Disclaimer: I own nothing of the following; only the plot relevent to this particular story.

This is my first fanfic so BEWARE!!! ;)

Chapter 1 - A Change Of Feelings

It was a dry summer day and he was sitting on a bench at the end of Privet Drive. Only a few weeks ago he had returned from school andhe had to stay with his uncle and aunt for the holidays and it won't be until September when he'd be able to see his friends again. Unfortunately for him it looks like it's going to be another horrible summer at Privet Drive but this time, unlike the past summer, his friends were keeping him updated with what was going on in the order. Ron was on a vacation with his family while his dad was at No 12 Grimmauld Place on some mission for the order that no one seemed to know what entailed, and Hermione was staying with her parents outside London.

Memories of the past year where scrolling in Harry Potter's mind as he stood up and wandered about. He passed the place where he had seen Sirius for the first time before he left for his third year at Hogwarts. He tried to remove this memory from his mind, he didn't want to think about what happened to Sirius last year, he couldn't bear it.

At least this summer his friends were telling him what was going on. Ron kept him informed about Fred and George's business which was going really well. But what he enjoyed the most where Hermione's long letters which came through muggle post to Mrs. Figg, the squib who lived nearby. In this way the letters could not be intercepted, 'Smart', he thought, of course it was Hermione he was talking about, the smartest girl in school, he would have imagined she was going to find a way of sending him information un-intercepted.

He found himself smiling at the thought of her without even knowing why. He passed through a lot of experiences with her in their Hogwarts years and together they always survived through these difficulties; he was sure the same thing would happen to them in their last two years at Hogwarts. They would find more obstacles now that Voldemort has fully returned, but he was sure that together they'll pass through it.

'How much I miss her!' This thought surprised him. Of course he missed Ron too, but Hermione.... He couldn't understand why he missed her so much.

'It's your best friend we're talking about idiot!' He said to himself shaking his head to try and remove these thoughts from his mind.

He could not understand where these feelings where coming from. His stomach always seemed to jolt when Hermione entered his thoughts lately. The last time he remembered his stomach jolt was when he was around Cho Chang. But this was different in so many ways...

Hermione was his best friend apart from Ron, she was the smartest witch he ever knew and she was also very caring. Every time something happened to him, she would always be the first one to ask how he was. She always managed to see right through him, he found it very difficult to hide things from her and hated when he had to lie to her. He felt like she was the only one who understood him or the only one who ever listened to his worries. He remembered when back in their third year he had told her about Sirius asking him to move with him, he remembered how she stood by his side and listened to him like she always did. With Cho it never was like that.

With Cho the only arguments he could tackle were Quiddich and mocking Umbridge, not that he minded of course, but they never talked about anything else. It was hard to tackle other important subjects like Voldemort. With Cho, there were so many things she just didn't know and he didn't feel comfortable talking about with her. Hermione not only knew almost everything but she lived through many of the experiences in person with him. He remembered when he and Cho went to Hogsmead for Valentine's Day and how Cho was jealous of Hermione and how Hermione had helped him understand Cho's behavior:

"'.. and it might have been a good idea to mention how ugly you think I am too,' Hermione added as an afterthought.

'But I don't think you're ugly,' said Harry bemused."

He smiled at that memory, of course he didn't think she was ugly, as a matter of fact he thought she was just the opposite; he thought she was beautiful! The first time he realized it was when she went to the Yule Ball with Victor Krum. That's when he started seeing Hermione in a different light and from that moment he started to notice how Hermione had changed from a little girl with bushy hair to a wonderful young woman.

After all that thinking he had finally come to a conclusion; this thing for Hermione was certainly different from what he had with Cho. It was something that filled him with a kind of warmth, happiness and security he could never imagine possible. It was something more complex, and more beautiful.

Then suddenly the clock of the nearby church struck seven and waked him from his reverie. He remembered that if he wasn't at the Dursleys in a few minutes to cook dinner they would be very angry so he ran as fast as he could and arrived just in time to cook. So the Dursleys had no reason to kick him out of the house and he didn't have to start worrying on where to go and stay for the summer.

The next day, after preparing breakfast for the Dursleys and doing any kind of chore they expected from him, he went to visit Mrs. Figg. When he saw that he had received another letter from Hermione he felt his heart would explode with joy! He read the letter over and over again even if it was a very short letter.

Hi Harry,

I just thought about giving you my telephone number maybe you can find a way of phoning me, I hope you can! So here you go, the number is 81191923.

Hope I'll hear your voice soon!

With Love,

Hermione

He didn't waste any time and asked Mrs. Figg if she had a telephone and, when she said she did he phoned Hermione immediately.

"Hello, Hermione?"

"Harry!" Her voice sounded really happy. The moment he heard her soft voice he thought his heart would just stop beating.

"Harry?" - She said again for he was so lost in his thoughts that he had not answered.

"Yeah, it's me. How are you doing?"

"I'm fine thanks, I hope you're OK. What have you been doing?"

"Oh nothing special" he couldn't tell her that for some reason he was thinking about her day and night. "Just stuff, you know? Thanks for the updates, they kept me going on, you know it's not like the Dursleys are making me enjoy my summer!"

"Yeah, I can imagine! Don't forget that if they mistreat you more that the usual Moody will certainly do something!"

They both laughed and remembered when Moody had threatened uncle Vernon just a few weeks before.

"I'm sure that if something happens to you he'll come running and take you at No 12 Grimmauld Place."

"I don't think he'd take me there, it seems like there's some sort of mission going there, and anyways I don't feel like returning there for now."

"Oh, Harry I'm sorry, of course you don't to go there. It was stupid of me to tell you that."

Harry could feel how bad she felt for bringing the subject up and at first he was too. Just thinking of Sirius' death made him feel sick. But he understood that he had not confronted the argument yet. He had to talk about it with someone and start facing the reality of what had happened and he knew that that someone could only be Hermione.

"It's okay Hermione, really; actually I was kind of hoping you'd bring the subject up. I think it's time I start talking about Sirius's ... well, about what happened" He found his voice failed him when he tried to say Sirius's death, and that a tear was wetting his cheek.

"I'm here Harry, you know that right? I'm always here for you so just call me when you need to talk."

He knew she was always there for him, he knew she'd to anything to make him feel better. And he knew he needed her; he needed her by his side more than she could ever imagine.

"Thanks Herm, I appreciate your kindness. What the hell would I do without you?" He wanted to take back that phrase the moment he said it, he couldn't tell his best friend that he really liked her. But she seemed to have taken that phrase differently and just said,

"Well thank God one of you two realized that!" with a sarcastic tone. Harry smiled reassured that she hadn't noticed something strange in his remark but somehow slightly jealous that Ron was mentioned in the conversation, for he knew that Ron always liked Hermione and thought that somewhere deep down in her heart she liked him too.

They went on chatting about various things until Mrs. Granger told Hermione that she had been on the phone for too long. They finished by promising each other they would phone each day and Harry promised her that he would tell her what he felt about Sirius' death.

A few days passed in the same way, with Harry spending most of the time at Mrs. Figg talking to Hermione. He had only managed to talk once about Sirius, his excuse was always the same, that it would be better if they talked about it face to face. In a way for him it was the truth, he knew that just looking into her eyes would make him relax and then he could talk about what happened.

On the fourth day from his first phone-talk with Hermione he went on a walk around the park. He had already talked to Hermione this morning and now he was thinking about her. He was actually thinking about her and Ron as in their conversations she always mentioned him in some way or another. The thought of them together disgusted him but he knew he had to learn to face it since in a matter of months they would be going out together. He was sure of this.

He was so caught up in these thoughts that he didn't realize that it was already 7:30 when he realized it and ran straight to the Dursleys it was too late. Uncle Vernon looked like he would explode with anger and continued to shout the same things.

"I TOOK YOU IN MY HOUSE! YOU INGRATEFUL......"

Suddenly he heard a loud bang and Moody and Lupin appeared before him. It was then that judging by the look on his face that uncle Vernon remembered what Moody had told him on collecting Harry from the station. Lupin pushed Harry upstairs telling him that he had to pack up everything since in a few minutes he was leaving the house. He packed up everything quickly then Lupin gave him something and the moment he touched it he realized it was a portkey. When they arrived at their destination Harry stood up and looked around.

"We're at the station Harry; you're going to stay with the Grangers. Don't worry they already know, Hermione will be picking you up at the station."

"Erm, ok. Why didn't you want me to see what Moody did to my uncle?" he asked with a playful tone.

"Don't worry, nothing too bad. I'm coming with you on the train to keep an eye on you but then will leave you straight away, I have to be somewhere. I trust you and Hermione can reach her home without me observing you?" Lupin said this with a grin on his face. Then they just caught the train and started the voyage to Hermione's house. The thought that he would soon see Hermione made him forget why he was late for cooking dinner and he slept peacefully with her in his dreams.

A/N please review to tell me how I can make this a better fanfic. 10x for reading