Hermione sat in solitude in her bedroom, staring out into the chilly, gray winter morning outdoors through a frosted window. It was on days like this that she recalled, so vividly, even after all these years, that morning so much like this one. That morning so long ago…
That morning, in her sixth year, was the morning when Harry Potter had first kissed her.
“Hermione?” Harry asked as he approached her from behind. He was trudging through the ankle-deep snow near the ice-coated lake at Hogwarts, looking worried about her.
“Harry, what’re you doing here?” Hermione asked as she turned to him, sniffling from cold and tears.
“I’m worried about you, ‘Mione. Ron didn’t mean what he said, you know. He was just angry,” Harry said, kneeling down beside her, not caring if his robes were soaked in the snow.
“I know…we’re just such…good friends. It hurts when he says things so hateful,” Hermione said, hoping that he hadn’t caught her hesitation before saying friends.
Truthfully, Hermione had been secretly, foolishly wishing for more from Ron than friendship. She knew now, though, that she had been stupid to wish like that. He clearly didn’t have the capacity to truly love her. Beautiful part-veelas like Fleur Delacour, maybe, but not plain, bushy-haired Hermione Granger.
Harry, it seemed, did not notice. “I know, ‘Mione. I’m sorry,” he said, looking slightly awkward.
“Don't be,” she told him as she looked up towards him, tears still glistening in her deep brown eyes. “You didn’t do anything.”
“I hate to see you hurt, ‘Mione. Haven’t you noticed by now?” he asked, a trace of something in his voice that she had never heard before.
“Of course, Harry. I don’t like to see you upset either,” Hermione said, unsure of what else to say.
“Really?” Harry asked, almost desperately.
Hermione looked up into his emerald green eyes, and her breath caught in her throat. He was looking at her in a way she’d seen him look at Cho Chang a year before, but never her.
Hermione did have to admit, Ron was sure never to get involved with her. What was the problem in letting herself fall out of love with Ron and into love with Harry?
Before she was entirely sure of what had happened, his mouth was gently brushing hers.
From the day we met
You made me forget
All my fears
Knew just what to say
And you kissed away
All my tears
Hermione was shocked how quickly word got around the school. It seemed that within a day, she was the talk of Hogwarts. Everyone was saying how they’d guessed years ago, when Hermione herself hadn’t guessed until he had almost kissed her. Everyone said that they’d be together forever.
After a few months, Hermione had to agree. She had given up on Ron, pushed him into the back of her mind. He certainly hadn’t seemed upset when they had told him that they were boyfriend and girlfriend. Rather surprised, yes, but not upset or hurt in the least. In fact, Hermione remembered him saying that he wished them both luck.
It seemed that the next year passed in a whirlwind of time. Finally, the second war was over, and the Boy Who Lived had triumphed once again. As always he did this with a little help from his two closest friends, as well as Ginny, Neville, and Luna. Thanks to these six, quite especially Harry, He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named was gone for good this time.
Hermione knew by this point that she loved Harry enough to marry him. Ronald Weasley was no longer given up on, but forgotten about as anything more than a schoolgirl crush who was now back to his proper status as a friend. Harry loved her and Hermione loved him in return.
Hermione knew that Harry would never give up on her. Why, there was an entire paragraph on them in the history books now, in the section about the second war, in the chapter dedicated entirely to Harry, though he appeared countless times in other chapters. It informed its readers of how they were Hogwarts sweethearts and it was probably only a matter of time before they were married. The whispered gossip increased to a deafening buzz as most of the Wizarding world waited for their graduation day. The history book companies were all set to make their revised copies, saying that Harry Potter and Hermione Granger had gotten engaged on the day the graduated Hogwarts. After all, would there ever be a time more perfect? Why, with everyone waiting with baited breath for that day, including Hermione, Harry had to propose then!
Nothing in the world could have prepared Hermione for what really did happen on graduation day.
I knew this time I had finally found
Someone to build my life around
Who'd be a lover and a friend
After all my heart had put me through
I knew that it was safe with you
And what we had would never end
Wrong again
It seemed that the entire world was sympathetic towards Hermione Granger. After all, she was supposed to have been Hermione Potter soon, but it seemed that would never happen now. Or, at least, it was put on hold for a bit, if Harry came to his senses.
“What a way to break up with a girl!” they all whispered, as they read the article about Hermione and Harry in the Daily Prophet, heads shaking. “On the day she thinks you’re going to propose! That Potter boy has no decency! In love with Ginevra Weasley…” the person would mutter, feeling indignant for Hermione. Then it was off to work he or she went, ready to gossip about it to anyone who would listen.
Those who knew Hermione too well to gossip about her tried to comfort her. Even Ginny had nothing to do with Harry after he had hurt Hermione like that. She assured Hermione that Harry had never even hinted that he loved her, or she would have set him straight.
Mrs. Weasley, it seemed, liked to think that her cooking might help Hermione get over her heartbreak. As Hermione had been so certain she’d have her own home with Harry immediately after graduation, she had put no plans together for college. Mrs. Weasley had insisted Hermione that Hermione stay with them at the Burrow while she tried to figure out what she would do with her life, telling her she could not just return to her parents and the Muggle world now. So she did. Hermione's parents understood her feelings about wanting to stay in the Wizarding world.
Even with the Weasley’s lack of money, somehow Mrs. Weasley prepared absolutely luscious things for Hermione to eat regularly. Hermione, feeling guilty, went out and got a job as a clerk at Flourish and Blotts to be able to pay the Weasley’s monthly rent, though it was quite the experience convincing her to take payment.
Ron’s reaction was one of pure anger. He swore he’d “never speak to that disgusting, bloody git again!” Hermione had trouble keeping him from running out and finding Harry and punching him, as he made quite clear he would like to do.
But everyone said, whether innocent bystander or angry best friend, that it was just a stage Harry was going through. He’d come to his senses, sooner or later, and realize that he was going to spend his life with Hermione after all.
Everybody swore
They'd seen this before
We'd be fine
And you'd come to see that you still loved me
In good time
Hermione herself was totally devastated. She took to crying in her bed into the late hours of the night. Amazingly, after a week or so, her tears dried up. She was sick of talking about the whole thing. After all, Harry was sure to come back to her, just like they all said. As one month passed, then another until it became a long web of months and hoping for Harry to return, it became increasingly harder to still believe this. Still, she held strong to the idea that he’d be back, and it was just a matter of when.
But Hermione’s point of view on the matter changed quite suddenly.
It was a warm, late spring evening, when every tree and flower was beautiful in the peak of their blooming. Hermione was walking down the streets of Hogsmeade after her afternoon shift at Flourish and Blotts. She had decided to take a walk before apparating back to the Burrow, as the day was certainly the most beautiful they had had recently. Just as she was nearing the Hog's Head, she decided she had gone far enough. It was time to go home. But that was not to be, as she happened to glance through the window into the bar. And there she saw the thing she last wanted to see.
Yet, there they were, Harry and Ginny, leaning across a table, kissing. She burst into the Hog's Head, her eyes remaining defiantly dry.
“What the bloody hell do you think you’re doing?” Hermione screamed at them.
Harry just looked down, but Ginny was quick with her excuses. “Oh, Hermione, I’m so sorry! He did break up with you, and he swore he’d never come back to you whether I loved him or not! And I did, Hermione, I did! What was I supposed to do, let both of us be old maids when maybe I could have a chance at love?”
Hermione was rather surprised at the speed this all came rushing out at. It was almost as if Ginny had known that sooner or later they’d be caught by Hermione and she wanted to be ready. There was a pause as she took this in. Suddenly she realized that the entire Hog's Head was participating in the silence, as they were all staring. Even the bartender, his filthy rag in his hand, posed in motion to clean an equally dirty glass, seemed to be holding his breath. Everyone had read the papers. Everyone knew that this was the Boy Who Lived and the Girl He Dumped. And no one wanted to mind their own business.
Hermione took a deep breath and said the only thing she could think of. “I hope you two will be very happy together.”
With that, she exited the Leaky Cauldron. Running down the street, she apparated quickly to the Weasley's back lawn. Ducking behind a tree, she sat and let the tears that had remained pent up in public now flow freely.
And they said there's nothing you can do
It's something that he's going through
It happens to a lot of men
And I told myself that they were right
That you'd wake up and see the light
And I just had to wait 'til then
Wrong again
After calming herself enough to go inside, Hermione showed a smiling face to Mrs. Weasley. She hated to think of what she would say to her daughter if she knew. Hermione found it very hard to be angry with either of them. Their only crime was falling in love.
As the days passed, Hermione entered a sort of impenetrable shell. On the outside, she smiled and tried to act normal, though she rarely spoke.
Her entire future had been based around Harry. Why, the entire world had counted on them to get married! What was she supposed to do, just shrug it off?
Ginny, too, acted as normal as possible. She avoided contact with Hermione's eyes as much as she could.
Thankfully for the two of them, the family had not spoken of Harry since the incident at graduation, or it would have created quite an awkward situation.
One night, about a week after the incident at Hogsmeade, there was a conversation at the dinner table about what Ginny planned to do now that she'd graduated that spring.
"I...uh...suppose I'll get a job," Ginny said awkwardly.
"You always wanted to settle down, didn't you, dear?" Mrs. Weasley asked.
"Yeah, I did...but...well, there's no one to settle down with right now," Ginny said, clearly wishing that the conversation was over.
Hermione began coughing uncontrollably, then quickly excused herself from the table.
Later, in her room, there was a knock on the door.
“Who is it?” Hermione said, struggling to make her voice sound cheery as she sat on her bed crying.
“Ron. Let me in, ‘Mione, there’s no point in denying that you’re crying, anyway.”
“The door’s unlocked.”
Ron entered the room, looking worried. “What happened to you, ‘Mione?”
“How did you know I was upset?” Hermione demanded, ignoring his question.
“I know you far better than my mother, Hermione,” Ron said, sitting down beside her. “I can tell when you’re upset. And you've been upset for the past week. It has something to do with him and Ginny, I know it does.” Ron still refused to use Harry’s name.
Hermione nodded. Surprisingly, her tears had stopped. “He really is in love with her. And she loves him.”
Ron sighed and looked down. “I hate to see you hurt, ‘Mione.”
The words seemed so familiar to her. Suddenly she remembered. They were words Harry had said, that fateful day he had first kissed her.
“Ron, look at me,” Hermione said on impulse.
Ron looked at her, love blazing clearly in his eyes. It was not the look that Harry had had when he looked at her. That, she now knew, was the look of a boyhood crush. The look Ron gave her was the look that she still saw every so often in the eyes of her father or Mr. Weasley as they looked at the love of their life. It was the look, Hermione realized, that she had seen quick glimpses of in Harry’s eyes as he looked at Ginny, but she had been too sure of his undying love for her to pay attention.
“Ron, tell me the truth. How do you feel about me?”
"I love you as much as I love my own sister, you know that!"
"But do you love me the same way you love your sister?"
Ron took in a breath sharply. "Hermione, now is not the time..."
"Then when will there be a time? It seems to me that now is a better opportunity than you've had in years, Ron," Hermione insisted.
Ron started to speak, but Hermione cut him off once more.
"If you're about to tell me some bogus lie or skirt the subject, don't. I'm not letting you leave until I get a straight answer."
Ron looked straight into her eyes, then after a moment of what appeared to be deep consideration, he spoke. "You really want the truth? It might just hurt our friendship, Hermione."
"You'll be hurting physically if you don't get to your point."
"You've got spunk, Hermione. You go after something with your whole heart and you stick with it, even when it's rotting in its grave. I love that about you. Oh, what the hell, I love everything about you, right down to the bushy hair! ’Mione, I love you. The real way, not the friendly way. I know you gave your heart to Harry, but I can’t help loving you all the same.”
Thoughts of Harry were pushed to the back of Hermione's mind. He certainly had never made her feel like this!
Suddenly, Hermione realized that maybe she had never loved Harry in the first place.
“You know, I let myself carry on with Harry because I was sure you’d never love me any more than you loved your sister.”
She suddenly found her mouth pressed against Ron’s in a kiss full of pent-up yearning for so many years. When they finally stopped and pulled away from one another, Ron said through lips puffy from kissing, “Well, I hope I’d never do that to Ginny.”
They both fell over, laughing until Mrs. Weasley came in to tell them that they’d better be quiet, as Mr. Weasley had a headache.
She got the surprise of her life when she found them kissing.
And it seemed to me the pain would last
My chance for happiness had passed
And nothing waited 'round the bend
I was sure I'd never find someone
To heal the damage you had done
And my poor heart would never mend
Wrong again
Wrong again
Hermione could look at that day in her sixth year now, the day Harry had kissed her, and shake her head with a smile. It had started such a silly time in her life, filled with mistakes and supposed heartbreak. She had to thank Merlin that Ron had brought her back to her senses.
“Mum?” a child’s voice called out, putting an abrupt end to Hermione’s musings. “You said you’d come to watch me and Dad and Uncle Harry play Quidditch in the park!”
“That I did, dear,” Hermione said, smiling at her son Arthur, who was home from Hogwarts for the holidays. “I’ll just need to get Annie and Celia ready to go. Is your father ready?”
“I sure am,” came Ron’s reply from the doorway. “I’ve been waiting to see if he can beat his cousins at Quidditch. I don’t care if they’re Harry Potter’s kids, Artie’s amazing on the field!”
“Da-ad!” Arthur groaned in embarrassment. “Don’t you dare talk about me like that in front of James and Molly! And my name’s Arthur! I’m eleven years old, I don’t need stupid nicknames!”
James, at fourteen, and Molly, at eleven, were both on the Gryffindor Quidditch Team. Harry and Ginny were quite proud.
Hermione ruffled his bright red hair. “You’ll always be our Artie. Now go and get your coat on!”
Fifteen minutes later, the family, consisting of Ron, Hermione, Arthur, and his little sisters Annie and Celia, who were eight and five, were at the park.
Ron, giving his wife a peck on the lips, mounted his broom, followed by his son, Harry, and James. Molly had decided to stay on the ground as to not make the two-on-two Potter vs. Weasley game unfair.
When the game was over it was Weasleys 110 Potters 180.
Ron dismounted his broom, muttering about how it was unfair that they had one of the best Seekers in the world, even if he and Artie could score goals so well. Hermione just smiled and kissed him lightly on the cheek, telling him that they’d do better next time.
As they all prepared to go over to Harry and Ginny’s house for dinner, Arthur asked a most unexpected question.
“Mum, Professor Binns was teaching us about the second war a few weeks ago, and he said that you and Uncle Harry were engaged. Is he right?”
“Not exactly. We did date for quite a while, and everyone expected us to get married. That is, until he dumped me for your Aunt Ginny,” Hermione replied, glancing at her husband.
“Uncle Harry dumped you?” Arthur asked as if he could never picture that happening. “What’d you do?”
“I found someone I loved far more than your Uncle Harry.”
“Mom, don’t get mushy, OK?” Arthur said with obvious disgust.
Ron smiled at his son. “That’s not mushy. This is mushy,” he said, pulling Hermione in for a long kiss.
Arthur put his face in his hands, shaking his head. Parents! And in front of James and Molly, too!
When Ron and Hermione broke apart, she glanced at Ginny, who winked at her. Seeing Arthur’s embarrassment, Ginny said, “Oh, it’s not just your parents that are like that, sweetie,” as she pulled her own husband in for a kiss.
Hermione smirked slightly at Harry and Ginny kissing, and their own children who looked ready to hide behind anything large enough. It amused her to think of how years ago she had cried her eyes out over that very sight.
It was amazing how many mistakes a girl could make and still end up with a life that was, in her opinion, perfect.
A/N: I know that I left a lot to the imagination in this fic, from how Harry broke up with Hermione to what Ron and Hermione were arguing about in the beginning. That was very much on purpose, especially leaving out what they were arguing about. It just goes to show that it might have been something very stupid, but because of it she almost married Harry. The rest was just because I like leaving details to the imagination of the reader.
Anyway, I hope you enjoyed it. Please review!