Chapter 4

I laid there with her curled up next to me, my arms around her and her head on my chest, stroking her hair. I leaned down and kissed the top of her head, before realizing what I had done. 'What is wrong with me today, first thinking she is beautiful, and now this?' I lied there confused, staring at her tear stained face as I drifted off into a peaceful sleep.

HERMIONE'S POV

I stopped crying and slowly relaxed, letting sleep take over and I swear I felt him kiss me on the head as I drifted off to sleep.

I woke up the next morning lying on Harry's chest, him fast asleep, my mind still foggy from crying myself to sleep the night before. I sat there staring at his sleeping face, his looked so peaceful lying there, as if we hadn't just fought and won a war not even a year ago.

'I could get used to waking up like this' I thought before shaking my head to clear it.

I hadn't realized it last night but he had changed into a white tight fitting boys tank that showed off his body, being in quidditch he was strong, his muscles defined and noticeable, but he wasn't overly muscular, he was just right for his size, and in his current shirt it was a lot more noticeable than usual

'He is so sexy' I thought to myself 'Ah! There I go again, what is the matter with me?'

I forced those kinds of thoughts out of my head, but not without a struggle, and got out of my bed and stumbled into the bathroom to take my shower.

Ad I let the hot water wash over me I thought about the changes between Harry and I; before I hadn't had those thought about him. EVER. I knew he was good looking but, in the same way you think your brother is good looking, not the way I am thinking about him now,

'I wonder if he feels the same way?' I wondered to myself 'don't be ridiculous, Hermione, Harry sees you like a sister of course he doesn't see you that way. And besides he has Ginny' she reminded herself 'although…. He hasn't mentioned of bothered to try and see her since the war ended that I am aware of… and I have been writing to the both of them.' I countered 'I wonder if he is going through the same thing as I did with Ron, we just grew apart after the war, it seemed to be much the same way with Harry and Ginny' I pondered this amongst other things as I finished my shower and wrapped a towel around me.

I opened my door a crack to make sure Harry wasn't still in there, when I saw that the coast was clear went in and made sure both doors into my room were locked, before changing into my uniform and robe. I went back into the bathroom to brush my teeth, my hair, and to apply the little bit of makeup I do wear. This consisted of lip gloss, eye liner, a little bit of eye shadow, and some concealer to cover the circles under my eyes from my lack of sleep. I after I was done I put all back into the black makeup bag I had gotten two Christmases' ago, from my mom when she found out I had actually started to wear more than eye shadow, and walked back into my room and threw it on the bed before walking into the common room area of our dorms.

'I guess they didn't want us to be hanging out in one another's rooms' I thought with amusement 'Yet we have to share a bathroom… I guess it is no different than when the prefects had their own bathroom.'

"Morning Mione." I looked up and saw Harry sitting on one of the couches waiting on me to finish up so we could go to the great hall together.

"Morning Harry." I replied with a smile, "You ready to go? Sorry I kept you waiting" I was in a really good mood this morning for no particular reason and Harry, I assume, had picked up on it and gave me a semi-reproachful glance before returning the smile and getting up saying "I wasn't waiting long, I had just gotten up and in my room when your shower cut off."

We walked out of the portrait hole and to the great hall side by side; when we entered we scanned the table looking for Ron, and realized that they were ahead of most of the crowd.

"Huh I didn't even look at the time when I got up this morning." I said to Harry

"Me neither," he glanced down at his watch (one of the few electronics that worked in Hogwarts, as long as you put a charm on them) "Yea we are about five minutes ahead of the rush." he informed me as we made our way over to the table and sat down, a prefect, who's name I don't remember, came by and handed us each our schedules, along with Ron's knowing he would be joining us soon. Since some of the 7th years, were supposed to have graduated the year before they had the opportunity not take certain classes based on their O.W.L.S and what career they were pursuing. For example; you couldn't go and be an herbalist and not take herbology based on your O.W.L.S., you have to take the N.E.W.T level class.

Harry, Ron and I have a special case; we three of the most important roles in the war, so we were granted the opportunity to test out of some credits. Harry was granted the defense against the dark arts, charms, and potions N.E.W.T credits (Snape's or 'the half-blood prince's' book helped him learn a lot, and not to mention the countless hours I spent tutoring him), I was given the same as Harry, (Harry had returned my help by helping me with DATDA.) and while Ron played a big role in the war and helped a lot, he somehow failed all the test but herbology. The teachers were wondering how on earth he survived the war with us, Harry and I knew Ron worked best in real life situations, when he didn't have time to second guess himself, we all did. It was what we were used to, you didn't have to know a specific spell, you could use another or multiple spells to get the desired effect, so while Ron was taking classes pretty much all day with only two free periods (first and third) Harry and I had the whole afternoon off.

While Harry and I were comparing all three of our schedules with one another Ron plopped down across from us.

"Morning Ron!" I said with a smile and Harry echoed my greeting

"Morning." Ron answered gruffly, he wasn't much of a morning person, but the sight of food cheered him immensely as we handed him his schedule.

"How was your night?" I asked him trying to start a conversation

"Fine," he said "What about yours?" he asked not looking up at me, since he was too busy loading his plate with pancakes

"It was good I had a great night's sleep, and I haven't had one of those in a while." I replied glancing over and giving Harry a small smile in thanks, in which he returned. I had no doubt that if he hadn't been there that I would have woken again from the same nightmare.

When we turned away from one another Ron was looking intensely at us, glancing between us. "What's going on with you two?" he asked

"What do you mean?" I asked him 'was there something going on between us?' I asked myself but quickly told myself that it wasn't possible.

"Something is different." Ron stated still pushing for an answer

"Nothing is different, Ron," Harry said looking him in the eyes. Ron didn't look convinced but dropped the subject with a grunt, going back to eating his food. I left out a breath I hadn't notice I had been holding in relief. 'Wait what was I relieved about? It was the truth, right?' I asked myself uncertainly, not knowing the answer.

When breakfast was over Harry and I headed to class while Ron went to the Gryffindor dorms, all of our schedules were the same except for first and third period which only Harry and I had in common, because those were Ron's free periods, and then the afternoon in which Harry and I had off. They had given us all of our free periods in the afternoon so we could have plenty of time to finish our work and get a little sleep before having to get up and patrol the halls. But luckily for us, Harry still had the Marauder's map, sour job should be pretty easy, we only have to watch from 10:30 to 12, and the prefects are to patrol it from 9 to 10:30.

Harry and I went from class to class together until finally lunch rolled around.

"Ugh I am glad class is over…" I stated and Harry and Ron's heads whipped around to look at my incredulously

"Hermione Granger GLAD class is over?" Ron asked astonished

"It looks like we have rubbed off after all of these years!" Harry said with a smile

"Ha ha very funny," I said suppressing a smile and rolling my eyes "It is just so weird being back in class… I feel caged in, you know?" I said trying to explain but feeling kind of embarrassed about it.

"Well, that's what I have ALWAYS felt!" Ron said "But I see what you mean, since the war it has been worse, I just put it off as it being our last year and I am excited to get out of here."

"I know what you mean Mione, it's the same with me too, ever since the war, and I feel weird just SITTING there…. I feel like I should be up doing SOMETHING." Harry said sharing my feelings exactly.

"It is like you read my mind," I told him as we stepped outside. I took a deep breath in, I loved the fresh air, I had gotten so used to it after months of traveling with Harry and Ron, and I feel off when I am in the city now.

After lunch Ron went off to the rest of his classes and Harry and I went back to our dorms to completely the little bit of homework we had and to get ahead on the next few days' lessons.

The next few weeks consisted of going to class, homework, studying, and just hanging out without much of an event, until September 12th when they were both tired of sitting in the castle with all of the free time on their hands, they had been almost inseparable the first 3 weeks of school.

-September 12th-

I sat up and stretched after about an hour and a half of work and turned to Harry who was looking at me with an odd expression on his face

"What?" I asked him

"Nothing just was thinking about something else," Harry said looking back down at his book for a minute, finishing the page he was on, before closing it and stretching also. I saw his abs peak out a little bit as he did so and could barely tear my gaze away.

"It is only two o'clock." he told me, glancing at his watch.

"Hmm… what do you want to do?" I asked him

"You want to go to Hogsmead?" he asked

"Are we allowed to?"

"Yea we are since we technically were supposed to already have graduated, they are allowing us to go, as long as we are not caught skipping classes, we have to carry the ID's they gave all of the returning 7th years, with us so if anyone is suspicious they can look at the back and see our schedules" he informed me

"Ok then sure, I'd love to" I told him with a smile standing to go to my room "but let me change first? I don't want to wear the uniform…" I told him walking into my room

"Sure, I'm going to do the same." Harry said as I closed my door and walked to my closet. I grabbed a pair of jeans, a Three day grace T-shirt that used to belong to my brother, it was a little big on me but still looked OK, and a jacket and threw them all on before reapplying my lip gloss and grabbing coin pouch and getting out few galleons putting them into my pocket, before walking out of my room. Harry was standing there in a pair of faded blue jeans and a plain black long sleeved shirt that looked really good on him.

"You look nice." Hermione said looking him up and down.

"You too," he said "I wouldn't have taken you for a Three Days Grace fan." he said jokingly

I laughed and said "Well, it was Thomas's favorite band, so I listened to it every now and then, until he died, now I listen to it all of the time." I told him with a tiny smile "This was his shirt, I had bought him two tickets to a concert a few years ago thinking he could take a friend or a girl friend or something but instead he took me." I finished with a smile, remembering that crazy night and how I ended up copying his whole playlist onto my computer so I could listen to it, he had a variety of stuff like Chevelle, Three days Grace, Cage the elephant, Daughtry, etc.

"It looks good on you." Harry told me with a smile as we walked out of the dorm and headed to Hogsmead. I pulled out an MP3 player and handed harry one ear bud, he looked at me questioningly

"I charmed this, like I Charmed your watch, as long as it takes batteries and doesn't have to be charged, then it can work inside Hogwarts." I explained to him.

He shook his head and we put the ear buds into our ears. Broken by Lifehouse filled our ear drums, I started singing along under my voice as we walked to the village, when the song ended I looked over and saw Harry staring at me, I blushed as I realized that he had been listening to me sing, I quickly started the next song which was Comatose by Skillet. Harry as if trying to keep me from feeling embarrassed sang along to the chorus of the song smiling at me, I laughed as he started to sing louder. He wasn't bad either, in fact he was pretty damn good, I smiled watching him sing the song as we arrived in Hogsmead and I put the MP3 player away.

When we got to Hogsmead, we ducked into Honeydukes. I bought a small bag of gummy bears, Harry got a chocolate frog (Ron and He still collect them), and from there we just went from shop to shop looking around and talking. In one I saw this necklace that I instantly fell in love with. It was a small emerald heart on a sterling silver chain with silver accents and a little diamond right above it. Unfortunately I had my heart broken when I glanced at the price tag, it is not that it was unreasonable, it was just more than I wanted to spend, maybe if it was still here when the school year was up, and I had enough money left over, I would buy it.

I turned around to look at Harry "Where to next?" I asked him.

"Hmm… How about we go grab something to drink at the Three Broomsticks?" he asked me in return.

"Sounds great" I replied.

"Why don't you go grab us a table, I have to go grab something really quick." he told me once we were standing outside of the store.

I gave him a curious look before saying "Ok, you want a butterbeer, right?" I asked him.

"Yes please," he said with a smile before watching me walk away.

'I wonder what he has to go get…' I walked into the Three Broomsticks and grabbed two seats at the bar, ordered two butterbeers, and sat and waited for Harry.

HARRY'S POV

I watched Hermione walk away, making sure she didn't turn back to see what it was I was doing. I turned and went back into the shop we had just come out of, and went to the necklace I had seen Hermione looking at. I know she loved it, up until she checked the price tag; I went over and glanced at it. I could see why she wouldn't just buy it for herself, she was like that, conservative with her money, sure she would buy herself things like the candy earlier, but she never splurged on herself. I picked up the necklace and walked to the counter, again checking behind me to make sure Hermione hadn't come back to look for me.

I smiled at the lady as I put the necklace down on the counter along with the required amount of galleons. Hermione's birthday was coming up in about 3 weeks and I knew this would make a perfect present for her. The lady carefully placed the necklace in a plain brown bad and put tissue paper in the top of it.

"She must be pretty special to you, for you to buy this for her." The lady said giving me a knowing look.

I smiled and explained "She's my best friend, and her birthday is September 19th and I saw the way she looked at this and knew I had to get it for her."

"Mmhm," she said not looking convinced "I saw the way you looked at her."

"What do you mean?" I asked confused

"And the way she looked at you for that matter, I remember what it was like to be in love." she said with a wistful smile on her lips.

I thanked her and left the shop feeling confused. I knew my feelings for Hermione had changed, earlier when she stretch I couldn't help but stare at her. I thought back to the song I sang for her earlier, it described my feelings for her perfectly, ever since that first night, sleeping with her in my arms, I haven't been able to fall asleep or wake up without thinking about her. But did I LOVE her? I told myself that I didn't and that even if I did, she couldn't feel the same way.

'But wait—the lady in the shop had said that she had seen the way Hermione had looked at me also, did that mean- no' I concluded 'that lady just didn't know what she was talking about.'

But then again even Ron, Alice and Jace noticed… I will just have to see where things go from here I decided. I walked into the Three Broomsticks and spotted Hermione sitting at the bar, taking a sip of her butterbeer. I made my way over and sat down next to her, putting the bag on the floor under my feet.

"What did you have to go back and get?" she asked curiously

"Oh I had saw something in one of the shops that I thought Ron might like." I lied taking a sip of my drink

"Oh ok." she said apparently believing my lie. I didn't like lying to her but in this case, I told myself that it was OK because, it was about her present, nothing big. I glanced down at my watch to see that it was 4:30 pm, it started getting dark around 6 but we still didn't want to get in trouble for being out so late since we didn't know when the curfew was for Hogsmead. We finish our butterbeers and I left the money for them on the bar before we left and started our journey back to the castle.

"You have an amazing voice." I told her, thinking about earlier when she had sung not knowing I was listening.

"Thanks." she said blushing and looking away

"I'm serious Mione!" I said waiting for her to meet my eyes, when she did she smiled and said

"So do you! Who would have guessed that you could sing! You have to hope that doesn't get around or that will be one more reason all the girls find you irresistible, even I have to admit you sounded pretty sexy earlier" she said walking backwards facing me.

I groaned "Dear merlin no! They never leave me alone! I wasn't the only one who fought in the war you know—wait did you just say I sounded sexy?" I asked looking at her

"Well, um yea I guess," she said embarrassed, "but don't let it go to your head." she said trying to change the subject, that was when she tripped, I quickly caught her and put her upright

We were right up against one another; I could feel her breath breeze across my lips. I stared at her lips feeling the pull to lean down, and brush my lips against hers. I stopped myself from doing so by pulling my gaze to her eyes,

"Are you alright?" I asked breathlessly she slowly lifted her gaze from my lips to my eyes before pulling away clearing her throat.

"Yea, I'm fine, thanks Harry." she said turning around to walk straight this time. My mind was still reeling on what just happened. Could she possibly feel the same way I do?

A/N oooo so they almost kissed! (yay!) It is also longer then i planed for most of my chapters, so it kind of looks like the chapters are going to be 1000 to 3000+ words. Chapter two was over 3000 and this one is 3787 words long including this A/N, so who knows? I think I will bring our little friends, Jace and Alice back into the story…what do you think? Should Jace give Harry some relationship advice? Oh and I need an idea on what they should fight about? I have been thinking about it but I only have one or two ideas… there is going to be a 'Halloween ball' in like two chap. If that helps, let me know if you have any ideas! Hope you liked it pleaseeeee review! It encourages me, and I, of course am still looking for ideas and tips! Thank you to everyone who has reviewed on the last couple of chapters, when I get the next couple of chapters written I will go back and fix the problems with the last 3 chapters *mostly one and two* and I also want to say I know I said stuff about Ron in my A/N's but I want to say that I am not going to make him the bad guy, he isn't heartless, I know that, and I know it sounded like I completely hated him, but I don't, I just don't think he is right for Hermione at all. I just wanted you guys to know that I won't have him become the new Voldemort and try to kill Harry to take Hermione for himself, he is going to find someone of his own pretty soon… ;D

Chapter 5 coming up soon!