Chapter 15 – Everything

You are the strength

That keeps me walking

You are the hope

That keeps me trusting

You are the light to my soul

You are my purpose

You're everything

You're all I want

You're all I need

You're everything

Everything

"RON!! LAVENDER! Do you think you could spare a moment of your precious time to actually get off your asses and HELP!?"

Ginny was fuming as she stormed over to the couch and hit her brother hard on the head, "Would you get up you lazy git!?" she yelled and he rolled his eyes.

"Merlin Ginny, you're getting like mum more and more each day" he said, getting up off the couch, bringing Lavender with him.

Ginny glared at him, "Oh shut up Ron, just come help us"

The red head basically had the whole of Gryffindor working on the party, she had a couple first years sitting outside the portrait hole, just in case Harry and Hermione had to come back early. There were a few second and third years getting some food from the kitchens, the fourth years were trying to tidy up the mess that was the common room, and the rest were performing complicated decorating charms to make the place look how Ginny wanted it.

"Okay, so Lavender, you can help me, Dean, Kate and Seamus do this banner, and Ron you can…you know…go get the you know what from you know where" Ron nodded at his sister and laughed at Lavender's face, as she was looking extremely curious about Ginny's mysterious words.

"Just don't ask Lav" He said chuckling as he walked casually up the stairs to the boy's dorm to get what he needed. Lavender went to look at Ginny strangely, but she'd already walked away. She sighed; shrugging her shoulders, and went to go help.

* * *

"You're doing great Mione!"

After Harry had caught up with Hermione, he'd taught her exactly how she should fly so she could be safe but have fun at the same time. Much like she was in every other aspect of life, Hermione had been an extremely quick learner. 

Hermione grinned at him as they flew together, "I know!" she said happily, making him laugh at her confidence.

He looked down at his new watch and his eyes widened, "Bloody hell, where did the time go?! We've been flying for 3 hours!" he exclaimed, surprised. 

Hermione smiled at him, "I guess that's what happens when you're having fun"

* * *

Shortly after Ginny had sat down with Seamus, Dean, Kate and Lavender, she had quickly gotten up and stormed away. Dean rolled his eyes as he watched her walk over to the fire and pick up her cloak.

"What was that all about?" Seamus asked curiously, and Dean shook his head.

"No clue, all I did was say some stupid joke about that git Malfoy…" Kate and Lavender smirked at each other, "…and she got all angry at me saying how typical it is of a guy to judge someone they didn't even know!" he finished heatedly. 

Seamus looked at him a confused expression on his face, "Why would she be sticking up for Malfoy?"

Dean looked suspiciously at his fuming girlfriend as she walked past the group, and slammed the portrait door behind her. 

"You've got me, mate…she's been acting very strange lately…" he started to say but Ron interrupted as he sauntered over to the group, clearly hiding something in his robes.

"Did I just see Ginny leave?" he asked and they all nodded.

"Yeah, she got angry with me because I made fun of Malfoy" Dean said, and almost laughed at Ron's shocked and confused face. "Don't ask me Ron, I have no idea why she'd be so touchy about that subject"

Ron looked around at them, a puzzled look on his freckly face, "Okaaay…well I gotta go get…something…so I'll see you in a bit" he said, walking towards the portrait hole, and closing it gently behind him, the exact opposite of how his sister had done it moments ago.

* * *

Ginny was walking rather fast down the hall, not knowing where she was going; just hoping that Dean wasn't coming after her. Lately she'd been extremely defensive of Malfoy. That time on the first day of school, he'd really surprised her by being so observant about the whole Harry/Hermione thing; she'd always thought he must've been really thick to hang out with Crabbe and Goyle. But after that, she'd become intrigued by the flaxen haired Slytherin.

Speaking of the devil, he had just come around the corner nearly smashing right into her as she let out a small scream. He looked at her and smirked, "Sorry about that Weasley, didn't mean to scare you" he said laughing mockingly.

"It's hard not to be scared of something that looks like you, Malfoy" she retorted and he looked as if he was going to laugh.

"Good one Weasel" he said smirking.

"Are you so thick that you can't think of a different name for me than the one you use for my brother?" she said, not knowing why she was doing this, but they both seemed to be enjoying it in a way. He narrowed his eyebrows at her.

"Shut up Weasley" was all he could say, and he looked at himself in what looked like disgust.

"Good one Malfoy" she said imitating him.

He looked at her in what looked like disbelief, as if he couldn't believe she actually had the nerve to talk back to him, or that he was enjoying it. Although he knew that last comeback of his had been terrible. "'Shut up' wow, that's real original Draco" he thought to himself angrily, she was making him nervous and he didn't like it. The Slytherin opened his mouth to say something else but a sickeningly sweet voice came from behind them, "Drakie!! What are you doing with that…that…Weasley!" Draco rolled his eyes.

"Fuck off Parkinson" he said tiredly.

"Drakie!! Don't swear at me! I'm your girlfriend!" Pansy whined and Ginny felt a strange stab of annoyance inside her.

Draco looked strangely at the pug faced girl, and to the absolute shock and bewilderment of the Gryffindor beside him, he flung his arm around the petite red head's shoulders, "What are you on about Pansy? Ginny's my girlfriend, everyone knows that!"

Pansy and Ginny's reactions were exactly the same, both of their jaws dropped at Draco saying such a thing, and he roared with laughter, taking his arm away from Ginny's shoulders. "Only joking Parkinson, I just wanted to see your reaction" he said laughing his head off. When he finally calmed down he resumed his composure. "Anyway, just because I went to the Yule Ball with you two years ago, that does not mean I'm your boyfriend, so get that straight will you?"

"Oh come on Drakie…you know you love me, you're just in a bad mood, let's go" Pansy wrapped herself around him, but he threw her off in disgust.

"Honestly, it's laughable that you think you have a chance with me." he said rudely, shoving her away.

She suddenly glared at him, "Fine Draco I don't care about you anymore!" she said pouting and Ginny watched him in wonder as Draco laughed coldly at Pansy.

"Fine with me" he said simply crossing his arms.

Pansy looked ticked off that her 'plan' hadn't worked, simply glaring at him again and quickly storming away towards the Dungeons.

"So…where were we?" Draco said turning back to Ginny, who still had her mouth slightly open at his previous actions. He snickered and closed her mouth with his pale finger, "Gave you a shock there didn't I?"

"Erm…yeah…" she stammered. Ginny's mind was spinning, the touch of his skin on hers was making her feel light headed, and she couldn't think of anything to say that made the slightest bit of sense. 

"You don't sound so confident anymore, Weasley" Draco said smirking, "What happened, did…" but he was cut himself off as he realized Ginny had started to back away slowly. "What's wrong with…?"

"Stay away from me Malfoy" she said shortly, as she ran down the hall.

* * *

About an hour later, Harry soared past Hermione, feeling content just to watch her having so much fun. He'd known she'd be a good at flying, honestly, what wasn't she good at? He turned around again to say something, but a white blur flying over the Astronomy tower caught his eye. It was Hedwig, she was their signal, the party was ready.

Just as he was about to suggest they go inside, Hermione did it for him. She gracefully glided over, "Maybe we should call it quits for today Harry, I'm starving"

Harry smiled gratefully, "Sure, I'm pretty hungry myself actually" he lied as they flew back down, landing smoothly on the pitch. As they were putting their broomsticks away, Harry spoke up "Hey, how about we go up to the common room first, just to see if anyone's back yet" He'd managed to say it without any hint of other reason for wanting to return to the common room, and was rather happy with himself.

"Okay, whatever you want, I guess Snape might of let Ron off early" she said and they laughed together.

"I'm sure that would happen" Harry said sarcastically.

They reached the giant oak doors and Hermione stopped suddenly. Harry looked at her curiously, "Something wrong?" he asked but she shook her head.

"No, I just wanted to thank you for one of the best birthday's I've ever had….none of our other friends were with us, but you made me forget that" she said smiling at him and he laughed.

"Well I guess I'm pretty distracting sometimes" he said jokingly.

"Shut up I'm serious!" she said laughing and he stopped.

"All right your welcome, I'm glad you had fun, so did I" he said seriously.

"Good" she said, reaching for the door handle, but Harry stopped her.

"Wait" she looked at him curiously, "Don't I get a hug for planning the best birthday ever?"

Hermione smiled at him and laughed, "Of course you do, how stupid am I?" she said, wrapping her arms around him happily, ecstatic that he'd been the one to ask her.

They both pulled away a bit later and Harry opened the door for her, both of them in very good moods. Harry was probably more happy then she was though, if she'd thought that had been one of the best birthday's ever, what would she think when they walked into the common room?

He could hardly contain his excitement on the way to Gryffindor tower and chose not to speak much. As they turned the corner, Harry felt half nervous, half excited as they stopped in front of the portrait. "Honeydukes" Hermione said and he laughed as the Fat Lady told her she was wrong. "How can I be wrong, what are you on about?"

"Mione, didn't we tell you about the new password?" Harry said mock innocently, "Gryffindors love Hermione" he said to the fat lady, and Hermione laughed.

"That's so corny Harry did you think of that?!" she said, as the portrait opened.

"Ron made it up" Harry said as he climbed in behind her.

She turned around to say something else, but she realized that she'd stepped into a pitch black common room. "What the…"

"SURPRISE!!!!!"

Hermione screamed as the room was suddenly filled with light, what seemed like hundreds of kids were screaming surprise at her and confetti was falling all over the place.

"Happy Birthday!!" some of them said enthusiastically while others were laughing as she simply stood there in a state of shock.

"Wha…I…how'd…" she stammered unable to speak, and then suddenly looked behind her. "Where'd Harry go?"

Harry laughed and waved at her, "Right here Mione"

She looked at him, her face breaking into a grin, "Did you do this?" she asked, as she looked around at everyone, smiling happily at them.

"Me and Ron and…well everything did something really." Harry said looking at the large group of students.

"Ginny did a hell of a lot" Ron said laughing at her as she blushed slightly, but shrugged.

"I'm not going to say I didn't" she said laughing lightly with everyone else.

"So did you know about this, did Harry slip up?" Seamus asked curiously and Hermione shook her head wordlessly.

"I had absolutely no idea, how on earth did you all keep it from me??" she said truthfully.

"Well it's really easy to distract you Hermione" Ginny said glancing at Harry pointedly.

Hermione laughed and blushed as she saw that Harry had noticed Ginny's glance.

"Well anyways, enough of this, we've got to get you ready!!" Kate said excitedly, as all the girls joined in, dragging Hermione away from the door.

"Wait, what are you going to do to me??" she said nervously as they continued to pull her up the stairs.

"Oh you'll see" Lavender said giggling.

10 minutes later…

"Lavender I look like a slut!"

The girls laughed as Hermione looked in the mirror, cheeks flushed. "Hermione you look awesome, every guy down there will be drooling over you!"

Hermione rolled her eyes, "Honestly Lavender, I don't want them to be drooling over me, do I have to wear this?" she moaned.

"Yup" Ginny said simply, "Now come on, let Parvati do your hair, she's really good with those types of spells"

Hermione sighed, and gave in, reluctantly walking over to the excited Gryffindor.

* * *

"Finished!" Hermione looked in the mirror, and was surprised to see that she did look pretty good.

"You are good at that Parvati" she said, moving a wisp of hair away from her eyes. Her shiny hair was down, but some of it was pulled to the sides, and the chestnut strands fell down her back in loose curls.

"You look great Hermione" Kate said smiling at her, "And believe me that dress isn't too revealing, it looks perfect on you"

Hermione looked sceptically at herself, "I don't know about that…but it is nice…I'm not sure if I'm slim enough to wear it though" she said, pulling at the satin material self consciously.

All the girls looked at her as if she was mad, "Have you seen yourself Hermione, you're gorgeous, what are you on about?!"

Hermione snorted, "That's ridiculous Gin"

Ginny scoffed, "Whatever, just let me go downstairs before the rest of you come down, I want to see a certain persons reaction" she said grinning. 

"Who's reaction?" Hermione asked.

Lavender shook her head, "You're so clueless it's cute Hermione" 

Hermione shrugged, "Well go on Ginny, we'll be down in a minute".

* * *

"Hey Gin, what're you doing?" Harry asked as she came running down the stairs and over to Harry and Seamus.

"I just wanted to see your reaction" she said mischievously.

Harry rolled his eyes, "Right, well where is she…"

Harry was interrupted as he heard practically every boy in the room, whistling and catcalling at something. He turned around and his heart almost stopped.

"Holy shit"

It was Hermione they were whistling at and he had no problem understanding why. She was wearing a rather tight red dress that would've made any other girl in the room look extremely slutty…but Hermione pulled it off perfectly.  

"Ginny, what did they do to her?!" He whispered hoarsely not taking his eyes off of Hermione. Ginny laughed at the state of him.

"Oh that was priceless" she responded basically to herself, still laughing as he continued to stare at her.

"Merlin…I've never seen another girl as gorgeous as her Gin" he said quietly.

Ginny smiled at him, "That's sweet Harry, now why don't you go tell her that"

Harry sighed, "Yeah I know I know, I should tell her everything…its just…"

"Just what? What's stopping you?" Ginny said frustrated.

"I can answer you in one word…Ron" he said dully.

Ginny scoffed, "Oh honestly Harry, Ron will understand, he's too preoccupied with Lavender to notice anyway"

Harry shook his head, "He still loves her I know he does."

"Hey guys"

Hermione came walking up to them happily and they smiled at her.

"Hey Mione, you look amazing" Harry said and she smiled slightly.

"I don't think so, but thanks" she said pulling at the dress again.

Ginny rolled her eyes, "Hermione you look great all right, let's just go dance" she said pulling the other two with her into the middle of the little 'dance floor' they'd made.

"Gin, there's no music" Hermione said looking around, but quickly had to eat her words as she heard a band start to play from nowhere, and surprisingly Lavender started to sing from the front of the room, where there now was an area set up for the band… or whoever they'd got to sing.

"Well now there is" Ginny said happily, "Oh look there's Dean, see you two later!" as she walked away to a non existent Dean, Lavenders started to sing one of Hermione's favourite songs, and both Harry and Hermione laughed to themselves, knowing what Ginny was trying to do. 

"Want to dance?" Harry said grinning and Hermione laughed softly.

"Sure"

* * *

Harry and Hermione were still dancing three songs later, and Ginny was watching them from Dean's lap, smiling.

"What are you smiling at Ginny?" Dean asked curiously.

"Harry and Hermione" she said laughing, "They're so cute"

Dean rolled his eyes, "Honestly Ginny, if I didn't know better I'd think you still liked Harry"

Ginny looked at him sharply, "How on earth does that make any sense?"

Dean shrugged, "Well you're constantly staring at him, and you've been acting kind of weird lately"

Ginny pushed herself up off of Dean, "Believe me Dean, I don't like Harry, but maybe you ought to be more like him…in fact there's a few boys you could learn from in this school" she said angrily, and stalked off into the crowd.

* * *

"I'm going to go get a drink, anyone want one?" Hermione asked, standing up and looking around the group.

"I'll have one if you're going, please" Kate said happily as she sat on Seamus' knee.

"Sure" she said smiling, and went off to the snack table.

But as she was pouring the drinks, she couldn't help but notice a couple who seemed rather busy on a chair behind the table. One of them had striking red hair.

"I don't know why I ever wanted to get with Hermione, she's nothing compared to you…what is love really anyway? I don't think I actually loved her"

Hermione felt a sharp pang of hurt in her heart as she heard Ron's drunken voice continue to ramble on, not making the slightest bit of sense.

"I mean, between you and me, I'm sure she can't be too experienced now can she? Remember what she looked like last year?"

All that she heard after that was a high pitched giggle and the rest was blurred out, as she dropped her glass, the fizzy butterbeer splashing all over the red carpet. Her brain didn't register that Ron was most likely drunk as tears slowly trickled down her cheeks. She got away from the table as fast as she could, and ran up the stairs to her dormitory…or what she thought was her dormitory, she didn't seem to notice she'd ran the wrong way.

* * *

"Umm, I think something happened to Hermione" Dean said, craning his neck in time to see her smash her glass. "She looks upset"

Harry looked over the top of the couch, "Is she crying??" he said concerned.

"Maybe one of us should check on her" Parvati said as Hermione disappeared up the stairs.

"Yeah, I'll go…why would she go in our dorm though…" He said confused as he got up, to follow her.

Harry reached his dorm, and slowly opened the door to his dorm, "Hermione?" he whispered quietly, but the only response he got was the soft crying of his best friend.

He walked over to his own bed and saw Hermione sitting on the ground beside it, her knees bent, and her head in her hands. "Mione what happened, what's wrong?" he asked softly, sitting down next to her.

"Am I so unlovable Harry?" she said quietly, not looking at him.

Harry looked at her in utter disbelief, "Why would you say that Mione, of course you're not"

"Harry, I just heard Ron downstairs making it perfectly clear that I'm not good enough for him…" she started, and Harry felt himself immediately angry at Ron for hurting her. He was about to say something, but she went on.

"…my own father never even told me I was his daughter"

Harry looked at her sadly, putting his arm around her, "Mione that wasn't because he didn't love you, he just thought you deserved better that's all…I know you don't think so, but he did love you, more than anything"

Hermione shook her head, "I just feel like no one is ever going to love me Harry…not Sirius, not Ron, not…" she trailed off looking at his startling emerald eyes.

Harry looked down at her, knowing he had to tell her now, "Hermione, haven't you ever heard that the one thing you want more than anything is usually right in front of you" he said softly.

Hermione looked at him with surprise, he couldn't possibly be saying what she thought he was, "What do you mean..?" she said quietly, not daring to believe it.

Harry cupped her cheek gently with his hand, "Hermione…isn't it obvious?"

"You're the only one who loves me for who I am, you stick by me no matter what happens, you make me feel like nothing can ever go wrong…I was blind to it before but I've realized that you're everything to me Mione…"

Hermione felt a tear roll down her cheek, unable to believe this was happening. "You're wrong if you think no one loves you because… "  his voice cracked slightly.

"Mione…" Hermione felt her breath catch in her throat, and her lip began to tremble, as he leaned closer to her, "I love you" he whispered softly before his lips landed gently on hers.

* * *

Bet you didn't expect that to happen eh?? Haha…or maybe you did..whatever..hope you enjoyed it!! Please Review!! Oh and for those of you who think I'm portraying Ron in a bad light…he really isn't the bad guy in this fic, I just needed him to say that, so Harry could comfort her or whatever, he was drunk and didn't know what he was saying, he totally did not mean it. He'll apologize later, the trios friendship won't be ruined, trust me.