Disclaimer: I still don’t happen to own any of this….. except the plot of course.
Harry called Hermione up the second he thought of it and asked her to meet him at the Leaky Cauldron the next day around noon. She accepted and didn’t question the urgency in his voice.
The next day, Harry walked into the Leaky Cauldron about an hour before he was supposed to meet Hermione. He ordered a Butterbeer from Tom the barman and found a table in a corner. He drank the Butterbeer while rehearsing what he was going to say to Hermione in his head. He hadn’t realized just how long he was doing it until he heard Hermione approach the table and sit down.
“Hey Harry,” she said. “What’s up? Is something troubling you?” He then went into his prepared speech, only much faster than intended.
“Yesterday I went to Fred and George’s shop and talked to them for a while and they asked me if I had a girlfriend. I told them the truth: I hadn’t had one since Ginny. Turned out, they had bet on just that. Then I realized that I still really like her. But I have no clue how to tell her that I still do. They somehow knew this and offered me a new love potion they’d concocted. I told them I could do it on my own. Then when I got home, I realized I couldn’t do it alone and I knew you’d be able to help, so I called you,” he said, all in one breath.
“Wow,” Hermione said, her eyes slightly widening. “And here I thought you needed help paying the rent.” She gave a small laugh. “But still, Harry, you’re making this into a much bigger deal than you should. You defeated Voldemort; you can ask Ginny to be your girlfriend again. All you need to do is get her alone and ask her. Simple as that.”
“But it’s not simple as that!” Harry exclaimed. “It’s so much more! Voldemort killed my parents, Cedric, Sirius and so many others and it was my job to kill him. But Ginny is just an innocent girl that deserves so much more than she has. She doesn’t deserve a bloke that’s too afraid to ask her out!” He pointed to himself.
“Oh, don’t be so hard on yourself!” Hermione said. “She still likes you, too. Even if she’s tried to forget you by getting new boyfriends, she still likes you! Believe me, I still talk to her and don’t run away every time I see her.”
“Well, it’s not like I can talk to her without doing something stupid and embarrassing myself!” Harry said, taking a rather large gulp of his Butterbeer.
Hermione rolled her eyes. “It’s really not that hard. You’re making a mountain out of a simple mole hill.”
“Sure,” Harry said. “That’s easy for you to say. You’re normally the ‘ask-ie’ not the asker. Do you know how nerve-racking it is to be that asker?”
“I’m glad you know that, Potter,” an angry voice said behind him, as Hermione’s eyes widened. “Now, tell me this isn’t what it looks like.”
Harry whirled around to see a heart-broken Ron, trying his best to keep his pride and dignity by not crying. “What do you mean, mate?”
“I had come here to ask the one girl I like, that you knew about, to be my girlfriend and you go and steal her away! Harry, you knew!” Ron yelled, loud enough for the whole room to hear.
“I didn’t ask her hear to ask her out, I asked her here for advice on asking someone else out,” Harry said.
“That’s just what you want me to think.”
“No, Ron I swear it’s true!” Hermione seemed on the verge of crying. “He really only wanted advice!”
“Right, that’s why you two are in here, huddled in a dark corner, grinning from ear to ear at each other and looking like you’re going to snog?” he asked, raising his voice, even though it was hardly possible.
“Ron, don’t you trust us?” Harry said, desperately.
“Not anymore, mate,” Ron said before turning and running out of the Leaky Cauldron.
That was when all hell broke loose for Hermione. She started to cry hysterically and ramble on about how “If I’d known that he was going to ask me that…” and “I’ve liked him since I knew he was jealous of Krum…” as well as others. Harry offered her his Butterbeer and she finished the half that was left in one swig. Harry, who was incredibly depressed that his best friend had lost all faith in him, went to get a refill on his Butterbeer as well and one for Hermione.
“How on earth could this happen? Thank you, Harry. I mean, I’ve liked him, but I thought he’d get up the courage to ask me. Then he finally does and he finds me here, with you, and he thinks we’re going to snog? I mean, you’re like a brother to me, Harry. How could I go around snogging my brother? That’d be like Ron going around snogging Ginny!” Harry shuddered in mid-sip when he heard this and ended up spilling some Butterbeer on his shirt. Hermione inadvertently cast a spell that took the stain out before continuing. “He didn’t even give me a chance to say that I would be his girlfriend. He doesn’t even trust me enough to believe that I’d go out with him!” There was a pause here where she gulped down another half a mug of Butterbeer. She lay her head on the table before uttering, “Oh, could this day get any worse?”
Harry glanced toward the door of the Leaky Cauldron opening to reveal Draco Malfoy. “Oh it’s about to, ‘Mione.”
“Oh look at the new couple. You two are a couple, right? How could you not be without Weasel here? Oh look, the Mudblood’s crying. This couldn’t be mighty Potter’s fault could it?” Malfoy said as he came over.
“Shove off, Malfoy,” Hermione managed to say. “It’s not Harry’s fault, and if you call me a Mudblood one more time, I’ll punch your face out.”
“Ooh, getting defensive are we?”
“Malfoy, I just realized something. They shouldn’t have let you out of Azkaban until you’d gone mad from your hairline receding. But they let your father out just in time for his burial. How’s your mother taking that anyway?” Harry retorted.
“Never ever bring my mother into this,” Malfoy said before storming out.
“Oh,” Hermione said. “I think I’m gonna be sick.”