"Harry!"

Harry's ears pricked at the frantic panic in Hermione's voice as she called out his name. He was gratefully gulping down a cool goblet of pumpkin juice, his throat was particularly parched after a grueling round of quidditch practice. His eyes were closed, just relishing the cool, sweet juice as it washed away the thirst.

"Harry! Don't! Stop drinking!"

Harry lowered the goblet and turned towards Hermione's voice. He was about to open his eyes when the last sound he heard was Hermione calling out.

"Stupefy!"

And everything when black.

Harry slowly crept back to consciousness. There was a tightness, like a vise around his head. He could feel sheets under him as well as a pillow. From the stiff linen, he could tell he was in the infirmary. He's been there often enough to become intimately familiar with the hospital beds. He couldn't see anything, just blackness. His hand reached up around his head and he could feel a thick cloth around his eyes. He was beginning to panic when he heard a familiar, if tired, voice.

"It's a blindfold, Harry. Please don't take it off."

"Hermione? Is that you?"

There was pregnant pause. For a second, Harry thought he must have imagined her voice when she spoke again.

"I'm sorry, I forgot you can't see. I nodded, Harry. Yes it's me."

"What happened?" he asked, events earlier that day slowly coming back. "Did you, I mean, did—"

"I'm sorry Harry," she interrupted. "Yes, I stupefied you." Harry could hear the apology in her voice. He couldn't help but notice how true that old saying was. When one sense was inhibited, the others were sharpened. He could hear something else in Hermione's voice. Something. It sounded like pain and sorrow, what was it?

"Hermione? There's something else, isn't there? Why did you stupefy me? I'm not upset that you did, I know you, you must have had a good reason why." Harry tried to think back, there was quidditch practice. Ron was doing splendidly. He was running a drill, flying with the chasers to see how Ron could handle multiple shots and Ron was blocking them really well. He called for a break and noticed that someone had set up a drinking station. His throat was parched and he flew down to get something to drink. His eyes widened under the blindfold.

"The pumpkin juice was poisoned?"

"No! Yes! Well, sort of..."

"Just tell me Hermione," Harry said, his frustration coloring his tone. Not knowing was probably doing him more harm than good anyway. Hermione seemed to understand that.

"The juice was spiked," she said softly, almost a sigh. "It was laced with a powerful love potion."

"Oh," Harry said. Well, he's not really surprised. Ever since the Daily Prophet changed its tune and proclaimed that Voldemort had returned and that he was the 'Chosen One,' he had noticed how the girls in Hogwarts started looking at him differently. One thing puzzled him though.

"So what's with the blindfold?"

"The potion will make you fall in love with the first person you see. The blindfold is there to keep it from happening."

"Oh," Harry said. A silence falls between them. Harry could hear the quiet in the room. The infirmary is usually silent but this was a different quiet, he couldn't hear anything aside from Hermione's breathing. He wondered what time it was.

"Hermione?"

"Yes Harry?"

"What time is it?"

"It's half-past ten."

"At night?" Harry was shocked, he almost didn't hear Hermione's yes. He must have been out for over six hours! Why didn't they enervate him? Why did they let him sleep it off? Is this why he was still blindfolded? He was unconscious and couldn't take the antidote? Why was Hermione here after curfew? She was a prefect, sure, but still... and what was that in her voice? Grief? No, not entirely.

"Hermione can you please tell me what's going on? There's something else you aren't telling me. Is it the potion? Are we still waiting for it to run its course? Or is Professor Slughorn finding it difficult to find an antidote?"

Harry could hear labored breathing. Was Hermione crying? What in Merlin's name was going on? He slowly started to get anxious. He unconsciously reached out for her.

"Hermione...?" he whispered and he couldn't help but feel relief when he felt her small warm hands grab his.

"I'm sorry Harry," Hermione was crying! He could hear it in her voice! Knowing that she needed him gave him a surge of strength and he reached deep and found some calm. He let it settle over him and squeezed Hermione's hands trying to send some of that calm to her. It seemed to work. She squeezed back and he could hear her quiet down. He felt the mattress give way as she sat beside him. He pulled himself up to a sitting position. He had to let go of one of her hands to do this but as soon as he was comfortable he reached out until she put her other hand back into his.

"It's okay Hermione. Just tell me."

"Pag-Ibig sa Unang Tingin."

"What?"

"Pag-Ibig sa Unang Tingin," Hermione repeated. "It's a powerful love potion." Her voice steadied as she went into lecture mode. "It translates into 'Love at First Sight' and it's the most powerful love potion ever brewed. Unlike other love potions, Pag-Ibig sa Unang Tingin has no antidote and once ingested, it stays in your system until activated."

"Activated?" Harry asked, his mouth suddenly dry.

"Yes," Hermione replied. "The first person you see—boy or girl, young or old—you will fall completely and utterly in love with." Her voice suddenly hardened. "'Love!' It isn't love! It's the Imperius Curse in a bottle!" Harry heard anger in Hermione's voice before but this was something else.

"Do you know the worst thing about this Harry?" Hermione asked. She went on before Harry could answer. "The worst thing is that you will still be you. Your personality will stay the same, your choices won't differ much except that you will be completely devoted to the first person you see! If you were a gibbering idiot, that's one thing; but this! It will be like a mockery of everything you are! If you acted like the usual victims of love potions, at least people will know right away that you are a victim of it and people know you aren't really responsible for your actions. In this one, people won't realize that you have been enslaved! That your choice of who to love was taken from you! Even if I explained it to you, you'll simply accept it and you won't even be bothered by it! It's a betrayal of everything that love stands for!"

Harry's blood ran cold throught her rant. No antidote? No cure? His insides twisted. "I-is that why I have a blindfold? To keep the potion from activating?"

Harry's voice seemed to bring Hermione back into herself. "Yes Harry. I knocked you out before you could see anyone."

"So what does this mean, that I have to wear the blindfold for the rest of my life?" Harry asked, he couldn't help but begin to panic. "I'll be blind? I can't live like this Hermione!"

"Harry! If you take it off, the potion will go into effect! You'll be the thrall of the first person you see!"

"Hermione!" he exclaimed, trying to make her understand. "I barely survived Voldemort's attacks on me when I could see! I'm not just a sitting duck, Hermione, I can't even see him to cast a spell on him!"

Harry suddenly felt Hermione's arms around him as she hugged him. He could hear her frantic "I'm sorry's" whispering into his ear. He slowly started to relax. There must be a way out of this! There must!

"H-how did this potion get in the school anyway?" he asked. He needed more information. He heard Hermione sigh and she reluctantly let him go but she did grab hold of his right hand again.

"Professor Slughorn and Professor Snape are working on a project," Hermione began. "I only got every piece of the puzzle in the last couple of hours you understand. Anyway, having two Potion Masters under one roof was too great an opportunity to waste so Professor Dumbledore asked them to work on several projects together. One of which was to brew a potion to break someone out of the Imperius Curse.

"Professor Slughorn and Professor Snape brewed all kinds of love potions to study the effects of artificial compulsion. They were hoping that if they could understand the principle of compulsion chemically, they can produce an antidote."

"So they brewed that Pagi... Pagbig—"

"Pag-Ibig sa Unang Tingin, yes," Hermione said. "Like I said, it's the most powerful compulsion potion in the world."

"So Snape decided to prank me?" Harry hissed, his temper began to rise.

"No Harry!" Hermione exclaimed. "In fact, he was the one who discovered the theft and put me on it. He thought you would be the most likely target. If he didn't I wouldn't have gotten to you in ti—" Hermione paused, took a deep breath and continued. "Well not in time as it turned out. I was too late—"

"Don't you dare!" Harry interrupted her. "You kept me from being enslaved!"

He tightened his grip on Hermione's hand. He put his left hand on top and said, "Um, thanks Hermione. Thank you for saving me again."

"Oh Harry..."

They sat in silence for a while. Then Harry cleared his throat. "So, um, who put the potion in my pumpkin juice?" Harry was greeted by silence. His brows rising, he wondered why Hermione was silent. "Hermione?" he couldn't help but let the worry seep into his voice. "Hermione, who put the potion in my juice?"

Hermione mumbled something, Harry couldn't hear. But he heard it again. That something in her voice earlier. It was like sorrow mixed with anger. What is that? Then when Hermione repeated the name again. It clicked. He knew what it was.

"Ginny."

Betrayal.

Harry was rocked to his core. Ginny? Ginny? Why? He already loves her!

"H-harry?"

"How? Why?" He could feel Hermione's wince through their hand.

"As to how, she was one of Professor Slughorn's assistants in the research project. She was the one who suggested they study love potions to try and find a cure for the Imperius Curse. She had access to the lab. Dobby said it was her idea to have a drinking station during quidditch practice, she asked him to set it up. And when I ran up to you, she had landed in front of you while you were drinking.

"As to why...I—I don't know..."

"I love her, Hermione," Harry's voice was ragged as he started to breathe rapidly. How could she do this to him? "I already love her! She doesn't need a potion! Why would she do this to me?"

"I'm so sorry Harry."

Harry felt Hermione's hands on his face. He realized he was crying, his tears bleeding through the blindfold and down his face. Her hands wiping them away.

Ginny took away his choice! She wanted the Boy Who Lived. Apparently it didn't matter that he told her he was hers. That wasn't enough. His word was never enough. She wanted him, body and soul. Harry's infamous temper, roared to life fueled by betrayal and a broken heart. To hell with her! He'll be damned if he gave her the satisfaction! She wanted him this way? He'll do everthing in his power to deny her that. He pictured Ginny's devastated face as he slavishly followed another girl. While the thought made him feel a little better, the bitterness that followed was hard to take. He had to think this through.

He can't be blinded for the rest of his life. He'll be dead by the time he left the grounds and maybe earlier than that. So he had to bind himself and if he's going to be bound to someone, it will be his choice. He'll have some measure of comfort in that. What if he bound himself to himself? Look in the mirror? Will that work? A loophole?

No. That wouldn't work. It's not real love, it's a compulsion. It'll quickly turn into self-centeredness, and then into selfishness. The worst kind of selfishness, too, where no one will matter but him. He might survive long enough to destroy Voldemort but he'll sacrifice everyone to do it and he'll probably become the next Dark Lord not soon after.

No, he'll have to choose someone who won't take advantage of him, someone who remembers what's best for him, even more than himself. And someone who'll make sure he sees this through. Of course. Who else?

His decision made, he raises his hand and slowly starts to unravel the knot behind him.

"Harry! What are you doing?" He could hear her voice rising.

"I can't live like this Hermione, blind and in fear—"

"Harry, think about what you are doing! If you take off your blindfold you'll be enthralled by the first person you see! That's me Harry! No one else is here! Not even Madam Pomfrey!"

"Good. I don't want to be bound to her."

"Harry!" He felt her hands on his stopping him. He didn't want to fight her. He had to make her see.

"Please Hermione," he begged, his voice soft with pain. "You said this potion took away my choice to love. Okay, I can live with that much like I can live with everything that's been thrown at me. At least you saved me, gave me the chance to choose who I will bind myself to.

"I choose you."

He felt her hands loosen and drop to his sides. He lowered his hands as well.

"Harry, I... Harry you have to help me understand," her voice sounded so weak.

"Hermione... I—I can't sit here and wait," he began, trying to find the words in frustration, trying to articulate why this was so important. "If I were just anyone else, I suppose I can sit here blindfolded and wait until a cure was found. But I'm not. I have a bloody prophecy to fulfill. People will die if waste time sitting here waiting for something that might not even happen. Are they even close to finding a cure?"

Harry waited without hoping, knowing if they were, Hermione would have mentioned it long before now.

"No." Harry's heart ached as she confirmed his worst suspicions, he never heard her so defeated before.

"It's okay Hermione," he said, trying to cheer her up. "I'm used to it you know. I'm resigned to the fact that my life is not own."

"It's not funny."

"I'm not trying to be. It's just a fact."

"It's not fair—" she began but he interrupted her.

"Tell me about it," he said with a smirk.

"Prat," she said but he could finally hear the smile in her voice. "Why are you the one comforting me? You're the one with the incurable potion in your system."

"I needed to calm you down so you can listen to reason."

"Listen to reason? Having you bound to me is reasonable?"

"Fine. You pick. Who should I bind myself to then?" he asked but then plowed on before she can answer.

"Don't say Dumbledore. I don't trust him anymore, not after last year. He would use me well enough to end Voldemort but what about after? He puts others before me, you know that. Professor McGonnagal? She's nice enough but she hardly knows me and she knows me best among all the professors.

"Remus? If you won't do it, I suppose it will have to be him but I need someone who picks me over Dumbledore and he didn't. He was my parents' friend and he didn't take me in after my parents died and Sirius went to Azkaban. I don't hold that against him but it does make me think twice about how important I am to him.

"Mr. and Mrs. Weasley? After what G-ginny did to me... I mean these people raised her. They raised someone who could do that to another person.

"Ron? Hagrid? I'd have picked Ginny because at least I love—loved her if it weren't for the fact that she did this to me."

Silence greeted Harry after this almost rant. He had found it difficult to say Ginny's name but pushed through. In the quiet, Harry thought could actually hear Hermione think from where he was. He spoke again, in a much gentler voice.

"You're my best friend Hermione. I trust you like no one else. You have always stood by me and did things that ticked me off because you knew it was good for me, not for the greater good but for me. Please, there's no one else I trust. Not, 'there's no one else I trust more' just, right now, there's no one else I trust period."

He heard her think about it some more and this time he let her. Finally she spoke again.

"Harry, I... um, that is to say," she took a deep breath and began again. "Thank you Harry. You're my best friend, too, and I can't tell you how good it makes me feel to have your trust like this but I don't know if I can do this. To be responsible for your life. I don't know if I can."

"Then tell me who. I trust your judgement."

"I can't make this choice! It's yours! If I took away that choice I might as well have given you that blasted potion!"

"I made my choice Hermione," he said, feeling a true calm for the first time since he learned the truth of his situation. "I choose you. I won't force it on you, though, so if you don't want it, you choose who will replace you."

"You don't understand, Harry," he could feel something wet and warm strike the top of his hand, which Hermione was still holding. Was she crying? "You will, for lack of a better word, love me. Beyond reason. Beyond care."

Harry shrugged. "I could do a lot worse, I mean what if Pansy Parkinson found me?"

"Harry! This isn't funny!"

"Like you said, I wouldn't care, would I? As soon as I look at you, everything will be right as rain, won't it? I wouldn't care if you loved me back or not or even if you married someone else, I'll still be devoted to you. To tell you the truth, now I'm kinda looking forward to it. No more doubts, no more fears..."

Harry's words trailed off as he suddenly realized why Hermione was so upset. Fool! Idiot! Self-centered, selfish prat! Git! Stupid stupid stupid! And you call yourself a friend!

"Ah, Hermione I'm so sorry I just realized...it's R-ron, isn't it?" He couldn't see her nod but he felt her calm down, her hand wasn't as tense. "I'm such a git. I'm sorry, I got caught up in my own stuff I forgot about yours. He won't like it if I followed you around like a puppy, would he?"

He heard her sniff. "You know how he is. Even if we explained to him that it's because of the potion..."

Harry then realized the full implication of what it all meant.

"You won't be free of me, will you? You'll be bound to me just as surely as if you drank the potion and saw me. You'll be responsible for me, you can't have relationships without me hovering at the edge—"

"It's not just that Harry," she interrupted. "Do you think it will be easy for me to allow my friend to become my s-slave? Or that you will look at me with love in your eyes and know that it isn't real? Or pursue a relationship with someone knowing that you 'love' me, even knowing that it's a compulsion? I can't do that Harry."

Silence descended on them again, and this time it wasn't easy or comfortable.

"I'm sorry Hermione," Harry said softly, breaking the silence. "I didn't think it through."

"It's okay Harry," she then put something in his hand. It felt like a vial.

"What's this?"

"It's what's left of the potion. I found it on Ginny after I stunned her."

"I don't understand..."

"Did you honestly think I didn't think this through?" He could hear the smirk, pained though it was, in her voice. He still didn't understand until he felt her hands untying the knots on his blindfold and it rushed into him.

"Hermione! You're going to—but I thought—!"

"Harry... I was thinking about this all night while you were out of it. You can't live your life blind, and worse, knowing that if you lost your blindfold and if you open your eyes you'll lose your will."

"So what was this argument about?"

"I had to make sure you knew what you were going to get yourself into. I'm honored you picked me Harry, but you had to understand what I was giving up, too. Do you understand?"

Harry thought about it for awhile. "Yes," he said. "It's about having choice, isn't it? We have to know what we're going to get ourselves into."

"Yes."

"Does Ron know?"

"Yes," she said with a resigned voice. "I warned him that you might choose me. He wasn't happy about that until I asked him who he wanted you to be bound to instead."

"What did he say?"

"He was quiet for awhile. Then he just said 'good luck' and left."

"I'm sorry Hermione."

"Like you said Harry, our lives are not our own."

"Is... is that why Ron isn't here?"

"That," she answered. "And he felt that he needed to be with his family. Ginny using the potion on you is like casting the Imperius. The Weasleys have been at the Ministry since this afternoon."

Silence descended on them again, while it wasn't awkward it wasn't completely comfortable either. He then felt her hands on the blindfold again. When she loosened the last knot, she kept the blindfold in place with one hand and she reached for the vial in Harry's hand. Harry's hand instinctively closed around it.

"Wait! Hermione, what are you doing?"

"Harry, I thought you understood?" she asked, confusion tinting her voice. "I'm going to drink the potion and then look at you."

Harry's throat dried up again. "Why?" he winced at the raspy sound.

"Harry we went through this," the exasperation in her voice was like Hermione of old. Harry had missed that. "We both agreed you can't remain blindfolded. You chose me to bind with. And you know I can't do this without binding myself to you as well, not and retain some kind of sanity."

Objections raced through Harry's mind. It was one thing for him to be enslaved but for Hermione! But he realized that every objection he had, Hermione or he himself already answered with their earlier conversation. He sighed and opened his palm, allowing Hermione to take the vial. He should have known better than to try and outsmart Hermione.

"All right," he said, coming to peace with their decision.

"On three?"

"On three. And Hermione?" He had to tell her while it meant something, while his heart was still free.

"Yes?"

"I do love you, you know."

"I know," she said. She understood. Harry knew she would. "I love you, too."

He felt her lips on his, a sweet, simple kiss. It was a kiss between friends, and while Harry knew that in a few minutes that they will probably have more passionate kisses, this one was the truest.

"One," Hermione began. Harry reached up and grabbed the loosened blindfold, freeing Hermione's hands.

"Two," Harry answered. He heard her pop open the vial and drink.

"Three," Hermione said.

Then Harry dropped the blindfold and opened his eyes.