Hermione ran from the hairdressers, crying her eyes out. She ran, ran, ran all the way to the park.
She sat down in a bench opposite the pond. She remembered when she was very small, and she used to sit here and feed the ducks. She wished she could go back to when she was young and didn’t care about boys or the way she looked. She wished she was a muggle.
A stranger came and sat down next to her. Hermione cautiously moved away from them.
“Hi,” said the stranger, in a strangely familiar male voice. He was wearing a hooded top and his hands were hidden inside his sleeves.
“Hi,” Hermione replied.
“Love problems?” asked the stranger.
Hermione stared at him. How could this stranger read her mind? She shivered and nodded.
“Same,” he said. “I really like this girl but I’ve done something completely stupid.”
“What?” inquired Hermione.
“I dived into a pool and now my skin’s gone blue.”
Hermione suppressed a laugh.
“Don’t worry. I tried to dye my hair and style it to impress a boy. It’s purple now, as you can see,” she replied.
The stranger sighed.
“But if we’re doing this for people we love then if they really love us they won’t care.”
Hermione nodded.
“Can we know each others names?” she asked, unsure of whether this was the right thing to say or not.
“Harry Potter.”
“Hermione Granger.”
“It’s you!”
“It’s you!”
“Hermione, I ““
“Which girl were you talking about?”
“Hermione, it doesn’t really matter, it ““
“It does!”
“I was talking about you, Hermione. None other than you.”
Hermione stared at Harry. He did return her feelings!
“I didn’t mean to alarm you ““
“You didn’t. Harry, just be quiet and kiss me already.”
“Hermione “”
“What did I say, Harry? Shut up!”
Harry leaned in towards Hermione, and for the second time in his life, he found himself kissing her. His hands ran through her purple hair, she pulled the hood of his hooded top to reveal his blue face. She stroked it gently with her fingers and then cupped his cheeks in her hands.
Hermione found herself falling backwards on to the bench. She was so happy, so fantastically happy. Harry Potter was kissing her, and now, lying flat on top of her.
Harry hoped he wasn’t squashing Hermione. He was kissing her deeply and passionately.
After a long while of kissing, Hermione gave Harry a slight push. He got off her, and took her hand.
Hermione felt dazed and wondrously happy. Harry Potter had feelings for her, as evident in their embrace.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
It was the morning after his kiss with Hermione, and Harry felt completely calm and collected. He wasn’t bothered at all about the fact that he had just kissed his best friend. He wasn’t bothered at all about the thought that Ron might be extremely upset. No, no, no.
The only thought on his mind was whether he would be able to kiss Hermione again.
And the thought that Hermione loved him for his personality and not because of who he was. She didn’t care about his blue skin as he didn’t care about her purple hair. They loved each other for each other.
There was a knock at his bedroom door and Hermione poked her head round.
“Good! You’re awake!” she giggled.
“Yeah,” said Harry thickly.
“Do you know what day it is today?” teased Hermione.
“Thursday?” Harry suggested, puzzled.
“No, you idiot, your birthday! I said we’d celebrate in style. Come on, get dressed now! I’ll help you if you like!” suggested Hermione.
“I’ll be fine!” Harry grinned.
Hermione pretended to be terribly disappointed, and then told him to come down to the kitchen.
He did as he was told and went down to kitchen. There, on the table, stood a big chocolate cake with the letters, “Happy Birthday, Harry!” iced on to it. There were five presents lying on the table too, just for him.
Harry didn’t know how to thank them. He wasn’t sure what to do. He felt overwhelmed with emotion. He managed a shaky smile, but that seemed enough.
He had the most amazing haul of presents this year. His own chess set from Ron, a fine harp from Hagrid, a heart shaped photo frame from Cho, a necklace with a heart on the bottom from Lupin with a note which read: Give this to your true love and one last present, from Hermione.
Hermione’s present was a book. It was a photo album, with pictures of all the memorable and daring things that Harry had done during his time at Hogwarts.
“I’ll keep this forever,” Harry said to Hermione. She gave him a slightly embarrassed smile.
Harry’s heart pounded. This was definitely the best birthday ever.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I hope he likes it, thought Hermione. He certainly seems to be enjoying himself.
She looked up and Harry gave her a heart melting smile. Her legs turned to jelly and over balanced slightly on her chair. Harry laughed and Hermione went red.
“What do you and Hermione want to do today, Harry?” asked Mr. Granger.
“Harry should choose “ it’s his birthday,” said Hermione.
“Thanks Hermione. We could go to the town together,” Harry suggested.
“Sounds great!” cried Hermione. “Just you and me, right?”
“Yeah, course!”
“Wonderful!” said Mrs. Granger cheerfully.
Harry and Hermione went to get their coats. As they were in the cloakroom, Harry shut the door. Hermione was about to protest, but then Harry pushed her against the wall and began to kiss her. Hermione wanted to scream with delight but she kept herself calm.
Eventually, they had to stop kissing otherwise Hermione’s parents would get suspicious, so they hurriedly rushed out of the house together.
There was a fair in town, so, for a laugh, they both decided to go.
"Let’s go on all the rides!” Harry suggested mischievously.
“All of them? Even the little baby ones?” Hermione giggled.
Harry nodded and Hermione burst out laughing. She took his hand the pair skipped along together, as if they were five years old. It was nice holding Harry’s hand. It kept her own hand warm.
They shared candy floss together as well, and they went on a love boat ride. They kissed throughout the whole of the ride, to everyone else’s on the ride great annoyance.
Throughout the day, a few people stared at Hermione’s purple hair and Harry’s blue skin, and some whispered behind their hands, but Harry and Hermione were so focussed on each other that they did not care.
On the way home, Hermione slid her arm around Harry’s waist.
“Did you enjoy that?” she gasped, panting.
“Yeah. It was a great birthday “ my best ever “ and there’s no one I’d rather spend it with than you,” smiled Harry.
Hermione flushed and smiled. She did love the way Harry was always so sweet, so gentle, so romantic towards her. She responded by kissing him on the shoulder for a few seconds.
Once they arrived home, Harry immediately decided to have a shower. Whilst Harry was in the bathroom, Hermione crept into his room.
Although the room belonged to her family, during the short time that Harry had been sleeping in it, it seemed to smell exactly the way Harry did. She was about to snuggle right into his pillow, but then thought better of it, in case Harry was to come in.
She looked around and saw a pile of letters on his bedside table. She quickly made sure he wasn’t coming then picked up the letters and read them through.
To Hermione’s horror, she discovered that he, Harry, had been corresponding, and flirting with none other than Cho Chang, through letters.
Harry didn’t really love her. He loved Cho. He was using Hermione to practice on before he saw Cho at school. Hermione’s good mood vanished as quickly as that.
She looked down at the letters below her. Anger filled her heart, she wanted to scream and shout with rage. She stared furiously at the pile of letters for a few seconds. Then…