The war was over. Voldemort was really gone and he was not ever going to come back. For a long time, the Saviour of the Wizarding world was lost and empty. He shunned the public life and refused to see anyone but Hermione and the Weasley's. So many had lost their lives. Remus, Tonks, Fred... Snape had been saved by his own house-elf, who had taken him straight to St Mungo's where they had treated him for nearly three months before he was fit to leave.

But Hermione's parents... A few renegade Death Eaters had attacked the Granger's after the war was over, wanting to stir up some trouble. Mr Granger had been hit with some sort of curse that no one knew it was, but it slowly but steadily took his life – almost seven months later he drew his last breath. Mrs Granger had been hit many, many times with the Cruciatus Curse that with time made her a bit wonky in the head. What caused her to go insane was the fact that she had to watch her husband wither away in front of her.

When Harry finally came out his shell, he realized that he still wanted to be an Auror. He took the exams needed to be allowed in to the academy and then he became fully devoted to his studies. At Halloween he had surprised Ginny at Hogwarts, who had returned to Hogwarts for her last year as soon as the school had been restored, finally declaring that he wanted her back and Ginny had jumped into his arms without hesitation. Ron and Hermione had been dating, but when she finally realized that she really loved someone else, it felt wrong to stay with Ron. Hermione broke up with him a few weeks before Christmas.

And now, a year and a half after the destruction of Voldemort, the story begins.

* * *

* * *

Ginny pressed her lips against Harry's. She let out a little satisfied sigh and sat back down against the couch again. They had been together for two and a half months now. She was home from Hogwarts over the Christmas break and Harry had spent as much time possible with her.

"I'm so happy you're mum allowed me come over to spend the night with you," she said in a low, husky voice. "We're going to have so much fun."

Harry gave her a twisted smile.

"Oh, really?" he wondered. "And what exactly do you have in mind?"

Ginny leaned forward and gave him a quick kiss.

"Do you have to ask?" she answered in the same husky voice. "I think you can use your imagination – now we can have some fun in the sack without worrying that someone will catch us."

At the same moment, there was a rustling noise from the hall, like someone was opening the front door from the outside with a key. Ginny gave Harry a bewildered look.

"I would have thought Ron had returned his key by now, seeing as he moved out two months ago."

Harry sighed, but he nodded.

"He did," he answered simply. "But there's something I've forgotten to tell you."

Ginny's eyes narrowed – she didn't like the sound of that. The door opened and was slammed closed.

"Honey, I'm home!" came a female voice from the hall.

Ginny frowned in confusion, she knew that voice, but Harry just shook his head in amusement.

"Hey, Hermione," he greeted.

Hermione came into the living room, swinging her keys around with a small smile on her face. But when she saw Ginny the smile vanished.

"Oh, I forgot you weren't going to be alone," she murmured and glanced at Ginny. "Sorry for intruding. Hi, Ginny."

Harry waved her words away with his hand and gave her a smile.

"Don't worry about it," he answered. "How are you? Your mum?"

Hermione shrugged and sighed deeply.

"I picked up a new prescription at St Mungo's for her today that she refused to take," she said quietly, sounding a bit bitter. "Surprise, surprise."

Ginny was looking back and forth between them. What the hell were they talking about?

"It's getting worse, Harry," Hermione whispered and then looked at him again. "Ever since dad died. I don't know how much longer I can stand seeing her like this."

Harry stood to embrace her. A moment later they parted and Hermione glanced at Ginny. She appeared to be both confused and angry.

"Harry, can I talk to you in private for a second?" Ginny asked, trying to sound calm.

Harry turned towards her, getting a bit on edge when he registered her tone.

"Yeah, let's go to my bedroom," he suggested and then he pulled her to her feet. "Be right back, Hermione."

Hermione nodded and watched sadly as they left the room hand in hand. She had always dreaded that Harry would some day fall in love with Ginny again. It was easy enough to do – Ginny was beautiful and sexy and widely popular. She was also smart. Nothing like Hermione, of course, but she was intelligent. She knew that she never would be able to compete with the red-head. She sighed, cursing the day she had fallen in love with Harry Potter herself.

* * *

* * *

Harry led Ginny to his bedroom and closed the door behind him. Ginny sat down on the bed and glared at him.

"I have two questions," she said. "First, why is she here? And second, why the hell does she have a key?"

Harry titled his head as he looked at her, not understanding why she was upset.

"Hermione has had that key for years," he said, "ever since I moved in to this place."

"Oh, well, that makes it okay then!" Ginny nearly yelled.

Harry held his hand out to stop her from talking.

"I gave her a spare key in case of emergencies, and she's never really used it up until about two months ago. I don't know how much you know about her mum, but Hermione crashes here, when she has visited her mom. It's just down the street from here."

Ginny opened her mouth to say something, but closed it quickly after a look from Harry.

"Whenever she's been at her mum's, she's mentally exhausted. She splinched herself going home once, so I decided that she should sleep here instead of going back to Diagon Alley."

Ginny narrowed her eyes and pursed her lips together.

"Does that mean that she sleeps here often?" she asked through gritted teeth.

Harry sighed, not really understanding why that would be a problem.

"She's welcome to stay here as often as she needs," he told her firmly. "How often she sleeps here depends on how often she visits her mum."

"Does that mean that she sleeps here often?" Ginny repeated with narrowed eyes. "And where does she sleep anyway?"

Harry looked down at the floor and hesitated with his answer.

"She sleeps here about four times a week and... now since Ron moved out, she has her own room," he said slowly.

His reply made Ginny gasp.

"Excuse me?" she nearly shouted and shot up from the bed.

"Look, Ginny, Hermione is my best friend and she's been that for almost ten years," he hurried to say. "She means so much to me, but our relationship is platonic. Strictly platonic. She's like a sister to me."

Ginny stood in silence for a minute, simply looking at him. Then she clapped her hands together.

"Okay, just make sure that Hermione knows that at well," she said and headed for the door.

Harry grabbed her arm and she turned around towards him with a sly smile on her face.

"Make sure that Hermione knows what exactly?" he asked and let her arm go.

Ginny tilted her head.

"That she knows your relationship is strictly platonic," she answered crisply and patted his cheek.

With that she left the room. Harry stared at the floor as he put her words together. Ginny was implying that Hermione had deeper feelings for him? That was impossible! The two of them were practically brother and sister… Harry shook his head as he went back to the living room. Ginny was sitting alone on the couch watching some movie on the TV he had bought a while back. He couldn't see Hermione, but he assumed that she was in her room. He went straight to the kitchen to get something to eat before he starved to death. He opened the refrigerator door and was frustrated to see that he had forgotten to do the grocery shopping. He went back out to Ginny in the living room.

"I'm going to swing by the store quickly," he told her. "I need to get some food and stuff. Do you want anything?"

Ginny turned her attention to him.

"No, I'm okay. Thanks."

Hermione heard the front door open and close from her own room, and wondered what was going on. Had Ginny perhaps gotten so annoyed that she had taken off? Leaving her room, she was disappointed to find Ginny watching TV. She inhaled deeply and hoped that Ginny wouldn't bite her head off. They hadn't really been on good terms since she had broken up with Ron.

"What are you watching?" Hermione asked and glanced at Ginny. "Something funny?"

Ginny seemed as if she hadn't heard her. In fact, she didn't even look at her.

"Why don't we skip the small talk, okay?" she replied coldly.

Hermione's eyebrows shot up in surprise when she heard the cold tone.

"I wasn't making small talk. I just asked you what you were watching," she said.

Ginny rolled her eyes as she changed the channel with the remote, the way Harry had taught her to do.

"Same thing," she replied, still not dignifying the other girl with a glance.

"What the hell is your problem, Ginny?" Hermione yelled, so suddenly that Ginny jumped, as she shot from the couch. "Why are you being so bitchy?"

Ginny raised an eyebrow and then stood from the couch, putting her arms at her sides.

"Okay, do you want to know what my problem is?" she asked, her greens eyes hard. "I don't like that you're spending so much time here."

Hermione raised her eyebrows in disbelief.

"You're treating me like dirt because I spend a lot of time here?"

"No, I hate that you're always here, hanging around Harry when I'm cooped up at Hogwarts."

Okay, Hermione could understand that that had to be frustrating. But still...

"I don't get it, Gin. Are you jealous?"

"Ha! Jealous? You have got to be kidding me," she shot back. "If there's someone in this room that's jealous, it's you."

Hermione stared at her.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

Ginny shrugged as she sat down on the table in front of the couch.

"It's so obvious that you have deeper feeling for Harry than you say you do," she said. "You're jealous of me because you wish you were in my shoes."

Hermione kept her gaze steady on Ginny as she tried not to panic. She is just trying to get to me, she doesn't actually know for sure how I feel about Harry, she thought.

"I don't understand what you're talking about," she finally said.

Ginny's lips curved into a small, almost evil looking smile.

"Oh, I think you do," she said. "You're in love with Harry."

"You're insane if you believe that," Hermione replied.

She managed not to wince at the way she sounded. She couldn't be sounding very convincing. Keep it together, she told herself. If you don't, she'll know. Ginny let out a little laugh.

"Come on… Hermione."

She didn't like the way Ginny said her name. It sent chills down her spine and she even shuddered slightly. The red-head looked at for a moment, seemingly contemplating something.

"Harry doesn't know a thing about this, of course," she continued then. "Why would he? He only has eyes for me, you know. He loves me. He'll never think of you as anything more as a friend."

"He loves you?" Hermione repeated, her voice steady. "Has he actually said that?"

Hermione knew that Harry had always said that 'love' was a word that shouldn't be used lightly. And since Ginny had only been his girlfriend for two months or so, Hermione didn't think it was very likely that he had said that to her yet, even if he perhaps did love her. Ginny seamed a little taken back by her question and hesitated for a moment.

"I can feel that he loves me," she finally answered.

Hermione shook her head and rolled her eyes.

"You're pathetic," she said and got to her feet.

She headed for the kitchen, closely followed by the other woman. Suddenly, Ginny grabbed Hermione's arm and jerked her around.

"No, you're pathetic!" Ginny screamed. "You run over here as soon as your mum has had one of her episodes! Why don't you try to do something about it instead of running over here for Harry to comfort you every damn time, you pathetic little twerp!"

Hermione gasped and pulled her arm free from Ginny's grip. She took a couple of stumbling steps back as she stared at the floor in front of her to keep herself from crying.

"How hard can it be to take care of your insane mother?" Ginny continued unmercifully. "Just lock her up in her room for God's sake! Or at St Mungo's where they can lock her away properly! Harry thinks you're just as pathetic as I do, only he puts up with it because he feels sorry for you! He's fed up with you, your insane mother and your entire act!"

Hermione couldn't take it anymore. She stared at Ginny as she kept yelling, anger filling up more and more inside of her. Then without further hesitation, Hermione took a step forward and slapped Ginny as hard as she could over her cheek. Ginny let out a horrified gasp. Her hand flew up to her cheek and she stared at Hermione. The older woman's expression was stone cold, except for a couple of tears running down her cheeks.

"Keep talking, Ginny, and you'll wish you never met me," she hissed in a low, threatening voice.

Ginny whimpered and started walking backwards to get away from her attacker. Hermione stepped closer for each step that Ginny backed of. Her eyes flashed with anger, but apart from that she didn't show any other emotions.

"Don't you think that I have done everything in my power to get her better?" Hermione demanded. "Don't you think that after almost a whole year I've totally run out of ideas of what to do? The only person in my life that I can fully rely on is Harry, 'cause he's the only one who's ever really cared about what happens in my life! I am not gonna let you take that away from me!"

Hermione glared at Ginny before brushing past her. She was shaking with anger and felt that her magic was crackling around her. Just as she reached her hand out to open the door to the bathroom, she realized that Ginny was walking toward her in a fast pace. Before Hermione had a chance to turn around, she heard Ginny scream "Stupefy!" The spell hit squarely on Hermione's back and she fell headfirst in to the bathroom door before she landed on the floor, motionless.

Ginny felt a moment of triumph, but then she noticed that someone was standing by the front door. She turned her head to see Harry standing there, his mouth agape in shock.

"What the hell, Ginny?" he demanded, his voice so low and full with suppressed anger that Ginny was surprised that he was so composed.

She opened her mouth to say something, but nothing came out. She had no idea what to say.

"You should go back to the Burrow. Now. Use the fireplace in my bedroom."

Ginny took a stumbling step towards him, but Harry side-stepped her to get down to the floor where Hermione was still laying out cold.

"Harry, I.."

"NOW, Ginny!" Harry bellowed, finally losing his temper.

Ginny jumped and scampered off to Harry's bedroom to Floo home. She had never ever seen him so upset and it scared her. When Ginny was gone, Harry muttered "enervate" under his breath, pointing his wand at Hermione, to wake her up. He saw her blink, looking confused.

"Harry? What... Oh! Ginny stunned me!"

Her eyes were wide with shock. Harry just nodded.

"I know she did. I saw it," he said as he helped her to her feet. "What I don't understand is why. Can you tell me what happened?"

They went to the living room and sat down on the couch. Hermione crossed her legs together and hesitated before she answered.

"She said that I am pathetic because I can't take care of my insane mother," she told him quietly. "That it would be better for me to place her at St Mungo's, ' where they can lock her away properly'."

Harry stared at her.

"She said that?" he whispered.

Hermione nodded gently, staring at her hands.

"And she also said that you're tired of dealing with me, that you think that I'm pathetic too and you only stand it because you feel sorry for me."

Harry's jaw dropped. How could Ginny have dragged him into her ridiculous accusations?

"Hermione, you know that I don't think that," he said.

Hermione met his warm gaze and managed to give him a small smile.

"Yes, I know. But that's when I lost it. I slapped her and then turned to walk away. Before I knew it, everything went black."

Harry closed his eyes. He was so furious with Ginny for saying those things to his best friend. And attacking someone from behind was never, ever okay.

"She also said that you love her," Hermione said quietly.

Harry's eyes flew open. She had said what?

"I don't," he said shortly.

Hermione looked up at him, trying her best not to show how happy she was.

"And even if I thought that I might have, I know for sure now that I don't," he continued. "I can't love anyone who talks like that to my best friend. I'm done with her."

Hermione's eyes grew big as his words sank in.

"You're… You're breaking up with her?"

Harry looked at her seriously.

"Hermione, you're the most important person in my life, the one who means the most to me in the entire world," he told her. "Even more than Ron, because he has his entire family in the wizarding world. You and I are a part of that family, in a way, but mostly I feel that we are a part of our own family as well. And what Ginny did tonight... Was more than out of line."

Hermione looked away. She couldn't help feeling guilty, that it was her fault that Harry and Ginny were breaking up. It was obvious that Harry really had liked her. But maybe, just maybe, this meant that something could flourish between the two of them instead.

"Well, I guess this means that I don't have a date to the academy ball next weekend," he said out of context.

When Hermione gave him a blank look, he rolled his eyes and laughed.

"I knew you would have forgotten about the ball the academy is hosting. Huge thing. Makes the Yule Ball we had in our fourth year look like a elementary disco."

Hermione raised her eyebrows.

"You went to elementary discos?"

Harry snorted and shook his head.

"I just thought it was a good metaphor. Will you go as my date, then?"

Hermione smiled gently, rubbing her head where she had crashed into the door. It stung a little, but she probably wouldn't get a bump.

"Of course, Harry. We wouldn't want the boy-who-lived-to-destroy-he-who-must-not-be-named to come alone, right?" she said and winked as Harry rolled his eyes again. "You know what, Harry? I really think you need a new nickname. That really is a mouthful."

Harry laughed and shook his head in amusement.

"Don't I know it."

* * *

* * *

The next day Harry went to the Burrow to break things off with Ginny. He sighed deeply, truly dreading the upcoming breakup scene, but he summoned his Gryffindor courage and then flooed to the Weasley's home. The minute he stepped out of the fireplace, he was met by Mrs Weasley.

"Harry, dear! You've come to see Ginny, have you? She was most distraught when you had to go to that extra Auror practice last night," she said and she pursed her lips to show just how she felt about extra practice.

Harry raised his eyebrow, but didn't comment. Mrs Weasley would know soon enough what had really happened last night. He dragged his feet up the stairs to her room and knocked gently on the door.

"Come in."

He opened the door, but didn't go inside. When Ginny saw him she sprang to her feet.

"Harry, I'm so sorry!" she wailed and threw herself in his arms.

He pried her arms away from him, firmly holding her wrists.

"Look, I don't know if we should see each other anymore," he said and looked at her.

Ginny's jaw dropped, tears forming in her eyes as she stared at him in disbelief.

"You're breaking up with me?" she asked with a shaky voice. "Why would you do that?"

Harry hesitated before he answered.

"We're just too different," he answered vaugly, avoiding her gaze.

Ginny narrowed her eyes and managed to look quite suspicious even with tears streaming down her cheeks.

"Too different?" she repeated. "Come on, Harry. I deserve a better reason then that."

He looked up at her, his eyes hard.

"Do you?" he asked harshly, letting go of her wrists. "I'm not so sure you do. Not after what you did to Hermione."

He regretted his words the second they had come out. He didn't want to drag Hermione into this even more. Ginny looked furious.

"Are you kidding me?" she exclaimed. "This is all about her?"

Harry tried to keep his temper under control.

"No, Ginny. This is about you telling Hermione that I am tired of dealing with her. How dare you say something like that to her?"

Ginny stared at him for a moment, taken back by his words. She decided to try a different approach.

"How can you even think that I would say something like that to her?" she whispered, her lower lip trembling slightly. "Don't you know me well enough to know that I could never say anything like that?"

Harry let out a frustrated sigh.

"No, I don't. And that's not even the point. I've known Hermione for a long time and I know that she has never lied to me before," he answered.

Ginny tilted her head and looked at him trough narrowed eyes.

"You would rather believe her than me?"

Harry simply nodded.

"And even if I maybe could forgive you for what you said, I will not forget that you stunned her from behind. That is not how a Gryffindor acts, Ginny. Or a friend, for that matter. You guys are friends, remember?"

Ginny just rolled her eyes.

"It's not like she was hurt," she snapped. "And if you think she's never lied to you, ask her if she's been truthful to you about how she really feels about you. Just ask her. The answer might surprise you."

With that she shut the door in Harry's face, leaving him frozen on the spot for a while. There she went and suggested that Hermione had deeper feelings for him again. Did she know something that he didn't? Hermione was his best friend – wasn't he supposed to know everything about her? Harry narrowed his eyes as he thought of the possibility that Hermione could be in love with him. At first he thought that the whole idea was absurd. But as he thought more about it, he realized that Ginny could actually have a point. Was there another reason behind the fact that Hermione was always on him – hugging him, touching him, tickling him and so fourth? He had always thought that was just the way she was, the way they both were to each other, and it had never bothered him before.

He noticed that Mrs Weasley was too busy in the kitchen to notice him come back downstairs and therefor he hurried to floo home before she would see him leaving without saying goodbye. At home, Hermione had fallen asleep on the couch. Harry stared at her for a moment before he levitated her to her bed.

As he lay in his own bed, trying to sleep, he couldn't stop thinking about what Ginny had said. He glanced at the picture of him and Hermione on his dresser. After a little while he took it in his hands and stared at it for a long time. It was taken sometime during their sixth year at Hogwarts. He had both arms around her and they were both smiling brightly. He had to admit that they looked perfect together. Hermione looked great – even beautiful.

Now that he thought about it, would it really be that bad if Hermione was in love with him? Harry sat up straight when he an emotion flitted through his mind. Of course! Why hadn't he seen it before? Why hadn't he realized how much he really loved Hermione?

That he was in love with her?