The Musings of Two In Love

The Musings of Two In Love

Harry Potter, of number 4, Privet Drive, was pleased to say that he was perfectly abnormal, thank you very much. That, of course, is not to say that his relatives were pleased to say this; in fact, the very opposite was true. Mr. and Mrs. Vernon Dursley hated anything abnormal, and this hate stretched to their nephew.

However, Harry didn't especially mind. Sure, it had affected him when he was younger, but he just wasn't younger anymore. He now had all his friends at Hogwarts, and he didn't feel as though he really needed anything else.

Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger were his very best friends, and they got into all sorts of scrapes together. Hermione was the brains behind the trio, Ron the humor and Harry the guts. The three complemented each other very well, and better friends were not to be found anywhere.

Better friends were not to be found anywhere, that is, until Harry managed to fall in love. It had only happened recently, the summer after his horrid fourth year. He had been traumatized by the events, and had ended up spending lots of time in his room that summer, evaluating his life. Near death experiences do that to a person. He wanted to be able to say that he had lived a full life when he died, and it turned out that that might be very soon. So Harry decided to find out was really important to him that summer. He had spent a great deal of time musing on how he really felt about things; his antipathy towards his relatives, fondness towards Hogwarts, love of Quidditch... and love of Hermione.

The revelation struck him rather suddenly. He was in the kitchen at the time, eating a delicious pumpkin pie that his Aunt Petunia had picked up from the bakery. He had spent the previous day thinking about Ron, and was considering Hemione on that day. He had been thinking of that time when she had slapped Draco Malfoy. His thoughts had then turned to when she stormed out of Professor Trelawney's class, which made him think about S.P.E.W., which made him think about the end of his first year, which made him think, for some odd reason, about Winky. And in the oddest connection yet, Winky made Harry think about the kiss that Hermione had graced him with at the end of his fourth year.

It had only been on the cheek, but it had felt so good and Hermione was so pretty and....

And suddenly he knew.

"Oh, hell no!" was of course Harry's first reaction. He gathered some odd looks from the Dursleys for that, but ignored them.

"This cannot be happening," he thought, "it can most definitely not be. That is the worst thing that could happen!" It was the worst thing for a few reasons; one was that Hermione most certainly did not feel the same way, and another was that it could entirely wreck their close friendship.

Besides those two very good points, Harry had a sneaky suspicion that Ron was also very much in love with Hermione, and wouldn't take kindly to Harry "stealing" her, if the Triwizard Tournament was any example.

So that begged the question: what the bloody hell was Harry supposed to do now?

The way he saw it, he had two options; one, tell her and risk her laughter and Ron's fury, or two, just ignore it.

Ah, but Harry wasn't one to ignore what he felt was right, especially after he had spent nearly an entire summer contemplating it. Ron, Harry felt sure, would get over it- after a few years, maybe.

Less sure was Hermione's reaction to Harry's declaration. Harry really didn't think that Hermione felt the same way; and, let's face it, Harry was a dangerous person to have as a boyfriend- unless, of course, one wanted all of the forces of evil down on one's head.

So, yet again, Harry was in a quandary. Ignoring the Ron factor (which wasn't easy for Harry to do, since Ron was his best friend), Harry saw that he could still choose from two things. One, tell Hermione, have her probably laugh at him, and even if she didn't, put her in great risk. Two, not tell Hermione, but ignore his feelings and take the cowards way out.

Harry took a great big bite of his pumpkin pie. It really was delicious. And in that moment he made up his mind.

He certainly was not a coward, and Hermione could take care of herself.

He went off to compose the letter.

~*~

"Life is just plain horrible," Hermione thought to herself as she furiously stabbed the disgusting, nasty pumpkin pie with her fork. Her mother had made it just that morning, and it was still fresh. Hermione would have been excited, normally, as she loved pumpkin pie. However, this pie was missing one key ingredient. Sugar. Why, oh why, had her parents become dentists?

But the foul tasting pie wasn't the only thing on her mind. In fact, the pie was the last thing on her mind.

Harry.

Thickheaded, numbskulled, half-witted, senseless Harry.

She had been trying for practically the whole of her fourth year to send him a loud and clear message that, by golly, she loved him! But was he getting the picture? No! He was not getting the picture.

Hermione felt quite justified in her rage.

But, of course, Harry was in many ways a typical male. Sure, he faced a lot more danger then most, and was a bit more sensitive as well... but he just couldn't see what was right in front of his face.

And for someone as bright as Hermione, who had waited an entire year for him to get the picture, it was just plain annoying.

Harry's refusal to see the obvious also made Hermione doubt him... what if he had seen the hints that she had been sending? What if he had just decided to ignore them? What if he didn't feel the same way? What if...

"No." Hermione told herself firmly. "I am most certainly not going to think thoughts like that."

Instead, her mind wandered to others things... Harry's sparkly green eyes, his shaggy black hair, his adorable smile... "No!" Hermione shrieked at her mind. She wouldn't go there either, not until she knew that he felt the same.

She decided to turn her mind to thoughts of why Harry wasn't responding instead. There was the first reason she mentioned- that he simply didn't feel that same way. Also, he could just not have noticed anything (thought the kiss at the train station was rather blatant, Hermione thought). And finally, in a typically selfless!Harry way, he could be trying to keep her safe by keeping her away.

Yep, it was probably the last one. Hermione had trouble believing that anyone was slow enough to have missed all the signs she sent out.

Having come to that conclusion, Hermione felt only more justified in her anger. Didn't he see that she could take care of herself? Didn't he see that she was a fully capable witch? Sure, she didn't have his record of impossible escapes, but really. Hermione wanted a boyfriend, not to be protected.

That, however, was not the only reason that Harry may have been ignoring her subtle signs. Maybe he just felt that declaring his love for her (Hermione would certainly never think of declaring her love for him, old-fashioned as she was) might ruin the close friendship of the trio.

Hermione wasn't as thick as Harry, and knew perfectly well how Ron felt about her. She also knew perfectly well that it was just puppy love, and that he'd probably be over it by the end of the summer. Harry would also certainly know how Ron felt, since Ron had probably confided in him, but would probably not realize that it was just puppy love. Her darling Harry was so giving, so unselfish, so wonderful....

No!

She would not think like that.

Grimacing, Hermione took a large bite of the loathsome pie. Well, she had just plain had enough of worrying about it. Old-fashioned or not, Hermione was just going to have to send him a letter letting him know exactly what was what.

She was just getting up to do this when Hedwig appeared on her windowsill.

Hermione grinned around her mouthful of the luscious, delicious, tasty, wonderful pumpkin pie.

She didn't have to open the letter to know what was inside it.

Life was just plain wonderful.

Finis

Epilogue: Ron eventually did manage to get over it, and the trio remained the best of friends- albeit the fact that two of the friends were very much in love.