Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, I do not own the books, nor the merchandise, or even the Puppets for that matter. I do not own a secret underground harem, either. On a completely separate note, a shout out to Staci, Naomi, Shakira, Saunabria, and Camilla.

"Hermione?"

Sniffling.

"Hermione."

More sniffling.

"I'm smelling your underwear right now."

A weak sob and more sniffling.

"Now I think I'm going to wear it and go outside for a bit of a stroll. Nice and brisk outside, don't you think?"

A small cry and more sniffling.

"I suppose you might want to burn these panties afterwards, though. Just knowing that your lady parts rub against these on a basis does things to me that I'm not very proud of."

More. Goddamned. Sniffling.

Harry sighed. Well, he tried. He approached the bed and ripped the covers back. Hermione was knocked out of her daze as Harry picked her up and hefted her over his shoulder with ease.

"Harry?" She sniffed. Again.

"What?" He sounded more than a bit agitated.

"What are you doing?"

"I'm kicking you out."

"W-what?"

"If I have to repeat myself I will literally kick you out," He growled.

"W-why are you kicking me out?" She asked, more confused than anything.

"You're useless, that's why."

"What are you t-talking about?"

"Since Ron left, you've been doing nothing but cry. How exactly does that help me find a way to get rid of Horcruxes? How does that help me find them? How does that help me in any way whatsoever, Hermione? Not one bloody bit. So you're out."

"But Harry…you need me – "

"No, I need Hermione. Not this crying, useless, dependent, little girl. This is Ron's Hermione. The Hermione Ron made you become. I want my Hermione."

By then, Harry had put her back to her feet outside the tent, where she promptly fell over. "What do you mean?"

"My Hermione would have figured it out by now."

"Just give me a bit more time – "

"I gave you enough. Now leave. Go join your boyfriend while I do what I've been trying to do this whole time; leave without you two."

"I'm not letting you go on your own!" She yelled, and almost as an afterthought, she added, "and he's not my boyfriend."

Harry gave an unconcerned shrug. "Should be. You two are just like each other. Bloody useless when I need you the most. Ready to disappear out at the drop of a hat."

"Harry! You know that's not true! I've always stood by you!"

"My Hermione stood by me," he corrected. "My Hermione was my best friend. I don't know what happened to her. I don't know who you are. Until My Hermione decides to come back, This Hermione needs to go. So get out."

"But Harry – "

"Get. Out."

He turned around and walked away. Hermione struggled to her feet, straining from misuse. "Harry, please… you can't do this alone."

"Maybe not. But I can't do this with you, either."

"Please, Harry. Give me another chance – "

"You told Ron you chose me over him. You obviously made a mistake. Now go tell him that. Maybe when you two are back at Hogwarts, and you're doing all his homework, you'll stop crying."

He stopped walking and half-turned towards her. "My Hermione died somewhere between the Hall of Mysteries and me telling her the Prophecy. I'd understand why she'd be gone forever. She was my best friend. I loved my Hermione more than you could ever know!" For the first time, he was actually yelling. "She helped me, she cared about me, she was the only thing that kept my life from being a living hell!" He watched as Hermione was almost to her feet. Oh, how much she had changed from before. "I'm never getting her back. I know that now. I'm not gonna try any more. And I don't need whatever you've become to remind me."

Hermione limped towards the fast-retreating figure, before he disappeared into the wards of the tent. Wards that she herself had set up. Still, she trudged towards him, reaching to where he had last been seen…only to see nothing.

She walked a bit further. The tent was still disillusioned to her completely.

She pulled out her wand and quickly disabled the wards. Nothing.

Harry Potter was gone.

Then, Hermione started crying, again, but for a completely different reason.

Harry walked into the protections of the wards and quickly performed a notice-me-not charm. He walked into the tent and didn't turn back. He took the locket off of his neck and fell into the bed.

He woke up the next morning to the sound of silence. He liked that sound. It was very pleasing to his ears.

Harry didn't know how to feel about what he did last night. It was probably for the best, kicking her out. She obviously missed the traitor, but she was afraid of becoming one herself. He simply fixed that problem for her.

Yes, he had made the right choice.

He slowly sat up in his bed, only to look in the eyes of Hermione Granger.

"Good morning." Her voice was neither angry nor bitter, and he took it as a somewhat good sign.

"Morning." He turned away briefly to yawn in his hand and turned back to her, unconcerned. "Any reason you're sitting on my bed?"

Hermione didn't pause. "Yes."

Harry was silent a few moments. Hermione sat as still as a stone. Harry went to roll out of bed, until he realized that Hermione was sitting between his legs. He set to maneuver them around her, until she stretched out her own and locked her legs over his. "What?"

"We have to talk."

"No, we don't. Either you're leaving this tent, or I am."

"Why are you like this, Harry?" Her calm façade cracked, she was clearly distressed.

"Why are you like this, Hermione?" He retorted. "I just want you to get out of here so you can go to Ron. The only reason I kept you here this long is because I thought that I actually needed you."

"But you do need me –"

"Not this Hermione," He said firmly. "This Hermione can't help me."

"I can help you, Harry," She stressed, just as firm. "And I'm not asking you to let me stay. You need me, whether you want to admit it or not."

He was quiet. "That's the Hermione I remember," He said softly.

"Not exactly." Before Harry could ask for a deeper meaning, Hermione took the chance to give their entire relationship one. She quickly grabbed his shoulders and pressed her lips to his, showing just exactly what had changed and what she wanted to change.

Harry's eyes almost popped out of his head as his mind tried to process that he was being kissed by what was once his best friend. After ten seconds of the kiss, he slowly closed his eyes, not caring about anything else.

Hermione felt herself shudder into the kiss, releasing her nerves as she steeled herself to make the move. The move had been made, and she was enjoying every tiny second of it. She was going to enjoy it until he broke it, started sputtering, make some kind of speech about brother and sister, and him and Ginny and her and Ron, and proceed to kick her out again. She just wanted this moment right now, damn everything else.

Harry gave her their moment. He didn't want to stop kissing her. It felt more felt more wild than any dragon in his chest, more right than anything he had ever felt. As he kissed Hermione, his mind went into overdrive, wondering what spurred this on. He didn't know where his thoughts began or ended, or where they were supposed to go, but he knew the ending thought as his mouth parted with hers: If she wanted to be with Ron right now, she would be there. He had pretty much thrown her to Ron. She actually had the fair chance to choose. And she chose him. And the moment he had broken up with Ginny, and absolutely needed Hermione to come with him on this search, not for what she could do for him, but because of her mere presence, he chose her.

Hermione had lost almost all conscious thought as she felt Harry's mouth open and his tongue seek permission into hers. She numbly allowed it. She did not think that this would happen. She had imagined a lot of scenarios, but she never expected that even one of them would be that he would kiss her back. Her mind had basically shut off every function as it focused on the only one that mattered. 'Kiss him back.'

A bit over ten minutes later, they parted. They didn't remember when they fell back onto the bed. In fact, it took them a few moments for them to remember anything before their kiss.

They stared at each other, each trying to see what the other was thinking. Fortunately, they could read each other like a book.

Hermione didn't have to read if Harry was happy. He had a dazed and somewhat aloof grin on his face and a sparkle of joy in his eye.

Also, something was pressed against her thigh. She was shocked, but not as embarrassed as she thought she would have been. Harry seemed to not have noticed yet, and she wasn't going to complain.

Their faces were inches apart, and while they had long ago read the other's emotions, now they were reading their own.

"Old Hermione…" She started, "always wanted to do that."

Harry gave a slightly bigger grin. "Old Harry's been thinking about it every now and then."

"Old Harry?"

"The Harry that gave a damn what other people think, and thought about a future traitor's feelings before himself."

"I don't like that Harry much. But then, that was the Harry I..." She stared into his eyes, and drew courage from them. She had already kissed him, she might as well go all in. "That was the Harry I fell in love with."

Harry saw the uncertainty in her eyes, but there was no way he could mistake it for something else when he saw her eyes shine with what could only be joy. Joy that she had finally said it to him. "I can't change back," He admitted. "This feels too right."

"We'll make it work." She gave a weak grin. "I'm really starting to like this Harry."

He could only smile back.

She felt his hands on her waist gently nudge her over, so she rolled with him so they lay together on the bed. He didn't let go of her waist, and she didn't let go of his sides.

She felt that she needed to explain something to him. She should explain what came around for her to realize the past two years of her life was a mistake. She should explain why she didn't leave, why no one outside of the tent mattered to her, or how she even saw through the charm. But the only thought that really came up at the time was "My underwear does things to you that you're not proud of?"

Harry gave an embarrassed grin. Just like old times, when they shamelessly joked with each other. "Don't blame me. They're your underwear!"

"They're borderline granny-panties, Harry!"

"Are you subtly suggesting that I buy you something more appealing?"

Hermione blushed crimson. "N-no! I didn't say that!"

"Well, if anything is happening between us, I don't want to keep the thought of you wearing elderly clothing."

She gave a long-suffering sigh that was ruined by her smile. "Okay, okay. But no thongs."

"What are thongs?" He asked, genuinely curious.

Hermione had to smile even brighter; she wasn't going to miss this chance. "I'll show you later. I might even try some on for you."

Harry knew this was something he really wanted to see. "Can you transfigure them?"

With practiced ease, she pulled her wand out of her pocket and conjured a green, lacy thong above them, falling onto Harry's face. Harry took his free hand from Hermione's waist and lifted the lacy garment and stretched them out. It took a few seconds for him to realize that girls actually considered this as underwear. It took a few more seconds for him to realize that Hermione actually considered this as underwear.

Hermione felt his approval poking her thigh and couldn't help but shudder. She was going to wear them quite soon.

"You know, Harry, conjurations don't last," she muttered, smiling when Harry shifted his attention away from what must have been God's second greatest creation. "They disappear in a few hours."

If anything, the poking in her thigh was getting close to uncomfortable. She had assumed that Harry reached the same conclusion she had. To better accommodate her and Harry (After all, she was fairly sure that he was hurting, it shouldn't be bending like that) she did the only thing she could think of; she lifted her leg slightly, allowing it to poke between her thighs, and closed around it, trapping him.

They both shuddered at the touch. Hermione didn't account for the fact that harry slept in his boxers, and he had long ago poked through the front flap. Therefore, when she felt him at full mass with her thighs she tried to restrain herself from unconsciously rubbing them together from arousal.

She failed, and they shuddered again.

"H-Her…mione…" he ground out, "s-stop it, you're going to make me do something else I won't be proud of."

Hermione kept blushing. She didn't know why she was doing all of this, but she couldn't help but notice how good this felt. "I'd be quite proud. And flattered."

"Hermione…" he grumbled, "unless you want your jeans to get messy, get off."

"Harry…" she panted, "unless you have a good excuse, get off."

He groaned out his frustration, but held out. Hermione noticed this, and clenched her thighs together. She decided to share a secret with him. "When I said I loved you," she murmured, "I meant it. I always did. I never pictured doing this with anyone but you. I'm going to make the most of it. 'Evanesco!'"

Harry shuddered and shook as he felt himself between Hermione's bare legs. Hermione felt the two different sources of heat between her legs and felt herself lower onto him. She felt a shock as her center was touching him, only separated by her panties. Not for long; she had gone too far now. "Evanesco!" she whimpered, and felt another shock.

Harry was firmly nestled between her legs, and there was nothing he could do but move back and forth and a controlled pace, trying to stop completely, but his body wouldn't allow it.

When Hermione reached down and tickled the only visible part of his shaft, as she was trying to get to her clit, he almost lost control.

However, when she started grinding even deeper on him, moaning his name in his ear, he was slicked with her juices, he almost felt a heart attack coming on. This was all so unfamiliar to him, so real, so strange, so right. But he still refused to let himself go.

Until he heard the cutest little whimper Hermione had ever given in her life, a small whine, and he felt her shudder, clinging onto him for dear life, that he fully realized how unbelievably right this felt, and he let go. He gave a rugged sigh as he released.

Hermione was slightly disappointed. She couldn't feel it on her, because it extended past her thighs. That stray thought quickly made her disappointment disappear.

They were both breathing heavily, their sweaty bodies mingling together even more, and Hermione decided to go for broke once more. With one more flick of their wand, all of their clothes were missing.

Harry didn't react to the sudden disappearance of his boxers and shirt, he was too busy feeling Hermione's breasts against his abdomen. He gently scooted Hermione up to his face to kiss her gently.

"Thank you, Hermione."

She smiled weakly. "For what, Harry? This was what I needed too."

"You gave me exactly what I needed. My best friend back. Someone that loves me, and someone that I love too much to ever let go again. A beautiful and brilliant girl who I would love to spend the rest of my life with. My Hermione."

She had tears in her eyes as she kissed him for all she was worth.

She rested her forehead against his and closed her eyes, completely knackered. "My Harry," she whispered.

Harry nudged closer to her, until he felt the lacy garment at his stomach. He lazily picked it up and gently pried Hermione's wand out of her hand. He vanished the underwear, before putting the wand beside the bed. He relaxed into her embrace as sleep took him once again.

Half-an-hour earlier, he wondered if he made the right choice. He didn't. But he wouldn't change a thing.

Oi, I don't know where this story went, or where it was going, but I fairly enjoyed writing this. Spent about a day on it, I plan on catching up with my writing before College claims my soul once more.

I have somewhat of an epilogue in mind, but that's for another day. And no, no more random sex scenes. I honestly don't know how that got there. In my defense, I am a male teen, a lethal combination. I want to get better at writing smut - I have way too many inappropriate thoughts, magical innuendos, and an AdultFanFiction dot net account to not express myself. Just ask the girls I shouted out to.

Please take the time to review.