* 11 *

Hermione climbed the stairs back to the Gryffindor common room. There, she saw Harry and Ron had not yet decided to go to bed, with Ron sitting in a chair and Harry standing off to the side. Harry was the first to acknowledge her, but she pursed her lips at him.

Her expression turned morose; it had been easy while in the Potions classroom with Snape to temporarily forget that her best friend had bluffed to her about solving the golden egg, but now, seeing him right before her again reminded her at full force now that she had regained full reign of her attention.

"Hermione, what's wrong?" the bespectacled wizard asked innocuously.

The fact that he didn't even know irked Hermione. "Harry, you can't pretend like everything's okay after you lied to me like that," she said, her face contorting into a deeper frown.

Harry sighed in earnest, drawing a hand up to ruffle his black hair. "You're right, Hermione. I'm sorry. I really didn't mean to hurt your feelings." Her lips were still pouting, but the hostility in her eyes was rapidly fading.

"I was just being stupid. I shouldn't have done that," he finished sheepishly, genuinely feeling bad about it.

Finally, her coffee brown eyes had returned to normal. She asked evenly, "Then why did you?"

Harry sucked in his lips. He didn't want to upset her, but she clearly wanted the truth.

Well, here goes nothing.

"I didn't want to hear any more about the golden egg, really. I felt so behind and kind of like a solid fool in the whole thing, to be honest," he began to explain. "I didn't want you to think I was too."

Hermione rolled her eyes. So he had wanted her to shut up, essentially. "You could've asked me not to mention it," she suggested.

"But then you probably wouldn't have listened," he declared honestly, just as she did herself at the same time. They looked at each other for a bedeviled moment, then laughed.

"Yeah, I wouldn't have," Hermione granted. "At least you're honest about saying that, even though I know it's not the most pleasant thing to say to me." She looked him straight in his green eyes. "You've got great courage, Harry. I'm confident you'll do fine. We'll figure out more about the golden egg tomorrow, I'm sure of it."

Hermione had continued speaking, but all Harry could hear was her first sentence playing in his head over and over again. She had called him courageous.

"I'm glad you think so," he said, a bit bashful. She probably thought he was talking about them finding clues tomorrow, but he didn't correct her. He couldn't quite describe the feeling of being complimented by his friend who knew seemingly everything, but it felt good, to say the very least.

She nodded with a grin. But then, to her surprise, he opened up his arms in front of her. She looked at him and blinked, bewildered at his movements.

"I…just felt like this should maybe be part of the apology," Harry explained in a low voice, as unsure of himself as she seemed to be. Flustered at her being puzzled, he began setting his arms back at his sides, clearing his throat awkwardly.

"Oh, Harry, don't be silly. I was just confused for a moment. I absolutely accept!" she chanted proudly before putting her arms around his midsection. He closed his around her and let out the breath he had been holding.

Phew, she accepted, he thought. That was one less awkward memory to have to reckon with.

But he realized he had spoken too soon. To be honest, they had never really hugged much before, so neither Harry nor Hermione knew how long was appropriate to hang onto a friend. At some point, the moment had to come where someone would decide to let go first.

Was it now? he thought as he counted a full second had passed. Now? he thought again one more second later, growing increasingly nervous.

At last, Hermione was the one to break free first after two seconds and save him from his wallowing in uncertainty. She opened her mouth to talk, but before she could say anything, Ron butted in.

"Are you two quite comfortable over there?" Ron asked emphatically, one of his red brows rising.

"Of course, Ron," Hermione snapped. "We're just making up. A little friendly kindness goes a long way in making people stop feeling upset with each other. But I suppose that's something you would know impressively little about," she accused with a harrumph.

Harry's lips hardened in a line. He was less than thrilled about having their I'm-not-upset-at-you-anymore moment being spoiled with yet another of his best friends' perfunctory squabbles. "Hermione, Ron, come on. Let's head to bed without being mad at each other, all right?" he said. "Please?" he tacked on when he caught another glimpse Ron's surly expression. The redhead clearly didn't want to drop the argument so easily.

"You're right, Harry," Hermione agreed. She looked daggers at Ron, but bid them both good night before heading to bed. Ron shook his head once and gave Harry an exasperated look before leaving, as if to signify he wasn't yet done with having that particular conversation.

Harry made a thrumming sound of frustration that blew his bangs up into the air before he turned on his heel and made his way, endlessly aggravated by the two of them, to his bed.