a/n: Officially canon divergence from this chapter on. Poka! I forever stand with you. Ron and Hermione brought out the worst in each other and neither would have been happy long term. Shout out to DDNT.07 and Time Keeper for the continued reviews. I'm behind on all my WIPs and updates due to a busy time at work but will plan to post several chapters of this story over the long weekend.

Prompt: First I Love You

Chapter 6: Everything

Harry woke to something in the night. He listened. He thought it might be rain on the canvas of the tent roof. He was tired of the rain. Tired of being wet and cold. Especially when that was how he felt inside ever since Ron left them. Then he heard the noise that had woken him and it wasn't the rain. It was Hermione. She was crying again. As badly as he felt for her, he also felt a spike of irritation. If she was so sad that Ron left she should have left with him. When he sat up, the horcrux shifted under this shirt. He pulled it off. Just as angry at the necklace for making him think such terrible things as he was at Ron for breaking her heart. It was the third night of listening to her cry and he couldn't take it anymore. Harry climbed down and stood in the dark. She would have heard him climb down. Maybe she thought he was getting up to use the toilet and was trying to stay quiet. Why would she hide her pain from him?

"Harry?" she finally asked, understanding he hadn't gone anywhere since climbing down from his bunk. She lit a lantern. Her eyes were red and swollen but all he saw in them were concern for him. "What's wrong? Is it You-Know-Who?" She was moving to get up to help him.

He motioned for her to stay. "I'm alright. You're not."

She wiped at her face with her shirt sleeves. "I'm sorry. I don't know why I'm so upset. It's just that I can't believe he left."

"I can," he said abruptly. Her head jerked as it he hit her.

"Don't say that. He was wearing the horcrux. He's not fully recovered—"

"—stop," he interrupted quietly, trying not to be unkind. "You always make excuses for him. You expect him to be someone he's not. And Hermione, that's not fair to him. It's not fair to you."

She scooted forward in her bed, letting her feet swing over the edge. The pile of blankets pooled around her. "Harry…" she trailed off, apparently realizing she was about to make excuses for him again.

"Say it. Say he's used to being taken care of. He's used to having an entire family to do the hard work together. He's used to you having the answers. He's used to me standing between him and danger."

The hurt was clear. He wasn't sure if she was hurt by the truth or by his apparent disloyalty to their friend. She looked from his face to his neck, trying to decide if he was being influenced.

"I took the horcrux off. I'm not being mean, I'm being realistic. You want him to be different. You want him to sacrifice for you."

"Not for me," she whispered.

He turned his head, trying to hear her better. "What?"

"Not for me. For him." She heaved the blankets off her and pushed them aside. Standing, she met him where he was standing in the middle of the sleeping area. "He's better than he thinks he is. You know that. That's why you had to trick him into thinking he drank the liquid luck potion for quidditch. He gets in his own way because he doesn't think he's good enough. You make him see who he could be if he would just get out of the way."

Harry listened to her praise the man Ron could be. What good was that? They could all be better. What counted was who they were when it mattered. What they were doing mattered and Ron left them to do it alone. Hermione hadn't left. She never would, he knew that. She'd follow him to certain death and would not hesitate doing so. He'd do the same for her. "We can't spend our lives trying to convince Ron to be something he doesn't want to be." Was she willing to play that game her whole life? Waste her energy?

"I know." Tears of painful acceptance welled up in her eyes. "I knew that before he left."

"You deserve better than that," he said, not meaning to say it aloud. Her mouth opened to justify Ron's treatment of her. He stopped her with her name. "Hermione. The reason you think you don't deserve better is because you're willing to sacrifice for us. For everyone. You'll settle for someone who can't just be a better man for himself, he won't be a better man for you. You deserve someone who will sacrifice for you. Not ask you to sacrifice for them." He wasn't sure where his words were coming from. They were things he wanted to say to her since the beginning of their sixth year. When Ron and Lavender went on together he was relieved. Harry was sorry that it hurt her so much, but he thought that would put an end to her waiting for Ron to notice her. It truly wasn't a slight at Ron. Harry loved him like a brother and accepted him for who he was. Friends did that. But if Ron was looking to earn the love of Hermione Granger, well, that was another matter. "And I'm done watching him hurt you."

It wasn't often Hermione was speechless. Harry had just given her years of pent up emotion. "What are you saying?" she asked, not quite getting it.

"I'm saying I'm right here. I'm willing to be a better man for you. I'm willing to sacrifice everything for you. I'm saying I love you."

"What? You… you what?"

He stepped closer to her. She might reject him. It would be better than living with the regret of never telling her how he felt. "I love you," he repeated.

"No. Ginny…"

Ginny Weasley was an amazing person. Confident. Powerful. She was who he was expected to end up with. A member of the sacred twenty-eight and the chosen one. The story wrote itself. It wasn't the story he wanted. He wanted to write his own. And the woman he wanted to write it with was standing dumbfounded in front of him. "Ginny's with Michael Corner again," he said. "I saw them on the map in the observation room above Gryffindor tower. A lot." She looked sad for him and he kept talking before she could say more. "No. I don't care. We broke everything off before I left. She knew it was over. I knew it was over. Leaving to search for these horcruxes wasn't just an excuse. I already knew I loved you." Each time he said it was easier and he was more sure.

"Harry. This is… I don't…" she tried to sort it all out.

Harry knew he could wait for her to think about it. Rationalize it. Diagram it. He didn't want to waste the time. He pulled her to him, eliciting a cry of surprise. Then his lips met hers. His tongue seeking permission to deepen the kiss. He felt her body respond, relax into him. Her lips parted for him. He knew his feelings were real when he felt the electricity move through them. It was never like this with Cho or Ginny. It was always stiff and awkward with them. This was Hermione. She was everything he had left that mattered, everything to him. The person who would always stand with him whatever the cost. He pulled his head back, breathless and then went in for one more quick kiss in case she was about to wind up and smack him and he never got the chance to kiss her again. Finally he searched her eyes. Hoping not to see rejection, expecting to see it.

Her hand came up and cupped his face. She still hadn't said a word.

"If you're going to tell me you don't feel the same way, maybe you can tell me tomorrow," he told her. "I want to remember this."

And then she kissed him in response. More passionate than the last. Instinctually, he lifted her and walked her to her bed, managing to lay her down without breaking contact. He reveled in the touch of her, the warmth of her. He was so tuned in to her responses, he felt like they were melded together. He wasn't sure he believed in the concept of a soul mate, but there was something about her that he recognized without seeing it. Something that fit within him, making a piece of him whole that he didn't even know was missing a part. It was her. His whole life he had been missing her. And he was committed to being the man that completed her the same way.