Birthday Fic!
Happy Birthday TSK!!
Since my beta reader is incommunicado, this is unfortunately a rough work. It is also, oddly enough, my first real HP fic. I have no idea what possesses me to always write angsty birthday fics... Well, hopefully it's still enjoyable. :)
Title: Brief Respite
Pairing: Harry/Hermione (I just love being delusional...)
Somewhere between childhood and the end of innocence, Dumbledore's Army waits.
The summer was drawing to a close. Though they had tied up their personal loose ends, or as best as could be expected, they didn't know their next move. Nor yet how bold Voldermort was likely to be after his victory at Hogwarts. Where he would strike next, or when, they could only guess.
They were surrounded by a storm whose strength and scope they couldn't begin to fathom, and who knew how many of them would be swept away by the end?
In the eye of the storm, everything was calm. They waited, a moment of respite made bittersweet by the knowledge of what is to come.
At first Harry said nothing as Hermione came to sit beside him. Eventually, he settled on a polite "Where's Ron?"
"Off giving Ginny some brotherly advice."
"Bloody- I hope it doesn't involve analogies." Before they had left Mr. Weasley had taken Ginny and him aside and given them a rushed, red faced lecture that quite possibly had ruined Quidditch for the both of them.
"Well, she certainly doesn't need any advice on confidence. Where was he when she was always freezing up whenever you came into the room, I wonder?"
Harry smiled at the memory. "She mentioned once you'd been the one to help her with that."
"Oh, that." She waved dismissively. "Though it must seem strange to you. Someone coming to me for advice on boys?"
Harry shifted slightly. "Well, I don't know about that. Ron's over elbows for you. And Krum... Hey, what happened with him anyway?"
Hermione looked away, apparently very concerned with the course of dust particles as they floated through a shaft of sunlight. "Oh, same thing that happened with you and Cho, I suppose."
"What, you curse one of his mates too?"
She laughed at that, but didn't look back. "No, he just couldn't stop being jealous of..." She glanced at him then, out of the corner of her eye, but so fast he couldn't be sure he had actually caught her. Then her attention was back on the stream of light. "... my friends." She finished.
For once, Harry hadn't needed the dots connected for him. He remembered all too well the awkward conversation he'd had with the Bulgarian, trying to assure the older man he and Hermione were just... friends.
The kind of friends who'd pack up their whole lives on a moments notice and follow you to their likely death. Just your average sort.
"Well," Harry said firmly. "Good riddance to him then."
She turned back to him then. She pinned him with her eyes and turned on him the full force of her considerable intellect. It was a passionate scrutiny she usually reserved for her dry academic studies. It made him feel both fascinating and naked.
A light seemed to dawn on her face then, like she'd found some long sought answer. She smiled, and he couldn't help but notice again how her smile had changed. The difference wasn't just her teeth. It seemed bright now, less reserved. Maybe Ginny wasn't the only one who had bloomed in confidence.
It was as though their entire friendship she had been hiding behind her beloved books, and he could finally reach out, pull the pages away and see her.
He blushed clear up to his scar, not quite sure why his thoughts had suddenly turned to the bubbles in the prefects bathroom.
When he could meet her eyes again, there was an... expectation there. He knew that look well enough, he'd gotten it a hundred times from Cho. His stomach clenched as he remembered how he could never do anything right, and whenever he'd needed that look translated he'd gone to...
Hermione. He'd gone to Hermione.
But before his mind could go beyond a mild panic, her eyes relented.
She knew. Hermione always knew. There was something comforting in that. With forces they could never hope to match converging on them on all sides, Harry took comfort in the fact he had with him the girl who knew everything.
"Oh Harry, you've got so much to worry about right now. We shouldn't..." She smiled at him, but it was the smile of the old Hermione, sincere but reserved. Then she leaned forward and brushed a kiss across his cheek.
The kiss reminded him of train stations and goodbyes and a ragged veil stretched across an arch. He felt that same desperate urge he had when Siruis had fallen through, that he could fix this if he were fast enough-
But he doesn't stop her as she gets up and walks away.
Since my beta reader is incommunicado, this is unfortunately a rough work. It is also, oddly enough, my first real HP fic. I have no idea what possesses me to always write angsty birthday fics... Well, hopefully it's still enjoyable. :)
Title: Brief Respite
Pairing: Harry/Hermione (I just love being delusional...)
Somewhere between childhood and the end of innocence, Dumbledore's Army waits.
The summer was drawing to a close. Though they had tied up their personal loose ends, or as best as could be expected, they didn't know their next move. Nor yet how bold Voldermort was likely to be after his victory at Hogwarts. Where he would strike next, or when, they could only guess.
They were surrounded by a storm whose strength and scope they couldn't begin to fathom, and who knew how many of them would be swept away by the end?
In the eye of the storm, everything was calm. They waited, a moment of respite made bittersweet by the knowledge of what is to come.
At first Harry said nothing as Hermione came to sit beside him. Eventually, he settled on a polite "Where's Ron?"
"Off giving Ginny some brotherly advice."
"Bloody- I hope it doesn't involve analogies." Before they had left Mr. Weasley had taken Ginny and him aside and given them a rushed, red faced lecture that quite possibly had ruined Quidditch for the both of them.
"Well, she certainly doesn't need any advice on confidence. Where was he when she was always freezing up whenever you came into the room, I wonder?"
Harry smiled at the memory. "She mentioned once you'd been the one to help her with that."
"Oh, that." She waved dismissively. "Though it must seem strange to you. Someone coming to me for advice on boys?"
Harry shifted slightly. "Well, I don't know about that. Ron's over elbows for you. And Krum... Hey, what happened with him anyway?"
Hermione looked away, apparently very concerned with the course of dust particles as they floated through a shaft of sunlight. "Oh, same thing that happened with you and Cho, I suppose."
"What, you curse one of his mates too?"
She laughed at that, but didn't look back. "No, he just couldn't stop being jealous of..." She glanced at him then, out of the corner of her eye, but so fast he couldn't be sure he had actually caught her. Then her attention was back on the stream of light. "... my friends." She finished.
For once, Harry hadn't needed the dots connected for him. He remembered all too well the awkward conversation he'd had with the Bulgarian, trying to assure the older man he and Hermione were just... friends.
The kind of friends who'd pack up their whole lives on a moments notice and follow you to their likely death. Just your average sort.
"Well," Harry said firmly. "Good riddance to him then."
She turned back to him then. She pinned him with her eyes and turned on him the full force of her considerable intellect. It was a passionate scrutiny she usually reserved for her dry academic studies. It made him feel both fascinating and naked.
A light seemed to dawn on her face then, like she'd found some long sought answer. She smiled, and he couldn't help but notice again how her smile had changed. The difference wasn't just her teeth. It seemed bright now, less reserved. Maybe Ginny wasn't the only one who had bloomed in confidence.
It was as though their entire friendship she had been hiding behind her beloved books, and he could finally reach out, pull the pages away and see her.
He blushed clear up to his scar, not quite sure why his thoughts had suddenly turned to the bubbles in the prefects bathroom.
When he could meet her eyes again, there was an... expectation there. He knew that look well enough, he'd gotten it a hundred times from Cho. His stomach clenched as he remembered how he could never do anything right, and whenever he'd needed that look translated he'd gone to...
Hermione. He'd gone to Hermione.
But before his mind could go beyond a mild panic, her eyes relented.
She knew. Hermione always knew. There was something comforting in that. With forces they could never hope to match converging on them on all sides, Harry took comfort in the fact he had with him the girl who knew everything.
"Oh Harry, you've got so much to worry about right now. We shouldn't..." She smiled at him, but it was the smile of the old Hermione, sincere but reserved. Then she leaned forward and brushed a kiss across his cheek.
The kiss reminded him of train stations and goodbyes and a ragged veil stretched across an arch. He felt that same desperate urge he had when Siruis had fallen through, that he could fix this if he were fast enough-
But he doesn't stop her as she gets up and walks away.