Hello there, for anyone who takes the time to read this story of mine just come quick background: this is my first fanfiction and pretty much the first time I show my work to others so please be kind and any feedback will be appreciated.

Ps. I do not own in any way any of the characters (obviously) just wanted to put it out there.

She was late. If she didn't hurry up she would be late and she hated being late.

She had already grabbed her coat, her scarf and her beaded purse but she still felt like she was forgetting something and couldn't quite put her finger on it. Once she started pacing around the dorm, it suddenly hit her: she was forgetting her muggle money, she always carried some emergency galleons on her purse but just that. She quickly approached her night stand and grabbed some pounds.

Her roommates were just staring quietly as she did so, staring at each other with a slight smirk on their faces. When Hermione realized this, she just rolled her eyes at them. She had spent most of their first year together trying to convince them that there was nothing going on between Harry and her, but the fact that Harry was always on the dorm, or that he was the first to arrive in her birthday and the last one to leave in the Christmas and New Years party that the dorm hosted every year just managed to persuade them that there was more than just a friendship between the two of them. However Hermione insisted that that they had been best friends for years and that it was sexist to imply that a boy and a girl couldn't be friends without something else going on. Still she had given up on trying to convince them otherwise so she just announced that she would be back late at night and not to wait her up.

She didn't have to say who she was meeting with, since it was pretty obvious. Since her two best friends had their growth spurt, she had to start wearing heels in order not to feel like a little girl lost in the woods but since tonight she was only meeting Harry, she decided upon wearing her comfy shoes: a pair of boots, winter boots, warm and cozy that she loved and kinda matched her coat, not that she actually cared about those things.

She took a few steps before getting to the apparition zone in the dorms at the Wizard Academy and after the all to familiar sensation, she found herself on an abandoned alley on the part of muggle London she knew. She walked until she found what she was looking for: a big Tesco right on Main Street, where she proceed to buy all sorts of groceries, since she wasn't sure what Harry had at his house she grabbed everything she knew they would be needing, the only things that knew for sure Harry had was some milk, cereal, bread, pumpkin juice and butter beer.

She walked the remaining distance with the groceries and her beaded bag, under the cold, since it was almost winter, and in the London weather, thankfully, Harry's place wasn't to far away. This dinner date she had with Harry wasn't only to "catch up" as she had told him when she asked if he would meet her.

She knew that Harry by all means was moving on with his life, but she was the only one who could see the veil of grief and sorrow that clouded Harry's beautiful green eyes so whenever she tried to approach the subject, he would just cut her off, jokingly saying that she worried to much and that she didn't know how to deal with an stress free Harry Potter, though that was far from being true, yes Harry had joined the normal society fairly well, Hermione could tell that he wasn't sleeping enough, and he didn't make an effort to socialize with anyone at the auror career, or even date with the huge amount of girls that chase after him, he concentrated solely in his career (much to Hermione's surprise and pride), in his godson Teddy and to be completely honest, in her.

After the Battle of Hogwarts, Hermione was the only member of the Golden Trio who had returned to school to finish their final year. Harry and Ron on the other hand accepted the offer to become aurors, although Ron had quitted after a year to work alongside George and help him in the shop. And Harry waited a year to start the auror training while he coped and grieved, healed (as well as he could), restore Sirius's house and dealt with the fact that he had lived when he never actually imagined he would.

Everything had changed after the war, the constant paranoia didn't just disappear over night, and while Ron and Hermione tried to continue their relationship after the war, it took a few months of constant fightings for both to agree that the kiss and their romantic feelings were just "a heat of the moment" kind of thing, and concluded their relationship in friendly terms, if relationship could actually describe what the had, since it was mostly while he was in auror training at the time and she was back at Hogwarts.

Harry on the other side, had (on his own, contrary to what most people thought) concluded that he wasn't the same person he was when he had started dating Ginny and she was so overwhelmed with the grieve after Fred's death that she just closed up, secluded herself and mostly spent time healing alongside the rest of the Weasley clan; their breakup wasn't as amicable as Harry would have wanted. Ginny was really upset because Harry had broken up with her right after her brother died, although that wasn't accurate at all, since Harry made sure to wait a proper amount of time until he decided that it was time to move on.

After that there was a time when he pretty much isolated from everybody and everything, after Remus and Tonks died he decided it was time to deal with, not only the recent deaths he had suffered but with the death of his parents, Sirius and Dumbledore because at the time he didn't even know who his parents truly were, Sirius and Dumbledore on the other hand, their respective deaths had an awful timing, not leaving him enough time to mourn properly the two most important male role models he ever had.

Obviously it was Hermione who pulled him out of his seclusion, one rainy day that he missed their lunch date to catch up, since she had come back from Hogwarts for the Easter break. She confronted him and explained him very patiently that he was throwing away the life he had fought so hard for, that he had the Weasley's, Teddy and herself. He argued the point that since the breakup with Ginny, there had been a certain awkwardness towards him, since they all expected they would get married and thus making Harry an official Weasley. She told him the same had happened with her relationship with Ron and that that feeling would eventually wear off, and even though it didn't look that way to Hermione at the time, she had gone through to him and he filled out the proper paperwork to join the auror career next fall, alongside Hermione who had chosen Magical Law to continue her work with S.P.E.W. although, unlike Harry, she wanted the full college experience with the dorms and dorm mate.

She wanted to leave the war behind her even if she sometimes had to force herself to do so; since the war she had been suffering from nightmares, sometimes they were about their time at the Malfoy Manor, others were about the Battle itself, the blood, the school in ruins, the screaming and all the bodies but the worst ones were when she dreamed about Hagrid carrying Harry in his arms, announcing he was dead, she kept reliving that moment night after night: she could feel her body numb and cold, the blood running slower through her veins, a ringing in her head that didn't allow her to form any coherent idea, she just froze at the news, but in the nightmare it was different, Harry didn't stood suddenly, he was by all means dead and Hermione just stayed in trance, not being able to do anything for Harry or herself.

But still she, stubbornly, decided upon a dorm, after doing some slight adjustments to her side of the dorm with some privacy charms so her dorm mates wouldn't be bothered by her constant nightmares. Meanwhile Harry had decided to live in Grimmauld Place, after he restored it, he liked living in a muggle neighborhood since in the magical community his fame had increased enormously after his victory against the Dark Lord and he very much appreciated his privacy to lose it again.

After all this changes, they still managed to remain close, some would say they were closer than before, and even though they didn't study the same thing, Hermione still managed to help him throughout the first years of his career, studying on her own just to be able to explain Harry. The auror career was one of the most complex since the first two years were merely theoretical and in the third and final year it was just the auror training as such, he even tried to make her change her major, given that she was as good as him, if not better.

Finally Hermione arrived at Harry's place that was now out in the open, no longer hidden under the Fidelio charm, she placed all the groceries in just one hand in order to have the other one free to reach out for the keys Harry had given her for emergencies (even though it was in plain sight, the place still had some safe keeping charms), she was fishing the keys out of the pockets of her coat, when the door screeched open and gave her the view of a recently showered, barefoot Harry Potter, he wasn't wearing his glasses, and merely in a white shirt and a pair of jeans. She blushed in embarrassment at the sight of him, although she didn't know why, and it bother her a great deal not to know something.

"Am I early?" She asked, looking at him, frowning, since she was sure she would be late.

Before he answered, he leaned over to take the groceries from her hand, and kissed her on the cheek while he straightened himself up, his way of saying "hi" to her.

"Don't worry Mione, you are just on time. I'm the one who is late, as always" he said, with a mocking grin on his face.

"Harry! what on earth are you doing? Is freezing and you are barefoot?! You'll get sick"

Harry smiled widely at her

"You are adorable when you get all worked up about me, but I've placed a warming charm all over the place, so I'm good"

"You could have at least put on some shoes" she answered, annoyed by his carelessness.

"Come on in, see for yourself"

It was indeed warmer at Harry's place, so she took of her scarf and her coat and placed them gently on the back of the sofa. When she turned around Harry was standing next to the close door, still with the groceries at hand.

"So, I thought we were ordering take out"

"No, we are cooking dinner" she declared

"Well okay then" he answered, while he summoned his wand into his open hand.

Hermione eyes widened, she was impressed to say the least, she knew that the auror training was exhaustive, and had no doubt that being able to do magic without a wand was tricky, not to mention wordless magic, but they must have taught him that, for sure, and even though the spell he had just made was fairly easy, she also knew he had to be a very powerful wizard to do it, even if he didn't fully believed it himself.

He looked at her, amused by her reaction to something that, for him, was very common.

She recovered quickly from the shock, shook her head and stared firmly at him: "No, no wand."

"What do you mean no wand?"

"We are doing this the old fashion way, the muggle way"

"Hermione, in case you haven't notice, we are not muggles" he said, stating the obvious.

"Harry: people have been cooking without magic for a long time and it would be good to learn how to do so as well, after all we don't wanna

depend on our magic that much"

"Well I do"

Hermione narrowed her eyes dangerously at him and he knew better than to fight her. But before he could even say something, she cut him off, with a firm hand dismissively.

"Go and put some shoes on at least, I will take everything to the kitchen and start preparing what we need"

Harry had an expression like she had just told him he couldn't have dessert after dinner, and started mumbling under his breath, while he was climbing up the stairwell, something about not having a mom but he had his very own Hermione.

She waited for him to be out of sight before breaking into a smile, he often said that, and even though Harry never met his mother, he was sure she would have liked Hermione: caring, protective, kind and patient.

She took the groceries to the kitchen, where she put everything in the table, separating what she needed to wash. She pulled her sleeves up, and started washing the peppers, she was half way through when Harry finally showed up, he was wearing the dragon shaped slippers Hagrid gave him every Christmas since the Hungarian horntail challenge in fourth year, he was also wearing the Irish Quidditch team jersey she had given him after the World Cup, she had meant to buy his dad a souvenir but she ended up buying a size too small, so she gave it to Harry instead because at the time Ron was a Bulgaria fan, that of course, before the Viktor Krum debacle. She smiled but not at him, she smiled because in that moment, he reminded her so much to the 11 year old boy she had met at the Hogwarts Express. He was giving her a weird look, not knowing what she was thinking, which rarely happen.

"Are you sure you know how to do this? I mean, you are brilliant and all Hermione but I don't remember your cooking to be that…" he couldn't come up with a word that didn't sound so ungrateful.

"Well I guess you would have preferred starve to death the year we spent on the run…"

He definitely failed at his mission. And his face must have reflected it because Hermione started laughing.

"Merlin's sake Harry, I'm joking, of course I know how to cook but let's face it, in the tent we didn't have enough supplies or even time to care for things like that."

He gave her a playful look, almost like a challenge.

"So you are going to cook for me."

"WE are going to cook, it could be useful for you to learn as well."

"Excuse me ma'am, I do know how to cook I'm just not aware what are we cooking today , so just tell me what to do and I'll do it"

Her smile fell a little, she knew Harry had said that with a good intention, but pretty much everyone said that Hermione was the one who pulled the strings on Harry, on his career and also on his personal relationships, Harry trusted her and she knew that if she had asked him to throw himself of a bridge, he would do it no questions asked (obviously she would never ask him such a thing).

Harry didn't even realize her mood changed, he was way too busy trying to chop the peppers the proper way. She watched him, so focused on chopping the vegetables the exact same way she had showed him, she started making the sauce and boiling the water to add the pasta. Both continued their tasks in a comfortable silence, with Hermione smiling everytime Harry cursed after almost chopping off his finger, which happened more than once, and every time, he would look around to see if she had noticed, and she did but pretended not to until she couldn't resist anymore and bursted out laughing, and Harry did too. Not one of them said anything but still, they felt at ease, and since they talked almost every day, they didn't feel the need to speak.

Although the silence was nice Harry decided that their task might take a while, and put on some music; he was no stranger to the muggle world and decided he wanted both things in his life, as a result his place was filled with gadgets and geeky stuff. Harry didn't actually mind what they listened, so he turned on the radio and tuned in on a random station, he immediately identified the song but didn't mention it, dismissing his own memories and waiting to see if she remembered, hoping she did. Hermione was so focused on her task that didn't even noticed the music until a while later, she looked up at him, and gave him a tiny smile of recognition. It annoyed Harry greatly that even if she was the brightest of all three and how the papers liked to call her: "The brightest witch of her age", she didn't know or she wasn't aware what her smile made him feel, even he still didn't fully understand it.

"Harry? Is everything alright?"- she asked him, a frown on her face.

"Yes, I was just thinking" he answered absentmindedly

"Would you mind sharing Mr Potter?" she said with a tone that reminded him of both Professor McGonagall and Professor Snape.

That little joke was enough to get Harry back from his thoughts

"I thought you always knew what I was thinking" keeping up with the bid

"Oh but I do Mr. Potter, except when you are thinking about quidditch"

"You are, as usual, right Ms. Granger" she blushed at his compliment. Whenever someone made a comment about her intelligence, she would always get mildly annoyed because it reduce her to be only smart, not kind, or brave or anything else for that matter, but Harry knew all this, so it didn't bother her, but rather it pleased her.

"Dinner will be ready shortly, would you mind setting the table?" she said, trying to hide her blush with the few rebel strands of hair that fell in her face.

She saw him nod and proceeded to finish up the pasta, once she was done, she smiled proudly at their work; it was a recipe from the French side of her family that she loved, her mom would made it for her only on special occasions; last time was when she graduated Hogwarts and sharing it with Harry meant a lot for her, like giving him a part of her other life: the muggle life, the one he wasn't a part of.

She took both plates and slowly turned around to find a beautiful set table, way fancier than what she expected, when a thought rushed to her mind:

"Harry James Potter I told you no magic" she narrowed her eyes at him.

At least he pretended to be ashamed

"We were no longer cooking Mione, I thought the no magic rule didn't apply." She shook her head, looking at him with disapprovement.

As usual, he knew exactly what to do when she was getting mad, that's what made him able to stop the huge fights she usually had with Ron. Ron however did not possessed that ability.

He took the plates in his hands, did a little swirl, dangerously balancing the food, and comically set them on the table. The table was big, but the only to seats that were put, were across each other.

He then gave her the most charming smile he could muster. She maintained the disapproving look but he saw that spark in her eyes, the one that made worth making a fool of himself.

They talked about life: school, classmates and also ex classmates, Ron's new relationship with Luna Lovegood, Ginny's quidditch career, but they always managed to avoid their past, they both had silently agreed not to and tried to focus on the present and the future.

She enjoyed very much to have a nice, intimate conversation with her best friend but she was also debating on how to bring up the one subject that had brought her there in the first place, she knew Harry got all defensive whenever she brought it up, so she had to find a way to slip it casually into the conversation, or better yet, find a way for him to bring it up; in order to do this, she would have to find a way to outsmart him, which knowing him as well as she did, wouldn't be that hard.

Neither said anything for a while, silence filling the room. Hermione was all about the facts, so she didn't dare to believe in something so ineffable as destiny but there it was, the prove that she might be wrong; the song, the most hauntingly beautiful song and not just because of the lyrics or the melody itself, but because what it meant, both of them, together and alone, just like that night in the tent. A night both they remembered perfectly and yet never talked about.

She felt transported by the song, it felt so familiar even though she hadn't heard it again since that night, Harry noticed this, feeling strangely glad to know she recognized the song. It took him forever to find the song but once he did, he couldn't stop hearing, however he never shared this discovery with Hermione even if it was just as hers as it was his.

He didn't hesitate, he stood up and walked over to her, taking his hand and curtsying, she played along and he lead them into the only clear space of the flat, swaying together, his arms warm and comforting in her back. She was so close to him that she could feel his heartbeat.

Hermione was overwhelmed with Harry's closeness but still managed to follow the lyrics in the song, though it was sort of sad and nostalgic, for her it was beautiful. Then she heard it: "I was blind but now I see" and she couldn't help but feel very identified with how she was feeling in that very instant. They kept dancing even when the song was over, they only stopped much later.

Slowly, they began to untangle from each other, feeling slightly numb, like they just woke up from a dream. They stared intensely at each other, much like the night at the tent, but now, Harry wasn't wasting any more time, he didn't even think it through, because if he had, he probably would have never done it.

Before they could react to what was happening, he closed the distance between them and pressed his lips against hers. It was slow but firm and she responded immediately, it was almost as she was expecting it, it felt right, it felt delayed, like it was something they should have done a long time ago. It was sweet and caring, it said everything words couldn't possibly express. It was also long, it felt like it could go on forever.

They parted when they felt their lungs were about to explode from the absence of oxygen. Although he rather die in her arms than live without ever kissing her again.

She opened her eyes, slowly, just to find his big green eyes already staring at her with a look so filled with love that she felt her knees buckle, he caught her and pull her even closer to his chest, rejoiced on the feeling of her warmth.

Hermione was the first one to speak "What happened Harry? "

"I'm pretty sure we were about to snog, but now I'm not so sure" he answered playfully.

She let out a bark of laughter "Honestly Harry"

"What?" he asked as innocently as he could, but there was no way to fool her, and his mischievous, very marauder like, gleam in his eyes was a clear tell. But suddenly she wasn't feeling playful anymore.

"Harry I… I…" it was unprecedented for her, Hermione Granger, not to be able to muster a word, let alone finish a sentence. So she just stared at him, intensely, trying to let him know what she was feeling, what she couldn't find the words to express. And he knew, the way he always did. She didn't need to say anything for him to understand what was she saying, or at least trying to.

"Me too" he said, not really thinking, but the moment those two words left his mouth he realized it was true, that he had never meant anything as much as this, that he'd never felt such an overwhelming feeling towards anyone, not even Ginny.

Ginny, the thought of her made him, for a split second, compare the relationship they shared with the one he had with Hermione.

He had never done such a thing before since, in his head, they were two totally different things, and they were in fact very different. While he cared deeply for Ginny, after their relationship ended, he understood that she was just an escape of the infinite battle that was his life back then, and that other than a couple of quidditch games at the Burrow and two or three chats he didn't really knew her, much less love her, it had taken quite some time for him to figure that out. It was really the idea of a family, of truly belonging somewhere, the thing that he liked about being with her.

Meanwhile his relationship with Hermione was always their own, not even Ron was allowed into it; she was the one fighting side by side with him at every battle, not once bailing on him, she was the one that even when petrified had manage to help him, the one that did not give a damn for Quidditch but still never missed one of his games, the one that though scared to death of something happening to him, never asked him to quit his mission and always figuring out a way to help and support him, she was the one who always found him and the one he never wanted to be hidden from, she was the one who knew him better than anyone.

She was the one.

Maybe that's why he never saw it before, he was used to things in his life being so bloody complicated. And his feeling towards her were as clear as day, he had just come to the realization that his best friend was the love of his life and yet he felt completely at peace; because suddenly a lot of things made sense, like how after Ron and Hermione got together, he wasn't really fond of being alone with them or how he always thought that Hermione deserved better whenever he saw them fight or Ron pulled something on her.

He also felt mildly annoyed that he hadn't realized before, although if he was being completely honest, he knew that had he realized, he would had drove her away, being afraid of his feelings and all. So the timing was definitely a bit of a shock for both but not unwelcomed at all by neither one of them.

"Look Harry" she said firmly but still recovering from the shock "I love you, I truly do and I'm pretty sure I always did, first as a friend and somewhere along the way I fell for you, hard, and now that everything is over I know why I never realized something that was so obvious, it's because if I admitted to myself or to others, what and how I felt for you, that would be it. If I'd lost you, that would have been it for me; I'm strong, I've always been strong but you are the line that my heart won't cross, I couldn't bear losing you, not now and definitely not then" she declared confidently and with no breath.

"And the reason I came here today is because I know Harry, I know you still have nightmares, and I do too, you know? If you hadn't be so incredibly daft you'd know that this, the war, it's not just haunting you, is haunting all of us. And I tried to wait for you to come to me but it's been three years and nothing, I just couldn't stand idly by when you were suffering on your own and so was I…"

Tears began to well up in her beautiful hazel eyes, but Harry had never knew what to do when someone cried and when Hermione was that person, it just tore him apart. He put his arm around her and walked her to the couch in the living room, he hold her, he hold her tightly until her tears started to fade away.

While he held her, he realized that even though the war was over, it still took things away from him, once it had taken his family and his opportunity to have an ordinary life but after three years he felt like it still took things from him: the chance of a normal life, a normal chance to build relationships, friendship or otherwise. But now it was entirely up to him since there was no war anymore, so maybe it didn't took things from him, he gave them away, without a fight because he was tired but perhaps this was a battle worth fighting for.

The reason he had fought all those years ago was for people to recover their lives, to give them some stability, but what about him?, he never thought he would survive the war but he never shared this with anyone, not even with Hermione. He never actually took the time to plan ahead since he might not get an ahead and now, he had a bright future, he could do whatever he wanted with his life and he wasn't going to waste another minute.

He carefully cupped her face with both his hands, looking her straight in the eyes "I didn't know you still had nightmares"

"You are always there" she admitted coyly "The worst one is the one where Hagrid carries you in his arms from the woods but in my dream you don't wake up and I run into the woods, and I keep running and running till I fall and I wake up"

"You are always in mines too, generally it's about that time, at the Malfoy Manor and your screams, they just drive me crazy, sometimes it's just your screaming and everything goes black, other times I go crazy in that cell, all alone, hearing you suffer without being able to help you, the way you always helped me"

"This is ridiculous, I mean we are both here, safe and sound" Harry couldn't help but notice how her right hand touch unconsciously her left arm.

He took her arm and carefully pulled her sleeve up, the scar still looked brand new, as it had been done yesterday, so very carefully, he placed his index finger on the first letter and draw the outline of the scar gently and lovingly, then in a very unlike Harry manner, he kissed her forearm, one time for each letter. Eight in total.

"I know you are right" he finally answered, staring at her as if she was everything and nothing else mattered "I know I'm living my life as if something horrible will happen, as if someone will take everything from me again, I can't help it. This life feels stolen somehow, I'm here but there's many people that didn't make it"

"You didn't stole anything Harry, your life was given to you by people who loved you and the best way to repay that sacrifice is to live, live the life you wanted even if you never thought you could do it, even if it's in the most unexpected way, you owe it to them, but most of it, you owe it to yourself."

After he nodded solemnly, acknowledging she was right, she gently took his hand and lead him to the kitchen were the table was beautifully set.

They had dinner and then proceeded to talk for hours. They talked about every fear they had, every awful nightmare and eventually they began to talk about the good dreams too, all their ambitions and fantasies, they talked about the places to visit, concerts to go and books to read. As they spoke, they slowly became fully aware that the life they had by their own just wasn't enough anymore, in fact it kinda felt empty and rather ordinary, they both wanted more but they were afraid to ask for it.

They spent the rest of the night talking about their past, the little signs along the way pointing to the obvious fact that they belonged to each other, laughing about how young they were and how crystal clear it must have seem for everyone else. Finally they agreed that although they still had some demons to fight, and needed time to heal going through it together would make everything slightly better.

"Then it's settled, we shall go get your things from the dorm room" Harry said, eager to start this new stage of his life, their life.

"Harry darling, it's 5 in the morning" she said, staring lovingly at his new found partner.

What she said made Harry aware of the fact that they had talked all throughout the night and suddenly he felt really tired. Soon they settled in each other's arms and began to snooze off.

Just as the sun rose and the sun light began to enter the living room, she heard Harry mumbled something under his breath.

"What was that?" She asked softly, half asleep.

"You are it for me, Hermione. You've always been"

She fell asleep right next to him on the sofa, with a big smile on her face, knowing that this was it, for the both of them.

After everything they had been through, the news about their relationship were not as striking as they thought, everyone expected it, the Weasley brothers even had an ongoing bet about how long it would take them to realize it; Ron won, fair and square.

Harry started to sleep better and more often after Hermione moved in, and her nightmares became more and more sporadic. He was broken, and she knew it, but she didn't want to fix him, how could she? She was broken too. The only one that could help Harry was himself, in the meantime, she would be there with him, accompanying him in the way and also healing herself. They fitted as good together as a couple as they did as friends and to be honest, they both wondered why it had taken them so long to take that step when it was so obvious, they were meant for each other and that much was clear.

Much later, on an uneventful night previous to their graduation, Hermione was going through her valedictorian speech silently on the bed, and he was lying right next to her, more relaxed than ever, staring at here intensely.

"You are distracting me dear" she said, her eyes never abandoning the parchment where her speech was written.

"I'm not doing anything"

" I can feel your eyes, just ask me already"

"What? How on earth do you know I want to ask you something?"

"I just do" finally turning around to meet his eyes.

"I was just wondering, you being as brilliant as you are, how could you not see it, I mean I'm incredibly daft, but you?"

She proceeded to leave the parchment on the night table and lie down beside him, giving him her full attention and the question, her entire concentration.

She looked at him like it was the first time and kissed him deeply. With her eyes still closed and their lips barely touching she whispered:

"I guess I was blind but now I see"