Within the Limit by Nousia

Rating: PG
Genres: Romance
Relationships: Harry & Hermione
Book: Harry & Hermione, Books 1 - 4
Published: 28/03/2004
Last Updated: 28/03/2004
Status: Completed

Hermione wonders - how much is going too far?




1. Within the Limit
-------------------

Disclaimer: Nothing’s mine, except for the drabble itself. Harry belongs to Hermione – well,
*technically* he belongs to J.K. Rowling and other related companies. But he’s all Hermione’s.
;)

Author’s Note: To **PICK**, **Christine** and **Nielle**. For reasons that only they
know. “She” is Hermione, “he” is Harry. “It was something forbidden” refers to what the law thinks
of friendship.

Summary: Hermione wonders – how much is going too far?

She wondered. That day was full of nothing but thoughts and ponderings for her. Her ingenious
mind didn’t stop mulling over the wonders and mysteries and miracles of the universe. She wondered
about mankind. She wondered about morality and society. She wondered why things were the way they
were. She searched for an explanation. Trying to find the answer was never easy; she knew that. Yet
she could always find the answer, always solve a problem. Always manage to figure out how something
worked, what was actually the truth, what was actually real.

This time, though, her mind and intelligence didn’t help her. For this time it was different.
She wasn’t solving anything; she was trying to figure out something. To find out the answer to this
question that she’d been mulling over for a while. A long while, it seemed – yet seven years didn’t
seem like a lifetime to her. No matter how hard she tried to find a different answer, pondered over
the endless possibilities and answers to this question, she would always come back on one answer:
the truth. For, you see, this question was something that she couldn’t face, but she knew she had
to face it head on. Something that she couldn’t, but wanted to, deny. She wouldn’t rest until she
figured out the answer to this maddening question.

What’s this question? you ask. Well, it was quite simple, really; it was just a bit difficult to
figure out. (“A bit difficult” being the keyword here.)

*How much is going too far when it comes to friendship?*

You could have lots of answers here, she knew; and as I mentioned before at the beginning of
this tale, every answer she arrived to only came down to a true, sole one. What was the problem?
Every answer, save for the truth, she wasn’t satisfied with, and threw out; after all, what use
were they? She needed only useful answers; not useless ones. They didn’t help at all. If they
weren’t any use, then why bother paying attention to them, or pondering them?

So now she turned her attention over to the answer that remained: *When you regret stepping
over the line*.

So the limit was –

There was no limit. Only when you did regret something that felt wonderful yet was horrible, by
society’s standards and the so called Unbreakable Law of Friendship (it called itself a rule, but
in all truth it was a law), then there was a limit.

She hadn’t submitted herself to the law – for as right and rigid the law was, it was wrong. It
called friendship a mistake – especially the kind that she had with him. Mistake she knew it
wasn’t; it was the exact opposite. It was right. Something to be thankful and happy for. For rarely
did you have love in true friendships like these; especially theirs, for the law forbade it. It was
something forbidden – something unspoken that silently told you not to break the law, to cross the
invisible line of friendship. No matter how much she followed by the rules, this time she couldn’t
stand for it. Sure, the law judged what was right and what was wrong; but that it judged itself. It
didn’t let people decide for themselves, for who knew what people’s view of right and wrong might
be? So the law decided that it itself was right in judgement; so it only allowed itself to decide
what was right and what was wrong. Everyone else was wrong, as far as it was concerned. It had
decided that everyone else was wrong, and that was it. No questioning, no contradictions. Only the
law, the “rule” of friendship was right. And that only. No exceptions.

So for the first time in her life, she wasn’t going to listen to the law. She wasn’t going to
abide by it. Not make it the law of life. Not follow its every word.

So what’s she going to do? you ask. Simple. Now that she knew what the limit was, she chose to
follow her instincts and throw away her regrets, if there were any. Then she realized that she had
no regrets. Absolutely no regrets at all.

Having come to that, she got up from the window seat where she’d been pondering all this and
left the room, leaving the door slightly ajar behind her.

She found him standing by the fireplace, a thoughtful look on his face. Judging from his stance,
he was musing over something, too.

She stood next to him, waiting for him to say something. No words were spoken all this
while.

He turned to her. But he didn’t say anything. He just looked at her. Not thoughtfully, just a
neutral look. His eyes told her everything. He was thinking the same thing that she had been
thinking only a few moments before.

She knew that he didn’t regret it, either.

A small smile was what he offered to her. She took it and kept it as a mental photo that she
would never forget and always remember.

*No regrets?* He asked her.

*No regrets*. She answered.

Then they crossed the line.



