Disclaimer: Testing 1,2...testing...is it working? ok. I DON'T OWN ANYTHING BUT THE PLOT! I REPEAT IT..well..i don't want to right now, you heard me the first time. > p
Chapter 2: The Friendship
Somehow, Harry's hand had ended up on the back of her neck when they fell. He could see into the depths of her dark brown eyes. She stared back into his emerald eyes. She saw many things in his eyes. Sorrow, hatred, longing, love, hurt, secrets. She saw too many things in his eyes to interpret them all.
He saw love, compassion, determination. He felt as though his stomach was being pushed on. As if someone was making it hard for him to breathe. He had never been like this with her. He had never thought her as anything except his best girl friend. Now suddenly, it was as if he had known her all his life. He looked back and forth between her two brown eyes. She looked confused all of the sudden and opened her mouth to speak, he tried to pull her down to him. He had no idea why he did this, it was if his body wasn't listening to what his mind was telling it, "Harry...you and I both know this isn't right..." she said less than an inch away from his lips.
His eyes blinked rapidly. He let go of her. She got off of him and helped him sit up. She tried to say something, but instead, she just looked away. She had never been like this with a boy, with a man. She suddenly felt embarrassed with Harry. As if she had just realized that he was a celebrity. Her mouth shut and she sat back on her legs.
He watched her. She seemed embarrassed now. "I'm sorry." he said looking at the ground in front of his feet.
"It's okay." she said rather quickly.
"Oh...umm...you have something in your hair." he said as he reached his hand towards her head.
"I'll get it." she said standing up. She wanted to leave. This was too confusing for her. She was not normally a person to be confused, but now that she was...she didn't like it.
She picked some grass out of her hair and brushed her legs off.
He stood up and brushed himself off. "Do you wanna go walk?" he said trying to break this awkward silence.
"Uh...sure." she smiled awkwardly. They walked out of Privet Drive and he led them to the playground where he had gone so many times before.
They sat down on some of the swings and eventually they started talking again.
"How is your summer so far?" he asked swinging a little bit.
"Same old same old!" she laughed a little bit. "Has yours been..." she trailed off.
"Has mine been what?" he asked trying to help her out.
"Well...how has it been with all that's happened?" she rather painstakingly. She didn't want to cause him any more pain than he already had to deal with.
"I've been trying to cope with it all the best I can...but...I have no one here that I can talk to." he had stopped swinging subconsciously. He thought he had sound rather sad and depressing. "But...I try not to think about it too much. I'm trying to focus on what's ahead rather than what's in the past." he lied.
They both knew he was lying, but neither wanted to say anything about it.
The clouds seemed to have turned gray suddenly. It felt like it was gong to rain. The air felt humid and sticky.
"Do you think we should go back? Looks like it's going to rain." she said looking up at the sky. He didn't really care if it rained. He wanted to sit there and let it rain on him. He only wished that if it did, that it would wash all of his pain away. Wash away all of the troubles he had and was having. He wanted it to be gone. He felt like flying upward into the clouds on his Firebolt.
The rain drizzled at first, but then it started pouring. He stood up and lifted his face to the sky. The cold rain felt so good to the touch of his skin.
Hermione looked up at him, "I wish I could just take all of his pain away. I want to help him, but I don't know how...and it's as if he doesn't want help." she thought to herself. She stood up slowly. She didn't know what to do. She was soaking wet, and he looked as if he wanted to stand there until the rain stopped and then keep standing there.
She wanted to cry for him, she wanted to cry for everything that had ever happened to him. He didn't deserve it. He had never known his parents. She had both of hers. He lived with a family who couldn't really care less about him. Her parents sacrificed so much for her. She sank to her knees and started to cry silently. She didn't want him to know she was crying. She let out only a small sob, but it was enough for him to look down at her and realize what she was doing and why.
"Don't feel sorry for me!" he said choking back tears. "Don't cry for me, don't you dare take any of this on yourself." he wrapped his arms tightly around her and rocked back and forth slightly. She sobbed into his shoulder. "I can't help it. I don't know how you do it. I'm not even you and I'm the one crying about all the things that have happened in your life. How can you live like this?" she said finally putting her arms around him. He sat there holding her while she cried for he didn't know how long.
He somehow managed to get her over to a bench by the fence. She sat beside him and cried into his shoulder. He just held her closely and rested his head on hers.
She felt so warm.
They were both soaked through and through, but somehow, she felt warm. "Hermione?" he whispered softly.
"Huh?" she said lifting her head as if woken from a peaceful sleep. "Promise me something." he said looking at the ground again.
"What?" she said pulling his head towards her gaze.
"This may be a lot to ask of you...it may not be, but I want you to promise it to me." he said looking at her deeply.
"What?" she replied even softer than before.
CRACK! The lightning flashed across the sky.
"Promise me that you'll never cry for me again. I don't care what happens, don't you ever cry for me again. Will you promise me that? It's all I ask of you." he said looking thoughtfully at her.
She thought he was asking the impossible of her. He was probably going to go through a lot worse this year than what happened last year. "
Harry!...How can I promise...How can you expect..." she couldn't finish what she wanted to say.
"Please just do this for me. Please." he almost said begging.
She mustered up the courage she had to promise such a thing, but it still wouldn't come out. "I can't do it!" she barely whispered.
He sighed leadenly. "Why can't you?" he inquired softly. "I just can't...I don't know why...but I can't." she said tears in her eyes.
The wind started to pick up a little bit. "Hermione, we're not moving from this spot until you promise me that you won't ever cry for me again." he said in an all too serious tone. She knew he probably would and she didn't want to chance it.
She opened her mouth to speak, nothing. She took a breath to speak and tried to talk, again, nothing. Her head found her hands and she leaned her elbows on her knees. Out of nowhere, she suddenly felt a surge of courage and strength. She wiped her face off and brushed her hair behind her ears. She looked straight into his eyes and took both of his hands in hers, "I promise I will do my best and twice that to never cry for you again." she said as if reciting a slow melodic poem.
He couldn't believe he was going to say this but he did, "That's not good enough, I don't want your best, I want you to promise it to me!" The words rang in his ears. She felt deeply hurt. "Well that's all I give to you Harry! If my best isn't enough for you, then I can't promise you anything!" she said practically yelling. She stood up and started walking away from him, she was right by the swing set when she turned around to say something, but seemed to change her mind.
He only realized it a split second before it happened, the swing set was made entirely of metal.