They wound up stuck on those stairs two times before they actually got to the room.
Hermione entered first, and then Harry came in on her heels. She turned around, directly into a hug from Harry. Reflexively, she wrapped her hands around his shoulders, and, to her great wonder, she felt him shaking. "Harry..." she said softly. He buried his face in her shoulder, taking deep, slow breaths.
Finally he looked up, and whispered, very very quietly, "I was so worried..." his green eyes sparkled as if they were ready to shed tears. Hermione'd never seen him cry, not really. So it probably wasn't that.
All of Hermione's anger and upset at him busting in - repeatedly, seemed to drain out through her feet. Hermione laughed brokenly, and said, "I know, Harry, I know... I'd have gone bonkers if I'd seen you and Malfoy together on the Map, and you know that straight duckit."
Harry couldn't help but laugh ruefully at Hermione's honest words, "Yeah, but you'd have had reason to -" He said, choking back any brokenness in his voice by force of will alone. He'd been far too many places where your feelings got you hurt more.
"Harry James Potter, just how many "reasonable explanations" did you come up with before busting in on us?" Hermione said, putting her hands on her hips.
"Um, a thousand and thirteen," Harry said, "but I came up with the last ten on the way over..."
"And of those, exactly how many excluded torture, murder and rape?"
Harry looked down at his feet, "Um... there were about a dozen where it hadn't happened yet."
Hermione Granger threw her arms around Harry again, and said, "Oh, Harry! You're nuts, completely and totally bonkers, but you're still a good friend."
She pushed him out to arms length, giving him a steely look, "And how many more before you came back the second time?"
"Five thousand and eight. Fewer of those about anything truly evil, though. I just started to imagine you and Malfoy working together." Hermione could feel Harry's shudder through her fingertips.
Hermione ruefully shook her head at him, chuckling at his silliness.
He looked at her with those big, bespectacled eyes of his, and asked, earnestly, "What's going on?"
Hermione dropped her hands off his shoulders, to wring them together, instead. "I told you what happened this summer, when I went into Muggle London."
Harry nodded, looking that particular breed of earnest that meant Harry'd turned his thinking cap off and was just going to listen. (Rather than Scream, Carp, or Cavil about everything that was said).
[a/n: Harry got Issues, dude. Tommy Boy hasn't helped.
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If you missed the last chapter, it's ff's fault. look at it again.]