I'm back with a little One-Shot of Hermione talking to Harry. I always found their relationship and bond fascinating and I thought I'll try to express my thoughts. Have fun and leave me a review if you like the story
xxx
"What are you thinking?", Harry asks as he sits down next to Hermione. She had untangled herself from the festivities earlier and fled to the roof of the burrow in hopes to catch a few minutes alone to breath. They were celebrating Harry's birthday only a few months after Voldemort's downfall and as much as Hermione loves Harry, a party was the last thing on her mind these days.
"About the last year", she replies, looking at him as he hands her a bottle of Butterbeer.
"It will take a while to fully process what happened to us", he says, taking a sip from his own Butterbeer, staring at the starry night sky.
"I wonder if we will ever fully process it. What happened to us is not something you can just forget."
"No. It isn't. But it's something you can accept and learn to live with. I know that what happened to you at Malfoy Manor is not something that will ever go away and you will probably have nightmares about it for the rest of your life, but eventually you will come to live with it. I'm not trying to be harsh about it, you know I would do everything I could to undo it, but we must face it as it is. The memories will not go away and they probably never will."
"Lying there and enduring what she did to me – I think I was ready to give in", she whispers, not looking at him, too scared of what he might think of her.
"Ready to give into what?"
"Death. It was surrounding me and clouding my mind, easing the pain from my brain and I was ready to just give in and let go. It would have been so easy, it was right there, the pain could have ended", she admits, feeling ashamed of even thinking it, let alone saying it out loud.
"When I was in the forest and Voldemort hit me with the killing curse, I woke up at Kings Cross Station and Dumbledore was waiting for me. We spoke for a little while and he told me that the place was some sort of limbo – a world between the living and the death and when I asked him if I was dead and told me that it was my choice to either got back to the living world or continue to go on to the dead. I honestly considered to go with him to the dead. I would have been reunited with my parents and Sirius. I had a moment were I just wanted it to end and I felt selfish about it, but at the same time I didn't. There is no point ridding us with guilt about this, Hermione. The wish for it all to end and for the pain to stop is nothing to be ashamed of. It comes naturally. I think we all felt it at one point", Harry explains as he takes her hands into his own.
"I saw them", she whispers.
"Who?"
"My parents. I saw them, when Bellatrix tortured me, I blacked out for a little while and I saw them sitting at our house in London. Everything was so bright and they looked so peaceful. They remembered me and when I asked them how they knew things, they couldn't possibly know, my mother said, that after they were killed, they watched over me. They understood why I erased their memories and they forgave me for not telling them everything that happened over the years. They told me they loved me and they wanted me to go back and keep fighting. That's why I didn't give into death", she tells him.
"Do you know how –?", Harry asks, leaving the question unfinished.
"No. But I just know that it was real. They knew things that happened long after I sent them to Australia. Things I didn't even know at that point, so my brain could not have been playing a trick on me", she explains, a tear rolling down her cheek.
"I'm sorry, Hermione", he whispers, squeezing her hand.
"It's okay. It will take time to come to terms with it, just like with everything else. This war took a toll on all of us."
"You're family, Hermione. You're the sister I never had, but I will always be there for you. We will always be there for each other. We could not have gone through it all without it each other. Nothing will ever come between us", he says, giving her small smile to cheer her up.
"I always thought I was the know-it-all sidekick to you and Ron and that one day you wouldn't need me anymore. It was over the last year that I realized that you needed me as much as I needed you and that you would never not need me."
"You will always be more than just the sidekick. You stuck by with me through it. You never wavered in your support and your help. Not in fourth year when Crouch Jr. put my name in the Goblet and I was selected as a Triwizard champion, not in sixth year when I was invited to Slug-Club and not last year in the tent. You stuck with me through it all. I can never repay you for your sacrifice and everything you did for me", Harry says and Hermione knows what he is implying with this. Ron will always be Harry's best friend, but some things can never be forgotten.
"You're all I have left now. We're family and since I am older, I will always watch out for you. That's what older sisters do for their little brothers", Hermione says, taking his hand and squeezing it gently.
They continue to sit on top of the roof of the burrow for a little while longer before heading back down to the party, where Harry goes over to Ginny to try and rekindle his relationship with her, while Hermione joins Molly and Fleur in the kitchen.