Moving Past the Fame

Moving Past the Fame

I never believed in soul-mates. In my world, the weird was normal and it was a lot to swallow when I found out I was a witch when I turned eleven. However, even as a young child, I couldn't wrap my finger around the ideas of fate and destiny. To me, everything was logical, everything had a purpose, and everything had meaning behind it.

This is why I don't understand how I got caught up in this sort of romance. I blame Harry, but not as much as I blame myself. Casanova, he wasn't, but the infamous Harry Potter managed to sweep me off my feet before I ever really understood what was going on. Sure, I could blame it on hormones, but I know it was something deeper than that. We had a connection that had started as friendship and somehow blossomed into something more. We were together when we were both fifteen, but at the time, I wouldn't have even called this connection puppy-love because deep down, I knew I wasn't in love with him. It was more of a deep infatuation, something that we understand now that we're older. During our stay at Hogwarts, everyone was convinced that we were soul-mates.

"Aww, Hermione and Harry make the cutest couple!" People like Lavender and Parvati would squeal as Harry and I walked down the hall, hand in hand. To others, the relationship was simple, but to us it was more complicated than that.

"If those two get married right after school is over, I wouldn't be a bit surprised," I once overheard Seamus telling Dean during dinner one day when Harry and I were eating dinner alone down at the end of the table, away from our friends.

It unnerved me to hear people talk like this. To hear our friends and people I didn't even know talk about our relationship like famous Muggles in a tabloid felt odd and sort of cheapened our feelings.

"Hermione, don't worry about it," Harry would tell me when we were alone. "People talk. Just forget about it." That was easy for him to say. He was The Boy Who Lived. Harry Potter, at age eleven got the Sorcerer's Stone. Harry Potter, at age twelve defeated the basilisk underneath the school. Of course, Ron and I had been right there all along, but never mind that. Harry had learned to deal with the spotlight much better than I had and maybe that's part of the reason why our relationship became strained over time.

But the real reason the relationship is over was because Harry believed we would be together forever and he couldn't understand why I didn't share those same feelings. We would get into little fights about it until one day a huge argument led to a breakup that became hot gossip for months. Rita Skeeter had a field day with it in The Daily Prophet, while the rest of the school just kind of sat back in shock. The perfect couple had broken up and nobody wanted to believe it.

By the time I turned seventeen and graduated from Hogwarts with top honors, I knew that I was glad to be leaving. My only real and true friend through this whole ordeal was Ron. Oh, I had a couple of close acquaintances, but I understood and accepted the fact that we would probably lose track of each other eventually. Ron Weasley to me was a true blue friend who had stuck by me and showed me I could accomplish whatever I wanted. Even getting over Harry.

So now I'm moving on with my life. At twenty two, I'm making a respectable living teaching young wizards and witches in Hogsmeade and I'm enjoying my life. I've earned the respect of my teachers at Hogwarts as well as people in the community. I've made new friends who love me for me and not because of my past. I still keep in contact with Ron, who started work at Gringotts Bank with his brother and enjoys handling other people's finances. As for Harry...I see him in the Daily Prophet, where Ms. Skeeter is still plotting his every move, desperate to get a piece of The Boy Who Lived. When I read that he's happy and when I hear random gossip about his new life, I'm glad that he finally adjusted to his title. I miss him in the way you miss old friends but I don't regret the decisions we made together. I only regret that we couldn't move past the heartache.