The Scar - By aWorldWeCallSleep
It was a few weeks into the new school term, and the Gryffindor common room was almost empty. Hermione Granger, a bushy haired fifth year was frantically scratching down words on her long piece of parchment for her Muggle Studies essay. Her best friend, Harry Potter, a scruffy looking, scrawny boy had dropped off on the sofa near the fire not long ago. Harry never liked to leave Hermione on her own to work at night. Sometimes she'd stay up until sunrise on pieces of work that needed no less than an hour's attention. And also, it got lonely in the large common room alone; so Harry would wait for her. He would always find things to do, if it was polishing his firebolt or practicing new spells he had learned the morning before. Hermione did appreciate it – even if Harry did fall asleep hanging around for her, like he had that night.
Not halfway through her essay, Hermione heard a muffled cry come from the sofa. Harry woke up from his nightmare with a burning in his forehead. His hand shot up to his lightning bolt scar, and gripped it tightly hoping the pain would go. Hermione rushed over and started to cry. This was the second time this week Harry had woken up from one of his nightmares, and she felt so helpless standing there when there was nothing she could do but to try and console him.
"Hermione," Harry looked up, to the girl who was kneeling by his side with tears falling down her face. "Hermione, it hurts so much." He said.
"Oh, Harry!" She quickly sat down, and pulled him onto her shoulder.
"It- I was in the graveyard again. And- and Cedric-" Harry couldn't finish his sentence, tears were falling over his eyes.
"Shh, don't worry Harry, it's okay now." His soft sobs of pain tugged on Hermione's heart. She ran her hands though his hair and soothed him.
She didn't know how long she sat there, comforting him, but soon Harry slowly readjusted himself in Hermione's embrace and looked at her big chocolate eyes. He gave her a small smile, to let her know he had calmed down.
"Are you okay now?" She asked, knowing the answer.
"Define 'okay'." He said, sadly.
Hermione did nothing but rest her head on his shoulder. He gave her a peck on the head, silently thanking her for being there with him. She looked up to his forehead. His scar was much redder than it usually is. She couldn't control the urge but to touch it. Harry flinched as her cold fingers touched his skin.
"Oops, sorry, did that hurt?" She said as she jerked her hand back. "I was ju-"
"No, don't stop, it's quite nice actually."
Hermione put her hands up to his face again, and angled his head so she could see the scar properly. She stroked her fingers across it then kissed it softly. Harry couldn't help but wish that her lips had stayed there for a little bit longer. But if he was being fully honest, he wished her lips were on his lips, not his forehead.
As Hermione saw his bewildered face, she immediately shied away behind her hair. She didn't know why she kissed his scar; it seemed like the right thing to do at the right time but seeing the look on Harry's face made her regret it.
"I – er, its getting late, I think we should go to sleep." She said, clearly upset that her moment with Harry had ended so soon.
"No! Well I'm never going to get sleep now." He said, not wanting Hermione to go. She fit so perfectly in his arms. "Stay with me."
"Er, I don't know…" She started to get up, but a hand gripped her wrist and pulled her back down.
"Please stay with me?" Harry looked into her big brown eyes, and he knew she wouldn't be able to leave him; she never could resist his puppy dog eyes.
"Oh, okay." She sighed. "But you better try to sleep. It's almost three o'clock and it's a school night." She warned him. Harry rolled his eyes, and mumbled a passive response.
After the two friends got comfortable on the sofa, Hermione yawned, placed her head on the arm of the chair and closed her eyes. Harry couldn't help but stare. He studied all of her, her face, body, arms, legs, ears, everything. The first thing that came to his head was how much she had changed over the summer; she was turning into young woman. She was growing into herself, her body getting much curvier. She'd also lost weight – not that she was overweight before, but her puppy fat had gone. Her bushy hair wasn't so bushy anymore. Harry had guessed she started using more products in it, not that she needed it, Harry always thought it was cute when it was bushy. Harry then went to her face. He never noticed Hermione had freckles, though they were faint. Her cute button nose was filled with them. Harry also had noticed she started to wear makeup as her mascara had run down her face when she was crying earlier. This confused Harry; she looked so beautiful without it so why did she feel the need to wear it? He couldn't look away, even if he wanted to. She was mesmerizing.
Harry always seemed to lose sight of everything that had happened over the last few years when he was with Hermione. Everything was okay when Hermione was there; she cleared his head of the bad in his life. She made him happy, and he hoped that he made her happy too. When she had kissed his scar earlier, it was like a heard of butterflies had invaded in his chest.
Harry could feel his eyelids drooping as he yawned deeply. He had almost forgotten about what his nightmare before and how it had drained the life from him. He was really tired, but if he was with Hermione, he would stay up for weeks without a wink of sleep. Slumber was slowly invading and he could no longer fight it off. He took one more look at his best friend.
"So beautiful," He whispered to no one but himself as he dropped off into a dreamless sleep.
HELLO! This is my second attempt at this oneshot. I hope you like it! I like it a lot better than the first draft of it. If you didn't read the version I posted before, then hi! I'm Jess and I'm new to the HP Fanfiction Community, so I thought I'd come and introduce myself!
If you have any constructive criticism then I'd love to hear it! I would love to know how I can improve my writing.
Thank you to everyone who has read this! It means a lot. Jess xxx