Hermione hugged Harry back, closing her eyes in content. There was no need for her to pack up and head home right away anymore. Harry wanted to marry her..didn't he? With that thought, Hermione pulled away and looked up at Harry expectantly. Harry looked back at her, yet his face held no expression.
" Something wrong?" he asked.
" Uh --" Hermione's voice broke. She cleared her throat and continued. " Well..mmm..I guess we both had different ideas on what you..meant."
Harry nodded and sat down on his bed. He smiled wryly at her. " You must have thought something really horrible -- or else you wouldn't have thrown that hair dryer at my head." He rubbed at the spot where he had been hit. " That hurt you know. I bet a nasty bruise will form there," he added, sourly. In a minute his face broke out into a smile. " But as long as you're not mad anymore."
" I'm not." Hermione shifted uneasily in front of him, wondering if she should ask what he thought about -- " Harry, you were talking about..dying, right? You were angry about that, right?"
Harry nodded again. " Yeah. I'm curious now..what did you think I was talking about?"
" It was nothing, really," Hermione muttered, ducking her head as she felt spots of pink forming on her cheeks.
Harry laughed. " And Malfoy's not a horrible prat. It was something, Mione. If it wasn't..would you really have hit me that hard?"
" I could if I wanted to," she replied back, smiling. " I..It's not really -- not anymore, I suppose."
" No, Hermione..tell me. I want to know."
Hermione turned away, feeling her face color scarlet.
"Ithoughtyoudidn'twantustogetmarried," she mumbled, blending her words together on purpose. When all she heard from Harry was silence, she turned to face him again, looking up at his face searchingly, but not saying another word.
She watched, feeling her stomach drop down to her knees; Harry's green eyes widening behind his glasses, looking shocked. He ran a hand through his hair nervously and smiled down at her.
" Say it again? It must have been me, because I thought I heard you say something about us getting married." He forced out a laugh, but it faded almost instantly.
Hermione could feel the tears flooding her eyes. She blinked rapidly and felt the cold wetness of them slide down her cheeks, dripping down her chin and into the carpet, where it was soaked in. Taking a step backwards, watching Harry's eyes widen and watch her curiously, Hermione could feel her heart starting to beat faster. He didn't want to marry her. It was all a joke to him. It was too early..for him to be thinking about..
" Mione? What's wrong?" Harry asked in alarm, taking a step towards her, his arms outstretched.
Hermione didn't fall into them like she normally would have. She continued backing farther away, closer to the door. How stupid she was. All these years, all this time..it was all worth nothing. True, maybe marriage hadn't popped into her head in the beginning, but after awhile..she just assumed. I shouldn't assume anything, a voice inside her head snapped. But still, the thought burned in her mind as if it had always been there, just waiting for the right moment to come out. What were they going to do? Date until forever then suddenly break up and marry other people? Hermione's rational mind knew it was impossible..but looking at Harry's confused expression..maybe that's what he was thinking. She knew it was selfish to suddenly care about marriage and nothing else, but if Harry wasn't going to marry her..she was already seventeen..maybe she should be looking for someone else? Someone who did want --
" Hermione!" Harry's voice, shrill with curioiusity and worry, broke into her thoughts, dropping her back down to reality. She looked at him blankly for a minute, the tears still streaming down her cheeks.
" Are you going to continue to stand there forever, or were you ever planning on telling me what's going on?" he asked irritably.
Hermione opened her mouth, ready to insist that it was nothing, she should be packing. Why, he'd ask. And that, Hermione knew, but felt too embarressed to say anything. How childish it would sound for her to cry out," Because you're not going to marry me!" as if she was whining to her mother for not getting her favorite ice cream flavor.
" You don't want to marry me, Harry Potter!" she blurted out, unable to control the words spilling out of her mouth. She glanced at Harry, whose confused expression turned to pure shock. A sob escaped her and she fled from the room, hurrying down the stairs as quickly as her feet would take her, stumbling on the bottom step. She could hear Harry calling for her, hurrying behind her, but she didn't bother to look up.
" Hermione! Hermione, wait!" Harry yelled as she pushed through the front door, hurrying out into the dim night sky. The sun was beginning to set, and she could hear crickets chirping off in the distance. Out of breath, she stopped in the middle of the driveway, panting. What should she do? Owl her parents? No, no...Hedwig was upstairs, she couldn't turn around and hurry back inside the house for fear she'd bump into Harry, which would make her cry even harder. Run? Run where?
" Hermione!" Harry's hand was on her forearm, his fingers gripping her arm tightly. His other hand yanked on hers, pulling her towards him. She tried desperately to get away, feeling despair and sadness overwhelming her. To tired to move now, she allowed Harry to pull her closer to him, his arms wrapping around her, hugging her tightly. She didn't move, just breathed in deep, shallow breaths that hurt her head.
Harry pulled away from her, holding her at arm's length. He studied her face, his brows knitted in confusion and concern. " Hermione, please. What's wrong?"
Hermione wanted to yell. How stupid was he? She had just blurted something out about marriage, and here he was, still asking her what was wrong. She looked back at him, one thought running through her mind: My boyfriend is dense.
" Let me go, Harry, let me go!" she suddenly cried out, turning and struggling to escape Harry's grasp. She turned her body this way and that, trying to twist out of the hold Harry had on her. " Let me go, Harry!" she protested, attempting to shove his hands away from her. " You don't want to marry me! Leave me alone, Harry! You -- "
" What? Hermione, that's not -- " Harry interrupted loudly, trying to control Hermione's feeble attempts of escaping his grasp.
But Hermione continued as if she hadn't heard him. " You don't want to marry me, Harry Potter! Just let me go! Leave me alone and I don't want -- "
" Hermione, will you marry me?" Harry blurted out suddenly, holding onto her arms tighter as he tried to look into her eyes, but found it rather difficult since Hermione was flailing about.
Suddenly Hermione stopped. She ceased trying to wrench herself away from Harry and looked into his eyes, the emerald green ones she loved staring into so much..they always twinkled behind his glasses, and they were doing so now. " What..what did you say?" she asked in a whisper.
" I said, 'Hermione, will you marry me?' " Harry repeated, a faint smile on his lips.
It wasn't much of a proposal, it was such a feeble attempt that you could hardly call it a proposal, in fact, but that didn't matter to Hermione. Tears -- happy tears -- welled up in her eyes and she threw her arms around Harry's neck, hugging him hard and crying happily into his shoulder.
Harry's arms wrapped around her as they did so most often, and she could feel him kissing the top of her head. " I take that as a yes?" he said softly in her ear.
Hermione laughed through her tears and hugged Harry harder. " Yes, Harry, yes! Oh, Harry! I will marry you!"
The two stood like that, embracing, for what seemed like hours, but was actually only a few minutes. Then they broke apart, shared a kiss, and headed, hand in hand, back towards the house.
Hermione felt dizzy; light-headed with happiness. She quickly dried her tears that were still wet on her face as she and Harry headed into the kitchen, where Narcissa and Draco were sitting, waiting for the others to arrive for dinner. Draco looked away as her eyes fell on him, but Hermione didn't care. She was engaged. Engaged to Harry, the love of her life. How better could life get?
Once Sirius had arrived, Narcissa served steak and eggs. It was wonderful, or was that just Hermione's feelings for everything? Everything was wonderful in the world at the moment.
" What in the wizarding world are you two so happy about?" came Draco's voice, from what seemed a far distance away.
Hermione's head snapped up. She and Harry had been glancing at each other from across the table, and he gave her a quick smile before she turned to face Draco. He was scowling at her, his arms crossed over his chest, looking very un-Draco like.
" I mean, forgive me -- " and with that, his voice dripped with sarcasm, " -- for interrupting your sunny optimistic world..but would you mind not being in it while I'm eating? It's rather gross."
" Draco!" Narcissa reprimended gently. Draco payed no attention to her and continued eating.
Back upstairs, sitting on Harry's bed and stroking the soft feathers of Hedwig's wings, Hermione sat up straighter as Harry entered the room, having come back from helping clean the dishes, a task he was forced to do with Draco. Harry's mouth was set in a grim line as he entered, but as his eyes fell on her, sitting there on his bed, a bright smile appeared on his face, and he leaned over and gave her a quick kiss on the cheek.
Hermione smiled. She needed to get something off her chest, something she had been thinking about ever since Harry had proposed to her. Absently, she gently shoved Hedwig aside as Harry sat down next to her, wrapping his arm around her shoulders.
" Harry?" she said haltingly, looking up at him through lowered lashes.
" Hmm?"
" I..I feel awful about that horrible scene I had stupidly done earlier. You know, with me going on about you not wanting to marry me," she said in a rush. Hermione clasped her hands together tightly in her lap as she waited for Harry to answer.
" Well, you were acting a bit mad, I have to admit."
Hermione laughed. " I don't know what got into me. I freaked, I admit. Something must have gotten loose in my mind. But I'm okay now..and I'm sorry."
" It's alright." Harry chucked her under the chin. " I don't want you to think I asked you to marry me just so you'd shut up, though."
With a smile, Hermione hugged him. " No, of course not. But when do you think we should tell Sirius and Narcissa about our..plan?"
" Tomorrow morning," Harry decided without a minute hesitation.
Hermione nodded and got up, giving Harry a quick good-night kiss before heading back into her room. She changed into her night dress and slid underneath the covers, falling asleep with a smile on her face.