That Night

They say it´s easy to fall in love. Well, whoever they are, I have to say I agree. Falling in love was easy, so easy that we didn´t even notice it until it was too obvious for us not to. What a difference three words can make.

When I woke up yesterday,all I could think of was our potions examination; now I lie awake on my bed, the morning sun on my face and I cannot even begin to fathom why I even gave potions so much as a thought. Yesterday, I had nothing to worry about. Today, all my underlying problems decided tosurface like goosebumps on my skin.

We received news yesterday that a wizarding family was attacked by a group of Death Eaters. Attacks were nothing new, but this one was different. Usually, they were just hits on unsuspecting wizards or witches who were either on the battleground or at the wrong place at the wrong time, but this time, it was a family who was at home having dinner and leading a peaceful life until You-Know-Who´s men decided otherwise for them.

Their family pictures were brandished all over the pages of the Daily Prophet. One showed the tall blond father, the beautiful red-haired mother and on her lap, their adorable five-year old son who had his father´s hair and his mother´s eyes. My heart throbbed in pain at the sight of them happily waving and I felt a tear glide down my cheek. I turned to look at Harry, but his attention was on the picture of a baby girl who was barely a year old. The captions read `The Lone Survivor´ and above it was the photograph of a beautiful child who was crouched on all fours; she lifted her left hand every now and then to wave at the camera, a wide smile plastered across her face. You could almost hear her as she giggled. She was clearly unaware that You-Know-Who had just robbed her of her parents, her brother, and most of all, the love she deserved, that everyone in this world deserved. I knew he couldn´t bear to see it, to see himself in the lives of other children. I folded the paper and put it aside, hoping that if I took away the tangible evidence it would somehow ease the pain. I asked him if he wanted to take a walk outside. He nodded.

We walked in silence out of the castle and into the warm night awaiting us outside. We reached the shore of the lake and Harry sat down the grass. As I took the spot beside him, I felt the dew moisten the back of my robes. I heard him sniffing slightly as he does when he was trying to hold back tears. I patted his back, an assurance that it was okay to cry. Without a second´s hesitation, he bore his soul to me once more, as tears freely fell down his face, dampening my robes. I let him hug my knees and felt the weight of his head on them. Everyone admired Harry for being brave and courageous in the face of danger, but these are the moments when I admire and love him most, when he bravely faces his emotions, his fears, his weaknesses. "That poor child, that poor baby" he kept muttering, not once cursing You-Know-Who´s name. I wrapped my arms around his head, stroking his sweaty hair andassuring him that it would somehow be okay. We stayed like that for a long time. He finally calmed down; he turned his face up, eyes bloodshot and hair soaking in sweat. He still clung on to my knees as if they were some sort of lifesaver.

"Something good is bound to happen, you know. It can´t be just bad all the time," he said. "I just hope it happens soon for her."

"I´m sure it will," I told him, bent on agreeing with everything positive he said and opposing everything negative.

"I don´t have much, just you and Ron, and I couldn´t ever complain about that. It´s so much more than I deserve. I hope she finds the same luck," he said.

My heart went out to him. "Harry, you deserve so much more, you are the kindest, bravest and most loving person I´ve ever met and you are worthy of everything the world has to offer."

"The world has so much more to take care of, and you are more than I could have ever dreamt of. Do you have any idea how good you are for me?" he asked, smiling.

"Enlighten me," I answered.

"Aside from the fact that you are the reason I´m still alive and still not getting kicked out of school? You make me feel human. When you see me, you run to me like seeing me is the most important occurrence in your life. You don´t cringe at the sight of me. You comfort me when I need it. You know what to do when I don´t. You never once doubted me. You´re not afraid of me. You never hesitate to tell me I´m wrong or if I´m being an ass and you never give up on me. And for all thatand so much more that I can´t put it into words, I love you with all my life," he said smiling shyly.

"I love you too, Harry. You´re my best friend, and you do just as much for me," I replied, my eyes misty.

He stared at me, a bit shocked at my reply. I could see him hesitate for a moment, but finally with a determined look on his face he said, "I don´t think you get it, Hermione. I love you."

Of course I got it then. What was the point of being the cleverest witch in Hogwarts if I couldn´t get something that was spelled out right in front of me. But I wasn´t sure if I was ready to accept it. I just stared at him, completely uncertain about what to say.

"I already took more of your life than friends normally would be willing to give, and I know it´s asking for much, but if you will, will you share your life and your love with me?" he asked.

It was then that I became conscious of his hand resting on my knee, and my face flushed the color of crimson. He quickly removed it, probably sensing my uneasiness. All of a sudden, I felt very uncomfortable being so close to him. All those times I hugged him, touched him, grabbed his arm, meant nothing when I did them, but did it mean something to him? Did it mean something to me?

I stood up quickly, knowing that I would feel wretched in the morning for leaving in such a haste. But before I could get far, he called out to me, and an invisible force made me face to him once more.

"Do you hate me, for telling you?" he asked so desperately. I could see the tears welling up in his eyes.

"No, I couldn´t possibly hate someone I love. I just need to think about things, clear my head, approach things as logically as I can," I rambled, not very certain if I made any sense. "Talk to me in the morning," I regretted saying that - I actually gave myself a deadline - but it was too late.

And so it ismorning. I do love him, very much, but isthat enough? Last night I found myself cursing everything that I loved about him. That sly, four-eyed, tricky piece of a really wonderful representation of the male species made me fall in love with him and I didn´t even notice it. But is that enough? Nothing is secure in this world. I don´t want to gamble anything I hold dear, especially Harry. It isonly a matter of time before I will be forced to get up and face the fact that one word can change the path of our lives. I hear a knock on the door and holler for the person to come in.

It`s Harry.

~*~*~*~*~

He shyly walked towards my bed and sat himself at the edge of it, with his back turned from me. Neither of us really knew where to start. Finding it silly just sitting there staring at his back, I asked the first question that came into my mind.

"Why now? What changed?"

He sat straight up, not turning. I heard him take a deep breath, and he began. "When I first saw that child, I felt that it was my fault that she was going to grow up without parents. I know it´s a bit pompous to claim that the fate of the world lies solely in my hands, but I can´t help but feel that it was a certain inadequacy of mine that she´s now an orphan. She was going to have to go through everything I did. That´s why I cried for her, for all the sadness she was going to go through with her life. But then I felt your arms around me, and I felt better. I was relieved, because you reminded me that there would always be something beautiful out there for her, like there is right now for me. There has always been you and Ron to keep me company. Ron is the brother I never had and you are my best friend. Then you whispered my name and you told me it was going to be okay. How many times have you said that? And I´ve always believed you, because you´re the one I´ve always trusted. It didn´t matter that your voice quivered or that you may be unsure, because I knew you would do anything to make sure that it was going to be okay. You could´ve told me to cross a trail of fire and I would as long as you said it was safe. And then it became clearer and clearer to me, there was you.

"I spent my childhood not knowing love.I knew my parents loved me in a way but I´ve never gotthe chance to know it first hand. That´s why that first time you hugged me, it was the first clear signof love I`d known, and I thought it felt like heaven and I wondered how I could have gone through eleven years without it. That´s why when I realized what I felt for you, I didn´t want to waste it. I wanted the chance to give that feeling of heaven to you and you can say I never considered that you may not want it after all," he finished sadly.

I brought my fingers up to my mouth and gently bit on my fingers. I tried very hard but I couldn´t stop the tears from falling. I couldn´t see his face, but I can hear every statement in his voice, honesty speaks such a beautiful words. But here I was, Hermione Granger, who braved trolls, mad trees, basilisks and Millicent Bulstrode, still without enough courage to gamble for the one true happiness that I could ever come across. "There´s so much love in my life, I´m afraid to lose it," I said simply. "I´m afraid to lose you."

"Why would you lose me?" he asked.

"Because things end," I answered him, knowing that one sentence said everything. He could end, I could end, the world could end, love could end. He turned to face me, his eyes filled with disbelief. He stood up and walked closer to me, sitting down so close to me that I could feel his heat radiate through my thick flannel pajamas.

"I´d like to think that there´s more to love than a beginning and an end. I love you, and that doesn´t just go away," he said

"What if you´re just feeling that now," I said.

"Hermione, I wouldn´t say I love you unless it´s forever," he said, lifting my chin with his hand, looking directly into my eyes.

"I´m in love with you Harry Potter," I cried out. It would have been terribly romantic if I didn´t just say that with a tone that suggested that someone just died.

"You know there are worse things than being in love with me," he said, grinning.

"Like what?" I asked despite of myself.

"You could be in love with Justin Finch-Fletchley," he answered.

"What´s wrong with him?"

"You mean other than the fact that the only reason he would want to get into your pants is because he´d like to try them on?" he said,grinning.

I couldn´t help but smile back.

"Or you could not be able to feel love at all," he said more earnestly, "It´s a wonderful feeling Hermione; it´s the reason I continue living. I only wish to share it with you."

How he is able to make me see things with such brevity of words, I would never know. Maybe it´s because we once shared the same heart, the same mind, the same soul, and now we were lucky enough to find that match in each other. Maybe it´s something simpler: we were simply two strangers who bumped into each other. Or maybe it´s like in Einstein´s opposition of Heisenberg´s principle: there was certainty, a higher order that governs us and we were in the exact position where we should be for the universe to function. I stopped trying to put it into science when I felt his lips softly caress mine. It was a soft, slow and sweet kiss; it was one where I felt his love spread all over me. Of course we´d probably try some other kinds of kisses later, but in the meantime, I let this moment burn into my memory.