he knew of her budding feelings for Harry, no matter how much she denied them to herself.

Their break up didn't come as a shock to anyone, if anything it came as a relief. Being around Ron and Hermione as a couple was nerve-wrecking as a result of their constant bickering. They remained best friends, both pleased with the split, but the person that seemed to be the happiest was Harry. He was sick of living in a house of constant yelling, crying, and fighting. There was no more stress of Ron's jealousy when the two spent time together; it was just overall easier on all of them. It was when he and Hermione were able to start getting closer to each other.

With Ron gone constantly, it left the two alone with each other. The first few days after Ron started traveling were immensely awkward, neither Harry nor Hermione knowing what to do. It was the first time in their friendship that they were actually left alone together with no monsters to fight. Gradually, things became easier for the two; they started to actually know one another more. After work they would come home, take a shower, and work on dinner together; Harry teaching her what he knew and Hermione teaching him what she did. Harry got a kick out of it and teased her to no end about it; cooking was one of the few things Harry Potter was better at then Hermione Granger. They would sit and have dinner together, discussing their days at work and the craziness that usually followed it before moving to the living room, hand in hand. It wasn't rare for them to stay up till the early hours of the morning, talking and laughing as they discovered more about each other on the living room couch.

It was times like those that Hermione loved the most. When Harry let his guard down and smiled a real smile that reached his eyes, or when he laughed so hard he fell over and tears welled up in his eyes. It was the Harry who was happy and free, who would hug and kiss her cheek when he would get sleepy, and beg her to stay up just one more hour with him. It was the Harry she loved with all her heart.

Hermione bit her lip, her fingers twirling her golden curls. It was late, or very early depending on how you saw it, and she knew she needed to sleep or else she probably would give Harry a morning fright. She giggled at her mental image of Harry hiding under the bed from her like a child, groggy from lack of sleep. She sighed and turned to lie on her side. Hermione Granger didn't consider herself a coward, not by a long shot, but she would be lying if she said she wasn't a tad bit scared to fall asleep, for fear of the nightmares that haunted her so. She glanced at the door, 'he's only a few steps away. He'll know if I need him.'

With that, Hermione closed her eyes slowly and let sleep carry her away to a gentle slumber, filled with images of her and one, Harry Potter.

Harry stared up at the ceiling and scratched his head, yawning. 'What am I going to do about this?' He sat up and moved to the side of the bed, placing his feet on the floor and his head in his hands. 'I love her. I'm in love with Hermione Granger and I don't know what to do,' he thought frustrated. Not at her, but at his hopeless situation.

Shortly after falling asleep he woke again, not from a nightmare, but this time from a dream about Hermione. It was nothing more than memories of the two of them, small things like them holding hands, how perfect they fit together. How her smile could brighten a room and make his heart skip a beat. The way she tucked a strand of hair behind her ear and turned to beam at him, how he so wished to lean in and taste the sweet heaven that was her lips. She made him feel like no other ever had.

Harry wasn't the type to go out on dates; he didn't quite care for it the way Ron did. Of course he was asked out all the time, he was the famous Harry Potter, but he always denied the women who asked, to their great distress. He preferred to come home and be with Hermione, and he couldn't see why everyone thought that was so outlandish. 'She's amazing,' he thought, 'I don't want to be with any other woman.' Hermione was the only person who had stuck by him through the worst times in their lives. She had risked her life to be at his side, and though he didn't approve of it, he secretly thanked god she did. He needed her. 'I wouldn't be here without her—I couldn't live without her.'

'I love her.'

Harry stood up and glanced at the moving picture to his right, a small smile forming on his lips. It was one of his favorite pictures, if not his favorite. Hermione was smiling, radiant as always in her beautiful gown she wore to the Yule Ball, lighting up the room. Her arms were around his neck, and they swayed back and forth as they grinned at each other, their eyes never leaving one another's. Harry picked it up and watched it as she leaned up and gave picture-Harry a soft kiss on the cheek, making him blush.

He walked over to the window and opened it, a light breeze hitting his bare chest. He looked at the sky and admired the stars, picking out the largest one to call his favorite, picture still in hand. His new revelation of love made him feel…worried and calm, if such a thing were possible. Harry now knew what it was he had been looking for, the piece of him he had been missing for so long. It was Hermione, it had always been Hermione. 'I was just too stupid to realize it,' he thought as he leaned on the window frame, a sad smile on his lips.

'So now what do I do?' He peered out at the slowly lighting sky, as though asking the gods to give him an answer to his troubles. 'I can't tell her. She'll…I don't know what she'll do,' he thought as he picked up a small rock from his jar and threw it out at the trees, straining his ears to hear if he connected with anything.

Whenever he couldn't sleep as a boy, he would chip off the wood from his bed frame and throw it out through the bars of his windows, listening to see if he hit anything. If he did, then he got a point, if he didn't, he lost one. He stopped playing the point system as he grew older, and replaced the wood chippings with smooth rocks he would find in the wooded area behind the apartments, but he continued to throw them out of his window. It calmed him, gave him something to do. He heard the far away sound of his rock hitting what sounded like a lamp post, and smiled. 'Least it wasn't Mister Grunwald or one of his crazy cats.' He couldn't count the number of times he had hit the old man with a wood chipping and heard him going off on another rant about how the world was coming to an end, and that wood falling out of the sky was a sign of it. He would giggle and watch the old timer get into a huff before wearing himself out and going inside to sleep, or whatever it was that he did.

Harry reached for another rock and sighed, unable to find anymore in his jar. 'Bollocks, I need to get more tomorrow.' He stretched and yawned silently, climbing into bed again for the 3rd and hopefully last time tonight. He nestled himself under the blankets and closed his eyes, the question of 'what do I do?', still worrying his mind.

So how did I do? Comments and reviews are welcome!