A/N: I’m afraid this will be the final instalment of Hermione Granger and the Love Potion. I started this before HBP and the events that took place in it really threw me off. Now I have terrible writer’s block and had to start a whole new story (coming soon). I didn’t want to leave Harry and Hermione mad at each other, so I wrote this little bit. I hope you enjoy! Thanks to all who read and especially those who have reviewed or e-mailed me! I did get all the e-mails, even though I didn’t reply, I haven’t had much time on my hands since school started.
Chapter 6.
Days past without them practicing and Hermione began to worry even more that Harry would never speak to her again, let alone kiss her. She caught herself daydreaming on several occasions about that one night out they had shared. It all seemed so far away.
Hermione rounded the corner, but stopped abruptly. Draco and his thugs were picking on one of the younger students. She jumped behind a statue along the wall and pulled out her wand. She was still anxious about her previous brush with Malfoy that she didn’t want to make herself known. She mindlessly brushed her hand across her face where Malfoy had hit her, preparing for the perfect moment to stun him.
When Malfoy raised his wand to the frightened boys face, Hermione jumped out.
“STUPEFY!” she cried, at the same time someone else did and Malfoy flew. He flew farther than anyone ever should and when he hit the ground, he looked almost dead.
Hermione gasped and turned to the other attacker, but Harry simply tucked his wand back into his pants pocket and turned to walk away.
“Harry, wait!” Hermione called after him. She didn’t care what they had just done to Malfoy. She wanted to fix this with Harry. He continued to walk and she practically ran to keep up with his long strides.
When she caught him, she tugged on his arm, turning him to face her. She half expected him to glare at her, like he had been lately, but what she saw were tears in his eyes.
Her mouth opened, but no words came out.
Harry angrily wiped at his eyes and turned again.
“Harry, I miss you too,” Hermione blurted out. He stopped but didn’t turn around, so she continued, “I know you’re mad, but can’t we just talk about it?”
Slowly he turned to face her, “How could you use me like that?” he asked quietly.
Hermione bit her lip, “I didn’t use you Harry, I never meant for anything to happen. Parvati gave you the potion, not me.”
“I know that, and look what she’s doing to poor Neville. He walks around here like a lovesick puppy. It embarrasses me to know that I looked like that. Don’t you think I get enough attention?”
Hermione’s eyes filled with tears too and she covered them with her hands. It was true then, he didn’t love her, how could he. It embarrassed him to think he was acting like that all for Hermione. He never looked at her as more than his friend.
“Don’t cry, please Hermione,” Harry pleaded. He shifted uncomfortably, unsure of how to comfort her, “I didn’t mean it like that.”
“No, you’re right. What I did was wrong, but I don’t regret it.”
Harry gaped at her, “You don’t?”
Hermione looked him directly in the eye, “No.”
Harry’s face was a mixture of emotions. He looked angry, sad, pained, and lonely all at once.
“Why did you do this to me?” Harry questioned softly.
“I don’t understand Harry,” Hermione whispered, “I didn’t think it would be this bad. Wouldn’t you have told us everything soon anyways? Ron and I are your best friends, you’ve always trusted me, uh, us.”
Harry turned away, “That’s not what I mean. Of course I would have told you both soon, not exactly the way I did, but I just wanted a good time. I meant something else.”
“What?” Hermione asked, stepping in front of him again and taking his hands in hers. She had meant it as a friendly gesture, but touching him again had made her melt. She wanted so badly to hold him, but restrained herself. The heat radiated from his hands to hers, warming her all the way to her toes. She almost sighed contently, but stopped herself again.
“I can’t,” Harry said, trying to pull his hands away.
“Yes you can, you can tell me anything,” Hermione said, keeping a firm grasp.
“No, I really can’t let go,” Harry said, his face turned to a look of panic.
“What?” Hermione asked, confused.
Harry stopped trying to pull away, “Hermione, our hands are stuck together.”
Hermione tried to pull away too, but couldn’t. She panicked too, “I can’t get my wand, what are we going to do?”
“Well, you could both stop fussing. I’ll let you go when you’ve worked this out,” Ron said, stepping out from behind another statue.
“Ron, let us go,” Harry said, angrily.
Ron sighed and muttered, “I knew I should have just stayed behind the statue.”
Hermione tried to throttle Ron, but to no avail, she dragged Harry’s hands with her and he tripped over her leg. She toppled over on top of him. Now this is more like it, she thought before bursting out laughing.
To her surprise, both her boys joined in.
“Well, you two kids have fun, I’ll see you in the common room when we will all make up and be friends again,” Ron said.
“Weasley! I’m gonna get you for this,” Hermione giggled, trying to sound threatening.
Stumbling many times, they finally got back on their feet.
Hermione’s smile faded at the look in Harry’s eyes. She was about to speak when they were interrupted by Luna. She was soaking wet from head to foot. A trail of what Hermione thought was water at first, but turned out to be some kind of perfume.
Hermione laughed again, “Luna, what is that?”
But Luna ignored her question, “Was that Ron?”
“Yes,” Hermione replied, confused.
“Oh, good. I’ve really got to speak to him,” she said anxiously.
Hermione concentrated on where she smelled that particular scent before. It smelled like pine needles and a rush of cool wind. Her mind raced to her night with Harry, surrounded by pine trees and soaring through the sky. She sighed contently. Then it hit her, “Luna! Is that amortentia?”
Luna blushed, “Did I use too much?”
Harry’s eyes glazed over and his face fell. Hermione tried to contain her laughter.
“You’re not supposed to wear it,” Hermione explained.
“Yes you do! I read it in daddy’s magazine. Some woman sent in an experiment she wrote up. She tested amortentia in different places to see which would work the best. Wearing it is!” Luna explained in a faraway voice.
“Well, Ron went that way,” Hermione motioned with her hand. Harry’s hand jolted to and he seemed to come to his senses as Luna ran off.
“Great, another one,” he said sullenly.
“I think it’s sweet. Luna’s had a crush on Ron for awhile now,” Hermione said.
“And what about Ron?”
“Well, if you had been paying attention lately, you would have seen he’s been hanging around her a lot.”
Harry looked shocked.
“Yeah, well, I noticed, cause I was alone. No one talked to me. You were always hiding and Ron had Luna or his sister,” Hermione said quietly.
“Well, it didn’t have to be that way,” Harry said stubbornly.
Hermione rolled her eyes, “Will you ever stopped blaming me?”
“Maybe when you tell me why you forced me to tell you things? Why you let me kiss you?”
“I told you. I was worried about you. That’s what friends are for. People you can trust to share everything with,” Hermione explained. She wasn’t ready to address his last question.
“I told you the whole truth Hermione, everything I said wasn’t a lie,” Harry said.
“I know that. All your feelings about you-know-who and inheriting the Black fortune, I know those are true.”
“What about telling you I loved you? What about wanting to always fly with you?”
“I know that was the potion talking Harry, it’s alright.”
Harry tried to throw his hands up in the air, exasperated, but it only caused Hermione to stumble into his chest.
“Merlin, Hermione. Why do you think I’ve been so angry?”
Hermione looked up at him. She hadn’t moved away. Harry’s body was so close to hers and she liked it. Her arms were very uncomfortable, but it didn’t matter. She knew Harry was going to confess his feelings for her and it made her want to jump up and down, but she stopped herself. She wanted him to say it first.
“Harry, I kissed you because I wanted to. Not for the sake of getting information out of you. I had the best night of my life.”
“Hermione, I am so in love with you,” Harry said, smiling.
Hermione tried to throw her arms around him, but it didn’t work, so she did what she could to close the gap between them and kissed Harry lightly.
He caught her lips again before she could pull away. They both didn’t notice their hands coming loose, as they put them around each other.
Back in the common room, they found Ron and Luna snogging on the couch. Ron broke away when they entered.
“Please, don’t mind us,” Harry said, pulling Hermione by the hand to the stairs to the boy’s dormitory.
“Hey, what about making up with me!” Ron laughed.
“In a bit, wouldn’t want to interrupt your making out with Luna,” Harry said.
“You have a good little snog too, Harry,” Ron replied.
Hermione blushed, “What makes you think that? Perhaps Harry and I would like to continue our discussion in private.”
“Well, 1) You’re blushing, 2)You both look quite dishevelled from an already previous snog, and 3) I set your hands to only detach once you kissed,” Ron said, matter-of-factly.
“Ron, you’re a genius!” Hermione said, as they disappeared from view and went into the empty boys dormitory.
A/N: I always like to leave a little for the imagination. Well, there she is, all done. I hope you enjoyed it as much as I enjoyed writing it and I hope this last chapter had a good balance of mushy stuff and humour. I tried to revert back to some humour (as was suggested in a review).