We All Need Somebody to Lean On

A Harry Potter fanfiction

By The World of My Creation

Summary: A series of random snippets in which Harry discovers his feelings for Hermione, surprisingly through all the things she does to his shoulder. Harmony. Harry POV. Set in POA, GOF, OOTP, HBP, DH. Non-epilogue compliant.

A/N: First HP fic, so please be kind. Constructive criticism is appreciated though.

Disclaimer: Everything belongs to JKR.

A shoulder to punch.

Harry can't remember the last time he laughed so hard.

He watches as Fred and George continue with their joking antics, they are re-enacting a scene of when Ron was younger. He looks over to Ron who is red in the ears because though everyone pretends not to, he knows everyone in the common room is looking their way.

She's laughing too, her hand covering her mouth trying to hide her amusement of the twins. Her Defense Against the Dark Arts essay already written lies abandoned on the table. It's already longer that Lupin had asked for.

"And all this time I thought you disapproved of the twins making noise while you were trying to study?" He leans over to her and whispers.

"Oh shut up Harry." She swats his shoulder playfully, and he just laughs. This only makes her swat his shoulder more, and he swats her knee. "I do enjoy having a little fun sometimes, besides, this is harmless compared to setting off Fanged Frisbees on the first years."

"What is this I hear?" Fred moves closer to Hermione.

"I think she said she wants us to set off Fanged Frisbees on the first years." George answers.

"I did not!" Hermione glares at Harry.

"I think we must oblige the young lady, what do you say George?"

"I say we do Fred."

"See what you've done!" This time she punches his shoulder before taking out her wand and running after the twins, who have magically produced a few Frisbees.

He gets a bruise on his shoulder the next day.

*

A shoulder to sleep on.

He knows that it's his fault. He knows that he should have listened to her a long time ago.

He looks over at Ron who has already fallen asleep on top of a book. His snoring reverberates in the silent library.

He glances at her, she's still flipping through pages, her nose almost touching the book. She yawns, and her eyes meet his.

"Found anything yet?" She stifles another yawn.

"No, nothing." He closes his book and reaches for another before resuming his place on the floor. The number of books around him is growing with every hour that passes.

"It seems Ronald has taken a break, maybe we should too?" She grabs another book before taking a seat beside him on the floor.

"You can take a break, I'll keep looking. It's my task anyway." Both of them continue flipping through pages, until he feels a pressure on his shoulder. He looks to find her already fast asleep, and he just notices how long her eyelashes are.

Taking care not to move her he continues flipping through books, but his concentration seems more focused on the fact that she is sleeping on him than on the fact that he has yet to figure out how he will stay underwater for hours.

"Oi!" Ron's voice hit his ears before a crumpled piece of paper hits his face. He flinches only too late to realize that his doing so wakes her.

"Oh, we must have dozed off." She blushes pink, and suddenly he feels embarrassed too. She picks up her book and returns to the desk.

For some reason Harry gets angry at Ron for waking them, he thinks that the moment was too personal and he doesn't like that Ron had to be there to witness it. But he can't put too much thought into it because Professor McGonagall chooses that moment to take Ron and Hermione away.

His shoulder still feels warm.

*

A shoulder to nudge.

He stares at his hand, the words "I must not tell lies" are still visible as if he had gotten them yesterday.

He runs a hand through his shock of black hair before letting out sigh. He's the first to arrive in the Room of Requirement. Usually Hermione is already there, but today she isn't.

He really needs to talk to her. He needs to talk to her about Cho. He isn't sure how he feels about her anymore.

"Hey, been here long?" He didn't hear her come in.

"No, I just got here."

"Were you waiting for someone?" She smiles at him, but it's more of a smirk, like she knows something that he doesn't.

"I was waiting for you." Her brow furrows slightly before she resumes her smile. It bothers him just a little.

"Oh, it's just I thought that you were waiting for Cho, she usually comes a little earlier to help me set up."

"Yeah about Cho…" She cuts him off before he can even continue.

"So are you going to ask her?" This is the first time he's heard Hermione giggle like she does now.

"What?"

"Well the holidays are coming up, I just thought it would be the perfect moment to you know, ask her out." He can't believe Hermione is talking like this, and his surprise must be showing on her face because she blushes. "But I mean it's fine if you weren't, I'm not pressuring you or anything."

"Do you think she likes me?" The question sounds stupider out loud.

"Of course Harry, why wouldn't she?"

"No I mean, do you think she likes me likes me. Like, am I attractive?" Harry can't believe he's asking this. He blushes, but Hermione doesn't even blink.

"Harry, even if you didn't have those gorgeous green eyes, or that shockingly black messy hair, or that tall lean Quidditch body, everyone would still like you. I mean you're the boy who lived." She nudges his shoulder as she says this.

Her response leaves him speechless, and she finally blushes in the awkward silence that follows her short speech. He never knew that Hermione had ever looked at him that way, and it makes his stomach clench up.

Even after everyone leaves and he is leaning into the kiss with Cho he can't help but think of what Hermione told him.

He can feel her nudging his shoulder as his lips meet Cho's for the first time.

*

A shoulder to cry on.

She comes to him again. There are tears in her eyes, and he knows why they're there.

"Ron."

She nods, as if there could be any other reason. He pats the seat on the grass beside him. He has been going there a lot lately, sitting next to the lake, catching glimpses of the Giant Squid on occasion.

Although he knows he shouldn't, he can't help but feel flutters in his stomach as she bursts into tears on his shoulder. She's clutching at his shirt, her body pressed against his. He tentatively wraps his arms around her, and she molds into them.

He thinks it's stupid of him to say they fit together like two puzzle pieces. He has to bite his tongue to stop those words from pouring out of his mouth. He's been doing that a lot lately. There are so many things he would like to say to her. But he knows he can't, because saying them would only make matters worse. And he of all people has caused enough trouble as it is.

Instead he kisses the top of her head, her mass of curly hair feel silky to his lips. She doesn't protest, but he doesn't want to do it again. He contents himself with taking in the smell of her, she smells like parchment and books.

After a few minutes she mumbles something into his shirt.

"What?" His voice is hoarse.

"Thanks Harry, I can always count on you to be there for me." She pulls away from him, and he does all he can to stop himself from keeping his arms around her shoulders. She wipes off the rest of her tears and smiles. "Your like the older brother I never had."

He does his best to smile. Brother. Those words hurt him more than would like to admit. Especially because he thought he liked Ginny.

"Yeah, anytime Hermione."

Together they walk back to the castle.

His shoulder is still wet with her tears.

*

A shoulder to lean on.

It's been months and he knows that she is tired. He's tired too.

Tonight they are more so, the weather is getting wetter and colder, but they can't risk going back now. Not when they are so close.

"You should rest, I'll keep watch." He takes out his wand to show her.

"Thanks Harry." He's surprised that she doesn't protest but instead takes out her wand too. "Can I lean on your shoulder?"

He nods as they sit on the ground, their backs against the tent. She leans on his shoulder and lets out a sigh. He wonders if she's thinking about her family. He feels bad for dragging her away from them, he assumes that it must make things difficult. After all, he doesn't have a real family to leave. He doesn't even think of Ginny anymore.

"I'm sorry." He feels like he needs to apologize.

"What for?"

"For making you leave your family. I didn't mean for them, or anyone really, to be in danger because of me."

"But you are my family Harry." This makes his eyes well up with tears. Tears of joy, tears of sadness, tears of exhaustion. He wonders if this will all ever end.

"I'm really proud of you Harry. I know it might not seem like it, but every time I look at you I find the strength to keep fighting, no one makes me feel like that. I guess it's because I know that you'll always be there should I need your help."

He can't find the voice to tell her that that is what she is to him, but hearing those words come so bluntly out of her mouth gives him new strength.

Somehow knowing that she depends on him makes him want to fight harder. At the moment he doesn't care that half the Wizarding world is depending on him, he knows that he must defeat Voldemort so that she can be safe.

He realizes now that she is the reason he has been fighting for.

His shoulder is there for her to lean on should she every need someone to lean on.

*

It's over.

It still doesn't seem real to him.

He struggles to have life resume to normal.

How can it be normal when so many of the people he loved are gone?

How can it be normal when Hermione and Ron are breaking up once more and she's moved in with him, despite the fact that it makes Ginny angry?

But he doesn't care about Ginny anymore. He thought that when he would come back she would take over his heart, but then he realized that there was only room for one person in his heart.

And this one person was now wearing his old Quidditch shirt. And sitting at his breakfast table, eating his cereal, and reading his copy of the Daily Prophet.

And when he looks at her he can't help but think that she's his as well.

"I don't want to be the shoulder anymore."

"Huh?" She looks up at him. He knows his words don't make sense either, but he continues.

"I want to be somebody." With every word that passes he feels like he should be checked into St. Mungo's.

"What are you talking about Harry? You are somebody."

"I want to be the only one. And I want you to be the only one for me, Hermione."

"But Harry, I thought I already was."

He doesn't mind being the shoulder to lean on. Because he knows that for her, he is also the hand to hold, the mouth to kiss, the heart to love, the reason to live, the world.

*

A/N: Alright cheesy ending, but I needed to finish it so I could get back to studying for finals.