In the early light of dawn, the birds of Hogwarts began to sing a cheerful Fugue. As the merry sun climbed ever higher in its pointlessly cyclical journey, its golden rays of warmth flitted through the open window to gently caress the sleeping faces within like the perv it was. Ginny, her hair flaming in the illumination, stretched out languidly with a luxurious yawn. She rolled over and put her arm over the sleeping form next to her. Hermione stirred, and slowly woke up. She turned to the flaming red head next to her and had a moment of surprise when she realized that it wasn't Ron. Remembering the events of the precious night, she gave a shy, conflicted smile to Ginny. Ginny's face fell a bit,
"What's wrong?"
"Nothing's wrong." Hermione answered honestly, "I'm just a little confused. I mean, last was a wonderful contrast to my previous sexual experiences (which makes me realize that, despite his claims, it wasn't really genetic)."
"I know! It was amazing!" Ginny sat up enthusiastically. "I mean, I never thought about…being with a girl before, but I was never really attracted to boys."
"But Harry-"
"I think maybe I was trying to be attracted to him, and that my feelings of admiration for him after he rescued me from the basilisk were strong enough to make me think that maybe I loved him. But I've never enjoyed being with him as much as I've enjoyed hanging out with you, and after this I know that I'm really not into men." Ginny was glowing with the joy of finally understanding an important part of herself.
"Oh." Hermione looked down at the sheets.
Ginny's face fell again.
"What, "Oh"? You can't tell me you didn't enjoy it too. I think what our neighbours heard last night points quite to the contrary." Ginny gestured to the other girls who shared their dorm, all of whom were pretending to be asleep while quaking from the shell shock of being exposed to the notion of sex (they were very sheltered despite their age). Public living was really inconvenient for Hogwarts' students, but by the time they were seventh years they'd be able to tune it out.
"No, I definitely enjoyed the sex… just now I'm confused." Hermione looked pensive.
"What's there to be confused about? It was a life-altering moment of rightness!" Ginny was also starting to look pensive. "Did it really not mean the same thing to you?"
"I don't know what it meant to me…I don't know what I feel. There's just, so much going on and it all happened so fast! I'm sorry, I just don't know what else to say." Hermione couldn't express the tumble of thoughts whirling through her mind, and found herself unusually speechless. She really didn't want to hurt Ginny…
"Oh…that's okay. I mean, you've got a lot going on right now. I guess for me the only big change is what happened last night…but for you it's that and the fact that you're carrying my brother's child. Which, now that I think about it, makes this situation really awkward." Ginny tried not to think about her brother having sex and instead focused on Hermione and what she needed right now, even though it hurt that she apparently didn't feel the same way.
"Hermione," Ginny began, "I understand that you need time to sort out your feelings because so much has happened in the past two days. Don't worry, I'm still your friend and I will still do my best to support you through this."
"Ginny," Hermione's voice caught in her throat. "I don't know what I'm going to do." Unbidden tears started to trickle down her face, "Adoption laws in wizarding society are so messed up…after seeing what happened to Harry, I-" She began to sob, unable to contain it any longer.
Ginny hugged Hermione and soothingly patted her back, trying to be a source of strength despite the twisting in her own stomach.
Excusing herself from class early, Hermione sat in the library being soothed by the comfort of dusty, smelly books. They smelled like people's touching hands, and this made her calm. The idea that hundreds before her and hundreds after her had and would come in search of knowledge briefly gave her the illusion that her problems weren't so big after all. But she knew as soon as she left the library, it would all come crashing down on her again.
"Hermione?" Ron's gently calling voice ruined the illusion earlier than necessary.
She turned to see Harry standing supportively next to a nervous Ron.
"Listen Hermione, I've been thinking. And I'm sorry about what I said before. I'm just really scared about this whole thing, too." He sighed, trying to steady himself, "Like I said, I've been doing a lot of thinking and I'd like to stay with you – also in the biblical sense – and help you through this. It's my baby, too."
"We're all with you in support of your magical bastard." Harry gave her a little hug and Hermione couldn't help but laugh at his asshole joke.
"Thank you." She was getting a little teary again. "I'm really going to need a lot of support. But Ron, there's something I need to talk to you about." Ron and Harry leaned forward expectantly. "Alone." Harry looked disappointed.
Harry stood behind a different stack of books and pretended to look at stuff while still obviously eavesdropping. Hermione didn't care, she only needed the semblance of privacy.
"Ron, I'm happy that you want to help me and I want you to be in this child's life as its father. But I think we should go back to being just friends." Her eyes were so full of tears.
"What? Why?" He was taken aback and hurt all at once. "I said I was sorry about before and I meant it!"
"I know. But things happen, and my feelings have changed. All it took was the counsel of old book smell to make me realize that, although I truly love you, you aren't right for me. And…I…I think I might be in love with someone else." Her confession came tumbling out in her attempts to get it over with. She couldn't bear to have it hanging over her anymore.
There was a small, childish gasp from behind the other pile of books.
"Someone else? You've been cheating on me?" Ron's eyes were full of hurt.
"It just sort of happened…and it wasn't technically cheating since I had just dumped you." Hermione inadvertently added insult to injury.
"That's awfully quick considering how long we've been going out!" Ron covered his tender feelings with anger, "How do I know that's even mine!" He pointed at her belly accusingly.
"You're the only man I've ever been with!" Hermione cried, hurt by his hurt and the hurt he was now hurting her with.
"But you just said-"
"It was your sister!" Hermione yelled, the tears flowing yet again. Then her eyes widened and she clapped a hand over her mouth.
Harry poked his head from around the pile of books.
"Wait, what?"
Ron's mouth was agape, completely numb with shock. But only his mouth. The rest of him did the Charleston Shuffle, causing his mouth to flap eerily.
Hermione stopped crying and she and Harry stared at him in concern. After some time, Hermione tried to put an end to his ghastly dancing.
"I'm sorry, both of you. We never meant to hurt you. I hope in time you can forgive us." Hermione didn't expect them to recover from this seeming betrayal anytime soon, so she stood. "I think I should give you some time. I also have some things that I need to say to Ginny."
Ron's mouth snapped back into place and the dancing stopped.
"Did you tell her that you've been cheating on her…with me?"
"That doesn't even make sense. Goodbye, Ron." Hermione ran as fast as she could from the awkward situation in the library.
Ron reached out haltingly after her and then she was gone. Turning around and slightly pale, he sat down heavily in the library chair, causing a wave of dust to rise into the air.
"EASY ON THOSE CHAIRS, YOU WHELP!" Madame Prince screamed before vanishing once again into the darkened abyss.
"I just can't believe it! How could they do this to us!" Ron buried his head in his hands.
"Yeah. How could they." Harry looked off to the side in disinterest, not trying very hard to sound like he meant it.
"I mean, Hermione! And my own sister! She always did get the best stuff because she was the only girl, and now she's got Hermione too!"
"I don't think it works that way, my dear, simple Ron." Harry sighed.
"I loved her when she was buck-toothed…which was always!" Ron started to cry manly tears into his robe sleeves.
Harry put his hand on Ron's back.
"Hey man, don't take it so hard. You've gotta move on. I have." He offered his paltry comfort.
"It's been, like, five minutes! And your girlfriend was actually cheating on you!" Ron looked up at Harry in disbelief.
Harry shrugged, "Yeah, I guess so."
It was then that Ron truly understood the raw power contained within The Boy Who Lived.
"You're so strong, mate. I feel like I've been crushed by a hippogriff." Ron looked so endearingly childish with his watery eyes, like a child who had scraped his knee.
Harry smiled, slightly deluded and completely insensitive.
"You know what I think might make you feel better?" Harry prompted. "Revenge."
"Harry, I don't want to hurt either of them!" Ron looked appalled.
"No, no, no, I mean mind games. Like jealousy." He smiled winningly.
Ron looked down at the floor, "I don't think I could even think about touching another woman right now. Besides, you know how long it took me to woo Hermione. And she didn't have standards."
"No, I meant give them a taste of their own medicine!"
Ron stared at him blankly. "Where are we going to find two other lesbians in the school to make them jealous? Homosexuality is too repressed and I don't think Seamus and Dean would make them jealous at all."
"No, I mean we'll make them jealous with our happiness." Harry raised his eyebrow suggestively and seductively.
"What?" His face was completely blank, which Harry loved.
"I'll just come out and say it, then. I mean you and me. Right here, right now. I've been thinking about it a lot, and I think it's for the best."
"Just when have you been thinking about it?" Ron leapt to his feet in surprise, knocking the chair back.
"Oh…since Hermione confessed that stuff she did." Harry tried to make it seem like it hadn't been for years. He'd been dating Ginny, assuming she'd be like a female Ron. He was wrong. He was honestly just relieved that their relationship was over.
"I don't know, Harry…" Ron looked exceedingly nervous. "It's all well and good for Seamus and Dean…and while you're a stunningly handsome guy-"
"So you admit you're attracted to me!" The horrible beast of a literary device that signifies Harry's sex drive gave a growl of happiness.
"What was that?" Ron was alarmed at the sound.
"That just happens sometimes. I'm not sure why." Harry was monumentally embarrassed.
This show of sensitivity suddenly moved Ron. He'd never seen that Harry could be vulnerable because he was kind of a sociopath.
"Hey, it's okay. Plenty of children's fiction characters have stupid shit written about them all the time." Ron put a comforting hand on Harry's shoulder.
"Not like this, Ron!" Harry turned away in anger. "Do you know how it feels? To know that everyone can hear when I'm attracted to someone! FUCK! One time it went off during Professor Trelawney's class! Professor Trelawney!"
"That is worse than erections." Ron suddenly felt blessed by comparison.
"Harry, your embarrassment over this matter suddenly humanizes you to me." Ron blurted out.
"Really?" Harry tried to make it look like he hadn't planned the whole thing.
"Yes." Ron admitted, "And I find you handsome. But I'm from a large family with a scary mother."
"I know." Harry put a shushing finger on Ron's lips. "She scares me too."
"Harry!" Ron gasped as Harry pushed him again the table and kissed him full on the mouth. "You've had chips for breakfast? That's not healthy."
"I love it when you're stupid – which is always." Harry sighed, kissing him again.
This time, Ron kissed back and, in a fishing metaphor, Harry knew that he had landed the big one.
"My white whale." He sighed dreamily.
"Harry, I'm nervous. I've never…been with a man." Ron was slightly flush.
"Neither have I." Harry said confidently.
"Oh."
Harry leaned forward, going in for the kill. He raised an eyebrow,
"Engorgio."
"Oh, Harry! Truly you are The Boy Who Loved!" Ron yelled.
And Madame Prince watched silently from the shadows, a small smile creeping about her face. It was exactly as her fanfiction had foretold. She totally shipped those two. And she barely moved or made a sound as they consummated their bromance.