Disclaimer: Yea if it looks familiar that's 'cause it's JKR's.

A/N: Oh SnApIzZlE… Here's chapter 2… Hmm, this one's for Cayamizzle because I love her and she helped me develop the plot.

P.S. I love all my lovely readers. I never really had a knack for writing fan fiction. I guess I found it. Sorry it's taken me so flipping long to update. I've had so many auditions, tests, essays- you know that fun stuff to do. And writer's block of course.

P.P.S. I need a BETA in case my Word is stupid.

xxx

The inside of the small pub was not unlike the outside. It was a bit bigger than any of the three seventeen year olds would have expected, but still quite shabby and filthy looking none the less. Hermione, of course, was not happy with this. "Remind me why we're in here again?" She asked, scowling at the dingy little pub around them. This, of course was a rhetorical question, but she could almost guarantee that neither of her best friends would catch that bit.

"Because I'm thirsty. Speaking of being thirsty, I'm going to go get drinks." Ron said with a slight grin. All he cared about was being able to drink some firewhiskey. But he'd have to be sneaky about it so Hermione wouldn't catch him. He knew what he'd do, yes, he most certainly did. All he had to do was get three butterbeers and a bit of firewhiskey. He'd mix the butterbeer with firewhiskey- only in two of the drinks, mind you. Those two drinks would be his and Harry's of course. Harry looked like he needed a little firewhiskey in him anyway, for what reason, he didn't know, all Ron knew was Harry could definitely use some firewhiskey.

When Ron finished brewing up his little concoction he sauntered back to the table that his friends had seated themselves at and handed Harry and Hermione their drinks. "See 'Mione? I'm responsible." He said with a smirk plastered on his face. He had a feeling, however, his little plan would not go without Hermione figuring out that there was something in the drinks. Well, it was worth a try anyway.

And right Ron was. Hermione knew Ron too well to know that there was no way on earth that Ron could possibly turn down the opportunity to drink firewhiskey when it was right in front of him and legal. "Don't give me that, Ron, you and I both know they're spiked." She said with a sigh. Well it was useless to try and stop her friends from drinking tonight, so she may as well just let them get pissed. Then eventually she'd end up trying to make them both sober again, it wouldn't work, and she'd have to figure out some way for them both to get to Ron's accountant uncle's house without tripping over something, or attempting apparition and getting splinched.

The grin quickly faded from Ron's face. "How did you know?" He asked for a moment, then registering that she hadn't made him hand over the drinks and gotten up to get new ones. "And… Why are you letting us drink them anyway?" The redhead added, sounding very bewildered. "Not that I want you to go get new drinks and not let us drink these… And yours isn't spiked anyway." He added hastily so she wouldn't get any ideas.

Hermione rolled her eyes. "Because I know that eventually the both of you will try firewhiskey, and there's no use trying to stop you from having some now when the chance is right in front of you. But when you both have hangovers tomorrow morning, don't come to me asking me to make you something. Because I won't." She said with a sigh turning to Harry who had been unusually quiet, which was slightly puzzling to her, more or less because she was used to him cutting in his friends' bickering and telling them to shut their mouths.

Harry, however, had a very good reason for being so quiet. He was already trying Ron's fire-beer concoction. It didn't taste very good, but he sure as hell needed something to make him forget about the quest the three of them were about to start out on. And even with its awful taste, it was certainly doing its job. When he saw Hermione looking over at him he put his drink down which was more empty than it was full. He had a feeling there might be a lecture coming on about irresponsible drinking, or something along the lines of that, but after registering what she had just said he just shrugged and downed the rest of his glass. This was going to be a long night…

After about ten minutes more of just sitting, talking (or at least trying to. Talking was difficult with two drunk boys…) and drinking, Hermione was more than ready to leave. Though, it seemed as though her friends weren't. Ron had gone off on some tangent about how lucky he was to have a girl like Hermione who let him drink and Harry was just sitting there nodding, and occasionally saying, "Yea." Or "Mhmm…" Then, surprisingly enough, something caught her attention. A few tables down from the trio, there was a small black book with what looked like R. Black on the front in peeling silver letters. R. Black… Didn't Sirius have a brother named Regulus? Hermione thought, staring at the book.

"Hey Ron… Do me a favor and see if you can go get that little book from that man." She said, looking back to her boyfriend. She knew, since he was drunk, he would immediately agree and rush off to go get it. This was exactly what he did, leaving Hermione and Harry alone at the table. However, what Hermione least expected happened. She had some sort of epiphany right there, just looking at Harry get drunker and drunker by the second. Holy mother of Merlin- I'm in love with Harry… But- but, what about Ron? Oh dear… Hermione though, placing her head in her hands.

"'Mione…." Harry said, sounding very, very drunk; which he was. "What's wrong, 'Mione?" He slurred. Oh lord, this was brilliant. Now he was alone at the table with the girl, no, woman, he so happened to fancy and he was pissed. Had he been sober, he would have thought that this wasn't going to end well. However, he was not sober, far from it actually, and wasn't really thinking at all.

"Nothing's wrong, Harry." Hermione lied with a sigh. "I just want to get out of here, is all…" She'd just sit here, lie through her teeth when he asked questions like that and try and make conversation with him which would be difficult considering she could hardly understand what he was saying. "So, Harry… What's up with you? You seem… Distressed." Oh that was a brilliant thing to say, Hermione thought, mentally kicking herself. Of course he's distressed, he's about to go out and save the world, who wouldn't be distressed?

Harry shrugged and shook his head. "Well it's just that I- you wouldn't understand." He said, fighting not to slur his words, though it wasn't working too well. Contrary to what Hermione thought, Harry wasn't even thinking about saving the world right now, he was more focused on the problem he had with fancying Hermione. Perhaps telling her that she wouldn't understand would make her stop asking questions about it. Or perhaps it would just make her more curious; the second one being the more likely of the two.

She really did hate it when he said things like that. She knew that she would understand because she knew him well enough to understand. And even if she really didn't understand, then she could do her best to try as hard as she could. "Harry, don't give me that, you and I both know that I'll understand well enough for both of our likings. Now please, talk to me." She said, placing her right hand on top of his.

"Well you see…" Harry began, sighing in between. "I've just realized that I fancy someone." He paused, looking at her to see if she could understand him through his slurring. More likely than not, she couldn't, but he kept going anyway. "And I'm having a bit of a problem because-"

Hermione cut him off there with, "You won't get to see her while you're away, I know Harry, I know. Why couldn't you just say that you fancy Ginny- we all know you do." She said, trying to be nonchalant about the whole situation. Truthfully enough, they did all know that he fancied Ginny, or that's what they all thought at least, but the thought had always bothered Hermione, though she had previously just assumed that it was because she didn't think Ginny was… She didn't really want to say good enough, but that was truthfully what she thought. Now, because she had come to terms with her feelings, she realized it was jealousy. Ginny wasn't good enough because she wasn't Hermione herself.

"Er… no. And I don't fancy Ginny- just let me finish. No interrupting." Harry said, finally registering that her hand was on his and switching it so his was on hers. "You see, I fancy someone, and she's the most wonderful, radiant, beautiful person in the world, and she's dating my best mate and she's like a sister to me." He didn't quite realize that he had said all of that, basically just saying that he fancied her, so he wasn't embarrassed. Well yet at least.

Hermione, on the other hand, was quite embarrassed, to say the least. "You- fancy… You fancy me?" She asked incredulously, half of her wanting to believe him and half of her wanting to say it was just him being drunk. Ah, but this is Harry. Harry wouldn't lie to me even if he was drunk- especially about something like this. She thought, still looking at her best friend with her eyes widened and one eyebrow up.

"Yup." Harry said with a nod. This was when he realized what he had just told her hand flushed dark red in the cheeks. "Er… I wasn't supposed to say that. Don't be angry with me, Hermione…" He immediately pleaded, not wanting to ruin their friendship over a drunken conversation. No, that was basically the very last thing he wanted to do. He glanced over at Ron, who appeared to be having a tough time trying to get that little book. So they had time to finish this chat and figure out what they were going to do. Good, because they were certainly going to need it.

A small smile appeared on Hermione's face as she shook her head a bit. "Harry, I'm not angry with you. Quite the contrary actually, I just was thinking, when Ron left, that perhaps Ron is not the one I love. And then when I thought about it more, I realized that the one I really love, is you. But Harry…" She said the last words in a distressed sounding voice. "Harry, I can't break up with Ron, we can't have the turmoil that that would cause just in our trio when we're trying to battle the world… It can't happen." She said quietly.

"Ron doesn't have to know. We won't tell him, we'll just do things when he's not around." Harry said, not realizing the harshness of this statement, purely out of his drunkness. One thing, however, he was not expecting, was Hermione to agree.

"Harry, that's rather awful, don't you think?" Hermione asked, taking a moment to think about it. The more she considered it, the more appealing it sounded to her. "But… I don't know Harry… I feel bad going behind Ron's back like this, but I can't ignore my feelings, they won't go away unless something's done about them. And because they're mutual…" She shook her head and sighed, looking over at the table she had sent Ron to. He still hadn't managed to get that book… Quite frankly, that was good.

Harry looked at her with a pleading look. "I know it's wrong Hermione." He said quietly, leaning it a bit towards her. "But like you said it won't go away unless we do something about it." He said with a small smile. At least he wasn't stupid when he was drunk… Apparently, he was quite wise, actually… Too bad he wouldn't remember any of this in the morning…

"I guess… I guess we can try…" Hermione replied in the same hushed tone as his, leaning in as well so they could hear each other. "As wrong as it is, we can try…" She added, looking up at him. She knew how much she wanted this- she even knew how much he wanted it. It was just a matter of how well they could keep a secret, which she had a feeling was rather well. They had both kept their fair share of secrets themselves anyway, why should this be any different?

"It's a deal then?" Harry asked hopefully, his smile growing slightly bigger. If she said yes- oh if she said yes then he would probably be the happiest man alive. Now just a bit of the puppy eyes and he knew he'd have her. She always fell for the puppy eyes, whether he was drunk or not.

"Deal." Hermione whispered, waiting for him to do something. Yes, and that was exactly what he did. Ever so slowly, he leaned in and brushed his lips against hers in a soft kiss. The gesture had Hermione quite taken aback, however, she didn't mind. No, she didn't mind in the least bit, not at all. It was just strange to be kissing her best friend, whom she happened to love.

"That sealed it." Harry said with a confident nod and a grin. Maybe this wouldn't be such a long night after all…

xxx

A/N: And this concludes chapter two, which I wrote in an hour! How special! My brain blockage is gone for the moment, and I promise it won't take me so long to update the next chapter.