Disclaimer: I do not and will never own Harry Potter or anything associated with it. Happy now?
A/N: This is a Harry/Hermione/Ron fic. If you don't like that, then don't read it.
Summary: It's the Golden Trio's last year at Hogwarts, and some things never change. At least, some feelings don't. Harry/Hermione/Ron pairing.
Since her first year at Hogwarts, she'd always had Harry and Ron. They were the Golden Trio, like the Three Musketeers or Bonnie, Clyde and... er... Clyde. It didn't really surprise anyone when the strong friendship the threesome shared turned into something even more passionate. Whispers ran through Hogwarts like wildfire.
"Didja hear about Harry, Ron, and Hermione?"
"Sexual tension for years..."
"Didn't surprise me."
As Hermione walked through the halls she ignored the silence that her arrival caused. She knew that they had been talking about her mere moments ago. It didn't bother her, though. All she needed, and all she would ever need, was...
"Harry! Ron!" She called the two of them over, and their eyes lit up when they saw her. She smiled and laughed. It wasn't the buck-toothed smile of a poor lonely bookworm. No, she had had her teeth shrunk by Madame Pomfrey in her 4th year. But there was something more than that. Her bright brown eyes sparkled with a warmth that she had just recently found within herself. She waited for "her boys" to come over, and each of them gave her a peck on the cheek in turn.
"Well, it doesn't really surprise me," Harry said quietly, looking around at their fellow students who, now that the threesome was together, were gaping at them like fish.
"Me neither. The rumor mills at Hogwarts never stop." Ron combed a hand through Hermione's untamable brown hair, causing a few nearby Hufflepuff girls to giggle and whisper with each other.
"I don't care," Hermione stated in her matter-of-fact voice, "They can gossip until they go hoarse." The two boys grinned at her. Hearing her indifference made it all seem more solid to them. Of course, their happy moment was broken by a certain blond Slytherin who happened to pass by with his two cronies at that moment. From the expression in his cold steely eyes one would have thought that he had struck the lottery.
"Well, well, well, have Potty and Weasel gone homo on us?" Crabbe and Goyle guffawed on either side of him.
"We're not homos!" Ron yelled, his ears beginning to turn rather pink.
"That's not what I heard," the steel-eyed youth replied, "I heard that the Golden Trio have become the Golden Menage a' Trois." He shot all three of them a superior look. Harry looked like he was about to hit him when assistance came from a most unlikely source.
"Malfoy—"
Before Harry could finish Mrs. McGonagall interjected while stepping in front of him. "Mr. Malfoy, I believe that is enough slander on Miss Granger and Misters Potter and Weasley's love lives. Five points from Slytherin." Draco looked like he had been slapped in the face. To add insult to injury, a young Ravenclaw girl walked over, looking up at him through thick reading glasses.
"Actually, Draco, a threesome does not necessarily mean that the participants are bisexual. It could be a heterosexual attraction, while the other two participants have less of a sexual attraction for each other. The work itself comes from French, meaning a household of three, not anything—"
"That's enough, Miss Hults. But she's right. Now go to class, all of you!" The onlookers all walked away. Mrs. McGonagall turned to the three Gryffindors behind her, her eyes holding a look of curiosity behind their spectacles. "Is it true?" The three of them all nodded as one. "Well then, mazeltov, or whatever congratulations this calls for." She adjusted her glasses on her nose. "Off to class, then. I doubt that Professor Binns would be happy if you were late."
In reality, Binns probably wouldn't have noticed if half his class didn't show up to hear him babble on about Goblin revolts or Giant wars. The trio walked to History of Magic class slowly, Harry on one side of Hermione and Ron on the other. This day was just getting better and better.
The young Ravenclaw couldn't have put it better. Hermione knew that Harry and Ron would never feel anything more than a depthless friendship for each other. With Hermione, on the other hand... well, she was the one who had put them in a situation like this.
It had started in the weeks before the Yule Ball that year, their seventh. While the decorations were hung and all the students 4th year and above scuttled around looking for dates, the Golden Trio had remained conspicuously dateless. Of course they had been asked, but none of them had agreed to going with one of their fellow Hogwarts students. When the night finally came, they were practically the only ones who weren't going with anyone.
Harry and Ron had stood beneath the stairs to the Girls' Dormitory, both dressed to the nines. Harry was wearing the same emerald dress robes that he had worn for all of the fancy occasions in Hogwarts since 4th year. Ron was wearing a set of midnight blue robes that brought the silver flecks in his eyes into even starker contrast. They waited for Hermione to come down to go to the dance, both twiddling their thumbs nervously. When she did show up, they were not disappointed. She was wearing an aqua ensemble, and her hair was done up in a knot with thin tresses of her curly brown hair falling about her shoulders. If possible, both Harry and Ron's jaws would have hit the floor.
She walked down the stairs with the grace of a ballerina, her eyes sweeping over both of them. They had all grown up so much. Her heart swelled seeing the two of them waiting for her, nervous smiles playing on their lips.
"Shall we?" Harry asked grandiosely, offering her his arm. She detected a flash of jealousy in Ron's eyes, and while she took Harry's hand in her own she slipped her other arm through Ron's. Harry smiled, and led them out through the portrait. "To the dance!" Little did any of them know that they would never make it to the Yule Ball.
They could hear the music of the Weird Sisters playing long before they were even within sight of the Hall. The music loosened Hermione up, and she felt free. She began to skip, dragging Harry and Ron behind her, walking quickly to keep up with her. She laughed and slowed back down, and they gave each other a look like, "What's gotten into her?" To both of their surprise, she didn't drag them into the dance. Instead, she led them out into the garden when Harry had overheard Hagrid and Madame Maxime talking in their 4th year about Hagrid's heritage. The garden was of yet unoccupied by couples seeking to be alone; the dance had only just started. So, for the moment, they were by themselves as they sat down on a stone bench and gazed up at the stars.
"Do you guys realize that this is our last Yule Ball?" Hermione asked. It was the thought that had been on all of the seventh years' minds since the start of school that year. It was their last year at Hogwarts, the last year of refuge in the castle before they were thrust into the adult magic world to make a name for themselves. Harry didn't need to, of course, but he often pictured himself being known as something other than The Boy-Who-Lived when he began his life as an adult.
"Yeah, I do," Ron said quietly. He appeared to be sulking. The morose feeling soon soaked through Hermione and then Harry, who peered over at her and saw tears streaking down her face.
Almost instinctively, Harry pulled her into an embrace, taking Ron with her. "Shh, don't cry, Mione. We'll always be together no matter what." He stroked her hair soothingly, and she stopped crying, erupting into a fit of hiccups instead.
"But—hic—when you and Ron go off to Auror training—hic—and I go to work at the Ministry of Magic—hic—when will we see each other?" She looked up at them with pleading brown eyes. "I don't want this to end."
"Well, actually, I don't think I'd miss Snape that much, or Malfoy," Ron started, before Hermione slapped him on the leg.
"Not school, Ron! This! Us!" She erupted into a fit of sobs again, and neither of them was able to quell her this time. They both whispered sweet nothings into her ears and held her close.
"It's just," she choked out between sobs, "I've fallen in love with both of you." Both boys looked at each other with wide eyes. "The way Harry's hair stands up and won't ever lie down," Harry smoothed his hair down instinctively, and like usual, it refused to be tamed. "The way Ron's ears go red when he's embarrassed about something," Ron's ears, which had been steadily growing pinker, now turned beet red. "I just don't know if I could go on without you guys!"
Silence greeted her words, and tears continued to stream down her face. Harry, always better than Ron at these kinds of things, brushed the resilient salty drop away with his thumb and held up her chin with one forefinger. He looked at her with emerald eyes softened with emotion. "The truth is, Mione, I love you, too. " He gave her a little peck on her lips, and Ron cleared his throat.
"Erm, well, so do I," Ron said shakily, no where near as verbose as Harry but just as heartfelt. He gave her a little kiss as well, and she had finally quieted. Looking up at both of them, she smiled, which made both of them smile.
What had come that night seemed like the logical course to follow, even to Hermione's scientific brain. The details of it would have caused any of them to blush furiously. It had been gentle and sweet, a first for all three of them. They had pushed Harry and Ron's beds together, and while everyone else was still dancing, the Gryffindor Boys' Dormitory was put to much better use than sleeping.
When everyone returned to their common rooms in the late hours of the night, they found the Golden Trio curled up on a big leather couch in the Gryffindor common room, dressed in their pajamas and their hair tousled with sleep, among other things. The boys had laughed and the girls had cooed about how cute the three of them looked. Within three days of the Yule Ball's passing, news had reached all over the school that the three seventh year Gryffindors were now more than friends. Rumors (also true) abounded that Hermione, who had been planning a career in the Ministry of Magic, now wished to take up training as an Auror. Of course, her grades were good enough, and she was in all the right classes, so the switch was practically painless. However, some of the jeering wasn't, particularly for "her boys", who were now forced to endure false rumors of homosexuality that made them both erupt in anger whenever mentioned. Their love was for Hermione, and friendship between themselves.
Really, it wasn't irrational at all when one thought about it. How could a girl who had had two best boy friends their entire teenage life possibly take only one lover? To the threesome, the arrangement made perfect sense, and it was hardly ever an awkward evening that they spent together. After so many years as a trio, how could it ever change?
They reached Binns' class hand in hand, and the entire class turned to watch them as they entered and took their seats. Binns didn't bat an eye and class was just as boring as usual. Some things would certainly never change. Hermione, Ron, and Harry's love was among them.