A/N: Thank you thank you thank you to CandyHeart, onerios lykos, Jess, RocketSolarCat, Fatima, Jo, a.potter and everyone else who has reviewed! You guys are the best!

onerios lykos asked about Voldie…I would really like to incorporate him, but I'm trying to make this authentic as possible but I can't do that without knowing what happened to him. So, Voldie will not make an appearance in this story. Harry beat him one final time, he's gone, yay!

Disclaimer: You know how it goes. This is just for fun. JK Rowling actually owns Harry Potter and the others.

A/N: Oh! And be warned, this will be fluffier than the last chapter.

~

Harry was awash with happiness the next day. He hadn't been planning on kissing Hermione, but he was definitely glad he did. But he was even gladder that she wanted to kiss him, that she wanted him as much as he wanted her.

He hummed as he made his way to the common room. Things couldn't have turned out better if he'd planned it.
Oh, how he couldn't wait to see her again! He thought of what would happen once he got her alone.

But, as he entered the very room that he'd kissed her in, it looked like it would be a while before that would happen. She was sitting in a chair next to Ron, talking about something.

"Hello," he said, interrupting their conversation. He avoided sitting too close to her or meeting her eyes. It would give it away.

"Hello," they replied normally.

"You got to bed late last night," Ron commented. "Did you go out somewhere?"

"Uh," was the only reply Harry could think of. Instead of coming up with an excuse, he simply said "What makes you sure I was out?"

Ron looked at him as though he'd gone crazy. "I woke up and noticed you were gone, and I saw you come back in."

"I was in the bathroom."

Ron laughed. "Some trip. You were gone at least twenty minutes."

"He was with a girl, I bet," Hermione said.

"A girl? The girl?" Ron asked, almost excitedly.

Harry dared to look at Hermione. With one quick glance, he knew she'd revealed nothing about the night before.

"Yeah, the girl."

"So she's in Gryffindor! Is it Lavender? It's Lavender, isn't it?"

"Er," Harry replied.

"Just tell us who it is!" Ron pleaded. "We're you're friends."

"It was…never mind." Harry was planning on making up some girl, which would keep Ron occupied. But as he caught the expression on Hermione's face, he changed his mind. He didn't want to upset her in any way, nor did he want to purposely mislead Ron.

"I've got to go to the library. See you boys later," Hermione said. She raised her eyebrows slightly at him, which Harry read as "follow me."

He let her go a few minutes ahead of her before telling Ron, "Argh, she's got some notes I wanted to copy. I'd better go catch up to her."

Ron shrugged and picked up a book, which Harry recognized as Quidditch Through The Ages. "Suit yourself. If you want to spend Saturday in the library…" Ron let his voice trail off.

"Tell you what. As soon as I'm done in the library, we can practice Quidditch."

"All right. Have fun," Ron said dubiously.

Harry felt bad about lying to Ron, but the thought of Hermione waiting for him pushed the guilt out of his mind. He hurried out the portrait and found her leaning against the stone wall.

"Hi," he said awkwardly.

She smiled slightly but said nothing. It was weird for her, too.

He made a move to hold her hand, but she jerked back slightly. "I'm sorry, Harry," she said quietly. "It's just so new to me. I've wanted this for a long time."

"Me too."

"I hope I live up to your expectations," she said, her smile widening.

"Don't worry. You already have." She blushed, which made Harry grin. He loved making her blush like that. She looked around the deserted hallway before kissing him quickly on the cheek.

"You think that lives up to my expectations? Try again, Granger." He tried not to laugh.

"Harry, not here. Someone could see us."

"Then where?"

"The common room. Tonight. After everyone's gone to bed."

Harry smiled. "I can live with that. In the meantime, we'd better get to the library. I told Ron I needed to copy something from you."

Together they walked to the library, walking a little bit closer to each other than they once had and occasionally brushing each other's hand. Once in the library, they found the most secluded spot.

He sat across from her, wishing he could sit beside her without arising suspicion. Then he could put his arms around her, and then…

"What are we going to do about this?" she asked.

"Huh?"

"This. Us. Are we going to--?"

"Going to what?"

"Are we going to tell anybody?" she asked, leaning in so he could hear her hushed voice.

"Oh," he said. He leaned in too. "Well, maybe we could. But it's probably better that we keep this secret. Just until, you know, we get more comfortable with it."

She nodded, but she didn't lean back. Harry took this as an invitation. He reached across the table and kissed her, the way he had last night. They spent a few minutes like this, until they heard footsteps.

Panicked, they both nearly jumped back into their seats and opened books at random pages. By the time the footsteps were level with them, they were both sitting there with heads bent down, writing normally and sitting in silence.

It turned out to be someone they didn't know who just happened to walk by their table. Harry stole a glance at her; she looked just as relieved as he felt.

"Maybe it's best we wait until tonight," he said.

She nodded.

*

Tonight was an eternity away for Hermione. It was one of the hardest days for her to get through; including the days not long ago when she thought Harry was avoiding her.

She had wanted to curse the Slytherin boy who'd walked by their table in the library. It had been a perfect moment, Harry's lips on hers, his hands holding her face gently. She wished she and Harry could announce it to the world: they were together.

But she couldn't. The idea of the whole school knowing her business made her insides squirm. She could've cared less if Harry wasn't so well-known, but the fact that he was seemed to be holding them back. She was barely used to the idea of her and Harry herself; she couldn't stomach the idea of everyone whispering behind their hands, pointing and goggling.

And then there was Ron. Hermione couldn't picture his reaction to the news. Perhaps he wouldn't care, perhaps he'd even be happy for them, but that wasn't typically his style. He usually chose to be jealous when there was nothing to be jealous about.

This whole situation was new to her. True, she'd had a couple of relationships in her past, but neither had been this intense early on. She wanted to be with Harry every moment. At night, when she wasn't near him, she felt that ache, that longing. It was so intense it made her wish she'd never dropped Divination, so she could spend that much more time with him.

And that was saying a lot.

*

Hermione shot another glance at Harry. The two were sitting in the common room, pretending to read. In reality, they were waiting for it to empty so they could be alone.

Harry's eyes caught hers. They widened, and his wiggled his eyebrows. Hermione giggled, then quickly buried her face into her textbook. He had been trying to make her laugh all evening, and he nearly got her every single time.

Harry yawned loudly. "I'm beat," he said.

Ron, who was sitting in between the two, shrugged. "Then go to bed."

Harry didn't reply for a moment. He said slowly, "Aren't you tired, Ron?"

"No, not really."

"Oh."

Hermione sighed, trying to hide her frustration. Why couldn't everyone just go and let them have time together?

Finally, finally, everyone began to trickle to bed. Hermione followed suit. "Well, good night, you two," she said, making her way to her dorm.

"Night," they replied in unison.

She waited for another hour or so. The other girls had finally fallen asleep, and she was about to sneak out into the common room when she heard the softest knock at the door.

Hermione flew across the cold stone silently, knowing who was on the other side. She threw it open and grinned.

Harry returned her grin, then grabbed her hand. She held on tightly as he lead her downstairs into the common room. They were right in front of the gently burning fire when he spoke, "At last."

The fire had nearly died out. Hermione could just make out a handful of stars scattered about the sky through a window. And Harry was in front of her, his eyes reflecting content and what she hoped was love.

Her eyes closed as Harry's lips found hers. The pair stood there kissing, until Hermione's knees proved too weak to continue standing. They sank onto a squashy armchair.

Harry's hands were caressing her face, as he had done in the library. Hermione just held onto him, too scared to let go.

Eventually she stopped kissing him back. When Harry noticed, he pulled back too, looking at her questioningly. Before he could say a word, though, Hermione rested her head on his shoulders and closed her eyes again.

Harry kissed the top of her head gently before leaning his own head against hers. It was such a perfect moment.

And for a while, to Hermione, it was a perfect life.

~

See? Fluff! Lol. Sorry for the delay, I had tons of work to do, but the next chapter will be up shortly.