Harry woke up a few hours later with a groan. He looked around and saw himself laying down in Hermione's bed. He tried to get up but as he did so, the room started spinning and he flopped back down. He closed his eyes again in the hopes of blocking out the room which was now swaying wildly. He heard the door creak and opened his eyes. Hermione was standing in the doorway. She looked as if she had been crying a lot. Without warning, she flung herself onto him. He let out a small chuckle and hugged her as she cried into his shoulder.
"I thought you'd gotten hurt." She managed to choke out. He gripped her tighter.
"I'm ok. Really." He added at her skeptical expression. "You just channeled too much power into the apparition and most of it had to go somewhere so it just dissipated into the air. How long have I been out?" He asked her.
"Almost 3 hours now. I was contemplating getting a healer but you were breathing so I decided to wait." She replied to him.
"That's ok then. One of my backups should kick in, in another hour or two." He said this more to himself than to her but she caught on anyway.
"What do you mean backups?" She asked, sounding intrigued and yet annoyed that there was something Harry hadn't told her about yet. She moved off of him and sat on the edge of the bed.
"Well you know how if someone performs too much magic at once, they have to take a break for their magical energies to fill up again?" He asked her. At her nod, he continued. "When I was in Azkaban, after I gained these powers, I tried breaking out a couple of times. I repeatedly pummeled the walls with the fiercest spells I could manage. The walls were too heavily shielded so it didn't work but it let me discover something. After the first 2 hours of constant spells, I was drained." He went on ignoring Hermione's gasp.
Hermione's brain meanwhile, was going into overdrive. 'No one has ever lasted 2 hours on a constant barrage of spells.' She thought to herself.
"Then, a while later, I didn't feel quite so sapped. I managed to cast another hour of spells before I started feeling weary again. I decided to keep doing it until I ran completely out of energy."
Hermione felt a headache coming on. It was too much to handle at once. No one was able to maintain spellcasting for that long and afterwards, they would need at least a few days if not weeks to recover fully from it. But Harry was talking about it all in the space of a few hours.
"So how long did it take for you to run out of energy?" She asked him curiously.
Harry who had been looking at her as he talked now looked away.
"It didn't. After about 2 days, I got too physically tired to continue and went to sleep. I tried it a lot during my time in there and the most I remember getting up to was 22 cycles and I couldn't even stand up anymore. I still don't understand what's happening." By the end of it, Harry's voice was beginning to sound desperate. He looked up at her, eyes searching. He was expecting her to know all the answers like she used to. He was disheartened. Deep down, he knew that she probably wouldn't know but he had always held onto the tiny voice in his head telling him to not give up.
Hermione suddenly looked nervous. "Umm… Harry, maybe you should go see Dumbledore about this." She suggested tentatively. She winced slightly at Harry's reaction. The light in his eyes had gone out completely. When he spoke, his voice came out in a way that she could tell he was barely restraining his anger.
"I will not go see him. He was the one who put me with the Dursley's for all those years. He didn't trust me when I needed him most. No Hermione, I will not go to Dumbledore. Dumbledore can go straight to hell for all I care." He hissed through clenched teeth.
Hermione immediately regretted bringing the topic up. She could see the kind of pain that it brought to him. Harry had trusted Dumbledore for 5 years but after Sirius had died and the prophecy revealed, the two of them had grown distant. Harry didn't see Dumbledore as an all powerful presence anymore but more as any other man who made mistakes. Knowing this however, didn't mean Harry forgave the headmaster. Just as Dumbledore had done to Harry in his 5th year, Harry ignored the headmaster. At that stage, they still talked about things that were vital such as the prophecy, Voldemort and his training. Then Dumbledore had royally screwed up. During one particularly heated conversation between them in February of his 6th year, Dumbledore had mentioned that it was Harry's fault that Sirius had died. Even he realized that he had gone too far and made to apologize but Harry wasn't having it. He gave Dumbledore a death glare and silently left the room. Nobody could find him for days afterwards. Almost a week later, he had showed up again , acting normally except that he wasn't talking to Dumbledore at all no matter what the circumstances. Dumbledore had told Hermione what had transpired and she too had been furious at the old headmaster. No mention of the situation was ever made again.
Hermione quickly wrapped her arms around him and he lowered his head into her shoulder and let his barriers fall down. For the first time since getting thrown into Azkaban, he let himself go and let the full impact hit. The impact of the utmost of betrayals. She held him and gently rocked him as she heard him and felt him heave wracking sobs into her shoulder. She could feel her shoulder getting damp from the amount of tears that Harry was shedding but that was the last thing on her mind.
Images flashed before his eyes as he thought of all the people that had caused him this amount of pain. This pain was much more focused and intense than any cruciatus curse. It felt as if his heart was slowly wrenching itself into a million pieces. Images of almost everyone he had known who had betrayed him. Ron, the Weasleys, Dumbledore, Remus, the whole Order of the Phoenix, the whole school, the whole wizarding world. He mentally watched as they all turned their backs on him and sentenced him to life in Azkaban. He clung desperately onto Hermione, afraid that she too might walk away from him.
Hermione was just about ready to curse everyone into oblivion. 'How dare they do this to him?' She thought furiously as she listened to his sobs which were filled with anguish. She knew that Harry could deal with the rest of the world hating him. He had been there before. But being betrayed by people that he knew was new to him. Hermione knew that Harry would have put his life on the line for any one of them and no matter what he said, she knew that if they were in danger, he would still do so, regardless of their current situation. That was the type of person he was and there was no changing it.
"Promise me it'll be ok." Harry pleaded through his tears. He had his arms clutched tightly around her, holding on for dear life.
"I promise Harry. You'll always have me. I'm not going anywhere." She correctly guessed what it was that he was thinking. She put her head gently on top of his. His sobs eventually stopped and his grip around her loosened slightly. He sat up properly, an arm still around her waist. He briefly hesitated, seemingly thinking something over and then placed a brief kiss on her cheek.
Hermione's mind went reeling. On the one hand, she couldn't help but think that there was something deeper to that kiss. Harry was never one to willingly show even that much affection, a result of his time at the Dursleys. If he was willing to kiss her, even on the cheek, it was probably a sign of a much stronger emotion. The other part of her was yelling at her. Harry had always been more of a brother to her than anything else and the idea that he was interested in her in that way was totally absurd.
Hermione had always been the cautious one and this sudden show of affection from Harry had thrown her totally off balance. She didn't know what to think and that was a first. If he was expecting something and she didn't reciprocate, he might get embarrassed and draw away from her. If he wasn't expecting anything and she did kiss him back, he would get embarrassed anyway and still draw away. As she looked deeper into her own feelings, she had to admit that she really did like him quite a bit. If he didn't feel for her that way and she did kiss him, it would make their relationship awkward. However if he did like her, and she didn't do anything, she would regret it the rest of her life wondering 'What if?' and she would never be able to live with that. All this thinking took place in few seconds in her head. She swiftly made up her mind and kissed him fully on the lips.
Harry froze up. He hadn't been expecting that. Not that he was complaining. It was a very pleasant feeling, having her lips on top of his.
Hermione nearly yelled with anguish as Harry froze up. She had completely screwed everything up. She was just about to pull away and start apologizing profusely but didn't when Harry coiled a hand around her neck and kissed her back, just as deeply. She felt as if she had died and ascended into heaven. She was tingling all over and her heart was throbbing madly, ready to burst out of her chest. The kiss was intoxicating and she felt herself getting dizzy. She threw him back onto the bed, never breaking the kiss. She was half on top of him and half on the bed as their tongues warred with each other.
They both gasped for breath as they separated.
"Wow" was the only word that softly left both of them.
She was now lying fully on top of him, her head resting beside his. He had his arms wrapped around her and the sound of her breathing and the rise and fall of her chest on top of him had him mesmerized. She unwrapped her arms from around his neck and propped herself up onto her elbows, facing him. He had had his eyes closed but opened them once he felt her move. He had the biggest grin on his face that she had ever seen.
"You sure know how to cheer a guy up don't you?" He asked cheekily before he drew her into another deep kiss.
