Chapter Six: The Apology
The next day Harry woke up early, it was still dark outside, and Harry could not sleep. He still could not believe how angry Hermione had gotten with him the night before. He sighed in exasperation. She was a stubborn witch, and he didn't know what it would take to get her back, but he knew it would take a lot. He rolled out of bed, and reached for the black robes that he had tossed carelessly onto the chair beside his bed the night before, and put them on. Then he stumbled, half-awake and miserable, down the stairs into the unlit common room.
"Great, just great," he thought, cursing the lack of light. "Now I have to feel around in the darkness for the couch."
Harry held his hands out before him, and cursed that he hadn't brought his wand with him. "Lumos!" he muttered. "Accio wand!" he muttered again. Harry shook his head at his own stupidity, he couldn't summon his wand without a wand to summon it with. "God. I really am brainless sometimes," he thought disgustedly to himself. Suddenly he tripped over something and he fell onto something soft.
"Ahhh." he sighed. He had found the couch, or so he thought.
"What the bloody hell?!" Harry heard a muffled voice say.
"Huh?" Harry felt a slender piece of wood beside him on the couch. It seemed to be someone's wand. "Lumos." He said, pleased to finally be able to see. A dim light flickered on at the tip of the wand, and he found that he was lying on top of none other than.
"Hermione?" Harry asked.
"Get off me Harry," she pushed him away. "You can't win me back by climbing all over me."
Harry rose off the couch onto his feet. "I didn't know you were there," he said coldly. Then he realized that speaking to her in that tone of voice would not help him get her back. "Here's your wand." He said, as politely as possible, his eyes, however, expressed his anger.
"Why are you mad at me?" Hermione arose as well, and looked into Harry's smoldering emerald eyes. "If anyone should be mad, it is me!"
"I. I." Harry muttered incoherently, as he could not think of a single thing to say in response.
"Oh, brilliant Potter. Has your mind left you? Not a thing to say to that is there? And I know why." She poked him in the chest. "Because you have absolutely no reason to be angry with me."
Harry reached down and clutched her wrist in his. She struggled to get away, but he wasn't going to let her go that easily. He pressed her hand to his breast, so she could feel his steady heart beat.
"Listen to me," he said calmly.
"You do not own me, I do not have to do as you command." Hermione was being extremely intractable, she was making this as hard as possible for Harry.
"Well then, you don't have to listen if you don't want to." Harry smiled weakly at her. She glared in response. "I would appreciate it greatly if you did, however."
"Ugh," Hermione rolled her eyes. "Fine, make it quick," she snapped.
"I am sorry about earlier. I just don't want you to put yourself in unnecessary peril Mione. I didn't mean to upset you, I just thought you were being a bit silly, and I thought some sleep would help you clear up your mind. I understand that there is a possibility that you are right about Krum, but if your are not, I do not want you to get hurt again. Who knows, maybe he is wittingly under the control of Voldemort, and by doubting Krum's guilt, you might be playing yourself into the dark lord's hands. You could easily be lured into a trap, Mione."
"Harry. I do not wish to discuss this. It is my business whether I take this up with Viktor or not."
"No, it is my business too Hermione." Harry rested his other hand on her shoulder. "I care about you, and I want you to be safe. If you disappeared you would leave many unhappy people behind."
"Harry!" Hermione snapped. "If you really care about me, you will let me think for myself, and do what I believe is right. I don't need your protection. You always insist that you do not try to play hero, but you really do, and this is proof Harry."
Harry's eyes darkened in growing fury. She had hit a weak spot in him. He had never asked to be the boy-who-lived. He hated being gawked at, and he hated some of the snide comments he received from jealous people about how he took advantage of his fame, and basically played hero as Hermione had so kindly put it to him a second ago.
"No! Take that back Hermione. That is a lie, and you know it is!"
"No!" Hermione was not intimidated by him at all. "I used to pity you because everyone thought of you in that way, but frankly, I believe it now too. I am not going to lie to appease you Harry!"
Harry's cheeks flushed pink in anger. Hermione's feelings also seemed to have the same effect on her countenance. Harry dropped her hand in his fury, none too gently. And turned his back on her.
"You know, I came down here to get some peace, and then when I saw you, to apologize, but clearly my apology would be worthless to you. After all I am an impostor aren't I? I play the role of the hero, because we both know that deep inside all I am is a name. The boy-who-lived is all I am, and apparently all I am to you. Well good night, and I do hope you find someone who will care little enough for you to not worry about you playing yourself into Voldemort's hands. I am just the boy-who-lived who has no feelings, and pretends he cares about others in order to play hero." Harry was shouting now, and he was so angry that hardly anything he said was making any sense whatsoever.
Hermione felt a twinge of guilt for treating him like the boy-who- lived, not like Harry, the boy beyond the name, but she did not want him to win her over this easily, so she pretended to not care about hurting him in that way. She pretended that it hadn't hurt her as well, and glared at him. "Well why don't you get out and kill Voldemort now. Oh and don't forget to mention to the press about how I almost went after Viktor and almost became Voldemort's captive. Almost of course, because you, the boy-who-lived, saved the day once again. Go on then Harry Potter. I wish you luck. And always remember that you are a hero, and nothing but a hero!" Hermione said sarcastically.
Harry's eyes, which had been burning in his fury a moment before, suddenly mirrored the hurt that Hermione felt inside but was forcing herself not to reveal as openly as Harry was. She tried to ignore the pain that stared out at her from Harry's emerald depths, because it made her heart ache to see how much her harsh words had affected him. Harry had always tried to live past his fame, and she had relentlessly accused him of failing utterly in doing so. She felt tears accumulating and she willed them not to spill over. She closed her eyes tightly, in a desperate attempt to prevent their flow. She wanted to be strong. She didn't want Harry to know that she had hurt herself as much as she had hurt him, with her latest accusation. Harry looked at her scrunched up eyes and could tell plain as plain what she was trying to do. He walked over to her, and gently cupped her chin in his hand.
"Hermione. My Mione. I am sorry." He said truthfully. He watched as Hermione gave up trying to hold back her tears and they rained down her face. Harry's other hand tenderly brushed her cheeks wiping away the tears.
"I'm sorry too Harry. I didn't mean it about you playing hero. I was just really mad, and I said the thing I knew would hurt you the most." She blushed and turned away. "You must hate me for saying something like that to you, but I really am sorry, if that matters to you at all." Hermione was clearly extremely contrite, and Harry hadn't needed her to say so to understand that. Her tears had spoken well enough for her.
"Mione. How could I ever hate you? I hate myself for provoking you to say those things to me, because I know you wouldn't have said them of your own accord." Harry slipped his arm around her waist, pulling her closer to him. Hermione lay her head on his chest and she felt a bubble of joy surge inside her. They had gotten over their silly fight, and now that she was back in his arms, and he in hers, she felt perfectly content.
"Harry. I suppose you didn't hear me last night when I said this to you. I didn't say it directly but I implied it," Hermione realized she was babbling, and tried to get to the point. "But." she bit her lip, afraid to say it. What if he didn't feel the same way? What if he didn't say it back to her? Hermione ignored her panicky feelings, and opened her mouth to say what she was determined to tell him. "I. I love you Harry."
"I love you too, Mione." Harry felt so elated that she had told him, and he longed to hold her closer, but that wasn't possible. "And I'll always love you."
Hermione brought his mouth down to hers, and their kiss compensated for the space that Harry had wanted to overcome. Harry felt bolts of electricity jolting through his body at the sweet contact of her mouth on his. He parted his lips, and the intimacy of his tongue tracing her lips urged her to follow his lead and deepen the kiss. Harry's mouth on hers expressed his love, and the kiss increased in passion as the couple sat down onto the couch. Suddenly Harry heard someone cough in front of him. He took his mouth off Hermione's and looked up to face the interruption. He saw Professor McGonagall in her nightgown staring down at him and Hermione awaiting an explanation.
"Sorry Professor," Hermione flushed and buried her face in Harry's shoulder. Harry patted her back, and mustered up the courage to speak to their Head of House.
"We had a fight Professor and I couldn't sleep, I don't think she could either. We didn't mean to disturb anyone while we tried to put aside our differences," Harry said apologetically.
"Potter you both were yelling, it is only three o'clock in the morning, and the best you can come up with is that you didn't mean to disturb anyone?!" Professor McGonagall raged.
"We are sorry Professor. We got caught up in our own issues and I guess we forgot about everyone else. If anyone was disturbed though, don't get mad at them if they rage at me and Hermione later." Harry said.
Professor McGonagall looked between the two friends. Harry was soothingly rubbing Hermione's back, because he clearly understood how upset she was when she got in trouble with a teacher. McGonagall felt rather pleased that they had made up, because she hated it when students who were usually close argued amongst each other. Also, Harry's penitent speech reminded her of James at that age, when he and young Lily made up after a fight. She softened when she recalled those memories from not too long ago.
"Well Potter, you seem to be sorry. And clearly Miss Granger is as well. Well then there seems to be no harm done. Despite this I do wish to impress upon you two that this can not happen again, so I shall be forced to take off five house points from each of you."
"All right. We understand." Said Hermione, although she hated it when she was the cause of a loss of house points, because she so rarely was. "Good night Professor. Good night Harry." Hermione headed up the stairs to her dormitory.
Professor McGonagall headed back into her office, but secretly watched Harry as he found Hermione's illuminated wand laying on the floor where one of them had dropped it during their fight.
"Mione. You forgot your wand." Harry called up the stairs. Hermione met him in the hallway that segregated the boy's and girl's dormitories and took it from him.
"Thanks Harry," Hermione leaned in close and kissed Harry lightly on the lips. "Good night," she smiled.
"Good night." Harry grinned goofily as he watched her retreating back, and McGonagall's lips twitched in amusement. How he looked like the late James after he and Lily had made up from one of their fights. McGonagall felt a twinge of sadness. Poor Lily and James. She wished they could be there now to watch their son grow up, but perhaps they were watching him just the same, and perhaps James was laughing at how much the situation between Harry and Hermione resembled his past arguments with Lily when they were both students at Hogwarts. McGonagall smiled with this bittersweet thought and went back to bed.
The next day Harry woke up early, it was still dark outside, and Harry could not sleep. He still could not believe how angry Hermione had gotten with him the night before. He sighed in exasperation. She was a stubborn witch, and he didn't know what it would take to get her back, but he knew it would take a lot. He rolled out of bed, and reached for the black robes that he had tossed carelessly onto the chair beside his bed the night before, and put them on. Then he stumbled, half-awake and miserable, down the stairs into the unlit common room.
"Great, just great," he thought, cursing the lack of light. "Now I have to feel around in the darkness for the couch."
Harry held his hands out before him, and cursed that he hadn't brought his wand with him. "Lumos!" he muttered. "Accio wand!" he muttered again. Harry shook his head at his own stupidity, he couldn't summon his wand without a wand to summon it with. "God. I really am brainless sometimes," he thought disgustedly to himself. Suddenly he tripped over something and he fell onto something soft.
"Ahhh." he sighed. He had found the couch, or so he thought.
"What the bloody hell?!" Harry heard a muffled voice say.
"Huh?" Harry felt a slender piece of wood beside him on the couch. It seemed to be someone's wand. "Lumos." He said, pleased to finally be able to see. A dim light flickered on at the tip of the wand, and he found that he was lying on top of none other than.
"Hermione?" Harry asked.
"Get off me Harry," she pushed him away. "You can't win me back by climbing all over me."
Harry rose off the couch onto his feet. "I didn't know you were there," he said coldly. Then he realized that speaking to her in that tone of voice would not help him get her back. "Here's your wand." He said, as politely as possible, his eyes, however, expressed his anger.
"Why are you mad at me?" Hermione arose as well, and looked into Harry's smoldering emerald eyes. "If anyone should be mad, it is me!"
"I. I." Harry muttered incoherently, as he could not think of a single thing to say in response.
"Oh, brilliant Potter. Has your mind left you? Not a thing to say to that is there? And I know why." She poked him in the chest. "Because you have absolutely no reason to be angry with me."
Harry reached down and clutched her wrist in his. She struggled to get away, but he wasn't going to let her go that easily. He pressed her hand to his breast, so she could feel his steady heart beat.
"Listen to me," he said calmly.
"You do not own me, I do not have to do as you command." Hermione was being extremely intractable, she was making this as hard as possible for Harry.
"Well then, you don't have to listen if you don't want to." Harry smiled weakly at her. She glared in response. "I would appreciate it greatly if you did, however."
"Ugh," Hermione rolled her eyes. "Fine, make it quick," she snapped.
"I am sorry about earlier. I just don't want you to put yourself in unnecessary peril Mione. I didn't mean to upset you, I just thought you were being a bit silly, and I thought some sleep would help you clear up your mind. I understand that there is a possibility that you are right about Krum, but if your are not, I do not want you to get hurt again. Who knows, maybe he is wittingly under the control of Voldemort, and by doubting Krum's guilt, you might be playing yourself into the dark lord's hands. You could easily be lured into a trap, Mione."
"Harry. I do not wish to discuss this. It is my business whether I take this up with Viktor or not."
"No, it is my business too Hermione." Harry rested his other hand on her shoulder. "I care about you, and I want you to be safe. If you disappeared you would leave many unhappy people behind."
"Harry!" Hermione snapped. "If you really care about me, you will let me think for myself, and do what I believe is right. I don't need your protection. You always insist that you do not try to play hero, but you really do, and this is proof Harry."
Harry's eyes darkened in growing fury. She had hit a weak spot in him. He had never asked to be the boy-who-lived. He hated being gawked at, and he hated some of the snide comments he received from jealous people about how he took advantage of his fame, and basically played hero as Hermione had so kindly put it to him a second ago.
"No! Take that back Hermione. That is a lie, and you know it is!"
"No!" Hermione was not intimidated by him at all. "I used to pity you because everyone thought of you in that way, but frankly, I believe it now too. I am not going to lie to appease you Harry!"
Harry's cheeks flushed pink in anger. Hermione's feelings also seemed to have the same effect on her countenance. Harry dropped her hand in his fury, none too gently. And turned his back on her.
"You know, I came down here to get some peace, and then when I saw you, to apologize, but clearly my apology would be worthless to you. After all I am an impostor aren't I? I play the role of the hero, because we both know that deep inside all I am is a name. The boy-who-lived is all I am, and apparently all I am to you. Well good night, and I do hope you find someone who will care little enough for you to not worry about you playing yourself into Voldemort's hands. I am just the boy-who-lived who has no feelings, and pretends he cares about others in order to play hero." Harry was shouting now, and he was so angry that hardly anything he said was making any sense whatsoever.
Hermione felt a twinge of guilt for treating him like the boy-who- lived, not like Harry, the boy beyond the name, but she did not want him to win her over this easily, so she pretended to not care about hurting him in that way. She pretended that it hadn't hurt her as well, and glared at him. "Well why don't you get out and kill Voldemort now. Oh and don't forget to mention to the press about how I almost went after Viktor and almost became Voldemort's captive. Almost of course, because you, the boy-who-lived, saved the day once again. Go on then Harry Potter. I wish you luck. And always remember that you are a hero, and nothing but a hero!" Hermione said sarcastically.
Harry's eyes, which had been burning in his fury a moment before, suddenly mirrored the hurt that Hermione felt inside but was forcing herself not to reveal as openly as Harry was. She tried to ignore the pain that stared out at her from Harry's emerald depths, because it made her heart ache to see how much her harsh words had affected him. Harry had always tried to live past his fame, and she had relentlessly accused him of failing utterly in doing so. She felt tears accumulating and she willed them not to spill over. She closed her eyes tightly, in a desperate attempt to prevent their flow. She wanted to be strong. She didn't want Harry to know that she had hurt herself as much as she had hurt him, with her latest accusation. Harry looked at her scrunched up eyes and could tell plain as plain what she was trying to do. He walked over to her, and gently cupped her chin in his hand.
"Hermione. My Mione. I am sorry." He said truthfully. He watched as Hermione gave up trying to hold back her tears and they rained down her face. Harry's other hand tenderly brushed her cheeks wiping away the tears.
"I'm sorry too Harry. I didn't mean it about you playing hero. I was just really mad, and I said the thing I knew would hurt you the most." She blushed and turned away. "You must hate me for saying something like that to you, but I really am sorry, if that matters to you at all." Hermione was clearly extremely contrite, and Harry hadn't needed her to say so to understand that. Her tears had spoken well enough for her.
"Mione. How could I ever hate you? I hate myself for provoking you to say those things to me, because I know you wouldn't have said them of your own accord." Harry slipped his arm around her waist, pulling her closer to him. Hermione lay her head on his chest and she felt a bubble of joy surge inside her. They had gotten over their silly fight, and now that she was back in his arms, and he in hers, she felt perfectly content.
"Harry. I suppose you didn't hear me last night when I said this to you. I didn't say it directly but I implied it," Hermione realized she was babbling, and tried to get to the point. "But." she bit her lip, afraid to say it. What if he didn't feel the same way? What if he didn't say it back to her? Hermione ignored her panicky feelings, and opened her mouth to say what she was determined to tell him. "I. I love you Harry."
"I love you too, Mione." Harry felt so elated that she had told him, and he longed to hold her closer, but that wasn't possible. "And I'll always love you."
Hermione brought his mouth down to hers, and their kiss compensated for the space that Harry had wanted to overcome. Harry felt bolts of electricity jolting through his body at the sweet contact of her mouth on his. He parted his lips, and the intimacy of his tongue tracing her lips urged her to follow his lead and deepen the kiss. Harry's mouth on hers expressed his love, and the kiss increased in passion as the couple sat down onto the couch. Suddenly Harry heard someone cough in front of him. He took his mouth off Hermione's and looked up to face the interruption. He saw Professor McGonagall in her nightgown staring down at him and Hermione awaiting an explanation.
"Sorry Professor," Hermione flushed and buried her face in Harry's shoulder. Harry patted her back, and mustered up the courage to speak to their Head of House.
"We had a fight Professor and I couldn't sleep, I don't think she could either. We didn't mean to disturb anyone while we tried to put aside our differences," Harry said apologetically.
"Potter you both were yelling, it is only three o'clock in the morning, and the best you can come up with is that you didn't mean to disturb anyone?!" Professor McGonagall raged.
"We are sorry Professor. We got caught up in our own issues and I guess we forgot about everyone else. If anyone was disturbed though, don't get mad at them if they rage at me and Hermione later." Harry said.
Professor McGonagall looked between the two friends. Harry was soothingly rubbing Hermione's back, because he clearly understood how upset she was when she got in trouble with a teacher. McGonagall felt rather pleased that they had made up, because she hated it when students who were usually close argued amongst each other. Also, Harry's penitent speech reminded her of James at that age, when he and young Lily made up after a fight. She softened when she recalled those memories from not too long ago.
"Well Potter, you seem to be sorry. And clearly Miss Granger is as well. Well then there seems to be no harm done. Despite this I do wish to impress upon you two that this can not happen again, so I shall be forced to take off five house points from each of you."
"All right. We understand." Said Hermione, although she hated it when she was the cause of a loss of house points, because she so rarely was. "Good night Professor. Good night Harry." Hermione headed up the stairs to her dormitory.
Professor McGonagall headed back into her office, but secretly watched Harry as he found Hermione's illuminated wand laying on the floor where one of them had dropped it during their fight.
"Mione. You forgot your wand." Harry called up the stairs. Hermione met him in the hallway that segregated the boy's and girl's dormitories and took it from him.
"Thanks Harry," Hermione leaned in close and kissed Harry lightly on the lips. "Good night," she smiled.
"Good night." Harry grinned goofily as he watched her retreating back, and McGonagall's lips twitched in amusement. How he looked like the late James after he and Lily had made up from one of their fights. McGonagall felt a twinge of sadness. Poor Lily and James. She wished they could be there now to watch their son grow up, but perhaps they were watching him just the same, and perhaps James was laughing at how much the situation between Harry and Hermione resembled his past arguments with Lily when they were both students at Hogwarts. McGonagall smiled with this bittersweet thought and went back to bed.