Hey everyone,
So, this is both a good AN and a bad one. It is good, because I want to make a Shout Out to Crystal, who – while reviewing as a guest – always supports my stories and even made the fun little comments to a few of my stories last Monday when it was the end of February and thus the day for my stories to get updates.
Crystal, you may be only replying as guest, but I love you nonetheless and I hope to continue making you happy with my chapters as the months and years progress and my stories get finished and replaced with new ones. Also, I sincerely hope to see you as an accounted reviewer one day so we can converse about my chapters.
And then there's Jonno. Someone who used the whole guest thing to keep me from replying to him and while he did guess my age practically right, did he use a curse word that gets censored by our good site several times. Jonno, I just want to let you know that when I noticed the first curse word, I deleted your reply.
Sorry peeps, I felt that had to happen. Also, I also want to use this AN, which I hope to change back into good with this part, to reply to Brooke, who also reviewed as guest and actually guessed who the teacher was that I hinted at in the last AN. Sorry Brooke, you were wrong when you guessed Flitwick, though it was a good guess.
As for Snape, I think Snape will become a real Slytherin, which is to say that he is going to become extremely careful with how he words his insults, especially to Sirius, yet he will refrain from doing so to Harry, one because Harry is no longer his student, two, because he understands how protective a parent Zeus is.
Thanks for the reviews,
Venquine1990
Chapter 14
Thoughts and Talks – Part 02
26th of August 1995
Hermione's POV
After all the years of adventures we've been through, I just don't get why this feels like such a difficult thing for me to do. All I really want is to prove to Harry that he hasn't been betrayed by both his friends, but perhaps it's because Ron was his first friend or because I am supposed to be the smart one, that I can't get myself to do it.
To make it even worse, did I actually feel relieved when Sirius told me that I should just wait another few days after Remus had made his attempt and while I want to tell myself that it's because I feel that Remus and Harry deserve time together, is it just the truth that I feel glad to have another day to procrastinate all of this.
Yet, this morning my loyalty to Harry pushed through my worry about where our friendship could be now that so much time has passed since Harry discovered about Ron's betrayal and yet, the fear is still a very strong emotion, making it so that I have been standing in front of Harry's door, wriggling my hands for several minutes.
"Is this supposed to become like a ritual for you guys or something?" A voice then shocks me as it comes from the other side of the door I am standing in front of and while Lupin, who actually walks past me just then, smirks in amusement as he must have been caught by Harry like this just yesterday, do I gulp and enter the room.
Harry is seated with his back to the door, shocking me and making me wonder how he knew I was on the other side of the door, but then Harry says: "I guess when people get nervous, their breathing increases. Both you and Lupin were breathing deeply enough I could almost hear you both while being all the way over here."
And while amazed over how his new Divine powers have grown in only the nine days that have passed since his hearing, do I also notice how his voice sounds a little distant, yet not in the way that he means to be hurtful, more in the way that he has his mind focused on something else and then I notice it.
Harry's body may be aimed for the windows in the back of the room, yet his face is aimed down at his lap and just by tilting my body just slightly to the left, do my eyes widen when I see him softly petting a stuffed plush dog that has the same amazingly wild black fur as Sirius does when he transforms into Snuffle and Harry says:
"Remus saved it after the destruction of Godric's Hollow, yet he kept it hidden even from himself until Sirius revealed the truth of his innocence to him. Can you believe that Lupin actually left me this in his own office and that Ron cursed me to miss seeing it when I went and left to convince the guy not to leave his position as teacher?"
This, while after hearing everything that Ron has already done, really shouldn't shock me anymore, yet it does as I know just how terribly hurt Harry must feel to know that his friend used every spell and curse imaginable to not just keep him enslaved, but cast away from his – what we thought – actual birth parents and heritage.
I move over to where he is seated and whole not really sure if I should just start apologizing right away or try to make Harry feel better first, does it seem as if Harry doesn't want to talk about whether or not he still trusts me as his friend as he instead says something that makes me truly understand his distrust in the British Magicals.
"They knew who Pettigrew was, Hermione. Remus and I realized that yesterday. They discovered this before mum escapes prison and they kept it from the wizarding world. And you know what's the funniest about it all?" A this I look at my friend, wondering how he could find humor in any of this and he says:
"Molly Weasley purposely broke the law and kept a dangerous, murderous criminal in her home while her husband works for the Ministry – and still she constantly harps to others about respecting authority figures and that the twins should get a desk job there like Percy did. She's the biggest hypocrite I have ever met, Hermione, the biggest."
Yet while Harry says this, obviously trying to make it all sound like some amusing joke, can I easily hear the pain and betrayal that my best friend feels as he speaks of this and then I decide to, instead of apologizing, just clear any possible bad air we could have between us and so I softly draw his attention to me as I ask:
"Harry?" The boy looks at me, his previously emerald green eyes that have changed into sky-blue eyes like his father's with a sharp edge to them thanks to the silver he inherited from his mother, and while I gently lie one of my hands on the one he has on the stuffed dog's head, do I ask: "Is – is there anything you – still resent me for?"
The boy tilts his head, his eyes I suddenly notice looking slightly glazed, which proves that Harry was actually more talking to himself than to me this whole time and while I want to feel affronted, do I keep looking at him instead and ask: "Is – is there anything that I ever did – that make you feel like I pulled a Ron?"
At this Harry's eyes turn sharper and he turns back to looking at the plush in his arms and while part of me hates how he doesn't just instantly defy my question, do I feel as if waiting for his answer will be the better idea, mostly because I really do want everything to be spoken about between us; for us to clear the air of any possible clouds.
"You – you never really pulled a Ron, but – well, you did have time to talk with me." At this I lower my head, but then Harry confuses me as he says: "I didn't mean this summer." I look back at him at this and see him staring at me with eyes that are almost overrun with so many emotions, they look like actual storm clouds.
This further evidence that he is like his father distracts me just long enough I barely hear what he says next, yet when I hear his words, do I realize and understand beyond words why he decided to bring this up and do I feel as if this conversation will get exactly what I want accomplished, which makes me feel really better.
"I meant Christmas in our Third year. You had the whole morning from when we woke to when we went to lunch to tell me that you feared that mum had been the one to send me the Firebolt and because, like always, you were in a fight with him, you let it out on me and decided to trust teachers over me and our friendship.
Your problem was with Ron and you let it out on me instead. And that wasn't the only time you or he did that, I sometimes did feel as if I was a judge to you guys instead of a friend – and the times I did feel like that, I felt as if you expected me to be biased only to your side and not to a neutral solution or a possible compromise."
At this I can't help but look down, knowing that Harry is absolutely right as Ron and I had definitely been in lots of arguments where we often expected Harry to support both of us at the same time, something which is really unfair to someone who is both our friend as well as someone our age, not a responsible judge or adult.
"Now, I have no doubt that Ron often did this to further power up the spell he cast upon me with his sister and that bint of a mother of his, the spell to make sure he could directly or indirectly order me around, but there were a few times where Ron was just lazy and didn't really care it was you who wanted me to agree with you."
At this I also nod and then Harry asks me a question that I cannot help but admit that I often asked it to myself when alone as he asks: "Hermione, were there ever times where you wondered why you were friends with Ron – or where you thought about asking me to chose between you two as friends? Have you ever thought that?"
At this I can only lower my head in shame and then, from the corner of my eye, do I see Harry smile at me as he softly grabs my hand, me having let go off his after he asked his questions and he says: "I want you to know something, Hermione Jeanne Granger, and I want your word that you will try to never forget this."
This alone makes it almost feel as if a small glimmer of hope starts to shine from within the pain and guilt that I feel within my heart and when I look up at him, does he say: "Back then, partially due to the spell, partially not, I would have picked him. However, that would always be my initial reaction, never my eternal.
My eternal decision, even if I would have to fight for it or fight to prove I meant it, would be to pick you. And that is not just because you and he proved last year who my real friend is, but because whenever it came down to it – bar once – you were always the one who risked way more than he ever did to help me through my issues.
You did so when we were on the verge of facing Voldemort. You did so when you were amongst those most in danger by the monster of the Chamber. You did so when you needed to break the rules to see my life saved. And you did so last year when you stood with me regardless of how others thought of me at the time.
You were always the friend who did the most out of all three of us and I never showed you the appreciation that you deserved for that. And I don't know if it's because of the spell or because I'm a guy or because I had such a bad history with emotions that I don't know how to express them – but they are there."
And with that does the boy hold me close as he says: "And now, while I know that my dad wants me back at camp as he has something really big planned that will be revealed to me soon, do I know that you are my friend and that, when it matters, I can come back to you – because you came back to me whenever it mattered."
And with that, while I did absolutely nothing other than hearing the boy out, do I still feel tears of relief falling down my face as I feel as if the weight I have been feeling on my heart since hearing of what Ron did fall off my shoulders and while Harry holds me, do I cry softly into his shirt, his sweet smile proving he just doesn't care.
He and I are friends. We have been friends since he and that idiot saved me from that troll – which the idiot caused me to encounter in the first place – and while Harry is right that I have always done the most of the pre-work, is it also true that Harry always did just as much when it came down to the final events – and I was always there.
Yes, I was dragging Ron back to the Hospital Wing while Harry faced Quirrell and Voldemort. Yes, I was on a Hospital Wing bed lying Petrified when Harry fought both the Basilisk and Diary-Riddle. Yes, I had to break the law and only stood to the side while we saved Sirius from the Dementors. Yes, I was just there in the stands when Harry went through both the First and Third Task and the Graveyard. But I was there.
And that is something that, whether and I will be going back to Hogwarts together or not, whether Harry will return to where his parents reside in America or not, whether Harry will chose to stay in America for the rest of his future, I plan to continue no matter what. I will be there and I will be wherever Harry wants me.
"Cause that's what friends do." I then whisper, not really caring if it sounds strange to suddenly say such a thing or not, yet Harry just keeps smiling at me and then proves he had been either reading my mind or thinking similar thoughts to mine as he softly, with the same care as I am used from him, says: "Yes, that's what friends do."
Unknown POV
Barely anything is really said between them, yet it's just not necessary. "Just like I told you." I mutter, not allowing for any air to leave my lungs in order to make sure that Harry's powers don't pick up on me and the pat on my back tells me everything. My partner will make sure that nothing will ever separate these two again.
And that's where I end it.
I will admit, I was rewriting the last part several times – or better said I was constantly seeing whether or not I should add something more, yet after the whole thing with Hermione talking about friends and that unknown POV, was I sure that I had a perfect ending, even if it caused an startling unexpected plot twist.
Yet the question is – though I am sure you guys already know – who is the mystery POV and, more importantly, who is his/her so-called partner? And how will this so-called partner ensure that Hermione will never more be separated from Harry again. Okay, you are my loyal readers, I'm sure you already know all this.
Do you,
Venquine1990
PS. Check Chapter 01 for Rules.
