The Knight Who Saved My Life

Maybe

by Eowyn, lady of Rohan

***

Maybe I'm a witch lost in time

Running through the fields of Scotland by your side

Kicked out of France but I still believe

Taken to a land far across the sea

Etienne, Etienne

Hear the west wind whisper your name

Etienne, Etienne

By the morning maybe I'll remember

Who I am

Maybe you're the knight who saved my life

Maybe we faced the fire side by side

Here we are again, under the same sky

As the gypsy crystal slowly dies.

***

A strong September breeze picked up leaves scattered over the ground, grasping wisps of the young woman's hair as well, the defiant curls straining away from her scalp as she stared down in the clear blue waters the color of sapphires. She was the vision of a goddess, standing in robes of scarlet in front of the sinking sun, hair blowing out, skin illuminated. Just as she'd been a year before at the Last Battle, only then her eyes had been filled a fire destructive and withering as she revealed the power needed to help Harry Potter defeat the Dark Lord once and for all.

Hermione Granger looked up at the sky, then to the castle up the sloping grounds, the walls ivy-covered and the windows glinting in the sunlight. She thought of that castle as her sanctuary, the place she could go to when feeling lost, the place she grew up in and found her true identity, with help from her friends. As little mutual friends she'd had, they were the ones that had always been there - if one wasn't, the other was.

She started slightly as she heard the crunch of leaves behind her, smiling because she didn't have to turn around to know who it was but she did anyway, smiling because she wanted to, smiling because she could. And that's what made it all the better. Harry Potter grinned sheepishly at her, as though he had a secret. Well, so did she. But it wouldn't be one for long.

"Thank you for meeting me here," she said quietly, feeling more nervous in this moment than she had fighting even Voldemort with him, but him being here also made her stronger, made her believe she could do this if she really wanted to. And she did, more than anything she'd ever wanted in her life. She just didn't know where to begin, whether it be from their first adventure, the incident with the troll in the girls' bathroom, or to their last, fighting Voldemort. Or perhaps it should be from their second together, when they went back in time to rescue Buckbeak in Sirius. For that was when she'd known. Known that it would be Harry she'd spend the rest of her life with, or rather wanted to.

"I don't even get a hello?" He stepped up on the flat rock she'd been standing on and wrapped his arms around her. She hugged back tightly, wanting to stay like this and not have to tell him, that he'd just know and it would be easier to say it. "Happy birthday." He whispered, slipping a small velvet box in her hand.

"You didn't have to get me anything," she insisted, though her heart was jumping.

"I hate when people say that. You're my best friend, of course I'm going to get you something - whether you want me to or not." She gave a small sigh. Is that all I'm ever going to be to you, Harry? A best friend? She reminded herself she could change that today. Perhaps for the better, maybe for the worse. She shook herself mentally before opening the box. A golden locket on a delicate golden chain rested on the black velvet padding, tiny vines wrapping up the edges and ending in a rose at the tip of the heart. Hermione was engraved in the middle, and I opened it. It was empty, though Hermione hadn't really expected him to put his own picture in there.

"I figured you might not want to look at me that much, so I'm leaving you to decide who you want to put in there." Hermione smiled and looked up at him.

"It is you I want to look at that much," she replied before she could stop herself. He smiled, and opened his mouth to say something, but she held up a hand. "No, Harry, don't say anything. I've waited five years for this, I'm not waiting any longer. I love you. There's just no other way to put it. I love you for your flaws, for your courage, for your hair, for your eyes, for your nose, for your mouth. For every shared laugh, smile, frown, yawn, lecture, adventure. You saved me first year, not only from the troll but from a lonely future, a future I'm sure that would be without you. I love you for it all, Harry, and words just can't say everything, and I don't care that we're so young, I know what this is, and I'm willing to accept it, especially if it involves you." She breathed out, not quite believing she'd gone through with it and the words had come so easily.

"I - er, I..." Harry was dumbfounded; anybody could see why. Without a strong sense of what love really felt like, without ever once hearing the words 'I love you' much less a speech on why that person loved him, he didn't know what to do, or say.

"You don't have to say anything," she softly said. She started to turn away from him, but he laid a hand on her shoulder, and she looked up at his vivid jade eyes, her knees weakening as they always did. The sun was halfway beneath the horizon by now, and the winds were even stronger, but Hermione didn't care. Harry carefully lifted the necklace from the box and unclasped it, putting it on Hermione, his long fingers brushing against her skin and spreading a heated feeling all through her. He sure recovers quickly, she thought, then with a smile added, though he's always been like that.

"I've been trying to fight the feeling I've gotten whenever I see you since I got over Cho. I figured it was just me wanting to go to someone, anyone, and you were the closest friend I had at that point. Now I know what it is," his hand drifted up and cupped her chin. "It's love."

*