A/N: Last chapter, you guys. I really hope you liked my story, even if it's totally mushy. This is just a prequel though, so make sure you read my next fic, "As If We Never Said Goodbye". Thanks, y'all!
DISCLAIMER: J.K. Rowling owns the Harry Potter characters.
EPILOGUE: THE PROMISE
My things were all packed and stacked neatly inside the carriage that stood outside the Hogwarts Front Hall. I had asked Professor Dumbledore if he could let me leave early, a day before the graduation rites were to be performed due to personal circumstances. I think he knows what's troubling me, though. After all, I have been avoiding Harry all the time now and I refuse to talk about him.
Ron and Ginny were there to wish me farewell. I had asked them not to tell Harry where I was going or what I was planning to do. I needed to forget about my feelings for him and to do that, I didn't want to see him.
Finally, the carriage was all ready to go and I gave Ron a final hug. "Do you know how grateful I am to have you as my best friend?" I told him, clinging to his embrace.
"Not really, but now that you've said it, you should really try and tell me more often," he kidded. We withdrew from each other's arms and held our gaze. "You know he's not going to be happy with you leaving without telling him."
"Diana's there. She'll make him happy," I replied. I produced a piece of parchment from my robes and handed it to him. "But give Harry this, will you? I owe him this much, at least."
Ron nodded, taking the parchment from me. He smiled and hugged me again. "I'll miss you, Hermione. You will write, won't you?"
"Of course. Loads and loads. And, who knows, I just might come by the Burrow to surprise you one day."
"You'd better."
Dobby approached me slowly. "Carriage is waiting for Miss to ride," he told me.
I nodded. "You take care of yourself, Dobby."
"Dobby is sad to see Miss go."
"I might come back, you know. It's not like you won't be seeing me forever." I tried to keep my voice as cheerful as I can.
"Miss Granger." Professor Dumbledore had materialized beside Ron and Dobby. "I hope to hear good things from Milos."
"Yes, Professor," I said. "Thank you for doing this for me."
"It has been a pleasure to teach you, Miss Granger." He held out his hand and I took it in a warm handshake.
I stepped back and surveyed my small farewell party. Ron, Ginny, Dobby and Professor Dumbledore. Harry was absent, at my request. And yet, I couldn't help but long to see him one last time. Never mind, I thought, as I gave a final wave and made my way down the front steps of the castle. Diana's more than enough compensation. I entered the carriage and as it began to move, I felt tears drop from the corner of my eyes. I was leaving Hogwarts and the life that I had come to know in the last seven years. And I know that I will miss it.
But this is what I had to do. Maybe someday Harry and I will meet again and we could pick up right where we left off.
And I realized that where we had left off, I was crying and he was in love with someone else.
~ * ~ * ~ * ~
"Ron!" Harry yelled, almost sliding down the banister of the foyer. "Ron!"
"What?" Ron asked.
"Have you seen Hermione? I've been looking for her since last night but I couldn't find her. She wasn't in her room or the Common Room and she wasn't at breakfast this morning." He noticed that Ron's ears turned red, the way it always did when he was under pressure – or hiding something from him. "Ron?" he pressed. "Where's Hermione?"
"She left, Harry. You just missed her."
"What?" He couldn't believe his ears. He threw open the heavy wooden doors that led outside the Hogwarts grounds and he could see a tiny carriage moving fast, away from the castle. Harry quickly rounded on Ron. "Where is she going? Come on, Ron, tell me! I could follow her with the Firebolt………"
"She doesn't want to be followed, Harry."
"What's going on? Graduation isn't until tomorrow." He was silent for a while, then "Is she coming back?"
"Not for a long time," Ron replied and Harry felt himself falling to the ground.
She was gone. Hermione left without saying goodbye to him and he had lost his chance to talk to her about those confounded feelings that had been hounding his mind, body and soul since that night he saw her run away. He still wasn't sure if this was love, if he did love Hermione, but he was willing to risk the pain of losing her, of losing her friendship. Although he doubted if he could handle losing her friendship.
"Harry," Ron was saying. He handed him a piece of parchment. "She asked me to give you this." Ron gave him a sad smile. "Hang in there, Harry," he said before walking away.
Harry opened the letter with shaking hands. If there was any hope left, any chance that he might see her again, it would surely be in this letter.
Dear Harry,
By the time you read this, I will be far away. I apologize for not saying goodbye to you in person but I was afraid that if I faced you, I might not have the courage to tell you what needs to be said.
I love you, Harry. I've loved you from the first moment I met you on the train and I'd fixed your glasses. Of course, I didn't know it then, we were only children, but I came to realize it and now, I'm scared. Scared because I didn't want to lose your friendship. Scared because this feeling rocked me to the very core of my being and made my heart ache for you so badly that I cannot breathe. I tried not to love you, Harry – I really did. I agreed to help you and Diana because I thought that it would make these feelings go away. But I was wrong. Seeing the two of you together made me ache for you more and I was confronted with the truth that you could never love me in the same way. But I'm perfectly content knowing that you're happy with her, Harry. Really. Perhaps being your best friend is the closest I'll ever be to you
.
If you and Diana get married, you will still invite me, won't you? I don't even have to be part of your entourage. I'm happy to just sit there and watch the girl of your dreams marry the man in mine.
Will you think of me, Harry?
Yours, Hermione.
She loved him, Harry realized. Hermione Granger loved him and he had let her go. Harry looked at her last statement and remembered the conversation they had when they all thought that Hermione was dying. She had touched her hand to his cheek, caressing it softly and smiling in that light, blissful way she used to do. "Will you think of me, Harry?" she whispered sadly. And he had wiped away a tear that crossed her face.
Harry folded her letter and placed it inside his robes. He could still hear her voice, haunting him as he made his way up to the Head Girl's room. "Will you think of me, Harry?"
He mumbled the password and crept up to the room Hermione used to share with him and Ron during the earlier part of the year. He didn't know what he was hoping to find in there, Hermione hiding from him perhaps, but he just felt the need to look at it for one last time. It was empty, but Harry still walked in and surveyed what used to be Hermione's room. It was bare and cold, now, for it lacked the homey feel that had once adorned its walls. He closed his eyes and recalled the countless times the three of them had spent in that room, usually ending up in unprecedented sleepovers and early morning attempts for him and Ron to sneak back into the Gryffindor Common Room. It will never happen again, though, he thought. Never. Hermione has left, without giving him a chance to tell her how he feels, that he does love her but was just too scared to admit it. From the corner of his eye, Harry spotted a scarf peeking out from under the mattress. He pulled it out, recognized it as the scarf Mrs. Weasley had knitted for her two Christmases ago and inhaled Hermione's lingering scent on it – strawberries and roses – and his heart constricted in pain.
"Will you think of me, Harry?" her voice haunted his thoughts.
And as he stepped out of the room, clutching the scarf in his hand, he smiled a sad smile. Will you think of Hermione, Harry? he thought, leaving the portrait door.
As if I could do anything else.
THE END
A/N: Make sure to read the sequel, "As If We Never Said Goodbye". What happens when Hermione returns from Cambridge!