Untitled
It had been a year to the day since the
death of Cedric and the students of Hogwarts were sitting around their house
tables in the Great Hall. They were having a three-minute silence in honour of
him.
Harry tried not to think of the previous
years' events but it was no good and, to his horror, his face started to burn
up and the corners of his eyes stung as they filled up with tears. He partly
still blamed himself for Cedric's death, although he knew nobody was to blame.
Harry blinked and tried to wipe his eyes without anyone noticing. He glanced
sideways and saw Hermione with tears rolling down her cheeks. She caught sight
of Harry and stared down at the table.
The silence ended and food appeared in
front of the students but no one felt like eating and the Hall remained very
quiet.
A lot had happened that year since
Cedric's death. No one had seen nor heard of Voldemort, but that worried people
because they suspected he was planning something extremely dangerous. So, in
this case, no news was bad news. There had been some good news. Hermione and
Ron had started going out. Of course, Malfoy had a fair few comments to throw
at them, as usual, but within a few weeks, everyone had become bored of teasing
them and sneering at them and everything seemed almost normal again. Or, at
least, as normal as it could get when you were at Hogwarts
***
Harry, Hermione and Ron were all sat
round their usual table in the far corner of the Gryffindor common room.
Everyone else had gone to bed.
There were pieces of fruit scattered
across their table (Hermione was trying to teach them the animation charm they
had to learn for homework, they still hadn't quite grasped it)
"How about this, then?" said Ron, as he
flicked his wand at the fruit, the slice of apple tipped up onto its end.
"Look! It's work- Oh…" The fruit flopped
miserably back down onto the table, "I'm never going to learn this by Monday!"
moaned Ron.
"You will," said Hermione, "You're just
not concentrating hard enough, maybe you should get some sleep and try again
tomorrow."
"You're right," Ron got up, kissed
Hermione good night and headed towards the stairs, "Harry?"
"I'll be up in a minute, I'll just
practise this a few more times," said Harry, "I think I've finally got it,
look," Harry waved his wand, and the piece of fruit jumped up, walked to the
edge of the table and… fell off, "Oh, well, I think it needs a bit more
practise," he conceded.
"OK, I'll see you in the morning then,"
said Ron, as he trudged up the stairs to the boys' dormitory
"OK, I'll try it once more, then I'll go
to bed too," said Harry, "It's the last Quidditch practise tomorrow before the
final against Ravenclaw."
He flicked his wand and the piece of
fruit walked to the edge of the table then fell off again and flopped onto the
floor beside his feet. He reached down to pick it up at the same time as
Hermione did. His hand fell upon hers. They both stopped, then, looked up at
each other. They were staring at each other for what seemed like ages, then,
slowly, they drew together and kissed. They both knew it was wrong in their
minds but in their hearts, it felt so right. Harry felt a warm glow spread
through his body as they kissed.
They pulled apart and gazed, deeply into
one another's eyes. Suddenly, they heard footsteps, coming downstairs. It was
Ron. They quickly tried to occupy themselves, reading spell books.
"Sorry, just forgot my wand," Ron walked
up to the table and picked up his wand, "Are you two alright?" He said, "Only
you look a bit, well, edgy."
"Who u-us?" stammered Hermione.
"We're fine!" said Harry, "probably just a
bit tired."
"OK then, well, see you in the morning,"
Ron walked towards the staircase, then turned around, "Oh, by the way," He
said, "You've got that book upside down, Harry."
Harry looked at the pages, "So I have!"
He laughed nervously.
After Ron had left, they both relaxed
again.
"We really shouldn't have done that,"
Hermione said.
"I know," said Harry, "But it just…"
"Felt so right?" Hermione finished for
him.
"Yeah…"
They stared into each other's eyes again
for what felt like an eternity. Suddenly, they both realised what they were
doing.
"What are we going to do now?" said
Hermione, "and what are we going to tell Ron?"
"Ron doesn't have to find out, unless…"
Harry trailed off with a hint of suggestion in his voice.
"Unless what?"
"Well, put it this way, we both know that
kiss wasn't an accident."
"H-how do you mean?" said Hermione,
blushing slightly.
Harry
looked straight into her eyes, "I… I love you."
Hermione felt like her heart had melted into a warm liquid and
was spreading all through her body. She felt as light as a feather as she
stared into those dazzling green eyes of his.
"I love you too," she whispered
Hermione leaned forward and placed her
head on his shoulder, while he wrapped his arms around her.
***
Harry awoke with a start. He raised his
head and then realised why he had awoken so suddenly. He was still in the
common room and Hermione was beside him, her head resting on the table, still
asleep. Harry slid out his hand from under hers and crept towards the
staircase, being careful not to wake her.
When he entered the boys' dormitory, Ron
was nowhere to be seen. Harry sighed with relief, then suddenly gasped as
realization dawned on him
"Oh God! What if he saw Hermione and I,
I've got to find him!" Harry exclaimed, to the world in general.
He quickly packed up his Quidditch
equipment and Firebolt and raced downstairs, out of the portrait hole and into
the Great Hall. He found Ron sitting at the far end of the Gryffindor table,
eating breakfast
'Well, he doesn't look upset about
anything,' Thought Harry, 'I just hope to heaven he didn't see us last night,
or this morning.'
Harry walked up to where Ron was, and
seated himself beside him.
"Hi," said Ron, "where were you last
night?"
"What do you mean?"
"Well, I waited for ages and you didn't
come up." Ron looked up at Harry with a concerned expression on his face, "Are
you alright?" he said.
"I'm fine, why wouldn't I be?" replied
Harry, with a nervous laugh.
"It's just that you look exhausted- Oh,
hang on, you've got an apple seed in your hair."
Harry brushed the seed out of his hair
absently, "I must have fallen asleep when I was practising that spell last
night."
"Hey, where's Hermione?"
"What? Oh, I don't know, maybe she's not
up yet," Harry lied.
"Hmm, she's not usually this late getting
up," said Ron anxiously, then, continued, "That's a point, Harry. You'd better
get going or you'll be late for Quidditch practise."
"You're right! I totally forgot about
Quidditch!" Harry picked up his Quidditch equipment and Firebolt and set off
for the door at sprinting speed, very nearly injuring several Gryffindors along
the way.
***
Later that evening, Harry slumped into a
huge chair in front of the fire in the Gryffindor common room. He needed all
the rest he could get after that training session!
Shortly afterwards, Hermione and Ron
joined him by the fire.
"Er, Harry?" said Hermione, "could I have
a word?" She gave Harry a meaningful look.
"What about?" asked Ron, puzzled.
"Oh, er…" Hermione began, but was
interrupted by Harry, "Just something about your birthday present"
"But my birthday's not until March!"
"We like to plan ahead," said Hermione,
smiling.
"Oh, OK then." And with that, Ron got up
and headed for the boys' dormitory.
"We need to talk," Hermione took Harry's
hand, "But not here, we'll go to the lake."
Harry
followed Hermione out of the portrait hole and they made their way down to the
lake. They sat, hand in hand, on the grass, staring into the icy water.
"We've got to sort this out," said Harry,
turning to look at Hermione.
Hermione looked up at him, "I know," she
said, "but what can we do?"
"We've got to tell Ron."
"W-what?"
"It's not fair on him," said Harry, "It's
best if he hears the truth now, rather than find out we've been going behind
his back."
"You're right," sighed Hermione.
They
stared at one another, both, secretly hoping they didn't have to tell Ron, but
it was no use. They had to tell him.
"I think we'd better tell him now," said
Harry, getting up off the grass and holding a hand out for Hermione.
"I really wish we didn't have to do this,"
said Hermione, taking Harry's hand and pulling herself up, "it'll break his
heart."
"He needs to know the truth."
"I know."
They
made their way, slowly, back to the Gryffindor common room.
"I'll go and get Ron," said Harry, walking
towards the staircase, "wait here."
Hermione
sat beside the fire and waited for Harry to return with Ron. She was beginning
to feel nervous, she didn't want to hurt Ron, but what choice did she have? She
was in love with Harry and she couldn't keep that from him any longer.
Suddenly, she heard footsteps and Harry
appeared at the bottom of the stairs, followed by Ron.
"What's up?" said Ron, looking from
Hermione to Harry.
"Er, there's something we need to tell
you."