Author's Note: Just a short chapter this time to provide a little background. I promise all subsequent updates will be more substantial.
Chapter 3
Hermione wasn't quite certain when their banter had begun to occasionally turn, well… so sexual. Even back at Hogwarts, they had sometimes shared a laugh about such things, usually when Hermione would make an unintentionally funny comment that could be heard as a double entendre. But living alone with her handsome best friend for over a year and a half had altered their relationship in a number of ways.
After the war, Hermione and Ron had been together for a couple of years, until the bickering eventually made them realize there was just some fundamental incompatibility between them. Harry had insisted she stay at Grimmauld Place for a while after her breakup, as it wasn't being used. After a few months of renovations and brightening up the dark old house, she found she actually liked the spacious building, with its library, drawing room, and many other varied spaces that she gradually organized to her liking.
Harry was happy to see the place looking more cheerful and encouraged her efforts. Meanwhile, he and Ginny had seemed happy at first in their own London flat. But Ginny's Quidditch schedule and his busy Auror training left them little time together for a couple years. When they finally started finding the time to devote to each other, they found they had less and less to talk about. About a year after Hermione had moved to Grimmauld Place, Harry joined her there as well.
That arrangement was supposed to be short-lived, as Hermione was dating someone from the Ministry, and Harry soon found himself with Gwyn, another professional Quidditch player. Gwyn was much more beautiful than Ginny and frequently graced the front page of wizard celebrity magazines. But Hermione's relationship rapidly faltered, and Gwyn was nearly always out of town, leaving Harry and Hermione to themselves in their Islington townhouse.
Hermione had always enjoyed being physically close to Harry, but their many evenings together led to long sessions working next to each other in their joint office space. Those evenings gradually gave way to more casual time on the sofa, where Hermione couldn't resist cuddling up next to Harry sometimes as she read. She had rarely been so bold before, aside from a few evenings back in the Gryffindor common room when they were both so exhausted that they'd end up leaning on each other while they studied. But ever since their long time alone together on the Horcrux hunt, something had changed between her and Harry. He seemed to reach out and take her hand every so often, and she felt comfortable putting her arm casually around him too sometimes. When they ended up alone together for many nights in Grimmauld Place, this casual intimacy grew.
Hermione also came to understand more about Harry's upbringing and how he hadn't been given much affection. In a way, she felt like she gradually figured out how to "unlock" new levels of physical contact from him, sensing that he needed it as much as she craved it.
They thus became the constant in each other's lives as relationships came and went. Hermione's attempts rarely continued beyond one or two dates, as most of the wizards seemed to admire some imagined persona based on exaggerations about the war. In a couple other cases, they were true boring bookworms that had absolutely no sense of adventure. Harry, meanwhile, stayed with the itinerant Gwyn for over a year before they too fell apart. Although Hermione tended to downplay her role, she couldn't help noticing the somewhat jealous looks Gwyn had begun to give her when she'd find Harry casually breakfasting with her after nights Gwyn would stay over. Hermione actually had pointed out to Harry that he should be paying more attention to Gwyn, but somehow that silly boy could never quite figure out how to act in his relationships.
With Gwyn gone, an acquaintance from another department at the Ministry swooped in almost immediately to draw Harry's attention. Hermione sometimes had to shake her head at Harry's absurd taste in women. Anna was obviously infatuated with Harry's celebrity status more than anything else, and she clearly desired to work her way up to elite social events in wizard society through him—events that, had Anna known Harry as well as Hermione did, she'd realize he absolutely detested attending. Not to mention that Anna had literally been a model as a child before she became a witch. In their first extended conversation when Harry had her over for dinner, she told Hermione about how conflicted she was when her Muggle parents received a letter from Beauxbatons, as she had to choose between her burgeoning modeling career and magic. From what Hermione could tell, Anna didn't really end up doing much in the magical world as it was, instead getting all of her male admirers in the Ministry around her to do most of her work for her.
Still, Harry seemed to like her enough, and Hermione wouldn't get in the way of her best friend's interests. Oddly enough, upon meeting Anna, Luna had pointed out what she claimed was a striking physical resemblance between Anna and Hermione. It was true that they were of the same height and build, with similar hair color. But Hermione thought it was preposterous to compare her to Anna, who was admittedly quite stunning and likely spent several hours each day ensuring that she always looked that way, something Hermione couldn't be bothered with. Hermione never gave it much more thought until several of the Weasleys echoed the same comment when Harry brought Anna to a family gathering. She still said it sounded ridiculous—why would Harry date someone that looked like her anyway? It's not like he had ever shown any actual interest in her that way.
But through all of their relationship ups and downs at this time, Hermione had grown closer to her best friend. And she felt like he had opened up to her, with his comfort level increasing as he returned her little gestures of physical affection. Somehow during this time, their occasional silly jokes and banter escalated as well. Yes, even including a handful of tickle fights after she accidentally discovered how sensitive Harry's side was one day while snuggling up to him on the sofa. Hermione never acted this way with other men, but Harry felt so safe. She knew she could always depend on her best friend, so it felt a bit fun and even thrilling to push the boundaries sometimes. However, it also made her a little sad that it was merely a joke, that there was a part of Harry's heart that was always looking for someone else.
Not that she ever really expected Harry to feel that way toward her. They had grown up together, after all. And she definitely didn't look like Anna or Gwyn, or even Ginny. Years ago, Hermione had a bit of a crush on Harry when she was younger, as many girls at Hogwarts had. And there were times over the years that she fantasized about what it might actually be like to live her life with him. While she had been more than happy with their close friendship, over the many months they were housemates together that desire for closeness to him grew to the point that she felt like she was living that dream with him in a way, even as he went off a few nights each week to spend time with the women he was actually dating.
All of this finally came to a head, however, around the time of Ron's party to celebrate his bachelorhood. Anna was out of town, and thus Hermione had helped organize things with Harry, who would soon be best man at Ron and Luna's wedding. Although Hermione had had a difficult time with Ron, he seemed to have found happiness, and she wished him the best. But she never imagined the impact it would have on Harry…