Sleeping
Beauty Chapter 5
"Declarations"
By
Foxfeather
See part
one for disclaimer
The kiss
felt like she could drown in it. Tender and soft and so full of love it made
her dizzy. She started to kiss back but suddenly Lupin broke the kiss and
jumped up, knocking over his chair in
the process.
He turned
his back to Hermione leaned his forehead to the wall and groaned. "This is
impossible! I don't know what I thought! Hermione, please forgive me, I
shouldn't have done that!"
"No, Remus,
I'm sorry for provoking it. I just… want to be near you…"
"No! Hermione, don't. You know the
consequences…" He hesitated, then looked at her.
"Why?"
"Why what?"
"Why do you
want to be near me? You said you were hexed, is that still affecting you? I
mean, look at me: I'm old enough to be your father, I'm a werewolf, a monster,
I have nothing you could be attracted to!"
Hermione
just stared at him. "I like you, liked you from the first moment we met." She
blushed. "I have to admit that I developed a major crush on you the first year
you taught here. That was why I never said a thing about your secret. And don't
you ever say again that you are a monster, because you aren't one! And you
know, I'm not the only one who had a crush on you, you are very attractive, you
know?"
Lupin stared
at her. "Attractive? Crush?" A look of horror crossed his face. "We have to
find the source of this hex!"
Hermione
smiled and crossed the room to look out of the window. "I thought the crush was
gone, when you came back here, but now I think I was wrong. It is no longer
just a crush, it's more. I think that hex only works when you like the other
person very much. I mean, Ron was there before I left the common room and I met
some other students on my way to your room, but I only… reacted… to you. And Ginny
loves Harry, that's sure."
She turned
around to Lupin.
"Why did
you kiss me?"
"Pardon?"
"I mean, I…
raped you! Don't look so shocked, you know that's the right word for it! You
have every right to be mad at me, to tell Dumbledore to expel me from school,
to keep me away from you, but instead you kiss me! Why?"
"I'm sorry,
Hermione, I'm not sure. I don't want to hurt you. But I have been alone for so
long that I don't know what I feel. I'm afraid that it's only the longing not
to be alone anymore. I don't want it to be that, understand me right. I want it
to be affection for you, but at the same time I don't, because I'm doomed if it
is." He stopped with a helpless and pained look on his face.
"I
understand you." Hermione turned back to window. What he had said hurt, but she
appreciated his honesty.
Down at the
grounds she could see a group of students returning to the school building.
Harry and the other players of the Gryffindor Quidditch team.
"I have to
go now." She turned to the door.
"Hermione…"
She stopped in the open door, but didn't turn
around. "It's okay, Remus. Harry is returning from Quidditch training. I
promised Ginny to talk to him right after." She hesitated, then straightened
and said: "See you later, Professor." Then she was gone, leaving a
guilty-feeling Lupin behind.
Hermione
hurried down the stairs to the entrance hall and came just in time to catch
Harry on his way to the showers.
"Harry!
Wait! I have to talk to you!"
"Look
Hermione, can't it wait? I'm all sweaty and in desperate need of a shower."
"Sorry,
Harry, it's urgent. Let's go outside."
Harry
shrugged and followed her out to some rocks near the lake where they sat down.
"Now,
what's so urgent?"
"You and
Ginny, yesterday."
Harry
jumped up. "She's mad! I don't want to hear anything about that! I can't
believe she told you!" He stormed off.
"She's been
hexed!" Hermione yelled after him.
Harry
stopped, but didn't turn around.
"Harry,
please, listen to me! She's beside herself with self-hatred and fear."
Slowly,
Harry came back and sat down next to Hermione.
"Hexed? How
do you want to know that?"
"Boy,
Harry, use your brains! Don't you think she acted a bit very out of character?"
Harry
thought about that. "Yeah. She would never kiss me. I bet she not even likes
me."
Hermione
sat there, mouth wide open.
"Harry?"
"What?"
"Tell me
you just made a joke."
"Joke? What
joke?"
"You mean…
boys really are the blindest creatures on Earth!" Hermione shook her head.
"First Remus not realizing how attractive he is and now Harry not seeing that Ginny
loves him!", she muttered under her breath.
"What did
you say?"
"Nothing!
Harry, Ginny loves you! Sorry if this sounds a bit blunt, but I don't think you
will get it into your brains any other way!"
Harry
simply stared at her.
Hermione
stared back.
"Harry?"
No
reaction.
"Ginny had
feelings for you since you first entered her world!"
"But, that
where little-girl-feelings for a fairytale hero!"
"That might
have been then, but Harry, she knows you for years now. She knows _you_, and
she likes _you_, not some fairytale Harry in white armour. Would you now please
get that stuffed into your brain? _Ginny_ _loves_ _you_!"
Again, no
reaction.
"Look,
Harry. About what happened yesterday: Ginny finally found the courage to tell
you what she felt for you. She told me that when she finally was alone with you
something odd happened and she started acting like she did. I found her crying
in her room, she thinks that you will hate her from now until eternity! She too
ashamed to even look at you! Harry, please go and talk to her."
Hermione
thought she could see the little wheels turning inside Harry's head.
"I thought,
I thought… I don't know what I thought I thought. I was so shocked! That was
not Ginny yesterday, right. Perhaps someone using the polyjuice potion or something
like that."
He looked
at Hermione as if he saw her for the first time.
"What did
you say, Herm?"
"She loves
you. And she's feeling horrible now."
"Gods! I
have to talk to her!"
He dashed
off.
"Hermione
stared after him. "My words precisely! I never thought boys could be so blind!"
tbc…