Assumptions cause horrendous mistakes

It was after the trauma of seeing Ron kiss, Lavender that Hermione lost it. They had agreed! They had agreed to be each other's dates! He betrayed her. As she sat stewing in her rage, anger and hurt, she never realised someone draw a chair and sit facing her.

Harry sat straddling a chair, his hands resting on its back and his chin resting on his hands, facing Hermione. He had still never lost the guilt he had been feeling ever since he had seen her hurt at the Department of Mysteries. He hated himself then for hurting her, just as much as he hated himself for Sirius' death.

Ever since the start of the sixth-year, he had decided that he would willingly submit to whatever punishment Hermione saw fit to give him. So when she started going after Ron as he had expected, he decided it was a part of his punishment. When she started behaving like Aunt Petunia did, over the book, he accepted the punishment. He accepted her distrust. He accepted the fact that she would not even accept Malfoy being a Death Eater, even theoretically. He accepted her hating him as his punishment

For Harry had decided that even the littlest contact that Hermione would keep with him was enough to get him through. He would be happy serving whatever sentence she gave him, as long as she would be happy. She meant everything to him. She was everything to him.

But what he would never accept was Hermione sad. That was real punishment. It hurt and it was worse than the Cruciatus that he had endured from Voldemort. So he went to her. He would let her vent. He would let her go berserk, and hurt him physically too, if she wanted, if it would bring her out of the funk she was in. That said, if she still remained sad, he would go and punish Ron for hurting her. And then he would make the git forget and punish him again. And he would do so repeatedly. But first, he had to be there for her. And he sat there in the classroom, after locking the door.

"Hermione?"

She looked at him with tear-filled eyes that made his blood boil. He would kill Ron for this. He would show everyone why Voldemort respected him as an opponent. But one look deeper into Hermione's eyes made him quail. She looked furious, almost as if his very existence was causing her immense pain and mental trauma.

"He is enjoying the celebrations, doesn't he?" she asked.

"He may be, or he may not. He means nothing to me. You do."

Hermione snorted as more tears made their way down her cheeks. "Funny you should say that. It was after all your implicit suggestion that won him the match, wasn't it?"

"Well, I had hoped that it would make him happy. And I have seen that you seem to at least like him, if not love him yet, so I had hoped you would be happy. As usual, anything I do, anything I touch turns to dust, don't you think?"

"You are such a good friend, aren't you?" Hermione asked snidely, not refusing what he said.

Harry did not react. It was his punishment.

Hermione changed track. "So how goes it with Ginny?"

"How goes what with Ginny?"

"Please Harry; I have seen the way you look at her..."

"Of course I do! You seem to have forgotten that until last year she had four people to beat back boys if they got too frisky! And mind you, two of them actually had beater bats, so it helped matters. Now she only has one waste of a brother and one sort of brother left in the castle. With Ron proving to be worthless at this big brother job, it falls to me, doesn't it?"

"Big brother?" asked Hermione in confusion. "You don't like Ginny?"

"I like Ginny? I do like her, the same way that Ron or the twins would. While they aren't my family, they are the closest that I have, haven't I?"

"You mean that when you keep staring..."

"Blimey! I don't stare at her! I am really, extremely worried about her escapades. I mean, if she were my sister, I would have dug up a whole so deep that Hagrid and Grawp together would need a year at least to go that deep and bury Dean in it."

Hermione's expression became more confused at that. "I thought you had a crush on her..." Harry's eyes bugged out and he looked distinctly ill and green. Hermione continued nevertheless, "and so you keep staring at her and checking her out..."

She was interrupted by Harry getting violently sick where he had sunk to the floor.

"Harry! What has happened? Are you sick? Do I need to-"

Harry held up a hand to silence her as he felt the dry heaves racking his body. It was another ten minutes before he could clean off the sick and clean his mouth and cast a breath freshening charm. He then fell to his knees in front of Hermione.

"Look Hermione, I know you hate me for everything. I know you hate me for getting you hurt. I know you are punishing me for that. I know that I don't deserve to even be in the presence of a person like you, a person as special as you are. But right now, in a space of fifteen minutes, my punishment has become unbearable. Firstly, I can't see you sad and hurt in any way, and I am witness to that. But then you poisoned my mind with your imagination. Please Hermione, I cannot bear it. Please, please don't expose me to that. I will rather take a vision from Voldemort every waking minute than the terrible mental picture that I got when you said whatever you did."

By now, Hermione's anger and tears had been replaced by frustrated confusion. "What are you talking about? What mental pictures?"

Well, that confirmed to Harry that she did hate him. But she had asked and he was duty bound to answer. "Me crushing after Ginny, or checking her out; it is just so wrong!"

"Why? You two look perfect together! You'd look just like your parents!" she responded.

"GAH!" shouted Harry, theatrically putting his hands on his ears. "I did not hear what she said. I didn't hear what she said. I-"

"HARRY!" she shouted cutting him off. "What are you on about?"

"Hermione! Ginny would never, ever be even remotely someone I'd have a crush on! You answered your own question! We'd look like my mum and dad!"

"So?"

"Hermione, Ginny looks like my mum!" Harry whimpered.

Hermione took one look at the now shuddering Harry, mentally pictured what he had just told her, and then turned quite green herself, before laughing her head off. Harry found solace that she was at least not as sad as she was when he came.

"Yes, go on. Laugh at me, why don't you?"

Hermione couldn't stop laughing long enough to answer. When she did finally, she looked at the now pacing Harry, and promptly burst into laughter again, all thoughts of Ron forgotten. In times of war and fear, a time when her friend was the centre of an intense, violent storm, he was making her laugh about the most Freudian of concepts. When she finally could calm herself, she was still wiping tears of mirth.

"Who do you like then, Harry?" she asked mischievously, all traces of the good cry she had had gone from her demeanour, if not her face.

Harry froze. He knew. He had known since some time of many years gone by that there was a certain girl he liked beyond everyone else. And he had been too scared to tell her that. "There is one," he said, not quite meeting her eyes. Then, in a musing tone, he said, more to himself (though Hermione heard), "I have liked her, respected her for quite some time, probably from the second year, when I thought I'd lost her. I went after another girl to make me stay away from her, because I was scared to lose her if I ever told her what I felt. That; and the fact that I don't truly know what it is that I feel for her, because it is something I had never felt before. I am scared that it might be love, because I lose everyone I love forever. She hates me now, however, and is pining for another guy who has a girlfriend. But that's okay. If he can keep her happy, I'll be happy. I don't deserve her anyway. I have hurt her too many times to count. I suppose the way she behaves with me now is all about punishment; punishment that I deserve. And as far as I am concerned, it will be better that way. I don't expect to survive Voldemort. I will try to take him with me because she deserves to live in a safe world- I owe her that." He didn't look at Hermione, but simply sat on the chair with his back to her, hugging his knees to his chest.

Hermione gasped at that. She understood what he was saying. Whoever this mystery girl was, she was lucky to have Harry feeling what he did for her. Harry loved her, plain and simple. She also felt a smidgen of jealousy- didn't she deserve to have such love? She had to look out for her friend, however.

"Is she a good person, Harry?"

He turned around and looked at her as if she had gone mad. "She is the kindest, cleverest, most loyal, most stubborn and also the most loving person that I have ever met. I have never trusted anyone the way I have trusted her. The one time I didn't, I lost everything, including her," he added in a sorrowful undertone.

It was at the point where he said that Harry trusted this mystery girl the most that she realised who she was. And then she felt ashamed. She had been pining after Ron, who did have a girlfriend. Then the other words percolated into her mind. And it made her want to cry again. Harry was evidently, still blaming himself for Sirius, still blaming himself for what had happened to her. She took the time to review the way she had behaved with him since the start of the term, and that explained why he felt that she hated him. At that moment, Hermione hated herself. She had once hoped that Harry would feel the way he did feel about her. And the reason behind the way he had gone after Cho was explained too. He was scared of losing her. And here, she had been treating him in the worst possible way. She felt like a depraved woman. But that left her with the question- did she love him? What about Ron?

The answer to the second question was rather evident. Ron, whatever he said or did, had a girlfriend- a girlfriend whom he was kissing with abandon. Why should (and would) he dictate her life? As for the first, it was not easy. She had taught herself to restrain her feelings, to recognise that Harry would never feel the way she did. She had decided that she would rather have him in her life as her friend, instead of having him reject her. She should have realised that Harry's poor interpersonal skills would mean that he would always be scared of stating what he thought or felt clearly, unless he was fighting.

What hurt worst however, was his acceptance that he would not survive Voldemort, and so would rather take him along- just so that she could live in safety. He had accepted what little she left of herself to him, even if it was anger and rejection-for that was all she had set aside for him since school started. And he had accepted that as the punishment he deserved for her being cursed. He had become some sort of a hero in a tragedy, where he had accepted that his lot in life was loss and loss alone. And Hermione Granger was never going to let that happen.

Just as Harry let his legs down to the floor to get up, she moved at the speed of light, and was straddling him and holding his face in her hands. She looked deeply into his eyes for a moment before just letting all thoughts go, and just kissed him. She panicked as he froze, but it soon turned to elation as he started responding softly. And in that moment Hermione realised that unless it was battle, Harry never takes charge.