orokid: Yeah… you kept saying that I should write another chapter, and I've written about four different beginnings to it anyway so… Here you go! Heh heh… anyway… I know that it's been a while since you all have said that I should, but I don't really think too well when under pressure, and writing more of a perfectly fine story sometimes make it seem worse than better. That's why I've been avoiding it, to tell the truth, but you can see that I could no longer do that. Lol. So… here you go.

Disclaimer: This time, I admit, I got the idea from another Rascal Flatts song that I adore- "What Hurts the Most", found on their album Me And My Gang (it's a really good CD, if you haven't heard any of it). But… yeah… Let me say this again, so not to cause any conflict- this is not a songfic! This is an idea contrived from a song, without the lyrics in the writing.

PS- If think I have a good ending for this fanfic, but it's most likely going to be put on as a one shot, even if it is to be the epilogue. Truth is, I wrote it before this whole story, and I don't think I should mix and match things like that- and it's only two or three pages in my little writing… So yeah… Moving on! Lol

Chapter Two

What Hurts the Most

Rain tapped against the foggy windowpane gently, the room dark and nearly as somber as the outside world, a pair of lifeless chocolate pools staring through the glass with a deep depression no one could ever understand. Not unless they understood the secrets that they held, and that they'd never let go of until the day he would come back to her. The owner of those haunted eyes was lying in her seemingly comfy bed on her side, tears slowly streaming down her face, her skin pale and her body thinning more than it should've been, if at all. She couldn't sleep. All she did was exist in this lonely world, hoping for someone, something, to find her and release her from her pain.

It had been weeks, maybe even a full month, since her so-called friends had appeared in her broken apartment, carrying with them worry and determination to help her out of this nook of depression she had nuzzled herself into. The two red heads- the youngest brother and sister of a family she had become an honorary member of (along with the young man who she mourned for even now)- spent hours and days fixing up the flat she had destroyed on her own. They didn't expect much from her to repay them for their efforts, other than the return of their old friend on confidant.

But even they had to understand that it'd take some time before that would ever happen… if it happened at all, for that matter. She herself felt as though returning to the bright and ever resilient young woman whom everyone loved and cared for wouldn't ever return. Not until he came back to hold her in his arms, to kiss her lips so sweetly like he had during their unknown moments alone before she had lost him forever to the battle against evil, to tell her that he loved her and wanted to rekindle those ideas that they made together, to restart those promises they made to one another to start a life together and bare little children with each of their features and a bit of their partner's.

She wanted him back so bad that it hurt, and her heart was to be forever bleeding until her own death. The young woman was cursed to be alone, to become a spinster, for she knew that her heart and body would reject another man's essence, for they both belonged to someone she could no longer have- for he didn't live anymore, no matter how much she wanted him to.

Life just wasn't fair. Her beloved had kept only one of his many promises, although he hadn't known it back when it had been done, and he wasn't around to see the reward she had been given in his absence. Inside her body, inside her very own womb, was a child that had been conceived during their many nights of love and passion, and she wondered if her unborn baby realized that it was to be born into a fatherless environment, into a woman's life who needed the man that no longer existed on this cursed plane. She felt very silly for even wondering such an unknown question to a being that hadn't existed longer than five or so weeks before this exact time, let alone brought into this sad world.

The distraught young woman felt tears sting her sore eyes as she though of what her lost beloved would say to her because of the situation she currently found herself in. He'd stare at her as if he was trying to determine what she was trying to say to him, as if a riddle had been spoken. Then, his open mouth, which had gone slack at the news, would slowly close and form a smirk, and then finally a smile. The smile would grow until the sides of his face had been stretched to its full limits, and he'd then take her into his arms and laugh and cry into the base of her neck, holding tight.

She let out a sob, although did her best to hold it back just in case someone has there, ready to come into her room and surprise her- something the ginger haired boy- Ronald- had taken to doing after he had come that one time, finding her in that state of mind. That horrified look in his eyes when he had seen her was still quite memorable and unforgettable, although she did her best to pretend that she enjoyed his company in her time of much need. He'd bring flowers and fix whatever had been thrown recently, kiss her forehead, hold a conversation for as long as his Attention Deficit Disorder didn't take complete control immediately and caused him to be uncomfortable while she did her best to explain her way through her actions. He never was one to like listening to anyone, let alone her, unlike Harry…

Unlike… Harry…

Another sob took control of her entire being, and she couldn't quite hold this one tight inside of her like she had the other one. Memories of the emerald eyed wizard haunted her now, like an ongoing movie that ceased to stop where it was going, and it wouldn't ever stop at her command- it never did anything but play, and she hated her photographic memory for this very reason.

He was watching her again, but it wasn't as uncomfortable as it had been when Viktor Krum had done so back in her fourth year. In fact, it felt extremely enjoyable, although she would be the last to admit that in a room where most of her classmates seemed to be watching them like hawks grazing in a field of mice. Instead of moving over to him and showing him just how much she enjoyed how he watched her, she risen the book she had taken up reading up to her face, hiding that secret smile that he knew she had on her face.

He could always read her like that, she knew, and it felt wonderful to have that knowledge, since all other things that were in her brain seemed little compared to that little joyful moment. Everything that concerned him- from the way he trailed his kisses from her neck down to her thigh, the way his hands held her body in the middle of the night, when all was calm and quiet, and the way he'd smile at her before his name became the only thing that could ever exit her lips- seemed to be on her mind, and nothing could ever make it stop. Although, it wasn't as if she really wanted it to- it was quite the opposite of it, considering the fact that the current charms teacher at the school seemed to have caught her in a moment of slipping into her daydreams.

And then the memory of how her beloved had apologized to her many times over caused her cheeks only to blush, remembering the feel of his skin against hers, and the ways his heart seemed louder when beating in sync with hers.

"Hermione?" he asked her aloud, a smirk (oh how she loved that smirk of his) upon his lips, which were now the object her eyes had found immediately. She could tell that the students who were still there were listening, but that was because all conversations and everything else had all ceased from continuing. "Could you look over my notes for potions? You always take better ones than I do…"

Smiling at him, she nodded and allowed him to scoot in closer to her like he usually did when notes weren't always what he wanted. But, as it seemed, it was what their peers believed he wanted and that was all they needed before the usual groan and shuffling of returning to their own work surrounded them.

But the two secret lovers had shared only one glance before their hands had come together in the tight space between their legs, his overlapping their hands so not to alert anyone that something might've been occurring over than the usual playfulness they had. It wasn't THAT unusual to find him teasing him like he usually did, sometimes trapping her limbs beneath them, like so many other things she could remember being caught within him…

Inhaling sharply, a blush upon her cheeks, she looked down to the notes that he had given her in hopes to have his notions understood. At first glance, they had seemed like an other useless pages of wordings that had something or other that had to do with liquids and what temperature was needed to heat a potion named the Potion of Ecstasy- one that was known very well for charming both men and women (usually muggle) into the beds of wizards and witches. It didn't take much of a mind to understand that he was probably hiding something underneath the notes, and that there was something for her eyes only. Tapping it with her pointer finger very gently, saying the words 'Incartium Laveista Obstrusity' in her mind alone (practice, she'd say to those who would ask her what she was attempting), and the words on the paper became very clear to her immediately.

"Meet me in the Room of Requirement after hours, when everyone is asleep in their beds? I'll make it promising… -Harry"

It was hidden behind the text, and very smartly done considering the fact that every beginning letter in each word had been placed in a sentence that had the same scheme. It had been said to her by her teachers once that the closest the words were beneath the faux note, the stronger the spell was on the paper, only granting sight to the one who was wished to see it- so, in other words, this made sure that only she saw it while others believed it to be something entirely different. But, still, she was proud of him for doing his work so well, so… she might as well reward him for it…

"Harry, these notes seem… hasty and quick." Of course, she had to seem like she was reprimanding him, just so throw off the bloodhounds who shifted to and fro throughout the room, their ears still listening although not as well as before. "I do believe that you should rewrite them, but… I know that you will need help when doing this." Her hand moved to comb the strand of hair she had been watching him stare at the entire time, knowing that he was holding back just how he wished to push it aside, biting her lower lip as she stared directly at him. She knew that he was taking her words as a "no" to the question that he had asked without words, and she personally was having fun teasing him like she was. "But… How about we move over to my quarters later on, after hours? You can study for that test you have, and I can be your tutor."

"Studying!" he repeated, flabbergasted, staring at her with a face that showed surprise but with eyes that showed great interest. He knew exactly what she had planned, and he knew exactly how to shove interest in their very own relationship away from prying eyes. "But… I have practice tomorrow! How will the team take it that their captain is sleeping in late because he spent the entire night studying for some bloody test?"

She watched her beloved with a smirk on her face, knowing that she was right even though they weren't even about to study for the exam like they were pretending to bicker about. Standing before him now, the young woman with cinnamon colored hair placed her hands at her hips. Personally, she was having a lot of fun cosplaying events that would lead to much more exciting events later on. "What's more important, Harry James Potter? Your grade or your broom?"

"My broom!" he told her with a wide smile and a glint in his eyes, and it was all too evident that he did not mean the wooden one that he rode during his matches.

She tried to hold back the laughter that had bombarded her all at once from that one comment, and she was doing her best to look stern while facing him like she was. "Harry!" she reprimanded with a glare, her hands still upon her lips, still applied angrily. It was time to play dirty… "Fine! Go grease your bloody Firebolt all by yourself if you have such a problem with studying with me."

Immediately, Hermione swore she had seen the largest mass of fear in his eyes at one time, and she wanted to just burst out laughing once more. It was his turn to try and make all things right between them, and she was going to play this up for as long as she could, for teasing him had become such a fun game to her. As she turned to leave him be, he did what she had expected him to do- pop up from his seat and take a hold of her wrist, stopping her from leaving him there. "Hermione… don't be like this… I… Fine, I'll study. Just… don't be mad. Please."

Once again, she watched as the attention of one and all in their commonroom return to the two of them from the corner of her eye, knowing that they were deciding when to place in their bets at the betting pool she had found out that they were having long ago. "Fine. Go… go get your research materials, and I will make sure that you are orally understanding of each and every thing that you have so hasty written down as your notes." She gave him a secret smile that told him that he might be getting a very go present that night, and that last sentence gave him a lot of hope as to what if might've been.

She hadn't ever seen him move as fast as she had that night.

Her heart yearned for him, like it had for all of this time for so long now. It had seemed almost like a dream- a horrible, horrible dream, but still a figment of her imagination. But… she knew better than that, having lived her life like she had for all this time, after watching him fall to his death like she had.

Her mind turned back to her unborn child, her fingertips moving atop her flat stomach almost numbly it seemed. It seemed to be so unfair of God to do this to a soul that hadn't even been brought to life, and she didn't even seem to mind that it wasn't unfair to her either. It was her motherly instincts, although not yet understandable to her at the moment, that were giving her this thought, her motherly instincts that made her want to cry for her baby and not herself.

God, although her Lord Almighty since she had been but a child herself, and Jesus, her savoir since before she had been cursed to live the life of a woman in love, seemed to hate her now, and her faith in Him seemed to dwindle as each day would pass, adding onto her pain and sorrow.

She had been so close to having happiness, only to have it snatched away from her- as if she were a kitten playing with an ever retreating string that God loved to pull. Things just weren't fair…

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Orokid: Heh heh… I felt like writing this while in Florida, and I finally just got back- and so, I'm posting it. Lol. Hope you guys like it, even though it's most likely worse than the other chapter. Eh… I just know my style, and writing the second chapter to one-shots aren't my best area of talent. Just hope it's okay.

Please review for me! I'll give you a cookie…