DISCLAIMER: I don't own any of the characters in this story.
It had been about ten minutes now since Ginny had left the room. Hermione sat in the thick silence while the same two questions she had thought of earlier bombarded the inside of her skull. She closed her eyes and moaned, unable to find an answer to either question.
"Maybe I should see if Harry will talk to me now," Hermione said out loud to no one in particular.
A portrait on somebody's bedside answered her. "That's a good idea, dearie."
She smiled at the picture, stood and strode quickly out of the dormitory to find Harry.
Harry knocked on the door to Hagrid's hut. Barking came from within, and the door opened slightly.
"Have yeh been followed?" a voice called out, and Hagrid's head appeared to search for others besides Harry.
Harry looked around, just to make sure he was alone. "No."
"Good. Come 'ere."
Hagrid opened the door enough so that Harry could get in, but Fang couldn't get out.
There was a fire crackling merrily in the hearth, but Hagrid did not seem to share moods with the flames. He looked at Harry, who stared back at his huge face, with a look of confusion on his own.
"Er, so Hagrid, why did you call me out here?" Harry asked to break the silence.
"Oh, eh, right. Look, Harry, yeh got to watch yer back, because no one else is goin' to watch it for you. The Dark Lord is back, and Snape is after yeh, I'll wager. Just be careful, okay?" Hagrid concluded, looking around nervously.
"Okay, why couldn't you just tell me that in an owl?"
"I didn't want to take the chance that someone would find out that I was alerting yeh to danger."
"Oh. Okay. Oh, hey Hagrid?" Harry suddenly had a question.
"Yeh?"
Harry suddenly thought having a question was a very bad idea. "Er," he started, then changed his mind on what to say. "How can I make sure that Volde – I mean the Dark Lord – doesn't find any of my friends to use as bait for a trap?" Harry waited anxiously to see what Hagrid had made of the question.
"I don't know, Harry. I'm sorry."
"That's okay. I'll just go and ask Hermione."
Harry stood up and slipped back out the large door and headed off for the castle. Once away from the hut, he breathed a sigh of relief, wondering how the conversation might have gone differently if he had let slip anything of how he felt for Hermione, or what he had done earlier.
"Harry?" Hermione called out across the empty common room. She knew he had to be around somewhere, so she just started in the most likely place. "Harry?"
The portrait hole swung open. Harry emerged, looking somewhat discouraged, almost as if he needed help with something important.
"Oh, there you are, Harry! I've been looking all over for you. Listen, I wanted to ask you," Hermione started, but Harry cut her off.
"Questions. Yeah, I know. I'd would answer the one that I think you're going to ask, except I don't know if I can."
"What do you mean?" Hermione said, sounding rather puzzled.
"You want to know about earlier. Why I did what I did. To tell you the truth, Hermione, I don't know why I do some things."
"Harry, please, I'm just so, so," Hermione lost words as she thought of ways to put how she felt.
"Lost," Harry said knowingly, and put his arm around Hermione. She turned away.
"Harry, until you answer me why you, uh, why you kissed me earlier, I'm not going to let you get near me. I'm sorry, I just don't know what to think."
Or what to feel, she thought to herself.
Harry backed away, dropping his head. "I understand." He turned away and started for the stairs to the boys dormitory.
Hermione thought about saying one simple thing to him before he left, but she figured that that would just make things worse.