Disclaimer: JK Rowling is the rightful owner of all Harry Potter related material, I'm just borrowing it because I'm that bored.

Chapter 5

Harry Potter found it tremendously difficult to focus on his studies in the weeks following his disastrous detention. For one, it was clear that Voldemort was not only alive, but roaming the Forbidden Forest in hopes of reaching the Sorcerer's Stone – and inevitably Harry. The bespectacled wizard spent an unsettling amount of time in classes watching the door, expecting the Dark Lord to come bursting in with one hand holding the Stone and the other aiming his wand at his heart.

The other deterrent to his studies was a certain brown-eyed witch. Hermione Granger had saved his life in the Forest, throwing every ounce of her willpower behind a spell far too advanced for a typical first year in hopes of shielding Harry from Voldemort. If she hadn't been there, he'd probably be dead. And besides a few heated discussions about their course of action, she'd been perfectly normal.

'Well, as normal as Hermione Granger can get,' Harry thought to himself as he watched his best friend dash back and forth between the library shelves and their usual table, her arms laden with enough books to start her own library. She triumphantly dropped them onto the tabletop, smiling to herself as she flipped through the first one: Chadwick's Charms: Volume I. Harry watched her eyebrows slowly assume the scrunched position they always took when she was deep in thought. Her deep brown eyes were gliding over the lines and her lips were mouthing every word. Harry felt his lips curl into a smirk as she lifted her head and smiled at him before resuming her reading.

"Harry, you've been on the same page of The Standard Book of Spells for almost half an hour now. Is something wrong?" She asked suddenly, jarring him from his thoughts. "If you have a question just ask it, staring at me like a mime won't do you any good," she laughed to herself. Harry straightened, his smirk vanishing. He did have several questions, truth be told, about their upcoming Charms final exam. In spite of those, a different question made its way from his brain to his mouth before he could stop himself.

"How are you acting so normal after what happened in the Forest?" Harry asked. Hermione's eyes widened in surprise and she slammed her book shut.

"Keep your voice down!" She hissed, whipping her head around to see if anyone was listening. "And what do you mean, normal?"

Harry felt his face heat up, not expecting such a pointed response. He opened his mouth to speak, but his mouth was currently doing its best impression of the Sahara Desert. After a confused look from Hermione, he quickly closed his mouth and averted his eyes.

'Smooth…' he thought to himself dejectedly. He managed a swallow and looked back up to see Hermione staring at him with an unreadable expression. He swallowed again, still looking anywhere but Hermione's eyes.

"Sorry, it was a stupid question," He managed, pretending to flip through his Charms book.

"Harry, talk to me." Her voice was firm, even imperative. But Harry felt a pinch of compassion in her tone and took a deep, shaky breath.

"It…it's just…ever since Firenze told us that Voldemort is alive – " Hermione tried to stifle a gasp at the name " – I can't stop thinking about him busting the Hogwarts doors down and killing me. He's the most psychotic and sadistic wizard to ever roam this planet and everyone else seems to be under the impression that he's dead and the only people who seem to know are a centaur and a few eleven-year olds and now he's going to swipe the stone thanks to Snape, probably, and he'll live forever and wipe me out and everyone around me will die, including you!" Harry blathered, his voice growing hoarse as he concluded. He sighed, finally catching his breath, and made a point of looking literally anywhere except for his friend's face.

Every instinct he had was telling him to get up and leave the table. He was certain he'd scared her to death and she would start scolding him for thinking such stupid things instead of their schoolwork. Or she'd freak out at him, realizing that being around him was the equivalent of a death sentence. Either way, Harry knew he'd just jeopardized his friendship with Hermione. His first and best friendship. His heart felt like it had been impaled by a railroad spike.

After a painful minute or two, Harry finally lifted his eyes. Hermione had either remained totally silent, or she'd been able to slip away without making any noise whatsoever. He wasn't sure which he would have preferred. He still wasn't sure when he locked eyes with a bushy-haired witch who hadn't budged from her chair. The two stared at each other in an excruciating silence.

"Harry…" She finally croaked out, her expression softening to one of concern. "Harry why didn't you say so?" She asked, placing a hand on his.

He felt a jolt that – combined with his shock at her mellow reaction – had him recoiling away, his hand rushing to his lap in a panic. He hadn't even realized what he'd done until he saw Hermione flinch, her hand hovering over the table where his had been. She hitched her breath and now it was her turn to avert her eyes. Her hand lay frozen on the table, and Harry took a deep breath before placing his on top.

He heard her exhale, and Harry released a breath he didn't know he'd been holding. They sat for what felt like an hour, but it barely eclipsed five seconds before Hermione spoke again.

"You should have told me how you were feeling, Harry." She stated. It wasn't accusatory, it wasn't an assignment of blame. It was a casual statement, as simple as describing the weather, but it was laced with more emotion than any human being should be capable of. Harry shook his head.

"I didn't want to scare you. I didn't want to scare you off I guess is more accurate." He managed. "I also thought you might yell at me for thinking about stuff like this instead of final exams." He offered, hoping to diffuse the tension.

It worked. Hermione lifted her head, and even though her eyes were shining with tears, she was smiling. A small, rather shy smile, but a smile nonetheless. Harry reciprocated it, squeezing her hand for good measure. She wiped one eye, then the other, opting to keep her right hand under Harry's left.

"Harry, I'm never going to yell at you for not prioritizing school over your own life. As happy as I am to see you get E's and O's on our exams, I'm much happier to see that you're alive. Alive and well." She added with a squeeze of her own. Harry felt himself calm down a bit, the warmth from Hermione's hand traveling up his arm and throughout the rest of his body like he'd been hit with a Hot-Air Charm. Harry found himself wondering why on Earth he'd jerked his hand away from hers earlier, and hoping he'd never do it again.

"I'm sorry, Hermione. I should have told you, but…you just seem so unfazed after that night. You faced down Voldemort, you cast a Fire-Making Spell that would impress McGonagall, even Dumbledore! You saved my life, and you just seem…fine…" Harry trailed off. He once again felt the urge to put as much space between himself and Hermione as possible.

'Maybe I'll go to Siberia…' He thought distractedly. 'Or I could just launch myself into the Great Lake, that should do the trick…'

He was ripped away from his thoughts as Hermione let out a wobbly breath.

"Harry, just because I've got my nose buried in a book doesn't mean I'm always fine." She smirked, her voice wavering less and less as she continued. "That night was terrifying. I was terrified, Harry, and I still feel terrified when I think about it. And I'm scared of You-Know-Who, too. I don't want him strutting around Hogwarts looking to steal the stone. I don't want him to kill you. I don't want him anywhere near you." She managed, her eyes never deviating from Harry's.

Harry felt as if the chair he was sitting on had been yanked out from under him. For weeks, he'd thought of nothing but getting murdered in cold blood. Hermione had been putting on an exceptionally brave façade, but she'd just poured his heart out to him. He hadn't even considered that she was scared too. He'd assumed she was apathetic, focusing on her studies because she was Hermione Granger, not because she needed something, anything, to take her mind off of the fact that he might be in danger.

"Hermione…"

"I'm scared, Harry. I'm scared for you. I'm scared for Hogwarts. I'm scared for everyone who You-Know-Who might go after if he gets the Stone." Her voice was wavering again, and Harry squeezed her hand, desperately wanting to undo their entire conversation. Seeing Hermione's tears again would just be too much. She steadied her breath and her eyes darted to the floor before she looked back at Harry.

"Why didn't – " He started, but Hermione shook her head vigorously, a small sob wracking her body.

"I'm scared of losing you…" It was barely a whisper, but it rang loud enough in Harry's ears to send shockwaves across his entire body. Her words echoed in his head for a few moments as the implications of her statement hit him.

There was someone in the world who cared about him. Someone who truly, truly cared about him. Every indifferent teacher he'd had when he lived at Privet Drive, every bitter Gryffindor who'd lashed out at him for losing all those points, Filch, the Dursleys, Snape – they all meant nothing to him now.

Hermione had meant the world to him ever since that night in the Forest. He hadn't realized it right away, not even the next day. But as time had progressed since their near-death encounter, Harry's certainty that Hermione Granger was the best thing to ever happen to him grew exponentially. Seeing her defiantly face down Lord Voldemort, feeling her shove him out of harm's way and place herself in danger like it was second nature, watching her do everything in her power to help Harry day in and day out, it was almost too much to believe. It was almost too good to be true that someone out there was willing to do so much for him after the years of abuse he'd suffered.Once again he wanted to tell her everything. Everything about his life that made her friendship that much more meaningful. Every insult, every scrap of food for dinner, every night in the cupboard, every everything.

"Harry…" She interrupted his train of thought once again. She squeezed his hand not in reassurance, but concern. Her eyes reflected total and complete sadness. Her bottom lip was quivering and Harry thought she might burst into tears. Her cheeks were doing their best impression of Gryffindor scarlet as she opened her mouth, her breath hitching again. "I said I'm scared of losing you," she repeated, her voice faltering.

The second time around felt as monumental to Harry as the first.

"I know how you feel," He finally spoke, his voice a throaty whisper as he felt himself ready to burst. Hermione's face shed its look of concern as she smiled reassuringly. The sound of those five words was music to her ears. It took her back to being in Harry's arms in the girls' bathroom, hearing him tell her that he cared about her. It took her back to the train ride months ago, to reading Hogwarts: A History with Harry. It took her back to the first time she'd been complimented on her appearance, and being so overcome with emotion that she didn't know how to act. It took her back to the first time she'd thrown her arms around Harry. She blinked, returning to the real world and saw Harry giving her a reassuring smile. She returned it, squeezing his hand once again.

"We really deserve each other, you know that?" She giggled. Harry grinned at the sound of her laugh and nodded.

"Yeah. We really do." He stood up, helping Hermione to her feet as they gathered their things. The two threw their bags over their shoulders and strolled out of the library.

"Where's Ron, anyway?" Hermione asked as they made their way down a corridor.

"Probably stuffing his face in the Great Hall. Dinner's just started, I think." Harry smirked. Hermione gave an over-exaggerated gag and shook her head.

"Please don't put that image in my head, I was so happy…" She sighed, before breaking into a giggle. Harry snorted, breaking into his own fit of laughter. Soon enough the two had strolled into the Great Hall, plopping down across from a confused Ron Weasley, still laughing amongst themselves.

A/N: Alright, everyone, I hit you with back-to-back action based chapters and as fun as they were to write, I felt the need to step back and reflect on those events, especially the last chapter since it differed so much from canon. I wanted to get up close and show how Harry and Hermione were coping after their first encounter with evil (besides the troll, which I consider to be on a lower tier than, you know, Voldemort).

The goal of Hermione saving Harry was not just for the surprise/role-reversal effect, but I wanted it to be the catalyst in Harry and Hermione realizing that they aren't just ordinary best friends, they care for each other and fear losing the other more than just about anything, prompting them to go to great lengths. Anyway, I hoped you all enjoyed this chapter!

Once again, I would like to thank my favorite people in the world: those of you who have followed, favorited, or reviewed this story. If you would like to be one of my favorite people in the world (or if you liked the story, I guess) please do leave a review or follow! In these bizarre times your comments and follows are a consistent bright spot, and I can't thank you all enough. Stay safe!