Disclaimer: I dont own HP or any of these characters. That belongs to JKR, Scholastic Books, Warner Brothers, etc.
Chapter Three
The next couple of days were awful. Harry wouldnt speak to her at all. He wouldn't even acknowledge her existence. Everyone knew that the two of them had had a spat, and so Hermione had to deal with advice from her friends as well. Of course, all of the advice she received consisted of her speaking with Harry, which was kind of hard to do considering that he wasn't speaking to her.
This fight between the two of them was really taking so much out of her. She couldnt sleep at night. She simply tossed and turned the nights away, wondering what might have been. She cursed herself for bringing that list to Hogsmeade that day, and she cursed the fact that Harry didn't let her have it back. If she hadn't brought it or if he hadn't read it, they would have still been together at the moment. Granted that they might not have stayed together for very long, as rumor had it that Harry already had his eye on a pretty Ravenclaw, but Hermione desperately wanted to have that time. She didn't know how much she had fallen in love with him, until she had lost him.
When her last class of the day was finished, Hermione headed back towards her room, instead of on to the Great Hall for dinner. She had been skipping dinner for the last several days, as it was too painful to see Harry there ignoring her. She could usually eat breakfast and head out to the library before he even arrived. She ate lunch when their schedules were different and she knew he wouldn't be there. And sometimes, late at night, after she had finished her rounds, she snuck into the kitchen and got a few tidbits to snack on before going to bed.
Reaching her room, Hermione spoke the password and walked in, the door automatically closing behind her. She had just placed her books on her desk, when she heard a voice say, "Skipping dinner again? That's not good for you, Hermione."
Hermione whirled around to see Harry standing in front of her bed. He must have let himself in, as she hadn't changed her password since the weekend. His eyes were red, and he looked as though he hadn't been getting enough sleep. Usually, that would have been enough to tug at her heartstrings, but what he had said had annoyed Hermione.
"As if you care," she shot back. "Considering how youve been ignoring me since then . . . and I only wanted to apologize."
"Ignoring you?" Harry repeated. "Okay, so I was ignoring you the first day or so, but then I was bloody mad. And I like to think that I had the right to be. But then, you started avoiding me . . . or isn't that the reason why you're skipping dinner again?"
"Do you have a problem with that? I thought that would make it easier for you, so you wouldn't have to work so hard at ignoring my very existence," Hermione shot back.
Harry turned red and began pacing back and forth. "What was I supposed to do?" he asked. "There I was, heartbroken, and the girl who had broken my heart wanted to talk about it, to convince me that it wasn't all that bad and to get me to forgive her for making me feel so bad. And I didn't want to listen. Because I knew I' forgive you and that you'd think that things were all better . . . and they wouldn't be." He paused for a moment. "I don't think they'll ever be."
"And so youd prefer for us not to be friends?" Hermione asked. "Because that's how you were treating me. As though you didn't want to even be around me and so . . . ."
Harry snorted. "I thought you wouldn't mind, seeing how you probably think you're not good enough to be friends with me."
"I'm not." Hermione bit her lip. "I'm not. Thats why we weren't friends right away. Because if I was good enough, you wouldn't have been annoyed by me. But I thought since then . . . I thought that you didn't think that way." She glanced over at Harry, who had stopped pacing and was now just staring at her. "Thanks for proving me wrong."
"Hermione, I never thought that," he told her. "Never. Not even once. I always thought you were good enough to be my friend. " He smiled bitterly. "And I thought you were perfect for my girlfriend. Still do, actually."
That was when Hermione did something she never dreamed that she would be reckless enough to do. She crossed the room and kissed him, figuring that she might never get the chance to do so again and she might as well take her chance while she still could. His reaction was instantaneous, opening his mouth under hers so she could taste him and pulling her within his arms embrace. They managed to make their way to her bed, with him landing on top of her, his hands everywhere and her kisses now trailing down his neck and leaving marks. A small part of her was screaming that this was going to fast, but she ignored it. She wanted this, to have him as a part of her and from his reaction, he wanted it too. As soon as their clothes were finally off, he was inside he--rpainful at first, but getting better with each moment, as they got closer and closer, until she didn't know where she started and he left off, until all she could do was scream his name in pleasure as he thrust into her one last time.
Harry was the first to speak after it was over. "You know," he said, "I do believe youve never kissed me before."
"Harry Potter!" Hermione said indignantly. "Did you fall and hurt your head? I've kissed you plenty of times before."
"No, you haven't," he insisted. "I kissed you plenty of times and you always let me, but you were never the one to start the kiss."
Hermione opened her mouth and racked her brain for a time when she had kissed him first. To her astonishment, she couldn't think of a several time. "I . . . I guess that I forgot to put that on my list." As soon as she said those words, she wanted to take them back. She should have known better to mention that to Harry.
"Right. The list." Harry idly brushed his fingers against her face, then moving on to play with her hair. "The list you kept on how to be a girlfriend. I guess you did leave out a few things." His hand dropped down and sought out hers. "Would you like to try again?"
Hermione gasped.
"Ive missed you, Hermione, more than you could know. And I'd like us to be together again . . . and I think you'd like it as well considering what we . . . ." Harry blushed, coughing. "But I want it to be for real. For both of us. So no lists, Hermione. And Merlin! No plans on what to do in case--"
He was stopped from finishing that thought by Hermione leaning up to kiss him once again. "Okay," she said. "I missed you too--being apart was so hard because I love you so much. And I . . . well, it's going to last forever, right? "
He nodded his head. "Right."
"Right. It will. So I won't have to worry about you falling out of love with me." Hermione's lower lip trembled. She was too sensible to think that forever was a promise that they could never breakbut she wanted him and she wanted to take the chance that they would keep it.
"I won't, Hermione," said Harry. He cupped her face with his hands, staring straight at her with those brilliant eyes of his. "And if you give me the chance, I'll prove it to you."
"I know you will. I know you will." Hermione smiled. "And will you let me have that list back?"
Harry stiffened at those words. "I said that I didn't want you to keep a list, that I wanted you to be in it for real--"
"I want it back to burn it, Harry," Hermione told him. "So I know you're not up torturing yourself at night reading it. That's all. Because I want to be yours, for now and forever more."
"Good. Because that's exactly how I feel."
Hermione snuggled closer to Harry, as they waited for the Hogwarts Express to depart. It was hard to believe everything that had happened. They had wound up burning that list together, each promising each other they would always be together. Hermione had a bad scare a few weeks ago that he would break that promise, when Harry had went off for that last duel. But he had come back and she had never been happier.
It had been hard, though, dealing with her parents. Neither of them had taken the news that she was moving in with Harry after Hogwarts well. They had both written her, separately and together, that though Harry seemed like a sweet boy, Hermione was moving too fast in her relationship with him. Hermione, however, wasn't about to let Harry be alone after finishing Hogwarts, especially when she wanted to be with him so much.
Of course, Hermione didn't want to think of what their reactions would be when she told them that she and Harry would be getting married before the year was out. She hadn't ever imagined getting married so young, but in the end, there wasn't much reason to put it off, especially given the events of Harrys life and the fact that they both knew this was it for them.
"A penny for your thoughts, love," said Harry, watching her through drowsy eyes.
"I thought that was supposed to be a knut in the Wizarding World, Harry." She kissed him on the cheek to take away any sting there might be to her words.
"Probably." He shrugged his shoulders. "But what were you thinking of?"
"I was thinking of how best to tell my parents that they're soon going to have the son they always want."
Harry turned pink. "I still can't believe you said yes."
"And why ever not?"
"I'd thought youd say its too soon or that were too young."
"It is too soon and we are too young," said Hermione. "But it's us, so I think we'll be okay." Hermione smiled at him. "And considering the fact that you've promised to prove to me that you'll always love me, I thought it would be a good idea to give you my entire life to keep that promise."
"It is a good idea," he said. "I think it's the best idea youve ever had." With that, he kissed her, as the train pulled away from the station.
finis
Author's note: It's been a long time since the last update, and for that, I apologize. Thanks to everyone who has left reviews for this fic. I hope you've enjoyed this part as well. I am planning to finish the fics I had been working on--the problem with this plan, unfortunately, is finding the time to write and edit everything. Hopefully, it won't take too long though.
Finally,
I hope that I've managed to reinsert all the dashes, apostrophes, and
quotation marks that disappeared when I uploaded this fic. Please
forgive me for any such mistakes that I might have missed.