Chapter 4
A/N~ Ok, thank you all for your nice reviews. I don't have school today so I can stay home all day and write. HTW begged for the next chapter so here it is. And it is incredibly long so it will take me forever to type this. I just want you all to know that I am blowing off MORP for this (it's a school dance). Well, this is where things get interesting, off we go!
A/N ~ the Characters are JKR's the story is mine with a few blatantly stolen scenes and phrases from PoU by Lori, The Draco stories by Cassandra Claire and my friend Katie D. and of course, David Eddings.
"Oh," replied Remus mildly, while doing an admirable job of containing his laughter, "I see."
"Okay," said Harry, "so what do you suggest?"
"Well, why don't you tell me a little bit more about this than 'I think I'm in love with her'. I'd like you to determine if this is just simple infatuation before you rush into something that will end up hurting you both."
"Oh," said Harry running his fingers through his hair, "I've said all this about a million times in my head, but I've never put it to words before. Umm, well, she's Hermione. She's one of my best friends. She's always there for me. I can always talk to her about anything. She knows my deepest darkest and most embarrassing secrets. And she's the only one that I would trust with that knowledge. She always has that little piece of information that we overlooked, mainly because her first course of action is to head to the library" Harry smiled wryly "and she's saved my arse more times that I'd care to count. She's one of the most intelligent people I've ever met, she's incredibly witty, and she's also drop dead gorgeous. I don't know how I possibly could have missed that for so long, no one else has." As Harry paused for breath Remus cut in.
"Now, Harry, do you have feelings for Hermione just because she's beautiful. That's perfectly normal, but Hermione is not going to date some one based on their opinion of her looks. You and I both know that."
"It's not just that, It's certainly an added bonus, but love Hermione, with or without a lovely façade. Last night," Harry continued in a somber tone, "I came in to say good night and she was laying on her bed just sobbing. Do you know what my first thoughts were? I wanted to know who had hurt my Hermione, and where I could find him so that I could punch his lights out. Then I held her and she buried her face in my shoulder and just cried. She fell asleep in my arms that night, and somehow it just felt… I don't know, Right. Like it was meant to be." Harry stopped and let a huge breath out. "Am I making any sense here, because you're staring at me with a totally vacant expression."
"No, no, it's not you Harry, I was just remembering a similar conversation with your father" Remus said with a small smile.
~~~
"Mooney, what am I going to do?" said James while pacing the room.
"Well, first I'd stop trying to burn a hole in the carpet with your feet. James you have to calm down. I know that Lily means everything to you, but wearing yourself into a comatose state with all this stress will not impress her. You should just talk to Lily, I know that she likes you, otherwise she wouldn't be such a wreck at your Quidditch matches. I have bruises on my arms from where she's grabbed me when you play. Prongs, just tell her. I really can't take much more of this. Just tell her," Remus said with exasperation.
~~~
"Remus, you're his best friend," said Lily as she took out her frustration on an unoffending pillow. "Why won't he pay attention to me! This man is a complete idiot, what do I have to do, go up to him grab his ears and kiss him in front of the whole school. He is so incredibly dense! I think I'm going to scream."
"Lily, please don't scream, I'll talk to James, just please. Don't scream. "
~~~
Present
"Why are you laughing?" Harry said while quickly standing up. "Because I assure you that I don't find anything about my scenario funny at all. The person that I love is sitting behind a locked door in her room crying about some idiot sod who broke her heart. And she won't even tell me who it is so that I can kill him. This isn't even remotely funny."
"Harry, calm down," Remus said still laughing "I'm laughing because this is so similar to what your parents went through, and because I know who broke Hermione's heart. Remember when I told you that my advise was getting popular, Hermione tracked me down today and wanted my advise about how to deal with the person who was making her cry, Harry Potter."
"What, don't stop, tell me who it is"
"No, Harry, you don't understand, the person is you. Hermione is in love with you and she thinks that you don't love her back. Ah, well I can tell that this is a complete surprise to you. She was going to tell you tomorrow morning, so I would suggest that you save her a lot of pain and embarrassment and talk to her tonight. Well, don't just stand there staring at me, I'm sure you'd much rather look at her pretty face than mine." Lupin smiled and then leaned back in his chair looking very pleased with himself. And now that that's solved, I can go eat.
Harry nearly ran up the stairs to Hermione's room. He reached the door and tried to open it. It was locked "Herm," Harry said, we need to talk.
"No, I don't think so, I'm fine, just go downstairs and eat your dinner." Hermione said in a bitter voice.
"I don't think I can do that." Harry replied, "Alohomora." The door opened and he saw Hermione sitting on her bed, her face streaked with tears, still wiping streaming eyes. She was clutching a very wet and battered pillow. "Hermione, it's okay, it's going to be okay. I just talked to Remus." Harry said quietly.
"He told you?!" Hermione began, her voice full of incredulous rage, "I thought I could trust him, that…" She didn't get to finish saying exactly what Remus was because Harry strode over to the bed where she was sitting and cut off her angry words with a kiss. Hermione had been kissed before, but not like this, never like this and never with Harry. She could think of a hundred reasons why she shouldn't be doing this. Why this should stop right now. But Hermione didn't want to stop. She really couldn't concentrate on anything but the glorious feeling of Harry's lips pressed against her own. And how every part of her body was tingling. And how he smelled like pine soap, broom cleaner, and something else distinctly his own. Hermione felt herself drowning in the deep green pools of his eyes before shutting her own. She didn't really care how wrong this was, it just felt so right…
(No! They haven't done anything but kiss, nor will they yet. Remove thy mind from the gutter. Although, it would be a perfect time, no one knows where they are, they have a long stretch of uninterrupted time, hmm… NO!)
R/R ~ Thanks for all the great reviews faithful fanfic readers.