Present-RP: So, this talking thing... (Harry, Hermione)

[profpotter]

DATE/TIME: 30 June 2007, dinner
CHARACTERS: Harry Potter, Hermione Grager
PLACE: Hermione's flat in London
RATING: Gen, assumed.
STATUS: Complete

Comments

[profpotter]

When Harry heard Hermione call from the bathroom, rather than think about that he went to the kitchen and started the dinner. He took out two wine glasses (thankful for knowing where things were kept) and opened the bottle to let it air for a moment before pouring one for each of them. The food cooked itself quickly (as had become habit as a kid, he thanked Merlin for magic) and when she came out of her bedroom he couldn't help but gasp a little bit. She stood posed in the door way and he had to shake his head to stop himself staring. "You look, what do I think? I think it's a good thing dinner is going to be done quickly, if not I'd be too preoccupied staring at you to get much done." He cut the distance etween them and kissed her quickly before she could protest, "You're beautiful."

He looked back over to the stove, "Angel hair with tomato and eggplant, I hope that's all right?" He went and brought the two glasses of wine to her, "and a matching wine, I asked a Muggle expert, he said this was just right for the meal." He'd also asked the Muggle if he thought a good wine might help him win the heart of the girl he loved, the Muggle had been very optimistic.

[post_scriptums]

Hermione had been about to interject that he was really laying it on thick this time, wasn't he, but he cut her off as if he'd expected her to protest what she'd said.

She made a face at him at his compliment, but, really, she couldn't help but be impressed when he showed her what was cooking for dinner - it smelled delicious! - and brought on the glasses of wine. "It's more than all right," Hermione said with a smile, taking the glass in her hand and giving it a taste. "Oh, Harry, that's spectacular. You're... really pulling out all the stops here, aren't you?" she asked, although it was meant more rhetorically than anything else, and smiling, she set down her glass at the table, walking over to her Muggle stereo and putting in a CD of hers.

The music came on - watch the sky for me... watch the night - and she walked back over to him, taking his hand. "You promised me you'd dance with me, mister," she said softly, throwing a glance over to dinner.

[profpotter]

Harry hid a smile by ducking his head a bit when she seemed very impressed. He wasn't only trying to impress her, just wanted to let her know how important it was that he get things right for her. He hoped that the details would prove that to her. "The Muggle said this was just right for the dinner." He said again a modest shrug. "I wanted to take care for the details, it's not my strong suit but I want you to know how important it would be, how important -"

Before he could finish the thought she took his hand and asked him to dance. He followed her gaze to the dinner and muttered a soft warming charm. Feeling the magic sort of flutter over them, he smiled another barely there smile and said, "It can stay for a while, don't worry." Harry took her in his arms and began swaying softly to the music - he remembered having to learn to dance for the Yule Ball, and suddenly an idea came to mind. He leaned in closer and held her closer and whispered lightly in her ear, "Hermione, I don't mean to bring up the subject, so please don't think I'm being cheeky; if this tournament does go off though - which hopefully it won't-" he added quickly, not wanting her to start worrying about work, "would you come to the Ball with me? I should have asked you once before, I know that, so I'm not going to the let the opportunity get away from me this time."

[post_scriptums]

How important she was to him. Hermione smiled at the thought but was conflicted by such an onslaught of emotions following that she decided to just not think about how complicated all of this was and let Harry lead.

They slow danced for a moment or so, Hermione swaying to the sound of the music and closing her eyes as she leaned her head against Harry's shoulder. This was so much nicer than she could have even hoped it to be, dancing like this, with him, and when he asked...

"Yeah," she said softly, smiling up at him, "I'd love to go if... this does happen. Ha, you've just given me a reason to actually look forward to this disaster. All the better for it, I guess," she added with a small chuckle.

[profpotter]

Harry's smile brightened from somewhat comfortable and a sleepy-sort-of-happy to a true grin - she was looking forward to going to the Ball with him? He held her just a bit closer.

"I'm sure whatever needs to be done - you'll pull it off spectacularly, even if it's just getting the whole idea shut down. You're like that, you know, you do things in spectacular ways. Much better than the bumbling that always seemed to work in my favor." He stopped swaying and stepped back for just a moment to get a really good look at her, she was beautiful and brilliant and he wished he could tell her these things but he knew he would stumble over the words if her tried. Instead he pulled her back to him and began dancing again, whispering what he'd wanted to say in Parseltongue, which had become a sort of back-up for him: he wasn't nervous when he used the snake's language, though he wasn't sure why.

[post_scriptums]

Hermione listened to him with a smile, thinking that he really had to mean all that to say it like that, and her bit her lip at the thought, not really sure why his genuineness made such a difference.

He looked at her - differently - even if just for a moment, before pulling her back to him, and she could have melted into his arms then and there, closing her eyes just as he suddenly whispered softly into her ear in Parseltongue, and Hermione sucked in a sharp breath as she held onto him just that much more closely as they moved.

"I don't understand what you're saying," Hermione breathed softly through a wide grin he couldn't see, but it didn't really matter to her at all.

[profpotter]

Harry stopped with the Parseltongue when Hermione pointed out that she didn't understand. Of course, he'd known she didn't, but sometimes that made it easier to say what you really want to say. "Maybe that's why I was doing it." He said softly, with a smile that could be heard in his voice. He stepped back and kissed her on the cheek, "Thank you for the dance 'Mione. Would you like to eat? My warming charms aren't nearly as decent as Molly's, and I'd hate for dinner to taste awful." He was so nervous and he kept trying not to be but it wasn't working. He leaned in toward her again, and whispered again in the snake-language, "I know that you don't understand, but it makes it easier to say, easier to hold you this close and tell you how important you are and badly I want you." He pulled back and gave her a slight smirk, playful though, and nodded toward the food. "You'll have to convince me to tell you what I said, then, all right?" He hoped she would.

[post_scriptums]

"I know," she replied, grinning despite herself, until he pointed out to her that their dance was over and that it was time to come back down to earth and eat a lovely dinner. She nodded, but made sure to add that she was sure dinner made by him would taste anything but awful.

He leaned in close again, and she closed her eyes when she heard him slip into Parseltongue, a small shiver running down her spine. "Harry, do you have any idea what that does to me?" she asked under her breath, half hoping he hadn't heard, and half hoping he had. Biting her lip somewhat nervously, she stepped back to bring some distance between her and Harry even if just for a moment - something about her told her that she couldn't exactly trust herself around him anymore - and sat down at the table, smiling up at him. "What would it take to convince you?" she asked, a sly smile on her face as he served them both dinner.

[profpotter]

Harry thought he'd heard her same something, but couldn't be sure with the pounded in his ears so loud, and so he didn't asked, and started serving the dinner. "Hermione, you're an exceptional woman, you're talented, beautiful, the brightest of our age -" He started with a sincere smile, "you should know better than to think I'd just give you that information, shouldn't you?" Harry allowed the smallest bit of sarcasm into his voice and grinned widely at her as he sat across from her - feeling very far away - and lifted his wine to take a sip.

The distance thing just wasn't going to work though and so he got up and without explaining moved his plate around the table's corner closer to hers and then moved his chair as well before sitting back down and smiling at her as if to say what?

[post_scriptums]

Dinner looked delicious, and Hermione couldn't help but grin at his reasoning. "Well, I wasn't expecting you to just be generous with that information, but it would be nice to see what it would take of me for you to tell me."

They seemed to have the same thought at the same time, and Hermione smiled when Harry came around the table to sit next to her. "Don't think you're getting away with saying things in a different language just that easily. After all, I'm already letting you sit all the way over her," she added, laughing and poking him playfully in the ribs as she took a sip of her wine and took a bite from her dinner. "Oh! Harry, this is delicious!"

[profpotter]

"You think?" Harry had watched her take her first bite, hoping she liked it and loving the chance to watch her lips so closely without it seemed awkward between them. "It's not much, pretty easy to make too, but I thought you might like it."

They ate in a gentle silence for a bit, Harry was just glad to be 'home' again - back in their flat where things made sense. He also found, though, that his appetite wasn't all there and he could hardly touch his dinner. Finally giving up he pushed the plate forward and just sort of say, grinning goofy, watching her, his smile growing the whole time.

[post_scriptums]

Hermione nodded in affirmation, realizing suddenly how hungry she actually had been. Reading in the bathtub always worked up her appetite, and she didn't notice that he'd stopped eating entirely until she was almost finished.

"What on earth are you doing, watching me eat?" Hermione said, giving him a crooked smile as she chewed down her bite and stared back at him. "Anyway, you still haven't told me what you were saying earlier - since you're not eating, that shouldn't be a problem!"

[profpotter]

"I wasn't as hungry as I thought I was, and you're adorable when you eat. When you get something you really like, your nose scrinches up the smallest bit, it's great." He chuckled. "I'm sorry. I just can't seem to stop myself being nervous. I want... I want to see you more often, I want it to be ok to walk up to you at your office and kiss you hello. Kiss you good and hard hello."

He swallowed, he hadn't really meant to say all of that. Hoping he could change the subject he said, "And besides, what I said earlier still hasn't been gotten out of me - you should get to work at that."

[post_scriptums]

Hermione blushed and let her hair fall forward to hide her face a bit, almost embarrassed as a strange sensation fluttered through her stomach.

"I guess I should..." she trailed off, a small smile playing on her face. "Harry, frankly, I don't... I don't know what this is... or, what you want it to be... one day. I guess that's why you're here, right? To figure that out. What... what do you want out of this Harry? And why? Why so suddenly?" She stared at her plate almost in shame, not at all happy with herself for having brought this up again, despite knowing it to be so necessary and the actual purpose for why they were here in the first place.

[profpotter]

Harry knew that the conversation would turn to the topic eventually, but he'd hoped it wouldn't as... Straight forward as this - then again, with Hermione the best way for her to do anything was logically, which meant just being open. Though that didn't help his lack of answers any.

"I'm not sure where to begin, or rather, where it all began in the first place. I just - I think that maybe I took our friendship for granted all these years; living together and always being the ones who we went to. You're the one I always go to, I always trust, I always need. I always need you, Hermione. And I think I never saw it for what it is, because well, I wasn't looking. And then the other night - you just are so beautiful and it was like a haze had lifted, a haze that had been there for a long time." He took a deep breath, realizing that what he said next might scare her off or confuse her, but knowing he had to say. His hands sat on the table, reaching out for hers but not acting on the need to hold them. "In not having you - in not seeing you everyday and in not hearing you in the loo take your bubble bath and in not having your books everywhere around - I realized how much I love all of that. The bubble baths and night and how the candles make the place feel so warm even though they're all locked off in here. I loved having your books around because you keep notes everywhere and your handwriting is always there to be comforting and thoughtful. I love-" he stopped, unsure if she would be willing to hear it, knowing he felt it but still unsure if it was all too much.

"I missed you so much it hurt, 'Mione." He looked down at the table, almost wishing he'd worn his glasses so as to hide the strange look of fear in his eyes.

[post_scriptums]

Hermione listened to his whole speech of sorts, her head somewhat spinning as she did so, straining to keep eye contact because all of this - all of what he was saying - was making her want to bury her face in her hands, somewhat embarrassed and definitely reddening at all of the things he was telling her, and so openly.

And then she'd thought she almost heard it - the faint glimmer of those three words, but he seemed to almost swallow the notion away and it might as well have been an illusion, making her shake her head at the thought.

She didn't even realize that she'd teared up when he finished, and he worried her lower lip and tried to focus on her plate. "Are you... are you sure you're not just... misinterpreting things? I mean... me as your friend... always around... I miss that, too. More than I... more than I let on, really. I mean... heh, I can hardly sleep, I'm overworking myself once again, I have no social life of which to speak..." she held her head in her hands, if only to hide how much all of this - how much he - was affecting her. "I mean, look at me. I'm a veritable mess!" she said, almost laughing.