Chapter 2
Harry gave a perfunctory knock before entering Hermione's room. She was laying face down on her bed crying her eyes out. Harry immediately felt a wave of rage crash over him. His first thoughts were who hurt her, who hurt my Hermione, and where can I find him so that I can bash his brains out! Harry had no idea that it was he that Hermione was crying over.
"Herm, are you alright, what happened?" Harry said in a concerned voice.
Hermione lifted her face from the pillow. Harry, what's he doing in here, I didn't even hear him come in. Seeing his face brought back a whole new wave of pain so she immediately buried her face into her pillow again to hide the fresh onslaught of tears from him.
Harry strode over to the bed and sat down. He pulled her up into a sitting position so that she could cry into his shoulder and put his arm around her. He sat there stroking her hair, only making her cry harder.
I shouldn't be doing this, Harry thought to himself, she's obviously been hurt, I shouldn't be taking advantage of that. But this feels so right. At the same time, Hermione was thinking about how wonderful Harry was to care about her this much. She could stay here forever in his arms.
About half an hour later Harry noticed that the racking sobs had ceased to jar Hermione's frail body. Usually so vivacious and full of confidence, in sleep she seemed somehow diminished, no that wasn't right, just gentler, but no less beautiful. He lifted her feet and placed her gently on the bed, kissing her temple as he covered her up with her quilt. His Hermione, his wonderful, sweet, beautiful Hermione. No, she wasn't *his*. He, the great Harry Potter couldn't even tell a girl how he felt about her. Oh, he had been on several dates before, but what was the point, none of those girls had known him like Hermione like Hermione knew him. She had been through everything with him. She had been constantly by his side in the fight against Voldemort. She was always there with the answers, the right name or spell or book. Had he ever thanked her, had he ever told her how wonderful she was, he asked himself bitterly. Not that he could recall, Because I was a bloody stupid dolt! He had spent so much time looking for the right person, and she had been sitting in the library the whole time. And now it was too late, she had found someone else, someone good enough to cry over. And if he ever found out who had made her cry like that he would make them sorry that they had ever been born!
He sat down in a chair and just watched her sleep for a few minutes before standing up and walking out of the room, closing the door silently behind him. He turned around in front of the door and muttered "Zalherzan". No one else would be able to get into her room until she had rested and recovered. Harry's mind suddenly went back to the last day of school on their fourth year before he had left with the Dursley's. Hermione had kissed him. His face still tingled at the memory of that moment. Harry sighed in regret. He knew he had no chance with the beautiful, popular, and ever intelligent Hermione Granger. She had been surrounded by guys since her 5th year at Hogwarts. And she had shown absolutely no interest in him to this point. Maybe he should talk to Remus for advice about her. If anyone would know what to do about Hermione, Lupin would.